Spell Bound
Kristen McDonald
Copyright Kristen McDonald 2012
Published by Black Rose Writing, Publishing at Smashwords
Black Rose Writing
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© 2012 by Kristen McDonald
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper, magazine or journal.
The final approval for this literary material is granted by the author.
First digital version
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Print ISBN: 978-1-61296-081-4
PUBLISHED BY BLACK ROSE WRITING
Print edition produced in the United States of America
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To Grace for brilliant ideas and hilarious times, to my loving Turtle (you’ll know who you are… I hope), and to my family for keeping me up to my nose in books. And for all of you keeping me spell bound in a thick, fuzzy sweater of love.
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Chapter One
The Beginning
I
The room was an obscurity of darkness. Along the walls, baleful shadows licked fervently at the chipping bricks. They patiently swayed, watching their master, waiting with him. Drapes of eccentric, sheer fabric hung around the study while a young man with dark blond, curly hair paced zealously, waiting for his sister. His cloak was ankle-length and striking, yet it blended in with his background. He wore a look of furrowed bereavement on his face. His patience was wearing thin when footsteps began to echo along the high-ceilinged halls. His heart leapt feebly. The show was about to begin.
“Scarlet.” It wasn’t a question; he could tell it was her from three miles away.
“I’m here,” the young woman announced. Her brother turned his head and smiled a smile that was something less and something more than painful to look at. Her stomach twisted in ways it shouldn’t. Why can’t he have someone else do his work? Doesn’t he enjoy to inflict the pain himself? Her stance quickly deflated from confident to weary.
“I wouldn‘t start if I were you,” Colon warned softly, picking thoughts up from her mind. “We have better things to argue about.” Scarlet‘s eyes flashed to meet his. Their eyes met together and, while his glare was stronger, she refused to break the connection first. Finally, he looked away.
She took this moment to her advantage.
“Keep your head out of my thoughts,” she snapped, the slightest hint of remorse flickering inside of her. Stupid necklaces… they allow him to read my thoughts. Then again so can I, to his. She thought these secretly, holding them in tightly, refusing his sight on them.
“Only if you do this one thing for me,” Colon compromised, voice calmer. More controlled. He had heard the thoughts she had struggled to keep secret easily. He had always been stronger.
But his focus turned away from her. He handed her a woven scroll tattered with edges held loosely together in a feeble gold strand. When his hand touched hers, she withstood the chills. His fingers were like hot iron. A side affect. That was worth it? She still hadn’t figured that out herself. She fought and won control over her emotion-filled face.
Peering up from her blazing red hair, she took the scroll. In this room every moment felt like hours. She was already feeling drained.
Scarlet didn’t need to peak into his mind or open the tattered parchment. She knew what it was all too well. They had been preparing for this moment. He had found out where the girl was going to be... Nevertheless, thoughts and questions danced around in her brown eyes. I don’t trust you, was shimmering delicately.
He almost slapped her face.
She noticed his blurred thoughts drain away to one clear one, and she was both interested and annoyed. She was older. This was supposed to be her job. Yet he was the one who had become obsessed with revenge. She thirsted for it too, but she’d settle for anyone. Even him…
“It’s a simple task I know you can complete. But if you fail, let’s just say it will hurt much more than the pain our father went through. I will ensure that.”
Scarlet cast a dark look at him, but nodded. She walked towards the large fastened window in her brother’s lavish room. Opening the hatch, she thrust her head out and called out a shrill whistle. The sound of flapping came near. She leapt out the window, and landed squarely on the black hide of her scaly familiar. She cast a look behind her to see she was closely followed by her watchman. Scarlet eyed him, watching him bob and weave past the air currents on his own, probably untrained, dragon. She was used to him having her back since she had become a person people feared. And there would be more coming. Someone to back her up.
I’m ready, she thought. How long has it been since I was able to touch the skies? To constrict fear into our enemies’ hearts? It’s time for us to rise again. This time, we won’t lose.
A note was tucked under one of the over-reflective scales of her dragon, Téashi. Scarlet peeled it out gently enough to not hurt the monster. There in bright red letterings, recognizable as her brother’s decorative penmanship, were the sentences,
Remember, he killed us, and he’s still alive.
She’s born and will finish us, but we can kill her.
It will kill him. And we will be victorious.
Once again.
She sped Téashi, adrenaline pulsing through her veins like sparks of electricity. The air flipped her hair wildly, and her eyes narrowed.
