During the day the place was full of tourists, locals, and students of the schools and the university. At night, after the bars closed, the college kids stumbled back to the dorms, and the lights went off through the town, things were a lot different. Dark forces lurked close by, shimmering through the shadows, looking for something—or maybe someone. Mara wasn’t sure which but she had her suspicions, which was why she had instituted the curfew. Whatever was out there was not out for tricks and jokes. The last thing she wanted was for students out late messing around to get snatched, hexed, or worse by the dark forces at hand.
They’d had enough turmoil last semester, and their efforts to find the toombie had hit a dead end at every turn. She knew Izzie wasn’t a toombie since she’d never been in an orphanage, but she couldn’t tell anyone that. It was her secret, and she had promised to keep it. The only harm was that it caused the other students to have suspicions, but in a way, it shielded her from the dark forces finding out her true identity. That might be more detrimental than if she actually were the toombie.
During the weekend all the kids were excited to get away from the school for a little while, especially the group. Izzie loved Mara, but she couldn’t figure out why all summer she was sooo strict about her going out. She was excited to get away from constantly being watched for a while, and with all the tryouts at school and the students going in and out of the underground kemana, Mara didn’t have time to keep close tabs on Izzie.
“You ready to hit the streets?” Kathleen chuckled. She was standing in front of Izzie as she laced up her high-top Chuck Taylors.
“Yes, yes, yes.” Izzie giggled. “More than ready.”
“Come on, ladies. The guys are meeting us out front with Luke. His practice is over for the day, and he definitely needs to loosen up a bit.”
Izzie smiled and grabbed her purse, throwing it across her chest. She straightened her green corduroy jacket and smoothed the grey t-shirt that was loosely tucked into the front of her rolled-up jeans. Alison walked past her, and Izzie reached out, grabbing her arm and hooked hers into it. Alison flipped her hair to the side and ran her fingers through it.
“Do I look okay?”
“You look beautiful, as always,” Izzie said narrowing her eyes. “Why?”
Alison shrugged. “Tanner’s coming.”
“Ohhhh.” Izzie laughed, throwing her head back as they followed the other girls out and down the steps. “He would find you adorable if you came out in a trash-bag skirt and dish-towel top.”
“I really hope that’s not true.” Alison laughed. “I might have to question his judgment.”
They giggled as they met up with the boys and jumped on the jitney heading to town. They talked loudly in the back of the bus, listening to Luke’s tales of his first day of tryouts. Izzie and Alison couldn’t stop laughing when he told the story about Max, his wand, and the unfortunate sudden onset of jock itch Henry and Wyatt had had.
“Good. They deserved it,” Kathleen said seriously. “Oh, it’s our stop.”
The bus dropped them off outside the local Starbucks. Everyone grabbed a coffee and sat down at a table near the couches. There were a couple of magical beings behind them with their backs to the students, running their mouths about dark things. Kathleen put her finger to her lips, and the group nonchalantly leaned back to listen in.
“They have it right,” the guy on the right said harshly. “They need to shut down the school. It’s a bloody experiment by the human government. It’s another way for them to try to control the magical community and keep some of the most powerful away from our side.”
“I hear you,” the woman replied. “But rumors are, the dark ones aren’t done trying. The first plan failed last year; that’s no secret. The meddlesome headmistress and her band of goons managed to shut it down pretty fast, but this next plan, which I hear is almost fool-proof, won’t fail. Before we know it, that school will be nothing but a vacant lot.”
“Or the next center for the dark families.” The guy laughed. “Wouldn’t that be sweet justice thrown right in their faces? Always trying to keep the dark magic down and run us out of the place. If all the magicals in the area got together against the government, it would be over in a heartbeat. But the light ones gotta be the freaking heroes, getting in the way and making everything more complicated. It’s really obnoxious, not to mention that we haven’t had a real good up-and-coming dark one for a long time. There have been some possibilities in the past, but they always get swooped off by the light magic.”
