Rise of the Arcanist Series: Books 1 - 6

by Elizabeth Kirke

  Emily rolled her eyes. “I'm fifteen. I don't believe in magic anymore.”

  I winced at the last part. “Not even a little bit?”

  “Well, not Santa,” she said.

  “It's fun to believe in some magic though,” I argued. Across the kitchen I saw Shannon purse her lips sympathetically. “But if it’s not,” I added, as Emily considered it, “I can just go ahead and take all of my books back to New York with me.”

  “No,” Emily protested with a laugh. “They’re mine now.”

  I knew she was working her way through my considerable fantasy collection. Since a large number of them featured vampires, a theme that Thomas was unwilling to read, I had elected to leave them home.

  “Instead of a Christmas present, I should have just brought a big bow to stick on my bookshelf.”

  “Your bookshelf,” she admitted with a grin, “is mostly empty. They're all in my room.”

  “So, you like some magic?” I said, remembering my original question. I don't know why it mattered; the magic in the books was nothing like real magic. I guess the part of me that was still holding on to the dream of being able to tell Emily about my double life someday wanted her to be enthusiastic about it. Then again if she did decide magic wasn't her thing it would make it a lot easier to resign myself to not being able to tell her the truth.

  “Okay, fine.” Emily smiled. “Some magic is pretty cool.” She handed me a cookie cutter. “Go nuts.”

  I took it and joined her by the rolled-out dough, trying to enjoy the usual Christmas Eve at our house cookie tradition. Once they were baked we would all have dinner while they cooled, then we would decorate them and watch movies we could recite by heart until bedtime.

  Somehow, even without an alarm, I always woke up early on Christmas. Rachel and Aunt Ruth were already up and the cinnamon rolls were just coming out of the oven when I got downstairs. Shannon and Emily weren’t far behind me and soon it was time for presents.

  There were a few, admittedly nice, moments where I actually sort of forgot what was going on and enjoyed exchanging presents with my family. Even though Emily seemed to be firmly entrenched in a typical act-cool teenager phase, her face still lit up with delight as she opened her gifts.

  The rest of the day felt like just another Christmas. We baked and decorated a few more batches of cookies and watched some more movies, packing all of what used to be a casual week-long celebration into just the weekend, before Shannon and I went back home.

  I couldn’t believe it, but as the day went on it became easier to separate this normal non-magic life from the terrible reality I would face when I returned to New York.

  It was a good day, all things considered, until dinner, anyway.

  “I wish you had brought Thomas with you,” Aunt Ruth said suddenly. “I still haven’t met that boy.”

  I winced at the reminder and took an extremely small measure of comfort in the humor of Aunt Ruth referring to someone older than her as that “boy”.

  “I haven't met him either,” Rachel said, shooting me a pointed look. That one was a little harder to swallow and I looked back down at my plate, rather than meeting her eyes. The truth was she had met Thomas. Twice, in fact. I wasn't completely sure how exactly our presence in the minds of non-magics worked, but apparently she hadn't spent enough time with Thomas for him to stick. The second time she met him her excitement at what she thought was the first time vanished almost instantly; she went from telling me how glad she was to meet him to, “It’s nice to see you again.”

  Obviously, the second time hadn't stuck either, although she still knew his name and most of the details about him that I shared with her. Thomas said he wasn't really sure how it all worked either and confessed that until it had come to my stepmother, he really hadn't paid much attention and just sort of took it for granted that sooner or later all the non-magics he met would forget him.

  “I've met him,” Shannon said, trying to rescue me. “He's great. Jen's very lucky.”

  Rachel looked at me skeptically.

  I shoved a forkful of food into my mouth, hoping I wouldn't have to say anything else. If everything had worked out, she would have come to visit us over the summer and met Thomas, hopefully long enough to give her a good, lasting, impression and be able to see where I was living and how happy I was. The plan was that she would realize I was in a good place in New York. Instead, all this chaos had happened and I kept putting off the invitation. Rachel’s approval of my living situation was nowhere near as important as finding Thomas and the others.

