by D. N. Hoxa
“They’re home,” Uncle Sam said. “They’re all right, and they will be on their way out of Philadelphia in a few hours. With guards.”
“What…what do you mean?” They were going to be on their way?
Uncle Sam pressed his lips together and pulled his hands into fists tightly. “They’re leaving alone, Star. Just the two of them.”
It sounded like a bad joke. “Excuse me?”
“You can’t follow them. It’s too risky. Those people, they’re still looking for you. They won’t stop unless…” A loud breath left his lips.
“Unless what?” His wrinkled hands were still pulled into fists next to my legs, and I wanted to grab him, shake him until he spoke. “Unless what, goddamn it?”
“Unless they think you’re dead.”
So there it was. Clear as the sky in front of me. “So my family…”
“It’s the only way to protect them, Star. You’ve seen what they can do.”
“But you can protect me. Those men dressed in black—”
“They’re with your family right now. And they will be long after your family leaves the States.”
“Take me to them, right now. Those men can protect me, too!” I shouted.
“It’s…” He shook his head, and regret filled his blue eyes. “They’re not going to. The Council is going to provide protection for your family only if you choose to follow their lead.”
My jaw nearly touched my lap. “Screw your Council!”
“They’re the only ones keeping your family alive!”
It was the first time I’d ever heard Uncle Sam shout. It made me fall against the pillow again, exhausted. Because he sounded and looked so damn sincere, and I didn’t want to believe it. I just didn’t want to.
“You have to understand what’s happening here.”
“How can I understand?! You’re telling me that I’m a freaking witch and that my family thinks that I’m dead. How do you expect me to react?”
Until then, I hadn’t realized that tears were falling from my eyes faster than I could count them. Saying those things out loud, it made them so real. Like they were actually happening.
“I expect you to be thankful that there even is a way out of this. Thankful that the Council has offered you its protection. Your family will be safe, Star. What more can you ask for?”
My mouth opened, but I found nothing to say for the longest time. What more could I ask for than the safety of my family?
Nothing.
“Can I trust you?” I asked him after a while.
I was in no position to make any decisions in those moments, but it seemed they were already made, so all I had to do was follow them. I could do that. As long as I knew that my Ella, my dad was safe, I could follow.
“Yes, Star. I swear it. You can trust me.”
Maybe because we both knew that it was his fault. He was the one who’d pulled me into this mess. Unintentionally, yes, but he did it anyway. I could see the regret in his eyes. Too bad that it didn’t make any of it any better. So in the end, I cried my tears in silence, and he let me for long minutes. My family thought I was dead. The whole world probably thought I was dead because of some assholes who thought a stupid secret was worth killing a person over. I couldn’t help but regret not telling the redhead and Jonah when they tortured me. If I’d just told them where the book was, maybe none of this would have happened.
Unfortunately, wishing didn’t make anything come true. Half an hour later, as I took off my hospital gown and got into the shower in Uncle Sam’s apartment, everything remained the same. It was strange to look at myself in the mirror. I still looked the same. My hair was still as dark as the night, as were my eyes. My body looked the same, except for the bruises I didn’t want to count. But inside, I was so different. A completely different person.
I got dressed in some green shorts and a white shirt that were both two sizes too big for me. Probably Uncle Sam’s clothes. When I came out of the bathroom, I found him in his small kitchen, waving at the tray he’d set on the dining table. He’d made me an omelet.
“I’m not hungry,” I mumbled as I stood by the doorway, unsure of what to do.
“Just a bite. It won’t kill you.”
He took my hand in his and walked me to the chair. My stomach growled with hunger, but I couldn’t even imagine eating without spilling my guts out.
“What happens now?” I asked, and to my ears, my voice echoed. It all looked strangely like a dream. A nightmare.
“Now, we take a trip to the Fifth Dimension to meet with the Council.”
“How are we going to do that?” I wasn’t all that curious, but I wanted to keep him talking so I could keep myself distracted.
“Through a coin,” Uncle Sam said, a small smile on his lips. “The Fifth Dimension is just timeless space. Nothing but illusions can exist in it, and that is why we use it to meet. We can get there through a copper coin, the same one that the summoning side has. Out there, no conversation can be eavesdropped, ever.”
“Sounds interesting,” I mumbled.
As my stomach’s growl became louder and louder, I considered eating something, but in the end, I decided to just drink the cup of milk.
“You’re going to be okay, Star,” Uncle Sam said. “There are so many things you’re going to learn, things you never thought possible. You’re going to—”
“The only thing I want to learn is how to fight.” That was the only way I was going to be able to protect my family when I went back to them.
“You’ll learn that, too, in Lyndor. And you’ll learn about your magic,” he said. When I didn’t react, he asked: “Aren’t you curious about that?”
“I am.”
I was. It just wasn’t nearly as impressive as one thought it would be. Not after I had to leave my family and make them think I was dead. But it was okay. No matter how long it took, I was going to learn how to fight, and I was going to go back to them. We were going to be safe and away from all of this mess. Very soon.
“They’re ready for us,” Uncle Sam said suddenly. “Are you?”
