by A. S. Oren
"I like you, Fire. I'm in it for the long haul." He leans down to kiss me, and I turn my face so his lips make contact with my cheek.
"I'm sorry. I'm not ready for that yet."
"Don't be sorry. I understand. Je peux attendre."
A small smile tugs at my lips. He can wait.
"I'll leave Lenard here, so that he can track the time and keep you protected from the peering eyes of the Watchers until morning. Just bring him with you to breakfast. Lenard, stay with her in your android form and follow through with any commands she gives you. "
Lenard bows.
The three of them leave with Horace. Now, it's just me and Amr. He walks forward and bends over slightly to give me a hug. "No matter what, we will always have each other. Be safe, and I pray to the Sun god that the ring keeps you in your human form for the rest of the night."
"I pray so, too. Goodnight, little brother."
He laughs as he pulls away and pats me on the head, proving that I may be older by a few minutes, but I'm not bigger. "Good night, big sister."
He leaves, and I return to my room. I can't be too comfortable in the fact that this ring will keep me safe all night. "Lenard you can come in here. I won't be in the living room for the rest of the night.”
"Yes, ma'm." He steps over the threshold and stands on the inner side of the door.
I take Enid's card off my bedside table and hold her up. She flips into the air and takes her android form. Her olive-green eyes peer at me. I can't help but get the feeling that there's true intelligence behind her eyes. "Yes, Avalon? How may I be of assistance?"
"Can you access the library catalogue from here?"
She nods. "Yes, I can. What would you like me to find?"
I take a seat on my bed. "Can you look and see if there are any books with the keywords shaman crystal? Please."
A green light runs in her eyes as she thinks. "There are no books with those keywords in either of the libraries. My system is advising me to stop searching, that this is a restricted subject. I advise you to stop looking now."
I sigh and fall back onto my bed. An ache eases up from my feet to my hips and then back. Oh no, it's happening again. I force myself to sit up. "Lenard, how much time has passed since you started your stop watch?"
"Ninety minutes, ma'am."
I grunt as the burning begins. I knew this was too good to be true. A part of the crystal this small would not withstand the forces of the curse for long. An hour and half isn't long enough to explore the forest.
Scales pierce through the underside of my flesh as I slide the ring off my finger and place it on my bedside table. "Enid," I grunt through the pain. "I want you to place the ring on my dragon form once I've changed fully. Lenard, I want you to restart your stop watch as soon as she does so."
I fall to the ground, my ability to speak lost in screams. Maybe, I'll be able to change back right away; Maybe, the magic just needs to reset itself every ninety minutes. At least I have the P.A.s here to help me with my experiment. My bones shift and crack much faster than they did at the beginning of the night, or maybe, it just seems faster.
The next night...
I stand in my dragon form on the edge of my cliff perch. I'll be meeting the guys soon by the forest. It was decided that it would be easier if I came to them in that form first, since the ring will only change me once a night. I was disappointed to find that out this morning, but I guess beggars can't be choosers.
Horace has Enid, so he can upload the protection program into her memory or something. I'm just waiting for the fireball single from Dante. It will only take me a minute or less to get to them once I start gliding.
A fireball shoots into the air and fades into nothingness against the dark sky. I leap off my perch and fall a few hundred feet before spreading out my angel wings to catch the air. In seven giant flaps I land a few hundred meters away so I can walk there in my dragon form. There wouldn't have been anywhere for me to land within the trees.
I fold my wings in as I walk up to them. “Did you bring the ring, Dante?”
He nods and steps forward to press it against the scales of my talons. I shift back with ease, still dressed in my uniform, and place the ring on my thumb. At least I had the foresight to keep it on tonight. I may as well do that every night, even though I hate the damn clothes.
Horace steps up to me and hands me my P.A. "She must be in her android form. When she comes out, tell her to run the program, Hide."
"At least I don't have to remember all those numbers from before."
I peer around as she unfolds into her human like form. The others have their P.A.s out as well. I've never seen Dante's, a woman with caramel skin and long auburn hair stands next to him. Amr’s P.A. barks in its Jack Russell Terrier form. Enid stands before me. “Run the program, Hide, Enid.”
She nods as the green light streams behind her eyes. “Program Hide has been activated. The perimeter around you has been secured.”
Paden steps over to me with his P.A following behind, a boy our age with pink hair; he’s a twin to Maverick’s P.A., but his has blue hair. “We should get a move on. Let us know if you need to change.”
I shrug. “Not sure what good that will do us, since I’m not even sure if my dragon form will fit within the trees here.”
Maverick steps over. “You fit in the woods back home.”
