Feudlings

by Wendy Knight

  The Carules Prodigy never fought. He allowed his people to be slaughtered rather than risk the Edrens capturing him. Coward, Ari thought, pushing the sting of jealousy deep down as she viciously shoved a thumb tack into the wall. She was a weapon for the Edrens, and weapons should be used, not protected.

  “Hello! Ari!”

  Ari started and nearly fell off her ladder. “Hey! What?” She gasped, clinging to the top rung. She was starting to think the ladder had it in for her.

  “I said about a thousand times, do you have a boyfriend?” Nevaeh demanded, raising an incredulous eyebrow at Livi.

  “Were you daydreaming?” Livi asked in a singsong voice, giving Ari an impish grin.++

  “Yes,” Ari answered.

  “Ooooh, what’s his name?” Livi asked, bouncing up and down on her toes and clapping her hands like a little girl.

  “What? No, no I don’t have a boyfriend. Yes, I was daydreaming. Sorry.”

  “Aww.” Livi’s face fell.

  Nevaeh shook her head as she hefted a second large box and turned toward the ladder. “How does someone who looks like you not have a boyfriend?”

  “Oh my! Shane is coming! He can’t see — we’re not done!” Brittany squealed as she scampered through the door, her heels click-clacking against the gym floor. She raced to the lights, killing all but the small one over the door.

  Ari glimpsed three figures silhouetted in the doorway. Nevaeh cursed as Livi screamed. Too late, Nevaeh crashed into the box on the floor and pitched forward, slamming into Ari’s ladder. Ari watched it all in slow motion, having been graced with excellent night vision to accompany her magic. Her brain flew, catalog-like, through the spells she knew, searching for one that would hold the ladder. Unfortunately, her spells were for blowing things up, not holding things still.

  Instead, she flung all her weight to the side, throwing the ladder to the right and away from Livi, who was standing below. Ari could then do nothing but crash to the floor. She had just enough time to realize she had never been knocked unconscious before as her head slammed into the wood and the ladder smashed into her ribs. She heard running feet as light exploded behind her eyes, and then nothing.

  Chapter Two

  “Shane, we should go check the gym and see how things are coming,” Charity Delyle said. Shane smushed his cell phone between his shoulder and his ear as he wrote his number on one of the pretty new freshman’s hands. He cupped his palm over the mouthpiece, whispering, “Anytime you need help, just call.” He winked at her and she erupted in a fit of giggles.

  “Why? What do you see? Something bad?” Shane turned his attention back to Charity just in time to hear her sigh.

  “I might be a Seer, Shane, but I don’t have to even look. You put Brittany in charge of decorating,” she huffed.

  “She’s an amazing artist. I thought she’d do a great job,” Shane responded.

  “Shane, you are only my favorite cousin because you’re my only cousin. Remember that.” She was trying to sound intimidating but it came out more as a half-hearted growl, like dogs do when they’re mostly asleep. Her voice was too soft. Sounding even a little threatening was beyond her.

  Hunter Millen cleared his throat, catching Shane’s attention. “Stop stressing her out. Just get over there.”

  “Hunter to the rescue,” Charity murmured.

  “Fine, but you are both coming with me,” Shane said. “Char, I’ll meet you in front of your dorm in two minutes.”

  Ten minutes later Shane rounded the corner, laughing easily with the brunette walking next to him. He couldn’t remember her name, but she didn’t seem to care.

  “Can we just once not be surrounded by girls?” Hunter muttered.

  Shane’s grin widened. “It’s good for you, Hunter.” But by then Hunter wasn’t listening. Shane followed his gaze, seeing Charity leaning against the wall of her building. Her eyes were closed. She was practicing her sight.

  When they were kids, she would try to explain it to him. “I focus on the person. And then, my brain just kind of spins and my head gets real hot. And my heart too. And then the heats…meet. Like an explosion” She paused, sneaking a peek at him to see if he was laughing at her. “I don’t stay long. I just want to practice. I don’t want to know what they’re thinking.

  It made her eyes glow. Even with them shut, he could see the faint shining through her eyelids.

