Magian High

by Lia London

  “Nah, but it doesn’t matter. They were taken away to the station to write up the incident.”

  “Why? Were people hurt?” I asked, suddenly concerned.

  “A few…” Her voice lost its perkiness. “Expect us in a few minutes for some healings. We’ve got Noah’s van packed, and we’ll be by for the Kincaid clinic.”

  “Oh, whoah! Okay, I’ll be ready. Can you keep them outside on the porch? Mom’s trying to get Kelsey to bed, and she’ll jump on any distraction she can get.”

  “Sure. See you in a few minutes. I love you, Kincaid!”

  The connection died as my heart soared. She loves me. Jack’s busted. Does life get better? I bounded down the stairs and opened the front door. “Mom, I’ve got some friends coming from the park. We’ll stay outside and be quiet, okay.”

  “How many?” she called.

  “Not sure.”

  “Okay, only until nine, honey. And keep them quiet, please.”

  I closed the door behind me and felt as though the air had been kicked from me. There, burnt into the new top step, were the words, This is NOT OVER! I knew it was Jack’s warning. Without thinking, I reached down and grabbed the edge of the board. Pulling with all my strength, I managed to loosen it. A few more yanks and I got it free. I didn’t want a hole for people to fall through, so I flipped it over and lay it upside down in place. It wobbled and a couple of nails stuck up along the edge, but if I kept people down on the lower steps, no one would notice until I had time to fix it.

  Right about then, the van pulled up and Noah got out. I Flash Jumped down to the path and came to them at the curb. Amity backed out, helping Rikki, whose cheek was turning shades of purple. “They picked her up and dropped her,” growled Curry, coming around from the passenger side. He let fly a few choice curses and everyone agreed.

  “I think there’s something wrong with my shoulder, too. I can move it, but it really hurts,” she said, her voice wobbling with the effort of keeping back the tears.

  The polymer guy got out next. His glasses were broken and his hair was majorly singed. The last was Ashley from my team. Her hands and face had second degree burns, and she held some light gauzy material over her chin.

  “Didn’t the cops do any First Aid?” I asked.

  “They had to get Hadley and Elizabeth to the hospital,” said Noah, watching my reaction closely.

  My stomach lurched. “What happened to them?”

  “Breaks, I think. Neither could walk. They were definitely being targeted.”

  It was my turn to swear. Tears welled in my eyes. Curry put his hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay, man. The cops told us to get these guys to a healer, and they all asked for you. Hadley and Elizabeth will be okay. You can take the little stuff.”

  I went to Ashley first because I figured she had to be in the worst pain. She removed the gauze, and I saw a nasty cut on her chin in addition to the burns. “Am I going to be scarred forever?” she cried.

  “Not if I can help it.” I placed one hand on the bottom half of her face like a beard and the other over the bridge of her nose so I could reach her cheeks. “Can you breathe okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good. Just breathe in and out ten times with me, and we’ll see how you feel by then.”

  Everyone watched silently while I stood in this odd position, as if they wanted to see it happen to believe it. By about the seventh big breath, I knew her face would be fine, but I let her keep going to ten because it calmed us all down. When I pulled my hands away, she looked good as new. A collective sigh of relief sounded through the group, and she spun around to see her reflection in the side view mirror.

  “Oh my gosh, that’s amazing! I thought only the doctor Mages could do that!”

  Curry nodded. “That’s strong healing,” he muttered.

  “Well hang on, guys. I’m not done yet.” I took her hands in mine, like I’d done with Amity before. She watched her hands, sniffing quietly and trying to breathe slowly. The heat emanating from her skin worried me a bit, but it, too, responded to the magic, and within a minute she flexed her fingers free. She touched her face and then looked at her hands front and back. Suddenly she threw herself at me and hugged me. “Thank you so much! I was so scared and…” She sobbed onto my shoulder, and I glanced over at Amity. She grinned, so I felt free to pat the girl’s back until she’d finished crying it out. Eventually, she pulled away and squeezed Rikki’s hand in a gesture of excitement.

  “Rikki, you’re next. Why don’t you sit down?”