As if I could forget, Scarlet thought.
II
It was raining. A tiny hospital that lay near a village was still surprised that a couple had come to them to deliver their baby. There is a fancier, better hospital up the road, they tried to argue. They had no expertise and people who were qualified for baby delivery here. This was a hospital for minor things such as picking up over-the-counter and prescription medications. They could barely call their small cabin-like building a hospital. Although somehow, they had pulled it off.
The soon-to-be parents however, insisted.
Now, the parents watched their baby, healthy and born beautiful, trying not to laugh when the doctors didn’t believe how she didn’t cry when she was born. The gullibility of human doctors... The couple talked quietly to each other, and when the doctor asked if the mother wanted to see her child she said yes enthusiastically, but she never took the child from the doctor’s hands. She claimed it was a part of a family tradition. However, something else was being hidden behind her words. The doctors didn’t say anything though, only asking what the girl’s name would be. “Nicole. Nicole Colon.” Nikki, the man and woman thought at the same time. They had had this planned for a while now.
The parents couldn’t touch their child. At least for now. They would have a moment. Only a few seconds, but they had been warned from a person whom they trusted severely. To not touch her. All was well however, because the doctor wanted to check the newborn child out, still fearing something wasn’t quite right since she hadn’t cried.
They were the only people in the hospital, as it was pouring out, and was a slow day. The man whispered something to his wife, his accent clearly reflecting where he lived. England: far from the city life. The parents looked from behind a thick glass window at the doctor and nurses.
The man rubbed his hands together and blue flames sparked in-between his fingers and palm. He was ready. The woman looked at him nervously, but he had a look of sheer confidence on his face. It was against all the rules that they lived by to do this, yet the person who would punish them were the people they were doing this against.
The man lifted his hand to the glass that separated him from his child and the doctors. At the moment they were just looking at the baby girl. He could risk it. He pressed his palm against the cold frame and a silver substance seemed to leak from his fingers and through the thick glass. He watched as the doctor turned stiff. The nurses’ eyes turned slightly misty. They placed the child down, and looked at each other. Together, they walked out the back door of the room.
The man nodded as if approving, but his wife bit her lip and shook her head slightly to herself.
“We have little time before—”
“I know,” the woman interrupted gently. “Trust me, I know.”
He placed his hand gently in his wife’s. She sighed quietly at his warm hands from his fire magic, as he whispered, “She will be okay. You know that. You saw it.”
“The future can change easily. What I saw could be different as we stand here in this moment.”
The husband looked down and then back at his child, who was sitting still, as if waiting for them to come in. “Come on,” he pressed slightly.
He walked to the door of the room and opened it, closely followed by his wife.
The man sauntered to his child and picked her up, careful not to touch her skin. He could hold her now, as it wouldn’t matter in a second. Touching her skin however, would still put them all in jeopardy.
“What about Jake?” the woman started to ask.
“He will be waiting for us when we get home. He’s small but bright. The Berlidge family are watching him. When Nikki gets older and Jake grows and learns the skills at Primrose, he will be able to protect her better than any of us can.”
“Are you sure it was the right thing to put the curse on him?”
“My brother insisted before they...” the man’s thoughts trailed from his brother to his death. “They knew the risk. Besides, Jacob’s a part of our family, he’ll have the courage and strength to take almost anything.”
The door flew open then.
The man clutched his child closely with one arm, and with the other, he outstretched it. His blue flames spread about an inch from his palm, read to attack if needed.
When two, mystical figures appear quite suddenly out of nowhere in a hospital, a normal pair of parents’ instincts would be to scream and shout, “How in the world, did those insane freaks appear out of nowhere?! Get them out of this nursery!” And the doctors would have come back in. The two figures would have done one of two things: let themselves get captured, or disappear as quickly as they had come.
Yet the father put his outstretched arm down. “You’re here. Finally.”
“Yes,” the first figure said, his voice low and well used. He was an older man with rich wrinkles tracing his face. “Are you ready for this?”
“No,” the woman said just as her husband answered yes.
The second figure smiled warmly. She was easily identified as the elder’s apprentice. The older man spoke again, “Remember to put on a good show. If you believe it, we’ll have more of a chance of passing this off.”
The couple nodded.
The hearts in this room were all beating abnormally fast except for the child, who was still in her father’s hands.