  Shane could tell the exact instant Hunter got in Charity’s field of sight. Abruptly the glowing was gone and her eyes flew open. Shane glanced at Hunter to see if he noticed, but his gold eyes flicked across the school lawns, pausing when he realized Charity was watching him. A brief smile aimed her way, and then it was gone.

  “Well, now I understand why you’re late.” Charity sighed when they got closer. “Although I’m not surprised. You’re such a player, Shane.” Shane raised his hands in self-defense, as if he could ward off her playful attack, but Charity just shook her head. “Black hair. Mesmerizing blue eyes. And how tall are you? Six foot two? Oh and your razor sharp wit. Swoon.” Charity batted her eyelashes, mocking him. Shane raked a hand through his black hair, a grin playing around his lips. Charity rolled her eyes as half the girls practically fainted. “And you know exactly what you’re doing,” she muttered under her breath.

  Shane’s grin widened as he looked over the girls at Hunter. Shane was taller than Hunter but not as broad. More lanky. All Carules, and Edrens too, for that matter, were big, but Hunter was big even for them. No matter how much time Shane spent in the gym, he never came close to being as big as Hunter. It was a fact that Hunter never let him forget.

  “How are you friends again? You’re so different. You never talk and he never shuts up.” Charity peered up at Hunter.

  “We have to be.” Hunter growled.

  She nodded in agreement before scowling at Shane. “Your particular brand of annoying is not as endearing when it makes me stand around waiting for you.” Charity shoved her white-blonde hair over her shoulder and glared at Shane.

  In answer Hunter jerked his head towards the group of girls with an annoyed frown and Charity suppressed a smile. When no one moved, Hunter sighed and turned around. “We’ve got work to do. Shane will see you all later.” He made shooing motions with his hands. Shane waved as disappointed girls dispersed.

  “You made Charity scowl. It’s not good for those silver eyes of hers,” Hunter told him.

  Charity pulled a face and folded her arms across her chest. “Are we going or not?”

  “Of course. Sorry little cousin.” Shane dropped an arm around her shoulders.

  “Yeah well. You should be.” She sighed. She and Hunter shared a look, but Shane knew it was impossible for either of them to stay mad at him.

  “Why’s the gym dark?” Shane asked no one as they approached the gym, although an answer would have been nice. Just then there was a high-pitched shriek and a crash reverberated through the room, clattering off the walls and hardwood floor. With a quick look at Hunter, he raced toward the sound as Hunter went for the lights. Just as Shane approached the commotion, Charity hard at his heels, the gym flooded with light and Shane’s eyes leaped to the ladder that lay on its side. A little more slowly he realized that there was a girl underneath the ladder who was not moving. Charity was already reaching for a bent metal rung, trying to pull it off. He jumped to help her as Livi pulled Nevaeh up from a heap of boxes.

  “Ari! Are you okay?” Nevaeh landed on her knees next to the girl. Shane and Charity pushed the ladder away and knelt next to Ari, looking the girl over, trying in vain to see how injured she was. He cast an incredulous look at Charity, wondering why she hadn’t warned them that this would happen, but she was staring at the girl with her brow scrunched up in confusion.

  “No blood. That’s gotta be good, right?” Hunter asked as he bent over the girl’s still figure.

  “We need to get her to Ms. Neemer,” Shane said as he slid one arm under her head and the other under her legs. He hoisted
her up to his chest.

  “You’re not supposed to move her. She could have a neck injury,” Charity said as she looked up at him from where she still knelt on the floor. Her white-blonde hair was tangled around her face and her wide, luminous silver eyes stared at him.

  “Too late,” Hunter said as he pulled Charity to her feet. Shane glanced over his shoulder at them but kept going, hoping to get away from all these people. If he could just get a few seconds alone with her, he could heal her, but he couldn’t do it in front of Nevaeh and Livi and Brittany.

  It didn’t happen. They followed him all the way to the nurse’s office and after he laid the girl on the couch Ms. Neemer shooed him out and shut the door. Hunter leaned against the wall in the office with Charity standing next to him. Brittany glared at the floor.

