Page 48 of Heartflame

The alarms began to sound.

“THERE HAS BEEN A WARD BREACH.”

“No time,” I said, gripping his hand tighter. “We have to go. Now.”

“I REPEAT, THERE HAS BEEN A WARD BREACH. ALL STUDENTS ARE TO RETURN TO THEIR DORMS IMMEDIATELY. ALL ACADEMIC BUILDINGS WILL BE SEALED. ANYONE CAUGHT WANDERING CAMPUS WILL BE DETAINED. I REPEAT, THERE HAS BEEN A WARD BREACH.”

This time, he didn’t resist. He ran with me toward the shimmering barrier, and I could feel the magic already cracking. The wards were being actively attacked, their integrity compromised by whatever dark magic was driving those creatures forward.

However, the moment we got close, a bolt of electricity shot out of the wards toward us, striking the dirt near my feet. I skidded to a halt, throwing an arm in front of Quill to protect him. The air was filled with the scent of smoke and ozone as I took a step back, forcing Quill with me.

“What the fuck was that?!” he cried, holding tightly to my arm.

“Defensive spells,” I replied, watching diligently for the next bolt. “The wards are stopping anything from going in or out.” I took a few more steps back before I turned to him. “We… We’re trapped in here.”

My mind raced as I stared at the flickering barrier before us. Trapped. We were actually trapped inside the wards with an army of undead bearing down on them.

“Your grandfather,” Quill said urgently, gripping my arm. “Can he do something? Can he lower the wards for us?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted, hating the uncertainty in my own voice. The mate bond was screaming at me to protect him, to find a way out, but every solution I considered seemed to crumble the moment I examined it. “The defensive spells are automated. They’re designed to keep anything from breaching during an attack. My grandfather would have to manually dispel them. He’d have to be here.”

Another tremor shook the ground. The wards flickered again, more violently this time. In the distance, I could hear the sound of impact. Something massive just hit the barrier with enough force to make the earth itself vibrate.

“How long will they hold?” Quill asked, his voice steady despite the fear I could smell radiating off him.

“I don’t know that either,” I said, turning toward him. “But I’m starting to think it won’t be long.”

Another boom followed by another shrill screech.

“THERE HAS BEEN A WARD BREACH.”

Another boom.

“THERE HAS BEEN A WARD BREACH.”

Screeching from all directions.

“THERE HAS BEEN A WARD BREACH.”

“By the gods,” I whispered, staring up at the wards as visible cracks in the magic arched across the sky. “They’re attacking from every side.”

Boom. Boom. BOOM.

I pulled Quill close to my side as the first piece of the ward fell away, like glass crumbling under a hammer. Light filled the sky as the wards disintegrated in seconds. The alarms went silent along with the Dean’s voice. Widdershins Academy was, for the first time in a century, visible to the entire world under the stars.

That’s when the screams started.

Chapter 20

Aeron

The screams were worse than the explosions.

I stood frozen at the edge of the collapsing wards, Quill pressed against my side, and watched as the undead poured through the gaps like a tide of rotting flesh. They moved with an intelligence that made my dragon blood run cold. This wasn’t the mindless hunger typical of resurrected corpses looking to consume life. Someone was directing them, controlling them with precision and purpose.

“We need to move,” I said, but my voice sounded distant even to my own ears. The mate bond was going absolutely feral, every instinct screaming at me to shift, to fight, to tear apart anything that threatened my Quill. But that would only get us both killed.

Around us, students were stumbling out of their dorms in confusion and panic despite the warnings to stay inside. They’d seen the wards crumble through their windows. Widdershins was fully exposed now and open to anyone who wanted to enter. And, if I needed further proof that the wards were truly gone, I could see phone screens lighting up across campus as students called out to their parents in panic.