* * *
Curtis & Ella will return in
Shattered by Magic
Read on for a bonus chapter...
Edward
I stare at the white ceiling, trying to make sense of my memories. I don’t remember much of the past few days, though the weeks before are vivid, only the occasional blank patch between the unpleasant images in my mind. But after that most everything is a blur.
The very few things I do remember consist of Cassie’s face looking into mine. The brush of her lips, the sense of her filling my mind like a drug, until all I can think about is wanting more of her.
Her green eyes and red hair, the softness of her skin as it pushed against me, consuming me. I think I love her even after everything she’s done. I sneer at the thought and push it away.
She promised she’d never use her mind-control on me again, not after last time, but the tremor in my hands and the hollow feeling in my chest tell me that that promise has been broken. I’m familiar with the signs of withdrawal from her power.
I don’t panic. I’m obviously someone’s captive, but my shaking hand snakes down to my pocket and I find my lighter there. In that case I’m armed.
I fish it out and flick it open, running the flame over my hand and allowing my power to surge through my fingertips. The trembling stops and I feel calm again, as the warmth spreads through my body. I hate being cold.
I don’t know how long I lay there before the metal door scrapes open and my father steps in. I shouldn’t be surprised, really, and I suppress the sudden anger I feel by concentrating on the flames in my hand rather than looking at him.
“Edward, my dear, dear boy, it is so good to see you awake and well. You were in quite the state when I found you.”
If every word he’d ever said wasn’t a lie, I’d maybe be convinced that he actually cares. I don’t bother to get up, or even turn my head towards him, instead curling the fire in my palm into a small ball, weaving it between my fingers.
“Nice of you to be thinking of my well-being for once, Father,” I say, throwing the ball up in the air and catching it. I know it infuriates him to be disrespected in front of his little Society members, so he motions them to leave us alone and closes the door with him still inside. I stop myself from smiling.
“Edward,” he says, using the same voice he used to use on me as a child, when he thought my small mind was unable to comprehend his reasons for doing the things he did, or whatever fresh horror he was concocting. “Son, I only want to keep you safe. I want to keep all of us safe,” he says, waving a hand at the room as though it contains all of Augur-kind inside it. “You are undoubtedly feeling confused.”
“Not really,” I lie. To be truthful I am confused. And hurt, and angry and everything else all at once. But showing weakness around my father is like waving fresh meat in front of a lion.
“I saved you,” he says abruptly, taking the smallest of steps forward. “I saved you from yourself, and from the betrayal you were about to experience if you didn’t leave the Magic Circle at once.”
“What betrayal?” I ask, too sharply. I already know about Cassie, at least. Whatever she decided she had to use her power on me for, it can’t have been a good thing.
“Your people were ready to overthrow you, Edward. They felt your leadership was… lacking.”
“You told me to take charge of them, Father. I only attempted to turn something that you and Munday ruined into what it was supposed to be: a force that fights for the good of Augurs.” I unfold myself from the low cot I’ve been laying on, and allow the fire to consume my entire arm as I take a step towards him. To his credit, he doesn’t take a step back, even if he is powerless.
“If you believed that, you would have taken up the offer for a merger with the Society,” he retorts.
“Ah, yes, of course. Because God forbid something exists in this world that you can’t control,” I spit back at him.
I see the flare of anger in his cobalt eyes. I know it because I see it in my own whenever I look in the mirror. He and I share too much in common already, I think bitterly.
At least my power is the one thing I can truly call my own. I’ve never met another pyro, although they must exist for me to have been given that classification. I savour the burn in my skin and urge it hotter.
I take another step towards him, closing the gap between us until I can see the beads of sweat on his forehead just feet away.
“Well, it’s all irrelevant now, anyway,” he shrugs, trying to disarm me with his nonchalance. “I have everything I need to complete my plan, and when you are ready to show some gratitude for all I have done for you, I’ll let you help me.”
The roar that escapes from my lips is involuntary as I allow the fire to consume my body. Everything about him makes me seethe. Makes me want to scream and watch his skin melt from his bones.
I want him to pay so much for everything that he’s done. For sending my mother away. For raising me alone, always less important to him than his projects and plans. For taking me away from the Magic Circle, my friends, only to throw me back into it and steal me away again.
I want him to burn.
I hurl a handful of flames in his direction, a steady stream of inferno that snakes its way across the room as I watch his eyes widen with shock and terror. He doesn’t try to run; he doesn’t seem to be able to. I enjoy seeing him frozen for once. Just before the fire reaches him I divert it and it scorches the wall to his right.
