by D. N. Hoxa
Thoughts kept wrestling in my head, half sure that I was to blame for this, and the other half trying to convince me that Ross was right. No fucking way I, Nova Vaughn, bartender extraordinaire, could have frozen a giant room like that, floor to ceiling.
“Oh, no,” Ross whispered, calling all our eyes to him. His face was suddenly very pale, every trace of anger wiped off. His chin quivered as he slowly straightened up and looked at Terrin. “Denied.”
Pushing me to the side again, Terrin went in front of the computer, too, and read something fast. “Fuck.”
Now that was definitely not something good. When they both turned to me, I almost fainted.
“The Senior Order denied the request for the procedure,” Ross said breathlessly. “I’m dead.”
To my side, Palmer grabbed his head in his hands and began to walk in circles. Ross wouldn’t even blink, and Terrin tapped his fingers fast on the desk. The sound was annoying, but it kept me grounded. It kept me distracted, far away from trying to figure out what exactly that meant.
“What does that mean?” I heard myself ask as minutes passed and nobody spoke. Even the tapping lost its annoyance by then.
“It means they didn’t approve of the procedure we just put you through,” Palmer cried.
“Probably because of Scientia,” Terrin whispered. The test I failed, the one nobody ever fails. Fucking great.
“I’m dead. I’m definitely fired,” Ross said. “They’re going to imprison me for this.” He sounded terrified.
“Nobody’s going to imprison you,” Terrin said. “I’ll take the blame if I have to because I convinced you to do it.”
“You don’t understand. This is the Senior Order we’re talking about. I disobeyed a direct order. They’re not going to care who convinced me,” Ross said, a weird smile on his pale face.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. I’d done nothing but cause trouble ever since I got there. I was sorry, but I didn’t regret it. I didn’t regret any of it because I’d had a reason for doing it, and that reason was Luke.
“Ross, they’re not going to come down here and check to see if you completed the procedure without waiting for their response,” Terrin said. “They’ll never know if we don’t tell them.”
Ross blinked like it was the first time he was seeing.
“Yes,” Palmer whispered. “That’s right. If they know nothing, how can they fire us?”
“That would be lying to them. You know what the law says about that…” Ross’s voice trailed off.
“We’re not specifically lying, which would be giving them false information. We’ll just keep what happened from them, and they’re not going to ask, so we’ll never have to lie,” Terrin said, excited as a little boy.
“Terrin is right,” Palmer said, sounding more confident by the second. “Nobody is going to ask. Nobody is going to know.”
“But the staff—”
“The staff has no idea that we started the procedure without approval. They already think the Senior Order gave us the green light. We won’t need to explain anything to them,” Terrin said.
“But if they speak to someone from the Senior Order, what then?”
Terrin grinned. “Who else from our city talks to any of them, except you?”
“No one.”
“That’s right,” he said, nodding. “No one.”
“Since you won’t explain anything to me, I’m guessing you’re going to keep me hidden?” I asked halfheartedly.
As if the men only just realized I was still there, they all jumped at the sound of my voice.
“We’re not going to hide you,” Terrin said.
“So, you’re going to tell them that I’m joining Ross’s team to go after the devamp that put Luke into a coma?”
His flinch was all the answer I needed. I jumped to my feet, anger bringing a heat of wave inside my chest.
“I’m joining the team, right? I did the procedure, and it might not have worked the way you expected it to, but I did make all that ice! That has to count for something,” I said, not daring to even think about what I’d do if after all of this, I still got kicked out of there.
“We have no idea what that even was!” Ross said.
“So, figure it out! You’re mages and pixies and salamanders and whatever. Are you telling me that you can’t figure out how I did that? Because I did it!” I shouted, pointing back at the door, because I’d take the blame. Bring it to me and bathe me in it. If it meant that they’d accept me and I’d get the chance to save Luke from dying, I’d take all the blame of the world and hold it on my shoulders until the end of times, no questions asked.
The men looked at each other, unsure of whether to start laughing at me, or to take me seriously. Thankfully, they chose the latter.
“You still won’t be able to enroll in the team,” Ross said.
“Unless she takes the Scientia again, and she passes. Then, you can request the procedure again, and after they approve it, it’s all done,” Terrin said. “You can fake a couple documents, can’t you?”
“Are you trying to get me killed?” Ross hissed. My knees began to shake badly, and before I hit the floor, I sat down again.
“Do it, Ross,” Palmer said. “Your ass is not the only one on the line.”
The door to the office that led to Ross’s glass box opened and Penelope Dixon came in, followed by the other two conductors.
“Ah, shit,” Ross said. “Take her away.”
“Let’s go, Nova,” Terrin said and pulled me to my feet.
“No, you have to promise me that I’ll be on that team first.”
“Just go. Please,” Ross whispered. “We’ll talk later.”
Terrin pulled me out of the office just as the conductors walked in, looking at Palmer like he’d almost brought the building down. I didn’t get to hear what they said because Ross closed the door and Terrin almost pushed me forward out of there.
