Bitter Magic

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I paused for just a moment, wondering if I’d heard correctly, but when May glanced back at me, I ignored the cold chill rooting itself in my spine and continued downstairs.

The dining room wasn’t at all what I expected. It looked more like a grand ballroom inside a five-star hotel. Ten chandeliers hung from a white-trimmed ceiling, and in between square moldings were paintings of what I imagined heaven would look like. It should have made me feel all ethereal, but instead I felt unworthy.

Positioned perfectly throughout the room were dozens of circular tables, each decked out like Martha Stewart had decorated them. Even the tall glass vases in the center of the tables held real flowers. I glanced down at my attire—jeans and a t-shirt. “Do you think we should go back and change?”

“No, we’re good. Everyone else is dressed casually too.”

I looked up, seeing the other girls for the first time. Most of them were already seated, but they were so still and quiet, it’s no wonder I had missed them. I would’ve thought they were statues if it hadn’t been for their eyes, which were darting around the room meeting the gazes of other girls as if they were silently communicating.

“Where should we sit?” May whispered while we stood awkwardly in the doorway.

“Let’s go—”

“Can I have your attention, please?” Sophie’s voice boomed through a speaker nearby. I jumped and grabbed May. Everyone turned to the front of the dining room. Sophie was standing at a podium speaking into a microphone.

“I know we don’t normally interrupt your dinner,” she said, “but we have a couple of new girls we’d like to introduce to you.”

I groaned. Nice, Sophie. Couldn’t you have waited a day?

Sophie motioned us over. May and I glanced at each other.

“Come on now, don’t be shy,” Sophie said, like we were first graders at a new school. I could strangle her.

May moved first. I followed her lead through the maze of tables up to the front. The hard stares of the girls drilled holes right through me.

When we reached the front, Sophie said, “This is Llona Reese, and this is May Cellini. Llona is an Aura, and May is a Fury.”

A unison gasp broke the silence. Their eyes moved to May, relieving me of their cold stares.

“Let’s make them feel welcome,” Sophie continued. “It’s not often we get new girls.” She turned to us. “Welcome to Lucent Academy!”

A polite applause, like the gentle pitter-patter of a spring rain, echoed across the great room. I bowed my head slightly in acknowledgment, but wondered if I should have curtsied or something.

As soon as their clapping slowed, May followed as I dived toward the nearest seat. The table was almost full. I smiled at the other girls, who I just now recognized as the ones who’d joked about my room and me turning up dead inside it. Awesome.

The girls didn’t say or do anything—just remained in their statue-like stance—but then the magical chimes sung their song, and it was as if the sound woke the girls. The room burst into an array of sounds all at once: girls chatted and laughed, dishes clanked together as many poured water into their glasses, and doors at the side of the room flew open, letting in a steady stream of people in uniforms, carrying platters of food. From where I sat, I smelled chicken and broccoli.

A girl across the table said, “So, May, Llona,” there was contempt in her voice when she said my name. She’d obviously heard something about me she didn’t like. “I’m Ashlyn and these are my friends, Valerie, Anna, Jan, and Katie.”

The girls smiled and said hello.

“Welcome to our school,” Ashlyn said. “It’s always nice to have a Fury among us.”

Ashlyn was very pretty with petite features and long strawberry-blonde hair that fell past her shoulders in big curls. I wondered how she was able to get curls that big. I reached up and tugged at my own straight hair.

“Where are you from?” Valerie asked May. Valerie’s blue eyes were the same navy blue color as her baby-doll t-shirt.

“We came from Wildemoor,” May answered. “We both went to the same school.”

“Really?” Valerie said. “What are the odds of that? A Fury and an Aura in the same school?”

“How did you discover each other?” Anna butted in. Her voice was small and mousy, matching her short dark hair and upturned nose.

“It was by accident, really,” I began.

“Anna was asking May,” Ashlyn interrupted.

I visibly jerked. “Oh, okay.”

