by Lizzy Ford
He had a partner. But he’d never expose her to what he’d become.
“The new girl?” Matilda’s approach was silent. “Or is it just physical attraction?”
“It’s neither,” he said sharply. “Leave Summer out of this.”
The instructor raised an eyebrow. She stepped away and held up a hand as he turned on her.
“As you wish,” she said calmly.
Unable to explain his sudden fury, Decker watched her as she returned to her seat behind the desk and folded her hands over her knee. She waited, unafraid of the shadows that leaked from his body at his emotion. Finally, he rolled his shoulders and took a deep breath.
“Please,” he added, aware it was too late.
“Of course.”
“Whatever happens, I’ll deal with it. Alone.”
Matilda said nothing more. Decker glanced towards the benches again then turned and strode out of her office and down the hall, towards the kitchen. Food and the forest were the best he could do at soothing the fire within him. The last he’d heard, Kenny’s shadow demon had failed to kill the person who hurt his brother. His brother died yesterday evening.
Kenny didn’t have the magick to exact his revenge, but Decker did. He’d unleash the fury within him upon the fool who killed a child. Maybe then, he’d feel some peace. He went to the kitchen for some food first.
Butterflies were in Summer’s stomach when she returned to her room. She told herself they shouldn’t be; she was going to the dance with Beck. Besides, Decker had a girlfriend. His magick had left her body by the time she returned to her room, where one of the girls waited for her outside her door.
“Your name is Summer, right?” The beautiful girl was around her age with large brown eyes and dark bronze skin.
“Yes.”
“I’m Biji.”
“I remember,” Summer said.
“I heard, um, you have a deer. Can I see him?”
“Sure.” Summer opened the door to her room. The small animal was curled up on the bed and raised its head.
“They said his name is Tarzan,” Biji said and giggled.
“It is.”
“He’s beautiful.” Biji leaned over to peer at the creature. Her waist-length braid fell over her shoulder onto the bed, and Tarzan nibbled on it.
“How long have you been here?” Summer asked, sitting down on the bed.
“About a year. I’m an air element. Amber said you were, too, and maybe I can teach you some things.”
“That’d be awesome,” Summer said, her interest in the small girl growing. “Is it hard to learn?”
“Not really. Well, once you unlock it, it’s all about control. But unlocking your magick is the hardest part.”
“Why?”
Biji shrugged. “Maybe because we suppress it for sixteen years and then have to figure out how to stop doing that.”
“So what did you do to make your magick unlocked?”
“You’ll know. You’ll feel what makes it sing.”
Decker. Summer didn’t like the instinct that reminded her of how the tall, handsome loner made her feel.
“For me, it was bungee jumping!” Biji’s face glowed. “I love it!”
“I don’t think I want to try that.”
“Do you want to come outside? I’ll show you some of the things I can do.”
Summer nodded. Biji patted Tarzan and led Summer out, down the stairs and to one of the picnic tables in the courtyard.
“Okay, sit down and watch,” Biji said.
Summer sat on the table, puzzled as Biji scrambled over to the nearest pine tree and began to climb it. The small teen was nimble and coordinated, reaching the halfway point fifty feet up within a few minutes.
“Are you watching?” she called.
“Yes!” Summer replied, shielding her eyes against the sun.
Biji swan-dived out of the tree. Summer yelped, horrified. Just before Biji should’ve hit the ground, she stopped in midair. She was laughing. She dropped her feet to the ground and stood.
“What do you think?” she asked, beaming.
“My god!” Summer breathed. Her heart was in her ears and her pulse flying.
“We control the air,” Biji said. She swirled her hand in the air. A pinecone from the ground rose and landed in her palm.
“I can float?”
“Someday, when you can use your magick.” Biji tossed the pinecone. “You don’t know what the trigger … ooohh.” Her last word came out as a half-sigh.
Summer followed her gaze. Decker emerged from the side door, sandwich in one hand and a soda in his other. His dark clothing did little to diminish his muscular form. If he saw them, he ignored them.
“All the girls are in love with him,” Biji whispered.
“I thought they were in love with his brother,” Summer said.
“Secretly, they want Decker. Even Dawn. I mean, the tall, brooding bad boy? Like from a romance novel. I wonder what he looks like with his shirt off.”
Summer smiled at Biji’s eager tone. “So your trigger wasn’t a person?”
“He never gives any of us in the Light the time of day,” Biji went on. “The Dark girls can. He’s slept with a few over the year I’ve been here. You know it’s because they have some sort of secrets about sex.”
Summer laughed out of amusement and embarrassment.
“Have you ever you know … done it?” Biji asked.
Summer shook her head.
“Me neither. I guess I’ll know someday.”
Summer laughed harder at Biji’s disappointed look. The small girl grinned then lifted more things in the air. Summer watched, marveling. Biji formed small clouds in her hands and sent them over to Summer. They rained on her feet, making her smile. When Biji was done with her tricks, she sat beside Summer on the table.
“I heard you were hanging out with Dawn. You don’t really seem like the type to hang out with her,” Biji said.
“I don’t really,” Summer said. “She doesn’t seem that bad. Everyone says she is.”
