Not very creative if you understand the trick, but to be fair I had been horridly sick and it was finals week. I thought Jimmy's was by far the best prank, which in itself was funny since he had been panicking about what to do when we escaped to RT and took refuge in Libin's single-person room for the night. This had been after explaining the terrifying escapade to Sarah- with no mention of magic of course.
Libin, by the way, had been the skinny Indian guy that I scuffled with in the scramble to grab our stuff from the street before trying to outrun the cops. Pretty nice guy when he wasn't trying to steal your jacket. He was the one who had stolen the chimps from the zoo, and I still had no idea how he managed it with no car and one night. When I asked him how…?
"Magic." He responded with a mysterious smile. What a jerk. It was different when I said it, of course. I wasn't hypocritical at all.
Studying was going surprisingly well with APA out of the way for now, I just wished I had a bit more time before the exam. It was cumulative and worth forty percent of our class grade- so it would either make me or break me. It would be very easy for me to end up with a B in this class, even if I had aced the last two exams, got a B+ on the second, and dropped my first failed exam.
What they said was true, I guess. You never stop worrying about a class you care about until you get the final grade.
Eliza tried a new avenue of attack, "Where were you yesterday?" She said, tapping her pen against her book impatiently.
"Give me your arm."
Thin writing, invisible anyone who wasn't staring very closely, suddenly throbbed along the length of my forearm, a subtle reminder of the events of the previous night. The night that Libin, Jimmy, myself and Nishi were inducted in. Nishi's pledging was apparently secret, the females conducting it alone. She seemed embarrassed and uncomfortable talking about it. She wouldn't even tell Swann, much to his aggravation.
"What?" I said, as if I didn't understand.
"Where were you?" She repeated, "David said you didn't come home until nearly 4 am."
"Do you swear yourself, your power, your ability, your life? Do you give yourself to our cause? Will you become the mind, the blade, the soul of this coven? Repeat it, and swear it on your power."
"I do swear. I will become the mind, the blade, the soul of Archanos. I so swear it on my power."
I had been bound, and in more than words. I should have seen it coming, but I didn't even realize it was possible. It was as if I had locked myself in a cell knowingly, and thrown away the key. I said the words last night, and even if I didn't wholly believe them… swearing it had been enough. I felt it in the power of the ritual, in the binding of my soul.
Trapped. And I wasn't sure if I could ever get out of it.
To Eliza, I shrugged nonchalantly and lied, "I was busy. Studying for bio, you know how it is."
She muttered something that was nearly incoherent. It didn't completely escape my ears, however. My gaze sharpened and focused on her, and I felt my temper rising.
"What did you just say?" I said suspiciously, "Repeat that."
The girl glowered at me, "I said you're lying to me. You weren't at the library. David was right, and this whole fraternity thing is changing you and not in a good way. Keeping secrets about stupid stuff, pulling pranks instead of focusing on your schoolwork- this isn't you, Nick. You should quit it."
I leaned forward in my seat, the coffee shop suddenly feeling like the heat had been turned up too high, "You don't even know me, Eliza." I replied incredulously.
She actually rolled her eyes at me, "You think you're so complex and deep. That's so pathetic- I'm sorry, I have to say it. There's nothing special about you Nick, you're just like everyone else! If you focus on this frat stuff you're just going to start failing classes and lose the only realfriends you have. Someone has to tell you, because David and Raj are just ready to let you ruin yourself-"
"Oh now you're talking behind my back with David and Raj?" I turned the tables and accused her, now seriously getting pissed, "Well since this is a conspiracy I might as well tell you to send a message back to your masters, back off. I'll do what's best for my life and I don't need any of you to run it for me. Got that?"
"I hope I'm not interrupting something." A familiar voice said to my left, sounding far too amused. My patience already tested with Eliza, I sent a glare at Carmen for good measure.
"Hello to you too." I said snippily to the dark-haired girl who had been ignoring my existence for the past week. Not that I was bitter about it, or anything.
