“Eli said anyone who has magic used on them gets some magic.”
“That’s true,” he said. “But usually when someone receives magic, it is only a trace amount, and they spend it without awareness. That feeling you get when you have a premonition? That’s a trace of magical energy. When the magic sends you that signal, it is usually spent. Most people who get a trace of magic never even know. But you got more than a trace. And the fact that you retained it means you have the flame inside you.”
“I’m a little lost. What’s this flame?”
“Think of it like…a pilot light on the stove. It keeps burning quietly, though you never pay it any mind. From that, the flame on a burner can be lit. When Quill gave you a healthy dose of magic, it didn’t burn you up. It stayed inside you. Which means that you had that flame all your life. You just needed him to come along and light the more obvious fire.”
He’d definitely lit some kind of fire inside her.
“Witches have this spark of magic always within, that they must protect, even if they were to exhaust all their other magic.”
With that, he stood and smiled. “This is the easiest test you’ll ever take. Just place your palms on the table, as I did.”
He stepped aside, and Eli took his place. “I already know you have more magic than I do,” he said. “I saw you touching the wall in the stairwell.”
She remembered that delighted look on his face. Was he happy that she was more powerful than him? Did having more magical capacity automatically make her more powerful? And why wasn’t he jealous?
After a second, the light began to glow brighter under her hands. Under his, there was only a slight glow, barely a discernible difference between that and the rest of the table. He stood and smiled.
“Congratulations,” he said, then dropped his voice to a whisper. “Beat Majori Romero for me.” With a dopey grin, he walked away, and a skinny, mousy witch sat across from Sagely. Her hands were shaking when she set them on the table, and within seconds, it was apparent she had almost no magic.
It was kind of cool watching the witches parade by, getting to take in each one, even though they only made a bit of small talk. They all wore rings similar to Eli’s, with symbols etched around them, though some were silver, copper, or gold. Some witches introduced themselves, some just looked curious, and some concentrated, as if willing the magic to come to their side of the table. But one by one, they got up and left, the glow on their side never equaling that under her palms.
A black girl with the most flawless complexion Sagely had ever seen sat down across from her. Her skin looked as if it was made of silk, and her long hair was done in braids that reached her hips, with feathers and beads and ribbons woven into a few braids here and there. With her petite figure, big eyes, and light-weight orange sundress, she looked more like a fairy than a witch.
Like most of the others, as soon as Sagely examined her face, it was as if she’d always known her. Sagely’s magic called out to hers.
“Shaneesha,” the girl said, tossing her braids back. “Ready for this?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
“You’re strong,” she said. “Quill must have given you quite a dose, and you lived through it. You beat almost all the students already.”
“I thought it wasn’t a competition.”
Shaneesha smirked and set her hands on the table. “You aren’t summoning your magic?”
“Okay, maybe a little,” Sagely admitted with a grin.
Shaneesha smiled back. “At least you don’t lie about it.”
“What can I say, I’m competitive.”
“Good,” Shaneesha said. “You’ll need it here.”
A shiver went through Sagely, and she glanced up at the blonde girl, one of the five waiting to take their turn. She was still glaring daggers. “Ory made it sound like everyone’s equal, and it doesn’t matter how much magic you have.”
Shaneesha snorted, staring at her hands. The pulsing light began to brighten under them. Sagely turned her concentration back on her own hands, which brightened the slightest bit. She was starting to sweat.
“Oh, yeah, of course the Majoris say that,” Shaneesha said. “They’re teachers. We’re supposed to be equal. Technically, like, legally, it’s true. But among us…well, let’s just say, we make our own social order.”
“Great,” Sagely said. “It’s like high school all over again.”
Shaneesha smiled. “Yep. The teachers don’t make the pecking order. We make one ourselves. It’s human nature, especially at a school that teaches mastery of a skill. You were a teenager once, weren’t you?”
“How old are you?”
“I’m twenty,” Shaneesha said. “Beat ya.”
