Magic Born

by Caethes Faron

  During practice, I successfully created a magma lake, threw fireballs from my hands, and rained fire from the sky. My control of water was more than adequate to douse the flames as long as I acted quickly. In the real fight, I wouldn’t bother. Even if the fire didn’t directly hit its target, it would produce enough heat to present a problem for Marcus. I practiced the sequence again, casting the magma lake, using a cyclone to carry the flames upward to obscure my target’s view, and then casting a fireball.

  A roar sounded somewhere to my right. I swung around and crouched low, my eyes and ears on high alert for any threat. My instincts urged me to run to Alex, but the smart thing was to stay put. Marcus didn’t want Alex; he wanted me. If he was attacking Alex, it was to draw me to him, to force me to give up my advantage. I wouldn’t be foolish enough to fall for such a trap.

  The stillness following the roar was more unsettling than the roar itself. I scanned the horizon, but I couldn’t see any sign of movement. Even the wind had ceased to blow. All I could hear was the sound of my breath and the ring of silence. My eyes darted from side to side, looking for Marcus. My thighs screamed from my crouched position, but I didn’t dare move.

  A blinding pain cracked through my head. White light flooded my vision.

  And then there was nothing.

  Chapter 29

  Dust tickled my nostrils where I lay prone on the ground. My nose crinkled in preparation to sneeze, but I held it in. The last thing I remembered was Alex’s roar and then the bright flash of white. Until I knew where I was, sneezing did not seem wise. The light penetrating my eyelids was too dim to be outside in the middle of the day. Beneath my hands, I felt hardwood. I had no idea how much time had passed or where Marcus and Alex were.

  A quick mental check of my body revealed no serious injuries other than a massive headache. None of my limbs bent in unnatural positions, so shock wasn’t hiding a broken bone. If I’d been bleeding enough to cause concern, I doubted I would have woken. Only after I thought I was in no immediate, physical danger did I notice what was missing: an ache where my pendant should be pressing into my chest.

  Marcus had succeeded. I had lost my talisman.

  A chair scratched across the floor. I wasn’t alone. As much as I wanted to maintain the charade that I was still passed out, I had to risk cracking open one of my eyelids to see where I was. The sound of the chair had come from in front of me. I could get away with a peek.

  Light poured in through a single small window, illuminating motes of dust floating in the sunbeam. Outside the window, I could make out a tall pine tree. I wasn’t anywhere near where I’d been with Alex. The sparse furnishing and bare wood walls had a utilitarian feel, like a hunting cabin. A desk and chair stood a few feet in front of me. On the desk were marks where Marcus’s hands had wiped away the dust, and there sat my talisman. Beyond the desk, Marcus stood with his back toward me. A communication orb floated in front of him, and a woman’s face appeared.

  I had to come up with a plan—not that my plans had worked out well so far, but it seemed the smart thing to do. I could play dead, and he might leave me alone. After all, he wanted the necklace, and he had it. But that meant letting him steal a part of me, the only part of my mother I had. I felt bereft without my talisman. I’d grown used to its weight lying on my chest. When I called out for magic, it responded like an old friend. Now when I called out, nothing but silence echoed back at me. Playing dead may save my life, but what kind of life was I returning to? If I fought now, there was every chance I’d die. It was likely. But I was likely to die either way. If he realized I was alive and conscious, he wouldn’t let me live. I’d seen too much. I couldn’t bear the thought of just lying there for him to kill me. If I died, I wanted to die fighting.

  “I have the talisman, just like you asked for,” Marcus said.

  “Excellent.” The woman in the orb spoke with a dignified air. “As soon as you deliver it, you will receive your payment. And what about Meglana?”

  “Meglana proved difficult, but she ultimately succumbed.”

