Academy of the Elites: Unbound Magic

by Alexis Calder

  I walked over to the rows of benches and took my usual seat. It felt empty and strange without Zach and Raven by my side.

  When I looked back to where Professor Flora had been standing, she was gone. Thankfully, Zach had warned me about her vanishing right before the wolf showed up to attack him.

  I took a deep breath. The test was likely already started. I had no idea what to expect as my topic had been dream walking, which happened in sleep. And I wasn’t sleeping. At least I didn’t think I was.

  Footsteps came from nearby and I turned to see someone I didn’t recognize walking into the center of the room. He had long blonde hair that was tucked behind his ears. Both of his ears had gages in them, stretching the lobes more than usual earrings.

  His face was familiar, but I couldn’t place it.

  “So, you’re the one who has been sharing his girlfriend with my little brother,” the man said. He smirked and I thought I saw a flash of red in his blue eyes.

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  “I’m surprised the family resemblance isn’t tipping it off,” he said.

  I narrowed my eyes. He looked so familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Then, it hit me. This was a test on dream walking, which was incubus territory. This man looked strikingly similar to the only incubus I currently associated with. And as he mentioned, I was sharing a girlfriend with. “You’re Luka’s brother?”

  “You can call me, Drake. I haven’t been topside in a while,” he said. “But when asked if I could come and test one of the Obscura twins?” He laughed. “There was no way I’d miss that.”

  “Alright, so you’re giving me the test?” I asked. “How are we doing this?”

  “We already started, little mage,” he said.

  My brow furrowed. All we’d done was talk. That wasn’t much of a test so far.

  “Turn around,” Drake said.

  I obliged and my mouth dropped open in surprise at the sight of myself sleeping on the stone bench. I looked at my hands. I was solid. I wasn’t dead or anything. But this was fucking surreal. “I’m asleep?”

  “Watch this,” Drake said. “Stand up and dance, little mage.”

  I shuffled to the side as my sleeping body rose, eyes still closed, and started moving around. What the hell?

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “It’s a gift,” he said. “I can make you do whatever I want while you’re sleeping.”

  “Put me down,” I said. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “Sit down,” Drake said.

  My sleeping body crumbled to the floor and I winced. I had a feeling I was going to feel that when I woke up.

  “What kind of test is this? What’s the point of you showing off what you can do?” I asked.

  “The point is for you to regain control of yourself so you can wake up,” he said.

  Raven’s warning came back to me. “I thought it was dangerous to wake yourself up from a dream.”

  He lifted an eyebrow. “You have done your research.”

  “So how do I stop this?” I asked.

  “That’s your test,” Drake said.

  I shook my head. None of my studies had prepared me for this. I’d learned about how dreams could be invaded and how you could fall into nightmares so deep and dark, they haunted your waking hours for the rest of your life. I read about recurring themes and favorite strategies and ways to talk yourself down if your dreams were hijacked by an incubus. I never once read about an incubus controlling you while you slept.

  “Did you put me to sleep or was that Professor Flora?” I asked.

  “That was me,” he said, proudly. “To be honest, I’m not nearly as good at this as Luka is, but I can make your life hell just the same.”

  “Luka can do this too?” I asked.

  “Sure,” he said. “It’s kind of a family trait.”

  Shit. What if he did that to me? Or Raven? He could just force us to sleep? How the hell did I not know that?

  I walked away from Drake, trying to recall what I’d read. Nothing had prepared me for this.

  “If you’d prefer, we can go with traditional dream walking,” Drake said.

  I looked over at the incubus just in time to see him transform into a dragon. My eyes widened as fear gripped my chest. I knew it wasn’t real but holy fuck there was a giant dragon glaring at me.

  Smoke billowed out through its nose and it opened its jaws and let out a burst of flames. I could feel the heat as I ran from the fire. I knew this was a dream, but I could feel the heat from that fire.

  I climbed up the stone benches to the highest level of seats and stopped at the top. The dragon roared, the air from its cry blowing my hair around.

  In all the books I’d read, I heard about how real dreams could feel, but I never realized just how real they’d be.

  Drake’s dragon spread its wings and flapped, lifting off the ground as it headed toward me. I scrambled back down the seats and ran toward the classroom door.

  I needed to buy some time.

  I pulled on the handle and the door opened. I ran into the hall and my feet sunk. That’s when I realized I wasn’t in the hallway at school, I was in the middle of a vast expanse of sand.

  The door was gone. I was in the middle of a desert with nothing but dunes of sand in every direction.

  Hot sun beat down on me and I was already sweating. Shit. This was the weirdest dream ever. But at least I wasn’t looking at my sleeping self anymore. To be honest, that was the weirdest and possibly freakiest part.

  I couldn’t wake myself up, but I had to end this dream. I just had no idea how I was going to do that.

  In my research, I’d read that you needed to take control of the dream. Send the bad away. Create the dream on your turf. Direct it in a happy direction so you could send away the invading incubus.

  Blowing out a breath, I tried to think of better locations than a desert. Warm beaches, tranquil forests, the school’s ballroom all decorated for a special occasion. Anywhere but here.

