by Lizzy Ford
Dawn had to be handled somehow, before the damage she did became irreparable. Prone to her irrational emotions, she’d thus far been content to target people who pissed her off. She hadn’t yet gone after the Light or tried to help Bartholomew unleash the Dark across the world. It was only a matter of time before she was completely corrupted, Beck knew, and he was no closer to determining how to deal with her. At least, not without killing her child, too.
My child, he added. At eighteen years old, he didn’t feel ready or able for the responsibility of another life, especially when his track record of saving those he cared about was frightening. He’d nearly lost Summer and Decker, who would bear the scars of what they’d gone through forever, and he had lost Morgan.
It couldn’t really get any worse.
He slept fitfully. The next morning, he walked Biji back to the school then returned to his family’s cabin for a shower and hot breakfast. With some regret, Beck shaved off the beard after his shower, all except for a neatly trimmed goatee. He stared at himself in the mirror and rubbed his smooth cheeks. He missed the beard already. Its rough texture had intrigued him and helped pull him back into the real world whenever he got lost in his thoughts.
Maybe I need to be paying more attention to the rest of the world. If he had been, he might have known his brother was lying to him or that Dawn had been found.
He left the bathroom and pulled on his clothing and shoes. It felt incredible to be in his old room at his parent’s cabin once more. A fire burned across the room from his king-sized bed, and it was toasty and warm. The carpet was plush beneath his toes. He was looking forward to a good night sleep in a real bed.
Being back in his environment, he didn’t think he’d want to leave it to camp out in the forest again. The scent of baked goods and lasagna filled the house. His grandpa was making enough food for a small army as a welcome home party and also to help feed the myriad of witchling families in town for the equinox.
Before he could check out what food was in the kitchen, his phone buzzed with a text. The number for Amber, the Light Arts head instructor at the boarding school, popped up on his screen.
Hey – need you here this morning, she had texted.
Beck knew she wouldn’t call if it weren’t important and likewise, that there were few things Amber couldn’t handle. He’d left her and the school alone for most of the past three months, except when Amber called or he had to drop off new Light witchlings he discovered during his talks with his element.
Sensing her urgency, he pulled on his snow boots and a light rain jacket and ordered his magick to take him to the school. White, smoky fog billowed around his feet and swept him away.
He materialized in the front yard of the main log building housing the administrative offices, girls’ dorms, and most of the classrooms. The porch, main dining room and reception area were crowded before classes started, and he wove his way through the students, waving and smiling at those he knew. He reached the quiet hallways leading to the teachers’ offices and paused to look back at the students.
In three months time, he’d doubled the amount of Light students present at the school. A smile softened his taut features and warmed the bitterness that had begun to settle into his heart. The Light was getting stronger, fortified by the hours he spent growing it and the increase in students whose concentrated presence here acted as a buffer against the Dark.
He was proud of all those he’d found. Some had been like Summer and Morgan – lost to the greater witchling community – while others had been scheduled to attend but faced delays due to finances, family concerns or other issues. He had learned multiple sales pitches and approaches to winning over reluctant parents and skeptical students and brought everyone he could. He instituted a scholarship program as well to help those families less well off. The result was a school teeming with life, laughter and Light.
I did this. With his blood humming happily from the amount of magick in the air, Beck turned away and strode down the hall towards Amber’s office.
He nearly ran into her when she whipped open the door and started into the hallway.
“Hey!” The cheerful instructor with bright blue eyes grinned. “Good timing. Walk with me!” She always spoke in a singsong voice, and her happy air magick had the effect of brightening everywhere she was. She had a file in hand and was headed back through the building towards the back door leading out into the Square, the courtyard area where students gathered for bonfires, outdoor classes and just to hang out. On either side of it were the dorms and a fitness center.
Beck had been avoiding the area after the arson in December that Morgan was framed for setting. He recalled too easily her humiliation in front of the witchlings who battled the fire and hadn’t wanted a reminder of her pain. He saddened thinking of how much he loved the boarding school, and how cruel of an environment it had ended up becoming for her. She was the reason he insisted on changes with regards to how bullying and student relations were handled. There had been a lot of changes during the time he exiled himself to the forest.
“Wow. You can’t tell it even happened.” He looked around. His father had dumped a ton of money into repairing and expanding the school. The dorms were now two-story to make up for the influx of Light students, and the fitness center was being moved to a fourth building that would be located at the far end of the Square. “It looks amazing.”
In the crisp air, he was able to smell the new paint and construction materials of the new buildings.
“The second stories are done, and not too soon! We are busting at the seams!” Amber led him towards the new dorms and the stairs leading to the brand new second floor. The bottom floors of each building consisted of the original dorm rooms that survived the fire and were lined by a new wooden walkway beneath a canopy so students could walk between each other’s rooms without having to deal with the elements.
