Hidden Realms

by Dean Murray

  Micah was all business, standing with his arms crossed as he evaluated me. Nodding and giving instruction to put things here or there. He didn’t ask again about what I could or couldn’t do. For that, I was thankful. But as I stood there, a chunk of driftwood hovering over the water, my vision doubled and a sharp ache punched through my core. I dropped the log and fell to my knees, grateful we were on the beach and not concrete.

  Micah was there in an instant, apologizing. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry. I should have realized what this would do to you. Sit down.” He helped me back from my knees to sit on the sand and I could feel the top of my body actually moving in a circle as the rest of the world spun around me. Darkness threatened at the edges of my vision and I took deep breaths, willing myself to stay conscious. It took a few minutes but finally the world righted itself and it was only a dull throb thudding in the back of my skull.

  “How about I drive you home?” Micah asked.

  “No, just take me to the gym. Cole can help me.” I realized as the words came out that Micah hadn’t made that connection yet. I closed my eyes and exhaled in frustration. “He’s my brother. Which also makes him a Mage. But, it’s fine. He can help me. That’s what he does.”

  Micah didn’t ask questions. I was thankful he let it go and supported me as he led me up the beach and across the street to the gym. He let me go in alone, but wasn’t happy about it.

  As luck would have it, Cole wasn’t actually at the gym, so I sat in his office for a while until my headache subsided. I was still exhausted, but I forced myself out to my car and navigated my way back to the apartment. I was asleep instantly and didn’t move until the alarm went off the next morning. My only dreamless nights seemed to come after my body had been through the ringer.

  Chapter 11

  Over the next two weeks if I wasn’t with Aidan, then I was with Micah. We changed locations often and, if the weather was bad and Bethany was working, we would just go to my apartment. I was kind of avoiding her because it was awkward to know I was spending all of this time with her boyfriend and we weren’t telling her. It had been so much easier when I was hiding my power from everyone and the worst thing we had to discuss was where our next double date would take us. She was still my best friend, but I had to be honest with myself and realize that my human best friend just couldn’t know, no matter how much I wanted her to.

  In my sessions with Micah, we worked on so many things, but the biggest challenge and his biggest focal point was my mental defense. He wanted to make damn sure that I not only knew how to keep other Mages out, but that I could get in. This was some of the stuff Cole was most concerned about, too. He and I kept missing each other as he searched for more of his connections and I intentionally avoided having to talk to him and not explain about Aidan. But, we had texted and he was pacified to know that I was working on things. The problem, however, was that I just didn’t get it. So, here we sat on the beach, yet again, as Micah explained the process.

  “Okay, Amelia. We’re going to try this a different way. Instead of you coming at me, I’m going to come at you. I’m going to do it slowly and we’re going to talk through each step.” His patient tone amazed me. I had all but given up on myself already. I sat up straight and forced myself to focus. So often in these sessions my mind drifted to Aidan and wished I were cuddled with him on my couch, watching a movie instead of sitting on a windy beach with my best friend’s boyfriend. I opened my mouth and let out an audible exhale, trying to clear my head. I tilted my head toward my left shoulder and then my right. “Okay, Micah. Let’s do this.” I sounded more confident than I felt.

  “This time, I want you to keep your eyes open,” he directed. “Remember that humans can’t see what we’re doing here, so don’t react to what you see. I’m trying to make this easier on you so I’m going to be very blatant about it. Watch me.” Micah stared intently at me, his eyes slowly transitioning from their normal ice blue to red. It always freaked me out because he looked almost demonic — his blond hair, pale skin, and now bright red eyes. But as I watched him, I saw the tendrils of red start to float between us and knew my own eyes deepened to violet as my power rose in response. The red wisps spun and swirled, looking like smoke as they moved from him toward me. Suddenly, the smoke zipped quickly toward my face and it took all my strength to hold steady as people walked by on the beach. The smoke came to a dead stop right in front of my nose. I was almost cross-eyed as I stared into it, waiting for something to happen.

