by E A Foley
“He head to Pacific?”
“Yeah. His dad was in his apartment. I don’t think it’s a good sign. Only time will tell.” She sighed.
“Try not to think about it too much, all right?” Nimbus told her as they walked to her car. They’d decided on skipping crepes.
“No promises,” Iris said truthfully.
She stayed quiet during the drive home as she tried to determine what Brett was doing but he’d concealed himself from her. She switched to tracking Mr. Moreno. He sat in what Iris assumed was his living room. She wondered if Brett was still with him or if he’d come back to Davis. The thoughts were forced out of her mind as soon as she walked into the guys’ apartment—Cirrus made sure of that with his insistence to play a board game.
A night off turned out to be exactly what Iris needed. She let all her worries fade away as she played Dead of Winter with Cirrus, Violet, Thorin, and Kyxy. Nimbus opted to simply watch. He stayed in Davis most of Sunday. They remained at the guys’ apartment and caught up on some homework.
Before he left in the late afternoon, Iris assured Nimbus that Brett and Jaden weren’t nearby so he could form his doorway without worry. It turned out both were in Pacific. At the Morenos’ house. Iris kept that knowledge to herself though she knew Nimbus could suss out their location if he wanted to. Neither cared when she formed her own doorway back to her apartment.
Thoughts about how she needed to stop keeping secrets from her friends flitted through her mind. Iris dismissed them with little effort and switched her focus to the to-do list she’d created on her walk the previous evening. As always, the need to keep her friends safe popped to the top of her mind. She reminded herself she and Nimbus were working on that with concealment and tracking lessons but the thought wouldn’t go away. Iris decided she needed to focus on plans for keeping everyone safe during spring break.
Going to Gemina Terra like she’d mentioned to Thorin seemed like the best option. The problem was she didn’t have a way to form the archways without Jaden or Brett realizing precisely what she did. Her brain started churning as she paced her room.
If I can successfully conceal everyone’s magic during our training session on the island this weekend, then maybe I can teach someone else how to do the same thing. That just might work. Of course, that means not everyone can go to Gemina Terra. Someone will have to stay behind to make sure all the flows from the archways recede before they drop the concealment barrier.
Iris stopped pacing and pursed her lips. Perhaps that’s not the best idea after all, she thought. As Iris started considering other options, someone knocked on her door.
“Come in,” she called.
Violet stuck her head in. “Hey! We’re having a girls’ night. Last-minute decision. Kyxy, Kylee, and Sienna are on their way. Roz is cooking and Aerianna is baking. We’re going to watch some rom-com whose name I can’t remember, open a few bottles of wine, and vent about everything. Come join us!”
Iris grinned. “A girls’ night sounds amazing. What would you say to a girls’ week?” she added.
“That’d be awesome. I mean we never get to hang out anymore. At least not the way we used to. We’d be missing Zarina and Morrigan and . . . sorry. I got carried away.”
Iris’s insides froze. She swallowed. Forced a small smile. “It’s all right. We haven’t exactly talked about what their deserting us has meant to everyone. I think that may be a good topic for tonight’s venting session.”
Violet grinned and nodded. Iris rose and followed her to the living room. Everyone else was already there. Full wine glasses in hand and a spread of cheeses, crackers, and grapes on the table. The sight of the spread sent a flood of dread through Iris’s being. She stopped. Tried to swallow the lump that made breathing difficult as her mind transported her to a tiny, circular room.
Iris closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She shook the momentary dread off. She would die before being Jaden’s prisoner again. Iris didn’t know such a simple sight could pull all those memories back with such force.
Something definitely showed on her face. Kyxy noticed. She caught Iris’s eye. Gave her a sad smile and poured Iris a glass of wine before handing it to her. Iris nodded in thanks and took a sip. They’d bought a Zin for her. The thoughtfulness of her friends continued to astound her. And helped her combat her PTSD.
The seven of them hung out late into the evening. After an hour of talking around the subject, everyone finally had enough wine to vent about their three former friends. Iris gave them ample time to get everything off their minds before broaching the subject of going to Gemina Terra for spring break. They were in full planning mode before Roz announced she was tired and kicked everyone out. Iris smiled as she climbed into bed. She was the most relaxed she could remember being in a long time.
The seventh week of the quarter flew by. Brett stopped stalking Iris magically. It both relieved and disturbed her. Jaden’s check-ins became less intense and less frequent. Iris kept watch over both gentlemen but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. By the time Saturday arrived, she and Cirrus met to practice forming the archways twice. He could now form the golden arch and get it to open to the iridescent bridge in its field of grey three out of five times.
While he practiced forming the archway and bridge to Gemina Terra, Iris practiced concealing his magic from others. The increased interest in what she did—including some probing of her barrier—and the lack of interest in what Cirrus did made Iris believe she’d have no problem concealing her friends’ magic while on the practice island. Add in Cirrus’s successes and nothing could take her happiness away.
Saturday arrived with a rain-filled sky that couldn’t deter Iris’s good mood. She hummed as she got ready to head to the island. A final check on Jaden and Brett told her they’d follow her in seconds.
