Firecracker: A Young Adult Fantasy (Arcturus Academy Book 1)

by A. L. Knorr

  Making Up

  Bopping around my room to holiday music, I worked on tidying my room and packing my suitcase for the trip home. A cab was scheduled to take me to Stansted Airport in less than an hour. Excitement and yearning to see my family burbled up inside me like a happy brew.

  April had passed her skills exam. It had been by the skin of her teeth, but she’d done it… well, we’d done it together, but the point was that she was halfway to completing her first and hopefully her last year at Arcturus. Ryan had won the top-marks-overall award, which annoyed but didn’t surprise me. My guess was that he’d found some way to cheat in his theoreticals, but I wasn’t exactly in a position to be self-righteous.

  At a rap on my door, I turned to see Gage standing in the doorway looking serious. “May I come in?”

  My heart did a pancake flip but I tucked a curl behind my ear and faced him, exuding calm, or trying to. “I don’t have much time, so you better make it quick.”

  He came and stood at the end of my bed, looking maddeningly amazing; slightly mussed hair, all broad-shouldered and tall with gorgeous hands and eyes and—

  I dragged my focus back to my suitcase.

  “Thanks for this.” He lifted the tactical flashlight I’d put in his stocking.

  “Ah.” I glanced up and back down again, busying myself. “How did you know it was from me?”

  His voice was soft as he slipped the flashlight into a pocket. “You’re the only one besides Ryan who knows I hate the dark.”

  I flashed a smile at him for that as I refolded the shirt at the top of my open suitcase.

  “I guess you know why I’ve really come,” he said.

  “Not really, no.” But of course, I did.

  He blew out a breath. “You’re not going to make this easy on me, are you?”

  I pinched my lips together as I flipped my luggage closed and snapped the clasps shut. “Why should I?”

  Pointedly, I went to my desk and began to organize books and papers, stacking them neatly and putting pens and pencils into a pencil holder.

  Suddenly he was at my shoulder, his face close to mine. I kept my gaze on the pencils, too nervous to look up. The soapy smell of his body swam around me and made my toes curl. He put a hand over mine, gently forcing me to put down the pencil holder. Heat raced along my arm and I closed my eyes from pure relief. Part of me had wondered if our bond would still be there after how much time he’d spent resenting me.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered, voice hoarse. “I’m so sorry, Saxony. Will you please forgive me?”

  Heart pounding and skin tingling where he still touched me, I forced myself to look up. A riot of feelings coursed through me. I wanted to smack him and yell at him, but I also wanted to throw myself into his arms and kiss him. Passion and fury in equal measure clashed within, leaving me feeling breathless. I fought to maintain clarity on the topic of conversation while he was standing so close.

  “You turned me into an outcast, Gage.” My voice trembled with pent up emotion: disappointment, grief, relief that he was finally coming to his senses. “If you’d only not chosen a side. You weren’t there that day. You didn’t see what really happened. I tried to tell you.”

  “I know. I’m—”

  “I was already an outsider, already a misfit.” I pulled my hand away. “How could you have believed your brother over me? Don’t you know him by now? Look at what he did to April.”

  Gage rubbed his temples and cast his gaze down in apparent discomfort. “I’m blind when it comes to my brother, I always have been. You have brothers, you must know what it feels like.”

  “My brothers aren’t psychopaths,” I snapped.

  He eyes went big. He started to speak but abruptly cut himself off, taking breaths through his nose. “Ryan isn’t a psychopath.”

  “No? He just shredded the heart of a vulnerable girl—who was in love him, I would add—without an ounce of empathy, ignoring how it would make her feel, what it would do to her. In fact, hurting her was the whole point. April will be scarred for life. Do you get that?”

  Our eyes clashed like territorial rams. I didn’t look away, and let my fire flicker visibly.

  Gage let out another exhale but didn’t look away either, eyes glowing faintly with emotion. “Some part of me believed that you preferred Ryan over me,” he admitted.

  I felt like he’d thrown a bucket of water into my face. “What?”

