by A. S. Oren
I shut my eyes and transform back into my human self. It still fascinates me that shifting back doesn’t hurt in the least. The adrenaline coursing through my veins in the volcano allowed me not to truly feel the pain of transformation. I can’t say that will happen every time during this stupid survival challenge. I just hope I can speed it up as much as possible. I don’t need a school full of boys seeing the gruesomeness of the shift repeatedly.
With the last scale sliding back into my skin, my body lightens, and I ascend to the surface, kicking the rest of the way to hurry up the process. I wouldn’t put it past them to throw Old Nessie in here with me. Sounds like something they would be sadistically creative with, throwing an old monster in with a fifteen-year-old girl.
‘I’m not really sure what they have planned for you now.’
‘Is something swimming in here with me, or what?’
‘No. There’s nothing in the water with you, from what I can see at least.’
I break through the surface and gasp for air. Wiping water out of my eyes, I try to gain my bearings. A cave?
‘My night vision isn’t working. I can’t see a damn thing. Where did the light go?’
‘They must be blocking the ability with magic. To your left is land, and there looks to be a tri-folded mirror.’
‘A mirror?’
I swim to the left. Hopefully I’ll hit land soon.
‘Shit.’
‘What? Is Jaws swimming below me now?’
‘No. Mathis is losing his shit all of a sudden.’
‘Dante? Over what?’
‘You, and that mirror. He’s ranting about them being sadists and that no one should be put through what you’re going to go through.’
‘What the hell does that mean?’
‘I don’t know. I don’t recognize the mirror, but being the son of an Outcast I didn’t have the means of using all possible training devices.’
‘So this mirror is something they use in training? It can’t be that bad.’
My feet skim the floor of the lake, finally. I kick harder, the water gets lower every few feet before I can get a firm grip on the sand with my toes. I can walk now.
‘You’re really close to the shore.’
‘Good. How’s Dante?’
‘Radcliffe and King managed to calm him before he was removed. He looks pretty tense.’
Out of the water, flat, cold, stone greets me. A sudden ray of light shines down on the mirror Bullock said was there. I have to shield my eyes for a moment. The light bounces of the glass and blinds me. My stomach rolls at the sight, a tri-fold mirror with an ornate, silver frame. It oddly reminds me of the one Paden sat me in front of when he tried to recreate my favorite Kdrama scene.
“Mirrors have been used in magic for hundreds of thousands of years. Used for inner-reflection, and portals to other plains. They can either bring peace or torture the soul. Treat any strange mirror at Spearwood with caution, Avalon.” Edgar’s voice rings in my ears, a memory of him from right before I had him wipe my memory.
What kind of challenge could this be? How am I supposed to get the gem needed to move on? I step up to the mirror and look at the frame. At the top, in the center, sits the blue gem. It can’t be that easy, or this wouldn’t be a challenge.
I stand on my tiptoes and balance myself against the glass. I advert my eyes from looking into it as I try to grab for the jewel. It doesn’t budge.
“Avalon.”
Maverick’s voice. Against my own will, my eyes travel down to the mirror, only to come in contact with his ocean blues. I stumble away from the mirror and fall to the ground. My hand covers my mouth.
‘What do you see?’
“Avalon.” Another version of Maverick as a child appears in the left mirror.
I shut my eyes. It’s just a trick.
“Avalon, it’s okay. I’m here for you.” I shake my head, but open my eyes. A version of Maverick around thirteen appears in the mirror. Right around the age I figured out I liked him more than a best friend.
“Avalon, remember how we first met? Let me show you,” says the child. He fades away and the memory comes into view. I can remember what he’s about to show me as clear as crystal.
I sit in a swig, trying my best to touch the sand with my toes. I can’t get it to move. I frown and stick out my tongue . . . I just can’t reach. I give huff and look at Edgar. He’d push me, but he’s talking to people I don’t know. I want him to push me.
“Can I push you?”
