by Lan Chan
At the core of it, I knew he was telling the truth. He just didn’t have all the information and I couldn’t tell him. With a heavy sigh, I tried to contain some of the snark. “It’s fine. Thanks for the invitation. Where will they send you once the ceremony is over?”
He shrugged, looking worn out. “Wherever they need me. Right now, it’s looking like a backup outpost close to a human population.”
My next question was couched in stealth. “How do you feel about that?” Once he was posted, the chances of us seeing him again soon would be slim.
“I get what I’m given,” he said. “It isn’t as though there’s anything keeping me around.”
Not wanting to step on that landmine, I ended the call. When Sophie deigned to return, I was in bed with the Nephilim Codex spread out on my lap.
“He’s sick,” I told Sophie after she exaggeratedly went about her nightly rituals. She stopped primping her hair.
“Sick?”
“He says it’s a demon hex. Funny, isn’t it? First Jacqueline, then Cass. Now Charles and Max. Are you sensing a pattern?”
“You think it’s got something to do with Kai?”
“I think it has something to do with Kai healing me. I just need to find proof in the codex.”
After a couple of hours and half the book read, I gave up. Not before I sensed a pattern, though. Just like the Nephilim as a whole, there was no way Kai was going to admit weakness if he could help it. I would have to pry it out of him kicking and screaming.
30
Kicking and screaming was how I imagined Professor Mortimer would convince other supernaturals to assist us with our power experiment. My brows shot up to the sky when I entered the clearing around Professor Mortimer’s cottage to be greeted by a dozen or so volunteers. They stood around chatting like this was Sunday afternoon high tea and not a left-field experiment in stealing magical energy.
It didn’t surprise me that there were few students. Early on I’d worked out that their classes clashed with mine so they would need a pass to be here. With the parents kicking up a stink, that was an added barrier. Even if they had wanted to participate, the outcome was too uncertain for most to consider. I understood that.
It was the reason why my throat closed up so that I had to fight to breathe when Sophie and Diana waved at me from the huddle of students from my year level. Charles and Luther were chasing Bebe around the cottage, trying to get the grim to shift. Cassie followed slowly behind them, rubbing at her temples. Off to the right, Isla and the Evil Three were having what sounded like a heated argument with Marshall about something to do with guard rotations. There was no Emily in sight but that was fine with me.
What I never expected were the non-Bloodline people who showed up. A bulbous grin split Griff’s face at the dumbstruck expression on mine. He was in a group with Dorian, Eugenia, and Odette. They stood beside the cottage where a trestle table had been set up with refreshments.
“I know I don’t have much to offer,” Griff said upon my approach, “but I figured this isn’t just about magic.”
Swallowing the sudden well of emotion, I could only nod solemnly at him. The flap of wings broke the air beside me. Astrid landed soundlessly. “Oh good. We’re not late.”
“Isn’t this cosy?” Patricia observed. Before I could sidestep, she swept me up against her side with one chunky arm around my shoulders. “What an exciting day,” she squealed in my ear. “We’re making history!”
I shot Astrid a dirty look, but she just shrugged and moved off like she couldn’t get away fast enough. “I really don’t want this on the MirrorNet,” I started to say. Patricia crushed me hard against her.
“Of course, my dear.” Her voice was suddenly even. “That’s all fun and games but this is about more than publicity.”
She practically tossed me aside when Jacqueline and Professor Mortimer ducked out of his cottage. “Jacqui!” Patricia hollered, moving faster than I’d ever seen her go.
I cast around, frightened for a second that I had been dragged into an alternate universe. Alex strode past with a stack of forms in his arms. “You know the drill,” he shouted as he passed forms to all the adults. “It’s a basic contract consent form. What happens here, stays here.”
“Alex?”
“Busy!” He didn’t even glance in my direction.
A dusty throat cleared behind my back. I swung around on my heel and was greeted by a shrunken prune in a thick black velvet dress and a knobbly cane. “You’re kidding me!”