  “Now, stop me.” Micah gave me all of two seconds for that to sink in before he was pushing at my mind. It was as if a stranger were beating on my front door. Pounding furiously.

  My hands went to my ears to stop the pounding. “What? Micah? What the hell?”

  “Amelia. Stop doing that and stop me,” he said through gritted teeth.

  I closed my eyes and let the pressure in my mind extend throughout the rest of my body. When I felt that feeling of simmering electricity in every cell that was finally becoming familiar, I let my power seek out his. With a mental shove, I pushed at the red smoke. Not realizing I didn’t need to push that hard, Micah and I both flew apart and back into the sand.

  I sat back up, rubbing my temple, one eye closed and the other squinting across at him. His reaction was much the same as he scowled.

  “Too much?” I asked. He gave a chuckle. “Too much, indeed. Let’s try it again, except this time, I want you to let me in. Not far, but just far enough to open our lines of communication.”

  I took another deep breath and nodded as I repositioned myself on the sand and focused on Micah again.

  “I’m not going to project the fact that I’m coming at you,” he explained. “So, look for me. Find me. This is what I was talking about in the alley. We all have a signature and now that you’ve met mine, you can find it more easily.” His directions seemed clear enough.

  I closed my eyes, surprised to still see Micah in my mind. Though all I saw was red smoke sitting in front of me, it was obvious when he pushed his power toward me. He lightly knocked on the door of my mind. The pressure of him was there, just on the fringes, and I knew I had to decide if I could truly let him in — if it were smart to let him in. Quickly weighing the pros and cons, I decided he had been more of a friend to me in the last few weeks than most, so I took the chance. I allowed my power to meet his, the two swept around and around each other, tightening their loops until they resembled a twisted braid of color. They spun faster and faster until finally the braid was one single strand. Then, I heard him.

  Looks like you finally figured out how to talk to me.

  Hearing Micah in my head had to truly be the strangest happening yet. I had no idea this was even possible.

  I heard his laugh as he said, There’s so much you don’t know. But, we’ll get there.

  With that, he left my mind. I opened my eyes to find both of us grinning at each other.

  We sat there in silence for just a few moments and then Micah brought me back to the present with a muttered curse.

  “What?” I asked. “Did I mess it up somehow?”

  “No, I just realized that I am, yet again, late for a date with Bethany and she just might kill me this time.” Micah sighed and stood, brushing himself off.

  “Oh, no! We can pick this up another time,” I said. “You need to take that girl out and have a good night. I’m sure she’s missed you!”

  He shrugged and helped me to my feet. “What we’re doing here is very important. But, yes, she deserves better than this.”

  The sun had long gone down and the moon was just rising. We were basically alone on the beach and I’m sure to the average person looked like a couple coming up from a rendezvous. We were both quietly walking up toward the parking area with our shoes in our hands when a bolt of blue magic went shooting by us. Micah plowed into me, sending us both face first into the sand just as the next bolt came flying by.

  “Shit! Amelia, we have to get to safety. Dammit! Where are they
?”

  He was crouched and looking in every direction, muttering to himself, “I should have been paying attention. I can’t believe I wasn’t paying attention!”

  “What do you want me to do?” I whispered, bringing myself into a crouch as well.

  “The best we can hope for is that we can run and shoot at the same time. Your aim has gotten much better and the blasts don’t actually have to be big, just frequent,” he said.

  “The gym is just over the boardwalk. If we can make it to the back alley, then we can get inside,” I explained. “Cole is always cleaning up around this time and props that back door open to empty the trash.”

  Micah nodded and we spoke in low voices for just a few minutes more, finalizing our plan. On “Three!” we were up and sprinting for the boardwalk. Even with magic coursing through our veins at top speed, I still had a hard time keeping my footing in the dense sand. As I shot purple blasts, thankfully larger now than they were at first, toward the direction of the blue bolts, Micah was also blasting them with large red bolts.

