Page 57 of Spirit Storm

I turn to the students instead. Most of them are still standing in loose, shaken clusters. I raise my voice and call out. "Did anyone see what happened before the guardian came? What was Violet doing?"

There’s a beat of silence, and then the guy I was speaking to earlier steps forward. "Dr. Thorne told her today that her powers were building. She must have felt it coming because she got her conduit out, but then it just—escalated. Really fast. Like it skipped all the stages and, bam, the conduit burned out, she freaked, and the storm hit.”

I turn back to Briar. "I thought they were safe here. That was the entire reason I agreed to them coming. You told me they wouldn't be overwhelmed by their affinities if their powers came back online here."

Briar doesn't flinch. "We promised they wouldn’t die from the surfacing of their affinities, not that they wouldn’t be overwhelmed. The academy's wards prevent a complete magical catastrophe, not a frictionless transition. A witch with particularly strong magic will still struggle, even here. The wards contain the worst of it. They don't remove the difficulty entirely."

"That's a lovely distinction."

"It's an accurate one."

"So where did it take her?" Asher squeezes my shoulders, his arm still around Lily. "Does he have a territory?"

Briar's expression shifts, and she looks north, toward the wall of mountains that frames the academy's horizon. "The guardians, as a species, have a colony in the ranges above the city. If he's taken Violet to safeguard Arcana, he’ll take her there to appear before the matriarch.”

There’s a lot to unpack in that sentence, but I don’t have time. “We need a map, trail access, elevation, whatever you have."

Briar pegs me with a long, considered look that I recognize as the headmistress equivalent of an eye-roll. "We are an academy of the arcane. Why would we have those things?”

The heat that climbs my neck is not helpful. Right. Everyone connected with this school has arcane power. Who needs a map when people portal? Who needs a tracker when people scry?

I know how to scry. I have a pendulum. It has been in my hands approximately twice since my return to Emberwood. I didn’t think to use it because in a crisis, my first instinct is still to think like someone who grew up without magic.

Asher wraps an arm around my back. “Forget all this. Let’s go get your sister back.”

“You will do nothing of the sort.” Briar levels a stern scowl at us. “I will set things in motion through proper channels, and you will leave it to me. The guardians are a powerful sect and have customs to be observed. You kids are wholly out of your depth.”

I scoff. “As if that has ever stopped us.”

She arches a manicured brow. “You have no standing here, Miss Hallowind. No authority. If you’re not killed on the spot for invading guardian territory, what will you say to the matriarch? Their entire purpose is to protect Arcana. If Violet is perceived as a threat⁠—"

"Violet is not a threat!"

She points to a giant scorch mark burnt into the lawn. “I beg to differ.”

“And what, no other student has lost control before? How often do the guardians kidnap your students? Is this a thing?”

Briar pegs me with a droll glare. “If the danger was inherently her, the guardians would have acted the moment she set foot on these grounds, as they did with you. Since he took her once the storm set in, he was responding to her losing control of her affinity."

"Which means she needs help. She needs a healer or Dr. Thorne to stabilize her magic. She doesn’t need some ancient raptor grabbing her out of the dark and carrying her off to a mountain nest. That's the opposite of helpful."

Briar's chin lifts. "I won't argue with the guardian's instincts to protect my school."

“Of course not. Because that would mean you’re culpable in what’s happening to my sister.”

The moment the words are out of my mouth, I realize my mistake. Briar stills, and the glare she hits me with chills me to my very core. “I understand you’re upset, Miss Hallowind, but if you ever accuse me of protecting my own interests over the lives and safety of my students, you will find out firsthand what it means to be at odds with a woman of my standing and power.”

Magic crackles in the air between us, singeing my skin, and I don’t even think she’s overtly doing anything. “Sorry. My mouth got away on me there. I’m just freaking out.”

She draws a deep breath and presses a hand against her sternum. “Take Lily back to her quarters. I’ll send for you when I have news.”

And with that, Headmistress Briar sweeps her robes to the side in an elegant turn and strides back up the steps and into the school.

I swallow, but my throat remains dry.

“Holy shit, that woman is badass,” Asher says.

“Yeah, and Poppy just got her bad ass handed to her,” Mica adds.