Kane's Fate 3 Chapter 2

I woke up with my chest heaving as my lungs worked overtime to catch my breath.

The adrenaline of the dreamscape fight with the stranger still coursed through my veins, and my skin felt hot and prickly as the blood rushed around my body at full speed. I took a deep shuddering breath and heaved myself up into a sitting position, and then I ran my hands through my hair.

But I immediately regretted my decision when something hot and sticky smeared across my face.

I whipped my hands down from my head and stared at my fingertips, and I saw they glistened with something that looked like tar in the darkness. I staggered out of bed and over to the bathroom where I hastily grappled with the lightswitch.

Then I blinked against the sudden burst of fluorescents and found my hands covered in hot red blood.

“Holy shit…” I whispered and quickly turned the faucet on to start washing my hands.

Ms. Smith had explained to me how if I killed the stranger in my dreamscape then he would be left with the death scar in real life, and judging by the foamy red water that filled my bathroom sink, I guess that rule extended to serious injuries, too.

As cool as it was being a shifter, and the first white tiger shifter in centuries, my secondary abilities had also come in super handy. Even the fact I possessed multiple secondaries was unheard of, and they were freaking cool.

Victory deflection had its obvious uses, and I smirked to myself as the water in the sink finally started to run clear. This was the second time it saved me, the first being when Seth Weaver tried to beat me during the Bellator, but I also possessed the ability to manipulate light itself, which was just badass all on its own.

After a few minutes my hands were finally clean, and I stifled a yawn as I stretched my arms above my head. I possessed superior healing abilities too, but I still damn well felt like I’d been in a fight and then ended up getting a miniscule amount of decent sleep thanks to it.

I decided I would sneak out for a couple hours to workout in the secret garden training facility, just to burn off some of the residual energy I had from my dream fight. Despite the fact it was the middle of the night, I was way too amped up still to even attempt to sleep, so I got dressed and left my room.

Then I checked on Madison and Demi because my fera felt antsy and wanted to check on our mates and potential mates. Demi’s room was just down the hall from mine, and Madison had decided to crash with her last night after too many fruity ales, so I only needed to make one stop.

I silently crept down the corridor and poked my head into Demi’s room, where a soft golden glow shone from the Himalayan salt lamp my shifter girlfriend refused to ever turn off, and even though the room was still pretty dark, I could see there was something else that didn’t look altogether human in the bed with them.

“What the fuck?” I whispered to myself as I hurriedly clicked my cell phone’s flashlight app. Then I shone the white light over the end of the bed and recoiled when I saw a mound of butter-yellow scales.

Madison had half-shifted. From the waist down, she’d taken the form of her huge yellow python fera, and I noticed her tail was starting to curl around Demi’s ankles.

“Hey,” I hissed as I gently shook Madison awake.

“Huh?” the blonde muttered as she squinted against the harsh light of my phone flashlight. “Kane? What’s going on?”

“You’ve shifted,” I whispered, and Madison’s blue eyes shot open.

“Oh!” she gasped in shock and immediately shifted back to her full human form as she scrambled away from Demi.

“You’d better be waking us up for something good, Kane…” Demi muttered sleepily into her pillow, and I chuckled.

“Go back to sleep, babe.” I pushed a dishevelled corn-row away from Demi’s face, and she smiled sleepily as unconsciousness took hold of her again. Then I turned back to the other shifter. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t feel so good…” Madison whispered, and she yawned widely as she rubbed at her eyes.

Even without the flashlight on my phone, I could see the length of her tongue as her mouth opened. It was about three times the size and forked, too.

“Uhm, you’re still kinda snakey looking there,” I said to her gently.

Madison went to lick her lips and froze at the feel of the snake tongue inside her mouth.

“Oh my god…” she murmured in confusion. “What the hell is happening to me right now, am I still drunk?”

“Probably,” I chuckled quietly. “Go back to sleep okay? I’m sorry for waking you both.”

