by K. C. RILEY
“That’s it, Miss Maverick. Girls, the reveal spell.”
My hands and feet grew hot. Everyone continued circling me chanting. Istar Turesh. Istar Turesh. Istar Turesh. I couldn’t breathe as the sound of their voices closed in on me.
“Deeper, Miss Maverick. You must go deeper.”
The feeling of being humiliated by Meghan was already bubbling to the surface. The video she posted online. Her laughing at me with Abby and Camilla in the library. Ratting me out and destroying my dress for the Homecoming Ball.
The chanting intensified as the light at the ceiling glitched. Istar Turesh. Istar Turesh. Istar Turesh.
My chest constricted as I went deeper into the anger. I thought about how good it felt when the chandelier in the library had fallen within inches of Meghan’s life. And yet, the sensation terrified me, because that’s not who I am. The thought of hurting someone, even in defense, twisted in my gut.
Istar Turesh. Istar Turesh. Istar Turesh.
The chanting was unraveling everything too fast.
Istar Turesh. Istar Turesh. Istar Turesh.
“Stop,” I said.
Istar Turesh. Istar Turesh. Istar Turesh.
But they wouldn’t. The words kept digging deeper. “Stop,” I said again. “Please.” I found myself back in the car the night of my mom’s accident. Pathetic, useless. Alone and scared. The anger of it all brewed inside of me like a boiling cauldron. Meghan, Zander, and Norah. I hated all of them with a fury. But more than that, I hated myself. I hated being weak. And I hated being nice only to avoid confrontation. Some part of me begged me to turn it off, my humanity.
For one second I could feel her, the darkness inside of me. All of my fear and frustration had turned to a raging storm, everything around me burning with fire. It was the same vision I’d had the night Jake was teaching me how to swim.
The darkness inside of me was freed and the bowels of hell opened. Stars had fallen to the earth and the only end to my rage was the end of everything.
Istar Turesh. Istar Turesh. Istar Turesh.
“Let it out, Miss Maverick. Istar Turesh. Istar Turesh. Istar Turesh.”
Destruction inflamed from inside of me, both marvelous and delicious.
Istar Turesh. Istar Turesh. Istar Turesh.
I was exhausted from holding it all together; Mom’s accident, the institution, this crazy town, and the people in it. If I could just let go for one second. Just to breathe.
“Let it go, Miss Maverick. Let...it...go.”
And so I did.
I screamed in agony as a black python snaked itself around my body and squeezed the life out of me. The pain dropped me to my knees. It was the same thing that happened the night of Josie’s party when I tried to access my so-called powers to save Jake from the Black Mist.
The chanting stopped as the girls gasped.
“The snake. She’s been spelled,” Cassie said. “That’s why she can’t access her power.”
As the energy in my body settled, the pain in my ribs subsided.
“Treres Otures.” Sarah returned the light to the room.
A smile of pride warmed over Sister Clara’s face as I looked up, depleted. “Excellent work girls. And well done, Miss Maverick. Well done.”
“I don’t understand. What does she mean spelled?”
“Someone didn’t want you accessing your natural power. And so...they placed a binding spell around you. Thus the black python you’ve been seeing,” Sister Clara said.
I hadn’t said a word about the snake, the darkness inside of me, or the end of everything.
“Everyone to the library,” Sister Clara said. “Look up all you can on removing binding spells specifically for conjurers and elementals. Miss Maverick, please come with me.”
I paced behind Sister Clara, utterly shaken and quieted by the darkness I had seen within myself. I was almost curious as to whether anyone else had seen it too. Regardless, Jake still needed me and I needed my powers if I was going to get him back.
Save Jake. It sounded like a simple decision. But it wasn’t. The darkness on the other side of the door in my dreams and visions, what if someone spelled me to keep the darkness at bay? My mind trickled back to some of the things Aunt Vye mentioned about Mom’s ascension, how something went wrong because she was pregnant with me and Jedidiah. Aunt Vye said that Jedidiah and I both carried something dark inside of us because of the ascension and the pregnancy. That darkness was the very thing Norah had killed Jedidiah for. And Christ, it was the very thing she had tried to kill me for.
