Lives of Magic (Seven Wanderers Trilogy)

by Lucy Leiderman

  We reached the hotel and Kian gave them the key to their room, pointing to the left of ours. I felt red flood my face as they noticed Kian and I shared one hotel room. If they thought anything about it, they didn’t say anything.

  Regardless of the sleep I had, I was exhausted. We had agreed to meet for dinner, but as soon as I lay down I couldn’t move. A million and one questions floated across my mind about the new additions to our group. How much did they know? Did their memories shake them like mine? And how did I feel about Seth?

  Kian settled onto his bed and kicked off his shoes. He was either very quickly absorbed in his book or pretended to be absorbed in it by the time I looked up. Though I had many questions, I felt like I needed to talk to Garrison and Seth in private. Kian might know more about my past life than I did, but I wanted to find out on my own terms.

  “I think I’ll go over there,” I said, starting to get up. My body protested.

  “Don’t.”

  Kian’s intervention was surprising. A small part of me was happy to lie back down, but the other part was riled at being bossed around.

  “Why not?” I asked. I may have snapped a bit.

  Kian must have realized I didn’t appreciate his tone, so he put his book away and sat up. “Let them relax. You need to relax too.”

  He was easy to agree with when I was this tired.

  “Fine,” I said, making it sound angry on purpose. I lay back down and in an instant was lightly dozing. Knowing Kian was a few feet away, watching over me, made me feel eerily better.

  Stockholm syndrome, I thought and smiled.

  A hard knock on the door startled me into a sitting position. I was up before I was fully awake. I saw quickly that evening had fallen and Kian had closed our curtains and turned on the light.

  He walked past me to answer the door.

  “Seriously,” he said with a slight smile, “relax.”

  I tried to sit and soothe my pounding heart with calming thoughts. Garrison and Seth piled in, looking like I felt. There were bags under their eyes and they moved as if with heavy limbs.

  While Kian held the door open, a procession of squawking girls dressed in little itty-bitty dresses filed past. They yelled and screamed and laughed all for no reason. One wore a tiara and held balloons that said “Birthday.” They eyed Garrison, Seth, and Kian as they milled past, giggling and squawking some more. I remembered it was Saturday. I did not want to be on the street.

  “Room service?” I suggested.

  The other three nodded.

  As Seth came to sit next to me, Kian plopped down on my bed, blocking his way. I frowned at him. He had only ever come close to this bed when he was saving me from one of my memories. The memory of the last time threatened to send a flush up to my cheeks, so I pushed it away.

  Seth and Garrison sat on his bed, and within the hour we were eating burgers and French fries while watching a movie. It was a nice respite into the realm of normal, until the movie ended and Garrison turned to me.

  “So Gwen,” he said, “what can you do?”

  I nearly choked on a fry. Sputtering, I sipped my soda, stalling. “What do you mean?” I asked finally.

  “What are your abilities?” Garrison asked. When I still didn’t reply, he continued. “For example, mine involves using my magic to move objects. That’s pretty common, I guess, applying the energy like a force. Seth can affect people’s moods, read them, and convince them.”

  Seth still scowled at this. I understood that he was not happy with his mental connection or powers of persuasion.

  “She can alter matter,” Kian said.

  It startled me, and I turned to him, staring.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” he scolded. “You are capable of it. You’ve seen some of what you can do. Sinking through the asphalt, creating fire … Recover your past self and you all of your powers will be returned.”

  What if I don’t want those powers? I thought rebelliously.

  Kian had meant to be encouraging but I was beginning to frighten myself. If I had even a percentage of the power it took to cause a tsunami, then I thought it better to go without.

  Eventually, Seth and Garrison left, and Kian reverted back to silence. I couldn’t sleep when I was so annoyed, so as he took out his toothbrush I blocked his way to the bathroom. I placed my hands on either end of the doorway and did my best to stare him down. Kian’s eyes flashed.