“Oh, she’s that bad.”
Summer shrugged.
“If she doesn’t see you as a threat, she’ll leave you alone. It might be good she’s not messing with you.”
“I’m nowhere near as pretty as she is, and I’m poor,” Summer said. “There’s nothing she can be jealous of.”
“Whatever,” Biji said, rolling her eyes. “It’s good you don’t hang out with her. Are you going to the dance?”
“Yes.”
“Did someone ask you or are you just gonna hang out with me?”
“Someone asked me.”
“Who?” Biji demanded. “I heard you’re going out with Adam?”
“No, we’re not going out,” Summer said with a shake of her head. “Beck asked me.”
“Beck? Really?”
“Yes. Why?”
“He’s dating Dawn. At least, I thought he was.” Biji looked puzzled. “But if he asked you, maybe they’re over with.”
“Maybe. I don’t know,” she said vaguely, mind on the note about Beck breaking up with Dawn. “Are you going with anyone?”
“No. No one asked. I thought about asking someone, though.”
Decker emerged from one of the dorms, trailed by three other guys in black. Biji’s gaze was glued to the Dark twin as they crossed to the house.
“Decker?” Summer prompted. She crossed her arms, not sure why she cared if Biji wanted to go with Decker.
“Yeah. But he never goes to them anyway.”
“So you said that bungee jumping or whatever is what unlocked your power?”
“Yes! I jumped off a building,” Biji replied.
“Are like, people ever the triggers to unlock magick?”
“Anything can be. But a person … that seems like it’d be very weird. I mean, how would that work? You basically have to totally surrender to whatever it is and then, the magick unlocks.”
“I’m not sure,” Summer said. “It
doesn’t sound like someone can be the trigger.”
“It’s probably possible, but I don’t know.” Biji’s gaze narrowed. “Why do you ask? You think Beck is your trigger?”
“Not Beck. I mean, no. I just wondered.”
“Just wondered. Hmm.”
“Really.”
“Whatever. Did they show you the creek?”
“No.”
Biji hopped off the table and started towards the road. Summer joined her, and they walked down the daisy-and-pine-tree lined road past the dorms and deeper into the forest. After ten minutes, they came to an old, wooden bridge leading over a creek a few feet wide. Biji stopped in the middle of the bridge and leaned over the side.
Summer did so as well. Clear water about three feet deep rushed over rocks below the bridge. She saw a few small fish and even more bright rocks in the shallows of the creek. The flow of water made a soothing sound, one that took her thoughts off of magick and Decker. Biji led her off the bridge and to a large, flat rock beside the creek. She sprawled on her back and stared at the sky.
“You ever make shapes out of clouds?” she asked.
Summer shook her head, liking the girl more and more.
“It’s about all there is to do here,” Biji complained. “Unless you like playing games. I don’t.”
“I don’t know how to play many games,” Summer replied. She lay down beside her. Trees and a few cottony clouds were all that marred the brilliant blue sky. “I can play poker and blackjack.”
“You’ll have to teach me.”
Summer gazed at the clouds, content with the creek’s soft gurgle and the sun’s gentle warmth. The air swirled around them, and Biji swatted it away.
“Do you see anything?” Biji asked.
Summer concentrated. “An elephant? I don’t know.”
“I see it! He’s playing basketball, right?”
Summer giggled.
“We have a lot of elephants in India. They’re so big. When you see them on the telly, you can’t tell how big they really are. They can crush a car with their foot.”
“Do you miss India?”
“Yes and no. I miss my family but when I go back, I have to get married. So, I’d rather stay here.”
“You have to get married?” Summer asked.
“My family arranged a marriage for me. He’s a nice guy. But I just want to roam around the world.”
“Wow. That’s crazy. Maybe he’ll travel with you.”
“Maybe. Ruins my chances with Decker, though.”
“How does that work?” Summer asked. “I mean, he’s evil. You can’t be on the side of Light and date someone who’s evil.”
“Yeah you can. It’s like dating anyone else. The Dark is like a career choice. You wouldn’t not date someone because he was like, a dentist or something.”
“I think good and evil are a bit more serious than dating a dentist!”
“But it’s really not,” Biji insisted. “A lot of Light and Dark date and get married. The Turner twins’ parents did that.”
“That doesn’t make the person on the Light side go to hell or anything?”
Biji laughed. “No! If anything, it made Beck and Decker more powerful. They each have two elements, and rumor has it that Decker has three.”
“What are their elements?”
“Beck is air and earth; Decker is the rest.”
“Meaning …” Summer pushed.
“Fire, water, spirit.”
“The exact opposite of me.”
“Who? Decker?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ve got a crush on him, too, don’t you?” Biji exclaimed.
“No—”
“It’s okay. I was beginning to think you were weird. I mean, who wouldn’t?”
Summer was quiet. She didn’t know what she felt when she was with the intense Dark twin. She understood the simple attraction she felt towards Beck. It was easier to focus on the Light twin.
“The summer dance is in three days. Maybe you should go with him instead of Beck. That way Dawn doesn’t get jealous or go psycho on you,” Biji said.
“She’s been nice to me so far.”
