How to Make Friends and Not Incinerate People

by Devin Harnois

  The force of power inside the circle made it hard to breathe. The air shimmered in the red glow of the symbols. “Dylan, stop!”

  Dylan’s eyes were bright green. “Too late.” He turned and reached his hand out, writing a symbol in the air. A dark hole opened up.

  Aiden panicked. He could hardly think, but he knew he had to stop him. So he ran, planning to tackle Dylan.

  Dylan whirled. “Stay back!” A bright flash.

  Heat. Burning. Pain. Aiden screamed.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  It felt like slow motion. Dylan turned and lashed out, only thinking of keeping Aiden back. Focused on his rage, on how close he was to getting what he wanted. Fire burst from his hand and flew toward Aiden. It had been a second, maybe less, but in that instant Dylan knew he’d made a terrible mistake.

  He watched it hit Aiden, saw the fire burst over him. Oh God, no! Dylan put it out with a thought and ran the few steps between them, catching Aiden as he fell. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

  The front of Aiden’s jacket was a charred mess, his face was bright red. He made a pained noise, his eyes wide with shock. After a few gasps, he said, “It hurts.”

  “Oh God, I didn’t mean to!”

  Dylan checked him over, praying the damage wasn’t too bad. He tried to unzip the jacket but ended up tearing it. Aiden grabbed his hand when he tried to pull his shirt away.

  “Let me see.” Dylan lifted the shirt to find a burn mark the size of his fist, already blistering. He’d never felt worse in his life. “I’m so sorry. I’ll get you help.”

  Aiden winced. “The spell. You have to stop it.”

  Dylan had forgotten everything else when he realized he’d burned Aiden. He looked up at the growing portal. “I don’t know how.” It had seemed so important a moment ago, his freedom, the end of the wardens. But now nothing mattered except Aiden.

  “You have to try something.” Aiden gripped his arm, tears of pain leaking out of his eyes.

  “Okay.” Dylan gently set him down and stood just as a dark shape stepped out of the portal.

  “Hello, young ones.” Morfran smiled. “I thank you, dragonkin, for your assistance.” He gave them both a wide smile.

  Dylan threw fire at him. He had to make this up to Aiden somehow. The dark fae held up a hand and the fire disappeared. “Am I to assume we are no longer allies?”

  “Tell me how to stop this!” Dylan felt so… helpless.

  “I am afraid I must refuse.” Morfran smiled, but the expression suddenly dropped as he cocked his head. “We have an uninvited guest.”

  The ring of fire around the grove disappeared as if someone had blown out a huge candle. “Please step back through the portal,” someone said in a low, dangerous tone.

  Dylan turned to see a man walk into the clearing, a hand held out toward the dark fae. The man’s magic smelled of old books and candle wax. A wizard. A very powerful wizard.

  “No.” The fae sneered and threw dark purple magic.

  The man brought up his other hand and the spell dropped to the ground, hissing.

  “Mr. Johnson?” Aiden said.

  The dark fae cast a glance over his shoulder at the portal. “I will find you, wizard, when I’ve recovered my strength.” And then, in a blink, he was gone.

  * * *

  Mr. Johnson turned to them. “You helped a dark fae escape?” he growled, then looked over at the growing hole in the middle of the circle. “You either help me close this portal, or so help me, I’ll have your heads for this.”

  “Aiden didn’t—”

  “He didn’t mean—”

  They protested at the same time.

  “Shut up. Get over here.” As the portal grew, it made a rushing sound like a strong wind.

  “Aiden can’t walk. He’s hurt,” Dylan said.

  The pain felt like it was alive and trying to eat him. Aiden wondered if he was going to die.

  “Then drag him or carry him, I don’t care,” Mr. Johnson said. The anger on his face made him almost as terrifying as the dark fae.

  Dylan bent down and helped Aiden to his feet. Aiden screamed at the pain and his knees buckled, but Dylan held him up. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  “I know you didn’t mean it,” Aiden said through gritted teeth. Although maybe Dylan had, in the moment, meant to hurt him. But the agonized look on Dylan’s face was real, and Aiden knew his friend would take it back if he could.

  The howling-wind noise got louder as Dylan half dragged him closer to the portal.

  “What do we do?” Dylan asked.

  “You have to focus all your magic on closing the portal.” Mr. Johnson had to raise his voice to be heard over the roar. He pulled a knife from his pocket and handed it to Dylan. “It needed blood to open, now it needs blood to close. Cut across your palm and squeeze a few drops onto the ground.”

  Dylan had to help Aiden make the cut. The pain of the slice was hardly noticeable over the agony of the burns. Little spots danced at the edges of Aiden’s vision. He made a fist and a little blood dripped on the ground. Dylan did the same and handed the knife back to Mr. Johnson.

  Mr. Johnson cut his hand as well. “Let the way be closed. The pathway shut. By blood made, by blood undone.”

  Aiden stared into that stretching hole. It wasn’t just darkness—there were trees and starlight. Another world over there. That’s where my birth parents are. My brother.

  “Focus!” Mr. Johnson yelled. “We have to close it.”

  He could hardly think around the pain.

  “You can do it,” Dylan said. “We can do this.”

