by Raven Steele
Ireland read my thoughts out loud. “You’re looking fine this morning, Hudson.”
“Nice shirt,” he said to her and sat down in the spot Bennie had just left.
“I have to be to class early today,” Bonnie said quickly, then turned to Ireland. “Walk me?”
Ireland didn’t look away from Hudson. “Why would I do that?”
Bonnie jerked Ireland out of her seat almost as if with magic. “We’re going.”
I chuckled uncomfortably and stared down at the food I had yet to eat.
“Were you able to sleep at all?” Hudson asked.
“Not really. You?”
He shook his head. “I couldn’t stop thinking about those runes we saw. Something about them was so familiar.”
“How so?”
“I swore I’d seen them before, and that’s when I remembered.” He unzipped the bag at his feet and removed a tall book. “This is last year’s yearbook.”
I watched him while he flipped through the pages. Every part of me wanted to reach out and touch him, even a brush of my skin against his. To feel his arctic touch soothe my fire.
He stopped at a page and looked up at me, startling when he saw my heated gaze.
My face reddened and I quickly pointed down at the page he’d stopped on. “What is this?”
It took him what felt like a long time to follow the direction of my finger. “It’s the spell club for witches and warlocks. They meet once a week to practice magic. See this?”
He tapped an image, focusing my attention on a book.
I lowered my gaze. One large photo showed a dozen or so students standing in two rows. I recognized Becca and Grant. Mrs. Adams, the teacher who sponsored, stood to the side. “This is the book they practice from. I got to see it once. Those symbols on the tree are inside it with descriptions of what they mean.”
“So how do we get our hands on that book?”
“Easy. Meet me after class?” Even as he said the words, the school bell rang.
I nodded and rose from my chair. He did the same.
“Go to the auditorium.” He linked his fingers through mine, flooding my system with a blast of icy coolness. I sighed contently at the same time as him. His grip tightened on my hand. “Until later.”
He let me go and walked away, but glanced back at me long enough to wink. A different kind of fire burned in my lower abdomen with flames I wanted to stoke and not extinguish. I couldn’t wait to see him again.
Training with Linda was harder than usual. She seemed to be pushing me with fervent energy, forcing my flames to burn hotter and faster. Sweat broke on my brow and pooled in my pits. After thirty minutes, I was so mentally exhausted from producing fire, I could barely remember my own name.
“Light the whole dummy on fire!” Linda yelled from the front of the room. Several strands of hair had fallen from the French twist on her head.
I stared at the dummy with all the reserves of energy I had left in me, but my flames had retreated so deeply, I couldn’t access them. I gasped for air, my muscles quivering. “I can’t do it.”
Linda stormed towards me, her eyes alive with power. She took hold of my arms and gripped them painfully. “Don’t tell me you can’t do it. You are Aurora’s daughter, the most powerful Fury I’ve ever encountered! Fire breathes inside you, now command it! It may mean your mother’s life!”
She shoved me towards the dummy so hard I nearly fell. At the mention of my mother, rage surged into me, raw and powerful and hot as Hell’s fire. It ate at my insides, filling all the spaces between my organs, rushed through my bones, burned into my muscles and pressed outward against my skin.
My head snapped up, and I stared at the dummy, my eyes burning into it. I had to save my mother, not just for her, but for me, too. For years, I’d hated her. Wished her dead. But all that hate, all that cursing I’d done, had been a lie. My mother was good and loved me. She hadn’t betrayed our family.
Tears stung my eyes and spilled onto my cheeks so hot, I could feel blisters burning into my skin. I screamed, and with it came a release of heat so terrible that the dummy in front of me exploded into a million fiery pieces. A giant ball of flames burst outward from the dummy’s position, then sucked back into itself, leaving the floor and ceiling scarred with angry black marks. If anyone had been within twenty feet of the dummy, they would’ve died.
My vision blurred, and the room began to spin. I fell over sideways, landing on my shoulder hard. My limbs twitched from exhaustion, and I inhaled a hitched breath.
Linda dropped on her knees at my side and stroked my hair. “I’m sorry if it felt like I pushed too hard, but you had to access the power inside you.”
“Why?”
Her chest rose and fell with a long and steady breath. “Mr. Stenberg told me about you seeing your mother. He also said he told you the Enforcers are coming sooner than expected.”
I nodded, tears blurring my vision. So little time.
“But there’s something he didn’t tell you.”
I quickly wiped at my eyes avoiding my recently burned flesh on my cheeks. They would heal soon enough. “What?”
“You can save her.”
My heart skipped a beat, and I sat up, my hands shaking. “I don’t understand.”
“I wasn’t sure at first, but I am now. The power is within you, and you can use it to save her.”
“How?”
She glanced towards the training room door to make sure it was closed. “For years we tried to figure out how to break Mr. Stenberg’s spell, but he’d tapped into ancient earth magic, which most of us, including him, didn’t understand. The spell nearly killed him when he made it, just like it nearly killed Becca’s parents when they used it.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“I tried harder than anyone to free your mother, even attempting the magic by myself. I wanted to wake her and get her out of here. Roger—”
“Who?”
