by Blair Drake
Reese’s Quest
A Finding Magic Novel Book 2
Blair Drake
Copyright ©2018 by Blair Drake
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.
Contents
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Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
The Finding Magic Series
Sneak Peek of Jasper’s Quest…
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Prologue
The dark fog thickened, rolling into a deeper, encroaching blackness, a thin band on the horizon that never disappeared. Forever, it was merely a cloud separating the magical dimensions from those not magical, but this last year it grew darker, more threatening. None of the elders knew what shifted to make this nightmare a current part of their world.
Everything was about balance.
This darkness said something went sideways. But what?
There was an eeriness to the cloud both compelling and disturbing. Headmistress Hettie Lalane stood on the balcony of the regal private school, Gray Cliffs Academy, and stared into the abyss. A cold, numbing wind blew strong, forcing her to lean into the gusts to keep her balance. The early morning chill nipped at her cheeks and poked at her poorly covered feet. She walked up in only her light slip-on shoes and long sweater. Although Vancouver Island had a light version of winter, and cold gales could batter the ancient building, Hettie always managed to keep her own power high enough to keep warm, at least inside.
No longer. Fear could freeze the best of them, and she certainly, although old with centuries of life experience behind her, was not immune. Maybe that was the chill taking her breath away.
Staring across the ocean, it was easy to see the change in her—their—lives. She hated change, and this was the worst kind. It spoke of the unknown. It spoke of darkness…and evil.
She heard the rumors rumbling through the stone walls as the kids whispered about the variance in the atmosphere from last year to this...and of a young man missing.
There was a truth to that. It hurt to talk about it. It hurt more to lie about it. But Hettie had to. Panic would run amok if the kids found out just what happened.
Finals were coming up. The students were focused on that—and should only be focused on that. Except she was old, not stupid, and neither were the kids.
They asked the right questions many times; she just couldn’t give them the right answers. They’d understand eventually. In the meantime, a nervousness threaded through the academy. Whispers were heard at odd times; sideways glances were directed at her and Headmaster Auster.
Speaking of the headmaster, she was due at his office now. She tugged the collar of her long sweater closer to her throat, and with a final glance at the darkness, she turned to the stairs.
As she headed to the door, a pained whisper drifted across the rooftop.
“Don’t forget me.”
Hettie froze and shuddered. Turning ever-so-slowly, she glanced hopefully around her. But, as always, there was nobody, no vision, no light to match the voice. Calling back as she always did, she said, “I won’t.”
Then she dashed the last few steps inside.
As she sped down the worn stone stairs, the noise coming from the main floor below was deafening, and she realized how late she actually was.
“Hettie, do you have them?” the headmaster asked as his voice cut across the din.
She nodded, even while she searched the crowd below. “I do.”
“Good. We’re ready.” Headmaster Auster ushered the ten students toward his office. “All of you, go to my office, take a seat, and wait for us. We’ll join you in a moment.”
Hettie plastered a smile on her face, but her stomach was in knots. As soon as the last teen was out of earshot, she exclaimed, “We can’t do this. Not now. It’s too dangerous.”
“To not do this is too dangerous,” he admonished her as she stepped off the last stair. “You knew this was coming. I was worried you wouldn’t be strong enough to go through with it.”
Insulted, she snapped her back even straighter and answered him in a stiff tone, “I’m strong enough. My concern is they aren’t. We already made one fatal mistake. We can’t afford another one.”
“And that’s why we need to do this as we’ve always done,” he said, gentling his tone.
“You don’t understand,” she hissed, motioning toward the roof. “I was just up there. That thing is growing. It’s almost pitch black. It’s after those kids.”
“Maybe. That’s why they need to be strong enough to handle it—whatever it is,” he warned. “You can’t mess with this. Our system is centuries old.”
“But something happened. Somehow, it’s gained a foothold in our world. We can’t let that continue.”
“We can’t determine why it’s grown or how to stop it. We must put these kids to the test—as every one of us before them was tested.”
“But they have no idea.” She hated this. To know she could lose one of these precious beings like she lost one last year. The guilt still brought her to tears.
“Neither did any of us, remember? And we did just fine.” He walked toward his office, turning to look at her, asking once more, “Do you have the talismans?”
She pulled the special school pins from her coat pocket. As they studied the ten round objects, the talismans glowed.
“We must hurry,” he snapped. “Now. Before it’s too late, and we miss the window.”
