“Where are we going?” I whispered as he took me through deserted corridors then up a flight of stairs to the top floor.
“You’ll see.”
We stopped at a door with a lock. He did something with his hand, and the door opened. As soon as it did, a gust of wind hit me in the face along with something wet.
“Is this magic?” I asked, shielding my face from the wind.
Tristam laughed. “No. It’s outside. I’m taking you up to the roof.” He closed the door behind him and cast a spell to lock it again. I wondered briefly if he planned to throw me off it. At least, that way I’d be interesting, I thought blackly.
The rain lashed down as it had almost every day I’d been here, but this time, it was accompanied by the roaring of thunder. A flash lit up the sky, making me jump. In the distance to my right, I could see the lights of Cardiff, but to my left, the dark mountains made me feel like we were already over the Hedge. It didn’t help that Tristam had performed a spell stopping the rain directly above our heads. All around, a gale blew and rain pelted down, but the pair of us remained dry in Tristam’s protective magical bubble. He pulled a candle from his pocket and placed it on the stone tile in the center of the circle.
“What is this?” I shivered, not because I was cold, but because there was something deeply thrilling about an illicit rendezvous on the roof of a Welsh mansion in the middle of a storm with a faerie prince. The thought chilled me more than the cold gusts of wind. Was this what Cass had felt when she had first met the faerie who had taken her? Special. Electrified. Alive.
“Light the candle,” commanded Tristam as he sat down on one side of it.
“I can’t. The grimoire is downstairs in my room, and the dirt is there,” I protested.
Tristam shook his head and laughed. “Dirt?”
I prickled. He was mocking me. Yet…he’d brought me up here for a reason.
“Will you sit down? Look at the candle.”
I stifled a sigh as I folded my legs beneath me and did what he said. It wasn’t the same candle I’d used downstairs, but it may as well have been. It was ordinary, just like I was. Looking at the damn thing was having no effect whatsoever. I began to chant the magic words I’d memorized under my breath.
“Stop. You don’t need to speak for this. Just look at the candle.”
I glared at the stupid thing as Tristam stood and walked around me, crouching down behind me. I could feel the tickle of his breath on my ear. “Feel the warmth within you.”
“It’s freezing!” I pointed out.
“Forget the weather. Feel the warmth in your very soul, right at your core.”
If I had any warmth in me right now, it was a direct result of him whispering in my ear. Still, I tried to focus on the candle.
“It is not the candle that is magic,” he coached. “It is the flame. Feel that warmth in you and magnify it.”
I concentrated on the warmth in my belly and imagined myself on Santa Monica Beach on a hot July day. I thought of sunburns and hot tubs and the fires my high school friends and I roasted s’mores over. No longer did my fingertips feel the stinging bite of the cold Welsh weather. Warmth permeated my body.
“Keep the energy going,” Tristam whispered, and my temperature increased a few more degrees. I could feel beads of sweat begin to trickle down my face as the heat inside me began to burn.
“I can feel it!” I marveled. “I’m not cold anymore.”
“Now compact it. Take all that energy and make it small. Imagine it as a speck of light… a laser-sharp dot of heat.” I did as he said and cried out with the pain of it.
“Now!” he yelled. “Shoot it to the wick!”
I closed my eyes and expelled the burning energy, pressed it away from myself. Then I felt Tristam’s arms under mine, and he was pulling me back.
I opened my eyes as the rain once again dripped onto my hot face, steam rising as the cold droplets hit my fevered skin. I peered through the thick rain at where the candle flame should be. Nothing. My spirits sank. I’d failed again. Without the heat I’d built up, the cold once roared back in, sending a wracking shiver through me.
“What happened?” I asked wondering why he’d pulled me back.
“Oh, nothing. You only went and set the roof on fire. I had to pull you away from it to stop you from getting burned.”
I opened my mouth in shock. I’d seen no fire, but as he led me closer to where we had been sitting, I saw the black scorch marks with a mess of wax in the middle.
