Enchanters: A Meridia Falls Fantasy Thriller (Meridia Falls Series 1 Book 3)

by D. B. Green

  “If you say you feel sick, they let you go home,” Maz says, shrugging her shoulders. “I should have let you in on that trick the other day.”

  “Yeah, that could’ve been useful,” I say as I check my watch. It’s one twenty-five. “Crap. It’s gonna be one hell of a short visit. Come on!”

  We run between the parked cars, the wind whistling around us. Maz suddenly stops next to a silver Porsche… Candy’s silver Porsche. She glances longingly at her former pride and joy, then kicks the front tire. “Bitch.”

  “Candy can’t have gone home, then,” I say.

  Maz shakes her head. “They would have called my mom to pick her up,” she says. “It’s what they did when I used the same excuse.” She shrugs her shoulders. “Anything for a day off from this place.”

  We battle through the freezing wind to my truck and I unlock the passenger door for her.

  “Polaroid,” she says, blurting out the word like she had something stuck in her throat. “What I want to know is how the hell did Penny’s ghost show up on that?”

  “Magic!” A voice comes from behind. It’s Trevor. His voice is deeper, more assured. Sally and Candy stand on either side of him. Candy’s hair blows to the left as the wind picks up. Trevor points at me. “Logan has Affinity magic.” He draws out the last word, his eyes suddenly sparkling green. Radiance.

  “Fuck!” Maz shouts. “He’s an Enchanter!”

  Sally turns to her brother and grins. “Not just him.” Her eyes sparkle green, too. Then Candy’s light up blue. They all hold hands, their eyes sparkling like lights on a Christmas tree.

  What the hell is going on? “Trevor, are you OK?”

  “We can’t harm you, Logan.” They all speak in unison, their voices merging together. “But we can have some fun with her.”

  Still holding hands, Candy stands at the front, forming a triangle. Their lips move. They’re chanting. And chanting fast, at the same time, in the same merged voice. The whistling wind makes it hard to hear. It almost sounds like…

  “Tornado!” Maz shouts.

  A small tornado suddenly spins out from the middle of their triangle. It spins in time with their chant, dragging litter into its growing vortex.

  The truck door slams shut. Maz tugs at the handle as her blonde hair stretches out behind her. I grab the back of my truck as the car next to it slides of its space, the wheels bumping on the concrete, leaving rubber streaks as it lifts into the tornado.

  I grab Maz’s arm and half drag her away. We cut through some bushes and onto the sports field. “Let’s cut through baseball field!” Maz shouts.

  I glance over my shoulder as we run. Trevor, Sally, and Candy follow, still holding hands in their triangle formation. Their eyes sparkle bright behind the swirling tornado.

  “They’re following us,” Maz shouts. “They made a freakin’ tornado and they’re sending it after us.”

  Suddenly a tree branch hurtles through the air like a spear. I pull Maz out of the way as the branch embeds itself into the grass where she was standing.

  “Shit! And I thought Trevor was OK!” We run through the open gate and onto the baseball field. Crap. “What now?”

  Maz points to a row of thick oak trees at the back of the field. “Through there,” she says. “We can hide in the trees.”

  A loud crack suddenly comes from behind; something strikes the pitcher’s mound next to Maz.

  “Lightning!” she screams.

  Another searing hot bolt scorches the grass next to me. “Shit! They can control the weather with their magic,” I shout, as a funnel of torrential rain hits us like a water cannon.

  We sprint across the pitch, avoiding the rain. Tornado. I’ve lost sight of the swirling vortex. I spin around. “Shit! Maz, look out!”

  She screams as the tornado drops on top of her, forcing her arms out to the side. “I can’t move!” The swirling vortex slowly turns her around to face our attackers. I grab her sleeve, but I can’t drag her away. She’s held tight, like a spider caught in a web. “Go Logan! Get out of here.”

  “I’m not leaving you!” I squint through the torrential rain as it batters against my face. Three sets of sparkling eyes approach, like car headlights on a foggy night. I turn and tug at Maz’s sleeve again, pulling her coat off her shoulders. Tears stream down her face, mixing with the rain. Her eyes open wide. “Oh my god!” she screams. “Go, Logan!”

