Playing With Fire

by Adrienne Woods et al.

  Aidan nodded. “I believe in the human world you know them as the Greek gods.”

  I shook my head. “They’re just a myth.”

  He grinned. “Ah. That’s what we want you to think.”

  I leant back in my chair, one eyebrow arched in challenge. “So you’re telling me the Greek gods—Zeus and all of them—are just like walking around and stuff?”

  “No, they’re resting now, and have been for thousands of years. They created this world—Caldara—for all their creatures to inhabit while they’re gone. They still have some influence, but it’s very minor.”

  “All their creatures? So…the elementals?” I was trying so hard to follow along but this was seriously confusing.

  Aidan shrugged. “Elementals, chimera, vampyres, gryphons—lots more.” My mouth dropped open in shock and Aidan hastened to add, “Don’t worry, you really don’t need to be concerned about any of those other creatures. We really only liaise with the other elemental courts—but for now you should really only be concerned with learning about the Fire Court and the salamanders.”

  I scrubbed my hands through my hair in frustration. “Do I really have to do all this training?”

  “That depends—do you want to risk killing someone every time you get angry or afraid?”

  I grunted. He had a point…

  “Listen, Seraphina—”

  “Sera—I prefer Sera.”

  “Okay then…Sera. I already told you your father was a friend of mine—well he was actually my mentor. He trained me to be a guardian—that’s kind of like an elite soldier—and ever since he died I’ve felt like I failed him. I should have been able to protect him but I let him down. So I feel like this is my chance to make it up to him, you know?”

  I nodded. “How did he die? Do you know?” All I’d ever known was that he’d died before I was even born, and that my mother had died during complications after a C-section. I’d lost both my parents before I was even a day old.

  Aidan looked away for a moment before catching my eye, his expression somber. “He was a guardian, sworn to protect the people of the Fire Court. But one day when we were on a mission in the human world he met and fell in love with a human woman. He turned his back on the Fire Court to make a life with her—that’s something that goes against all our laws and traditions.”

  I didn’t need him to spell it out because it was obvious what he was saying—my father had been killed by one of his own people, all for the crime of loving the wrong person. No wonder my appearance in front of the queen had caused such a stir.

  “Wow, okay—so does this mean I’m going to be a pariah here? Everyone’s going to hate me because I’m half human?”

  Aidan frowned. “It’s not going to be easy for you, I won’t lie about that. I was hoping I’d be able to train you myself—give you enough knowledge and practice for you to be able to control your powers and return to the human world without the risk of blowing shit up.” He let out a long sigh, a hand scrubbing through his hair. “Maybe I should have just hidden you away somewhere in the human world and trained you there—but then you wouldn’t have had the magic of the mountain to help you.”

  “Wow, I’m feeling so reassured right now.”

  He offered me a soft smile. “Don’t worry, it won’t be that bad. The fledglings you’ll be training with are all young so they don’t remember Conley. Yes, it will be weird for them to have a halfling in their class but if you put in the effort you’ll be able to keep up with them and they won’t have anything to taunt you about.”

  “Are you sure I’ll be able to keep up with them? You said before they’ve been using magic for years.”

  “Don’t worry—we’ll do some private training as well.”

  “I’m not going to have any kind of life for the foreseeable future, am I?”

  Aidan shrugged. “Probably not. But you just spent a year in prison—did you really have much of a life there?”

  He had a point.

  Chapter 4

  I spent the next few days holed up at what I now knew to be Aidan’s private apartment. He wasn’t there the whole time, as he apparently spent a lot of time at the barracks with the other guardians, but he popped in regularly to check on me, bring me food, and answer the barrage of questions I continued to fire at him. The time passed pretty damned slowly with nothing to do; I wasn’t exactly unused to the monotony, but at least in prison I’d been able to leave my cell during the day. Aidan thought me leaving the apartment alone might not be the best idea—he didn’t think anyone would actually harm me, but apparently it was pretty easy to get lost in the maze of tunnels and he didn’t want me running into trouble.

  Two days after I arrived, he returned to the apartment with a young woman hot on his heels; she carried a bundle of cloth that I prayed would be the promised clothing to replace this stupid dress I was still wearing.

  “This is Kenna,” Aidan said, gesturing to the woman. “She’s one of the servants here—she’s going to take you to the baths to get you cleaned up before you start training tomorrow.”

  I stood up so quickly I almost toppled over. Finally, I was going to be leaving this apartment! I was going to see more of this place and…did he say bath? That sounded freakin’ amazing.

  Kenna offered me a soft smile and motioned for me to follow her out of the apartment. I trailed behind her, catching up to walk beside her in the winding passageway.

  “Are those my proper clothes?” I asked her, nodding at the bundle in her hands.

  “Yes, you can change after your bath.”

  “Oh, thank god! I’m so sick of this dress!”

  She shook her head, her mouth curved down in a slight frown. “Be careful with what you say Miss Sera,” she warned. “Everyone knows you come from the human world, but you should do your best not to remind them of that fact. This is not a monotheistic society—we worship the ancient gods.”