  Flames of fury roared through my body and licked at my fingertips, my hand itching to hold my talisman in its palm. My only hope was to summon it to me, but without anything to direct the magic, I didn’t know if the talisman would respond. The necklace sat directly in the line of sight of the woman Marcus spoke with, so I’d have to wait until they were done. When they were, I would only have a few seconds. The spell would have to be performed silently. With every fiber of my being, I needed to command my talisman to come to me. I was the stone’s true owner. Surely it would recognize that.

  “Very well,” the woman said. “We thank you for your service.”

  “I don’t care about your thanks; I care about my payment.”

  “Yes, Marcus, I figured. When you get back to Elustria, you will be paid, but don’t take any side trips with the talisman. We’ll expect you here tonight.”

  “Trust me, I don’t plan to stay in this wretched world any longer than I have to.”

  “I’ll have your payment waiting. Our business is done.” Her face disappeared, and I had my chance.

  Come! The talisman flew into my outstretched hand so fast that I was already performing the first spell in my sequence by the time Marcus turned around.

  Magma lake, cyclone, fireball.

  Without thinking, I went from spell to spell, performing them perfectly. The practice had paid off. Marcus’s stunned face could barely comprehend what was happening as he struggled to counter.

  I wanted to place the talisman around my neck, where it belonged, but I didn’t dare stop the barrage of spells. I feared I’d drop the talisman or he’d somehow find a way to take it from my hand, but all of his attention was directed at blocking my attacks. His clothes were already falling victim to the flames. He’d have to first repel my spells before he could even think of casting any toward me.

  “We can talk. You don’t need to do this. I didn’t kill you.” Marcus had the unique ability to snarl while pleading.

  “I’ve heard all the talking I need to from you. I don’t believe for an instant you were going to let me live. Even if you were, you killed my mother.”

  “She deserved to die.”

  He picked a horrible time to speak. The rage coursing through me fueled the fireball I conjured to an intensity beyond my control. It flew from my hands and struck Marcus with lethal force. Not only did he fall over dead, the entire room went up in flames, trapping me in the corner.

  Marcus’s lifeless eyes held my attention amid the inferno raging around me. I watched them, looking for any sign of life. They didn’t blink. The skin around them crinkled and puckered as it burned to a crisp.

  Sweat drenched my clothes. My slick palm made holding onto the necklace difficult. Before my eyes, a clasp appeared on the broken chain. I secured it around my neck, and the stone took its rightful place on my chest.

  I called down a torrent of water, but it was no match for the flames. The heat formed a wall almost as impenetrable as the fire. I had to get out, but there was no easy escape. The best option was to run through to the next room. I doused myself with water then summoned an ice shield, but I didn’t have faith that it would hold. I dashed across the floor, leaping over Marcus’s body, and slammed the door behind me. My heart raced with adrenaline, and I leaned my forehead against the door for a second, allowing the relief of my escape to wash over me.

  When I turned around, Casper stood staring back at me.

  Chapter 30

  “What are you doing here?” The last person I had expected to see was Casper. He stood in the middle of a teleportation ring in the corner of what appeared to be a living room.

  Casper ignored my question and ran to the door I’d just closed. He threw it open and called down a rain of enchanted water. With a flick of his hand he washed it all away: flames, water, everything. The only thing that remained of the fight was Marcus’s body.

  “You killed him?” Casper’s surprise
would have offended me if I wasn’t as shocked as he was.

  “He tried to kill me first.” I took the same defensive tone as a child who was found hitting her brother.

  “Don’t tell me Marcus couldn’t get it off either.” Casper eyed the amber stone resting on my chest.

  Something about the way he said that, his tone, threw me. “No, he got it off. I took it back. How did you know I was here?”

  “The cloaker you took from the Armory has a GPS locator in it. We like to keep track of our mages, for safety.”

  “And I thought you could only teleport to places you’ve already been?”

  “I’ve been here a few times. It’s a Magesterial Council safe house.”

  “What?” My unease grew with each passing second. I took a step backward, putting distance between us.

