Academy of Magic Collection

by Angelique S Anderson et al.

  “Wonderful job,” Uri said, nearly startling me out of my skin. The feathers on my arms quickly ran up my shoulders, and I closed my eyes for a second to imagine the flow of water pushing them to my fingertips, and then out into the air—gone. When I opened my eyes, my hands were back again.

  “Thanks,” I said, smiling at my little victory. “I think I’m getting the hang of it.”

  “I’m not surprised in the least,” Uri said, taking a few steps toward me. “Leo tells me you’re a quick study.”

  Now that the imminent panic of my wings tearing my clothes off in front of everyone had subsided, a new sense of dread came over me when I remembered Uri’s conversation with Ghob last night in The Fold.

  “I’m trying,” I said, scrambling for smalltalk. “He’s been a good mentor.”

  “He’s one of our best,” Uri added, studying my face without so much as blinking. He suddenly took in a quick breath and glanced at the rest of the Sylphs across the field. “Look how they’ve drifted…” he said, smiling. “That’s, of course, completely normal for a new Sylph…they tend to get caught up in each other’s momentum the first few weeks. In another twenty minutes, you’ll likely find them right back here. Interesting you weren’t pulled along with them.”

  He studied me carefully again, tilting his head to one side as if contemplating something.

  I cleared my throat. “Well, I was a little late,” I confessed. “So I probably didn’t have time to get in sync or something.”

  He nodded in placation. “Of course, that must be it,” he said dryly. “You seem to have adjusted well to island life, Halsey. Quite a change from Portland Prep, I imagine.“ He fixed his eyes on mine again, the intense, unblinking blue reminding me of a cat waiting to pounce. As far as he knew, I didn’t remember anything about my old life, and I needed to make sure he didn’t find out otherwise.

  “Um, where?” I said, trying my best to keep my expression as blank as possible. He lowered his eyelids, scrutinizing for another several seconds, but then seemed to relax. He flashed another smile, this one wide as he chuckled. “Be sure you’re drinking enough water.” Uri nodded and slipped his hands into his white pants pockets. “It’s the best thing you can do for yourself here,” he added, then started making his way down the field until he disappeared over the hill—exactly where Leo had gone.

  Since Ian was clearly not interested if I stayed with the rest of the Sylphs or not for the day, I’d stopped back at my dorm and looked in my closet for the white racer-back tank top everyone else had been wearing. I found about five of them shoved to the far right on the hanger bar, and quickly changed.

  Before I knew it, I’d spent the entire day on the opposite end of the field from the other Sylphs, trying to open and close my wings without allowing the feathers or ridges to spread to my arms. It wasn’t perfect yet, but by the time I was supposed to meet everyone else for dinner in the dining hall, I’d managed to keep the wings separate from my arms, save for feathers over my shoulders. I couldn’t wait to show Leo what I’d learned, but these thoughts went out the window when I opened the door and the smell of garlic bread wafted over me. I quickly loaded a plate and made my way to the table with Alita and the others.

  “Wow, have some spaghetti with your meatballs,” Bryce said, eyeing my plate as I sat down.

  “You’re eating that again?” Anita asked.

  “I like pasta.” I shrugged.

  “Where were you all day? I didn’t see you at breakfast or lunch.”

  “Practicing on the Sylph field,” I answered her, forking an entire meatball into my mouth.

  “You’ve been out there since this morning?” Alita watched me, wide-eyed. “Are you even chewing?”

  I swallowed. “Yes, and yes,” I said, eating another whole meatball.

  Rhea laughed. She’ll get two more plates before she stops eating like that. “Flight school is no joke.”

  “I still eat like that,” Alec said. “Before and after learning to shift—it’s just swimming.”

  “You’re all animals,” Bryce said finally looking up from his tablet. “Speaking of animals, where’s Red-Cloud?”

  “He was at the fire field before lunch, but then he went somewhere with Uri,” Rhea said.