  I nodded glumly. “The people here really hate humans, don’t they?”

  “We don’t hate humans,” Kenna insisted. “We know they serve a purpose…”

  “But you don’t want any of your people falling in love with one?”

  “I’m just a servant,” Kenna said. “I can’t really speak as to all the intricate laws of our society and the reasons behind them, but if I had to guess I would say the reason the Courts of Caldara—all of them, not just the Fire Court—don’t like their people liaising with humans is because it threatens the secrecy of our world. Isn’t that why you’re here?”

  It sounded ridiculous, that one human falling in love with one salamander could really threaten the whole existence of all these creatures, but then I realized it wouldn’t be just one; if liaising with humans, as Kenna has called it, was allowed, then there would be a ton of humans who knew about this hidden world and these creatures. And what did humans do when they were faced with the unknown? They generally let fear and prejudice overrule any better judgement…

  We arrived at the baths, and my mind was once again blown by the sight in front of me. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before; there was no tiled floor, or plumbing, or ceramic tubs. Instead there was a series of bubbling hot springs that looked so inviting I was almost shaking with anticipation.

  The ‘baths’, as Aidan had dubbed it, was a large area with lots of small pools as well as some larger ones. There was a section of tunnels that appeared to veer off into even more springs, and as Kenna led me through there I realized this must be for the more ‘private’ bathing. We finally stopped in an empty cavern that housed a single, small pool.

  There was no door or anything like that, but I appreciated at least having the illusion of privacy; that wasn’t a luxury I’d experienced much during my life, especially during the last year. On Kenna’s instruction I stripped out of the dress and plunged into the bath, the sensation of pure bliss rolling over me as I immersed myself in the water. I would definitely be making frequent visits to these baths.

  Later that day, Aid
an came to escort me to the training area, where I’d meet the other fledglings and get settled in before training began the following days.

  Over the last couple of days I’d been a bit of a nervous wreck as I considered the months ahead of training with other students. While I’d always considered myself reasonably adept and had planned to get my diploma while in prison, my experiences with school hadn’t been great. For starters, there’d been so many of them—I’d been the weird transfer student more times than I could count—and I’d never really warmed to any of my teachers, they were just all so god damned condescending. And then of course there was that bathroom incident, which wasn’t actually the first time I’d started a fire in school; the first time had been in eighth grade science class and had been explained away as an accident.

  After I was arrested, I assumed I’d never set foot in any kind of school again. But here I was, stuck in some kind of secret magic world preparing to learn how to use fire magic.

  “You ready?” Aidan asked, pausing in his step for a moment.

  I shrugged. “I guess—would it matter if I said I wasn’t?”

  He let out a huff of wry laughter. “Not really. Come on.”

  He led me forward as the corridor opened on a vast, circle-shaped room. Like all the other large spaces I’d seen here, it appeared to have been naturally formed—it actually looked like a canyon, except that it was underground instead of open to the sky. The ground was a smooth, flat surface, and on the rocky walls several staircases had been carved leading up from the ground to little caves nestled in the walls.

  “This is the school?” I said, mouth agape.

  Aidan shook his head. “We call it a training area, but yeah. The bulk of your training will happen down there in the arena where there’s plenty of room,” he said, gesturing down at the ground where several people were already gathered. “And you’ll sleep in one of the caves along there. Don’t worry, they have beds,” he added at my startled expression.

  We made our way down the steps and onto the arena where the other salamanders were gathered. As we got closer, I was surprised—and just a tad wary—to see the familiar figure of Fenix, the guy I’d yelled at the other day.

  “What’s he doing here?” I hissed at Aidan, ticking my head discretely in Fenix’s direction.

  Aidan’s brows arched. “My brother? He’s the fledgling instructor.”

  “Your brother?” My head snapped back in alarm. “He’s—he’s the queen’s son?”

  “Yup.”

  “And he’s going to be my instructor?”

  “Yup.”

  “Why did you let me yell at him?”

  Aiden let out a wry chuckle. “I didn’t let you do anything—you yelled at him all on your own. And besides, something tells me you would have still said your piece even if you’d known who he was.”

  Oh, god…this was going to be a nightmare. I tried to push down my apprehension and just focus on my task of getting through my first day.

  A hush fell over the group as we approached, the silence stretching so awkwardly it made me want to dash right back up the stairs and find a nice empty cavern to hide in. Finally, just when I was thinking I couldn’t take it much longer, a girl slipped out from amongst the others and stepped toward me. She was a little shorter than me, with long white-blond hair she wore up in a high ponytail, and a pretty face with a soft smile she directed at me. For some utterly bizarre reason, she reminded me of Laura, the kind public defender who’d been so determined to get my conviction overturned.

  “I’m Ember,” she said, stretching out her hand for me to shake. Leaning in closer, she whispered, “don’t worry about all of them, they’re just jealous ‘cause none of them got a personal escort from a prince.”

  She winked and I couldn’t help smiling. “I’m sure none of them were ever kidnapped against their will by a prince either,” I joked.

  “Hey, I thought we’d moved past that,” Aidan said.

  “It was a very traumatic experience for me,” I said with a wry smile.

