I froze in place so I didn’t startle her. Taking a deep breath to steady myself, I said aloud, “It’s okay. I won’t hurt you.”
Water lapped at my board, but there was no response. Well, duh, she couldn’t hear me if she was underwater. How could I let her see that I wasn’t a threat?
The water was too murky for me to make out much of anything beneath the surface, but she might be able to see me. I raised my hand in a slow wave of greeting.
For a long moment, nothing happened, and I was afraid that my gesture had gone unnoticed. But then, several yards away, I saw a dark hand rise out of the water right in front of me.
She waved back.
My breath caught in my throat. Was this really happening?
Leaning forward, careful not to tip my board, I slipped my hand into the water. I extended two fingers in what I hoped would be recognized as the symbol for peace.
The dark hand closed, then stuck out two fingers, mimicking my peace sign. And it was followed by the appearance of a face.
Her hair was a mixture of dark red and brown, like seaweed that grows at the very edge of the range of sunlight. Her skin was a deeper brown and glistening, as if even her human-appearing parts were covered in tiny scales. She came up just far enough for me to see her eyes, which were the most beautiful of all—like twin pools of midnight. I thought I would drown in their depths.
She gazed back at me as if she could see straight into my soul. She blinked once, and I saw two sets of eyelids sliding across her black eyes, one solid and the second translucent. Strange, yet fascinating and beautiful in its own way. My heart pounded so loud that I was afraid she could hear it even from a distance.
Then she turned and dove. I could just glimpse her elegant body sliding through the water, ending with a final flick of her tail that broke the surface with a tiny splash. Again, the purple scales glinted in the sunlight.
I let out my breath and shook myself. Time to go back to shore—and check into a mental institution, if I had any hope of saving my sanity. It was too easy to get obsessed with mermaids. They didn’t drown people on purpose, since that got them in trouble with the Fae courts, but there were a few lost souls every year. Humans who were drawn into the sea by a mermaid’s beauty, then killed by their own foolishness. I knew better than to let myself fall into that kind of trap.
Yet, as I climbed up the cliffs to my car, I couldn’t help but look back at the water. The ocean was my best place to escape everything else going wrong in my life. I didn’t want to give it up when I’d finally moved near the shore.
Even if coming here was the worst thing I could do.
5
I didn’t tell anyone what I’d seen. If people knew I was being mesmerized by a mermaid, they’d force me to stay away from the ocean. I promised myself that I’d just be more careful in the future, but I wasn’t going to give up surfing. It would just take a little discipline and maybe going to a new beach. One without mermaids lurking under the surface.
Sunday afternoon, Damian invited me to his room in the Dragon dormitories to get ready for the party. He had the opposite situation from me. His roommate had barely brought anything to the school besides some handbooks and figures for playing Dungeons & Dragons. Damian had filled the space with clothes, makeup, and everything else he needed to beautify both of us. He was always better at femme things than me, so I trusted him to take care of all the details.
“Time to make it up to me for the first day,” Damian said with a mischievous gleam in his eye. “I’ve actually been planning this for months, but now I’ve got the perfect excuse to make you go along with it.”
I gave him a wary look. “Remember, if we don’t stick to the dress code, the stodgy old professors won’t let us in.”
“Relax, I left the leather pants at home.” Damian opened a garment bag and held up matching suits. “Et voilà!”
I reached out and touched the fabric. It was a nice cotton—nothing cheap, especially since each was three pieces: matching coat, pants, and vest. “You want us to wear… purple?”
He shook his head. “This is wine red. The black buttons match the shirts, see, and then the ties are gray with a thin red stripe. That ties the whole look together.” He winked.
I groaned at the pun. I had to hand it to him, though, the ensemble was very tasteful. No teacher could fault these suits. “You didn’t want us to gender swap?”
“Oh, no, this is just the start.” He brandished his curling iron with a grin. “Masculine clothes, but then we’re going to glam it up with full hair and makeup. And for the finishing touch…” He opened a box.
