Fire Trap : A Young Adult Fantasy (Arcturus Academy Book 2)

by A. L. Knorr

  I’d had a lovely Easter holiday visiting Georjayna in Scotland, and she’d provided an excellent distraction from the fallout after ‘the April incident’, as it had come to be known. Students had finally gotten over the fear of catching whatever it was she had, and things at the academy felt somewhat normal again. They probably weren’t normal for the other magi who’d lost their fire overnight, but Basil said nothing had been able to reverse it and the agency had no promising leads, on a cause or a cure. To each their own problems. I had visions of smooth sailing to the end of the semester and the completion of high school. April was happy and I didn’t know any of the other bereft magi personally, so my grades were my focus.

  Taking a sip of water and a stretch between math and philosophy homework, I lifted my face to the sky and closed my eyes, reaching my arms overhead and feeling a pleasant crackle in my spine.

  A shadow fell across my closed eyes. “Mind if I join you?”

  Blinking at the backlit silhouette of Gage, I grinned. “Are you skipping history just to hang out with me? Bad boy.”

  He moved to take the seat across from me and his features came clear.

  I scowled and snapped my textbook closed, put it on top of my laptop as I closed that. I reached for my backpack. When Ryan moved in, I moved out.

  “You sound just like your brother when you’re not snarling or hurling insults,” I said. “I’m done. You can have my table.”

  “Please.” Ryan put up a hand, his tone friendly. “I come in peace.”

  Half-off my seat with my laptop and books in arms and my backpack slung over one shoulder, I peered at him. “Peace? I didn’t know you knew the meaning of the word.”

  “Sit. I mean it.” Ryan folded his hands, his expression serene.

  “If this is a trick—” I interrupted myself with a laugh devoid of humor. “Of course it’s a trick, what else would it be?”

  Yet, for some reason, I sat. Partly from pure curiosity, partly because my Canadian manners were hard-wired. When someone was polite and civil, one wasn’t to return it with rudeness, even if one didn’t like the person in question.

  “It’s not a trick,” he said. “I just want to talk.”

  I set my pile on the stone table again and let my backpack rest on the bench beside my hips. I sat, but my quads quivered with tension, ready to leap up at the first sign of foul play. “So, talk. But you’ve got about two minutes, a courtesy I’m extending for Gage’s sake. Don’t waste it.”

  He pinched his lips briefly until they almost disappeared, then relaxed them again. His shoulders shifted down, as though settling in. For a moment he looked at me in a studious way, brows pinched from the bright sunlight rather than ire as he blinked in the glare of a cloudless day.

  “My folks have an antique business,” he said, “I think you know that. Most people in Saltford have been there.”

  I nodded and moved my pile of textbooks and my laptop aside to rest my elbows on the table. “Radar Antiques. It burnt down last summer when your pyromaniac girlfriend went on a rampage. She’s lucky no one died.”

  Ryan nodded, expression unchanged, unbothered by the mention of Calista. “I agree.”

  “Did they lose a lot of valuable things?” Silly question, of course they did. Their shop burnt down. But what else was I supposed to say? My nemesis appeared to be extending an olive branch?

  “Some. But they had a lot in storage. My grandfather on Mom’s side rented a bunch of sea-cans and stored them on a lot in land. They always had more inventory than they knew what to do with. My parents are constantly dithering about opening another location, although restocking the renovated store helped lower...” He paused and shook his head. “Anyway, that’s not the point.”

  What is the point, Ryan? I wanted to ask, but kept my mouth shut. For now. I began to pick off the little bits of pale green lichen that had grown along the table’s surface over the years.

  “Mom wants Gage and me to take over the business one day, but I find it soul-suckingly boring. The only good thing about it, in my opinion, is that occasionally they come home with something interesting. Stuff they can’t identify but that they know is valuable. Stuff they’ll never sell.”

  I began to tap my fingernails on the stone.

  Ryan reached into the front of his jacket and pulled out his cell phone. He woke the phone up and began to interact with the screen, scrolling and tapping.