I jump and look over my shoulder. Two boys stand next to the swing set. One with blond hair and the other has black with a piece of white hair that hangs in his face. I slide off the swing. My pink dress rides up. I push it down. Edgar gets mad when I don’t. I go up to the boy with white hair. Getting real close to his face. I pick at the strand of hair. “You have white hair.”
He nods. “Yeah.” He pushes it behind his ear.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Oh.”
The other boy gets closer. “Do you want me to push you?”
I look at the swing, then back at him. He has pretty blue eyes. I nod. “Yeah.”
“Avalon, C’mere.”
I spin in the direction of Edgar. Some of my hair hits my face. Getting in my mouth. I pull it away. “Yuck.”
I run over to him. He pats me on the head. “Avalon, I want you to meet Mr. and Mrs. Hansen.”
The lady with black hair kneels on her knee, holding a hand out to me. Edgar says people shake hands when they meet. I place my hand in hers and she shakes it. “My name is Melody. It’s nice to meet you, Avalon.” She smiles at me with pretty, red lips. I smile back.
The man kneels down next to her. “And I’m Lirick.” He doesn’t shake hands. He looks to the boys by the swing set. “Sons, come here.”
They run all the way over to us. Lirick looks back at me. “Avalon, these are our sons: Paden,” he touches the shoulder of the boy with blond hair. “And Maverick.” I smile at the boy with the white strand of hair. I like his hair.
“You three will be spending a lot of time together, okay?” Melody says.
I shrug. “K.” I look back at the boys. “Want to go play?” They nod, and I look at Edgar, just to make sure it’s okay. He nods. We run off toward the jungle gym.
I can’t breathe. My chest hurts too bad. I gasp for air, but that only makes it more painful.
“Don’t cry, Avalon. It’s just a memory,” Maverick says at the center.
“Avalon, remember our first kiss?” asks thirteen-year-old Maverick.
I turn around, just in time to see a fourteen-year-old Maverick make a tornado with the dirt under our feet. It swirls slowly before picking up speed and crashing into the support beam at the center of the room.
“Show off.”
He grins and walks up to me. “You’ll get the hang of it soon. You’re still extremely gifted for someone your age. There are no thirteen-year-old girls out there like you.”
I look to the ground. “I know. I wish there were. There’d be no reason for me to be in hiding like this, to not know who my parents are. You and Paden wouldn’t have to waste your childhood here. You could be raised with others like us. Now, Paden has gone off to Spearwood. What if they treat him like an outsider?”
Maverick laughs. “That won’t happen. We’re Royals; you know that. I wouldn’t trade my life for another. I love that I got to grow up here with you and Edgar.”
I sigh. “You’re just saying that.”
He tilts my chin up. “Look into my eyes. Does it look like I’m lying? I want to always be by your side.”
My heart beat picks up, and I pull away from him. I’m not supposed to have feelings for him. He’s supposed to be like a brother to me, like a brother, an annoying older brother. When did things change? Why did things change?
“Lon, look at me. What’s wrong?”
I stare into his ocean blue eyes again. “I can’t tell you.”
“Yes, you can. You can tell me anything; you know that.”
My sight lingers on his pink lips. Before my brain filters the action, I’m kissing him. Fast and quick, I press my lips to his warm ones before pulling away. My whole body heats up. My hand goes to my mouth. I can’t believe I did that. Have I gone nuts? “I’m so sorry. Just forget that happened.”
I go to run. His hand stops me by grabbing my wrist. I turn to face him, but keep my eyes to the ground. I don’t think I can handle the rejection in his eyes.
“I don’t want to forget it.” Pulling me close, he kisses me this time. My legs give out from underneath me. His arm wraps around my back, holding me up. “I want to do that forever.”
“Maverick,” Edgar’s voice sounds throughout the barn. I turn to look at him over my shoulder. He frowns at us. “Can I speak to yau in private for a moment?” It wasn’t a question, and his Irish accent has come on a bit. Uh oh, he’s not happy. My cheeks flush. I can’t believe he caught us during my first real kiss.
