by Bree Moore
She ate in a fog, responding enough to be ignored, except for that persistent look in Fletcher’s deep blue eyes. He didn’t seem to be asking anything of her, simply letting her know someone saw that she wasn’t as excited as everyone else.
The group moved to the common room, where Fletcher grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around Harper’s shoulders. He sat beside her with his arm encircling the blanket like it was the most natural thing in the world. Fletcher was right; it was addicting, feeling like she belonged. But the price she would pay for this comfort lingered in the back of her mind. Sitting there with him, talking and laughing with Kamri and Ian and some of the others, Harper could almost forget about escape, about Quinn, about all of it.
And it terrified her.
The tingling in Harper’s hand began at 1:34 a.m., according to the room’s alarm clock. She shook out her arm and changed positions. The tingling persisted and grew stronger, becoming pins and needles buzzing to the point of pain. She sat up in bed, rubbing the hand with her opposite one, which provided minimal relief. At 1:58 a.m. it glowed with a soft purple ‘X’ and Harper stared at it in fear and wonder. Magic.
She stood up, shaking her hand in a futile effort to get the painful prickling to stop. She moved closer to the door to find her jeans and the intensity lessened. She combed through her hair with her fingers, grateful that it was short enough not to be a total mess.
Harper padded quietly down the stairs. It was cooler in the entryway, and she rubbed both of her arms, the buzz in her hand still at an uncomfortable level. She wound down the staircase again until she reached the basement. She hadn’t been down here except to choose new clothes and deposit dirty ones. It was quiet, the only sound like distant water lapping in a pool. Kamri had mentioned a pool on Harper’s first day here. She was tempted to go see it, but the sensation in her arm was too uncomfortable to delay.
Now which way? Harper glanced down both hallways, each one equally dark, and decided to take the one toward the laundry room. The buzzing intensified and she winced, rubbing up her arm and turning around to go the opposite way. She didn’t know what was down this hallway. The last time she came close to it, she was running from Keith and didn’t pay much attention.
She saw doors, which might have been extra bedrooms or unused classrooms. One of them had a light under it, though she couldn’t hear any sounds coming from inside. She touched the doorknob and the prickling sensation stopped. Relieved, she turned the handle and stepped inside.
The moment the door closed behind Harper, the room erupted into roaring cheers. It was dimly lit and filled with a group of people, all residents, not many she recognized. Keith stood toward the middle, looking bored, while the rest had their eyes on Harper and wide grins on their faces.
“Your champion!” Lilith’s voice called from the front of the room. Harper blinked in the light, dumbfounded, still getting her bearings. Lilith’s arm stretched outward, and she gestured for Harper to come forward.
Harper walked through a narrow aisle between rows of metal folding chairs. Only about half of them were filled. She arrived at the front of the room, standing beside Lilith and blinking, dazed, at the crowd. This was what Lilith meant by having some people for Harper to meet?
Some of the crowd wore their shifter form, panting wolves and Shannon the hydra with her two heads. Harper also recognized Cheri, the pink-haired siren girl. She wasn’t cheering vocally, the mute spell Violet placed on her in force, but her face showed the same enthusiasm as those around her. Her eyes, a very normal green-color, gazed from beneath a curtain of vivid pink hair. Had Harper imagined them glowing pink that first day?
Lilith motioned for the clapping and cheering to stop. It was a wonder they hadn’t woken anyone else up. There must have been a spell on the room to keep sound in. The residents in the room, about twenty or so, took their seats or curled up on the floor, depending on their physical ability to use a chair. Harper rubbed at her arm, pinching the tender place near her elbow to make sure she was awake. Ow. Seemed likely.
“The moon is nearly full, Mercury is in retrograde, and all is aligned for the dramatic and essential change that is about to take place.” Lilith’s arm snaked around Harper’s shoulders, squeezing her close as the room erupted again. Harper managed a half-smile, but she had no idea what Lilith meant.
