Halloween Trial

by Casey Morgan

  Jacob brought another kick up, swinging towards Cade’s head. Cade shifted steps again, narrowly getting out of the way. Quick as lightning, he thrust his arm out and slammed his fist into the side of the former lion’s face. I could hear the crack of his jaw reverberate throughout the amphitheater. The sounds sent shivers down my spine.

  The lion shifter stepped back, shaking his head as if to clear it, but he didn’t go down. The two men started to circle again. Even from far away, I could see the strain in Jacob’s face. He was worried. Cade was not. Cade was laughing.

  The werewolf’s large hands found the hem of his t-shirt. He pulled it up and over his head, revealing a stomach of chiseled muscle. Each ab was well defined, and his pecs were round and hard. I felt myself gasp as his hands went down to his pants, unzipping his jeans and pushing them down off his equally muscular legs. Never in my life had I seen a man so well built.

  And then, in a blink, he wasn’t a man. He was the biggest wolf I had ever seen. Jaws snapping, the wolf’s black fur shown in the moonlight. He bounded around the stage, disrupting Jacob’s circling and making the man jump to get away from sharp teeth.

  Cade — the wolf — sat back on his haunches and howled. His call was answered by several voices from all around the crowd. I found myself huddling into my body. These people were wild and powerful. I wasn’t safe here.

  The wolf sprang forward. He went right for Jacob’s throat, ignoring the man’s blows and sinking his jaws into his jugular vein. Blood shot out. It became a fountain that sprayed out Jacob’s life. He sunk to the stage with the wolf still upon of him.

  I was not ready to see someone die. “Oh no, oh no,” I whispered under my breath, clutching my hands to the side of my head. Everything about this felt wrong. Cade was murdering a boy onstage, over some crazy leadership position. “Make him stop. Make him stop.”

  I didn’t know who I was talking to, but I needed this fight to end.

  There was a crack of lightening onstage. The wolf jumped back, with its jaws bloody. Jacob sank to the stone floor. His blood was everywhere. Thorn was suddenly standing in between the two fighters.

  “You have made your point, Mr. McWilliams,” he snapped at the wolf. “You are still the alpha here, but I am the headmaster. I have not sanctioned this fight, and I will not lose a promising student because of it.” The wolf seemed to drop his head low. Thorn looked up and over the crowd. “You have all had your show. Go back to the dorms now. You should be studying.”

  There were murmurs of annoyance, but people started to get up and collect their things. I was somewhat relieved, but when I started to move, Angie put out an arm to hold me back. “Watch,” she whispered.

  Thorn was looking over Jacob now. His face was unemotional and more calculating. He brought his hands up, moved them slowly in an almost dance, then widened his fingers. The blood covering the stage started to recede. It slipped back into the wound on Jacob’s neck, which then started closing itself.

  “What the fuck?” I whispered. I had never seen anything like it.

  After a few seconds, Jacob started breathing again. It was labored pants, but he was alive. Thorn had brought him back from death. How could the headmaster have such power?

  Chapter Seven

  As we walked back, Angie stopped short in her tracks. Both Drew and I turned to look at her. “You know,” she said, looking around at the students who were crossing the lawn near us, “we should stay out and start your training. It will be easier out here, where no one can hear us.”

  I was freezing, horrified by what I had just witnessed, and extremely tired, but there was one thing that watching the fight had made perfectly clear: Ironwood was a dangerous place. I needed to know how to defend myself.

  I nodded. “Now is as good of a time as any.”

  Angie led our little group to an abandoned basketball court. The hoop was rusted, and the lines on the pavement were almost scrapped up. From what I could tell, no one really used the place anymore.

  “Okay,” Angie started. “Here is how the exams or trials, as we call them, work at Ironwood. First of all —”

  Drew floated by me with his arms crossed in front of his chest and continued where his sister left off. “All students, no matter what class they are in, are expected to attend all of the trials. Students go to the auditorium at sunup, and often the exams last all day — sometimes even into the night.”

