Near-right, who still hadn’t
said anything, stepped forward with a glowing bowl in one hand and something that looked like a miniature branding iron in the other. He came into the center of the circle and stopped.
“You will each bear the mark of permanent evil,” the man who’d read our sentence continued. “Should you return to earth at any time, you shall be killed on sight. Fredrick, if you please.”
Fredrick—Near-right—stuck the iron in the bowl. It sizzled and popped, and foul-smelling magic bubbled and sparked. My stomach churned with fear and disgust.
God, this is so fucked up.
He took Kai’s left arm and pressed the iron to the inside of his wrist. Kai paled and ground his teeth, but he didn’t make any noise. It didn’t matter. I could still smell his flesh burning and bonding with the magic. Xero was next. More than stoic, he looked almost bored. I guess after all the torture he’d gone through, a little brand was nothing.
My heart nearly stopped when Fredrick got to Hannah. She’d come a long way from the timid, fearful girl I’d first met, but she was still so soft and gentle. She was the pure goodness I’d come to anchor myself to. She didn’t deserve this, and I didn’t know if she could withstand it. Even Fredrick faltered for a moment as he gazed at her.
But only for a moment.
He recovered himself and applied the mark to her wrist. Her eyes widened and she turned a sickly shade of gray. Trembling like a leaf, she bit her lip against a scream I could feel in my own body. A single tear slid down her pale cheek, and I wanted to beat the ever-loving fuck out of Fredrick.
The man moved on to Kingston next. As he pressed the brand to Kingston’s wrist, my bond-mate exploded.
“Ow! Fuck! What the hell is the matter with you guys? This is magic! You could make it painless if you wanted to, but no, it’s got to smell like rotten eggs and burn like a motherfucker. You’re an asshole, you know that? Yeah, you can go on with your silent but deadly act, but I see right through you. Fuck!”
A flicker of pride rose up in me. We couldn’t fight back against this, but Kingston wasn’t the type to take shit stoically. And even if his tirade didn’t change anything, maybe it would make some of the students who were watching our banishment see this whole thing a little differently.
Fredrick ignored Kingston so thoroughly that I was almost certain he was deaf. Jayce braced himself, then relaxed as the brand touched his skin. He went into a sort of meditative haze, probably trying to disassociate from the moment entirely. He even had a bit of a smile on his face—though honestly, that was his default expression.
Some people have resting bitch face. Jayce has resting afterglow face.
I couldn’t even smile at my own joke. My stomach twisted when Fredrick got to me. I tried to mimic Jayce’s thing, but failed miserably; I tensed up and stayed tense.
When the brand touched my skin, I nearly took Fredrick’s stupid head off, and only the blistering magic kept me still. It paralyzed me. White-hot flames licked the inside of my veins, snaking through my entire being, leaving a permanent mark. It was so strong and so distinctive that it would act like a goddamn beacon to any supernaturally trained person in the world.
Fredrick pulled away, and the absence of pain felt almost like pleasure.
My face was wet. Damn it.
I looked across the circle at Hannah. She caught my eye and held her head high. She was so confident in her goodness. So fearless to meet the consequences. Not even her own consequences, but mine. Pride and love washed over me in a wave and tears slipped down my cheeks even faster.
She’s come so far. She’ll be just fine in the underworld. We all will. As long as we have each other, we’ll be okay.
At least, that’s what I kept telling myself over and over. Maybe if I repeated it enough times, it would be true.
“By the power vested in me by the Custodians of the earth,” Clipboard intoned grimly. “I hereby banish each of you to the underworld.”
I held Hannah’s gaze for as long as I could. Then the floor opened up and blackness swallowed me whole.
Chapter Twelve
As the swirling darkness receded from around me, the first thing I became aware of was a brutally cold wind.
Cold didn’t fit with what I had experienced in the underworld before, and it immediately set me on guard. I had landed face-down in the dirt—which was more like tiny shards of black glass than anything resembling soil—and I pushed myself up onto my knees and dusted off. I looked at the spot where Hannah should have been.
She wasn’t there.
Nobody was there.
Panic strangled me, and I leapt to my feet. I didn’t recognize this place. Towering stones rose from the ground as if they had grown there, full of uneven holes that made the wind howl and shriek. Scrubby, thorny brush carpeted the landscape. There was no blood red, bruised purple, or acid green to be seen anywhere; everything was gray and black and desolate. Even the sky seemed duller than usual.
I could have handled all of that and more if my guys and Hannah were with me. But there was nothing but twisted rocks and thorns as far as I could see—which, admittedly, wasn’t far.