Amari and the Night Brothers

by B. B. Alston

  Still, I’m pretty surprised at how easily moving in the Sky Sprints comes for me. After about an hour, I’m keeping pace with the legacy kids as we race along the walls and take turns avoiding the obstacles Magnus puts in our path. After three hours I’m able to walk across open air without losing my balance.

  At noon Magnus allows us to take a shot at a practice course the agents use to keep their skills sharp. “We call it the Invisible Bridge,” he says. He plops down behind a control panel, presses a few buttons, and poof! Two diving boards rise to face each other from opposite sides of the room. A few seconds later, a dozen gigantic punching bags descend from the ceiling. With the push of another button the bags begin to swing back and forth at different speeds.

  The goal is pretty clear. We’ve got to run across open air from one diving board to the other without getting knocked down by the punching bags. It sounds a lot easier than it looks.

  Magnus grins. “Who wants to give it a shot?”

  Not many hands go up. Even the legacy kids look wary. It’s easy to see why. Your reflexes have to be lightning fast in order to stop and start fast enough to avoid the bags. The scariest part, though, is definitely getting by the final bag. It swings so fast it’s pretty much a blur.

  Of course both the Van Helsings raise their hands. They’ve probably got a course just like this in their mansion back home. I lift my hand too. As bad as my test score was, this might be my first chance to shine as a trainee. Or fall flat on my face—a really long fall.

  “You sure you’re up to this, kid?” Magnus asks.

  “Not really,” I say.

  He chuckles. “Gonna try anyway?”

  “Yep.”

  “Good.” He raises his voice. “A round of applause for our five brave volunteers.” He leads the applause. “Tell you what, let’s have you five line up out in the hall. Ain’t exactly fair to the first volunteer to let the others watch.”

  I head into the hallway with the others. The Van Helsings move to the back of the line, so I’ve got no choice but to take the spot behind them.

  For a second, I think maybe Lara will be so focused on completing the obstacle course that she might leave me alone, but then she turns to face me with that little grin of hers. “Nice Sky Sprints. Those might be the first pair ever made.”

  With so much on my mind already, I’m really not in the mood. My words just come pouring out. “What’s your problem with me? I get that you don’t like magicians. Guess what? No one does. But you’re the only person who’s made it their life’s mission to annoy me.”

  My outburst catches her off guard, but not for long. She crosses her arms. “Like you don’t know.”

  “Know what?” I ask. “I barely know anything about the supernatural world.” My test score yesterday is proof of that. “Is it all the attention I’m getting? Because my life would be a lot less complicated if nobody knew my name.”

  Lara goes red. “You think this is about attention? You really are as dumb as you look. I’ve got over two million followers on Eurg. I’ve got all the attention I need.”

  “Then why?” I ask desperately. “My brother and your sister were partners. Shouldn’t we try to be friends?”

  “Your brother is the reason my sister wasn’t there to watch me get my badge. The reason she’s never come back—” Emotion cuts her words short.

  I stand there, stunned. “What are you saying?”

  “If Quinton hadn’t convinced Maria to help him on some secret case, she’d still be here. She never even liked being a Special Agent. She wanted to be a trainer, like Agent Fiona, but your brother would always convince her to come back. And when she finally ignored him and put in her transfer papers, he guilted her into helping one last time. No one’s seen them since.”

  Secret case? Is that what Moreau meant when he said my brother was looking into something he shouldn’t? But Agent Magnus said that he’d know if VanQuish was working on anything out of the ordinary. Unless, maybe they kept it a secret from him too. “I . . . didn’t know,” I say.

  A loud oooh comes from inside the training gym. The others crowd the doorway and Lara lets Dylan pull her over too. Still in a daze, I get to the doorway last, just in time to see Brian Li lying on the floor rubbing his shoulder.

  “Bobbed when you should’ve weaved,” says Magnus, tossing him an icepack. He looks over at the rest of us in the doorway. “Who’s next?”