  Then Aiden felt a rush of heat. It didn’t hurt like the burn, but it was strong. And a sensation of lizard skin, smooth with a slight pebbly texture. Dylan’s magic, stronger than Aiden had ever felt it. It made the pain a little more bearable.

  The tingle of magic built in his chest until it became a radiating hum.

  “Close it!” Mr. Johnson shouted.

  Magic poured out of Aiden. So much, so powerful. With Mr. Johnson shouting and the howling portal and the searing throb of his burns, it didn’t even occur to Aiden to hold back. The dark hole rippled at the edges and started to shrink.

  “Keep going,” Mr. Johnson said.

  “It’s working.” Dylan’s voice was strained.

  Aiden kept sending his magic toward the portal, willing it closed. Little by little, the world on the other side disappeared. As it kept collapsing and the roar died down, he couldn’t help thinking, Was that my only chance to see them?

  Finally it was gone. The red light in the symbols on the ground died, and it was suddenly dark. The darkness kept growing, and Aiden realized he was fainting.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  “Aiden!” Dylan felt him go limp. He lowered Aiden to the ground and laid him there gently. “Can you help him?” He looked up at the wizard—the warden—pleading.

  “I have half a mind not to after the shit you pulled.” Sweat stood out on the man’s forehead.

  “It wasn’t Aiden. He tried to stop me, and I—” Dylan choked on the words. “It’s all my fault. Please.”

  The warden frowned, but he knelt down next to Aiden. “I’m not sure I have enough left, but I’ll do what I can.” He held a hand over the burn on Aiden’s chest and muttered something in a strange language.

  Dylan watched with his heart in his throat as a faint green light touched the wound. He would give anything, anything, to take back what he’d done.

  The wizard coughed, and the light faded. “That’s all I’ve got right now.” What had been a raw, blistered burn was now covered with half-healed skin. “We can get him more help shortly.”

  “We need to get him help right now.” Dylan reached to pick him up.

  The warden grabbed his arm. “You let the dark fae out. Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

  Dylan clenched his teeth. “I know exactly what I did.”

  “And Aiden had nothing to do with this?” Th
e wizard gave him a hard look.

  “No. He came here to stop me. I hurt him. I didn’t… I wasn’t thinking.”

  “You knew the dark fae wanted to open the portal to Faery, to come through to this world. He didn’t lie to you about his motives?”

  “No. He wanted the realms to be connected again, to be able to move freely back and forth.”

  “And what did he offer you in return?” The man’s gaze fixed on him, staring directly into his eyes.

  Admitting it was like signing his own death warrant. He glanced down at Aiden. Maybe he was too dangerous to live, if this was what he did to his friend. “Freedom,” Dylan said with a growl in his tone.

  The warden glared at him. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

  Aiden groaned. “Don’t. Don’t be mad at him.”

  They both turned to him.

  Aiden looked between them before his gaze settled on the wizard. “Mr. Johnson, please. He made a mistake. Please don’t arrest him.”

  “Aiden, I knew—” Dylan started. He was willing to take all the blame because he deserved it. It was all his fault, everything. He tried to ignore the voice in his head that told him to do anything to get out of this problem.

  Aiden squeezed his arm. “You’re sorry, right?”

  Dylan nodded.

  Aiden looked at Mr. Johnson. “Please, don’t arrest him or hurt him.”

  The hard look stayed on his face as he asked Dylan, “What will you do if the dark fae returns?”

  A test. A chance. It was Aiden’s pleading more than anything that convinced Dylan. After what he’d done, Aiden was willing to forgive him. His friend still wasn’t afraid of him, wouldn’t turn his back on him. “Call the wardens right away.”

  “You won’t try to make any more deals with him, or open a portal to Faery? You won’t do anything to step over the line again?”

  “No. I swear,” Dylan said, and Aiden squeezed his arm again.

  Mr. Johnson sighed. “Do you have any idea what a fucking mess you’ve made?”

  Dylan almost admitted the dark fae had been going to kill all the wardens, but that might make things worse.

  “I need to report this—”

  Aiden said, “Please don’t!”

  “But I don’t have to tell them who was involved. I can tell them I got an anonymous tip and got here just in time to see the dark fae escaping.” His gaze bored into Dylan. “And if I do this, you’re going to owe me. So when I come to you and ask you to do something, you’re going to do it. You too,” he told Aiden.

  “But he didn’t—” Dylan protested.

  “You could be killed for this if they knew it was your fault.” He turned back to Aiden. “So I need both of you to owe me favors.”

  “What kind of favors?” Dylan asked. He liked the deal less and less.

  Mr. Johnson glared at him, as if to remind him his life was on the line. “You’ll find out when the time comes. Swear it.”

  “I swear,” Aiden said with hardly a second of hesitation.

  Dylan took a deep breath. “I swear.” For Aiden’s sake, because his friend believed he was worth saving.

  Mr. Johnson nodded once. “Then take him out of here, and I’ll call this in.”

  Dylan bent and slid his arms under Aiden. “Are you sure you can carry me?” Aiden asked.

  “Yeah. You’re a scrawny little thing.” Dylan lifted him as carefully as he could and carried him out of the circle.

