Tala Phoenix and the School of Secrets

by Gabby Fawkes

  We won’t forget about you, I promise, I told Jeremy in my head. As soon as we can, we’ll come for you.

  That was the best I could do for him right now. It was probably a good idea to focus on my surroundings, seeing as we’d just crossed the street and were entering a sketchy-looking dark alleyway.

  Normally, I’d be afraid to be here, with its upturned garbage cans and too-quiet quiet, but right now, I was afraid for whoever tried to give us trouble. With our magically murderous companions, we pretty much had the self-defense thing handled.

  We didn’t run into any trouble though, just made our way through the alley until we had merged onto a very busy sidewalk.

  “So many people,” I said, feeling lightheaded again.

  After all we’d seen in the past few days, the kind of movie or book things actually happening to us, I should’ve been less overwhelmed. Or maybe it was long-overdue what-the-actual-fuck feelings finally crashing down on me.

  Whatever the reason, as we made our way briskly along, I found myself leaning on my friends for support. Only it wasn’t them. Demi and Kian had gone ahead to talk to the witches, leaving just Axel beside me. He was allowing me to lean on him without comment or reaction, other than a tensing of his jaw muscles.

  “You okay?” he said, and I saw something almost like caring cross his face.

  “Yeah,” I said.

  He looked like he was about to say something, but suddenly, he stiffened and stepped away.

  “Good,” he said. “Because it’s not going to get any easier from here on out.”

  Dick. I scowled after him as he strode ahead to catch up with others.

  He didn’t need to drill in any further that we were in a magnificently shitty situation. That was super obvious already, thank you very much.

  It was a miracle my friends and I hadn’t had some kind of breakdown with everything we’d found out and seen over the past few days. Although having a violent voice in your head didn’t exactly put a tick in the ‘totally sane’ box either. Speaking of…

  “Hey,” I said, catching up with the others, addressing Minnie at the group outskirts. “If someone was, say, hearing a voice…”

  Her face screwed up and her gaze became a drill. “Which one of you is hearing voices?”

  Oh-kay. Looks like she was not the person to ask about that.

  “We’re here,” Axel said. “Come on.”

  I hurried to catch up with him. How the hell was I supposed to know what was safe to say to who? Axel had hardly batted an eyelash at Kian’s whole Tala psycho-voice admission and Ms. Judgy Witch Bitch looked like she was about to be the one to burn me at the stake with just a mention of maybe hearing a voice.

  I pushed the thought out of my head as we ascended the grey stone steps. Talk about wow… with its skyscraper-tall columns and carved façade, the library was impressive.

  If Axel was impressed by it, he showed no sign. Instead, he walked inside and across its marble floor with the same single-minded focus. Even Demi was impressed, although her attention was on the potted plants we passed. “Wowee… I’ve never seen poinsettias like these.” Kian’s gaze was longingly on a sign pointing in the direction of different sections. “I bet they even have Dylan’s lost tapes here…”

  Axel, for his part, was already on the staircase, taking them two at a time. I turned to Demi and Kian, making a face. “Sic semper tyrannis…”

  They smirked, as Kian agreed, “How much you wanna bet he and Kakernacker would be BFFs?”

  Demi giggled, though I couldn’t even smile. Another reminder of what we’d left behind.

  My hand grabbed for the railing as I remembered him again with a physical jolt. Jeremy…

  “What is it?” Demi hovered by me, pausing.

  “This is even worse than we thought,” I confessed. “If no one knows the school exists, then that means with the transfers, with Jer…”

  They exchanged a look. Clearly this had crossed their minds long before now, only they hadn’t said anything. I was the only one too stupid and self-involved to-

  “We’re here!” came Axel’s call down. “Get moving!”

  I squared my shoulders and continued on, hopping over a ‘RESTRICTED AREA – DO NOT ENTER’ sign that had clearly not obstructed him in the least.