With a dazzling grin, she stood. Sagely started to protest. The girl had distracted her with all that talking. Surely that was cheating. But if the table really only measured capacity, that wouldn’t change if she was distracted. A bunch of the others were clapping, and some of them were laughing. Not in a mean way, though, like they were glad she’d lost. Rather, they laughed like they’d laugh after a friendly arm-wrestling match between two friends.
“You’ve got more magic,” Shaneesha said. “Just showing you how easy it is to lose your concentration when you’re using magic.”
“Does that count?”
“You decide,” Shaneesha said, then gave Sagely that wide, white smile. “I know that’ll drive you crazy, being competitive and all, and not knowing if you won or lost.” Obviously, she was not going to end Sagely’s misery. She glared after her, but Shaneesha just tossed a grin back at her before joining the others.
Next, the huge, fierce-looking Majori sat down across from her. He was so big she’d swear she heard the stone stool creak under his weight. She wanted to pull her hands off the table, to wipe them on her jeans. But she licked her lips and focused on the tingling in her fingers, like her palms were connected by invisible energy to the table. The magic in her blood pulsed with the magic in the stone. She would not be duped again.
After a minute or so, the Majori’s scowl deepened, and his massive eyebrows knitted together to form the unibrow to end all unibrows. Seriously, it looked like a fox tail was pinned across his giant forehead. Beads of sweat broke out on his ruddy forehead, and he jumped up from the table and stomped away muttering curses. The spot where his hands had lain was bright blue…but not as bright as Sagely’s. She’d already beaten Ory and now Majori Romero.
She started to get nervous. What if, somehow, she had more magic than any of them? What then? Did that make her, like, Queen of the Witches? Ory had said they had no rulers or leaders, but she tended to believe Shaneesha more than him. She was right. He was a teacher, and everyone knew teachers pretended all students were the same. But they weren’t. Even if they didn’t divide the school into cliques, it happened. Status happened.
She glanced up at the next witch, the last Majori. She was a Hispanic woman with a round face, dark lipstick, and her eyebrows completely drawn on with eyebrow pencil. She sat and smiled warmly at Sagely without a trace of nervousness. “It’s wonderful to have you here,” she said. “I’m Yordine. We rarely get a sister who was gifted enough magic to join us.”
“Who else here wasn’t born with magic?” Sagely asked, keeping most of her attention on her hands.
“All of us here today were born with the gift, although we get more along the way.” She moved her hands a little, and the magic swirled to her side of the table. “I’m the top level Majori,” she said. “Your benefactor is my top student.”
At the mention of Quill, Sagely’s heart raced, but she knew that was not the reason for Yordine’s win. She got her, fair and square. Sagely slumped down in her seat, defeated. Yes, she was nervous about being too powerful. But it would’ve made a definite impression on the others.
She beat the next two witches, although one of them was so gorgeous it was hard to concentrate, and she had to look at her hands to remember what she was doing. S
he avoided looking at her again—what the hell? She was not attracted to girls!—and then the blonde sat across from her. She had a thin face and thick, glossy hair pulled into a ponytail and draping forward over one shoulder. Her full lips twisted into a smirk as she sat opposite Sagely, her shoulders back and her head held high. She stared Sagely down, her hands hovering just above the surface of the table.
Sagely could feel her magic sparking through her, like static electricity crackling against her palms and up her arms.
With a satisfied smirk at her win, the blonde rose and swept off to join the group.
Definitely the Queen B.
As Sagely turned back from the murmuring witches, now buzzing with excitement, Quill took his seat across from her. He was the last one. She swallowed hard.
“They’re wondering if I gave you so much of myself that I’m no longer stronger than them,” he said with an easy smile. “If you hadn’t noticed, this measures both capacity and your current level of magic. We’re mostly at full capacity, since we haven’t trained today. I’m the only one who’s depleted.”