  “There’s this one item I think you’ll find intriguing.” He held the phone out so I could see the image.

  At first I squinted at it, then I gaped and reached for the phone. He let me take it. I shaded the screen from the sunlight with a hand as I studied the photograph, taking note also of the date it was taken.

  It was a kind of ball, but made of some unknown substance that looked like a rusted copper. It wasn’t quite the right shade for copper, though, and hadn’t turned green. It had a pattern pressed into its surface, as though wrapped by string tightly enough to leave a depression in a pretty symmetrical design. It was uncannily like the objects in the sketches in Basil’s greenhouse.

  I lifted my eyes to Ryan, my skin beginning to creep.

  “Do you recognize it?” He crossed his arms and slouched like he was watching a baseball game. How could he be so calm?

  “Kind of.” I narrowed my eyes. “Your parents have this?”

  He held his hand out for the phone and I handed it over. “Not any more. I’ve liberated it from them.”

  “You mean you stole it? From your own folks. Always classy.” I shook my head.

  He didn’t rise to my sarcasm, just tucked his phone away. “They won’t notice it’s missing. At least, not for a while. It was in a safe in one of my grandpa’s storage units. It wasn’t until you and I found Basil’s mold-riddled art studio that I understood something of its true value.”

  I didn’t say anything when he paused, but my mind was furiously snapping puzzle pieces together. The plaster molds of strange shapes. The look on Ryan’s face when I thought he’d seen a ghost. He’d seen one of the molds and recognized that it would make something quite similar to an artifact he’d seen before. Basil had been trying to replicate this relic in plaster, maybe he still was. He’d drawn pictures of it in his youth. He claimed to have given up the pursuit, but it was obvious to me he hadn’t.

  I broke the silence. “Does Basil know about this thing?”

  Ryan shook his head. “Imagine his reaction if he knew we had it. Imagine its true value.”

  Basil would love to know about the Wendig’s possession, and he’d give a lot to get his hands on it. We both knew he would. Whatever this weird little unidentified object was, it was priceless, and it might even hold secrets to the origins of the magi.

  “What is its true value, Ryan?” I tried to sound nonchalant but my pulse was speeding up.

  “No one knows for sure.” Ryan watched me like a big cat watches a gazelle from the jungle undergrowth. “But when I was young my dad told me that it was a key to unlocking some great power. Mom said it was nonsense and that my dad should stop telling us boys ridiculous stories. But if it’s not powerful, then why is Basil trying to make replicas of it? And why is he hiding the fact that he’s trying to make replicas of it?”

  I just looked at him. My heart was doing backflips but I sat there, no expression. I didn’t want to let him see how much he’d unsettled me.

  “Dad tried to access its power once,” he went on, tone casual. “I think he even felt something. But he wasn’t worthy.”

  “Why is that, do you suppose?”

  He pinned me with those piercing blue eyes. “He’s not Burned.”

  My skin marbled into goosebumps. I was glad I was wearing a windbreaker or Ryan would see fur standing up all over my arms.

  Ryan lay his hands flat on the table. “So, I’m playing my best and final hand here, Saxony. If you take me through a Burning, I’ll hand this relic over to you. For free. You and Basil are the only ones who can do anything with it
anyway, and I can’t reach Burned status without you. So I’m willing to give you my family’s most priceless treasure. More than that, I’m willing to hand over an artifact that may unlock the secret history of our origin as a species. And all you have to do is watch me writhe in pain for a while, then give me a drink of water.”

  My mouth felt glued shut it was so dry. My heart was thundering. Hoping he couldn’t hear it, I allowed a sullen stare. Don’t react, don’t react, don’t react chimed the incessant warning in my mind. Though I might manage to keep my demeanor calm and detached, Ryan had slipped the equivalent of an icy blade between my ribs and pierced the heart of my desires. Want leaked from the wound, filling my imagination with possibilities. Basil would be amazed, incredulous, grateful beyond measure. Age-old questions might be answered.

  I gave myself a sharp internal shake.