I roll my eyes and start the journey into the forest. “The woods back home were kept up by Ed, who has teenagers of different ages and abilities running all over the place. Of course there was space for me. This forest doesn’t look like it’s been touched by people in a very long time.” I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.
With my hand held out, I cup my palm and form a fireball to float above it. The light from the moon can’t even make it a few meters into the tree line; that’s how dense these trees have grown together. At least we don’t have to worry about someone seeing our movement out here from the school.
I wish I knew of a way to cast the ball out in front of us, so it could lead the way through the forest without setting hundreds of trees on fire. As far as I know, there’s no technique in the dragon world that could do that. Perhaps with witch or faery magic there is, but Edgar has forbidden us from learning those. He said, ‘We should just stick to our own kind when it comes to that sort of thin’.’
Horace walks beside me, placing neon coloured dots on every few trees as we go along. “I know we plan on just going in a straight line, but if for some reason we get turned around, these dots will help us get back on the path out of here.”
I nod. “It’s smart to do that. Edgar had us do a similar thing before we learned the paths in the woods back home. He didn’t want us to get lost within the thousands of acres of woods he owns.” I pick up the pace. I need to cover more ground before I’m forced to change back.
Dante clears his throat. “Are you walking in here barefoot?”
Maverick laughs. “She never wears shoes unless she’s forced to. She says she gets better footing if she can feel everything.”
I glance over my shoulder at them as I step onto a large root and over it. “She is right here, and I do get better footing as long as there isn’t snow everywhere. That wasn’t even an issue until Minos did that thing to me.”
Amr comes to hold hands with Horace. “I have faith in the Sun god that we’ll figure out what happened to you, and that everything will go back to normal.”
Amr, always the trusting and caring one. How did it turn out that I became the abrasive one of the two of us?
We walk for about ten more minutes, so far no monsters or strange noises. It’s boring in here, why was it off limits? The most danger we face is getting a splinter somewhere.
“What’s that?” Paden points ahead of us, of course he took the leader role on after a few minutes.
A blue light shines ahead of us in some sort of clearing. My heart beats faster. Could we have found something interesting after all? We pick up th
e pace, overcoming the roots and rocks in our way like they are a smooth, paved path. We enter the area devoid of trees. An iridescent waterfall streams from nothingness next to a small, rundown shack, not much different from the one Edgar used to train us in.
Paden walks up to the waterfall. “Where is the water coming from, have any of you ever seen anything like this?”
Amr goes to stand next to him. “I’ve read about this phenomenon, but haven’t ever seen one myself.” He lets his hand run under the water, and his body glows with a brown hue. “It’s said they are created by witches to produce massive amounts of magic, like a generator but for magical things. They can run for thousands of years before needing another boost spell from a witch.”
“A witch has been on Spearwood ground?” Dante goes to the shack and peers around it.
I fold my arms over my stomach. “Apparently, but what could it be generating around here? The weather magic?”
Amr shakes his head. “No, it would be closer to the school if it was for that. This is generating something around here.”
“Like what? This rundown shack?” I motion to it with a hand.
Dante opens the door to the shack and looks inside to the darkness. “Woah!” He pulls his head back out to stare up at the shack. He then sticks his head back in. “Putain de merde!”
I walk over to him. “What’s holy shit?”
He grabs my hand. “Look.”
He walks into the shack. I stop in my tracks as we cross the threshold. It’s nine or ten times bigger in here than what it appears to be on the outside. Dark hardwoods cover the floor, with a spiral staircase going up to a second level. Modern furniture makes up the seating and even a full kitchen stands off to the side of the room.
“Putain se merde is right.” I step back outside. It looks like nothing but a shack out here. “Guys, get in here.”
The rest of them follow me inside. Paden gasps. “It’s like the Tardis.”
I laugh. “Right?”
Horace comes to run his finger along one of the desks; it comes up with dust. “Do you think anyone knows about this place?”
Amr shrugs. “If they do, they haven’t been here in a while.”
My feet burn. Not now, we just found the place. It couldn’t have been ninety minutes already. Why couldn’t the crystal last just a bit longer? We need to find more of the pieces. “I should go outside. The shift is about to start again.” The burning travels to my thighs. Any minute now the scales will burst through the surface of my skin.
A ping comes from overhead and something gold falls onto the hardwood floor in front of my feet. It glints with a reddish stone, a stud earring. Through the pain that stiffens up my muscles I reach down to grab it. Is this what I think it is?
As soon as my skin makes contact with the stone, the transformation stops. Did this place know I needed another piece of the shaman crystal, and if so, how? Where did it get it? “It’s another piece of the crystal.”
Maverick comes over to look at it in my hand. “No way. It’s like this place knew you needed it.”
