by E A Foley
“I might know what you’re talking about, but I’m not positive,” said Cirrus.
“Here, let me help you.”
Iris opened herself to the power flowing all around her. Without thinking about it, she reached out to where Cirrus delved into a nearby rock and guided his power deeper into the center of the stone before magnifying what she was talking about.
“Uh huh, okay . . . I think I feel it.”
“Good, now follow me back to the tree.” Cirrus and Iris moved their delving powers to the closest palm tree and Iris guided him to the correct location once again. “Feel this?”
“Yeah. That’s way different!”
“Great! Now try it on smaller objects by yourself.”
While Cirrus concentrated on grass and hand-sized rocks, Rozlynd rose, waved to Iris and wandered toward the other five already working on healing.
“Jaden? Would you like any help?” Iris asked as she started reaching her own delving toward his.
“Nope. I’m good. I think I’ve got it too.” He rose and walked away.
“You’re welcome,” Iris mumbled sarcastically under her breath. “Cirrus, how’s it going?”
“Good, actually. Here, am I in the right place?”
“Iris followed him to the center of a grain of sand. “Yup, you’ve got it. Nice job.”
“Thanks! Does Jaden actually have it?” he added in a whisper.
“I have no idea. He says he does, but it didn’t feel like it to me. Then again, I only touched his delving of the rocks before he dropped all flows and got up. I can’t force him to accept my help.”
“No, but you could tell him you won’t teach him anymore.”
Iris frowned and looked at Cirrus. “I couldn’t do that to Zarina.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Let’s go find us some plants to heal, shall we?”
By the time Iris and Cirrus rejoined the group, they were happily going from plant to plant, encouraging growth or healing. The faces Iris could see were all smiles. It brought a grin to her lips.
“This is awesome!” Violet called.
“Yeah. I think I like this a lot more than the offensive magic we were doing,” Zarina agreed.
“I think it’s a waste of time and energy,” Jaden mumbled.
“You’re welcome to leave. No one is forcing you to be here,” Iris snapped at him. Her good mood disappeared in a flash. So did Jaden.
Saturday was taken over with dress shopping. It was really nice to have a girls’ day out. Though Iris expected the day to be drawn out and boring, she really enjoyed herself. She didn’t even mind that it took her four stores and a dozen dresses before she found the perfect one. It was an obvious choice as soon as she looked in the mirror. Her eyes twinkled to sapphires that became even more brilliant when she stepped out of the dressing room to get her friends’ opinions.
“Yes! That’s the one!” Violet called before Iris made it all the way to where they waited at the end of the dressing room.
“Oh, yay! No kidding,” Aerianna agreed.
“Hot mamma!” Rozlynd teased.
Iris’s cheeks grew hot. A glance in the mirror showed her face reddening. Her delight was too great for it to affect her eye color.
“Now all I need are shoes,” Iris said through a grin she couldn’t control.
“And a matching clutch,” Zarina told her. “Like this one.” She handed Iris a sparkly silver bag.
With a dress and clutch in toe, shoe shopping was easy. Two stores and an hour later, they all had something to wear and smiles on their faces despite their fatigue. Iris was delighted. And really looking forward to prom now. Especially since they’d all managed to use magic in public with no problems to zip up the dresses they couldn’t quite get by themselves. Even spending all day Sunday on homework couldn’t dampen her good mood.
By the time Tuesday afternoon’s practice rolled around, Iris was convinced they could all do magic in public and be just fine. The amount and frequency of magic on campus had increased so much that she had to seriously concentrate in order to distinguish who was doing what. She had to think about each person, the general area they should be on campus, and then focus her power on that location to determine what they were doing.
“Is there anything else we can try in public? Everything seems to be going great at school, and Saturday was fine. Can we try new things?” Rozlynd asked once they’d all stepped through the doorway to their still-deserted island.
“I’m sure we can. Anything in particular, or new stuff in general?”
