What the Spell

Chapter Twenty-One: Marcus Is...?

I stormed out of the school and to the dormitories, magic humming around me. It was even stronger now that it had been during the meeting with the Council, and that had been really bad.

Chris grabbed my arm. “Don’t do anything stupid. She’s the Council’s darling doll, and according to their message, you can’t afford to give them any other reason to want to punish you. Apparently they’re willing to get way more serious than we originally thought.”

I nodded. “I’m not going to do anything bad. Except light her ass on fire.” I yanked away from him and stormed towards the dorms.

Chris followed me to her room at a safe distance. I used my magic to throw the doors open, all the papers in the room flying everywhere. “CELESTE!” I shouted, rage coursing through me and my magic begging for a release.

She was already waiting for me, leaning against her desk. “I figured you’d put everything together. You don’t get enough credit from the Council.” She picked up a pen, and started clicking it. “They think because you’re so young that they can manipulate you any way they want; but they don’t know how smart you actually are.”

“Cut the shit, Celeste,” I growled. “What the hell did you do?!”

She smirked. “You don’t get it do you. You don’t get how deep in you really are yet.”

“What the hell do you mean?”

“You don’t get that one wrong move could get you and your friends killed. You think you can go around giving veiled threats to the Council. I read your letter. You can clearly see that you were implying threats. You can’t do that to them, or you’ll get hurt.”

“What, so you did this whole thing as some sick joke to let me know that I have no power?” I growled.

She rolled her eyes. “No. I’m teaching you a lesson that you may have strong magic, but the Council has a stronger influence. This was a warning of how drastic the Council will become if they find out that you’re betraying them, or finding some individuality and defiance. You need to be careful, and you can’t afford to make veiled threats to prove some stupid point.”

I nodded curtly. “You’re right.” I then used my magic to shove her against the wall. Her body moved up, and she gagged as she started to choke. Her feet dangled, and she clawed at her neck, trying to get hands off her neck that weren’t actually there. It was my magic that was choking her.

I stalked up to her hand hissed, “If you ever do anything to my friends, me, or my family again, I will end you.”

I dropped her to the ground. She gasped for breath, gagging as she tried to catch her breath. She was in a pile, and shaking.

I turned away from her, stalking out of the room. I grabbed Chris by the shirt, dragging him out with me. I used magic to slam the door closed, enjoying the sound of her still trying to catch her breath as we left.

“That was totally badass,” Chris said. “Although, you need to be careful. You can’t afford to make a lot of enemies, although she did deserve it.”

“You’re right,” I said, getting into the car.

We hadn’t met with Michael, Chris’s father, for a long time. We still wanted him to believe we were on his side, considering the fact that he did have strong influence and we couldn’t afford another enemy or retaliation.

And, like it or not, they had valuable information against the Council that I needed to overthrow them. And, they had Marcus. I had to check in with him, see if he had new information… and show him my progress on putting together a new Council. He was guaranteed a new spot on it, and he would most likely want to know who would be joining him. He would also most likely want to know my progress. So, to avoid eavesdropping, we were going out to lunch while Chris talked with his father. Neither Chris, nor I, knew what about.

Once we got there, I started to feel my magic hum around me. It usually happened when I got irritated, threatened, or angry, so I knew I had to be careful. I couldn’t afford to mess this up; Michael had less to lose, and would have no problem killing or harming me, whereas the Council did. That made him more dangerous, and me more cautious.

Chris could sense this, and took my hand as we went inside. I squeezed it as hard as I could, trying not to focus on my anger and instead calm myself down.

We got into Michael’s office, and I noticed that his wife wasn’t there. We both sat down across from him, Michael instantly glaring at our joined hands. He still didn’t like the fact that Chris and I were together. So, I just smirked at him, rubbing my thumb over Chris’s palm. This made his eyes narrow even more.

At least Brutus tried to look like he liked me.

“It’s nice to see you again, Taylor,” said Michael with distaste.

I laughed bitterly. “You can at least try to sound like I don’t disgust you.”

He groaned, and I knew that I irritated him. It kind of amused me. Chris hit my foot with his, and I made myself stop.

“Well, we were going to test you… but we have more pressing matters to deal with.”

“What could be more pressing than your rising protégé?”

“The death of Marcus.”

That instantly shut me up. Well, that meant that he wouldn’t be meeting with me afterwards. Although I’d only met him once or twice, he genuinely seemed like a nice person. And, he had risked everything to help me. And now he was… just gone.

“Who killed him?” I demanded.

“That’s not important,” muttered Michael.

“Excuse me?!” I growled out. “One of your own was murdered and you don’t care who did it?! And, you don’t know who he could kill next!”

He sighed. “We all voted to execute him.”

Anger radiated through me. “WHAT THE FUCK!” I stood up, and my chair flew out from behind me. The room shook, harder than ever before. I had never felt as angry as I did in that moment, knowing that they had arranged his murder. Glass shattered, books flew off of the shelf… chaos erupted.

“Taylor calm down!” shouted Chris, but there was nothing he could say to calm me down. Papers swirled everywhere, and I shoved Chris to one side of the room, and I threw Michael to the ground. I stormed over to him, and the table tore itself in half, each half going to another side of the room. I walked through the empty space, shoving my heel on his neck.

I pressed down lightly. He tried to struggle, but my magic held him down in place. “I should kill you. You’re a murderer. You don’t deserve to live.”

“Then you’re no worse than me,” he croaked.

“No. Marcus was innocent. You aren’t.”

I pressed deeper, and he started to gag. But, before I could do anything else, Chris grabbed me from behind, pulling my hands behind my back. I struggled against him, spitting curses and insults. I threw him away from me, but I didn’t have enough time to turn back to Michael before about a dozen armed men charged into the room.

“Stop or we shoot!” one of them demanded over the sound of breaking wood, rustling papers, and a whirlwind of air I had started to create.

Naturally, I threw all of their guns out of the window, disarming them.

And then, something hit me in the head.

“TAYLOR!” I heard Chris shout in horror before I collapsed.