“That always seems to be the way.” The woman sighed and took a swig of her coffee.
“Oh, I did hear something else,” the guy said, leaning in and lowering his voice. “You know the girl everyone has been looking for?”
“Yeah, the one who no one in our network has been able to find, because we aren’t even sure what she looks like?”
“Yes, or who she is even supposed to be?”
“Mmmhmm. What about her?”
“Well, word is out that there is a huge reward for whoever captures her. Enough to let someone retire and disappear while the others fight the war, if you know what I mean.”
Alison dropped her hands to her lap and clasped them together tightly. She wondered if the girl they were talking about was her. She knew that her biological father and the Harriken had wanted to take her out, but she didn’t know if someone else had put a nationwide bounty on her head.
It wasn’t like she was hiding. She’d been in Los Angeles with Shay and Brownstone all summer and had no real issues. On top of that, she was at school, and she hadn’t gone to any great lengths to protect her identity.
Still, the idea frightened her a little bit, and she wondered if she should call Brownstone. She knew that if she did that, though, there was a good chance he would pull her out of school or go nuts worrying about her. She decided to wait until she had more information. She didn’t want to make a fuss when it could easily be the toombie they were talking about. Everyone might suspect her of being one, but that was because most people didn’t know her history.
Sure, she had technically been an orphan until Brownstone adopted her, but she hadn’t spent time in an orphanage. She knew exactly where she had been and what had been done to her. She’d gone from her parents’ home straight to Brownstone’s. Explaining the circumstances to people without revealing her true nature, however, was a bit more complicated than she wanted to take on. She knew she wasn’t a toombie, and she really didn’t care what people thought about her. Sure, Izzie could be one, but she doubted it, and even though there was that streak of darkness in Tanner’s soul, she couldn’t bring herself to believe he would ever give in to it.
“All I know is that she is close by, and if I figure out who she is, you can be damn well sure I’m snatching her up in a brown satchel and dropping her right on the dark wizard’s front porch, hand out and ready for my reward.”
They both cackled, and Izzie shifted in her seat, looking out the window. She felt slightly dizzy, and closed her eyes for a moment to get her bearings. In her mind visions started to flash. There was a scream and a crash, then she could see herself pressed up against a brick wall, panic and sweat on her face and balls of dark magic flying past her. That was it, and none of it made any sense to her.
“You okay?” Emma asked, putting her hand on Izzie’s shoulder.
Izzie jumped and gasped, shaking her head and breathing heavily. Emma furrowed her brow and handed her a napkin. Izzie blotted her forehead and looked away for a moment, gathering herself. Her heart was pounding, and she still heard the screams around her. She shook her head, trying to get rid of the dark feeling that pulsed in her chest.
“Yeah, sorry. I didn’t sleep well last night, and I guess I zoned out.”
“You sure?” Emma asked with concern.
Izzie forced a smile and nodded, glancing at Alison, who was studying her soul. It was the first time she had ever felt uncomfortable with it, and she wondered exactly w
hat Alison could tell from it. She needed to sort things out in her head. The vision she saw could have simply been something she had watched on television during summer break or a manifestation of her own fears of the darkness that floated around the school. It had felt very real, though—the exhaustion, the fear, the worry. It had felt like she was right there, doing whatever she was doing, pressed against that red brick wall.
Izzie knew there was something different about her. She knew that her memories weren’t the whole story, and more and more often she witnessed different images in her head that made no sense, but for some reason felt like real events. Her magic wasn’t like anyone else’s, either. It grew stronger every day and had already surpassed some of the more powerful Light Elves she had met. She knew there was a story in there somewhere, that she was more than just a Light Elf, but she had no idea what she could be. Somewhere deep in the back of her mind, she worried that everyone was right. That she was the toombie, and the dark magic was starting to take her over.
