Magic Unchained: A Supernatural Academy Romance, page 11
By the time Nico finished his call, Samara had returned to him, wearing a long fur coat dyed a beautiful, dark red. She noted a change in Nico’s expression when he looked at her, like he was desperately trying to hide what he was thinking. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think he just found her attractive and was trying to cover it up.
Why did the thought of that excite her so much? Sure, she found Nico attractive—since he was a fae and that was par for the course—and they had started to get along better, but there was still a barrier between them of an employer and employee. No matter how much time they spent together, there was still an acknowledgement that if he wasn’t getting paid, he would leave to guard someone else without delay.
But Samara was finding herself starting to wish there was more between them than just a contract.
As the pair walked down the steps and past the bored vampire at the welcome desk, Samara noticed the vampire girl watching them as they left. The girl’s eyes were darting from Samara’s coat to her hands, as though waiting for her to unleash another fire dragon.
Despite trying to quell the news of what happened a week ago, rumors were still spreading. Constance had informed Samara that everyone assumed she was a witch gone mad, drunk on power and turning into an arsonist. Never mind that Samara had been acting in self-defense and no one even knew she melted the armor suits.
“The public has always regarded witches as the most prone to insanity, even more than mages. Something about being blessed with so much natural power and not knowing what to do with it all. I’m sure it also has to do with how unrefined you act compared to my kind,” Constance had told her during class, using that posh, condescending tone she always did. Samara was starting to realize Constance didn’t actually look down on Samara personality—rather, she simply looked down on everyone equally. The fact that Constance spoke to Samara at all showed that she preferred her to other students and that was a feat on its own.
As Samara continued through the busy streets and weaved between tall buildings, she became overly aware of how many people were stealing glances at her. Some looked afraid, others awed, while a rare few were suspicious of her, like the rumors about her powers were fabricated. Regardless, they were all looking at her now and making judgements, most of which would end up being untrue.
“Ignore them,” Nico told her, resting a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. “We’ll be away from them soon.”
Maybe too soon and permanently, if Samara didn’t manage to find her killer eventually. What made her even more angry at her shoddy detective work was that the person who attacked her and Rhona could potentially be the person who killed Philip too. If she didn’t find him, she’d not only be putting herself in danger but would fail to avenge her brother. That felt far worse than just putting herself at risk. If she found Philip’s murderer, maybe it would put his soul to rest so he’d leave her alone forever.
Eventually, they reached streets that were emptier, then they finally reached the end of civilization entirely. The academy walls still surrounded them, but instead of towering buildings and shops, Samara became surrounded by trees and bushes instead. Concrete gave way to grass and flowers. The air became dewier and the scent of winter flowers filled the air. The only person they passed on their way to the lake was an old man tending to the plants, doing so by waving a cane over them. He must have been a mage and was the reason flowers were able to thrive through all seasons, albeit in a relatively small area.
Nico nodded at the mage and Samara smiled, wondering what it would be like to have such a calm, private job.
After another ten minutes, they had reached the edge of the wall where the lake was located. Many of the rivers coming down from the mountains led here, creating this small body of water that stretched for about half a mile.
“Some call it a pool,” Nico told her as she walked up to the edge of the water and dipped her fingers in. It was cold but not unbearable. Plus, after freezing to death in her dreams, anything below freezing felt tolerable.
“It’s beautiful,” Samara commented. The water was completely still, creating a mirror for all the pine and maple trees along its edge. She saw her own face reflected as well, reminding her of how crappy she looked. She was surprised Nico hadn’t withdrawn from her when she saw her haggardness. Instead, he had remained exactly the same, even softening his voice when he spoke to her.
When she looked back at Nico, she caught him staring at her instead of the lake. When they made eye contact, he was quick to look away and start studying the tree line for any threats.
“I’m worried about what’s going to happen next,” Samara admitted as she took a seat on the ground, not worried about her coat getting dirty. The campus paid for dry cleaning services. “The reason they put the charm on me was to hide my powers. Now the whole university seems to know about my powers anyway. If my parents hear about what’s happened, they’ll withdraw me in a heartbeat.”
“I’ll try to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Nico reassured her, even though she knew he didn’t have any evidence to back that up. “My mother is still working on finding the perpetrator and I’ve—” He stopped, cutting himself off. What was he about to say?
“What?” Samara prodded.
“I’ve—I’ve been spending the night looking for anyone suspicious,” he admitted quietly, like he’d done something wrong.
Samara was shocked. She’d had no idea. He hid his own tiredness so well.
“I apologize for leaving your door at night,” Nico continued, taking her silence as a judgement. “But it has only been for a few hours—”
“Don’t worry. I’m not angry at you for it,” Samara cut in quickly before he could start begging for forgiveness. “I’m just surprised, is all. I didn’t realize you’d go so far to protect me.” The guards at her family household wouldn’t have. They guarded her when they were on duty, but as soon as their work hours were over, they left, and she didn’t expect any more from them. The fact that Nico gave up his own free time, time he could have spent resting, to keep her safe was unheard of.
