The Traitor's Crux (The Dark Powers Book 1)

by Jessica Prather

  Harlow doesn’t wait an instant to brush past the boy, a scowl on her face as she plants herself in a chair. “Delia, if you could give us a moment, please?” The blonde’s icy gaze doesn’t leave my face.

  Delia purses her lips, stuffing her hands into her pockets, but complies. “It was nice to meet you, Kenadee. You two don’t wear her out!”

  Harlow waits for Delia to leave as the boy yanks up a chair beside her. There’s something boyish and polite in his all-American looks as he inspects me with a shy sort of curiosity.

  Harlow, on the other hand, scowls as she throws her head in the boy’s direction. “This is Bryce Coughlin. We’re the leaders that run this place.”

  “Nice to meet you.” Bryce flashes me a deferential smile, extending a tanned hand.

  I look to his outstretched hand to the cuffs on my wrists with a frown. Realizing the dilemma, he pulls away, dropping a sheepish gaze to the floor. Harlow smirks.

  “Look,” I say quickly, hoping that the embarrassment I feel isn’t reaching my face. “I know what you’re thinking, but I’m here for the same reason you are. I want protection from Reed.”

  A lie, but I continue with the same half-truth that I told Harlow. I’d been kicked out for my magic and I was worried about being caught. They listen in silence, watching me carefully as I tell my tale.

  After a moment, Bryce’s eyes meet mine again, brimming with questions, “How did you know about this camp? It’s meant to be a secret. Only certain people know about it.”

  I maintain eye contact, determined to make this lie believable, “A friend told me the rumors that there was a camp full of witches in an old abandoned town. I didn’t know if it was true, but I had nothing else to lose...”

  “Oh, please—cut the crap,” Harlow sneers, “We take extra precaution to ensure that this camp stays safe. No one knows about it unless they work for a certain slime bag, so why don’t you stop wasting my time with lies and tell us the real reason why you’re here.”

  “Har!” Bryce snaps, glaring at his partner. “Stop trying to scare the girl!” They exchange dark looks before Bryce turns back to me with a kinder expression. “Look, we’ll protect you, we just want to know that you’re telling us the truth. Did President Reed put you up to this?”

  An image of Eli, limp, bloodied, and chained, pops up in my head.

  I swallow and shake my head no.

  “Well,” Bryce says after a moment, “I guess that’s it then. Welcome to our home.”

  “What?” Harlow snarls, bolting upright in her chair. “Absolutely not! She’s lying through her teeth.”

  “Harlow!”

  She shakes her head, “I’m putting my foot down, Bryce. We are not letting her just roam about, free to do as she pleases. People’s lives are at risk!”

  “Can I talk with you outside, please?” Bryce’s voice is a low growl.

  Harlow’s to her feet an instant, “I thought you’d never ask.”

  Bryce throws me an apologetic smile over his shoulder as they hurry out the door. I watch through the little window as Bryce throws his hands in the air, each word getting more coated with frustration. Harlow, on the other hand, maintains control. Her tone is quiet and steady, too low to be heard through the walls.

  She says something and Bryce scoffs. “Not everyone is out to get us, Har. Some people genuinely need help! She was looking for a safe place where she wouldn’t be caught!”

  Harlow says something that I can’t make out.

  “What do you suggest then?” asks Bryce, “Throw her out? Give her to the government? You of all people should know how that works out.”

  She shushes him, loudly. “Do you want the entire camp to hear you?” Her voice drops again, and I lean in to try and hear. “Look, I don’t want her here. No one should know about this camp unless they work for Reed. We have lives we’re trying to protect, Bryce.”

  He says something I can’t hear. I turn away, feeling nauseous. She’s right—I shouldn’t be here. All I’m going to do is cause destruction and pain.

  The door flings open and they file in. My heart races. While Harlow’s face is a careful mask, Bryce wears the frustration visibly across his features.

  Does that mean that Harlow won? Will I be kicked out, left to go back to the President with my tail between my legs?

