The elemental was whipping back and forth, clearly confused by Aaron’s sudden appearance. Call scrambled to his feet and reached out toward chaos. He felt the wild, roiling emptiness of the void open. Darkness spilled into the bedroom.
The air elemental gave a puffing screech and sailed toward the opening to the common room. It slashed Aaron’s shoulder as it went past, gliding toward Tamara’s room.
She opened the door just as it lunged for her throat.
Tamara dropped, rolling beneath it with more agility than Call would have in a thousand years. Havoc bounded toward her, snapping at the creature. The elemental pivoted in the air, horrible legs quivering, horrible jaws opening wide enough to swallow any of them whole.
Aaron added his power to Call’s. The chaos grew, tendrils of oily nothing snaking into the room. From the opening in the void, something emerged, smoke-colored and wearing the rough shape of a monstrously sleek cat with countless eyes.
A chaos elemental, springing into the room.
Call made a sound in his throat. Opening chaos was one thing — summoning a chaos elemental was another.
The air elemental spun around, sensing a new threat. It made a sound deep in its throat. Then it rushed at the chaos elemental at the same moment the chaos elemental went for it. They met in the air. The chaos elemental bit at the air elemental’s underside as the chaos elemental coiled around and around it, squeezing.
The door to their rooms opened and Master Rufus hurtled in, followed by Master Milagros.
“Call —” Rufus started to shout. Then he caught sight of the elementals coiling together in the air. For a moment, he looked almost fascinated. Then he swept his hand into the air and blew.
His breath became a shock wave that swept over the elementals. The whole room shook. Call fell to the floor as the air elemental shuddered and came apart into eddies that spiraled like miniature dust storms. The chaos elemental splashed against the wall, like spilled ink. It did not re-form.
“Wow,” Aaron said.
Call’s heart thudded dully. He pushed himself to his feet. Tamara, in a pair of blue pajamas — now torn at the knee — crossed the room to him, putting her hand on his arm. He had to forcibly stop himself from leaning against her the way he suddenly wanted to.
He looked down at his chest, at his torn shirt and the blood still welling there. The injuries weren’t deep, but they stung like bee stings.
Aaron was petting Havoc’s head, staring meditatively at the spot where the chaos elemental had been.
“We heard all the shouting,” Master Milagros said. “We didn’t think — how badly are you hurt?”
“I’m okay,” Call said.
Master Rufus sighed, clearly rattled. They all were, but it was unnerving to see Master Rufus anything but perfectly composed. Call felt stupid. Master Rufus had told them not to investigate, but they’d done it anyway. And then Jasper had come up with a totally ridiculous plan. How had none of them realized that by making it clear where Call was going to be, it also made it clear that he wasn’t going to be in his room? Anyone wanting to break in knew exactly when to do it.
“Apprentices, let’s all sit down,” Master Rufus said. “You can tell me what happened. And then we can decide what to do next.”
Master Milagros moved toward the hall door. “I am going to make sure no one else gets in or out of here,” she said. “Absolutely no one.”
She sounded kind of paranoid. It was very reassuring to Call. He was feeling kind of paranoid, too.
He went to the couch with Tamara and Aaron. As soon as they sat down, Havoc jumped up on Call’s lap and started to lick his face. Tamara took point on explaining how they were all in the library, studying with Jasper, and then had come back to their rooms. She didn’t mention Call’s stunt in the Refectory, or their plan, for which he was grateful. He was feeling dumb and freaked out enough already.
Call explained how the thing had been in his room and how the door had been locked with a spell. When he started talking about it, he could feel his hands begin to shake and jammed them between his knees to hide the trembling from Master Rufus and his friends.
After hearing about the locking spell, Master Rufus went over to inspect what was left of the door. Since Aaron had pretty much disappeared the whole thing, there wasn’t a lot to see.
After a few minutes, Master Rufus sighed. “We’re going to have to bring a team of mages in here. And, in case something else has been tampered with, we’re going to move the three of you to another room. Permanently. I know it’s late, but I am going to need you to take whatever you had on you and bring only that. We will give you the rest of your things as soon as they’re confirmed as safe.”
“Do we really need to do that?” Tamara asked.
Master Rufus gave her his most stern look. “We do.”
Aaron stood. “I’m ready to go, then, I guess. I didn’t change my clothes or anything. Neither did Call.”
Tamara got her uniform out of her room and padded back into the common space, holding her boots in her hands. Call looked around, at the symbols on the walls, the glowing rocks, the giant fireplace. These rooms were theirs, comfortable, familiar. But he wasn’t sure that he could have gotten into bed and looked up at his ceiling without seeing that creature there. He shuddered. Right at the moment, he wasn’t sure he was ever going to be able to sleep again.
The room that Master Rufus took them to didn’t look too unlike their own. Call already knew that most of the student quarters were the same — two to five bedrooms grouped around common spaces where students could eat and work.
There were four bedrooms in the new space. They each took one, including Havoc, who flopped down next to the bed in his and went to sleep with his feet in the air. Call checked to make sure his wolf was fine, then came out into the common room to find Tamara and Aaron on the couch. Aaron had his sleeve rolled up, his arm stuck out. Tamara was looking critically at his forearm, where a big red splotch was visible.
“It’s like a burn, but not a burn,” she said. “Maybe some kind of reaction from being hit with all that chaos magic?”
“But he’s a Makar,” Call objected. “Chaos magic shouldn’t hurt him. Why didn’t you show your arm to Master Rufus?” It didn’t look like a bad injury, but Call bet it was painful.
Aaron sighed. “Didn’t feel like dealing with it,” he said. “They’ll get more freaked out, restrict us further, but they don’t know what’s going on any more than I do. They’ll decide someone else needs to be guarding you twenty-four-seven, but nobody else is going to do as good a job as we will. Besides, it’s not like you made a big deal out of the fact you’re bleeding.” He pulled down his sleeve. “I’m going to take a shower,” he said. “I still feel kind of slimy from that thing touching me.”