Denouncement

by E A Foley

  “Shit! I’m no good at healing,” Jaden announced. He formed a doorway and was gone.

  Chapter 30

  Iris couldn’t believe it. Jaden had probably expected her to be prepared for the attack. Or she wouldn’t have gone after him. He was trying to show her he was right. That physical weapons made no sense, but she never thought he’d just leave because he wasn’t good at healing.

  As the adrenaline coursing through her body ebbed, true agony descended upon Iris. She didn’t notice Kylee kneeling at her side until half her injuries were healed.

  “What the hell happened?” Kylee demanded of Jaden once she finished healing Iris.

  Jaden shrugged.

  “We were seeing how quickly we could put up shields and I missed,” Iris told her and got to her feet.

  Kylee looked from Iris to Jaden and back to Iris again. She didn’t look like she believed Iris, but she nodded all the same. “You should probably take it easy for a few days. You’re technically healed and all, but your body just took a beating. A massive beating,” she added and glared at Jaden.

  “Thanks, Kylee. I’ll take it easy. I promise. I’m going to go soak in the tub or something. I feel like I was run over by a big rig. See you at retreat?”

  “Yeah. See you Monday,” Kylee agreed and left through her doorway with its massive white bird in flight.

  “See my point?” Jaden asked as soon as Kylee was gone.

  “Yes. I see your point. You didn’t have to hit me so hard to get it across though.”

  “And you could have easily countered it if you’d been prepared. Blindly following someone is never a good idea. What if I were Brett, and I lured you to someplace with a bunch of people who only answer to me? No amount of strength you hold could withstand an attack from a half-dozen people or more. It was a dumb move on your part and a lesson I hope you’ve learned.”

  Jaden didn’t even say goodbye before stepping through his doorway. Iris didn’t try to see where he went. Instead, she opened her own doorway to her apartment and took a hot bath even though it was a hot summer day. She hoped the lavender-scented Epsom salts would both help relax her and make her feel better. Thankfully, Kylee kept her mouth shut about needing to heal Iris from injuries Jaden caused her, which meant no one else knew. Not even Kyxy.

  Iris used the magic free week that band retreat brought with it to do a bit of personal soul searching. She attempted to reason out why she’d followed after Jaden the way she had. By the end of the week, all she managed to come up with was her own arrogance and anger at Jaden. He’d pissed her off and she’d gone after him to have the last word. She needed to work on controlling her temper.

  Fall quarter of her third year started and Iris switched her focus to keeping the three parts of her life in order. Magic practices lessened and switched to Sundays to avoid football game performances with the band while she juggled a few work shifts between her upper division lectures and labs. After getting her syllabuses, Iris knew she was in for another hard quarter even without a foreign language class. She hung out more and more in the library as the ten weeks marched by and while she still attended all the home games, she only signed up for one away game during the quarter.

  By week six of the quarter, she was following a strict routine that allowed her to keep the balance between the three sides of her life while maintaining a fairly decent GPA. She was a bit stressed, but she had the option to back off on band or magic if school became too intense. It was during one of those school-intense weeks that her routine stopped seeming like a good idea.

  “Wednesday morning. That means you’ve completed your physics lecture and are taking a few hours in the library to study before your physics lab this afternoon,” Brett said from behind her as she sat in a windowsill on the fourth floor.

  “Congratulations. You know how I spend my Wednesdays. Which means you know I’m busy, so shove off.”

  “Not only do I know how you spend your Wednesdays, but I know how you spend every day. Mondays you have back-to-back lectures followed by a three-hour shift at the lab. Then—”

  “Oh good. You’re stalking me again. I preferred it when you were ignoring me. Or was it hiding from me?”

  “Neither. I had things to attend to of my own. So, what are you working on?”

  “A lab write-up. Don’t you have homework of your own, and classes to attend?” Iris asked as she reviewed her notes from the previous week’s lab.

  “Yes, but I find you a more fascinating subject.” He scooted her legs out of the way and took a seat facing her.

  “Glad I keep you entertained. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to my write-up.”

  Before Iris switched her focus back to her notes, Brett leaned in to kiss her. Iris shoved him off her and started hitting him. Brett used magic to keep the blows from landing. He grabbed her arms at the wrist and forced them down at her sides with the help of more magic.

  “Let go of me, Brett, or so help me I will kill you!” Iris said much louder than she meant to. She knew she was stronger than him magically, but she didn’t want to use magic. Not in such a public place. The look in his eyes told her he knew and used that knowledge to his advantage.

  “Shhhh. We’re in a library. You’re going to disturb all the people studying and—”

  “I believe she told you to let her go,” a male voice said at Iris’s shoulder.

  Brett released Iris both physically and magically. He glared at whoever stood behind her and stormed off.

  “Are you all right?” James, her lab partner, asked as he came around to face her.

  “Yeah. Thanks. I really appreciate it.”

  “You should report him to campus police or something.”