  Something hisses behind me. I spin around on the muddy grass. Three bolts of lightning zig-zag over the baseball field towards Maz.

  My heart races in high gear. No choice. I reach for Maz’s hand. As soon as I touch her wet skin, time freezes. The lightning bolts all stop still, inches away from Maz chest. I wait for the memory vision - but nothing comes.

  I’m still in my own mind. This is different. Although time is frozen, I can still move. I reach around with my other hand and clamp that over Maz’s hand, too. Her eyes sparkle bright blue, brighter than they did when I saw her memories. Suddenly, my stomach drops like I’m on a roller coaster. I fling my arm away from Maz and for a second, the hanging drops of rain pull towards me, like iron filings to a magnet. Then they crystallize into ice and shoot out, like a giant frozen wave at the beach. It surrounds the lightning bolts, turning them to ice, then continues across the baseball field. It crashes into our attackers, sending them flying in opposite directions. Then they stop still in the air, like a freeze frame picture.

  The tornado disappears from around Maz and her eyes stop sparkling. The ice wave turns back to water, splashing on the wet grass, as time starts moving again.

  Trevor flies into the chain-link fence surrounding the baseball field. Sally does the same, on the opposite side of the field, and Candy hurtles over the fence into the oak trees.

  “That was some freakin’ home run.” Maz says as she stretches out her arms. “Did you see what I did?”

  “What you did…?” I say.

  “Yeah. As soon as you touched me, I could move. I just thought about ice and then that happened. Boom!” She smiles. “I can do magic.”

  “But I thought…” I kick at the frozen lightning bolts on the grass next to my shoe. They look like Poseidon’s Trident, the same spiky shape as the one held by the statue in the school’s entrance lobby. “What the hell just happened?”

  “I don’t know, Newb,” Maz says. She glances at Trevor, hunched against the fence. He sits up and shakes his head. “But we better get back into school. They won’t attack us inside.”

  14:03 GMT-4

  MERIDIA HIGH SCHOOL | MERIDIA FALLS

  “Looks like Slayter is taking a page from Jefferson’s book,” Maz says as she runs her hand through her damp hair.

  “What do you mean?” I ask.

  “Being late for class,” she says, taking a brush from her bag. “If she would just follow his lead and disappear during class, too, then math might not be so bad.” She bunches her blond hair together and forces the brush through it.

  I lean across. “Your hair looks fine,” I say. “Don’t worry.”

  She shrugs her shoulders and stares at the brush. “I guess it’s because of my mom and those endless pageants,” she says. “She never let me have a hair out of place… Well, she never used to, before Candy came along.”

  Speaking of Candy, there is still no sign of her, Sally, or Trevor - but something tells me they weren’t too hurt after the attack.

  “That was so freaking weird outside,” Maz says as she rubs her thumbs over her fingers. “It was like I just knew what to do. My hands still tingle from the magic.” She glances at the classroom door and slams her fist down on the desk. “If they try it again, I’ll be ready for them.” Her voice wavers as she turns away.

  A ginger-haired guy on the front row jumps up and grabs a stick of chalk from Miss Slayter’s desk. He drags it down the chalkboard, drawing a crude half naked woman holding a textbook. His friends cheer and burst out laughing.

  “We should have ditched school and gone straight to t
he cinema,” Maz says, shaking her head.

  “I know, but Stephanie said we needed to act normal.”

  Maz leans across and plants her hands on my desk. “Newb, none of this is normal.” She tugs at her sleeve. “It’s lucky I had a spare jumper in my locker.” Her left eyebrow raises as she presses a finger to my T-shirt. “At least no one ripped off your coat in the torrential magic rain.”

  “Hey! I was trying to save you!” I say.

  She grins. “I know you were. And I’d give you a big kiss for it… if I could.” Her eyebrow raises again. “Or should you be kissing me? I did save you after all.” She wiggles her fingers in front of my face.

  Magic Release. The silver tube that Stephanie used… that Charlotte used. Stephanie said it allowed her to use magic. But how did Maz…

  The classroom door suddenly bursts open and the ginger-haired guy darts into his chair faster than a sprinter at the Olympics. Miss Slayter storms in; she notices the drawing on the chalkboard straight away. Pressing her hands tight to her hips, she shakes her head and walks slowly over to her desk. Then she swivels on her heels and beckons to the open classroom door. Candy, Sally, and Trevor all sheepishly walk in.