“The doctors are gone?” the elder man asked.
The mother nodded. “For now.”
“We mustn’t wait much longer,” the apprentice whispered. “The longer we wait, the more of a risk we have.”
“It’s true,” the elder confirmed.
The father looked at him with sudden realizing eyes.
“Scarlet is coming. Her brother’s pinpointed Nicole’s location.” The elder looked discouraged as he said this.
The mother didn’t want to know how her daughter was found.
“Take her. Keep her safe.” The father reluctantly but trustingly handed over his daughter.
“We will,” the elder man said.
“Thirteen years will go by fast,” the apprentice assured.
“Let’s hope she stays a secret for that long.” The mother brushed a long strand of auburn hair back behind her ear. Her worries would not remain unspoken.
“Trust me, where she is going, no one would think to look,” the apprentice almost laughed. A smile had spread across her face despite the contrasting emotion that filled the room.
“Where exactly?” the father asked.
The apprentice was about to answer, but the older man stopped her. “Maybe it’s best to keep it a secret for now. Scarlet has a way with the mind remember.”
“Yes,” the mother answered back, recounting this comment from past experiences.
“We must go now. The exchange will need to be complete as soon as possible.”
The couple nodded together.
They watched as the apprentice and her master disappeared instantly from their sight with only a spark and a small sound that had the reminisce of a breeze drifting over the ocean. The figures were gone. So was their daughter.
III
“Are you kidding me?” a doctor groaned loudly. People were rushing in like there was no tomorrow. At this point, it seemed like there wasn’t going to be. The world was in chaos as if the apocalypse was this very night. The patients were on needles, the nerves of every worker were on the edge, and there was a feeling in the air, quite unlike anything ever felt in this small town.
“It’s raining violently Doctor, and people are coming in injured from traffic jams and accidents,” a nurse tried to explain calmly, while taking a thick strip of gauze and rushing it over to a person whose head was slit open.
“This is nuts.” He shook his head, chugging down the rest of his coffee. “Ok, take the workers from the nursery—there’s isn’t a baby in there needing intensive care. They’ll be fine for the moment. We need more help out here.” He felt a twinge of remorse; if anything happened to those babies now, there was only one person to blame.
“Yes Doctor,” the nurse said with a smile.
She went into the nursery and spoke to the employees, telling them to care for the people who were coming in. They hesitated, but she scolded them, saying in a rushed tone, “Hurry! Doctor’s orders!” They left the room then, stepping up to help people who needed them more.
The nurse slipped off her apron and her thin hospital hat, brushing her nausea-colored nurse-dress with her hand gently, turning it back to a slightly weathered cape and emerald dress. A spark of golden light cast off the walls. A breeze shifted through the room like a warm spring draft.
The young woman, not older than sixteen, watched her master wave away the last yellowish threads of a magical transportation enchantment, as if he were waving off smoke. Indiana, the United States, the woman thought almost satisfied. It made sense to her. She hadn’t even heard of the small city they were in. The name didn’t make any sense on her elfin-influenced tongue. It didn’t happen by coincidence that it was one of the busiest nights in the history of hospitals. And later all of the doctors and nurses would slouch in the chairs and throw their heads back in anguished crying, “We don’t get paid enough to do this job!” As if it mattered that their feet hurt. But it was all for Nikki. Yet they didn’t even know it. The thought almost made her smile. They would never know.
Nothing is a mere accident anymore, even the flood that happens to be causing havoc to everyone, thought the woman pulling out her hair from under her heavy cloak to reveal bleach-blond elfin curls held with a large, elaborate brown comb. The memory of Garden and her conjuring and enhancing the should-have-been small rainstorm, ran alongside her many other thoughts. She loved to influence the weather. Garden usually suggested to stray away from doing so. In this case however, he claimed it was a necessary risk for executing their plan flawlessly. She always laughed at his over-explained theories, this being no exception. She wasn’t surprised that she was scolded once again, being told this was a matter that needed to be taken serious in order for everything to succeed. Alex, however, knew something was bound to mess up everything. Humans are so predictable. “Their incompatible ways have always neglected the philosophy of our existence,” Garden always told her. However, she believed there were a rare few who actually believed in the magic that surrounded her on a daily basis.
Catching her eye, the rusty man twinkled his eyes at her to tell her to share her speechless thoughts. She was entranced by the amount of gray flakes that seemed to have sprinkled rather recently unto his coarse black hair. He always wore it in a slicked-back style.