  “He’s just a jerk from high school. I’m used to his antics at this point. He would’ve left me alone eventually, but thank you so much for showing up. That’s the fastest he’s left yet. I really do appreciate it.”

  “No problem. You ready for lab this afternoon?”

  “Not really. I’m still trying to finish up my write-up from last week’s lab. I usually don’t leave them to this late, but there was an away trip this weekend and it really put me behind on class work.”

  “Away trip?”

  “Yeah. Sorry. I’m in the marching band,” Iris plunged on when she realized James had no idea what she was talking about. “We travel with the football team. Well, not with them, but to all their games.”

  “Geez. That’s a huge commitment. Do you go on all of them?”

  “Some people do. I couldn’t this year. I only signed up for the one this quarter. But I did go on a few before classes started.”

  “Ah. You want a hand with the lab?”

  “Oh my god, that would be amazing. You sure you have the time?”

  “Yeah. I already found the references I need for my research paper, so I’m done early.”

  “Thank you so much! I really, really appreciate it. We should probably find a table though, right?”

  “That’d be easiest,” James smiled at her.

  With James’s help, Iris completed her lab write up in less than an hour. They spent the next hour and a half talking before heading off to their lab together. It turned out they had a lot in common. They had similar tastes in music, movies, and books, as well as both came from small towns in Southern California. Iris had no idea why she’d never asked James anything not related to his major or their class before and she was really glad she got the chance to get to know him better as she really enjoyed his company and hanging out with him.

  James and Iris met in the library every Wednesday for the next four weeks to finish their labs together. On more than one occasion Iris thought about asking James if he wanted to hang out outside of class and studying. Then she remembered how little she and Matt were able to talk about outside of class and band items. It kept her from saying anything—and kept James safe.

  Every time Iris met James in the library, a pressure point formed at the nape of her
neck. It annoyed her but, thanks to Brett, she knew the second James entered the Library. Iris ignored Brett’s greeting after the first time. She could sense him nearby but managed to push the pain to the back of her mind and focus on her schoolwork.

  When the pain doubled the final Wednesday of the quarter, it was too distracting. Iris couldn’t concentrate on anything. She excused herself for a quick moment to use the restroom. On her way, she pulled a trickle of power into her being, followed the flows Brett maintained back to him and sent an electric charge at him. The small “ow” of pain brought a grin to her face and a lessening of the pressure point.

  Winter break could not come soon enough. Iris had plans to spend the first few days in her glade determining how to hide something and take it with her like the Fairy-godmother in Cinderella did with her wand. She’d stewed on what Jaden said before retreat and decided the ability to carry a physical weapon around with her was a good idea. It just needed to be done in a way no one could see it all the time.

  Despite what Jaden said and had thus far proven, she still felt having the ability to fight both physically and magically was a good idea. Perhaps she’d read too many books and seen too many movies, but she was sticking to her opinion on the matter.

  Iris opened her doorway to the glade and cracked the door. She waited a few moments to see if anyone was using magic nearby. No one was, so she opened the door further. A cold gust swirled into her room along with some white powder. No wonder Brett wasn’t around. It was winter. Iris closed the door with a sigh, thought about the practice island and opened the door again. Ocean waves and warmth met her this time.

  It wasn’t until Iris released her doorway that she realized she changed the location it opened onto without releasing and requesting a new doorway. She was always intrigued by how much magic she could perform without thinking about whether it would work or not. If she could do something like that why shouldn’t she be able to slip a quarterstaff into the air surrounding her? With that thought firmly in her head, Iris picked up a palm frond, tore a few pieces off, and asked them to disappear.

  A grin spread across Iris’s face as the palm fronds vanished. She thought about them returning, but nothing happened. Iris pursed her lips and tried a second time. This time she asked them to reappear in her hand. Still nothing.

  “Well, those are probably gone forever. Time to try something new.” Iris started talking to herself in order to increase her concentration. “So, what precisely do I want?”

  “I want to carry something with me always—not physically in hand—and have it be invisible to everyone,” she mused.

  “Also concealed in a way no one can run into it. Like a bag of holding. Yeah, that would work.” She nodded a few times in slow succession.

  “But I don’t want to carry around a bag at all times,” she countered herself. “What I need is something more like a portable hole. Small, lightweight, fits in my pocket. But it’s still a physical object. I’d rather not need to carry anything at all because knowing me, I’d forget it more often than not.”

  Iris stopped and contemplated all her options. None of them seemed quite right. At least, they didn’t match what she remembered from Cinderella. She wanted to be able to put something away and then seemingly draw it out of thin air. Perhaps it had less to do with location and more to do with time. If she shifted the time the object was in, perhaps that would work.

  “But that’s ridiculous. There’s only one time,” Iris told herself. She sat there thinking for another hour or more. Nothing came to mind. “Well, looks like today’s not the day you’ll figure this one out,” she told herself and stood. Iris wiped sand off her clothes, opened a doorway and went back to her apartment. She’d sleep on this task and hope she had better ideas in the morning.