At least I have two holes in each ear, thanks to Miss Nezbit piercing my ears on my twelfth birthday. I take out an old silver ball stud and put the shaman crystal in its place. “I wonder if this one will last ninety minutes, too. Could the size affect the time?”
Dante shrugs as he snoops around the kitchen. “I don’t know. There were never any specifications about that in the legends my dad told me.” He opens the fridge. “There’s no food in this place. I guess you have to bring your own.”
The ground shakes under us. “Dude, I think you pissed it off.” Maverick grabs onto me to keep us steady. The cabinets in the kitchen slam open to reveal shelves of brand new food. Vegetables and fruits fall out of the fridge, with packaged meat tumbling out of the freezer.
“I’m pretty sure this place isn’t just like the Tardis, it’s like the Room of Requirement.” My inner fan girl squeals.
Dante picks up the package of steak at his feet. “You can say that again. Do you think it’s alive or some sort of spell?”
Maverick lets go of my shoulders and taps his chin. “Well, let’s see. Cabin thing, are you alive? Knock twice for yes.”
I laugh. “It’s not a ghost, Mav.”
Two knocks sound from up the stairs. All the blood runs out of my face.
Paden heads for the spiral stairs and looks up them. “Are you absolutely sure about that, Lon?” He goes up it, and the rest of us follow.
Should we be ready for an attack? We were stupid not to search the place for people or other living things before we started snooping around.
At the top of the stairs stands a long hallway of doors, and off to the side of that, rows upon rows of bookshelves stuffed to the brim with books and other objects. My eyes widen. “Woah, I think this is double the size of the school library.”
Something falls off a desk that sits to the side of a grand fireplace and sitting area. A quill clatters on the floor, making the same sound that the knocks did just moments ago. A scroll hangs over the edge of the desk.
We all go to it, and Paden leans over to read the scroll. “The Cabin of Lucius has appeared to you. Thus, you’re the right heirs to inhabit its walls. It will bring you all you desire, but be careful what you wish for, you may not like what you get. Please sign on the dotted line to witness its full power.” The scroll rolls up until the end comes to lie on the desk. Above the dotted line shows a list of names. The last five names catch my interest.
Elex Radcliffe
Oliver Rosemen
Micheal Perlow
James Quinn
Punav Angelous
“Amr, Dad’s name is on here, along with Perlow’s and Rosemen’s.” I make room for him to stand by me and point to the names.
He frowns. “Who are the other two? I’ve never heard him talk about a James or Punav.”
I shrug. “Maybe they came after them. They probably signed this around our age, so it’s been at least a decade since they were here.” I unroll the scroll further, more names appear. At least a few hundred people have been through here.
Paden picks up the quill. “Should we sign it?”
I swallow hard. “Isn’t Lucius a variation on Lucifer, the Christian devil? What if this is a trick of some kind?”
Maverick looks over the contract himself. “Yeah, but he has nothing to do with our faith.”
Amr shakes his head. “But he was a real being at one point. A dark angel. Mom told me so.”
I bite at my lip. A part of me wants to sign it in order to see what happens. “Didn’t he have to be present in order for someone to sign their soul over to him though? Some kind of verbal exchange had to happen.”
Horace clears his throat. “Do you want to risk the chance of a fallen angel taking your soul?”
I shrug. “Dad would’ve warned us if it was something dangerous, right? Did he ever talk about a Cabin of Lucius with you, Amr?”
Amr sighs. “Well, no.”
Paden’s hand hovers over the dotted line. Where’s the ink? “Pretty sure Elex would’ve warned us if it was something to worry about. Maybe this is what they were hiding out here all along.” He signs his name even though there’s no ink on the tip. His name still appears along the line, red as a tomato. It dries within seconds and moves up under Punav Angelous.
Maverick takes the quill next, following the leader. He hands the quill to me, I take it without thinking. Dad would’ve warned us if this was something we needed to worry about; it’s probably some type of initiation a couple of teenage boys thought up decades ago. I doubt it’s actually anything serious. Leaning over the scroll, I sign my name. I hold the quill out to Amr. I doubt he’ll actually do it, but I need to at least offer.
He sighs and takes it. “Well, if there’s a possibility of you being damned, then I will be damned, too.”
After both he and Horace sign, I look around. Nothing has changed. No demon has come up through the floor, and t
he walls haven’t run with blood, so it’s probably just a prank by a couple of boys who are long dead by now. “I wonder if this library has any information on the shaman crystal.”
Several books fly off the shelf and come to land on the table in front of the fireplace. It roars to life with a crackling flame.
My eyes widen. “That’s going to take some getting used to.” I take a seat and open the first book. I don’t know how long I have before the second crystal runs out of time, but I’m going to try my best to find out before it happens.
CHAPTER FOUR