by Jen Pretty
“You finally awake?” Falcor suddenly appeared at the end of my bed.
“Where the hell am I?” I asked.
“Finally, an intelligent question. I was beginning to think you were stupid,” he said with a sneer.
“What’s your problem?”
“This is the training centre,” he said ignoring my last question. “Children of magic come here to train.”
“I’m not a child,” I said. “Are there kids here who can raise the dead?”
“Only a few necromancers are born to each generation. The rest are witches, warlocks and vampires.”
Dorothy had filled me in on the fact that there were other people with magic. My fire wanted vampires just like any other dead thing, and I had come across a few in the city, but I had never met a warlock or witch, I was pretty sure. Though, maybe I had and didn’t know. Falcor was standing right in front of me, and my flames didn't seem to want anything to do with him.
“So, why am I in a school for children?” I asked when the silence had stretched on too long.
“Well, Dorothy didn’t train you properly. You passed out trying to hold too much magic,” he got that crooked smile again. The one that made me want to punch him.
“It usually just trickles in slowly. I don’t know why I got so much. Did anyone see?”
“Oh, everyone saw.”
“Shit.”
“The warlocks spell the grounds. Inside there is no magic, outside, on sanctuary grounds, is pure magic.” He said it like it was part of a tour speech given to everyone who came to the school.
“Why?” I asked, sitting up in bed.
“Because you need to learn to live with too much and not enough.”
“I can live just fine with a normal amount,” I said.
“We all saw how well you managed yesterday.”
I scowled at him.
“Come on, I’m supposed to show you around,” he said, turning towards the door. I stayed put, not sure I wanted to follow him anywhere. He stopped at the door, turned back and raised his hand. The sheet that was covering me blew off the bed and flew through the air to land in a heap along the far wall. “I can move all kinds of things. Unless you want me to float you around the building, I suggest you get up.”
I huffed but swung my legs over the side of the bed. I wasn’t wearing my boots but saw them sitting on a chair, so I pulled them on and hurried after the jerk warlock.
“You have already seen the medical ward. This is the classroom wing.”
Bright splashes of various colours covered the walls. Each colour glittered. I found one the exact shade I saw when my flame met the dead and wondered if the others were what warlocks saw.
“Very perceptive, Selena,” the older voice of Niri echoed down the hall. I spun to find the man standing with a child. The little boy had stark white hair and beautiful features. His chocolate eyes were wide as he stared at me.
The little flicker of fire I was holding tried to reach out to the little boy. It was tentative, not like when I was around the dead. I clamped it down but saw blue sparks around the boy too. They danced along the floor like a sparkler in the night — glittering blue.
My fire pushed at my skin, but I held it at bay. I had never met another necromancer, but here he was with my hair, my eyes, my magic.
His sparks crept closer to mine, and I was locked into the moment until Niri rested his hand on the young boy's shoulder and the blue glitter slipped back into him and disappeared.
Niri led the boy closer until he was standing in front of me. The little boy's eyes blinked, and a soft smile curved his lips.
“Selena, I would like you to meet Colvin. He is the only other necromancer here at the moment. There is one other whom I would like to introduce you to when he arrives next week.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Colvin,” I said. The boy smiled, displaying his gapped teeth. His face was such a contrast — white hair and dark eyes. I was younger than him when Dorothy started dying my hair.
“You won't have to dye your hair while you are here,” Niri said, reading my thoughts again.
My eyes shifted from Colvin to Niri. The old man had a friendly smile on his face and was wearing a patchwork suit that made him look a bit like a hobo. He chuckled at my thought, and I blushed.
“I can’t stay here, I have to work tomorrow afternoon,” I said, then remembered someone was leaving dead things on my doorsteps and the truth set in. I wouldn’t be able to work or go back to my apartment. What about Georgia?
“Your old life is over,” Falcor said beside me.
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Let’s discuss that later, shall we?” Niri said, drawing my attention back to him and the child beside him.
He was right. I didn’t want to discuss the murderer in front of the young boy. The foster home I lived in had children of all ages and a few very young kids. Many of them came from bad homes, and they had suffered too much. I felt an overpowering urge to protect Colvin. I wanted to scoop him up and hide him away.
“That is a natural feeling, Selena. Necromancers are family. They are rare and fragile. We are fortunate to have you here with us.” Niri said with a smile. “Colvin has to get to class, but you will see him in some of your classes.”
I returned his smile, and then Colvin took his hand, and they walked away. “Wait, I’m taking classes with little kids?”
Falcor scoffed, “You will have to catch up to them. A six-year-old can probably handle magic better than you.”
I bit my tongue to keep from saying something I would regret.
“This is the cafeteria,” he said as we walked past the open doors of the big room with rows of tables. It was empty now, but I remembered it from the day before. Falcor strode off down the hall and through a set of doors. I hurried to catch the door before it swung shut behind him.
“This is the dorms. You have a room to yourself since you are significantly older than the rest of the students.”
“I’m nineteen. Not over the hill,” I muttered.
