“I wonder if we could take one of these beauties for a ride down to the pond on our time off?” Kathleen shooed away another fly and looked into the distance.
“The pond is off-limits during the school week,” Aya pointed out quietly.
“So is doing magic outside the classrooms but that doesn’t stop anyone.” Kathleen scoffed.
“You’ve been here five minutes and you’re already planning to break the rules.” Emma giggled.
“Hell, yeah.” Kathleen smiled. “Come on, there are the stables.”
The girls wandered through the stables, although Kathleen wrinkled her nose at the smell of manure. Aya walked right up to the horses and petted them, almost as if she understood what they were thinking. Alison could see their souls, and though they were just regular Earth creatures there was calm and kindness in their energy. They let Aya take her time while listening to Kathleen gossip about the upperclassmen.
“I saw some pretty hot guys, but I have a boyfriend back home.” Kathleen shrugged nonchalantly. “He’s out of school; works for a wand-maker. How about you?”
Emma looked at Kathleen and sighed. “My parents won’t let me date until I’m sixteen.”
“Lame, but what happens in school they don’t have to know about.”
Kathleen winked at Emma and focused her attention on Aya. She was trying to get the girl to break out of her meek and quiet little shell. Alison just watched her performance in amusement, knowing there was more to Aya than met the eye.
“How about you, Aya? Have any hottie back in... Where are you from?”
“Georgia.” Aya blushed and looked down. “And yes, I have a boyfriend. Henry.”
“Really?” Kathleen was genuinely shocked. “How long have you been together?”
“Three years, but we’ve been best friends our whole lives.”
“Oooh,” Kathleen teased. “Are you, you know, sneaking off for some hanky-panky?”
“No.” Aya was mortified, but she quickly wiped her expression, not wanting Kathleen to poke fun at her anymore. “I mean, we’ve talked about it, but...I don’t know. I want to wait.”
“Noble,” Kathleen grumped. “And boring. How about you, Alison? Your parents keep a lock on your chastity belt too?”
“No.” Alison chuckled. “I’ve just been busy. No time for that.”
Kathleen looked at her strangely but didn’t question it any further. She could tell there was a lot to Alison; much more than she was willing to say. Kathleen took a deep breath and pushed herself off the post as the barndoor swung open. Two upperclass girls, Scarlett, a Light Elf, and Claire, a witch, strolled in. They stopped and eyed the freshmen.
“Look, Scarlett, fresh meat.” Claire laughed.
Claire’s hair was pulled into two low ponytails, each side a different color. Her makeup was thick, and she wore a perfectly-pressed skirt, tight tank top, and flat leather sandals. Draped around her neck was a sheer Versace scarf, and jewels dangled from her wrists. She had her own style, that was for sure, and everything was high-end. She sneered at Izzie, looking her up and down before turning to Scarlett.
“Looks like they brought in weak ones this year.” Scarlett scoffed. “We’ll come back later and check on your horse. Let the newbies run wild.”
The girls laughed and left, slamming the barn door behind them. Kathleen unclenched her teeth and looked down at her fingernails.
“Who were they?” Emma asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Upperclassmen.” Kathleen rolled her eyes. “Claire, the one with the purple and blue hair? She has more money than the king of Oriceran. Her family is loaded, and she drove in here this morning in a brand-new Mercedes. She’s kind of a bitch.”
Alison had quietly scanned their souls and energy. Claire without a doubt had an attitude, but her energy radiated something much different than arrogance: confusion, anxiety, and an unknown something Alison couldn’t put her finger on. She was insecure but didn’t allow it to show on the outside—not like Emma, who was sweet but definitely trying to impress Kathleen.
“She’s so confident.” Emma pouted. “I wish I could be like that—walk into a room and not feel nervous.”
“Me too,” Aya whispered. There was wistfulness in Aya’s energy.
“And be obsessed with objects instead of people?” Alison shook her head in disgust.
