The Founders

Chapter 40

When Kyra went to sleep the following night, the castle was utterly silent. She had no idea who else was staying over the easter holidays, but Kyra doubted that it was more than ten, and the hallways were echoingly quiet. Frankly, she was just glad that they were still given the option of staying, given the events of the past term.

Kyra's alarm woke her at three in the morning and she quickly switched it off. The floor was utterly freezing when she put her bare feet on it. Her dormitory was still and dark, bars of moonlight falling on the floor. She quickly got dressed, pulling on a jumper, socks and shoes and slipped down the stairs.

Easing the portrait open quietly, she could hear the snoring of the painting behind it and silently crept through. The dungeons were almost pitch black, only very dimly lit by the faintest glow of bracketed fire, but as soon as she reached the ground floor, and continued walking up the great stone steps, the moonlight felt almost too exposing. The stairs and corridors were flooded with silvery light, and she tried keeping to the shadows as best as she could.

As she approached the main library, her sweaty hand slid on the door handle and she fumbled slightly while opening it. The blood sounded loud in her ears as she passed the stacks and empty tables silently.

They were moored in the silvery light swathing down from the high windows. She kept walking deeper into the library until she reached the far doors, the words 'restricted section' burnt into them. She gripped her wand firmly. Don't do anything stupid, Grace's voice whispered in her mind.

This didn't count though. It was necessary that she do everything she could to protect her family.

She pushed open the door and it creaked slightly. Kyra gritted her teeth. The restricted section consisted of one long, narrow row of books, alphabetically ordered. The end of the stack tapered into darkness. Kyra swallowed and ran her finger along the spines, walking further into the dark until she reached P. She could feel the pulse in her fingers.

Examining the books, her heart leapt as she saw one titled Praesidio Plants and How to Use Them. Praying that this was what she needed, she pulled the book from the shelf and tucked it into the satchel beneath her robes, adjusting it behind her back, in case she came across any teachers.

She reshuffled the shelf so that it didn't look like a book had been taken and the room went pitch black. Her heart stopped and then restarted, double time. It felt as though she had gone blind; she could no longer make out any silhouettes or forms at all.

Reaching for her wand, hand shaking, she tried to cast the lumos spell, but no light broke the darkness. She tried again, panic rising and then tried to steady herself against some kind of surface nearby. Just as she was tentatively reaching out to the wall, she heard someone mutter a spell.

Pain. Complete, incandescent pain tore through her body, ripping her nerves to ribbons and racing through her veins like white fire. She arched her back and tried to scream but no noise escaped her at all. She felt like she had been carved open by razors and rolled in salt, and then set alight, white-hot pain coating her skin like burning oil.

She couldn't make a single noise and all the pain directed itself inwards instead, building and burning. Suddenly it stopped. She collapsed onto the ground, her legs unable to support her. A burning tear rolled down her cheek but she still couldn't make a sound. She felt hot breath by her ear and heard a rasping, low voice threaten, "If you don't stay out of this, next time I'll finish what I started, half-blood."

Kyra drifted slowly out of consciousness, her thoughts trying to coalesce and then drifting apart like paper dissolving in water.