Hexing

by Ciara Graves

  Hexing

  Magic & Alchemy

  Ciara Graves

  Contents

  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

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 1

  Afterword

  Hexing

  Magic & Alchemy Book One

  Necromancers. Druids. Shamans. Priests. Familiars. Experiments. Attackers of magic. Magic and Alchemy will suck you in.

  Rori’s dream to bake in her mother’s shop went up in smoke when she was pulled into a supernatural school for magic types.

  On her first day there, she meets two guys. Chas and Brogan. One’s mysterious and brooding. The other one’s sweet and hunky.

  And Rori’s in the middle of a rock and a hard place when she can’t figure out what type of supernatural she is and what path she should follow.

  And what does her missing father have to do with any of this?

  Warning: Unputdownable action-packed fantasy, with necromancers, druids, shamans, and priests.

  Chapter 1

  Chas

  Glass shattered. My mother screamed, reaching for me. That was always what came first in the nightmare where I watched my life ripped to shreds. Metal crunched, followed by a resounding boom. Then everything went silent. What came next was the gentle pattering of raindrops falling, until hands finally reached into the wreckage and pulled me free—

  I jerked upright in my bed, drenched in a cold sweat, and cursing as my head throbbed. “Every damned time,” I whispered harshly to the night. “Every time.”

  I flung the sheet off my body and stalked around my room, curling and uncurling my fists as I waited for the adrenaline from the nightmare to fade away. I could go all year without having it, but as soon as I neared the anniversary of the accident, the few details I could remember rushed back, and it was like I was there all over again. Hearing my parents yelling as the car was struck, as it rolled, and then the utter silence that came afterward.

  I laced my fingers at the back of my neck and breathed in deeply, willing myself to calm down.

  My parents had been dead for seventeen years. That was not about to change.

  I glanced at the clock on my nightstand and grunted. Not even worth trying to go back to sleep at this rate. If it was any other day, I’d consider it, but this was the first day for new recruits to arrive at Four Point Training Facility. Horrible name, but it stated the truth. Four classes of magic-users came here to be registered, trained, and in three years sent off to carry out their duty to the magic community.

  We weren’t exactly separated from the rest of the population, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say we could do what we wanted with our lives. As soon as an individual came into his or her magic, if it ran in their veins, they had to register with the federal government and the Office of Law and Tracking Magic. Every magic-user was known, and if you tried to hide, well, you were tracked down and found anyway. They had their ways.

  After my body stopped tensing every few seconds, I grabbed a fresh change of clothes and stepped out of my dorm into the quiet and empty corridor, headed for the showers.

  In a few hours, those who were already residents here would start waking, ready to greet the new recruits. I was expected to be there, but I had better things to do with my time than greet newbies who would be too excited about the notion that this was going to be the start of some great adventure. Or the ones who let their nerves get the best of them.

  It was no secret most magic-users were sent to the Vanguard, the main fighting force of our magic communities. The force that kept other magic-users in line, as well as protected us from those who were not as accepting of magic types. I lifted my lip in disgust at the thought of those unaccepting idiots. Just a few weeks ago, an entire bus of the dumbasses had shown up outside our gates with posters and chants, screaming about how we were a nuisance and a danger to the world. What did they know? Magic had been around since the beginning of time, and it wasn’t about to go anywhere.

  After a quick shower, I headed to the main building. The lights were just coming on, and the cooks were setting out the first round of eggs, bacon, sausages, biscuits, essentially anything a person could want. All I cared about this morning was coffee. I filled my mug and took a seat at a table in the far corner. I was more than content being by myself.

  So much for that.

  A shadow fell over me.

  I sighed. “Really? Can’t we skip this shit just one year?” I muttered, not bothering to look up.

  “No,” the man said as he joined me. “That would break tradition, and I’m not one for breaking anything. You look like shit, by the way.”

  This time I did glance up, giving Commander Moran a blank expression. “Thanks. Your wrinkles are showing, old man.” I sipped my coffee.

  He shrugged.

  “I’m fine.”

  He sneered. “Sure you are. Those bags under your eyes say you’re just peachy.”

  “I didn’t ask you for your opinion.”

  “And when has that ever stopped me?” he asked with a wry smirk. “You have the nightmare again?”

  I ran my finger around the edge of my mug as I nodded. “Every year.”

  “One day it’ll stop.”

  “And you say that every year, too,” I muttered. “Everything about this moment seems quite familiar. Give it ten seconds. Wait for it…” I watched the door to the hall that led in here, counting off the seconds quietly under my breath.

  A head of silver hair appeared, framing the face of an older woman who was at least a hundred if not more years old. priests. No one could ever tell how old they were. Then again, we all lived quite a bit longer thanks to the power flowing through our veins.

  “Bingo. Right on time.”

