by Trevor Darby
If only I could see her, maybe this would all seem a little less awful.
I couldn't hold back the tears any longer, and I cried myself to sleep, wondering how I'd be able to go weeks like this and wishing I had enough magic to fast forward...
Chapter 10
Four weeks later...
“Good, Chace,” Tiberius said with a half-smile, pulling his feet from the goop on the ground beneath him that I’d created with my magic, “Very good. Your energy blasts and environmental control are improving every day...”
He’d said much the same at least a dozen times over the past few weeks, and while I was heartened by his praise, I’d almost given up hope that he would ever reunite Raven and me. It was always good, but not good enough. And, while I wouldn’t say I’d gotten used to being isolated and lonely, I had stopped crying myself to sleep after the first week, which was a win.
I released my spell, and the ground returned to normal as I blew out a breath. It wasn't until Tiberius eyed me, arms folded, nodding slowly, and said, "I think it's time," that I realized how desperately lonely I still felt. I needed to see my family, my friends, and—most of all—Raven.
“Time for what?” I asked, cautiously, afraid to get my up hopes up again only to have them smashed.
“I think you and Raven are both ready, Chace. We’ll reunite you and begin the testing process. I feel good about it...Let’s see if I’m right, shall we?”
He pulled a vial of potion from the sleeve of his robe and sent it sailing toward me. I snatched it out of the air and uncorked it, my hands shaking.
“We’re going to see Raven now?” I whispered. There was no point asking him what to expect. Tiberius loved his secrets.
He just nodded, so I drank the potion, shocked by the delicious vanilla-like flavor. After nearly a month of what seemed like gallons of elixir so licorice-y that even Pop would've hated it, it was a real treat.
He waved a ghostly hand. The fire extinguished, and the world went to black before suddenly exploding into blinding light as we appeared in the middle of the field we'd been before my days of training. My heart soared at the rush of color as my eyes adjusted to the light. Better still was the fact that Raven was standing directly in front of me, her black hair flowing in the wind.
It took everything I had not to throw my arms around her, and, for the first time since our falling out, something in her face told me she might not have shoved me away. A hint of relief in her eyes at seeing me too...maybe even a ghost of a smile on her lips.
“Hey,” I croaked.
“Hey,” she replied. But our awkward reunion was interrupted as the two ghostly versions of Tiberius faced one another and stepped forward. The two ghostly forms fused into one normal looking Tiberius. Then, he clapped his hands together.
“Time to begin. Raven, you’re first,” he said, putting his left hand to the side and forming a bright red magical sword in the shape of a thin rapier. Though it was thinner than Raven’s blade usually was, the concentration of magic in it reminded me of how small he could make his energy balls.
Raven’s eyes widened, “I have to fight...you?” She looked more terrified of him than she had when we fought the Dragon, which made my stomach do a flip.
If Raven was scared, I should probably be terrified.
"I won't use my left hand, and I won't use any spells other than enhancing my speed and power to make it fair. Fight as if you're trying to kill me. First of us to land a critical blow wins. I will cast a charm that will prevent any single serious physical injury, so don’t hold back,” he said.
She didn’t even have a chance to reply before he went charging towards her with his sword raised.
She put her hand up, forming her magical blade just in time to block an overhead chop. I could see the magic buzzing to the surface of her skin as she swept his sword aside and dodged to his right, getting behind him. A shiver of excitement rolled through me.
She’d clearly improved as much as I had.
She spun around just in time to avoid a stab directed at her abdomen with an inhumanly fast sidestep. They were moving and reacting so quickly that it was hard to track their movements with the naked eye, but Tiberius was a flurry of activity. He kept attacking while Raven defended herself, slowly being pushed back.
Even though she had yet to throw a single attack, she'd still taken no damage after well over a minute of the same parrying and getting pushed back. With that said, she was being forced directly towards a small patch of trees. I followed after them, doing my best to get the best view of their fight.
"What'll you do now, Raven?" Tiberius yelled, looking excited, and almost maniacal.
She lunged forwards, forgetting defense, and stabbed at his abdomen. He moved his midsection sideways, narrowly avoiding her stab with a move that made it look like his body was made of rubber. Then he continued his attack.
"You'll lose at this rate," he said, dropping Raven to her knees with a kick to the shin. She recovered quickly, pushing herself up to her feet with one hand and continuing to block his attacks with the other. They were just a few feet from the cluster of huge trees now, and I didn't see any way she could manage to win before getting backed into a corner.
As her back foot touched the base of the tree, she put her left hand up, which was clenched in a fist, and pulled back as if to punch him. She blocked a downward slash with her sword and sent her fist flying at his face, pushing off the tree for extra speed. I shook my head sadly as he dodged easily to the side.
It was futile.
Or so I thought, until Raven flicked her wrist, spraying a clump of dirt and grass that she'd had in her hand in the direction he'd dodged. She swung at him with her sword as his free right hand went up to rub at his eyes, but he deflected it, backing away. She followed after him, lunging forwards with a stab towards his chest, ignoring defense as he swung wildly at her.