  Trevor weaves between the desk and sits at one in front of me. Candy and Sally take desks on the second row, next to Cavanagh. He holds out his hands, but Candy ignores him and drops down into her seat. They all appear unhurt and their clothes are dry, too. Weird.

  Trevor turns around, his eyes open wide. They look a little bloodshot. “I hope we didn’t miss anything in history,” he says, glancing over his shoulder. “We all reacted badly to the vaccinations. They made us stay in the nurse’s room until we came around, which was like fifteen minutes ago.” He checks his watch and then rubs his stomach. “We missed lunch. I’m starving.”

  Maz turns to me. Her mouth is wide open. “What the…”

  15:27 GMT-4

  MAIN STREET | MERIDIA FALLS

  I lock my truck door and then we walk across to the other side of the street. Maz jumps at the sound of a car horn in the distance; she grips my arm even tighter. I can’t let her go anywhere on her own, not after the attack at school. I take out my phone and type a quick message to Stephanie.

  I’m bringing Maz. We were attacked at school. Can she stay at the cinema until Steve finishes work?

  “Will they be OK with me coming?” Maz shivers in the freezing cold breeze blasting down Main Street. “I don’t want to go home, not after seeing Candy like that.”

  I gently squeeze her arm. “I’m sure they’ll be OK,” I say. “What time does Steve finish work?”

  “Not until five,” Maz says, glancing at her watch. She looks longingly down Main Street. “Did you tell your grandmother about Texas?”

  I glance at Anne’s bakery on the other side of the street. “No way. She thinks I’m having another study date. With Penny.” I pause as my stomach drops. Penny. “I wish I could rewind to the other night.” I look up at Penny’s apartment windows above the cinema sign. “Knowing what I know now, I would never take us to Hellgate Forest… and that door.”

  Maz points at a banner hanging under the cinema sign.

  The Meridian Cinema Restaurant will re-open 8th October!

  “They’re not wasting any time,” she says.

  “Nope. That’s this Saturday.” I take out the keys Stephanie gave me and unlock the cinema door. I pull it open and show Maz inside. With a last glance down Main Street, I follow her inside the entrance lobby.

  “Hello!” I shout as I lock the door. “It’s just us.”

  Stephanie comes bounding into the entrance lobby. “What attack?” she asks, panting for breath. “What happened?”

  “Three kids at school used magic on us,” I say. “One of them was her stepsister.”

  “Candy Steele,” Maz says, nodding her head. “They controlled the weather with magic. Tornadoes, rain, and freakin’ lightning bolts.” She turns to me. “But I saved us with my own magic.” She holds up her hands, wiggling her fingers. “Ice, ice, baby.”

  Stephanie narrows her eyes and glances at me. “This is important,” she says. “Did they hold hands when they used magic?”

  “Yeah. They walked in a kind of triangle formation.” I wave my finger in front of my eyes. “They had Radiance, too.”

  “Radiance?” Maz asks.

  “Our eyes sparkle when we use magic,” I say. “Yours sparkled blue, like shining diamonds.”

  “One was your stepsister,” Stephanie says, running her hand through her hair. “What about the other two? Were they…”

  “Brother and sister,” Maz says, interrupting her. “Sally and Trevor Baines. But they all didn’t remember anything about it in the afternoon. It’s like they were brainwashed.”

  “Vaccinations,” I say. “It happened after they had injections. Trevor said they blacked out after them.”

  “Shit!” Stephanie says, the curse sounding strange, wrong in her British accent. “Shit! Shit! Shit! A Sibling Trinity.” She shakes her head. “It’s what we suspected. Someone is using you kids, experimenting on you.”

  “Trinity?” Maz asks.

  Stephanie nods. “It’s a magic formation. Three Enchanters with at least two being siblings.” She presses her hands together. “They connect their minds and their magic. They operate as one, more powerful Enchanter.” She glances through the lobby into the bright restaurant. “Come on, we don’t have much time.”