Harper swallowed, eyes passing over the faces in the room. None of the people she’d really come to know were here. Fletcher, Ian, Kamri… It appeared they were all satisfied with scraps. She licked her dry lips.
Lilith continued her speech. “The rest of your number, waiting patiently near the borders of our prison, will be ready to do their part. Are you ready to do yours?” Hoots, howls, and roars shook the walls. The room had to be spelled. The sound rose to an ear-splitting level. Harper clamped her hands to her side, a plastic smile glued to her face.
“You’ll have to forgive Harper,” Lilith said once the tumult died down again. “She hasn’t been clued into every aspect of our plan. But once she is, she will play a most essential part.” Lilith’s eyes flashed violet and the residents went crazy, howling and baring their teeth, even the human-looking ones. It was madness and chaos, and despite Harper’s conviction to bring better leadership to the camp, she wanted to go back to her room, pull the covers over her head and pretend to be ignorant of all of this. Her mouth stayed dry, no matter how many times she swallowed or ran her tongue through it.
“What do you think, Harper?” Lilith said quietly, her words meant just for Harper. She squeezed Harper’s arm. “See how much we need you?”
“I…I didn’t realize so many opposed Violet and James.”
“There are more than could meet here tonight. And in camps across the globe. I am gathering my coven sisters to join me in rebellion. We’ll take control of the camps first, then draw others in from outside to support our cause.”
“What is that cause?” Harper asked.
“Freedom, Harper.” Lilith breathed in and smiled, showing her perfect white teeth. “Freedom for us all. And it starts here. Are you with us? Or were all those words in Petrov’s class hot air?”
It was so much more than Harper had bargained for. All she wanted was to find her brother and her parents, not spring the whole world out of the chains the law put paranormals in. And yet, if she wanted to see change…real change that enabled her to live with her family, to be who she was without consequence, it had to start somewhere. Didn’t it?
Harper looked up at Lilith, a sudden certainty growing in her chest. “I’ll do it.”
Her smile grew even wider, and she put her hand on her back, sweeping her other hand before the crowd. “I wanted all of you to see the face of the one who will start our revolution. Look, and remember well, for her name will be what we chant as we rise to our proper place in the world!” Lilith nudged Harper forward and they made their way down the aisle between the chairs, banked on both sides with cheering and clapping.
Every single eye glowed violet, the same light that pulsed from Harper’s left hand, and all of their left hands, a light in the distinct shape of an ‘X’. The door shut, abruptly cutting the sound of the crowd.
Lilith let out a sigh, but kept her hand on Harper’s back.
“It is never easy maintaining that level of energy for that crowd,” Lilith said, glancing sideways. Harper let her head nod like a bobble-head toy, numb after the wave of emotion she was just swept under. “You have a unique disposition, Harper, and I need you to use it for me.”
Harper’s blood. Her Raven blood.
Lilith led Harper down the twisting halls to a part of the basement that appeared abandoned. The dingy walls hung with dust and cobwebs. It was dark and smelled musty. They stopped in front of a wooden door. The boards separated and left gaps in places, showing the beginning stages of rot. It looked as if Harper could kick it once and watch it crumble off the hinges, but Lilith didn’t bother even touching it. She chanted something in a languag
e Harper didn’t understand. The door clicked and swung open. It made a sound so like a human sigh that Harper turned, glancing at the dark hall behind them. It was empty.
“Come. We have much to discuss.” Lilith’s hand tugged Harper inside, and the door shut them in together. Candles automatically lit, as if on cue, bringing a shadowy, dancing orange glow to the room. It looked similar to Violet’s room, though more crowded and with less apparent order. The cabinet shelves held dozens of jars, dried herbs hung from the rafters, and a large, flat table stood in the center. The surface was stained with a number of unrecognizable substances, but the darkest splotches looked all too much like blood for her liking. A pentagram circle carved into the table’s surface was scored and scratched as if someone had intentionally destroyed it. The marks looked like claw and scorch marks.
