Void(87)

“Yep,” they all answered simultaneously. My mouth popped open in surprise before a grin took its place.

Gritt closed his eyes in frustration and rubbed his temples like he had a headache, grumbling something I couldn’t catch.

“So,” Hyde began, ignoring the shifter. “I’ve called you all here—”

“You didn’t call us here,” Render interrupted, wiping my blood from his face.

“Ahem. I’ve called you all here because Headmaster Torne needs us. Something about testing Dev’s Void powers on prisoners. Should be fun!”

My stomach plummeted. “I think our ideas of fun are very different, Hyde,” I said before biting on my lip. Headmaster Torne warned me that he was going to take a more active role in my studies, but I wasn’t prepared for it to be this soon.

“Wait, what? Does this mean she’s ready to switch back my brother’s animal?” Gritt asked, hope dripping from every syllable.

“I don’t think I’m ready for that,” I stuttered, and Quade reached out and squeezed my hand.

“Headmaster Torne will have more information for you. Right now we need to get to the portal. We were supposed to be there fifteen minutes ago.”

“Hyde! Why didn’t you say anything?” I asked before playfully slapping his arm.

“And miss this sexual tension? No, thank you. Now come on,” he said while dancing toward the exit and tugging me behind him. The other three paragons looked around at one another with a mix of expressions before falling into step behind us.

“Keep up, would you? You three are slower than most corpses I’ve resurrected,” Hyde called back to them.

“Damn necromancer,” Gritt grumbled. I just laughed. At least they were fighting with each other and not with me.





*



I guess when you had to practice sucking powers from one supernatural to another, you did it during a council cocktail party.

We were in a large, open room, separated by a wall of blue magic and social classes. On the side I was on, I stood in front of four supernatural prisoners wearing bright yellow jumpsuits and fearful expressions. There were three males and one female. Two elementals, a vamp, and a shifter.

On the other side of the magical wall stood the council members and Headmaster Torne, all of them sipping on potion-infused cocktails and popping finger foods into their mouths as they mingled. Mingled. Like they were getting ready for the godsdamned curtain call and me to put on a show. They were even dressed up like they’d anticipated a night out at the theater. I wanted to throw up. At least my paragons had the decency to look nervous for me, keeping to themselves off to the side.

“Y-You’re the Void,” the female shifter said, drawing my attention to our side of the room. Her brown hair was wild and so tangled that it was one huge matted mess, and she had scratch marks all up and down her arms.

“I am,” I nodded, my eyes flicking over the chains that held her down.

All four of the prisoners were in identical metal chairs, magicked chains secured around their wrists and ankles. They looked hollowed and haunted, too pale to be healthy, and their eyes darted around the room like rodents searching for an escape.

“What are you going to do to us?” the male vampire asked, his fangs huge, making him look more like a saber-toothed tiger than a man. They must be keeping him starving in that prison. His fangs dripped with drool and unused venom, looking painfully swollen.

I picked at my clothes, pulling on a loose thread at my thigh. “I’m, uhh, going to try to switch your powers.”

“What?” one of the elemental males snapped. “What do you mean you’re going to try to switch our fucking powers?”

My mouth went dry at the animosity I saw in his weathered and scarred face. He had burn marks all over his hands and arms, like his fire element had gotten out of control. I wondered if that had something to do with why he’d been imprisoned.

“I—”

Judge Braxton clapped on the other side of the room, cutting me off. Everyone’s eyes swiveled over to him, and his troupe of tittering council members lowered their glasses and stopped talking long enough to listen. “Alright, let’s get started.” He nodded at a thin, gangly looking man in a suit, and at the signal, the man stepped forward and cleared his throat, pulling out a tablet in his hand and swiping away. “I, Secretary Grannon, call this council meeting to a start. Judge Braxton overseeing, and all council members present, say aye.” At his droning words, all the council members spoke. “Aye.”

The secretary went on. “We are gathered today to witness the progress of the Void, Devicka Cainson, to do a preliminary trial of switching powers between four supernaturals. Prisoners to be tested on were selected from the Ashtomb Supernatural Prison. One female puma shifter. One male vampire. One fire elemental. And one air elemental. Practice trial will begin now.”

I scanned the room with my eyes, taking in everyone’s expression before pausing when my eyes landed on my mother. She had her head tilted back in amusement, red fingernails clutching her glass as she stood there and whispered to another elemental. I wanted to close the distance between us, a deeper part of me aching for her to even look my way. I felt like a circus animal on display for bored spectators. My eyes flickered back to the secretary just as he stopped talking his robotic spiel. His beady eyes rose up to regard me, lifting the tablet with him, and I realized with a jolt that he was recording me. My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth, totally dried up, while my palms were slick with sweat.