Arcane Dropout 4

by Edmund Hughes

  “You haven’t forced me into anything that I wasn’t comfortable with, if that’s what you’re worried about,” said Lee. “Not even close.”

  “My point is that we couldn’t have a relationship as equals if we wanted to. You and Initiate Willis, on the other hand, could make that commitment to each other.”

  “It’s, uh, a little more complicated than that.”

  A curious, almost predatorial smile came across Harper’s face. She reached a hand out and wiped a speck of sand off Lee’s cheek with her thumb.

  “In that case, let me address your first question. As I said, jealous isn’t the right word for what I felt watching the two of you on the inner tube. Competitive would be a better descriptor.”

  He stared at her, well aware of how dumbfounded his expression must have seemed.

  “Be mindful of her feelings, Eldon,” said Harper. “I have no intention of backing off unless that’s what you personally wish. You are my apprentice, after all.”

  She held his gaze, and the simple gesture of eye contact felt as intimate as making out with Eliza had earlier. She stood up, brushing a few bits of sand off her butt as she fixed her bikini bottom, and then began walking down the beach.

  “She’s so arrogant,” said Tess, in a distinctly pouty voice. Lee raised an eyebrow.

  “Wait… are you jealous?”

  “What?” She scoffed. “Of course not. I just don’t like how she acts as though she can just have you, if she wants you. It’s like I’m not even here.”

  “She doesn’t know you exist.”

  “I know that, but she doesn’t have to act so, so…”

  “You are jealous!”

  Tess scowled at him. “I am not! But the next time you fool around with her, I’m not going to be quite so careful about how much arcane essence I take.”

  CHAPTER 34

  Lee wandered his way down the beach, feet dipping into the sun-warmed sand with each step, until he found Toma. He was again reminded of what he’d noticed earlier in his friend.

  Toma was apart from the other initiates, seemingly by choice rather than as a result of bullying or ostracization. He stared out at the ocean, expression pensive, as though each new wave had a chance of crashing onto the shore with the solution to his problems.

  “You’re getting a tan,” said Lee.

  Toma let out a small snort. “Sunburn, more like.”

  Lee sat down next to him, letting his attention fall alongside his friend’s. A few strands of tenacious seaweed had washed onto the beach, and each new wave teased the dead vegetation a bit further loose, threatening to pull it back into the water completely.

  “I haven’t been avoiding you, I swear,” said Toma. “I just figured I’d let Eliza have you first. She’s really missed you. I have too, it’s just…”

  “I know. The world sucks sometimes.”

  Toma had lost not just his best friend, but his girlfriend and a brother whom he’d only just begun to really get to know. Lee flicked a seashell with his finger, feeling so conflicted about what he had to tell his friend.

  “Toma,” he finally said. “Harper and I heard something about your brother. Information about what happened to him.”

  “I know. My father called and filled me in, at least on the parts that he knows. Kei has joined the Melting Pack.”

  Toma spoke the words in such a blunt, matter-of-fact tone that Lee wasn’t sure whether to try to comfort him or say nothing.

  “I never would have guessed,” continued Toma. “It doesn’t even make sense, really, but I’m not sure if that’s just me being in denial. We weren’t close. Maybe he had sympathies for… whatever it is the Melting Pack stands for. I just don’t know.”

  “Well, they’re lycanthropes. You know how lycanthropy spreads. It might not have necessarily been his choice.”

  Lee wanted to tell him the full truth so badly. It must have been maddening to have a small piece of the puzzle, enough to guess, but not enough to know. Toma continued to stare out into the ocean, but then he turned and gave Lee a surprising smile.

  “Maybe,” said Toma. “Maybe not. It makes no difference, either way. He’s gone, just like Jenna.”

  “Just like me. Here I am though, alive and well.”

  He didn’t expect his words to actually reassure Toma, and they didn’t really seem to. The strands of seaweed in the surf had finally been plucked loose by the crashing waves, carried off into the endless ocean, drifting to their eventual fate.

