by Tom Early
“I’d have to agree,” Tyler chimed in. “And, um, Fay, you’re going to need to do something about your hair unless you feel like keeping it all snowy white. It keeps catching the sun. It’s kind of… distracting.”
Sam shot him a sly look. “Are we talking good distracting, or bad?”
Tyler might have blushed, but it was too faint to tell. He scratched the back of his neck again, which I was beginning to notice was his tell for when he felt nervous or embarrassed. He didn’t say anything though, and Sam tossed me a wink.
Well, now I was blushing, dammit.
“I’ll dye it back when I get home. I might as well keep up the appearance of normality until we’re completely in the world of angry hot guys trying to kill me.”
…Huh. Tyler definitely twitched a little at that. Sam was giving him her patented “Don’t think for a second that I can’t smell your weakness” look.
That was definitely my cue to leave. I groaned as I stood up slowly and creakily.
“Well, I don’t know about you two, but I need to go remind my parents that I’m alive. I told them I’d be doing a sleepover for Halloween, but I need to get home at some point.”
Sam just waved at me, clearly planning to take her time in getting around to actually moving. Tyler stopped me for a moment, though.
“Fay, can I have your dagger before you go? I need to, uh, return it to the antiques shop.”
“Oh, right. Need any help?”
Tyler opened his mouth, but Sam cut him off quickly.
“Don’t worry about it, Fay. I’ll help him if he needs it. I have some… things… I need to discuss with him anyway.”
That was definitely a predatory grin. Poor Tyler. I knew Sam had no interest in sleeping with him, but that didn’t make him safe from her plots. I left before whatever she had planned kicked off. Tyler whispered “Help me” as I walked by, but I knew better than to interfere.
My house was only about a half hour walk from the graveyard, and the morning sky was clear. It helped that I don’t really get cold. I ambled peacefully down the couple of roads, and turned into my house’s walkway, for once having to walk around my dad’s car. My parents were home.
It occurred to me that I didn’t actually know what time it was, but the sun was up, so I figured it didn’t matter. My parents were enjoying a sleepy breakfast of pancakes and bacon (which I snagged), and they just waved me past them. Something told me they hadn’t quite gotten to their coffee yet. I went upstairs to shower and change.
The hot water helped me to relax, and I had time to run through yesterday’s events in my head more slowly. Already, the festival of Samhain seemed like an incredibly vivid dream more than anything else. I couldn’t believe the beings I’d seen, and I couldn’t believe what I’d managed to do in the end. It wasn’t something I would have done normally. I… killed something last night. First the ercinee (well, apparently not, but I tried to), and now the Dullahan too. And… I’d do it again, if something or someone threatened the people that I care about. It was a scary thing to learn about myself. I’m not sure I wanted to know I was capable of murder to protect.
I closed my eyes, head bowed beneath the water. I let it cascade down my body, doing nothing until I felt a little closer to normal again. Then, I let out a breath, and froze all of the water droplets in the shower, having them hang glittering in the air in a mosaic of shining ice.
I’m wasn’t normal, and I never would be. I couldn’t afford to forget that, not ever. The Sidhé were gone, and they had left me with a favor and a feeling that I was weird even by the standards of beings that weren’t even human. I could barely remember what the Leanan Sidhé was saying to me as she and the others left. It was like there was a fog in my head surrounding the whole event or something. I exhaled again, and the water flowed once more. It wouldn’t do for me to worry about things way beyond my control.
My parents pounced on me the second I went downstairs.
“Fay, did you have a nice night?” my mom asked innocently, my dad nodding with her.
“What? Oh, yeah, it was perfectly nice. Normal, and nice. Yep.”
They exchanged conspiratorial looks. What were they thinking?
“Fay, we understand that…” my dad began awkwardly, “Well, we understand that you’re a young man now, and that your business is your own. We just want to make sure you’re being safe.”
Was this about Samhain? Did they somehow know about the Sidhé trying to kill me?
“So,” my mom continued, “we’d like you to take these. I know you definitely should already have your own” - she gave me a hard look - “but take these for your poor worried parents’ sakes anyway. Just so we can feel like we did you right.”
And with that, she reached beneath the countertop and pulled out a small box.
Condoms.
...Oh.
They must have seen my brief look of confusion, because my dad continued. “When we saw that young man pick you up, we assumed that you just hadn’t gotten around to telling us that you weren’t actually spending the night at Sam’s like we assumed. When we called Sam’s father, he told us that neither of you were there. So just make sure to use protection, okay? And bring that boy over sometime to meet the parents. We’ll be waiting.”
I could hear Sam laughing hysterically in my head. I buried my head in my hands and pretended that this wasn’t happening.
My mother’s voice rang out over me. “I’ll just leave these here then. When you’re feeling up to it, I want to hear all about this mystery boy, and I expect to meet him by the end of the month. Don’t think I’m going to forget. We’re going to church now, dear. You’re welcome to stay home and mull things over.”
I groaned and put my head in my hands. This was not something I was ready to deal with.
I booted up my laptop, planning to just veg for the rest of the day and decidedly not to think about what just happened. I figured I deserved it.