“Thank you for checking on us, Kane…” Madison mumbled sleepily, and I smiled to myself as the blonde fell into unconsciousness again.

Then I snuck back out of Demi’s room and out of the shifter dorms. The night was cool and still, with only a light breeze that rustled through the trees and a couple of wispy clouds that slowly wandered across the surface of an almost full moon.

I jogged over to where I had found the secret garden on the opposite side of the quad, gave a quick glance around me on all sides to make sure no one was watching, and ducked inside.

Then I spent a good couple hours running full pelt and flinging orbs of light around the training facility before I started to feel the adrenaline of the dream fight wear off, and when I next glanced at my phone, I realized it was probably sunrise.

Coffee was needed today, for sure.

I walked past the teacher’s dorms and through the quad, where the sun had started to stain the wispy clouds a light shade of pinky gold. My cell phone buzzed in my pocket as I made it back to the shifter dormitories on the other side of the quad, and I quickly pulled it out of my pocket in confusion.

Who the hell was texting me at this time of the morning?

Hey, do you feel weird this morning? Raven had messaged me.

No, but I’m guessing you do? I’m coming to make sure you’re alright. I sent her a quick reply and double backed on myself as I headed toward the charmer dorms.

How come you’re awake? she immediately sent back, but I decided to save the reply since I was going to see her in person in just a minute.

I slipped into the charmer dormitories and tiptoed my way over to Raven’s bedroom, and I heard a suspicious sounding moan through the door before I’d even knocked.

Then I pushed the door open quietly and saw Raven sitting on the side of her bed with her head between her legs, and she let out another pained groan as she peeped one eye over her knee by way of greeting.

“Raven?” I whispered and rushed over to her. “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t control it,” the dark-haired charmer moaned. “It’s making me so tired.”

“What can’t you control?” I muttered and pushed her dark hair away from her face.

She pointed to her desk where her lamp was continuously flickering on and off.

“You’re doing that?” I asked with a frown, and she just groaned again. “You can’t control your charms?”

“It’s been like this for an hour…” she mumbled with her face still pressed into the side of her knee. “It’s giving me such a headache.”

I walked over to the desk and quickly unscrewed the light bulb from the lamp, and then I climbed onto her chair and did the same with the overhead light.

“Oh, that’s better,” Raven sighed heavily and curled back up on her bed. “I need a nap.”

“Madison was having trouble with her shifting,” I told Raven as she buried herself beneath her comforter. “I thought it was just… I don’t know, maybe a hangover symptom.”

“I’ve never lost control of my magic before,” Raven sighed sleepily from inside her blanket burrito. “Even with a raging hangover. This is different.”

“I’ll talk to Canmore about it,” I assured the charmer. “Get some rest, okay?”

“Thanks, Kane…” Raven yawned and buried herself further into her pillow as I snuck back out of her room and softly shut the door.

Dean Canmore had mentioned other students with weird magical symptoms last night, but I had just put it down to alcohol-induced chaos after the heavy graduation celebrations. But maybe there was more to it, and I made a mental note to talk to the dean after I’d showered and found something caffeinated.

I jogged across the quad and back into the shifter dorms, and then I hastily ripped my sweaty workout clothes off and hurled them into my laundry hamper on my way to the bathroom. I quickly showered and then pulled a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved dark gray shirt on, and I shoved my feet into my sneakers before Iquickly made my way to the Medius to find my friends.

I entered the cafeteria and found Indira and Demi sitting with Dax, Auden, and Charlotte as they ate pancakes and talked in hushed tones.

“Hey guys,” I sighed as I took a seat next to Charlotte, and she slid a mountain of pancakes over to me with a smile. “Madison and Raven aren’t feeling too good, so I’ve left them to sleep it off.”

“The pusher dorm is going crazy right now,” Auden yawned around a huge bite of pancake. “We had shit flying around all last night, I hardly got any sleep. Something’s messing with people’s magic.”

