Phoenix Academy - Lucy Auburn Page 0,18

stand back up again to peer through the ashes and smoke, there's no sign of Dani.

Just a hole in the ground where she used to be.

My heart plummets, and it's all I can do not to give into despair. We have to keep trying. There must be a way out.

The sooner we find it, the better.

As Dani's appearance made clear, time is passing in the outside world. Things are changing, and there are unknown dangers. I can't keep running into problems—I have to decisively lead.

There's one way to do that, and one way only: with magic.

"Stand back," I tell the guys. "I'm going to perform a spell to get us out of here."

Chapter 6

I may not know much mage magic, but I know a little, most of it from Auerbach. Not all of it because he taught me. I wouldn't be the first witch to peer over a mage's shoulders and memorize runes from forbidden texts.

It's their fault we're so sneaky.

We wouldn't have to be if they didn't horde knowledge like a dragon hordes gold.

"I think there's a rune that can help us get out of here," I tell the guys, as we watch the hedges Dani just burned down regrow and form a wall. "Something powerful enough to guide my magic path towards another door out. Because there has to be one, especially if Dani is here."

"Unless she died and went to Hell," Reggie quips. I glare at him, and he shrugs. "What? It's possible. Trust me when I say that girl has a reputation around the academy."

Xavier points out, "As true as that is, she was here physically. And not being tortured in the inner rings of Hell. She must have come here for something, or because of the demons that Ari let loose—I mean, that... escaped all on their own."

I sigh. "No, it's true. I'm the reason why those demons were loosed into the world. I just hope Auerbach has managed to protect the campus from them, and that Dani being here isn't a sign that things are worse than we fear."

"Did her hair seem different?" David's sudden non-sequitur makes me frown in his direction. "I remember it being black. But now suddenly it's pink at the tips. Kind of makes me wonder how much time has passed. If we don't get out now, we'll wind up escaping in the year 2020, and I have the feeling that'll be a shitty year."

I shudder. "Let's just get out now and face the world as it is. You guys ready? We'll need to stay close and move fast for this—the rune will pull us along in its wake."

As the guys move closer together and gather behind me, Reggie grumbles, "It would be easier to stand shoulder-to-shoulder if David weren't wearing that awful cologne."

"Your mother gave it to me as a Christmas gift last year."

Xavier sniffs the air. "You never wear cologne. When did you put it on?"

"Concentrate," I tell them, ignoring how heat flares inside me at their nearness.

I can feel their warmth, their height, every breath that leaves their lips and skims the back of my neck. David puts a hand on my right shoulder, Reggie on my left, while Xavier stands behind both of them and peers between their heads. As their fingers dig into my skin I feel like I might explode.

Escape. The sooner the better. This is Hell in more ways than one.

The rune is a twisty thing. Letting magic pool in my palms, I summon my blue fire and lift my finger up into the air. I'll only have a few seconds to draw its shape before the fire starts to go out. Even one tiny little mistake could alter the meaning of the rune, causing my feral magic to do something unexpected.

I bite my lower lip as I concentrate on the swirling shape. My finger moves fast in the air. The rune hangs for a moment, and with all my mind, I think about escape and what it means to me.

My mother's laugh, how she guffawed and inhaled like a hyena.

The way Lizzy's blonde hair gleamed in the sun.

Our peaceful cottage in the woods of Vermont, where we stayed for only a short while, the sound of a stream trickling through the backyard greeting me every morning.

Escape. It's a fist that clenches my heart. A world I can't truly go back to. I can't seem to stop looking over my shoulder in the hope that one day it'll all reappear.

In front of me,