The Fire Within Series: Books 1 - 3

by Ella M. Lee

  “How so?” I asked.

  “Keisha has a very useful ability: advanced spatial manipulation. Not super rare, but still somewhat uncommon. She’s the kind of magician who can create portals between places. It’s helpful to me, and it’s rare enough within the clan that other groups will pay us huge sums just to have Keisha make portals for them.

  “It also lets her bounce around between countries quickly and get us out of sticky situations with ease. She’s not the best fighter or pure magic user, but her ability is worth its weight in platinum.”

  I nodded. It made a lot of sense that Keisha was an SM, clan shorthand for “spatial manipulator,” since I hadn’t noticed anything else particularly powerful about her magic.

  All clans had magicians who could open portals—it was a basic connection all magic types had to the world through their elemental connections—but it wasn’t a common skill. Nicolas having his own SM was probably convenient as hell. Magicians who could create portals were sought after by everyone. It was rarer in some clans than in others, and almost all portal-builders made a lot of money.

  “Then we come to you, Fiona,” Nicolas said, his eyes falling on me again.

  “Oh… um… you know, I don’t really think my name belongs up there,” I said, putting my hands up in front of me. “I didn’t realize every single person in your group was so freaking talented. So I… I think I should just leave now. Sorry for bothering you.”

  I was only half joking. Daniel rolled his eyes at me. Nicolas ignored my self-conscious words. He turned back to the board and wrote under my name: fire transmutation.

  Turning back to me, he said, “When I first met you, I didn’t quite know what to do with you. You were from another clan, which was a little appealing to me, but I was unsure if you’d have additional gifts once clanned to Water. I had seen the possibility for it in my visions, but those don’t always come through, especially when the subject is under a lot of emotional stress.

  “But then you did it right in front of me, and I was beyond excited. I knew you were perfect when I saw you transmute my magic under pressure, in combat, with no time to think, with no practice, and on only your third use of the magic. It meant you had powerful instincts with Water magic and a strong affinity for fire. The fact that you are an excellent fighter, have five years’ experience with Flame, and know more about Meteor than most other people outside their clan are simply bonuses on top of the transmutation abilities.”

  I looked down, heart creeping up into my cheeks at his words, still not feeling as though I held a candle to any of the people he had just described.

  “My group is the key to Shatterfall,” he said. “If you look at what they can all do, you might be able to guess my plans.”

  I studied his notes on the board, my brow furrowed. I shook my head.

  “Everyone in your group has abilities beyond just pure Water magic,” I said slowly. “They all offer something more, but I don’t know what that means.”

  “Every member of my group is absolutely vital,” he said, crossing his arms, “because Shatterfall is my plan to form a new clan.”

  Chapter 4

  For a moment, the words didn’t quite register with me. The gravity of them, the obscenity of them.

  “What?” I said, looking between Nicolas and Daniel, shocked. “Is that even possible?”

  Dan was sitting up now, a smug smile on his face. “Definitely possible,” he said, his dark eyes meeting mine excitedly.

  “And everyone in the group knows this plan?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Nicolas said. “Although they all have varied tasks, they know the goal of what they are working on. For almost all of them, it’s interesting and appealing, something even better than being clanned to Water.”

  “How?” I asked. “How would you do this? What gave you the idea?”

  Nicolas smiled. “I come from Smoke. Crazy ideas are sort of our thing. Pushing the boundaries of magic has always been an interest of mine, but I only thought this up five years ago, when I met Daniel. Remember his magic?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “It’s unique. Lightning isn’t an elemental gift from any of the existing clans.”

  “Exactly,” Nicolas said. “It’s new.”

  Daniel held out his palm and called up a tiny palmful of his crackling lightning. I joined him on his couch in order to examine it. I’d seen it many times now, but this was the first time since my clanning. Water magic was definitely the root, but it didn’t feel like Water. It was something strange and different. I held a hand close to it. It licked my palm, tingling and stinging a tiny bit.

