Sparking Magic (Protectors Academy Book 1)

by Nika Gray

  “This academy is training for that?”

  “Yes. This is an elite school that trains mages in combat, subterfuge and all the ways to protect us from them.”

  “Mages…”

  He nodded. “Mages.”

  “And why are the Fae so bad?”

  He laughed.

  “That's the big question,” he said rather cryptically. “Enough about that. You need to finish eating and get some rest. I'll send my daughter Kelly up soon. She can help you settle in and answer any questions you might have. I’ll give her your schedule, as well.”

  I lifted up my bandaged hands. “What do I tell people about these?”

  “Last time I check your bandages, you were almost fully healed. In a remarkable span of time, I must admit.” He stared hard at me as he said that, and I squirmed under his gaze. I definitely didn’t trust the guy yet.

  “Can I take them off?”

  He nodded. “I’ll give you some time by yourself.”

  He left before I could ask him anymore questions. I listened to make sure he was really gone. When I heard no sounds from outside my door, I jumped out of bed and landed on my bandaged feet. Feeling no pain, I snagged the end of one of the bandages and unwrapped it. I wiggled my toes and enjoyed the fresh air flowing between them. I didn’t see any signs of bruising or cuts. The headmaster was right. They did heal fast.

  The pain on the bottom of my feet had been excruciating as I was running through the woods. Now, it’s like it never happened. I undid the other bandage on the left foot and took off the ones on my hands. My golden skin glowed back at me.

  Now, how to get out of here? I didn’t know what to make of all that Headmaster Hotchkiss told me, but I didn’t trust him. How could I trust anyone if I didn’t have memories? If I were a prisoner in this place too, I would do everything in my power to get the hell out.

  And go where? The thought nagged me again. I pushed it away.

  I padded over to the window and unfastened the lock. I heaved it open. The smell of roses and fresh mown grass hit my nose. I inhaled deeply. God, that smelled good. Something stirred within me. I stood there for a moment, taking in the fragrance of nature, the light breeze hitting my face. Maybe this wouldn’t be such a bad place to crash after all. At least, until my memory came back. Then I could make plans to disappear.

  My sudden movements had tired me out and I crawled back into bed. I’d take a nap before meeting the headmaster’s daughter. I was asleep as soon as my head hit the soft, white pillow.

  I woke up again to a pinkish hue coming off the window. The smell of roses still wafted around my room. I lay there enjoying the silence in comfort when my stomach gave a loud rumble. I could definitely use some food.

  Someone knocked on the door.

  “Come in,” I called out.

  A gorgeous redhead came into the room carrying another covered tray.

  “Hi, you must be Kelly,” I said

  “Hi. Wow, you’re gorgeous,” she exclaimed, a huge smile crossing her face. She wasn’t too bad either, I thought. She had a squarish jaw with a slight cleft in the middle of it, bright green eyes, like the headmaster’s, and a pearly pale complexion. Cheerfulness oozed out of her.

  “So are you,” I grinned. “Is that dinner? I’m starved!”

  “Yes. Grilled cheese with salad, my specialty.”

  She placed the tray on my lap and opened the top with a flourish, just as her father had. My mouth watered at the smell of butter and cheese. The grilled cheese was perfectly toasted a golden brown and the salad sparkled with red pomegranate seeds.

  I had worried that Kelly wouldn’t be as open to having an injured stranger in the house as the headmaster, but her friendliness melted all my concerns about that away.

  “Did you magic this up?” I asked as I took a bite out of the grilled cheese. I tasted the sweetness of the butter with the tang of cheddar cheese and sighed in happiness.

  She laughed. “No, silly. Magic tires you out. My mom taught me to cook.”

  “Is she a mage, too?”

  “No, she was a hedge-witch,” she said, and her cheerfulness vanished for a moment.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, putting down the sandwich.

  “Don’t be,” she smiled. “It was a long-time ago. I do miss her, though.”

