Awakened Magic

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I cut through the darkness, slicing through it like a knife in water. Cold air burned my face, and the force of it made it difficult to breathe. Jackson’s body was torn from my grip, and he twisted and writhed as if he could somehow climb his way back into the airplane. He was probably screaming too, but I couldn’t hear over the deafening sound of the wind rushing up at me.

My eyes were wet from the air, and I blinked to clear my vision. What appeared to be streetlights were growing closer. I’d never done this before, jumped from an airplane, but I wasn’t nervous, although I should have been. I didn’t have a parachute.

I squinted to try to see Jackson, but he wasn’t spread eagle like me so was probably falling a lot faster. The tree line of the forest came into view against the night sky. I was really close now. Maybe fifteen seconds before impact. I began to count them.

At twelve, my body jerked as if I had been sucked into a tornado, and I had a difficult time controlling which way my body was twisting and rotating end over end. My lungs tightened and pressure built up in my eardrums until I thought they might burst. But in no time at all, I was on the ground, my legs unsteady from the whirlwind that had captured me.

Liam appeared next to me, having shifted back to his human form. It still amazed me whenever he did that. “You okay?”

I inhaled deeply. “I think so. What a rush.”

“Sorry it took me longer than usual to catch you, but Jackson was fighting against me, so I had to knock him out. I hope you weren’t scared.”

Jackson lay nearby on the ground, his brown hair drenched in sweat.

“I wasn’t worried at all.”

“You weren’t?”

“I knew you would catch me.” I walked to Jackson and nudged him. “Let’s get him back before he wakes up.”

When Liam didn’t answer, I glanced back at him. He was staring at me, his green eyes illuminated by the moonlight. For just a moment, I was reminded of his age, over two centuries old. I often forgot this because on the outside he didn’t look much older than me, but in the right light his eyes betrayed him, revealing years of inner torment.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“You shouldn’t put so much trust in me.”

“Why? You’ve never let me down.”

He walked over to Jackson, picked him up, and threw him over his shoulder. “Because one day I may not be there for you.”

“Of course you will,” I said, but shivered. Why did he always have to say things like that? Liam was the thread that held me together. I couldn’t imagine dealing with everything without him.

I slid into the passenger seat of Liam’s black Impala while he shoved Jackson into the backseat.

“Do you think we’ll get him to talk?” I asked once Liam was inside the car.

He ran his fingers through his messy dark hair before turning the key in the ignition. His hair was much longer than it used to be, reminding me of how much time had passed since . . . Christian. I could finally think his name without feeling like I was dying inside, but the pain was still raw and biting.

“Oh, he’ll talk.” Liam eased the car onto the road.

“And if he doesn’t?” The thought of not getting Sophie back terrified me. She was really the only family I had left, besides my Uncle Jake. I wished I could talk to him about what was going on, but he was, gratefully, just a normal human, and that’s how I wanted him to live his life—not mixed up in my supernatural world.

Two weeks ago, Jake had married Heidi on a beach in Kauai. I was there to witness his happiness and it had given me a much-needed boost.

“Don’t worry about it,” Liam said. “If he doesn’t talk, then I know a guy at the Deific. He can get inside people’s heads.”

“I like him already.”

Liam had been working with the Deific—a secret agency that fought the Big Bad in the world—for decades. They had all kinds of people with special abilities working for them. One day I might like to work there too.

The drive back to Lucent took almost an hour. Liam took the back roads to Cold Spring, a small town just outside of Coast City. It was my favorite route as the road winded through a dense forest, up and around a steep mountain.

We were silent for most of the drive but not uncomfortable. I couldn’t ever feel that way with Liam.

About twenty miles past Cold Spring, the silhouette of Lucent Academy, a school for Auran girls, came into view. It wasn’t that long ago that I had first arrived here, completely naïve. I thought Lucent would be a safe place for me, a place to protect me from Vykens, but then it turned out that the president was in fact, a Vyken himself. For decades, Cyrus had drugged Auran girls with what he said was a special vitamin. When in actuality the d**g shut off their “Vyken senses,” making them vulnerable, but thankfully Christian and I discovered his deceit.

All girls were taken off the vitamins, but it turned out that that wasn’t all Cyrus had planned. He wanted to kill or turn a bunch of Auran girls into Vykens and have the rest become personal feeders to Vykens, all because of their obsession with Light in our blood, which gave them the ability to change their appearance and walk during the day.

Liam parked the car in the large circular driveway. This would’ve been a huge violation, but no one really cared now. Dr. Han, the new president of Lucent Academy, was much more relaxed than Cyrus had been.

I glanced back at Jackson who was still passed out in the backseat. “Think he’s faking?”

Liam put the car in park. “One way to find out.”

He opened his door, folded the driver’s seat, and took hold of the back of Jackson’s shirt. He easily lifted him out of the car, none too gently either. Jackson’s head smacked against the open door.

I chuckled. “I’d say he’s still out.”

