The Curse (H. Academy Series #1)
Chapter 53: Burning Pile

Hey everyone! The final chapter of The Curse is here, yay!! Thank you so much for your likes and comments and reviews, I'm so happy this book got so much love on here.

The sequel - The Charm - is coming soon, follow me for updates AND if you'd like to read the sequel as soon as tomorrow, please consider subscribing. There will also be more bonus scenes, like the conversation between Thar and Leon that happens two weeks after the events in this chapter hehe

Thank you so much, love you all <3

***

Thar and I were standing in the Headmaster’s chamber, but there was no Headmaster in sight, only my father leaning against his desk and pretending he was the one in charge.

I couldn’t look at him.

He’d see everything in my eyes.

No other teacher was present. Students left the Academy grounds, sent home until further notice. Amma was in a hospital, still unconscious. Morta and the others left.

It seemed as if mine and Thar’s fate was the last one left undecided.

“Well.” My father looked fresh and well-rested, like he hasn’t been near the ooze all night. “First of all, I am glad to see you two alive. It would have been a shame if we’d lost two black magic users tonight.”

Thar tensed by my side, and I fought the urge to step closer to him.

“You look well.” I told my father. “Really well. Considering everything we went through tonight.”

He didn’t smile, but his lip twitched, “I want you to know that I’ve thought about this a lot.”

I didn’t feel like taunting him anymore.

“Jade Montgomery.” He met my gaze. “You’re expelled from Hunt Academy.”

My eyes widened, “What? No. Are you kidding me? You can’t do that!”

Thar almost reached for me. Almost.

“Sure I can.” My father nodded. “As the new Headmaster.”

One information too many.

I needed to sit down.

“But why?” I asked, panic making my voice shake. “I’ve helped save students from demons!”

“Why?” He raised his eyebrow. “For using magic on the school grounds after hours. Convincing other students to use it, too. Breaking and entering into a restricted area. Stealing herbs from Lorenia’s garden. Summoning ghosts without a mentor. Destroying school property. Do you want me to go on?”

I swallowed.

He wasn’t serious, right? He couldn’t be.

“You wanted me to come here.” I said. “I did not want to be here.”

“And I finally see the error in my judgement.” He offered a small, tight-lipped smile. “You should be happy, you’re getting what you wanted. You can go home.”

When he crossed his hands on his chest, I noticed dry blood under his nails.

“And you’re going to be the new Headmaster.” I stated.

My father nodded.

“With all due respect, Vice Mage Montgomery,” Thar cut in, “but I think it would be a grave mistake to send Jade away. She has to learn how to use her magic properly if she wants to help us fight the black ooze.”

“Sound advice.” My father faced him. “Unfortunately, you’re fired.”

Alarms went off in my head, “What?!”

Thar tensed.

“Settle down.”

“But why?” I whined.

My father glanced at me, “For sleeping with a student.”

“He didn’t-”

“Jade.” Thar warned.

My father’s eyes sparked and he offered a smile, “Do you want me to know what he did? Do you want to go there?”

I took a step back. Not particularly.

“Good.” He pushed himself off the table and stepped behind it. “You’re excused.”

Thar sighed next to me, “Come on, let’s go.”

My father did not ask what happened tonight. Which meant he knew exactly what happened. But did he know everything?

“Can I have a moment alone with my father?” I asked, barely looking at Thar.

“Of course.” My father said. “Leave us alone, Adara.”

“You sure?” Thar asked.

“She’s sure.”

I swallowed hard.

“I’m waiting outside.” Thar left the chambers and closed the door behind him.

I thought I’d be terrified to be alone in a room with him after everything, but I felt weirdly at ease.

“Hurt?” I cocked my head towards my father’s hand and the blood under his nails.

He glanced at it, then hid his fingers under his arm.

“We’re all hurt, Jade.” He said. “By everything that’s happened.”

“Disappointed, too.” I chirped, anger brewing inside me.

He raised his eyebrow, “Your point?”

“Did you know...” I took a step forward. “That there was a curse on the teachers? Preventing them from fighting the black ooze.”

“Was there?”

“Uh-huh. Weird, isn’t it?”

“Certainly.”

He wasn’t around much throughout my life. Business trips, important meetings, undisclosed information he couldn’t comment on. Mystery. Distance. Coldness. And still, when I looked at him, I tried not to see a stranger. I tried to see my father.

“I know it was you.” I said. “We all know it was you.”

“Jade,” He sat in the chair and put his elbows on the table. “While your tenacity is somewhat admirable, there are still quite a few things you neither know nor understand.”

“Such as?”

“Do you think you can fight a demon?”

He broke my train of thought, “What?”

“With all of your training and your studying and all the books in the known worlds – can you fight a demon?”

I did not want to sound reluctant, “Yes.”

“No.” My father intertwined his fingers. “You cannot. We did not defeat a demon tonight, Jade. The demon left. It made a conscious decision to leave, because it is conscious. And far stronger than us.”

His words made me think back to our encounter. Back there, I was certain we would make it. I was convinced that there was a way to send the demon back to where it came from, but it wasn’t true in the slightest. The demon left. It took one hundred souls and left.

“Is that your excuse?” I whispered. “Is that what you’re going to tell teachers and students? That there is a higher force out there that made all of this happen, and it was not the deed of one greedy mage that just didn’t have enough magic?”