The second floor, he soon learned, had an inner hallway and doors on either side. There were bunk beds in each, a private bathroom and study areas along with a central common area at the middle of the dorm.
“Fantastic,” he murmured. “Dad did awesome in so short a time.”
“He did. He also said you have to approve everything before we can open it.”
Beck nodded, expecting the news. His father had pushed a lot his way since he turned eighteen, slowly turning over responsibility for the Light witchling students where it belonged, with the Master of Light. Beck had little business experience and no administrative knowledge, so he relied heavily on both his father and Amber to help guide his decisions.
“We have the building inspector’s approval?” he asked.
“Yep. New blueprints filed with the county and all paperwork in the main office.” She grinned. “Do you want a ribbon cutting ceremony?”
“Not if people are triple bunked. Open this wing up,” he replied.
“But we should do something,” she prodded. “This is the first time the school’s expanded in two decades at least.”
“I hadn’t thought of that. I guess it is pretty cool.” Beck smiled and looked around the common living area with its large television and multiple couches. “Could we open them today and then have something on the equinox?”
“Sure. Ribbon cutting and cake on the equinox then your parent’s gathering after. I’ve already drafted a release to go out to the witchling community writ large about the expansion. I emailed it to you for approval.”
“You haven’t been waiting long have you?” he asked, sensitive to his struggle with his new role.
“No.” Amber was too sweet to say if she had, and Beck made a note to check his email daily from now on in case she needed something. A lot of what she did on the administrative side – he should be doing more of.
Why did it always feel like he was not quite living up to who he thought he should be? Amber didn’t seem disappointed, and neither did his parents. But no Master or Mistress of Light had existed in over twenty years, so no one kne
w how much he was dropping the ball.
“You’re making real progress, Beck,” Amber said.
It doesn’t feel that way. He offered a smile, unwilling to ruin her optimism by voicing his own frustration. He was making progress, yes, but it was grueling and nowhere near what he thought it should be.
“Looks great, Amber,” he said. “Any issues?”
“We need another teacher.”
“I’m working on that one.”
“And …” She drifted off, worry flitting across her feature before disappearing. “Decker is good about policing the Dark students who get too close to the school, but a few students have reported something odd going on in Miner’s Drop.”
Miner’s Drop was on the side of the school opposite where Beck was working on growing the Light. He rarely went there anymore, mainly because it held nothing but painful memories, of the night Summer jumped into the Drop and the suffering of his brother that followed.
“Odd how?” he asked with a faint smile. “Not just kids learning to use their magick?”
She rolled her eyes. “We’ll table that comment for another discussion. Some kids are just …” she sighed. “Anyway, it’s not that. It’s more sophisticated use of magick. Students or witchlings with training who know how to control their elements.”
“Dark students are permitted to practice in the forest. Did you tell the Light students to stay out of the woods?”
“Of course. But it’s not practice, Beck. It’s … Dark.”
He studied her. The idea of Dark witchlings camping out and devising spells so close to campus didn’t sit well with him, but it wasn’t exactly illegal either. The forest belonged to the elements and therefore to any witchling who wanted to visit. “I’ll check it out,” he said.
“Thank you.” She appeared relieved. “How are you, Beck?”
“Good, thanks.”
“I can feel the work you’ve done. It’s amazing. Do you need any help?”
“I don’t think so. I think it’s just a matter of time.”
“Well let me know if you decide you do.” She smiled and passed him, headed towards the stairs. “If you’re good with the dorms, I’ll open them up today. Wanna take a look at the other dorm and new fitness center?”
“Sure.” He trailed her out of the first dorm building, toured the second, and finished his inspection with the remodeled fitness center. His father was a marathon runner and workout fanatic; the equipment was top of the line. His eyes skimmed all of it and settled on the wrestling mats where he’d once challenged Morgan to a match.
His blood warmed at the remembrance of her soft skin and fire. She could fight well, compliments of an overprotective brother with several black belts. He’d won only by dragging her to the ground where she couldn’t use her size and speed to best him. He smiled at the memory of her raw sex appeal and quick anger. She was too naïve to know why every guy in the gym had wanted to wrestle her that day. A combination of the natural, burning sultriness characteristic of fire witchlings and her beauty had stopped even him in his tracks.
“Beck, you coming?” Amber called from the doorway.
He blinked away the warm memories and followed her out of the fitness center to the administrative offices. Classes had started, and the hallways and common areas were quiet once more.
“… review the spring semester class schedule,” Amber was saying and plopped an iPad on the desk before her.
There were moments when being the Master of Light was really boring. Beck prepared himself for a day spent catching up with the school’s administrative tasks and sifting through his emails to determine what else he had missed in his exile.
“Let me check out Miner’s Drop first and I’ll be back to help out,” he said.
“I’ll be here!”
He didn’t bother going outside to summon his fog. He was careful about it in front of the students, but Amber knew what he could do.
