Untouchable Witch: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure (School of Necessary Magic Raine Campbell Book 7)

by Judith Berens

  Asher’s eyebrows raised. “Really? Pixies, huh?”

  Cameron looked at the Wood Elf from the other side of Raine. “You don’t do it like that in Orono?” he asked

  The elf shook his head regretfully. “Nope, no pixies. Students have to help with all the cooking. The professors take turns leading them. They are really into us doing everything together. Learn as a school, fail as a school. That’s practically our motto.” He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Fortunately, they don’t let all the professors do it. Professor Kaylis is…not good at it. We were lucky to have people who were good at healing magic ready when he did do it.”

  Everyone shared a laugh.

  Raine glanced at her fish, her expression thoughtful. “Huh. I never thought much about how other magic schools do things. Since the School of Necessary Magic was also basically my introduction to magical society, it’s hard to remember at times that it’s a single school with a single philosophy. I can see the advantages of having the students help with the cooking.”

  Evie smiled from across the table. “I’d love it if we did that at our school.” She smiled at Asher. “I cook with the pixies all the time, but that’s only because I’m into baking. It’s not really part of our mealtimes.”

  William frowned. “I wouldn’t want to have to do that. We have enough on our plate.”

  Josephine cleared her throat delicately. “It’s like Asher said. At Orono, we work closely with the professors. It’s almost like…an apprenticeship model in some ways, I suppose you could say.” Her cheeks reddened. “I’m not trying to say anything’s wrong with the way your school does things. It’s different, that’s all, and I can understand how it might seem weird.”

  Raine plopped a tiny roasted carrot into her mouth, chewed, and swallowed. “I’m sure there are many good ways to train students—”

  Asher bolted from his seat and distracted her.

  She blinked and stared at him in confusion. Cameron pushed hurriedly from the table and his quick gaze searched the area for threats. Adrien was up a second later, his hand in the air as if he was ready to summon a sword.

  A little bewildered, Asher frowned at the tense boys before he seemed to realize what his action had caused. “Oh, sorry.” He waved a hand. “Nothing bad. There’s something you all should see. I almost forgot about it because I’ve already been here several days and everything seems less cool when you see it enough times for it to become familiar.” He nodded to his fellow students. “Kill the lights.”

  The orbs winked out of existence one by one as the Orono students canceled the spells. A quick spell by Josephine quenched the fire with a splash of water and the remaining smoke drifted into the air. Stars filled the sky above them, clear and crisp in the darkness with the light pollution of cities a distant concern.

  “The stars are pretty,” Raine said. “But we have great views of the stars at our school.” She shrugged and hoped they weren’t too disappointed by the reaction.

  “Not stars. They would be boring.” Asher grinned and pointed behind her.

  She turned and gasped.

  Blue. Green. Red. Yellow. Purple. White. Dot after dot winked into existence and disappeared.

  Raine tilted her head and squinted into the darkness. “Are those…fireflies?”

  He sidled up behind her, his teeth barely visible in the darkness. “Yes. They’re all sorts of colors on the island, but they won’t go anywhere near our lights. I thought you should see them.”

  The frequency of the colorful glimmers increased to produce an eerily beautiful kaleidoscopic display. Small repeating patterns developed, almost like a careful language or code. Raine wasn’t sure if it was coincidence or something fundamental to the display.

  Evie gasped. “It’s so pretty.”

  “It’s almost hypnotic,” William suggested. He blinked a few times. “It’s like they’re watching us as much as we’re watching them.”

  Adrien harrumphed almost as if he was disappointed that there was no danger. “I’ve seen nicer.”

  Sara laughed and nudged him with her elbow. “Don’t be that way, Adrien. It’s nice.” She smiled at Asher. “Thanks for showing us this.”

  “Yeah, dude,” Philip said. “It’s actually cool. Don’t be a downer.”

  Adrien shrugged but didn’t offer another retort.

  Josephine stood and walked toward the fireflies. The darkness concealed her features, but the outline of her movement was distinctive. There was something elegant and graceful about her manner. “If we’re lucky, they might also do something even more special. Everyone needs to be totally silent for a little while, though, if you want to hear it.”

  Raine took a deep breath and nodded. The trees surrounding the campsite weren’t anything special, and although they’d noticed a few unusually colorful birds earlier, the fireflies were their first direct experience with something on the island that didn’t seem like anything they could find anywhere else in the country, let alone the planet.

  The other students turned toward the forest and waited, the sound of their shallow breathing undetectable above the quiet moan of the wind and the swaying of the trees. Nature had retaken the island’s soundscape for a few moments.

  A high-pitched note sounded and resonated like a distant bell. A lower chime joined it and was rapidly followed by others. Soon, a symphony of overlapping melodies and harmonies played, like competing bell ensembles. Somehow, despite wide ranges of notes and chimes, no dissonance marred the music.

  The students stood in silence and let the nighttime symphonies wash over them for several minutes.

  The creak of a cabin door ended the music. The fireflies returned to their rainbow flashing.

