by Nika Gray
The headmaster’s eyes were unreadable now.
“Why are you helping me?”
“There are bigger forces at play here and I believe you are mixed up in them somehow. This affects us all. All of our families in the magical community.”
“I see,” I said even though I didn’t.
“Your magic also presented itself to you that night?”
“That's right,” I nodded. “I’ve always had unique abilities to protect myself, especially from the foster dads who came after me. The magic never manifested the way it's been showing up now.”
“Have you been working on controlling your magic since I last saw you?” he asked.
“It’s only been a day, headmaster. It seems to reveal itself when I get emotional,” I confessed.
“And you're wearing the conduit ring when this happens?”
“Nobody else has seen this magic without the conduit ring,” I lied. That was the answer he wanted to hear. By the look on his face, he didn’t entirely buy it, though.
“Have you uncovered what type of magic it is?” I asked.
“I’m still researching that.” He stared off into the distance, his face pale and I caught a slight tremble in his hand.
Shit, this was a lot worse than he was letting on. Headmaster Hotchkiss turned back to me and I knew my time was up.
“Go get some breakfast, Sadie,” he said. “And thank you for coming to me with these details.”
I stood, picked up the book bag, and followed him to the door.
“Sadie, I must ask that for now you speak to no one about your memories, understand?”
I turned back to him and his expression was stern.
“Focus on controlling your magic. I’m afraid you will need to defend yourself very soon.”
His voice held a sense of urgency which didn’t make the churning in my stomach feel any better. I’d come here hopeful and now I was scared shitless again.
“Thank you for meeting with me so early,” I said. “And I’m so sorry I’m putting you in obvious danger.”
He opened the door and gave me an impulsive hug.
“Thank you for trusting me with this, Sadie. I promise I won't let you down,” he said with evident emotion in his voice.
His statement scared me even more. I nodded, unable to find my voice.
As I walked down the garden path to the gate, the day had an ominous new cast to it. I broke into a run wanting to get out of the village before any of the professors could see me cry.
The not knowing of who was really after me was scarier than three old mages. Why did this all have to be a damn secret? The anxiety of watching my back without knowing what I was looking for was too intense to even contemplate. I checked the time and saw it was only seven.
I didn't have any desire to go back to my dorm room and I wasn’t very hungry, either. My book bag had the history books I needed for my afternoon class. The battle magic class didn’t have books as far as I could tell.
I decided to find a quiet spot on the main quad and get my bearings on this society I’d been thrust into. I started back up the small hill and noticed some students going toward the lake for a jog.
I flashed back to my time with Fergus the night before and how we couldn’t keep our hands off each other on our walk back to the dorms. We couldn’t resist the magnetic magic desire and kept stepping off the path to make out more. It took us close to an hour to get back to West Campus. My body tingled from the memory.
I found a cozy spot on the quad right outside of Bloodstyne Hall and settled in to read more of this magical history.
I ended up reading the history book for close to two hours and was the first one in the lecture hall for Battle Magic 101. I sat on the end of the fourth row and went back to reading my history book as more first-year students filtered in.
To my disappointment, I didn't see Fergus in the crowd. I was certain he’d said he was in the class this morning. A girl sat down next to me with brown hair that was pulled back into a ponytail and big brown eyes with freckles scattered on the bridge of her nose and cheeks.
“You’re new here, right?” she asked.
“I am. I started a couple of days ago,” I said.
“This is an intense class to be starting two weeks in. If you need any help, let me know. I’m not the best, but I’ve picked up some skills,” she said.
“What's your name?” I asked.
“Alexis Schoenberg,” she said and held out her hand. I shook it.
“Sadie Bishop.” It felt good saying my name.
“Nice to meet you, Sadie Bishop.”
“Have you been inside the battle world yet?” I asked.
“You know about that then?” she asked.
“Headmaster Hotchkiss was telling me about how we could practice our magic safely,” I said.
She was about to say something when a tall dark man came into the room. He had to be close to six-foot-five with long black hair and black eyes. He had a dark complexion and by the way he moved you could tell he was a fighter. His movements reminded me of a cat stalking prey.
“I see we have our new arrival here,” he said.
He pointed at me and I nodded.
“What's your name?” he asked.
“Sadie Bishop,” I said.
“I am Professor Krysz and I’ll be your battle instructor for the year. The headmaster has assigned you private lessons with one of the other students, correct?”
I nodded.
“Good. Being two weeks behind leaves you at a distinct disadvantage,” he said.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sonia and Avery start whispering when my extra help was announced. That wasn’t a good sign.
The latecomers finished straggling in. When I looked behind me, I was shocked to see a good hundred people filling the hall. I hadn’t realized our class was so large.
From the reading I’d been doing, the Borderlands were vast. A hundred mages patrolling it didn’t seem to be close to enough.
Professor Krysz began the lesson by opening a portal and calling out two names.