  Trees were falling, sand was exploding everywhere, and the area was a mess. It was only as we hit the boardwalk and started around the corner that I saw bright blue eyes staring back at me. It suddenly hit me that I’d never seen or heard of blue power. Each Immortal race has their own signature and blue was never one we discussed. It was the same reason my father tried to keep me quarantined…violet eyes were rarely seen and he didn’t want people asking questions.

  I didn’t have a chance to look again or process it further because another bolt came flying at me at the same time Micah hauled me around a corner and shoved me into the back door of Cole’s gym.

  The locker room was dark and we both fell against the door as we shoved it closed. We were panting and I realized I had left my shoes on the beach. So many thoughts were racing through my mind…Who were those people? What did they want? How did they find us? I turned to question Micah about these same things and couldn’t help but laugh as I realized he had a huge chunk of seaweed in his hair. I was just reaching up to brush it away when I heard a voice say, “What the hell are you two doing?”

  Aidan. Shit, shit, SHIT! It seemed like Micah and I started to speak at the same time, then stopped, looking at each other, then started again. Finally, I glared at him to shut him up and stepped toward Aidan.

  “Looks like you caught us!” I tossed out, trying to sound like it was no big deal that he had walked into a scene that looked just about as bad as it actually was, but for completely different reasons. Aidan stood in front of me, still mostly in the shadows of the dark locker room. His stance and posture were exuding his rage at finding me with Micah. He had me reeling at the myriad of emotions that rolled off of him. Anger. Frustration. Hurt. I had to force myself to keep moving toward him, pushing through it all and knowing that there was absolutely no way around having to lie.

  “I thought you would like it if I learned more about MMA, so I convinced Micah to start teaching me some of the moves and the lingo. I want to be able to understand what you’re doing. I know it’s important to you.” I didn’t bother to explain that I already held all of this knowledge and I could probably teach Micah a thing or two, even in the ring, because of Cole. I just prayed that Aidan wouldn’t ask too many questions.

  “You…asked Micah…to teach you about MMA?” The raised eyebrow and stone-cold expression made it obvious that he didn’t believe a word I had said, but couldn’t really dispute it. Without turning away from Aidan, I sent a message to Micah, Tell him that you’ve been teaching me. Things like the proper way to defend an arm bar.

  I could feel Micah’s confusion and hesitation, but he delivered the statement with utter confidence. Even adding that I was a better fighter than most would expect.

  I puffed up a little, knowing that Cole’s training would come in handy one day. He’d love hearing this story in a few years when I could admit to dating Aidan. I gave Aidan a big smile and challenged him, bouncing on the balls of my feet in a Southpaw stance.

  “Whatcha got?!” I poked with a forced grin. He let out a little snort, snatching me up, bringing me flush with his body, and pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “Alright then, doll. You win. I’m not gonna fight you. But, I do need a minute with your training partner over there.” I could feel him channel everything into protecting me — us — as he faced down Micah. I was certain he didn’t believe a word I’d said. He wanted to, but there was just no way.

  I kept my smile going, leaving them as if I had no reason to be concerned, though I was almost certain Aidan could probably dismantle Micah. Micah might have had a few inches, but Aidan had more muscle and certainly more emotion at this particular moment. I was lost in my own thoughts and didn’t realize I had made my way to Cole’s office. He looked up, surprised to see me, and instantly was up and around the desk. “Ame, what’s up? I can feel it, some thing’s wrong. What happened?”

  Cole was giving me that look that was half “Dad”, half “who can I beat up because I’m your big brother?”

  I still didn’t know how to explain the attack. It was only just now occurring to me what it could mean, so I didn’t say anything. I just walked into his arms and buried myself in my big brother’s chest. While I could feel his confusion over why I was so upset and his anger at whomever had caused it, he gave me a moment with his hand on the back of my head. Finally, I disengaged myself and stepped back.