  “Well, get word to him to meet on the cliff tonight after sunset. I found the tear to Portland.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  After dinner, I thought it would be a good idea to at least try to fly before meeting Leo on the cliff. If everyone else was coming after sunset, we wouldn’t have a lot of time to practice after all.

  I tried to recall the feeling I had when Ian threw my bra at me earlier this morning. The rush of embarrassment that crashed into me as I imagined him retrieving it from wherever it had been flung in the dining hall, then actually putting it in his pocket for safe keeping or something. Ugh. Suffice it to say, it didn’t take long before I felt the prickle racing up my throat and into my cheeks, and I imagined it being washed to my shoulder blades. A few seconds later, my wings expanded behind me, and I imagined the rest of the prickles flooding out, dripping from the ends of my fingers.

  I flapped my wings a few times, laughing out loud that I managed to stop the rest of the shift, then startled when my feet left the ground. I quickly stopped my wings and felt the grass tickling my angles again, then blew out a long, slow breath. I hadn’t tried to fly earlier today when I was practicing, but the cliff was a good ten-minute walk…and no one was around.

  I started running in the direction of it, flapping my wings a few times until my feet left the ground again. I started gliding, but after a second, a pocket of wind pushed my left wing down and I started to drop. I tried desperately to flap my way free, but it only made me start spinning.

  In a matter of seconds, I crashed headfirst into the ground—well, more like elbows first since I’d hidden behind my arms. I rolled a few times, and noticed my knuckles and elbows were bleeding when I finally righted myself. Without even trying, my wings started to fold in, then shrink until they were gone again, and in the same moment, the scrapes on my hands and arms disappeared. The shift channels its energy to repair your injuries, I remembered Leo saying, and smiled to myself.

  When I stood up again, the main house I’d been taken to when I first arrived was in sight, so I’d flown at least halfway to the cliff. That moment of satisfaction faded quickly, though, when I heard raised voices coming from inside, though the house was several hundred yards away.

  I made my way up the steps and slipped through the front door only to realize it was Leo who was yelling, but I couldn’t make out any of his words. I moved quickly toward the closed door where the voices were coming from and stopped abruptly when a sharp pain jabbed my left ankle.

  “Ow!” I said too loudly and quickly covered my mouth. When I looked down, my ankle had two puncture wounds, each of them dripping blood. In the corner, a yellow, horned Djin snake was coiled in the dark, its wings extended and shaking like a rattlesnake at me. It hissed, and I slowly moved backward, accidentally running into an end table and knocking over a lamp. “Shit,” I whispered. The snake hissed at me again, and the yelling behind the door stopped. “Shit…shit! Shit!” I whispered under my breath again and tried to rush back toward the front door, but it was too late.

  The doors swung open, and Uri came through. I stopped where I stood and put my left ankle behind my right leg so he couldn’t see the bite mark, which was starting to itch.

  “Halsey, what a pleasant surprise,” he said, clearly not pleased to see me. “Is there something I can do for you? Oh…” he added, looking at the floor where I stood. “Are you hurt?”

  I looked down to find that the blood had run forward over my foot and sandal straps, and now the whole injury looked much worse than it was. “Um…” I said, scrambling for words. “I was taking a walk on a trail…and…I don’t know…I think something bit me?”

  “Indeed,” Uri nodded. “Jeanette! A first aid kit!”

 
; Within seconds, one of the gray-uniformed, silent attendants came rushing in the room with a small, white box. She knelt by my side and took off my sandal, then just started dabbing a cold, wet cloth all over my foot. I sucked in a breath through my teeth when I felt the sting of the other little cloth she’d ripped open and pressed over the bite on my ankle. It couldn’t have been a handful of seconds later that the bite had healed, and my sandal was already cleaned and back on my foot. She started tapping on my shin with her leathery hand, forcing me to step back so she could clean the floor where the blood had dripped. I looked up for what just seemed like a few seconds, and as fast as she’d arrived, she was gone again.