  The best thing to do now was to figure out what was going on – what we were, what and where our school was. The sooner we did, the sooner we could start searching out Jeremy and rescue him. Now wasn’t the time for a pity party, as much as the tidal wave of grief in me was threatening to crash.

  No, now was the time to meet Athena, whoever she was. With any luck, she’d be like her namesake. The Athena I’d learned a bit about in mythology class as a kid. We’d only had two years of it, and most of what I remembered was from the Disney movie Hercules, but what I could recall about Athena was that she was at least logical, clever.

  Less than a minute later, we were cresting the steps and there. On the top level of the library.

  “Whoa,” Demi said softly, her head craning back so far, several of her tawny curls were squished under her head.

  These book shelves stretched all the way up to the ceiling, which was at least thirty feet up. Their rosewood gleamed with green hardbound books, as well as the odd ladder.

  An unfamiliar female voice pierced through my daze like birdsong. “Brother, it’s been a while.”

  “Too long,” Axel agreed, striding forward to engulf the woman in a hug.

  Only when they parted could I get a good look at her. She was wearing boyish trousers and a button-up shirt, with brogues that looked lived-in and curls down to her chin. Her startling, intelligent eyes cut to me and my friends as she looked our way.

  The redheads hung back around us, eyeing her coolly. “You’re on speaking terms with him?”

  Athena lounged back on a desk, taking out a cigarette. “My brother has suffered several lifetimes for what he’s done. Our father made sure of that.”

  The truth of it was etched on Axel’s face as he lingered there.

  “What are you anyway?” I blurted out finally.

  The beginnings of a smirk quirked in the corner of Athena’s mouth. “Don’t you know? He’s a god.” She lifted the cigarette to her lips, taking a long luxurious puff. “We both are.”

  Following my gaze to her cigarette, her smirk went full-out. “And yes, the goddess of reason does smoke – because it’s not unreasonable if you can’t die.”

  “And she likes to piss off Dad.” Axel took the cigarette himself, then, eyeing it, passed it back to her.

  “We didn’t come here to chitchat,” Winnie said, frowning, her curls looking wine-colored in the subdued light here. “Your brother wants to take the girls to Olympus.”

  “The girls,” Athena said, her attention fully drawn to us for the first time. She made her way to us unhurriedly, almost like a cat stretching.

  A swooping sound. A massive barn owl skimmed narrowly over our heads to land on Athena’s outstretched arm. She stopped in front of us, both she and the owl examining us closely, quirking their attentive faces in a not-dissimilar way.

  First was Kian.

  “This one’s a witch,” Athena said immediately, barely looking at her, moving onto Demi already. The witches beside us looked pleased, although Axel’s expression was harder to place.

  “That’s it?” Kian demanded, throwing up her hands. “What about – like what do I do, how…”

  She trailed off, since Athena clearly hadn’t heard a word. Her searchlights of eyes were now digging into Demi, who was looking increasingly uncomfortable.

  Just as I was about to intervene, Athena placed her hands on Demi’s shoulders and then, with a small sigh, said, “I wondered when I’d be seeing you again, Demeter.”

  “Demeter?” was all Demi could say.

  “Come now,” Axel said. “You don’t mean to say-”

  “Much has happened in your absence, brother,” Athena said coolly. “The winds
of change are upon us all, and some of the gods have felt the pull.”

  “But Demeter wouldn’t have chosen… Not when she had a daughter, had all the harvests, had…”

  “Demi has a daughter?” I said.

  “As the goddess of agriculture, yes,” Athena said. “Although why my old friend has chosen to inhabit a human form, I cannot say.” She continued to stare deeply into Demi’s eyes. “Only you can find that out for yourself.”

  Demi could only blink at her. “How… do you know?”

  Athena snapped her fingers and her barn owl took off. Seconds later, it was swooping back, a pot of dirt clutched in its talons.

  “Touch this,” Athena said, dipping Demi’s hands in it.

  When they came away, we gasped. Once again, there was a bulb of a plant there, nosing out of the soil.

  “How else do you explain this?” Athena said simply. “No other witch possesses the ability to create plant life like this.”