  Professor Tarelli stepped out of her cabin and sighed. “Oh, they are so sensitive,” she called apologetically. “I’m sorry, but it’s so exciting.” She jogged toward the students, a small, faint shadow in the darkness but seemed to have no problem navigating without light. “Basil should teach you a thermographic vision spell or something of that nature. There are subtle changes even among the temperatures.”

  “Do you use a spell like that?” Raine asked.

  “No. I partially see that way naturally.” Professor Tarelli took a deep breath. “These kinds of creatures are one of the reasons I was so excited to be involved with this project, and all you students should be too. I don’t think you fully appreciate what a wonderful opportunity you have this summer. The glories of magical knowledge will be visited upon you if you keep your mind open to the possibilities.”

  Raine’s gaze darted to her finger where she wore her invisible True Cardinals ring. The professor’s speech reminded her a little of the secret society’s credo.

  Asher groaned quietly, as did several other Orono students. Josephine, noticeably, did not. Raine suspected they had heard this speech several times.

  “Several of the species identified here have only previously been found on Oriceran.” Professor Tarelli gestured widely, an excited shadow in the darkness. “And there’s no evidence of an active portal anywhere on the island, despite the high levels of magic. If anything, there’s evidence that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to create one. So that raises a number of questions. Where did these species come from? If it was a small number, that would be one thing. We could say they came through a portal in the past when the situation was different and simply flourished in the absence of competition, but the more we search, the more we find. An entire near-Oriceran ecosystem exists on an island off the coast of Maine. That can’t mean a few species sneaking through the occasional portal, especially when it’s so hard to form one.”

  “Are you sure this isn’t some…well, some magical pirate island?” Philip asked with a shrug. “Maybe they set a portal up away from the island and come over to it.”

  The professor shook her head. “There’s been no evidence of any sapient species on the island. No artifacts, magical or otherwise. I—”

  Raine’s knees
buckled as the ground shook and Cameron’s arm immediately braced her. The tremor lasted only a few seconds, but it was more than enough to turn her stomach. It had been a long time since she’d last felt an earthquake.

  The other professors all emerged from the cabins, their wands in hand.

  “No light,” Professor Tarelli shouted. “The students are watching the fireflies.”

  “Is everyone all right?” Professor Hudson called.

  “They’re all fine,” the Nyran said with a wave of her hand. “We were discussing things. The glories of knowledge. The brilliance of learning. The earthquake is only more proof of that.”

  “Proof?” Raine asked.

  “These earthquakes are inconsistent with the tectonic activity of this area, suggesting a magical origin, even if we’ve yet to feel a particular magical signature associated with them. Perhaps I’m wrong and there’s a hidden portal deep in the heart of this island. We’ve yet to find it or identify the cause, although it’s not our responsibility, but here we stand, on the cusp of pure discovery.” She pointed at Raine. “Don’t you agree, Sara?”

  “I’m Raine.” She chuckled and wondered if the Nyran professor had trouble with names as part of her personality or with telling people apart because of how her sight worked.

  “Of course, of course.”

  Raine returned her gaze to the fireflies. She had already attended three years at the School of Necessary Magic, and every day, she learned something new. Her upcoming senior year wouldn’t be the end of her education, only the end of her first stage. If a seasoned professor could remain excited about new discoveries and knowledge, she still had a lot to look forward to in the future.

  Someday, she might even solve a case by understanding the song of rare Oriceran fireflies.

  “There’s so much to learn,” she murmured.

  “It’s no big deal,” Cameron replied. “We’ll figure it all out.”

  “I’m not complaining.”

  Asher laughed. “Oh, you sound like Heidi and Silas.”

  Heidi rolled her eyes.

  “What can I say?” Raine replied. “I like learning.”

  She stood there in the darkness and a smile grew on her face. New friends and new knowledge. It was a good first night on the island.

  Chapter Four

  “Hide and seek?” Raine asked. Her tone came out far more dubious than she’d intended.

  They sat around the rekindled fire, the only current source of light. The professors had retired for the night and encouraged the students to get to know one another. According to Professor Kaylis, they would be allowed to rest the following day, so there was no reason to hold back on, as he put it, “the glories of interschool bonding.”

  Silas had gone to sleep, but the other seven Orono students remained. They’d chatted for about an hour and a half about general features of their respective schools and a little about themselves when Asher suggested the new activity.

  “Aren’t we a little old for hide and seek?” Adrien asked with an incredulous look.

  Asher gave Adrien and Raine a bright smile. “Call it something else then. Hunt and hide. It’ll be fun. We do something like this for new freshman at our school. Basically, we pair up and have a friendly competition, but the twist that makes it interesting is that any and all magic is allowed except for direct tracking magic.” He scoffed. “And that doesn’t even work here, so we don’t need that rule. We’ll have a hunting team and hiding one.”

  “Pair up?” Cameron rubbed his chin. “I can see how this might be fun. I’m good when it comes to tracking.”

  “I could see the value as a training exercise.” Adrien frowned as he considered the idea.

  Philip laughed. “It’s okay to simply have fun, dude, even if Christie isn’t here.”

  Adrien scoffed.

  “I think it’s exciting,” Evie said.

  William nodded his agreement. He didn’t smile, but he didn’t look annoyed.