  The room seemed to spin as if I was flying through space. Everything around me was blurred. It stopped all at once, leaving me standing in the middle of a forest. Birds called around me and I could feel the mist in the air. Dappled sunlight filtered in through leaves. It was warm and peaceful.

  “You want to play?” A voice boomed around me and then a shriek broke the tranquility. Hundreds of birds rose up from the trees and flew away, squawking and crying.

  Unease settled into the pit of my stomach like a weight and I turned toward the source of the initial sound that scare away my dream birds.

  The dragon was back, crashing through the tree tops. Fire erupted from the beast, setting the trees ablaze.

  I started running.

  Catching myself, I remembered about taking control. Breathing in through my nose and out thorough my mouth, I worked to calm myself even as I ran over fallen branches and through bushes.

  I imagined the beach. White sand, turquoise waves, Raven stretched out on a towel waiting for me to rub sunscreen on her back. The image felt so real, so vivid. I held on to it, not willing to release it.

  Heat flared behind me, but I didn’t look back. I could hear the flapping of the wings, the breaking of trees and the fleeing of animals ahead of me. But I didn’t let go of the beach.

  Suddenly, everything blurred and I was in fast-forward once again as the forest spun past me.

  When it settled, I was on the beach as I had imagined. In my hand was a bottle of sunscreen.

  “What took you so long?” Raven’s voice sounded from behind me.

  I turned to see her looking over her sunglasses at me. Her green eyes sparkled and she had a wide grin on her face.

  She was also in a bikini that left absolutely zero to the imagination.

  Holy shit. This was the kind of dream I wanted to have every night.

  “Well? What are you waiting for?” she asked as she stretched out on the towel.

  I walked over to
her, unable to hold back my smile and already feeling my shorts getting tighter.

  The sunscreen was warm, just like the air around us. I could taste the salt and the roaring of the waves against the shore created a calming rhythm.

  I rubbed the sunscreen around in my hands, focusing on how real it felt, before starting to apply it to Raven’s smooth back.

  “Tan lines?” Raven said, her voice muffled by the towel under her.

  I grinned, knowing exactly where she - where I - was taking this dream. Carefully, I tugged on her bikini string, untying it.

  The strings fell to the side and I had an unobstructed view of her bare back. My cock ached as I rubbed the lotion on her back. This was my dream, wasn’t it? Didn’t that mean I could keep going with this?

  I frowned at the thought. As much as I wanted to continue what I’ve started, I didn’t want to be interrupted by a dragon.

  As if called by my thoughts, Drake appeared on the beach, walking toward me in the nude.

  “Seriously?” I asked, trying not to look at everything on display.

  Raven pushed herself up on her elbows. “Who’s there?”

  “Hey, gorgeous,” Drake said. “Why don’t you come hang out with me?”

  Raven didn’t hesitate. She was on her feet so fast, I didn’t even get to finish rubbing in the lotion. Her top fell to the sand and she walked right over to Drake as if transfixed.

  His eyes dropped to her tits, which to be fair, are amazing. But they weren’t for him.

  Anger surged through me and I charged him. Suddenly, Raven was gone.

  “You lost focus,” Drake said as he shifted into the giant dragon.

  Fuck. He was right. I had full control over my dreams until I got distracted and started wondering about him. I summoned him here.

  Once again, I was running. Deep breaths, focused, calm. I imagined my bedroom. Empty, alone. Just me. In my bed. No distractions.

  The blurring came faster this time and before the dragon even sent his first fire, I was in my room alone.

  I kept my mind clear and focused by looking at the details in my room. The framed photo of me and Raven. The crystal I picked up on a family vacation. The school books and my backpack. My sweater hanging over my chair. It was bland and boring and safe.

  But my mind was sharp and focused. I was a vault. No distractions.

  Suddenly, everything faded and my eyes fluttered open. I was back in the Spellcasting room and Drake was grinning at me.

  “Took you long enough,” he said.

  “You’re an asshole, you know that?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I do,” he said.

  “He is, but you passed,” Professor Flora said.

  “Yeah?” I asked. “Please tell me we don’t have to do that again.”

  “Not for class, no,” she said. “But you do share a mate with a demon with the same powers. You should know what he is capable of.”

  I swallowed. It was odd to think about what Luka could do. I never knew exactly how powerful his magic was before tonight. “But it’s just a dream, right?”

  “Sure,” Drake said. “But if you didn’t fight back, I could get anything I wanted from you in that state.”

  “Good point,” I said. My mind whirred. It was a dangerous skill for sure. But the possibilities of how to use it were endless. The ability to find missing people and get information that was otherwise impossible to find was endless.

  Though, there was the other side of it. If someone like Luka was using this power, would anyone even know? What if he was visiting Raven in her dreams? Could he be making her do things she didn’t want to do?

  There was good that could come from it, but I wasn’t sure I liked the idea of Luka’s magic when it came to Raven.

  23

  Raven

  I wasn’t sure what to expect from my first day back to independent study with Professor Flora. The shadow fae was weighing too heavily on my mind for me to spend any time coming up with what she might have me do. Plus, there was his comment about my magic in this realm compared to how it could be in the fae realm.

