“What does this have to do with Rosalee and me, specifically?” I asked, keeping my gaze on Mrs. North.
Mrs. North lowered the spell book to the table and finally sat again. “Rifts are never easily healed. If the other Points and I could simply use our magic to close the wound, we would, but magic is not always like that. This separation and the curses that followed will only come to an end with hard work.” She looked at Rosalee. “And of all the students here, we have determined that you are quite capable of hard work. Although you pretend that your life is all together and that everything comes quite easily for you, we found that your magic is quite the opposite. You have studied diligently to attain the skills you possess . . . and you fear that Josy may take those from you.”
“That’s not true! I am not afraid of Josy!” Rosalee growled.
“You are quite afraid of Miss Barrows,” Mrs. North corrected. “And I have found that the best way to stop being afraid of someone is to get to know them. Work with them.”
If I was honest, I was afraid of Rosalee, and I did not want to get to know her. Why couldn’t I just do whatever Mrs. North wanted with Holly? She didn’t like me when we first met either. I begged Mrs. North with my eyes.
“I know what you are thinking, my dear, and it won’t work. These three”—she studied Aspen, Emiko, and Holly—“were fated to become your friends, but Miss Loriss?” Mrs. North shook her head. “Unless drastic measures are taken now, the two of you will be unable to bridge the gap and, well . . .” She shrugged. “The future of The Side of Magic may be doomed.”
“Doomed?” The word slipped from my and Rosalee’s mouths in unison.
Mrs. North laid her hands on the table. “It is a very possible outcome. Now, we need to begin this process as soon as possible.”
And before I had the chance to ask her what process she was talking about, Mrs. North snapped her fingers. I found myself standing in a dim room lit by torches lining the stone walls, the Morelli spell book in my hand. A shuffling sound came from behind, and I twisted to see Rosalee standing behind me, a scowl on her lips and her hand lit with a magical flame.
Chapter 14
I backed away from Rosalee and her threat of fire magic. “Can we just talk about this?”
“Where are we?” she demanded through bared teeth.
I darted my eyes around at the stone walls and noticed that the room was circular instead of square. There was no door. A small table and chairs sat at the center of the room. “How am I supposed to know?”
“Because you are creating some sort of illusion!” She thrust the fire magic in her palm straight at me and I threw up the spell book to protect myself, but her magic dispersed into embers before reaching me.
“You may not use magic to harm one another,” said Mrs. North. I flinched and scanned around for her, but she was nowhere to be seen.
“Let me out of here!” Rosalee demanded, and orange fire flamed from her hands, only to be extinguished almost immediately.
“That will be up to you, Miss Loriss, if you can look beyond yourself,” Mrs. North’s voice said calmly. “The two of you only need to find the key to the door, and then you may leave at any time.”
My heart pounded at the thought of being stuck in this exitless room with Rosalee. “But there is no door.”
“Rooms always have doors, Miss Barrows. They just might not be obvious. I believe that the two of you can find it.”
“Mrs. North!” Rosalee called, but it was no use. The voice was gone.
Rosalee paced for a few seconds and then stomped over to the wall. She ran her hand along the stone, probably searching for a secret lever or something. I knew it would be a fruitless attempt: I was starting to understand that The Four Points were rarely straightforward about anything. They seemed to like speaking in riddles and only giving half of the story.
“Stop, Rosalee,” I said quietly and laid my heavy spell book down on the table.
“Don’t you tell me what to do,” she growled and continued digging her fingers into the cracks between the stones.
Resigned, I took a settling breath and lowered myself into one chair. The wood was old and worn, and the seat creaked. Hopefully, it would hold me up. The flames of the wall torches flickered and cast shadows throughout the room. I rubbed my hand over the spell book and traced the golden words on the cover, Spells of the Ancients. Who had this book belonged to? Was it my ancestors? Unable to answer my own question, I tried to open the cover again, like I’d seen Mrs. North do in Chancellor Sterling’s conference room. Maybe finding out what was inside would help us escape this creepy room. But no . . . the cover would not lift, and the pages were still stuck together. I slid the book to the middle of the table and slouched in my chair.
“Rosalee,” I muttered.
“What?” she snapped and straightened from her hunched position. Good thing that Rosalee’s magic arsenal didn’t include death rays from her eyes because I’m pretty sure if they did, she would’ve tried to shoot them at me.
“Would you please sit down? You’re not going to find a door the way you’re doing it. Didn’t you hear Mrs. North?”
“If that even was Mrs. North,” she accused and resumed her search. “It could have been some sort of Morelli magic trick, just like this room is.”
I scoffed. “Of course that was Mrs. North. You saw her.”
“I don’t know what I saw. That woman could have been anybody.”
Rosalee and I both knew that the woman in the conference room was Mrs. North, one of The Four Points. She was deluding herself. But I didn’t tell her so.
Amazingly, Rosalee’s voice softened. “Everything is so messed up these days. Nothing is what it’s supposed to be.”
I wrinkled my brow. Just keep her talking. My grandma taught me that finding out where people are coming from rarely included a lot of talk about yourself. “And what is it supposed to be like?”