  She leads us through the curtained entrance into the main restaurant. The renovation work has already started; the dust sheets are all gone from the tables and it’s all a lot cleaner. A pile of ‘Opening Soon’ flyers sit on the shiny bar.

  “So, how are we getting to Texas?” I check my watch. “In an hour?”

  She half-smiles. “You’re about to step into a larger world - or through it.” She stops at the bottom of the stairs and turns to Maz. “I think it might be safer if you stay here tonight. Will your parents allow it?”

  Maz glances. “Probably not.” She half-smiles. “But I have a huge bomb I’ve been waiting to drop. Mom will let me stay.”

  “Good,” Stephanie says, as she heads up the stairs.

  “Bomb?” I ask.

  Maz waits until Stephanie is out of earshot. “My mom is having an affair with one of the farmhands.” Maz screws up her face. “I almost walked in on them at it.”

  “Does she know you know?”

  Maz narrows her eyes and grin. “No. But she will in a few minutes.” She turns and climbs the stairs, two at a time. I follow her up.

  Victoria waits at the top of the stairs with her arms crossed over her stomach. “I thought you were leaving without saying goodbye.” She notices Maz. “Oh, hello, Marilyn. I didn’t know you were coming.”

  “Slight change of plan,” Stephanie says, placing her hand on Victoria’s shoulder. “How do you feel about a house guest for the night?”

  Victoria shrugs. “The more the merrier.” She glances over her shoulder. “Teddy’s back there working on the computers, too”

  “Right,” Stephanie says, taking a deep breath. “We need to go. Are you ready?” She takes a round crystal door handle from her pocket. She glances at Maz, then at me. “This is a gift we all have. All Enchanters. We can open a doorway - a Traverse - to anywhere we’ve already been.” She taps the side of her head. “We just need to concentrate and chant the name.” Her crystal door handle reflects the light from the bright chandelier at the top of the stairs. She throws the handle up and catches it. “But we need a focus to actually open the doorway.”

  The silver door handle Charlotte Slayter dropped jumps into my mind. Is that what she was trying to do - open a doorway to escape?

  “What is all the chanting about?” Maz says. “They did that at school, when they attacked us.”

  Victoria steps forward. “You were attacked?”

  “I saved us,” Maz says, “I used—”

  “Chanting focuses our magic.” Stephanie says, cutt
ing Maz off in mid-sentence. “The white door in Hellgate Forest was a Static Traverse. They can open onto another location - several, even. But they are constructed by a door maker. They infuse them with dead magic.”

  “Dead magic?” I ask.

  “Dead magic is when an object is fused with magic, like the white door…” Victoria says, concern still showing on her face. She glances over her shoulder at Penny’s apartment. “And the processor in Penny’s server.”

  “Live magic is a lot more complicated.” Stephanie says. “It is the magic we do, the chanting. But we are restricted to one day of magic a year.”

  Maz’s eyes open wide. “One day!”

  Stephanie pulls out her Magic Release and presses the silver tube to her neck. “This breaks the restrictions and allows us a little burst of magic.”

  Victoria grabs Maz’s arm. “You two are going to love this.”

  Stephanie holds the door handle in front of her. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. Her brown eyes suddenly open wide, sparkling like the chandelier above her. “Fiori Rosa-Fiori Rosa-Fiori Rosa.” She chants fast under her breath in one long continuous whisper as her eyes continue to sparkle with brown Radiance.

  A thin line of bright light shoots up from the wooden floor, like a spark racing up a fuse wire. It rises past her hands and turns right above her head, then it shoots back down to the floor, making the perfect glowing outline of a door.

  Stephanie stops chanting and takes in several deep breaths as the sparkle fades from her eyes. Her hands fall away from the crystal handle, but it remains hanging in the air, like it’s suspended on invisible strings. She takes another deep breath. “No turning back now.” She reaches out and turns the handle. Part of the balcony opens outwards, like it’s a page in a giant magazine.

  “Wow,” Maz says, her mouth wide open. “That is awesome.”

  I walk around the open doorway to the back of it. Maz and Victoria now appear on the folded magazine-like page. “This is so weird,” I say. “It’s like a photo - a Polaroid of the scene.”