Could mom have known what I had been harboring all this time? And if so, why didn’t she tell me? Why spell me? It just didn’t seem like her. And maybe it wasn’t. Mom had always pushed me to be true to myself, exactly as I was, regardless of what anyone else had to say about it. Taking something away from me only to control me just didn’t seem like something she would do, even if I was dark. And if it wasn’t my mom, then who?
Sister Clara and I entered the hall filled with lab equipment. “Miss Maverick, allow me to introduce you to Sister Maria.”
Sister Maria’s eyes were dark brown and rich like the soil of the earth. Her olive skin, bright and glowing from within. She wore a cute bang while the rest of her black hair was twisted up in a bun held in place by a pencil. With a white lab coat over a T-shirt and jeans, and canvas sneakers—my favorite—she looked up from a microscope.
“Hola, Lizzy. Como estás?”
“Muy bien, gracias,” I lied, hoping she wouldn’t ask me anything else in Spanish. That was still on my bucket list.
“Ahhhhh. Tú hablas español?”
“No,” I said. “My Spanish sucks.”
“Nooo,” Sister Maria chuckled. “Not at all. You’ve got a great accent. You just need a little practice. So, what can I help you with?”
“She’s been spell bound. Can you take a look?” Sister Clara gave me a reaffirming look. “Sister Maria is one of our top scientists. She’s also well versed in the art of energy medicine and healing.”
“Why would a magic school need a scientist?” I asked. I already knew about chakras and energy healing. A little bit anyway from some of the books I had borrowed from All Saint’s library.
“Remember. Magic is dying,” Sister Clara said.
“I study the blood of humans, witches, Fallen, and Vamps. Anything biologically supernatural I can get my hands on, really. I’ve spent the last fifteen years tracking where things went wrong. Witches carry a specific gene for magic, but for some reason that gene is going dormant. Pretty soon not even the venom we take will be enough to keep magic alive. If that happens, bye-bye everything and everyone supernatural.”
“Even the Fallen?” I asked.
“I suppose, yes. Even the Fallen,” Sister Maria said.
Great. So the goal was to save Jake only to lose him again. I thought perhaps Sister Maria was wrong until she had me look at a couple slides under her microscope.
“This one is from a potential witch. A solution to highlight the magic within the cell has been added. And this one is from a Fallen.”
Sister Maria was right. The magic within the cells of the potential witch was dim, like a bulb about to burn out. At least, until she added the Fallen venom. The light in the blob-like cell then began to shine brightly. But even that didn’t last long. The cells quickly returned to their debilitated state.
“As you know, Miss Maverick comes from a long line of water conjurers,” Sister Clara interrupted.
“Yes. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. Exciting times. Have you ascended yet?” Sister Maria asked.
“No. I haven’t,” I said. “I think that’s the problem.”
“No ascension means no powers, but yet you said she has some abilities? That should be impossible.”
“It should be, but it’s not,” Sister Clara said. “As you know, Miss Maverick was born under very special circumstances. One that allowed her some access, albeit very small, to her natural witch power.
Unfortunately, someone has spelled even those abilities.”
“Hmmm. Let’s take a look. If I could have you stand over there,” Sister Maria said to me, pointing. She then opened a drawer and pulled out a rather large needle. I took a big step back. There was no way in hell I was letting her stab me with that. She glanced at my face and paused.
“Oh. This? I promise it’s not what you think. I won’t be sticking you with it, but I will be piercing your aura with a magical solution. It’ll give me a better look-see into how things are working, moving around in your field. I promise it won’t hurt. But I will need you to hold still.”
Piercing my aura with a needle fit for a horse? I wasn’t convinced and nervously half-smiled.
