The Undying Illusionist

by Candy Crum

  With a laugh, Amelia rolled her eyes and waved at the man, who still stared at them with horror in his eyes. He was clearly terrified that he had nearly killed the Chancellor with a stray arrow, though he relaxed when Amelia waved him off.

  "I'm glad things are going so well here, near-death experience aside. But…"

  Arryn narrowed her eyes as she studied Amelia. All amusement drained from her face as she looked at her with concern.

  "But what? You seem hesitant to talk," Arryn stated. "You should know by now that you should just blurt things out with me. It's easiest."

  "I talked to Elon. It's been almost a week, and I should've come to you sooner, but with everything that happened to Cathillian, and with the dead guards, and more missing students, it took me a while to get around to it."

  “More missing students?” Arryn asked.

  Amelia sighed. “Yeah. It was a student named Dallas. He was a jerk from what I could tell. Hung out with a group of other Boulevard students. Dallas was one of the group involved in beating the hell out of Jackson.”

  Arryn nodded, realization on her face. “Oooh. Okay. I know who you’re talking about now. I see them walking around together all the time. Always in a pack.”

  “Yep, but not anymore. Dallas was found with his throat slit. It looks exactly like Amos’ death. Blood drained and everything.” Amelia sighed as she shook her head.

  “Why didn’t you come to get me?” Arryn asked. “I might have been able to help.”

  “It’s not your problem,” Amelia replied, a sad smile on her face. “Besides, with all this and everything else on your plate, you have enough to deal with. I’m handling it. No worries about that. I’ll get all this figured out. But I didn’t bring that up to worry you over it. I wanted to tell you about my conversation with Elon.”

  Amelia had talked to Elon…

  Arryn's mind was swimming with possibilities. It bothered her that Amelia hadn’t come to her sooner, but she understood. She wasn't sure if it was good or bad news, but if it wasn't what she expected to hear, with Cathillian down and Arryn struggling to take care of him, teach at the Academy, and dig up dirt on Talia, it would've been difficult to process. Arryn swallowed hard, preparing herself to receive what could be the end of whatever hope she had left when it came to finding her father.

  Arryn gave a simple nod, signaling to Amelia that she was ready to hear whatever it was she had to say.

  Amelia cautiously glanced at the group to make sure that no other stray arrows would come their way before turning back to Arryn. "It turns out that Elon was much easier to talk to than I thought he would be. He was best friends with your father."

  Arryn's eyes widened, her brain automatically trying to search her memories for anything that might tell her who he was. "I'm trying to remember, but… I don't know. I can't seem to remember anything."

  "He said that you were probably too young to remember him, but you might remember his son, Gregory."

  Arryn gasped, her eyes widening as she nodded. "Yes! I remember Gregory! We used to play together when we were little. His mom was a piece of work, but his dad didn't seem so bad, though I barely remember anything about him."

  Amelia nodded. "Elon said that by the time you were old enough to remember anything about him, he was already wedged up Adrien's ass, so he was gone all the time."

  Arryn took a nervous step forward, excitement filling her, even though she knew Elon wasn't a good person. He couldn't have been, since he was close to Adrien, and now he sat in the prison, both for his involvement with Adrien and for nearly killing his son. The name hadn't been familiar to her when Amelia first told her about him, but now everything was clicking together, and she felt terrible for her old friend Gregory.

  "Your father went to Elon for help. Elon was very close to Adrien, and Christopher thought that he could sort things out. Unfortunately, Elon got scared. He knew that Adrien was on the hunt for someone, but he had no idea who. Adrien knew someone was planning to take him down, and Elon didn't want to see anything bad happen to your parents. He thought that if Adrien knew that people misunderstood him, he might be able to change their opinion."

  "So, he ratted my parents out? He was the one who basically sentenced us to that fate? You're telling me that the man who caused all of this is sitting in prison right now?" Arryn asked. Before she'd spoken, she’d felt confused. But by the end of her questions, Arryn was furious. She wanted Elon just as bad as she wanted Adrien.

  "He did, yes. But from what I can tell, his action was born from good intentions. Obviously, he had a selfish reason for it—he was worried that if Christopher got caught the old-fashioned way, Elon, being his best friend, would be suspect, too. At least, that's the way that I see it, and he didn't do much to dissuade me. But all in all, I think he really believed he was trying to help your parents."

  Arryn closed her eyes, silently shaking her head as she did her best to calm her rage. "So, what happened to him? What happened my father?"

  "He said that your father was taken and held prisoner. He was questioned for quite some time to try to get any kind of information out of him they could. They didn't believe that he was working alone, and Elon knew it, too, but after everything that had happened, he was smart enough not to tell Adrien that. Elon said that once Adrien believed Christopher wouldn't give anything up willingly, Christopher was let go."

  Arryn's eyes widened, her jaw opening in disbelief. "What? He was let go? Why didn't he come for me?"

  Amelia nodded as she continued, "Yes, he was let go. Adrien believed he would get comfortable and lead him to whoever his accomplices were; he thought he would catch more of his enemies by allowing one of them to live. He figured your father, having lost everything, would run to them for comfort. Unfortunately, that plan didn't work out very well."