  “So… you want to make Lightning Clan?” I guessed.

  “Yeah,” Daniel said, his smile exuberant. “We need to create an inception point for the magic. Put so much of it together that it reaches a tipping point, where it’s inverted and self-sustaining and can create a sanctum, then boom, new clan. It’s a lot like how you create a commander, but on a massive scale, and the stability issues become far more difficult to handle.”

  I looked at Nicolas. “You’ve seen that this is possible?”

  “It’s not quite as simple as that,” Nicolas said. He was smiling, albeit in a more reserved way than Dan. “But the outlook on a successful attempt gets surer and surer with each day. The more research we do, the more we understand the process, the more likely it is to work. I know magic might seem like something ancient and immutable, and that’s probably the way it was taught to you, but that’s simply not true. Not all clans were created at the same time. There is precedent for this sort of change.”

  “What does an unsuccessful attempt look like?” I asked.

  “Well…” Daniel said. “That would probably end with me burning out and dying.”

  “What?” I said. My heart sputtered. “No. No, no, no. Are you insane?”

  “Calm down, Fi,” Daniel said. “We’ll be successful.”

  “Of course, we won’t do it unless we’re sure. We aren’t going to let Daniel die,” Nicolas said. “We’re still a ways out from any definitive action. There is research and testing left to go.”

  “Everyone in your group has a part?” I asked. “What’s mine?”

  “You can transmute. You are the only person in my group who can do traditional transmutation aside from Daniel. We have to learn whether you can only transmute to fire, or if you can do other things as well. You have to become very good with Water magic, and then push further.”

  Nicolas’s eyes were as excited as Daniel’s, intense and expressive. “I need Teng, Sylvio, Irina, Farhad, and Keisha for research and data collection. I need Ryan and Cameron to craft magical items. Ryan will have to craft the new clan’s physical sanctum. I need Athena for her own visions and insight, to see if this all turns out well. And I need you, Daniel, and Chandra for your transmutation abilities.

  “A new clan will need powerful, experienced members. I have collected some of the most powerful magicians in Water, people I respect and trust. Everyone plays a part, and if we’re fortunate, we get something amazing out of it.”

  “This is insane,” I said, shaking my head.

  “I know,” Daniel said, but his tone was completely awed.

  “You’re excited?” I asked him. “How? Why?”

  “Wouldn’t you want to be the person responsible for creating a new class of magic?” he asked, his eyes bright.

  “Actually, no,” I said. “I’m unambitious. I spent five years in Flame and didn’t even so much as change groups, let alone vie for a lieutenant or commander position.”

  “That changes now,” Nicolas said. “I’ve seen great things for you, for all of us. It’s merely a matter of putting the pieces together.”

  “When we do this, we’ll be on our own, right?” I asked. “The other clans won’t be happy.”

  Nicolas gave me a serious, level look. “Upsetting the current order of magic and the current hierarchies will be dangerous for us, but I think we can navigate toward peaceful allianc
es. We’ll have to guard ourselves carefully, especially at first, but with my abilities and the skills of our family, I think we will be all right.”

  “Will we still have all of our skills?” I asked. “Do we have any idea if things like Ryan’s transference or Keisha’s spatial manipulation will carry over to a new category of magic? Do we have any idea what the magic will be like? What if it doesn’t even have healing? What if it’s dangerous and unpredictable like Meteor or Flame?”

  Nicolas and Daniel exchanged a glance. “We have some basic ideas of how to shape the magic when we create it. Daniel can go over our research with you. That said, you’re right. We don’t truly know. We may be giving up a lot, but we’ll be gaining much in return. We all understand the sacrifices.”

  He came to where I was sitting next to Daniel and kneeled in front of me. I was taken aback at the deferential gesture. With great care, he took my hands, his skin very warm against mine.

  “Tell me you’ll help,” he said softly. “I need you.”

