She placed her hand upon the head of the statue andsuddenly—
Irene screamed. One moment she was standing there, both feet planted firmly on the floor, and the next she was sent flying up in the air, soaring higher and higher over the Opal Chamber. Samira and Everly shrieked, flailing about in a panic. Irene’s eyes snapped up and her stomach flipped.
They were heading straight for the ceiling.
She opened her mouth to scream, bracing herself…but the collision never came.
Somehow, they had gonethroughthe ceiling, as if it had beennothing but an illusion, entering what appeared to be a vertical tunnel. Cold air rushed all around her. The others were still screaming, though Marigold looked simply bored, glancing down at her watch as they rose higher and higher.
And then, just as quickly as it had started, it stopped.
Irene stumbled and jerked backward as her feet hit solid ground, struggling to regain her balance. Samira and Everly appeared beside her, nearly colliding as they came to a sudden halt. Marigold, however, was the picture of grace as she floated to a delicate stop, her feet instantly regaining their forward momentum, as if she’d simply strolled right into the room.
“Welcome to the Guard Tower.” Marigold gestured to the odd room they’d found themselves in. One of the rounded walls was made entirely of glass, offering them a vantage point above the grounds and the forest lurking just beyond. An unwanted knot of emotions rose in Irene’s throat as she took in the sight of Blackwood Academy laid out before her. Late-afternoon fog swirled between the towering brick buildings and Gothic structures, deep amethyst light encasing the grounds in a dreamlike haze. Candlelight illuminated most of the arched windows, and it was as if she were staring down at the twinkling expanse of the universe.
A shrill voice brought Irene back to the present.
“What—the—hell—was—that?”
Everly’s pigtails were in complete disarray, her face blanched. She looked like she was about to be sick. Irene stifled a laugh, while Samira let herself break out into a fit of giggles.
“That is how you access the Guard Tower,” Marigold explained, feigning innocence with a smile. “It’s really just a slightly more complex elemental spell. A manipulation of the airflow through the tunnel—”
“And you couldn’t have warned us?!” Everly interjected, aghast.
Marigold shrugged. “I think you’ll survive, Ms.Hawthorne.” She turned away, leaving Everly to seethe by herself. “All right. Everyone gather around. Come closer.” She gestured them toward the glass wall. The three Council candidates approached Marigold, looking out toward Blackwood, breaths held.
Marigold reached into her cloak and produced a small silver coin. It glinted in her palm, and Irene couldn’t help but feel a strange twist in her stomach at the sight of it. A need to hold it.
Marigold looked among the three of them. Her eyes snagged on Irene.
“Brace yourselves.”
Marigold tossed the coin.
And then Blackwood came to life.
It took a few seconds for Irene to process what she was looking at. The light that exploded around Blackwood wasblinding, appearing from one moment to the next. Once Irene’s vision adjusted, she realized it wasn’t just an explosion of magic. It had a shape to it. It was a circle…adome. An energetic barrier of crimson light pulsating around the campus. If Irene looked closely, she could see the individual threads of magic that made up the dome, almost like an interconnected web.
She wondered what would happen if she pulled at one of those threads.
Would it all come undone?
“It’s beautiful,” Samira whispered, awestruck. “Just…beautiful.”
“Are we going to learn how to construct it?” Everly asked with fervid hunger.
“Not yet.” Housemaster Marigold tossed the coin, and the dome vanished from their vision, as if someone had reached outand popped it. “That’s what this is for. When you join the Council, you receive your own defensive relic coin, which allows you to access the outer wards. You’ll get there eventually.” She chuckled, slipping the coin into her cloak pocket. “Well,oneof you will, at least.”
Irene’s entire body seemed to go numb. She needed to get her hands on that coin. It was her only way to access the outer defensive wards. The only way to achieve her mission and grant the Demien Order access to Blackwood. But what if she wasn’t the chosen Council candidate?
What if everything she’d done—all her sacrifices—had been fornothing?
She needed to speak to Mateo.
Luckily, Marigold bade them good night shortly after, ushering them back to the main lobby of the Ascended Quarters. Samira and Everly didn’t seem to be in the mood for chitchat, the two of them quiet as they parted ways. Irene wasn’t surprised. They were probably realizing the same thing she had. Only one of them would get to feel the magnitude of that power.
Only one of them would win.
