All Hallows' Eve (Ravensbane Academy Book 1)

by Dallysten Mackenzie

  I pulled my bag over my shoulder and climbed the four stairs to the front door. Dallas took my bag and slung it over his shoulder.

  “Come in,” he said, eagerly. “I hope you can feel at home here soon.”

  “Where are your sons?”

  “They’re out in the backyard, messing up the gardens with a game of laser tag.”

  “In the daylight?” I asked.

  “They play night and day,” Dallas said. “It’s amazing they even show themselves in the house at all.”

  He led me up a flight of stairs that had carpet that ran all the way over the first floor. It was a deep red, with the fleur de lis pattern down the sides. Dallas kept walking down one corridor and to a door with a red fleur de lis on the front.

  “What’s with the fleur de lis?”

  “Family symbol, most prominent families have them,” he said, opening the door wider and letting me walk inside. A large king size bed sat against a wall painted in red, a desk with a lamp was sitting by the side of the window and a large flat screen TV was mounted on the wall opposite the bed. “I hope this okay. If you need anything else, just ask. There’s a spa bath in the ensuite, my son tells me girls like to have spa baths.”

  I giggled. “You saying your son knows women more than you?”

  Dallas sighed. “I fear he does.”

  He dropped my bag down on the bed and looked out the window. I followed him over to the window where I could see who I figured were my brothers fighting with toy guns in the garden, lasers were shooting from the guns like light sabres once they found each other again.

  “I’ve never seen that game,” I said. “Humans play in game centres.”

  “It’s actually a magically infused laser,” Dallas said. “All the rage with kids.”

  “What does the laser do?”

  “It weakens the opponent.”

  “Isn’t that dangerous?”

  “No, you stop when the energy pad on the suit they’re wearing gets too low. It’s completely safe.”

  He headed back to the middle of the room. “Well I’ll let you rest, dinner will be later and I can formally introduce you to your brothers.”

  “Thanks.”

  He closed the door behind him and I sat down on the bed. Pulling my phone from my pocket, I saw a message from Luther.

  Have fun with your family. I’ve got everything covered here. See you in a week.

  L.

  I already missed him.

  I put my phone down and laid down on the bed. It was super comfy, so much more than the one I had at the school. There was just a calmness here, like I could relax and be safe.

  ∞∞∞

  “Elke?”

  I opened my eyes and looked up at Dallas at my door.

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah,” I said, pulling myself up. “I must have fallen asleep.”

  “That’s okay,” he said, walking into the room. “You can keep sleeping and I’ll have some food brought up.”

  “No, I want to be normal and have dinner at a table.”

  Dallas smirked at me. “You got it, kid.”

  I pushed off the bed and followed Dallas down the stairs. The grand chandeliers were all lit up which made me wonder what time it was. How long had I been sleeping? It had been a while since I’d slept a full eight hours.

  “Elke, I’d like to introduce you to your brothers,” Dallas said, moving out of the way. I looked over at the two boys I’d seen earlier, now both in casual clothes and smiling broadly at me. “The eldest is Rylan and the youngest is Chet.”

  “Hi,” I said, feeling suddenly nervous.

  “Come, sit next to me,” Chet said eagerly, running to his chair. I followed him and sat down by him. Rylan sat on the other side next to Dallas.

  “Do you like playing games, Elke?” Rylan asked me.

  “I haven’t really had the opportunity, but I did see you guys playing earlier. It looked like a lot of fun.”

  “It is,” Chet said. “We have an extra suit if you wanted to play tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, for sure.”

  Dallas seemed happy that they were welcoming to me and I was too. I had been anxious for hours before I arrived.

  A woman came out with plates of food and put them down in front of us. It looked like homemade lasagne and a side of vegetables. The aromas were mouth-watering. I looked around the table, but it didn’t appear that we would have to say grace.

  “Wait, boys,” Dallas said. “Elke, did you want to say something? A human tradition?”

  “No, it’s okay. I actually never liked doing it.”

  “Okay, let’s dig in.”

  I cut into the lasagne and delighted in the taste of the creamy bechamel sauce mixed with the saucy meat and soft pasta. The boys ate quickly, talking all the while which made me smile. They were everything I imagined brothers would be like at a dinner table. Chet interrupted Rylan so much I thought Rylan would launch across the table.

  They spoke about their school work, and their friends, and cousins. Even though I didn’t know these people, I couldn’t not be interested. They spoke with so much excitement that I wished I had that passion.

  “Why doesn’t Elke go to our school?” Rylan asked.

  I looked over at him and then at Dallas. Dallas was a little caught off guard, but he put his knife and fork down and looked from Chet to Rylan and then to me.

  “Well, Elke is more than welcome to go to Willows if she wishes to change schools,” Dallas said.

  “Uh,” I replied, looking from Chet to Rylan and then to Dallas again. “I have friends at Ravensbane, and I like my teachers, so I’ll probably stay.”

  “But we won’t get to see you hardly ever,” Chet whined.

  “We’ll find a way,” Dallas said. We continued the meal until our plates were clean. The same lady came to clear them away.

  “What is your favourite class at school?” Chet asked me.

