Magic Freed, page 5
part #2 of Heart Mountain Academy Series
The rogues still standing dove for the floor, as if that could save them from being lifted into the air and inverted.
I guessed my friends and the others couldn’t stand the wait. They burst through the opened door and into the house. When they saw bearded man and plaid shirt hanging upside down in mid air, they stopped and stared. Geo laughed. Will slapped me on the back and cheered, “Good job,” evidently presuming rightly that it was my doing.
A few of the rogues who’d dived for the floor began to slowly pull themselves to their hands and knees. I shook my head at them. “Flat on the ground, please.”
Plaid shirt whined, “Let me down. My head feels like it’s going to explode.”
Max smirked. “Aw. Poor baby.”
I waved his comment away. “Here’s what’s going to happen.” I picked out a rogue lying on the floor and tapped his back with my foot. “You are going to get up and bring the hostages to us. Do it now.”
Fuck you, Max, I thought. How’s that for taking initiative?
The rogue scrambled to his feet and disappeared down a hallway toward the back of the house. He returned with a disheveled, exhausted-looking woman and a dirty, frightened child.
I shot a bit of stinging magic at the bearded man and when he yelped, I dropped him to the floor headfirst. He was smart enough to roll and land on his side. From the corner of my eye, I caught a movement from Aiden. Bearded Man tried to move from his landing position, but evidently Aiden had frozen him in place.
Stella had run forward and taken the woman under one arm and the child with her free hand. She spoke in low, soothing tones as she hustled them out of the house.
I let Plaid Shirt fall to the floor and turned my gaze to Aiden. “You want to freeze the rest of them so we can get out of here?”
He chuffed under his breath. “Already done. Haven’t you noticed?”
I hadn’t, but when I looked, I saw he was right. “Is there some sort of time limit on the spell? They can’t stay frozen forever.”
“Thirty minutes,” Aiden said.
Another thought struck me. “Can you wipe this—us—from their memory? A forgetfulness spell or something? It would be better if when they find their hostages gone they don’t remember who took them.”
“Yeah,” Aiden said. “I can cast MiB.”
“MiB? What does that mean?”
Aiden shrugged. “I’m not sure. It’s an ancient term, from before the upheaval. It will clean their memory of having ever seen us here.”
He held his hands up shoulder high, palms out, and muttered some words.
“Done,” he said.
I took a final look at the rogues, resisted the urge to give the bearded man a kick, and we headed outside.
Chapter Nine
Stella led the woman and child to the truck cab. “Come ride up front.”
That left Seph, Turner, Will, Jack, Aiden, Max, Geo, and me to sit in the back. There were a lot of smiles in the truck, some fist bumps and backslaps, and people laughing at the fate of the bearded man and Plaid Shirt.
Exhaustion crashed down on me. I hadn’t ever done that much magic that took that much effort all at once before. I walked past the metal benches that lined either side of the back and sat in a corner, my knees drawn up under my chin. Aiden, Turner, Will, and Jack glanced my way but gave me room. Seph took a couple of steps toward me before changing her mind and taking a place on one of the benches. I let their voices wash over me. I’d never seen the ocean, but I’d heard recordings of waves breaking. I sank into the babble around me like sinking into those never seen waves. The low rumble of the truck’s engine added to the lullaby. I wanted to think about what had happened today, but my mind wouldn’t function and my eyelids kept closing.
Something touched my shoulder. I jolted awake; a defensive spell already primed in my head.
“We’re here,” Seph said gently.
I blinked and rolled my shoulders, trying to get my brain and body working again. The others were already jumping from the truck.
“Gods, I’m starving,” I said.
Seph laughed softly. “I’m sure we can find something for you to eat.” Her expression sobered. “Are you all right? That was some heavy magic back there. We’d barely learned levitation and— I couldn’t have done what you did.”
I levered myself up to standing. “You could have.”
Seph shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
Max’s scowling face appeared at the back of the truck. “Hurry up. We’re waiting on you two to start the debriefing.”
The woman and child had been whisked off to some back room, I assumed since neither they nor Stella were in the common room where everyone else was. Somehow, I’d thought the mood once we’d returned to the academy would be more festive. We’d accomplished exactly what we’d set out to do. Instead, every face in the room was somber.
“Are—” I didn’t recall the woman or the child’s names and calling them ‘the hostages’ felt wrong. I settled for a generic term. “Are they all right?”
Geo supplied the names. “Carolyn and Lindy. They’re fine. Stella is getting them something to eat and settling them in until its time for them to go home.”
Seph crossed the room and sat with Jack. He took her hand and held it loosely in his lap. The look of puzzlement she shot him let me know she felt the tension in the room, too. Jack gave her hand a little squeeze, but he didn’t offer any explanation for the subdued mood.
The sound of two sets of feet coming down the hallway made everyone turn expectantly. Stella walked into the room. The judge—I recognized her from the fake abduction and rescue of Seph—was with Stella and she didn’t look happy.
