Red Hands (editing)

Chapter 1: Blood for Blood

A string was knotted in the center of my chest. The cord extended through my body, pulsing electric hot in my blood. Magik throbbed at my fingertips, addictive, tempting, ready to be released. But the energy didn't belong to me. It belonged to my warden, Dolent Lovelace, who tugged at the other end of the cord, her daemagik coursing through both of our veins. Lovelace was part of my magik, part of my being, as I was hers. Her energy reacted to mine, absorbing my strength and returning as much as she drained. Her body was like an extension of my own, and I felt as she lit her daggers afire, the purple flames bursting from her hands across the blades. She lunged and stabbed, ducked and twirled, her daggers slicing into flesh and stopping just short of bone.

"Mort, behind you!"

Pam's lilting voice rang through the air, echoing in my ears just in time for me to sense the attack. Cordelia Mayflower dived at me from above, eir manicured pink nails extended in grotesque claws. Ey hissed when ey missed me by an inch, eir perfect pink eyes and delicate features twisting into something demonic. Ey was a manananggal, a purebred elite demon, severed from eir lower body from the torso upward and using eir batlike leathery wings to dodge up and out of my way.

The ink tattooed across my skin came alive, pooling like water toward my hands until both were inky black and panmagik dripped from my fingertips. I drew a sign in the air in front of me and infused it with my magik, pushing the enchantment as far as I could. At the same moment, Mayflower's fair skin drained of color and ey sneered with a mouthful of polished fangs. Then with a push of eir wings, ey flew out of my range and disappeared over the treeline.

"Whoah, nice! Never seen Cordelia so terrified before!" Pamphil Kier fluttered to my side, his aural faewings stretched comfortably around my shoulder, glowing white feathers twitching and vibrating as if he couldn't contain his excitement. He grinned down at me with his signature goofy smile that pressed dimples into his cheeks, crystal eyes sparkling in the sun.

I sighed, and Mayflower's pallid face flashed across my vision. My heart sunk further into my chest. Soon I'd be forced to use a grimm hex against the Empyreans. "Yeah," I said. "That's the point."

"Don't look so glum! You'll save my life one day," Pam said. He nudged his faewing against my bare shoulder, trying to coax a smile out of me.

A piercing pain ripped at my shoulder and I staggered into Pam. Lovelace was in trouble. The realization launched me from Pam, and I ran from my station at the circle, sprinting so fast through the forest that I didn't notice the thorns tearing at my clothes. There was no mistaking the anguish of a vampire's bite. And I only knew one vampire at Abluvion Institute who'd dare bite another elite, and Andras Astaroth envied Lovelace with a passion.

I burst into the closure of trees around the opposing team's circle, looking furtively for Lovelace. Then I saw her, violet eyes wild and black-and-purple hair swishing around her bloody face, Astaroth crumpled at her feet. She stood in the center of the circular stone platform on the forest floor, both hands tightening around the grip of the long sword embedded in the stone, sweat glistening on her brown skin. She braced her legs, tossed her hair to the other side of her shaved head, and yanked at the sword. It didn't budge.

As if sensing my strength nearby, her eyes locked with mine, and for a moment I was lost in the depths of purple. My panmagik was drawn to her, and it poured from me to Lovelace like a free-flowing waterfall. I could feel the long sword in her grip, loosening in the stone. I thought it would pull free, but then I saw Lovelace's eyes widen, struck with panic, seeing something I hadn't seen, and our connection broke. Water crashed over me, filling my nose and ears and mouth until I couldn't breathe. I was swallowing water, choking, drowning, liquid lungs burning for air.