Is this the same day?
The tunnel ends abruptly as the hewn stone curves around to form a natural barrier. Dust and rock chips cover the ground and I kick around with my toes before squatting to investigate. No runes. No signs of spells.
I jerk as a loud bang interrupts the heartbeat, the echo reverberating along the tunnel. Spinning around, I’m hit by the realisation I’ve no way out.
But I’m not here.
How would anybody see me?
Edging along the wall again, back flattened to the cold stone, I move towards the fork in the tunnel. A figure appears from the right-hand tunnel and pauses, the way I did.
April.
She’s red-cheeked, twisting her head from side to side as she hesitates. The witch has dressed in dark clothes and a black cotton jacket, blonde hair poking from beneath the hood. She carries a small bag in one hand—I’ve seen them in classrooms used for holding rune stones and scrying materials. In the other, she holds a pocket-sized torch.
I almost call her name, but she looks through me.
As I watch her take the direction I did, the heartbeat thrums louder in my ears.
What and when am I seeing? How far into the future?
I step after April, who boldly strides along the tunnel until she reaches the impassable rock at the end. Instead of turning, she kneels in the dirt, sets the torch down, and empties the contents of her bag onto the ground.
Standing at her shoulder, I watch as she draws a circle with blue chalk on top of the stone floor. Her phone lies beside her, and she studies the screen before copying square runic images around the circle, like numbers on a clock face.
Blackwood runes.
What the hell is she doing?
I look back along the hallway towards the direction she came from, terrified somebody might follow her, but the place is silent. April remains kneeling on the floor, and sets small black stones on top of each rune she drew.
Matching rune stones.
Jamie said April intended to investigate alone. Am I looking at events today?
The dark energy surges and I’m knocked forward like wind rushed through the tunnel and hit me, my hair fanning in front of my face.
April’s phone rings, the sound magnified by the emptiness, and she grabs hold.
“Jamie?” she whispers. “I didn’t think you— “
She’s cut off by his reply.
“I told you, I’m investigating myself if you won’t let me help.” She pauses. “Of course, this isn't dangerous.”
I hear a female voice on the phone, louder, and she glances back, lips pursed. “Nothing. No, I’m not casting spells.” Her mouth slackens. “What runes? How do you— “
The angry voice continues.
“I found the tunnels but there’s nobody here. Listen, I’ll show you later. No, not now.” Her expression sours. “Don’t be ridiculous. Is this because you want to find what’s here first? I’m as good as any of you!”
She ends the call and shoves the phone in her jacket pocket. “Nothing is happening anyway,” she mutters and stands.
As she reaches down to gather her stones and chalk, air rushes through again and I stagger forward, almost losing my footing.
A figure appears by her side, blurring through the darkness and into her torchlight.
He’s tall and unkempt, a once-white tunic-style shirt torn across the chest, with loose black trousers half-hanging off his emaciated hips. Lank, dark hair hangs into his face and April screams at him as he snatches her arm.
“Who are you?” she asks in a tiny voice.
The man grunts and holds her arm to his mouth, and she screams again as his teeth rip into her skin. My whole body fills with horror but I can’t look away.
Take me out of this vision; I can’t watch her die.
Please let Jamie sense this.
But everything remains crystal clear. April staggers back and the man shoves her onto her knees, her hands landing palm down in the circle. Blood runs onto the ground as she pleads with him to let her go, and the man mumbles unintelligibly, chewing on ragged fingernails. The heartbeat grows louder, and I place my hands over my ears, but the sound won’t go.
A now familiar metallic taste covers my tongue as my mouth seems to fill with liquid.
Get me out.
The man slams his palms against the barrier and calls out, “She came. Let me in. Let me join you.”
Please let me go. Help me out of this vision. This could happen soon. I need to stop April from coming here.
April scrambles to her feet and edges away, hand wrapped around her bleeding arm.
She knocks into another man who moves from the shadows behind her, stealthier than I’ve ever seen a Petrescu student move.
No. This isn’t a man—he’s a creature, a macabre version of the skinnier Petrescu kids, and so pale that his face is almost luminescent. His black eyes are pits in his face, and lips grey and thin. The hand he lifts to grab April ends with fingernails the length of claws.
He yanks her backwards by the hood and pulls the material down before spinning her around. His triumphant expression drops away. “Wrong one,” he snarls. “We need the new witch.”
April shakes, staring at him, trapped in place by fear.
“But she has a use, yes?” says the man desperately. “She can feed him.”
The runes on the floor glow dimly and the heartbeat reaches a crescendo in my head that deafens the creature’s reply. A rumble below my feet shakes the ground and I press myself against the wall, palms hard against the stone, terrified I’ll fall.
With a grunt, the creature lifts his hand and his claw-like nails rip across April’s throat.
The deathly terror on her face petrifies me, but something else horrifies me.
The witch blood fills my mouth.
Jamie, get me out of here.
But there’s nothing. No sign of him of him in my mind.
Out.
How do I get out?
The heartbeat grows faster as I spin around and run, the taste of blood strong enough that I rub my mouth to look at my hand. Taking the fork in the tunnel that April appeared from, I run as if I’m in my nightmares. Is this what Tobias means? That heartbeats, the Blackwoods, and old stories have corrupted my mind?
Light shimmers ahead, higher than the direction I’m running, and as I approach, I look up to where moonlight filters through a small opening above me. I squint and look around but can’t see obvious footholds.
“Where am I?” I shout out. “Hello?”
But who will hear me in a vision?
I claw at the rock, attempting to climb the tiny indents in the stone, finally hauling myself up to grip the edge and pull my head above the opening. I’ve barely seconds to see anything before I fall into the darkness below me.
A building. And the pungent scent from the cows kept at the academy.
Chapter Fifty-Seven
ANDREI
“I told you this was a fucking bad idea,” I shout at Jamie as Maeve crashes through the sanctum door.
Moments ago, she’d sat so still I worried a spell had frozen her in time again; seconds later she ripped her hands from Jamie’s and ran from the room, screaming for April.
Jamie slumps back in his chair. “Go after her. I don't have the energy.”
I hesitate at how ill he looks—if I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s drained from a vampire bite.