Maverick clears his throat. “Yeah, of course, Ed.” He rubs the back of his neck.
I lie down on the ground and cover my head. I can’t take this. ‘Clementine, what’s going on down there? I can’t see what you see.’
“Avalon. I want to show you something, too. Please look at me. I love you.”
I can’t help but look up. His begging voice pulls me.
“This is the life we could have led if we hadn’t made the choice to attend Spearwood.”
“Okay, honey, just place your hand over the element, and the one that fits you most will react,” I say to a girl with ebony hair and a single white streak running through her bangs.
“Is it going to hurt me?” she asks.
I shake my head. “No, Nimue. It won’t hurt you at all. You’ll feel one with your element.” I give her back a rub, and she nods before sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth and hovers her hand over the first element. A small, white feather sits in a wooden bowl; Edgar carved all the bowls from a single apple tree. It does nothing in response to her. Earth comes next, but it swirls only a tiny bit. I bite my lip.
“Is that my element, mommy?”
“No. You’ll know, trust me.”
Next comes fire. Before she can even place her hand over the bowl, the flame shoots into the air.
“That’s the one!” she says as she claps her hands.
“Just like yaur mother, I see,” says Ed. Who sits at the table, his walker waiting at his side.
“I could have told you that,” Maverick says. He wraps his arms around my swollen belly. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the twins didn’t take after her greatness as well.” He gives my neck a quick kiss. I reach up and run my hand through his hair.
“You’re great too, Mav.”
I spin around in his arms, my hands coming to his neck as I stand up on my toes. I give him a feather-like kiss before teasingly pulling away. He pulls my back for a more passionate kiss, sending tingles down my spine.
“Stop it!” I scream. I throw the only thing in my hand at the mirror, the ruby stone. It strikes the glass, shattering it into a million pieces. The glass falls away to reveal a tunnel. The sapphire falls from the holder and lands next to the ruby.
‘Are you okay?’
‘No.’
Insane
I step over the glass and pick up the stones. I’ve probably cut my feet. I don’t care. My body vibrates as if I’m floating on air. The life I could’ve had plays on repeat in my mind. I want that life, and, now, I’ll never have it.
‘Be careful. There’s an opening into another part of the cave coming up. I wouldn’t doubt that the next test will be physical again.’
‘Okay.’’
‘You need to focus. I don’t know what just happened to you back there, but you look like a zombie. Don’t let it get to you; that’s what they want.’
‘Okay.’
Walk through the opening of the cave. A light blue dragon lies at the center of it. My breath catches in my throat. I would recognize him anywhere. ‘Edgar.’
‘Don’t react to him. They’ll know.’
‘He’s not dead?’
Dragon Edgar stirs and opens his eyes, milky white covers the iris. My hand goes to my mouth. He can’t see. What have they done to him? Has he been down here since they told me he was dead?
He stands and inhales deeply. He can smell me. I jump when he roars and a frost flame erupts from his mouth. Behind him, a green glint catches my eye: the final jewel. I just have to get that, and I’m out of here. Maybe I’ll be able to free him somehow.
I need to shift, so I can communicate with him. I grunt as the shift takes place. Another roar bursts from Edgar. He breathes another frost flame at me, just as the shift ends. I leap into the air to dodge it.
‘Ed, it’s me; stop trying to fight me.’
‘No! Avalon’s dead! Yau playin’ tricks!’
‘No, it’s really me. I don’t know what they’ve done to you, but I’m going to find a way to save you. I just need to take the jewel, and I bet it will transport me out of here. If you shift back, I can take you with me.’
His tail thrashes from side to side, smashing rocks in its wake. ‘No! Must protect the jewel!’
They’ve made him go crazy. He throws yet another frost flames, this time catching my leg and freezing half of it in an ice block. At least it’s not my newly repaired wing.