  Amelia took a deep breath, pausing for a moment. Arryn wanted to shake the woman for not talking faster, but instead she used that moment to process everything that had been said so far.

  "Elon said that it's been a long time, and he can't remember exactly when it happened, but a month or two after you fled from the city and your father was released, someone came for him."

  "An ally? One of the people he was conspiring with?" Arryn asked, but was quickly met by a shake of Amelia’s head.

  No...

  That didn't seem right to her at all. Who would've come for her father? Of all the people in the city, why in the hell would they have come for him?

  Amelia continued, "I was in the Academy all the time, so I have no way of proving this or disproving it, but Elon said that the reports were that someone killed the guards at the gate and came through the city. The thing is, no one saw them coming. There was only a path of dead bodies on the way. It was like they hunted him down, but they definitely came from outside of the city."

  Arryn's brows furrowed, her eyes narrowing as she thought hard about what could've happened.

  "What the hell does that even mean?" Arryn asked. "Who would've even known about my father being in trouble?"

  "If Samuel hadn't told me the specifics of what happened to Cathillian when I crossed paths with him the other day, I never would've put the two together."

  Oh, that didn't sound good. Bile was rising in her throat.

  "You can't be serious. Are you saying there was a similarity with what happened to Cathillian?" Arryn asked.

  Amelia nodded. "The guards who were killed throughout the city that night had no wounds. There were no bruises, and their weapons were still holstered. There was no evidence of any kind that anything had happened to them; it was like they had just dropped dead. When he told me about it, all I could think was, ‘damn… It would take one hell of a subtle warrior to float through a city like the guards didn't exist and kill so quickly and easily that no one saw them coming.’ No one heard them. And there was no evidence how it was done."

  "You think the dark druids did this. Is that what you're saying?" Arryn asked.

  "I know! I
t sounded crazy to me too, but think about it. They were able to kill in a way that left no marks. That dark druid did that to Cathillian and to the guards at the gate. There were no marks on any of them. Don't you think that that's too big of a coincidence?"

  Arryn thought for a moment, putting together all the pieces that Amelia had given her, but then she realized that there had to be more. This had happened a month or two after Arryn had fled the city. Something else had happened along that timeline as well.

  "Before I left the Dark Forest, Elysia, Cathillian's mom, told me about a man named Aeris. He was the older brother of Jenna, the dark druid who attacked Cathillian the other day. Apparently, he took my arrival in the Dark Forest so badly that he betrayed his people and left the Dark Forest to join the dark druids. That happened a month or two after I arrived, so it's not too hard to believe that he would've come to Arcadia to take my father. He knew that I believed he was still alive, so all he had to do was find him. The whole family is petty, so I wouldn't put it past him."

  "It sounds like we have a pretty good lead. And Elon said that it looked like there was a fight and that Christopher was alive when he was taken from the city. So… I am happy that we found something to start with, but it looks like the journey to find your father will continue outside the city. I'm sorry, Arryn."

  Arryn sighed as she looked from Amelia to the men who were training hard to learn how to protect the city. "I can't leave yet. Something is happening here, and I know it. Deep down, I think you know it, too. If I were to leave now and something happened to the city, not only would I never be able to forgive myself, but my father would never forgive me either. Right now, my responsibility and allegiance lies with the city. Once I know it's safe, I'll look for my father. Which brings me to my next point… I found an interesting letter on Talia's desk that I think you should know about."

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  On the way to class that morning, Arryn had a very interesting interaction. In fact, a lot of things had been strange. Singled out, they seemed normal, but now that they were happening more often, she was starting to get paranoid.

  Walking through the halls, she’d caught a few students staring at her. Caydon and Camdon. They weren’t in her nature magic class, but they were in her physical magic class with David, the teacher she’d seen standing with them when it happened.

  She’d smiled and waved, and they each responded with what appeared to be uninterested smiles and flicks of their wrists—poor excuses for a greeting. Even after that, they stared at her, whispering to one another as she continued toward her class.

  In physical magic the day before, Arryn was showing fast progress, having transformed a small wooden horse into glass before most of the other students had completed the task.

  She’d been so proud of herself, but David had rolled his eyes and told her that her technique was sloppy and if she didn’t work harder, he’d fail her.

  Meanwhile, another girl damn near melted hers, and he’d smiled at her and praised her on her great effort.

  At the time, she thought he might have been trying to use tough love as motivation. It was sometimes how the druids trained, so she found it motivating. But after how she’d seen him with other students, paired with receiving the stink eye every time she saw him outside of class, she was beginning to think he just didn’t like her at all.

  Was it because she was both? A student and a teacher? Was Talia involved?

  She wasn’t sure, but being in the Academy at all was beginning to weigh on her. Between all of those small occurrences and the daily buzzing in her mind, she couldn’t help but wonder just how many people Talia had under her thumb.

  …Or if she was simply going insane after all.

  When Arryn got to class that morning after her run-in with David and the twins, everyone was chatting about the latest disappearance—Dallas.

  The city was on the verge of something huge, and Arryn could feel it, but there was no way for her to protect against it. All that mattered to her at that moment was the fact that she now had her friends rallying behind her.

