by Marian Gray
Chapter Thirty-Eight
The room was quiet, save the sound of showers. Sweat and dirt swirled down the drains hand-in-hand with our hope and happiness. I didn’t know how, but I knew it was my fault. The bruises along my limbs and stitched welt on my side told me as much.
“I’ll see you all at practice,” Andres muttered as he left the room. Nobody replied.
I hung my head, allowing the weight of my soaked hair to curtain me from my team. My mind replayed the scene. The lights lit the field, and the three of us stood on the pitch. On the opposite side of the field stood our rivals from across the Atlantic. The horn blew, and we flew towards them in a sprint. They mimicked our gallop. Their charge worried me, but the emotional tornado cycling through me captured my attention. Leading up to the match, he had been cold, distant, and civil when addressing me. His words to me centered around the game, and all other topics were ignored. It was our new status quo for communication.
I sighed, pressing my hands against the wet stone wall and leaning forward. My stomach lurched. I gagged and choked but nothing came out. Warm water streamed down my cheeks, cascading down to the hard floor.
“Kim, are you ok?” Ryan’s voice called out to me.
“Yes,” I answered but couldn’t turn around and look at him. It was his face I had first seen when I regained conscious. Worry marked his brow as he worked with the on-site medics to stitch my gaping side and pour a thick gray concoction down my throat.
“I know it’s difficult,” Ryan said over the showers. “But you need to keep the potion down.”
I nodded my understanding.
He took a few steps toward me.
“Just leave her be, Ryan.” Maggie stopped his approach. “You know what it’s like—condolences feel like blame and only time cures it.”
But they had no idea how I felt. My head swirled with nausea and disappointment coated my stomach. Shards of my heart still lay where they fell, undisturbed.
“Well, I want you to know that nobody hates you. We’re a team. We all make mistakes. I’m just glad that you and Elijah are alive.” He swallowed hard. “I’ll see you all around.”
“You’re not going to wait for me?” Maggie asked.
“Uh, sure.” Ryan’s voice quivered. “If you want.”
“You’re the mystery girl?” Beth’s called from the other side of the room.
“Guilty as charged.”
“For how long?”
“Long enough.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
“I didn’t think a formal announcement was necessary.” Maggie’s tone remained casual. “We’re not official. We’re figuring things out.”
“Let’s go before she asks more questions.”
"I'll see you two around." Beth waved.
"See you at practice," Maggie said as Ryan led them out of the showers.
I closed my eyes, and the arena splayed out before me. Spells flashed before me: violet, silver, yellow, indigo. Panic pulsed through me as the duel broke into chaos. Elijah held off their onslaught, but spells slipped through. I danced around the field, avoiding the burst of power that soared toward me. I was outmatched in casting speed. All I had was my strength.
They must have studied us before we met. For every spell I threw at them, they had two players either block or contain it. We couldn’t break through their defenses, and our struggle to keep them at bay heightened with every passing minute.
Beth’s hand gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze. “It’s only a game. Don’t pay attention to those that will try to make you feel bad.”
“Thanks, Beth.” The water continued to pelt my body.
When the wand was shot out of my hand, she tried to come to my rescue. She screamed at Elijah to do something. A white ball of sparks struck me in the chest.
“I’ll see you around. Get some sleep.” She patted my shoulder. “You too, Elijah.”
I closed my eyes and shook my head. The rest of the evening was a long string of patchy memories. Elijah fended off their spells, taking steps to close the distance. When my side was ripped open, he tackled the offending wizard. I fell to ground as my blood spread across the ground. Elijah’s arm reeled back before his fist hammered into the other team’s captain. People swarmed the field. He struck the other player over and over again. Game officials latched onto him. It took three men to pull him off.
Then, I saw Ryan’s face.
“Why did you do it?” I turned and asked him.
Elijah stood on the opposite end of the showers. He glanced over his shoulder but didn’t answer.