  “It was so hard for me, man,” said Toma. “Eliza was so upset, she practically shut herself in her dorm room for the first few days after the Midterm Trial. Me? I was… basically catatonic. I really cared for her, Lee. For Jenna.”

  “I know.”

  “We were only together for a couple of weeks.” Toma let out a sad laugh. “It’s cracked, I know. I only have a single photo of her on my phone, and it’s just of her at the lunch table. It makes me feel like… it shouldn’t hurt so much. Like I’m just sensitive and immature for caring this much. For feeling like I maybe even loved her, or whatever. I don’t know.”

  “That’s not stupid at all,” said Lee. “You could go find her, you know.”

  “What?”

  “I’m serious. She’s out there, somewhere. She might have undergone the Cropping, but Jenna, the girl that you care about, sans memories of the supernatural, still exists.”

  Lee was able to say that with full confidence, given that he’d briefly encountered Jenna in the hospital after undergoing his own battery of dream weaving. Toma was already shaking his head, however, unsold on the idea.

  “It would be creepy,” said Toma. “She’d think that I was a crazy stalker or something.”

  Lee chuckled, realizing that that had essentially been his reaction to encountering a literal ghost from his forgotten past. He looked over his shoulder at Tess, who was amusing herself by chasing after seagulls in the surf. They could still sense her, somehow, and flew off each time she reached out to touch one.

  “If you enjoyed falling in love together once, who says you couldn’t enjoy it again?” he asked. “It’s almost like a gift, in a way, being able to relive some of those moments over again. Your first date. Your first kiss.”

  Tess had caught a snippet of the conversation and had come over to sit down next to him. Lee pulled her into his mystic stream, lacing his fingers through hers and smiling like a lovesick idiot.

  “That sounds super cheesy,” said Toma.

  “Trust me. You won’t regret it if you go looking for her, even if it works out differently the second time around. I’ll even help.”

  He was fairly sure it wouldn’t be too hard, starting from the TBI ward in St. Mary’s Medical Center.

  “I might just take you up on that.” Toma sighed. “You know, I was basically planning to sulk for this entire trip, but you had to go and ruin it.”

  “That’s what friends are for.”

  ***

  The weather was beautiful, and the call of the water was too much for Lee to resist upon arriving back at the main beach area with Toma. They splashed out to join a clump of initiates gathered around an inflatable raft. Eliza was up to her chest in the water next to it, arms set in the elemental casting stance along with another initiate directly across from her.

  “Ready?” she asked. “3…2…1!”

  A massive geyser of water burst into existence underneath the raft, launching the girl on top of it into the air with an excited cry. She soared a good twenty feet upward before dropping back down, and the initiates in the water below scrambled to move out of the direct path of her descent.

  Lee practically fell over himself in his desire to volunteer to go next. Eliza instructed him on how to lie down on the raft, spreading out so his body weight was as evenly distributed as possible. He felt his heart pounding as he listened to her speak the countdown, and then abruptly, he was in the air.

  He felt a rush of adrenaline and pure, unadulterated joy. The raft f
lew out from under him while he was still ascending, and Lee flailed as he reached the apex of his upward arc. Time seemed to slow to a crawl for that one, liberating instant of weightlessness at the very top, and then he was falling, wind rushing through his hair, the shouts and whistles of his classmates fluttering up to him.

  He hit the water feet first, but it was still a high enough drop to make his skin sting. The water wasn’t that deep where they’d set the raft up, and he quickly bottomed out on the seafloor, rising back to standing and taking a breath of delicious fresh air.

  There were more games played after that. Lee and Kristoff, with the help of Eliza and an initiate named Nadine atop their respective shoulders, faced off in a game of water chicken. It felt more like an excuse to have a soft, bikini-clad body on his shoulders, and judging from the smile on Kristoff’s face, the feeling was mutual.

  As the sun began to set, the initiates trickled back onto the beach. Mattis filled the beach’s firepit with fresh wood, and Harper used a fireball to ignite the blaze. It lit up the area like a beacon, and Lee half expected to hear a chorus of howls of lycanthropes in response.