“Because you saved my life.” Her eyes moved to his lips, and he smirked again, his eyebrow lifted in a cocky arch.
He licked his lips, and she felt her face flush. Without dropping his gaze, he set his hands on the table. The surface throbbed a bright, blinding blue-white like the fireball he’d shoved down her throat last night. A jolt of magic shot up her arms. She gasped, but she didn’t pull her hands away.
“You know we share magic,” he said. “Now that you have my magic, I can pick up on your emotions.”
“Great,” she muttered, her face burning. “A mind-reader. I better learn to control my thoughts along with my magic.”
“Not a mind reader,” he said with a grin, like he was seeing her naked right now and not ashamed of how much he enjoyed it. “Better. You can protect your thoughts, block someone out of your head. You can’t block shared magic from calling out to its likeness. Since I gave you my magic, I can read it inside you.” As he smirked at her, her face flushed hotter. So, he knew exactly how attractive she found him. Fantastic.
“What am I feeling right now?” she challenged, refusing to drop her eyes from his.
“Kind of embarrassed. Frustrated,” he said with that same broad grin. He dropped his voice and leaned forward, his eyes locked on hers. “A little excited.”
Dammit. She’d hoped he was bluffing.
“Don’t be upset,” he said. “It also means I can sense when you’re in danger, protect you as I’d protect myself and my magic. You have a part of me inside you, Sagely.” His eyes went serious, almost vulnerable.
“Great,” she whispered. At long last, her gaze dropped to the table. A dense blue glow remained under her hands, as it had all along. Compared to his, it was like pea soup. She’d need sunglasses to look directly at the magic pulsing under his hands. It was so intense that his hands themselves had begun to glow with a soft, pulsing blue light, and his ring was as bright as white-hot sun.
He arched an eyebrow at her again. “Call it a draw?”
She laughed before standing and bowing to him. “I invoke the mercy rule. Voluntary forfeiture.”
Six
After the test, the atmosphere in the cavern relaxed, but the buzz of excitement remained. Everyone was talking and murmuring at once. Majori Yordine approached and placed one hand on her heart. “I’ll be honored to be your Majori when you reach my level. I have no doubt you will move up quickly.”
“Thanks,” Sagely said, not wanting to offend her by showing how pleased she was to start with Ory. He was obviously the easy teacher. She was not looking forward to the middle level, when she’d have to train under Romero the Giant.
This was all so new, she was not sure where to go now, what to do. But she didn’t want anyone to see her standing around looking awkward and alone, either. Shaneesha had warned that magic school was like high school. Being alone was a death sentence in high school.
Just as Sagely was starting to panic, Quill’s head swung around, and their eyes locked. The others were hanging on his every word. If Blondie was the Queen B, he was the star quarterback.
Sagely remembered the intensity of his gaze when he said she was part of him, and a tremor traveled through her, making her thighs weak.
Quill said something to the group and ducked over to her. “Sorry I left you like that,” he said. “I forget what it’s like to be new somewhere. Come on, I’ll take you to your room.”
He rested a hand on her back, and she jumped a mile. Would she ever get used to the charge of their shared magic?
“You’ll get used to it,” he said.
Or his ability to nearly read her mind?
She laughed nervously as he stepped into the dark tunnel. Her mind flashed to that man last night—could it be only last night?—who seemed to absorb light like a black hole. That was how the cave was, and she drew a little closer to Quill. He reached out and ran his fingers along the wall, leaving a streak of light behind. All around them, the walls began to glow a faint yellow, growing brighter with each step they took.
“Magic is just an energy source that most people aren’t privy to,” he said. “Once you get it, you can see a dimension of the world that others are oblivious to. It’s like a sixth sense awakening.”
She watched, transfixed, as his long fingers trailed along the wall, leaving tracers in their wake, as if shooting stars were falling from his fingertips. She wondered if they’d do that to her if he ran them over her body.
