Poisoned Garden

by Tracy Korn

  "I'll make it up to you," he said, stopping just before he went ahead to help with the Salamander honing session. "If you'll let me."

  "Teach me to fly, and we'll call it a good start," I answered. The corner of his mouth tacked up, and he gave me a little nod.

  "Meet me on the cliff tonight. Just before sunset."

  "All right," I said. He nodded one last time, then turned to make his way over the hill to his training session.

  I had been expecting to see Midori on the Sylph field, but Ian was leading our group today. And apparently, I was late.

  "Nice a'ye tae join us, Halsey," he all but shouted across the field of Sylphs in white, racerback tank tops, who were practicing some kind of breathing exercise. I jumped when two of them closest to me suddenly disappeared in a puff of air strong enough to blow my tie over my shoulder. Each of their clothes fell to the ground in a heap, but no one seemed to pay any attention.

  "What the hell!" I shouted involuntarily, my heart instantly pounding like I'd run all the way here. Several of the students started laughing, and Ian did little to deter them.

  "Jes workin' on transmutation," he said casually, like I was supposed to have any idea what that meant. "It means how tae shift. We introduced it at the beginning of class. A half-hour ago." Ian added with a flat smile. "Get'che a place then."

  A hummingbird and a huge, yellow moth fluttered back into the space where the two other students had just been, and with another gust, they both reappeared. The girls grabbed the other's arms and started jumping up and down in celebration, each of them squealing and laughing until they realized their clothes were currently being trampled under their own feet. They screamed and scrambled back into their skorts and racerback shirts.

  "Well-done, lassies." Ian nodded at them, and their instant, obvious mortification was palpable. I turned away quickly in order to be one fewer set of eyes on them and waited for my instructions. But… Ian didn't say a thing.

  "Hey…" I glanced at the tall, dark-haired boy next to me. "How do we shift?" I whispered, completely unprepared for the death glare he gave me in return. Instead of just his lips frowning at me, his entire face seemed to turn down as he opened his mouth to answer me. The corners of his eyes, the muscles in his cheeks, even his dark hair, all of it almost looked like it was melting.

  I stumbled back again, nearly falling into the person behind me as I watched the boy's nose and cheekbones sharpen and his black hair grow down his arms. I only had time to blink before his shoulders arched, and the lengths of black hair gave way to black feathers that shimmered blue in the sunlight.

  "I did it!" he yelled and started flapping his huge wings. They took out the girl behind me, whom I'd almost stumbled into a few seconds before.

  "Indeed, ye have, lad!" Ian said, moving toward us clapping. He leaned in when he was close enough. "But listen, ya wee doo, mind yer wings, aye?" He winked to the girl behind us, then slapped the boy on the shoulder. As if he'd hit a button, the huge, black wings retracted, and Ian nodded to me. "Yer up, lass."

  "Oh, no… I don't know how to shift on purpose," I said, shaking my head. "And…I wore the wrong shirt for, um, my wings," I added, looking down at my striped tie and white button-down.

  "Highly advisable ye keep 'em tucked in, then. Go on wi' the rest, though." Ian folded his arms and shifted his weight to one hip, apparently waiting for me to partially shift.

  I shook my head at him. "Like I said, I don't know how to do it."

  "Shore ye do." He nodded adamantly, then reached into his pocket and, to my horror, pulled out my bra. "Ah believe that belongs tae ye, no?" he asked, tossing it to me. I snatched it out of the air, and felt heat rush into my cheeks. Sharp prickles ran down my arms, and I started to panic that my wings would tear my shirt to pieces in front of everyone just like last time.

  "No…no, stop!" I said, frantically studying my hands, which were also starting to prickle.

  "Let it come," Ian ordered. "But only tae yer hands. Reroute each wee stabby like a leaf in a current."

  I tried to do what he said, to imagine water pulling each of the prickles to my hands as I tried to swallow the panic welling up in my chest. I pictured a rushing waterfall at the top of my head washing the prickles down my shoulders, then I pictured a crashing wave at the small of my back sending the prickles up and over my shoulders, down my arms, and finally, into my fingers.