Nico stayed silent, unsure what to say.
“Thank you,” Samara whispered, touched. “I’ve never had anyone work so hard to take care of me, other than my parents, of course. I wish I could do the same for you.”
He shrugged. “I’m not the one being targeted.”
“Fair.” She forced a chuckle, then studied him, wondering what she’d do if she did end up going back home. “Nico?”
“Yes?”
“Are you tied to this place?” she asked hesitantly. “Or can you work outside the academy?”
Nico’s face remained stoic. She could now tell that meant he was hiding strong emotions underneath. “I’m not sure. As my job is partially related to my adoption, the legality of my employment here is uncertain. Why do you ask?”
Heat rushed up the back of her neck. “Oh, I was just—If I was forced to withdraw from the academy, I was wondering if you’d—”
His eyes were staring at her so intently now. It was making her nervous.
“I was wondering if you’d be able to come work in my mansion as my permanent bodyguard, you know, if it was allowed.”
She saw the sides of his cheeks flare out slightly. He was clenching his teeth, either strongly opposed to her suggestion or wanting to say yes but holding himself back. He opened his mouth, eyes so bright that they nearly reflected the sunlight, and started to speak. “I wanted—”
There was a sudden whoosh behind Samara’s back, cutting off Nico’s words. She turned around, eyes wide and heart skipping a beat.
The previously still lake water had just risen up like a tidal wave and was now towering over her, bringing back last night’s dream and sending cold dread down her spine. She leapt to her feet, reaching into her pocket to find her lighter, but then the wave came crashing down on both of them, covering them in icy cold water and dragging them down into the depths, away from the safety of the bank.
20
Samara’s first reaction was to shut her eyes, allowing her senses to focus entirely on the frigid ice that seemed to coat her skin, just like in the dream. She felt her limbs swing about wildly as the water dragged her off the shore and into the lake. It felt like she was thrown a mile down, even though it could have been anywhere from three to thirty feet deep. She’d taken half a breath before she was pulled under and now that last bit of air was all she had. She could feel her head start to pound as her body acknowledged that she was running out of air.
If this was a normal lake, she would have been tossed in, then the water would have settled, returning to the way it was before. If that was the case, Samara would have been able to easily float up with next to no effort from her own body. If that didn’t work, she could have opened her eyes and swam toward the light above her. Sadly, neither of those things were possible thanks to how unnaturally this water was behaving.
Samara’s body was tossed about, flipping over and sideways as the water continued to spin and loop. She could hear constant splashing alongside the roar of the water rushing like it was a river rather than a still lake. It was being controlled by magic and was trying to keep her under, hoping to suffocate her in the chaos.
For a split second, Samara felt a warm hand grab her arm and try to pull her up. It had to be Nico. But then she felt his fingers get yanked away, the lake refusing to let them help each other.
Running out of time, Samara forced her eyes open despite all her senses begging her to keep them shut to protect herself. If she couldn’t see which way was up, she would certainly die, so she’d have to risk harming her eyesight.
As soon as her eyes opened, they began to sting, reacting to the rushing water. What made it worse was that as soon as she opened her eyes, instead of seeing a swirl of water before her, she saw two milky dead eyes right in front of her face. It was Philip, or rather his bloated corpse, floating in front of her. He didn’t move, giving the complete impression of being dead, but it still made her want to vomit.
If she didn’t get out of here, she’d end up just like him.
Resisting the water, which felt like hands of icicles trying to pull her down by her feet, she started kicking and pushing the water down with her hands, heading for the vaguely blue light above her head. She had to squint to see but, since her last bit of oxygen wasn’t enough anymore, her panicked body did the rest. It was desperate to get back up there.
She couldn’t see Nico nearby but could do nothing for him right now but hope he was okay. He was strong, he would be okay, she was sure.
Her lungs felt like they were expanding. Her limbs turned to rubber. The light in her eyes faded. She was dying.
Then she pushed herself through to the surface and felt the cold, biting air hit her face and hair. Gasping, she sucked in two gulps of air, accompanied by a little unwanted water, then started breathing normally again. Her arms and legs tried with some success to keep her above the water while she breathed, then she tried to make her way to the shore, which was ten feet away. It felt like a mile right now.
“Nico!” she shouted, then felt herself dip under the water again. Her scream became a choke, then she shoved herself back into fresh air. No more shouting. Focus on reaching the shore and getting as far away from this lake as possible.
After twenty seconds of swimming, she felt no closer to the shore than she had before. The water kept tugging her back down.
Another hand grabbed her left wrist on her third attempt to stay above water, but this time it didn’t belong to Nico. She turned and saw Philip beside her, his skin white as death and eyes wide with a mad desperation to bring her down with him.
“No!” She wrestled against him but was tugged back down again, this time harder than before. His grip on her tightened, seeming to suck the blood right out of her hand with its strength.
This couldn’t go on. She had no more energy left. Something had to change.
