The Masters of Magic

by Destiny Hawkins

  Clenching my teeth, I kept my eyes on Beatrice’s back who continuously froze fairies off or her, then squeezed the fairy in hopes that my power would come to show its face. It didn’t. Not right away, at least.

  It took a little more frustration and the bite of my hand for a sensation of foreign power to trickle inside of me. When I looked down at my hand I saw that the fairy had passed out and was slobbering over my fist.

  “Ugh!” I said, throwing the fairy down.

  When the other fairies attached to me saw what had happened, they warily looked at each other before letting go. Looking over my shoulder one last time, I was relieved to find that the fairies had finally stopped chasing us.

  Chapter Nine: The Warlock

  “I thought you were following Triana and Bradly,” I snapped.

  Beatrice frowned. “Sorry, I lost them trying to save your ass.”

  “Well, I didn’t ask you to do that.”

  “That’s because you were too busy trying to stay balanced. They were going to stone you to death.”

  “I would’ve teleported away.”

  “Oh, right. I forgot you did that when you’re too afraid to fight.”

  I clenched my teeth and balled my fists. This should have been expected of us but arguing in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere was probably one of the dumbest things we could’ve done. I didn’t see how we were going to become masters at this rate.

  Taking a look around myself, I could barely see anything. We had the dim moonlight to aid our vision, but the many shadows in the darkness were pure black. It was almost as if we would be sucked into black holes if we went anywhere near them.

  “Well, look,” Beatrice sighed. “We can’t go looking for them at night. It’s dangerous and we can’t see.”

  “That’s exactly why we should go looking for them,” I snapped.

  “That’s dumb. Besides, Triana’s smart enough to find shelter or somewhere to rest until daylight. We should only have a few hours until the sun rises, then we can look for them. When we can see.”

  I knew that she was right, but I didn’t want to listen. I wouldn’t be able to rest with the thought of Triana being afraid and alone in a dangerous forest where literally everything wants to kill her. My heart would probably fail if I lost Triana for good.

  Still, how well would I be able to find her in the dark? On top of that, it wasn’t as if I could call for her. We wanted to keep attention off of us. Not let the entire forest know that fresh meat was here.

  Combing my fingers through my hair, I sighed and dropped my weight onto one leg.

  Beatrice took that as an agreement and nodded. “Alright. We’ll find them tomorrow morning. As of right now, we need to take turns sleeping. One of us should take watch every two hours.”

  I wanted to argue but suddenly lost the energy. Physically, I was great after nearly squeezing that fairy to death, but mentally, I was drained. The thought of my sister being without me to protect her was terrifying.

  Beatrice looked around herself and sat down against a tree. “You can sleep first. I’ll wake you when it’s your turn to keep watch.”

  Nodding, I searched for a clear spot on the mossy ground near Beatrice and lay on my side with my arms under my head. I could only hope that poisonous bugs didn’t crawl or bite on me.

  “They’ll be alright, you know?” Beatrice reassured. “Triana is pretty smart, and Bradly was trained for survival in the Hunters Dimension. He likes Triana, so he’ll protect her.”

  Beatrice’s voice was softer than usual, which was confusing. I had never heard her sound like she was anything but angry, but now, I was coming to realize that that may have all just been an act. Maybe there was a softness to her?

  Turning away from her, I sighed. “Thanks.”

  The Masters of Magic

  A low humming growl echoed in my ears and rumbled the ground beneath me. I thought that I was just dreaming when I awakened to Beatrice grabbing my arm and putting a finger to her lips.

  Behind her, the sky was a dull greyish-blue telling me that it was early, but the sun hadn’t risen yet. I wanted to ask her how long I’d been sleeping and why she didn’t switch places with me when there was another humming growl.

  It was the same growl from when we first arrived.

  Sitting up, Beatrice slowly pulled me to my feet and kept close. We were surrounded by mist again and the air seemed to thicken like before. It must’ve been the monster that caused this shift in nature.