“Mage Herberts and Mage Craig, you’re up.”
A young guy with a scruffy beard started down the stairs. My roommate and minion Avery joined him in front of the portal. They stepped inside and the portal closed behind them.
The entire wall behind the professor turned into a screen that showed the mirror world where Avery and Mage Herberts had been transported.
The two students faced off.
Both of them were wearing conduit rings and circling each other.
Herberts made the first move by creating circles of fire in front of him and punching them toward Avery who dodged them like an expert boxer.
I was surprised by how light on her feet she was.
She in turn muttered some words and created a fiery lasso out of thin air. He tried to jump away, but she whipped it around his legs and yanked him onto the ground.
He hit the ground hard and she was on top of him in a flash, her conduit ring at his throat.
The class clapped and the portal opened again to let the two students out.
“Great work, Mage Craig,” Professor Krysz said to Avery.
She bowed her head like she was a queen and went back to her seat, smiling like a fat cat with a mouse in its mouth. Mage Herberts limped red-faced back to his.
Professor Krysz replayed the fight on the massive screen and got down to business critiquing their every move. He outlined what Herberts could have done with another spell to make sure he hit Avery and then used a hex to counteract Avery’s lasso.
He wrote several spells on the board and everyone around me pulled out notebooks and began to copy them down. I knew I didn’t have a notebook in my bag. Nor a pen for that matter. It had been a long time since I’d been in school. I sat there feeling as dumb as I’m sure I looked until Alexis pushed a piece of paper and an extra pen towards me.
“First days are always hard,” she said.
The rest of the class followed in a similar fashion. All in all, there were five sets of students who sparred against each other and watching their magic, I fully understood what Fergus had been telling me last night.
The mages battled each other using hexes and spells pushed through the conduit ring. The conduit rings were the key to their magic.
The ring was always involved in conjuring the fire, or the energy ball, or the force they threw at the other mage.
Fergus was right. That wasn't the magic that happened between us, or Cole and me for that matter. I hoped Fergus was in the library right now figuring out what in the world we had conjured together.
I also had to figure out how to hide my ability. If I was called on to spar, I’d have to hide my magic behind that damn conduit ring.
I had no problem not fitting in. That was my lot in life. I also didn't want to bring attention to myself and give any reason for the other students to question my being here.
Relief flooded me as class came to an end. My anxiety was going through the roof and I desperately wanted to find Fergus and talk to him about what he’d discovered, if anything.
Alexis invited me to lunch with her, but I’d already said I would meet Kelly and I wasn't sure if the two of them were friends. Kelly hadn’t been in class, either and I wanted to find out why. I worried it had something to do with the conversation I’d had with her dad.
I said my thank yous and goodbyes to Alexis and headed down to Gallagher Hall on West Campus hoping I’d find both Kelly and Fergus there.
Chapter 9
Fergus
I rubbed my eyes hard and swore under my breath. I’d been at the Trahern library for the last four hours, skipping battle magic class, even knowing I’d get a heap of shit for that from Professor Krysz. Still, I hadn’t found a damn thing about what happened with my magic the night before.
Last night I dreamt of a place filled with sun, sandy beaches, and a castle perched on a bluff overlooking the ocean. People who looked like me, with my similar coloring, filled what looked like a ballroom, bowed to me, and called me their king. The dreams rattled me enough that I woke up shouting in the middle of the night that I wasn’t anyone’s king.
My shouting woke up Declan, but I didn’t ask what he’d heard. He already knew something was going on with me. I woke up earlier than he did this morning, hoping to avoid any questions I knew he’d throw my way.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to tell him about the magic. He was my best friend and true family. I just didn’t know how to describe to him what was happening inside of me. It felt as if I was going mental.
I’d gathered all the books I could find about the kinds of magic mages could wield. We could shape air with illusions, shape metal through calling up the earth’s energy, heal with water magic, use fire to open portals, but all of that needed to be harnessed through the conduit ring.
There were no spells, hexes, or even curses that could explain the kind of magic that had manifested itself between Sadie and me the night before. Or the molten gold I saw crawling up my arm this morning. Or the power I felt coursing through me even now.
My heart thumped at the thought of my father finding out about this. Gregory Mathonwy could barely stand my presence as it was. If he saw this magic, he’d call me a freak and this new ability would once again bring up the unspoken question of who my real father was.
Gregory, or father, as he demanded he be called, was convinced I wasn’t his. I’d always been the unwanted son because I looked so different than Gregory. He was small and dark and brutish just like my brother, Anand. They reminded me of ferrets.
My mother was dark-haired and olive-skinned, too. I, with my golden skin and hair, and pale blue eyes, and height looked nothing like the rest of my family. I stuck out and my father hated me for it. If I hadn’t come out of my mother’s womb, she would have disowned me as well. She was a piece of work of the highest order, to put it lightly.