Harper moved her eyes away from the table, disturbed. Lilith stopped in front of the table, then released Harper’s arm and walked toward a vault in the corner of the room. It was one of those enormous standing vaults with a wheel like a ship’s wheel on the front —completely out of place in the room and without any evidence it had aged with the rest of the furniture, Lilith flipped up a black box cover on the side, revealing a digital keypad. She punched in the numbers swiftly. The vault door opened with a slight hiss, revealing a silver glow from inside. Harper leaned over the table as Lilith bent over, blocking the view. Lilith emerged with a cloth covering her hands, holding a basketball-sized orb. A crystal ball. A legit crystal ball.
“Hurry, grab that stand over there.” Lilith pointed her chin toward a square bronze construct with claw-like corners coming up on each side. Harper rushed over and snatched it, putting it down on the table. Lilith carefully maneuvered the ball, tipping it into the holder with a clunk. She shook the cloth off her hands, leaving it next to the orb, and they stared into it together. It glowed so brightly, Harper couldn’t tell if mist floated inside or not, but either way it was impressive.
Harper laughed nervously. “This isn’t a joke, is it? I mean, I’m actually seeing this. You haven’t constructed an elaborate ruse with electricity and special effects as a new-comer hazing?”
“It is surreal, isn’t it? Standing in front of something so powerful, so unworldly. It’s okay to be afraid.” Lilith bared her perfect white teeth.
“I’m not.” The words fell flat in the air, and by Lilith’s smile Harper knew the witch wasn’t fooled.
The witch gazed lovingly down at the orb, like a parent at a young child. “I only wish I could touch it, to experience its power for myself.”
“Why can’t you?” Harper asked.
Lilith’s eyes darted up, then back at the ball. “It’s made of a particular kind of material. I’ve waited a long time to find someone who could activate it, someone who would be in alignment with all we’ve worked to accomplish. It’s taken years. I thought it might be your brother, but he was not interested in helping others. Too afraid. You are different, though, aren’t you?”
The accusation of Harper’s brother as a coward put a cold dart through her stomach. Harper didn’t like to hear anyone thinking poorly of him. But at the same time, Lilith spoke the truth. Quinn always was a man for himself. He brought Harper along, sure, but now that he was free from that responsibility, did he enjoy not being bogged down with his younger sister’s needs?
Harper rubbed her lips together, eyes absorbing the white light of the orb. She lifted a trembling hand toward it. Lilith replaced the cloth, covering its brilliance and casting the room back into near-darkness with only sputtering candles for light.
“Let’s save that for another time. I wouldn’t want you to activate it without understanding its purpose. There are strong forces at work beneath its surface. You would be wise to not touch it lightly.”
Harper put her hands behind her back. “What is it called?”
“A Beryllium Orb.” Lilith turned her back to Harper, wrapping the orb in the cloth and returning it to the vault.
“So…it’s not just a crystal ball?”
Lilith’s high-pitched laugh bounced off the ceiling in the close room. “Oh no, dear. It is much more than that. You can ask it anything, anything in the world, and the answer will come. But there is also a price.” She replaced the orb and closed the vault, the automatic lock clicking with finality. Brushing off her hands, she came back to the table, leaning forward with her eyes locked on Harper’s.
“What sort of price?” Harper asked, her tongue feeling swollen in her mouth. Witches and magic items weren’t things she dabbled with for a reason. There was always a price for magic. Her wings never betrayed her in that way.
“Once you touch it, you will not be the same, though I can’t tell how it will affect you. It’s different for each person who encounters it. If the price is higher than you are willing to pay, it’ll be too late. You must be prepared for your entire life to change.”
“I want my life to change,” Harper blurted. “I’ve been hunted and persecuted for the whole of it. It couldn’t get worse.”
Lilith’s eyebrows raised. “Spunky. And naive. Don’t underestimate the orb. It has a way of demanding an equal exchange. Which is why the wording of your question is essential. Asking for a life to be given or taken, for example, is among the most powerful and most costly of questions. You wouldn’t need to go so far in this. Think simple, like asking for their powers to be removed.”