“New stuff in general.”
“I’d say you guys should have a pretty good idea of what can and cannot be completed discreetly. You know, no fireballs or light balls. That sort of thing. Otherwise, use your best judgment and don’t get carried away.”
“Sounds good. So, what’s on the docket for today?”
“I thought we’d work a little more with locating and utilizing water. I believe I glossed over it when we were working on fireballs.”
The group found getting water to follow their requests rather difficult. Add to that the brutal afternoon heat on their little island, and the group’s concentration was severely lacking.
“Maybe we can try this one again on Thursday, but at the clearing in the forest instead?” Violet asked.
“Yeah, that may be easier,” Cirrus agreed. “Actually, I vote we start having all practices in the forest. It’s too damn hot out here this time of day. Especially when there’s no breeze.”
“Sure. Morrigan, think you can form a doorway there right now so we can make sure it’s still a viable practice location?”
“No problem,” Morrigan said. She drew power into herself and expelled it into a perfect replica of her wolf-carved door from the Gallery.
A few seconds later Iris had a gorgeous view of green grass surrounded by trees so dense it was hard to see farther than about three deep. Morrigan stepped through and Iris followed. They went in opposite directions and scouted out the small grove and tree line. There were no signs of people having ever disturbed the beauty of the grove, nor the glade it surrounded. Iris and Morrigan met back at her door ten minutes later.
“All good?”
Morrigan nodded. “After you,” she indicated Iris should head back through the door first. As Iris stepped through, a prickling sensation started at the back of her neck. She turned to look behind her, but there was nothing. The sensation deepened. Turned toward painful. Morrigan stepped back onto the island, closed her doorway and the prickling sensation was gone. Iris furrowed her brow and stared where the wolf’s eyes had been.
“So?” Aerianna prompted with a poke to Iris’s side.
“There was nothing,” Morrigan answered when Iris said nothing.
“Yeah, nothing,” Iris agreed. Her voice sounded distant to her own ears. She shook her head and turned back to the group. “All clear. We’ll still check it on Thursday to be safe, but it seems like no one’s been there.”
Chapter 26
Iris was full to bursting with power when she and Morrigan stepped through the doorway to the grove Thursday afternoon. It turned out there was no reason for her caution. She felt no other magic users and no prickling sensation at the back of her neck.
“Bit overkill, don’t you think?” Cirrus whispered in her ear as he joined her among the tall grasses and wildflowers.
Iris shrugged back.
“Don’t give me that. You were worried about something, weren’t you?”
“No. It’s just that we haven’t been here in a while and—"
“Except you and Morrigan checked it out on Tuesday. Did you sense something then and try to hide it from us?”
“No,” Iris said flatly. She kept her face neutral, but the tingling sensation in her eyes told her they were going to expose her lie.
“Iris!” Violet called in excitement.
Saved by the best friend, Iris held the sigh she wanted to release in check and turned toward where she
’d heard her name called. “Yeah?”
“Check this out!”
As Iris moved closer to Violet, she could feel her friend fill with a small brook of power. She released it toward her textbook. Iris grinned as a single page turned in her book. “That’s great! Been practicing?”
“Yeah. Cirrus has been helping a lot.”
“Have you tried anything at home yet? I don’t remember you trying anything at school. Or if you did, you used so little power I couldn’t tell.”
“No. Nothing at school or home yet, but I plan to try something tonight. In my room. With my door closed. You know, just to be safe.”
Iris chuckled. “Safe is better than sorry. And appreciated. C’mon, let’s get to playing around with magic.”
“Yay!”
“So, manipulating water, let’s get to it,” Iris announced to her gathered friends.
After giving a basic lesson overview and showing everyone how to find and gather water, Iris stood silently off to the side and watched them for several minutes. They all seemed to be getting the hang of it, so she wandered to the middle of the clearing. They could come find her if they needed some help. Once she was positioned in the sun, Iris sat down on the unmanicured grass and cocked her head to the left. She opened herself to the flows of power that were now a constant pulsating at the edge of her consciousness and formed the beginning of a request for water to gather.