  I looked between them. Daniel’s expression was eager and inviting. I’d rarely seen him so happy. Outwardly, Nicolas looked as calm as ever, but I saw serious determination behind his eyes. This was the part of him that was a scientist, a researcher. Driven, goal-oriented, and a magician who could play with forces beyond most humans.

  If anyone could pull it off, I had a feeling it was Nicolas.

  “Well… I do sort of enjoy all this begging,” I said, smiling. “I will add this to the list of reasons you owe me.”

  “Please do,” he murmured, amused.

  “Okay, let’s do this,” I said.

  “Yes!” Daniel cried, throwing his arms around me and squeezing so hard he knocked the breath from my lungs. It was impossible to maintain any sort of concern with that type of reaction from him, but I shook my head, wondering what I was getting myself into.

  As nice as it was to learn Nicolas’s goals, it didn’t meaningfully affect my current work. I still needed to adjust to Water magic, learn to use it, and keep up my physical training in accordance with Daniel’s standards, which were not low.

  Three hours later, I was in our group’s training room, slick with sweat and feeling a lot like passing out. The training room was divided into two halves, and I was eyeing the other half with longing —the one filled with comfortable chairs and books and a lovely wooden meeting table. I was stuck on the side with the sparring mat and the pommel horse and several other devices that were definitely built for working out, but Daniel had turned them into torture devices designed to break me.

  I panted as Dan circled me, blocking blow after blow while I practiced my weaker right-side kicks. I had already done an hour of barre work. My former ballet and figure skating training had given him the idea to torment me with similar stretches, and I had spent weeks impressing him with my flexibility. After that, an hour working on my weaker right-side punches. Now we were ending the third hour, and I was ready to throw in the towel on Water Clan.

  I almost missed my fear-stricken first few days with Nicolas; at least then I got to sleep in and read novels in bed all day.

  “Ten more,” Daniel said, beckoning for me to come at him.

  He was a fount of energy. All the goodwill I usually felt for him was drying up with each of my ragged breaths. I completed the ten kicks and dramatically landed on my knees.

  “Oh, Fi, this is just the beginning,” Dan said, but his smile was pleased.

  “You are a tiny monster,” I said, standing.

  He laughed. I went to the fridge and took my time drinking a bottle of water. Once I caught my breath, I was a little happier.

  “What next?” I asked, sighing.

  “Some magic,” he said. “Nicolas wants you capable of advanced transmutation quickly. That should be easy. With your experience, you’ll be able to breeze through most of the easy Water stuff. I also want to get you working with Teng and Cameron, so that you learn how we do research here. You have experience there, so I’m expecting you to pick that up quickly too. That should keep you very busy. I’ll come up with a more stable schedule.”

  “Don’t you have, you know, a real job?” I asked.

  “Sure I do,” Daniel said. “But Nicolas said everything else comes second to your training, at least for now.”

  Daniel’s directive from Nicolas told me exactly how serious he was about my part in his plans, and that ignited a crazy amount of excitement within me. I wanted to earn the absurd salary Nicolas was giving me, to prove that he had been right to welcome me into his family. It would require hard work, but that wasn’t new to me.

  Dan seemed to read my mind. “Magic now, then I’ll take you out for pancakes. I know you love sweet things.”

  He laughed at my eager expression and dragged me through the shield to the other side of the training room.

  If I had thought three hours of physical activity was exhausting, it was nothing compared to several hours of working with my magic as it was still settling into my body. I finally got to sit on the soft chairs I had been eyeing longingly, but that was the extent of the comfort of the afternoon.

  The rest was brutal.

  The first hour was meditation. Daniel helped me hone my focus, my breathing, and how exactly I wrapped my magic into myself. He repeated Teng’s advice back to me until I snapped at him to shut up and let me think.