“Whose powers?”
Lilith gave Harper a sly smile, as if they were two girls planning a prank at summer camp, rather than two grown paranormals in a secret room planning a coup. “The Petrovs’, of course! In order for freedom to come to those in this camp, they must be removed from their positions. They’ve been corrupt for years. You’ve seen evidence of their influence here.”
“If their powers are removed, they will still lead the camp, won’t they?”
“You think two mere humans could manage all of the paranormals within these walls? There is a reason witches and enchanters run every Naturalization camp in existence. Humans need us to maintain order. Like a zoo, and we’re the zookeepers,” Lilith spat the last words as if they left a bad taste in her mouth.
“What will happen after I activate it?”
“You make your request. Your request will be granted, and the price exacted. And I will ensure you are released from the camp, free to find your brother.” Lilith beamed, reaching for Harper’s hands. Her fingers felt like ice.
There was one question Lilith hadn’t answered yet. “Why me and Quinn? Why not one of your other…” Followers? Harper wasn’t sure what to call them.
Lilith’s eyes glittered. “Because you are Raven born. Others would be burned to a husk, emptied with the price that the orb demands. But you have the power in your blood. The orb won’t harm you. Your kind is not easy to find. Not just one touched by Raven himself, but one touched by any creator deity. You have one foot in this world and one foot in the Eternal Source.”
Harper had never heard of the Eternal Source. Lilith made it sound like a power or another dimension. The spot between Harper’s shoulder blades burned, rather than itched, as if it were confirming what Lilith said about Harper’s heritage. Why hadn’t this power manifested earlier in her life when she needed it? Not that she would have known how to use it.
Touching the orb would change her. It would change her whole life. In exchange, she could gain freedom for this camp and perhaps other camps across the U.S. Maybe even across the world. Harper couldn’t bring herself to hope that Lillith would succeed in freeing all paranormals, but as she said, it was a start. And Harper found that she wanted to be part of it. A chance to make a real difference.
A headache formed at the back of Harper’s skull—most likely a side effect of too much excitement and too little sleep.
“You don’t have to come to a conclusion tonight.” Lilith waved her hand in a dismissing fashion. “I hope you’ll say that you’ll do it, of course, but the decisi
on is yours. I have dreamed of this day for many years. I yearn to start a new era for our kind. Can you imagine?”
Harper couldn’t, not fully, but a glimmer of Lilith’s vision formed at the edge of her mind. “I’d like some time,” Harper said honestly. Time to see if Tyson had met Quinn. Time to let the words sink in, to decide if she wanted this. What question could she ask the orb? Was there a way to control the price that was exacted?
“Of course.” Lilith inclined her head. She moved around the table toward the door, opening it with the same incantation as before. Harper followed, passing her as she stepped into the hall.
“Oh, Harper, one last thing—when you decide, come to this doorway and speak my name three times. I will hear you.”
With that, the door closed between them.
Chapter Fifteen
Harper
The alarm clock blared at 7:00 a.m. Harper climbed out of bed and fumbled her way toward the table where it sat, hitting the button that would turn it off.
The night before was a blur—a cheering crowd, a glowing orb, something about questions. It all blended together, fighting for her attention to process it in the light of morning. She sat on the edge of her bed, staring at the floor. Stirrings downstairs indicated breakfast was being prepared. She remembered why her alarm clock was set. She was on the roster to help with breakfast.
Harper picked the jeans from off the floor where she left them last night. They were a bit rumpled, but they’d do. Her shirt needed changing, though. She rummaged through a drawer in the tiny cubby-like dresser next to her bed and pulled out a racerback tank top. She grabbed a jacket from the closet nearby—an olive green canvas thing in a cuter style than she usually cared to wear and pulled it over the blank tank. She brushed through her hair, fluffing it a bit to make it look like she tried, then headed downstairs.
Fletcher greeted Harper in the kitchen, wearing an apron while flipping pancakes and turning sausages on five massive griddles.