Sparkling crystal tiaras. No way could I stay invisible with something like that on my head. “You know,” I said in a choked voice, “my mama used to be a faerie princess. She gave all that up because she said the expectations were too oppressive. If I wear a tiara, isn’t that kind of disrespectful to her past?”
Damian rolled his eyes. “They’re not crown jewels. Besides, no one would mistake a shorty like you for a Fae.”
I glared up at him. “Are you mocking my height?”
“Is this the wrong time to tell you that there are matching heels?” Damian opened another box.
I stared at the amount of fancy items spread out on his bed. “How did you get all the money for this, anyway? Are you selling your body?”
“Hah! Only if you count that as breaking my back over a hot grill, flipping burgers. I took a summer job to save up.”
My eyes widened. “That’s where you were all summer?” I folded my arms and shook my head. “I knew you couldn’t be hooking up with randos every day when you said you were too busy. I thought you just didn’t want to spend time with me.”
Damian pressed his hand to his chest dramatically. “Not spend time with you?” He waved his hand over the things he bought. “I was slaving away so we could live it up this year! How about a little appreciation?”
I threw my arms around him in a hug. “You know I appreciate everything you do. You didn’t need to go to this much trouble.”
He bent down to return the hug. “It’s fine, you can pay for the next school dance outfits. But right now, we need to get to work. There’s only a few hours left until sundown, and we can’t be late.”
I cooperated with his primping and preening so we didn’t waste time. He was right—we couldn’t afford to be late. The first part of the evening would actually be spent crossing the Veil. Since time ran differently in the Fae Realm, we’d have to be careful on the other side so we didn’t end up losing days or weeks. And the Veil was only thin enough to cross at certain times, like equinoxes and full moons. Spend too long in the Otherworld, and we couldn’t come back.
So I didn’t argue, even when he handed me a push-up bra, or when he insisted that I put on the heels. Hopefully I wouldn’t be doing any running or mountain climbing in the Otherworld.
By the end, both of us looked like contestants in a bizarre drag show. Our hair was curled into elaborate styles, we wore fake lashes, and the three-piece suits fit us well. Damian admitted that he’d saved money by buying at a discount after prom season and tailoring them himself. It didn’t surprise me that after years of friendship, Damian knew all my measurements. If he wasn’t my best friend, the amount of personal information he had about me could be dangerous.
We strolled to the amphitheater together, arm-in-arm, which helped me to balance those heels on the hiking trails. Everyone else was there, dressed up for the party, although no one looked quite so stylish as the two of us. The junior students were sitting in the first two rows of the audience. The rest of the seats were filled with the entire school faculty and the older students. Everyone had moved back to school over the weekend. They were here to see us off on our journey to get our powers.
Dean Sparrowhawk raised their hands for silence, and we rushed to our seats.
“Tonight is the Eve of the Autumnal Equinox,” they said, projecting their voice easily over the crowd without a mi
crophone. They probably had a magic charm for public speaking. “Our new students will cross the Veil into the Otherworld and receive their powers from Fae patrons. Later, we will meet at the baroness’s castle, the Dewmire Keep, so they can swear an oath to the Faerie court.”
The audience applauded politely, although only the juniors seemed excited. I guess the older students thought this was old news, since they’d been through the same thing already. They were just waiting for the party.
The dean looked down at us in the front rows. “This might be the most important night of your lives. Although we will train you, only a Fae can grant you magic. If you succeed, you will already be witches.”
I gulped. The courts had assigned specific Fae to become our patrons, although we didn’t know their names yet. But it wasn’t like we could screw things up at this point, right? Even the trip into the Otherworld would be guided by a teacher.
“Join me in welcoming our new junior class!” Dean Sparrowhawk called.