Rosalee stopped and crossed her arms over her chest. “I was to come to the Academy, graduate with top honors, and then use my skills to fight the Morelli—just like everyone else in my family. We come from a very long line of very powerful witches and wizards, you know. Magic runs strong in our blood.”
I stared at Rosalee without speaking. She was stuck up and rude, but for the first time, I saw her for what she was. Rosalee Loriss was afraid of me. She was afraid that I had changed the tide, afraid that what she had worked for her entire life wasn’t going to work out the way she had intended. I knew all about life not working out the way I thought it would.
“Not that I should bring this up again, but didn’t I prove that I wanted to help defend the school from the Morelli on the night of the battle? I helped everyone . . . including you.” I silently scolded myself for becoming defensive.
As I should have anticipated, her nostrils flared, and she tightened her arms around her chest. “I don’t want your help. And the Morelli probably never would have attacked us if you weren’t here.”
I had no idea whether that were true, but I didn’t think my uncle, Zane Gabrick, even knew I was here before the battle. “They declared war, Rosalee. There were more attacks on The Side of Magic that night than just here.”
She huffed. “Then why would their leader have been sent to the Academy, of all places?”
I shrugged and carefully considered my words this time. “Maybe some of the best witches and wizards—like you—are here. Could it be they wanted to wipe out the competition before the students got any stronger?”
Rosalee pursed her lips and leaned her back against the stone wall. She slid down and sat on the ground.
Some very small part of me actually wanted to go to her. But I didn’t. I was well aware that she probably would have punched me, since she couldn’t use her magic. And honestly, it was a super tiny part of me that felt bad enough for her.
“You are probably the smartest person in the year one class.” It pained me to admit this fact to Rosalee’s face, but I knew it was true.
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“I have worked harder for that than you even know.” She didn’t lift her head to me, and her voice sounded muffled. “You can’t even imagine what it’s like to live with the pressure of being a Loriss.”
Growing up, my grandmother was always supportive of anything I did, no matter if I succeeded or failed. My life was never easy, but someone always had my back. “You’re right. I don’t. I’m really sorry.”
Rosalee raised her head and glared. I’m sure she regretted showing any measure of weakness, especially to me. “Don’t feel sorry for me, Barrows. My family wants me to be the best. So that’s what I am—the best.” She stood and straightened her shirt. “Let’s just figure out what we need to do to get out of here. I refuse to be trapped in this place with you any longer than I have to.”
I released a long stream of air through my nose and gestured to the chair across from me. “I still can’t open this spell book.” I tried yet again. The cover and pages remained stuck fast. “There’s nothing else in this room to do, so I guess we need to figure out how to open it. Since I can’t do it on my own, I must need your help.”
Rosalee groaned and rolled her eyes. “Mrs. North”—she quickly backtracked—“or whoever that woman was, put us in here to open a book? And a Morelli book at that. Could anything be stupider?”
I gritted my teeth together at her words. Rosalee was still Rosalee. “She put us in here to work together. The book is simply the project she gave us.”
Rosalee shrugged. “Fine, let’s open it.” She grabbed the cover’s edge and eyed me. “You get the other side.”
“It’s not going to be that simple. Mrs. North wants us to combine our magic. You’ll need to allow me to absorb your fire.”
“I don’t want to do that,” she admitted.
“Look, I’m sorry for what happened in Phys Ed.” Really, Rosalee should have been apologizing. She was the one who tried to attack me with her magic. But she could have been injured as well. “I think if we open this book, I can learn how to manage the magic inside me. Then it won’t come out on accident. Please believe that I don’t want to hurt you—or anyone at the Academy.”
Rosalee squinted and gave me a curt nod. The agreement may have been simply because she wanted out of here, but at least we were getting somewhere. I laid my hand on the book and waited.
Rosalee reluctantly placed her quivering hand on mine. My muscles tensed, but almost immediately, her magic warmed my skin. I closed my eyes and allowed the energy to seep into me. Calm flowed over my body, and something inside me shifted. I wasn’t afraid of Rosalee anymore. I didn’t really know if I liked her, but I wasn’t afraid. It was a start.
I opened my eyes to both our hands and the book floating in the air between us. Rosalee cracked open her eyelids and slid her hand from mine. I removed my hand as the book turned counterclockwise in the air, and the pages splayed open. Sparkling white magic rose from the book and engulfed us.
Chapter 15
Visions of the past flickered around me . . . the Morelli being forced under threat of death to leave The Side of Magic, and a dark cloud spreading over all the realms, making hearts grow cold over the centuries. Pain and torment wracked my mind and body.
Rosalee was gone.
“Josy,” a female voice called from behind me.
I twisted toward the sound, and a woman stood there. The horrible visions hurtled past us as we stared at one another. Long white hair flowed over her shoulders, and in an instant I knew who she was, even though I’d never remembered meeting her. My mom.
Somehow the pain subsided.
She wore a regular gray shirt and a pair of jeans. Everything looked so normal about her, except for the white hair. The only way I’d ever known my mom was with the chestnut hair in her photo. Nine had told me it was actually dyed.
