by Priya Ardis
I said, “What happens if you don’t pass the trial?”
“You have seen the news broadcasts.”
Silence fell across the room. A picture of the Italian kid, Gianni, went through my mind. He may have been a gargoyle but he looked just like any of the rest of us sitting in class.
“They were unprepared,” Matt said. “You will not be.”
“As I said, the element of surprise is the best. There are also shields that can be acquired—either magical or charmed objects. Gargoyles because of their innate abilities can avoid many spells. So all of you, Regulars and wizards alike, will need something extra.”
Matt pulled forward the leather satchel he’d carried into the classroom. From inside the bag, he brought out a handful of silver necklaces and several silver rings. Each piece of jewelry held a large gemstone pendant. “Charms. Wizard or Regular, please come and get one. The charm resonates with its owner. Pick the one that feels right. But remember this will be the single most powerful weapon I will hand you. So choose wisely.”
The candidates at the front scrambled to get up and get to Matt’s desk. I watched as the Regulars and Vane's candidates crowded behind them. Mark muscled through the others. Another wizard boy next to Blake got shoved aside as Mark snatched the ring he had started to pick up. The rest of Vane’s candidates followed his lead. A few of the unwanted rings went tumbling to the ground.
Gia picked up a simple silver chain with a big ruby gemstone. Something about it struck me as oddly familiar. I stared at it, wanting it. Needing it with an intensity that came out nowhere.
Gia moved to put it around her neck. I nearly leapt from my desk to snatch it from her. Gia put it back down. I let out a breath.
The Regulars stood around trying to catch a glimpse of the charms while Vane’s candidates picked through the bunch.
“They’re going to rip apart everything before we can even take a look,” Grey said
Inspiration struck me. Taking out my iPad, I typed up a quick e-mail. In the back of the room, fifteen or so iPads started beeping.
Gia marched back to her desk. She picked up her iPad. “Who sent me an event request to ‘Get In A Line’?”
I grinned as I stood up to go to the desk. Matt raised a brow when I reached him.
I shrugged. “Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.”
“Yes, you do,” he said.
“Why am I surprised you agree?” I said in a snarky tone.
He picked up the simple silver necklace and held it out like a carrot. I reached for it.
Matt’s hand tightened on it. The warm gemstone seemed to heat under our combined touch. I tugged it. My hand grazed his. The friction between our hands sparked a fluttery sensation deep in the pit of my stomach.
Matt said, “The Dragon’s Eye. Nice choice. This belonged to a queen once.”
“Which one?” I asked.
Matt didn’t answer. “Let me put it on you.”
Since he still held onto the amulet, I had no choice. I inclined my head and slipped off Sylvia’s necklace. Matt pulled me away from the desk, making space for the other candidates to continue picking out their charms. His breath caressed my neck as he put the charm on me. Warm fingers skimmed my skin. He snapped close the clasp.
I prompted, “Done, Merlin?”
“My name is Matt,” he said.
“That’s just a cover.”
He leaned closer. “I am Matt.”
“Why?” My whole body tightened. I took a bracing breath. My spine became so rigid. “Why would you not want to be known as the most powerful wizard in the world? Why wouldn’t you want to be Merlin?”
Even though we stood in the middle of a classroom surrounded by students, it seemed as if there were only two of us present.
“I am Matt,” he said in a low tone. “Because I can’t even remember who Merlin is. Matt is real.”
He let the amulet drop. The gemstone fell on my bare skin. I gasped at the heat emanating from it. It sat on me as if I’d always worn it.
Matt stepped back with an enigmatic smile. “Perfect. It’s been waiting a long time for you.”
***
“Now that you are more or less on the same footing, I will be sorting you into groups,” he announced. “Each group will contain at least one wizard.”
Everyone rose. With a wave of his hand, he cleared the tables and benches. They slid to the edges of the room up against the walls. Matt assigned me to Blake, Oliver, Gia, and Paul.