“The rogues already knew you all had magic,” the judge announced to the room. “They knew Turner and Jack are shifters from your encounter in the desert. What they didn’t know was how much magic Piper had, or that she would happily humiliate their leader. You’ve made the rogues your deep enemies and they know you’re here at Heart Mountain Academy. Something has to be done so they don’t go spreading that information around or sell it to bounty hunters.”
I glared at the woman. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have known how much magic I had inside me, but somehow it was all my fault the academy and its people were in jeopardy?
Aiden had done magic out at the farmhouse, too. Magic that should protect everyone here. I opened my mouth to point this out.
The judge held up her hand to stop me from speaking. “Yes, I know Aiden cast a forgetfulness spell on them, but that spell can only make them forget their most recent encounter with you. They will remember meeting you in the desert and will still blame you for the death of their comrade. They won’t remember the rescue, but obviously they will notice that Lindy and Carolyn are gone. They may think Carolyn and Lindy escaped on their own but still come here again wanting you all.”
Seph clutched her hands to her chest. “You’re going to make us leave?”
Stella smiled gently at her. “No. We won’t do that.”
“No,” the judge echoed. “But we are now forced to move our timetable forward and attack the Las Vegas bubble sooner than we had planned.”
“How much sooner?” Turner asked.
“Tomorrow.”
We moved to the kitchen to listen to Stella, her crew, and the judge plot, plan, and run through various scenarios looking for flaws. Our input—Turner’s, Seph’s Jack’s, Will’s, and mine—wasn’t asked for and when we offered it, we found our suggestions brushed away. So much for our being equals here. When I brought up storming Salvation Home to free the kids trapped there, it was met with tight-lipped stares and the judge’s crisp, “We’ll see.”
I knew “We’ll see.” It meant not going to happen. I bit my lip to hold back the words I wanted to say and took myself outside for some fresh air and trees.
Aiden followed me out. I heard him coming up behind and me and whirled to face him. “What do you want?”
His eyes widened slightly at my outburst. “To see if you’re okay.”
I glared at him a moment. “Do you know that game, chess?”
Aiden nodded.
“Well then, I’m as fine as any pawn might be listening helplessly to the kings, queens, bishops, and knights deciding her fate and the fates of her fellow pawns.”
Aiden nodded again. “So, pissed off.”
“You could say.”
“That’s good,” he said.
“Really? Good that our input is unwelcome? Good that we are expected to be obedient pawns and go where the queens decree? I don’t think so.”
“Walk with me.” Aiden smiled and offered me his arm.
I declined to take it but went with him when he started moving further from the house.
“You know what your best ability is, Piper?” Aiden asked.
“No. What?”
“You transform strong emotions into power. Your magic explodes when you’re pissed off or afraid.”
I stopped and stared at him.
“Think about it,” he said, stopping as well. “Then ask yourself if being excluded might be a tactic.”
I stared at him harder. We’d reached the end of the lawn. Aiden began walking again, stepping onto the hard-packed sand, still moving away from the house and toward the trees.
I walked with him. “Aren’t you ruining the tactic by telling me about it? If I know someone is intentionally trying to make me angry, won’t that make me not be?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Are you not angry now that I’ve told you?”
I blew out a hard breath. “No. I’m still completely pissed off at being excluded and supremely angry at being manipulated—again—by your people.”
He stiffened slightly. “My people?”
“Stella. The judge. Max. Geo. You. You tricked me, got my friend to go along with the deception, and dragged another friend into it as well. Not to mention that whomever you got to play the kidnappers banged my head into the floor so hard I had to be watched for signs of concussion. So, yeah. You and your people.”
Aiden winced at my words but didn’t say anything. He angled to walk us into the Spruce pines.
“I guess I deserved that,” he said almost to himself.
We were deep in the pines, the academy house invisible to us. I didn’t reply and we fell into silence walking deeper and deeper into the trees. The scent was strong in the evening air, strong enough to almost taste. The day’s heat had mellowed into pleasant warmth. Airing my grievances had mellowed me a little. That and the fact that he, at least, had apologized earlier for his part in the deception. So maybe not him and his people, but his people definitely. And that bitch, the judge.
“Sorry,” I said softly. “You’ve apologized. I’ve accepted your apology. It’s not fair for me to continue blaming you along with the others.”
Aiden drew in a breath before he spoke. “Have you thought about what you’ll do after, if we’re successful at taking down the m-vamps in the Vegas bubble?”
I shot him a hard look. “What do you mean, if? We will be successful.”
Because if we weren’t, only the promise of misery and maybe death lay in front of us if we were caught.
He smiled slightly. “What will you do after we are successful? Will you stay in the bubble?”
I bit my lower lip. “I don’t know. We haven’t talked about it.”
“We?”
“Seph, Turner, Jack, Will, and me. I’m not sure what we’ll do.”
His brow furrowed. “You’ll stay together?”
I nodded. Honestly, all my focus was on the task immediately ahead of us. I hadn’t thought about after. There would be an after. I had to believe it would be good. A whole different world from the one we’d known. A world full of possibilities.