Carmen ignored my tone and tilted her head to the exit, "Come take a walk with me, Nick. We need to talk." The other User looked at Eliza as if seeing her for the first time, she added, "You understand, don't you?"
"Of course." Eliza replied stiffly, "You can leave your stuff here, Nick."
Still angry with her, I packed up quickly and shrugged into my bright red jacket, "No thanks." I said haughtily, "I'll probably get more done away from you, anyways. Tell David and Raj if they want to say something to me, they can say it to my face instead of sending you."
She looked hurt, but I was too angry to care at the moment. I stalked away and let Carmen follow me instead of the other way around. If I hadn't wanted an excuse to get away from Eliza and the stupid argument, I probably would have turned the other girl away.
Like every day of December in Michigan, it was decidedly cold out, but my thick poufy jacket protected me from most of it. Bless its gaudy maroon soul.
Carmen eyed it with distaste as we exited Starbucks, "Can't you wear something that doesn't make you look so stupid? You look like you're about to take ski lessons and you need something that'll cushion your inevitable fall."
Already irritated I was in no mood to be insulted, "What do you want from me, Carmen?"
The confident mask slid from her face and she looked particularly vulnerable. Viciously, I crushed the sudden sympathy that reared its head. I was angry, I didn't want to feel sorry for her, not when she hadn't as much as looked my way for days.
"I'm sick of you playing games with me." I added aloud for good measure, more for myself than her.
The girl was wearing a pink woolen cap that covered her long hair down to her ears, and she played with the sides of it anxiously, "I'm not playing games with you, Nick, I promise." Her expression was pleading, "Look, I was mad you for not listening to me before the hazing- but that's over now. You've been sworn in, and I want you to be prepared for what that's going to mean."
"Mehdy can tell me." I replied stiffly, "I was planning on meeting up with him after my Bio final, before I went home for winter break."
"I wanted to tell you," Carmen pressed, hesitating for a moment before admitting, "I wanted to talk to you."
I stopped walking when we reached a relatively private area near the Engineering building, and perched against a dry grey ledge, gesturing to the spot beside me, "Okay, talk."
Carmen sighed and sat on the aforementioned spot on the ledge, "Nick, I'm sorry about freaking out last time when I grabbed your arm. The last person that I felt that with was Emily, and… I just freaked out, okay? Trust isn't something that should be given lightly amongst our kind."
Some of my anger was slowly diffusing away now that I was away from Eliza and my new stupid problems with her and the rest of my Normal friends. Now it was just me, Carmen, and relative silence. My mind felt like it could breathe freely again.
"It wouldn't have worked if I didn't trust you back," I responded quietly, and after a moment I reached over and put my hand on top of hers. I saw her flinch for an second and then relax to the touch, no doubt enjoying the tingling buzz that still accompanied it.
I wasn't sure how much of the euphoria was real or just derived from the emotional catharsis of actually being able to trust another User, but it was addicting just to be in contact with her. It felt like I had been missing something for too long in my life. I found it here with this quiet, scared and scarred girl who had received a lot in li
fe that she didn't deserve.
I always felt like I was standing at the edge of veiled death, taunting me with the uncertainty of when it would come… but not if. Humans, even mages, are such frail creatures. Maybe that was why we always felt like we had an unrelenting urge to seek comfort in the form of other people. No man is an island, nor does he really wish to be. That was how I felt about life, at least. That was why I wanted to hold onto this moment forever. Maybe it was my calm before the storm, a storm that was waiting just beyond my horizons, just out of sight.
I didn't know how long we sat there, minutes, maybe longer. Carmen finally pulled her hand away reluctantly, as if we had been magnetized together at the touch. I wanted to pull her hand back the moment it left mine, but restrained myself. My anger had evaporated, and now I just felt guilt and irritation at myself for getting into that stupid argument with Eliza, and then with Carmen. For someone who hated arguing with people, I really had a short fuse sometimes.
She shuffled nearer to me, "I wasn't sure if you still trusted me." Carmen admitted, "You shouldn't, you know."
