The Curse (H. Academy Series #1)

I just stared.

And stared.

The black ooze stopped moving. It was dead. Completely.

Why?

Why?

I felt Thar’s hands on my shoulders, “Jade. We have to move. Please.”

We were inside the cocoon of my magic. It swirled and twisted around us, wrapping us in something that walked the fine line between danger and safety.

“Jade.” Thar’s voice turned hoarse. “Please.”

“Go away.” I spoke, my voice weak. “Deal with the others.”

“You have to get away from here!” Thar shouted. “It’s going to attack again!”

“No, it’s not.” I shook my head. “It got what it wanted.”

“Jade, please.”

“We were targeted.” I stared at Leon’s pale dead body. “It all came at once, even though there are better targets in this building. Why?”

Thar’s voice cracked, “Jade, we have to go. I’m begging you.”

“Then go.” My entire body went slack, and I felt so heavy. “I’m okay here.”

Thar’s hands reached under my armpits, shaking me out of the trans.

“Stop!” I shook him off. “I’m not leaving!”

He looked so desperate. So tired.

“He’s gone.” Thar breathed. “And I’m so sorry about that. I’m so fucking sorry I let you go alone. But I can’t do anything right now. We need to leave, because there is a demon capable of mass destruction in this building and it’s going to kill us. Amma and Morta, too.”

My heart gave a loud thud at the mention of their names.

“It’s all dead.” I whispered. “I can’t feel any of it anymore.”

Thar’s expression softened, but I was telling the truth. All ooze around us was dead, even the one on Leon’s body. Why?

“Jade...”

“Go away.” I pulled myself off the ground, my ankle screaming with pain. “Leave me here.”

Thar took a step towards me, but I raised my hands. Disbelief widened his eyes.

“Come on.” He mumbled, still ready to grab me and pull me away.

“Take another step.” I dared, magic rumbling through me, ready to destroy anything standing in my way, good or bad, friend or foe.

I was ready to hurt him if he took another step.

Thar reached for me. Another wall of magic cocooned me and Leon in a snug circle. Thar grunted and staggered back, my magic pushing him off.

“Fuck, Jade!”

“Go away!”

I faced Leon’s body.

Why?

Why?

My mind raced with every bit of information I had.

It started in the library...

He went to the library...

...I think he was carving something into his skin...

Weird runes, weird letters...

Maybe it likes to play.

Professor Darth said they were sentient, it’s not far-fetched to assume they have a language. And spells?

...it sounds like necromancy.

The demon tongue.

My hands dropped by my sides.

“Jade?” Thar’s voice sounded muffled through the wall of magic.

He was trying to break through. But my magic worked on its own now, giving me time to think, time to figure it all out. I reached towards my back pocket. Amma’s phone was still there. The army knife was still folded in there, too.

I stood on my shaky legs and came closer to Leon’s body.

“Jade!” Thar’s panicked shout reached me. “Get away from him! Don’t!”

I kneeled next to him and unfolded the knife. My hands shook as I put the phone on the floor and scrolled through the images. It was there. Of course, it was. Amma had everything, even photos of weird spells she found in my father’s notebook. If one could discern them from Demonology.

“What are you doing?” Thar’s magic hit mine, but something else joined in.

I looked up, and the ooze was once again alive. It formed a barrier between me and Thar. My heart hammered with alarm, and reason managed to break through for a second. What the fuck was I doing?

One look at Leon’s dead body strengthened my resolve.

I tore his shirt, careful not to touch the ooze, and grabbed the knife.

“Jade!” Thar’s hoarse scream did nothing to me.

I carved the symbols into Leon’s chest: a triangle with three dots, two horizontal lines inside a smaller circle, an elongated, slated F-shaped structure with the upper line extending, an upturned T formed with dots, and a square cut with two vertical lines.

His skin was eerily easy to cut through. It didn’t bleed.

“Stop that.” Thar’s voice turned weaker, terrified. “Stop doing that, please.”

When I was done, I dropped the army knife, and called my magic. It gathered in my palms, vibrant and strong. I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea what this was.

I took in a shaky breath-

“Don’t do it, Jade!”

“Reviviscere.”

Nothing happened.

Sweat coated my forehead.

“Reviviscere!”

Nothing.

“Oh, come on!” I shouted, wiping the sweat off me. “Reviviscere!”

Fingers shaking, I zoomed in the photo. The Latin words did nothing, it was the strange words written in a foreign tongue that possessed magic. But I couldn’t read those. I’ve never even heard that language. Tears gathered in the corners of my eyes, dropping on the phone screen.

It moved in the corner of my vision. A shadow. A shapeless mass moving through walls and worlds. I could not truly look at it, nor truly grasp it. My eyes simply wouldn’t focus on it. Pure terror iced my veins at the thought of what I was about to do.

My shoulders slumped, “Tell me.”

“Jade, stop!” Thar’s voice reached a shrieking tone I’ve never heard before. “Please.”

A deep snicker rumbled through the school.

“Stop, please!”

But this wasn’t just about Leon anymore. Scientific curiosity, Amma would say. I wanted to know if this was possible, if there was another type of magic out there, stronger than anything we could have imagined, and whether it could be harnessed. If it could, then I’d know exactly what my father and the Arch Mage had planned.

“Tell me how to pronounce it.”

The demon’s presence grew stronger and it left a cold touch on my skin. So cold it burned. Fear pulsed through me, the need to run away becoming more difficult to ignore. It led me here. It controlled the ooze through and through, and it made it attack when it did.

“Tell me!” I shut my eyes, my senses opening up, taking all sensations in.

The wind whooshed through the building, coming from all directions, and it carried a sound, a word coming from distant, dark places.

Ashah-han.

“Ashah-han.” I repeated while the word was still in my ear.

The demon laughed.

My heart thudded while I stared at Leon’s dead body. All emotions disappeared, leaving me hollow, empty. I knew, with every ounce of my being, that this would work.

The blackness in Leon’s veins began to retreat, first from the tips of his charred burned fingers, then his forearms, his elbows, the corners of his face. It all gathered above his chest, where a hole had been carved leading straight to his heart. The blisters disappeared from his arms. The burns healed.

I held my breath, my eyes open wide, not wanting to miss a second of this.

His skin regained colour. First his arms, then his face. The only pale and black spot was right above his heart. The ooze moved there. Not like it struggled to leave. Not like it feared death. No, it went eagerly, retreating deeper under his skin, and finally disappearing in his heart.

Thar was right behind me. My magic had ceased. The hallway was calm.

Nothing tried to attack us. There was no demonic presence in the air.

The wound over Leon’s heart healed and the skin lost its paleness.

He was healed. Unconscious, but healed.

The only thing left on his body as a reminder of this experience was the symbol I’ve carved with a knife. It was a permanent scar. He’d wear it forever.

I sat on the floor, aware of Thar standing just above me.

“What have you done?”

I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know what to tell him. What the fuck have I done?

The silence in the hallway was so absolute we both heard Leon’s heart the moment it started beating again. Tears slid down my cheeks and a sob left my lips. I pulled my knees up to my chest and hugged them.

“We have to get him out of here.” Thar put his hand on my shoulder.

“Just wait.” I cried. “Just wait.”

Leon’s chest rose and fell in one quick, shallow breath.

I leaned over him right when his eyes opened.

The icy blue was replaced by a murky, living grey that changed shades and danced in his irises.

I knew then that I had made a terrible mistake.