  Bryce tousles his chestnut hair with his hand, defeat radiating from his slumped shoulders. “Okay, Kenadee. You’re free to stay, but we will be checking on you often.”

  That’s it?

  “Of course,” I try to hide the relief that floods my body, “Thank you so much!”

  “This is your only warning. Step out of line, and punishment will be rewarded,” Bryce continues, “We won’t be forgiving if you endanger the lives of our people.”

  I nod quickly, forcing a smile to my face.

  “Excellent.” Bryce stands, apparently satisfied with our meeting, “Then it’s settled. I’ll come back for you tonight or tomorrow, whenever Delia decides it’s time for your discharge. We’ll get everything prepared for you in the meantime. I’m sure you’re ready to get out of here.”

  “I am so ready.”

  “Good.” Bryce smiles, one hand already on the doorknob. “C’mon Har—we have a meeting to get to.”

  Harlow throws me a final wolfish glare before following Bryce. I hear her, just as the door sweeps closed, voice a low growl, “Whatever she does, Bryce, just know—it’s on your shoulders. Not mine.”

  10 DELIA RETURNS SEVERAL agonizing hours later, doing a happy dance in the doorway. “You’re about to be released! I know, I know, waiting is the absolute worst, but Bryce is on his way over right now to find you. You need anything before I discharge you from here?”

  “No—I’m fine, really,” I promise eagerly. I wiggle my toes for good measure. “My foot doesn’t even hurt.”

  She brushes her dark corkscrew curls from her shoulder, clearly pleased. “Well, I sure hope not. I’ve worked as a healer for years and I like to think that I do a good job.”

  I smile politely, watching as her palms turn towards the ceiling and all the tubes and the machines follow her magic guidance. With a shove-like motion, she flicks her hands to the right, and any signs of medical equipment are gone. She smiles to herself and claps her hands together, ridding them of imaginary dust.

  From there she turns back to me, fumbling with something.

  “Sorry, secret spell. I’m not supposed to let anyone see. Let me just unlock your restraints.” She swivels back around with a shiny brass key in her palm. I rub my wrists as the locks click open, wincing as my fingers trace the tender spot where the cuffs chaffed my skin.

  “Sorry about that. Looks like they were a bit tight…” Delia winces, giving me a remorseful look. “I’ll give you an ice pack to take with you to your room. Let me just go grab Bryce and tell him that you’re ready. While you’re waiting, why don’t you change into these?”

  She produces a bright pink t-shirt, jeans, and some slip-on shoes for me to wear. They look too big, but I’m just excited to get out of the awful hospital gown. It takes some extra effort from my weary body, but I ease on my new clothes and wait, taking advantage of the quiet room to think. I have to come up with a new plan, and fast. Somehow, I’m going to have to find a way to communicate with Reed without earning any more suspicions from the leaders. I’m not out of the woods yet with Harlow. It’s clear she doesn’t believe anything I said. I’m going to have to tread very carefully until I can earn her trust.

  The door scrapes across the floor as it opens, loud and heavy. I jump at the sight of Bryce, so happy to get out of this stuffy room that I think I could kiss him. He laughs at my reaction. “I see someone is suffering from the hospital blues!”

  “Get me out of here!” I joke back.

  I wave him off as he tries to help me from the bed, eager to get out of the dark gray room with its depressing décor. I move too quickly, though, and have to lean back into the bed to regain my bearin
gs. Bryce offers a steadying hand, concern written into the knit of his brows.

  “I’m fine,” I breathe, “I’ve just been lying down too long, is all.”

  “I’ll show you to your room, that way you can get some rest if you’d like,” he says as I slowly pull myself back into a standing position. The door pops open and Delia waltzes into the room, an ice pack in one hand, a white bag in the other.

  The contents of the little bag rattle as she holds it up. “Here’s a little something for your pain, if it comes back. It’s pretty common to feel some aches and pains for a while—magic can cure a lot, but it does have its limits. Only take the medicine if you need to. Make sure you eat something with it! If you have any questions, I’ll be around.”