  It seemed like I was always getting my priorities mixed up when it came to my non-magic family. I had been so worried about what Rachel would think if I kept living at home – nearly thirty and unemployed – that I never stopped to think about how she’d feel when I did move out. She didn’t seem to mind that Thomas worked for a security company, but after I veered from my lifelong passion of history to join him, Rachel suddenly had a problem with it. The fact that the fake MES website for non-magics was, well, terrible, didn’t help. She was convinced now that I worked for some sort of sketchy company and didn’t think much better of Thomas either.

  Since I had basically been avoiding her for the last six months, I had a feeling she was increasingly convinced that she was right and wasn't quite sure what to do about it. To be honest, I wasn't either. If I couldn't actually tell her I was a magic, which was impossible, I wasn't sure how I could admit I had been lying and tell her Thomas was some sort of detective and in trouble and the company I work for isn't security at all. Yeah, I didn't think that would go over well.

  “Did he even call you today?” Aunt Ruth pressed, unknowingly making the situation a lot worse. Rachel's eyes narrowed suspiciously. We had been together the entire day, so I knew she wouldn't accept yes as an answer.

  “He texted,” I offered weakly.

  “What is he doing that's more important than calling his girlfriend on Christmas?” Aunt Ruth asked.

  “He's working,” I bluffed.

  Aunt Ruth looked at me skeptically and Rachel's frown deepened.

  “On Christmas?” my stepmother asked.

  “Well, it makes sense if you think about it,” Shannon said quickly. “I mean, he works in security and everyone is out of town, and going home early, and out of the office on Christmas… So, I imagine it's a pretty busy time. You know, like Home Alone. Someone has to watch out for robbers.”

  Rachel considered it, but said with a frown. “I think he works too much.” She and my aunt exchanged a look that I couldn't read.

  I speared another forkful of food, but my stomach turned at the thought of eating it.

  Once again, Shannon came to my rescue.

  “So, Mom, when do I get to meet Mae?”

  If she expected her mother to flounder at all though, she was sorely mistaken. “Well, if you hadn’t vanished to New York all summer you’d already have met her. You were invited to Martha’s Vineyard with us. Twice. She was also here for Thanksgiving.” Aunt Ruth easily retorted.

  “And she’s wonderful,” Rachel added. She shot me a look. “It’s so nice to meet the person that someone you love is serious about.”

  Aunt Ruth nodded in satisfaction at her, then turned her attention back to Shannon. “Of course, if you were staying here for longer than a couple of nights, you could meet her next week. Mae wants to meet you.” She fixed Shannon with a stare that just dared her to argue.

  To my relief, dinner ended without any more mention of Thomas. Shannon and I headed upstairs to change into pajamas for one more holiday movie. She stopped suddenly, halfway into her shirt, then pulled it the rest of the way on and went to stand by the door, listening.

  “What is it?” I asked curiously.

  She waved for me to be quiet. Then a couple of minutes later straightened. I could tell from the look on her face something was wrong.

  “Well?” I demanded.

  She sighed. “I was just listening… they were talking a
bout Thomas.”

  “What about him?!”

  Shannon hesitated and I fixed her with a glare. She sighed. “It seems Aunt Rachel is under the impression he works a lot?”

  I shrugged, surprised by the question. “She usually calls at night when he’s at work and… well, I guess I have used that as an excuse a lot these last few months…”

  “Yeah,” Shannon said grimly. “Well, she and my mom are um… comparing him to your father…”

  I looked at her in surprise, then groaned as it sank in. No wonder Rachel was so concerned; my father had been a workaholic and literally died sitting at his desk.

  “Sounds like she and your dad had a lot of problems because he was always working…” Shannon continued. “She’s worried you’re going to end up in the same position.”

  I sighed. “Great…” Well, that explained things, but I wasn’t sure what I could do about it.

  “Girls!” Rachel called. “Movie time!”