“Mr. Stenberg,” she clarified. “He saw how dedicated I was to help Rose. That’s when he confessed something very important about his spell.”
With abated breath, I waited for her to continue, my heart slamming against my rib cage.
“The spell he performed to put your mother to sleep, which honestly was the only thing that prevented the ISA from executing her on the spot, was fused with her DNA.”
“How did he get that?”
She paused and withdrew her hands into her lap. “From you, when you were a child. Do you remember? He came to your house and, with your father’s permission, drew a sample of your blood. Roger told Dean it could possibly save Aurora’s life. With it, he created a powerful spell for Becca’s parents to use against Aurora.”
My eyes lowered to the floor. I did remember that. A strange man had come to the house and taken my blood. No wonder Mr. Stenberg had looked familiar to me when I’d first seen him.
I looked up at Linda. “What does this mean?”
She took hold of my hands. “It means you are the only who can break the sleeping spell on Aurora. Only you can save her.”
Chapter 23
It was last period, and I was still reeling over what Linda had told me. I had the power to save my mother. I could release her. Maybe even right now if I wanted. And believe me, I considered it. But what then? She’d still be considered guilty. They’d still arrest her, then sentence her to death. She could run, but what kind of life was that? And I still wouldn’t be able to see her.
No. The best course of action, at least for right now, was to prove her innocence.
The bell rang, and I gathered my belongings to leave spell-casting class. I hadn’t heard a word. I think I even had an assignment due today, but what did any of that matter when I had a mother to save?
I moved to walk through the door when someone rammed their should into me in passing.
“Watch it.”
I glanced up at Arrow’s smirking face. She stopped in front of me, preventing me from going thr
ough. I glanced back at Coach Tom. He was too busy talking to three students to notice what was going on.
“So you survived the vampires,” Arrow said and reached up to twirl my hair through her own fingers.
“Don’t touch me.” My insides grew hot.
She met my gaze, her eyes cool and self-assured. “I do what I want, and what I want right now is for you to stay out of my life.” She leaned close to me and whispered in my ear. “If I catch you following me again, I’ll kill you.”
My hand snatched her arm, and I summoned heat to my palm. She yelped and jerked her hand away, her eyes wide.
“I’d like to see you try,” I hissed.
“Maybe that can be arranged.” She turned around, whipping her long hair through the air, and walked away. The crowd in the hall was shoved to the sides by a forceful wind. Several students slammed into lockers or fell to the ground. Arrow spun back to face me as she continued to walk backwards and flipped me off. Before turning around, she used her wind storm to toss a fallen book straight for my face. I lifted my hand to block it, but instead it erupted into flames before it could reach me. I gasped. My fire had protected me without me having to summon it.
Ashes sprinkled to the floor at my feet. My gaze shifted to Arrow’s. She was staring at me wide-eyed, fear lurking within their depths. I winked and walked away feeling strangely powerful, like I could do anything.
This time the crowd parted for me but, unlike Arrow, I didn’t make them part. They did it on their own. A few even clapped.
It only took me a few minutes to reach the auditorium where I was to meet Hudson. He was already there when I arrived, waiting outside the door.
“You look happy,” he said.
“Do I?” I sure felt happy. “Maybe it’s because I stood up to Arrow a few minutes ago.”
“What happened?”
“She basically threatened to kill me.”
“Shit.” He closed his eyes and ground his teeth together.
“What’s the problem?”
He looked at me and took hold of my warm hands, instantly cooling them. “Arrow doesn’t make threats. She’s cruel and mean. You need to be careful.”
His words didn’t scare me, not when I knew my flames would protect me. This thought gave me pause. Maybe my fire was giving me a false sense of security, too. My skills had improved, but I still wasn’t sure I could entirely trust my gift.
“I’ll watch my back. I promise.”
He hesitated briefly before nodding. He continued holding my hand as he opened the door to the auditorium.
“The spell club meets in here?” I asked. My voice echoed in the great room.
“Just below it.” He pulled me down the long ramp between rows and rows of chairs. The lights were off, but faint light spilling in from windows up above made it possible to see where we were going.
We circled the stage and then behind it to a door. “It might be locked.”
He wrapped his hand around the knob and attempted to turn it. “I was afraid of this but don’t worry. I think they keep a key around here. We just have to find it.”
“No time for that.” I let go of his hand and placed it on the doorknob. With a thought, my fire surfaced and obeyed my command to melt the inner workings of the lock. A second later, I turned the knob to the side and the door opened. The faint smell of burnt metal reached my nostrils.
“That’s pretty cool, Rose,” he said and took hold of my hand again stopping me from going forward. His body pressed against mine as he passed. “I’ll lead the way.”
But he didn’t pass fully. He stopped in front of me, our chests touching. He sucked in a breath, his gaze flickering to my lips. My pulse raced, my stomach flipped, and my mouth parted open, an invitation I hoped he’d accept.
“I saw the way you were looking at me this morning.”