He dodged to the side, blocking my view of Raven, and raised his sword. He started to swing his sword down at Raven. To my surprise, Tiberius dropped to the ground, his swing still left unfinished, revealing Raven standing directly in front of him. She was pulling a huge magical spear from his chest with her left hand as she held her sword up in victory with her right.
"Well done, when faced with a stronger opponent, trickery is the best option," Tiberius said. He blinked and smiled as he rose to his feet and set the wizard hat back onto his head. He was completely unharmed. Tiberius waved his hand in front of his face and magicked the dirt from his eyes.
I ran to Raven, overjoyed, going for a high five, but she pulled me into a hug.
“Good job!” I said.
“Thanks,” she said, her cheeks flushing and letting her arms drop. I backed away, wishing things weren’t still so weird between us.
"If I'm honest, I never expected you to actually win," Tiberius said, "I would've passed you just for lasting as long as you did. Chace, you'll be next. I have some preparations to take care of, but I'll be back in an hour.”
Raven dropped to sit on the ground, clearly exhausted. “Do I get to eat some actual food now?” she asked wearily.
“Sure. Here’s some for both of you, actually," Tiberius said, somehow pulling two live lobsters and plates from his robe. He put the lobsters onto plates and snapped his fingers, cooking them instantly and placing a stick of butter next to the dishes. "Enjoy!"
Raven cut me off before I could ask any questions.
“How about some fries to go with that?”
Tiberius rolled his eyes, “Fine.” He reached back into his robe and pulled out a massive tray of French fries that looked so crispy and delicious my mouth watered.
As I opened my mouth to thank him, he faded into nothing, disappearing from our view.
Raven grabbed a lobster claw and cracked it open, groaning in delight as she popped a morsel of meat into her mouth. She chewed and swallowed before nodding slowly and locked her blue gaze on me.
“So...let’s talk.”
; Chapter 11
Raven ate the last fry on her plate and looked both ways, checking for Tiberius, before nodding. "I know I've been...cold to you, Chace. But it's just been tough for me..."
"Raven," I said, cutting her off as she was about to continue. I'd run through this conversation in my mind a thousand times while we’d been apart, but I still didn’t feel prepared to actually hash things out between us. Still, it had to happen because I couldn’t take the tension anymore. Having her mad at me was killing me. “There are some things you still don’t know about this whole situation...and once I realized who your father was—the same day you did—I just didn’t know how to tell you. But you need to understand, it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
She winced and then met my eyes, nodding intently. "This whole thing is eating me up inside. It's like I'm filled with poison, and I need it out."
I swallowed hard and nodded. “Pop had mentioned his Protector once before,” I said, pausing to take a deep breath. This wasn't going to be easy. Any of it, but we couldn’t move past this with secrets between us. “I know...I know how your father...”
She nodded again, tears almost overflowing in her eyes. “Tell me,” she whispered hoarsely.
“Pop found out about his power late in life. Much later than me. He just wasn't willing to accept what was happening around him, and by the time he had, he was already a grown man, divorced and settled into normal life. Even at that, it took him years to connect with his Protector—your dad. But once they found each other, it was...well, it was magic," I said with a shrug. I remembered what my great grandfather had told me when I’d pressed him for more details after Raven had left that fateful night. “He said they were like peas and corn...which I guess means really close, in old people talk. They just clicked. They went on dozens of missions together and had great success. One day, they had to go to the Magical Realm to battle a Minotaur who was possessed by an evil female Warlock. She was killing Fairies and Brownies for reasons unknown. It was a terrible scene, and they went in ready for battle." Raven's eyes welled up, and it took everything I had not to grab her hand as my own throat went tight. "They were confident at first, so in tune with each other, they were almost like one person. But the Warlock was far more powerful than they’d bargained for. When the Minotaur charged Pop, he had nothing to do but hope he could wrest control of it from the Warlock before the Minotaur reached him.” I cleared my throat, tears now leaking from my eyes. I continued, "Y-your father leaped in front of him and was stabbed by the Minotaur just as Pop managed to free it from the Warlock’s control.”
There were so many things I wanted to say, but I couldn’t get the words out through the sobs.
Raven nodded, looking as furious as she was sad as tears streamed down her face. She punched the ground, and a shower of golden, magical sparks showered us both.
“How could he do that?” she demanded, voice cracking.
“I-he didn’t know your father was going to do it. He—”
“Not your Pop, Chace. My Da. How could he leave me like that?” She shot up to stand and began to pace in a frenzy. “How stupid and selfish can you get, sacrificing yourself like that when you have a kid at home?” she spat, swiping her forearm across her running nose. “Didn’t he know I needed him? Didn’t he think of me at all?”
“I’m so sorry, Raven,” I said, pulling her close, not worried about the tears or the snot as she laid her head against my shoulder and wept. If heartbreak had a sound, this was it. All I wanted was a spell or potion to make her feel better because I’d never felt more powerless.
“W-was Pops sad?” she asked when she could finally speak without her voice breaking again, long moments later.