  Before I could suggest another spot, she went over to the porch steps and planted herself on the bottom. I went and sat on the step behind her and the others gathered in a semicircle, watching again. This time, I put one hand on her shoulder and one on the opposite cheek. She winced when I touched her face, and I could feel her tears rolling over my fingers. Curry knelt down in front of her and took her hand. If he’d held up a ring, it couldn’t have looked better, and sure enough, in a couple of minutes—the shoulder took a while longer than expected—she shrugged and wrapped her arms around his neck. He held her now unscathed face in his hands and the rest of us turned away while they worked on each other’s lingual flexibility for a while.

  Polymer guy chuckled awkwardly. “Well, I guess we can go home now, Noah.”

  “What about you?” I asked. “Did you get hurt?”

  “Just my hair burned off. It’s okay. I can buzz the rest to match.”

  “What about your glasses?”

  “I’ll be okay,” he said, frowning slightly. “My eyes aren’t so bad.”

  I stood, studying his face and thinking. “How bad?”

  “Like barely bad enough to need a prescription.” He stared at the ground and scuffed his shoe back and forth, almost like a little kid.

  “Can I try something?” I said. “Close your eyes.”

  “What are you gonna do?” he asked, backing away.

  “Worst case scenario: nothing. Close your eyes.”

  Amity nudged him and he fluttered his lids shut. I took a deep breath and placed my thumbs on his eyelids. He flinched but then relaxed when I took the side of his head into my palms. I closed my eyes, too, feeling the strain of the magic use. I’d never tried fixing sight before. Mom said it took a lot of power, but if I could boost it a little…I finally let go when I couldn’t feel anything changing beyond an initial surge of power. “Well, I don’t know if it helped, but you can try the cheap glasses at the store tomorrow and let me know, huh?”

  “Hey, yeah. Thanks for trying.” For a few seconds, he squinted up at the sky and the trees and then opened his eyes wider. “It is better than it was!” He waved and climbed back into the van. “Wow, thanks!”

  “I’d better get everybody home,” said Noah. He slapped my back. “That was beast, what you did.” Getting behind the wheel, he pointed to me. “And I still think we should do that all-school Gel Ball thing. Just gotta find a big enough place.”

  “I’ll work on it,” I said.

  Curry and Rikki climbed into the van.

  Amity snuggled up to me. “Fly me home?”

  “Sure,” I said.

  Noah waved again, and the van door slid shut. When the hum of the engine faded down the street, I said, “Let me tell Mom I’m going with you.”

  I took the steps two at a time, being careful to step over the upside-down board. Inside, I found Mom coming down the stairs. “They’re gone already?” she asked.

  “Yeah, you know how we are—in and out. I’ll run Amity home, okay?”

  “Okay, but hurry home. I need help decorating for Halloween tomorrow.”

  Back outside, Amity stood on the porch holding the burnt board. “Jack?”

  “Who else would do it?” I asked, taking it from her and setting it back down on the top stair. I put it in the correct way and used my heel to force the nails back into their holes. It would need to be replaced in the morning, but I wanted Sheldon to see it.

  “Can I tell
you a secret?” I asked.

  “You really are MarvelMan?” she said, taking my hand.

  “I don’t think I can fly right now.”

  She looked at me intently. “Lost your Jump?”

  “I don’t know if it’s that, or if my magic is just really tired.”

  “Either way, you’re my hero,” she said.

  “Well, I don’t mind if we walk. It takes longer.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six: A Morning Visitor

  It took me a few seconds to realize that the sound offending my ears wasn’t my alarm clock but my cell phone. I picked it up and stared at it. 6:22? Who calls that early? I didn’t recognize the number, so I figured I’d answer and chew out the caller.

  I flipped the phone open, but before I could clear the morning fog out of my throat to say something clever, I heard, “Elaine didn’t answer the phone. Are you guys okay over there?”

  Blinking and yawning, I only managed, “I think you have a wrong number, sir.”

  “Kincaid, it’s me, Jed. Are you okay?”

  I stared unfocused at the floor and tried to make sense of the call. “Detective Sheldon Jed? That Jed?”