“Not me.” Izzie glanced at Alison and scuffed her shoes through the hay on the floor.
“I’d kill for those platforms in baby blue.” Kathleen shrugged. “Being like that will make your life go a lot easier here. It’s just like everywhere else—a hierarchy, where the strong take control and the weak are eaten.”
6
When the girls were done in the stables, they walked back to the pasture and tried to decide what to do next. There was still an hour or so before dinner, and Alison, like the other girls didn’t want to just go back and sit in their dorm room. Kathleen tapped her hands against her sides and a telltale grin moved across her lips.
“Let’s compare our magic. Since we’ll be sharing a dorm all year we might as well know what each other is capable of.”
“All right...” Emma was obviously unsure, but not willing to let on.
“Why not?” Aya replied with a shy smile.
“I’ll go first.” Kathleen stood up straight, putting her hands down next to her, and stuck out her chest.
She closed her eyes and pulled the energy from the ground beneath her feet. Her eyes glowed and Oriceran symbols turned and moved on her arms. She breathed deeply through the warmth of the energy, willing it into the palm of her hand. She rolled an orb of light in her hands, whispering so quietly they couldn’t make out what she said. The symbols dimmed slightly, molding the shape of the energy.
She opened her still-glowing eyes and held out her palm, where the orb shifted into a rose, then slowly morphed into a butterfly. The butterfly took flight, whizzing around the girls to land on Alison’s shoulder for just a moment before flying over their heads again. The girls could feel the warmth of Kathleen’s magic in the butterfly as it touched them, then it finally returned to her palm and fizzed apart in a cascade of sparks. The symbols on Kathleen’s arms disappeared and she smiled proudly.
“My mom taught me that one.” Kathleen pursed her lips and looked at the girls. “All right, Emma, let’s see what you can do.”
Emma pulled out her wand and cleared her throat.
“Wait, do something with your wings.” Kathleen raised her eyebrows.
“I can’t. Not enough magic, even here.” She shrugged. “Maybe when we all get a little stronger. We’ll see.”
Kathleen sneered and stepped back as Emma focused and tapped the long slender wand with her index finger, trying to decide what to do. A smile moved across her face and she swirled her wand over her head, streaks of orange light trailing it.
“Venus Stargaze,” Emma murmured, letting the light out of her wand.
The girls twisted and turned as the light shot around them and gathered, then started rotating slowly. Motes of light dotted the air until a complete map of the constellations was visible above them. Kathleen pushed her finger through one of the glowing stars and the magic wrapped around her thumb.
“That’s pretty neat.” Aya smiled as Emma swirled her wand again causing the solar system to disappear into the wind.
“Cool,” Kathleen replied, unimpressed. “Okay, Aya, your turn.”
She pulled out her wand and looked at a tall statue on the edge of the field. Alison didn’t see any energy transferring into the wand so she looked at her curiously. Aya stared hard at the statue, gripping her crooked dark wand tightly. The tip lit and the statue began to tremble, then rose slowly off the ground and swayed heavily in the air. Alison still couldn’t see any energy in the wand. There was something different about Aya’s magic.
Slowly she lowered the statue and as she relaxed the end of her wand went dark again. Kathleen and Emma clapped, smiling widely. Mo
ving large objects with magic seemed benign, but they all knew it took extreme control of your powers—something most seniors struggled with. Aya put her head down and smiled shyly, and glanced quickly at Alison.
Nervous energy bubbled in Alison’s stomach; she didn’t know what she could do. That was what she was here to learn. She’d done what research she could, but the information was scarce. She knew there was strong magic inside of her, and since her hair was slowly turning silver, she knew that it was growing.
“All right, Alison. You’re up.” Kathleen looked at her curiously.
“I’m going to admit something, so don’t laugh. I’m here to learn what my magic is. I don’t know yet what I can do. Please don’t ask me anymore about it right now.” She looked down, scuffing the foot with the untied shoelace.