“Why did you beat that wizard?”
He rubbed his lips. “Did you even try tonight?”
“How can you ask me that? Of course I did.” My chest tightened as the heartbreak radiated.
“You were distracted.”
“I’m hurting.” I pled for his sympathy.
“Then the responsible thing to do would have been to request a reserve to stand in your spot. That’s what they’re there for. If you step on that pitch distracted again, I’ll pull you off without hesitation.”
“I’m sorry.” I swallowed down the growing whimper on my lips. “I’m sorry for everything, Elijah. For tonight. For last week. For how I disregarded your feelings throughout the relationship. I don’t want us to end like this—I don’t want us to end at all.” The tears flowed down my cheeks. “Don’t you even miss me?”
He sighed, and his feet stepped toward the door.
“I meant what I said. I love you. And I still do.”
The shower door slammed behind him. I stood there alone and injured. My knees buckled, carrying my crumbling body to the floor.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Blackwood Bends Best Friends
By Ida Rivera
Inside sources have informed the Emporium that Kim Blackwood and Elijah Harlow recently broke up after carrying on a secret relationship for an undisclosed amount of time. There is much speculation as to who initiated the romance, but one thing is confirmed—Harlow was the one to end it, leaving Blackwood devastated.
We are not certain whether Blackwood’s affair with Harlow sprouted due to her courtship with Rosewall or from their shared participation in the Ivory University Holmgang Team, but their devoted silence to the matter leaves many questioning the ex-couple’s fidelity. If there was nothing amiss about their amorous connection, then why the staunch push for privacy?
I lowered the paper from my eyes. Every ounce of dignity I had saved, leaked out of my toes. I couldn’t believe he had talked.
My hands folded the Emporium and slid it into my backpack. Perhaps this was his way of receiving closure. It injured his pride that I had wanted to keep our relationship a secret, and now, it was all undone. The death of us had been announced in the paper.
I swallowed hard, waiting for the rush of fear or gloom to overtake me. Instead, there was a simple emptiness, complete void of sensation. I had expelled every ounce of emotion in my weepy-eyed loneliness. And now all I harbored was an indifferent numbness. It was the most stable I had been for the past month.
A cold, slender hand grabbed my shoulder. I leapt from the bench and wheeled around with my wand held high.
Two hands lifted in the defense. They were red with swollen knuckles. “It’s just me.” He took a step back.
“James?” It had been a month and a half since we last met, and he already looked so different. He wasn’t thin but exhibited some muscle mass. His patch of red skin had swelled across cheek, chin, and neck. Hair toppled to his chest, knotted into a nest. If it weren’t for his lost eyes, I wouldn’t have recognized him.
“I miss you, Kim.”
My arm remained stretched out before me. “What do you want? Are you still following me?”
“I want the same thing I wanted last time we spoke. I want you to come away with me. I’ve built a house a few miles from here, and now that all of that silly business with Elijah is over—we can be together. No one
else to distract us from each other or our magic.”
“What do you mean you built a house?”
A smirk slid across his face and eyes lit up. “The days of producing roses is child’s play compared to my abilities now. My magic is stronger than I ever believed possible.”
I shook my head, exasperated. “Why are you doing all of this?”
“You’ve asked me that plenty of times already, and my answer hasn’t changed—it’s all for you, Kim.”
“But I don’t want any of it! I never asked for any of this. And there’s never been anything romantic between us. Why are you so obsessed with me?” And there it was. The word had come out of my own mouth. Obsessed. The book quote streamed through my head: While the cause of this disorder is still largely debated amongst the leading brains of the industry, all research and experts seems to agree that cases almost exclusively appear in emotionally unstable sorcerers who obsess over their abilities, knowledge, love, and need for greater power.
Elijah was right. James had Mad Merlin Syndrome.
“Because we’re meant to be together. Why is this so hard for you to see?” He threw his hands down in frustration, and his face swirled into a disgusting hue of red.