  “Yes. Are you okay?” He sounded urgent.

  “Uh, yeah. I was better when I was sleeping, but—”

  “Good. I’ll be there in a few minutes. Get everyone up. You need to be ready.” The line went dead. Still bewildered, I padded down the hall in my bare feet and knocked on Mom’s bedroom door. It took me a minute of nudging to wake her.

  “Oh come on, Kincaid. Just eat cereal. It’s in the pantry,” she groaned into the pillow.

  “Mom, Jed called. He’s coming over.”

  “Not ‘til tonight,” she said, rolling over sleepily. “He said he’d help take Kelsey trick-or-treating.”

  “I think he’s coming now.”

  As if to confirm it, the doorbell rang. Mom flopped her face back into the pillow. “Are you kidding me? Go answer that, please?”

  I didn’t trust my legs on the stairs in my groggy state, so I flew down the steps and opened the door to find Sheldon in plain clothes, but packing a gun in a shoulder holster visible through an open zip-up jacket. He slipped inside the door and locked it behind us.

  That woke me up. “What the heck is going on?”

  “Where’s Elaine?” he asked, heading towards the kitchen.

  “Still in bed,” I said, a little defensively.

  He hesitated only a second and then headed up the stairs. I followed after him quickly and got to her door as she squealed. “Oh, Jed! I haven’t even put my face on yet!”

  With a beckoning gesture to me, he crouched beside the bed and talked to the back of her head. She was giggling and slapping at his hand. “I’m sorry to disturb you so early, but things have been happening all night, and I wanted you to know.”

  “It couldn’t wait?”

  “I doubt Bagler’s crew will wait, so we need to be ready.”

  Mom and I both snapped to attention, sitting on the edge of the bed. Sheldon sighed and glanced at me. “I heard you had another little incident last night.”

  “What?” asked Mom.

  I tried to brush it away so she wouldn’t worry, but Sheldon jumped in. “Jack Bagler and his boys attacked Kincaid and his friends at the park, and it got pretty violent. Jack got away, but they managed to bring in four of his cronies, and they confessed to throwing Fire Balls and beating up some of the kids.”

  “That’s great!” I said.

  “What’s great about it?” demanded Mom.

  “It could be greater,” said Sheldon grimly. “They told the officers at the precinct—behind closed doors—that Curry Sanders was the one who orchestrated the whole thing.”

  “That’s crazy,” I said. “He was part of our group. His girlfriend, Rikki, got badly hurt. He would never—”

  “Rikki got hurt?” Mom looked mad that I hadn’t told her anything yet.

  “The official report,” said Sheldon sourly, “is that he allowed her to get hurt, knowing that it would throw off suspicion and knowing that you would heal her.”

  “But…” The room seemed to be spinning.

  “The official reports taken at the scene of the incident only indicate that the assorted witnesses saw Curry there talking to the other attackers. They did not say he was part of the game you guys were playing.”

  “That’s…” Crazy? Possible? I didn’t want to think it could be true, but…

  “The unofficial story,” said Sheldon, standing up, “probably corroborates what you thought happened. Jack was definitely implicated as a participant if not the instigator. Mrs. Bagler worked overtime all night clearing things up to keep his name out of the records.”

  Mom rubbed her eyes. “That’s illegal. Doesn’t anyone at the precinct care that she’s totally corrupt?”

  “They care,” said Sheldon. “They also care about their jobs. The Bagler-Farrell Foundation has its fiscal fingers in a lot of pots, apparently.”

  Mom stood up, combing her fingers through her hair and heading out into the hall. “Let’s get some breakfast.” She stopped and looked back at Sheldon pointedly. “And you can tell me why this couldn’t wait until I’d taken a shower.”

  Sheldon’s tense stance softened. “You look fine, Elaine. I’ve seen worse lots of times.”

  “Coming from a cop, that’s not as comforting as it could be,” she said wryly, tromping down the stairs.

  A few minutes later, through a mouthful of Snappy Puffs, I asked, “Should I be heading down to the precinct with my testimony? I can totally clear Curry.” Even as I said it, I wondered if I could.