  “It’s not yours to give, Ryan,” I replied coolly.

  “It’s in my possession, so yes. It is,” he fired back.

  “Your parents will protest.”

  He propped his chin in his hand. “My parents are blissfully unaware. Even if they knew, there is nothing they can do about it. Only I know its whereabouts.”

  I felt like I’d swallowed something that had no business entering my body, ice cubes or the head of a Scottish thistle. “Don’t you care at all about betraying your family? Haven’t you any scruples?”

  “It’s hardly a betrayal to liberate something that’s been rusting away inside a safe for twenty years or more. One could even view keeping it locked up and hidden more of a betrayal to our kind than stealing and releasing it.” Ryan gave me a weary look and put his hand down, dropping his chin. “Come on, Saxony. Enough with the parade of morality. Doesn’t it ever get cold up there on your high horse? What I’m offering is of far greater value than what you’ll give me in exchange.” His gaze softened along with his voice. “Just take it. The dust will settle. In the end, my dad will be so thrilled that I’m Burned that he won’t even raise a question.”

  “Your dad won’t be thrilled when you turn up dead,” I snapped. “And he’ll have me to blame for it.”

  Ryan’s voice turned beseeching, he sounded so much like Gage when he spoke like that. “I don’t know how to assure you that my death will not be the outcome.”

  He reached across the table and took one of my hands. Heat spiraled from his fingertips and wound its way around the bones of my arms, ribboning itself through my gut and tangling with my heart’s own fire. My fingers trembled and I knew he felt it.

  “You won’t fail, Saxony. You cannot. I wouldn’t put my life in your hands if I believed it for even a second.”

  He sounded like a friend, and that scared me more than anything else.

  “Why are you so sure?”

  He lifted a shoulder and released my hand, letting his own slide back across the table. “Because you’re the most powerful, most breath-takingly spectacular fire mage I have ever laid eyes on. It’s not in you to fail.”

  My breath hitched as I stared at him, faintly recalling April’s suggestion that he was in love with me. My heart balked at the thought.

  “Just think about it.” He got up from the table in a fluid motion.

  I kept my eyes on the stone and listened as he walked away. The soles of his sneakers gritted on the flagstones as his footsteps faded. Less. Just a whisper. Gone. Now there was only the chattering birds, the sighing of the English Channel, and the beating of my own conflicted heart.

  Eighteen

  Disclosures

  I had no appetite for the rest of the day after Ryan’s offer. I was too distracted to make progress in math so now I was behind on that, too. I sent Gage a text to meet me as I made my way to my room and busied myself by answering emails and double checking math problems I’d answered long ago.

  My phone dinged with a message from Gage. Perhaps sharing what Ryan was up to would wake Gage up to the reality of his brother’s devious nature. Not only that, I expected he would be able to confirm or deny the possibility that Ryan had the relic, and maybe shed some light on its authenticity.

  I opened the door almost before he knocked, planted a kiss on his lips and led him over to my bed after kicking the door closed.

  “You look upset. Everything okay?” He slid back on my bed to lean against the wall.

  I settled on my chair and drew a leg up as I looked at him. “I need your help.”

  “Anything,” he said immediately, which made my heart melt.

  Outside my window, the shush of the trees picked up as wind whistled over the academy grounds. I glanced at the sky where bruise-colored clouds had moved in from across the Channel. Dragging my gaze back to Gage, I inhaled deeply.

  “What do you know about a tennis-ball sized relic in your parents’ storage container?”

  Gage’s lips pinched in thought. “Not much. Why?”

  “But it does exist?”

  “Yes. Something like that does exist. I haven’t seen it since I was a kid, but I recall my parents discussing it years ago. Dad suggested it had some kind of dormant powers, Mom said that was ridiculous. I’d forgotten all about it.” His eyes narrowed. “How do you know about it?”

  I let out my pent-up breath. “Your brother is using it to barter with me.”

  Gage’s head recoiled. “What do you mean barter?”