  Livi examined Nevaeh’s arm, concern written across her delicate features. “I don’t know Nev. I think you should have the nurse look at this.”

  “It’s just banged up. It’ll be fine.” Nev shrugged her off, set on attacking Brittany. She whirled on her, furious. “What were you thinking?!”

  “She wasn’t.” Livi glared up at the blonde, ferocious despite her small size.

  “Okay this is going to get out of hand,” Charity murmured, pushing between them. “What happened?” she asked. Hunter crossed his arms over his chest and waited for an answer. Shane waited too, but most of his attention was still on the girl behind the door.

  “We were decorating the gym, and Ari was up on top of that stupid ladder, and Miss Brilliant over there shut off the lights!” Nevaeh shouted.

  “Why would you do that?” Charity asked, turning her big silver eyes to Brittany, who was still glaring at the floor.

  Brittany turned her emerald glare on Charity. “Because I didn’t want you to see the gym yet. It was supposed to be a surprise. None of this would have happened if you hadn’t just showed up like that.”

  “So this is our fault?” Shane asked in disbelief, finally turning his full attention to the conversation.

  “No, Shane, of course not. That’s not what I meant.” Brittany’s face melted into a smile as she sidled up to him, putting a hand on his arm and peering at him.

  “Typical Brittany,” Nevaeh said, but Charity was still between them.

  “Nev, you need to have someone look at your arm. Sit.” Charity thunked Nevaeh down in a chair. “Brittany, you’re alone in a room full of hostile people, most of whom have it in for you. And the dance starts soon. Go finish decorating.”

  Charity shoved the girl out the door as Brittany protested, “By myself?” Charity raised her eyebrows at Shane as she turned around. Having a Seer as his favorite cousin often came in handy, although he was curious to know why she hadn’t told them about the accident before they got into the gym.

  “Is she going to be okay?” Hunter asked Charity from where he still leaned against the wall, arms crossed.

  Charity frowned, shaking her head. “I… don’t… know.”

  “What do you mean you don’t know?” Shane exclaimed. Hunter’s head came up sharply.

  “Well she’s not a doctor, is she? How would she know?” Nevaeh snapped. Shane blinked in surprise. He’d forgotten she and Livi were there. Hunter pushed away from the wall and stalked out, jerking his head at the door as he passed Charity. She glanced at Shane as they both followed Hunter. He was halfway down the empty hallway when they caught up with him.

  “You didn’t see her fall, did you?” Hunter asked, stopping to face Charity. She shook her head. “And you can’t see her now?” Again, she shook her head. “We need to get out of here.” He turned on his heel and started down the hall again.

  “Wait, what? Why? You can’t be serious.” Shane laughed in disbelief.

  “There’s only one reason you wouldn’t be able to see that, Charity,” Hunter said, ignoring Shane.

  Charity crossed her arms and glared down at the floor. “There are two reasons, Hunter. Either she is the Prodigy that Shane is supposed to kill to end this stupid war or I’m a crappy Seer. Hmmm, I wonder which one it could be.”

  “She’s a girl, Hunter. The Prodigy is a boy. Everybody knows that,” Shane said, and turned to Charity. “You’re not a crappy Seer.”

  The Council, a combination of six sorcerers who ruled the Carules, had been excited when Charity was born. A first cousin to the Prodigy, the most powerful sorcerer ever born. But they had found no traces of Carules magic, only the gift of Sight, and not even a strong gift, in their opinion. Charity had grown up being told she was worthless. Because of that, they’d had this conversation many, many times.

  Which was why Hunter ignored it. “Show me where it says the Prodigy is male, Shane.”

  “Well… I’m male,” Shane said, and as Hunter threw up his hands in disgust, Shane rushed to continue. “And the Prodigy is more powerful than any other, right? Except me, of course. And males are, as a rule, more powerful.” Hunter opened his mouth to argue but Shane continued. “And — you’ve seen the pictures. The Prodigy is huge. That girl was tall, not huge.”

  “All we’ve seen is the Prodigy in a black hooded robe clouded in a shroud spell. It could be Livi, for all we know. And males, as a rule, are more aggressive, not more powerful. Besides that, there are always exceptions to the rule. And Charity can’t see her.” Hunter ground out each word.