  “Wow…” I said, in a little shock. “Thank you. I’ll just head back to my dorm then.”

  “I’ll escort you,” Leo said, storming through the doors Uri had just opened. I forced myself to swallow the gasp in my throat when I saw the small, black horns slowly receding back into his forehead, his dark hair pulled into a ponytail with several loose strands framing his angular face.

  “Oh, OK,” I said, glancing at Uri, whose bright blue eyes were narrowed and his lips were pressed together in a rigid smile.

  “I’ll have the mentors made aware, and thank you, Mr. Red-Cloud,” Uri called after us as we made our way to the door.

  Outside, Leo pulled off his shirt and jammed it into his pocket. His wings shot out what must have been fifteen feet in either direction, and I didn’t have any time to react before he threw his arm around my waist and took off straight into the sun. I turned my head into his shoulder to shield my eyes, my hand gripping the muscles in his shoulder as my other arm laced around his waist. I risked a glance at the ground, which was quickly starting to look like a collection of toy trees and houses. But Leo just kept flying higher and higher until wisps of white clouds started to obscure my vision.

  “Leo! We’re too high!” I finally said, holding onto him so tightly now I was afraid I might leave marks on his skin.

  A few seconds later he leveled out, then started to dive. I buried my face in his neck and tried not to scream, but the whistling air and sense of falling were almost too much. Finally, we slowed, and he leveled out again. I took a deep breath and risked another glance toward the ground, but there was no ground this time. We were flying over the ocean. Behind us, the cliff rose up from the rocks far below.

  “Hold on,” Leo said, slowing until we were nearly stopped, his arm tight around my waist as his other hand moved to my face.

  “Leo, what happened?” I asked, his black horns now extending into a twist near the ends. His eyes were a golden brown, like the darkest part of a fire. “Leo…?” He leaned me backward, his wide, black wings slowly moving over us, pushing the air and catching it again.

  “Put your arms around my neck,” he said close to my ear. When I did, he moved his lips over mine, softly at first, but then more urgently as his hold tightened around my waist, and his other hand pulled my leg over his hip. A rush of heat rose inside me as he trailed kisses down my throat and chest, then back toward my ear again. “All the heat, push it to your back…your shoulders…show me your wings, Halsey,” he said, his voice low and rough.

  I did as he said, channeling it all until my wings unfolded, and he rotated us so that I was above him. His hands moved to the small of my back, and we started falling.

  “Leo!” I said, feeling the cold wind rush up from below.

  “Use your wings!” he said. “Hold them out…catch the air!”

  Again, I did as he said, and the second I extended my wings all the way, I felt the air like giant hands pushing them up—pushing us up.

  “It’s working!” I shouted.

  “Go higher! Push higher!”

  I pushed against the air, which sent us lofting upward each time, and when I felt the next breeze, I extended my wings again and let the air carry us. I was flying…

  Leo let go of my waist and fell several feet before rolling to his stomach and extending his wings. The air caught him, too, and sent him soaring upward until we were flying next to each other.

  “Now follow me…” he called just before darting forward. We flew at full speed for several more seconds until the fog cleared just long enough to show a curtain of raging fire coming out of jagged rocks.

  “Leo!” I shouted to him as we went into the fire, unable to stop in time, but the very next second we were surrounded by silence again. Deafening silence.

  He collapsed his wings and landed on his feet, but I realized this too late and couldn’t close my wings all the way before I crashed into him. He caught me around the waist and steadied me until my feet found the ground.

  “Thanks,” I whispered, feeling my heart pounding against his as he loosened his hold on me, his hands moving from the small of my back to my hips before he let me go.

  His horns were starting to recede, but his chest was still heaving, and all his muscles were tensed.

  “Leo, what happened back there with Uri?” I asked, surprised at how difficult it was to talk.

  Leo took a slow, deep breath and let it out through his nose in two streams of smoke, both of which disappeared into the fog that surrounded us. His horns receded the rest of the way, and his black hair fell in soft waves around his shoulders, the ponytail apparently a casualty of his aerodynamics just now.

