by K A Riley
He threw me a knowing look that came close to evolving into a grin. “I’ve shot a few arrows in my time. I promise I’ll do what I can to help you. You know that. You don’t know how badly I want you to come out on top.”
“But what if I’m not good enough? What if I don’t…”
I was interrupted by the Academy’s bell chiming four times, which, according to the book, was the signal that dinner would soon be served.
“No what-ifs,” he said. “Lack of confidence is not an option. Merriwether thinks you have it in you to be the very best, and the truth is, we need you. Even if some of the Zerkers want to be pricks about it.”
“You noticed they have it in for me already, huh?” I asked with a grimace.
“Hard not to. They’re a rowdy bunch. Really good at being angry all the time. I wouldn’t pay too much attention to anything they have to say.”
Just then, a group of students raced by the entrance to our alcove, a little too close for comfort. Callum backed into the hallway, distancing himself from me. “Come find me after dinner,” he said quietly. “In the Grove.”
“I don’t know where that is,” I said. I’d stared at every map in the book but never noticed any location with that name.
“Picture the perfect orange tree,” he said with a wink as he flashed me a smile. “In your mind’s eye, I mean. Something tells me you’ll find it easily enough.”
A second later, he was gone.
I found my way into the Great Hall, which had transformed since the earlier Assembly into a high-ceilinged and seemingly endless dining room. What looked like sophisticated elegant silver light fixtures hung here and there, hovering above the tables. The tables themselves were draped with linens matching the colors of the uniformed students—red, blue, green and silver.
I eyed the silver table for a moment, wondering if I was bound by some kind of Seeker duty to eat there, before hearing my name being called from somewhere behind me. When I spun around, I was relieved to see Niala’s smiling face as she gestured me over to where she and Rourke were sitting at the end of a Casters’ table.
“Everything okay?” she asked. “You look…preoccupied.”
“I’m fine. This place is just a lot to take in,” I said, not wanting to mention how eager I was to devour my meal and to see Callum again. I wasn’t sure what I wanted more—answers to my multitude of questions, or the warmth and reassurance of his presence. Either way, my current greatest wish was to find my way to his side.
“Of course. It’s a lot of information overload, I’m sure. You’ve had a long day.”
A long day. Massive understatement. Just this morning I’d dropped Will off at the airport, and now here I was in some other place entirely, a place that didn’t exist on any map I’d ever heard of. A place that boasted dragons and shape-shifters, kings, queens, and apparently, wizards.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “It’s been the longest day of my life, and it’s not over yet.”
“Well, the good news is that we’ll be sleeping in the same dorm room,” Niala said with a smile as she stroked her fingers over Rourke’s head. He was in his form of a black Husky, his bright eyes watching the floor in case anyone dropped a shred of their meal on the ground.
“Really?” I asked. “That’s a relief. I mean, I don’t know anyone else, and I get the impression that no one’s particularly happy to have me here. Not even the Seeker Candidates.”
“You’re their stiffest competition. Of course, they’re not happy about your presence.”
“I don’t see why they’re worried about me,” I protested. “I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m supposed to be shooting arrows tomorrow and I don’t even know how to hold a bow. Besides, like that Larken kid said, all I’m good for is summoning doors. I’m not exactly a great warrior or anything.”
“Just make sure the arrow isn’t pointed at your face, and you’ll by fine.”
I let out a chuckle that almost threatened to turn into a rolling sob. “Thanks,” I said. “I needed that.”
“Now eat and get out of here. I can tell there’s somewhere you’d rather be, and I can guess why.”
“It’s that obvious, huh?”
“Yup,” she said, shoving a forkful of potato into her mouth. “Just do yourself a favor and make sure no one sees you.”
The Grove
When I’d scarfed down my meal of pot roast, potatoes, and peas, I excused myself and made my way out of the Great Hall and down a series of long corridors, trying to find any clue as to the location of the hidden grove Callum had mentioned.
“Orange tree,” I murmured as I walked around, looking for any sign of an exit that might lead to a hidden courtyard. “Callum said I should look for the perfect orange tree.”
I nearly kicked myself when I remembered he’d told me to picture the tree in my mind’s eye. Of course. It was the same thing Merriwether had done to get me to open a door to the Academy’s library. Envision the tree, summon a door, and easy peasy, I’d be in the mysterious grove.
Only I wasn’t convinced it would be so easy. For one thing, I had to make sure no one would see me doing it. I strode down an empty hallway until I found a small, shaded alcove and glanced around to make sure no other students were nearby. When the coast was clear, I closed my eyes and pictured the tree. A perfect, narrow trunk leading to a series of branches covered with healthy green leaves and spherical oranges that looked good enough to devour—peel and all.
“Please, please work,” I mouthed as the image solidified in my mind. “Please let me end up in the right place and not in the middle of Florida…”
When I opened my eyes again, a door stood in front of me, a fruit tree carved into its surface. “I’m getting better at this,” I said under my breath as I pulled the dragon key from my chain, unlocked the door, pushed it open and walked through.
On the other side, I found a series of tidily-planted trees nestled among a sea of perfectly trimmed grass. As the door fizzled away behind me, I stepped forward, inhaling the scent of citrus wafting through the air in sweet waves.