The front door of Lucent opened, and the twins, Arik and Aaron, strolled toward us. One of their long strides probably matched three of mine. They were only a couple of years older than me, but their youthful expressions made them appear younger.

“You got him!” one of them said.

“Slippery snake,” the other added.

“Good to see you two.” Liam shook their hands. “Did you get your hair cut, Arik?”

Arik ruffled his red, buzzed hair. “Yup. I was getting sick of people getting us confused.”

“About time,” I said.

Aaron took Jackson from Liam and flopped him over his shoulder. “Basement?”

Liam nodded. “Lock him in one of the cells. Maybe have Abigail check him out. He banged his head pretty hard.”

Aaron turned to me. “May was waiting up for you, but she fell asleep on the couch just inside. She told me to tell you to wake her up when you get in.”

I made myself smile as I looked past him toward the warm light pouring out from the open doors. “Sure.”

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go in and see her, but entering Lucent always brought back memories better left forgotten.

“See you inside,” Arik said. A few seconds later they disappeared into the light. They left the door open for me.

I felt Liam’s eyes on me. “Are you going in?”

I was about to answer when something else caught my attention: the darkened forest rising beyond the wall surrounding Lucent.

Liam followed my gaze. “You’re not going in, are you?”

“I’m going to go running.” That’s exactly what I felt like doing right now. Stay busy.

Liam stuffed his hands in his pockets, and I wondered if it was because of the chill in the late fall air or something else. “At some point you’re going to have to face what happened.”

“I know.” Instead of going to the rear of the school, I turned toward the open front gates. There was a trail I’d discovered several weeks ago just off the main road. I’d also discovered a new friend there too. Someone who liked the night as much as I did.

“It’s good for you to be around people who love you,” he said.

“Is that what you did when your family died?” I felt a little bad for mentioning this, but he’d backed me into a corner. Two centuries ago Liam’s life forever changed when he was forced to watch the death of his family by a Vyken, the same one who also tried to turn him.

Liam glanced away. “I stayed busy like you.”

“And there you have it.”

“But it caught up to me.”

“I’m a fast runner.”

He grabbed my arm, stopping me from going forward. His touch was warm, soothing. “You need to rest.”

“I’ll rest when it’s over.”

He stared at me intensely, moonlight making his eyes brighter than they really were. “It’s never over. There’s always some evil out there, lurking in the shadows. You can’t stop it all.” He searched my eyes. “You need to grieve, Llona.”

And there’s the elephant. I pulled away. Liam’s hand fell from my arm, and I was cold again.

“I’ll come with you,” he said. “We’ll run together.”

I smiled. “Thank you. For everything. But if you don’t mind I’d like to run alone, burn off some energy or something.”

As much as I liked Liam’s company, I needed to be alone right now despite the late hour. Catching Jackson was a big deal, and I wanted to sort through my thoughts of how I might get him to talk.

“You know where to find me.” He walked away, his long jacket billowing in the wind behind him until he disappeared into the same doors the twins had gone through moments before.

I turned and headed toward the open gates. By the time I reached them, I was running, spurred on by all the terrible things Vykens had done, not only to me but to Liam too. The Vyken who had bit him wanted to turn Liam because Liam was an Enlil, a supernatural human with a rare ability to change into a powerful wind. He hoped Liam would become like him and other Vykens, but so far Liam had yet to succumb to the darkness coursing through his blood, and for centuries he was the only one to ever do this. That is, until he taught me.

It wasn’t easy, though. The poison was always there, hovering on the fringes of my mind as if searching for weaknesses in my resolve. Sometimes, when I was alone at night and I thought of Christian’s death and Sophie being trapped who knew where, the temptation to give in to the darkness was overwhelming. All my pain and heartache could be taken away. It was t*****e, like offering a recovering alcoholic a tiny sip of wine when no one was looking.

My feet slapped against the pavement. The narrow road in front of me stretched long, cutting through the dense forest of oak and maple trees. A fall wind stung my cheeks but only a little. It was the smells that mostly drew my attention.

I tried not to, but I inhaled deeply as if smelling freshly baked cookies, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. It was the blood of every living creature roaming the night. I wished I didn’t smell it, but this was my life now.

A branch on a nearby tree jutted into the road. I snapped it off. Spinning around in two great steps, I tossed the broken limb hard toward the sky, angry at Sophie for not listening to me, angry at Christian for going after Cyrus, angry at Cyrus for manipulating everyone . . . but most of all I was angry at myself.

I dropped to my knees against the cold pavement. Every part of me wanted to run into the forest and kill every living thing I could get my hands on. I stared into it. It stared back like a familiar friend, daring me to try.

My cell phone vibrated from within my pocket. I removed it and looked down. A text from Liam read: Practice turning invisible longer. You suck at it.

I laughed through several hitched breaths. Liam seemed to always know when I was in need. He denied that he could hear things miles away, but I often wondered.