“Okay, Brett and Jaden are both at their places, so we’ll have to be fast. Nimbus and I will form our mini-doors to the island. Once I step through mine, I’ll place a huge soundproof and darkened barrier over the island. That will be more than enough to trigger Brett, Jaden, Zarina, Morrigan—everyone—to follow us. Give me a few minutes to make sure I can keep them at bay before coming through.”
“And what if you can’t keep them at bay?” Sienna asked.
“Then I come back through Nimbus’s door and we do something else today.”
“Fair enough.”
“Great. Ready?” she asked Nimbus.
“Whenever you are, love.”
Iris nodded. They both shimmered into their faerie-sized true selves and requested their doorways form. The smallest of twinges at the nape of her neck told Iris Brett noticed something changed. She didn’t wait for him to figure out precisely what. Iris opened her doorway, pulled a river of power into her being, and formed a barrier that covered three-quarters of the island.
Before she darkened it, other magic users filled the area around her barrier. Every so often she saw a darkened blob out of the corner of her eye as a new rectangle formed to spit another person out. She ignored the shapes and whether people stepped out of them in favor of darkening her barrier to emulate sunglasses. The heat of the sun lessened. The shapes on the edge of her barrier remained shapes rather than solidifying into people.
Shouts surrounded her. Fists banged on the barrier. Blasts of air and fireballs exploded in a deluge. Iris altered her request once more. Asked sound waves divert away from the barrier rather than enter or exit it. Silence surrounded her. She smiled and shimmered into her human self. Iris’s head spun and a slight ringing filled her ears.
Chapter 27
Iris sat down. Hard. She breathed in deep and analyzed the amount of power she exuded and how close she was to exhaustion. She’d used more of her abilities than she thought she should have. Then she remembered her magic use had been stifled the last few weeks. She needed to rebuild her stamina. And she only drew upon the power flowing through the Earth. She didn’t want them to realize—or concentrate on how—she could connect
with both planets’ power.
Nimbus’s door shifted. Became full sized. It opened, and he stepped through—full to bursting. All he found was a darkened sky and Iris sitting on the ground.
“All clear,” she called to him.
He opened his door the rest of the way and came straight to her. Knelt down in front of her. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah. Just got a little dizzy when I transformed back into my human self. I’m fine. I swear. It’s easier to maintain the shield this way.”
“It’s impressive. Have you determined how to conceal the magic we use within the barrier?”
“I’ve practiced it a few times this week,” Iris said as she watched her ten friends file out of Nimbus’s doorway and onto the warm sands. “I take the concept of concealing one’s power from other magic users and apply it to the barrier the same way I apply the silencing aspect or the darkened hue.”
Iris pulled in more power and added to her current request. She wasn’t sure she’d managed it, but something shifted in the power she funneled into the barrier.
“I think I got it. Not positive, but it’s the best I’ll manage at the moment. You should get the lesson started. I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep this up for the full hour and more I originally thought I could. I forgot how quickly I lose stamina when I don’t use magic regularly.”
“Okay. Holler if you get tired and need us to leave immediately.”
“I will. Promise,” Iris assured Nimbus.
He caressed her cheek and stood to face their friends. “All right, let’s get straight to it. Spread out but stay within the safety of Iris’s barrier. You’re all trying to conceal yourself from other magic users. I’ll be wandering around the island and using the same knocking system Iris set up to let you know if I can sense you or not. Ready?”
Everyone nodded at Nimbus. Iris watched her ten friends walk in different directions. Nimbus entered the Gallery of Doors a few seconds later. Iris didn’t trust herself to send any part of her mind into the Gallery at the moment but she could still hear Nimbus walking around and knocking on doors. The only thing she didn’t know was who’d mastered concealment and who hadn’t.
Twenty minutes later Nimbus knocked on everyone’s door in the Gallery. Everyone but Iris arrived. It was a really weird experience—a conversation in her head she wasn’t a part of.
“Great job everyone! Cirrus, you still need to work on this one. Rowen and Thorin, you’re both close, but there were a few instances where your aura wavered into existence before disappearing. All I can come up with is a break in your concentration.”
“I know I had a few of those,” Rowen admitted. “I might have gone a little too close to the barrier and found Jaden stalking the edge like a lion in a cage. Or whatever, seeing as we’re the ones in the cage. Anyway, I readied to throw a fireball at him before I remembered it wouldn’t do any good. I bet that’s when my concentration waned.”
“Dammit Rowen,” Iris muttered to herself. She made a mental note to yell at him later.
“That would make sense. Everyone else feeling confident about concealment? Great! I say try it out around Davis and see how long you can keep it up. Okay, we should move onto tracking so we can get some good practice in before Iris exhausts herself. I’m going to pair everyone up. Iris said you’ll be more successful at tracking another person when the person you’re looking for is both thinking about you and holding a little power.”
There was a momentary pause before Nimbus continued. “Make sure you move about the island but not too much. When you find the person you’re looking for, form a doorway to their location, then separate and start again. Got it? Good. Pair up as follows: Aerianna and Thorin, Cirrus and Sienna, Kyxy and Violet, Rowen and Kylee, Rozlynd and Gavin. I’ll be wandering around to answer questions that arise. If you’ve successfully located each other three times, switch to me. Good luck!”