  Demi was speechless, gaping at the little sprout. Tentatively, she reached out, stroked it, and it twined up further.

  Now Athena had moved on to me. I was grateful for Axel’s nearness, though I wanted him even closer for some reason. Wanted his whole body to block me from whatever Athena’s eyes would find. Maybe it was how the voice was stirring in me.

  Do not, it hissed, tell. Do not burn… Only…

  “You hear a voice, don’t you?” she said, knowing the answer already.

  “Uh…” I said.

  “She does,” Kian said.

  “What does it say?” Athena said, her gaze digging into me.

  DO NOT, the voice was roaring in my head.

  I twisted around to give Kian a shut-up look.

  Athena put her hand on mine. “Don’t be absurd. You can trust me. Be reasonable.”

  A light sensation flooded me, then a clarity of mind. Athena was right, the voice was wrong. What was I thinking, to trust some voice that had been telling me to burn people?

  “Stop it,” Axel snapped, pulling me away from her.

  Athena gave a little shrug, returning her cigarette to her mouth. “Thought you wanted my help. Wanted to know what she was.” The last part she directed my way. “Isn’t that what you want?”

  Different answers tossed and turned in my mind.

  “Not like… that,” Axel said. He moved so close he was almost touching me. Had Athena just performed some mind-control thing, the way all my inhibitions had fallen away?

  “She has to be some kind of shifter,” Minnie cut in. “I’ve never heard of any witches with voices in their heads.”

  “But if she’s a dragon one…” Linnie said, trailing off, eyeing me like I was a lion with rabies.

  “K, what is a shifter and why would being a dragon shifter be so bad?” I said.

  “A shifter can change into an animal,” Athena said. “Bears and wolves are the most common. Although there are more… uncommon types, of course.”

  “Such as?” I said.

  “Most have died off or haven’t been seen in years – cats, dogs, deer. And then there’s the more dangerous types, who keep to themselves for good reasons.”

  “You mean dragons,” I said.

  “Yes,” she said, regarding me carefully. “They are a vicious lot, who care only for themselves and getting their own way. Historically, they’ve only participated in our battles when it’s to their direct benefit. They are bloodthirsty and destructive and unable to control their impulses.”

  “Bullshit,” Axel said, starting to pace. “Some would’ve said the same of me too.”

  “And they would’ve been right,” Winnie said.

  Axel stopped before her, taking a deep inhale. “I have not killed for a year now.” He craned his face up close to hers. “Although good track records can always be broken.”

  That shut her up. Although it didn’t calm my anxious thoughts. Bloodthirsty and destructive – how else were you supposed to describe a voice in your head that, more often than not, urged you to burn them as a solution? And the way Athena was eyeing me coldly, as if she knew…

  “We came here to get your advice on what to do with the girls,” Axel said, turning back to Athena as he ventured further into the desk and armchair-filled room.

  He was scanning what looked to be several board games, with an inordinate amount of players on each. He shook his head, tutting softly. “You never let up, do you?”

  Athena half-smiled, though it didn’t reach her eyes. “You know I can’t resist a good fight. Besides, we all have our destructive tendencies.”

  Axel had no reply to that.

  “You still didn’t answer the question,” Linnie said, fiddling with her wand in her dress pocket. “You know, as well as we do, that they’d be the safest with…”

  “It is not my place to solve your squabbles,” Athena said firmly.

  The three women gawked at her.

  “But surely,” Winnie sputtered. “As the goddess of reason…”

  “Reason doesn’t always have an answer.” Athena’s voice had gone cold as she lifted the cigarette to her lips again. In all this time, it hadn’t gone out or burned down once. “Other times, you wouldn’t like its answer at all.”

  With that, she turned on her heel and strode away, leaving us blinking at each other stupidly.

  I gave Demi’s hand a small squeeze, since she looked more shocked than Kian. Guess finding out that you were a thousands-of-years-old Greek goddess of agriculture was a little harder to process than finding out you could occasionally do some magic.