  Shane shook his head as Charity said, “I can’t see a lot of people, Hunter.”

  “You can’t see the Prodigy.”

  “You’re getting all worked up because Charity can’t see her? Besides, if she had been the Prodigy, I would have known.” Shane dropped his voice and his lips quirked up as a couple of sophomore girls walked by and giggled hello. “There were no magical traces on her. At all.”

  “None?” Hunter asked in disbelief. It finally dawned on Shane that his best friend was serious. He believed this girl was the Prodigy

  “None, Hunter,” he responded.

  Charity started down the hall, but stopped, tipping her head to the side with a thoughtful frown. “Anyway, Hunter, everyone knows the Family keeps him close in case they need him to fight. They’re not going to send him away to a boarding school where he’s unprotected and out of their reach.”

  “She’s got a point,” Shane smirked, but Hunter only scowled at the ground.

  ****

  Ari tossed in her bed, conscious enough to know she was trapped in a dream she’d had a thousand times before, but not awake enough to stop it. Pain and the nightmare. That was all.

  Ada glared out at the storm. Lightning struck five, six, seven times; splitting the sky in brilliant light so bright it was like the noonday sun had risen again. And then came the thunder, before the light had even faded, booming so loud it shook the house, causing the fine crystal chandelier to sway and creak. It was the worst storm she had ever seen, and it had ruined her wedding. Instead of the ceremony being a grand fairy tale and the envy of every girl in society, it had been a muddy, embarrassing mess. All that planning, gone to waste.

  Not only that, but the worthless servant girl had been too frightened of the storm to travel to her father’s home and retrieve the trunk that Ada had forgotten, and she could not have her wedding night without that trunk. William, her new groom, had chivalrously gone to get it. And now this horrid storm is slowing him, she thought with an incensed stamp of her small foot.

  Lightning flashed again, lighting the sky, and Ada screamed as a face leered back at her through the window. The glass shattered inward in a blast of blue flames, throwing her back against the wall where she lay trembling. Christian stalked through the gaping hole, the storm at his back. “You’re all alone now, Ada. You have even less than I do.” He gave one short, barking laugh, and then he was tracing a spell into the air with such speed she didn’t even have time to see it before he was gone. It hung in the shattered air, surrounded by flames, but by then she already knew what it was. Christian and his mother had always been good at saldepement spells, spells that al
lowed them to move from one place to another through a doorway of some sort. Edrens, for some reason, could rarely do saldepement spells, something that bothered her father to no end.

  Father. Her heart tightening in horror, Ada whirled and raced for William’s stables.

  She roared into the storm on William’s fastest horse, driving her heels into his flanks relentlessly, pushing him faster and faster across the rain-ravaged roads. An eternity passed before she blew through the gate that hung broken on its hinges and raced down the once tree-lined drive. But now the trees were charred, blackened stumps, and the sickened feeling in the pit of her stomach told her what she would see before she rounded the final bend.

  Despite the storm, the hungry blue flames had been visible for miles.

  Still, mud-covered heaps scattered across the huge expanse of lawns and she gasped in horror as she realized they were her father’s guards. The Duke’s crumpled form took shape as she neared the inferno that had once been her home, and she leapt from the horse and raced toward him, stumbling over her skirts, falling to her knees in the mud at his side. “Father!” she wailed. Her eyes searched the devastation, looking for help, for anything alive. Nearby another still form caught her attention and she crawled through the mud, unmindful of her tearing, filthy dress, keeping one hand on her father’s chest, unwilling to let him go. A horrified screech erupted from her throat as she realized who she was staring at.

  William, his eyes wide and unseeing.

  She heard a low, agonized moan and stumbled back to the Duke’s side, ducking in terror as lightning smashed into the manor a breath away, sending sparks shooting through the air. “They’re gone, Ada. They’re all gone. They… they were… trapped inside,” her father whispered.

  In horror, Ada’s eyes swept back to the house, but there was nothing left. No one could have survived that. It was a massive inferno, so hot that even through the hellish storm the heat singed her eyelashes.