  Angie nodded. “Headmaster Thorn conducts all of the exams. It’s a little like combat. You will face him onstage and have to deflect the spells that he casts or cast what he tells you to cast.”

  “But what he asks is tailored to the student he is putting on trial,” Drew picked up the explaining. “The professors write up their recommendations, and Thorn forms a schedule for the trial around that.”

  “So, I can’t just watch the first trial of the day and then learn the spells really quick?” I asked, clutching my arms around myself. It was really cold out now, and an icy breeze kept blowing up my skirt.

  Drew and Angie looked at each other. They seemed to be able to have whole conversations with just their facial expressions. “No, not really,” Drew finally answered. “First of all, it’s almost impossible to learn a spell in a few hours or even in a day. Second, your trial will be different than anyone else’s. There may be some aspects that are the same, but overall it will be different.”

  “So, I pretty much have to learn everything in just a few days.”

  I shut my eyes, clutching the sweater around me tighter. This all seemed so impossible. I was crazy for even trying. Plus, there was no telling if I could even do magic at all.

  “Unless…”

  The tone of Angie’s voice caused me to snap my eyes open. Her freckled nose was slightly scrunched, and she had a finger tapping her chin. “Thorn writes down his plan for all the exams. I’ve seen it on stage with him during the trials. What if I could find that plan beforehand when I’m assisting him in his office, and then we would only have to have you study what he has planned for you.”

  I blinked at her. This idea felt like a lifeline. “Are you serious?” I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. “That would be so much more manageable.”

  Drew floated in front of his sister and put his slightly transparent hands on her shoulders. “You can’t do that,” he argued. “Thorn would kill you if he found out.”

  His words brought me back to reality. I thought it through. “He’s right. I wouldn’t want you to get expelled, just to keep me from getting expelled.”

  “It’s not that big of a deal,” Angie grunted and shrugged her shoulders. “All I would need is a glance. Plus, I wouldn’t look for what my trial would be, so he couldn’t expel me for cheating.” She waved a hand when we protested, silencing us. “It’s the only way. But let’s not argue about that now. First, we need you to cast a spell. I mean, no offense, but if you can’t cast a spell at all, then we are just fooling ourselves.”

  I nodded. “You’re right. I’m ready. Tell me what to do.”

  “All witches and magic castors have focus points,” Drew explained, lazily floating by me again. “Usually, the person connects with the object at a young age and keeps the same thing their whole lives.”

  Angie stepped towards me. “That was what I was asking about on the day we first met. I think your necklace could be used as a focus point.”

  I pulled the moonstone out from my shirt and looked at it. It was pretty. It reminded me of my grandmother, but that was all the connection I had to it. But maybe I could connect to it really quickly.

  Angie was eyeing the necklace at the same time I was. “You just have to focus your energy through your object, do the incantation, and poof, magic!” She waved her hands in the air like she was throwing confetti.

  “Okay,” I said, not feeling very sure at all. “How do I start?”

  “Close your eyes,” Drew instructed. And I did. “Think about the necklace touching your skin. Now, imagine a circle all
-around your body. In that circle is your life energy. Channel that life force through the point of your necklace and send it out towards the world.”

  I could feel it. I could feel my life force surrounding my body. It was like a subtle glow, with a little heat and sparkles that would swish around me like a snow globe. I pulled it into a line and sent it towards my necklace, where it was stopped cold.

  “It won’t go through,” I panted, opening my eyes to stare at the siblings. “I can get my energy moving, but it stops at the moonstone.”

  Angie frowned. Nervously, she looked at her brother. Drew returned her look and frowned as well.

  “Perhaps it's not a focus point.” Angie walked up and critically looked at the necklace again. “I could have sworn it was because it has a subtle signature of power, but if it won’t let your energy through, then it’s not going to work.”

  “Fuck.” I sunk down to the ground and sat on the cold concrete. “What am I going to do now?”