“I had hoped that wasn’t gonna be the case,” I said in a grim tone. “Canmore mentioned something about people not being able to control their powers last night.”

“That’s what got me thinking, too.” Indira sighed heavily. “I’ve never heard of anything like this before.”

“We’re still headed for the library, right?” Dax asked me before he took a long sip of coffee. “We need to research the asteroids anyway, but we can have a look to see if something like this has happened before.”

“Two birds, one stone,” I agreed. “Good thinking, Dax.”

“Charlotte, Demi, I feel like we should go check on the girls.” Indira turned to the other women with a sigh. “I don’t want them to feel all alone.”

“I think they’d like that,” Charlotte replied with a smile, and Demi nodded eagerly.

“But what if you guys get sick, too?” I quickly chimed in as my three girlfriends stood up. “We don’t know how this thing spreads or its lasting effects or… well, anything about it at all.”

“We’ll be fine, Kane.” Indira smiled gently as her gray-eyed gaze locked with mine. “Although, it’s nice to be worried about.”

“It’s my job to look after you all…” I muttered as I looked into Indira’s gorgeous eyes. “I want to make sure you’re all okay.”

“We’ll be alright.” Charlotte told me as she walked over to me and wound her arms around my shoulders, and she pressed a quick kiss to my temple while I instinctively brought my hand up to run my fingers along her arm.

“Text me if you need anything, okay?” I told them sternly, and they giggled at my worry.

“It’ll be fine, Kane.” Demi playfully mussed my hair up and brought her own plump lips down to mine for a quick kiss as the three of them left our breakfast table. “Message me soon as you find anything in the library.”

The girls said their goodbyes and headed back to the dorm, and I grabbed a couple coffees in to-go cups for me, Auden, and Dax as we made our way to the library.

The magical world was much like the human world when it came to research, in the sense that no one bothered with a library and hard copies and actual books any more when the wonder of Google existed. But we were looking for something specific, and ancient at that, plus our extensive internet searches had come up with a big fat nothing so far.

The three of us spent the next couple hours curved over dusty old books and manuscripts trying to piece together the origin of the weird inscriptions that covered the fallen asteroids.

They didn’t look anything like the classic Latin alphabet, and there was hardly any similarity between the markings and ancient Greek, nor Egyptian hieroglyphics. There were some that looked vaguely like Nordic runes, or maybe letters from the Hebrew alphabet, but nothing translatable, only very slight similarities.

I rubbed at the back of my neck with a grimace and sipped the last bit of my almost cold coffee as I turned the page of what felt like the thousandth book I’d opened.

“God, it feels like my eyeballs are gonna fall out…” Auden muttered and laid his forehead against the worn leather cover of an incredibly old leather-bound journal.

“Have you guys found anything yet?” I asked through a stifled yawn, but Auden shook his head with his shoulders still hunched over the desk.

“I think I might just have…” Dax mumbled with his brow furrowed. “Check this out.”

“No kidding?” I asked and excitedly jumped out of my chair so I could peer over his shoulder. “You’ve found a translation?”

“Sadly, no.” Dax sighed in frustration. “But that’s definitely the same runes, right?”

“Yeah, one hundred percent.” I nodded at where Dax had pointed to the runes marked in old black ink on the page. “They’re the exact same markings that were on the asteroids, for sure.”

“Let me take a look--” Auden eagerly reached out for the text in front of Dax but was cut off when the leather-bound book flew off the desk and smacked him square in the face.

“What the hell?” Dax yelled in shock and shoved himself away from the desk. “Dude, are you okay?”

“Uuuugh, that’s gonna be a black eye…” Auden groaned as he rubbed his face. “Where’d that book go, we can’t lose it.”

“I’ll get it,” Dax said as he stood and made his way over to where the book had fallen.

“Auden, what’s up?” I asked my best friend with a concerned frown, and he shrugged theatrically.