  Billy Pogo heads inside and me and Lara don’t speak again. She keeps to one side of her brother and I stand on the other. The worst part is that I could imagine Quinton doing what Lara said if he felt like it was the right thing. He was always so good with words. How many times had he convinced me to do something I didn’t want to do?

  Cheers ring out and we all rush back to the doorway.

  Agent Magnus is shaking Billy Pogo’s hand. “Never seen anyone trip and stumble their way past every bag. Kid, that Unnatural Luck ability of yours is really somethin’!”

  Now it’s Lara’s turn. Once she’s gone, it finally feels like I can breathe a little.

  “She’s really not as bad as she seems,” says Dylan. He tries to smile. “Well, she is, but she isn’t usually this bad.”

  “Is it true?” I ask. “What she said about Quinton and Maria splitting up?”

  Dylan leans his head back against the wall and nods. “But Maria and Quinton were partners for years before she decided to try something new. It only makes sense that Maria would still have Quinton’s back if he needed her. Partnership is a sacred bond for agents—there’s even a ceremony where you take an oath.”

  “You don’t blame him, then?” I ask.

  He shakes his head. “My sister is smart and brave and wouldn’t have let anybody make her do something she didn’t want to do.” Then he adds, “I miss her.”

  “I miss Quinton too,” I say. “Everything would be different if he were here. I wouldn’t feel so . . .” I stop myself from saying too much.

  “Alone?” Dylan says with a sad smile. “I know the feeling. Lara and I are twins, so everybody assumes we’re super close. But we’re nothing alike. Never have been. Lara likes to be the star of the show, but I’m more like Maria, happy to stay in the background.”

  He laughs at my raised eyebrows. “I know she was famous, but you don’t catch the most dangerous magician of all time and not get famous. Maria was cool with giving Quinton the spotlight, though, letting him do all the interviews.” He shrugs. “It’s just who she was.”

  Cheers go up in the training gym. Lara must have made it too. Dylan starts for the door but stops short. “You’re a natural in Sprints. Just take your time. The last bag moves so fast that you can’t stop to think, though. You’ve just gotta take a leap of faith. Do that and you’ve got a chance—but hesitate, and you’re going to get clobbered.”

  Dylan goes through the door, leaving me alone with a million thoughts swimming through my head. No surprise, he makes it through the obstacle course too. Now, it’s my turn.

  I can feel everyone watching me as I make my way across the training gym. When Magnus gives the signal, I start up the ladder to the first diving board. Except my hands are so sweaty from nerves I nearly fall. Snickers ring out.

  When I finally do get to the top, I make the mistake of looking down. The diving board is even higher than it seems from the floor. I swallow.

  You can do this, I tell myself. I squeeze my toes together to activate the hover feature and race toward the diving board on the opposite side of the room.

  Getting by the super slow bags is easy. The next few are a little faster, and I have to slow a down a couple times to avoid them. I pass bag five, then bag six. So far so good.

  My arm is clipped by bag nine and it nearly knocks me off balance, but I’m just barely able to catch myself. I sprint past bag ten and stumble past bag eleven by accident. I come to a stop in front of bag twelve. Even up close this thing moves so fast I can barely keep track of it.

  Dylan said to make a l
eap of faith. That means I just have to believe I’ll make it, right?

  But what if I don’t? What if I’m not cut out for this?

  I tense up at the thought but then force myself to stagger forward . . .

  I don’t even see the bag coming. I just feel a sudden impact and I’m falling. At some point my shoes light up and the hover feature activates, so that I’m hanging upside down in midair. My eyes are level with Magnus.

  “Gave it a good shot,” says Magnus. “Almost got there on your first day.”

  Too bad it wasn’t good enough.

  To say that I’m grumpy after sucking at the Invisible Bridge would be an understatement. Am I even good enough to pass Friday’s tryout? The reality that I could fail and be sent home sends a shiver down my back. Director Van Helsing made it clear I won’t get another chance. And what’s worse, they’ll take my memories too.