  “Is it only you and your dad now?”

  “Yup. That’s why I’m here at this elite school.” She leaned forward. “I’ll tell you a secret?”

  I leaned in. “Yes?”

  “I’m not as elite as I pretend to be,” she said and giggled. I liked this girl already. “Now you tell me a secret.”

  I didn’t know what to say. Did I have secrets? I was sure I did, but for now nearly everything about me was a secret, even to me.

  “I’m sorry, Kelly.” I shook my head. “I don’t have a secret to share.”

  “So you really don’t remember anything?”

  “No, nothing.” I shook my head again. “My memory is all gone. Don’t even know what to call myself,” I shrugged.

  “Well,” Kelly struggled for something to say. “Well, that’s simply fantastic!”

  “Fantastic?”

  “Now you can pick any name you want!” she exclaimed. “I’ve always wanted to do that. Kelly is so boring.”

  “Do you always look on the bright side of everything?”

  “Yes! I just have to find the light wherever I can. Don’t you?” she asked.

  “I have no idea, Kelly. I can’t remember a damn thing.” We both laughed at that.

  She sat perched on the end of my bed as I polished off all the dinner she’d made for me. I placed the tray on the table next to the bed and turned back to her.

  “Not that I don’t love eating in bed, but I’m itching to go and explore. Do you think your dad would mind if I left this room?”

  She cocked her head at me. “You aren’t a prisoner here, you know.”

  “I know,” I said although I really didn’t. “Your dad mentioned you had a schedule for me?”

  “Oh, right,” she pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to me. I looked down to see my week filled with Magical History 101, Herbology 101, Magic Maneuvers 101, Spycraft and Defensive Spells.

  My heart fluttered. But I couldn’t do magic. Probably because magic isn’t even real. Maybe Kelly and her father were completely nuts.

  “What’s wrong? These are the typical classes for a first year.”

  “Can I confess something?” Our eyes met.

  “Of course,” she whispered.

  “I’ve never done magic before.” My words hung in the air for a moment.

  She bit her lip and smiled. “That’s okay. My dad said he’d never felt such powerful magic as what you did on that road. Maybe you just need to tease it out.”

  “I hope you’re right,” I said and swung my legs out of bed. “Do you have anything I can wear?”

  “Oh, of course,” she said. “You’re welcome to anything I have, except all my things are in my room.”

  “Where do you sleep?”

  “In the dorms.”

  “Is that where I will be staying too?”

  She nodded her head yes. “Dad ordered your school uniform already. It should be in your room. I also shopped for you,” she continued, reaching for a bag near the desk. “So you have some hangout clothes. Dad doesn’t think it’s safe for you outside of these walls.” She gave me a side glance.

  “He mentioned that to me already,” I nodded. I reached into the bag and pulled out a pair of jeans. “Will you take me to see my room?”

  Kelly hesitated.

  “What are you not telling me?”

  “Term already started two weeks ago,” she said. “There was only one spot still available in the dorms for a first year. The girls you’re rooming with are the ‘elite’ squad.”

  “What does that mean?” I asked, pulling a blouse from the bag. “Isn’t everyone at the school elite?”

  �
��Yes, of course,” Kelly continued. “But more than that, these girls are the daughters of the select mages of the Magic Council. Basically, they think they’re hot shit. We’ve only been here for two weeks and already they’re sauntering around like they own the place.”

  “And those are my new roommates?” I asked.

  She nodded. I sank back onto my bed. “Maybe I’ll wait ‘til tomorrow then.”

  “That’s what I would do.” Her cheerfulness had returned. “What name do you want to choose?”

  As she said that, a name floated into my head. Sadie.

  “Sadie. I think my name is Sadie.”

  Kelly clapped her hands in excitement. “Oh, I love that name. Your memory is coming back!”

  “Not fast enough,” I said.

  I took another look at my schedule with its list of classes and buildings and my head began to pound.

