Page 55 of Spirit Storm

The Arcana guardian.

It sweeps low over the group, and students scatter, screaming. It circles, talons outstretched, those massive wings catching the turbulent air.

"Get back!" I shout, breaking into a sprint. "Everyone get inside!"

It dives, and those talons close around someone at the edge of the group. The guardian hauls the student upward, its massive wings driving hard against the storm wind, climbing fast.

The student flails against the hold, screaming.

I know exactly how it feels to be that girl. I freaking was that girl a few months ago when the guardian attacked me.

The giant bird flies overhead, and I hear the girl’s cries for help. Hearing her voice sends a chill down the length of my spine. Then I see the dark brown hair whipping in the gale.

"Violet!”

My heart stops beating, and then kicks into high-gear, pounding at triple time.

The guardian clears the roofline and keeps going, its wings beating hard as it disappears into the churning dark above.

Violet's screams are swallowed by the thunder. The storm clouds move with them. The lightning follows. The wind follows.

In another thirty seconds, the sky above Arcana is clear again, the storm and my sister both gone.

I stand in the middle of the courtyard with the last of the wind dying around me, and I can’t hear anything except the blood rushing in my ears.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The students are clustered in a tight knot near the main courtyard, some crying, others standing with their hands over their mouths. I push through the largest group with Mica on my left and Asher close behind.

"What happened?" I grab the nearest student by the arm. She's maybe twenty-five, dark-eyed, shaking. "The guardian. Where did it go?"

She stares at me.

"Where did it go?" I repeat.

"I don't… it just…" She pulls her arm free and wraps it around herself. "It took her. It just took her."

In the distance, thunder rolls across the campus in a long, slow wave. I glance up, but the clouds are gone.

What does that mean?

Mica pulls another student by the shoulder, a boy with a shaved head and a gash across his forearm he hasn't noticed yet.

I rush over to try again. "Why did it take Violet? Did it say anything?"

He seems more present than the girl, blinking hard. He opens his mouth. Closes it.

I recognize him. The realization hits, and I scan the other faces of the crowd. Shit. I know all of them.

The woman with the copper braids, the twins with the matching burn scars on their hands, the guy with the hearing aids who sat in the far bed of the Order infirmary and stared at the ceiling for hours.

I sat with these people.

These are the recovered witches, every single one of them, pulled out of Laurel's compound with their magic drained and their eyes hollow.

So, where is Lily?

I turn a full circle, my stomach dropping.