Time passed, but how much I couldn’t have guessed. Amber laid on top of me, out of it and eyes closed tightly. The only thing that stilled the growing fear inside me was her breathing. It was soft, and each breath was farther apart than I was comfortable with, but they were there.

I lifted her off, and that was when I felt the cold wetness across her back. Slipping from beneath her, I placed her on the ground and felt my stomach sink at the sight. Her back was studded with shards of ice that were embedded in her skin. They were melting with her body heat and the resulting water mixed with her blood as it traveled down her sides.

The sound of heavy, struggling breathing reached me and it didn’t come from Amber. I turned to find that even more of the cliff top had been turned to ice. There wasn’t a thing standing for a good hundred yards. The hilgar laid near where I had thrown the canister, its top half missing and its insides frozen solid in a gruesome sculpture.

Brandi was on her knees a few feet away, specks of ice covering her as she held her right arm. The sound of crackling ice came from around her as little vines of ice crawled upward.

“Fuuck…” Amber moaned beside me.

“Don’t move, you’re hurt pretty bad,” I said and placed a hand to her shoulder. She hissed through her teeth. “I’m going to heal what I can.”

“Gods damn it all. Is that bastard of a beast dead at least?” She gripped a piece of ice on the ground as my first healing spell went to work and mended the cuts. It did a poor job of it as it left behind large, flat scars.

“It’s dead, yeah,” I said and glanced to Brandi. She still hadn’t moved, and the new ice dome was almost a foot high around her. “Something is going on with Brandi.”

“What?” She tried to sit up, but the pain kept her to only turning a little.

“I’m going to finish healing you and then go check on her.” Her wounds were still closing to scars even when using a different spell. It made little sense when everything else had healed cleanly before.

“Then tell me what’s happening with her while you do.”

The ice around Brandi kept growing, but would break off and then grow again. This continued and created little piles of ice around her. Her face took on a pained expression each time the ice broke, as if she were forcing it to.

“She’s still struggling with the ice,” I mumbled as I still wasn’t sure what to make of it. Amber froze and then forced herself up and around with a cry of pain.

“Shit,” she said when she faced Brandi. “Shit-shit-shit-shit — go to her! Forget about me and go!” She shoved me and then forced herself to her feet. “This is… shit!””

I took hold of her before she tipped over, but she continued on and kept pushing me forward.

“Take it easy,” I said as we reached Brandi. She looked up to us, fear in her eyes. I’d never seen such terror before in a person. My heart dropped into my stomach and I fell to my knees in front of her. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and I wiped them away.

“I can’t—can’t stop it. It k-keeps going — trying to grow again. I don’t know if I can keep it back much longer.”

Amber grunted as she dropped to her knees beside me. She looked at Brandi for a long moment and then sighed. “She’s siphoning.”

My mind instantly shot back to what Mr. Rentle said. It was the same as when a mage over used their magic with a witch. It was something that could kill her.

“How do we stop it?” I asked and looked to Amber who just shook her head. My stomach swallowed my heart.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen it before and I don’t understand why it would happen now.”

“Because we juiced up her mimic, I bet,” I said

“What?”

“Later.” I moved and placed my hands on Brandi’s arms. She looked up with bloodshot, pleading eyes. “What does it feel like?”

“Like…” She swallowed hard and her tongue clicked when she opened her mouth. “Like everything is being pulled out of me. I can’t stop it. I’m trying Aidan, but I can’t. It’s going to kill me.” She whispered the last part and the pained face returned. I looked back and found the dome was halfway over us, building up even while large chunks broke away.

“Okay. Okay, hey, keep your eyes on me. Look at me, Brandi.” I lifted her chin and her eyes searched over my face. “You’re stuck with me, so don’t think I’m going to let something as dumb as this take you away. You understand? You’re mine. You’re bonded with me.”

She nodded slowly, more tears leaving tracks down her cheeks. “I can’t stop it.”

“Maybe not, but we can, right? You have more magic being drained from you than you can handle. But we can stop it.” I looked over to Amber who nodded her head and took one of Brandi’s hands.

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“How?” She asked and looked between us. There was hope in her eyes now and I just prayed what I felt was real.

“I can feel the leak.” It was like a hiss of air from a hose or a valve that didn’t fully shut. I struggled to sort through everything in the mental link, but after a minute I found the source.

A strange mental image came to me and my thought of a valve open wasn’t too far off. The valve was in the middle of a vein of magic that wound through her. I mentally reached out and squeezed the vein where the colored spray of magic spewed from. Brandi tensed up and her breath hissed through her teeth.

“What are you doing?” Her voice echoed around me. “It hurts.”

“Just bare with me a little longer.” I closed the leaky valve, and she screamed. Her voice was sharp, like a knife through my head and ears. I almost stopped, but there wasn’t a bit of doubt that this would resolve the problem.

The spray of magic stopped, and I pulled back from her both mentally and physically. She dropped forward, completely unconscious. Amber caught her before she landed face first.

“What did you do?” Amber asked, her eyes wide and searching, I just shook my head. She laid Brandi down onto the ground and grabbed my arms. “I could feel you moving between our mental link. I don’t know how, but you did.”