  It was working. The sharp little points that were everywhere a second ago were actually rerouting to my hands, and when I looked down, the feathers were only appearing there, stopping halfway up my forearms.

  "It's working…" I said with the last of a breath. The rush of excitement broke my focus, though, and prickles started traveling higher up my arms, soon followed by feathers and the grotesque raised ridges. "No, no…no," I said, consciously trying to channel the sensation back to my hands, and while the feathers didn't recede, to my relief, the ridges finally did.

  "That's braw," Ian said. "Weel done!"

  "It worked!" I gasped. "You were right, I just had to think of the water pushing the—"

  "Water?" Ian interrupted, raising an eyebrow. "Is that what ye imagined?"

  I studied his face for a second, confused.

  "Yeah, you said to imagine the wee stab or whatever like a leaf on a current."

  His eyes widened a little. "An' water is what came tae mind—nae air…" he stated rather than asked, then nodded slowly. "Weel, tae change back, push th' stabs oot yer fingers an' toes."

  I did as he said, imagining the prickles running out of the ends of my fingers. To my amazement, the feathers that covered my hands started to recede.

  Could it be this easy? I just somehow trigger a rush of emotion to create a flood of heat, and then just imagine that heat flowing to a particular place to control the shift? This must be how Leo and Rhea were able to stop right after their wings appeared.

  "Thanks for—" I started to say, but Ian had already made his way to the other side of the field to help someone else. I stared at him, astonished that he had silently covered so much ground in a matter of seconds. In fact, when I looked around for the other Sylphs who were just here training next to me, they'd also drifted several yards away. I was standing far from the group, and I hadn't moved at all.

  "Wonderful job," Uri said, nearly startling me out of my skin. The feathers on my arms quickly ran up my shoulders, and I closed my eyes for a second to imagine the flow of water pushing them to my fingertips, and then out into the air—gone. When I opened my eyes, my hands were back again.

  "Thanks," I said, smiling at my little victory. "I think I'm getting the hang of it."

  "I'm not surprised in the least," Uri said, taking a few steps toward me. "Leo tells me you're a quick study."

  Now that the imminent panic of my wings tearing my clothes off in front of everyone had subsided, a new sense of dread came over me when I remembered Uri's conversation with Ghob last night in The Fold.

  "I'm trying," I said, scrambling for smalltalk. "He's been a good mentor."

  "He's one of our best," Uri added, studying my face without so much as blinking. He suddenly took in a quick breath and glanced at the rest of the Sylphs across the field. "Look how they've drifted…" he said, smiling. "That's, of course, completely normal for a new Sylph…they tend to get caught up in each other's momentum the first few weeks. In another twenty minutes, you'll likely find them right back here. Interesting you weren't pulled along with them."

  He studied me carefully again, tilting his head to one side as if contemplating something.

  I cleared my throat. "Well, I was a little late," I confessed. "So I probably didn't have time to get in sync or something."

  He nodded in placation. "Of course, that must be it," he said dryly. "You seem to have adjusted well to island life, Halsey. Quite a change from Portland Prep, I imagine." He fixed his eyes on mine again, the intense, unblinking blue reminding me of a cat waiting to pounce. As far as he knew, I didn't remember anything
about my old life, and I needed to make sure he didn't find out otherwise.

  "Um, where?" I said, trying my best to keep my expression as blank as possible. He lowered his eyelids, scrutinizing for another several seconds, but then seemed to relax. He flashed another smile, this one wide as he chuckled. "Be sure you're drinking enough water." Uri nodded and slipped his hands into his white pants pockets. "It's the best thing you can do for yourself here," he added, then started making his way down the field until he disappeared over the hill—exactly where Leo had gone.

  ***

  Since Ian was clearly not interested if I stayed with the rest of the Sylphs or not for the day, I'd stopped back at my dorm and looked in my closet for the white racer-back tank top everyone else had been wearing. I found about five of them shoved to the far right on the hanger bar, and quickly changed.