Victoria’s lined lips puckered. “Don’t get your hopes up,” she said. “I’m here strictly for supervision.” I should hope so. Though I would wager that if I drew the Ley dimension around us, her aura would be one of the brightest. You didn’t get to survive that long without amassing some serious firepower. She ambled forward and stopped when we were a foot apart. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do for Andrei. But there is no need to stir up old wounds.”
Not this again. “Maybe they’re old for you, but Andrei is still bleeding.”
She regarded me with an expression I couldn’t place. “The problem with you, Alessia, is that you’re emotionally compromised. If you want to survive in this world, you have to learn to control that.”
“I don’t think surviving in this world is a long-term strategy for me.” The words popped out without filter. For some reason, my assessment didn’t elicit the satisfaction in her I had anticipated.
“We shall see.”
She fake-hobbled away and I weaved through the crowd to get to Professor Mortimer. “Ah, Alessia! Interesting turnout, isn’t it?”
I scratched at my cheek. “Umm...do we really need this many people?”
“Probably not. But it’s good to know we won’t be draining anyone if things don’t go according to plan.”
The professor clapped his hands. A hush fell over the clearing. “Alright, everyone. Thank you for being here today. I have to say, I’m elated by your willingness to participate in what might be considered a dangerous experiment.”
“Here, here!” Eugenia raised her glass. Patricia actually clinked it.
“Ladies,” Jacqueline admonished. “This isn’t a party.”
“Yes, Headmistress,” they both chimed and then giggled. I could so imagine them as naughty schoolgirls.
Professor Mortimer tugged at the sleeve of his tweed jacket and continued. “My lesson will be with Alessia and Tyler, as usual. Your role is to furnish Alessia with any additional power she might need. That won’t require any active participation on your part.”
“What happens if something goes wrong?” Odette asked.
My gut flipped in warning. The bond echoed with a resounding clarion call a second before footsteps trod on the grass. Kai’s iced-over voice spoke up from behind me. “It won’t.”
He didn’t linger but went to join Astrid. I breathed in through my mouth and shoved at the bond in an effort to clear my head. Patricia waved frantically at me, but I grit my teeth and diverted my attention to the professor.
“Ignore everything but the lesson,” he said.
“Believe me, I intend to.”
“If everybody could move back to give us some space, that would be greatly appreciated.” The crowd dispersed to create a clear, open space where the professor and I usually had our lessons. Tyler went around the space drawing a faint line of white with rock salt from a leather sack.
“Just a little something to amplify the experiment and keep out anything unwanted,” he said. Needless to say, I was beginning to freak out a little.
The professor must have sensed it because he smiled encouragingly at me. “This is no different to any other lesson we’ve had,” he said. This was immediately contradicted by him offering me a vial of lilac potion.
“What’s this?”
I balanced the vial delicately in my hand. Supernaturals weren’t so keen on plastic. The artificial qualities of it messed with their magic. Most of their implements were made of glass
. It made storing dangerous potions very precarious. “In order to help activate your ability to siphon magic, we’re going to need to suppress your power for a little while.”
My palm grew damp. “Umm... are you sure that’s okay? My magic is a bit volatile right now.”
“Let’s try it and see. If it gets too hard, we can reconsider.”
With my tongue feeling too big for my mouth, I uncapped the vial and swallowed the contents. It tasted like grass and immediately made me want to upchuck. Not something befitting a hedge witch at all.
“I don’t suppose I can have a glass of water?”
“Not just yet.”
He took a few steps back. Alarm pressed over my chest. The first inkling that something wasn’t quite right appeared in the form of profuse sweating. I was standing perfectly still under the temperature-controlled atmosphere of the Academy, but I was roasting. Sweat trickled down my brow. Inside, the potion slithered through my body until it came into contact with the pools of magic. Rather than interact with them, the potion acted like a slick of oil in water. It spread out in a sheet of lilac that covered the top layer of the pool.
