Awakened Magic (The House of Rune Book 2)

by J. G. Massie

  Moving away from the crowd and the energy of Lucian’s fiery speech, this was actually the first time I really had a chance to get a good look at the Noctem’s village. It really wasn’t what I expected at all. Once we got past the crude huts and rickety old buildings that I now knew were mostly a front, I got to see a completely different side to this magical village.

  Sure, the structures became slightly more sound. Finished hardwood walls and tile roofs replaced the weaker buildings that looked as if a stiff sneeze might blow them down. But it was the abundance of artwork that surprised me most. Marble statues stood on nearly every corner, carved in the likeness of what I could only assume were ancient vampires that helped shape the Noctem into what they were today. Any one of these had to be worth tens of thousands of dollars.

  “Not what you were expecting, eh?” Turner said, practically reading my thoughts. “The Noctem’s love for art says quite a lot about them. To them, these masterpieces are symbols of perfection. And although perfection is an impossible goal, they still strive for it daily.”

  Too awestruck to answer, I just looked around in wonder. The detail of the statue just across the street was mesmerizing. Stony abs seemed to twitch with life as we moved past, and its lifelike expression appeared to be judging me. Had it been flesh colored, it would have been indistinguishable from a shirtless man.

  “What do you think happened back there?” Turner asked casually. I couldn’t speak before, but that blunt statement snapped me right out of my trance.

  “Wait...what?” Turner stopped moving and looked down at me expectantly.

  “How should I know?” I finally asked when he kept staring and me instead of expanding on the question. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

  “No one has,” he said, then began walking again. “I’ve seen some crazy things during my time as a Keeper, but nothing like that.”

  “So, what are you saying?” I prodded.

  “I’m saying that what we saw back there was completely impossible.”

  “Um...”

  “Yes, I was there. I know it happened,” he quickly pointed out. “Look, a wraith entering the physical world is not completely unheard of. It happens more than people think, actually. The veil is not perfect, after all.”

  “Veil?” I hadn’t even realized I stopped walking until he turned back to look at me. “What veil?”

  “You know,” he said, shrugging one arm as if the answer should be obvious. “The veil that separates the spiritual world from the world of the living.” I guess my deer in a headlight look spoke volumes, because he just shook his head and scoffed. “I think your Keeper training is a bit lacking on some of the finer points.”

  He waved it off as unimportant, and his face went stone cold. “Sometimes one or even two have been known to slip through the veil. But even then they are on a time limit of sorts. Sooner or later the pull of the spirit world becomes too great, and their energy gets drawn back like water through a pipe.”

  “But isn’t that exactly what we saw happen to the wraiths back there?” I asked. “The energy seemed to reverse somehow, and they all got sucked back into the sky.”

  “Precisely. All we really had to do was wait it out.”

  “I get it. So that’s why you drew them straight to you.”

  Turner nodded. “By keeping them occupied, I was able to keep casualties to a minimum. The goal was never to beat them, I just needed to keep them busy until their spirit energy reversed.”

  Once again I had underestimated Turner. Although it was sometimes hard to look past his brash, cocky attitude, beneath it all was a hard-nosed warrior. Cool and calculated, he was everything a Keeper should be. By always understanding the situation, he managed to stay two steps ahead of his enemies.

  “But that wasn’t just one or two wraiths, Turner,” I said, playing the part of Captain Obvious. “I don’t think this veil you keep talking about is working the way it’s supposed to.”

  “That’s what I’m trying to tell you!” He drew in on himself, glancing around as if afraid someone might hear. “There is no way that should have happened. Tessa...” He grabbed me by the shoulders, forcing me to look directly into his eyes. The sudden look of sheer terror in his eyes rattled me to the bone. How could a man who wasn’t scared of anything suddenly be so frightened?

  “Tessa, the veil is torn!”