“I did magic?” My lips curled up into a grin as I realized what I’d done.
“You did magic!” Tristam grinned back. “Look at your hand. It’s still glowing slightly with the aftereffects of the magic. Just do me a favor. Don’t accidentally set the judges alight tomorrow. I don’t think they’d appreciate it.”
I looked down, and sure enough, the veins under my skin glowed slightly. As I watched with awe, they slowly dimmed to normal.
I threw my arms around Tristam, squeezing with all my might. My distrust of faeries be damned. He had helped me. He just might have saved me. The rain fell around us, soaking us to the skin, but I didn’t care.
Excitement filled me as I walked slowly back to my room. The light in the halls of Hennington House were dim thanks to the late hour, but it was enough for me to fumble my way back to my room.
I’d almost made it back when a shadowed figure at the end of the corridor caught my eye. My first thought was that someone had found out what I was up to, but I pushed it to the back of my mind. I didn’t want to be caught being up so late practicing magic, but whoever was at the other end of the corridor looked like they didn’t want to be caught either. I flattened myself against a wall, hidden among the shadows and watched as they crept down the corridor towards me. I’d not been spotted, but if they got any closer, they’d see me. Panicked thoughts of reasons I would be out of bed at such a late hour flittered through my mind, but I needn’t have worried. Whoever it was stopped in front of a door, and quiet as a mouse, opened the door and stepped inside.
Letting out a long breath, I tiptoed down the corridor. The door they’d stepped through had a sign on it. Even in the darkness, I could read it clearly. It was a cleaning closet. Who would be creeping around in the middle of the night and hiding in a cleaning closet? From inside, I could hear the muffled voices of two people conversing. A man and a woman. Stepping closer to hear what they were saying, I felt a crunch underfoot. Beneath my shoe was a single earring in the shape of a thistle and rose. Picking it up, I put it in my pocket, smelling the faint scent of flowery perfume. I decided to leave whoever was in the closet alone. For all I knew, a couple of the contestants were having a clandestine hookup and it really wasn’t any of my business. I walked to the end of the corridor and headed into my own room where I flopped onto the bed. I’d done magic! I was back in the race.
9
The next morning I hopped out of bed bright and early feeling excited about what the day would bring. Now that I had the ability to perform magic, I wasn’t going to be replaced. Today we picked our partners. Today was the day I was going to enter the Faerwild for the first time.
I took my candle and copied what I’d done last night, imagining the hottest places I’d been. I could feel the energy inside me, but try as I might, I couldn’t emulate what I’d done the night before.
I spent an hour, but nothing worked.
By the time the breakfast gong rang out, I was in a state of panic. I pocketed the candle and ran downstairs to speak to Tristam before anyone else did.
I found him in the dining room talking to Sophia, one of the other humans. She was almost as tall as him with long wavy hair and a perfect face. Even from this distance, it was easy to see she was flirting with him. She’d shown up to the lessons every day in flawless makeup and spent most of the time pouting into the camera for her million plus fan base on Instagram.
I can’t say I cared much for her, but I wasn’t prepared for the pang of
jealousy I felt as she ran her perfectly manicured hand down Tristam’s arm.
I shook it off, annoyed at myself and waved at him, hoping he’d take the hint and come my way.
He whispered something in Sophia’s ear, causing her to giggle before he made his way over to me. I dragged him out into the corridor peering both ways to make sure we were alone.
“I can’t do it!” I hissed.
“What?”
“The magic. I’ve been trying all morning, and the candle won’t light.” I pulled it out of my pocket and showed it to him as if to prove my point. He took the candle and made it disappear into thin air.
“The candle isn’t the magic one. You are,” he reminded me.
“I’m not! They’ll throw me out!”
I closed my mouth as a willowy young woman walked past us into the dining hall.
“Who is she?” I asked before feeling the clap of a hand on my shoulder and the cloying scent of flowers.
“Your replacement,” Patricia said. “They flew her in this morning. She’ll be taking your spot unless you do something spectacular today.” With that encouraging sentiment, she flashed me a fake smile which made my stomach churn even more than it already had been.