  Asher held a finger up. “But half the point of us hanging out tonight is supposed to be us getting to know each other, so we can’t be boring and pair off with someone from our own schools.”

  Cameron frowned. “We can’t?”

  The Orono elf pushed to his feet and gestured around the circle of students surrounding the firepit. “Of course not. That’s pointless. I like my friends from my school, but I know them already.” He grinned. “We’re all sitting next to someone from another school on one side or another. We should pair up with whoever’s closest to us and not from our school.” He turned and smiled at Raine. “With an FBI trainee on my side, I can’t lose.”

  Raine laughed. “I don’t know about that, but it does sound fun when you describe it that way.”

  Cameron grunted before he drew a deep breath and nodded to Josephine nearby, who smiled. The other teams included Milo and William, Sara and Kelly, Evie and Dnai, Philip and Heidi, and Finn with Adrien.

  “Two rounds,” Asher said and looked even more pleased with himself than before. “That way, everyone has their chance to hunt and hide. I think the hiding team should have a five-minute head start. We’ll set a twenty-minute time limit to find them.”

  “Five minutes?” Cameron frowned. “That’s a big head start for an island in the middle of the night.”

  “Why do something if it’s not a challenge?” The elf cast a quick light orb and tossed it from one hand to the other. “How about two hiding teams per round? That gives us ten people looking for four.”

  Adrien nodded and a hint of a smile finally appeared. “There’s more than one way to track someone. I’m not worried.”

  Everyone nodded their agreement.

  “Fine.” Cameron folded his arms. “Who will hide first?”

  Asher looked at Raine. “What do you say?”

  “I’m game.” She shrugged.

  “What do you think?” Sara asked Kelly.

  The witch nodded, an eager gleam in her eye. “Let’s do this.”

  “Time to get hiding!” the Wood Elf shouted.

  Five minutes later, Asher stood beside a tree. “This looks good.” Small squares appeared and shifted across his body, changing color to match the shadows and the tree behind him. Only a small amount of stray light from the distant fire, stars, and moon seeped through his increasing camouflage.

  “Is this why you wanted to play this game?” Raine asked.

  “What can I say? I suggested a game I have a natural advantage at.” Soon, the Wood Elf was gone and to see was nothing there but a tree.

  She drew her wand and cast a quick stealth spell to render herself invisible. “This was one of the earlier spells I learned,” she murmured quietly. “We needed it to sneak into the kemana.”

  “Sneak into the kemana? Why? Aren’t you allowed to go?” He sounded surprised.

  “Freshmen can’t go.” She chuckled. “Not that it stopped most of the freshmen at the school. I’m not sure if the rule is actually because the professors feel it’s relevant, or if it’s simply a test of initiative.”

  “Oh. We don’t actually have a kemana at our school. There’s one under Bar Harbor, but that’s not exactly a place we can walk to without going to the Starbucks, so we have fewer opportunities to sneak into it.” Asher snickered. “Back in the day, the whole balancing out your magic by taking trips to the kemana to recharge magic was a big part of the school’s education. There are still many things there based around that, even though there’s more magic now. Sure, there could be a lot more, but it’s not like I sit around worrying about having enough magic to do stuff.”

  Raine hadn’t realized how unsettling it could be to chat to someone you couldn’t see. “I guess I don’t always think about how lucky we are to have a kemana. We weren’t allowed to even go into Charlottesville until this school year, so it would have been annoying if we were stuck at the school with both the kemana and the town off-limits.”

  The tree shimmered for a moment, which signaled a slight movement by Asher
. “Oh, they don’t restrict us. Our school isn’t hidden like yours. They don’t advertise it on the Internet, of course, but the school’s been there a while, even if it being a purely magic school is a new thing. And there are many witches and wizards who already had roots in Orono. There is no big restriction on us going into town, and even though it’s small, there are enough magicals to keep students in check if something goes wrong. From everything you told us earlier, it’s a different vibe at our school. We’re more laid back in some ways, but we don’t have some of the cool stuff you have, either. Our school is smaller than yours, and we don’t have as many clubs and things like that.”

  “I can’t really say which is better,” Raine said. She sucked in a breath at the sound of something scurrying nearby but released it in a puff of air when a fox padded past nearby and occasionally sniffed at the air. She waited until the animal had moved into the undergrowth before she continued. “I told you at dinner about how my magic came out when I confronted bullies and they sent me to the School of Necessary Magic. How did you end up at the Orono Academy for Arcane Studies?”

  The shadows in front of the tree shifted again, but Asher’s camouflage remained intact. “Several members of my family have gone there. It’s been a tradition since way back. You see, originally—before the gates opened—the school was basically an elite boarding school for wealthy New Englanders. Really, it was a place where influential magical families from different backgrounds could send their kids and where they could mix with less risk. It wasn’t a true magic school because of restrictions from people like the Griffins, but once the gates opened, it made total sense to convert it into an actual magic academy. Everyone locally who wasn’t in the know always thought something was spooky about it anyway. I’m only the second in my family to go there since it officially changed into an open magic school.”

  Raine knelt and held her breath when some branches crunched under her knees. “Legacy, huh? That’s like me in the FBI.”