Samara looked down at her other wrist, at the silver bracelet confining her powers into a little cage. There was still one thing left to do. If she used her powers and found some source of light, maybe even the heat of the sun’s rays, she could at least try to do something. Maybe she could turn the water into steam, though that carried its own risks.
Her oxygen-deprived mind had no more time to think through all these obstacles and options. All it cared about was not dying.
So, squeezing her eyes shut, she moved her right hand closer to her left one. Even though Philip was still pulling on her, she had enough strength to wrap her freezing fingers around the charm and yank it off.
The chill surrounding her body lessened slightly as soon as she was freed of her chain.
Save me, she thought to herself, willing her powers to get her up and out of this water somehow. She didn’t know what to do but hoped at least her powers did, either consciously or unconsciously. It knew this world better than her and some said witch powers were passed down from previous ancestors, making them slightly more powerful over time. If that were true, and she wasn’t sure if it was, then the magic would know what to do even if she couldn’t completely control it.
Philip’s grip tightened even more, coupled by a strangled cry from his throat, a sound she’d never heard him make before. Then he disappeared, releasing her.
Relief washed through her as Samara was spun through the water again, though this time it was taking her up, rather than dragging her down. As soon as she was back in the air again and felt heat washing through her body instead of a cold breeze, she looked down at the water and tried to figure out how her fire magic had managed to bring her up here. Had it used the heat inside her body in some way? Or the sun’s rays, as she theorized earlier?
Looking down didn’t seem to answer this question. Instead of seeing flames or even steam, all she saw was more of the rushing water, which was now pushing her over the surface like a skier and leading her right to the shore without requiring any prodding from her. It was only water doing the moving—not fire.
She heard a shout and turned to see Nico being shoved toward dry land just like she was. His body didn’t look as limp as hers, but he was just as confused. They made eye contact as they flew through the air, then Samara had to face forward again as the ground got closer. In a second, they’d be thrown only the dirt bank just as they were tossed into the water a moment ago, and the ground wouldn’t make for such a soft landing.
She stretched her hands in front of her to defend herself, the bracelet still clasped in her left hand’s grip, then the water threw her two feet past the bank. She narrowly missed a tree and felt a jolt as her body landed on the grass. Her wrists stung as they were forced to carry her entire body weight for a second, then she rolled onto her back, trying to lessen the blow and giving her aching limbs a moment to recover.
“Samara!” Nico’s panicked voice met her ears and she looked up to see him running toward her, his magical blue shield behind him, guarding his back. His eyes shot over every part of her dripping body, searching for any wounds. Luckily, other than having every ounce of energy drained, she felt totally fine and told him so.
“I’m okay,” she assured him, giving him the same once-over he had done for her. He looked okay too, other than a little paler than usual.
“Stay here,” Nico commanded, drawing a knife from his side and turning around. He was glaring at something in the trees, on the side of the lake a good fifty feet away. Samara squinted to figure out what he was looking at, then gasped when she noticed a male figure standing at the edge of the tree line, his body facing them and his arms out, as though he was shocked.
It was the person who had just tried to kill them!
As Nico sped toward the perpetrator, moving so fast he was nearly a blur in Samara’s tired mind, Samara sat up and tried to use a nearby tree to pull herself to her feet. She tried to take a few steps to the shore, no longer afraid of the water. She wanted to see who this person was, to see if she recognized him from a class she attended.
The young man looked no older than her or Nico. He was tall and lanky and wore simple blue clothes, tipping Samara off to what group he might be from. Blue wasn’t an uncommon color to wear, but in terms of witches, only water witches wore them. If it weren’t for the water attack they just experienced, she might have assumed the color was just a coincidence, but the water dripping off her proved otherwise.
To think that a water witch had been the one attacking both her, a fire witch, and Rhona, the heir to the water witch council seat. Why had he just tried to kill his own kind? What was wrong with him?
The male witch turned around and tried to run as Nico continued sprinting toward him, blade in hand and poised to strike. Samara saw the lake water ripple, preparing to launch an attack on Nico and probably drag he back into its depths once again, but Samara didn’t let that happen this time.
She watched, partly in shock at her own abilities, as she kept the water still. Just like when she controlled fire, the water obeyed her whims, settling down when she told it to.
Shocked that there was no fire involved, she looked down at her hands. Had she just controlled the water herself? That shouldn’t be physically possible.
The male witch wasn’t very fast, especially compared to Nico’s half fae legs, so in a few more seconds, the defenseless young man was tackled to the ground by Nico. The witch shrieked as Nico landed on top of him and held him down with one hand while placing the blade against his throat.
“Release me!” the young man screamed.
“Or what?” Nico growled, his voice so low that it even intimidated Samara.
“Or I’ll drain the water inside your own body!” the witch shouted, spitting in Nico’s face after he said it. “Release me!”
Samara got closer, her energy restored. She saw Nico’s frown turn into a complete scowl and he pressed the blade closer to the witch’s throat.
