Hopeless Magic (The Star-Crossed Series)

by Rachel Higginson

  "Did you baste the turkey?" Kiran asked, turning his body to face me as if to exclude Jericho all together.

  "I did," I smiled sweetly, gazing into his eyes and hoping to relay that there was absolutely nothing to be jealous about.

  "I should like to learn how to baste a turkey," Kiran smiled back and I reached for my wine glass.

  He's talking about sex. He wants to have sex with you. Avalon sent me the message telepathically and I choked on my wine, spitting it back into my glass and continuing to cough.

  "Eden.... Magic...." Avalon mumbled from across the table and I took his advice, but that didn't stop the heat from rising to my cheeks.

  "Lilly helped too," I blurted out, trying to erase Avalon's opinion from my mind. Everyone at the table was just staring at me, I had to say something. "Lilly helped me all morning; really everything here is from both of us." I smiled at her, trying to regain my focus.

  "Is that true, Lilly?" Talbott addressed her for the first time all evening, his accent thick. His face was bright red and I watched as he struggled to look her in the eye. She just nodded, turning an even brighter shade of red and shrinking back farther into her chair.

  This evening was going worse than I had expected. I needed to change the subject to something everyone could discuss and not offend anyone at the same time. I had to think of something neutral and safe and the only thing that came to mind was myself.

  "So. Ok," I began, pushing the corn casserole around on my plate, afraid to look anyone in the eye, lest anyone else get upset or jealous, "I don't get why I have to go to India for this whole Eternal Walk thing. Why can't I just do it here?" I finally glanced up at Amory, hoping he would engage me in some kind of lengthy discussion and save my failed dinner.

  "That is a good question, Eden, but unfortunately it is impossible to do the Eternal Walk here, the Cave of the Winds is the most significant part of the entire tradition and it is located in India," Amory smiled at me, encouraging me to ask more questions with his eyes.

  "Ok, so what exactly are the Caves of the Winds?" I asked, hoping to stay on this topic for awhile.

  "They are a sort of Immortal epicenter that reacts more strongly with our magic than any other place on earth. You will feel your magic more intensely there than here, and what is even more of a phenomenon is that the caves actually react with you. The Eternal Walk is more of a physical reaction from nature than an Immortal induced event," Amory smiled benevolently and gestured to Kiran as if he wanted to explain more.

  "That's right, when you enter the caves an actual reaction from the caves themselves begin to occur and that's why we call it the "Walk," because you have to physically walk through the caves in order to be released," Kiran took my hand in his underneath the table, but this time not from jealousy or over-protectiveness, this time it was to reassure me.

  "How is that possible?" I asked, not believing that nature would actually react to our magic in a conscious way.

  "We are not exactly sure," Amory continued, "but over time we have come to notice certain places on the earth are more prone to recognizing our magic than other places. In fact, even the native humans in those places seem to have an awareness of our Immortality, more so, than in other places."

  "So more than just India?" I asked, wondering if Romania was one of those places.

  "Yes, more than India," Kiran answered, "Romania is of course one, Peru is another, London, Morocco.... another and the entire continent of Africa," he laughed a little when he mentioned Africa and the rest of the table joined him. I didn't get the joke.

  "So is that why that whole Citadel is in Romania?" I started to put the pieces together.

  "Yes," It was Talbott's turn to talk, "over time, these epicenters, to use Amory's term, have presented themselves as the logical places to build our palaces. The citadel was built in Romania with the prisons because it became the most effective way of housing Immortal criminals."

  "Oh," I grunted, rather disgusted. "Oh. I guess that makes sense from a ruling standpoint," I tried to cover my negative reaction quickly, but I saw Avalon laughing out of the corner of my eye. "Oh," I said again only this time realizing the answer to something that had been nagging me for a while. "That's why that old lady, on the train.... Well that makes sense," I trailed off, remembering nobody had been with me while on the train to the Sibiu.

  "What makes sense?" Kiran looked at me quizzically, calculating my expression.