The high walls of a courtyard rose up around me, lush green vines covering their surface. This place was such an odd mix of old and new, with its hovering lamps and its high-definition video screens…and this. The feeling I’d stepped backwards in time and come out in the Garden of Eden. Everything was pure and simple, and no amount of technology could possibly improve it.
After a little while I came upon the tree Callum had mentioned, right in the middle of the orchard. It looked like a painting, so symmetrical as to be unrealistic. Something about it stirred a quiet feeling of bliss inside me. No matter what happened after today, this would be our secret place.
It really was perfection.
A soft rustling behind me made me spin around, my heart springing to action in my chest. I wasn’t supposed to be here, and I had no idea what repercussions I’d face if Merriwether or one of the other instructors found me.
But the moment I saw who’d made the noise, I blew out a relieved exhalation. Callum was standing a few feet away, smiling broadly, unhindered now by the confines of what was deemed appropriate behavior between the Academy’s walls.
“I’m probably an idiot for being here,” he said. “I could get kicked out for less.”
“So why did you come?” I asked with a smile, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Because I wanted to.” He reached out and fingered the delicate tip of a nearby branch. He pulled his eyes to mine, and for a moment I marveled to think I’d almost forgotten how brilliantly blue his irises were. “You look good in your new outfit, by the way. It suits you.”
“Thanks. I usually stick to hoodies I can hide in, but I have to admit, I do like these clothes. They’re the only thing in this place that feels really comfortable.”
“I wish I could help you with that—with feeling comfortable, I mean. I know this must seem like a lot.”
“I wish you could help make the other students h
ate me a little less. That would be a great start.”
He shook his head. “They only hate what they think you are.”
“And what is that, exactly? What do they have against my grandmother?”
Callum looked away, his jaw clenching. “I’m not sure I should tell you what I know. If Merriwether hasn’t said anything, I probably shouldn’t either.”
“Please, Callum, just say it. I need to know what I’m up against.”
He reached out and put a hand on my shoulder. I wasn’t sure if it was to steady himself or me. “Some say she betrayed the Academy all those years ago,” he said slowly. “After she found the Relics. Look, that’s all I can tell you, because it’s all I really know.”
“Betrayed? I thought she helped. Merriwether said she was the reason the queen didn’t rise to power sooner.”
“Yes, that’s true. Your grandmother did some great things. But people tend to forget the great things when there’s a scandal involved. And rumor has it that her scandal was pretty serious.”
Scandal. I pictured my Nana—my adorable little scone-making, scarf-knitting grandmother—and tried to imagine her embroiled in any kind of nefarious activities. It was impossible. As far as I knew, the worst thing she’d ever done in her life was accidentally spill some tea on one of her favorite lace doilies.
“I don’t believe it,” I said. “I don’t believe my Nana would get up to…whatever she was supposed to have gotten up to.”
“Good,” said Callum, pulling back. “You shouldn’t. Gossip is idiotic, not to mention pointless. Besides which, I have no idea what she was supposed to have done. So, let’s talk about something else.” He glanced around at our surroundings. “This place is too pretty to deserve negative talk.”
“So what should we talk about?” I asked, relieved to drop the subject.
“What do you want to know? Ask me something. Anything.”
I took a step toward him, pulling my chin up to narrow my eyes at his handsome face.
“I want to know you, Callum Drake. You’re not what I thought you were when we first met, but I had a feeling about you.”
“Oh? And what feeling was that, exactly?” he said, leaning toward me so that our faces were mere inches apart.
“I’m not sure. All I knew was that you didn’t seem to belong in Fairhaven. You seemed…too regal. Or something. Like you should have been wearing armor and leading armies to war.”
“Ah. I figured it would probably come down to this at some point.” He was smiling again, but I got the impression that his eyes were hiding something. “Unfortunately, I can’t tell you much.”
“Okay, let’s start with where you’re really from. Because something tells me it’s not England.”
“I’ve spent a good deal of time in England, but it’s true that I wasn’t born there.”
“So, you were born here. In the Otherwhere.”
He nodded. “I’m from the region called Anara.”
“The region with the green hills,” I said. “The one I saw when I came through the dragon door.”
“Yes. That’s home.”
“It’s beautiful. I’ve never been anywhere so peaceful in my life. It’s how I imagine a lot of the world—my world, I mean—was a long time ago. Yet it’s so different.” I cocked my head at him. “So the people Liv met—your parents…”
“Aren’t so much my parents as temporary guardians, put in place by Merriwether.”
“I see,” I said. This was growing more intriguing by the moment. “I have another question, one that might end up making me feel pretty stupid, because you look young. But…”
“You want to know exactly how old I am.”
“All I know is that nothing about you seems seventeen, except maybe your features. But even so…”
Callum chuckled. “People where I come from…we age slowly. So, technically, yes. I’m a bit older than seventeen.”
“How much of a bit older?”
Callum seemed to hesitate. He pulled his gaze into the distance at a far wall covered in braided green ivy. “If I have to put a number on it…”
“Yes?”
“A little older than you. Or possibly a lot.”