  The growl sounded again behind us and Beatrice pulled me behind a tree.

  “We’re going to have to run. He’s hunting us this time,” Beatrice whispered up close.

  Panic began to surge through me at the thought of being chased by whatever that thing was. I could barely use magic and Beatrice could only freeze things, which I wasn’t sure was enough for that guy. I didn’t even want to risk it not being enough. All I wanted was to get away.

  Beatrice held onto my arm and closed her eyes, then frowned.

  “What is it?” I whispered.

  “I can’t…I can’t teleport.” She held up her other hand and stared into her palm. “Damn. I can’t use my hunter powers at all.” She slowly looked up at me. “You have to teleport us.”

  I swallowed. “I haven’t gotten the hang of it yet. I have to be afraid.”

  Beatrice’s eyes widened, and she leaned towards me. “You mean to tell me that you’re not afraid, now?”

  The low growl rumbled again, only it was so close that I could feel the monster’s breath on the back of my head.

  Freezing, I stared into Beatrice’s eyes who was now looking at the beast behind me. Within them, I saw fear and the form of a man. Only, he wasn’t a man. He was a warlock. The beast was unbelievably tall with black eyes and long ratty sand-colored hair that hung over his shoulders and down to his waist. Like most warlocks, it took the form of a man, but it was far from human. As a matter of fact, he was practically a shell for black magic. At one point, this warlock may have only been a wizard, but he tapped into dark black magic and tried to commit a taboo, which then turned him into this and brought him here.

  I thought that was myth until now.

  “K ― king Ohauris…” Beatrice gasped.

  When I saw the warlock’s hand raise through the reflection of her eyes, I pushed her forward and we fell onto the ground. A large crash and crunching sound boomed seconds later, and I glanced over my shoulder to see that the warlock had smashed his fist into the tree. “It’s not the hunter king. It’s a warlock!” I was the first to jump to my feet and Beatrice rolled out of the way just as the warlock raised his fists and slammed them onto the ground where we were previously lying.

  Magic expelled from his fists and body in black swirls of smoke as he slowly stood upright again.

  Beatrice and I only stood a few feet away from each other as the warlock looked from her to me. As the black magic clung to his skin, I noticed it ripple over his body like water in a lake, then his eyes snapped to Beatrice.

  “Ohau...ris,” she said, taking a step back.

  The warlock grinned, revealing a full mouth of fangs.

  “Beatrice, it’s not him. The warlock is using his magic to make you see the king. He wants you to be afraid,” I said, but Beatrice wasn’t listening. It was as if she was in some sort of frightened trance and couldn’t pull herself out of it.

  When the warlock made his move, he was all too fast for me to push Beatrice out of the way, but I still tried to anyways. His hands were merely millimeters away from her throat when I leapt out with all my strength.

  In that moment, it seemed as if time had slowed. My rapid heart-beat dropped to a steady rate, my blood flow slowed within my veins, and my breath nearly stopped. Then I felt something dangerous and powerful rise from the pit of my belly and shoot into my arm, down to my palm.

  Realizing what was happening, my eyes widened, and I moved my palm to face the warlock’s shoulder as heat surged through my
muscles and expelled in an explosion of magic. It wasn’t the kind of fiery explosion that I expected, but one filled with ice and Black Fairy magic swirled around it.

  The impact sent the warlock flying and it smashed through multiple trees before rolling over stone ground with a vibrating crash. He was at least half a mile away from us now, but when I spotted movement, I knew he would be right back on us if we didn’t get away fast.

  I grabbed Beatrice’s arm. “We’ve got to move!”

  Beatrice’s eyelids fluttered before she turned to me. Still confused as to what happened, she nodded and sprinted with me in the opposite direction of the warlock.

  Once we were at least a mile or so away, a roar echoed through the forest, and then the pounding of giant feet sounded.

  “It’s coming!” I yelled.

  “Can you teleport us now?” Beatrice asked, glancing back.

