Called by Darkness Deleted Prologue

The first book in my New York Academy of Magic, much like many first books in my series, underwent an additional number of revisions versus other books I’ve done. This is probably because the first books are the playground to set the style, characters, tone, blah blah blah for the rest of the series, and as such need a little extra refining.

In this case, editing involved taking out the entire prologue. I really enjoyed writing this prologue, but in the end I decided it didn’t add too much to the story. Maybe you’ll disagree, but regardless, it won’t spoil the book. You may even pick up a few easter eggs sprinkled throughout the rest of the story…Enjoy!

Prologue

He’d lost all sensation of pain.

The man came to slowly, tasting the sour tang of bile on his tongue. His head throbbed. His mouth was dry. Once again, he tried remembering who he was, though his thoughts came slower and sluggish after waking up the second time: 

My name is Henry…Krupp. That’s it, Krupp. My name is Henry Krupp. I’m married to Delilah who is probably worried sick. I’m a Master—was a Master—at the New York Academy of Magic. My name is Henry Krupp…

As his mind replayed the facts, he became reacquainted with his surroundings. He groaned, the last hope that it had all been a nightmare vanishing.

“That one hurt, didn’ it?” a man said. “I’m guessing it hurt quite a bit. Give me a rating, will you? One if it tickled, ten if you want to die. Let’s me know exactly how much for next time.”

Henry tried twisting to see who’d spoken, but his arms and legs caught on the bindings lashing him to the chair and he jerked to a stop. The man cackled. His shadow darted in and out of the light cast from the single bulb overhead, spotlighting Henry and leaving the rest of the small room in darkness. There were no windows, making it impossible to see the outside world. How long since they’d taken him? An hour? A day? 

“I’ll ask again…” the man stopped right in front of Henry, just out of the light. “I’ll ask real nicely this time, too: how do you take down those wards protecting the Academy?”

“Hold on, you can’t possib—”

Henry felt the air swirl a moment before the fist slammed into his cheek. Blood bloomed in his mouth and a wad of it dripped to the floor. It was a good thing he’d already gone numb.

“How do you take—”

“I don’t know—”

Another punch. Henry felt himself slipping back into the dark hands of unconsciousness. 

“How do you—”

“I don’t…”

Henry waited for the next blow, but his captor held back, apparently noticing that Henry was about to black out. 

Henry could see it now, in his mind’s eye: the white, broad halls of the Academy, teeming with chattering students. The densely packed classrooms, spells dancing through the air. Laughter. Light. A tree, its branches reaching to brush the tops of the ceiling…

“The tree…” he murmured, barely aware he was doing so. 

“What tree?”

Rough fingers grabbed his chin, forcing him to look up into the harsh light. Henry jolted back to consciousness, for the first time seeing who he’d been talking to.

“What—What are you—”

The thing smacked him with one partially-scaled hand. 

“What tree?”

Henry let the blood drip from his lip to the floor. Then he pulled his eyes back up to the thing staring at him.

“I’ve heard about creatures like you. Half-breeds. Undesirables. I used to teach Norm politics, I know how you were treated by the Supes. The Academy can help—”

Henry saw the red light of the spell a moment before the man plunged it into his gut. There was the agony. There was the pain. It was so much worse than before. Surely he would die here…surely…

“How nice of the Academy to help now,” the man hissed. “And I suppose the Coalition wants to give us our own place, too? Open up their arms and let us all live in peace?”

He raised his hand again. 

“Enough.”

A hand—a human hand—reached from the darkness and gripped the man’s arm. “It’s my turn.”

The voice was feminine, high and light and soft. 

It chilled Henry’s blood.

The man yanked out of the woman’s grasp and gave a jerky nod before backing away.

The woman’s shadow stepped in front of him. How long had she been standing there? Had she been watching the entire time?

The woman reached a hand forward. Henry jerked back, but she merely wiped the blood off his lip with the corner of a rag.

“You’re a mess, Master Krupp. I’m sorry about that, I really am, but we could use your help. It isn’t every day we get to speak to someone so esteemed.”

Her voice was casual, like they were chatting about upcoming plans for the weekend. Henry found himself relaxing, despite his earlier fear and the throbbing ache in his body.

“I don’t know what you and that—and he—are planning to do to the Academy, but I can’t help you. Now, please—”

“You said something about a tree.”

“I…yes, I did. But—”

“A big oak tree? Misshapen on one side? In a hall on the south end of the Academy?”

Henry was momentarily struck dumb. “How on earth…?” He squinted into the darkness. “How do you know that? Are you a former student?”

“And what kind of magic protects this tree?” the woman said, ignoring him.

“I have no idea! And I’m finished answering your questions—”

Henry went rigid, as though a needle had been stabbed straight into his back. His spine involuntarily straightened against the chair, every muscle in his arms and legs going taut, then shaking with strain. He could feel dozens of eyes peering at him, pinning him in place like an insect to a corkboard. He couldn’t see them, but he could hear something…whispers in the dark surrounding him. Their voices were grating against the inside of his skull, growing louder and louder, until he couldn’t bear it any longer—

“No more, please! No more—”

The eyes snapped shut. Henry slumped against his bonds, wracking with sobs and the memory of the pain. He wanted to go home. He wanted to see his wife. He wanted to be anywhere but here where eyes from unseen places watched him, knew him, clawed at him from the inside.

He felt a soft, gentle hand on his chin.

“You really don’t know, do you?” the woman said sadly. “I’m so, so sorry.”

She drew his gaze up until he was looking at her face, tenderly smiling down on him. Against the halo glow of light, she almost looked like an angel.

“Who…who are you?”

The woman’s smile widened. She leaned closer to him, and Henry felt his very blood freeze. The eyes surrounding him were back.

“I am change. I am the catalyst that’s going to bring this whole city, this whole world of Supes, burning to the ground. Starting with the Academy.”

Henry let out a small whimper as she placed her hand over his mouth. Something slick and tasting of dirt slithered down his throat. Henry gagged as the sensation spread through his entire body, eating away at his insides until the darkness crept to the edge of his vision and became the last thing he ever saw.

The woman waited a moment after Henry had stopped moving, then pulled her hand away, her fingers trailing shadows.

“He might have known more,” the man said.

“You know he didn’t.”

“Still, woulda been fun…” 

The woman tugged out a plastic tarp from one side of the room and cast it over Henry’s body, making sure it covered every inch.

“We have more important things to do than torture old men. Fetch—”

The door burst open. The man swung around, fangs bared, but the woman held up a hand. She recognized who’d come in, one of her many acolytes in the city.

“You should know better than to come barging in when Greubel and I are working,” she said.

The acolyte warily eyed Gruebel glaring at him, his fangs slowly retracting.

“S-Sorry. It’s just…just…”

“It’s just what?”

“T-the Academy Entrance Ceremony has started. They’re outside normal Academy grounds. Undefended.”

There was a brief pause.

 “Should I get it ready, Mistress?” Greubel said, dipping into a low bow.

A smile spread across the woman’s face. “Of course. Let’s give the new graduates a welcome they’ll never forget.”

END

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