  Before I knew it, I'd spent the entire day on the opposite end of the field from the other Sylphs, trying to open and close my wings without allowing the feathers or ridges to spread to my arms. It wasn't perfect yet, but by the time I was supposed to meet everyone else for dinner in the dining hall, I'd managed to keep the wings separate from my arms, save for feathers over my shoulders. I couldn't wait to show Leo what I'd learned, but these thoughts went out the window when I opened the door and the smell of garlic bread wafted over me. I quickly loaded a plate and made my way to the table with Alita and the others.

  "Wow, have some spaghetti with your meatballs," Bryce said, eyeing my plate as I sat down.

  "You're eating that again?" Anita asked.

  I shrugged. "I like pasta."

  "Where were you all day? I didn't see you at breakfast or lunch."

  "Practicing on the Sylph field," I answered her, forking an entire meatball into my mouth.

  "You've been out there since this morning?" Alita watched me, wide-eyed. "Are you even chewing?"

  I swallowed. "Yes, and yes," I said, eating another whole meatball.

  Rhea laughed. "She'll get two more plates before she stops eating like that. Flight school is no joke."

  "I still eat like that," Alec said. "Before and after learning to shift—that's just swimming."

  "You're all animals," Bryce said, finally looking up from his tablet. "Speaking of animals, where's Red-Cloud?"

  "He was at the fire field before lunch, but then he went somewhere with Uri," Rhea said.

  "Well, get word to him to meet on the cliff tonight after sunset. I found the tear to Portland."

  Chapter 27

  After dinner, I thought it would be a good idea to at least try to fly before meeting Leo on the cliff. If everyone else was coming after sunset, we wouldn't have a lot of time to practice after all.

  I tried to recall the feeling I had when Ian threw my bra at me earlier this morning. The rush of embarrassment that crashed into me as I imagined him retrieving it from wherever it had been flung in the dining hall, then actually putting it in his pocket for safe keeping or something. Ugh. Suffice it to say, it didn't take long before I felt the prickle racing up my throat and into my cheeks, and I imagined it being washed to my shoulder blades. A few seconds later, my wings expanded behind me, and I imagined the rest of the prickles flooding out, dripping from the ends of my fingers.

  I flapped my wings a few times, laughing out loud that I managed to stop the rest of the shift, then startled when my feet left the ground. I quickly stopped my wings and felt the grass tickling my ankles again, then blew out a long, slow breath. I hadn't tried to fly earlier today when I was practicing, but the cliff was a good ten-minute walk…and no one was around.

  I started running in the direction of it, flapping my wings a few times until my feet left the ground again. I started gliding, but after a second, a pocket of wind pushed my left wing down and I started to drop. I tried desperately to flap my way free, but it only made me start spinning.

  In a matter of seconds, I'd crashed headfirst into the ground—well, more like elbows first since I'd hidden behind my arms. I rolled a few times, and noticed my knuckles and elbows were bleeding when I finally righted myself. Without even trying, my wings started to fold in, then shrink until they were gone again, and in the same moment, the scrapes on my hands and arms disappeared. The shift channels its energy to repair your injuries, I remembered Leo saying, and smiled to myself.

  When I stood up again, the main house I'd been taken to when I first arrived was in sight, so I'd flown at least halfway to the cliff. That moment of satisfaction faded quickly, though, when I heard raised voices coming from inside, though the house was several hundred yards away.

  I made my way up the steps and slipped through the front door only to realize it was Leo who was yelling, but I couldn't make out any of his words. I moved quickly toward the closed door where the voices were coming from and stopped abruptly when a sharp pain jabbed my left ankle.

  "Ow!" I said too loudly and quickly covered my mouth. When I looked down, my ankle had two puncture wounds, each of them dripping blood. In the corner, a yellow, horned Djin snake was coiled in the dark, its wings extended and shaking like a rattlesnake at me. It hissed, and I slowly moved backward, accidentally running into an end table and knocking over a lamp. "Shit," I whispered. The snake hissed at me again, and the yelling behind the door stopped. "Shit…shit! Shit!" I whispered under my breath again and tried to rush back toward the front door, but it was too late.