“When will you tell me your plans for her?” she asked curtly. Her lips twitched down in dissatisfaction. Why does he always smile and twinkle his eyes when his “enchanting” voice could say it all in one word? If only his mind were as easily penetrated, as the rest of the world is.
He only smiled at her rage. “Alexandria, when we know that one of these babies is safe, and preferably the one we are sworn to protect, and that we ourselves are safe from...” He trailed off. It was unlike him to do so, but it would have been odder to hear him say a vague word such as “things” to replace the word he was forbidden to talk about aloud. His wise eyes still burned with the kindness his mouth refused to display. “Even though you are very young and are still learning, you should understand enough to not underestimate the dangers of our mission. Needless to say, the explanation I gave to you beforehand about our plan should be enough for now.”
Alexandria sighed, feeling like a stubborn three year old. Does the man always have to talk in riddles? What would my ailing mother think of me now if she knew her elfin daughter was a witch with a master who was out of his mind—whatever is left of it. She wanted me to stay at Blaire Hills, but I was losing my wits there…as if this is much better. A sharp pang echoed through her as she realized what she had just thought. It’s awful of me to think this way. I am a failure as an apprentice. She hadn‘t gotten much sleep, and without thinking of the consequences, she began to ask a dangerous question. “Garden, would Col—” she started with new warm eyes but her words faded as the look on Garden’s face grew graver. She always had a bad taste on her tongue after she finished saying his name anyway.
“You know they‘re on our tail. He knows our voices, specifically mine. We must be wise in the words we speak. Besides, we are cutting it close as it is, and we don’t need to be caught at the moment we thought we were safe. Best to get business going now.”
Alexandria nodded and returned to rocking the England baby softy. The baby wasn’t even moving though, rather she looked at Alex with still, wide eyes and a broad expression. She saw through the baby’s sweet green-speckled brown eyes, strangely reminding Alex of fall and amber fire, to find not scrambled thoughts, but pure strands, stringing themselves together to form questions. Alex continued to examine the baby‘s mind, intrigued to the point where it felt like she was reading pages of a book. She hugged the girl tight to her, wordlessly growing more attached to her and promising her that she wouldn’t let anything happen to her. If only I could read your future. Maybe your thoughts would silently become what you will be when you get older like me. I can’t wait ’till I can actually see you again.
Garden summoned Alexandria to follow him as he walked around baby cribs, watching the few scarlet-faced, fist-pounding babies in their current plastic homes. There were also the small amount of sleeping babies with tear stained faces. There were no more than five babies in the room, but none of them as calm as the baby they held in their arms. They traveled until they stopped at a baby whose sign had rushed handwriting scribbled carelessly. This irritated Alex. Was everything rushed mayhem in this state? Nothing was marked with magic as far as she could tell. Maybe it was her elfin skepticism that brought her to disdain this place. Maybe it was the haunting deeds they themselves were doing. Magic couldn’t be transferred, couldn’t be deported. Yet here they were. She looked at the sign in anguish.
Chrystan Nicole Richard
They both peered into the pink-lined crib, to find the single loudest baby of the bunch. Alex handed Garden her silent baby, “You’d think that one’s dead already.”
Garden shook his head at her naïve nature, but gave into a small, disconcerting smile all the same. They both knew that the screaming baby wouldn’t last more than a month due to a sickness that none of the doctors had recognized yet. Yet the irony that a child so silent could be taking an extremely loud, soon-to-be-dead child‘s place in order to escape death herself, was extraordinary. Especially since the England child was as silent as death already. Alex, making a sour face, regretfully gave the quiet baby to Garden and picked up the thrashing baby. She sang her elfin hymns. She rocked and swayed her. The baby would not stop crying. “You can easily tell which one is one of us,” Alex said rolling her eyes. While the corners of Garden’s mouth twitched ever so slightly, Alex was given a headache from the baby’s useless thoughts.
She was an average baby human. Not a speck of magic flowed in her blood. While the silent child was a different story...
Garden placed the baby from England to this new plastic prison. Quickly, she handed him the Indiana child. Alex sent a skeptical look at him as she eyed the pink linings. Taking a small breath, she stretched her hand and laid it on the lining. The pink scurried away and was replaced with a glossy red fabric that had the sparkle of sequins. The lining turned to drapes, elaborate and rich in detail.
