Razed by Magic

Chapter 13

Eli sat in the small classroom, fingers tapping steadily against the desk as he stared at the clock above the door. An hour and a half he had been locked up in here. The last few hours had passed in a blur. Someone must have found Mr. Harris' body quickly and called it in, because just minutes after the nightmare had vanished several cop cars had arrived with their flashing lights and shut down the campus. They had gathered everyone together in the center of the grounds and began asking questions. Eli had seen Maddie being questioned by an older woman with kind eyes, and relief flooded through him to see her alright.

He had immediately garnered interest, as several people had seen him chasing after the nightmare from the basement where Mr. Harris' body had been found. They hadn't questioned him though. Instead two cops had escorted him to this room and told him to wait, someone would be along shortly to ask him what had happened. Eli had briefly entertained the idea of resisting, of just leaving and forcing the cops to try and stop him. The last thing he needed was to have the police questioning him. Common sense won out in the end; no need to call further attention to himself.

As soon as he was in the room alone, he had sent Benjamin a text explaining what had happened. Benjamin had a good portion of the Seaset police on his payroll, he should be able to pull some strings to get Eli out of here with minimal fuss. A sorcerer was dead. Killed by some twisted creature that he had never seen before. At least the student who had almost been taken was safe, according to the two police officers who'd stuck him here. News that still brought a small smile to Eli's face.

Blood. A slumped over body. Eli squeezed his eyes shut and forced his thoughts on his current problem. With the death of a teacher on Academy grounds, and the sighting of that thing that was in the middle of abducting another student, there was no way the sorcerers would be able to ignore this. Sentinels would become involved, taking over the case from the police. Sentinels handled all things considered too dangerous or sensitive for the general police. He had to be gone before that. How things were going to work going forward he had no idea. Could he still protect Maddie with Sentinels patrolling the place, asking questions? Would she even need his protection at that point?

Eli rubbed his eyes, moving his limbs very slowly and carefully. He hurt everywhere. Nothing was broken, but he would look like someone had painted his body blue and purple tomorrow. The physical pain was easily ignored; his emotions were another matter. The dregs of adrenaline were still pumping through his body, leaving him twitchy. Every time he thought about that thing his heart began to pound in his chest and tears threatened to start falling again. Mr. Harris was dead. He had done everything he could to stop that monster and barely scratched it. The fury burning in those mismatched eyes was etched into his brain; that image was going to keep him up late many nights. Eli couldn't help but wonder if he hadn't pissed that thing off so much if it would have killed Mr. Harris on the way out. That thought refused to remove its claws from his brain.

Eli stood up, the chair crashing to its side behind him. He ignored it, pacing the room. Benjamin still hadn't messaged him back, and there were police guarding the door on the other side. He was trapped. He forced his thoughts to move; what had that thing been? He latched onto that thought as he paced the front of the classroom. It had been as strong as a weir, quick as a vampire, and had shrugged off his void and Mr. Harris' magic like nothing more than a stiff breeze. He racked his brain for anything that sounded even remotely like it and came up blank. Maybe some kind of Fae creature?

It wasn't like any Fae he'd heard of though, it was too wild, too wrong. That was the word that he kept coming back to. Wrong. That nightmare had a sense of wrongness about it, something the Fae never had. They went out of their way to appear perfect.