I stood up and stretched my arms as I prepared to use my ability to “go dark.” It used a lot of my Light, which was the only thing that kept the Vyken poison at bay. I swirled my hand; Light the size of an apple appeared, hovering softly above my palm. I leaned toward it, felt its warmth against my face, and smiled.

It was only a year ago that I had learned to use Light, not only as a weapon, which went against the Auran way of life, but also to help and comfort others. However, after I’d been bitten, I stopped using Light for good and only used it as a weapon, which only fed the darkness inside me. If it hadn’t been for Liam teaching me how to control it, I probably would’ve eventually killed someone, thereby becoming a full Vyken. But as long as I was diligent, I managed to stay in control.

I extinguished the ball of Light and instead focused on the Light inside me. After a few seconds of intense concentration, my insides began to warm to the point where I felt feverish. I sucked in a deep breath and imagined Light expanding all around me. A searing pressure left my body, and I glanced down. I was invisible, clothes and all.

Three minutes passed until I became too hot to continue. My body was still exhausted from earlier. I was about to turn around when I heard a sound, like a woman sighing. I glanced up at the full moon’s placement in the sky. It was probably two in the morning. Who would be out this time of night?

I jogged forward until I was on the edge of the forest, just before the small road gave way to a much bigger one. Eventually it led to a new subdivision just outside of Cold Spring.

The opening to the trail was to my left. I avoided it and instead walked toward a small blue house set back from the road. A row of trees hid the structure from people driving by, but if someone drove slowly enough, they’d see the home’s white trim and shuttered windows. The best part of the home, in my opinion, was its front yard. It was full of various rose bushes, all different colors. A woman with long silver hair was hunched over a yellow bush, wearing a black robe.

“Hi, Rose,” I said. I’d laughed inwardly when I’d first learned her name was Rose and that she loved roses.

She looked up at me and smiled warmly. “What are you doing out here, Llona? This is late, even for you.”

“I could say the same for you.”

She smelled a cut rose in her hand. “Ah, but you know how it is. Everything is more vibrant at night.”

I agreed, thinking how beautiful she was beneath the moonlight. I wondered if she was this pretty during daylight. I had met Rose the same night I went running on the road for the first time, the same night Christian had died, in fact. I’d seen her several times since.

She was an eccentric old woman who spoke mostly of her roses, but sometimes she spoke of a graveyard she played in when she was a child in France. Her stories were so strange (once she claimed she’d met Isaac Newton) that I wondered if perhaps she had dementia.

“You look tired, dear,” she said.

I looked up from the rose in her hand. “A little, maybe.”

“You should sleep more. When I was your age, I slept ten hours every night, plus I’d often take a nap on my mother’s grave.”

This was a new development. I felt an instant connection to her, having also lost my mother. “How old were you when she died?”

“She died giving birth to me.”

I shook my head. “That must’ve been hard.”

Poor woman, living all alone. I glanced at her house, wondering how she managed to take care of herself when she was clearly confused.

Just then I noticed something I’d never seen before—the silhouette of an oddly shaped figure peering out the front window. For a fraction of a second, a pair of eyes, wider than they should be, glowed the way a cat’s does when exposed to light. A shiver crawled up my spine, too slow for comfort.

“Who—or maybe what—is that?” I asked.

Rose glanced behind her. “Nothing you should concern yourself with.”

“I thought you lived alone.”

“I never said that.”

“No, I guess you didn’t. I just assumed.”

Rose took hold of my arm, startling me. The blue from her eyes was gone, leaving only two all-white eyeballs. The chill that was still slowly going up my back now raced up my spine.

“You should never assume a rose is just a rose,” she said. “Look past the appearance.”

“I really want to keep my skin,” I said and looked down at her tight grip. Her nails were clawing at my wrist.

She let go and giggled, an odd sound for an old woman. “I can be so strange sometimes.”

“Are you okay?” I stepped back carefully. This woman was all kinds of strange.

“I’m wonderful. Why wouldn’t I be?” She returned to pruning the rosebush in front of her.

“Um, maybe because of the whole white-eyed-trance thing?”

“Nonsense. Now you run along. It’s late.”

I glanced back at the house. The odd figure was gone. “Right. Okay.”

“Don’t be a stranger,” Rose said as she snipped at the base of a dying rose.

“Uh-huh.” I turned away, wondering what had just happened. She had always acted a little off, but I swore something was straight up supernatural about her. And what had I seen in the window?

I decided to walk back. Whatever energy I did have left, was drained by Rose’s creepiness. All that remained now was a sort of dread about returning to Lucent Academy and its haunting memories.

The night was quiet. With winter approaching, the crickets had lost their song, leaving only the sound of my footsteps against the road. I wrapped my arms around me but not because I was cold.

“I miss you, Christian,” I whispered to the voiceless crickets.

“Llona.”

I froze and slowly turned my head to the side, to where I had heard my name being called. The voice was familiar—too familiar.

I stopped breathing.