Denouncement

by E A Foley

  “Yes. Like I tried to say Thursday night, I think I have a solution to our Brett problem.”

  “Yeah? What is it?”

  “We find out where he’s practicing and tell him we don’t want anything to do with him.”

  “That’s it? That’s your solution?”

  “You have a better one?”

  “Well, I already tried yours, so no.”

  “Wait, you know where he practices?”

  “I knew where he practiced. I have no idea if he still goes there or not. And I have no desire to go back and find out, so don’t bother asking,” she added as she backed through her doorway and onto the sand of their practice island.

  “Iris, wait!” Rozlynd called after her.

  Iris didn’t wait. She slammed the doorway shut and formed a second one to her practice glade. She was there so fast she knew her magic would have ebbed enough so she couldn’t be followed from the island. Unfortunately, Brett waited in her glade.

  “Goddamnit!” Iris yelled. All sounds in the cleaning ceased in an instant. “What the fuck do you want?” she demanded, then changed her mind. “You know what, I don’t care. Leave me the fuck alone. I want nothing to do with you nor with magic, so fuck off!” Her eyes continued to smolder while her breathing was deep and heavy.

  “Is that the point you’re at?” Brett asked her. He took a few steps closer and peered into Iris’s eyes. “You’re not quite convincing yet. Your eyes give it away.”

  “What would you know about my eyes?”

  “You’ve never looked up a list of other Oculus Prismatics, have you?”

  Iris shook her head once in the negative.

  “My dad’s one.”

  “Your dad has hazel eyes and no rainbows. I’ve seen them.”

  “Yes, that is his natural color. What you see are his contacts. He was ridiculed through school the same way you were. On the East Coast though. He came west for college and started wearing colored contacts. He doesn’t need to wear them anymore, but I think he does it out of habit. He can control his eye color. I won’t believe you’re done with magic until you can control yours.”

  “Well, believe it. I’m done.”

  “Then what are you doing here if not to use magic?”

  Iris didn’t answer.

  “Ah. You need to use it, don’t you?” Brett smiled. “Your subconscious has started taking over, hasn’t it? Interesting. I didn’t think you’d reached that level yet, but it makes sense. Well, let’s see what you can do, shall we?”

  She stared at Brett. Felt him pull power into his being, pause for a moment, then pull double what he’d gathered in half the time.

  Iris copied him and in three seconds, she had twice as much power in her being than ever before.

  Brett pulled more into himself.

  Iris followed suit. She should have been full to bursting, but she wasn’t. It was like she was only at half capacity.

  She waited for Brett to gather more power to him, but he didn’t. He looked as though he was using all his concentration to maintain a solid grip on what he already had in his being. He did leave his connection open, so Iris knew he could continually draw in power as he expelled it the same way she could.

  Iris pulled on the surrounding stores of power. Doubled what she held. Wondered if she was draining anything’s life force. Realized she wasn’t. The supply of power was limitless. It was the vessel that gathered it that was limited. It appeared Brett was much more limited than she was.

  Brett created and released a request so fast Iris almost didn’t get a shield up to protect herself from the buck-shot-like blast of air he sent her way. The pellets of air exploded on her shield sending puffs of air around the outsides.

  Anger flared in her chest and eyes. Brett was the embodiment of everything she despised in life right now.

  Self-righteous assholes.

  Bullies.

  Fear for her friends’ safety.

  Her own stupidity.

  Being different.

  Magic.

  Iris’s emotions crashed into each other. She took them out on Brett. Returned his blast of air with a wall of her own. Even with the shield Brett placed in front of him, Iris’s blast shoved him and his shield back fifteen paces. A look of concentration replaced his grin.

  A flurry of attacks followed the first one Brett shot at her.

  Iris countered each one with ease. She concentrated on how he formed his attacks. Felt how the surrounding power almost balked in response to his attacks. Something was different. She remembered what he told her at the end of senior year. He didn’t make requests. He demanded the power he held bend to his will. Every time she’d tried that technique, she felt like she was going to be ripped apart.

  Her anger grew. This wasn’t how the power flowing through the Earth and every living thing was meant to be used. It was a gift. A puppy that would do anything asked of it for a kind word and thanks. Not a wild animal that one wrongly tried to beat into submission.

  Iris concentrated further on Brett’s demands. His attacks were weaker than she thought they should be. Perhaps it was a side effect of the power coursing through the Earth disliking being commanded. He did have the ability to release demands at a much faster pace than she could form and release requests though.

  An image of another wall accelerating at Brett flashed into her mind. One did immediately.

  She switched from defensive to offensive magic as Brett pulled more power into his being. Iris kept the word ‘please’ at the forefront of her mind and used images to make her requests. It doubled the speed at which she could release a request. She had Brett retreating after three attacks. Still, she pressed him.

  Iris focused on Brett’s face. It was drawn. He was sweating profusely. Was close to his limit. She couldn’t attack him again. She wasn’t a monster. Iris turned her power and anger on the grass in the center of the clearing.

  Fire erupted in front of her before she pulled in and condensed all the surrounding moisture into clouds which rained and put the fire out in moments. Still, Iris wasn’t done. There was too much power in her body. Too much anger coursing through her veins.