I’m still able to fly. I go past him for the jewel. I’m not going to hurt him. He jumps up, nearly scraping his sharp teeth against the unprotected flesh of my underbelly.
I shoot a frost flame at his snout. It won’t kill him, but it will make him distracted long enough for me to grab the jewel. He thrashes as he tries to break the ice on a rock, but I have the gem in my shifted hand before he can be successful. ‘I’ll come back for you, Ed. I promise!’ I yell into his mind before I’m transported away. They wanted me to react to him, or to kill him, and I didn’t give them the satisfaction of either.
I shield my eyes from the assault of white light. I blink when I realize I’ve shifted back into my human form. I didn’t do it, something forced me back.
“Congratulations, Miss Roseman. You have made it to the last challenge,” says Perlow.
Next to him stands a small, white table with a velvet pillow and crown on top of it.
“Please, bring your jewels to me.” I step up to him and drop the jewels into his hand. I’m surprised I didn’t lose any of them.
He picks up the crown and places each of the gems in their own holder before reaching into his suit pocket and pulling out a white diamond, placing it at the center.
“Do you know what this is?”
I shake my head.
“It was last used when our family of shifters were able to bear healthy females. It helped with arranging marriages. You see, when this crown is placed on someone from our bloodlines, it instantly will determine whether the person is strong enough to carry on the bloodline. If they are not, they will fall over dead. It was a good way to weed out the weak long ago.”
“So, you want me to put that on my head, so you all know once and for all if I’m worthy of all of this.”
He nods.
I grab the crown from him. If I’m going to die, then I will die. I lay it on my head and wait. I lift an eyebrow at him. “Are they happy now?”
He grins at me. “Yes.”
“Good. Let me out of here.”
He takes the crown from me and places it on the pillow. “There’s one more thing I must do.”
Before I can react, he snaps the golden cuffs back on my wrists.
“I finished the damn trail. What the hell.”
“As added punishment for killing a Royal, you must stay under house arrest for one more month. During this time, you will not be allowed to use magic or be violent in any way. You may go to your classes and then back to your dorm, nowhere else. Mr. Norse will continue to be your chaperone during this
time.”
He sounds so robotic. I want to hit him, but I remember what happened when they first put these on me, I was paralyzed from the neck down until they released the magic.
Fuck it all.
‘I’ll get you out of this. There has to be a way to deactivate those cuffs.’
‘There better be.’
Saved
I want to murder someone. For the third day in a row, Jericho has followed me from class to class and everywhere I go. He still sleeps the living room. This probation period is so stupid. I proved myself. Why are they having Sir Pointed Face follow me around? Can’t Enid do that?
It doesn’t help that his voice grates on my nerves and that my skin crawls when he looks at me, like his eyes are undressing me. He did see me naked back at the Orchard, and that makes it all that much worse.
I don’t want to be alone with him, but I don’t have much of a choice. I haven’t seen Bullock since before the challenge. The last thing he said in my mind was how he planned to deactivate my cuffs so that I could use my powers again. I’ve tried talking to him through thought, but I haven’t be able to. I don’t know what’s happened to him. We don’t share any classes, and his tutoring sessions were removed from my schedule. I hope he’s okay and not hurt somewhere. It’s not as if I can escape and try to find him.
I stop in my tracks. Perhaps, I can escape. I can use the passage in my room to go look for him. I could get lost though. I only know of the passage that leads to Paden’s quarters, and from what it sounds like, a maze resides in the walls of this school. I would need a Marauder’s Map just to start navigating it. Maybe Bullock has something like that.
‘Bullock’ I venture for the 100th time in 48 hours. Nothing comes through.
Jericho puts hand on my lower back, and I jolt upright, out of his touch. I swear he does that on purpose because he figured out I don’t want to be touched by him. “Get a move on, Roseman.”
I walk again, pressing my arms to my sides; I’d reach back and punch him square in his pointed face, but I rather not have my body locked up again by the cuffs.
“At least I get a view to look at,” he mumbles on his breath.
