Spycraft Academy B. Miles (new ebook reader txt) 📖

in the stands, he was the first to leave the arena and stumble into the hallway beyond, racing to the nearest exit.

Someone was in trouble.

He didn’t know who followed him out of the arena, but it didn’t matter anyway. Sam knew Apelles was going to be there at some point, as was his crew. So he just ran. Sam took a left when he exited a tunnel, then several more turns until he was out through the unused alley.

He spotted the administrative building. It looked so far away, so tiny in the behemoth valley. A slim figure clad in black exited through the front of the main campus building and bolted for Sam.

Apelles.

Somebody far behind them demanded to know what was going on. It sounded like Mattie.

Apelles caught up to Sam and together, they flew to the squat stone building. They shared a glance and Apelles looked…nervous. Sam had never seen that on Apelles’ face before. Strangely, Sam wasn’t feeling nervous whatsoever. His blood was already up from the fight.

He was ready to take this thief down.

27

Sam didn’t make it to the admin building in time to grab the thief as he darted from the window. But he was close enough to see the man disappear into the forest. Had he been on a horse, he could have run the man down.

Suddenly, a second figure, clad in all black, also shot from the window, flying into the forest in a different direction than the thief.

As the forest swallowed their retreating forms, it looked like all was lost, that they had been too late again, but something stirred inside of Sam. A swollen surge churned in his stomach and shot through his limbs, cold and heavy. It filled the shell of his body and threatened to overflow. His skin didn’t feel like his skin, his mouth went numb, and even as he kept running, his body felt on the verge of exploding. The cold surge shot through his chest, through his arms, pooling at his fingertips, urging him to pull.

And so, as he dashed into the void-black wood, he did. Even in his exhausted, beat up and bloodied state, the darkness itself answered. He didn’t know what he was doing but his body did. He threw his arms out and the pitch black of the forest was covered in something more than shadow. The light from the stars and the moon was suddenly gone, the texture of the trees and the ground vanished, as if he were running through absolute nothingness.

There was a loud cracking sound, like split, rotting wood. Apelles called his name, but he didn’t answer. Sam couldn’t even see his hands in front of him, but it didn’t matter. The nothingness around him parted just enough for him to see a path of almost-midnight on the ground. He followed it.

He stopped running. That’s when he noticed the silence, as if the darkness not only sucked out the radiant energy in the world, but the mechanical energy as well. He lifted his hand and waved it across the air in front of him. Suddenly, he could see.

Everything was grey and muted, as if he were wearing a thin veil over his eyes. In the distance, he saw the thief. The man was reaching out tentatively, his palms searching for obstacles as he slid his feet across the ground. He was still inside of the nothingness. Sam was sure that he, himself, was as well. But somehow, his eyes were allowed to observe just enough light to make the world reappear. Maybe shadow had memory. Maybe it was part of him, inside of him, like millions of microscopic strands connected to his soul, stretching out and touching everything that he wanted to touch.

He could hear the sounds of the forest again as well, dim but there. Footsteps as quieted to taps. The girls shouting his name, the birds rustling in the trees.

Sam got closer to the thief until he could make out the details of his form. No, not a he; this one had a slim waist and breasts. She was clutching something to her chest. She had something on her back, something long and thin and encased in wood. A weapon, maybe.

The woman didn’t look up. She kept moving ever forward, searching desperately for a way out. Sam got within an arm’s length of her, circling her, studying her.

Suddenly, Mattie’s voice found his ear. A shriek quieted to a distant echo. She sounded frightened, maybe even hurt.

Sam didn’t even think about it, he just released his spell, his gaze swinging to the direction of the sound as the dark colors of the world snapped back into reality, like somebody had thrust a painting into his face. One moment, it was just him and the thief and the next, the girls were only yards away, holding hands and sprinting right for them.

The thief startled and took a step backward when Sam was suddenly in front of her. But just as Sam reached for her, she reached for him and brushed his arm.

Suddenly Sam was very, very nauseous. So nauseous that his stomach cramped and he doubled over. The thief darted past him. Mattie and Drina streaked past him as well, going for the girl. When the cramps subsided, Sam sucked in a lungful of air and became aware of Rosin’s hand rubbing soothing circles against his back.

One of the girls shouted and Sam bolted away from Rosin and toward the sound. Mattie was hugging a tree with one arm and panting, her other arm clutched around her middle.

“Rosin, help Mattie!” He shouted without looking back.

The thief was frozen in front of Drina, her back pressed against a tree. One of Drina’s knives was embedded in the wood directly behind her, the handle resting against her face. Drina herself was standing a leap away from the girl, poised to throw her other knife. All it would take was a snap of her wrist and the thief would have