“Try and reach for your magic,” the professor urged.
Glancing inside, I summoned some hedge magic. The pool undulated. A swell of magic rose up until there was a column encased in lilac. Try as I might, I couldn’t get the magic to break through the layer of potion. At least not without considerable effort and the potential of sweating through my shirt.
“No go,” I reported.
“Fantastic. Alright, let’s begin by dropping into the Ley dimension. Tyler, if you could please create a flame.”
Ignoring the riveted attention of the crowd, I sat down in the grass and closed my eyes. Even with my magic muffled, it didn’t take additional effort to slip into the Ley dimension. The sight was tied to my bone magic, but unlike its physical manifestations, it couldn’t be extinguished. Sometimes, as I lay awake at night and fretted about the erosion of my powers, it was the only thing that kept me from losing my mind.
“Familiarise yourself with the aura of those around you,” Professor Mortimer instructed.
As suspected, I could pick Victoria’s silver bauble out of the line-up. The magic of her star was quietly contained, but there was a pulse of red at the centre that fractured into tendrils like the throbbing of a heartbeat. It made me shudder knowing that if she chose to compel me one day, I would have absolutely no defence.
Sometimes, when I was stuck in Rivia waiting for Basil or Sophie to get done in a store, I would slip into the Ley dimension and just watch. By now, I had a pretty thorough understanding of the levels of power an aura emitted. My breath caught in my throat at the staggering potential in the group around me. Griff had been right. His magical affinity was the dimmest, but in comparison to other para-humans I had come across in my travels, he was a giant.
But it was minuscule compared to the yellow orb that shouted at me from the corner of my eye. Unable to stand the distraction any longer, I allowed my magical sight to pan in the direction of the tugging and found myself staring into Cassie’s aura.
Once, our connection had been a tiny spark barely visible in my web. Now, her light, a pale buttercup yellow, was brighter than the sun. Confused, I drew her section of the web closer only to find that it suddenly dimmed and shrank as a coating of green encased the yellow and leeched it of its light. The green contracted around Cassie’s aura until it condensed into nothing more than a small globe in line with the rest of the crowd.
Professor Mortimer’s voice distracted me from investigating it further, but I filed the question away for later. “Now,” he said, “do you remember how you siphoned magic that first time?”
It had less to do with memory and more to do with desperation. But the basic blueprint of how I’d done it was still there.
“I think so.”
“Let’s start with a simple task. Tyler is going to light a flame once more. I want you to use borrowed power to extinguish it.”
Coming up beside the professor, Tyler clicked his fingers and a puff of smoke wafted up from the grass. It chewed up oxygen and grew until it became a steady, crackling fire. The grass was too damp for the flame to get out of control without magical assistance, but the hedge witch in me cringed at the scent of burning grass. “Whenever you’re ready,” the professor encouraged.
The Ley dimension slipped around me with barely a thought. I clucked my tongue, trying to dredge up memories of how I’d borrowed power before. At the time, I had been stabbed and almost buried alive. My magic was running on empty and I had no other choice. If I hadn’t borrowed power from the supernaturals around me, Kai would have died.
Back then, the supernaturals had lent me their power willingly. What the professor wanted was for me to take it forcefully. It would be easy enough. My bone magic was a natural conduit inside the Ley dimension. It was made of the same connections that held the web together. All I would need to do was tug and the power would surge. The ease of it was part of the problem. Something about that didn’t sit well with me.
The minutes ticked by.
“Alessia?” Professor Mortimer’s patient voice prodded.
“I…”
A derisive cough sliced through the crackling of the flame. Even if I hadn’t been in the Ley dimension and seen Giselle’s aura appear inside the circle, I would have felt the circle itself morph from a simple containment circle to something more sinister. I’d felt the same deep aching chasm before when I’d passed through the soul gate at Terran. This circle was drawn outside of where I was sitting. It cut me off from the supernaturals. A dozen or so smaller flashes of aura materialised around her.