Iris’s request was different than the one her friends were using. She didn’t want to pull water into a ball, but rather keep it dispersed as a mist. The first attempt dropped a small burst of water on her head. Iris shook it off and used a second request to draw the water out of her clothes and hair. Her third request brought forth a cloud of fog that quickly dissipated in the sun, so she took a moment to really think about what she was doing and any adjustments she needed to make to her request.
She decided the amount of power she was releasing was off, as was her request. Altering both, Iris released her fifth request and a coolness surrounded her. She half smiled and moved the mist up a bit so it could be touched by the sun. Her smile changed into a cheek-splitting grin as a rainbow formed in front of her eyes. She changed the shape of the mist cloud once more and the colors started dancing in front of her.
Iris stood up. She released a new request for the water to condense into a ball in her hand, similar to her fireball. The pearlescent shimmering of light on water sat centimeters above her outstretched right hand. She bit her lower lip in anticipation and asked the ball of water to turn back into vapor and then rapidly cool into snow. In a matter of moments, she had a snowball in her hand. Not being one to waste such a golden opportunity, Iris turned and chucked the snowball at Cirrus. With the help of a little magic to guide its direction, the snowball hit Cirrus in the back of the head.
“Ow! What the hell?” Cirrus yelled in surprise.
Iris howled with laughter from where she stood in the middle of the clearing. Then Cirrus rushed her. Even knowing she’d never be able to outrun Cirrus, Iris took off. She was still laughing which made it difficult to breathe, but it was worth it. Figuring her only option to get away was with the help of magic, Iris created a doorway several yards in front of her, opened it magically, and ran through. She popped out on the opposite end of the clearing, laughing even harder than before.
“That’s cheating!” Cirrus yelled from across the grass at her.
“It’s not cheating if you can do it too,” Iris called back.
A doorway started to form in front of Cirrus while a bright light filled the air a few feet to Iris’s left. Instead of running, Iris formed another request for a ball of vapor and then asked the vapor to freeze into snow. She didn’t need help from magic to assure a direct hit to Cirrus’s face when he stepped out of his door. This time, hers wasn’t the only voice filling the clearing with mirth.
“Damn it, Iris! Will you stop that?”
“No. It’s too easy and hilarious.”
“Well then at least show me how to do that so we can have a fair fight.”
“And why would I want that?”
“Because if you don’t, we’re going to soak you with water,” Rozlynd said from behind her.
Iris turned to see that all of her friends had mastered the ability to gather water—which was wonderful, except for the fact that they were all holding requests to launch the water they’d balled up at her. Rowen’s was twice the size of anyone else’s.
“All right, I surrender,” Iris held her hands up, palms facing her friends. “I’ll show you, I’ll show you. Drop the flows and—you guys really, really suck, you know?”
Laughter surrounded the field once more, but it was directed at Iris this time, not Cirrus. For the second time, Iris pulled on the flows surrounding her to help dry her off. She thought about using the same request they’d used on her on them but decided against it for now. She’d get them when they least expected it.
Iris started using magic as much as possible during the following week. She could tell many of her friends were as well. It was even getting to the point where she could determine who was using magic and where they were no matter how many of them were using it at once. If they were close enough and Iris was holding onto some power, she could distinguish what they were doing; not precisely, but the general idea.
When she was at home, she could feel magic being used around town. It was easiest to tell when Cirrus was using power as his felt a little different from everyone else’s—she still wasn’t sure why—and they had practiced magic at his house so often she almost felt a connection to the location.
It was also easier to tell when Violet and Rozlynd were accessing and using the flows of power that coursed through the Earth. It was harder to feel Zarina, Aerianna, and Morrigan. Iris decided this was due to proximity. Vi and Roz lived the closest to her. It also explained why she could never feel Rowen or Jaden using magic; though she could tell when they were in town.