  Wait. Avalon demanded before I could answer what I assumed to be an innocent question from Kiran. I obeyed my brother grudgingly, and forced another bite off of my plate, chewing it slowly. Once the food was in my mouth, I wasn't exactly stalling but rather just trying to force another ounce of food into my already overly-full stomach.

  Avalon sifted through my memories rather intrusively, so I threw the memory at him, glancing irritatedly out of the corner of my eye. He replayed the memory and then I watched him shake his head and frown from my peripheral, just the slightest jut of a chin to signal not to say anything. I swallowed the bite of food on cue and took Avalon's advice.

  "I don't know, just some old gypsy lady on the train I took from Timisoara to Sibiu. She was scared of me. Like absolutely terrified," I took another sip of wine, shaking my head like I couldn't believe it.

  "Really?" Kiran asked sweetly, I turned to smile at him and watched his eyes just barely narrow in suspicion.

  "Oh," I blurted suddenly, "and then my cab driver too. He was so freaked out, he wouldn't even take me all the way to the Citadel. I had to walk up, like mountains," I grew dramatic hoping to cover my mistake earlier, although I didn't really understand what the big deal was.

  "Do you remember what you looked like?" Lilly laughed in a laid-back way that told me she was working hard at looking more laid-back than actually feeling so. "Eden, you looked crazy!"

  "That's very true," Amory agreed, taking his turn at reminding us all how the journey to the Citadel had affected my external appearance.

  "Oh my word," I dropped my face into my hands, trying to picture what I would have looked like to everyone else. "How embarrassing," I sighed.

  "Yes, I much prefer this look to the one you were trying to pull off in Romania," Kiran teased, leaning over and kissing me gently on the cheek. Hopefully his fears had been erased, whatever the reason was for them to begin with.

  "So, ok, back to the point, these epicenters," I gestured at Amory, making sure I was using the word correctly, "they not only make our magic stronger, but nature will actually react back at us?" I clarified my question, genuinely wanting to get to the bottom of this.

  "Yes, so to speak," Talbott jumped back in, "like in India, the people themselves recognize our magic immediately. You will see when you arrive, they show us absolute respect and honor our ways. The palace itself houses almost an insurmountable amount of magical energy and for a long time was the city center of our people. The caves as well, have a unique way of revealing our specific magic on an individual level. After time however, we have found India to be especially draining and so the palace is mainly used now for the adolescent Eternal Walk."

  "And summer holiday," Kiran added, seriously.

  "Yes, and summer holiday," Talbott agreed, rolling his eyes.

  It was the first time I had seen Talbott be so openly insubordinate and I couldn't help but laugh at his good humor. Maybe he wasn't as uptight as he came off.... All the time....

  "Ok, what about Peru?" I asked, ticking off the epicenters in my head.

  "Both Peru and England seem to boost magic in a way that prolongs our lives now that we are concerned about the King's Curse," Amory explained. "There is not so much a feeling of strengthened energy, but more a calming of the frenetic aspects of the magic. I believe Kiran would agree that there is a more solidified feeling in London than over here." When Kiran nodded, Amory continued, "We heal faster in those parts of the world and we frankly live longer."

  "Romania?" I asked, but feeling like maybe I should have fe
lt something while I was there.

  "Romania is a lot like India in that the Gyspies have an almost insight into our people that other humans lack." Jericho began to explain and I was surprised to hear him talk, he had been silent for so long. "Like you said, the Gypsies you encountered were scared of you and I think that is the general rule across the country. For the most part they leave us completely alone, which is why we are able to have our Citadel there with active prisons." Jericho spit the last sentence out and I cringed hoping it wouldn't ignite something between Kiran and him.

  "Yes, but more than that the prisons in Romania are specially fortified," Talbott took the floor again, but this time I could sense a little bit of pride in his tone and I felt physically ill thinking about Lilly inside of one. "No Immortal has ever escaped one, there is something in the core of the earth there that is capable of trapping and keeping Immortals."