He looks between the blackened wall and me, as if he can’t quite believe what just happened. But my satisfaction is short lived.
His face contorts into a scowl as he turns to leave, slamming the door behind him. A tiny viewing window opens in the door and those icy eyes pin me.
“I knew you’d be too weak to end me,” he says, before sliding it shut and leaving me alone.
*
“Edward! Edward wake up!”
I open my eyes to a pitch-black room. Not that it matters. It’s my mother’s voice and she’s invisible, so there’s nothing to see anyway.
“I’m awake,” I mumble, finding my lighter and igniting my hand to provide a little glow in my cell.
“What did you do to this place?” Mum admonishes, seeing the walls for the first time. What were once whitewashed concrete are now soot-covered and black.
“I was angry,” I say, waving my hand, causing the shadows to slither up the walls. I’m sure if I could see her face she’d look worried. She sits down beside me on the cot. Ironic that my father would imprison me in a cell with a fire-retardant mattress. Anyone might think he was prepared for my arrival.
“Edward, at the first opportunity I have, I’m going to get you out of here,” she says, her voice barely a whisper. She rests a hand on my knee and I want, more than anything, to put my arms around her. But I don’t. If I know my mother there’s something else going on here or she would have teleported us out without even bothering to wake me up.
“What’s going on?” I ask flatly, the question having more than one meaning.
She hesitates, understanding that I want the full explanation, but eventually sighs and gives in.
“I don’t know where to begin…”
“Why don’t you start by explaining why you’re here?” I suggest, knowing there’s an edge to my voice that I can’t conceal.
“I’m here because I went to your father for one thing, only to find out that he had you captive and he held it over my head for something entirely different.”
“Of course he did,” I reply.
“Edward, he’s kidnapped a girl. A Purist.”
“The Power Source,” I reply, my heart suddenly kicking up a notch. He has Ella. That’s all he ever wanted. I don’t know why or what part she plays in his plan, but if he’s kidnapped her then it can’t mean anything good.
“You know her well?” Mum asks, an odd tone in her voice. Guilt, maybe.
I nod, my mind turning over all the possibilities of what
he could possibly want to do with her.
“Do you know what his plan is?” I ask.
“I don’t, but I think we can easily find out if we play along,” she says. “But Edward, there’s something else I need to tell you.”
Whatever it is it must be killing her. Her grip on my knee is hard, anxious, as if she’s afraid to admit some horrible truth. I wish I could read her expression, see all the things she isn’t telling me written on her face instead of waiting for her to say it.
“There’s a boy. Ella’s boyfriend,” she starts.
“Curtis, yeah, pain in the arse. I know him,” I say, annoyed that she’s brought him up.
“Well, that ‘pain in the arse’ is my nephew,” she says with a sigh.
“You’re joking.”
“I’m afraid not. I didn’t realise the ties he had with Jonathan and the Society until it was far too late,” she adds, her voice cracking a little. How many things does she have to feel guilty for now?
“Let me guess: you’re responsible for helping Father kidnap your nephew’s girlfriend,” I offer, hoping it will save her from some of the explanation herself. I still have a million questions, but that much at least I can figure out.
She sobs and something aches in my chest at the sound of it. I put an arm around her, keeping the other, still alight, far enough away that I don’t set anything on fire. I am the only person she ever cries in front of. Whether I agree with her actions or not, I know she needs me to be there for her.
My mind still reels at the idea that I am related to Curtis bloody Mayes of all people. But a tiny, tiny part of me feels relieved. I have more family out there in existence than my invisible mother and megalomaniac father at least.
“Mum, why? Why not just break me and Ella out of here now and undo all of this?” I ask, though I think I already know the answer.
“He has the cure, Edward. I know he does. He took all of Carlton’s research and he’s my best chance at being visible again,” she replies, sounding stronger now. She still holds on to me but I can tell in her mind her actions are entirely justified. And I can’t blame her. Not entirely. If I’d been invisible for twenty-odd years I would probably do anything for a cure. I also think I would have given in to my father sooner than she has.
“He’ll never forgive you, you know. Curtis, that is,” I say, not worrying about whether or not I forgive her.
“Can you? Forgive me?”
I shrug. What she’s done is no worse than me. I’ve maimed and burnt in the name of the Magic Circle more times than I can count, and at least half of those times have been on my own cognisance and not Cassie’s doing.