  Drew floated down. He sat in front of me. In the moonlight, I could see his face better. He had freckles like his sister. It made me wonder if, in life, his hair had been the same orange color.

  “Try again,” he told me. “That was just your first time. It was good that you could feel your life energy at all.”

  I sighed. “You’re right.”

  I closed my eyes, relaxed my shoulders, and reached out to my life force again. Just beyond my body, it stirred, swirling ever so slightly. Using my will, I pulled it up toward my head and then down towards my feet, watching with my mind’s eye as the colors changed as if I was sitting in a bubble. Moving the energy around seemed easy.

  I took a breath, pulled the energy into a small line, and sent that towards the necklace. Again, it stopped like it was hitting a wall. Grunting, I pulled the energy into a smaller line and sent it forward. It wouldn’t go through.

  “Maybe the necklace is too small,” I suggested.

  Angie shook her head. “Most magic users these days use something small like that. Rings and necklaces are very common.”

  “What do you use?”

  She frowned and seemed to color a bit. Drew giggled. “Angie uses the key to our childhood home. It’s overly sentimental and embarrassing.” He glanced at his sister. “Really, you should have picked something better.”

  Angie rolled her eyes. Straightening her skirt, she sat down next to me. “I didn’t have a choice. Sometimes the focus point picks you.”

  I looked at Drew. “What do you use?”

  He laughed, threw his head back, and did a flip into the air. “I’m a ghost. I don’t need a focus point anymore.”

  Angie waved a dismissive hand at him. “He also can’t cast anymore. Sprits have a different connection with magic.”

  Part of me wanted to ask how Andrew had died, but my stomach was still queasy from watching the shifter fight. So, I figured it was best not to ask.

  “Look,” Angie continued, putting a finger to her temple. “If the necklace isn’t a focus point, we need to get you one quickly. Before class tomorrow, let's stop by Professor Goldwin’s. He is the professor who is guiding me on my minor in charmed objects. Maybe he has an extra one lying around.”

  Feeling hopeless, I nodded. “Do you think he will really help me?”

  Angie thought for a minute. “It’s a risk, but we are going to have to take it.”

  Chapter Eight

  Professor Goldwin was probably about two feet tall. Oddly, nothing in his classroom was made to accommodate his height. The long tables that served as desks were all the normal size — one he could walk under. The tables were surrounded by tall bar stools, which were taller than the professor. Even Goldwin’s desk, at the back of the room, was a normal height, something that made absolutely no sense to me.

  I was pretty sure he was a dwarf but didn’t want to ask because I figured that would be rude. I did, however, immediately try to pull my skirt down as much as I could when I realized that he was shorter than my hem. Angie caught my hand and mouthed the words, “Don’t be rude. He’s not looking anyway.” I tried to believe her but still didn’t feel comfortable until I slid onto one of the high, three-legged stools in his classroom.

  “What can I do for you girls?” Goodwin asked. He had a friendly face, like an old hippy grandfather with long golden hair, pulled back into a ponytail. His eyebrows were unkempt, and they stuck out at various angles, covering much of his small forehead.

  “Professor,” Angie started as she leaned onto the counter next to me. “This is Ruby, she is a new student here and —” she lowered her voice to a whisper — “she doesn’t have a focus point.”

  Goldwin giggled. He took off his tiny pair of glasses and cleaned the lenses with part of his very green shirt. “Nonsense! How can a young witch not have a focus point?” He put his glasses back on and looked up at me. “What did you use in your classes before now?”

  “Umm, well, sir…”

  Angie sighed. “Ruby’s never done magic before.”

  Goldwin’s bottom lip stuck out slightly as he frowned. “How are you at Ironwood, then?”

  “My grandmother, Rose Green, paid for my tuition here. Sir, I have nowhere else to go.”

  Goldwin studied my face for a few seconds. “Rose was your grandmother?” I nodded. “She was a friend of mine. We graduated the same year.” Behind his glasses, his blue eyes seemed to go a little distant as if he was reliving the past. “You know, Rose was almost top of the class. She was a very powerful witch.”