  After that, he had me craft wards and raise and lower several types of shields over and over again until it was natural and seamless. Shielding was possibly the most important aspect of defensive magic; he told me this again and again as I struggled to concentrate. Of course, I knew that, but shielding with Water was different enough from shielding with Flame that I desperately needed practice.

  “Don’t worry,” Daniel said, once he proclaimed me done for the day. “We’ll move on to the interesting stuff soon—advanced elemental control, manifestation, basic healing, basic spatial manipulation, transmutation.”

  After I washed my face and tied up my hair, Daniel took me outside and down the street for pancakes. I was ravenous, and I thought that maybe they were the most delicious thing I had ever eaten, fluffy and covered with fruit.

  After our meal, we walked to a small park nearby. The day was very hot, but I had wanted to stay outside a little longer, and Daniel had indulged me. The park was completely empty, quiet and serene, with a high wall to block out the sounds of the city. He laid back on the grass, and I mirrored him, staring up at the sky, our heads together.

  “I’m exhausted. I don’t understand how you can be so motivated all the time,” I said.

  “I have a great life,” he said.

  “Oh, sure. You were an orphan and a slave, and now you are a complete workaholic bound to the scariest commander in Water, possibly scariest in the whole world.”

  “Yeah, it’s great,” he repeated, and there was sincere appreciation in his sparkling eyes.

  I smiled. “Aren’t you worried you’ll get hurt someday?”

  “I get hurt all the time,” he said. “It doesn’t bother me. I like the work I do, and I love my magic.”

  “Your magic is lovely,” I said. “Did it scare you at first?”

  “No, not at all,” he said. “I wanted it. I asked if it could be like lightning, and it responded to my desires. I can’t be afraid of it. It loves me.”

  “Most people don’t talk about their magic like it’s a thing that can feel and think.”

  “No?” he asked. “Mine feels alive. I can interact with it like it is.”

  “And that is likely why Nicolas thinks so highly of you,” I said.

  He looked side to side, checking for anyone near us, but the park was still empty. “I really freaked out Ryan and Nicolas when I showed them my lightning,” he said. “I’ve never seen Ryan so talkative, or Nico so wary. He made me promise not to tell anyone its true nature about a hundred times. He used to repeat things multiple times in Cantonese, English, and Mandarin to be sure I understood. It took him a wh
ile to get that I’m not an idiot, I guess.”

  “He was right to be concerned,” I said. “In my experience, fifteen-year-olds are idiots. My brother, Mark, used to do all sorts of insane bullshit. I can’t imagine how many lives he would have endangered if someone had given him magic.”

  Dan smiled. “He was probably predisposed to Flame and the other dangerous magics, since you are good with Flame.”

  “You probably are too,” I said. “Lightning might end up being classified among them if it turns out to be volatile.”

  “We’ve done a bit of research on that. Nicolas thinks I might be able to guide the way the magic works when I create the clan, like pull certain qualities into it,” Dan said. “If so, I can try to calm it and make sure we have awesome abilities. For instance, I can heal with my transmuted lightning magic. Not as well as pure Water, but it’s there. I can likely include those aspects. At least, Nicolas thinks so.”

  “Nicolas has high expectations.”

  “Really?” Dan rolled his eyes. “When did you notice?”

  We both laughed, and I was happy we both understood precisely how crazy Nicolas could be.

  Once home at the clan house, Daniel took me up to the library. He had a request in at the front desk, and the woman there retrieved a stack of three books for him.

  “Some more light reading for you, in your spare time,” he said. “I know you love it.”

  “Awesome, wow,” I said sarcastically. “Ordering me around pleases you, doesn’t it?”

  “A little,” he said, his smile feral as he waved me into the elevator and went off—hopefully to go torment someone else.

  Nicolas wasn’t home when I returned to his apartment. His shield was in place, but there was an envelope on the door from Keisha. It held the keys to my apartment and an excited note detailing the story of all my new furniture. I smiled at her enthusiasm for upholstery.