Winterwood Academy Book 4: Bonded

Chapter One-1

Chapter OneIf not for the dim light of a single flickering candle, I might have believed that I was still lost in the darkness of my unconscious. The dank, musty smell was by far worse than anything my imagination could have come up with, and the aching of my entire body made me wish I was still lost to the darkness.

When I tried to move at all, every single muscle in my body screamed at me not to, and the hard surface beneath me creaked. Reaching with my hands at my sides, I felt the cold, hard metal of what appeared to be a bed frame, yet it was by far the smallest and most uncomfortable bed I’d ever laid on. The thin mat beneath me did little to protect my back from the springs, and I was sure that several of them were broken, sticking up through the musty material.

With a deep groan, I rolled onto my side and sat up, swinging my legs over the side of the camperlike bed.

“Brianna?” A hissed whisper sounded from the dark, making me jump, “Bri?”

“Mum!” Surprise and relief overwhelmed me as I finally recognised the voice calling my name. I moved towards the dim candlelight only to realise that I couldn’t quite reach the source. My path was cut off by heavy metal bars. When I lifted my hands to give them a shake, I found that they were entirely unmovable, my fingers finding small carvings in the cold metal.

“Mum? Where are you? Where are we?” I questioned, panic rising like a tide inside of me.

“Try to calm yourself, sweetheart,” my mum’s voice sounded through the darkness, and I suddenly felt as though she was close to me. Leaning against the dank stone wall where the metal bars joined the bricks, I felt as though I could sense her doing the same on the other side.

A flicker of movement from the corner of my eye made me look up, and I found a hand hovering before me as if she had squeezed her arm through the bars of her own cell.

Instinctively, I reached out until the cell bars began to squeeze my bicep, and I could move no further. It was just far enough for her to grip hold of my hand and entwine her fingers with mine.

“Be calm,” she said again as she squeezed my hand, comfortingly, “We’re in the old wine cellar beneath the kitchens. Your great-grandfather had them refurbished into prison cells almost three centuries ago during the war.”

“What war?” I found myself asking. I wasn’t a big history buff, but I was pretty sure there wasn’t a war going on three hundred years ago. Wait! My great-grandfather was alive three hundred years ago? The thought burst into my head. How is that even possible?

“Witches live rather a lot longer than humans do,” mum explained to me, almost as if she’d read my mind. “Your great-grandfather, Thomas Winterwood, was the founder of the Winterwood Academy and remained its headmaster for almost seventy years before he died at the age of 192. He was assassinated by hunters during the witch wars. Didn’t they teach you about any of this in class?”

It was as if she sensed my total confusion.

“I didn’t exactly get to attend many classes before everything began to kick off,” I admitted.

“Then I suppose you’ll have a lot of catching up to do once all of this is over.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled. If we make it out alive.

I thought it best not to say that thought out loud. There would be no point in voicing any doubts I had. They’d only make us both feel worse.

“Is there anyone else down here?” I asked instead. “How long was I out?”

“A couple of hours, and no, nobody else is down here that I know of.”

Then where are Zoe and Merrin? I gulped as fear gripped me. Had something terrible happened to them?

I never got to ask my mum what she thought on the matter because the sound of a heavy door opening down the hall made us both jump. We quickly snatched our hands back into our cells so as not to be seen by whoever was coming.

The sound of heeled footsteps was oddly familiar, but it was joined by a harsh thudding of more feet that I definitely didn’t recognise.

The light at the front of my cell began to grow as the pair drew towards us and I had to press myself against the bars in order to see.

My chest tightened when I recognised the hooded outline of Grand Priestess Celestria illuminated by the candle she held steadily before her. A taller, broader outline followed behind her, but I couldn’t get a good view of the man’s face.

Maybe it’s Tomas. I thought, hopefully. Even if he was on Celestria’s side, I at least knew he cared for me, even a little. Anyone else would simply be a further threat.

“Well, Emelia, I never expected our reunion to come under such circumstances,” said a male voice as they stopped just outside our adjoining cells. It was an oddly familiar voice that made me cringe.

Celestria lowered the candle so that the light was no longer a sheet concealing their faces, and I felt my heart stop. She was just as beautiful as ever, if not for the sadistic smile that stretched across her face.

The man beside her I had only ever seen once before, but how could I ever possibly forget the face of the man I had recently learned was my father. Just as I had seen him before, I could only see the profile of his rugged face and the thin layer of stubble that spread down his cheeks and covered the lower half of his face. Though his hair was dark in this light, I knew that it was really a thick, healthy mass of chocolate brown that framed his olive-skinned face. Clearly, I’d gotten all of my colouring from my mother with her thick red hair and porcelain, pale skin.

“Augustus, I didn’t expect to find you at the Academy,” my mum spoke as though she definitely wasn’t pleased to see him. There was a sneer to her voice that told me to be on my guard.