“I—”
“I liked it, but you must know this attraction between us is overwhelming.” His hands came around my waist, and he collapsed the air between us. I fought the urge to grind my pelvis against his, but my fire was demanding more. “All I want is to touch and kiss every part of you. The ice inside of me begs for it.”
“Is it just your ice?” The tone of my voice held all my insecurities.
He searched my eyes, looking deeper than anyone else before. “I’ve thought of that but can the ice inside me also control my thoughts? I think about you all of the time, Rose, and not just about being with you physically. I miss you when we’re apart. Your quick wit, the way you don’t care what anyone thinks about you. Your bravery. No one else would have ventured into that cave in the dark, especially after fighting vampires.”
“That’s called stupidity, not bravery.”
He laughed. “Possibly.”
A sound at the front of the auditorium had us scrambling inside and closing the door, trapping us in complete darkness.
“Who is it?” I whispered.
“Probably just the drama club. Come on.” He pulled me deeper into the dark space. I couldn’t see, but he seemed to know where he was taking me. I could feel his hand sliding along the wall. He opened a door, and a moment later a light flipped on. “Hurry.”
I darted into the room, and he closed the door behind me. “We should be safe here. The spell club doesn’t meet until tomorrow.”
The room looked similar to the science classroom, but with no windows. Three long counters ran parallel to each other, their tops covered with beakers and large metal bowls. Jars containing powders and liquids along with all kinds of weird things lined the shelves above. I stared, trying to make sense of them, but they mostly looked like body parts of various animals and insects. In one of them, I recognized a bat skeleton.
I repressed a shiver. “This place is creepy.”
“It can be if you’re not used to it.” He picked up a jar and starred at its contents. “Looks like dried frog legs.”
This time I did shiver. “Where’s this spell book?”
He set the jar down and approached the teacher’s desk at the front. “Maybe over here. They had it out last time I was here.”
He searched the desk drawers but came up empty. “It’s got to be somewhere. Look around.”
I started at the other end of the room and began to search every cupboard and drawer. “Maybe they keep it locked up.”
Just as I said the words, I touched a cupboard above a set of counters pressed against the back wall. A powerful shock pulsed through me, and I yelped and stumbled back.
Hudson hurried over to me. “What is it?”
I stared at my fingers. “Something shocked me!”
“Magic.” He slowly turned to the cupboard and raised his hand to it.
“Don’t touch it!”
“It’s okay. I think I can minimize the spell.” When his fingers were within a few inches of the cupboard’s handle, ice began to form all over it. He touched the handle briefly. When he didn’t flinch, he touched it again long enough to flip it open.
“There it is.”
“Do we dare touch it?” I rubbed my still tingling fingers along my jeans.
“I think it will be okay. I was able to touch it before.” He reached up and carefully grabbed the book. Nothing happened.
He placed it on one of the counters and began to flip through it, stopping on a chapter titled, “Ancient Magical Symbols.” He smoothed the pages. “This is it.”
The first several symbols meant nothing to me. We compared them to the pictures Hudson had taken, but none of them matched up. After at least a dozen images, one we did recognize appeared. The Athame, the symbol of a small sword that had nearly killed me when I’d touched it.
Below it, words read:
The athame once was a powerful tool used by the great witch Loreima. She used it to bind fire to her and, in the fifteenth century, used it become one of the world’s most powerful witches. Over a dozen villages were destroyed during her reign of terror. Only when faced with a warlock with the elemental pow
er over water did she finally give up the athame.
The athame’s primary use is to channel fire. It can also be used to draw the boundary of a magical circle. Once complete, the circle is purified by the remaining three elements—earth, air and water. The athame can then be used to call the quarters, thereby summoning elemental entities.
The article went on to discuss more of its origins and its other uses. I leaned away, thinking. “Why do you think it hurt me when I touched it?”
Hudson turned the page to see if there was more but there wasn’t. “I’m not sure, but clearly it was spelled.”
“But not against you.”
“Maybe only to Furies?” he offered.
“How many of those do you know around here?” When he didn’t answer, I added, “My mother and myself.”
* * *
I thought back to how we’d found the cave, my mind reeling. “What I don’t understand is I felt drawn to the cave. It’s like I knew exactly where it was, so it seems strange for someone to lure me there only to shock the shit out of me.”
Hudson looked at me, his expression serious. “Maybe it wasn’t for you.”
“My mother? But then that would mean someone feels pretty confident Aurora is going to wake up soon.” I immediately thought of Linda. “Maybe that tree has been there for a long time.”
“But how would that explain the recent tracks and the vampires?”
“It doesn’t,” I mumbled. Something bigger was going on, and it had to do with recent events.
Hudson turned the pages again and looked at the rest of the symbols, only stopping on one. It was of an upside down triangle with an arrow pointed down through its center. The Crurstallus.
“That was on the tree too, right?” I asked.
I began to scan its meaning. It spoke of the water element but in its severe form: ice.
Hudson closed the book, preventing me from reading more. “None of this matters. So we know the names of the elements on the tree. What the hell do we do with that information?”
“I guess we have to decide if they mean anything to us and what’s happening here at Solar Academy.”