  The woman’s eyes narrowed as if she’d heard me, and for all I knew, she had. She hurried over and sat down beside Moran. “You look like crap.”

  I threw my hands up in the air. “Wow. Thank you for that. Twice this morning.”

  “What?” Sister Agnes—as she was known here at the Facility and at the Vanguard outpost—said with a shrug. “It’s true. Did you not meditate before you went to sleep last night?”

  “I did, but meditating isn’t really my thing. I’m a druid, not a priest, remember?”

  “Watch your tone, Chas,” Moran warned me quietly. “We are just trying to help.”

  I breathed out deeply through my nose. “I know, and I’m sorry, but can’t you both just let me deal with this burden my way for once?”

  “No,” they said together.

  I frowned.

  “Your way,” Agnes went on, “would you have running around in the woods all night long as a bear, scaring whatever poor creatures you found out there. Not to mention any recruits you’d petrify with fear. And you would force yourself to stay awake. Your mind and body do not need that much torment.”

  “But you’re fine with my having these nightmares for the rest of my life?”

  She sighed and patted my hand. “You are only having these dreams because you have not moved on yet.”

  I scowled. “Because it’s so easy to move on.”

  Moran and Agnes exchanged a look.

  “You are in your second year of training,” he said, as if I needed reminding. “And things change. If you are not mentally prepared for what comes next—”

  “We are not discussing that yet,” Agnes cut him off sharply.

  “Discussing what?�
�� I eyed them both. “Am I missing something?”

  Moran’s lips thinned.

  Agnes’s eyes flared bright yellow as she stared him down.

  He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Nothing, but this year is going to be more challenging for you.”

  “It was last year, too.”

  “Because you grew up here at this outpost. You were raised by us. Did you really think we would let you slide in your training just because you turned old enough to officially become a recruit?” Agnes barked a laugh, one I’d heard plenty of times since I came here at such a young age. “I expect great things from you, Chas Bryce. Great things indeed.”

  “Not sure why,” I whispered. “I’m not my parents.”

  Moran made a disgruntled sound. “No, but you can be. Now, I expect to see you out there greeting first-years with everyone else. And be nice.”

  “I’m always nice,” I insisted.

  They both raised their brows at that.

  I leaned back. “What? I try.”

  Moran stood.

  “Try harder,” Agnes suggested as she rose. “Perhaps this year you will make friends. Yes?”

  “Friends are overrated.”

  “Not if you wish to be an Elite they aren’t,” Moran said sternly. “You know this.”

  “Not friends. Just teammates.”

  “Your issue is you think there’s a difference.” He rapped his knuckles on the table. “We are all family here. One of these days, you will understand what that means. Fighting for more than yourself or to impress those who train you.”

  My turn to raise a brow. “Teams don’t need to be friends, Moran, just compatible. Everyone knows this.”

  “Perhaps,” he said, his head falling to the side as he studied me. “Or is it being compatible is what makes a friendship last? Makes the bond stronger? Have that be your lesson for the day.”

  “Commander Moran!”

  The three of us turned as a soldier clad in black rushed into the hall and handed Moran a missive.

  “Just came in. They’re back,” the soldier said in a rush, his eyes darting to me.

  That look made me wonder. It’s not like he didn’t recognize me. Everyone here knew who I was. I waited for him to give the report. To expand on who was back, but he clamped his mouth shut.

  Moran opened the missive, and his eyes darkened as the shaman tattoo on his hand shimmered with the rise of his emotions. The tattoo consisted of three feathers braided around horns. The symbol was unique to him and his power. “Chas, think about what I told you,” he said.

  The three of them started to walk away.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  Moran paused.

  I pushed on. “Is it the team?”

  “Nothing you need to worry about today. Take care of yourself, go for a run in the woods, just don’t scare the crap out of any first-year recruits, alright?”

  Then they were gone, just like that.

  Over the last few months, I’d noticed Moran told me less and less about the five elite teams he was in charge of. Used to be, any time a report came in, he called me to his office, said he wanted me to be as much a part of this world as I could. After all, my parents had been part of the Elite Guard, too, before they were killed in a car wreck, of all things. I thought of tracking down the soldier who brought the report, and seeing what I could get out of him, but every soldier and commander here was loyal to Commander Moran. For a good reason, too. He was a legend amongst not just shamans, but all magic-users. I had been lucky to be trained by him and Agnes. She had a reputation of her own and was not to be crossed. Ever.

  After seventeen years of having her watching over my shoulder, always catching me when I got myself in trouble, you’d think I would’ve learned my lesson.

  “Screw it,” I mumbled, draining my coffee. I decided I was going to try and catch up with Moran, see if I could get anything out of that soldier anyway. Or sneak into the commander’s office.