“Tease.”
“Does my age matter to you?”
I shook my head. “You have this aura about you. Like you’re some man of the world who’s been everywhere, done everything. Seen lots of…people.” I raised an eyebrow, curious to see if he’d realize I was talking about girls.
Callum caught my meaning, apparently, because he replied, “Not so much. You might be surprised to learn that I haven’t exactly had much of a social life. I’ve been sort of busy with other things.”
“You’re telling me you’ve been walking around, looking like…” I gestured at him with my right hand, “…this…for ages, and you haven’t had a thousand girlfriends?”
Callum snickered. “Not even close.”
“That seems unlikely.” I found myself pulling back and throwing up an emotional wall between us. I was beginning to wonder if I could trust him. There was so much he kept under wraps. So much he was unwilling to divulge.
“Vega, I’ll never lie to you. You don’t need to worry about me having wandering eyes, let alone a wandering heart.”
Callum slipped his fingers under my chin, raising it so that our eyes met. I considered pulling away, but instead I let myself savor his touch, studying his eyes to see if I could detect a lie in anything he was saying.
“Well, what you do with your time is none of my business, anyhow. It’s not like we’re…”
“Dating?” He pulled his hand away, dropped it to his side and chuckled. “No, I suppose this thing of ours wouldn’t exactly fit the conventional idea of dating in your world or mine.”
“Wait—this thing of ours?” I asked, my heart doing a little happy dance. “You’re saying we have a thing?”
“I have feelings for you. Feelings I’m not meant to have. I’m not talking about age now, because as far as I’m concerned, we’re equals on that front. I’m talking about the fact that I’m supposed to be objective. I’m supposed to be objective where the Candidates are concerned. Falling for you, it’s inadvisable at best.”
I felt the rush of blood to my cheeks at his words. Falling. Yes, that was what I’d done, too. He made me feel like the ground disappeared from under my feet every time I set eyes on him, like I was weightless, floating in a state of affection unlike anything I’d ever known.
“What happens if I don’t make it here, Callum?” I asked. “What happens if I fail…if I’m not selected? Will they just send me home, and that’s that? I’ll never see you again?”
He reached for a nearby orange and plucked it off its branch before playing with the peel. “Don’t talk like that. You haven’t even begun your training yet.”
“But I have to prepare myself. What if…”
“Stop.” His jaw was set now, his eyes flaring bright as he set them on my own. “Don’t. You have to be selected. You have to be the one they choose to find the Relics of Power.”
“Why?”
“Because if you leave this place—if you’re not selected, then you’re right. There will be no us. And I don’t want that any more than you do.”
He played nervously with the orange’s peel, slicing it open with his thumbnail. “I’ve never met anyone like you. In all my years, I’ve never met someone who struck me the way you did when we first met. There’s something in you—something you don’t see in yourself, which is endearing and infuriating at once. And it shines out like a light. Even your name glows, for God’s sake; the brightest star in the Lyra constellation. You don’t see your own beauty, whether it’s internal or external. You don’t see your own worth. But you need to start seeing them, or you’ll be eaten alive in this place, and I couldn’t bear that.”
I thought of all the times I’d stared at myself in the mirror, all the times I’d scrutinized every individual flaw. I’d never seen myself as
a bright star. I was the girl who walked around Fairhaven with her hands shoved into her pockets, hood pulled over her head. I was a girl who wanted to live in shadow, to hide from the world.
I wasn’t sure I could see myself the way he did if I tried for a thousand years.
“I don’t know what to make of you at all,” I said, gesturing toward the walls, “let alone of this place. I just hope I can somehow live up to your high expectations of me.” I turned away from him, fingering a leaf with one hand while I clenched the other into a frustrated fist. “Besides which, everyone here seems to want me to fail.”
“Not everyone,” he said. “Not me. Not Merriwether, or Niala. We’re all rooting for you. Look, you didn’t need to come here. You could have said no, handed the key to Merriwether and walked away. But you didn’t. You’re here, ready to sacrifice everything. And why? To help people you’ve never even met. Don’t sell yourself short. You have no idea what you’re capable of. You’ve only just found out that you’re a Seeker. You just had your birthday. Your potential is still waiting to be unleashed.”
I blew out a puff of air and turned back to face him. “Yeah, well, Niala has a changeable animal at her side at all times. Some of the Zerkers look like they could kill me with a stare. I may be considered athletic back in Fairhaven, but something tells me running the hundred-yard dash in the Otherwhere isn’t going to win us any wars.”
Callum let out a strange laugh. “Vega, if only I could tell you…” he said. “If only you knew…”
“Knew what?”
His face hardened into a frown, and I could see the young man who would train us in battle overtaking the boy who sometimes seemed on the verge of opening up to me. “If only you knew what you really are,” he said.
“What am I?” I asked, edging closer to him. “Can you tell me that much?”
“You’re amazing. In so many ways.”
He stepped closer, slid the backs of his fingers along my left cheek, then pulled back suddenly, shaking his head as if to remind himself that what he was doing was forbidden. “You…you should go to the dorm. Get to know your peers. Who knows? You might actually like a few of them.”