And so it begins. I grabbed my glass and took a sip of water.

May looked uncomfortable, but she continued where I’d left off. “We were lab partners. I accidentally exploded a beaker of oil and it caught her hair on fire.”

A couple of the girls giggled.

May ignored them. “Llona had seen me start the fire, and I noticed her hair grow back, so we both knew we were different. We were pretty much best friends after that.”

Ashlyn tilted her head. “What do you mean her hair grew back?”

May glanced over at me nervously, hoping I would answer, but if they didn’t want to talk to me, I wasn’t going to start.

May hesitated before she said, “Her hair can’t be cut or colored. It’s always the same. Isn’t that how all Auras’ hair is?”

The girls paused and glanced at each other before they burst out laughing. I took another drink, wishing it was something stronger. My eyes settled on Sophie sitting three tables over. She flashed me an encouraging smile. I didn’t return it.

Ashlyn was the last one to stop laughing, unfortunately. The sound hurt my ears—it was loud and high pitched, sounding more like a chipmunk on c***k than an actual laugh.

I stared at her coolly.

“So you’re telling me,” Ashlyn said, addressing me with a stupid grin, “that your hair can’t be changed?”

“Are you giving me permission to speak now?” I said.

The table grew quiet.

Ashlyn turned to Anna and said, “This is what the outside does to you if you’re not properly trained, turns you into a heathen.”

I was about to show her how a heathen curses when three waitresses brought food to our table. Two of the servers looked like they were around twelve, and the older one looked more my age.

When the older one set a plate of food in front of me, I glanced at her and said, “Thank—”

At the sight of her, water caught in my throat and I began to cough, making the girls at the table laugh again. I did a double take at the waitress’s face to see if what I’d just seen was real.

On the side of the girl’s face and partway down her neck were light green scales. They were shinier than the rest of her skin, and if I looked at them at a certain angle, they had a rainbow glow to them.

She met my stare but quickly looked away, her face reddening.

As soon as the waitresses were gone, Ashlyn said, “Is that your first time seeing a Lizen?”

She seemed pleased by my ignorance.

“A what?” May asked.

“A Lizen. You know, half man, half . . . lizard.” The other girls looked at her in shock as if she’d said something f*******n.

It was my turn to laugh. “Lizard people? It’s just a crazy birth deformity.”

“You really don’t know a thing, do you?” Ashlyn straightened in her seat as if she were a teacher preparing for a lecture. “Lizens have been around since the dawn of time. While other species were evolving, Lizens didn’t quite make it. Their deformity stuck, and when they bred with each other, it only made it worse.”

“Where have they been this whole time?” May asked, eyes wide.

“In hiding, of course. Wouldn’t you hide too if you had scales on your body?” She tossed a disgusted look in the direction of the ever-moving waitresses.

Valerie eyed us conspiratorially, adding, “Their race almost went extinct until the Auras brought them here to serve us. In exchange, they live rent free in Lambert House. The women work here and the men take care of the grounds.”

“And they like this?” I wondered out loud. From what I’d seen and experienced so far, serving pampered Auras was the last job I’d ever want.

“Like what?” Ashlyn said.

“Serving Auras,” May said, apparently thinking the same thing.

Ashlyn looked at us like we’d just told her the world was flat. “Of course they like it. We’ve made their lives dramatically better. What more could they ask for?”

I glanced around, still in shock. “Yeah, what more.”

Throughout the rest of dinner, the girls spoke mostly to May. I was surprised by how boastful and prideful they were. No wonder my mother had left early and refused to be a part of their organization. Some people thought she took it too far by marrying her Guardian, a big no-no, but I didn’t.

“You should take that,” Valerie said while Ashlyn spoke to May.

I followed the direction of her pointed finger. Next to my glass was a blue pill. “What is it?”

“It’s our vitamin. We all take it. It keeps us at optimum health.”

I picked it up and turned it over in my hand. “Really?”