The applause was louder this time with a few cheers. If only I could be more excited about this moment. But getting the wrong powers was bumming me out. Once I got Earth magic, it would be years of study before I’d be allowed to take a second elemental specialty.
We got up from our seats and followed the teachers’ assistants to a row of buses in the nearest parking lot. The Gate to the Otherworld was several miles away. Despite our fancy outfits, this felt like field trip.
The TAs recited our instructions on the ride, even though we’d read them in the handbook and heard them repeated at least twice before. Follow our head teacher through the Veil, meet our new Fae patron, and make a deal so we’d get our powers. Simple.
I rode in the bus next to Damian, who took the window seat. Despite it being dark outside, he tried to look where we were going. The road was winding through the mountains and forest, with only one lane, and the buses were slow. It was only six miles, but it took almost half an hour before we saw the signs.
Damian blinked in surprise when he saw the yellow and black logo. “The Mystery Spot?” he said with a frown. “This can’t be right.”
“That’s just the tourist attraction,” I said. I’d been here before with my mothers, who liked to visit the local gatekeeper, an old family friend. “Don’t worry, the tours stopped hours ago, so there won’t be any normal humans here.”
Damian looked skeptical, but he pulled out a compact mirror and checked his makeup. “If you say so.”
The buses stopped in the parking lot for The Mystery Spot. Several signs warned that the location was closed for the night, but the lights were left on for us. We filed out and were divided into groups with our head teachers. I gave Damian a thumbs-up for good luck before I went to join Professor Helicon’s Earth students.
Professor Helicon held up a rope twined with colorful ribbons. “Okay, this is going to feel like kindergarten,” she said with a laugh which was echoed by her raven. “But you do not want to get cut off from the group, and the simplest methods are the best. Everyone, grab ahold of the rope and follow me.”
Everyone rolled their eyes and made jokes about being treated like little kids, but the teachers waited until we fell in line. I reluctantly grabbed the end, letting the other twenty-four students go ahead of me. The other three groups were using ropes to stay together, too. The professors led us onto the trail one at a time, starting with Air. Fire was second, taking Damian away, and then Water, where I caught a glimpse of Samantha’s smug face. Earth was last.
The connection between the two worlds was called a gate, but it was actually a Grove of trees, planted in a perfect ring. This gate was formed from eucalyptus trees, which weren’t native to California, so they stood out in the forest. The half-full moon hovered overhead, turning the eucalyptus leaves silver in the faint light.
Dame Susan met us at the entrance. She was the gatekeeper sworn to protect the Santa Cruz gate in our world, just like Mama Rosa did for the gate in Calaveras. Although she was a faeriekin knight, trained in combat, she looked like an old hippie. She was barefoot in a shapeless tie-dyed dress with her graying hair hanging loose around her shoulders. She looked over each of us, nodding to a few students she recognized. She winked at me, but I looked away, pretending I hadn’t noticed.
“Tonight, the Veil between the worlds is thin, as day and night stand in balance,” Dame Susan said. Despite her age, her voice was powerful, and I don’t think she needed magic to amplify it like the dean. “You have been given permission to cross and meet with your patrons. Safe travels to you.”
Professor Helicon made everyone step up to the edge of the ring so we could all cross at the same moment. “Hold the rope,” she said a final time. “On the count of three.”
One, two, three. We stepped into the Realm of Faerie.
6
It wasn’t my first time in the Otherworld, but the crossing was never easy. Colors swirled around me and I tumbled head over heels, unable to see which way was up. A wave of nausea passed over me but just as quickly, it disappeared.
I landed on my butt in the middle of a field of unrecognizable flowers. There were no eucalyptus trees around me, which was strange, because I should have gone straight to the other side of the gate. There was a line of trees off in the distance but they looked like no trees I’d ever seen before, twisted into impossible angles. The sky was twilight, with no sign of the sun or moon, and the stars were unfamiliar.