“Ah, I wondered where that went.” She bent down, picking something off the floor and pocketing it in the pocket of her impeccably tailored pantsuit. I saw what it was before it disappeared—the earring I’d picked off the floor the night before. It must have fallen out of my pocket when I pulled out the candle. So it was Patricia who was secretly meeting someone in the cleaning closet. What on earth was she up to? She gave Tristam and me a wink and followed the girl into the dining hall.
A smile quirked at the corner of Tristam’s perfect mouth. Stop looking at his mouth, I schooled myself.
“Last chance for the kiss angle…I’m game if you are.”
“This isn’t a joke!” I hissed at him, whirling and pushing out one of the doors into the garden. I knew I needed to eat, but I felt sick with fear. The lawns were now surrounded by a large fence and I saw a number of people in suits walk in through a small gate followed by Patricia and her cameraman. Seconds later, she walked back out alone and stalked to the edge of the fence, disappearing around it. There was definitely something suspicious going on with her, and the more I thought about it, the less I suspected that she’d been hooking up with any of the contestants. It must be something else.
Pulling myself up from the wall, I elected to follow her. Anything to take my mind off my impending failure. Peeking around the fence, I saw her deep in conversation with a man with thick facial hair and an unruly appearance. They were speaking in hushed tones, but I was close enough to pick up a little of what they were saying.
“What about the Brotherhood?” the man asked before he was hushed by Patricia. She handed him something, but with her back to me, I couldn’t see what it was. The man looked around quickly, causing me to duck back. I breathed in quickly, finally recognizing him. He looked a mess, and most of his face was hidden by his beard, but it was definitely him. Niall. What was he doing back here and why was he hiding away, talking to Patricia? It must have been him she was meeting in the cleaning closet.
“What are you doing?” someone behind me asked.
My heart jumped into my throat, and I nearly fell over as I spun around. It was Orin.
“Not cheating are you?” he said coldly.
Taking a deep breath, I pulled myself up to my full height, ready to tell him where to go—when Patricia walked past us.
Orin eyed her suspiciously before walking around me and peeking around the fence where Patricia had just emerged.
I followed suit. Niall was gone. He must have hopped over the wall at the end of the garden.
Stepping past Orin, I headed back to the low wall and plonked myself on it, watching the comings and goings of the FFR staff until all the other contestants were lined up. Then I reluctantly dragged my feet to my spot in line.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched the willowy girl chatting freely with one of the show’s producers.
Patricia walked over to us. She had even more makeup on than usual, and that flowery scent she wore was stronger than ever. I wanted to ask her why she was having secret meetings with Niall, but the cameras had already begun to roll.
“Good luck everyone.” She turned to the camera. “This is it. Inside the fence sit three judges, including Vale Obanstone himself, king of Faerwild. Each contestant has to prove their worth in strength, fighting skill, magic, or logic. How the human contestants do in this final test will determine their ranking for the purpose of choosing teammates. How the faerie contestants do will help our dear humans decide who’s the strongest partner to pick. The current rankings are as follows: in the lead, Phillip Ryan of Alberta, Canada.” I listened woodenly as she announced the rankings. Phillip—that was the tattooed guy.
“Genevieve Running Deer of Helena, Montana.” Genevieve had been killing it in training, so I was happy for her. Sort of.
“Sophia Hernandez of Puebla, Mexico.” Or Tristam’s number one fan…
“Molly Rhodes of Manchester, England.” Goth girl.
“Duncan Riker of Phoenix, Arizona.” Or Navy SEAL, as I’d dubbed him.
I closed my eyes against the embarrassment as Patricia announced my name last. “Jacqueline Cunningham, of Irvine, California.” She said the word Irvine with a twinge of distaste. Sorry, I can’t afford to live in WeHo on a gopher salary, I wanted to gripe.
Patricia was handed a small red velvet bag. Out of it—her movement exaggerated for drama—she pulled a small stone, which she then showed to the camera.