Regina Mathonwy was a power-hungry woman who sidled up and became the lackey of the real bastards of the Magic Council. Like Fredrick Bloodstyne, whom I believed she’d do anything for. Before I left for the Protectors Academy, she warned me not to do anything to put shame on the family name or I would pay. I fully believed her, even though I had no idea exactly how she could torture me. I knew she was fully capable of making me suffer if I embarrassed her, or created any obstacles in whatever goal she was trying to accomplish this time.
Magic oozing out of me and turning me into molten gold without a conduit ring firmly placed me fully in the shit. I’d done everything demanded of me to belong in the mage community. I was always careful and kept my nose clean as one of the heirs to the seat on the Council.
I went through the motions, knowing that even though I was the firstborn son, I wasn’t the favorite. I knew that seat belonged to Anand if my mother had her way. The only thing stopping her from declaring it so, was the rules of the Magic Council. The seat belonged to the firstborn, and no one could deny I’d come out of her womb before Anand.
Once I’d arrived at the Protectors Academy, it was actually my ability and not my family name that set me apart. After the first week of trials, Professor Krysz had pulled me aside and given me more complex spells and hexes to learn. He believed I’d make it as a crawler on the Borderlands which was one of the most sought-after stations.
With this new magic, where did I fit in now? What if during one of the sparring sessions, the magic revealed itself to everyone? My breath caught in my throat at the thought. I coughed to clear the lump and felt unease ripple through me. Word would absolutely get back to my family immediately. This was magic the likes of which I’d never seen before and I’d been around plenty of magical folk my entire life.
My parents would finally have an excuse to throw me out of the family and declare Anand was taking my place on the Council, even though he was second born.
If I was honest with myself, I really didn’t care one iota about being on the Council. They could rip each other apart without me joining in.
I sighed in frustration and closed another book. I’d read something about this kind of magic some place before, but I couldn’t place it. Maybe it had been at the Stonewood Academy we’d all graduated from several years before. What worried me the most was that this magic reminded me of all the tales I’d read about Faerie magic.
Stop it, I told myself again. Each time I concluded this magic reminded me of that, my brain rejected it. I just couldn’t make that leap because if it were true, my entire world would come crashing down on my head.
I’d been born the year the Fae War ended and no one I knew had ever encountered a Fae creature in this realm. It was impossible. We’d locked them all out. There was no way across the Veil and even if there was, they wouldn’t get far. All along the Borderlands the alerts would have gone out and the hunt would never end until the Fae had been neutralized. I pushed the thought from my mind again.
I scooted my chair back and the screech echoed up and down the grand reading room. There was no use staying here any longer if I had no idea what I was looking for. I needed to make it to my next class. My absence surely must have been noticed already and my family might even know.
I walked through the long stacks of books and made my way to the stairs, then out the door to the main quad. I had borderlands study next and Professor Linden was boring as hell, but I didn’t want Declan to think I’d really gone off the deep end. He was in both battle magic and borderlands study with me and he knew my family’s expectations. My missing battle magic would tip him off to something going down with me.
Something big was going down and her name was Sadie Bishop. When I saw her across the quad with Kelly Hotchkiss, I thought she was a hot piece of ass. She had a way of moving that was graceful, almost like a ballerina or something. Her height should make her seem gangly, but it didn’t. She was all grace, strength, and long c
urves.
The closer I was to her, the stronger her gravitational force became. My body craved to be near her. Her proximity gave me a boundless, energizing force that wanted to crawl out of me. Maybe, that’s what the golden magic was?
I could feel my dick get hard as I pictured her in my mind, writhing beneath me, pure joy seeping out of her. God, she rocked my world last night.
I’d had my fair share of chicks before, but none of those experiences came close to this one. I never bothered to get serious with any of them. My future was already planned out for me and there was only a handful of women that were good enough for my father. None of them I had any interest in whatsoever.
I gritted my teeth at the realization that I’d again allowed Gregory to infiltrate my mind and chase any goodness out of it. Who cared about the future, anyway? I’d tasted the joy of letting go and being wholly myself last night and I’d be damned before letting anything stop me from having it again.
The joy of watching our magic playing together had been the closest I’d ever felt of being complete. That feeling of wholeness had been so lacking in my life. Sadie Bishop made my head spin.
I heard my name being called and turned around to see Declan waving me down. He had a stormy look on his face.
“What’s gotten into you?” he asked. He knew what even one small misstep would cost me.
“If I knew I would tell you,” I finally said.
“You were talking in your sleep again,” he said and fell in step alongside me.
“What was I saying?”
“You called out her name,” he said. We headed towards Longbane hall for our borderlands class.
“I guess I have something for her,” I said.
I wasn’t technically lying to him as I did have something for her. He shot me a knowing look. Who was I kidding? Declan knew better than anyone else in my life.
“Something strange is happening with my magic,” I said.