“Now, one wizard from each group will come to me. I will give you an attack spell. The rest of your group will be defending against you. Those of you defending use the amulet to see through the spell and reach the wizard. If you can touch him, you can disable him.”
“I’ll go,” Blake volunteered. I glanced at Gia. She shrugged.
Blake scuttled over to Matt. Matt huddled together with the ‘attack’ wizards. Blake returned, trying to hold a serious expression on his naturally cheerful face.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Sure,” I said, lining up to be first.
Gia stopped me. “I’ll go first. Try it on me.”
Across the room, I saw everyone else doing the same. Grey was going first in his group. I turned back to Gia and Blake. Blake raised his hand and shouted out a spell.
“Prazaanta.”
I could barely make out the word as it grazed my ear the syllables warbled and warped sounding. It hurt to hear the word but then it faded.
Blake’s palm punched out at Gia as if to direct the flow of the spell towards her.
Gia froze in place. For a second, I saw her skin turn a pale blue. I glanced over at Grey. He too had a slight sheen of blue. All across the room, every single candidate stood paralyzed. No one had stopped the spell.
“Merlin,” Grey said. “This is bogus. You need to give us better instructions.”
“See the spell coming. Don’t let the flow hit you directly. Step away. Move. Don’t stand and take it.” Matt folded his arms across his chest and leaned back comfortably against the front of the teacher’s desk. “Let’s keep going. Next person, step up.”
Oliver moved forward. I held up my hand and shook my head. Oliver let me go again. Blake sent the same spell. I heard the word almost as if I could see it. The air in the room seemed to thicken. I felt a breeze from where the spell originated. I saw the air move as the spell snaked towards me. The amulet on my chest felt cold… and dead. My hand reached up to touch the gemstone even while my feet moved me out of the way of the blast. The spell moved as I moved. It repositioned and headed straight for me.
Matt was full of crap. The amulet had no special affinity for me. It didn’t even work.
CHAPTER 10
TRAINING
The spell-blast hit me like a wallop of wind. All of a sudden the amulet glowed, just as it had done when light hit it before, red fire rose around me creating a barrier. The spell glanced off me and dissolved. Red fire faded. I wiggled my fingers and toes just to make sure I could.
They wiggled.
“Nicely done.” Matt clapped. He walked over to our group.
“What was that?” Blake demanded, his cherub face turning purple. “You said to move. That had nothing to do with moving.”
“By moving, she activated the amulet. It sensed her heightened state and responded.”
I looked down at the quiet gemstone. Red winked back at me. “I woke it up.”
“My turn.” Oliver gestured at Blake. Blake shot the spell to him. Oliver stepped out of the way as I had done. I saw the spell follow him. Oliver’s soft blue amulet glowed. It didn’t create a barrier like mine, but somehow the spell dissolved.
“Well done,” Matt said.
I opened my mouth to ask him about the lack of barrier, but Matt had already gone on to another group. I saw across the room the same defensive move being used. Some had success. Some didn’t.
Three hours after the class had begun, Matt called it to an end. Everyone r
an out towards the dining hall. We only had half an hour for our lunch break and we were all starving. I took my time putting Matt’s heavy tome into the school shoulder bag we’d all been given and securing the iPad. I traced the detailed stitching on the front flap of the bag. It had the same lion emblem on it that had been on the front door of the school.
When the last person had left the classroom, I marched up to Matt. My stomach let out a dragon-like growl.
“The amulet uses up your strength,” he said mildly. “That’s why you’re so hungry. You should get to lunch.”
I laid my palms on his desk. “Do you want to come with me?”
Matt stopped in the middle of closing his bag. “I can’t… I mean… I could. Teachers are allowed, but I… can’t.”
I fiddled with my new amulet. “I see.”
Matt watched my movements. Self-consciously, I stopped.
“Which Queen did the amulet belong to?”
Matt closed his bag. “Why do you ask?”
“I want to know.”
“Do you want to give it back?”