  “Thanks Delia,” I say, taking the ice pack and wrapping it around my throbbing wrist. Delia hands the prescription bag off to Bryce to hold as we wave goodbye and head out.

  “So, now that we’re alone, I wanted to apologize for our first little meeting,” Bryce says, matching my slow stride as I try to weave through the throngs of people and wheelchairs clogging up the halls. “Harlow is…”

  “Intense?” I say, only half-joking. I don’t want to admit how much Harlow Creston actually terrifies me.

  “That’s one word for it,” he replies. “Trust is a really hard concept for her sometimes. She’s been getting better about it, there are just certain things that seem to set her off.”

  We make one last right turn through the winding halls before two large glass doors appear. A bright ray of sunlight shines into my eyes as fresh air floods my senses.

  “This feels like heaven!” I gasp, throwing my head back to gaze lovingly at the pale blue sky. Bryce lets out a good-natured laugh. There’s something different about him, in the warm summer light. His square shoulders are loose and relaxed, short hair rumpled from the muggy afternoon. When he smiles at me, it’s an easy, genuine smile.

  “If you want,” he offers, “I can show you your place so you can get some rest before dinner.”

  I shake my head. Maybe it’s the radiance of the afternoon or just the relief of getting out of the hospital, but I’m not ready to be cooped up indoors quite yet. Tonight, I’ll worry about calling Reed and getting on Harlow’s good side.

  But first, I say, “Can you show me around?”

  “Of course,” he looks to my injured foot then back to me, “but we should probably do a spell. It’s kind of a long walk otherwise.”

  Trying to get over how odd that sentence sounded, I let him reach for my hand. With one hand still free, he digs around in his pocket and pulls out a small device with intricate carvings on its face. He holds it up for me to see. “We use these to get around. It’ll take you to wherever you need to go—just do the spell and it’ll put in the latitude and longitude of whatever location you desire. I stuck one in your welcome basket at your place. Everyone around here uses one.”

  “Anywhere?”

  He nods, “Well, I’m assuming. I haven’t tried the moon or anything, but if that’s your thing then who knows?”

  “Cool!” I whisper, as Bryce laughs and closes his eyes. His fingers tighten around mine as a sudden haze appears around my feet. Slowly, it creeps up towards my knees, then my hips. Panicked, I look to Bryce, who doesn’t even budge.

  The fog moves faster and faster, now at my torso. I look down to see that the lower half of my body has vanished within the heavy blanket of magic haze. It crawls faster rising up to my neck, my mouth, and the top of my head.

  The fog takes over, a world of pure white. I feel like I’m in a never-ending tunnel, no sign of light, no way to escape. The next thing I know, I’m crumpled on the floor gasping for air and Bryce’s hand is reaching to help me up. I let him pull me from my knees into a standing position, where I stagger like the alcoholic man who used to live next door.

  “Sorry,” Bryce says remorsefully, “It’s kind of a doozy the first few times you do it. You’ll get used to it!”

  I’m about to respond, but then I glance around. We’re in what looks like downtown Steamboat. There’s no sign that there were ever any bombs that destroyed anything here. People of all ages mill through the streets, chatting happily, as there’s no President trying to kill them and no war that once turned this town into rubble. Restaurants line the sidewalks, people sitting outside and sipping leisurely at their drinks. Signs on the street boast about summer clearance sales, or new-in autumn clothing. The mountains sit proudly in the background, the sun lowering itself to their peaks.

  I feel myself let loose a sharp breath as I turn towards Bryce. “It’s like... nothing even happened here.”

  The sun hits him in the eyes, making the emerald green more pronounced as he squints towards me, “We were desperate a few years back. Reed was on our tails and we had no place left to go. So, we came here, we protected the borders, and we enlisted everyone in rebuilding this place. It’s become a home for a lot of us. We all work together to make it run.”