I opened my usual tabs, checking my email and so forth, and frowned. One of my unread messages appeared to be… glowing. It opened itself without waiting for me to click on it.
Feayr Hanson. Your evaluator has returned to the University, and we have reviewed his decision that you should be allowed to apply. We have found his decision to be the correct one. You will be contacted with further information come December, along with the materials necessary to prepare you for the Trials. In the meantime, we offer you our congratulations on making it through the first test. Take the following month to make sure that you are ready for what is to come. It will not be easy.
- Janus University
Logically, I had known that this was coming. Aiden had said as much. I still might have screamed and grinned so hard that my face felt like it was going to split in two. This was confirmation that I had a way out of a life of pretending to be normal. I was going somewhere where I would be normal. And nothing in my life had ever felt so good.
I watched distractedly as the message dissolved into nothing, only to be replaced with yet another glowing missive.
Feayr, by this time you will have received confirmation from Janus University that your efforts have not gone unrewarded. You should know that the University only offers applications to the best of the best as it is, and most of the magical community experiences no higher education beyond what their families can teach them. This first cull, however, is not enough to gain admittance. You must prove your worth beyond mere potential, and the Trials are made to find out exactly what you are capable of. I have no doubt that you and Sam will find a way to succeed. Have you decided on a familiar yet? Not all Arcanes have them, but the majority of them do. My journal should have more information on the subject, and a few more spells. I’ve added them in with use of Synchrony, a rather handy linkage spell.
Should you have any questions, I am at your disposal. I’d rather our next match be more interesting than the last.
- Aiden Ombra, First Year Representative of Janus University
Wow. I was going to get emotional whiplash between this and Samhain. I reread the email twice, and only barely restrained myself from grabbing the journal to see what had changed. No. Today was a no-magic day. I was just going to enjoy myself normally.
I played enough video games to make myself sick, and then collapsed into my bed, still grinning.
Chapter Fourteen
I woke up with a start, a cold sweat coating my body, sliding out of my covers and looking around. A palpable aura of hatred filled the room. I wasn’t alone. I tried to call my magic, but I just didn’t have enough energy. Helpless, I watched in horror as what I had assumed to be the shadow of my bed rose off the floor, collecting itself into a tall, gaunt figure, carrying its head carefully under one arm. The entire rooms seemed to get darker as two pinpoints of red light shone from the severed head. It was made of seething shadow and rage.
“Did you really think it would be so easy to kill the Dullahan, boy?” it hissed. “I have watched your pathetic race evolve from the monkeys first cowering on the plains from the predators. You humans are weak, pathetic, and beneath my contempt. But you,” it roared, pointing a finger of darkness at me, its eyes red coals, “You destroyed my body. No creature has done so in millennia, and I have made sure that they all paid for their insolence. You know enough magic to destroy my body with ice, and what of it? I have burned to ash before, I have fled from all-consuming light, and I have been torn to pieces by ravening maws. Every time, I have come back. ”
The shadow advanced towards me, as I crawled backwards desperately, falling off the side of my bed and moving as fast as I could to the corner. I watched in abject terror as the darkness covered the walls, slowly moving ever closer. I scrabbled against the wall helplessly, a low whine escaping my throat. I could see the rictus grin, a mere outline on the Dullahan’s spectral head.
“I shall make you watch, boy, watch and scream as I use your own body to kill all those you hold dear. This is the price you shall pay for making an enemy of the Dullahan. Your life is forfeit, your body is mine. Now, give me my due!”
The shadows engulfed my body, and my mouth opened in a soundless yell. I felt violated, so horribly violated as something awful and ancient and other attempted to force my soul out to make room for itself. Grasping claws of utter darkness tore their way through my mind, reaching down ever further, malice tearing at my essence. Inside me, I could feel the black tendrils get ever closer to my core, the small shard of winter I carried there always. One of the tendrils brushed against it, feather-soft, the barest touch.
And stopped. In my mind, I could see it freeze. Literally. Ice ran up the tendril of shadow before it could draw back, and the ice kept moving, fractures shooting through the dark towards the Dullahan. I felt colder than I ever had before, even though I wasn’t consciously doing anything. There was a snap in my mind as the Dullahan ended the attack, retreating as the ice followed it. The Dullahan was once again a separate entity, standing terrible and dark in my mind. Then it advanced towards me, intent on trying again, when it stopped and looked down. The ice from the tendril had traced its way back to the Dullahan, wrapping itself around its gaunt form. Glistening arcs of ice zigzagged out from the tendril, forming strange sigils that slowly encompassed the Dullahan’s form. It looked at me dully, again unable to comprehend what was happening.
“I was wrong. You are no mage. You are not a boy who knows a few tricks of ice.” Its voice was now a broken thing from shock, no longer carrying the terrible weight of power it had before. It stood still as the ice made its way up its body, leaving no inch of decaying flesh uncovered. It screamed, high and reedy, as the ice made its way up the Dullahan’s throat, outlining in ice a head that wasn’t there.
“I was wrong,” it whispered, and shattered, the ice flying in shards through my mind, leaving no trace of the Dullahan behind.
Somehow, I knew that this time it wasn’t coming back.