A memory stirred. My mother used to take them too. I wondered why my father never gave them to me. Maybe he was too proud to ask the Council for them, or maybe he had and they’d refused.

“Isn’t that right, Valerie?” Ashlyn said, interrupting us. Valerie turned away from me and joined in their conversation.

Whatever. If these vitamins were good enough for my mom . . . I popped the pill into my mouth and washed it down with water.

My attention wandered away from the Auran girls and over to the Lizens who were lined up against the walls, hands behind their backs, waiting for us to finish. They looked like regular girls, no different than the rest of us, except for the occasional patches of scales, some more noticeable than others. I studied them for a moment, specifically their eyes, which always seemed to be looking down. And none of them were smiling.

“Llona?”

I turned around.

Sophie stood behind me, smiling. “There are some people I would like to introduce you to. Are you about finished?”

I glanced down at my half-eaten chicken. Usually I had a great appetite, but the atmosphere in the dining room made me ill. “Sure.”

I stood and followed Sophie back to her table.

“Everyone,” Sophie began, “I’d like to introduce you to my niece, Llona.”

All eyes turned on me as if in slow motion. They all looked friendly enough, smiling and nodding their heads, but something about the way they did it felt forced.

Sophie motioned around the table. “Llona, here are a few of your teachers. Ms. Ravitz, Ms. Crawford, Ms. McBride, and Ms. Haddy. And over there next to the podium,” she pointed to an older-looking Chinese man who was speaking with a student, “is Dr. Han. He sits with me on the Auran Council.”

The Auran Council. I almost grimaced. They were a group of nine people, three overseeing each Auran school, who set the rules. As far as I was concerned, they were responsible for the Aurans’ weakened state. “Nice to meet you all.”

“You’ll have an opportunity to get to know each of them in your classes,” Sophie explained.

“We’re glad you’re here, Llona,” said Ms. Crawford. She was a beautiful African American woman in what looked like her thirties. Her smile actually seemed genuine, unlike the others.

Sophie turned me around and said quietly, “After dinner I want you to go to the medical room on the first floor to have your blood drawn.”

“Why?”

“An Aura’s blood is special. If something were to ever happen to one of us and, heaven forbid, someone needs blood, we store it here. We draw everyone’s blood once a month.”

“That seems like a lot. Can I refuse?”

She took hold of my hand and squeezed. “Of course you can, Llona, but it’s frowned upon. We do things here that you may not like, but they are for your protection, and the protection of the whole Auran race. Because we are so few, we have to be careful. We must survive.”

Funny. That’s what I had always tried to do too, convincing my uncle Jake to move from one place to another to keep me safe, but I was different now. I could protect myself. I’d killed a Vyken, and I knew I could do it again. That made me feel safer than anything Lucent could ever do for me.

With my voice low, I ventured, “Maybe instead of just trying to survive, we should be trying to hunt and kill Vykens.”

Sophie reared back with such disgust you’d think I’d barfed on her. “What a horrible thing to say!”

“What is so horrible about wanting to save our race?”

“Light does not kill, Llona.” Her voice was growing louder. “You have no respect for Light and its power!”

Sophie’s mouth closed tight, and she looked around as if she’d just remembered where we were.

“We’ll discuss this later,” she hissed and walked away.

I stared after her, a new and foreign heat burning my insides. The feeling was so intense that the lights in the room flickered. I almost considered plunging everyone into darkness so I could escape unnoticed, but when several people looked up, specifically the teachers, I inhaled deeply and forced myself to relax.

I returned to the table. “I’m going to head back to my room. Do you want to come?”

May glanced at the other girls hesitantly and then to me. “Of course.” She quickly stood up. “I’ll see you guys later.”

Her goodbye was followed by, “Bye, May!” and “It was nice to meet you!” and “I’m glad you’re here!”

I kept a perma-grin on my face until the dining room doors closed behind us. Before I could stop myself, I made a Lighted-up fist and punched the wall, spraying what looked like electricity all around us.