Page 68 of Reckless Witch

“Good morning,” Domini greets us with a smile that dimples his cheek. “I’ll be covering for Miss Mack today.”

Several pairs of eyes flick in my direction. So, Thomas and Ariel have been busy worker bees, pinning Miss Mack’s departure solidly on me. I haven’t forgotten the strange occurrence when Miss Mack showed us the Shadow husks. I had thought them beautiful. No one should find Shadows beautiful. Did Grams find them beautiful? Is that how they entice a person into letting them in? Had The Shadows infected Grams? That’s not possible. The Commanders drove The Shadows away. Yet, I saw the Shadow husks myself. They are beautiful.

I suddenly want to cry so badly I consider leaving. Leilah Crowe running from a room. Yeah, that would get everyone talking. They’ll talk a helluva lot more if I burst into tears in class. What the fuck is wrong with me?

Returning to New York was a mistake. Letting Ethan Bordeau mark me with his sigil was an even bigger mistake. Caring about Grams’ house and thinking I could have a real home and legitimacy is the mother of all big mistakes. Who am I kidding?

I hold my breath and order my body to simmer down as Domini walks to the massive mahogany desk in the front of the room.

He leans a hip against the front edge. “How many of you have heard the tale of the Demon Bride?”

“She’s the Shadow Mage,” a girl says.

“The most powerful mage to have existed,” Ariel interjects. “So powerful and perfect that when the demigod Damien met her, he knew he had to have her.”

Domini arches a brow. “He didn’t just meet her, he created her.”

“Created her?” A girl at the front sniffs in disdain. “A man clearly wrote that account.”

“Perhaps.” Domini shrugs. “Damien had many apprentices, but the Shadow Mage was the only one who could control his Shadows.”

“And a woman clearly wrote that,” says the blond-haired guy that Fran went after.

Muffled snickers circle the room.

“Regardless of who wrote the accounts, there is truth in them.” Domini folds his arms across his chest, his black robe pulling against his bulging biceps.

Again, Fran flips her hair.

“His equal, though?” the blond-haired guy challenges. “He’s a demigod. She was mortal.”

“True,” Domini agrees. “But humans should not be underestimated. Was it not the sorceresses Senorn and Eledin who sealed the Hell Gates? A spell that, to this day, the demigod himself cannot break.”

The room goes silent, every eye fastened to Domini, including mine. He pushes off the desk. “Perhaps, to truly understand the Shadow Mage, we must first understand Damien, the demigod of Shadows. We know that Hades left Hell and fathered Damien with a wealthy shipmaster’s daughter, Aella. When Aella’s father learned that his unwed daughter was pregnant, the shipmaster threw her out onto the streets. She lived a life of misery and never revealed to Damien the identity of his father.”

I shift in my seat. We all know the story, but it still hits close to home for me. Getting tossed into the street hurts.

“After his mother’s death, Damien met a sorcerer by the name of Falco”—Domini’s eyes gleam—“who discovered Damien’s powers. For years, Damien apprenticed with the sorcerer. Eventually, his father, Hades, revealed himself to Damien and granted him entrance into Hell. But it wasn’t until Damien found an Atlantean sorceress of great power and strength that he knew he had met his destiny.”

“Elexea,” Ariel said.

Domini smiled. “Exactly. She learned to control The Shadows and became known as the Shadow Mage. Like Damien, she, too, grew up on the streets of Atlantis and, in her, Damien believed he’d found his Demon Bride.”

A shiver slides down my back. I know these stories. We all know them. Damien, who created The Shadows, is responsible for the genocide of our kind. I hate him as much as everyone else does. Still, my heart goes out to the woman who felt so alone that she fell in love with the wrong man.

“What was that, Miss Crowe?” the headmaster’s baritone shatters my thoughts.

I tense. I hadn’t said anything…had I? As every head turns my way, I blurt, “Who really knows what happened?”

“Trust a Crowe to claim the Shadow Mage isn’t evil,” someone murmurs.

“That’s not what I said.” Was it?

Domini raises a hand, commanding our attention. “A true scholar retains an open mind.” He glances around the room. “Who knows what happened next?”

“Archon realized the Shadow Mage was becoming too strong,” the blond guy says. “He warned the Atlanteans about her.”

“The kings sent an assassin to kill her.” Domini winks. “We know the true fate of Atlantis, don’t we?”