She raced up behind him. “We agreed they could request one thing to travel with them, right?”
“No, you asked, but I did not agree.” His stern tone dashed her hopes.
“They need to know something. Our old pins used to talk. These new ones don’t. They have no way to communicate with us or with each other.”
“And that’s the way it’s supposed to be.” He dodged several students who stood talking in the hallway. “We can’t break the rules.”
“They should be able to take something with them. Make it their choice,” she insisted. “We lost one because he couldn’t.”
Auster turned to send her a look. “And most woul
d snag you or I, remember? We can’t make a blanket request like that.”
She frowned. He had a point. “So not us—but something?”
“Only if they don’t know what they are asking for. That would be cheating.”
“How?” she argued. She knew it was futile, but she couldn’t stop herself from trying. They were at the top of the stairs, his hand on the door, ready to push it open.
“I agree they can take something, but there is no grace in the rules. They’ll have to work it out for themselves.” And he shoved the door open.
She let out a gasp. “Oh, no.”
The darkness completely filled his office, swirling in a wild wind around the students, who were huddled together in the center of the room.
“Help us,” Melissa called out, her arms wide to protect the others.
“What is this?” came a question from the center of the group.
Headmaster Auster spun, a look of terror on his face. “We have to get them out of here.” He raced to the side door. “Go to the roof, now!”
Hettie stepped into the black turbulence settling in Auster’s office, opening her arms to help ground herself as the storm raged over her, around her, and finally through her. The air was sucked from her lungs, and her voice was strangled by the need to withstand the forces. But still she cried out, “There’s no time.”
It was too late; the students raced up the stairs to escape the darkness.
Her hopes sank as the door slammed behind her, leaving her to drain the darkness. But instead of it draining, the dark wind uncoiled and zipped back out the window, and she knew—it was racing to the rooftop for the children.
Gathering the last of her energy, she ran to the roof and found the group of students still clutched together. The headmaster tried to talk to them, but his words had no effect. Hettie quickly moved from one student to the other and slipped a talisman into each one’s pocket.
The window wasn’t just closing…
“Ten…nine…” The headmaster started the countdown.
The wind picked up, making the black cloud tighten its circle around the group.
Hettie stepped into place, grasped Auster’s hand, and started the chant from the ageless ones. In front of her, she could see the colors swirl, the lights brighten. Then, as if the wind gained a voice, it howled and screamed in fury, trying to find a crack in the energy shield surrounding the crying students.
“Six…five…”
The headmaster’s voice could barely be heard over the wind, yet it was also intoned at such a level it would soon resonate with the physical bodies of all those on the roof—a process that fascinated Hettie. She’d seen it hundreds of times, but it was so miraculous she never got tired of watching it happen.
She could see three of the students clearly. Melissa, a junior, the loner and independent spirit, was at the front. She was more subdued this year after Luke, her boyfriend, graduated and left last year. He was two years older but lost a year due to a major illness when he was only twelve. Then Annalise, Melissa’s faithful sidekick, her partner in crime, and the youngest member of the group, was a freshman. And Reese stood beside her talking to his buddy—as always. She wasn’t sure he was ready, but he made it just in time.
Hettie’s voice rose as the chant filled her until she was singing, her voice angelic and light, calling to the matching pieces inside each of the students’ pockets. The talismans glowed with fire, filling the air.
The students’ cries calmed as their tones changed to cries of wonder.
“Three…two…”
And then it hit her. Oh, dear God. Her shocked mind caused her voice to falter…Annalise shouldn’t be here. Hettie shuddered and gripped at her control, raising her voice yet again. Annalise showed no sign of the genetic disposition to magic the others had. This process would kill her.
Suddenly, Hettie’s voice rose over the wind, and the chant swirled with the darkness in an eerie way. When the wind changed, turning to the lightness she was striving for, she knew she was winning.
She smiled in joy, knowing it would finally be okay. She was almost there. The kids were almost there. This would work. She could reach out and grab Annalise, hold her back. Hettie took a step forward and held out her hand to Annalise who immediately reached back.
“One…NOW!”
Then lightning spat from the center of the black cloud and blasted Hettie across the roof. From the corner of her eyes, she caught sight of the headmaster as he was picked up and thrown back a dozen feet.
She landed beside him, momentarily stunned, before she scrambled in a panic to stand and looked around. “Annalise?” she yelled. “Are you here?”