  Chapter 9

  I stood there in silence as his words slowly sank in. Although I still wasn’t totally sure what this veil was, I was pretty sure the situation was bad. “Have—” I swallowed to clear the dryness spreading across my throat. “Have you told the others yet?”

  “I imagine they already suspect what I know to be true,” he reasoned. “The ladies for sure. They’ve both been doing this long enough to know that something is very wrong. As far as anyone else goes, they’ll know soon enough.”

  “Was that what the two of you were arguing about back there?” I asked.

  “Um, no.” Turner ran his fingers through his hair. “Well, not exactly. Look, Tessa, we can’t wait any longer. As you can see, the world is falling to pieces all around us. The Keepers must unite the underworld as soon as possible. And in order to do that, the only known Keepers in existence must both be at full strength. Tessa, it’s time.”

  Turner tipped his head back and closed his eyes with a sigh. But when he reopened them, they blazed with soft blue light. “It is time, Tessa,” he repeated, voice hard as stone. “It is time for the final segment of your training to begin. You must learn how to use your magic.”

  I looked deep into his shining blue eyes. There was a time when such a supernatural show of power would have scared the hell out of me, but not now. Instead of shying away, I held his gaze with intrigue and wonder. I never even meant to speak, but the words slipped out as if someone else was speaking through me.

  “Then what are we waiting for? I’m ready.”

  * * *

  Sitting on the grass, bored out of my mind, I watched while Turner paced back and forth. This went on for a while, and I wasn’t really sure what he was thinking. I leaned forward each time he stopped and opened his mouth, then slouched back down as he shook his head and carried on with his endless pacing.

  Okay, this was nowhere near as exciting as I hoped it would be. After a few more minutes of this nonsense, I came to the conclusion that although Turner was one hell of a warrior, he was probably a pretty horrible teacher. Seriously, was it really this hard just to get started?

  “Lindsey and Margie have both done an incredible job getting you to where you are,” he finally said. With the gathered crowd largely dispersed now, my friends remained, watching us from a distance. I’m sure they knew what was going on, but chose not to get in the way. “But I’m afraid this next step goes far beyond their understanding.”

  Without warning, he flicked open his hand with a brilliant flash of light.

  “Sheesh, you could have warned me first.” After blinking away the spots, I focused on the tiny wind funnel dancing around in his open palm. As his expressions changed ever so slightly, so did the speed and width of the mini tornado. It shifted from tall and thin, to short and wide. It slowed on demand, only to speed back up into a raging torrent of air, all within a couple of seconds. It was clear that Turner had full control of the churning funnel.

  Smothering the funnel with a closed fist, he rolled his wrist only to open it back up with a second flash of light. This time it was a tiny flame rolling about in his palm, snapping in place like a flag in the wind. When he twisted his wrist, it rolled down around the back of his hand like a winding snake. Then he clenched his fist with a sizzling hiss, extinguishing the flame.

  “Until today, I didn’t even know we could do such things,” I said, still staring at his closed fist.

  “We can’t,” he replied. Opening his hand, he turned it front and back the way a magician might to prove there was nothing up his sleeve. “At least, not directly anyway.”

&n
bsp; “So what is that supposed to mean? I just watched you do it.” I sat back down on the grass and patted the spot next to me.

  Turner sat down and folded his hands over both knees. I could see that he was still struggling to offer any sort of straight answers to my straight questions. But in a way, I kind of understood. Magic obviously came so natural to him that he probably never thought about it. It must have been like asking a bird to explain how it could fly. It just...did. It was probably more curious to know why you couldn’t fly.

  “It means...” He drummed his fingers across one knee before suddenly jumping up to his feet. “It means that you need to forget everything you’ve learned right up to this point.”

  What? Wow, you really are bad at this...

  “Um...that would make me a pretty bad Keeper,” I said dryly.