He ignored me and took out a key, unlocking a wooden door and stepping inside. I followed him into the tiny room, where there was a bed and a desk with a wooden chair. A second open door on one side led to a small bathroom with a shower. At least I had that. It wasn’t much smaller than my apartment. A window above the bed let in the midday sun, making the plain space seem bright and welcoming.
“This is your room.” He handed me the key and turned to leave.
“I don’t have my suitcase,” I said.
“Yes, I’ll go get it for you.” With that, he disappeared and reappeared a second later, holding the bag I had hastily packed before running to Dorothy’s house. He set it down on the bed and handed me a piece of paper before disappearing again.
Why couldn’t I get warlock powers?
I lifted the piece of paper and studied the timetable printed on it. It was a class schedule. It displayed room numbers and times with the warning not to be late.
Super, I was back in high school or maybe grade school since I would be taking classes with kids. Fun.
I moved my suitcase and collapsed on the bed, my feet hanging off the end. I wondered why Dorothy hadn’t sent me here as a child if it was safe and they would teach me things. Friends would have been nice while I was growing up.
There was a knock at my door, and I sat up. “Come in,” I said.
The door cracked open, and Anick stuck his head in. My flame tried to flow towards him, and I clamped it down.
“Hi, I wanted to check in on you. Falcor is an ass.”
I laughed. “Thanks. He is an ass. I’m fine though.”
“Cool, do you want to come to the cafeteria? You missed breakfast, but the staff usually have some sandwiches in the fridge,” he said, smiling and displaying his pointed teeth.
“Sure, thanks.” I stood up and followed Anick out into the hall, pausing long enough to lock the door behind me.
“Did you meet Colvin?�
� he asked as we walked side by side down the hall. I was about to answer when a bell rang, and every door swung open, releasing nearly a hundred children into the halls. They appeared to range in age from six to late teens, and the noise was overwhelming. My sparks wanted to reach out to a few I recognized as vampires, but I had the tiny scrap of flame still left inside me locked down already.
I stepped in behind Anick and let him lead through the chaos until he turned into the empty cafeteria.
I sighed with relief, and Anick chuckled. “You OK?” he asked.
“I’ve never been around that many vampires or children,” I said, doing an internal check on my flame which was almost gone. This place was pulling it away. I wrapped the last flicker tight and smiled at Anick so he would know I was fine.
He nodded and led me to the kitchen where four people were busy cooking and baking. The smell of chili filled the air, making my stomach growl.
“So, they have turkey or ham,” Anick said, his head in the giant fridge. The kitchen was industrial-sized, and I assumed that was necessary with all the kids here.
“Ham, I guess,” I said. “Thanks, Anick.”
“You can call me Nick. It’s what I go by when I'm not on school property,” he said, slapping a sandwich on a plate and ushering me back to the cafeteria.
He sat beside me at one of the long tables and watched as I took a bite of the sandwich.
“Thank you,” I said awkwardly.
“You already thanked me. And you’re welcome.” He continued to watch me, though, as if he was expecting something.
“What?” I asked, wiping my mouth. The sandwich had mustard on it, and I hoped it wasn't all over my face.
“Sorry, I’ve never eaten. It looks amazing. Does it make you uncomfortable? Falcor gets angry when I watch him eat.”
“Uhm, it’s just a bit weird.” No one had ever watched me eat before.
“Sorry,” he whispered, turning away.
I wanted to tell him it was ok, but it was bizarre, so I changed the subject. “You asked if I met Colvin. I did. It was neat to meet another necromancer.”
“Colvin has been here since he was a baby,” Nick said. He turned back to look at me, but his eyes carefully avoided my mouth as I chewed a bite of sandwich.
“Wow, what happened to his parents?” I asked before jamming the last of my sandwich into my mouth to end the uncomfortable way Nick was trying not to watch me eat.
He shivered before he dropped his eyes to his hands and spoke. “No one knows; he showed up on a doorstep.”
I almost choked on my sandwich, coughing with my mouth full. Nick's head whipped up to look at me, but I managed my food and swallowed it before any sprayed out, then cleared my throat.
“I showed up on a doorstep. I wonder if he and I are related.”
“Could be, although they found him in Spain.”
Well, unlikely then. It would have been nice to have a real brother.
“Don’t be sad,” he said sounding more like a child than the adult he was. “In necromancer studies, we learned that you are all connected. Some supernatural relation.”
I nodded. “Niri mentioned that. Did you have a family?” I asked.
“Yes, but they are always busy.” He was silent a beat, and then a smile lit his face. “Did Falcor show you the music room?”
His excitement caught me off guard, and I shook my head. “No, just the classrooms and then my room.”
“I knew it. He is such a grump. Come on, I’ll show you the way,” he said standing up and pushing in his chair. “Do you play an instrument?”
“No, I never learned.” I pushed in my chair too and followed him out of the cafeteria.
The children must have filed into classrooms again because the hall was quiet and empty. As we walked along, the very last spark slipped through my fingers. It was like it had evaporated and left me hollow again. The air whooshed out of my lungs, and I stopped in the hall, cradling my stomach with my arms. I bent at the waist and tried to catch my breath.