“If I hadn’t already been here with the witch council, then I would have come the minute Grand Priestess Celestria contacted me to tell me you had been found at last.” Augustus stepped up to the bars of my mother’s cell, making it harder for me to see him.

“Found implies that I was lost, and I assure you I was far from it.” I was shocked by the strength and defiance in my mother’s voice. For someone who had spent so long hiding from this man, she definitely didn’t sound as though she feared him. Perhaps it was simply an act.

“I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to discuss all of that, but for now, I believe that I have a daughter to meet.” Augustus’s voice hardened, and I felt a fresh wave of panic threaten to overwhelm me as he stepped back and moved towards me.

Celestria crept up behind him as if on guard, although she kept her distance from my cell as he stepped up to the bars.

For the first time, I got a full view of my father’s face. Even though I loathed to admit it, I could see that he was handsome. With thick, arched eyebrows framing his brown eyes and chiselled cheekbones, he had a dark and dangerous beauty about him, much like Celestria herself.

“The light in here is much too poor,” he growled as he reached into the pocket of his blazer and produced a smooth stone around the size of his palm.

Hissing something in Latin under his breath, I was surprised by the harsh white light that suddenly pierced the darkness all around me, glowing from the stone in his hand.

“Ahh, that’s better. Come closer so that I might take a look at you.”

When he spoke to me, I realised that I had taken several steps back from the bars of the cell.

Lifting my head, determined not to show the panic that was boiling inside me, I did as he asked.

His face barely moved but for the lifting of one brow. He looked me up and down, examining my face for much longer than I was comfortable with.

“I see now why Adreanna’s presence caused such a stir when we arrived.” Augustus mused, lifting his free hand to stroke his stubbled chin.

The sound of my sister’s name caused a lump to begin forming in my throat. For so long, I had believed that I was nothing more than an orphan, and now, in the space of just a few short days, I had come to learn of my parents’ existence and a twin sister I never knew a thing about.

Most people who believed they were an orphan would probably have rejoiced at something like that but, save for the news of my mother, I was utterly terrified. After all that I’d heard of the Maxwells’ and their terrible need for upholding traditions, Augustus Maxwell was by far the last father I could have hoped for.

“The likeness is uncanny, is it not?” Celestria spoke up for the first time, and as usual, her voice sent a cold shiver down my spine. “Even living totally separate lives, they have still been moulded into fine, beautiful young witches.”

Was that a hint of jealousy I heard in her voice?

I had to force myself to meet my father’s eyes as he continued to gaze at me, a dark flame of thought flickering in his brown eyes.

“Yes, my dear, you are right. Save for that mark, of course.”

I cringed as he gestured at the swirling mark between my eyebrows that signified my rebirth at the hands of the Goddess. I tightened my hands into fists at my sides, resisting the urge to move my hair to hide the mark.

My dear? That was an oddly informal way to address a Grand Priestess. What was it my mother had told me about them? That they had all once been friends? Even friends didn’t address each other as dear. Something felt terribly off to me, and my gut had been horribly right of late.

“Why didn’t you tell me that she had such a mark?” Augustus’s voice deepened with a hint of irritation, but Celestria simply smiled sweetly back at him as she replied.

“I had not thought to mention it after the trauma of their attack.”

Our attack? She couldn’t be serious. Sure, I’d attacked her in self-defence, but she had quite clearly been the one leading an ambush the moment we stepped through the wardings that protected the academy.

Has she told him about my other marks?

That was the one she knew I had, the Triple Goddess mark that had been the first to appear at the base of the back of my neck. Of course, as far as I was aware, she had no idea that mark had spread practically all the way down my back.

I decided that it was probably better to keep my mouth shut on the subject rather than causing a conflict between them right now. Of course, it might work in our favour if they were arguing, but it could also work against us too.

“Now that you have laid eyes upon her, should I call the witch council together as we discussed?” Celestria asked, breaking me from my thoughts, talking as if I wasn’t even there. Her voice was soft, almost intimate, and it made me feel sick. Not just because she had mentioned the witch council but because she seemed all too familiar with my father.

“Yes, I do believe it is well past time to invoke the Rites of the Gemini.” Augustus nodded.

My blood instantly froze as I broke into a cold sweat.

Wait! What? No!

I wanted to scream the words at them, but I knew an outburst like that would do little to help me now. In fact, it would probably do the complete opposite and make me look weak.

“You can’t do that!” Emelia screamed from her cell, and I heard a harsh clashing sound, almost as if she’d thrown herself at the bars in an attempt to get her hands on them.

“You have left me with no other choice, Emelia!” Augustus snarled, and his eyes snapped from my cell to hers.

I might have shrunk away from such a gaze, but my senses told me that my mum was standing stock still, glaring back at him.

“Augustus, for the love you once bore me, I beg you not to do this.”

There was a pleading in my mother’s voice that left me hopeful.

“You should be proud, Emelia,” Augustus said, his voice hard and sadistic, “One of your daughters may just become the most powerful witch this world has ever seen.”