“I guess it would be weird to find out about all this out of the blue.” Dylan stuffed his hands in his pockets.
“And I am afraid. What I did to Conner…”
“God, not that again. I know you feel bad about it, but you apologized and it’s over.”
“I know, but I’m worried that if I let out the full strength of my magic, just let it loose, then it’ll come out at other times when I don’t want it to. Like my magic will think it has permission.” Aiden made a face. That sounded weird.
“Dude, I told you—the opposite is true. It’s a pressure release. Let yourself go wild, and you’ll feel better afterward.”
“Not everyone is like you.”
“Try it. Come on, I’m getting bored.”
Knowing how obnoxious Dylan could get when he was bored, Aiden focused on the wooden pole they’d set up as a target. Aiden still didn’t really know what his magic could do. He’d gotten a few ideas from the things he’d been able to do in class. What he knew for sure was that it didn’t have to be something destructive, like Dylan’s fire. Aiden could try something totally different.
The pole looked a bit like a tree. Could he make it into an actual tree? Or at least make it look like one? The books and information he’d read made a lot of mentions of fae being able to cast glamour spells, making something look different—a handful of leaves and rocks that looked like gold coins until the fae was gone, things like that.
Can I make you into a little tree? He sent his magic toward the pole, picturing the transformation. A small tree, little more than a sapling, with bright green leaves as if it were spring instead of fall. The strange warm feeling started in his chest, and he didn’t fight it, only directed it.
The pole shimmered and a slender little tree appeared in its place.
“I did it!” Aiden jumped.
“Huh. Not what I was expecting, but cool.” Dylan admired the tree. “Is that real, or a glamour?”
“I’m actually not sure.”
Dylan walked up to touch it. He looked back with his eyebrows raised. “It’s real. You’ve seriously got some big-time fae mojo.”
“I turned a pole into a real tree,” Aiden said, mostly to himself. It was terrifying to think he had that much magic, that such a thing was possible. But he couldn’t pretend it wasn’t exciting. “I wonder what else I can do.”
“There you go.” Dylan smiled. “I told you this would be fun.” He flicked a hand and the tree caught on fire.
“Hey!”
“You can make another one.” Dylan walked back to where Aiden was standing.
“You don’t have to burn everything, you know.”
The poor tree’s leaves blackened and curled.
Something crossed Dylan’s face. Uncertainty, maybe even fear. “I know.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
A beautiful, sun-dappled forest surrounded him. Birds sang in the trees and a light breeze rustled the leaves. Everything was so bright, the colors so sharp. Aiden walked down the narrow path. Ahead, a huge oak tree grew right in the middle of it. The dark shadow against the trunk seemed to move.
This happened before. Something tickled at the back of his mind, trying to slip away as he reached for it.
The shadow became a man-shaped figure. “Hello again, Aiden.”
“Uncle.” Yes, that was the man’s name, or what he’d told Aiden to call him. “This is a dream.” Things clicked into place, leaving his head feeling tingly.
“Ah, good. You are aware now. The connection should be stronger.” The man with purple-blue skin stepped out onto the path, an eager gleam in his dark eyes.
“What connection?”
“The connection between us. I have been looking for you for a long time.”
As the man came closer, Aiden took a slow step back. “You said that last time. Are you really my uncle?” His fear disappeared in a rush as he realized what that could mean. “Do you know my parents? Do you know where they are?”
“Sadly, no. I do not know who your parents are, but I am a relative of sorts.”
Aiden frowned. “If you don’t know who my parents are, then how do you know you’re related to me?”
“I can feel it in your power. I am fae too.” The man stopped a few feet away, and the forest around them dulled, colors fading away. Uncle looked around. “Hmm, the connection still is not strong enough. Perhaps the wards…” He turned his attention back to Aiden. “There are many things we need to speak about, young Aiden. I will return on the morrow to visit you again.”
Aiden blinked as the world tilted crazily and Uncle seemed to pull away from him. “Who are you? What’s your name?”
“All in good time…”
Aiden opened his eyes, blinking up at the ceiling. “Not a dream,” he told himself. “Definitely not a dream.”
* * *
“I got another call from your teacher,” Dylan’s mom said.
“Yeah,” he said with a shrug.
His mom sighed. “Dylan, you can’t keep doing this. You’ll start failing your classes, if you aren’t already, and if you fail too many, you’ll be held back.”
“So,” he said with another shrug. None of this really mattered anyway.
His mom joined him on the couch, sitting on the other end. “Why do you have such a problem with school? Do you really not care about your future? Don’t you want to be certified so you can leave Shadow Valley?”
“No, I don’t.” He glared at her. “I don’t want to go out in the world and constantly hide what I am. Pretend to be human, to be normal. Why should I have to? I’m stronger than half the people in this town already. I shouldn’t have to hide it.” To give up what made him special.
“I told you before, your strength is the reason it’s even more important for you to control your magic. You’re capable of so much destruction. You can’t risk getting out of control.”