But he didn’t let me answer because we were no longer in his kitchen. We were somewhere entirely different.
The space was wide, almost like standing on open air. There was a ceiling, but it was high and crystal chandeliers, large ones, hung from it every few steps. The crème-colored walls around us seemed to fold within each other every few seconds. Like an illusion. I couldn’t concentrate in one spot for long enough because they kept changing.
Uncle Sam and I were in the middle of a very large, round table. It stretched wide all around us and left us no place to exit if we wanted to. At first, the table was empty. I couldn’t get enough of the view in front of me, and I spun and spun until the room spun with me and Uncle Sam grabbed me by my shoulders.
“Stay calm,” he whispered, and at that, the chairs around the table began to fill.
I felt like I was going to suffocate. My lungs refused to draw in air as I counted fourteen creatures sitting around us. My heart skipped a long beat that paralyzed me. I could do nothing but stare.
On the far left side sat a woman with hair as white as snow. She had the palest skin I’d ever seen—almost translucent. Her face was long, her chin pointed, and her lips were painted black. Her gleaming red eyes met mine, and I almost jumped back before I thought to look away.
My eyes fell on a man with a round face and dirty blond hair. He almost looked normal, except for his eyes that seemed to change color as he watched me. I looked away from him, too.
Next to him sat something that had all the main features of a human, only her skin was the strangest shade of blue and her hair was silver and long, so long that I lost sight of it under the table. Her eyes were also blue and too big for her face. From what I’d read, I could only guess it was a nymph or dryad, but no description ever provided in books had done them any justice. She was the first one who didn’t scare the living hell out of me.
My
eyes stopped on the only other being that looked close to normal. The woman had brown hair streaked with gray, her eyes an unusual metallic blue and her mouth small. To her right, on the one chair set higher than the rest, sat a man with a face so pale, it looked almost gray. His dark eyes, sharp and pointy, gave you the impression that he was wearing eyeliner. His hair, a dark glowing brown fell down to his shoulders. I’d never seen anyone more beautiful in my whole life, despite the fact that he gave me the chills and seemed even more dangerous than the rest. Maybe because it was obvious that he was in charge.
“Keep calm, Star. Remember, they are here to help,” Uncle Sam whispered in my ear.
It was hard enough to keep breathing, so I didn’t bother with a reply. I just wished everyone would stop staring at me.
“Star Watson,” the man in charge said. His voice was cold but deep. Shiver-inducing. “Welcome to the Council’s Chamber.”
My parents raised me to be polite, but for the life of me, I couldn’t say a single word. That caused the others around us to start whispering. I didn’t see their faces, but I heard some giggling and others tsk-ing in disgust.
“What is the meaning of this, Master?” someone asked.
“Silence.”
It wasn’t a shout. The man didn’t raise his voice at all, but the second the word left his mouth, dead silence fell in the room. Nobody dared to even breathe, and Master spoke to me again.
“Samuel tells me you and your family have been attacked, twice now. I’m truly sorry about that.” He definitely didn’t sound like he was. “Be so kind and tell me what you told him.”
It was an order. My mouth was so dry, I doubted I could speak a single word, but I also felt a strong push to answer the question. And so I did.
“I could…I felt it.” A stranger could’ve been speaking through my body. “When they came to Uncle Sam’s store, I saw it in their eyes that they were going to hurt me. It was like a pull in my stomach…”God, you sound ridiculous, I thought. Who was going to believe in that bullshit? But the Master watched me, still as curious as in the beginning, so I continued. “…a whisper in my ear that warned me against them.”
“And at the hospital?” He seemed awfully calm.
“I was asleep when she came, so I didn’t feel anything before she attacked me.” I shivered at the reminder.
“And you survived,” he said. I only nodded. “What else can you feel, Star?”
“N-nothing.” The intensity of his glare became too much and it made me stutter.
“Try a little harder, will you? I want to know how I feel to you.”
How he felt to me? I looked at Uncle Sam who kept his head down as if to tell me that I was alone, and I had no choice but to comply. Meeting the Master’s eyes again was hard. They terrified me. Trying to get a feel of him was even harder, especially since my fingertips were freezing.
“Cold,” I whispered. “Dead.”
The man sat back on his chair, a small smile on his face. That’s when I knew I’d blown it. I shouldn’t have said it. Dead? Who feels dead? He was obviously alive.
“What does Samuel feel like to you?” he continued.
“Sun.” It was easier to guess when Uncle Sam was right next to me. Plus, I’d seen him with the flowers. The feeling of warmth he gave me couldn’t be mistaken.
“I suppose Samuel told you about Lyndor. You may leave right away. Principal McGraw will take good care of you there, Star Watson.”
Uncle Sam put his hand on my shoulder, and that’s when I realized that the others were still barely breathing. They were no longer looking at me funny, either. No, they looked deeply curious. And some of them—I realize how stupid this sounds, but some of them even looked afraid.
“Wait, what does this mean? I’m eighteen years old, and I’ve never had any…incident before. I think I would’ve been able to tell if I had…if I was unusual.” For whatever reason, saying stuff like magic was really hard for me.