They all looked at her curiously and Kathleen took a breath to speak, then let it out. She knew what Alison was. She had seen Drows on her trips to Oriceran. They were both feared and revered, and unknown on Earth.
Alison looked up with surprise, smiling at Kathleen when she just accepted that Alison wasn’t going to do anything.
Kathleen turned to Izzie. “Last but not least! Show us what you got, Izzie.”
“Okay...” She pulled the energy from beneath her feet and a light trickle of magic moved up to her finger. A white beam shot out and swirled around Alison’s leg and down to her untied shoelace. The lace twisted and turned and finally made a perfect bow.
“That’s it?” Kathleen had expected more.
“I don’t know a lot of magic yet. It wasn’t a big deal in my family.”
“What, are you Amish or something?” Kathleen giggled, losing interest.
Izzie wasn’t going to tell the girls she was from an orphanage yet. Alison moved closer to her and smiled, looking down at her shoe.
“Thanks.”
“No problem. Wouldn’t want you tripping over something. Kathleen would never let you live it down.”
The two girls looked at Kathleen, who was talking to Emma about her extensive travels and all the boys she had dated. Izzie and Alison giggled softly.
“We all have history we don’t want people to know,” Alison murmured softly. She shrugged. “My mom died recently.”
“Really?” Izzie suddenly didn’t feel so alone. “I don’t remember mine.”
Something in Izzie’s soul was off, but Alison let it go, figuring there was stuff she wasn’t ready to share—a feeling that was all too familiar.
“Where to now?” Alison asked, catching up to Kathleen who once again was in the lead.
“I heard there’s a stream around here somewhere. I also heard it has a tire swing and a mossy area just to chill. It’s like an escape for the students, but I’m not sure what direction to go in.” Kathleen looked across the property.
At the top of the hill to the left of the pasture was the groundskeeper, his wild red hair blowing in the wind. He ran one hand across the horse’s head, feeding it a carrot with the other. There was a broken-down tractor next to him, and tools spread across the grass. Horace Rigby had been at the school for years, but there was nothing magical about him. He was just a normal human from Austin, Texas. He had lived there with his mother and spent a lot of time with his Aunt Estelle when he was younger. She owned a bar out there and was one of the few humans who had known about Oriceran’s magic long before it had started to seep out into the open.
He had been standing there watching the girls play with their powers. He knew more about it than most Earth-side witches and wizards. He could remember Aunt Estelle feeding him Nachos at her patio bar when he was a kid. She had told him stories about magic on Earth with her cigarette hanging from her lip and her bright red bouffant that never seemed to change. It wasn’t until he was older that he had realized the stories were true.
“Excuse me.” Kathleen smiled as the girls walked up to Horace. “You’re Mr. Rigby, right?”
“Just Horace.” He nodded at them. “Groundskeeper here.”
“What exactly does a groundskeeper do?” Emma asked.
“Well, I take care of the mansion and the property and I exercise the horses and other animals out here. Anything to do with keeping grounds up.”
“That would make sense.” Emma’s cheeks grew bright red.
“I also tend to the foreign plants and animals that come and go from here,” he added.
“Foreign?” Emma asked.
“Yeah, like plants and animals from Oriceran.” He squinted into the sky as a gargoyle flew over them. The girls stepped closer together, since none of them were used to gargoyles. They’d only heard stories about them as children. “That one may look scary, but he is kind of fun to be around. Came to me when he was just a baby. Looks like he is following you girls.”
“Great, just what we need: a gargoyle tail.” Kathleen grimaced. “I’ve seen them in my trips through the portal with my mother. They didn’t seem so friendly over there.”
“He’s a bit gruff, and he’s sneaky like gargoyles tend to be, but you don’t need to be afraid of him.”
Alison stared at him for a moment, realizing there was no magical energy around him—just the light-yellow human type. She hadn’t imagined there would be humans working at the school, though it shouldn’t really surprise her. Humans had founded the school, after all. She wondered what it was like for him to work every day among a bunch of magical teenagers.