“He was furious," I whispered. "And in his rage, he took down the Warlock alone. But it used up so much of his magic, he went too deep. He depleted even his own personal store of energy. His power couldn't regenerate, and he damaged his nervous system. That's why he has the limp. He..." I forced the rest out through numb lips as I pulled away and met her gaze. "As the freed Minotaur ran away, he dragged himself back to your father's side and held him in his arms until he was gone. He told me that Declan was the truest hero that ever walked,” I said.
Raven nodded sniffling. “Why didn't Pop come to find me and tell me this when I was old enough to understand?"
"Apparently, your father never wanted his two worlds to collide. He was afraid that dark forces from the Magical Realm might use you to control him, and that would put you in harm's way. He loved you too much for that. Pop said he spoke of you often, but never by name. He called you his little bird."
“Tweet, tweet,” she muttered. She still sounded bitter, but I could hardly imagine how hard it must've been for her to hear what'd happened to him. Some day she would forgive. Some day she would know that her father had done exactly as she would’ve if she’d been in his shoes. But that was a talk for another day.
“I know I probably sound awful to you, but you need to understand...it’s been so hard growing up without him, Chace. When mom left, I didn't have anyone at all. Until you showed up, at least," she wrapped her arm around me again, letting out a sob. “And then I pushed even you away, how stupid can I get? It wasn’t even your fault, or your Pop’s. I just needed someone to blame. But now I want things to go back to how they were between us. Before I screwed everything up. Can that ever happen, Chace?” She tipped her head back to gaze up at me. “Can you ever forgive me?”
“Forgive you? I was never even mad at you, Raven. I’m here. Forever. I’ll be here waiting for you no matter what, even when you get mad. Even when you push me away,” I said, knowing it was true deep in my soul. She was the other half of me.
We were like peas and corn.
She pulled her head away from my shoulder and made eye contact with me, smiling. “Thanks, Chace.”
Nothing more needed to be said. I hugged Raven tight and rested my head on hers for what seemed like forever.
"Enough mushy stuff. Time to get this show on the road," Tiberius called from thin air a second before he zapped into existence a few feet away. “I hope that was enough time to talk through whatever was bothering you two?” Tiberius said.
Raven picked her head up off of my shoulder and shot him a quizzical look, rubbing her eyes, “You knew?”
"Of course," he said, smiling, "it's a teacher's job to motivate students to learn. I just used whatever was bothering you as a particularly useful motivation for getting you guys to speed through the past month's training." His voice was cheery and bright as usual.
I opened my mouth to speak, but I was too angry to find the words. Despite the silly hat cocked sideways on his head and his grin, I could see him as nothing but an enemy at that moment. What kind of person could intentionally use the rift between us as an incentive for training without showing even a tiny bit of remorse for it? I’d been broken inside for weeks, and if her current state was any indication, so had Raven.
“Your test will be the opposite of Raven’s so that you can't use anything you learned watching our fight," Tiberius continued on, seemingly oblivious to my anger. "Rather than enhancing my physical abilities with magic and using a sword, our fight will be magic-based. I won't enhance my physical strength to keep things somewhat fair. I've cast a charm that will prevent any serious injury, and the contest ends when either of us manages to trigger the charm. That's all the rules. Raven, you can stay and observe, but you must fight your natural inclination to defend him. Just remember, helping him here will only hurt him in the future when he can't protect himself."
She nodded and shot me a grim look.
“That’s all as far as rules. Now let’s begin. Good luck!" Tiberius said, shouting the last part as he teleported a dozen feet away and sent a dozen balls of energy in my direction, each one the size of a marble.
I took a deep breath, trying to harness my anger toward him, and teleported sideways to dodge the blasts. I put my own hand up, turning a massive pie
ce of the ground beneath him into a bubbling swamp.
“Well done,” he murmured from behind me. He’d teleported before the swamp had even formed, I realized with a start. I’d come so far, but Tiberius was called Master for a reason.
I spun around to see his smiling face just a few feet away, focusing a considerable amount of magic into the shape of a dart and blasting it at my face.
I saw my life flash before my eyes as it shot toward me, getting within an inch of my face before I poofed into existence a few feet to the right. I looked around, barely having time to catch sight of him before he landed a crushing punch to my face.
How could he still be so strong without enhancing his strength magically? I teleported a few feet back before the follow-up punch could land. But he pulled his leg back and made a kicking motion, teleporting me back in front of him and kicking me in the stomach. I mentally noted it as the third time I'd have lost if he'd been allowed to use a magical sword.
I pushed myself to my feet. I pretended to be more hurt than I was as I recalled one of Tiberius' final lessons in the forest from a few days earlier.
“Now that you’re good enough at environmental control, I think you’re ready to learn the way to counter an opponent who can teleport. Use it wisely, boy, because it’s a double-edged sword.”
I focused my magic into my hand, and a green circle of energy formed that was about twenty feet across. We both were contained inside the ring. Tiberius punched the air in front of him, where he would've forcibly teleported me to had I been even a second later with my magic zone. Neither of us would be able to teleport or leave the circle until the spell ran out, so now I'd have a straight-up fight. However, beating him, even without teleportation, would be easier said than done. I let my anger at him for using the rift between Raven and I flare up. I began showering him with a barrage of magical blasts smaller and more concentrated than I'd ever managed before.