"Why not?"
Carmen shivered, but I wasn't sure it was from the cold, "There's an inherent flaw in the Magus Touch." The girl said quietly, "It shows you who you trust, and who trusts you back… but it doesn't tell you if you should trust them."
A memory uncoiled from deep within me like a roused serpent. It was a ringing shout, ugly and tinny, an echo from the past that would never stop reverberating against the cavernous walls of my mind for as long as I lived. A voice I had desperately tried for months to leave behind me.
"Just because you think you know me, Stratus, doesn't mean you actually do! You, Reggie and Alyssa can play your stupid little games by yourselves from now on. I'm going to really do something with my power, with my life! You're all nothing to me now!"
Nat…
I visibly winced and tried to shake the memory away. That hit way too close, too deep. We all have things that we keep hidden, that we don't think about, that we're afraid to bring back to the surface. Hidden pains, truths and untruths, things we would much rather forget.
"Are you alright?" Carmen asked, concerned. She attempted to touch my hand now, but I quickly pulled away from her and stood up from the ledge we were resting on. I suddenly felt how chilly it was, as if we had been shielded in our own little private bubble away from the rest of the world. I saw Carmen still seated, still looking at me with large, anxious eyes.
"Fine," I managed to say, "I'm fine… just… remembered something. That's all."
"Okay." Carmen nodded, although she didn't sound very assured. She checked her phone for the time and cursed quietly, "I have to go soon; Danae will be out of her final in like ten minutes." The witch stood up from the ledge and glanced towards General Lectures a ways away across the street from where we were.
I stared at her hands which were wringed together, clasping her smartphone tightly, "Master/servant relationship?"
Carmen followed my gaze and smiled sadly, "It's not as bad as it seems… she just… gets angry sometimes. Vik would never let it get really bad."
"But he condones it." I responded hotly.
"He has to." Carmen insisted, looking troubled, "He's more limited than you think. Technically, he's not even a full member of Archanos yet. The master and apprentice relationship far predates Alpha Phi Alpha, or even Archanos itself. It's the master's decision to decide what discipline means. Danae is just teaching me the way that she was taught."
"The way that I'll be taught?"
Carmen hesitated, and then admitted, "I don't know. I wanted to tell you that too, they've paired you up with Les."
"Who?" I asked blankly, the name meaning nothing to me.
"You haven't met him yet, he's a junior like David and Raj." Carmen replied quickly, "But you will- soon. He was Larry's apprentice, and Larry was tough on him. But you'll learn a lot from him; apprentices always learn a lot… we've never really talked much; he hangs out with Larry's crew and I've never been close to them. Ruark would probably know more, Ruark knows everything about everyone."
The dark haired girl looked to Gen Lectures again where people were beginning to trickle from the building, and her eyes widened, "Oh! Danae's getting out, I have to go! Bye Nick!" Carmen wrapped me up in a quick hug, and then dashed across the street.
I watched her go, half bemused and half concerned. I looked back to where Starbucks was, considering returning to study with Eliza. But although I felt bad about arguing with her, I also didn't feel like apologizing to her or trying to explain myself- mostly because I didn't know how to explain why joining APA was so important to me.
I didn't go back to the coffee shop, but I also didn't want to sit still and wait for Danae to come out of Gen Lectures with Carmen and see me standing across the street. Knowing my smart mouth I'd just end up picking a fight with her about the scars across Carmen's hands and getting my tentative friend in more trouble. So instead I decided to head back to my dorm, which would be empty and quiet to get some studying done at the small desk I stole from Raj to put in my room in case I ever wanted to study isolated completely from the rest of the world. Raj didn't mind, he never used it anyways.
UT was eerily quiet, most people retreating to the libraries for finals week, often times sleeping there overnight. This was the time in the semester when the UGL was the busiest, and even our sacred Corner had been overrun with other students that we had never even seen before. It was still very possible to study there because as a whole, the library's volume had been practically muted by the fear and trepidation that accompanied finals. Even the laziest student took them seriously; often it was their last chance to eke out a passing grade in a class.