Seconds later, he emerged at the bottom of Miner’s Drop, beneath the cliff that still inspired disturbing memories whenever he saw it. He shivered in its shadow. He recalled too well what happened the night Summer jumped, how her broken body had looked from the top of the cliff and how Decker had almost gone mad over the course of a single night.
There were no good memories of Miner’s Drop or the field nearby where he had later fought Decker with magick.
Beck turned away. Unable to sense Dark the way Decker could, Beck searched the floor of the rocky valley with his gaze before beginning to walk down its center. He sensed … something. A stillness of the air, the electrified air present before it was about to snow or storm even though the sky was clear.
He paused midway through the valley, unable to continue. A sheet of solid ice had settled into the lowest points, and he wasn’t wearing the best boots to navigate it. The snow remained here whereas it was melting from the forest floor. He was about to dismiss Amber’s concern when he caught the footprints in the snow running along one wall of the canyon towards a series of caves he and Decker used to play in as children.
The imprints were crisp and fresh.
Beck left the path he was on to follow them. His feet crunched into the snow. More than one set of footsteps were visible. From the size of the shoe prints and the length of the strides, he guessed one was a woman and the other a man. They led along the wall to the first of four small caves.
He steadied himself against the rocky wall and leaned into the first. It was dark and shallow, and sunlight reached the back wall.
“One down,” he said, his curiosity growing about what two witchlings were doing out here in the canyon. It was, and had been, off-limits to Light witchlings for quite some time. That the Dark witchlings were traveling forty five minutes to practice their craft in the forests so near the Light school seemed … off.
Beck navigated an area of slush and ice to reach the second cave. He stepped in front of it – and froze.
A familiar, dark, cold, Light sapping chill washed over him. He stepped back instinctively and peered into the cave. Sunlight wasn’t able to penetrate its depths, and the unnatural shifting of shadows alerted him that he had found whatever the Dark witchlings had been doing.
He texted Decker with one hand, not about to take his eyes off the Dark.
“A cave what?” Decker’s voice materialized with his form a moment later.
“I was trying to type Dark cave,” Beck said with a glance at his phone. He hadn’t bothered to check the message before he sent it.
Decker approached without hesitation and stood in the mouth of the cave, looking around it. “It’s not just here, either,” he observed. “The valley reeks of it.”
“What is it?” Beck asked.
“There’s a Dark ward here, placed by an air witchling. I’m immune to it but …” Decker motioned to the front of the cave then stepped into it. He disappeared, swallowed by the Dark. “Yeah, what I thought. It’s keeping the Dark magick inside and impossible for me to sense.”
“Bartholomew’s magick. I’d recognize that taint anywhere.”
“I’d say so.”
“Someone’s collecting Dark magick.”
“One guess as to who.” Decker emerged from the cave. Black fog clung to him. “How did you find this place?”
“Amber said some Light witchlings noticed magick out this way.”
“It’s all over the place. Undetectable until I’m in the middle of it.” Decker swept his arm around to indicate the canyon.
“What do you think she’s doing?” Beck had an idea, but it didn’t seem possible. Or maybe, he wasn’t ready to admit yet how great the threat was to the Light source and school. “You don’t think she’d hurt the people she grew up with, do you?”
“Absolutely.”
I don’t want to believe it. Beck said nothing aloud, troubled by how little he knew the woman who was about to become the mother of his daughter. “I should be able to do more to prevent things like this from happening.”
> Decker’s Darkness pooled at his feet and in the space between them, whereas Becks’ Light wasn’t visible. Decker was considering the fog at his feet. “You’ve always been the good one. Maybe that’s the problem.”
“Meaning …”
“Meaning … the first thing I learned as a Dark Master is that I don’t have to follow rules. Maybe you should try to buck them as well.”
“I’m not going out there and killing everyone I don’t agree with.”
“I’m not suggesting you do,” Decker replied icily. “I’m saying, maybe to understand the Light, to protect it, you have to become more a part of it.”
Beck studied his brother and followed his gaze. Light had never responded to him the way Dark did to Decker. Decker had barely recovered from his dive into the Dark and needed his counterbalance to prevent him from losing control. The Light was nowhere near as dangerous, yet Beck didn’t think he was ready to lose himself to something too great for him to control. He wasn’t even certain the Light could connect with him like the Dark had defined Decker. Decker and his Dark were intimately intertwined.
The Light seemed too fragile still, and he feared losing it as much as he did failure.
I’m not worthy of partnering with the Light like that. Beck thought. “Interesting idea,” he said finally.
“I uh … heard … there’s more than Dawn threatening the Light,” Decker continued with some discomfort.
“Heard. As in, after you stabbed someone to death, you learned their secret.” It was a gift each Master shared with his respective flock – the ability to see the memories and thoughts of those who died.
“Yeah. Dawn’s managed to stir up a small rebellion of people who aren’t happy about being cut off from the Light.”