“Stay back.” I warned him. “I will harm you in order to protect myself.”
“Protect yourself? You really think I would try to harm you?” He ran a hand down his face. “I’m not the bad guy, Kim. They are!” He pointed toward campus.
I shook my head. I stared at the creature before me, struck with absolute disbelief. “You’re mad, James. You’re completely out of your mind.”
His arm crossed in front of his chest, displaying the new muscle. “I’m not mad, Kim. In fact, I see everything perfectly clear now. Way clearer than I ever have before.”
“You need help.”
“Do I? I think I’m doing quite well for myself.” His hand met the patch on his neck. The skin was rough and wept when his nails dug in.
“Magic isn’t the answer to everything.”
His neck reeled back and a burst of laughter came from his mouth. “Is that what they teach you at that school?” He shook his head. “Don’t believe it. You’re stronger than that. We’re stronger than that.”
“Come with me to the school clinic, and we'll get this all sorted out.” I held out my other hand.
“You’re going to work this angle again?”
“Kim?” The voice was distant.
“Eddie!” I shouted, desperate to have someone else there with me. I glanced over my shoulder to spot him running down the slope. When my head turned back, James was gone, lost amongst the abundant pines.
“What are you doing?” Eddie met my eyes and his feet slowed to cautious pace. “Are you all right?”
I threw my arms around him in a tight embrace. “I’m so glad you’re here.” I couldn’t be alone in this anymore. “I need your help.”
“With Elijah?”
“No, with James.”
Chapter Forty
The announcement of our official league win arrived Saturday morning, and by noon, a party for that evening had been scheduled. Ivory University had been awarded first place in both single and triple competition. For the first time since my great grandmother’s reign, we were double cup champions. The news lifted my spirits, and a happy buzz filled my chest. I had forgotten how good that felt.
“So, Eddie knew you two were together before I did?” Sara’s voice was exasperated.
I shrugged. “Why does it matter who found out first?”
Eddie grinned at her. “It’s because she likes me more.”
Sara stuck out her tongue. “She doesn’t like you more. Did you know they had broken up? No. Because she told me. Not you.”
Eddie and I shared a knowing glance. He knew that Eli and I had split up, but we agreed not to discuss a single event from that day. Nobody needed even a hint of James' existence, or that he had built a home in these mountainous woods to house his insanity.
“Are you sure this is where the party is? The oracular department?” Sara glanced around the dark, empty halls.
“It’s what I was told. The observatory in the Oracular Department, team and friends only.” I recited the note, but the stark silence within the halls hammered home a nail of doubt.
“It’s just too quiet for a party to be going on, you know?” Sara said what I was feeling.
“I guess we’ll find out.” Eddie pointed at a sign with ornate platinum text sparkling in the dim light.
There was nobody going in or out, and not a single sliver of sound slid into the corridor. My hand wrapped around the petite platinum doorknobs, and I yanked one of the tall, slender doors open.
Music, laughter, heat, and lights blasted out from the large observatory. The glass dome ceiling glinted with every shade of the rainbow, as a floating ball spun around in mid-air. The floor was packed with dancing feet, and the mood was electrifying.
“I guess it’s sound proof.” Eddie shrugged.
My foot crossed the threshold, and the music ceased. The swirling ball of light froze. As the hundred pairs of eyes fell upon me, silver and gold confetti rained from the ceiling. The tiny metallic specs broke upon my skin into sparkling wisps of air.
“Blackwood!” A student yelled. Applause roared through the room. The music and lights burst back to life.
Despite my heart’s excessive palpitations, I entered the observatory and allowed myself to be swallowed by the crowd. Students shook my hand and congratulated me. The camaraderie was highly intoxicating. It sent a thick warm glow of bliss through my system. The student body embraced me as one of them rather than the spoiled, inept aristocrat caricature the Emporium had created.