  “That’s right. Marcus was sent by the Magesterial Council.”

  “I thought they were the good guys. You and Mikael told me that I needed to get the talisman off so I could register with the Council, that I wouldn’t be able to go to Elustria until then.”

  “That’s all true. It’s also true that they sent Marcus after your talisman.”

  Alex had seemed sure the Magesterial Council was good. They were the authority over mages in Elustria. It didn’t make sense that they would send an assassin to kill my mother.

  “If you don’t believe me, check his pockets. He’ll have a council medallion on him to identify himself as being on official Council business. It’s the equivalent of a badge.”

  I didn’t want to go anywhere near Marcus’s body; I certainly wasn’t going to touch it. “Why would the Council send someone to kill me and my mother?”

  “He didn’t kill you. Didn’t you think it was odd that he left you alive after taking off the talisman? Doesn’t that suggest his plan was to keep you alive this entire time? We told you that the Council wouldn’t allow anyone to have a talisman they can’t control.”

  “But he killed my mother, and she had to have been able to control the talisman.”

  “The Council was always jealous of Meglana’s power. Did Marcus contact anyone once he had the talisman?”

  I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t even think. I nodded absentmindedly, answering his question out of instinct and not conscious thought.

  “There’s not much time then.” Casper reached out toward me and was violently thrown back. I immediately went on guard. Pieces of the puzzle fell into place.

  “You were hoping Marcus would catch me, that he’d be able to get the talisman off, and then you were going to steal it for yourself.”

  “Clever girl.” Casper lunged at me and cast a spell. I threw up a shield that absorbed the blow and then cast an energy bolt, which he easily parried. I cast another, and he parried again.

  “And what exactly are you going to do, Kat? You have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Humans can’t help you, and you don’t even belong with them anymore. You’ve become greedy in your magic. You were so scared of it before. You couldn’t wait to get the talisman off, and now you won’t let go of it even to save your life. You’ll have no place in Elustria now that you’ve killed an agent of the Magesterial Council. If you give me the talisman, you can live with us at the Armory. We’ll give you a wand. You can join our fight, take up your mother’s legacy.”

  My mind couldn’t process what he was saying. My only thought was to get out of there alive. I threw him back and stepped inside the teleportation ring. Marcus had to have put a connected one near where he’d captured me. I closed my eyes and pictured the desert where I’d been, hoping that the magic would work even though I didn’t have a precise location in mind. A vise squeezed around my body, and a second later, I was standing alone in the desert.

  Chapter 31

  “Alex!” I screamed as I turned around, desperately looking for any familiar landmark. I had no idea where I was, only that I had to be in the same general area where Marcus had kidnapped me.

  “Alex!” He could be dead. At the very least, he was wounded. I pulled the cloaker out of my pocket and threw it as far as I could. Marcus had to have placed this teleportation ring earlier in the day, so there was no chance that Casper had been to it before. He couldn’t instantly follow me, but it wouldn’t take him long to find out where the cloaker was. When he did, I wanted to be as far away as possible.

  I ran west, searching the ground for Alex’s body and yelling his name, hoping I’d chosen the right direction.

  “I’m here!”

  I whirled to my left and saw Alex shift from human to panther. A few feet before reaching me, he shifted back to human form in mid-stride. “You’re alive. Praise the moons, you’re alive.”

  He pulled me close, holding me so tight that I had difficulty breathing, but I didn’t mind. When he broke away, he looked down at me with his yellow eyes and brushed my hair back from my face. I thought he might say something, but instead, he leaned down and kissed me. All my tension melted away. The relief at seeing him alive poured through that kiss.

  “I hate to put a stop to this,” I said as I pulled back, “but we need to go.”

  “Of course.” Alex was instantly all business. “The car’s this way. It’ll be fastest if I carry you.”

  After he shifted, I let myself relax on his velvety back for the few minutes it took to get to the car. As always, she behaved when it was important and didn’t stall once as I drove to the freeway.