  “What are you doing?” he asked. There was an undercurrent to his voice that almost sounded like panic.

  “What’s the matter with you?”

  It felt good to confront him. A thrill shot down my spine, but it was followed by self-doubt. What if it was all in my head? Taking a steadying breath, I continued. “You’ve been quiet ever since we met them. Is there a reason you dislike Seth so much?”

  I had hit a nerve. Kian’s face fell and he stared at the floor intently.

  “I don’t dislike him,” Kian said quietly. “It’s just that …”

  “Just what?”

  His eyes held electricity as he looked up at me. A vibration hummed between us like the air had been charged. Was this magic?

  “I am just afraid to lose you.” Kian opened his mouth to say something else and then reconsidered, closing it again. “Whatever you think you know about him, you’re risking losing yourself in the process. Your life is split between the present and the past. Who is to say which is more important? Besides, you’re different too,” he accused.

  My head spun with what he had just said. Lose me? I didn’t know he had had me to begin with. The vibration pulsed between us and I had to ignore it to think clearly. When I looked up at Kian’s face, I knew how I truly felt.

  “You’re not going to lose me,” I said. “I’m still myself. Maybe you just need to remind me of it sometimes.”

  He smiled and my heart melted. I longed for him to take my hand again. Kiss me again. Hold me again. But instead he pushed me aside like one would a sibling.

  “Good,” he said, shutting the bathroom door.

  Our routine began. In the morning we would walk around New York City, and Seth and Garrison would show Kian and I the places they liked to go. They had given up on school and had to duck on several occasions when they were about to run into teachers or friends who thought they had flitted off to Europe. Kian’s mood eventually improved.

  Sometimes, he would have us use our magic when no one was around. He remained tight-lipped about the magicians, but I noticed he ignored his phone more often when it began to ring. He would occasionally answer it and run off to take the call in private, and those days his mood would be ruined for good.

  We waited patiently for our next move, practising some simple magic and trying to piece our memories together. Seth and Garrison didn’t have much to add. The main story, the reason for our existence, had been clear in their minds, but we didn’t have time to get into much else. Kian would always think of another lesson to teach us or another errand we had to do.

  Seth, Garrison, and I got to know each other, though Kian never left my side. I waited over a week to sneak a moment alone with Seth. Our initial meeting had been like an explosion that had died out quickly. Now, I wanted to know what the smoking embers held for us.

  Garrison had convinced Kian to take him out to practice moving larger objects. Kian insisted Seth go with them, but when Seth said he was too tired, Kian didn’t have a good reason not to leave him alone. Casting me a pleading look as he walked out the door, Kian left me alone in our hotel room.

  I waited until I was sure they were gone then went to knock on their door. Seth answered, dressed in pyjama pants and a concert t-shirt. He looked surprised to see me there but smiled and invited me in.

  “I thought Kian would have forbidden you from seeing me without his escort,” he said, sitting down on his bed. I cringed.

  “Is it that obvious?”

  Seth nodded.

  Suddenly, I was nervous and awkward. What was I here for? Corro
boration of my memories to prove I wasn’t crazy?

  “I just wondered …” I could already feel the blood rushing to my face, “how you know me … and …” How do I put this without it making me want to hide my face in a pillow? “If you have any memories of me that you … didn’t mention?”

  Well, I couldn’t get more embarrassed than I was. I was asking expressly about the second half of the waterfalls vision. Something I wasn’t in a rush to tell Kian about.

  Deciding there was nothing to lose, I faced him head on.

  Seth smiled at my awkwardness and his hazel eyes glinted. He got up and went to his large backpack, which looked like a grenade had gone off inside of it. Clothing and shoes were scattered all over his corner of the hotel room. He began digging inside the bag.

  “My memories of you are more emotional than anything,” he told me, “and I’m still trying to sort that out.”

  I swallowed.

  “Kian said we have to live our own lives. That it’s important we don’t forget who we are here,” I blurted out.