“There you are.” Maggie appeared in a tight purple dress. Her blonde locks had been pulled back, revealing midnight black roots.
“We wanted to be fashionably late,” Sara joked. The reality was that we had trouble finding the observatory, which led to us wandering around the building for a good twenty minutes.
Maggie’s eyebrow arched. “I’m Maggie.” She held out her hand to Sara.
“Sorry,” I said as Sara shook her hand. “These are my friends, Sara and Eddie.”
“It’s a pleasure.” Maggie grinned. “I’m Maggie—”
“Maggie Nguyen,” Sara finished for her. “I am very familiar with who you are.” Her tanned face widened with a smile.
“Of course.” Maggie’s tone was flat.
“It’s nice to finally meet you.” Eddie offered her a polite smile.
“Likewise.” Her disposition toward him lightened in comparison to Sara. “Everyone’s on the balcony. Why don’t you three follow me up?”
I nodded my agreement, and Maggie led us on a safari through the dancing crowd. People cheered and saluted with claps of praise as we wandered to a cast iron spiral staircase. The climb up was slow, for we had to ascend two stories worth of stairs. When I reached the top, I was greeted by a gigantic, bulbous-lensed telescope. To the right of the metal machinery stood a circular seating area with ample room.
“Amazing view,” Sara commented, glancing down at the party below us, but my eyes were glued to the activity on the balcony.
Ryan sequestered an entire couch to himself with two girls on either side. He sunk between their hovering bodies, basking in the attention. The sight gave me pause. “Are you two over?” I asked Maggie.
She shook her head. “We were never a thing, so how could we be over?”
I pursed my lips. “You feel nothing seeing him over there like that?” It was only a few weeks ago that the two were running out of the showers together.
“Yes, I feel something—but at the same time I knew this was all temporary. He’s an apprentice. He graduates in two weeks. Why hang my hopes and invest my affection in someone that is moving out of my world?”
My eyes wandered away form her, and shoulders dropped.
“That wasn’t a commentary on you, Kim.” Maggie reached out f
or my hand. “You’re not me, and he’s not Ryan. What bound you two together is not the same stuff that bound Ryan and I.”
“I knew what you meant,” I lied. Every day I discovered something new that made me feel foolish for believing in my relationship with Elijah. I had nearly escaped a revelation for today, but alas, it found me. I was an idiot for thinking an apprentice would want to maintain a serious, long-term relationship with a bejantine.
“I think it’s better for both of us though. I’m onto more Hispanic things.” A wide, sinister grin expanded along her face.
Across from Ryan, Andres held a lively conversation with a girl. Spanish spilled out of his mouth in rapid fire, but from the girl’s lost face, it was apparent she wasn’t understanding most of what he said.
“Andres, really?”
Maggie tilted her head and shrugged. “Well, I’m between that and spending the rest of the evening like Anderson.”
Beth sat alone in an arm chair, sipping on a dark drink as though she were a hardened army general.
“You could always try someone not on the team,” I suggested.
“I thought about McGowen,” Maggie confessed. “I’ve never gone home with a woman, but I wouldn’t mind taking her back to my dorm.”
“I didn’t know you pursued both genders.”
“Life’s too short not to experiment, but I don’t think it’ll matter. There’s no way I can compete with Elijah.”
I didn’t know he was there, because he didn’t sit with the others. My eyes search the balcony and found him off to the side with Kinsey McGowen. A tight cocktail dress wrapped around her body, lifting all of her assets. Her back sat tall with a slight lean, allowing Elijah a glance of her cleavage whenever he wanted. The scene sent my blood into a cold boil. Perhaps their relationship wasn’t as harmless as he had led me to believe.
“The prodigal daughter has returned,” Ryan called out, lifting his cup to me. The rest of the team glanced up from their conversations and joined in a celebratory cheer—all except the captain and his aide. Ryan raised his wand and sent several filled glasses our way.