Doorways took so much power to form, they caused an instant tingling at the nape of her neck. Every so often she felt like there was another magic user close to Cirrus, but every time she tried to focus on the source, Cirrus formed a doorway and the sensation was gone. On rare occasions, the tingling shifted and caused the hair on Iris’s arms to stand up.
As she and her friends used varying amounts of power at Zarina’s house to get ready for prom, an uneasy sensation crept through Iris’s body. It culminated in less of a tickling and more of a painful pins-and-needles sensation that ran from her neck halfway down her back. She tried to keep her unease from showing, but it was a pointless effort.
“What’s up?” Aerianna asked after Iris rubbed her neck for the fifth time. “Crick your neck?”
“Yeah,” Iris lied and kept rubbing her neck.
“It’s more than that, isn’t it?” Violet asked, brow furrowed in concern.
Iris shook her head, then sighed. Everyone stared at her. Her eyes stung. She didn’t know what to tell them or how to describe what she was feeling, but she had to tell them something. “I don’t feel well, that’s all,” she lied. It was partially true. The pain extending down her neck sure as hell wasn’t comfortable.
“Aw, does Iris have an upset tummy?” Cirrus called as he topped the stairs.
“Ass,” Iris mumbled.
“Be nice!” Violet reprimanded him with a soft backhand to the chest that stopped his chuckles short.
“All right, I’m sorry. I wanted to let you all know that the limo should be here in fifteen to twenty, so hurry up if you want to take those stupid pictures.”
“Draw the short straw?” Aerianna called to his retreating back.
Cirrus stuck the middle finger of his right hand up as he went back downstairs at an uneven one-and pace.
“I’d say that was a yes,” Morrigan grinned.
Aerianna and Rozlynd laughed.
Iris was glad for the change in topic and shift in her friends’ attention. She took a few deep breaths and tried t
o get her eyes to change back to blue before following everyone downstairs. It was unsuccessful. The needles in the back of her neck all gave a sharp stab at once.
After half a dozen group pictures with muted brown eyes or sunglasses on, Iris was over it. She switched to taking the pictures so she wouldn’t have any more reminders of her mood in the future. Of course, that was when Cirrus started making an ass of himself. When Rowen joined in, Iris’s unease dissipated. She couldn’t help but laugh at the pair of them.
Zarina’s dad came out and took a ton more pictures before the doorbell rang and they all piled into the limo. Dinner was a fun affair, if a little on the expensive side, but it was a seafood restaurant with a view, so they all knew what they were getting into. They asked the limo driver to take them to the beach near the prom site before heading into the dance. Pictures on the beach at sunset were too hard to pass up.
Shoes were piled at the sand’s edge, but no one bothered to roll up their pants or hold their dresses up off the sand. When they left the beach for the boardwalk, every single one of her friends used magic to brush sand off hems and skin alike before putting shoes on. It made Iris think about magic lessons and the end of the school year.
“Hey guys, before I forget again, I’d like to cancel all lessons from now until the end of the school year. I really want to end with the best GPA possible, so the less distracted I am from school work, the better.”
“It’s probably for the best,” Zarina agreed. “I’d thought about telling you all I wasn’t going to make it to any practices for the next few weeks anyway.”
“I had planned on going, but if The First wants to cancel, who am I to complain?” Cirrus asked.
“Thanks, everyone,” Iris grinned as she finished putting her shoes back on.
The tingling sensation at the back of her neck remained well after everyone around her had stemmed the flows they’d drawn upon. Something was off. Iris focused on the sensation. It reminded her of the pins and needles at Zarina’s, but lighter. More like a prickling. She kept her mouth shut and was thankful for the dark interior of the limo. She’d have to get it together in the five minutes it would take for them to be dropped off at the doors.