“First up is Orin!”
Orin stood sulkily and entered the fence, disappearing into the enclosure where the final tests would take place. How was it that the people watching on TV didn’t like me but liked him? The guy was a total creep that never once cracked a smile. He was only in there a couple of minutes before a buzzer went off and Patricia was once again rummaging around in her velvet bag. I waited for Orin to emerge, but as Sophia’s name was called, it was clear that Orin was staying inside.
Each time a name was called, my stomach twisted in knots, but near the end, there was only Tristam and I left outside. Some of the others had only been in there a few seconds before the buzzer sounded. The girl with the pink hair had been the longest at fifteen minutes.
Patricia pulled out a stone, and I held my breath. “Tristam!”
“Good luck!” I whispered as he left the bench. He didn’t need luck. His father was the one judging him, so I was surprised when the buzzer didn’t ring immediately. I timed him on my watch. Nine minutes and thirty-five seconds to complete his task. He took the longest of all the fae to finish.
Then it was my turn. Patricia talked about me to the camera, but I ignored her as I walked to the gate, my ears burning.
I’d never been so nervous in my life as I was when the gate opened, but the inside was not as scary as I expected. If anything, the set up was mundane—with a long table at the end with the judges and a bench at the side with my fellow competitors. I guess they were allowed to stay and watch once they had finished.
The purple-haired fae girl gave me a nod and a smile as I walked forward. I’d never spoken to her, but it seemed she was cheering me on. That was nice.
Next to her Tristam nodded almost imperceptibly.
“Your Majesty!” I bowed to the king and gave a smaller nod to the judges on either side of him. One I recognized as a jaded pop star who’d been huge in the nineties before falling into obscurity only to revive her career with stints on television show panels like this one. On the other end, was a famous nasty man of TV. He was known as an alcoholic womanizer, and the public loved to hate him. What they didn’t know was that after every show he appeared on, he washed off his fake tattoos, and went home to his husband Bryan and his two corgis. Despite how he came across on TV, he didn’t have a mean bone in his body. Christine had been to his hou
se with one of her more famous actor friends for a private yoga session with fifty of his closest friends.
The Faerie king, Tristam’s father, wasn’t as intimidating as I’d expected. He was preternaturally handsome like Tristam and wore a perfectly tailored slate gray suit with a subtle stripe. Not the cloak and velvet tunic I had imagined. There was a raw sense of power about him—I swore I could almost feel his magic from where I was standing. But besides that, he didn’t seem much different from the studio execs I worked around.
At either side of the judge’s table, two cameras pointed at me, both with their red lights on. I took a deep breath, waiting to see what they had in store for me.
“Your task is simple,” the king said. His voice was deep and calm but somehow still managed to make me shiver. He was one of the most dangerous males in this realm or over the Hedge. “I want you to take this apple from my hand.” He held his arm out. I hesitated, wondering what the catch was. I was only a few steps from him. To my right and behind me I heard someone groan. I had a feeling it was Tristam.
I stepped forward and held out my own hand. When my fingertips were an inch away from the apple, he disappeared.
The contestants jeered, causing me to turn. The king stood in the far end of the fenced-in area, a smile on his face and the apple still in his outstretched hand.
I glanced over at the contestants. Tristam had his head in his hands.
I didn’t know what to do, but I was aware that the cameras were running and the studio was looking for an excuse to get rid of me. Maybe I couldn’t use magic, but I could run.
I raced toward him, pelting at top speed, but as soon as I was near, he’d disappear, ending up somewhere else within the fence. I carried on running, chasing him from spot to spot, hoping I’d catch him before he had a chance to move. After a good ten minutes, I knew I was losing. I’d run around the inside of the fence what felt like a hundred times, and I’d not come close to grabbing the apple.
“Use magic!” I heard Molly with the pink hair say in a singsong voice, and the others broke into peals of laughter. They knew my secret. I couldn’t do this.
The Sorcery Trial Page 7