“Everyone thinks that, until she tries to stab you in the back,” Biji replied. “I’ve seen it happen to a lot of girls here, ones not nearly as pretty as you are.”
“I’m not pretty. I just have a big chest,” Summer said with an awkward laugh.
“To men, that’s pretty. I’m totally jealous. Do you eat anything special to get those?”
“I don’t think so. I think they’re hereditary.”
“Ah,” Biji sighed. “Then I’m screwed.”
They giggled. After an hour of cloud watching, they returned to the main house for lunch and to check on Tarzan. Biji led her to their sole afternoon class, a two-hour block on math and science that left Summer close to dozing. There were Dark girls in this class, and she concentrated on them rather than the dry lecture. They all wore black, some in heavy make-up while others wore none. They seemed as diverse as the Light girls.
Biji’s comparison of the Dark path to a regular career path did little to make Summer understand how being Dark could be any less evil. The girls didn’t turn into monsters in class, yet they’d done something to earn their way to the Dark. She wondered what, and if they regretted their choices or were as content as the Light girls.
What had Decker done? Was it why he was always alone?
She didn’t want to think about him, but her body remembered too well how she felt in his arms. Her magick sang only for him.
The class dismissed, jarring her out of her thoughts. Summer rose from the desk and closed her notebook. She hadn’t written down anything from the course. To date, no one had mentioned tests, and she hoped it was because there were none.
She retreated to her room to clean up after Tarzan then take him outside before the mandatory dinner in an hour. Summer closed the screen door on the front porch behind her. Tarzan wandered out onto the front lawn, his limp still apparent. She caught the flash of auburn against the green curtain of pine trees down the road and stepped off the porch.
Glancing around, she made sure no one was watching her then went towards Sam. Tarzan trailed, his mouth filled with green grass. Summer pushed fragrant pine branches aside to enter the forest. She didn’t see Sam and ventured deeper.
“Sam?” she called.
I’m here.
She looked around then jumped to find him a few feet behind her, petting the fawn.
“You move so quiet,” she said, not yet accustomed to the sight of the towering creature.
I am part of the forest.
“So do you just follow me around all day?”
No, human. Sam gave one of his chortled laughs. I appear when I want you to find me, like you did.
“Oh. Decker said you don’t talk to many people.”
Only those I must when I must. Sam held out a leather necklace with a tiny, clear stone. This will protect you.
“From what?” she asked, taking it.
The danger around you.
Summer looked up at him. “What danger?”
There are people interested in harming you. This is so they can’t hurt you.
“The Dark,” she breathed. “It’s not Decker, is it?”
No.
“Good.” Summer sighed, unaware of how much she wanted it not to be until her chest loosened enough for her to breathe deeply again. “What do you do out here all day? Do you have any friends?”
There are many of us. We monitor the balance.
“Sam, is Decker … bad?”
You are troubled by such simple thoughts.
Summer flushed. She put on the necklace.
Humans are neither good nor bad. They are filled with choices they’ve yet to make and those they’ve already made.
“Okay, fine.” She rolled her eyes. “Be as vague as everyone else.”
You must decide for yourself about the Master of Fire an
d Night. Meanwhile, I’ll worry about good and evil not destroying the world. His words were spoken with gentle humor and accompanied by a chortle. You would be quite a pair, one pure set of all the elements.
“Not if I go to hell for it,” she said with determination. “Well, I’m going to dinner.”
You are young to worry over your immortality. You have many choices to make yet. He stepped aside and motioned back the way she’d come.
“Thank you for the necklace,” she said. She picked her way through a thatch of huckleberry bushes past him. “I’ll be careful. I’m from the worst orphanage in LA, so I doubt anything here is going to be half as bad.”
He will protect you.
“Who?” she asked, turning.
Sam was gone. Summer snorted. She made her way towards the road and walked down it, trailed by the deer. She liked the strange half-man, half-beast that appeared at odd times, because seeing him made her feel almost normal.
By the time she put Tarzan back in her room, the rest of the teens at the school had gathered at the long table. Seating was unassigned, though she noticed there were cliques of people who sat together. Her gaze went to Beck, who was speaking to one of the other boys. Dawn and the three who had gone shopping with her sat at one end. Summer usually waited until everyone was seated before taking the last empty chair. This evening, Biji waved her over and patted the chair beside her.
Summer smiled at the small girl, who spoke to another girl with thick glasses named Ana. Summer circled the table to sit down, surprised to see Decker directly across from her. She looked at Biji, who grinned. Seating herself, Summer tried hard not to look at the Dark twin but found herself drawn to him.
He met her gaze briefly before looking away. The initial exchange over, Summer relaxed and focused on her food. The first course—salad and soup—came and went, leaving her drooling over what the main course would be. The waiter began setting out the main course.
“Watching Summer eat is the best part of dinner.”
Summer heard her name mentioned down the table and glanced up. Dawn was giggling and looking at her, the two girls on either side of her also staring at Summer. Summer’s face grew warm. She looked at the half chicken and vegetables the waiter put before her. Instead of holding it with one hand and prying off the meat with a fork, she watched Biji from the corner of her eye.