“I’m okay, just overshot the push with the book, I guess.” The pierced guy forced out a chuckle. “Honestly, guys, I’m fine. Although I could do with something cold on my face, is it lunchtime yet?”

“Shit, yeah I guess it is,” I laughed as I glanced down at my phone. “It’s already past one, come on let’s get something to eat.”

The three of us left the otherwise empty library and made our way back across the quad to the canteen, where they were serving huge mountains of pasta in tomato and cheese sauce, so we loaded up our plates and then sat at a table in the corner. Auden went to the vending machine to grab a soda, mostly so he could put the cold metal of the can against his bruised eye socket, and Dax pulled out the leather-bound book again as I hungrily tucked into my food.

“I think we’re gonna need a codex…” Dax muttered around a huge mouthful of pasta, and he chewed thoughtfully as he studied the page. “These runes match the markings on the asteroids, but there’s no way to translate them.”

“A codex?” I asked around my own bite of tomato pasta.

“Yeah, it’ll be like an ancient manuscript, like a map made out of words.” Dax nodded, and I snickered at his immediate explanation. “What? I like Assassin’s Creed, okay, I know a thing or two about finding a codex.”

“So, how do we find the codex for this language?” Auden wondered as he returned with the soda pressed to his eye. “It’s obviously not in the library, we scoured every damn book in there.”

“We don’t even know what the language is called,” I reminded them both. “A name would probably help, and a name would give us a location.”

“Okay, Steve Jobs is up to bat.” Auden put his can of soda down and pulled out his cell phone. “I got an app that might work.”

“On an ancient language that’s been carved onto fallen asteroids?” I laughed.

“Don’t underestimate the all-seeing eye of Apple,” Auden replied with a smirk as he held the camera of his cell phone over the pages of the book. “Well, it’s got something.”

“Wait, for real?” I let out a huge laugh this time when Auden’s phone dinged happily. “There’s no freakin’ way.”

“Well, no, not really,” Auden admitted with a sigh. “But if the app can’t translate it for real, it will pull up similar languages. This looks like a language called ‘Faromal’”.

“Never heard of it,” Dax frowned.

“Doesn’t surprise me,” I replied as I took Auden’s phone to read what the app said. “It’s an ancient Norse language, dead for centuries apparently. Older than Latin, even.”

“Well, we’re in a better position now than we were this morning, at least.” Auden tried to take his phone back as I handed it to him, but suddenly the device pinged across the cafeteria and skidded to a stop beneath the chairs of a group of naturalists. “Shit, sorry guys!”

Auden started to stand so he could go and grab his cell, but as he did so, the entire table took off at high speed and ended up crashing into the wall.

“I hadn’t finished my pasta…” Dax muttered as he sat there with his fork half raised in the air.

“Wow, I really don’t feel great.” Auden laughed quietly but the sound had zero humor in it. “I think I need to go and chill out, my brain is fried.”

“You’re sure you’re okay?” I asked my friend in a concerned tone.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” Auden ran a hand over the shaved side of his head and huffed. “I think I just need to sleep it off, I feel really weird.”

“Okay, I’ll see how the girls are doing and let you know if we find anything,” I said, and Auden nodded as he hurried over to the naturalists to retrieve his cell phone and left the cafeteria.

Then I pulled out my own cell and quickly sent a text to Indira.

Think Auden’s magic is messed up, too, I told her. How are Madison and Raven?

Not great, Indira replied immediately. Charlotte and Demi are fine though. Where are you?

Cafeteria with Dax. I’ll meet you guys back at the dorms?

“Come on,” I said to Dax as I grabbed my tray from the table that Auden had shoved against the wall. “We’re gonna meet the girls back at the dorms.”

I walked across the quad with the tattooed charmer, and I sensed the first tingling of worry buzzing around the base of my neck as we passed the huge marble fountain and headed for the shifter dormitories. I felt completely in control of my powers, but now Auden, Raven, and Madison had all become affected. I started to wonder how quickly this thing spread, or whether it was even contagious, and the tingling had turned into a full blown headache by the time I flopped down onto the couch in the shifter common room.