  Shannon flashed me a sympathetic smile and we headed downstairs. Rak was on the couch and looked up as we entered the living room.

  “I suppose Shannon relayed that to you?” he guessed. I nodded and sat down with him. He leaned against me and gently kneaded my leg.

  Emily joined us a minute later and we turned on one last movie, with cookies and hot cocoa. After it ended, I debated whether or not I wanted to go to bed; a long-standing tradition between Rachel and Aunt Ruth was to watch cheesy holiday romance movies until late into the evening. Shannon and I started joining them a few years ago, but Emily still preferred to go to bed early, especially now that she was firmly entrenched in the teenage ability to sleep until noon and waking up at the crack of dawn for Christmas morning was quite a feat for her.

  Much to everyone's delight Aunt Ruth had stumbled onto a good-looking Christmas romance that featured people of color as main characters instead of afterthoughts. It was enough to compel Emily to stay up and give it a shot, but as soon as the first cheesy tropes started, she declared that it was ridiculous and said that if this was the “sort of drivel” we spent all night watching, then she wanted no part of it. She wished us Merry Christmas and headed upstairs. I shared a knowing smirk with Shannon, half of the books Emily had stolen from me were cheesy romance novels, just with vampires instead of Santa.

  I personally thought the movie was good, albeit predictable. When it was over, we refreshed our hot cocoa, found another, and started it. This one was basically the same plot, except set in the country instead of the big city. Much to everyone's amusement when the heroine arrived on the small farm she was met by the main character of the last movie.

  “So, what old thing in need of TLC do you think she's gonna fix up?” Rachel asked.

  She was joking, but about five minutes later they found a beautiful abandoned barn and the heroine rushed up to it, telling her new best friend all the wonderful things she could do to it. We all laughed, but as the camera slowly pulled back to reveal the pine tree green painted barn against the white snow, it suddenly reminded me of something very different. Thomas said that the barn they found on Reave’s farm was green.

  As if I were listening to the message over again, I could hear Dani's voice in my head. It’s the same Reave as the farm; we were on to something. I could almost hear the unspoken thought that followed. We were on to something, but we didn't know what. I sucked in a sharp breath and Rak raised his head to look at me curiously.

  Shannon arched an eyebrow at me. I faked a yawn and then stood and stretched.

  “I'm sorry,” I lied. “I'm getting pretty tired. I think I'm going to get ready for bed.”

  “Oh,” my stepmother and her sister said, “Okay.”

  I knew she was disappointed I was already going upstairs, I couldn’t count how many nights we fell asleep on the couch with the holiday movies on. Nevertheless, I would never be able to concentrate on the movies now and I did need to get to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be busy.

  “I probably should too. We do have an early flight in the morning,” Shannon said.

  After a few rounds of good nights and Merry Christmases, which seemed to take forever, we finally escaped upstairs.

  “What is it?” Shannon demanded, closing the door behind her.

  Rak jumped up on my desk, radiating curiosity. “You thought of something,” he said, tail lashing as he tried to make sense of my whirling emotions. I could barely sort out my thoughts myself.

  “The barn in the movie was green!” I cried.

  They both looked at me in confusion.

  “And…” Shannon said slowly, “does that mean something?”

  “No,” I said, slightly embarrassed by the silly statement. “I mean, the green barn in the movie made me think. Thomas said Reave’s barn was green.”

  They both nodded.

  I took a deep breath and then continued eagerly, reminding myself to keep my voice down. “In his message, Dani said that when they went to Reave’s farm, they were on to something.” They both nodded again. “But when they checked out the farm we were all focusing on the blood casters. Jon even told us that the park was the priority. If we couldn’t find a connection between the farm and the people going missing in the park, we were supposed to put the farm aside. Right?”

  “Right,” Rak confirmed.

  “So, when Dani and Thomas went to the farm, they were looking for a connection to blood casters!”