  “I didn’t know,” I admitted.

  That fact that my loving grandmother had this totally separate life bothered me a lot. I had had no idea that she could do magic. She never let on anything about it when I was a child. To me, she was just a normal grandmother who baked chocolate chip cookies and read me bedtime stories. Occasionally, we would cut flowers together from her ample garden, but she never did a single spell in front of me. Something about that made me bitter.

  Goldwin seemed to understand what I was feeling. He nodded slightly, his lips still in a deep frown, and said, “I’m sorry, child. That was a lot of opportunities missed. I have no idea why Rose wouldn’t have started training you right away, especially if she intended for you to attend this school.”

  “I don’t understand it either,” I admitted feeling my chest ache with a mix of anger and sorrow. I missed my grandmother so much, but I also was starting to feel like I didn’t know her at all. When tears came to my eyes, I whipped them away. “Look, professor, I have to pass the trials on Halloween. If I don’t, I will be expelled. To learn magic, I need a focus point.”

  Looking up at me, Goldwin pressed a finger to his lips. “Yes, but what kind of focus point, that is the question.” He started pacing. “Was Rose your true grandmother? I mean, was she your blood relative.”

  “Yes, as far as I know.”

  “Okay,” the professor continued, “We know that your mother never attended classes here, or I would have been aware of it. What about your father? What do you know of him?”

  I felt my breath go out of my lungs with a whoosh. Quizzes into my family tree were not something I liked. In fact, this whole discussion made me very uncomfortable. “I don’t know anything about my father,” I admitted looking down at my hands to hide my embarrassment. “My mother and grandmother didn’t talk about him. When I asked, my mother would just point out that I had a stepfather, and wasn’t that good enough?”

  Angie and Goldwin both looked at me wide-eyed. Before they could say anything, trying to be comforting when nothing would be, I continued, “It wasn’t a big deal. Really. I always figured that my mother didn’t know who my real father was, or I was the result of a one-night stand.”

  Goldwin looked over at Angie. “We will have to do blood work.” She nodded and was moving in an instant.

  As I sat there, dumbfounded, the professor and Angie gathered up things from around the room. Each item was dumped in front of me. First, there was a microscope, th
en a bottle of something purple. This was followed by a few glass slides, then a small knife, and a silk scarf.

  “Okay, child.” Goldwin took my hand in his and looked into my eyes. “This is going to be a bit unpleasant — and honestly, I shouldn’t help you at all, because Thorn would fire me if he found out — but just bear with me.”

  Quick as lightning, he wrapped the silk scarf around my wrist while mumbling words I didn’t understand under his breath. The feeling of the air changed in the room. Suddenly, it was like the day had turned humid and the air was thick, pressing down on me so I could barely breathe. Goldwin’s hair started to float. His ponytail lifted from his back, it’s golden color starting to shine more.

  While I was preoccupied with the professor’s face, Angie leaned in and pricked my index finger with the knife. Before I could protest or let out an “Ouch,” she blotted my blood onto one of the glass slides, hit it with a drop of the purple formula, and sandwiched it with another slide. The end result was given to Goldwin, who had produced a large step stool out of nowhere and was now looking at my blood under the microscope.

  Feeling a bit like a lab rat, I pulled my hand to myself, pinching my bleeding finger tightly, and unwrapped the scarf that was still on my wrist. “What can you tell through that?” I asked in disbelief.

  “Quite a bit, actually,” Goldwin replied, without looking at me. He dialed up the magnification on the microscope and studied the slide harder. “For instance, it is very obvious that you are Rose’s granddaughter. Your grandmother was originally a Loset, a very powerful witch line. Green was, of course, her married name, and as I recall, your grandfather had some shifting abilities. Not enough to be an alpha, mind you, but some.”

  I sat back in my chair a bit. My grandfather? I had never really thought about him. Of course, my mother had to have had a father, but just like my father, no one had told me anything about my grandfather.

  I felt myself going pale. My head was starting to spin again.