“Hey, you.” Indira settled in beside me and pushed my hair away from my face with a gentle touch. “You okay?”

“Just kinda worried, I guess.” I let out a long sigh. “I wanna look after everyone.”

“You’re one guy.” Demi smiled as she perched on the back of the couch behind me. “We wanna look after you, too.”

“So, what did you guys find?” Charlotte asked as she curled up on the couch beside me and Indira.

“We think the name of the language is Faromal, but it’s ancient, and we can’t translate it without a codex,” Dax rattled the information off. “I would think it most likely originates from somewhere in Northern Europe, if the markings are similar to an ancient Nordic language.”

“Ooooh, Vikings then?” Indira asked with her gray eyes glinting. “Interesting development.”

“Oh, really?” I asked her with a raised eyebrow and a heavy smirk. “Pushes your buttons, does it?”

“Hey, the Viking women were hot,” Demi said and flicked a cornrow over one shoulder. “Just saying.”

We spent the rest of the afternoon objectively discussing how hot the Vikings were, but by the next day, we’d gotten no further in finding a codex for the ancient Faromal language. Even worse, Auden was apparently feeling just as bad as Raven and Madison still, and now Dax possessed almost zero control over his powers, too.

Dude, I’m a mess, Dax texted me. I can’t control shit right now, I keep making these little purple bubbles appear out of nowhere.

He sent me a picture of his desk covered in sticky purple goo, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

Just take it easy, I replied to the tattooed charmer. Indira said even the medical staff can’t work out what’s going on. It’s not an actual sickness apparently, but everyone’s powers are on the fritz.

I think I have an idea, Dax messaged me. Come to my room. Bring your girlfriends.

“Dax has a plan, apparently,” I told the girls as they filed out of my room and into the common area. “He asked if we could go to his room.”

“Sounds suspect,” Charlotte giggled, and Demi waggled her eyebrows at the comment.

“He’s a talented charmer,” Indira pointed out with a smile. “Let’s go find out what his plan is.”

I walked with my girlfriends out of the shifter dorms and then over the quad and past the cafeteria in order to get to the charmer rooms.

It was pretty bad for naturalists who kept starting fires, or shifters partially transfiguring themselves, but the charmers had it the worst. They had a wealth of different spells and hexes at their fingertips and when I walked through the door into the common room with Indira, Demi, and Charlotte, it looked like a damn tornado had passed through.

One of the couches had been cut clean in half with what looked like laser precision, the coffee machine on the kitchen counter was singing the national anthem on a loop in a Dolly Parton voice, and a thunder cloud haunted one corner of the common area throwing tiny little sparks of lightning out at anyone that dared come close.

“Geez…” Charlotte muttered and instinctively pushed herself closer to me as we took in the crazy scene.

“Come on, let’s find Dax,” I told the three of them, and we left the common room to go and find our charmer friend.

When I tentatively pushed the door to his bedroom open, Dax was splayed out on his bed like a starfish with a pillow covering his face.

“Is that Kane?” he mumbled through the material.

“Hey, buddy,” I chuckled. “How are you feeling?”

“Don’t touch the desk,” Dax groaned as he lifted the pillow away from his face. “It’s almost sentient at this point.”

I glanced around the door at his desk and grimaced at the amount of purple goo that was oozing across the surface and down the wooden legs.

“You really have no control over your powers?” Indira asked with a concerned frown, and as if on cue, Dax’s hands were suddenly covered in a bright white light, like illuminated gloves.

“Nope,” he sighed as he blinked against the sudden brightness coming from his fingertips. “It’s like my brain is confused.”

Dax pulled himself into a sitting position against his pillows with another groan, and then he rubbed his hands together like a cartoon villain in an attempt to diffuse whatever the source of the light was. They flickered and dimmed a little but didn’t go out, and he huffed.