  He let out a soft huff of amusement before saying, “I have to get back to the barracks—you going to be okay here?”

  I wasn’t entirely sure what the answer to that was, but I nodded anyway. Aidan left and Ember moved to stand beside me. Well, at least I seem to have one friend in training, I thought.

  Fenix moved to the head of the group, prompting everyone to stand up straighter and turn their attention his way. I scrutinized him, noting how little resemblance he bore to Aidan; I thought maybe there was something there around the chin, and the curve of his mouth, but that was really all. While Aidan was tall and packed with muscle, Fenix was a little shorter, and definitely leaner; he had neatly-styled reddish-blonde hair—the complete opposite of Aidan’s messy mop of jet black; and his eyes were hazel—not unlike the Queen’s, I realized.

  “In case anyone doesn’t know who I am, my name’s Fenix and I’ll be your instructor while you’re in training.”

  A wave of snickering laughs washed over the group and I glanced around to find people looking at me with both amusement and distain. It was obvious everyone here already knew who Fenix was; all his little introduction managed to do was point an arrow directly at me announcing OUTSIDER!

  My gaze slid sideways to Ember and I was relieved when she offered me a sympathetic smile.

  “Your official training will start tomorrow,” Fenix continued, “so you should use your time today to get yourself settled in here and learn your way around the training area. This will be your home for the next few months and the people around you will be both your classmates and neighbors.” Fenix’s eyes swept over the group before he continued on. “You’re free to visit other areas of the Court outside of training hours, see your families, that sort of thing—as long as you’re back in your quarters by curfew.”

  After speaking for a few more minutes, Fenix sent us on our way to familiarize ourselves with the training area and our quarters. I still wasn’t sure exactly how I felt about this whole experience that lay before me, but I knew one thing for certain: this wasn’t going to be like any school I’d ever attended before.

  Chapter 5

  Aidan hadn’t been joking when he’d said things wouldn’t be easy for me; after two weeks amongst the salamanders there were only three people who didn’t look at me like I was dirt under the bottom of their shoe: Aidan, Kenna and Ember. Oh and Fenix, but that was because he barely looked at me at all, and when he did it was with practiced indifference, as if I were so far beneath him I didn’t even warrant the energy spent on distaste.

  My classmates—with the exception of Ember—opted to keep their distance from me, which I found much easier to deal with than open hostility and snide taunts. I wasn’t really there to make friends, anyway; I was there to learn how to control this crazy force inside me so I wouldn’t kill anyone else.

  The lessons were…interesting. Although, I wasn’t sure they could really be called ‘lessons’. They were more like…drills. It felt more like I was at some kind of intense army boot camp than at any school I’d ever been to before. An army boot camp that consisted of strength and fitness training, hand to hand combat training, and of course, fire magic training.

  Every night I’d go to bed exhausted and aching, and every morning I’d wake up to do it all over again.

  “I’m never going to be ready for the Testing,” I groaned to Ember after a particularly frustrating day with Fenix striding up and back in front of us like a drill sergeant in front of a group of cadets, barking at us to demonstrate the various charms we’d been working on for the past week. I’d been going okay at manipulating the flames in front of me—until he told us to demonstrate dousing. Somehow, instead of putting my flames out, I’d managed to make them burst into a geyser of sparks that flew so high it almost touched the cavern ceiling. To my absolute mortification and my classmates’ delight, Fenix had to rush in to get control of the flames.

  “Of course you are,” Ember
said, ever the optimist. “The Testing’s still ages away, you just need to practice a bit more.”

  “I’ve been practicing,” I countered. “Aidan’s been helping me with private training for weeks now but it won’t make a difference—I’ll never catch up to all of you guys. You’ve all had years to get ready for this.”

  Ember’s mouth turned down in a thoughtful frown. “Yeah, I guess…even though we haven’t really used many of these charms before we’ve all seen them done and know what they are. Maybe that’s what you should work on.”

  “Going back in time?” I asked, one eyebrow cocked.

  Ember let out a huff of laughter. “The theory side of things. Knowledge is power, Sera—go to the library and get some knowledge!”

  “Hmm, yeah I guess it couldn’t hurt.”

  So that’s how I found myself wandering aimlessly in the Fire Court’s giant library; it was seriously the biggest library I’d ever seen, and I’d been on several school trips to the New York Public Library. How many books could elemental beings possibly have.

  “Hey, you okay there? You seem a little lost…”

  I spun around at the sound of the unfamiliar voice to find a male salamander had approached me. Like all of them he was freakin’ gorgeous: tall and lean, with warm brown eyes, a shy smile and sandy blond hair about a shade lighter than my own he worn long—just brushing his shoulders—with a section at the front braided and pulled back. He was probably the most beautiful salamander I’d seen since I’d come here—and that was saying something.

  “Um…uh, yeah—I’m in fledgling training and I wanted to do a bit of research on spells and stuff so I came here.” I craned my head back to once again take in the massive space. “This place is so huge, though—I don’t even know where to start.”

  His eyes widened slightly with realization. “You’re Seraphina!”