The Curse (H. Academy Series #1)
Chapter 35: Second Chances

Professor Darth said nothing as he paced back and forth in the hallway; pale complexion accentuated by moonlight and silver hair almost sparkling. His icy eyes held a deep disappointment, and his mouth tightened, then opened, then tightened again, as if he couldn’t quite form words.

He’d scanned the crime scene beforehand, and he knew upon one glance exactly what we were doing.

“Professor Darth, we’re so sorry!” Amma was trembling behind me, both hands gripping my upper arm. “We didn’t mean to! We’re drunk! Yes, we’re high and drunk!”

“Let me go.” I shook her off, hating the feel of rubber on my naked skin. “We’re not drunk.”

“Yeah, I mean, I’ve never been more sober.” Leon murmured.

“Shut up.” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Professor Darth.” Eugene cleared his throat. “We were just curious, we know it’s stupid-”

Professor Darth finally stopped in place, “Names.”

Ah, fuck. Eugene turned around, face pale, eyes asking me what to do.

“Professor Darth, please.” I hated the sound my voice made when it begged. “We’re the guilty ones, there’s no need to implicate anyone who isn’t here.”

“Names.” He repeated, eyes now on me.

Goddess, why couldn’t have Professor Lorenia found us?

“Are you going to expel us?” Leon jumped in, no fear in his voice. “Because, in all honesty, I’d prefer that to cleaning the backyard for two weeks.”

“Goddess, Leon!” Amma shouted, still hanging by my side. “Do you ever shut up?”

“You are going to be expelled.” Professor Darth said, not even a hint of emotion in his eyes. “You four and everyone else that’s in on it. And trust me, I will find out who else is in on this.”

Amma grabbed my hand, and I felt her panic through the thug, “No, no, please. We didn’t even do anything! Look, the ooze is still inside, nothing happened. I’ll happily clean the backyards for the rest of my time at the Academy!”

“I’ll happily accept expulsion.” Leon’s voice was even.

Eugene glanced at me, his eyes wide with panic, but also lots of questions. He was waiting for me to decide what to do.

“Alright.” I nodded, remembering what Leon had said a day before, how getting expelled might be in our best interest, “We’ll accept expulsion.”

“Jade!” Amma shouted.

“But, please.” I put all my strength and desperation into the word, searching for sympathy in the hard man’s piercing gaze. “Please, don’t tell my father we were here.”

“Jade Montgomery.” Professor Darth began to pace again. “I didn’t think you’d be causing this much trouble, considering you must know the gravity of our situation.”

“I do.” I buried my feet into the tiled floor. “Which is why I’m telling you that you should expel us.”

“Jade.” Amma said under her breath. “What are you doing?”

“I agree.” Eugene said quickly. “I’m also willing to be expelled.”

Professor Darth’s eyes jumped to his protégé, and brief confusion passed over his face. My heart thudded rhythmically, pumping hope through my body.

“Expelled is better than dead.” Leon added, putting a nail into that coffin.

Professor Darth glanced at him. This was it, this was the moment.

“Morta, Bella and Dean were in on it.” I said, words bitter like poison on my tongue. “Expel them, too.”

“Jade!” Amma hissed, her fingers, covered in rubber, digging into my skin.

But Professor Darth looked at me, face relaxing into realisation, “I understand you’re worried about the recent events, and I do have sympathy for your situation, but you must believe that the task of finding out what’s really happening is in competent hands-”

“That’s the thing.” I cut him off, hoping he wouldn’t fail me because of it. “We don’t.”

“Well, we believe in the competency of our overlords.” Leon took out a pack of cigarettes. “Just not their good intentions.”

I squinted in his direction, “Put that away.”

Leon rolled his eyes, “Do you ever have any fun?”

“Enough.” Professor Darth’s said through his teeth. “You have one sentence to explain what’s going on here before I call Vice Mage Montgomery.”

Now, all eyes were on Amma.

With some reluctance, she let my arm go and cleared her throat. Then, she took in a breath.

“Based on the fact that white magic did not work against the black ooze, we’ve deducted that someone or something has been tampering with the magic and the shields around the school to allow demons from the netherworld to pass over to our side and kill students in some sort of ritualistic sacrifice, and we believe that that someone is Vice Mage Montgomery.”

“That’s impressive.” Leon murmured.

Professor Darth just stared at her like a man not easily surprised by anything.

“Do you have any evidence to back your claims?”

“Mostly anecdotal.” Leon said.

“We found a spell in my father’s journal that says unbind the evil.” I jumped in, careful not to say the words in Latin. “And we have one summoning of my dead grandmother, who said the door will open once this fills up.” I raised my wrist, showing the tattoo to him.