  “You aren’t taking them,” Winnie said to Axel pointblank.

  “This can be discussed out of my lodgings, if you please.” Athena’s voice reached us again, even though she was out of sight. “An inopportune visit from the DSA is not something I particularly enjoy.”

  “My sister’s right,” Axel said. “Let’s take this outside.”

  Although as soon as we made our way out of the library and outside into the night, there wasn’t time to say a word.

  The sound of hooves pounding on sidewalk reverberated in the distance. I looked up to see, red sword raised, a red cloaked figure on auburn horseback charging towards us.

  “DUCK!” Axel roared.

  I did so, just in time to avoid the blade taking off a chunk of my head.

  Demi screamed, and I got into a crouch, pulling my friends down too.

  But there were more coming now. More insanely, the people around us seemed oblivious to them, were only eyeing us like we’d had one LSD tab too many.

  “They can’t see them,” I realized.

  “Stay out of their way!” Axel yelled, as he levelled a punch at the first one who’d attacked us. It sent the creature sprawling off its horse, although it jumped to its feet nimbly enough. Its red hood fell back to reveal a horrifyingly skeletal sharp-toothed face.

  “Btsan!” one of the witches yelled, “Look out!”

  In the other direction, two more were headed our way, with what looked like even two more in the distance behind them.

  As the witches lifted their wands and their spells shot into the one closest to us, another leapt from its steed, slashing its two swords perilously close to the witches.

  “There’s too many of them,” Axel yelled. “To the station!”

  He didn’t have to tell us twice as we and the redheads raced after him.

  “What are those?” I asked, panting as we sprinted as fast as our legs would carry us. I felt something stirring inside me, a heat, an anger. The voice.

  It didn’t help that the streets were clogged with people, many who, as we shoved by them, glared at us like we’d just drop-kicked their baby.

  “Vampires,” Axel said, his sculpted face drawn as he threw his head over his shoulder every few steps. “Haven’t been seen in centuries. Thought they’d all died out.”

  Great, just great. So not only was I probably a psycho dragon-shifting maniac, but my friends and I were about to be killed by some v
ampires that weren’t even supposed to exist. Just living the dream, we were.

  Already, we had made it to the alleyway, but the btsan had caught up. Behind us, the witches were using spells – and jettisoning benches, garbage cans, whatever there was on hand at the btsan to slow them. But it wasn’t enough. Their fearless steeds crashed through it all. They’d be on us soon.

  We hurtled into the ramshackle old house that was the station.

  “You all go ahead!” Axel yelled. “I’ll hold them off.”

  As we ran, I stopped at the third door. Twisting around, I saw Axel do something impossible.

  As a charging btsan was about to trample him, Axel’s arms jutted up and out, and he grabbed and threw the horse.

  As in, picked up the reddish full-grown beast as if it was a beanie baby and chucked it away. Horse and rider sprawled, the horse shrieking as it thrashed itself back to its feet.

  “C’mon,” Kian was saying, “The witches are taking us to Mathusalem.”

  Demi was already in the closet with them, but I didn’t move.

  DO. NOT, the voice hissed in a quietness that scared me.

  “TALA!” Kian yelled. “I swear to John, if you don’t come in here…”

  I shook my head. “I can’t. We have to go with Axel.”

  “Tala,” Demi pleaded. “We can’t split up.”

  “And we won’t,” I said. “We’re going with Axel.”

  “Don’t be stupid, girl!” Minnie snapped and I could see she was about to slam the closet door in my face.

  The hooves were pounding outside closer, a roar.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered to my friends. At least they’d be safe in there, while I did what I had to.

  Burn them, the voice hissed.

  As soon as I rounded the corner, I was all too happy to oblige. The energy and force and wildness that had been crackling in me peaked as the burning roared inside my veins. The heat was strongest in my forearms, where my birthmarks were going red.

  The fire in me itched to be released, and yet, I knew in letting it go, letting this wildness free, it would be the most dangerous thing I’d ever done.