“None of you guys are affected?” Dax asked as he studied me and my three girlfriends reproachfully. “Your powers are all working normally?”

“Yeah, but it feels like it’s just us at this rate,” I told my friend. “I don’t know why, but it’s like we’re immune to whatever is affecting the school.”

“Well, that’s a good thing, actually,” Dax sighed as he rubbed his temples. “We need to diagnose this thing, and I had a potion in mind, but I’ll need some supplies.”

“Okay, we can handle that,” Demi said with a smile. “You want us to bring you anything?”

“Nah, just the ingredients for the potion,” Dax said. “I’ll text Kane a list. Most of it you’ll be able to find in Victoria’s store cupboard, or the cafeteria, but if not there’s the supply shop in town.”

“Okay, stay put and try not to blow the place up,” I told him, and Dax rolled his eyes and didn’t answer as the four of us left him to sulk in bed.

“Jesus, how long is this list?” I murmured as I read the text Dax had sent me. “I’ve seen my parents mix up some weird stuff, but this is by far the weirdest. We need to find a dried cat spleen, for god sake.”

“Gross.” Demi shuddered. “I know charmers need to use whatever natural ingredients they can find, but just the whole… animal parts thing. It freaks me out.”

“Yeah, that’s understandable,” I laughed. “But good news, no lizard parts on the list.”

“Thank god.” The Komodo dragon shifter whistled.

“I think we should maybe split up,” Indira said as she took my phone from me to inspect the list. “Me and Demi can hunt down the spices and herbs and stuff from the cafeteria, if you and Charlotte want to head into town?”

“Sounds like a plan.” I smiled at my gray-eyed shifter girlfriend. “Meet back at Dax’s in about an hour?”

“Miss you already.” Demi blew a kiss over her shoulder as I wound my hand through Charlotte’s and headed toward the main gates.

Linsville was only a short walk from the Meloria campus, and Charlotte and I walked hand in hand toward the little seaside town as the sun started to hang a little lower in the sky.

I half-expected a ghost town, but the humans seemed unaffected by the magical maladies we’d experienced at Meloria. It was kinda good news and bad news at the same time.

On the one hand, at least it was only affecting magical people. On the other hand, shit, it was affecting only magical people.

I walked down Main Street with Charlotte until we came across a tiny little shop with a creaky wooden sign that swung gently in the breeze coming off the ocean. It was called ‘The Herb House,’ and a little bell jingled merrily above our heads as we pushed the door open.

It was dimly lit inside, and the incense that burned in metal sconces made the air heavy and sweet. Wreaths of different dried herbs hung from the rafters, and the glass cases on the shop floor were full of weird little jars of tonics and ointments and other ridiculous looking ingredients.

Ridiculous looking to regular humans at least. To us, this just looked like an extension of the charmer professor’s store room.

“Hello?” Charlotte called out quietly to the empty room, and we heard a load of beads rustle as a stout old lady peered around the counter from the back room.

“Who’s that?” The gray-haired lady squinted at us through tiny little wire-framed glasses, and I raised a hand in greeting.

“We’re uhh… From the school.” I definitely hedged my bets with that explanation, and the old shop owner just nodded with a huff.

“I haven’t had much business in the past couple of days,” the gray-haired lady explained as she pushed past the bead curtain and settled herself on a stool behind the counter. “Though I’m surprised to see you, aren’t you sick, too?”

“Uhh… how’d you know about that?” Charlotte asked in surprise.

The shop owner waved a hand in dismissal. “I’ve been here for years lovey. Guess your lot don’t mind when humans know about you, but only when I can get you all the stuff you need.”

The grumpy old lady rolled her eyes at our dumbfounded expressions.

“You’re not… Magical?” I asked her in surprise.

“Nope, and lucky too since all you witches and wizards are sick, right?” The old lady hummed at our wary expressions and nodded. “My supplier in the city said he can’t do anything with this thing going around. What do you kids need?”