  He let his gaze fall to the ground and shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I never should have brought you to this island.” When he looked up at me again, his dark eyes were glassy and bloodshot. His heavy brows were drawn together, and his jaw was clenched like he was in physical pain.

  “Leo…what happened?” I asked again, moving my hand over his shoulder.

  “The Sylph Uri was talking about last night—the one he was looking at to replace Ian on the mission to kill Eve,” he started, then took another deep breath. “He wants you, Halsey.”

  I stared at him for a second, then stepped back. If I was the Sylph Uri had been talking about with Ghob, he’d clearly missed something. I definitely sided with humans. This had to be a mistake.

  “I can’t be the one he wanted,” I said. “He didn’t want Ian because he was too partial to humans. I’m partial to humans, Leo. And I would assume you are too?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “I think he told her that to buy some time, but she didn’t take the bait after all. He called me in there this afternoon and put it all on the table.”

  “If it doesn’t matter, why doesn’t he just ask Ian?”

  “I don’t know, Halsey. Midori told him you were the one.” Leo pushed his hands through his dark hair. “She doesn’t think you’re a Sylph,” he added. “She told him as much after that first honing class.”

  “Then what the hell am I? Uri is the one who said I was a Sylph in the first place.”

  “He still believes you are,” Leo answered. “But the fact that Midori doesn’t think you’re like the others is exactly why he wants you to go with us. I told him you weren’t ready for this.”

  “Us?” I asked, studying him.

  Leo sighed and moved his hands to his hips, then let his eyes fall to the ground again. “I don’t have a choice. I have to lead a group to find Eve and kill her, just like we heard him discussing with Ghob last night,” he said, then met my eyes again. “We’re leaving in a week, Halsey.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  I stared blankly at him, hoping this was all just a bad dream.

  “We can’t, Leo. You heard them say that Knox person she’s protecting will lift the veil. With Eve gone, they’ll take him and then attack everyone.”

  Leo gave me a pained, knowing look. “Not everyone,” he said quietly. “Uri said the Gnomes would protect the people who never hurt the earth.”

  “Everyone has hurt the earth!” I shouted. “They’ll kill everyone!”

  “No. He promised me. Ghob told him herself.”

  “We can’t do this.” I shook my head. “If we don’t, that guy can’t lift the veil, and
whatever is behind there can’t kill anyone. We just refuse.”

  “Halsey…” Leo sighed. “If we don’t, they’ll kill the rest of my tribe. And yours…all of the people each of us on the team cares about. The Elementals like Sylvie who can cross between the planes have already started setting traps near the tears in the veil—luring them with echoes and glimpses to the other side so they’ll be marked.”

  “Max…” I whispered.

  “Uri said he’s been coming to the woods by your house since they told him your helicopter went down. There’s another tear right there somewhere,” Leo explained. “Every time you thought about him, reached out like that in your mind, he heard you in that space, and Sylvie marked him.”

  “No…” I said, tears burning my eyes as my voice broke on the word. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know, Leo…”

  “None of us did,” he said, his voice full of anger, but not toward me. “That’s how Uri wanted it, and we don’t have a choice now that our people are marked. We have to protect them.”

  My mind was spinning with indecision, and I was doubled over with guilt and anger. No matter what I did or didn’t do, someone was going to die because of me—either the veil would be lifted, and the war on humanity would begin, or Sylvie would make sure everyone we cared about would pay the price. There had to be another way.

  “Leo, you said there were others,” I remembered. “Who? An Undine and a Gnome, right? Ghob said there had to be one of each bloodline.”

  “I recommended Alec and Bryce. Uri doesn't know we've already found the tear.”

  “Do they know you put them on this team? Bryce just said he found the tear that leads to Portland. We’re supposed to meet on the cliff after sunset tonight.”

  “When did he tell you that?”