  “Uh, I don’t really have a favourite but I suppose I like history.”

  “I like tracing.”

  “What is tracing?”

  “It’s a two-way skill,” Dallas responded. “It’s a skill you can use to track down someone who used a particular power and where they are, or you can use it to trace powers in your own family to learn how to utilise it.”

  “I don’t think that’s a class at Ravensbane.”

  “It is, but not in your first year,” Dallas replied.

  “Why didn’t Elke know about who she was?” Rylan asked. The room fell silent and I had no idea how to respond. I looked to Dallas for help.

  “That’s — uh, well—that’s a little complicated.”

  “You mean we’re not allowed to know?” Rylan responded.

  “It’s okay,” I said to Dallas. “You can tell them.”

  Dallas nodded. “Okay, boys, you know that I love your mother but before I married her, I was with another woman. Her name is Ianthe and she is Elke’s mother. Unfortunately, she was heartbroken when I decided to marry your mom so she didn’t tell me about being pregnant with Elke because she didn’t want there to be problems with my marriage. She thought she was doing the right thing.”

  “Were you angry at her?” Rylan asked.

  “No, I understand the fear she had. I was worried when I did find out that your mother would be upset and she was but there’s nothing that should stop you from loving Elke as a sister, because she is your sister, she just has a different mother to you.”

  They both nodded and I felt a little better. I was glad Dallas could have explained it because I had no idea how I would be able to put it into words without feeling bitter.

  The same lady as before came out and handed us all dessert. A lemon meringue pie.

  “Thank you, Darlene.”

  She nodded and headed off. The meringue was beautifully torched, and I could smell the sweetness from my plate.

  “Dig in,” Dallas said. We all put our spoon into the centre of the pie and cut through the pa
stry. I let the zesty lemon hit my tongue and fought to not close my eyes in pleasure. It had been a long time since I had homemade dessert and this did not disappoint.

  Once dinner was finished, the boys were sent to their rooms to study for an hour which left me with Dallas in the entertaining room. It had a billiards table and a bar over to the side.

  “Would you like a drink?” Dallas asked me.

  “Ah, no, I’ve had enough water today I think.”

  “You’re old enough to have a real drink, Elke.”

  “Oh,” I replied, looking to the bar. “I don’t know what I’d like.”

  Dallas headed over to the bar and started shaking and pouring liquids together. He came over to me with a pink drink.

  “Is this because I’m a girl?” I asked, sipping at the liquid.

  Dallas chuckled. “Jesus, you are like Ianthe.”

  I didn’t want to ask him about her. I knew she had loved him and he’d chosen to marry his wife, but I wondered if he only did that because he had to.

  “What was it like growing up with all of this?” I asked him, liking the sweet taste of whatever he’d given me.

  “Fun, but also lonely, and tough,” he replied. “I could have any kind of party I wanted as a kid, money was not an issue but I also didn’t see my parents much, we were raised by maids and butlers, and when I did see them, they were always arguing or angry at each other. I swore I’d never do that but — ha, well, that didn’t pan out the way I’d hoped, did it?”

  “Didn’t you ever love her?”

  “No, I tried, but I don’t think she really loved me either,” he said. “It was all our families’ idea. Now we live separate lives. She has an apartment in the city, and I have this place.”

  “That sounds sad.”

  “It can be, but I choose to think of it as more time with my boys,” he replied.

  “What about your parents? You said they were never happy. Are they still together?” I asked.

  “Yes, unfortunately, a different generation. My mother is none too pleased of my arrangement, but she learns to deal with it. The boys have gotten used to it, so it really shouldn’t bother her.”

  “She’s old school, huh?”

  “Very,” he replied. “I hope you don’t feel like you can’t ask about this side of the family, it’s just not very nice to hear about. I guess Ianthe’s isn’t as great either.”

  “It’s okay, I didn’t have a family up until a couple of months ago, so I’m good.”

  “Our family dates back to the old days, medieval days, and one of our ancestors was actually a King.”

  “That’s pretty cool,” I said. “So I heard elemental families, the rich ones, are powerful. Is that true?”

  “Yep,” he replied. “Tomorrow, I want to try and show you some things, maybe give you an ol’ education that they won’t teach you at Ravensbane.”

  “I’d like that.”

  We sat in mostly silence other than the brief conversation whisps, but mostly I sat back in my chair, looking at the crackling fire in front of us and drank my very adult drink. So far, my dad was pretty cool.

  Luther

  I opened the door to the bedroom and moved in quickly, searching for any sign of Anise. I’d been looking all day, knowing Elke was out of harm’s way was a great time to search for the bitches who tried to kill her. Tiger was by my side, huffing.

  “You know we can’t all fly,” she said through breaths.

  “If you can’t keep up, you can join the other search party.”

  “Whatever,” she huffed at me. “This is where she said she was staying away from the school. I didn’t know it was a dive.”

  “Her parents haven’t attended the school for a few years. I hate to say it, but they could have all been planning this for years.”

  “And I was the dummy who thought they were my friends.”

  “They needed you to believe them so they looked normal, sociopaths elude everyone, don’t feel bad.”