  She concentrated on the blackened grass and the seeds below. Sped up the regrowth process. Iris replaced all the burnt grass with new growth. She helped it grow until it was the same height as the rest of the grass surrounding her and all evidence of the fire was gone.

  She wasn’t sure what else to do with the power remaining in her being, so Iris turned it upon herself. She was done being different. Done not being able to tell people about her abilities. Done being told who she could and could not hang out with or date. Most of all, she was done being different. The image of her door in the Gallery of Doors popped into her mind.

  Iris concentrated on the faerie that graced its warm, polished wood. Imagined every detail of the faerie. Her upswept ears. The iridescent wings protruding from her back. Even the long blue and silver dress she wore. When the image was perfect, Iris released all the power she held into it and was suddenly surrounded by a sea of grass blades.

  Chapter 24

  “Iris?” Brett called from somewhere above her. “Iris?” he called again. Closer this time.

  Iris moved through the blades of grass in the opposite direction of Brett. She had no desire to be stepped on.

  “Iris! Where the hell are you?” Brett demanded of the air.

  She could see him looking around for her, but at eye level or just upon the grass. Like he thought she’d blown herself up. His hands brushed through the air. Maybe he thought she’d become invisible or something. Iris stayed quiet. A confused fascination at what she’d done filled her.

  “Fuck! Dad’s going to kill me.” Brett clenched his fists, looked around one final time, and disappeared through a black rectangle.

  Iris stood amongst the freshly grown blades of grass and thought about what she’d done to herself and Brett’s reaction.

  “He can’t tell what magic someone is us
ing like I can. In fact, I don’t think anyone else can. Not when they don’t already know the skill being attempted or request released. He can tell how strong I am, though,” she mused to herself. “I’ll have to figure that one out later. Right now, I have to determine what I’ve done to myself.”

  Iris examined her hands, felt her upswept ears, and looked over her shoulder to find iridescent wings fluttering slightly above her head. She’d transformed into the faerie from her door. But it was more than that. This form felt right to Iris. Like it was who she was supposed to be. Iris thought about opening and closing her wings a few times. The small puffs of air they created revealed her success. She moved them faster and faster until she lifted off the ground a few inches.

  She smiled, drew a tiny amount of power into her being, and kept the connection so she could continually draw in a trickle. An image of her flying across the tips of grass in the clearing formed in her mind. She fluttered her wings and released her request. Nothing happened.

  Iris doubled her effort and sped up her wing movements. Her feet left the ground once more. She leaned forward and managed to move a few dozen paces before losing control and crashing to the ground. It was a good thing there were only a few inches between herself and the ground. Even so, it hurt.

  Realizing she needed to think on this one more—and that she was exhausted from the amount of power she’d used to become a faerie—Iris decided it was time to transform back into her human self and head home. Before she finished forming her request to become human, Iris could tell someone used magic nearby. A black rectangle formed on the far side of the grassy meadow from where she stood.

  “What do you mean she disappeared?” Mr. Moreno demanded as he stepped out of the blackness.

  “Exactly what it sounds like.”

  “Okay. What did she say? Was she upset?”

  “Very. She yelled at me when she arrived. Told me to fuck off and said she’d had enough with magic. We threw a few blasts of air at each other, then she pulled more power into herself. Even more power than I’ve seen you use, Dad. I had no idea what she was going to do with it. I was gathering as much power as possible to protect myself when she disappeared.”

  “Shit!”

  “What?”

  “If she turned that much power on herself, there’s a possibility she ripped herself apart.”

  “But wouldn’t I have seen that?”

  “Not if she melded with the rest of the power in the universe.”

  “Damn. That can happen?”

  Mr. Moreno nodded. “One of my best friends did that to himself in college. He kept having this dream about becoming an eagle and tried to become one. Instead, he dissipated. I couldn’t do anything but watch. I knew the moment he would fail, but it was already too late. He couldn’t stop what he’d started.”

  “You think Iris did that?”

  “No,” Mr. Moreno said after several long seconds. “This area doesn’t feel the same. An overwhelming sense of sadness filled the air when Drew dissipated. I’m not getting that sensation right now. It’s strong enough you’d be able to tell what I’m talking about.”

  “Then where’d she go?”

  “That’s a good question. I can’t sense her now. Either she succeeded where Drew failed and she left, or she knows how to shift time and can travel to Gemina Terra. I don’t think it’s the latter, though. There’s a lingering here that makes me believe she successfully changed her form. Has she ever mentioned what that might be?”

  “No. But there was a faerie on her door when she stepped through it to here today. I only caught a glimpse of it, but I’m almost positive that’s what it was.”

  “Excellent. We need her, Brett. Do whatever you have to. Just make sure she winds up helping us, not hindering us. I think she’s the key.”

  Mr. Moreno gripped his son’s shoulder. The two smiled at each other and disappeared through another black rectangle. It almost felt like a hole in the Earth to Iris. Whatever it was, the power surrounding her did not appreciate it.