  Suddenly feeling the urge to sneeze from my entire body, I realized that I was ready to teleport and quickly grabbed her arm.

  In only a blink of an eye we had disappeared and were now free falling from a cliff… towards a pink rocky river.

  “Teleport again!” Beatrice yelled in a panic.

  I tried, but there was no urge to sneeze. I couldn’t feel anything. “I can’t!”

  “Well, do something!” she snapped in a growl.

  “I don’t…I don’t know wha―”

  Suddenly, the two of us landed on something soft and furry.

  I was completely lost until I saw the flapping of two giant brown wings, and when I turned around, I found that Cristania was sitting towards the front of a large eagle. Her familiar.

  Beatrice and I turned together and sighed simultaneously, then she dropped down on her back with her arms spread wide. “Thank goodness.”

  “You guys alright back there?” Cristania asked over her shoulder with a smirk.

  I held up my hand and gave her the ok sign with my fingers, then shook my head and looked over the edge of the giant bird. If we were still falling, we had a long way to go.

  Thank goodness indeed.

  Chapter Ten: Lost and Found

  We descended to the ground in silence and landed beside the river. It was the first time that I’d ever seen a hot-pink river before, so my eyes were locked on it until Beatrice spoke.

  “What was it you did back there?” she asked.

  I looked down at the palm of my hand. “Not sure. I felt a buildup of magic and knew it was going to explode, so I just turned my hand to the warlock.”

  “But I saw ice,” she frowned. “And I could feel my own magic.”

  I bit my lower lip, automatically understanding my inner power now. “It looks like I can take magic from others and expel it later in an explosion of magic. I think when I take too much, it stuns people and could possibly,” I gulped. “Kill them.”

  Beatrice gave a slow nod of understanding.

  “We’ll have an incoming soon. Brace yourselves,” Cristania said as she stared down at her map.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “I can track you guys with this map. It doesn’t tell me which little glowing light belongs to who on this thing, but I know it’s one of us. Well, two of us. Two people are coming right about…now.”

  A rustling and cracking in the woods was what stole our attention, and we turned to face it. Bracing myself as she warned, I waited. More cracking sounded before I heard the sound of galloping, then there was the sound of someone’s heavy breathing, and like Cristania said, there were two someone’s.

  “Wait!” Felix yelled as he tripped out of the woods and sprinted towards us.

  Behind him was another familiar face, but I wasn’t sure how he came to be here.

  “Cas?” Beatrice blurted.

  Cas sprinted out of the woods with the same terrified expression as Felix as they came sprinting for Cristania’s eagle. At first, I wasn’t sure what they were running from, but as I peered through the woods, I spotted men with unicorn horns running after them. Their lower bodies were all horse ― or unicorn, while their upper bodies were man and woman. Each of their eyes had a hard silver glow along with black unicorn horns sticking from their foreheads.

  My eyes widened in fear and curiosity. I didn’t think there was anything like that here.

  “Hurry up!” Cristania yelled as she grabbed the reigns.

  Felix and Cas both jumped aboard the eagle before she took off into the air.

  Below us, the unicorn men stood at the edge of the lake with their expressionless faces pointed at us. It was almost a look that said, ‘we’ll find you later’.

  Cas panted as he fell back on his hands. “Unicorn people?”

  Felix shook his head as he released a breath. “Unicorns. Freaking unicorns.”

  Beatrice and I just watched them before they looked up at us.

  Felix was quick to push himself up on his knees and wrap his arms around me. “You’re okay.”

  I chuckled. “Of course, I’m okay.”

  He pulled away. “I was worried when I couldn’t find you. On my search, I almost walked right through the portal that formed for Cas to come through.”

  Felix and I turned to Cas.

  “What are you doing here, Cas?” I asked, like we’ve spoken before.

  Cas slightly frowned in question before turning to Beatrice. “I convinced Ms. Jones to talk to Sam to get the masters to let me come here. I didn’t want you doing this alone.”

