Spring Rain (The Witchling #4)(13)

He blinked away the warm memories and followed her out of the fitness center to the administrative offices. Classes had started, and the hallways and common areas were quiet once more.

“… review the spring semester class schedule,” Amber was saying and plopped an iPad on the desk before her.

There were moments when being the Master of Light was really boring. Beck prepared himself for a day spent catching up with the school’s administrative tasks and sifting through his emails to determine what else he had missed in his exile.

“Let me check out Miner’s Drop first and I’ll be back to help out,” he said.

“I’ll be here!”

He didn’t bother going outside to summon his fog. He was careful about it in front of the students, but Amber knew what he could do.

Seconds later, he emerged at the bottom of Miner’s Drop, beneath the cliff that still inspired disturbing memories whenever he saw it. He shivered in its shadow. He recalled too well what happened the night Summer jumped, how her broken body had looked from the top of the cliff and how Decker had almost gone mad over the course of a single night.

There were no good memories of Miner’s Drop or the field nearby where he had later fought Decker with magick.

Beck turned away. Unable to sense Dark the way Decker could, Beck searched the floor of the rocky valley with his gaze before beginning to walk down its center. He sensed … something. A stillness of the air, the electrified air present before it was about to snow or storm even though the sky was clear.

He paused midway through the valley, unable to continue. A sheet of solid ice had settled into the lowest points, and he wasn’t wearing the best boots to navigate it. The snow remained here whereas it was melting from the forest floor. He was about to dismiss Amber’s concern when he caught the footprints in the snow running along one wall of the canyon towards a series of caves he and Decker used to play in as children.

The imprints were crisp and fresh.

Beck left the path he was on to follow them. His feet crunched into the snow. More than one set of footsteps were visible. From the size of the shoe prints and the length of the strides, he guessed one was a woman and the other a man. They led along the wall to the first of four small caves.

He steadied himself against the rocky wall and leaned into the first. It was dark and shallow, and sunlight reached the back wall.

“One down,” he said, his curiosity growing about what two witchlings were doing out here in the canyon. It was, and had been, off-limits to Light witchlings for quite some time. That the Dark witchlings were traveling forty five minutes to practice their craft in the forests so near the Light school seemed … off.

Beck navigated an area of slush and ice to reach the second cave. He stepped in front of it – and froze.

A familiar, dark, cold, Light sapping chill washed over him. He stepped back instinctively and peered into the cave. Sunlight wasn’t able to penetrate its depths, and the unnatural shifting of shadows alerted him that he had found whatever the Dark witchlings had been doing.

He texted Decker with one hand, not about to take his eyes off the Dark.

“A cave what?” Decker’s voice materialized with his form a moment later.

“I was trying to type Dark cave,” Beck said with a glance at his phone. He hadn’t bothered to check the message before he sent it.

Decker approached without hesitation and stood in the mouth of the cave, looking around it. “It’s not just here, either,” he observed. “The valley reeks of it.”

“What is it?” Beck asked.

“There’s a Dark ward here, placed by an air witchling. I’m immune to it but …” Decker motioned to the front of the cave then stepped into it. He disappeared, swallowed by the Dark. “Yeah, what I thought. It’s keeping the Dark magick inside and impossible for me to sense.”

“Bartholomew’s magick. I’d recognize that taint anywhere.”

“I’d say so.”

“Someone’s collecting Dark magick.”

“One guess as to who.” Decker emerged from the cave. Black fog clung to him. “How did you find this place?”

“Amber said some Light witchlings noticed magick out this way.”

“It’s all over the place. Undetectable until I’m in the middle of it.” Decker swept his arm around to indicate the canyon.

“What do you think she’s doing?” Beck had an idea, but it didn’t seem possible. Or maybe, he wasn’t ready to admit yet how great the threat was to the Light source and school. “You don’t think she’d hurt the people she grew up with, do you?”

“Absolutely.”

I don’t want to believe it. Beck said nothing aloud, troubled by how little he knew the woman who was about to become the mother of his daughter. “I should be able to do more to prevent things like this from happening.”

Decker’s Darkness pooled at his feet and in the space between them, whereas Becks’ Light wasn’t visible. Decker was considering the fog at his feet. “You’ve always been the good one. Maybe that’s the problem.”

“Meaning …”

“Meaning … the first thing I learned as a Dark Master is that I don’t have to follow rules. Maybe you should try to buck them as well.”