Winterwood Academy Book 4: Bonded

Chapter One-2

Witch? Not witches?

My father truly meant for me to battle my own sister to the death.

How the hell was I supposed to have any chance of winning that? Sure, I had no idea of my sister’s power, but I was well aware of my own limitations thanks to Celestria syphoning my powers and leaving me six feet under. If it hadn’t been for the intervention of my Goddess, I would still be there now.

“They are your daughters, Augustus, not a means for you to wield power.”

Emelia sounded desperate now, as if she was attempting to reach some small part of him, but I got the distinct impression that part did not exist.

“Who is to say that they cannot be both?” he asked with such cold contempt that I knew he had barely listened to her desperate pleas. “Don’t worry, Emelia, though you have wronged me terribly, I shall allow you to live long enough to see the outcome as long as you do not do anything stupid.”

Live long enough to see the outcome?

Did that mean he intended to have her killed once all of this was over?

I probably shouldn’t have been too worried about all of that. The likelihood of me being around to find out was slim.

“Come, my love.” Celestria reached out with her free hand to grip hold of Augustus’s, and bile began to rise in the back of my throat. “We have wasted far too much time in this Ungodly place.”

I couldn’t help but cringe as I watched my father turn to her. He removed his hand from hers just long enough to caress her cheek before he took hold of her fingers once more.

“You are right, my love,” he replied and turned back to me just long enough to add, “Do not fret. You shall soon meet your sister.”

Was that supposed to be a good thing? I didn’t exactly feel the urge to meet her, not if I was to be pitted against her.

I never got the chance to voice it as he turned away then and began to lead Celestria back down the cell block. The light receded with them, and the single candle seemed even dimmer than before.

No longer held up by my panic, I dropped down onto the cold, stone floor, my hands wrapped tightly around the bars of my cell.

“I’m sorry, Brianna,” Emelia said sadly in defeat. “I never should have brought you here.”

***

For some time afterwards, there was nothing but silence. The candle slowly burning down until it began to flicker in and out of existence. I longed for the all-consuming darkness of unconsciousness where I could pretend that none of this was happening, but it would not come to me.

I pressed my forehead against the freezing bars of the cell, my fingers tightening around the metal as I tried desperately to think of a way out of the situation.

I attempted to call the elements to me several times, asking fire to warm me and air to ease my troubled mind, but they did not come. Even when I asked water to quench my growing thirst, I did not feel the usual swell of a stream around me or smell the salty scent of the ocean.

As if she sensed my vain attempts, my mother finally spoke up, “It’s no use trying to use your powers down here. Every metal bar and stone has been carved with anti-magic runes.”

“So we are completely at their mercy down here?” I sighed, trying not to begin panicking all over again.

“The only person who could will us out of these cells is the Goddess herself,” mum said, and a small spark of hope flared in my stomach. Selene had brought me back to the Winterwood Academy for a reason. I could only hope that it wasn’t to perish at the hands of Celestria and my own father, or worse, my sister.

I was about to open my mouth to point out what I’d just been thinking about when I heard the sound of the door opening once more at the end of the hall.

“Hurry, you don’t have long. If we’re caught down here, we’re both dead.”

That voice, with its slight French lilt, was so familiar that I instantly straightened up and grabbed hold of the cell bars, trying to angle myself to get even a glimpse of Lecturer Tomas.

Yet it wasn’t him I saw coming down the corridor towards me.

A lump formed in my throat, and my heart skipped a beat, betraying the anger I felt deep in my gut.

“New Girl?” Booth called out my nickname as though the last two weeks hadn’t happened. As if I was still the innocent new student who knew nothing of our mad Grand Priestess or the goings-on of the Winterwood Academy.

For a moment, my anger at seeing him boiled down to a simmer. He offered my mother little more than a nod as he passed her cell before coming to stand before mine.

“Booth? What are you doing here?” My hands tightened on the bars of the cell until my knuckles began to turn bone white.

Booth opened his mouth but closed it again when he caught sight of my face for the first time. He leaned towards the bars, staring at me with open interest.

“Bri, what is that on your forehead?” He gaped at me, open-mouthed with astonishment. “Another mark?”

Urgh, what am I? A science experiment or something? This time I did lift my hand and move my fringe to cover my forehead.

“Booth, what are you doing here?” I repeated much more forcefully than I had said it the first time.

“As soon as I heard you’d been captured, I had to come and see you,” he said. An almost sheepish expression came over his face as he added, “I guess from your expression that you got all of my voicemails?”

“Of course I did!” I growled back at him. “You shouldn’t be down here.”

“Brianna, I needed to see you to tell you that I regret everything that I’ve done since Celestria killed you,” he said, ignoring my obvious get-out-of-here tone. “Losing you hurt more than anything I’ve ever felt before. It was like a part of my soul was ripped away, and the part that was left wasn’t enough to keep me going.”

“So you jumped into bed with the vilest skank you could find?” I sneered at him. As soon as the words were out, my anger was gone.

Deflated, I dropped my hands from the bars and took a step back. Averting my eyes, I lowered my head, no longer able to look at him.

Even though I was beyond angry with him, I still couldn’t help but see how handsome he was. With dark copper hair that grew down to his shoulders, pushed back behind his ears, and crystalline blue eyes like the clearest ocean water, he was a prince among men.

“That was before I knew you were alive,” Booth insisted, and he reached through the bars as if to grab hold of me.