  These might be my final days in the supernatural world. I could be running out of time to get any of the answers I came here for. But I know of at least one answer I can get right now. I pull out my phone and message magiciangirl18.

  From: Amari_Peters

  How do I know YOU aren’t Moreau’s apprentice???

  The moment I hit send, I regret it. Accusing someone of being evil isn’t how you treat someone who wants to help. If she gets upset and never messages me again, could I really blame her?

  So far, no response. Usually she answers right away. That worries me so much I slide my phone in my pocket and try to think about something else.

  Fifteen minutes later, my phones finally buzzes as I’m sitting down for lunch in the food court. I’m so anxious that I fumble and drop the thing.

  It’s not a new message. Instead, it’s an Eurg notification suggesting I send a friend request to Lara Van Helsing. Like she needs any more friends. I glance over at her joking with a group of Junior Agent trainees on the other side of the food court and then click on her page.

  Scrolling through her pictures only worsens my mood. She really does have 2 million followers—2.3 million to be exact. I see her hugging her father in front of Van Helsing Manor—the place looks like the outside of a mall. In another photo she’s on a street made of gold, blowing a kiss to the camera. The best photo is one where she’s staring out the window of an underwater train at a city that glows. The caption reads, Headed to Atlantis with Mom for a weekend of shopping! Our lives really couldn’t be any more different. In every way.

  Dylan must’ve been telling the truth about him and Lara not being close because I don’t see him in any of her photos. He doesn’t even have an Eurgphmthilthmsphlthm page.

  My phone buzzes in my hand.

  New Message from magiciangirl18:

  I’m not, I promise!

  Tell you what, since you’ve proven you can keep my secret, why don’t we meet face-to-face?

  I read the message twice. She wants us to meet up? In person?

  “Your aura is extremely purple,” says Elsie as she plops down at my table. She sets a copy of Physics in Magic: The Often Lack Thereof on the table in front of her.

  I frown and shove my phone back into my pocket. “What’s that mean?”

  “Purple can be tricky, but it usually means somebody’s feeling overwhelmed. Still thinking about Moreau? Or is it the plan—your part does seem a lot harder than mine.”

  I hate that I still can’t be honest with her about magiciangirl18’s messages. At least not yet. I’m not exactly thrilled about the idea of meeting up with a stranger, especially after Moreau, but if this girl really is willing to help me, then I also don’t want to do anything to mess it up.

  “It’s this tryout,” I tell Elsie. “You know how bad I flunked the first test. They said you really can’t prepare for the first Junior Agent tryout, but I’m sure you have to know something about the supernatural world.”

  Elsie shrugs. “Maybe you don’t.”

  “Maybe . . .” I say, unconvinced. “Do you know what your first tryout will be?”

  Elsie frowns. “A test—but Junior Researcher and Junior Agent are very different.”

  I think back to how confidently she wrote down Junior Researcher at the departmental presentations. “Do you like it? Junior Researcher training, I mean?”

  Her whole face brightens, and she goes on this long rant about all the amazing things she’s learned and seen and done. Because of all the great ideas she’s constantly coming up with, she’s even been asked to sit in on some brainstorming sessions with the adult researchers at the Department of Magical Science. Just seeing her excitement lifts my own spirits.

  After ten minutes of catching up, a few researcher trainees stop by our table.

  “Hey, Els,” says a smiling Korean girl in a lab coat.

  Elsie explains that this is her Junior Researcher trainee lab partner, Gemma, and I instantly feel jealous. It hasn’t even been a full day of training and she’s already given Elsie a nickname. I haven’t even given Elsie a nickname.

  Gemma gives me a little wave. “The Junior Researchers have a table near the taco stand and they’re inviting the trainees to come watch them demonstrate all seven kinds of explosions. The magical ones are supposed to be really cool.”

  Elsie’s eyes flash with excitement, but she tries to hide it. “No, thanks. I’m just going to hang with my roomie today.”