  “Yeah, well …” Seth sat back on his heels and produced a worn leather book with pages sticking out of it at odd angles. “The problem is that sometimes that past life influences who we become, and what we do.”

  He moved over to sit next to me on the bed and opened his book.

  “Garrison has known since he was small. Nine, I think. Me, I’ve been dreaming this for a few years now. So I did this to pass the time until you showed up.”

  My jaw dropped as he opened the sketchbook onto the first page, where a place I knew in my soul was depicted in pencil crayon. I quickly shut my mouth and focused my attention on staring.

  A low wall of stone marked the entrance to a small settlement that looked no bigger than a farmer’s field. Conical houses made of mud with straw roofs sat strewn about haphazardly. He flipped the page to a grey sky with a sun coming out from between the clouds and casting a direct glow onto a small inlet.

  As he turned the pages, I felt like I was being absorbed into a world I had once known. We travelled together through fields, houses, and even along dirt roads.

  Finally, Seth looked up at me with a question in his eyes.

  Taking a deep breath, he flipped the page to a picture of me. This time, I full-on gasped as I was presented with an image of what I might look like in a decade. My hair was loose and I sat staring off into the distance in his portrait.

  “Don’t worry about what I remember,” Seth told me as he flipped to more pictures of my past life. “This is how I see you. Now, and then.”

  The next week passed similarly to the first. It was now well into the semester and I had pushed all worry about high school to the back of my mind. It was gone, like any chance of a fun senior year. What I got instead was daily marathon walks with Kian, Seth, and Garrison.

  After we spoke in private, Seth became more open with me. Relief and disappointment battled inside me. I didn’t know what I wanted, but Kian’s suspicious glances in my direction and my past life’s yearning for Seth made me very aware of how much I had to struggle just to stay true to myself.

  On one of our walks, we ended up in a dark corner of Central Park at night. Kian had been driving me crazy by staring at his phone every few seconds and glancing around in paranoia. His magician hadn’t called in a few days, and I was assuming he had heard of the park’s reputation. Mainly the “don’t go wandering into dark, deserted corners at night” part.

  “We’ll be fine,” I told him, placing a hand on his arm.

  He looked down in surprise. I felt slightly guilty for distancing myself from him since finding the others. His mood had helped to drive me away, but my feelings about Seth may have distracted me enough to annoy Kian further.

  Kian relented and I held on to his arm as we paced the darkness. Sharing his warmth stilled the complaint on my lips. Garrison had wanted to explore his magic on larger objects, which meant rocks in the park. After an hour standing in the cold, I was shivering. There was no moon and the darkness enveloped the park.

  Kian took Garrison aside. I could only make out their shapes in the distance as they rolled large rocks backward and forward. Garrison was pushing around some more of these rocks with his magic when Seth grabbed my arm. We had been watching from a distance.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  He sniffed at the air and then stood stock-still. Nervous, I dragged him over to the open area where the other two were.

  “Something’s wrong,” I told Kian.

  I pulled Seth behind me like a puppy. He was still staring off into the distance but his body had stiffened.

  “He stopped,” he said confusedly, and began looking around the darkness in vain.

  “Who?” I began, but my next words were cut off by something whizzing past my head.

  Kian grabbed me and pushed me down. I found my face in the wet grass. Only after I was already down did I realize the loud crack I heard was a gunshot.

  Chapter Fifteen

  It’s amazing how quickly your heart can begin to painfully hammer in your chest. I tried to look up to see Garrison and Seth, but Kian’s hand was on the back of my head and pushed me back down.

  As gunshots rang through the park, I fought Kian until he finally allowed me to sit up, all the while dragging me to a sitting position behind one of the rocks Garrison had been rolling.

  “What’s going on?” My voice was a frantic mix of whisper and shriek.

  Kian didn’t answer me. Instead he looked over my shoulder to where Garrison and Seth were crouched behind a tree. I could barely make out their shapes in the dark.

  Crack. Bang. Crack.