I inched away, feeling his fingertips barely graze the sleeve of my hoodie.

He gripped the bars instead, and I could feel him glaring at me as if he was wishing so hard for me to listen to him. “In those days, the days when I thought I would never see you again, I felt empty, and when I didn’t feel empty, all I could feel was pain. Not just emotional pain but physical pain, and it felt like I was dying. I was weak, and I let her get to me.”

“Stop, Booth, can’t you see it doesn’t matter?”

My chest heaved with a deep sigh of defeat.

“I’m in here.” I gestured around at the cell. “I may as well be dead to you.”

“No, Bri.” Booth’s determined voice caused me to finally look at him. “As long as you are alive, there will always be hope.”

His voice was filled with such belief that it almost made me dizzy.

He continued to stare at me as if he hadn’t once removed his gaze from mine even though I had looked away, and when our eyes met, he spoke on, “I know you’ll probably never forgive me for all I’ve done since you left, but I need you to know that I’ll never stop caring for you.”

I was about to avert my eyes again when he urged, “Brianna, please believe me. I’m going to get you out of here, no matter what it takes.”

“If you really mean that, then there’s something I need you to do for me.”

A lightbulb suddenly flicked on in my head, and I levelled my gaze against his. “Actually, two things. No, wait, three.”

“It doesn’t matter how many things. I’ll do them all. Just tell me what they are,” Booth guaranteed as we heard the sound of the door opening at the other end of the corridor.

This time it was Booth’s knuckles that turned white.

“Where are Merrin and Zoe being kept?” I asked.

It had been playing on my mind ever since Keeya and Luci’s phone call to warn me that my mentor and best friend had been arrested.

“They are under guard in the infirmary,” Booth replied even as Lecturer Tomas hissed his name to get his attention. He ignored him, staring at me instead. “The Grand Priestess says Merrin’s healing abilities are too powerful to use, so she is to be watched at all times instead of being sent down here.”

“Then they can’t help us,” I mused before quickly turning to my next request. “If I told you that there was a way to get help from outside the Academy, would you be able to drop the wardings?”

Booth’s face dropped, a look of defeat shadowing his face.

“Booth, we need to get out of here before the next shift of guards comes along,” lecturer Tomas hissed under his breath as he began down the corridor towards them.

“Even if I had an entire coven of witches behind me, I’m not sure our combined magic would be enough to take her on,” Booth replied to me, once more ignoring Tomas.

“There is one thing that could help you do it,” Emelia spoke up for the first time from her cell, and I felt my cheeks begin to burn with embarrassment.

My mum had just heard Booth practically professing his love for me, not to mention the fact I’d shot him down.

“The Winterwood Book,” she and I said almost in unison as if our minds had melded together.

“You have it?” Tomas’s eyebrow raised as he came to stand beside Booth. He looked at me curiously.

For a moment, I thought that maybe I should lie. He was, after all, one of Celestria’s Sons of Helios. But then I saw the hopeful look on Booth’s face and reminded myself that if Tomas really was loyal to the Grand Priestess, why had he allowed Booth down here?

I shook my head and sighed deeply. During my pacing of my cell I’d looked desperately for my duffel bag but there wasn’t really any place for it to be hidden save for under the bed or the bucket in the corner that I really didn’t want to think about.

“But you did when you arrived on campus?” Tomas asked, his face thoughtful.

I nodded. A lump formed in my throat at the thought of where the book might have been, most likely in the cruel, disgusting clutches of the one woman I was determined to keep it away from.

“The priestess has it.” Emelia’s voice was matter-of-fact. There was no fear or even disappointment in her voice, just fact. “She pried the bag from you as the warriors carried you down here.”

My hand flew to the neck of my t-shirt and swept down until I felt the cluster of gemstones that nestled between my breasts.

“At least she doesn’t have the key.” I sighed with relief as I wrapped my fingers around the pendant. It began to feel warm in my hand, almost as if power was pulsing through the stones and out into my palm.

But there’s no magic down here? I thought even as my mother breathed a sigh that mirrored my own.

“That wouldn’t matter anyway. The pages would be blank to anyone who doesn’t have Winterwood blood,” Tomas pointed out.

“You’re right!” Emelia gasped as though she hadn’t thought of it before. “No doubt that’s the only reason she’s keeping us around.”

“That and the council,” Tomas reminded us.

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that. It appears that our Grand Priestess and Grand High Priest are in cahoots.” I could almost feel Emelia tremble as she said the words.

“You mean…Celestria and Augustus….are…” Booth gaped from my mother to me, and although I couldn’t see her, I knew she was nodding. Call it a witch’s intuition.

“If we had the book, we might be able to amplify its power to escape from these cells, but I imagine that she will have it under lock and key,” Emelia continued even as the new knowledge of Celestria’s romantic entanglement fell upon Tomas and Booth’s faces.

I watched Booth’s surprise twist into shock and then suddenly surprise again as if he had been struck by a bolt of lightning.

“That’s it!” he exclaimed before pursing his lips, catching himself. He shook his head and then gazed at me with a mischievous half-smile.

“We don’t need a coven to lower the wards. We just need you and the book.”

“But I’m down here, and the book is somewhere up there.” I pointed above my head, imagining the entirety of the library that probably sat above us.

Booth pointed at the keyhole of my cell. “And all we need is a key to set you free.”