  “Do you really think it’s safe for us to be outside at night like this?” he asked Harper, as soon as he had a moment alone with her.

  “Mattis is certain that they won’t risk attacking early,” she said.

  “Are you going to at least tell the initiates of the threat tonight?”

  “Not yet.”

  He scowled, glancing over at his oblivious classmates. Half the group was busy preparing food to drop into a massive stewpot in a communal dinner preparation effort. The other half were simply acting like teenagers, talking, laughing, flirting with one another.

  “You’re acting like it’s safe to just ignore the danger,” he said.

  “Very true.” A slow smile spread across Harper’s face. “Part of why the Order of Chaldea has existed and thrived for as long as it has is because of that mentality. Not that we ignore danger, but that we’re confident in the face of it. I want the lycanthropes watching us to think that we’ve dismissed them as a minor threat. I want them to doubt themselves.”

  Lee had his own thoughts on the situation, but he was, admittedly, enjoying the current vacation atmosphere. He trusted Harper enough to follow her lead, especially if it meant more time on the beach with his friends. She was right about at least one thing. The mindset of the initiates was healthy, lively and confident, capable of flexing to withstand a potential threat.

  Dinner was a hearty seafood and avocado stew eaten over rice with a side of salad and plenty of beverages to choose from. Lee was surprised to find an ice cooler full of Coronas, along with a small beach bar being manned by an initiate busy mixing tropical drinks. Mattis had been a stickler for most college rules, but perhaps recent events had given her reason to turn a blind eye to the students’ indulgences.

  CHAPTER 35

  Lee searched out Tess after procuring his own bowl of rice and stew. He spotted her sitting on the beach next to Eliza, both girls’ gazes fixated downward on the sand. He made his way over slowly, watching Tess write answers back to Eliza’s whispered questions, like two friends passing notes back and forth in class.

  “I take it she’s filling you in on my various misadventures?” asked Lee.

  Tess winked at him.

  “We’re actually indulging in some girl talk,” said Eliza. “Not everything is about you, Lee. Though Tess did mention an encounter with a certain busty vampire.”

  “Ah, that.” Lee’s hand went to the spot on his neck that Mira’s fangs had sunken into. “Serving as a blood bank for a vampire is a bit of a mixed bag. It’s as enjoyable as it is horrifying.”

  He took a seat next to them. The stew was spicy and rich, with big chunks of crab and a smooth avocado broth. Tess ate from his bowl, and Eliza munched on her salad with delicate bites.

  “It’s good to have you back,” said Eliza. “Both of you. I… was a bit of a mess after the Midterm Trial.”

  “I felt so bad…” Tess spoke slowly, scribbling her words in the sand for Eliza to read, like subtitles for her voice. “I considered explaining what had really happened to Lee. I really did.”

  “Why didn’t you?” The hurt in Eliza’s voice was open and raw.

  “Because I…” Tess hesitated and gave a small shrug. “I wasn’t sure I could do anything. I didn’t know if I’d be able to find him or make him listen, let alone restore his memories. I didn’t want to set you up for more disappointment. Or set myself up for it, I guess.”

  She furiously wrote the words in the sand with her finger. Eliza had to shift where she was sitting at one point to provide her with more room, and a frown stole across her face as she reached the end.

  “I always want the truth from you, Tess,” said Eliza. “Whether it’s about this, or… other things.”

  “Other things?” asked Lee. “What other things?”

  Both women ignored him.

  “I don’t have many friends,” whispered Tess. “It’s basically just you and Lee, Eliza. That’s so sad to admit, but it’s true. I value our relationship more than you can imagine.”

  Tess set her ethereal hand on top of Eliza’s. Eliza shivered slightly, smiling at the open space in front of her.

  “She’s actually a bit more to your left,” said Lee.

  “Over here?”

  “Oh, she just took a step back.” Lee grinned. “She’s running down the beach now. She just took her bikini off and says that it would be fun if you both went streaking.”