  “Oh, you know what I mean!” he barked back, waving his hands around in frustration. “I mean that you shouldn’t compare any learned techniques with the way magic is used. Look...” He unsheathed a dagger. Spinning back, he flung it into a tree several yards away with a heavy thunk.

  “I made that throw easily by bringing the target close to me, just as you were taught to do.” He drew his sword and began shadow fighting some imaginary foe. “And sometimes I’m forced to slow down my perception, reducing my opponent’s speed. At least, as far as my perception is concerned.”

  “Well, sure, I know how to do all those—”

  “And what do both skills have in common?” he cut me off. He didn’t give me much time to think about it. “They come from here.” He tapped his index finger against his temple. I blinked, not sure where any of this was going. “But this...” He opened his hand with a flash, this time revealing a spray of steaming ice crystals hopping around in his palm. “This requires no concentration whatsoever. It’s an external process. I hardly even think about it at all.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” I reasoned. “If that is true, then every D&D book and module ever written is completely wrong. How can magic have almost nothing to do with the mind?”

  “You mean to say that humans who’ve never used magic a day in their lives don’t really understand how it works?” Turner laughed. “So let’s just give it a try, shall we?”

  I hopped up off grass and opened my hand. “Okay, show me how to make that flamey thing?”

  “And there is your first problem,” he quickly pointed out. “And this is precisely what I’m having so much trouble trying to explain to you. You can’t make something out of nothing. I’m not going to bore you with all the physics involved here, but trust me on this, no part of your body could ever produce such large amounts of energy. It’s just not possible.”

  “But you can do it!”

  “No, I can’t,” he said, just as he twirled his hand in a crackling trail of light. Liquid lightning was the only way I could describe the tail rolling away from his fingertips. “But what I can do is manipulate the energy that is already around me. Nature’s elements, Tessa. Keepers don’t produce them, they simply guide what is already there.”

  “So how am I supposed to do this, then?” I hadn’t even started yet and I was already frustrated.

  “Change your mind-set, for starters,” he said, knocking a knuckle against my forehead. “This isn’t about you doing anything. To think you have any control over a force as powerful as nature is arrogant at best, dangerous and foolhardy at worst. You’re not controlling anything here, understand?”

  “I think so,” I lied. None of this was making any sense to me.

  “Your body is an instrument, a tool if you will, and all you’re trying to do is channel the power around you. You want it to flow through your body like a river. It other words, you are giving it permission to use you and not the other way around.”

  Once again he flicked open his hand, producing that tiny flame that seemed to dance purely for his entertainment. “And once that link has been established, an agreement of sorts made with Mother Nature herself, then it will all become as easy as flicking on a light switch. Now, let’s start with an easy one. Hold out your hand and keep it steady.”

  “Like this?” I did as he said and closed my eyes.

  “Yes, but don’t close your eyes,” he said. “Remember, this has more to do with your physical body than with your mind. It’s about feel.” I nodded. “We’ll work with fire first. Angry and aggressive, it tends to drive straight through you like a raging jackhammer. This particular link is usually easy enough to form.”

  I stood there with my hand out, my mind wandering in a hundred different directions at once. I had no idea what I was searching for, or if I would recognize it even if I found it. But being confused had never stopped me from doing anything before. Heck, I still needed to read the directions carefully every time I made a box of mac and cheese. Confusion and I were old friends, to say the least.

  “Feel the warmth flow through your fingertips and down your arm,” he said. While speaking, he kept on rolling his wrist, igniting that tiny flame, then smothering it again. In doing this again and again, I guess he was just trying to prove to me how easy it was, but I took it as showing off. This was doing nothing for my ego.

  I flexed my fingers, stretching them wide open. If my hand was the entry point for all this supposed energy, then maybe I just needed to make the target a little bit larger. But nope, still nothing. Each time I noticed my mind reaching out, I had to force myself to dial it back. Turner had made it clear that my mind had nothing to do with this. I needed to physically feel the energy, then let it flow naturally.