Alison watched Izzie’s soul flashing all different types of colors. At first, it was contemplative, then suddenly it lit up wildly with many shades of red and yellow. Izzie sat across from her silently, but her soul read like she was in a vicious battle for her life. When Emma had startled her, it had settled down, but the hues of worry still swirled through her. Whatever was going on with her wasn’t good, and she hoped she would talk to her about it later.
13
“So, I was rolling down the street on my skateboard, and the wheel just started wobbling back and forth. I pulled out my wand to fix it, but then I noticed that the neighbors were having a cookout in the front yard. I mean, who has a cookout in the front yard?” Ethan was telling a story from his summer vacation at his aunt’s.
“Right?” Luke replied laughing. “What did you do?”
“What else could I do? I shoved the wand back into my pocket and tried to balance. The wheel flew into the other yard, and I flew into the neighbors’ metal trashcan. Everyone at the party stopped and stared at me, standing there with trash hanging off my clothes and a lame limp.”
The group laughed loudly. They were sitting at a local restaurant having dinner. Ethan shook his head and popped a French fry into his mouth.
“It was horrifying, and to make matters worse, their granddaughter, who is not only my age but hot, was standing there watching the whole thing. We’d actually made plans for that night, but after my tumble through their garbage, she called and canceled. She didn’t even make up an excuse.”
“Oh, man.” Tanner laughed. “That’s harsh.”
“Tell me about it.” Ethan sighed. “Let’s just say I don’t think I’ll end up like Tony Hawk anytime soon.”
“More like Ethan Hawke when he did that terrible movie about being a cop, and everybody wanted to wipe their own memory after seeing it.” Emma chuckled.
“Or A.J. Hawk from the Cincinnati Bengals and his absolutely terrible podcast.” Peter chuckled. “What’s that thing called?”
Luke and Ethan answered loudly at the same time in low growling voices, “The Hawk Cast.”
Everyone laughed. The girls didn’t know who A.J. Hawk was, except for Aya, but she didn’t want to admit to her slight obsession with human football. Kathleen looked across the table at Izzie and Alison and both smiled politely, but it was obvious they were lost in their own thoughts.
“Hey, you two.” Kathleen threw a fry at them. “Come back to Earth. You’ve been out of it since the coffee shop.”
Izzie shook her head and smiled. “I’m here, I promise.”
“I’m just picturing the sequence of events that happened to Ethan over...and over...and over in my head, because it will never get old,” Alison replied with a smirk.
Neither of the girls was telling the truth, but they didn’t want to admit it. When everyone finished eating they paid their bill and headed to the school bus stop, catching a ride to the roller rink on the edge of town. All of them had, of course, been to one before, but none of them knew the glory of the roller skating rink in the nineties. Well, until they stepped into Roller Rink-O-Rama.
When they walked through the front door, they all stared. Everything was covered in soft velvet except the floors, which had wild geometrical shapes all over them in bright colors. To the left was a concession stand with a popcorn maker, a Slushee machine, and one of those hot dog cookers with the rollers. To the left were some large round benches, also covered in worn-out velvet, and the skate exchange.
Alison looked at all the souls gliding along around her and having fun. Tanner took her hand and squeezed it, leaning in.
“You look panicked.”
“I don’t know if the blind girl should try roller skates for the first time in a busy place like this,” she whispered.
“Don’t worry, I’ll help you. It’ll just look like you are a really bad skater at first,” he replied, rubbing his fingers over her hand.
“Okay, but if I break my tailbone, you are carrying my inflatable donut around.” Alison smirked.
“It’s a deal.” He laughed.
Izzie stood at the counter next to Alison, exchanging their shoes out for a pair of skates. Out on the floor, they heard several people shouting and at least three thuds when people wiped out hard. Izzie saw Claire and Scarlett skating with a look of boredom on their faces while Wyatt and Henry jostled and ribbed several of the younger kids as they plowed around the rink, doing ridiculous dances to the late 90s early 2000’s boy bands pumping through the speakers.