  “What happened? Where’s Marcus?” Alex asked.

  “He’s dead.”

  “You killed him?”

  I wished people would stop sounding so surprised. “Yes. He got my talisman off, but I took it back and killed him with it.”

  “Then why are we running?”

  “Because it turns out he was working for the Magesterial Council. After Marcus removed the necklace, Casper showed up to take it for himself. The magic cloaker had a GPS locator in it, so I chucked it as soon as I teleported back.”

  “Whoa, back up and tell me everything that happened.”

  I related the entire story, leaving out nothing.

  “You’re sure Marcus was sent by the Council?” Alex asked when I was done.

  Now that I thought about it, I wasn’t completely sure. I hadn’t searched Marcus’s body for the medallion. “I don’t know what to believe anymore. Casper knew who Marcus was the first time he heard his name, yet he still led me to believe he was a sorcerer assassin. Everyone at the Armory seemed to know my mother, so either they were all lying or they did work together. Do you think Marcus was sent by the Council?”

  Alex thought a moment. “Given everything I know, yes. What everyone says about your mother is true: she was very powerful. The fact that she was even on Earth would put her afoul of the Council unless they specifically sanctioned it. If she really did work with Casper, then I believe it’s entirely possible she was operating without the Council’s approval. Whoever sent Marcus, whether it was the Council or not, isn’t going to stop.”

  I didn’t need Alex to tell me that. “And if he was sent by the Council, then killing him probably wasn’t the best idea. He might not have intended to ever kill me. I might have killed an innocent person. He left you alive.”

  Alex placed his hand on my knee. “Don’t think that. Even if he didn’t intend to kill you, even if he didn’t threaten the people you love, he did take your talisman. In Elustria, that’s the most serious violation a person can make against a mage. You did what you had to do. And as soon as Marcus realized you were awake, he probably would’ve killed you. You had no choice. The moment you woke up, one of you was going to die. Don’t let what Casper said get to you. He was messing with your mind.”

  Justified or not, I’d taken someone’s life. I didn’t quite know how to deal with that. After a few awkward moments of silence, I changed the subject to something lighthearted. “Praise the moons? What was that?”

  A bashful smile crept up Alex’s face. “It’s a stupid saying from my childho
od. In the shifter world, it’s the moons of Elustria that light our path at night, give us direction. They’re even worshipped by some. I suppose it’s a habit that’s hard to break.”

  “No, I like it.” Alex’s obvious discomfort made me smile.

  “So what are we going to do?”

  “I’m not sure, but I’m a mage now. I want to keep learning and practicing. Casper won’t be able to track me, but it’s only a matter of time before someone comes looking for me. I want to be better prepared. I know this is more than you signed up for.”

  “Don’t even say that. I’m staying with you.” Alex’s tone left no room for doubt.

  “Yeah, but I bet you’re wishing you had never agreed to deliver that necklace.”

  Alex laughed. “And I bet you’re regretting opening the door that night.”

  I glanced at the man sitting next to me and felt the weight of the amber stone on my chest where it belonged. I could honestly say that I didn’t regret it one bit.

  That night, after we checked in to a new hotel, I opened my laptop while Alex slept. I’d made a promise to GreyMist, and The Codex showed that she was online.

  User4276: It’s safe. You won’t see Marcus again.

  GreyMist: Good. I’ve been worried about you. When are you going to log back in?

  User4276: I don’t think I’m ever coming back. A lot’s happened, and I’m going to be too busy to play. We can still message each other, but I honestly don’t know how much I’m going to be around.

  GreyMist: Where are you?

  The answer to that question was too complicated and dangerous to tell Grey. I fidgeted with my talisman as I thought of a reply. The amber stone warmed in my hand, the magic inside it ready to obey, and Alex snored softly beside me. I knew one thing.

  User4276: I’m right where I want to be.