  "Amory escaped," Avalon said plainly; there was not sarcasm, or anger or malice in his voice, it was a statement of pure fact.

  "Not from the prison," Talbott rebutted and I felt the tension in the room rise immediately.

  "Talbott's right," Amory cut in, giving Avalon the "eye."

  "Amory, what does that mean?" I asked in awe. This was a story I had not heard before.

  "I will tell you sometime, Eden, but your elegant Thanksgiving dinner is neither the time, nor the place," he smiled at me patiently and I knew he was right.

  "Who's ready for some pie?" Aunt Syl changed the subject and spoke for the first time all evening.

  I was thankful for Aunt Syl's intuition and stood up to help her clear the table. But a chill ran up my spine, I realized I sorely underestimated the danger Talbott and Kiran still were to my precious family and what kind of danger my family was to Kiran. A sickening feeling of dread formed in the pit of my stomach. I was naive to believe these two worlds could coexist. I was naive to believe a relationship between Kiran and I would solve this world's problems. I placed the china gently next to the sink fearing this was all going to come to a head sooner than I wanted to believe it would.

  19.

  I stepped on to Kiran's posh private jet on a secluded airstrip north of Omaha late Thursday evening, with my new backpack and a small carry-on suit case. I was a ball of nerves already and the plane hadn't even taken off yet.

  I willed myself forward, forcing myself to take step after step until I was able to sit down in a luxurious leather chair. I threw my carry-on and backpack on an identical seat across the aisle and used my foot to propel my swiveling chair around and around.

  An iced bucket, holding an expensive bottle of champagne sat uncorked on the console to my right and the flat-screen TV took up the majority of the front wall, playing an old movie I would have loved to pay attention to under different circumstances.

  I stopped turning when the seat belt sign flashed on and obeyed the safety command. Once in the air I would change clothes, out of my jeans and sweater and into cooler clothing, ready for the heat of India.

  I wasn't in any hurry, though, Amory had prepped me before hand on the lengthy journey ahead of me. The plane ride alone would take over a full day and then the trip into the mountains another three days. I would be in India approximately ten days if everything went well and add in the four days total of traveling, I would be gone for two whole weeks.

  Thankfully, the trip took place over the first part of December when the rest of my class was on the rock- climbing trip I had been thrilled to be dismissed from. I didn't have to worry about missing school, but I still wasn't happy about spending half of the trip overseas alone and traveling for the majority of it.

  The worst part was the no talking. I exhaled loudly, hoping sounds were still permitted, not just the actual formation of words.

  Once the plane was in the air, an attractive flight attendant appeared, from what seemed like out of nowhere, offering me a bottle of water and showing me without words how to lean my chair back into a sleeping position. She gestured towards the lights. I assumed she was asking me if I wanted them dimmed and so I just nodded my head to see where it would take me.

  I was right and once the lights were softened and the stewardess had left me alone again I leaned my chair back and hoped to find the sleep that had been eluding me since Thanksgiving.

  I stared up at the ceiling of the jet and let myself think about all those I had left behind. There hadn't been any danger yet and I wasn't really expecting anything at all until after the Walk. I wanted to believe that Lucan was interested in seeing what I was capable of before he made any decisions about what to do with me.

  Amory had given me a more detailed description and blueprint set of the Romanian Citadel in order for me to study the escape route we had taken a few months earlier. I memorized every detail of the plans I kept tucked safely in Aunt Syl's closet, but hoped I would never need to call up the information.

  The key was, as Amory had explained, to escape before they moved me down into the prisons themselves. Once down there it would be impossible to escape. Well, it had been impossible for everyone else, including him, but he liked to believe I was capable of anything.

  I wasn't so optimistic.

  Amory, I had found out, had at one time or another, been imprisoned by almost every king from Derrick to Lucan. None of them trusted him, since he was the only Immortal that had thus far claimed actual immortality. Some had just kept him down there, some had tried to kill him, and some, like Lucan, had tortured him in hopes of finding his daughter, or wife, or Shape-shifters, or whoever they thought Amory could help them find.