I didn’t argue because I was still trying to convince myself that everything was okay. I was going to join Ross’s team and I was going to find Red Tie. I was going to bring Luke back, and then we’d get the hell out of here for good.
I tried, but by the time my legs gave and Terrin had to take me in his arms, I gave up.
Chapter Eleven
The room they took me to was white, if you couldn’t already guess. The shower was warm and nice, though, and the bed comfortable. I had no idea who brought me the food but after I got out of the bathroom, the peanut butter sandwiches were on the small white table, and they were freaking delicious, too.
Terrin said I needed to get some rest, but after an hour of tossing and turning on the queen-sized bed, I gave up. I put on the sweatpants and the hoodie because the cold hadn’t left me completely yet, and I walked out of the room.
I had no idea where I was going, or how I was even standing and not in bed with pneumonia, or at least frostbite, but I walked down the corridors, through a door and out another, until I found myself right across from the training hall. Ross’s office was closed thankfully, so I was free to get closer to the glass and watch the three people in there. Mr. Shirtless Guy—or Nash—was not there, but there was a woman, hair short and black, bangs so long they touched her eyelashes. She wore leather pants and a blue tank top, and she had one of those thin swords in her hands. The way she danced with it made you think the sword had a soul and it was leading her through every step. It was awe-inspiring.
The man closest to her had a bright yellow rope in his hands and he was jumping up and down so fast, it made me dizzy. His hair was cut short to his head and he had a scar right below his eye, the tissue looking like a tear falling down his cheek. He was very muscular, too.
The woman a few feet away from him was sitting on the ground, cross legged, her eyes closed and her head up, her hands on her knees. She looked like she was meditating. Her blonde hair was tied in a loose braid that fell all the way to the ground, and there were two guns right in front of her, just lying ther
e innocently on the ground.
“You going in or what?” someone said from behind me, and I almost broke my nose on the glass. I hadn’t even realized I’d gotten that close to it.
The man who’d spoken looked no older than me. I’d seen him before. His ash blond hair was tied into a bun on top of his head and a few loose strings fell on his face. He was tall and skinny, and he had a very cute smile.
“Um…no,” I mumbled and stepped away from the glass. I wasn’t supposed to be there. Terrin said he’d come back for me later and it sure didn’t sound like he expected me to be anywhere but in that room.
“You sure? Because I saw what you did in that room. You sure could use some training,” the guy said, nodding for me to follow him as he walked over to the end of the wall, and then pushed it open. Suddenly, a door that hadn’t been there appeared, or maybe he just cut the glass into a door? Highly unlikely.
“How did you do that?” I whispered, completely mesmerized. The reality of where I was and what I was doing seemed to only now start to catch up with me.
“Magic.” He grinned. “Come on, I can help you get started.”
Help me. He claimed he could help me, and help was what I desperately needed. If I followed him and started to train, I’d be saving time. Ross and Terrin did say I needed to train, at least learn the basics. Why not start already, since I was doing nothing?
Without a word, I walked over to the guy and walked inside the training room.
The air was different in there. Much colder. The ceiling was really high and the walls around seemed to change somehow. If I looked at one spot for too long, it would start to move, something like a reflection. So, before I drove myself crazy with trying to figure it out, I focused on the others.
“I’m Aiden, by the way,” the guy said.
“Nova,” I said with a nod.
“Nice to meet you, Nova. This is Kitty.” He pointed at the blonde girl sitting on the floor, meditating. She only opened one eyes to look at me. Good thing, too, since her eyes were all the colors of the rainbow mixed together. Not something you see every day—or ever. “That’s Lucian.” The guy still jumping on the rope and not even breaking a sweat nodded at me. “And that’s Pixie.” The woman with the short hair and the sword didn’t bother to even look at me. “Don’t bother asking for her real name. She won’t tell us.”
“My real name is what I am,” she said as she jumped and spun on air, her arm outstretched and her sword in hand. Though she was far from me, I still had the urge to step back. “And I am a Pixie,” she finished when she landed on the ground.
“So why have you named your katana Belle?” Lucian said. It was amazing because he was jumping up and down and his voice didn’t even waver!
“It named itself,” Pixie said, and both guys began to laugh. “You wouldn’t laugh if she were in you.”
“Your katana?” Aiden asked, still laughing and wiggling his brows. That’s when I realized that they were talking about her sword.
“Shove it, mage,” Pixie hissed, and continued to dance and spin on air.
“Hey, let’s not scare the newcomer away. Language,” Aiden said, then turned to me. “So, what are you?”
The question hit me like a slap on my face. Suddenly, there was not enough air in the room. My instincts were telling me to run so I actually turned and looked at the door and where I came from—but the door was gone. Now, there was just glass.
What was I?
A place where people asked questions like that was definitely not a place for me. I was human, or at least I’d thought I was for twenty years. I’d had no idea any of this even existed outside of books and movies—and even in those, Tinker Bell the pixie was really small, and she had wings, too. She definitely didn’t use a katana.
“Is she mute?” Pixie asked.
“Just give her some time. She’ll get used to it,” Lucian said. “Is she the girl who destroyed Palmer’s playroom?”