  “He claimed that you were jealous of him and April, that you wanted to be with him because the bond you share is stronger than with anyone else.”

  “Gage, that’s…” I blinked a few times, searching for words, “ridiculous.”

  I wanted to tell him that the bond I shared with Ryan was no stronger or weaker than the one I shared with Gage himself, but I didn’t even want to confess that much out loud.

  Gage gave a half-smile, cheeks pink. “I know. Sometimes it’s hard to be Ryan’s twin, he’s always so sure of himself. Girls have always liked him more than me. I was worried you would follow suit and being mad at you gave me an excuse to protect myself.”

  My jaw sagged as my perspective shifted. Gage never appeared to be insecure, but here he was admitting to it. My mind flitted back to that moment at The Chalk Tombs, that passing flash of envy when I’d asked him about Ryan and April. Maybe there had been a sign, a small one.

  “He played on my fears, he’s good at that,” Gage was saying, “and I let him. I get that you’re angry. I am too. I can’t defend what he did. But you don’t know him like I do, he’s not all bad.”

  His words slipped into me like a blade—not all bad.

  Not all bad.

  They echoed Basil’s warning: Burned go one way or the other.

  I believed I was out of danger now, I’d never have done for April what I did if I was losing empathy. But Gage had come here to apologize and I was shoving it back in his face. We could disagree about who and what his brother was, but my anger was misdirected if it landed wholly on the sweet twin. If I couldn’t accept his sincere apology, what did that say about me? He had admitted he was blind when it came to Ryan, that was something. What if RJ or Jack were a nasty person? Would I love them any less? Family was family.

  Any remaining anger drained out of me and I put a hand squarely on Gage’s chest. His distress faded away, hope taking its place. His hand came up and covered my own, holding it over his heart.

  “We’ll probably never agree about Ryan,” I said, our bond searing along my arm and up into my heart. “But I do understand brotherly love, and please—” I paused and visibly shuddered—“don’t ever think that I could prefer Ryan to you. He and I are oil and water, and always will be.”

  His shoulders drooped and his body softened as he pulled me into a hug. We stood there in one another’s arms, savoring the pleasure of being close again. When he pulled back, there was the ghost of a smile on his lips.

  “Forgiven?”

  “Forgiven.” I smiled back.

  “New year, fresh start?”

  I nodded. “Clean slate.”

  We exchanged the tender look of the freshly reconciled. It felt so good to see affection in his eyes again. I wanted to melt into a puddle on the floor or collapse on my bed and stare at the ceiling, luxuriously contemplating how strange and wonderful life could be, fantasize about when I’d get to spend time alone with Gage next and what we might do—

  “I wish I could see you over Christmas,” he said, shattering my daydream.

  My bouncing heart tripped like a klutz. “You can’t?”

  He shook his head. “We have relatives from my dad’s side in Brockenhurst. We’re going to meet our parents there for the holidays.”

  I nodded, swallowing a lump of disappointment.

  Taking my hand, he bent his head and planted a soft kiss on my lips. Heat flared from the touch of his mouth and my heart rebounded, bouncing along on its merry way like nothing could ruin its day.

  “Happy Christmas, Saxony. I’ll see
you in two weeks.” He released my hand and stepped back, eyes aglow with warm feelings.

  “Same to you.” I watched him go to my door where he paused, pointing at my stocking.

  “Don’t forget this.” He pushed at the fabric and let the weight of the gift inside swing the glorified sock back and forth, then he was gone.

  Epilogue

  That was strange, I’d already opened my Secret Santa gift. I went to the door and pulled the stocking of its hook. Carrying it over to my desk, my heart felt lighter than it had since before the Fire Fair. I reached inside and pulled out a heavy, misshapen lump. It was the size of a golf ball and wrapped the way a six-year-old would have done it. There was no tag, just plain wrinkled paper and a red string. Untying the thread and ripping off the paper, I stared in stupefied silence at—

  A lump of coal.

  No. As I studied it more closely, the cold shroud of dread opened its cloak and surrounded me.