Sister Maria walked closer toward me with the vile weapon and stopped about three feet away. She held her hand out into the air as though feeling for something. It was weird; how I could feel her hand as though it was inside my physical body, even though it wasn’t. With another maneuver of her hand, I laughed uncontrollably.
“Sorry,” I said.
“Ah, I think we’ve found the spot. Just hold still.” Sister Maria held the syringe up in the air and injected the spot where she held her other hand.
My entire energy field came to life around me, like standing in a large bubble of swirling colors of fuchsia, green, orange, purple, and pink. I placed my hand out into my field as the colors flowed through my fingers like a gentle current of water that was both light and airy.
Sister Maria smiled. “See, that wasn’t too bad.” She then stared through me just as the girls had done. “Fascinating. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Neither had I.
“She is quite special,” Sister Clara added.
The colors were great, but I felt naked, like everyone was poking inside of me, examining things and secrets I couldn’t see inside of myself.
“Can you help?” Sister Clara asked.
“Give me a moment.” Sister Maria walked over to a stone podium with a large symbol etched into it, two circles connected by a line crossed with dashes and triangles. “Itres Liborum.” Out of nowhere, a book emerged from the surface of the table, one she opened and seemed to be zipping through within minutes.
Sister Clara whispered. “That’s how the library works. Thousands upon thousands of books to read through. You simply think about what you’re looking for, say the magic words, and the stone tables pull the books for you.”
“Is she actually reading that fast?”
“Yes. It’s the Fallen venom.”
I hated to admit it, but magic was getting cooler by the minute. “How do you put them back? The books?”
Sister Clara smiled. “You say the magic words.”
Good to know.
I had been making a mental list of all the words everyone had been saying in this place since signing up. There were two at the top of the list, the one for dimming and brightening the lights. And the other for getting into the library to call up my own books. Maybe I could figure out how to unbind myself.
My stomach bubbled as I thought about Jake again. The dream I’d had earlier seemed so real. I passed my hand over my forearm where the demon had grabbed me, wondering if Jake was somewhere broken and suffering because of me. There had to be a book somewhere in the library that could help me save him.
Sister Maria called up another book and devoured that one within minutes. “Have you been having any episodes of hearing things? Like...strange sounds. Maybe buzzing or whispering in the ears?”
“Yes.”
“Outbursts of power? Things breaking, falling, snapping around you?”
“Yes.” My heartbeat sped at the thought of someone finally getting what I had been going through.
“How about hearing or feeling other people’s thoughts and emotions? Moments of panic attacks where it feels like you’re going to die?”
I almost jumped out of my skin with a big fat, “Yes. Exactly.”
“Yep. She’s a water conjurer. And clearly empathic. ” Sister Maria got up from her chair and circled me again. “Water conjurers have always ascended through the Black Mist, an etheric form of death itself. It’s not for the weak of heart. Your ascension should have happened by now. I’m not sure why it hasn’t.”
I explained how the Black Mist showed up but never took me. How instead, it seemed to go berserk, flying after those around me. It devoured Zander, but he deserved it. It then chased Mason and Boyd back in the woods at Lake Shadowick. I eventually, got to the part where Jake summoned it and traded places with me. I also told her about the amulet.
“Makes sense,” Sister Maria said. “The trouble seems to be the binding. That’s what was throwing it off. The Black Mist just couldn’t get to you. Hmmm. And there’s no way you’re going to access your full powers without ascending. You’ll have to find out who placed the binding spell on you, to begin with. You’ll then have to break it and invoke your own ascension.”
“Yes,” Sister Clara said. “The other girls are researching spells for breaking the bind.”
At least, we were getting somewhere. “Okay, let’s say I figure out who spelled me, then figure out how to un-spell me, and then figure out how to invoke my own ascension.” The more I listened to the words coming out of my mouth, the less rescuing Jake seemed like a possibility. There was just so much to do. He’d be dead by the time I would get through with freeing myself. That is if my dream was correct. There had to be another way. “Will I still need the amulet, The Stone of Origins, to survive?”