“It means you’re a late bloomer, Star. Nothing more,” the Master said, showing me perfectly square white teeth. “And don’t worry. Your family will be safe as long as you give your best at Lyndor.”
“My best at what?”
My voice broke. Tears sprung in my eyes at the mention of my Ella and my dad. I didn’t want to do this. I just wanted to go back home and forget this ever happened. Unfortunately, those people had other plans for me.
“At training. You will be taught our world’s ways, and when the time comes, you will help us in our war against the very ones that have tortured you twice now and that have taken you away from your family.”
The Red Rebels. That was the only thing that made sense to me so far. So they were recruiting me. They were going to train me to fight against the Red Rebels. And I was going to be the best they had ever had, right before I went back to my family.
“Am I—” I was going to ask whether he really thought I was a witch, but he cut me off.
“Samuel will clarify the details for you. Until next time, Star…”
And the Master was gone.
14
——————————
It was over, just like that. I was no longer in a large room surrounded by the strangest creatures I’d ever seen. I was back in Uncle Sam’s kitchen so suddenly that I began to question my sanity.
Had I really been in the fifth dimension?
Had I really seen all that I’d seen?
“That was Master Samayan and the rest of the Council. I wanted to tell you more about them before you met them, but I didn’t have the time,” Uncle Sam said as he went to his fridge and pulled out a bottle of orange juice.
There was nothing I found to say for the longest time. Everything had slipped away from my fingers, and I was facing a brand new life, one I had no idea how to live.
“I know I told you this before, Star, but I will again since you trust me. Your family will be safe, far away from here. The Council gave their word to protect them. The Red Rebels have no way of knowing where we’re taking them, and with you out of the picture…”
I rested my head on the table. I trusted Uncle Sam. I had no other choice but to trust him. But that didn’t mean that I had accepted my new reality.
“How is this possible, Uncle Sam? This magic thing. Why me? I’m just an ordinary girl. I’ve been no more than that my whole life.”
I was desperate, unsure of how to even formulate the question I wanted to ask. I had no idea what I was.
“Magic is inherited in most cases,” he said. “And you have it in you. A kind I’ve never heard of before, but it’s there.”
“But none of my parents were any kind of…”
“It can skip a generation in some cases, though not always.” He shook his head as he drank his juice. “I’m really not sure what your case is.”
I didn’t know my grandparents. I never knew either of my dad’s parents or my mom’s dad. I had met her mother, but she passed when I was five so I barely remembered her. I couldn’t be sure about them. Apparently, anything was possible.
“Tell me about Lyndor,” I said, in an attempt to distract myself. The question brought a sad smile to Uncle Sam’s face.
“Yes, the great castle. It was named after William Lyndor, the one who built it a few centuries ago. It’s on Mount Simeon in Syria. You’ll be isolated there—isolated but safe. No magic or technology is allowed in the castle.”
Then he flinched as if not so fond memories hit him abruptly.
“Lyndor is an academy like no other. I must warn you, Star. They will not take it easy on you. The teachers will not care about what you know about us or when you learned it. And there will be times when you will want to give up, but you need to endure, take everything they throw at you. Giving up or just seeming that you are about to will get you in more trouble than you’ve ever known. Cowardice is not tolerated in Lyndor. You’re better off remembering that.”
“Did you go, too?” He seemed to know a lot about the school.
“Yes, I did. Many years ago,” he said. “But you are not to discuss our relationship with anyone there. In fact, do not mention that you know me at all.”
It was hard enough to picture Uncle Sam going to school. Now he was telling me he was a secret I had to keep, too. “Why?”
Uncle Sam took his time thinking about the answer he wanted to give me.
“I am the only half breed to have ever attended Lyndor. Make no mistake; it wasn’t for my abilities that I was accepted. Politics are even worse in the supernatural world,” he said with a weak smile.
I was dying to ask him for details, but it was not my place. “I won’t tell anyone, I promise,” I said instead.
“Fighting is not all that you will learn there, Star. You will learn how to use every weapon that can be used, every fighting technique there is. You will learn about every kind of supernatural creature that lives on Earth, but you will not be able to develop your magical side. You will have to do that after the academy,” Uncle Sam explained.
“But how am I going to do that? I’m still not even convinced that I’m one of you.”
In fact I was pretty sure that these people had mistaken me for someone else. In my book, a feeling that someone was about to hurt me didn’t translate into magic.
“You are. Believe that you are. The Council does not make mistakes.” He sounded so sure of himself that I was tempted to believe him. “All the students attend the academy at the age of sixteen, after they develop their magic growing up. With you, it will just have to be the other way around.”
“How does it work? Your magic. You said you can feel others. What can you feel in me?”
Uncle Sam shook his head. “I’ve never felt magic like yours before, and I’ve never heard of anything similar to it. And, yes, I can feel others. Only half-fey can, for some reason, but not always. It’s just a small feeling we get when around those with magic. Nothing like you.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. You felt both the Master and me correctly. It’s marvelous, really.”
“I said he felt dead. How can that be correct?” The man was very much alive.
