Page 7 of Soulmates

Chapter 5

Maddox sat on the stone wall surrounding the courtyard to “wait,” which seemed like a suspiciously simple instruction based on the previous five tasks.

There was something wrong with this entire night. Why was Reinhold empty when he knew full well all the students were in session? They should be in their dorms or wandering around. The campus wasn’t big enough for all forty-two fifth years to be walking around completing random tasks without running into each other. Where were his classmates? Where were the rest of the students? The staff? The only people he’d seen since the night began were Jake and Carter.

The obvious reasoning was that they were all casted, or the entire school was. But as apparent as that seemed now, something was still off. Magic on that scale was unheard of. He’d been studying magic since he was five years old, and in those eighteen years, he had never even caught a hint of magic big enough to glamour an entire campus—or whatever the hell was going on.

He thought of his secret pile of documents and his hard drive, which was glamoured in his room. All of that research pointed toward the lies surrounding Reinhold, the ruling class, the types of magic in existence, magic history, and the truth about the so-called untrained “scratch witches” living on the fringes of society. Was there a real revolution happening? And what would it mean for the societal structure as it currently stood? Were Reinhold students truly just weapons of oppression, or had he stumbled too far into a conspiracy theory with no merit?

He jerked his head up at the sound of heavy tread.

“Jesus, Maddy, you’re shaking,” Jake said as he rushed over.

Maddox jumped down from the wall, stumbling from the stiffness in his frozen body.

He couldn’t help himself; he wrapped his arms around Jake and took a moment of warmth and comfort in this weird, endless night.

Jake held on just as tight, probably suffering as much inner turmoil as he was. “I was so scared you were hurt or something. Gods, did you hear that explosion?”

He took a step back, regretting it as he lost the only heat in the vicinity. “Yeah, we heard it.”

“Who’s ‘we’ and…” Jake paused, giving him a long, almost betrayed look. “Where the fuck are your clothes? That’s not what you were wearing. Who were you with? What were you doing?”

Maddox, confused, replied. “Didn’t you get the origin story challenge?”

“Yes.” Clipped, irritated.

Maddox shook it off. “Remember in third year when Carter and I had that duel, and he tried to set me on fire but only burned my clothes off?” He took a breath, and when Jake nodded, he continued. “Well, when we got the task, we figured we had to reenact that since we were each other’s first sparring partners. So, we did.” He shrugged.

“So, what? You ran around naked and stumbled upon a stranger’s clothes?” Jake was clearly annoyed with him for reasons unknown.

“No running. Once the dueling circle vanished, this pile of clothes appeared, so I put them on. We waited until the next task, but…we didn’t get the same one.” He frowned at the ground, ignoring for the moment Jake’s weird behavior.

“What do you mean not the same one?” Jake said, sounding much calmer. “Santiago and I got the same message about having something that belonged to our deepest bond. Didn’t you and Carter get it?”

“Carter must have, but he couldn’t tell me what his said, and when he showed me the phone, it just looked wrong—squiggly.”

“Couldn’t tell you?”

“He physically couldn’t form the words. He kept opening and closing his mouth and then just shook his head and ran off. Mine only said, ‘Wait.’ So, I sat here waiting. I’m not sure I could have left if I tried.”

Jake thought for a moment. “Some of us got different messages? Why? To what end? To lead us to another person?”

Maddox smiled and smacked Jake’s giant biceps. “Yeah, ya big lug. The person who, what was it…? Your ‘deepest bond’? I knew you loved me.”

Jake frowned at him, and Maddox squirmed, hating how close to the truth he wanted that to be.

“So, what is your task, then?” Maddox asked.

“‘Your treasured ally. Your deepest bond. You have something tied to your truest self that belongs to them. Freely given or not, it is theirs and must be returned before the dawn. Peril waits for those who keep what does not belong to them,’” Jake read off his phone, which then made a chirping sound and turned off. “Okay…”

“Alright, you have something that belongs to me? And you have to give it back, or you’re in peril? What kind of peril? And what could you have that is that important to your ‘self’ but isn’t yours? What does that even mean?”

“I don’t know,” Jake said, though he wasn’t looking at Maddox, gazing just over his shoulder.

“What?” he asked.

“What, what? I said I don’t know.”

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