  Almost immediately, the discussion of battle magic came up again, and it occurred to her that her role in Arcadia had become quite a bit like the more experienced and higher-ranking warriors in the druid community.

  When new recruits began training, that was all they did from the moment they woke up until the time they went to bed.

  Recently, Arryn's duties had been to wake up early, train hard with Cathillian as well as work with the guards, then go to the Academy and teach the students basic magic, and now it seemed like she would be taking on a new role as well.

  But with the worry of everything going on, Arryn welcomed the challenge. Everyone deserved the opportunity to be able to protect themselves if the worst were to happen.

  Things seemed to always be evolving. She and Amelia had agreed that they needed to see each other less. If they were to draw Talia out naturally, Talia would have to be able to trust Amelia. She would need to think that Amelia’s interest in Arryn was purely academic and nothing personal—no true friendship. Talia couldn't feel threatened, or she might act irrationally and cause more damage than originally planned.

  And both Arryn and Amelia were unwilling to let anyone get caught in the crosshairs if they could help it.

  But it was obvious to Arryn that Talia was already beginning to feel the pressure. Jackson's presence in her classroom was enough to tell her that.

  He’d made sure to secure himself a seat right in front, and he continuously stared at her, even smiled several times. Each smile chilled her to the bone, but she reminded herself that she knew he was doing it for her, for Talia.

  And Arryn planned to go right along with the show.

  When class was dismissed, Arryn noticed Jackson looking around and fidgeting with things, purposely taking his sweet time. He obviously planned to stay after class, but Arryn wanted to get the jump on him.

  "Jackson, would you mind staying after class? Since it's your first day, I thought it might be best if we got to know each other a little bit," Arryn requested with a smile.

  She could almost feel a shift in his energy; the cool confidence he had exuded had become nervous. Nature magic allowed its users’ senses to be like those of an animal. On top of being able to sense intentions, though that clearly had its limitations, they could also sense anger, apprehension, and danger, although they had to know what to look for.

  Jackson gathered his things and left them on his desk in a neat pile, coming to stand in front of Arryn. "Yes? What did you want to talk about?"

  Arryn pulled her long, black braid over her shoulder, playing with the loose hair that hung just below the tie. It was something she'd witnessed the other girls doing while flirting, and it made her feel awkward on their behalf.

  It seemed weak, even insecure to act shy and timid around someone a girl was interested in. Why wouldn’t they just be straight forward?

  She hated insecurities, and she saw them all the time in the girls in Arcadia. Mostly the younger noble women. The girls from the Boulevard seemed stronger, like they didn't give a shit what anybody thought.

  Arryn liked them. If things weren’t quite so intense, she might have actually taken the time to make friends with some of them.

  "Well, I had the time to stop and really talk to everyone else to find out about their intentions, but I don't know what yours are." Arryn gave another smile, and Jackson was quick to reciprocate.

  "My intentions? What do you mean?" he asked, his voice and posture suddenly becoming rigid and apprehensive.

  Arryn leaned back on her desk, looking at the floor for a moment before shrugging and turning her eyes back to his. "Some of the students in here want to learn nature magic because they never want to starve again. They want to be able to grow food no matter where they are. Others want to know how to heal. They want to make sure their families never get so sick that they die, or be sure that if they see another battle, they will know that
they can save their friends and family. Nature magic means different things to everyone. What does it mean to you?"

  Jackson visibly relaxed as he nodded slowly in understanding. "Oh, I see. Well, to me, it's new and exciting. I'm not the best physical magic user around here, so the opportunity to try something new that I might be better at is interesting to me."

  There was a pause as Jackson looked at the floor, then back at Arryn. He bit his lower lip as he took a step forward. "Plus, I've seen you come out of one of the physical magic classes. You're so different. The way you dress is different. Your confidence is different. You seem so sure of yourself all the time. If you were another student I wouldn't have a problem saying this, but given that you’re my teacher now, I probably shouldn't."

  Arryn almost laughed. He was trying to seduce her, and she knew it. It was exactly as he had written in the letter; he would find out what he could from her, and he was just trying to use his charm to do it.

  Unfortunately for him, Arryn didn't need the approval of a man to know that she could kick ass when she needed to.

  She had learned that from a tribe full of strong, female druids for half her life.

  Arryn decided to play the part he expected of her: the shy, naïve girl from the Forest that didn't know how to cope with the charm of a man.

  Arryn leaned forward a bit on her desk, her eyes narrowing as she allowed a curious expression to grow. "You probably shouldn't say what?"

  Jackson smiled, running his fingers through his hair. "I just… You're beautiful. I've never seen anyone like you. I know I shouldn't say that. We don't know each other, and you’re my teacher now."

  Arryn forced a giggle. "Yeah, because you found your way into my class. Remember? You requested to be here, so the restrictions between us are because you put us in this predicament."

  Jackson stood taller, smiling a bit more. He seemed to be feeling a bit more confident after her response. "That's true, but… We're the same age, though, right? So, is it really like you're my teacher? It's unheard of for someone so young to be put in a position of power like this, I would assume for this very reason. But I can keep a secret if you can."