“No!” I said. And stopped. I rubbed my eyes. “I don’t know why I said that. This thing is doing something to me.” I tugged at the amulet.
Matt moved swiftly to stop me. He put his hands on mine to still them. “Don’t take it off.”
“Why?”
Matt didn’t answer.
“If you don’t tell me, Merlin,” I said, “I’m taking this off and tossing it away.”
Matt took a step back. His gaze lowered to the floor. “I made it.”
I stilled. “What? What does that mean?”
“Charms are as powerful as the wizard who makes them. I’ve only ever made one in my life.” He confessed, “And you’re wearing it.”
“You wanted me to have it. You brought it out for me,” I said sharply.
“It is the most powerful charm in existence. I want to keep you safe, Ryan.”
I raised a brow. “Then why are you acting so strange?”
“Why are you acting so strange? So attached? You feel a strong connection to it—”
Matt’s dark gaze locked on mine. My heart skipped several beats.
“—because you feel a strong connection to me.”
He meant he knew I liked him. I felt the tips of my ears turn red.
Matt came around to stand directly in front of me. His heart thumped against his chest. It seemed to beat so loudly it echoed around the room. I laid my hand against it and took a breath. For a long second, we just stood there.
I didn’t want to move. Ever. Yet, I still asked, “Which queen did it belong to?”
There was a pause. Matt said, “Does it matter?”
Like cold water, his words washed over me. After all the things he’d held back from me, I don’t know why it kept surprising me that he wasn’t finished. Anger renewed itself inside me. His name was not Matt. He was Merlin.
I broke away from him. “Yes, it matters. How am I supposed to trust you when you’re never honest with me?”
“You can’t trust me?” Matt gave me a measured look. “It seems like you don’t trust anyone.”
“What?” I said with a frown.
“The vision you saw in the Lake water. You never said a word to me about your mother back in Boston.”
“You knew she had died. I didn't even remember the rest until yesterday!”
“And Vane? I saw the way you looked at him when you first saw him—”
“I recognized him from TV—” My eyes narrowed. “Wait, is this about your stupid vision? After what he’s done how can you even think that I’d k—” I grimaced in disgust. “Kiss him?”
“Have you heard of a term called ‘Silvertongue’? It is a person who has a certain way with words. There is a power in words. Some can lift you up high. Some can shatter you.” Matt turned. His back to me, he picked up his bag and said slowly, “I have no doubt ‘Silvertongue’ originated from the rare wizards who have the same gift as Vane. What my brother says, whatever he says, you want to believe him. You might hate him now, but he has a way of slipping through your defenses.”
Matt turned around. He reached out to touch the ruby gemstone. His fingers skimmed the edge of the gemstone.
“Matt.” I said the name with a wealth of longing that kept threatening to spill over and consume me.
Matt let go of the amulet. “I thought you decided to call me Merlin.”
***
After a quick lunch with Grey and a few of the other Regular candidates, we hurried toward the cathedral where the next class was scheduled. I had peeked at the schedule of a wizard student sitting next to us. She had six classes—just like the curriculum back home—except that besides math, all of her advanced classes bore labels like Fire Elements, Water Elements, Air Elements, etc. Types of magic, she explained to us.
Although I wouldn’t have been able to do anything in such classes, I still felt a bit envious of her. It sounded much more fun than a whole afternoon of something called Physical Training. I translated physical training to gym. I was looking forward to it about as a three-hour dental cleaning.
My Friday-night-lights Mom had often wondered how I could possibly be her daughter. While I hadn’t done that badly in fencing, I hadn’t loved it. As for basketball, volleyball, tennis, and whatever sport of the day my mother signed me up for, I had been a disaster since Day 1. And yet, my mother had insisted me trying, year after year, since preschool.