  “Maybe I should rest just a bit more,” I said, not wanting to deal with my current reality.

  Kelly reached out and squeezed my hand. “It’ll be fine. I’ll be there the whole way, I promise.” Her sweet smile lit up the room.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  She left me then to stare out the window and breathe in the rose-scented air and stress about my day tomorrow.

  At least now I had a name.

  Sadie.

  Chapter 3

  Sadie

  Kelly Hotchkiss woke me up early the next morning. Butterflies in my stomach kept me from eating much of the quick breakfast. She chattered about all that she wanted to show me, but I didn’t catch most of it. My nerves were eating away at me. Her dad’s home had come to feel as a safe place and now we were leaving it.

  “One last thing. You need to wear this,” she said and slipped a gold contraption towards me. It looked like three rings had been fused together to sit side by side so they could be worn on three fingers. A flat bar had been pressed to one side of the rings.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s the conduit ring. It enables us to tap into the elemental magic all around us to fuel the spells we mages perform.”

  I picked it up and looked at the conduit ring more closely. I could see writing engraved on the flat bar’s surface.

  “How do I use it?”

  “That’s the thing. Dad thinks you don’t even need to use it. That’s why your magic is so unique. It comes from within you.”

  I caught on to what she was telling me. “This is my cover, isn’t it?”

  “Exactly,” Kelly said. “Another way to protect you. If you were ever not wearing it, everyone would notice.”

  I nodded and took another look in the mirror as we headed towards the door. I was wearing the same school uniform as Kelly, but I stood a half a foot taller and wore my blond hair down. I’d yet to see her without a ponytail in her red hair.

  I couldn’t help but to gasp as we walked out the door. We’d stepped into what looked like a small, quaint English country village. All the homes had luscious flower gardens in front and looked like storybook homes out of a fairy tale. The cottages themselves were all stone and brick and white shutters. The headmaster’s was the biggest of them all.

  “Are we still in the States?”

  “It does look very English, doesn’t it?” Kelly laughed.

  “Like a fairy tale.” The smell of mown grass, roses, and the unmistakable scent of the fall mingled in the air. I breathed in deep and my butterflies began to settle.

  “Where are we located?” I asked Kelly.

  “We’re actually in upstate New York. About three hours away from New York City,” she said. She pointed out larger stone buildings covered with ivy some distance away. “That’s the main quad where all the classes are. Let’s go there first.”

  As we walked, Kelly spoke about the history of the place, how it had been a more traditional mage’s college until the Fae war broke out and how it had been repurposed. I was only half listening as I drank in the beauty of our surroundings. I could see lakes in the distance, and rolling green lawns, and old-growth trees. The campus was perched on top of rolling hills with large lakes and forests stretching out as far as the eye could see.

  It was hard to imagine that New York City was only three hours away.

  “So, this part is the main quad. She gestured to a large green expanse punctuated with ribbons of concrete walk leading to the five buildings around its border. The place looked like an ivy-league campus. I never thought I’d set foot in a place like that.

  I started with a glimmer of excitement. Another memory of my past life. It was slowly coming back.

  “That building is the Trahern library,” she said and pointed to a stately building with two wings jutting from each side at the north end of the quad. It spanned the entire length. The central portion had a gleaming white dome sitting atop like a hat. “All the spell books are kept under lock and key by Professor Lark Tremaine. She’s also our Magic 101 instructor.”

  We walked into the midst of the quad. Small groves of trees punctuated the rolling lawn here and there providing shade for the lounging students. More students hurried to class, all wearing the same flowing black robes and uniforms underneath.

  “What’s with the uniforms?” I asked. “Aren’t we too old for that kind of thing?”

  “Theoretically, this is a military college for mages,” Kelly answered as she waved hello to someone in the distance. “The third-years wear the official uniforms of the Borderland Guards. First years are still in robes. It shows our apprenticeship, as it were.”