  I knew my words wouldn’t ease her insecurity but we had more important things to worry about. I looked through the books, and saw the grimoire sitting underneath a pile of clothes.

  “She will come back for this,” I said. “It’s an old one, probably a family heirloom.”

  “We should take it back to the school,” Tiger said. “She can’t penetrate the guards on that school, but here, she could make it disappear with just a thought. I don’t think she’ll come back here.”

  She was right. I picked it up and carried it down to the street below. Joan and Antonio were tracking Selene. I felt bad for Joan, she had the weight of the world on her shoulders right now.

  As we headed back into town, I broke the silence between us. “Have you heard from Stig?”

  “No,” she said on a sigh. “I hoped he would return but he hasn’t spoken to me since I told him about this whole shitshow. I don’t think he’s ready.”

  “Do you know where he went?”

  She shook her head. “When Stig wants to be alone, he will be.”

  I could understand that. Before Elke, I always hid away from everyone. “Do you really love him?”

  She turned to look at me, the confusion in her eyes were brief but they were definitely confused. “I don’t think so but he’s a good friend. I miss having him to talk to.”

  “I get that.”

  “I guess we both have responsibilities we don’t want.”

  “True that.”

  “Hang on, I can fly us back,” I said.

  “It’s okay, I need to run. I’ll make it back.”

  “You sure?”

  She nodded.

  I moved into an alley and launched into the air, my wings unfurling and shooting me through the air and out of the line of sight of humans. I flew, keeping a hold of the book as I headed back to the academy. If they had been planning this for years, we were years behind and I didn’t like feeling that way at all.

  Especially not when Elke was the reason they were targeting the academy. I knew she was special, but there must be something else we haven’t figured out yet.

  I’d sent a letter to Dallas to tell him what we were suspecting and what was really going on and begged him to try and get her to realise her true potential.

  As I landed on the roof, I moved to my tower and put the grimoire in my chest and locked it. Anise wouldn’t be able to get that open without me. Now, I needed to get back out there and back to tracking her. Witches couldn’t keep under the radar, no matter what they tried, when they had power, they had to use it. That was going to be her undoing.

  Elke

  Dallas stood on the opposite side of me and I looked at him, waiting for him to show me something. He’d been in full focus mood since he woke up. I wondered if he was annoyed, but I couldn’t tell that yet. The boys were playing somewhere else and I was standing in the garden, waiting for him to throw some kind of water ball at me again. My hair was still clinging to my face from that one.

  “I have something to show you,” he said, coming closer to me. Pulling something from his pocket, I saw a clear pyramid with a symbol inside of it. “This is an elemental stone. It’s a source for you to keep your stronger powers when you don’t need them and so they don’t overwhelm you.”

  “How does it work?”

  He handed me the stone. It was cold in my hands and light. Lighter than I thought it would be.

  “Well, when you absorb powers that you won’t need for a while, you can push them into the stone. When you do need them, you can pull them from the stone.”

  “So, it’s just a storage device?” I asked.

  “Yep,” he said. “Let’s practice.”

  He stepped back and I held the stone in my hand. I’d been storing the rain in my body for a few weeks so I knew I could use that. I held it in the palm of my hand and tried to push the water into it, but nothing happened.

  “Think of the water, think of it coming out of your skin and into the stone.”

 
I closed my eyes and tried to visualise it. Slowly, a tingle spread through my arm and then a spiral of water twirled over the pyramid and finally enveloped it before being sucked in by some mysterious force.

  “Well done,” Dallas said. “Just so you know, that took me at least two weeks to master. You’re doing really well.”

  I felt a surge of pride well up inside of me.

  “That felt weird, the tingling in my arm.”

  “I know, if you pull too much of the power into the pyramid, you get pins and needles. I don’t suggest that. Now, let’s try getting it back out.”

  I nodded and looked over at the pyramid again. I thought about the water within and wanting it out, I wanted it to go back into me. I could feel some kind of pull but not enough to see anything. I tried again. Focusing on the symbol inside of the pyramid. The once clear pyramid was now a soft tint of blue.

  “What is the symbol?” I asked Dallas.

  “Spirit.”

  I looked over at him. “But I didn’t think everyone had that power.”

  “They don’t,” he said. “I’ll teach you more about it later.”

  I closed my eyes again and focused on the pyramid, trying to clear my mind of everything except for the water trapped inside.

  “Dallas!” I heard a woman screech from behind us. Opening my eyes, I spun around to see a beautiful woman with long blonde hair, perfectly straightened, standing on the balcony, her arms crossed. She did not look happy.

  I looked to Dallas who not only looked annoyed but surprised.

  “Where are my sons?” she yelled at him.

  So, this was the wife. She was prettier than I thought she would be. I don’t know why but I imagined a middle-aged woman.

  “They’re in the gardens,” he shouted up at her. “I was going to drop them off tonight.”

  “Do you know how dangerous this is?” she said, finally looking at me. The look of scorn on her face had me faltering back. She hated me. “Do you know what she could do to my sons?”

  “Our sons,” Dallas corrected her and came toward me. “They are absolutely safe with her. She is safe here and she knows it. My daughter would never harm anyone.”

  “What does she mean?” I asked him.