“She’s not here. None of them are,” the headmaster said in a heavy voice. “None of them are.”
“No, you have to be wrong,” Hettie cried out, spinning around.
The sky cleared, the dark cloud retreating to the horizon where it lived. The rooftop glistened with the sunshine bright overhead. The atmosphere was as clean and fresh as a new dawning day.
But it was a false positive. There was nothing good about any of this. Auster was right. All the kids were gone.
The question was—where did they end up?
And were they coming back?
Chapter 1
The last place Reese Calamita thought he’d wanted to be was standing on the rooftop of the Gray Cliffs Academy like a gargoyle looking out to the ocean with a bunch of the other kids from his class. But for some reason Headmistress Hettie Lalane decided they all needed a guided tour of the rooftop deck in the middle of a damned thunderstorm.
That in itself should be the weirdest thing that had happened to Reese. What was even stranger was that he somehow ended up on the basement floor of the school. How the hell had that happened?
He shouldn’t be here. Not on the rooftop, not at the Cliffs, and certainly not in the basement. Reese had always known that, and this stunt Lalane just pulled only made it clearer. If he were a normal kid, he’d be out somewhere looking for an after-school job so he could make enough money for something other than snacks from the student bookstore. He’d be saving money to buy a sweet car so he could drive right out of this school in a few weeks after graduation, and get anywhere other than here. Maybe he’d even have a hot girl in the seat next to him. Yeah, that’d be sweet.
But at the Cliffs, there wasn’t any time or room in his life for girls other than sneaking a quick kiss in the hallway between classes before Auster, the headmaster caught them. Not that any of the girls he knew wanted a guy with no money. And Reese had none. Not enough to bribe someone to sneak in some beer for a Saturday night party or even to take Emma Garrett out on a date, not that she wanted to anymore. The girl from their rival school Reese had met during a track meet had flipped her long blond hair over her shoulder, and turned on her heels away from him when she learned he didn’t even have money for a cheap cell phone. She’d made it clear that all Reese had to offer was a jock championship title that was worthless to anyone but the Academy admins.
For all the money his stepdad had, Reese knew that any money his mom managed to send him, which wasn’t often, came out of the petty monthly stipend George gave her, the cheap bastard. The only thing George ever splurged on from the day he met Reese’s mom was tuition to send Reese away to the Cliffs. Just to get him away from his mother.
Reese sat up on the concrete floor. How the hell had he gotten here? He thought back to walking into school this morning. Immediately the headmaster and headmistress had called a bunch of students down to the office, most likely to ask why none of them had filled out applications for Gray Cliffs University.
No way was Reese going to GCU. He’d spent four years at the Gray Cliffs Academy, and as soon as he got his high school diploma, he was gone.
But…had anyone talked about GCU this morning? He couldn’t remember.
He’d been in the headmaster’s office. He’d seen a bunch of applications on the desk, and then…they were on th
e rooftop of the school. How had that happened?
He didn’t remember. He did remember the gusts of wind whipping his hair around his head, slapping strands against his forehead and stinging his skin. It was so windy, Reese had planted his feet firmly on the weathered boards of the deck in order to keep his balance.
And Jasper was talking to him.
“Did you see her?” Jasper had asked, pulling at the collar of his blue blazer, a uniform meant to strip them all of their identities and keep them invisible. Screw that.
“See who? The new girl?” Reese asked. But he was barely listening to Jasper. He’d noticed some of the girls with them were scared. Melissa had tears in her eyes. Annalise looked as though someone had told her she had to jump off the roof in order to get away. If it hadn’t been so ridiculous, it’d be comical.
“Yeah, Sable. Did you see her going to homeroom?” Jasper had asked.
“Why would I? You said she’s a freshman. Her room is clear on the other side of the building. I told you before, I’m not sticking around the Cliffs for a freshman. I’ll never get out of here,” he’d said.
“Come on. She came out of the headmaster’s office just as we were heading down there. You didn’t see her? What are you blind? She was right there. Totally fine.”
But again, Reese hadn’t been listening. Not really. Reese had grabbed the railing as the next gust of wind knocked him off balance and turned to look at the girls on the rooftop deck. They’d been huddled together, but none of them seemed to be struggling because of their slight size. Instead, they’d been focused on a dark cloud circling in the distance and growing bigger.