  I nodded. The idea of being in a military college made me uneasy. Although if I was going to protect myself from my kidnappers, then this was probably the place to be.

  She pointed to each of the other buildings on either side of the quad as the Craig Herbology Hall, Longbane Hall in which magic history was studied, and lastly the Bloodstyne Battle Hall.

  “Whose names are on these buildings,” I asked as she led me off the main quad to a cluster of more stone buildings around an interior quad.

  “The families of the magic Council. Only the elite and their friends can get into this college. And then a few scholarship students that have some kind of exceptional spell-making skills.”

  “This Magic Council figures big in your society,” I said.

  “They think they’re everything,” she said with a lowered voice. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I heard fear in her voice. It was only an instant though.

  “This is West Campus. The first-years live and eat here,” she said, her voice bright and cheerful again. The trees surrounding the dorms were starting their transformation to yellow and orange and there was a crispness in the air that made me smile.

  She pointed in the opposite direction.

  “Back there is North Campus, where the second and third-years live,” Kelly said. “We don't really have much to do with them outside of class hours. You'll see them around, but the different years keep to themselves.”

  “Why?” I asked. That didn't make much sense to me.

  “Because of the way the school functions. At the end of each year, there’s a large practice battle. It’s supposed to be like what you might find on the Borderlands if the Fae were able to open up a portal and get to us. The first-years battle the second-years. Whoever is left standing graduates to the next level. The third-years graduate to Apprentices at the actual Borderlands under the leadership there. By the time you get to the Borderlands then you’ll have had at least two practice battles to hone your battle strategy and also find out where you belong.”

  “What do you mean by where you belong?” I asked. There were fewer people around West Campus now, and many weren’t wearing the uniforms the students in the main quad were.

  “Like which battalion you belong in. There's the Infantry, the Spies, the Flyers, and the Spellbinders. It really depends on the kind of elemental magic you have and how you can wield it. You’ll understand more when classes begin,” Kelly said.

  The butterf
lies in my stomach revolted. I hadn’t produced any sort of magic since I’d awoken from my accident. Wanting to flee became an overwhelming desire all of a sudden. I was relieved to be outside because I felt like I could barely breathe. We stood in front of a building that looked like it housed a cathedral. It had tall stained-glass windows running alongside each wall. Carved stone letters declared its name as Gallagher Hall.

  “This is the main student building for West Campus. The dorms are to the left and right,” she said pointing to the two three-story Tudor-style stone buildings.

  “This quad is where you have the study halls, and where everyone eats breakfast, lunch and dinner together,” she said, starting up the stairs. I couldn’t help but stare at the name Gallagher as I followed her inside.

  “Do the magic Council families have students in first year?” I asked.

  “Oh yes, definitely,” she said.

  “I'm assuming those are the people to avoid?” I asked.

  “And now how would you know that?” she asked with a laugh.

  “Survival instinct, I guess,” I said with a wry smile. “Those kinds of people never play nice with others,” I said. I followed her down a short hallway and through massive wood doors into a cavernous hall.

  Two long wooden tables with ornately carved chairs spanned the entire length of the hall under a lofted vaulted ceiling. Three massive chandeliers hung down low over the tables. Alongside the windowed walls ran tables with silver serving trays filled with piles of all sorts of food. I watched in amazement as pasta magically appeared on a near-empty silver tray.

  “It’s all magic?” I asked.

  “No. The food is prepared in the kitchens downstairs,” Kelly explained. “Instead of having servers though, the cooks magic the food up.”

  “Very cool,” I said.

  As we walked by, I grabbed a croissant and caught sight of a gorgeous girl with raven black hair and indigo eyes. She was talking animatedly to a blond and a brunette. She noticed the attention I paid her and glared back at me. She flipped her hair over her shoulder and went back into conversation with her little clique.

  “Let me guess. Those girls are some of the offspring of these elite families?” I asked as I gestured toward the little group.