“I don’t think it matters, but I do,” I reply, knowing that’s what she needs to hear.
I feel her get up from the cot and stand in front of me, aware that it’s a cue for her to leave.
“So you’ll cooperate, or pretend to? At least until I can find us an opening to escape?” she asks hopefully.
“I’ll try my best,” I say begrudgingly. That seems to satisfy her.
“I love you, my little fire baby,” she says, stroking my face, her hands dry and soft on my stubbly cheek.
“I love you too, Mum,” I say, feeling her disappear.
I lie back down on the cot and extinguish the flames, allowing my eyes to become accustomed to the dark. Even straining my ears I can’t hear any sounds outside these four walls, but I wonder how far away Ella is, if she’s even being kept in the same building.
And Curtis, the idiot that he is, must be going insane. Maybe our short tempers are the one thing we have in common, I muse.
The anger I hold in my chest is futile now. I push it away, along with the pain of Cassie’s betrayal. I try to make sense of what I feel. A familiar stinging in my heart. A contracting in my chest.
And then I remember it, welcoming it like a long lost friend from my childhood of running around an empty manor with no one but servants and disinterested staff for company.
I feel alone.
***
Appendix
List of main characters (A-Z)
Agnes Cooper - Ella’s sister, psychic Augur who can see the future in strange, unpredictable visions.
Beryl Stephenson - David’s mother, a wealthy divorcee and Augur with the ability to heal. Curtis and his friends live with Beryl in her country manor.
Carlton Munday - Former Civil Defence Minister of the UK and an
Augur, able to absorb other powers. Currently in prison.
Curtis Mayes - Normal, eighteen-year-old Londoner who is madly in love with Ella Cooper.
David Stephenson - Augur. A magic Healer as well as a trained doctor, and friend of Curtis.
Edward Clarence - Son of ‘the Duke’, Jonathan Clarence, and Magic
Circle member. An Augur capable of manipulating fire.
Ella Cooper - Augur, with the ability to self-generate power. One of the most powerful Augurs alive, also known as the ‘Power Source’ or a ‘Purist’.
Giovanni Gregorio - Marco’s brother, previously in unrequited love with Ella. An Augur who can pass pictures from one person’s mind to another. He worked with his brother Marco at their uncle’s restaurant with Curtis & Ella.
Jeremy ‘Jer’ O’Donnelly - One of Curtis’s best friends, an Irish Augur, able to sniff out magic and often identify who its originator is.
Jonathan Clarence, aka The Duke - An Augur with big plans to save all of Augur kind. The best friend of Carlton Munday while they were at school. His power was amplifying other’s powers until Carlton Munday stole them from him.
Lorenzo ‘Enzo’ Gregorio - Cousin of Marco & Giovanni, son of Mr. Gregorio, the restaurant owner. An Augur who can manipulate water, he owns an Augur-exclusive club in North East London.
Louise ‘Lou’ Partridge - Jer’s girlfriend, Augur, uses heavy waves of force to move objects and break things. Lou has a fierce temper and spent her youth stealing cars.
Marco Gregorio - One of Curtis’s best friends and part of a wealthy
Italian Augur family. Able to pass his body through solid objects,
including walls.
Margaret Mayes - Curtis’s mother. A half-West-Indian Yorkshire woman with a kind disposition. Also Normal.
Miss Banks - Normal. Head of the Augur Terror Unit, originally responsible for kidnapping Curtis and Jer, who have since reconciled their differences.
Mumbe Bengolo - David’s partner and Curtis’s friend. An Augur with the ability to push visions and hallucinations into people’s heads through contact.
Peter Mayes - Curtis’s father and Augurist (or Augurphobe).
‘Sunglasses’ Steve - Miss Banks’ right hand man and a Normal. He never takes off his sunglasses.
About the Author
Rebecca Danese is a writer, photographer, artist and illustrator living in London with her husband, two children and far too many notebooks.
She has several projects on the go between photography articles, several young reader stories and the third instalment in this series. She has three books available for purchase including this, the second instalment in the Divided by Magic series, and a younger reader adventure series, The Tree Children, also available on Amazon.
To find out more about her work visit: www.rebeccadanese.com or follow her on social media by searching ‘Rebecca Danese’ on Facebook and Instagram.
Facebook: rebecca.danese.creates
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Twitter: thenikongirl88
If you liked this book please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads! I will take you for a coffee next time I see you. Or you can take me for one, which is the more likely outcome. But I will be eternally grateful!
©Rebecca Danese. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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