**********************************************
Unsurprisingly, I didn’t end up getting much sleep after that. There was just something about being semi-possessed by the Headless Horseman’s ghost that didn’t lend itself to rest. I decided to risk playing sick the next morning, since there was no way I was going to school after that. My parents, bless them, decided to give me a rest day even though it was clear that I wasn’t sick. I sank blissfully under the covers as they drove off to their respective jobs for the day.
When I woke up, it was to Sam’s slightly muffled voice.
“Fay, if you don’t open your goddamn door in five seconds I’m kicking it in!”
I presume she heard me falling down the stairs because she was gracious enough to wait until I got there still wrapped all burrito-like in my comforter. She raised an eyebrow at my appearance.
“Well, it’s nice to see that you’re alive, at least. Tell me next time if you’re skipping, idiot. When you go AWOL after Samhain, I tend to assume the worst.” She paused and took a closer look. “Wait a second, you look awful. Something did happen to you, didn’t it.”
Before I could reply, she grabbed one end of my comforter and yanked, spinning me out of it. I was only wearing my briefs, but it wasn’t like she hadn’t seen all of that before. Beyond shame, that was us.
“Well, you don’t look hurt. But you still look kind of dead. What went on last night?”
I told her. She looked pissed off for my sake, and then slightly curious about the whole thing.
“So, you’re telling me that you were getting thrashed, and then he went a step too far?”
“He was trying to push my soul out of my body. I could feel it. Turns out the cold part of my soul likes staying where it is, and didn’t take kindly to being moved.”
“That is all kinds of freaky. Are you sure you’re okay? One of the creepiest myths out there just tried to kill you and possess you, and you’re just walking around?”
“Um, yes?”
Sam chewed her lip thoughtfully. “That doesn’t sound… right, to me. No offense, but you shouldn’t have been able to take on the Dullahan when it had the drop on you. From what you said earlier, you only won the first time because Samhain was nice to you.”
“None taken. It was really, really weird. At the end of it, it was like the Dullahan wasn’t even talking to me. It was actually scared.”
Sam shrugged. “That’s another chapter of weird in our book, I guess. Just let me know if something like that happens again, okay? I’m getting the feeling there’s something going on here that’s way over our heads.”
“Trust me; I feel that way all the time. I just want to make it to the end.” I frowned at her. “Anyway, terror attack on my soul notwithstanding, I did get some good news. Did you get an email?”
“You know I haven’t checked that thing since I made the mistake of giving colleges my personal information on the SATs. Why, something good?”
“You could say that. Take a look.”
Sam opened up her email on her phone, and her eyes widened. Presumably the magic message had just forced its way to the front like it had with me. Her eyes scanned whatever it said quickly, and then she screeched directly in my ear, which caused me to shout as well from the pain.
She threw her arms around me, jumping up and down slightly, pulling my dazed form with her.
“Fay, I made it in too! We can go together! Ha! Power team keeps on going!”
“If we pass the Trials, or whatever, then yeah. It seems like it.”
Sam went back into business mode almost instantly at that.
“Okay, training regimen time, then. I’m giving us a pass because you look like shit today, but I want us both to be as ready as we possibly can.”
“Okay, I’m with you there. On that note, I also got an email from Aiden. The journal has some new stuff in it, apparently.”
Same made more happy noises. “Really? More non-summoning stuff that we can learn? Finally. Anything else you need to add?”
“Um, he said something abo
ut finding a familiar, which is apparently like a creature or something that you feel a connection to. The familiar will make itself known to you in some way if you are the sort to have one, apparently. And having one helps with spellcasting and ‘grounding’ yourself, whatever that means.”
“Sounds good to me. Okay, I need to go find Emma. I’m supposed to meet her in half an hour; I just wanted to make sure you weren’t dead. Have fun getting rid of the bags under your eyes.”
She was off in a blur. Shoot. I had just remembered that she had probably done something to Tyler, and I had planned to ask her about that. I gathered my blanket back up around me, and headed off to bed again.
The sound of the doorbell ringing woke me up half an hour later. I stomped grouchily towards the door, leaving my blanket discarded on the floor a few feet behind me. I opened the door impatiently, just wanting to get back to sleep.
Tyler was standing there awkwardly, hands in his pockets. He looked startled as the door swung open quickly, and then froze. I felt kinda cold as the air rushed in, but I dismissed it as nothing. His eyes twitched helplessly downward for a moment, and his face flushed bright red.
“I-uh, well, um, you’re clearly looking fine, I mean not that type of fine, not that you aren’t fine that way too because, um, you apparently are, so – you know what? I’m just gonna leave before I embarrass myself by speaking any more.”
“Um… hi?” I said to his back as he fled, I mean literally ran, back to his car.
Huh. He tossed me another helpless look from the driver’s seat, face still crimson, and drove off.
“Well, that was weird,” I said, as I gathered myself back up into my blanket.
Wait a second. Did I just-?
I looked down at myself in horror. I did. I just greeted Tyler basically naked. I didn’t even know a person could be that stupid in real life.
I needed to be unconscious again. I couldn’t deal with this. I went back to bed. Again.