  Not that I was considering leaving this realm. And I would never take him up on his offer. But I was curious about what it meant. Dr. Green’s revelation regarding my placement in the shifter dorm for the safety of the other students was even more interesting now. What was I truly capable of? And was it possible to tap into that magic? To control it?

  I think I finally had a handle on my time magic and I hadn’t once lost control in the last month. But what else could I do?

  Professor Flora was sitting on a stone bench on the front row of the amphitheater seating. She stood when I entered.

  “Welcome back,” she said.

  “Thanks,” I said. “And thanks for showing us how to get my magic back.” Though, now that I knew my weakened magic was what was keeping the shadow fae away, I sort of wished I’d had more time.

  “Of course,” she said. “Dr. Green used a favor to get me here. I assured him I would provide you with any assistance I could to help you with your dual heritage.”

  That was surprising, but it explained her presence here more. Though, I wished I knew what the favor was that he’d called in. What had Dr. Green done for Professor Flora? Now wasn’t the time for that question, though. And I had a perfect opening for my most pressing question.

  “Can you tell me how my magic is different here than it would be in Faerie?” I asked.

  She lifted her eyebrows as if my question surprised her. Then she smiled the tiniest bit. Maybe I’d asked the right question for once.

  “Your magic here is prohibited by the rules of this realm,” she said. “Faerie is a place of magic. It fills our air and it’s in our food. The whole realm vibrates with it and it charges our magic in a way that isn’t possible here.”

  “So as long as I’m here, my magic will be bound?” I tested the word, waiting for her reaction.

  “You’ve been studying.” She sounded impressed. “Yes, here you are bound by the limits of magic in this realm. You’d need to visit Faerie to fully expand your powers.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Is that what you’re considering?”

  I shook my head. “No. At least not now. Maybe someday.”

  “It is illegal to cross into Faerie,” she said.

  I smiled, knowing full well she’d done that very thing to get here. “I know.”

  “Then I have fulfilled my duty as your teacher in discouraging you from doing something illegal,” she said. “Shall we move on to working with your powers?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I’d really like to learn more about shadow fae. What they’re capable of. What it would take to fight one.”

  “Perhaps you are thinking of a visit?” She seemed to say the words more to herself than me. “I am not of the shadow court, but I know they work in shadows. It might be possible for you to learn how to wield some element of control over them. Though, you’re only a quarter shadow fae so I’m honestly not sure.”

  “How would I try?” I asked.

  She walked over to her desk and slid open a drawer. I heard her moving things. A moment later, she walked back to me and set a lantern down on the bench. “Sit.”

  I sat next to the lantern.

  She lifted her hand and the lights in the room went out. “Shadow fae can remove light. I can only flip the switch.”

  My mind flashed back to the locker room and the library. The darkness brought by the shadow fae. Was it possible that Professor Flora knew what was going on? For a horrible moment, I considered the fact that she could be involved. What if she was helping him?

  I couldn’t deal with that thought. It was too much. Part of me felt like I was being naive trusting her, but my instincts were telling me she wasn’t connected to the shadow fae. I had to trust that he was on his own.

  Professor Flora picked up the lantern and flipped a switch. It lit up, casting a bright glow into the darkened room. She set the lantern down on the bench next to
me and then sat down herself.

  “Shadows are tricky to control,” she said. “I can’t do it, but I’ve seen it done. When I was a child, there was a shadow fae who would come to our village and perform for us. He’d create shadows with his hands and then direct and move the shadows. Once, I asked him to teach me. He said it was only something those from his court could do. However, he also told me he’d learned how to do this skill when he was a child. I think it’s where you should start.”

  “Making shadow puppets?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  I shrugged and waved my hand in front of the light, casting a huge shadow on the wall. Then I closed my fingers to my thumb as if making a mouth, opening and closing my hand.

  I felt ridiculous.

  “You’re not calling your magic at all,” Professor Flora said. “You’re just making shadow puppets.”

  “I have no idea what I should be doing,” I said.

  “How do you use your other magic?” she asked. “When you control time, you’re tapping into that fae magic. What does that feel like and how do you call it?”

  I thought back to the few times I’d used time magic. I’d only fully had control of it once or twice. But there was a moment when I’d called it. I made the decision to use it and I had even reset everything once. The ability to tap into it was there.

  Until that moment, though, I hadn’t considered how different the time magic felt from the other magic I used in classes. My regular spells and simple incantations didn’t feel the same as the time magic.

  I spread my fingers wide and the shadow of my hand showed on the wall in front of me. There had to be a way to isolate that shadow. A way to make it do what I wanted.

  In a way, it wasn’t all that different from time magic. I was isolating a moment by taking the shadow and controlling its actions. I could make it move on its own or rewind it to where it had been if I could get it to be free of the attachment to my hand.

  Focusing on what I wanted it to do, I reached for the magic I held deep within. It responded, a low humming vibration. Little sparks shot down my arms and I directed the magic toward the shadow.