  I grieved for my grandfather after hearing of his painful life, and how much he had suffered, not only in physical pain, but in loved ones lost. From his perspective, there was nothing more evil on earth than the monarchy, and his beloved people, whom he very much felt responsible for, would never have freedom or peace until he abolished the last living member of the regime.

  Amory's prep for this trip was more emotional for me than I had thought possible. Hearing stories of thousands of years of oppression and mistreatment, most of it aimed either at my grandfather or the ones he loved was heartbreaking.

  I still couldn't believe Kiran was capable of the same kind of malice though. From his every interaction with Amory I had witnessed, Kiran respected and admired Amory, or at least showed him graciousness. Kiran was not the same man that his father was, nor his grandfather. He was a new breed. A new ruler. He would not treat his kingdom with the same misplaced jealousy that all of his ancestors had. I had to believe that.

  Besides, Amory wasn't in a Romanian prison anymore, he was Regent of North America and Principal of Kingsley, which was the premier Immortal prep school in the Americas. When I asked Amory how he went from escaping Lucan's imprisonment to being judge over this side of the world, Amory explained that Lucan had learned what all of his predecessors had; when you can't kill your adversary you follow the old adage: keep your friends close and your enemies closer. And so Amory had been appointed to leadership in an attempt to keep a closer eye on him. But according to Amory, it was just a different form of imprisonment. He was at the beck and call of the monarchy and a puppet in their endless stream of tyranny.

  Going to India, I was more confused than ever. The monarchy was, of course, the bad guy. But how could Kiran be? And the Resistance was the obvious answer to the oppression of the Immortal race, but what was their plan of restructuring government? If the Resistance eventually did take over, what would happen to Kiran?

  I had even less of an idea of what side of the argument I wanted to be on. I couldn't keep putting my feelings aside, hoping that the love I felt for Kiran would be enough to bandage any situation. The fight wasn't about me. It wasn't about a relationship or soul mates or real love. This fight was about overcoming injustice and saving innocent lives, of freeing the Shape-shifters so they could become an active part of their world again, and of releasing the ban on interracial marriage so that the magic could be free also. Thi
s war was about reinstating the meaning of immortality to the Immortal race and offering life in a world where it would soon be sorely lacking.

  You need your rest. Give it up for tonight and just relax. Avalon's soft, reassuring voice was in my head. I found his presence comforting, despite the distance we were from each other.

  You're right. I sighed, wishing he were here with me. I'm just lonely. I complained, thankful for the reprieve and ability to talk. This was probably the longest I had ever gone without voicing my opinions.

  Jericho says hi. Avalon responded and I didn't even need to be his twin to feel the double meaning behind his statement.

  Well, tell Jericho hi back. I rolled my eyes and snuggled in deeper to the chair. I didn't know what Avalon was thinking, I was not about to flirt with Jericho telepathically through my brother. It was weird.

  You're right, it's weird. Avalon, who had been listening in, agreed.

  Thank you. I sighed, glad he wouldn't be putting up too much of a fight.

  Just remember, we will be on the ground before you even land and with you every step of the way. Eden, you will never be out of my sight. Avalon reminded me and I was surprised to feel the emotion behind his promise.

  Ok, but maybe let Jericho take point during the ceremonial bath. I joked, trying to lighten the mood at the same time reminding my brother that the ceremonial bath might not be his ideal surveillance opportunity.

  Will do. Avalon said smugly, focusing more on my desire to have Jericho take point while I was in the bath than the gross factor of Avalon doing it instead.

  See you on the ground, weirdo. I ended our conversation but didn't leave Avalon's head. I wasn't usually the one to spy, but Avalon transitioned so quickly into a conversation with Jericho about me that I couldn't resist.

  “She says she wants you to be the one watching her in the bath, Dude," Avalon was saying.