  I was barely two steps out the front doors when a staff crossed my path, and I grunted as it hit my chest, forcing me to a stop. I hung my head, waiting for the lecture as the staff hit the stones beneath with a resonating clang.

  “Going somewhere?” Agnes asked.

  “No, not at all.”

  “Right. Go for your morning run and leave Moran to his business.”

  “He’s been acting strange for months now.” I lowered my voice as several other recruits passed us.

  Agnes motioned me off the path, and we stepped into the grass.

  “Come on, Agnes. Is there a new threat to us?”

  “There is always a threat, you know this. Between the ignorant non-users and those who choose to manipulate their powers for darkness, the danger never goes away. It is why we train you so hard, all of you. But no, there is no current threat.”

  She said it, but her gaze glowed brighter for a second until she deliberately set her eyes elsewhere.

  “When I was a kid, I might’ve believed you.”

  “Ha! You are still a kid, at least to me.” She sighed and patted my cheek. “You will always be so. Now go, stay out of trouble, eh? Let Moran do his duties and do not try to break into his office again.”

  “And where will you be?”

  “At the temple for my morning prayers, as always. You stay clear. I don’t need you tracking in mud.” She shooed me away.

  I rolled my eyes and backed away, walking to the trees, feeling the pull of nature all around me, the living force that flowed through the grass beneath my feet to the trees I ran my fingers over.

  I followed the stone path overgrown with moss and small white flowers that bloomed in the cool, fall mountain air. The stones wound deep into the woods and ended at a simple stone altar set up with three archways crossing over it. I brushed leaves from its surface and then kicked out of my shoes, letting my connection to nature fill me from the soles of my feet all the way up to my head. Druids were connected to the living force of nature. It’s what powered us, gave us strength, and it was what we could guide and shape for what we needed.

  I rolled my shoulders and settled my mind as I braced for the change. I was twelve when I discovered I had a rare gift that had not been seen amongst druids in many generations. Power rolled over me in waves as I focused on taking the living energy surrounding me and letting it transform my very being. Green and blue light flickered to life starting around my feet and moved up my body until it covered me. I threw my head back as my body reoriented itself and my yell turned into a fierce roar. Fur covered me, and when the light fell back to the ground at my feet, I stood on my hind legs, sniffing the air intensely in my new form. I landed easily on my front legs and lumbered off into the trees, picking up speed as I went.

  Agnes told me every year I needed to simply move on and I would be able to achieve my full potential. And I tried. Every year, I tried. But a nagging voice in the back of my head told me moving on wasn’t possible just yet. Why, I had no idea. It was a car accident, end of story. Or it should have been the end of the story.

  So then why did I feel like I was missing a piece to the puzzle that was quickly growing more complicated with the less Moran and Agnes told me?

  Nothing I could do about it today, I decided. The new recruits would start arriving, and I would do as Agnes and Moran suggested. Attempt to play nice. I wasn’t in any mood to make friends. The last thing I needed was someone getting to know me on that personal level. I heard what Moran said, but magic being compatible had nothing to do with the people being friends. Magic was magic, end of discussion.

  I stopped running when I reached the ridge that overlooked the campus and outpost grounds, breathing in the clean, mountain air, and watching the sun rising in the east.

  The faint, shimmering of the barricade protecting the area was visible to someone with a keen eye. The barricade was strong and true as it had been the day Moran cast it. If there was a new threat out there, I doubted it would find its way up here in the mo
untains.

  I’d feel sorry for the fool who attacked here; where two of the greatest legends of our time resided. They’d be dead before they ever crossed the barricade.

  Chapter 2

  Rori

  “Here we are. You ready for this?”

  I nodded, a bit numb now that I was actually here. At the location where my life was going to change forever. Not that it hadn’t changed the day I figured out what I was and what I could do, but now, it all hit home.

  I was a bit scared to be honest, not of myself or the campus I stood on. No, I was scared of officially being labeled something for the rest of my life. Scared of being thrown into a life I no longer had any real say in. That just wasn’t how our world worked. From now on, my life would be dictated to me. I’d have orders to follow. People to answer to. Everything was about to change, forever, and part of me was not ready to accept that truth.

  “Rori? Hon, you know you have to speak eventually.” Mom nudged my arm.

  “Huh? Yeah, I mean no, I’ll talk.” I laughed nervously, no real amusement in the sound at all. “It’s just a lot to take in.”

  “If you’re not ready, we might be able to push it off for another year, but you know how rigid the system can be.” She looped her arm through mine, her brow crinkling, as it always did when she worried. “I’m sure others have done it before.”

  “No. I don’t want to cause any trouble right after I just got here. I’ll be fine, really.”

  It was a lie; I didn’t believe I’d be fine. Not for a second. But I didn’t want Mom leaving me here and going back home worrying over me every minute of the day. Worrying that I was freaking out. There was no choice in the end. That was just how our world functioned these days.