  The doors swung open, and Uri came through. I stopped where I stood and put my left ankle behind my right leg so he couldn't see the bite mark, which was starting to itch.

  "Halsey, what a pleasant surprise," he said, clearly not pleased to see me. "Is there something I can do for you? Oh…" he added, looking at the floor where I stood. "Are you hurt?"

  I looked down to find that the blood had run forward over my foot and sandal straps, and now the whole injury looked much worse than it was. "Um…" I said, scrambling for words. "I was taking a walk on a trail…and…I don't know…I think something bit me?"

  "Indeed," Uri nodded. "Jeanette! A first aid kit!"

  Within seconds, one of the gray-uniformed, silent attendants came rushing in the room with a small, white box. She knelt by my side and took off my sandal, then just started dabbing a cold, wet cloth all over my foot. I sucked in a breath through my teeth when I felt the sting of the other little cloth she'd ripped open and pressed over the bite on my ankle. It couldn't have been a handful of seconds later that the bite had healed, and my sandal was already cleaned and back on my foot. She started tapping on my shin with her leathery hand, forcing me to step back so she could clean the floor where the blood had dripped. I looked up for what just seemed like a few seconds, and as fast as she'd arrived, she was gone again.

  "Wow…" I said, in a little shock. "Thank you. I'll just head back to my dorm then."

  "I'll escort you," Leo said, storming through the doors Uri had just opened. I forced myself to swallow the gasp in my throat when I saw the small, black horns slowly receding back into his forehead, his dark hair pulled into a ponytail with several loose strands framing his angular face.

  "Oh, OK," I said, glancing at Uri, whose bright blue eyes were narrowed and his lips were pressed together in a rigid smile.

  "I'll have the mentors made aware, and thank you, Mr. Red-Cloud," Uri called after us as we made our way to the door.

  Outside, Leo pulled off his shirt and jammed it into his pocket. His wings shot out what must have been fifteen feet in either direction, and I didn't have any time to react before he threw his arm around my waist and took off straight into the sun. I turned my head into his shoulder to shield my eyes, then risked a glance at the ground that was quickly starting to look like a collection of toy trees and houses. But Leo just kept flying higher and higher until wisps of white clouds started to obscure my vision.

  "Leo! We're too high!" I finally said, holding onto him so tightly now I was afraid I might leave marks on his skin.

  A few seconds later he leveled out, then started to
dive. I buried my face in his neck and tried not to scream, but the whistling air and sense of falling were almost too much. Finally, we slowed, and he leveled out again. I took a deep breath and risked another glance toward the ground, but there was no ground this time. We were flying over the ocean. Behind us, the cliff rose up from the rocks far below.

  "Hold on," Leo said, slowing until we were nearly stopped, his arm tight around my waist as his other hand moved to my face.

  "Leo, what happened?" I asked, his black horns now extending into a twist near the ends. His eyes were a golden brown, like the darkest part of a fire. "Leo…?" He leaned me backward, his wide, black wings slowly moving over us, pushing the air and catching it again.

  "Put your arms around my neck," he said close to my ear. When I did, he moved his lips over mine, softly at first, but then more urgently as his hold tightened around my waist, and his other hand pulled my leg over his hip. A rush of heat rose inside me as he trailed kisses down my throat and chest, then back toward my ear again. "All the heat, push it to your back…your shoulders…show me your wings, Halsey," he said, his voice low and rough.

  I did as he said, channeling it all until my wings unfolded, and he rotated us so that I was above him. His hands moved to the small of my back, and we started falling.

  "Leo!" I said, feeling the cold wind rush up from below.

  "Use your wings!" he said. "Hold them out…catch the air!"

  Again, I did as he said, and the second I extended my wings all the way, I felt the air like giant hands pushing them up—pushing us up.

  "It's working!" I shouted.

  "Go higher! Push higher!"

  I pushed against the air, which sent us lofting upward each time, and when I felt the next breeze, I extended my wings again and let the air carry us. I was flying…

  Leo let go of my waist and fell several feet before rolling to his stomach and extending his wings. The air caught him, too, and sent him soaring upward until we were flying next to each other.