Currently, I had very little to fear in terms of failing. I was sitting pretty atop almost guaranteed A's in Classics, Bio Lab, and English. Just Bio lecture to go, Professor Thomas promised the final wouldn't be too tough- but professors never understood how really difficult a test was for their students; they had been teaching and relearning the material for years. They could pass their own exams with their eyes closed. The rest of us regular people weren't so lucky.
To my surprise, the apartment wasn't empty, but was playing host to Raj and something that looked suspiciously like a self-wrapped cigarette. He took a long drag from it from his spot in front of the TV on the worn blue beanbag chair, when he saw me walk into the living room, the brown boy smiled and gave me a lazy dazed wave.
I stared at him, dumbfounded, "Its finals week and you're getting high?"
My roommate waved off my concerns like he was trying to swat flies, "Dude, don't worry so much… I study better when relaxed."
"I bet." I replied sarcastically, shaking my head in disbelief, though I supposed I shouldn't have been as surprised by it as I was. This was typical Raj.
"Relax," Raj yawned, "I don't have another final until Monday. And I'm pretty sure I just failed my Physio final…" He offered me the joint, "You want a drag or two? You need it man, you're too stressed."
"Pass." I replied stiffly, walking towards my room. I thought about bringing up the fact that he and David were using Eliza as a obvious cat's paw to try and dissuade me from continuing on with APA, but as stoned as Raj was I doubted he would register any of it. I was halfway down the hall and my room when I heard the heavy knock on the door.
Curious, I turned around and walked back, wondering who it was. I opened it just as they began to knock again, and stared right into the eyes of Officer Rodriguez, my nemesis that appeared to just love to pop up at the worst possible times in my life. This time was different, however, because she wasn't chasing me now. It was worse, because somehow, someway, she had caught up with me.
I gaped at her, my mind suddenly working on all cylinders wondering what the hell I had done wrong for her to have finally cornered me. I had long since thought I had gotten away with what had happened with Two-Bit… what the hell was she doing here?
"Nicholas Stratus?" Her
voice was stiff, the question sounded more like a statement. She knew exactly who I was. "My name is Officer Rodriguez, and we'd like to ask you a few questions-"
She suddenly stopped and sniffed, the officer with her, whom I recognized as the fair-haired Officer Wilson, gave a snorting laugh.
"Are you smoking in here?" Rodriguez accused me, pushing me aside and walking into the apartment to stare at Raj, who blinked at her in surprise, like he couldn't comprehend why a cop had invaded his humble abode.
"Uh… shit." Raj managed to say, "Hi Officer… how is your day?"
She didn't respond, but muttered something under her breath that might've been Spanish, and pulled out her cuffs, "Okay, you're both coming with us."
"He didn't do anything!" I protested, "Leave him alone."
Surprisingly, Wilson was on my side as well, putting a comforting hand on his partner's shoulder, "Come on, Carla. Leave the kid alone, if we arrested every student who liked to smoke a little pot, we would be chasing after half of the campus. We're here for Stratus, anyways.
"Move your hand if you don't want to lose it." Rodriguez responded coldly, but she turned away from Raj, handcuffs still in her hands but now pointed at me.
I shook my head numbly, "You don't need those, I'll come… but I didn't do anything." I added quickly at the end, there was no way they had anything on me, whatever this was.
"Easy," Wilson advised, but wisely kept his hands to himself this time, "We just want to question him, remember? We don't know he did anything, yet."
I could tell that his partner didn't believe that, her steely gaze locked harshly onto mine, "We'll see about that."
111
Interrogation rooms were depressing little places. They stuffed me inside one with nothing but a few hard metal chairs, a table made out of the same dull material, and the one-way glass that showed my nervous reflection. I was glad that they had at least honored my request not to cuff me on the way out of UT; it looked bad enough for my fellow students to see me being escorted into the back of a police cruiser.
Mage of Shadows Page 20