A quiet murmuring filled Iris’s head before being replaced by closing doors and silence. It took all of her self-control not to search out her friends’ locations. Instead, she concentrated on her task at hand. She focused on her own abilities and judged how much longer she could maintain the shield. While getting tired, Iris decided she could continue holding the barrier for at least another half-hour—give or take.
“How are you doing?” Nimbus asked.
“I’m all right. Just completed a self-analysis, and I’d say I’ve got thirty to forty-five minutes.”
“That’s amazing.” His eyes unfocused. “You’re using a significant amount of power. But you’re not full to bursting, are you?”
“No. I’m close, though. It helps that they’ve stopped bombarding the barrier with attacks. Maybe they’ve realized it does no good.”
“I’d like to think that, but I doubt it.”
“Yeah. You’re probably right. Why did you assign everyone a partner they aren’t as close to?”
“I figured if they can track a friend they aren’t as familiar with, then tracking someone they know nothing about would seem like a less daunting task. Do you think I started too hard?”
A doorway formed in the distance to Iris’s left. “It appears not,” she said as she looked in that direction. “That’s Cirrus . . . and there’s Rowen. It’s interesting that the ones not as good at concealing themselves are better at tracking.”
“Very. And there’s Thorin,” Nimbus added as a third doorway formed. “Three for three on that theory. If It’s difficult for Violet, Aerianna, Sienna, and Gavin, then I’d say theory confirmed.”
Iris nodded. She stuck her hands out behind her, uncrossed her legs and leaned back to look up at the dome she maintained. “Either way, it looks like your pairs are good ones. You should walk around and help those who need it.”
“Okay. See you soon.”
She waited until Nimbus could no longer see her before lying back on the warm sand. Jaden and a dozen other magic users had started another round of attacks. They concentrated their magic on a single spot. The barrier wavered for a moment before Iris pulled in more flows and strengthened the spot being attacked. A few moments later, Zarina, Morrigan, and several others tried the same tactic in another location opposite the first. They weren’t as strong, so Iris monitored their attacks rather than add additional power to the spot.
Iris’s mind wavered between concentrating on the two attacking groups and recognizing doorways within her barrier. The doorways formed more frequently. It appeared her friends were successfully tracking each other. Iris’s vision blurred for a moment. With the added power she used to keep Jaden out, her timeline of maintaining the barrier significantly lessened
The attacks on the outside of her barrier stopped. Iris sighed. She didn’t fully relax, but she lessened the amount of power she funneled to the spot Jaden had attacked. A soft buzzing started at the edge of her hearing. Dark spots floating through her vision would soon follow. She’d be at her limit much sooner than expected.
Iris slowly and meticulously split a small part of her mind off and sent it to the Gallery of Doors. She had every intention of going straight to Nimbus’s door to tell him they needed to end practice but something drew her toward Jaden’s door. It almost looked like light shone through the minuscule crack between barrier and floor. Iris changed directions to investigate.
She listened for any noise coming from the blocked door. Her exhales were the only sounds in the room. The improved barrier seemed very effective at keeping sound out. A shadow moved across the light. Someone walked on the other side. Iris took a step closer. Then another. She put her ear to the barrier.
The light at the base of the door flared as a loud thud filled her mind. Iris stumbled back from some kind of blast. It coincided with a full attack on the barrier she maintained over the island.
Iris’s ears rang. Her head spun. She couldn’t focus her mind in either location—the beach or the Gallery. Darkness crept in all around her. She needed to keep it at bay. Had to keep it from sending her into
unconsciousness. One thought ran through her mind on a continuous loop.
Maintain the barrier.
The darkness spread. The ringing increased.
Maintain the barrier.
Iris pulled more power into her being. Flooded her body with more flows from the Earth than it could handle. Fed them into her request.
Maintain the barrier.
Someone lifted her body. Iris didn’t know which version of herself was being carried.
Another blast rushed past her. A boom filled her head. She couldn’t comprehend what happened. Where the noise or power came from.
Maintain the barrier.
“Iris!” a voice called. It was no more than a fleeting whisper uttered across a raging waterfall.
She pulled in more power. Pain exploded in her head. Flared in every joint. Cramped every muscle. Iris fought off the darkness.
Maintain the barrier.
“Iris!”
Her ears tried to focus on the voice. They recognized desperation. Her friends needed her.
Maintain the barrier.
More power. Her throat constricted.
“Stop!” someone called.
She funneled every drop of power she could into the protective dome.
Pain filled every molecule in her body. They tried to flee from it.
Maintain the barrier.
Something snapped.
The darkness won.
Chapter 28
Aching limbs and a throbbing head welcomed Iris back to consciousness. She couldn’t keep the groan in. A sob of fear followed it. She was void of all power. Hadn’t been able to maintain the barrier. Pain in her chest told her Jaden won. How many friends had he captured before carrying her off to the castle once more?