“Me either. Maybe it’s the same as strong emotions traveling between us.”

Her eyes got even wider, which I hadn’t thought possible. “Is that what I’ve been feeling? I knew something was off since we bonded. Aidan, that isn’t normal.”

“What?”

“Emotions shouldn’t be able to transfer between those that bonded. Only the thoughts of the person when directed at others. The BD should filter anything else out.”

I looked back at Brandi and watched her shoulders rise and fall with each heavy breath. “It’s always been like that between the two of us. I don’t know what to say, but we need to get her to a doctor or something. Same for you.”

Amber shook her head. “I’m fine, your magic healed me just fine.”

“But the scars—”

“What? You think these are the first scars I’ve got? You paid little attention back at the house. Besides,” she reached down and smoothed Brandi’s pink-blonde hair, “girls and guys like scars.”

From the trees we heard what sounded like something large and dangerous breaking through the trees. Fear traveled through me as I got to my feet. We wouldn’t be able to take on anything in the state we were in. I stepped forward and waited while trying to think of some plan.

The bushes and branches rustled as a group of eight or nine students stepped out, witches in front with mages behind them. They all looked ready to attack in an instant, but they found only me and the girls. A look of confusion traveled through them and their stances relaxed.

“What happened here?” Cassie asked. She stepped away from the group, the ice cracking beneath her feet. She looked like a shadow in the landscape of ice. “This… this is a hilgar attack, isn’t it? I’ve never seen one do so much damage.” Her eyes widened when her gaze came upon the half destroyed and frozen corpse of the hilgar. “How did…”

“Long story,” I said, and relaxed a bit. “Brandi needs a healer to look her over.”

Cassie nodded and motioned toward those that were still filtering through the bushes. An older looking male Wilkit came running up. He wore plan clothes, but had an armband with the mark of the healers on it.

“I’d say you all could use a healer looking you over, but we only got the one for the moment. We’ll get you checked out back in town.” She rose a hand toward the destruction. “I’m looking forward to the story about how this all came to pass.”

“You’ll have it,” I said and turned with the passing of the healer. He knelt down beside Brandi and I dropped in beside him. I felt like I’d topple over at any moment, as if I had used all my energy up. I fought against the draw of sleep and talked to healer about Brandi.

I heard Cassie give orders and in a few minutes Brandi was on a stretcher and Amber and me were helped along out of the forest by a few mages. The rest of the group boxed us in, on alert for anything. Cassie stood behind me, her head on a swivel.

She smiled when I looked back at her. “Every group was attacked, but it was mostly simple beasts. Things of this floor or one above. No one else dealt with what you did, thankfully.” The smile faded. “Nor did they unleash such power that many of us thought the entire cave would come down.”

I chuckled. It hurt. “We went a little overboard, yeah.”

“A little? Did Brandi use her mimic skill again? That would explain the ice everywhere. I’m surprised she didn’t siphon.”

I tried to blank my face, but her brows shot up as she came over and pulled me from the mage that helped me walk. “I got him from here.”

The mage gave us both a curious look, probably because Cassie weighed half as much as I did and I was quiet a bit taller. He said nothing and took up a position about where Cassie had been.

“Speak plainly with me,” she said, her voice just above a whisper. “Did she siphon?”

I nodded. “That’s what Amber says. I don’t know, though.” I explained all that happened in the clearing. Cassie’s expression never softened or changed until the end when her brows narrowed in thought.

“And you could, what? Sense this leak of magic in her?” I nodded, and she frowned. “That you can even sense it concerns me greatly.”

“I can’t tell you anymore than I have. It saved her and that’s all I care about.”

“That may be all you care about, but that is not where the administration of the academy and maybe even the agents of the Cabal will draw their line… if they fine out exactly what happened.”

“If they find out?” I asked. She kept her face blank for a moment and then gave me a brilliant smile. It was then that I took notice that her canine teeth were longer than normal, maybe even longer than Amber's. It was strange to see, but I was too tired to put much thought into it.

“I am so glad things worked, and you could kill that hilgar,” she said much louder than needed and a few of the surrounding students tilted their heads. “It’s amazing that Brandi’s seeded magic is that powerful with such a low powered mage. I think you may be hiding something from the witches in the academy. Just wait until they hear about what you three did.”

“What are you doing?” I whispered.

“Spinning a tale that benefits you and me. I’ll be monitoring you, Aidan. I expect you’ll be an interesting study.” She moved so that her lips were near my ear. “Don’t talk about what happened to Brandi at the end. Don’t talk about anything that happened to you three on that hill in detail. Do that I’ll make sure you drop off any official radar in a couple of weeks.”

I nodded. “What about the canisters?”

“That is something that happened to everyone. Those that threw them were Wilkits, but beyond that we have only guesses. There has been talk of a resistance group growing again.”

I thought of Amber’s sister, but said nothing.

“Just need to wait and see,” Cassie said and adjusted her hold on me. “Let’s get you and your coven topside and we can chat more then.”