  Shannon gasped. “We didn’t even know about Cavaliers yet! That means they could have missed something that would have connected the farm to the castle. If we go to the farm…”

  “We might find a clue that they missed!” I finished. My excitement faded and I sank onto the bed with a groan. “If only we had thought of it sooner. Maybe we would have already found them.”

  “Don't you dare beat yourself up about that,” Shannon said quickly. “You figured it out. Now we can go. Remember, Thomas said that the barn had been abandoned for years. I don't think a few days are going to make a huge difference in whether or not we find a clue.”

  “That’s true…” I said slowly.

  “As far as finding the guys is concerned, Thomas and Dani have been fine for six months. We have to assume that TS and Charlie are okay too.”

  “Right,” I agreed, still wishing we could go right now, instead of having to wait all night and then getting on the plane. “Right,” I said again. “At least…” I began pulling out my phone. “Let's call Ember and Mariana.”

  “No,” Shannon said. I looked up at her curiously. She reached out and put a comforting hand on mine, pushing my phone down gently. “I know how badly you want to find Thomas and the others. But don't forget Ember is a fire elemental and you’re talking about her missing dads. If you call and tell her about the farm, she's going to drop everything and go there. If there is even the slightest chance that it's not completely safe…” She let it hang and I nodded in agreement. No, I didn't want Ember, and probably Mariana, rushing to the farm by themselves. I doubted that an inexperienced witch and a dhampir would be much help, but it had to be better with us there.

  I tossed and turned for a while, then cast some warming spells to help tire me out so that I would fall asleep.

  Chapter Four

  Shannon

  By the afternoon we were all loaded up and ready to pay a visit to Reave’s farm. According to the GPS we’d be arriving shortly after sunset. The drive there was quiet and tense; everybody was hoping that we would finally find something that would lead us to the others, but nobody was willing to voice it.

  I volunteered to drive, seeing as I had the best eyesight and reflexes. Nobody argued. Jen sat in the passenger seat and navigated but I could tell her mind was elsewhere; more than once Rak told me about an upcoming turn before she did. I couldn't blame her; if my boyfriend and some of my closest friends had been missing for more than for six months, I'd be pretty easily distracted as well.

  Of course I was upset too, but even though I owed Thomas, and techni
cally the others, my life I knew it was different for everyone else. We all became good friends during the month I lived with Thomas and TS while I was turning, but ever since then I had been down in Florida, trying to act like I wasn't close with everyone. It wasn't like Jen, who was in a serious relationship with one of them and saw them all much more frequently than I did or Mariana who had grown up with them and of course, Ember, whose fathers were both missing now.

  I shivered at the thought of losing my mother. We weren't as close as Ember obviously was with Dani and Charlie, but I still couldn't imagine how terrible it would have been. I hoped that we would be able to rescue all four of them and then prevent whatever Victor and Reave were doing at Cavaliers from happening again, but I honestly wasn't sure how we were going to do it considering four highly trained agents had failed and we couldn't trust anyone at MES. Jon's hands were tied between the red tape of his position and the fact he didn't want us to vanish next.

  We turned down a small road, lined with trees and dotted by fields.

  “It's coming up,” Jen said softly.

  Ember leaned forward from the back seat. “We probably shouldn't just roll right up the driveway. Let's pull over.”

  I nodded in agreement, slowed down, and pulled over by the side of the road. We got out and looked around cautiously before leaving the car and heading into the trees to go the rest of the way on foot. I hunched into my jacket as we made our way through the trees, soon they cleared and we were met by a vast snowy expanse.

  Across the field I could see a green barn, covered with snow, that honestly didn't look too unlike the one from the movie Jen and I were watching when she came up with this idea.

  “We’re going to be pretty exposed here,” Mariana warned.

  I took a few sniffs but smelled nothing except snow. I used to be able to smell it in the air on crisp evenings when I was human, but now I could really smell it. I couldn't imagine having an even stronger nose like a werewolf or a vampire; sometimes I thought the smells and sounds were overwhelming enough as just a dhampir.