  Chapter 31

  Iris was halfway through requesting her doorway open onto her practice glade rather than the island when she remembered it was cold and probably snowing there. Iris released her request, decided a change in scenery was for the best and put on some warmer clothes. She stepped onto her snow-covered glade a few minutes later.

  Iris’s mind flitted from thought to thought before it landed on the last time she was here. She thought about what Mr. Moreno said. How he wanted to teach her the history of magic throughout the Earth, universe, and time.

  It sparked another memory. Brett said Earths, with an ’s’ on more than one occasion. Perhaps there was something to the ability to shift time after all. It was enough for Iris to give her hiding place idea another try.

  Opening herself to the flows surrounding her, Iris took a glove off and concentrated on making it disappear. She stopped the request. Disappearing didn’t seem correct. Iris started again. This time she focused on her glove hiding, then of her being able to find it again, and finally for it to travel with her. She kept all three thoughts at the forefront of her mind and pulled the image from Cinderella up for good measure. Iris released her power into the request. It was almost a plea for it to work. The glove disappeared a second later.

  “Now for the hard part.”

  Iris exhaled. She imagined the glove reappearing in her hand. Just like a doorway, she pulled forth every detail she could before funneling power into her request. The glove reappeared. Iris slipped it back on her hand and rubbed both gloved hands together in an attempt to get some blood moving through the one that had been exposed to the elements.

  Once her hand warmed up a bit, she took her other glove off and tried it again. It worked a second time. Perhaps Brett was right. He could teach her a thing or two. She just didn’t need him to be present. Iris looked around for something larger to use. Everything was covered in a thick layer of white. It was hard to tell if any of it was portable. She thought about heading back to her room and grabbing her quarterstaff when a doorway opened in front of her.

  The doorway solidified, a prominent faerie was carved into its polished surface. It opened and Iris’s quarterstaff levitated toward her. She didn’t remember forming the request let alone releasing any magic to accomplish the task. As her mind started wandering off on its own, the quarterstaff wavered. The door twisted in on itself. Iris focused on them once more. The doorway solidified, and the staff continued its forward progress. Once the staff was in her hand, she let the doorway collapse like normal.

  Iris contemplated what she’d done. Without realizing it, she’d pulled power into her being the way Brett showed her. Her thoughts about heading back to her room must have brought forth her doorway and then quarterstaff.

  She thought more about the day she and Brett threw a few attacks at each other when she became a faerie for the first time. Iris realized she’d only needed to form an image of what she wanted to do in order for it to happen. It had lessened the amount of time it took her to release a request by half if not more.

  She wondered if she should take Brett up on the offer to learn more and then ditch him once she’d increased her knowledge and skills. Or perhaps coax him into another duel since she seemed to increase her abilities faster when she wasn’t thinking about what she did.

  Iris dismissed the thoughts a few seconds later. It was dishonest and probably dangerous. Instead, she returned her focus to placing items in a hiding space. Iris tried her glove once more. It disappeared and reappeared with ease. She moved onto her quarterstaff. Only half disappeared the first time. She thought about enlarging the hiding place. Tried again.

  An hour later Iris stumbled through her doorway and back into her room. She was surprised her joints worked enough to move. It took her until the last three attempts to get the object to reappear no matter where she stood in the glade rather than in the spot she’d hidden it from. She wasn’t sure what she’d done differently. Which meant she needed to give it another shot on her own before she could start teaching anyone else how to have a personal locker that followed them around.

  She also wasn’t sure how many items she could carry at once. It would be another task for the next day. Right n
ow, she needed a warm bath and something hot to drink. Her core body temperature had definitely dropped.

  “I thought you were crazy for being out here yesterday. To come a second day in a row, you’re insane.”

  “And yet you’re the one who’s here waiting for me to arrive, so I don’t think you really have anything to talk about.”

  “I just arrived myself. Seems I’m faster traveling between locations. So, what have you been up to? Discover any new and exciting tricks?”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact. I have.”

  “Great! Care to show me?”

  “Not particularly.”

  “You’re no fun. Well, if you won’t show me what you’ve learned, how about a friendly battle of strength?”

  “Thanks, but I’ll pass,” Iris forced herself to say. She didn’t want him to know she’d been contemplating the same thing yesterday.

  “It’s not really an option.”

  “Then why did you ask me in the first place?”

  “I was trying to be polite. So, the stakes. What do I want if I win—”

  “You do realize I could just leave, right?”

  “Anywhere you can go, I can go too-oo,” Brett sang.

  “Ass,” Iris muttered.

  “Ah, I know. If I win, you have to spend an entire day with me including a nice dinner out.”

  “You want a date?”

  “Something like that. So, what do you want if you win?”

  “For you to leave me alone.”

  “You didn’t put a time frame on it. For a day? A week? A month?”

  “How about the rest of college?”

  “That’s way too long. Unless you want to spend an entire month with me if I win.”

  “I’ll pass.”

  Brett sighed. “Then how about until the end of winter break?”