Tanner knelt in front of Alison and helped her lace her skates, then pulled her to her feet. She wobbled and he grabbed her arms, chuckling. The lights dimmed, and a DJ came over the speaker.
“Grab the girl you love, wish you could love, or just like for the night, and join us for our first couples skate of the evening.”
The lights changed to stars floating back and forth across the floor, and different people paired off and rolled onto the rink. Ethan ended up with Aya and Kathleen on his arm, Peter and Emma awkwardly held hands, Izzie and Luke were speeding around, and Tanner carefully pulled Alison along the outside of the floor, out of the way of the faster skaters.
When the song was about to end, the gang noticed five teenaged wizards and witches roll out on the floor, cutting across to the center. All five of them wore black, and the one who seemed to be the leader had a robe on. The symbol on the back was familiar to Izzie, but she didn’t know why. They were dark magical beings, and Alison could see the black magic swirling through them like ink in water.
The wizards and witches pulled out their wands and started firing small balls of dark magic across the floor, hitting several people and sending them tumbling to the ground. Before the chaperones who watched the city during the weekends could stop it, a fight broke out on the floor. Alison pushed her back against the wall and pulled energy in through her arms to the palms of her hands. She sent out sparks of glittering light, hitting one of the wizards and knocking him to the ground. Ethan sped through, going low on one skate and snatching up the wizard’s wand.
Izzie was on top of it. Her magic came to her quicker than she could think it through. With one hand she shielded people all over the place from the dark magic flying around, and with the other, she sent a hailstorm of light at them. As she nailed the witch in the chest and knocked her to the ground, a flash of a vision momentarily blinded her. She could hear the shrieks and the low cackles of dark wizards. She looked to her right and her left; she was fighting in some sort of battle. A woman and a man were next to her, but she couldn’t see them clearly; only their backs. Lost in the vision, she didn’t see the dark magic coming right for her.
“Watch out!” Emma screamed, diving in front of Izzie and trying to shield herself at the same time.
She wasn’t able to get the shield up, and the magic struck her hard in the arm. She fell to the ground writhing in pain. Izzie dropped to her knees to help as Professor Hudson ran through with her wand out, casting a
massive spell toward the dark wizards and witch. The ball of light swallowed them and slammed them on their backs in the middle of the rink. The boy in the robe stood up angrily and opened a portal that they escaped through before anyone else could attack.
Before she did anything else, she cast a spell on all the humans in the room. “Never was, Never Will Be.”
Everyone non-magical froze in position. Professor Hudson looked at the magicals and waved her hands. “Come on. I need everyone’s help. This spell will erase the last twenty minutes of their memories, bringing them back to the last thought they had before the dark magic attack. We have to arrange the humans in comfortable positions. Please, nothing profane, and if they are on skates on the floor, make sure they don’t run into a wall as soon as they unfreeze.”
Everyone ran around the rink, pulling and pushing on the humans, moving their limbs like they were mannequins. Elias Hodges darted out on the floor, knelt next to Izzie, and looked at Emma. She was crying, holding her arm and shaking her head.
“She’s got a broken arm,” he said, carefully picking her up and cradling her in his arms. “I am going to get her back to the school in my car where they can better treat this.”
Izzie nodded. She could not believe that she had frozen so badly that one of her friends had to jump in front of a magic bullet to shield her. She was definitely going to have to get Emma a thank you gift or card or something. She’d never had friends like that in her life before, or at least she couldn’t remember it. She hugged Luke as Emma disappeared into Elias’s arms.
Once the students were back on the bus, it was incredibly loud. They were excited, talking all at once about what had happened. The bus driver, who was a human, gripped the steering wheel tightly and sneered into the rearview mirror.
After about ten minutes, he put up his hands and yelled, “I will not move this bus until everyone is quiet! I will sit here for the rest of the night if I have to, but I cannot deal with all the noise. Sit down and be quiet so I can get you back to the school.”
Wary Is Her Love_An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure Page 8