  Give it permission... Give it permission... It felt like trying to call over a frightened cat or something. You want it to come, but anything you do is likely to scare it away.

  “Okay then,” he said, gently pushing my hand back down. “Let’s take a little break. I don’t want you to burn out on your first training day.”

  “Burn out?” I replied. “I haven’t even done anything yet.” I was feeling a little drained, but like hell I’d admit it.“No, let’s keep going until I make some sort of progress. Heck, I’ll settle for a tiny spark at this point.”

  “Very well,” he conceded. By now he knew how stubborn I could be, so there was no point in arguing. “But if you start to feel fatigued...”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’ll start whining and bitching like a spoiled brat, okay?”

  “It’s a deal.”

  * * *

  I don’t know how much time we spent after that, but I was sure it must have been several hours. Turner kept shifting gears, switching up the elements to try and keep me motivated. Water, fire, earth, and air, we tried them all to see which one might click. His hope was that maybe one might prove easier than the others. It wasn’t unheard of; Keepers usually ended up being better at one over the others. At least, that was what he told me.

  Regardless, I seemed to be failing at all of them equally...

  But what he didn’t know was that no additional motivation was needed. I wanted this. No, I needed this. If I was ever going to become half the Keeper my mother was, then first I needed to reach my full potential. How much more motivation could I possibly need?

  “Tessa?”

  Both hands extended, fingers trembling from hours of holding a single pose, I stared off at nothing while trying to draw on some force I just still couldn’t feel, let alone understand.

  “Tessa!”

  I blinked, a tear rolling from my glassy eyes as my concentration shattered.

  “Why did you do that?” I said, wiping my eyes while mentally preparing myself for yet another round. “I almost had it. If you had just waited another minute...” But my voice trailed off long before I completed the lie. Even my denial wasn’t that deep.

  “No, you didn’t,” Turner replied softly. He was smiling, though. “But this was a heck of a first day. You’re exhausted. We’re not going to get anything else accomplished today.” His eyes rolled upward. “Or tonight, rather.” A deep orange hue was rising up f
rom the east, illuminating the underbellies of low-hanging clouds. “I’m pretty sure we’re both going to be sleeping late this morning. Come on, let’s go back inside.”

  I honestly could have kept going. I wanted to, but what would be the point? Turner was right. What I needed was to rest my mind, then start over with a new perspective. I would figure it out sooner or later. I needed to believe that.

  He threw his arm around my shoulder as we made our way towards our rooms. “Yes, definitely a good first day,” he repeated. With the adrenaline wearing off, I could really feel the sleepiness starting to set in as we walked. Yeah, that soft pillow sure was calling out to me. “I’m very proud of you, Tessa.” Missing a step, I nearly fell right on my face.

  They were just words, the kind of encouragement anyone might offer a struggling friend. But in that moment, his words were exactly what I needed to hear. In that moment, Turner...actually felt like a father to me.

  Chapter 10

  The last thing I remembered was doing a belly flop onto my bed. My form was perfect, would have easily scored a ten if I do say so myself. I’ve heard the expression “out before your head ever hits the pillow,” but I never thought that was an actual thing. I don’t think I’ve ever been that tired in all my life. My body was so exhausted, my sleep so deep, that I didn’t have a single nightmare for a change. If there was one positive to take away from this level of fatigue, it was that. Maybe failing for hours on end was the key to a good night’s sleep?

  But of course I didn’t enjoy it for long. After being blessed with a blissful five or six hours, someone came pounding on my door. I groaned, then wrapped the pillow over my head while hoping they might just go away. But of course it could never be that easy.

  Oh, let me guess, breakfast. Um...I guess it’s more like lunch by now. Or perhaps I’m missing the annual vampire sing-along? Hey, I’m more than willing to sacrifice that magical moment just to catch a few more Zs.

  “Tessa?” he said softly. I sat up, a smile flashing across my face. “Tessa, I think you should—”