  Words appeared in the sand, twice the size of the previous sentence and in all caps.

  LEE IS A DIRTY LIAR!

  “That was written by a different ghost,” he said.

  “You’re so mean to Tess, Lee,” said Eliza.

  “I’m so glad she sees it, too,” said Tess.

  They continued eating, and it grew quiet again. Eliza was sitting close to him, almost in his lap with the way she had one of her legs draped over his. She was watching him, too, and she eventually let out a long sigh and shook her head.

  “I felt guilty, you know,” she said. “About what happened.”

  “Why would you feel guilty?” he asked. “You had nothing to do with it.”

  Eliza pulled her knees up to her chest and shrugged. A particularly spirited wave slid in along the shore, almost coming all the way up to the edge of her feet.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “What’s weird is, it hasn’t gone away. The guilt, I mean. It makes me wonder if it was even guilt at all. Maybe fear, or just the heaviness of losing you as a… friend. As more than a friend.”

  Lee set a hand on her shoulder. “I’m right here. You don’t have to worry about that.”

  She turned, blinking her eyes at him. The sun had finished setting, and the illumination of the bonfire reached far enough out to flicker across her face. Lee leaned in and kissed her, feeling her lips moving against his, soft and eager.

  Another crashing wave pushed further than the last one, wetting their feet. They stood up and walked back to the fire. Lee pulled Tess into his mystic stream and she walked on his other side, taking his right hand while Eliza held his left.

  The evening shifted back inside as dinner came to an end. The initiates settled into the main room, sitting in chairs arrayed in a large circle and, to Lee’s amusement, telling ghost stories while sipping hot cocoa. He patiently waited for his own turn.

  “It wasn’t about revenge for Agatha Deathfinger,” said Lee, in a voice that would have done his old theater group proud. “She desired fear and pain for their own merits. It was a game to her, and she’d always let her victims know she was coming, rapping, tapping on the window.”

  Tess was already in place. She used a small rock, gently making the noise in question on the nearest glass pane. About half of the initiates gasped or tensed up, but a good portion managed to shake it off.

  “We know about your telekinesis, Amaranth,” said Kristoff. “We
’re not scared children.”

  Lee ignored him. “Her victims would feel her touch on their necks first. A slight brush against the spine, traveling to the base of the scalp. Agatha marking where she’d begin skinning her victims alive.”

  Tess looked like she could barely contain herself, dimpled smile nearly bulging off her face. She ran a finger up the back of Kristoff’s neck. He flinched forward, falling out of his chair in a rush to move away from what must have been a rather jarring sensation.

  She repeated it on two more initiates before it began to cause too much disruption for Lee to even continue his story. He pulled her into his mystic stream as she came over and plopped down into his lap, giving him a long kiss that he couldn’t openly respond too. She was still beaming as they made their way upstairs later, toward the room that Mattis had assigned them for the night.

  “That was incredible,” she whispered. “Highlight of my vacation.”

  “Who would have thought that ghosts and ghost stories would go so well together?” asked Lee.

  “Quit teasing, or Agatha Deathfinger will pay you a visit.”

  “Will she, now?” Lee opened the door to his room, wrapping one arm around Tess as he led her in. “She might find herself outmatched by a mystic of my strength.”

  “I think she could handle you. I think she’d make you beg for mercy.”

  “I think I’m going to make her eat those words.”

  The room was small, with a twin bed with fresh sheets on an old, creaky spring mattress. Lee seized Tess by the waist and tossed her onto it, feeling a rush of eagerness as she landed in a manner that caused her small, bikini-clad breasts to bounce as though she’d fallen on a trampoline. Tess giggled as he straddled her, pointing her finger, Agatha’s namesake, at him before curling it upward in a come-hither motion.

  He kissed her deeply and practically tore off her bikini top. She made a show of covering her breasts with her arm for a moment, and then seemed to think better of it, forming a shelf for them instead. Lee tore his shirt off and tossed it aside.