Grey, on the other hand, wore an expression of rabid anticipation. Sometimes his whole master-jock persona could be really irritating. We paused just inside the cathedral and stared around in awe. Stained glass windows shimmered bright rainbow lights onto the white stone floors inside. More white stone formed the walls and curved into the high ceiling. A stage rose up in the middle of the room. Only a few chairs surrounded it, but the space was certainly big enough to fit hundreds of students.
Blake strode by us.
Snapping out of our trance, Grey and I rushed after him. My boots echoed as we crossed to a corner of the cathedral. It was then that I noticed several curved archways leading off from the main area. We followed Blake into one and discovered a turret with a winding staircase. We climbed up to the second floor. It led out into a smaller but still quite large gym-like room with gleaming wood floors. Intricate moldings stood out on the door and windows. Rustic racks of weapons hung along the walls. The room reminded me of a medieval training room except that a very modern gel mat outlined a workout space in the middle.
Vane stood in the middle of the mat. He wore a black martial arts uniform made up of a short kimono and matching loose cotton pants. Except for his shorter hair, it was eerie how much he looked like Matt. The disparaging expression on his face when he spotted me was one I’d never seen on Matt though. So much for the infamous charm Matt had warned me about… not that I cared. From the way he’d treated the poor kid who hadn’t turned out to be a candidate, Vane wasn’t someone I really wanted to try to charm me.
Grey nudged me towards the dressing rooms after Blake. They stood off to the back of the room inside another arched doorway. We split up as he went into the men’s one. Inside the women’s dressing room, a wall-to-wall mirror covered one side completely. Several stalls took up the opposite wall. Ducking into one, I pulled a cloth curtain and tugged on a white uniform. It had been placed in my school bag among with a few other supplies—including a hair tie. I saw no place to store my bag so I lugged it out with me.
“Not bad.” Gia emerged from an adjoining bathroom stall in uniform and posed in front of the mirror.
I agreed. The mirror showed that the uniform fit well on me. I even had shape despite the loose fit of the top and pants. I twisted the flyaway strands of my wavy hair into a ponytail. Gia did the same. Somehow while Gia projected fierce Amazon warrior, I looked like a twelve-year old cheerleader.
“I don’t think anyone will notice,” she said.
“Notice what?”
She smirked at me. “If you sneak out of here. You look like you’re about to throw up.”
“I’m fine.”
“Forget something?” Gia pointed to my feet where my gym bag lay. “You should really label it. They all look the same.”
She took a pen out of her bag and tossed it to me.
I bent down to get my bag as she went around me. The dressing room door slammed shut. I quickly labeled my bag and went to the door.
It was locked. Gia had locked me inside.
I pounded the door for several minutes. No sound came from the other side. Cursing, I stared at myself in the mirror. My face was flush. Wide eyes shone bright. Dark blonde hair escaped in droves from the tight ponytail I’d tried to stuff it into. I looked helpless.
My cheeks huffed in and out like a pucker-fish. For a second, I just wanted to give up. It had already been a long morning. Every time I talked with Matt, he ground me down into a mass of lumpy mashed potatoes.
But was I really going to let Gia defeat me this easily?
I marched to my bag and pulled out my iPad. All of the candidates reported offline. That only left one person. I bit my lip, debating it for a second. Then, I took a bracing breath and punched in the message. The reply came back swiftly.
You’ll owe me one. Vane texted.
Forget it. I texted back.
No show today = No show period.
I made a sound of extreme frustration. I punched in my reply. I owe you one.
Two minutes later, Grey unlocked the door. “Vane sent me.”
“I’m going to kill Gia.” I stomped out of the room and into the hallway. “I just traded my soul to the devil.”
The clock chimed, warning us that we were about to be late. Out in the gym, all of the candidates stood at attention on the exercise mat. Gia and Mark snickered as Grey and I approached the group.
“Ms. DuLac and Mr. Ragnar, thank you for honoring us with your presence. If it pleases you, shall we begin?”
Vane stared at me. No one spoke for long seconds.
“S-sure,” I mumbled.
“How kind of you to condescend,” Vane replied mockingly. More of the candidates snickered.