I reeled off the ingredients on Dax’s list, and the shop owner raised her bushy eyebrows at a few of the requests, but we eventually ended up with a brown paper bag with everything we needed.

“Thanks so much for all your help.” Charlotte smiled warmly at the shop owner, and the old lady nodded with a huff and toddled back through her beaded curtain without giving us a second glance.

“She was… Something.” Charlotte let out a little laugh.

“She said her supplier couldn’t send her anything with this going on,” I said to my red-headed girlfriend as we made our way back to Meloria. “That means it isn’t just the school, it’s the wider magical community.”

“That… doesn’t sound good.” Charlotte sighed and wound her arm through mine. “What are we gonna do?”

“Hopefully, this potion does the trick.” I held the bag of supplies up as we headed back toward the charmer dormitories. “But it’s starting to sound like a magical plague.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too,” Charlotte murmured and stared at the ground as we walked.

The campus was like a ghost town. There were normally several groups of people wandering across the quad or practising their abilities in the late afternoon, but Charlotte and I were the only ones out of their dorms.

Indira and Demi were sitting cross-legged on Dax’s floor when we arrived, and I gave the bag of ingredients to the tattooed charmer as we all sat in a circle beside his bed.

The desk was still covered in purple goo.

“The owner of ‘The Herb House’ said her supplier in the city couldn’t get to her because of this bug going around,” I told Dax as he started to pull the ingredients out of the paper bag. “That means this thing isn’t just affecting the school.”

“It’s the whole magical community?” Indira asked with a concerned frown that made her nose scrunch up. “Not the humans?”

“Just us, apparently,” I replied. “But if it’s only affecting us, not the humans, the source has to be magical, too. Right?”

“That would make sense.” Indira nodded.

But it didn’t bode well for us. If the source was magical, that meant it was most likely purposeful, which brought the Atroba to mind.

That was a worse-case scenario, though. There was still a possibility this affliction was an accident. Maybe one of the first year charmers fucked up a spell and didn’t realize it or was to embarassed to come forward.

“Let’s get this show on the road, then,” Dax huffed and drew me from my thoughts. “The sooner we figure this out, the better. Kane, you need to be my hands.”

“Hey, I’m a shifter, not a charmer,” I said. “I have no idea what to do here.”

“I don’t wanna touch anything I don’t have to,” Dax shot back. “In case I mess it up. Just do as I tell you, okay?”

I followed Dax’s instructions to the letter, and after about five minutes, I had a weird foamy concoction sticking to the sides of the mortar bowl.

“Okay, sprinkle in the dried oregano and cardamom seeds together, but crush them up as finely as you can get them,” Dax said. “Yeah, like that. Twist the pestle anti-clockwise, you’ll get a better grind.”

I did as told and watched the foamy liquid turn a forget-me-not blue, and as the herbs were integrated, the thick liquid stopped fizzing and became smooth and creamy.

“This is cool,” I laughed as I continued to stir. “What’s next?”

“Keep stirring counter-clockwise,” Dax told me sternly, and he stuck his hands out so his fingers hovered over the blue potion and then cleared his throat before he started to chant in a low voice. “Lingua scientia, per magicae. Lingua scientia, per magicae. Lingua sci… There!”

The pale blue liquid suddenly shone and became almost neon in the stone bowl, and Dax eagerly grabbed it out of my hands, swirled it once, and poured it straight onto the cream carpet.

The blue neon potion burned almost white before it ate into the material of the carpet, and we watched in awe as the liquid left a bunch of symbols permanently burned into the floor.

“What does it say?” Demi asked.

“Get that app up on your phone,” Dax said to me eagerly. “The translation one that Auden used earlier.”

I flicked through my phone and held the camera over the weird markings. Then I pressed the button to take a screenshot.

“Well… This definitely isn’t good.” I sighed.

Through the translation app, the markings on Dax’s carpet were all too clear.

Plague.