  “We need to be careful about how we do that,” said Sheldon. “I heard rumors of retaliation for anyone who testified against Jack Bagler. I’m afraid you might be a target because of what your testimony might mean.”

  “I can’t let Curry get in trouble. He was trying to protect me.”

  “Let the other kids clear Curry for now,” said Sheldon. “I’ll make sure their voices are heard.”

  “When? How?” asked Mom, pouring orange juice for each of us. “Kincaid needs to tell what he knows.”

  “How about he tells his story at the hospital where your friends are laid up? The doctors have requested more information about the injuries, and Mrs. Bagler may not have thought of the medical testimony route.”

  “Good idea,” I said.

  “They’re scheduled for release at nine this morning. How good can you look by then?” he asked, grinning at me.

  “Good enough for The Morning Edition cameras?” I asked. When he shrugged and nodded, I added, “Wait, we need Amity.”

  “Why?” asked Sheldon.

  “She’s the one that told me about how Curry helped.”

  Sheldon’s eyebrows shot up. “She was there?”

  “Of course.”

  He looked like an angry brick again. “She didn’t even show up in the reports.”

  Mom’s face fell. “How are we going to do this, Jed? How can we prove anything?”

  “We need it on tape,” he said. “I’ll tip the media about us being at the hospital this morning.”

  She shook her head and slammed the frying pan onto the stove. “No. There’s still editing. They might cut out vital information. Somebody might be bought. We need our own tape.”

  Mom and I both looked at Sheldon intently. “We could film the hospital visit,” he said slowly. “But we’d need the kids’ consent before it was aired anywhere.”

  “They aren’t going to allow big cameras in the hospital, Jed. You know that,” said Mom.

  “I wasn’t thinking of a big camera,” he said. “More like a hidden one, so viewers know it’s candid.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Hospital Interviews

  We arrived at the hospital with the morning rush, Kelsey clutching her stuffed unicorn and sniffling between yawns. Sheldon had concealed a small camera—from a cell phone, I think—in the front hoof of the doll, and Kelsey was not
pleased about the marred stitching. Mom promised to make Froodles slippers to cover the hole, but for now, Kelsey just had to hold the unicorn, look cute, and point the camera at Hadley and Elizabeth while we did the visits. After coaching Amity and I on what kinds of information to get, he left us to our duty while he went outside to greet the news vans for an official announcement.

  We went first to Elizabeth because that’s what Kelsey wanted, and we needed her to cooperate. Elizabeth sat on the edge of her bed, already dressed for release, and her mom, Mrs. Delmore, was brushing her hair by the window. A nurse rolled past us with the last of her IVs. “Are you family?” she asked.

  “Friends,” I said.

  “Amity’s my cousin,” said Elizabeth loudly.

  The nurse eyed me and Mom suspiciously. “It’s supposed to be family only until the investigation is over,” she said firmly.

  Elizabeth’s mom glanced at us and nodded to the nurse.

  “We’ll just be a minute,” said Amity, grabbing Froodles from Kelsey’s hand.

  “Hey!” complained Kelsey.

  “It’s okay, dear,” said Mom, ushering us back out of the room. “She’s going to show your unicorn to Elizabeth to cheer her up. She’ll be right back.”

  Kelsey ran the risk of having a meltdown. Hungry, tired and now deprived of her precious Froodles, she started to pull the I-can-be-heavier-than-an-elephant-thing. As annoying as that usually is, it proved a great distraction for the nurses in the hall, and everyone left Amity and Elizabeth alone with Mrs. Delmore. I snuck up to the door to pull it shut as Amity spoke with distinct clarity: “So you can’t leave here until the cops come? What happened to you?”

  “I’m going to find Detec—Jed, okay?” I said, patting Mom’s back. She nodded and continued to soothe Kelsey, offering to buy her a muffin from the cafeteria downstairs.

  “Can I ride the levitator?”

  “Elevator, honey, and I’ll even let you push the buttons.”

  They disappeared down the hall, and I took off towards the stairs. It only took me a couple of seconds to see where The Morning Edition van had set up in the parking lot. Sheldon signaled to me, and I jogged over.