  “He says he’ll give me the relic in exchange for—” I paused, not sure how Gage was going to take this, “—helping him survive a Burning.”

  Gage gaped and then laughed, incredulous. “Not this again. Man, that kid never gives up.” He shook his head, looking amused.

  “It’s not funny, Gage. He showed me a photograph of the relic. I’ve seen drawings Basil did that look too much like it to be a coincidence. Basil also believes it might be valuable. Priceless, in fact.” I left out the fact that Basil claimed it was foolishness the same way the twin’s mom had. If Basil really thought that, he wouldn’t still be trying to make replicas in a secret studio under his office.

  “When?” Gage was still grinning like an idiot. “When did you see this drawing? This semester?”

  I nodded, not sure why it mattered.

  “Did Ryan see it too?”

  “I don’t think so. It’s in Basil’s private greenhouse.”

  “Then how would he know the relic was something he could barter with?”

  “Because.” I swallowed and lowered my voice. “When Ryan and I had to do that cleaning as community service last semester, he discovered a secret door in Basil’s office. It led to a room beneath the office: an art studio.”

  Gage’s eyes narrowed now, his smile frozen in place.

  “On a table down there were a bunch of plaster molds. It looked like Basil was trying to make models of the relic, maybe to figure out what it looked like because he’s never seen it in person. I didn’t know what they were, but Ryan looked like he’d seen a ghost and I knew that he knew more than he was letting on. He pretended it was nothing, but I never forgot his expression.”

  Gage’s smile melted away. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

  I picked up my charging cable where it lay on my desk and began to wind the cord around my fingers, feeling nervous. “Because I was ashamed and embarrassed. We shouldn’t have been down there in the first place. But what Ryan saw must have confirmed your dad’s old theories about the relic. Now Ryan says he has it, and he’ll give it to me if I help him.”

  Looking serious now, Gage shook his head. “It’s impossible, Saxony. It’s been locked up in a safe in the back of a shipping container for two decades or more. Ryan and I didn’t go home for Christmas. If this happened last semester, and he’s recently figured out that the relic might be genuinely valuable, he still hasn’t been home to take it from the sea-can. He’s leading you down the garden path.”

  “I would agree with you, except that I looked at the date on the photo,” I replied. “It was taken six weeks ago.”

  Gage’s face underwent a s
ubtle change, similar to someone waking up from a deep sleep. He pressed his hips forward and rooted his cell out of his pocket, almost dropping it. He opened the dial-pad and hit a memory dial code, I could hear the automatic sequence coming through the speaker.

  “Who are you—” I began.

  He put his finger to his lips and held the mobile to his ear, a knee jiggling up and down.

  I heard the distant buzz of a feminine voice answer.

  “Hey, Mom.” Gage plunged the fingers of one hand into his hair and tugged it upward in absent-minded strokes. “No, everything is fine. How are you?”

  The phone buzzed with Angelica’s answer and returned inquiry.

  “I’m good. I just have a weird question for you. You know that old relic grandpa found? The one in the sea-can?”

  She buzzed an answer back.

  “Do you have any reason to believe it’s not still there?”

  He waited as she buzzed into his ear, then winced as he replied: “Would you mind checking? It’s important. I’m sorry, I know you’re busy getting ready for that auction.”

  She buzzed like a hornet this time, but there was a pause, and Gage didn’t fill in the dead air. It almost sounded like a standoff. I imagined Angelica sighing and rolling her eyes, but giving in because she doted on her boys. She’d be nuts if Gage wasn’t her clear favorite, but maybe she was just as blind to Ryan’s true nature as Gage was.

  When the phone buzzed with an answer, Gage looked up at me with a little nod, his brow creased. He let out a long breath and quit harassing his hair, which now stood up in angled spikes like an aloe vera plant. “Thanks, Mom. I owe you.”

  There was a short buzz.

  “I’ll explain why if it’s missing, okay?”

  They said goodbye and Gage hung up. He tossed his phone onto the bed and rubbed his face up and down vigorously with both hands as he let out a groan of frustration. “Oh, Ryan.”