  “No,” I say. “You should go. We can hang out later.” I glance toward the Van Helsing table. “I should probably try to get to know the Junior Agent trainees.”

  “If you’re sure . . .” Elsie eyes me like she’s waiting for me to change my mind. I wonder what my aura looks like right now.

  Once Elsie is gone, I reread magiciangirl18’s message. Do I really want to meet this girl? What if she’s not even who she says she is? There might be some kind of creature out there that eats magicians for dinner and lures them to its den through social media. Okay, that sounds dumb, but still, it’s so obvious to me that meeting up is a bad idea.

  But then, the same could be true for my next move.

  I pick up my tray and start toward the Junior Agent trainee table. My heart thumps in my chest. This might be worse than when I had to go onstage and accept my moonstone badge. This will be fine. Some of those kids cheered for me earlier.

  I can’t go the whole summer without making more friends. And Elsie shouldn’t have to blow off her new Junior Researcher trainee friends just to keep me from sitting alone.

  I can do this. Lara may hate me but Dylan seems okay when he wants to be. I manage to get most of the way there before Brian Li notices me and gives Lara a nudge.

  Lara groans. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Um, I thought I’d sit with you guys today.” I put on my best smile.

  “Sorry,” says Lara. “Only people with legal abilities are allowed. Besides, we wouldn’t want to catch whatever it was you gave the Crystal Ball.”

  A few of the others laugh. Some even throw their feet atop the empty chairs at the table to keep me from sitting. I look around for someone to have my back but even the kids who cheered me on in the training gym won’t meet my eyes now.

  Finally, I look to Dylan, hoping to find some hint of the boy who talked to me when we were alone in the hallway. But he just pushes his food around his plate. Guess I’m only worth being nice to when he doesn’t have family around.

  It’s Jefferson Academy all over again.

  I turn and walk straight out of the food court. No way I’m gonna let them see me cry.

  New Message from magiciangirl18:

  They’re never going to accept you. But I will if you give me a chance.

  How does she know already? You know what—I don’t even care. I type up a quick reply.

  From: Amari_Peters

  When and where?

  New Message from magiciangirl18:

  Tomorrow. I’ll message you in the morning with a time and place.

  17

  WHEN I WAKE THE NEXT MORNING, THE FIRST THING I do is ch
eck my phone to see if magiciangirl18 has messaged about meeting up. If she really has info about Moreau, even just about being a magician, this could be major.

  Unfortunately, when I click on the Eurg icon, I get this message:

  Error! Please update Othernet App

  And because I have the worst luck ever, Elsie’s bed is empty. She’s not even in the food court for breakfast. Apparently the Junior Researcher trainees all have to attend a presentation from some really old, really famous magical scientist who’s visiting from the Bureau’s London outpost. Which means I have to skip breakfast and go to the lobby of the Department of Magical Science to wait for her.

  Whispers the elevator shouts, “NOW ARRIVING AT THE DEPARTMENT OF MAGICAL SCIENCE,” as its doors open to a wall of purplish-blue flames. At first, I figure he must have the floors mixed up. Then I remember the lobby of the Department of Magical Science is constantly changing to reflect current breakthroughs in the field.

  “Whispers?” I ask. “Is it safe to walk through that?”

  “YES!” Whispers shouts.

  “Okay,” I say, covering my ears. I stretch one foot out through the burning wall. Thankfully I don’t turn into Amari-flavored BBQ, so I hop the rest of me through the fire. Once I’m safely on the other side, a tiny metal drone floats over to where I’m standing.

  “You just stepped through a wall of Nightfyre. What you may not know is that Nightfyre isn’t actually a true fire at all, but rather a convergence of naturally occurring free magick and ultraviolet light energy that combusts harmlessly!”

  “That’s great,” I say, not caring at all.

  “Would you like to hear more about the scientist who discovered Nightfyre?” asks the drone. “He’s visiting today.”