“Selena, are you OK?” Nick’s voice was barely a whisper as though he were far away, but I felt his hand steadying me. My lungs strained to pull air in and out. The hall was spinning, and I crashed to my knees. I heard voices yelling, and then the floor flew up to meet my face, and I lost consciousness.
When my eyes opened, I was in the small room that Falcor had led me to. My bed was warm and soft, and I didn’t feel empty anymore. A fire raged under my skin making me feel whole and alive. It pressed to escape, but I locked it down, greedy to hold on to it and not let go.
“I have more if you need it.”
My eyes darted to the door where Nick stood, a worried look on his face.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“I don’t think anyone expected you to have so much trouble here. Children don’t have this problem.”
“I know, Falcor explained to me how far behind I am.”
Nick studied me for a while longer, biting his lip. “I mean, even children who come here late, don’t struggle with this.”
I rolled over to face away from him. Yup, I was the worst magic person ever. I wished everyone would stop telling me that.
“It’s not meant as an insult, Selena. I just mean you’re different. Nobody expected it. It even stumps Niri. You should be OK without magic, but you aren’t.” He paused for a moment. I didn’t look back at him. Just lay still.
“Niri is speeding up your training, so we can get out of here sooner and get to work.” I heard the door click shut before his words sunk in. Work? What the hell was I training for? I thought it was so I could use magic safely. Nick had already left though, so I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep. Fire circled inside me, smoothing away the strange mix of emotions.
A sense of foreboding rang just underneath the calming influence of the flames, but I shoved it away for the moment.
chapter five
The next time I woke in the dorm room, it was dark out the window. The moon hung in the sky, giving just enough light to cast shadows in my room. The desk and chair were undefined lumps in the dark, but the floor at the end of the bed was illuminated, displaying my suitcase, still zipped shut.
I pushed back the covers and slid off the bed. The suitcase was heavy, but I managed to wrestle it up onto the bed and unzip it, spilling the contents out. My hands dug through the clothes and shoes to find the one thing I held dear. It was an old photograph of Dorothy and me when I was a baby. The first photo of me in existence, as far as I knew. My stark white hair blazed in the faded old photo, and her face was lit up like a candle in the night. She was radiant. I traced a finger across her cheek, wishing I could see her. My cell phone had disappeared somewhere between being magically whisked away from her house and waking up in that bed in the medical ward.
I took a change of clothes into the bathroom and had a quick shower. I hadn’t thought to bring shampoo, but I felt cleaner when I stepped out and dried off. The clean clothes were wrinkled but smelled ok.
Dressed, I grabbed the room key someone had left on the desk and walked out the door, locking it behind me. I wandered for a while. The silence was deafening in the halls, making me walk on quiet feet so I didn’t disturb it. I hoped to find a phone, but there weren’t any in the empty cafeteria or the medical ward. It was eerie, like an apocalypse. I turned to go down a hall I hadn’t been down before when the scuff of a foot behind me made me spin and gasp.
“Selena?”
“Oh, hey, Colvin,” I said breathing a sigh of relief.
“Why are you awake?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, squatting down in front of him. “Why are you awake?”
He smiled, and for all the money in the world, I wouldn't have looked away. His happiness filled me, and I realized that was the connection. It wasn’t like an acquaintance. It was a magical connection. His joy was mine.
“I got up because you were up.”
It took a minute for his words to sin
k in, then I straightened and shook my head. “I’m sorry, I was just looking for a phone, so I could call the lady who raised me.”
Colvin bit his lip. “Phones don't work here. You have to leave school property to use them, and we aren’t allowed off school property.”
I wanted to tell him I was a grownup and I could do whatever I wanted, but his face looked sad, so I pushed that down. “That's OK, why don't you go back to bed and I will too. I can ask Niri about it in the morning.”
He nodded then turned and shuffled back down the hall.
Instead of going back to bed, I wandered the rest of the way down the hall. At the end, I turned left and found a darkened room with coloured lights flashing from a TV. There was no sound until I walked through the doorway, then the sound of voices and talking and the tv blaring filled the room. Someone laughed, but it was cut off abruptly as I moved further into the room and the people noticed me.
My hands burned as the fire under my skin jumped and spun. I clenched my fists, locking it down tight as I scanned the room filled with vampires. They were all ages, but every one of them was staring at me.
“Hi,” I said.
“Selena. Hey, what are you doing here?” Nick asked; he sat at the table, playing cards with two other vampires.
“Uhm, I was looking for a phone, but then Colvin said—”
“Colvin is up? Crap,” one of the adult vampires said before hustling past me and out of the room.
“I told him to go back to bed,” I said over my shoulder, but the vampire had left.
I looked back, and Nick was standing right in front of me. “You were looking for a phone?” he asked.
“Yeah, but Colvin said they don't work here.”
“He’s right. The magic outside the building interferes with reception, but there is a phone in Niri’s office we can use. Come on, I’ll show you the way.”
He took my hand, causing my magic to leap. A bit spilled out before I captured it and locked it down, but I heard his breath catch like he had felt the magic. He walked me out of the room and into the silent hall.