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“The only way to banish him then is to break these contracts or use a bigger spell,” I theorized.
A boom overhead shook the entire ballroom. People cowered together. A crack formed across the ceiling, and plaster rained down on us. It was another attack on the school.
I curled Nadine in my arms and dragged her backward as huge chunks of the ceiling broke off and crashed to the ground. Several people screamed as they were injured. All around the room, the ballroom doors slammed shut.
Nadine and I scrambled backward, until we were in the corner of the room. I nearly squashed someone, and I looked back to see Professor Warbright standing in the corner. He looked frozen in fear, his back pressed against the wall like he couldn’t move even if he tried. His hair stuck straight upright, and he clutched his pocket watch, as if it was a token of good luck.
“Students,” he said breathlessly. “I—I don’t know what’s happening.”
“We’re going to get out of here, Professor,” Nadine promised him. She turned back toward our friends, who were running toward us, trying to dodge the raining plaster. “Hurry!”
Grant and Talia reached us first, followed by Chloe, Miles, and Charlotte. They’d nearly reached us when the room shook even more violently, and a huge chunk of building materials fell from the ceiling. I screamed a warning the same time Nadine tried to create a shield, but it was already too late. A huge chunk landed on Charlotte’s head, knocking her out.
Nadine’s shield bloomed around us, encompassing Charlotte and the others. We all squished into the corner, our cats squeezing in close to us. Talia dragged Charlotte’s head into her lap and tried to get her to wake up, but she didn’t move.
“Priestess!” Talia cried.
“Expand your shield!” I instructed.
“I can’t!” Nadine cried. She winced as she lifted her hands to steady her shield.
Nadine sagged against me. It didn’t matter how good her powers were. Right now, her body was ready to give out. She’d been beat down so much these last few days, I was surprised she was still going. But that was my Nadine—a fighter until the very end.
Screams continued to fill the air, and loud cracks sounded above our heads. Windows shattered, and though we could see nothing beyond the empty frames, violent winds and heavy rains swept inside the room.
All I could do was hold Nadine close. The room shook violently around us. Deafening screams and the haunting whistle of the wind pierced the air, but it all seemed distant. All that mattered was that I was here with my friends; I was here with Nadine. However this ended, we were here together.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered in her ear. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save us.”
“That was never your responsibility,” Nadine said in a broken tone. “Don’t talk like this is the end. It isn’t.”
“How can you be so certain?” I pulled her even closer to my chest.
Nadine paused. All semester, she’d been asking herself this question. I hadn’t thought about what I’d said, and I realized now that it was a cruel question. She shouldn’t be contemplating such a thing in a dire time.
But Nadine didn’t seem bothered by the question at all. In fact, her tone sounded confident. “I just have to believe it. Certainty is not knowing the outcome, but knowing ourselves and believing in our power.”
Nadine gasped. “Lucas, that’s it! We’re going to get out of here for certain, because we decided to. We can make it happen, and it doesn’t matter how uncertain the possibilities are. We’ll always find a way, because we always have. It’s not about accepting any outcome—the power is in deciding that one outcome is the only reality. How we get there is the uncertain part. That’s not up to us. We can’t control it. But we have tools to get there.”
“It’s like creating portals,” I realized. “You can choose your destination, but you can’t control the pathway there.”
That’s why my portals failed. I’d been trying to control the pathway, imagining it like a wormhole connecting two points in space. In reality, all I had to do was trust my magic to get me to the destination.
“What does your intuition say?” I asked.
“Find your strengths,” Nadine said.
I always thought my strength lied in what I was able to endure. The more burden I could carry for others, the stronger I was. If I broke, I was weak.
As I held Nadine close in my arms, I realized something profound. I found strength through Nadine. Not because she validated something inside of me or gave me purpose I didn’t already have within myself—but because she inspired me to see the good already inside of myself.
The power inside of me.
Each of us was strong on our own, but together, we were stronger. Nadine’s space-bending spell had failed earlier because she tried to do it alone, and I would fail too unless I accepted help. I used to think asking for help was admitting defeat, but it took strength to recognize when you needed help and when you were ready to receive it.
“Nadine, will you help me?” I asked.
“Yes.”