  “How are we going to explain this? Training accident?”

  “No, I’ll tell them it’s my fault. We had a fight, and I got carried away.” As close to the truth as he could get.

  “Are you sure? My parents will think—”

  “I don’t care. I did this, and I’ll take the blame.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  Aiden was at the hospital for a few hours before they released him. By the next night, he was sore and his face was peeling like he had a bad sunburn. The doctors had told him he would heal completely in time.

  It had taken a lot of begging, but his parents agreed to let him go to the gravel pit. He needed to talk to Dylan. Aiden rubbed gently at his chest while he waited. The fist-sized scar itched, but there was little pain. The way the doctors had healed him really was magical.

  Dylan appeared at the edge of the pit, head down and hands stuffed deep in his pockets. “Having second thoughts?”

  “About the agreement we made with Mr. Johnson?” Aiden would have agreed to almost anything to keep Dylan from being punished.

  “About being my friend.” Dylan sat on one of the flat rocks they used as benches.

  “Maybe. Why did you do it? Are the rules really that bad?”

  Dylan glanced over before staring off into the distance. “There’s something inside me. Maybe it’s the dragon part of me, or maybe it’s beyond that. But it… I have dreams about burning cities. Just setting everything on fire and watching the world burn. And the worst part of it is I want it more than anything. In those dreams I’m free.”

  Aiden didn’t know what to say to that. He shivered and wrapped his arms around himself.

  “I’m just as dangerous as everyone says I am. They’ve been right all along. I even hurt you.”

  “You didn’t mean to.”

  “Yes I did. Just for a second, I was willing to do anything to keep you from stopping me.” Dylan looked at him and there were tears swimming in his eyes. “I’m not worth saving. You should’ve let that warden kill me. I could have killed you.” A tear spilled out and rolled down his cheek.

  “But you didn’t.” He’d seen how sorry Dylan was. No way that was fake.

  “God, why are you being so nice to me?”

  “Because you’re my friend. Because I know you’re a good person.”

  Dylan snorted. “I’m not. I’m terrible.” He rubbed angrily at the tears.

  “If you’re so terrible, then why did you stop? Why did you help close the portal? Why did you agree to owe Mr. Johnson a favor?”

  “Because you wanted to protect me, after what I’d done. After I hurt you.” Dylan turned away again.

  “I had to. I’m the one who called Mr. Johnson. It’s my fault he was there. I was worried about what you might do, but I didn’t want him to lock you up or… or kill you. Even when you said those terrible things, I didn’t want you to get hurt. I had to make up for it. To keep you safe.”

  “You were right to call him,” Dylan said.

  Aiden had to find a way to make Dylan understand, to stop feeling so guilty. “It could have been me, you know. That dark fae… he came to me in my dreams. Told me he could help find my parents. He wanted me to use that blood magic to open the portal to Faery.”

  Dylan turned, surprise on his face. “Really?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So you were able to resist evil and I wasn’t. See? You’re just a better person.”

  “No. I told my tutor and she warned me he was bad news, so I blocked him from my dreams.”

  Dylan shook his head. “I knew what he was, what he wanted. You should stay away from me. I’ll only hurt you, drag you down with me.”

  Now Aiden felt like crying. “I want things to go back to the way they were. I want to stay friends.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re the best friend I’ve ever had. And I don’t care what you say, what you think. You’re worth saving.” No matter what Dylan said, Aiden couldn’t believe he was evil.

  “I’ll always have this darkness inside me.”

  “And the good parts too.”

  To his surprise, Dylan laughed. “You’re crazy. If you want to stay my friend so bad, after seeing the worst of me, then fine. I tried to chase you away, and you just came right back.”

  “You can’t get rid of me.” Aiden hugged him and Dylan went stiff.

  Then after a moment, Dylan relaxed and put an awkward arm around him. “You’ll have to help me fight this thing inside me.”

  “I will.” A
iden drew back. “And you’ll keep training me to use my magic, and you can help me to not be afraid of the power inside me.” It scared him to think about how much magic he’d used to close the portal. All of that inside him, even while he’d been in so much pain. He had to be even stronger now that he was healed.

  Dylan nodded. “And if I try to do anything stupid like that again, tell me to stop. I swear I’ll listen.”

  “Of course.” Aiden smiled. “That’s what friends are for.”

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  The plants and trees were still asleep but Aiden felt the first hints of stirring. Water dripped from roofs and puddled on the sidewalks as the snow melted. He took a deep breath as he walked to the bus stop, warmth and wetness on the breeze.

  Toby and Tina waved to him from the corner. “What classes did you get?” Toby asked.

  It was the start of a new semester and Aiden was nervous all over again. His good mood faded at the reminder. “I got moved into the intermediate class for Major Magical Control.”

  “Oh, wow.” Toby’s eyes widened. “With the sophomores?”

  Aiden nodded.

  “You must be really good,” Tina said.

  “I’d be excited to get advance placement, but this is the one class I don’t want it in.” He was also worried about Minor Magical Control. The shift in classes might mean he wouldn’t have it with Maggie anymore and he didn’t know what he’d do without her help.