  The tree was chipping as bullets flew past. Whoever was after us knew where they were hiding. Worry washed over me, and I was seized with the desire to run and help them. That’s when I noticed Kian was at my side, an arm tightly wrapped around my waist.

  “Let me go,” I whispered.

  “No,” he said firmly. “They are taking care of it.”

  I argued that I couldn’t see anything of the sort. As more and more bullets rang out, the medium-sized tree in front of them chipped further. Soon there would be nothing left to protect them.

  “If they are magicians, why are they trying to shoot us?” I asked. I still couldn’t pull my eyes away from the two figures hidden behind the tree.

  Kian pointed to Seth.

  For a moment, I panicked, thinking that he had been hit. He sat against the tree trunk, body limp. I gasped.

  “He is trying to find our attacker,” Kian whispered. “He is sensing him. Let him.”

  I gaped at Kian.

  “This is another lesson?” I nearly cried out in disbelief. The look Kian gave me implied a deep concern, and I regretted my words.

  “No,” he growled through gritted teeth.

  Despite my anxiety, I sat quietly, counting each bullet as it flew past the tree. The pressure in my chest was building, and soon I began to feel my magic buzzing through my fingers. I looked down to where my hands were firmly planted in the earth. I was clutching mounds of grass.

  Every heartbeat pounded in my ears, and it grew until I knew what I was going to do. Kian’s overprotectiveness could not stop me. In the distance, sirens rang out, coming our way. But it would be too late. Our attacker was determined.

  Slowly, carefully, I let my magic seep from my mind into my eyes. My vision expanded to see the world anew and illuminated the night. I was able to focus in on Seth, who was still immobile, though I could see every bead of sweat that lined his forehead. He was struggling.

  Garrison was huddled beside him, hands over his ears to drown out the loud bangs that would not cease. Then I turned my attention to the bullets which flew past, blowing small bits of tree away from my friends’ defence.

  I was like a hunter. I chased the shots upstream to get to their source. As I was still well aware of Kian’s tight grip on my waist, I ran through the park in search of life in my mind. The birds had flown
away due to the noise, and all the other animals were hiding in their boroughs. Then I felt the presence of magic.

  It was not like mine. While I felt sparks and light, this was dense and dark, and even as I approached it I felt like I was nearing quicksand. It threatened to suck me in and capture me. The weapon had been superficial. The attacker wasn’t here. This was a trap.

  I felt a familiar flicker nearby and I knew that Seth and his magic were here somewhere. I sent my awareness into the surrounding area and found him struggling with the dark thing: the void in the night.

  Panic interlaced with fear as the threat Kian had first told me became real. The magicians were here. My mental footing began to slip, and I found myself being sucked in. I panicked for an instant and then remembered Kian’s hold on me. I used the sensation to anchor myself back to the physical world. In this mental place, he was my foundation in the real world.

  I tried to reach out to Seth’s energy somewhere nearby. He was being dragged in by the dark power. I was terrified, but Kian’s grip sent calming energy through my physical body and into my awareness. My grasping for Seth became a tendril of energy that I saw floating into the darkness in front of me and grasping a small spark. Then, with all of my remaining strength, I pulled back like my life depended on it.

  My ears popped and my lungs strained. It felt as if the world remained stationary and I was moving backwards. Like I was rising too fast from the depths of a dark sea. I was catapulted into my body with such force that it sent both Kian and I rolling backwards. When I finally found my face in the ground once more, I listened. No more shots.

  Before I could decide if it was a good idea or not, I pushed myself up and ran to cover the space between Seth and me. He was still immobile, and Garrison sat next to him, shaking him and calling his name.

  My knees buckled beneath me. Shocked, I realized how weak I was. The effort to use my magic in that capacity had sapped my strength completely. Kian ran up as I brought my ear to Seth’s lips. They were slightly parted and my heart seized as I listened and waited. A shallow breath brushed against my ears, and I relaxed somewhat, knowing he was alive.