Aiden’s hand brushed against mine. “You haven’t thought maybe you’d want to have your own life separate from them? Further your magic training?”
I blinked, startled by the thought. I’d spent most of my remembered life with those four. I’d assumed we’d go on together forever. But, now that I thought about it, Jack and Seph were a couple. In a place where magicals could love and even marry, maybe have a family, they might not want to remain part of a group. Turner and Will might have dreams they wanted to chase on their own.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “Maybe. I’d like to learn more magic.”
“You could come back here for more training.”
I shrugged. Why would I come back to a place full of people I couldn’t trust? With magic out in the open, there probably would be plenty of teachers available.
“Before we escaped from Salvation Home,” I said, “my life had no open possibilities. Everything was pre-ordained. I’d turn twenty-one and be assigned to a menial job I’d have for the rest of my life. The idea of choice is new to me. I’d like to see what happens after we take down the m-vamps before I choose what life to pursue.”
“You could be a powerful mage,” Aiden said, adding, “with the right training.”
We fell into another silence. I felt he had more he wanted to say. My mind was full of all the possible things I could do once magic was restored to its place in the world. Or in the Vegas bubble at least.
First things first. We had to defeat the m-vamps. That wasn’t going to be easy and it wasn’t a sure thing.
“We’d better go inside,” I said, “before the others start wondering where we’ve gone.”
Chapter Ten
Stella, the judge, and the rest were still in the common room when Aiden and I came back inside.
“Where are—” I asked.
Stella looked up from where she sat next to the judge on an old but comfortable couch. “They retired to the dorm. It’s been a long day.”
Not terribly surprising, given how clear the folks in the common room had been about not wanting our input.
Seph and Jack were sitting together on her bed when I walked into the dorm. Will was laying on his bed, his arms behind his head. Turner was looking out a window. Everyone turned their attention to me.
“Well?” Will asked.
I crossed the room and perched on the end of my bed. “Not much to say, really.” I paused. “But Aiden asked an interesting question about what we all planned to do after the—”
“Insurrection?” Will offered.
“Revolution,” Turner said.
“After magic is no longer forbidden in the Vegas bubble,” I said.
Seph squeezed Jack’s hand. “What did you tell him?”
“I said we hadn’t talked about it. The five of us, I meant. But then I thought that maybe me presuming we’d stay together was wrong. That maybe you and Jack might want to be on your own. That Turner or Will,” I nodded toward each of them in turn, “might have their own ideas about the life they’d like after.”
Will rolled his eyes. “Seriously, Piper. You are such a dunce sometimes.”
I blinked, surprised by his words. “A dunce? About what?”
“Aiden likes you,” he said. “A blind mole could see that. He was feeling around to see if you might want an ‘after’ with him.”
I raised my eyebrows. “A blind mole?”
Will sighed theatrically. “He likes you like Jack likes Seph. Do you get it now?”
I glanced at my friends. They were all nodding.
“And you like him,” Will said. “Even though he tricked you and you are rightfully angry and keeping your distance because of it.”
“He apologized,” I said vaguely. “Days ago.”
“And?” Will asked.
“And what?”
“And did you forgive him and are you ready to move on from being pissed at him and, oh, I don’t know, maybe hold hands or kiss or something?”
I blushed. I never blushed.
I scrambled to change the subject. “So, have any of you thought about what kind of life you’d want once we’ve overthrown the m-vamps and we can do anything we want?”
I glanced at my friends’ faces. All I saw were blank expressions. Evidently, they hadn’t thought about it any more than I had.
Will licked his lips. “I know what I don’t want—”
Before he could tell us, the door opened, and Aiden and Stella walked in. Aiden carried a basket with pants, shirts, and other items of clothing in it. From what I could see, all the clothes were black.
“In the bubble,” Stella announced without preamble, “you will need to look like people with the right to move freely on the street, people who definitely do not dress the way we do here in the outworld. You may not have realized this when you lived at Salvation Home, but in the bubble color instantly identifies rank. Your shirts were white because that color indicates magicals of the lowest rank.”
I swallowed. If I’d ever managed to escape Salvation Home any of those times I tried to run away, I’d have been as obvious on the streets as if I had a big sign on my chest.
“Police and other similar authorities wear gray,” Stella continued. “Educators wear yellow. Professionals wear green.”
“Who wears black?” Will cut in, asking the obvious question.
Stella paused to give Will a long, silent look.
“The privileged,” she stated flatly.
Like the judge, I thought, who seemed to only wear black.
Will grinned. “Privileged. That will be something new for us.”
“Which is why,” Aiden continued where Stella had left off, “Stella will be giving you some short lessons tonight on how to comport yourselves properly as we move through the bubble.”
There was an immediate change in the feel of the room. I didn’t think it had hit us until just that moment that tomorrow we would risk everything and hope for the best.
He reached into the basket at his feet and pulled out a pair of black trousers and a button up black shirt, and a black leather jacket with silver zippers that ran from the neck over the shoulders that had to be decorative since they were totally impractical. “This is yours, Turner.”