  In case they were close enough to sense her use a lot of magic, Iris tried forming a miniature doorway with the smallest amount of power possible. Her door appeared. It was no taller than the dandelions in the sea of grass. She opened and stepped through it onto the far edge of their practice island. Iris waited a few minutes to make sure no one followed her. Listened to the ocean waves as they rolled onto the shore for a few minutes. Allowed their steady swells to calm her before she tried to transform back into herself.

  Iris spent the better part of an hour trying and failing to become human once more. She was about to succumb to a life as a five-inch tall faerie when she remembered Matt was picking her up at five that evening. It had to be well past noon by now.

  A renewed strength flooded through Iris. She pulled power into her being the way Brett had but was too tired to pull in nearly as much. She hoped it was enough. Iris planted an image of her human self at the forefront of her mind along with her ever-present sense of ‘please,’ released all the power she held into herself and was human once more. She sat on the beach for a long time as she recovered her strength before deciding she was ready to head home and get ready for Matt to pick her up.

  Though loath to go home and be accosted by her roommates, Iris had no choice. It wasn’t like she could go anywhere else. Thorin still had roommates who were clueless about the world of power that surrounded them and there was no way she was going explain all this stuff to Matt. He was the normal she longed for and there was nothing that would ever convince her to risk that. So, with her shoulders squared and ready for a fight, Iris formed a doorway to her living room and stepped through.

  She regretted the action as her eyes roved the room. Not only were all her roommates waiting for her, but so were Morrigan, Cirrus, Rowen, and Jaden. Thankfully they’d left Thorin, Sienna, Gavin, and the twins out of this one. Iris’s eyes flared before anyone could open their mouths.

  “So here’s the deal,” Iris started as her anger mounted. “Yes, I saw Brett again. No, I did not search him out. He came to me. I told him to fuck off and leave us alone. Then I told him the same thing I’m going to tell you guys; I’m done with magic. I will not be hosting any training sessions. I do not want to talk about magic or use it. I want my life back—not whatever this is now. Any questions?” Iris didn’t wait for anyone to ask any before she continued. “Good. I’m going out tonight, so don’t wait up.” With that, she headed down the hall to the room she shared with Aerianna to take a shower.

  She ignored all knocks on her bedroom door, Gallery door, and any texts or phone calls she received from her friends. She needed them to understand she was serious about being done with magic. When Thorin barged into the Gallery, she lost it. After yelling at him to get out, she locked all the doors.

  A key appeared in her hand and Iris moved from door to door. She hummed happily as she inserted the key and locked each one. Now all they could do was knock. It’d be annoying, but she was glad she had her mind to herself once more. The invasiveness of all her friends’ access to her mind had never hit her so powerfully as it did now.

  Matt texted Iris a few minutes before five and said he was on his way. She stayed in her room for another seven minutes before grabbing her purse and heading out the door. She ignored all attempts at conversation on her way out and waited for Matt on the curb.

  “Hey!” he called through the open window. “I could’ve come and gotten you. You didn’t have to wait outside.”

  “I didn’t wait long,” Iris said as she climbed into his front seat.

  He leaned over and kissed her after she put her seatbelt on. “You look great! Roommate problems?” he asked after getting a good look at her face. His eyes lingered on hers.

  Iris opened the vanity mirror on her visor and grimaced. Her eyes still held hints of green. “Yeah,” she agreed with Matt.

  “They happen. I’m sure everything will be fine.”

  “We’ll see,” Iris sighed and cha
nged the topic. “So, where are we going? This isn’t the way back to your place.”

  “Nope. It’s a surprise. You’ll have to wait and see.”

  Warmth pooled in her eyes. She looked at Matt who glanced at her and smiled.

  “Those are the eyes I look forward to seeing every day.” He took her hand in his.

  The warmth in Iris’s eyes deepened and spread to her cheeks and neck. All thoughts of magic disappeared. It was bliss. Her mind tried to think about how all she wanted less than three years ago was the ability to perform magic and now she wanted nothing to do with it, but she cut the thoughts off by trying to get Matt to give her clues about where they were going. He refused and by the time they got off the freeway in Old Sac, Iris hadn’t a clue.

  “Where are we going?” she asked as they walked hand-in-hand toward the water.

  “A cruise of the river. I wanted to take the later one—no kids allowed—but you have to be twenty-one and you’re not quite there yet, are you?”

  “Unfortunately no. Next summer.”

  “Next time then, okay?”

  “Okay,” Iris agreed with a grin.

  It was a wonderful hour and a half. Iris was glad Matt told her to dress warmly as she wanted to stay outside the entire time and enjoy the view and music. They found a corner at the back of the boat and spent most of their time in quiet conversation staring out at the passing riverbanks. She continually steered the conversation away from things like her roommates, why she never talked about high school, and what she usually did on weekends. There were too many things she didn’t want to talk about, let alone couldn’t talk about. Even so, there were plenty of topics of conversation to choose from. They had a great time.

  Matt let Iris pick a dinner spot after the cruise. It took her about ten seconds to find and decide on the local pub which increased Matt’s good mood. They were back at his car by nine and headed toward Davis.

  “Thanks for a great evening,” she told him as they left the parking lot.