  It was volcanic rock.

  “I see you’ve opened your present.”

  I whipped around as Ryan closed my door behind him.

  My jaw tightened as I bit off the words: “Get. Out.”

  But he came forward until he was standing directly in front of me, looking down into my face. His features were so like Gage’s, but his presence was all hostility and aggression.

  “So much can be said with a gift. Don’t you think?” His gaze searched mine.

  The little muscles in my stomach began to vibrate. I put my hands behind my back to brace myself against my desk.

  Ryan lifted a finger toward my face and I froze, gaze sparking against his like flint. Every sense screamed THREAT, but the last time I’d reacted without thinking, I’d ended up spending way too much time with Ryan. Understanding about what was happening began to penetrate the fog of incredulity that he was even here, in my room. He’d given me a lump of volcanic rock.

  “I know what you are,” he said gently, almost lovingly, but with his fingertip inches from my eye. “You hid it well, you and my own godfather.” His lip curled on the word godfather.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I wanted to slap his hand away but if I did I might not stop slapping and the outcome would be smoking wreckage that used to be a school.

  “The truth always comes out under the right kind of pressure. All I had to do was find where…”

  He lowered the finger. Moving it slowly—like it was a metal detector—pointing at my neck, then my sternum, then to the left side of my chest, over which the finger hovered.

  “…to push.” He pressed into the flesh over my heart.

  I did slap his hand away then, fighting to keep from throwing his flaming carcass through a window.

  I moved to the side to put some space between us, mentally reeling as the realization struck my mind like a big fat boxing glove: April was never his target. Why didn’t I see it earlier?

  His gaze tracked me, and as though he could read my mind he said: “I hope she is properly grateful for what that little stunt cost you.”

  I struggled to keep my mounting terror invisible as I scrambled for words. A voice in my head screamed DENY!

  “What are you talking about?” I hissed from between numb lips.

  “Among the gifts of the Burned mage is something little known and truly remarkable. Do you know what it’s called?” Ryan didn’t wait for a response. “Endowment. Isn’t that a nice term? Only the Burned can gift fire in this way.”

  I narrowed my eyes, my heart jumping up and down like a frightened child. “How do you know that and why should I care?”

  “I keep telling you, I don’t miss much.”

  “Good for you,” I snapped. “Now will you please leave? My ride will be here any second.” I made a show of gathering my suitcase and rolling it toward the door. The sooner I got away from him, the better. I felt like I was suffocating.

  “Then I’ll make this quick.” He snagged my upper arm as I went by.

  Fire flared into my eyes and I bared my teeth. “Take your hand off me.”

  Amazingly, he did, but then he leaned in close. “I know what you did and what you are because I know what your fire feels like. Don’t forget we are bonded.”

  I stared at him, light draining from my gaze. He’d recognized my fire through April? That was possible? My eyes drifted closed as a black pit yawned beneath me.

  “Oh, yes.”

  His voice followed me into the dark, echoing around and around in never-ending pursuit. Would I ever be free of this tormentor?

  “Queen Cagney slipped up, and come next semester, I’m going to require a little something from her.”

  I opened my eyes and the room tilted. I wondered for a second if I was going to throw up. “What makes you think I’ll ever do anything for you?”

  He gave that sickly-sweet smile. “If you think you were an outsider this semester, it’s nothing compared to what you’ll be if you don’t do as I ask. Gage will go back to despising you, you’ll never get a place at the agency, and Basil will never trust you again.”

  My heart threw itself against my ribs. He was truly insane. I didn’t care what Gage claimed. There was an insane person in my room. I wanted to scream at him but all I could do was stare, even my fire seemed locked in suspended animation.

  “You’re going to take me through a Burning.” Ryan backed away. “You’re the only one who can, and you will do it. Enjoy your holidays, Queen Cagney.”

  Want to see what shenanigans Saxony and the students and staff at Arcturus get up to next? Preorder Fire Trap here.

  Read on for a sneak peek…

  In love with one twin, bonded by fire to the other. Welcome back to Arcturus Academy. Grab your copy of Fire Trap, Arcturus Academy 2 and watch the sparks fly!