Something flickered in his eyes. Perhaps even surprise.

“No one questions power if they can share it.” He said. “That’s lesson number one in the world of greedy mages.”

“So,” I let out a laugh, “You admit it. You killed them. You killed one hundred students so you could open the door, summon a demon and harness its magic.”

My father’s expression was empty, neutral. Calm. My words didn’t bother him.

“No.” He simply said. “I did no such thing.”

I took in a sharp breath. Fine. Fine, you bastard.

“You told me to leave the school.” Anger bit my veins. “You told me to leave the school with the rest of the students. If I’d done that, I would probably be dead. You wanted me dead.”

My father let out a laugh, and the tone it hit made me stagger back. It wasn’t a malicious laugh, nor his usual all-knowing smirk. It was a laugh of a father watching his child have something completely wrong.

“I have nineteen years of experience in being your father.” He grinned. Grinned. “I knew you’d do the exact opposite of what I say.”

My shoulders slumped. He knew I’d stay in my room.

“Go home, Jade.” He stood up. “Rest. Think it through. Once everything settles, we’ll talk.”

Exhaustion washed over me. My brain couldn’t make any more decisions.

“Yeah, thanks for expelling me.” I murmured. “Just what I needed.”

“Just doing my job.” He browsed through the papers on his table, telling me to leave with the gesture.

I slammed the door behind me like a petulant child and marched out.

As promised, Thar was waiting for me at the entrance to the building. The lawns and roads have cleared. Cars and people left. The sun was still hours away, but the night had reached its quieter, more tired state. The darkest hour just before the dawn.

There was a car waiting at the iron gate in the distance. The same car that left me in front of the Academy two months ago. I still couldn’t process everything that happened.

“He expelled me.” I sat on the step, and my ankle began to pulsate. “And I twisted my ankle.”

Thar leaned against the column, “Now that I’m officially not your teacher anymore, if you ever attack me with your magic again, I will fight back.”

Surprised, I looked up.

“I’m sorry about that.” I whispered. “I- I got lost for a moment.”

“I hope you’ve found yourself.” Thar said. “Because we have more serious problems on our hands.”

“One runaway freak of nature I brought back from the dead?” I asked. “One greedy mage trying to let demons into our world? Or the fact you kissed me?”

Thar flinched, but quickly composed himself, “I’m sorry, Jade. I am.”

“Like you said, we have more serious problems.” My lips tightened.

“We have to find Leon.”

“I can’t feel him.” I shrugged.

“I can’t feel anything beside this damn ooze. Its magic lingers everywhere.”

Thar was glancing up, as if expecting it to pour through the cracks. Whatever he could feel, I couldn’t.

Just like I couldn’t feel the demon back in the main building. Like I couldn’t feel the teachers’ magic.

“Jade.” Thar slid to the ground, his forehead wrinkling as if in pain before he spoke, “What did you do back there? I’ve never- I’ve never seen anything like this.”

I pulled myself up, “Walk me to the car.”

Thar was a little reluctant to get up, and I wondered for a second whether he was hurt or just tired. We walked side by side, and it crossed my mind we’ve never been this raw – exposed – in front of each other. Not even back in his room.

“Amma found a spell, a symbol and a word, in my father’s notebook, written in a strange language.” I kept my voice low. “It said revive.”

“Sounds like necromancy.” Thar’s voice was devoid of emotions, of judgement.

“I thought so, too, and I was fully prepared to use it.” I admitted. “I- like I said, I got lost for a moment.”

Thar stopped in the middle of the road and faced me, “But the ooze entered Leon’s body. It didn’t die.”

“I know.” First signs of guilt were beginning to gnaw on me. “Leon said he saw my father carving something into his skin right after the ooze attacked. It’s not necromancy.”

Thar’s brows furrowed, “You think he wanted to perform the spell on himself.”

“Exactly.”

“Why didn’t he?”

“Because you can’t just say revive.” I shrugged. “You have to pronounce it in their language.”

Realisation widened Thar’s eyes, “You- you asked the demon-”

“Yes.” I swallowed. “And it told me.”

“But why?”

I gazed up at the main building. It was half-ruined. All windows were broken, walls cracked, and smoke still rose from the inside. It looked like it had been through a massive earthquake.

“If I were to guess, I’d say we have ourselves one tricky demon.”

Thar didn’t ask anymore questions. All the answers were clear. He walked me to the car in silence, and right before I walked in, I turned on my heel.

“I’m sorry.” I said. “For getting you fired.”

He was standing too close to me, and I wanted to take a step back, but remembered I was not a student and he was not a teacher here anymore. For all intents and purposes, we were free to stand however close we wanted.

“I’m sorry, too.”

“For kissing me or for getting caught?” I smiled.

“Neither.” He met my gaze. “I’m sorry for hurting you.”

But when I looked into his eyes, I knew I was the one who hurt him more.

“I’ll see you around, Thar.”

“Get some rest. And food.”

I smiled, “You, too.”

When I entered the car and closed the door, impossible exhaustion washed over me. I would sleep for at least fifteen hours tomorrow, if I ever managed to fall asleep.

Questions buzzed in my head, all pointless without a way to answer them.

I called forth my magic.

“To prevent being mocked, I need my eyebrows plucked.”

No spark. No tingles. No magical tweezers.

I had no magic.

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