He opened his mouth to admit he wanted to, that he fantasized about how good it would feel to burn everything down. But that was too much of a confession, and he didn’t want her looking at him the same way everyone else did. “I can control my magic. What you’re talking about, what everyone is talking about, is hiding it. Bottling it up so humans never find out. Why should we do all this for them?”
“Because we have to live with them. If they knew what we were, they would panic. They would hunt us, like they did in the old days.”
“You mean like the wardens do now?”
Many of the wardens were their own kind, policing other supernatural beings, killing them if they were deemed too dangerous.
“No.” And now there was a rare hint of anger in her eyes. “It was much worse before the wardens and the treaty. There is a path to peaceful coexistence with humans, and this is it. If you won’t get past your stubbornness and see that, you’ll have to stay in Shadow Valley. Or you’ll be hunted down. I sincerely doubt you really want that, Dylan.” She stood. “So get this rebellion out of your system. Take a few years if you need to, but don’t spend too long stomping around and being angry at the world. It does you no good.”
Dylan clenched his fists and fought to control himself. “You don’t understand. You’d rather suck up and play nice.”
Her usual calm expression was back. “I was angry once too. All it did was cause more pain. I just hope you realize that before you seriously hurt yourself or someone else.”
He was so tired of the hippy pacifist crap. She was dragonkin, just like him. Stronger than him, but she’d agreed to play by the wardens’ rules and had come to live in Shadow Valley as soon as she knew she was pregnant.
“Whatever,” he muttered.
His mom stood there for a minute like she was going to say something else, then she shook her head and walked away.
Dylan flicked on the TV and started looking for something good. They had arguments like this all the time now. He was getting tired of it, but he couldn’t help challenging her. For a moment he worried that she might be right, that all the anger he
carried around was leaking out, damaging his life.
But holding it in wasn’t the answer. He needed to let it out or he would explode.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Everyone will take one cup of dirt and one seed. Over the weekend, I want you to work magic on the plant at least once a day, preferably twice, and on Monday you will be graded on how much it’s grown. This is a magic that takes patience. No cheating by getting parents or older siblings to help. No potions. Only growth spells.”
After they’d each picked up a cup and a seed, Aiden and Maggie went back to their seats. It was the first time Aiden had seen Maggie disappointed about an assignment.
“I’m afraid I won’t be much help this time,” she said.
“Why?”
“I’m terrible at growth magic… anything to do with plants, really.” She frowned at the seed in her palm.
While Aiden felt sorry for her, he was also excited. “Maybe I can help you this time. I’m good with plants.”
He dug a little hole with his fingers and stuck the seed inside, about an inch down, just like the teacher had said. He poured a bit of water from the pitcher at their desk and watched the dirt soak up the moisture.
He’d always liked helping Mom in the garden, and when he found out about the nature of his power, it made sense. “I accidentally made our tomatoes grow super fast, before I even knew what I was. Not that I think this will be easy, but… I think I have a talent for it.”
Maggie brightened. “Great! Even the best of us can’t be good at everything, so maybe I have the perfect partner for this.”
Aiden touched the cup, thinking about the tomatoes, about the affinity he felt for growing things. Trees, grass, bushes, flowers. He was still nervous that he might not do well, but this was the first time he’d been excited about an assignment. The warm, slightly tingly feeling of his magic filled his chest, and he shoved away the automatic fear. He had a little bit of control now, and he wasn’t upset, so his emotions wouldn’t cause his magic to burst out.
Part of him knew how to do this; it was instinct. Phoebe had said so, Dylan had said so, Ms. Yang had said so. He let a bit of that power flow out into the cup and through the cup into the little seed. Grow, he thought, picturing a spout, then a stem, then a leaf.
A tiny little shoot of bright green pushed out of the black dirt.
“Whoa,” Maggie said, eyes wide and impressed. “You really are good at this.”
He felt both proud and embarrassed. “It feels nice to be good at something again.” Maybe his magic classes wouldn’t be so bad. This might help bump his grade up, and Maggie would help him keep from failing most, or at least some, of his other assignments.
“Can you explain how you did that?”
She’d explained so much to him, even if he sometimes didn’t get it. A lot of what drove magic was emotion, especially at the beginning stages. He was learning that from both Phoebe and Dylan, although they had very different ways of going about their lessons. Dylan drew his magic from anger, and Phoebe encouraged Aiden to feel a deep connection to nature.
That was exactly what they needed for this assignment. “I’ll try. It’s all about feeling a connection to the plant and encouraging it to grow just like it normally would, only much faster. Don’t expect to have it sprout as fast as mine. I think this is… my specialty.”
“Okay.” She took a breath and closed her eyes.
He encouraged her through the rest of class. Although she didn’t get her plant to visibly grow, she seemed optimistic when class ended. “Can I call you tomorrow and you can help walk me through it again?”
“Sure. Oh, but not between six and eight. I’m busy then.”
“Okay. What are you doing? Anything fun?” She put away her things and stood.
“I’m training with Dylan.”
She made a face. “I still think you’re crazy for hanging out with him. And now I think you’re even more crazy for training with him. What does he teach you, how to burn everything in sight?”