“Are you, like, the most powerful witch in the world?” she asked when he grinned sideways at her, obviously catching that fleeting thought from her. It was getting pretty damn annoying, actually. “Or whatever you call yourself. Wizard? Magician?”
He laughed. “Want me to pull a rabbit out of my hat for you?”
“Just tell me,” she said, elbowing him as they made their way down the corridor. “Mage?”
“Warlock,” he said.
“How much magic do you have? Because I admit, I was feeling pretty smug about mine, and then you just…blew me clear out of the water. So seriously. Are you the most powerful warlock in the world?”
“Maybe someday.”
They made their way along the softly glowing sandstone tunnel. The tiny stream trickled beside them as they walked.
“But no,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m only the most powerful in the coven. Unfortunately, the most powerful warlock in the world is a dark witch.”
Great. More things she didn’t know. And it wasn’t like she could go look this stuff up in the encyclopedia. She remembered the man from the night before, how he was so black that his shadow swallowed the night. She shivered. “I take it you’re not a dark warlock?”
“Of course not,” he said, looking deeply wounded.
“Sorry,” she said, feeling the wave of indignation rolling off him like it was her own. So that’s what he felt from her, but stronger, because he had much more magic.
They stepped into another chamber, this one smaller than the one at the entrance. It was as big as a living room and smelled a little like eggs. Sagely heard water gurgling and bubbling somewhere, and what sounded like birds chirping, though they were deep underground. Quill stepped up to a half-circle inscribed on the wall like a rainbow. The apex was about seven feet tall, and it was bisected by a line straight down the middle.
“Magic responds to magic,” he said. “With so many of us here, the place absorbs our magic, and in turn, replenishes us. Only those with magic can open our doors.” He placed a hand next to the vertical line running down the half-circle, and the stone itself gave way, like it was a curtain instead of a solid rock face.
“Doesn’t that use up your magic?” she asked. “You said you could spend it, right?”
“Magic is energy,” he said with a grin. “It can’t be created or destroyed. It can only be absorbed, given, transferred, passed from one to another.”
“So h
ow much did you give me?” she asked as they stepped into yet another passageway, this one lined by strange carvings that lit up as they passed and blinked off as soon as they stepped beyond them. Moons, suns, stars, comets, constellations…
He shrugged. “Enough to save your life. It’s not something you can easily measure, like I gave you ten percent, or this many amps.”
She sighed, frustrated by the vague answers. She wanted to know for sure how much she had. Why couldn’t their table have a gauge for magic decibels or whatever? That would make this whole thing so much easier to comprehend. Her brain couldn’t make sense of undefinable things that, until yesterday, were fairy tales.
Quill stopped beside a constellation that looked like a W tipped on its side. The scant light from the few stars cast his face in shadow, and she had to swallow hard as her eyes moved over his strong profile and those gorgeous lips. “I know this is a lot to take in,” he said, his eyes earnest. “But don’t feel like you have to know anything already. If you have a question, you can ask anyone. If they don’t know the answer, chances are, they’ll know who does. We’re all here for you.”
She thought of the blonde, Raina, who had out-magicked her, but she didn’t bring that up. Raina was not a threat to her, not competition.
Quill took her hand, and the magic that swirled between them was slower now, though just as intense. His fingers slid along hers, lighting every nerve ending in her body on fire. Slowly, he raised her hand to the constellation. With his fingers over hers, he traced her fingertips along the path of stars. The heat of his body next to hers made her want to pool, weak-kneed, onto the floor.
“You’re safe here, Sagely,” he said. “Safer than you’ve ever been, probably. That’s the important thing.” When her fingertips grazed over the last star, they sank into the stone itself. She watched in wonder as her hand disappeared into stone. It felt cold against her fingertips, as if a cool breeze was brushing over them. Her arm disappeared, and then Quill stepped closer, his body brushing hers. Heat exploded along her skin and she gasped.
Magic of the Void: A Reverse Harem Witch Series (Winslow Witch Chronicles Book 1) Page 3