“Oh my Gaia,” I heard Sophie say. “That’s disgusting.”
My eyes peeled open to a personal nightmare. Giselle had managed to phase inside the circle Tyler had constructed. She stood in a fighting stance where the flame had been a minute earlier. And she’d brought friends. A dozen huge Tasmanian Devils scampered around her feet. They were an Australian icon, but as far as I was concerned, they were just big rats with short tails. Their faces were covered in pink welts. The gnashing sound they made sent spine-tingling shivers across my skin.
“What the hell is this?” Dorian remarked. He pressed his hand against the soul circle.
I tried to offer a warning. “Don –”
The soul magic lashed out, throwing him back three metres. If he wasn’t a shifter, he would have landed on his ass instead of in a catlike crouch. Gold rolled over his eyes.
“Giselle!” Jacqueline called out. “We have a contract.”
The mind witch gave no indication that she heard or cared. Her concentration was locked on me. Mine was doing that thing where you saw a car crash and couldn’t look away. Waves of irrational terror beat at me. The noises the Tassie Devils made felt like they were scraping my skin and making my molars ache.
“This is what happens in war,” Giselle said ominously. My dignity fled the scene and I squealed thinking she was going to release the devils. Instead, she waved her hand in a small circle in front of her. I was dragged into the Ley dimension against my will. Just in time to watch her pick apart the last stitch from the soul of one of the devils. The animal gave a terrified, painful shriek that turned my gut to jelly. I fisted my hands against the lawn, trying to draw comfort from nature. But my hedge magic was on lockdown.
Free of its earthly body, the soul of the devil became an ochre globe. Without warning, Giselle launched it at me. The soul fireball slipped clean through Tyler’s original circle. It would have hit me if I hadn’t jumped clear. Not clear enough. When the fireball reached the spot where I’d been, it exploded in a rush of pure energy. The earth groaned beneath my feet as I threw my arms up to shield my face. Heat scalded my forearms and exposed skin. I coughed as ash invaded my lungs. When the smoke cleared, there was a metre crater in the ground.
“Are you nuts?” I screamed.
The supernaturals tried to
dismantle the soul circle from the outside but it rebuffed them the same way it had Dorian. Distantly, I was aware of Kai’s aura glowing with calm interest. Somewhere along the line, he had decided that I needed to be trained at all costs. Otherwise, he would be the first one beating down the door. Something about that scraped me up the wrong way.
Without meaning to, I latched on to the essences of the supernaturals around me and tugged. With the Ley sight, I saw the energy chase along the web leading to me and then coming to a screaming halt against the soul circle. The magic careened in on itself like a crumpling accordion. Dammit! I had done what Professor Mortimer asked, but a soul circle didn’t permit supernatural energy to pass.
In my mind’s eye, I saw Giselle’s deranged grin. Forgot how a soul circle works, huh? she thought in my head. Let’s see if there’s any bark behind that bite.
She raised both hands this time. One by one, the devils were divested of their souls. Each petrified yelp branded itself on me. I didn’t love them, but they didn’t deserve to be used as maniac fodder.
“Stop messing with me!”
Start embracing what you are!
She tossed the souls at me. They shot out like dodgeballs, hitting the circle and exploding in a shower of ochre light. My head rang from the sound of earth groaning. The charred roots scraped up against me, each little shoot of grass a tiny echo of despair. One after the other, Giselle launched the souls at me. I managed to dodge the first few, but after executing a backwards limbo that almost snapped my spine, I was at the end of my tether.
Gritting my teeth, I cast the Ley dimension around me. A soul fireball came speeding towards my right. I jumped at the last second, but instead of allowing it to smash into the side of the circle, I scooped it up and funnelled the energy into the webbed lines around me. With deliberate calm, I marched towards her. A single slap of my hand was all it took to break the circle where she stood. Suddenly, she was a mere foot in front of me.