I looked down at my hands and found they were empty. So much for Professor Helicon’s rope trick. Something had gone horribly wrong. I wasn’t in the right place and there was no sign of my teacher or classmates. This was the worst thing they’d always warned us about: getting lost in Faerie.
Okay, don’t panic. I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths, in through my nose and out through my mouth. If I was going to get through this, I had to stay calm.
Mama Rosa was a gatekeeper, so she’d taught me a lot about the Otherworld that most humans didn’t know. She said all paths in the Otherworld were connected. If I stayed on one path and didn’t let myself get lured away, it should eventually lead me to a gate.
Eventually could be years. There were old stories about humans who strayed into Faerie and made their way back, only to find centuries had passed and everyone they knew was dead. But that hadn’t happened in a long time. Besides, someone would realize I was missing, and then the gatekeeper would track me down. One of their skills was tracking people in the Otherworld, and it helped that Dame Susan already knew me.
I couldn’t sit around, though. Dark creatures lurked, members of the Unseelie Court, and when we were on their side of the Veil, they weren’t bound by the laws that protected humans. I decided to take my chances with the path. If something jumped out of the shadows, I’d scream like bloody murder and hope someone was close enough to hear me.
My eyes flew open, and I pushed myself to my feet. I looked around for a path, but the field of flowers was unbroken. Uh oh.
Something rustled in the forest ahead of me and my head snapped up. My first instinct was to run, but then I saw it—a gap in the trees. The path.
It wasn’t a great choice to move toward the noise, but it was the only thing I could think of. Bracing myself for an attack, I walked toward the trees.
As I walked under the first branches, I heard another rustle above me. I looked up and saw a squirrel staring back at me. It was pink with purple polka dots, but it was still just a squirrel—totally harmless. It flicked its bushy tail once, then disappeared into the blue leaves.
I let out a sigh of relief. Not every creature in Faerie was deadly. If I was careful not to disturb them, some would leave me alone.
More sounds stirred in the surrounding forest, but I was growing in confidence. The important thing, I kept reminding myself, was not to get lured from the path. I kept my eyes focused forward, watching where I was going.
The path was fairly wide and smooth, better than the trails back at the academy, but my feet we
re already getting tired from wearing heels. I pulled them off and carried them in my left hand. Next time, I’d insist that Damian give me more sensible shoes.
A loud branch snapped off to my right. That got my attention. I whirled and stared into the blue-tinted darkness under the canopy. “Is someone there?”
A tall figure stepped out from behind a tree. He wore a gold helmet with slender, curving horns over long dark hair, with matching green-and-gold armor and a black cape. He opened his arms to me with a smile. “Don’t worry, witchling. It’s just your Faerie godfather.”
Loki. I took a step back before he could hug me. “What’re you doing here?”
Loki dropped his arms with a pout. “I thought you would be happy to see me. I’m here to rescue you from getting lost. You know you were supposed to stay with your class.”
“I know that,” I snapped. I barely had patience for this guy’s antics on a normal day and now was a bad time. “This isn’t my fault. I was holding the stupid rope like the teacher said, but when I got here, I was alone. Dame Susan will find me soon, so what do I need you for?”
Loki laid a finger on his chin and looked me up and down. “The Otherworld reacts to intent, and I can sense a lot of negative attitude from you right now.” He frowned. “What’s going on? I thought you had finally come around to the idea of being a witch.”
“That was when I thought I’d get the chance to study what I wanted.” I shook my head. “Everything I’ve done has been to join the Water school, but their stupid tests assigned me to Earth. All because of Mama.” I groaned and kicked a stone, wincing when it bounced back and struck a tender part of my foot. “I don’t want to be a witch if I have to do things exactly the same as her.”
“Hmm.” Loki leaned closer. “If you made the pact with me, I could give you any powers you wanted. The ability to do things your mother couldn’t even dream of.”
The Reluctant Witch: Year One (Santa Cruz Witch Academy Book 1) Page 5