  “There are a lot more people than I expected…”

  He shrugs, following my gaze towards the life buzzing around us. “Harlow and I… we started a few years back with saving prisoners from different internment camps. Then Reed responded by building this magic army, and honestly, they’re tough. They got ahold of some of our people and made a big show of their deaths. We just couldn’t risk sending anyone else out there.”

  “That’s awful,” I feel my heart sink in my chest. For a moment, I want to tell Bryce everything. But I can’t. The truth is, they’re all criminals here. From what Reed said, they’re planning an attack. I can either turn them in and get my family back, or I can side with them, probably ending in innocent American’s deaths as they seek their revenge.

  I have to pick Reed.

  As Bryce gives me a sad little smile, hands in his pockets, I change the subject. “So, is there training for people like me that are new at magic?”

  He takes to the subject change with a grateful smile and spins on his heels, all-business, “C’mon. Let me show you something!”

  Bryce doesn’t stop his long-legged march until we’re walking into a tall, glass building that looks out at the bluish mountainscape.

  When we step inside, my jaw drops. We’re in the biggest library I’ve ever seen in my life. I gape at the spiraling staircase that disappears into the level above. Bryce doesn’t hesitate to climb them, clutching the railing with one hand and pointing eagerly with the other. “One of my favorite things we’ve built here. We do have books just for entertainment, but what you’re wanting is actually here on the second floor.”

  We come unto the landing and he leads through the shelves, weaving in and out of their dark cherry wood. He comes to a sudden halt in front a section crowded with ancient covers and broken spines. The smell of musty pages fills my nostrils as I gape at all of the beautiful books.

  Bryce reaches towards the top shelf and tips the top of a book so that it falls into his hands. “These are grimoires. Magic is a bit different for each person. We all might have different ways to do a spell, whether it’s verbal, or physical, that depends on the person. Then there’s healers, like Delia. They can’t just fix an injury—they usually create potions for different ailments. Grimoires are to help us document our spells so we know what works and what doesn’t.” He flicks off the coat of dust on the cover and opens the old, leather-bound book in his hands. The pages are yellowed with age and the handwriting is barely clear enough to read.

  I lean in close to see as he continues. “The grimoires you’ll find here are the finished ones. It usually takes years to fill one out completely. We like to keep documentation of everyone’s work here in the library for new arrivals like you to study and practice. You never know what will work for you and what won’t.”

  “This is amazing!” I say, flipping through the pages.

  “Grab as many as you’d like. Take them with you to study.”

  I look at him excitedly. “I can do that?”r />
  “It’s a library, isn’t it?”

  I don’t need any other encouragement. I stand on my tiptoes and reach for covers of varying states of decay and age. When both of our arms are full and I’m inhaling musty book dust, I decide that’s probably enough.

  “Okay, here’s the thing,” Bryce cranes his neck to see past the large pile in his arms. “I said take as many as you’d like, I really should’ve emphasized the importance of not taking the entire library. There’s no way you’ll read all of these before they’re due back.”

  “Look,” I laugh, taking extra precaution not to trip down the stairs considering I can’t see where I’m going, “I’m eager to learn my magic, okay? If this is what it takes, then so be it!”

  He presses his back against the door to open it and we step into the daylight, “I said study them, I didn’t say they’d be your only method of training.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He stops, trying to balance the tower of grimoires as he fishes in his pocket for the transportation device. When he finds it moments later, he looks back towards me with a blasé shrug, “Harlow trains the new arrivals. You’ll be working with her mostly when it comes to magic. Studying is just a great idea so you can practice.”

  I almost respond, but he’s already reaching for my hand, the cold metal of the device in his palm. We’re swept away by the fog.

  11 I FIND MYSELF SPRAWLED ACROSS a lawn, pinned down by the grimoires in a complete ironic twist.

  “I’ve got to learn how to land on my feet,” I grunt, clambering up as Bryce reaches for the fallen books. Learning that Harlow Creston, of all people, is going to be my magic instructor caught me completely off-guard.

  Maybe it’s a good thing. After all, Reed made it very clear that he wants me to get close to her. But on the other hand—it’s Harlow. Which means life is going to get very difficult.