Night Witch (Weatherstone College, #2)(64)

“Don’t move,” Logan rasped again, and I hated how drained he sounded. “Let me deal with it.”

“I need to learn to control them,” I said softly, not turning away from the creature. “I can’t keep running from my magic. If I don’t learn my affinity, there’s no point worrying about the curse—the council will kill me anyway.”

Logan’s hands tightened on my shoulders, and I had no doubt he was about two seconds from shoving me behind him. His first instinct was always to place himself between me and danger, but today I was the protector. “Trust me,” I whispered. “I can do this.” I had to do this.

His hands flexed again as his chest rumbled, but he didn’t move. “You’ve got two minutes, Precious. If you don’t deal with it by then, I will.”

This was my monster, and I was no longer letting the affinity control me.

I was in control.





Chapter 29




At first the creature sniffed around the room like an actual mouse, getting down on all fours near the couches and gnawing on empty space, chomping its teeth and swallowing as if it had found food.

“How are you going to control it?” Logan asked me.

“I know where the power to draw it comes from now,” I said, feeling those icy tendrils inside. “When I finally realized in the graveyard that I was calling the monsters, I felt where the power stemmed from. Weirdly, my training last year was preparing me for this moment, for when my magic would be free and fully infiltrated into my essence. I’ve got this.”

Previously, when faced with a monster, I’d tried to blast it away—like a wrecking ball smashing against an object. This time, I used that cold tendril, recognizing the sensation of necromancy, which used to give me chills but now felt like coming home.

I sent out the icy tendril toward the monster it had called, and to my surprise, the creature jerked to a halt and lifted its head to stare at me with black eyes.

Recognition passed between us, and I stepped closer.

Logan stayed right on my ass, and I could feel him ready ing himself for a fight; he was a blast of heat against my icy magic.

“Come to me,” I murmured, holding my hand out. I was sure that I’d tethered the monster, but it didn’t move from the spot. Come. I used more magic, sending it along that arctic tether in my mind’s eye. The mouse-monster shuffled forward, and sulfur filled my nose, drowning out every other scent. The tendril started to fray, and I had to reinforce it with more magic. The monster wasn’t fighting me, but its energy ate away at my magic because it wasn’t supposed to exist on this plane. At least not permanently.

“You don’t belong here,” I whispered.

Drawing on my memories from necromancy classes last year, I let my magic seep through the planes of existence. None of them were blocked to me, outside of the Eternal Lands, where the blessed rested their souls. It was easy to find the layer the monsters hailed from: Purgatory. Their slimy, icy energy felt like this plane, and when my power stopped there, I added another tether to my magic so there was one connected to the mouse-monster and another to Purgatory.

With me the conduit between the pair.

I dragged in a deep breath and forced my will onto the creature. “Return to your home,” I told it. “You can’t be here.”

Instinct rode me hard as I embraced the ancient magic inside me. Trusting in what I had to do. “Next time, I won’t bring you here without a tether to keep you from hurting others,” I said, my voice swelling until it thundered. The monster sniffed one last time, and I swore that my vision briefly crossed over to highlight layers of darkness in my house, before the creature slipped along the other tether and returned home.

My vision reverted to normal, and I released my hold on that frozen plane and its inhabitants. The reaper magic sank back inside me, and I was secure in the knowledge that I could pull from it again whenever I needed.

A quick glance around eased the panic I’d been brewing—I hadn’t accidentally opened a doorway to usher in a million dark creatures to the world. I’d done exactly what I hoped, trusting instinct and my magic, and I’d sent the mouse home.

“You’re incredible,” Logan said with a whoop, his excitement spilling over. “I could feel that frosty necro magic through our bond, and the power . . . I’ve never experienced anything like it before in my life. Not even when my father channeled other spellcasters to do his bidding.”

“It was all instinct,” I said, unable to explain it any other way. I had never been specifically trained as a reaper, but the knowledge was there within me. Almost as if I’d inherited it. “It doesn’t feel as if there’s any training that could teach me what my magic innately knows. This is ancient magic, Logan, and the council and elders just wiped it from existence.”

The excitement he’d been expressing faded slowly. “I won’t let that happen to you, Precious. We’ll be so powerful by the time they find out that no one can come for us. Even if I have to build an army to make it happen.”

Letting my head fall against his chest, I just breathed him in until the scent of sulfur was completely gone. “I’d like to show them I’m not a threat,” I said, revealing my deepest hope. “I don’t want to battle to stay alive for the rest of my life. This magic should exist in the world. There must be repercussions for wiping out an affinity. I will figure out what they are and show them that reapers are needed.”