  I survived my first semester, but it's not getting easier. I adore Gage, so why do I share a mage-bond with Ryan, a bully who keeps trying to blackmail me and might get both of us killed? He's like a hydra. Whenever I diffuse one plot, another springs up in its place. How long can this go on before he gets what he wants?

  Chapter One:

  And Guilt Abounds

  “Come on in, Saxony.” Basil beckoned me into his office with a wave. “How are you? How was your holiday?”

  Sneakers quiet on the ornate rug, I approached and took the nearest of the two wingback chairs in front of his desk. “It was great, thank you. I don’t mind telling you it was good to have a break from…everything.”

  Truthfully it had been a much needed escape from the stress and drama of last semester. To be able to eat Mom’s Christmas baking, and to chat with RJ about his mundane life—work at the salt mine beneath Saltford and his studies to become a mechanic—was pure escapism. Chatting with my younger brother Jack was slightly less normal, given that he was a powerful empath and was in grade ten; mired in the morass of hormone-addled teens at the collection of portable buildings that passed for Saltford High. It would be another year before a new high school was built to replace the one destroyed by a supernatural storm.

  Basil rubbed his hands together and peered at me over his glasses. “I can imagine, but I hope you’ve returned rested and raring to go?”

  “Sure.” I gave him a side-eye, knowing that his look meant he had something up his sleeve. My talks with Basil often seemed to end up with a surprise imperative.

  The headmaster smacked his palms down on the arms of his chair, oblivious to my suspicious restraint. “Excellent. Because you did such a wonderful job with April Brown last semester, I wondered if you might be interested in offering private coaching to a few others who may need some help?”

  I blinked at him. “Um.”

  “Come now, don’t be modest.” His chest lifted—if he’d had feathers, they would have puffed out. “April’s performance at the skills exam in December, while a little unsteady and unorthodox at times, was a monumental testament to your ability to get the best out of her.”

  “Ah.” I shrank into my chair as lit
tle darts of guilt pricked at my heart. What I’d done with April had been cheating. If Basil knew... I wouldn’t be able to bear the look of disappointment on his face if he ever found out, and I’d find myself back at Saltford before I could say the word endowment. No chance at the Agency, and no more opportunity to finish my time here at Arcturus. I pressed my lips together and cast my eyes down. The threats Ryan made if I didn’t help him attempt a Burning rang in my memory like the peal of funeral bells: If you think you were an outsider this semester, it’s nothing compared to what you’ll be if you don’t do as I ask.

  My heart recoiled at the prospect unfolding before me, like it was a tidal wave I knew I wouldn’t be able to outrun. “But, the whole point of the exercise last semester was to nurture compassion in me. You wouldn’t let me forget that. It wasn’t about April’s skills.”

  He nodded, head bobbing with enthusiasm. “Indeed, indeed! And while it does appear you are out of danger,” he paused and lifted a hand, “if you agree?”

  “What? Oh. Yes.”

  “Good, so we surmise you are out of danger from treading the paths of Palumbo, but we’ve also unearthed a rare talent. There are several other students in the school—not all of them first-years—who could use a guiding hand such as yours.” He shuffled through some folders on his desk, finding one and flipping it open. He scanned a page through his specs.

  “I thought I’d be able to focus on myself this semester, Basil,” I replied. “Do you mind if I take a little time to think about it?”

  “No, you can let me know by the end of the week.” If he had looked up he would have seen a frown. He stuck out his lower lip as he perused the pages. “Ms. Jade Alcott is in particular need.”

  I gave a startled laugh.

  He looked up, brows pinched. “Something funny?”

  I tried to keep my expression from being too scathing. “Jade hates me, has since day one. She’ll never accept help from me.”

  Basil glowered. “Well, she earned the lowest score in the skills exam last semester and didn’t shine in her theoreticals either. After seeing what you were able to coax from April, I don’t doubt Ms. Alcott will deign to swallow her pride.”