Blood Pledged (Arcane Arts Academy #3) - Elena Lawson Page 0,98

find Martin. He’ll help you find Marcus and get you home.”

She rushed to the door, turning back once her hand closed over the knob. “Be careful,” she told me. “He’s more dangerous than you understand.”

“Not as dangerous as I can be,” I replied, trying to reassure her.

“No. No one is as dangerous as you.” Then she left the room in a flurry of pink and silver and gold.

Beyond the portal against the wall beside where Elias stood was the portaling room in the academy, dark and ominous. And so, so quiet it was almost deafening.

I stalked through it first, followed closely by the four men I now trusted more than any others.

I only hoped we weren’t too late.

To be continued in Shadow Tainted, the fourth book in the Arcane Arts Academy series. Pre-order your copy now! And don’t forget to join my mailing list today to get exclusive sneak peeks and bonus content! Thanks so much for supporting this series. I hope you’re enjoying reading it as much as I’m enjoying writing it!

33

Harper

The academy was quieter than a graveyard at this time on a Saturday. Everyone had either gone home for the weekend or to my birthday party. We crept as a single unit through the hallways and down the south corridor to the library.

The librarian I’d grown accustomed to seeing in her tall chair behind the desk was also missing, and somehow the lack of her presence made the situation seem more dire, more serious, than I was considering it.

This was bad. We were alone here. There was no one else to come and help us. No Arcane Authorities—regardless of what little good they’d do—and no other students or professors. We had five of us five and that was it.

Five against one, though. I liked those odds. I just had to pray to whatever gods could be listening that Donovan was down there, somewhere beneath our feet, alone.

I led the charge to the back of the library as Bianca instructed, through stacks and more stacks of books, past the little study area and through the last two maze-like rows of bookcases until we reached the back wall.

Where is it?

“There,” Draven said, pointing out the busk atop the pedestal. The carving of the man’s head portraying an expression that said he was right pissed off. “This is close to where I followed the blood trail that night.”

Yeah, that had to be it, then.

I laid my hands against the rough stucco of the cream-colored wall and closing my eyes felt the hum of power from within.

Elias laid his hands against it, too.

“Can you feel that?” I asked him.

This is definitely the spot.

But Elias’ expression darkened. “No. I can’t feel it. Most people can’t feel magical presence like you can.” He stepped back and raised his hands and I could feel his magic rising through him as its divine conductor like a shockwave of power blasting from his core.

How could he not feel that? I thought everyone could feel it.

“Abscondito revelare!” As soon as he spoke the incantation, a section of the wall pressed in on itself, vanishing to reveal a darkened stairwell and a smell like rusted metal and wet dirt.

The tang of it wrinkled my nose.

“Blood,” Draven whispered, confirming my suspicion, his fangs sliding free of his gums.

I placed a hand on his chest. “You can wait here if you need to.” Control or not, I didn’t want to put him in an uncomfortable situation. “Keep watch.”

He raised an eyebrow and the edge of a grin pulled up the corner of my lips. I didn’t know why I thought for even a second he would stay behind. “Don’t think so,” he said with a smirk. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

Elias took the lead, stepping into the dark. I followed behind him, and the other three filed in after me. We descended the staircase as silently as we could, listening for any sound that could be human. The stairs wound down into the bowels of the academy, and the stink only grew stronger, the air colder the further we went. I was not dressed appropriately for this.

And my five-inch heels were slipping all over the slick stone steps.

“Here,” Adrian said from behind, stopping me and pressing me flat against the wall. He knelt and deftly undid the straps on my heels and removed them, discarding them on a step back the way we’d come. When my bare feet met the wet, icy stones, I winced. The cold felt