“Most definitely. Ascensions are not to be taken lightly.” Sister Maria’s eyes intensified. “They’re few, they’re rare, and they’re dangerous; a complete reboot and rebirth of the entire organism.”
She wasn’t lying. I thought back to Mom and Hannah’s ascension.
I sighed deeply. It was a lot to take in. But at least I knew where to start. I had to figure out who spelled me.
“Well, we better get started,” Sister Clara said. “You’re going to need the entire day. I’ll show you how to use the library, and then take you to your defense class.”
“Defense?” I asked.
“Oh, yes. You’ll see.” Sister Clara seemed to take a certain pleasure in what she wasn’t telling me.
“Sister Maria? I’m just curious. In finding out who spelled me, is there some way of tracing the spell back to the person that did it?” It would sure save a lot of time.
“The signature on this magic is stronger than anything I’ve dealt with. All I can say is that whoever placed it was one powerful witch, and before you can lift it, you’ll need to call out its caster. In this case, breaking a bind without knowing the source could be deadly.”
Great. There were only three powerful witches that I knew of. My mother, Ezra, and Aunt Norah. Aunt Norah seemed the obvious choice. All she wanted was the amulet and my darkness. Ascending would have made me powerful, and maybe more so than her. There was no way Aunt Norah would have gone for that.
Then again, I was starting to have doubts about my mom. I mean, she was the one that had kept me hidden from a world of magic. However, within my heart of hearts, I knew my mom was just trying to protect me. If it wasn’t her, then Ezra. Maybe he had been trying to do the same. However, why would Ezra have warned me the night I was about to ascend if he had spelled me to begin with?
I was back to Aunt Norah. It had to be her.
“It was good meeting you,” I said. “And thank you.”
“You too, Lizzy. And you’re welcome.”
I was almost tempted to ask her if she had seen the pits of hell waiting to burst from the seams of my soul. Almost.
Sister Maria leaned in and hugged me. “No hay mal que por bien no venga.”
I had no idea what she had said.
“There’s no evil that doesn’t come with some good in it.”
Okay, so maybe she had seen the pits of hell waiting to burst from my soul.
“If you need anything,” she cont
inued, “I’m here. And when you’re ready, it’s not mandatory, but a blood sample could help the cause. We could use all the help we can get.”
I hated feeling so exposed. And even more so, I hated needles. Sure, I needed The Society’s help, but all I could think about was my time on the funny farm at Crownhill and the needle that had put me there.
Sister Maria must have noticed the expression of horror on my face. She proceeded to hand me a business card with her phone number on it. “Honestly, only if and when you’re ready.”
“Can I think about it?” I asked, glancing at it.
“Of course. There’s no pressure at all.”
Sister Maria’s smile almost put me at ease.
4
“So, when do we get to conjure books from the library?” I walked close at Sister Clara’s side until we came to a set of monstrous wooden and iron doors.
“First things first. You’ll need to know how to protect yourself. Without magic.” Sister Clara opened the doors to where Josie, Cassie, and the other girls were stick-fighting with Blavatski’s grandson.
“Alexei?” My former dance instructor was now my combat training instructor?
“The Lycans of Anubis have a long history of protecting witches. And vice versa.”
“Wait. Doesn’t Lycan mean werewolf?”
“Close. But they are two different species. Lycans are the direct descendants of the Egyptian God Anubis. And unlike they’re distant cousins, they can perform ceremonial magic, maintaining the balance between death and life, darkness and light.”
She was serious. “So, you’re telling me Alexei is a...”
A sly grin eased over Sister Clara’s face. “Yes.”
“And Madam Blavatski?”
“Absolutely.”
My mind drifted back to Blavatski’s cane during dance rehearsals, and the silver head of a wolf that glistened at the top of it. Alexei had worn a similar ring on his finger when I was practicing with him for the dance. But wasn’t silver supposed to kill werewolves? Maybe Lycans were an exception to the rule. That is if Sister Clara was telling the truth.
