Miri, he thought. The knife Alastair had given him, the one made by his mother. It was on the nightstand, several feet behind him. Could the elemental see him? Call wasn’t sure. Slowly, slowly, he edged back on the bed. He stretched his body flat, lying down in a way that exposed his most vulnerable parts — his neck and stomach. The elemental moved toward him as if sniffing the air.
Call swallowed, reaching up over his head, reaching until his fingers brushed the edge of Miri’s hilt.
In the other room, Havoc began to bark.
The elemental sprang. A scream tore from Call’s lungs as he seized the blade and sat up, slashing blindly forward. The heavy weight of the creature knocked him back on his bed. Its open maw snapped at his face while the dagger embedded itself just under the creature’s jaw. He tried to push it back with the knife, but although the blade cut deeper into the elemental’s airy flesh, it squirmed closer.
He felt those horrible teeth against his skin and the sharp talons razoring at his clothes and slicing skin. He rolled off his bed, feeling the warmth of blood. It didn’t hurt yet, but he had a feeling it was going to.
If he survived.
The elemental whipped around, fast as a tornado, and dived for Call just as he leaped for the door. He could hear Havoc frantically barking on the other side, could hear Aaron’s sleepy, confused voice. “What’s going on? What’s wrong, boy?”
Call yanked at the door. It didn’t open.
“Aaron!” Call shouted, finding his voice. “Aaron, there’s an elemental in here! Get the door open!”
“Call?” Aaron sounded frantic. The doorknob jiggled and the door shook in its frame, but it didn’t budge.
“It’s covered in locking spells!” Aaron shouted. “Call, get out of the way! Back up!”
Call didn’t need to be told twice. He flung himself away from the door and rolled against his wardrobe, yanking the front of it open as the elemental dived. It hit the wardrobe door, sending splinters of wood in all directions. Call just had time to leap away and scramble under the bed as it lunged for him again. He kept moving, coming out on the other side of the mattress. The elemental was a coiling mass above him. One of its heads jammed itself under the bed, but the other drew back, hissing, clearly about to strike.
Call held up Miri just as there was a soft explosion around the door. The elemental whipped toward it, its mouth opening in hideous surprise. Darkness was eating away at the edges of the door — but not just darkness.
Chaos.
Call felt the pull under his rib cage and realized what was happening. Aaron was using his chaos power, drawing on Call as a counterweight. Call held still as the door began to crumble in on itself.
It vanished, sucked away into the void. Aaron exploded into the room, wild-eyed. “Makar!” he yelled, his own hand still raised in summoning, black light burning around it. “You idiot, use your magic!”
The elemental was whipping back and forth, clearly confused by Aaron’s sudden appearance. Call scrambled to his feet and reached out toward chaos. He felt the wild, roiling emptiness of the void open. Darkness spilled into the bedroom.
The air elemental gave a puffing screech and sailed toward the opening to the common room. It slashed Aaron’s shoulder as it went past, gliding toward Tamara’s room.
She opened the door just as it lunged for her throat.
Tamara dropped, rolling beneath it with more agility than Call would have in a thousand years. Havoc bounded toward her, snapping at the creature. The elemental pivoted in the air, horrible legs quivering, horrible jaws opening wide enough to swallow any of them whole.
Aaron added his power to Call’s. The chaos grew, tendrils of oily nothing snaking into the room. From the opening in the void, something emerged, smoke-colored and wearing the rough shape of a monstrously sleek cat with countless eyes.
A chaos elemental, springing into the room.
Call made a sound in his throat. Opening chaos was one thing — summoning a chaos elemental was another.
The air elemental spun around, sensing a new threat. It made a sound deep in its throat. Then it rushed at the chaos elemental at the same moment the chaos elemental went for it. They met in the air. The chaos elemental bit at the air elemental’s underside as the chaos elemental coiled around and around it, squeezing.
The door to their rooms opened and Master Rufus hurtled in, followed by Master Milagros.
“Call —” Rufus started to shout. Then he caught sight of the elementals coiling together in the air. For a moment, he looked almost fascinated. Then he swept his hand into the air and blew.
His breath became a shock wave that swept over the elementals. The whole room shook. Call fell to the floor as the air elemental shuddered and came apart into eddies that spiraled like miniature dust storms. The chaos elemental splashed against the wall, like spilled ink. It did not re-form.
“Wow,” Aaron said.
Call’s heart thudded dully. He pushed himself to his feet. Tamara, in a pair of blue pajamas — now torn at the knee — crossed the room to him, putting her hand on his arm. He had to forcibly stop himself from leaning against her the way he suddenly wanted to.
He looked down at his chest, at his torn shirt and the blood still welling there. The injuries weren’t deep, but they stung like bee stings.
Aaron was petting Havoc’s head, staring meditatively at the spot where the chaos elemental had been.
“We heard all the shouting,” Master Milagros said. “We didn’t think — how badly are you hurt?”
“I’m okay,” Call said.
Master Rufus sighed, clearly rattled. They all were, but it was unnerving to see Master Rufus anything but perfectly composed. Call felt stupid. Master Rufus had told them not to investigate, but they’d done it anyway. And then Jasper had come up with a totally ridiculous plan. How had none of them realized that by making it clear where Call was going to be, it also made it clear that he wasn’t going to be in his room? Anyone wanting to break in knew exactly when to do it.
“Apprentices, let’s all sit down,” Master Rufus said. “You can tell me what happened. And then we can decide what to do next.”
Master Milagros moved toward the hall door. “I am going to make sure no one else gets in or out of here,” she said. “Absolutely no one.”
She sounded kind of paranoid. It was very reassuring to Call. He was feeling kind of paranoid, too.
He went to the couch with Tamara and Aaron. As soon as they sat down, Havoc jumped up on Call’s lap and started to lick his face. Tamara took point on explaining how they were all in the library, studying with Jasper, and then had come back to their rooms. She didn’t mention Call’s stunt in the Refectory, or their plan, for which he was grateful. He was feeling dumb and freaked out enough already.
Call explained how the thing had been in his room and how the door had been locked with a spell. When he started talking about it, he could feel his hands begin to shake and jammed them between his knees to hide the trembling from Master Rufus and his friends.
After hearing about the locking spell, Master Rufus went over to inspect what was left of the door. Since Aaron had pretty much disappeared the whole thing, there wasn’t a lot to see.
After a few minutes, Master Rufus sighed. “We’re going to have to bring a team of mages in here. And, in case something else has been tampered with, we’re going to move the three of you to another room. Permanently. I know it’s late, but I am going to need you to take whatever you had on you and bring only that. We will give you the rest of your things as soon as they’re confirmed as safe.”