Page 56 of Spirit Storm

There.

Standing apart from the rest, my youngest sister is near the edge of the path that leads to the west wing. Her face is tipped up toward the churning sky, her arms hanging heavily at her sides.

"Lily!" I close the distance at a run, and she turns toward the sound of my voice.

Tears track down her face in silence, not the dramatic crying of panic but more like her mind can't process what’s happened.

She sees me and her expression melts. Extending her hand toward me, she shows me a small blackened sphere. “She tried to channel it, but it didn’t work. Why didn’t it work?”

I have no idea what she’s talking about, and don’t care. I pull her against my chest and Asher wraps himself around both of us.

Lily grabs two fistfuls of his jacket and holds on. He doesn't say anything, just keeps a hand at the back of her head and looks at me over her dark hair.

The look on his face is as heavy and grave as the weight I feel in my chest.

I pass my sister over to him and crouch down to speak with S’Nark. He's sitting as a white cat at Lily's feet. His tail is wrapped around his paws as he watches the distant sky.

"Talk to me. What happened?”

He flicks one ear toward me without moving his head. "They were all out here having a happy little witch social, celebrating that two of the recovered got their affinities back this week. Then the storm rolled in and the lightning started. Your sister tried to use that conduit sphere they all carry, but it burned out. That’s when she really started to panic, and that enormous feathered nightmare dropped out of the clouds and took her."

My jaw tightens. "Did it say anything?"

He looks at me properly for the first time. "It said she was demon-marked. And that her bond with evil endangered the people of Arcana."

The words land like a boulder in a still pond.

Fucking hell. The blood bond. Tharuzel's mark on the Hallowind line is what it objected to. It was why it hated me when I first got here.

"Where does the guardian take people?" I turn to Mica, who has appeared at my shoulder. "When it decides someone is a threat. Where does it go?"

She blinks. “How would I know? I was never a student here. Maybe Wylder would know.”

Right. Damn it.

The doors to the main building swing open, and Headmistress Briar rushes down the steps and cuts across the courtyard at an urgent pace.

Her midnight-blue robes snap around her ankles, as her cloak blows out behind her like she’s some kind of superhero. Her gaze sweeps the clearing, cataloguing damage, bodies, expressions, all of it in about four seconds flat.

Mica and I meet her halfway.

"What happened?" Her voice is a blade of steel wrapped in silk.

"Your guardian grabbed my sister out of the courtyard." I keep my voice level. I'm proud of that. "It spouted off the same bullshit about being marked and evil as it did when it attacked me, then it flew off with her. Why the hell does your school hold such a grudge against my family?"

Briar's gaze cuts to me, sharp and cold.

"There is no grudge." She says it like the suggestion is beneath her. "And while I don't know why Violet was taken, I do know that standing here slinging accusations won't bring her back."

My jaw tightens. "It said her tie to evil endangers the students of Arcana. If it actually believes that shit, what will it do to her?"

Her gaze holds mine, and there is nothing soft or comforting about it. "The guardian is ancient and has its own sensitivities. A demon mark on a bloodline may make it faster to act where your family is concerned. That's a reality you need to understand."

"So, what you're saying is my family gets to be profiled by a giant magic bird?"

She lets off a dismissive sigh. "Poppy. Not now."

I swallow the rest of it. She's right, and I hate that she's right.