“Would you be able to point us in the direction of the stream?” Kathleen asked. “We wanted to check it out before dinner is served.”
Horace looked at the valley below. “Sure. You see down there where the teachers’ cottages are?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t go there. It’s off-limits,” Horace snapped.
“Good to know.” He could almost see Aya make a mental note, but Kathleen didn’t flinch.
“But if you go to the bottom of this hill and skim along the edge, you’ll see the start of it. Just follow it back into those woods. It’s pretty easy to find the student’s hangout area. They’ve been going there for years. There’s a long row of purple pansies that bloomed in the moss this summer, which is like a trail back to the tire swing.”
“Right.” Kathleen nodded and followed the trail with her eyes. “Thanks, Horace.”
He kept a straight face as Alison walked by. He wondered what kind of energy he gave off. He’d been told that she was a Drow before the semester had begun, but no one really talked about them. He nodded at Izzie, who gave him a half-smile, clearly remembering him from when she had woken up in the mansion the first morning.
The girls headed for the stream, chattering about their lives back home. Alison listened but said nothing, much like Izzie. Their lives all seemed so normal, but Alison’s… Well, it was a lot more complicated than she wanted to admit. Hopefully things would get better now that she was in school, but at least now she had Shay and Mr. Brownstone.
7
Peter, shirtsleeve torn, hair ruffled, and soot smeared across one cheek, tripped over a log as he ran through the woods. He windmilled his arms to steady himself and he flung a ball of magic from his wand. Ethan jumped to the side and landed in a pile of wet leaves, the orb barely missing his shoulder. It struck an old dead tree and the branch exploded, turning to sawdust that covered his head.
“Jesus, watch what the hell you’re doing!”
Peter looked at the pile of sawdust on Ethan’s head, dumbstruck. “I’m so sorry. It just went off on its own.”
“Shhh.” Ethan put his finger to his lips, hearing footsteps.
Just then a beam of light blew through the woods, knocking the leaves from the trees above them. They showered down like a hard rain, covering the boys. They ran, dodging in and out of cover, jumping over roots and fallen trees and over the ridge that led to the stream.
“The clearing is just ahead,” Peter shouted to Ethan.
“Great, even less cover.”
When the boys made the clearing they sl
id down the embankment, then hopped up and dusted off their pants. Ethan looked back at the woods but saw no sign of the older kids yet. They noticed Alison and the rest of the girls, and Peter smiled awkwardly as he picked leaves from his hair.
“What the hell?” Ethan growled angrily. “I’m here five minutes and I’m running from punks like I was still at home.”
Ethan was tall and fit and his hair was short on the sides with a tuft of curls on the top. His bright green eyes almost glowed as he looked wildly around for any sign of the older boys. He was used to being chased; he was a half-wizard, half-Light Elf who had been living on the streets until he was brought to the school.
Peter, on the other hand—a wizard descended from one of the first to come to Earth—wasn’t used to the chase. He was a nerdy kid who had grown up in the suburbs and had been obsessed with science when he was little. After coming into his powers, he’d figured out that he could mix science with magic and usually come up with even more powerful spells. The only problem was, they didn’t always work out the way he thought they would. For that reason, he could almost always be found with a swipe of soot or burn mark on his clothes. His parents figured it would be better to send him to the school where he could learn to create safely, than eventually watch him blow himself up in the basement.
“We are trying to have a nice quiet time here before dinner. What are you two idiots doing out here, and why do you look like you were attacked by a troll?” Kathleen put her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrows.
“And smell like it too.” Emma wrinkled her nose and leaned back on the rock she was sitting on.
“Oh, tie it up.” Ethan scoffed. “We don’t need the girls on our ass too.”
“Excuse me, but I can promise you I am nowhere near...” Kathleen waved her hands, a disgusted look on her face. “’Your ass’ as you put it.”
Dark Is Her Nature Page 4