Everyone always expected the worst of Dylan. “There’s more to him than that, you know,” he snapped. “Dylan isn’t just a jerk that likes to burn things. He’s never been mean to me. He’s a lot nicer than a lot of humans I’ve met.” Dylan was the most feared kid at school, but he was no bully. “He was nice to me from my first day, and he’s lonely. He acts the way he does because everyone treats him like he’s dangerous, but he’s really just like the rest of us.”
Maggie leaned back and stared at him while he went off on his little rant. “Okay, okay. I didn’t mean to insult your friend.” Other kids had stopped on the way to the door and they were looking at him or pretending really hard not to be looking at him.
Aiden sighed and laughed a little. “I guess I’m a little protective of him. Which is pretty hilarious.”
Maggie picked up her cup of dirt with the little seed growing inside. “Friends stick up for each other.”
He thought of how Dylan had offered to beat up Conner Mays for him. “Yeah, they do.”
“Are we okay?” Maggie asked.
“Yeah.” Aiden picked up his backpack and his own cup of dirt with the little green sprout in it.
“I’ll call you on Saturday, not between six and eight.” She flashed a wide smile and left.
* * *
This time Aiden recognized the forest as soon as he saw it. When he saw the oak, he turned and went the other way down the path. But the tree soon appeared in front of him again, and with it, the shadow.
“Hello.” The shadow formed into Uncle again, who had a slight smile on his face.
“How are you coming into my dreams?” Aiden asked.
“It is a talent of mine.” The fae who called himself Uncle came closer. “I do wish you would not fear me.” His hand lifted, reached out for a brief moment before he let it fall. “I will cause you no harm.”
“You’re creepy. You make me nervous.”
“Is it my appearance? This is my true form, and I wished to honor you with it.”
I go to school with monsters. Even though they didn’t look like it, he knew what they were. This man was fae, like him. “You appear out of the shadows, and you’re invading my dreams. And there’s just… something not right about you.”
Uncle tilted his head. “Of course. You have never seen another fae, and certainly not in true form. Would you be more comfortable if I were to alter my appearance?” Without waiting for an answer, his body shimmered for a second and a middle-aged man stood in front of him. Dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail, eyes a warm brown. Now he wore black pants and a white button-up shirt. “Is this better?”
If Aiden could stop trying to picture what he’d looked like before… “Yes.”
“Good.” He smiled. “I also apologize for stepping into your dreams, but this was the only way to contact you.”
“Why? You know where I am, so you can just come to Shadow Valley.” Was this man really a relative?
“I am not in your world. I am in Faery, and dreams are thin places, places where one can communicate across worlds.” He stepped closer, and Aiden stepped back.
“You’re in the same world my parents are, right?” It made his heart beat faster to think about finding them, being able to ask them all the questions he had. Being able to see his brother.
“Yes.”
“Can you find them? Can you bring them to my dreams so I can talk to them?”
Uncle’s eyes narrowed as he frowned. “Mayhap. I have the taste of your magic, so I may be able to track them down.”
Aiden didn’t like the idea of this man tasting his magic. “I’d love to talk to them, so if you can find them, please do.” He’d already accepted that it would be years before he could go searching for his other family, but now there was hope he’d be able to meet them soon.
“It may take some time, young one. In the meanwhile, I would like you to do something for me.”
“What?” Aiden asked cautiously.
“Go to the edge of town, where the barrier is—”
“Barrier?” Aiden frowned. “Do you mean the invisibility shield, or the cloaking, or whatever it is that hides the town from the road?” Driving straight through trees that weren’t there… Aiden didn’t want to do that again.
“Yes, that is it. Touch something to the barrier, a leaf, a twig, and take this thing with you when you sleep. Hold it close to your body.” Uncle mimed holding something against his chest.
“What for?”
“The barrier about the town makes it difficult for me to hold our connection.” The man paced a bit on the narrow path, hands folded behind his back. “This will allow me to… understand the magic it is made from, and strengthen our dream connection.”
“How does that work?”
Uncle opened his mouth, closed it, then said, “It is complicated. But I must make our connection stronger to bring others with me.”
“Like my parents.” This was so weird, but everything else in his life was weird. Was a dream visit from his birth parents really much stranger than anything else that had happened?
“Yes.” The colors around them started to fade. “Our time has ended for now. I will see you again tomorrow.”
Tomorrow was a school day and another lesson with Phoebe. “I might not be able to get to the barrier until Saturday.”
“Satur… day?” Uncle asked.
“A few days from now.”
Uncle pondered a moment, a finger to his chin, as the trees faded to black and white. “Call my name when you have done what I ask. Repeat it thrice as you fall asleep.”
“Okay.” As if things weren’t strange enough already, now he felt like he was in the middle of a fairy tale.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
When Aiden opened his locker between classes, a note came tumbling out. For a moment he wondered if it was from Dylan, but no, Dylan wasn’t the kind to write a note. He unfolded it and recognized the handwriting of Hanna.
How to Make Friends and Not Incinerate People Page 7