Tears stung my eyes as I picked up one heavy foot and then the other to reach her. She opened her arms, and before long I was in the warm embrace that I’d craved most of my life. The chaos of visions still played around us, but being with her made the entire thing blur.
She pulled back and studied my face for what seemed like an hour, but honestly I didn’t mind. I wanted to look at her, too.
“Are you alive?” I finally got some words out. “Is Dad alive?” Hope filled me that their deaths had never been real. That this whole thing was some terrible dream I was stuck inside.
She placed her hand over my heart, which was beating so fast I thought it might explode. “I’m only a memory locked away by magic until you released it. But you might call me a ghost.”
I dropped my gaze in disappointment and several tears escaped. Mom raised her hand to my chin and lifted my face to her. “Don’t waste time on tears. I have so much to tell you and only a short time to do it.”
I blew out a long breath to settle my nerves. “Please tell me whatever you want to.”
Mom smiled and wiped the tears from my damp cheeks. “When I met your father, I didn’t mean to fall in love with him. We were part of a secret organization at the Academy intending to heal the rift between The Side of Magic and the Morelli. At first, he didn’t even know I was Morelli because I hid the color of my hair from everyone except Nine. Eventually I admitted it to your dad.”
“But you knew about the curse. Why would you fall for him?”
She shrugged. “Love is a funny thing. Fate is, too. There’s only so much a person can change about their path. But like a lot of others, I didn’t believe in the curse until it was too late.”
I turned my gaze down again.
“But it didn’t matter because it could make this possible.”
“What is possible?”
“Healing . . . and you.” Her lips turned up into a soft smile. “Your dad and I came together because of our shared dream of rebuilding The Side of Magic into what it once was, when all people were unified. We were not going to let some silly curse stop us from what we knew was right—what we had to do. And even before I was pregnant with you, I knew that you had to be born.”
“Why?”
She placed her hand over my heart again, and her magic flowed into mine. A shudder ran over my entire body. “Because the magic you have inside of you is what this world needs. In a vision, I saw you living on The Other Side until it was time for you to begin your journey of magic. I knew living on The Other Side would protect you from the curse until your destiny was set into motion. That’s why I sent you there without us.” Moisture filled her eyes. “Even though I wouldn’t be able to see you grow, I made sure that tuition would not be a barrier for you entering the Academy.”
“So you are the anonymous donor?” I asked in shock.
She nodded. “And Hazel Magnolis was in charge of seeing it through.”
I knew that Professor Magnolis had ensured I would receive my invitation but not that she had anything to do with the money involved.
“Hazel made sure that you always had enough, even on The Other Side. She checked on you and Nine from time to time in secret.” She tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear.
“Why didn’t she tell me any of this when I got here?”
“It was too risky.” Mom peered behind her and then back to me. “I have to go.”
“No!” I cried. “We need more time. There’s so much I need to know.”
“We’ll always need more time. There’s no doubt about that. But if you remember nothing else, you need to remember this: don’t be afraid to do what you know is right, Josy, no matter what the personal cost.” Mom leaned toward me and kissed me on the cheek.
“Please don’t go,” I whispered.
“No guarantees, but you may see me again in the future. Next time I’ll try to bring your dad.” And with a smile she was gone.
“No!” I screamed. “Come back!” But all that came back were the visions flashing like some sort of 3-D reality that I could see but wasn’t a part of. Hurricane-force winds whipped through my hair and pummeled my body.
“Where are
we?” Rosalee’s panicked voice finally came from somewhere, but I couldn’t tell where.
Rosalee! I’d nearly forgotten about her. I twisted around, trying to find her, but all I could see were terrifying images of war and death and winds that threatened to sweep me off my feet.
“I don’t know,” I called back and tried to focus. “Stay where you are!” I yelled.
“But I don’t even know where I am!” Rosalee’s voice came back.
For the first time since I’d met Rosalee, her voice sounded terrified. Even inside the stone room she’d mostly seemed frustrated and resigned to work with me since it was the only way to escape. But the warble in her tone made me think she might be crying.
“What is this place?” Rosalee called.
I scanned around at the vision. Horrible creatures the same as the Black Mist Wraiths that took Professor Lakeshore were attacking the cities and people of The Side of Magic. The citizens were trying to defend themselves, but the wraiths had grown too strong. They were at least twenty times larger than the creatures Holly and I had seen in the woods, and now they covered the skies. There must have been thousands.
“Why are you doing this to me, Josy?” Rosalee accused.
“I’m not doing anything to you! I already told you that!” I thought for a second. “Ignite your magic. I think I can find you if you do that.”
“You might try to use it against me again!” Rosalee yelled.
Ugh! “Just do it. We can’t stay here forever. You’re going to have to trust me.” I held out my hands.
“Fine! But it’s only because I don’t want to die!”
My palms warmed with magic, and suddenly fire lit around me. I concentrated on the magical flames and pulled the energy inside. Slowly I regulated my breath and allowed the ever-present vision to fade. Something pressed into my hands and I opened my eyes to a wild-eyed Rosalee.
Spellcaster Academy Box Set Page 24