  “Cole, there’s so much to say, so much that’s been happening these last few weeks that I haven’t had the chance to fill you in on. But, Aidan’s going to be coming to find me soon and this is going to take a while to explain.” I sighed, looking around for Aidan but knowing Cole wasn’t going to let me off easy. He clearly wasn’t happy with my build up and let down.

  “Amelia, you come into my gym after dark with your power on full tilt, sand all over you, no shoes on, looking like hell, and you expect me to just let you walk away without an explanation because one of your friends is coming to look for you?” he asked.

  It hadn’t sounded so ridiculous in my head, but I also had no clue that I looked so terrible. Cole’s face took on a pretty frightening expression; the one he reserved for the hoodlums who tried to infiltrate his gym… or when his sister stepped out of line.

  Of course, Aidan decided at that moment to come around the corner and step into Cole’s office. He actually wore a similar look to Cole.

  “Amelia, you know Cole?” Aidan’s shock was apparent. Then, he kept looking from me to Cole, and back. It wasn’t really that hard to see the family resemblance when we were right next to each other, and I visibly knew the moment it clicked for him. I hadn’t exactly hidden the fact that we were related, I just hadn’t given it up willingly. I hoped that he didn’t connect the fact that I might have already known the things Micah was supposedly teaching me. The lies just kept getting harder to maintain.

  I gave Aidan a tentative smile but Cole didn’t wait for him to verbalize the pieces he’d put together. He just stepped in front of me, crossed his arms over his chest, and said, “Yeah, she’s my little sister. And, we’ve got stuff to deal with. So, I need you to beat it, Montgomery. I know you guys are friends, but we’ve got some family stuff.”

  “We’re friends?” Aidan repeated slowly. From behind Cole, I nodded frantically at Aidan, trying to make him understand that the last thing I needed was to have that conversation now. In front of Cole. “Uh, yeah, we’re…friends,” he said, nodding at me. “Amelia, just call me later and you can finish filling me in on that other thing.” Those last few words were punctuated with such an angry undercurrent, I shivered.

  I had to be the only person on the planet capable of pissing off every guy in my life on the same day while managing to get them to all lie to each other — while lying to them myself. And, the fact that Aidan and Cole were giving me the exact same look did not bode well for my future.

  Chapter 12

  Aidan left the office and it took a moment for
Cole to turn around to face me. I could tell from his stance that he was trying to control his temper. Finally, he turned and simply said, “Sit.”

  His tone had said enough. I sat.

  “Would you like to tell me what in the hell is going on?” Cole’s tone was patronizing as he leaned against his desk, his arms crossed.

  “Well. The funny part about all of this is that I don’t actually know.” I wanted to play it off, but thoughts were bouncing around inside my head like someone had let every pinball loose in the machine. Every day just brought more information. More to think about. More questions. I had done an okay job of compartmentalizing everything up until now, but it all came crashing into me at once. Being the last Elder. Making friends with a Mage. Lying to my best friend and the guy I liked. Being attacked. Being attacked.

  I looked up at Cole, my eyes filled with barely restrained hysteria, expecting to see anger. Instead, I saw empathy, frustration… sadness.

  He sighed and sat down next to me. “Talk to me, Ame. We both know you’ve been avoiding me for weeks. Did I dump too much on you too fast? You know we can’t just wait around for you to get comfortable, right? You’re too far behind.”

  Anger replaced fear as he once again resorted to big brother behaviors. I stood, this time looking down at him. The emotion filling my chest choked my words, making them feel thick and hard to push out.

  “Comfortable? You think I’ve just been hiding out in my room waiting until I can handle all of this, do you? You don’t get it, Cole. You’ve been running around the country for last ten years. Granted, it was for me, but for you, too. Don’t deny it. And, all the while, I’ve been dealing with Dad. With this.”