"Cast it," Tanaka said.

Jacob touched the knife blade to the red weal along his sweaty palm.

The three of them crouched over the carved symbol on the dormitory rooftop. The medallion dangled from Tanaka's hand. Camilla was breathing heavily. Jacob had called her while Tanaka and him had been flat out booking it from the cafeteria to Harrison Hall. She'd just arrived.

Jacob drew the knife harshly across his palm and hissed. At the same time, he released the Ritual Magic spell he'd built up and held. His blood trickled off his palm and into the carved symbol like liquid metal to a lodestone. The symbol glowed.

Jacob pulled himself away from the burning void and stood. He stumbled, but Camilla grabbed hold of his arm and steadied him

"Easy there."

Tanaka snatched the Ritual Magic in his deep indigo divination spell. The magic emanating from the transfer student surged and he poured it into the medallion, which writhed on its chain.

The medallion fell still.

Jacob took a breath in, eyes locked to the silver circle dangling on the end of its chain. Camilla's hands were still wrapped around his arm.

The medallion shot out, away from the three of them, towards the Richter Building.

"Yes!" Tanaka hissed. He took a couple steps forward, then to the side, checking the truth of the medallion's spell.

"How long can you hold the spell?" Camilla asked, releasing Jacob's arm.

"Twenty minutes or so," Tanaka said.

"No time to lose, then. Lead the way."

They ran to the stairs, thundered down them like hyper kids on Christmas morning, and ran out onto the quad in front of Harrison Hall. The medallion led Tanaka along like a runaway dog on a leash. They followed him, blazing past unsuspecting students out and about on their errands.

Jacob's heart thundered in his chest. It was working. What would they find at the end? Another body? The killer? Who would it be?

"We need to be ready to fight!" He called out to Camilla and Tanaka. It had all wound down to this. All their work, all their investigating, everything they'd risked sneaking around, breaking into places and performing illegal magic.

The medallion wanted them to go through the Vanderbilt Building, but instead they went around and onto the interior common flanked by it, the Richter, and the guest residences. The common was busy with students gathered to listen to President Russell address the school. A podium had been erected on the steps leading up to the Vanderbilt Building.

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They snaked through the throngs of students, no more than pylons in their way now. The medallion led them around the side of the Richter Building, into a relatively empty corner of campus.

Jacob's heart fluttered as they were led away from the Richter, towards the empty area.

"Close now!" Tanaka called back to them.

Jacob engaged his magic, as did Camilla.

They reached a patch of grass between two broad oaks and suddenly the medallion dropped down. Tanaka pulled to a halt. Camilla and Jacob braced themselves and peered around. Apart from the two oaks there were a handful of bushes in need of trimming, some tall wildflowers. Jacob could just see the top of the Richter Building not far away, a brick hulk on the grass. Faint conversation drifted to his ears. They weren't super far from well-trodden paths, but they weren't exactly in a secluded spot either.

He didn't see anyone hiding in the bushes, nor any symbols carved on the grass.

"See anything?" He asked.

"Nope," Camilla said.

Jacob risked a glance at Tanaka, who was moving side to side. "You sure it's here?"

"Yes, I'm sure!" Tanaka snapped. "Watch."

The transfer student took one long step to the left. The medallion tugged back right. He stepped back to his original spot and it fell dead. He repeated the ritual in every direction.

"It's here!" Tanaka kicked at the grass. "Right here!"

Jacob couldn't believe it. Wouldn't believe it.

"The spell worked," Tanaka said. "You both saw. Don't even say anything about the spell."

"They must have goofed us somehow," Jacob said. He ran a hand through his hair and went over and searched the bushes around them. Nothing. "Goddamnit. How could this have happened?"

"The spell's right," Tanaka said.

"It is," Camilla confirmed. "There's got to be something here."

"There's nothing here!" Jacob cried, exasperated.

"Nothing you can see," Camilla blinked her eyes for emphasis. "But there has to be something."

"What?"

She froze. "Try your magic. I think I sense something."

Jacob engaged his magic but he couldn't feel anything.

Whispers of Production emanated from Camilla.

"Yes!"

"What!" Jacob cried.

"There's something in the air here. It's not Ritual Magic. It's Decomp," Camilla's eyes had glazed over.

"Decomp?" Jacob asked.

"Tanaka, what does that feel like? It's indigo, pretty dark."

"I feel it," Tanaka said. "It feels like... Almost like divination, actually."

Jacob looked between them, totally lost.

"You're right. It's cutting into the magical barrier," Camilla said. "Here, I'm going to mirror it."

Indigo decomp flashed out from Camilla. It reached something in the air.

The air in front of them glowed. A blue-white gash opened up, widening, eating away at the air around it.

Camilla gasped.

"What is it? Is it a portal?" Jacob asked.

"It's a pocket dimension. I knew I recognized that magic from somewhere!" Camilla hissed. She stepped forward to the writhing portal hanging in the air.

"What are you doing?" Jacob asked.

She turned to him. "Don't you get it? The divination worked, but Brother Bondar was right: they're not casting the Ritual Magic on campus. They're casting it in another pocket dimension. The divination sensed it across the barrier. That's why it led us to 'nothing.'"

Jacob's eyes widened. Before either he or Camilla could move, Tanaka leapt at the portal. He disappeared into the blue-white surface in a bright flash.

"C'mon!" Camilla cried. She disappeared into the portal.

Jacob shook his head. Jumping right into the killer's lair? They should really have made a plan, or talked strategy.

Oh well.

He grinned, and leapt at the portal.