  Beatrice blushed and pushed a few strands of hair behind her ear. “I wasn’t alone.”

  Cas took a deep breath and relaxed. “I know you had them, but when I’m not around to help you, I get worried.”

  Beatrice raised a brow. “You know I can handle myself, right?”

  “Oh, I’m sure of it.” He smirked. “But I’d rather be by your side to reassure myself sometimes. Just in case you slip up.”

  “I don’t slip up,” she said confidently.

  I wanted to butt in and mention how she froze in front of that Warlock but decided not to. It seemed too harsh of a comment and I didn’t want to offend her.

  “And how are you feeling anyway? You were just in medical, and not to mention, you can’t use your hunter powers here. How do you plan on defending yourself?”

  Cas patted his sheathed sword on his side. “The masters made it so that it wouldn’t fade when I got here. Also,” he raised his black shirt to show that there wasn’t even a scar left over his abdomen. “I’m fully healed.”

  Beatrice gave a slight smile. “Well, I’m glad you came then.”

  “Triana and Bradly have been spotted,” Cristania said. “Right below us.”

  In a hurry, I looked over the side of the eagle to find Bradly and Triana standing on a large rock in the center of the river surrounded by what looked like wiggling octopus arms sticking out from the water.

  “Triana!” I yelled, but she couldn’t hear me from where I was.

  Instead, a moment later she looked up and spotted us. She was at Bradly’s back, who seemed to be protecting her as he spit flames from his palms. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

  “Get ready to grab them!” Cristania yelled.

  Beatrice came over to my side with her hand ready for grabbing.

  In a swoop, the eagle descended low enough for us to lock hands with our sibling, then swooped up into the air. Cas and Felix helped pull them on board.

  “Raven!” Triana sniffled as she threw her arms around me.

  I held her close to me before kissing her cheek. “You’re alright baby sister.” Pulling away, I held her shoulders. “You hurt?”

  Triana shook her head. “You?”

  “Nope.”

  She slightly smiled and wiped her eyes. “You did something, didn’t you?”

  “What do you mea―?”

  “And next time you think of running off, you let me know or create a god damn trail of fire! I don’t care how you do it!” Beatrice yelled at Bradly.

  �
��Well, maybe if you could run faster, you wouldn’t have lost me!” he yelled back.

  “You’re not hard to lose, chub! It’s the fact that you ran off without me.”

  “I knew you would be okay!”

  “You didn’t know anything.”

  Bradly smirked. “Well, you’re okay, aren’t you?”

  Beatrice frowned before slowly forming a smile and hugging her brother.

  “You confuse me sometimes,” Bradly said in a smothered voice.

  Beatrice yanked away, pushing Bradly down on his bottom. “Shut-up.”

  The rest of the flight, we each talked about the things we saw in the forest, then I explained that the thing everyone saw on arrival was actually a warlock, feeding on their anger and fear. At least, I thought that’s what he was doing. It only made sense that he was, because what other reason would he have to bring back old memories and strong fears? Those emotions probably made him stronger.

  It wasn’t until nightfall that Cristania tired from using her familiar. It seemed as if she really was the more powerful one among us, which was fine by me. At least we could travel by eagle now.

  When we landed, Cristania stated that we were only a few miles away from The Mystic Tree before we set up what we could of camp, which unfortunately was nothing but large leaf pallets and a fire. This time Triana helped Cristania with setting the barrier so that it would last longer, then we all sat and talked.

  As I watched everyone, I found myself smiling as they talked and laughed instead of sitting in silence with nothing in common. Only one day had passed and we were already a nice group of friends.

  Bradly and Triana were laughing at something Bradly said, Cristania, Cas, and Beatrice were deep in conversation, and Felix sat next to me while observing the others.

  “This is nice, isn’t it?” he asked. “This place may be terrifying, but it’s also a little fun ― as long as we don’t die.”

  “Or get badly injured,” I added.

  “It’s kind of an adventure though. Ever since I met you, everything has been an adventure.”