Kitty, the blonde girl sitting on the ground opened her eyes, and in one swift movement, she jumped to her feet. “This is her?” The way her eyes scrolled up and down my body made me want to hide.
What the hell was I doing, letting these people intimidate me? I was better than this, wasn’t I? Granted, I’d never dealt with a, er…different species but they were all just people, all of them probably my age or a couple years older at most. I had no reason to lower my head and feel small. Now more than ever, I needed my confidence because Luke’s life depended on it.
Telling myself that I could do this, I raised my head.
“And you are?” I asked the girl.
With a grin, she offered me her hand to shake. “Kitty Norsden, changeling.”
Changeling, changeling, changeling…oh, changeling! I knew what that was. A fairy child left in the place of a human one. Holy balls, I couldn’t believe I was living this moment.
“You didn’t tell us what you are,” Pixie said. She was no longer dancing with her katana, and Lucian had stopped jumping, too.
You got this, I said to myself. Just pretend they’re humans.
“No idea,” I said with a sigh. “Turns out I’m something you guys call a Forger. I didn’t know you even existed until a few hours ago.”
They all began to laugh. “I knew a Forger once,” said Lucian.
“This is the first time I’m meeting one,” Aiden said excitingly.
“Are you a mage or something?” said Pixie.
“They think so,” was all I thought to say.
“What were they doing to you in Palmer’s playroom?” Lucian asked. “Were you trying any spells? How did you freeze the whole room?”
Oh, oh. Maybe talking to them hadn’t been the best of ideas.
“I don’t know. They were going to do some tests when it happened. I’ve never done it before, so I can’t say for sure,” I mumbled. If they could tell it was a lie, I had no idea what else I was going to say.
“Go ahead and try it,” Kitty said.
“What?”
“Try to do it again. Freeze this room. It would make for the perfect training terrain.”
“You’re right,” Lucian said, smiling as he looked at the room around us as if he could almost picture it covered in ice.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” It was a very bad idea.
“It’s the perfect idea. Come on, give it a shot,” Aiden said, and he stepped back.
“Look, I don’t know how I did what I did. I might be a mage, but I have no idea how any of it works,” I said because saying magic was just too much for me still.
“Just picture it,” Aiden said. “That’s how it works.”
“He should know,” Lucian said. “He’s a mage himself.”
“Come on, making ice isn’t that hard. Just raise your hands and picture it.”
Oh, hell…I really wanted to do it.
“Wouldn’t I need a spell or something?” Wasn’t that how magic worked.
When they laughed again, I realized I was wrong. “Yes, you do need spells, but you need them to specify your magic. Like, if you wanted to create ice on a certain surface, or to throw it at something. But to simply create it doesn’t require more than the power inside you,” he explained. It made absolutely no sense to me.
“I don’t know,” I said, rubbing my cheek, looking for the door again. It still wasn’t there.
“I’ll tell you what, if you start to go crazy, I’ll stop you before you turn this into another ice cave, okay?” Aiden said. “Just try it. You might even like it.”
What if I really did?
I could hardly believe it, but I found myself nodding even before I’d decided to go for it. How crazy was it that I was here, let alone trying to make ice out of thin air?
But Aiden was right. If I really covered all that room in ice, maybe I could do it again. Maybe I wouldn’t need to become a salamander at all. Maybe I could just be a mage.
Closing my eyes for a second, I took in a deep breath. All I had to
do was remind myself that I was doing this for Luke, and everything became easier. When I rose my hands in front of me, the others took a step backward, giving me some space.
“Just imagine it?” I asked Aiden.
“Just imagine it,” he said with a nod.
That’s exactly what I did. I imagined ice covering my hand just like I’d seen it do back at the room. Bringing back that memory, I pictured all of those white and grey layers settling onto my outstretched hand in as much detail as I could. I even held onto my breath because it made it easier to keep all of my focus in my imagination.
But two minutes later, there was still no ice.
“It’s okay. Just don’t stress over it. Relax, and try again,” Aiden said. They all looked very excited, and every other second, they looked around them as if to see if ice was starting to appear somewhere in the room.
Again, I did as Aiden asked, but five minutes later, my nerves were fried and my patience below zero.
What the hell had I been thinking? Of course, this wouldn’t work. Who knew what had caused that room to freeze? It obviously wasn’t me, because I’d never focused on anything this hard before. I’d never wanted anything as much as I wanted ice to appear out of thin air! And that, in itself, was fucking ridiculous, considering where I was just yesterday.
But no matter how many times I said it wasn’t working, they all got together and convinced me to try again.
And again.
And again.
Almost two hours letter, I was exhausted by just standing there and imagining ice. The test was right. The conductors were right to fail me. Even Aiden, who at first had fully believed I could do this, was now looking skeptical.
“You’ll try again tomorrow,” he said and patted my shoulder, and that was worse than if he’d slapped me. Failure, failure, failure. How I hated that word.
Since the door was still not there and I had no urge to continue to make a fool out of myself any longer, I was going to ask Aiden to make the door for me so I could get the hell out of there.
But before I could do that, the ground beneath us shook.