Professor Darth approached my hand with studiousness of a teacher, his face distorting into a small frown, lips pursed. His icy eyes were way too close to me when he looked up.

“And how do you know your dead grandmother, known for conspiring with demons, isn’t manipulating you?”

“That’s a good question.” Eugene looked at me pointedly.

“I don’t.” I shrugged. “But I know that white magic doesn’t work against the black ooze, and it should.”

Professor Darth gazed at me with curiosity, and a part of me feared he was in on it, secretly conspiring with my father, and that we’ve just given ourselves away. He took a step back then, gaze dropping, and put his hands behind his back.

“We have found it surprising.” He nodded. “White magic has never before been so useless.”

“Exactly.”

“But we’ve run our tests.” He looked up. “And there was nothing off about the black ooze, nothing that would suggest tampering, and we most certainly haven’t missed anything that a bunch of freshmen could decipher.”

This was it. All or nothing.

I swallowed my heartbeat, “Who’s been in charge of the tests?”

Professor Darth let out a small chuckle, a strange thing to see on such a cold hard face.

“All we want is to run some tests independently.” I pushed, knowing he wouldn’t name my father just like that. “Test our hypotheses. Make sure nothing’s wrong.”

“And how exactly would you have done that?”

“We would have asked you.” Eugene jumped in, surprising me. “We know that we know nothing about demons and that we might be way off base here, but we believe that there will be another attack and we won’t be prepared for it.”

Such words would have meant disregard for Darth’s authority if they had come from anyone else but Eugene. As fire users, they’ve spent some time together, and I was certain that Eugene knew whether he could trust Darth.

For a whole minute, Professor Darth kept quiet. Then, he walked over to the main hall door, where the black ooze devoured the cardboard and the jar, eating up every last ounce of magic still lingering around. We didn’t have much time before it ate Eugene’s and my protection spell.

We held our breaths while he assessed the situation.

“It’s a good spell.” Professor Darth said. “It’s meant to catch a demon, though, not demon slime.”

Eugene took in a sharp breath, “Fuck, we’re idiots.”

“Exactly.” Professor Darth faced us. “The crack in the spell you’ve left open is too wide. It’s like trying to invite an ant but leaving enough space for a truck. You’re lucky you haven’t encountered an actual demon, if your theory about the broken shields is true.”

A chill rushed down my spine, and I fought hard to keep my face neutral.

Amma let out a sigh, “We shouldn’t have done that.”

“No, you shouldn’t have.” Darth looked through the entrance and put his hands on his hips, sweeping the dark robe away. “And now I’m going to have to clean it up. Quietly.”

Our little group exchanged glances.

“There is something off about our situation. You’re right about that.” He continued. “And I’m willing to conduct my own tests on the demon slime.”

My heart gave a loud thud, and warmth pooled in my body as my blood rushed through.

None of us dared to say a word.

“I’m not going to tell Vice Mage Montgomery, and you’re not expelled.” Professor Darth looked at us. “If you help me now.”

I nodded before my brain even registered what he’d said.

“Whatever you need, Professor!” Amma’s voice sounded choked.

“Alright.” Eugene looked at me. “We’ll do whatever you need.”

“Eugene.” Professor Darth took a step back from the entrance to the main hall. “Do you still have all the plants you used for the spell?”

Eugene moved as if pulled by a string, “Yes, of course. We took a lot. It’s all in Amma’s backpack.”

“We have to suck all magic out of the main hall.” Darth said. “It’s the only way to force it back into its dormant state.”

“Okay.” I nodded, “What do we do?”

“Ammelise, give me your backpack.”

Amma jumped at the sound of her name.

“Eugene, keep the protection spell alive.” Darth said.

“Sure thing.” Eugene stretched his fingers.

“Jade.” Darth looked at me. “If you’re right and your father had something to do with this, you have to get back to that distasteful gathering you’ve organized.”

“Those are called parties.” Leon mumbled.

“I can do more than that.” I protested. “I have black magic, I can fight it. I can light it on fire or drown it-”

“It might work.” Darth cut me off. “But it would also cause so much magical residue that everyone in the Academy would feel it.”

Amma handed him the backpack.

“I can still stay here.” I pushed. “Help Eugene with the spell.”

“No.” Darth took out dry plants. “Go back to the party, open up your senses, and distract everyone if you feel anything off. That lust charm you kids love to use won’t cover this spell.”

I glanced at Leon. He shrugged, probably not minding us returning to the party.

“Oh, and Jade?”

“Yes?” I faced Darth.

“The four of you are cleaning the backyards until the winter solstice.”

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