Garden chortled. “That’s a magnificent way to make her stand out, even though it’s quite beautiful.”
“She deserves it!” Alex argued. “You know what her parents would have given her if they had the choice.”
Garden nodded. “Indeed I do. Perhaps for now though,” he placed his hand on the lining and it instantly turned back to the pastel pink and plastic, “it would be best to stay as nonchalant as possible.”
Alex bit her lip, and ran a hand through the tuft of auburn hair that the silent baby girl had sticking up. “How is it possible that she and her cousin will accomplish this?”
“They aren’t going to be alone. You know this.”
“Even so...it’s just hard to imagine considering Jake’s two right now, and that he will be training her someday soon.”
“He’s already had a lot of training for himself. His magic is showing through quite obviously.”
“Are you sure he’s safe where he is?”
“Right now, we should be worrying more about Nicole.”
Alex nodded.
Garden continued in a voice that felt to her, like the final words of their conversation, “Those with minuscule faith have little to reach for, for you have to reach for something, or you’ll fall for anything.” With that, he gave her a wink and he carried the Indiana baby off, disappearing for the third time in a dusty cloud of gold, leaving the hospital and Alex once again in a place where they knew no one would ever think to look to find this girl who they depended on living.
Alex took a breath. As she did, her emerald cloak turned back into the sea-foam green skirt and top of the nurse outfit. Magic was becoming more complicated than she had hoped.
IV
Two Days Later: England
The doors of the hospital flew open and crashed into the crumbly bricks of the building. The short, slender woman with rich brown hair, bounded forward with her husband. She was severely shaking, despite the unnaturally warm temperature for this area. Her hands had a firm grasp on a sleeping baby, whose unfamiliar red, puffy cheeks almost irritated her. Her heart was sore. How am I suppose to know if this will work? I’ll admit switching the two babies was an... interesting plan, but it doesn’t seem to have that flawless touch that Garden always has. She didn’t want to remind herself that it was her who had the vision and told Garden about it, to switch the children. She knew which baby was going to die an early death. She refused it to be her own.
Despite the immense amount of scorn this woman thought a person would need to have to perform such a task as switching a child and then taking her back when it was safe again, she didn’t regret it. Her child needed to live. If she didn’t, so many things would be torn apart. Lives worn to shreds, futures forgotten. Not that the world relied on her girl. There were no prophecies about her child; there were no ancient tales, no legends, no expectations. There were only thin-lined whispers spoken in the shack, rumors flurrying in the air like a snow fall that refuses to touch ground. Sometimes, rumors are worse than prophecies...
It was an uncommon thing for this family to fear. It was a common thing however, for them to be put in the spotlight of danger. Through generations they had always been ready to die on the spot. It was the sort of attitude you had to live with when you were a Je Ne Sais Quoi. Especially when you were a part of a family with a history like theirs. Why does Colon have to be after Nikki anyway? But she knew the answer to that question. Revenge.
Trotting beside the worried mother was a lanky, auburn haired man who kept glancing up every other second. If someone hadn’t known him, they would have thought he had a nervous twitch. He limped slightly, and the woman looked at him in concern. Would he survive the attack they both knew was coming? He had barely come out of the last one alive... He wasn’t sure he’d be so lucky next time. The atmosphere was dead silent, as if something were going sneak up on them from behind. The man worried about his wife Ruby, he worried for this innocent blood being spilt—after all it was just a harmless baby, and he didn’t even know who the parents were— and most of all, he worried about his own daughter. All the way in North America. He didn’t know exactly where. It would have been too dangerous to know. I promise no matter what happens to me today I will find you and keep you safe, he vowed to her.
She has the most beautiful name, after her grandfather, yet it will be thirteen long years before she gets to use it again. He caught some irony in his tone to himself, and was surprised he could still use humor. Tomas’s thoughts were more calm than Ruby’s. He had complete confidence in Garden and Alexandria. That was his problem.
They could feel the safe spot impending. The spot they had specifically designed to be able to get out of reach of the eyes of the town and escape, the same way Garden had done so with their daughter. Quickly, they composed themselves. They put on masks of their former, worried selves, just in case their fears became veracity. They were exactly thirteen inches from the invisible border for magic, when the air became something that was no longer air.
It was as though you were being shoved by the neck into deep water. The air was cold and clammy, sticking to your skin. The air had jaws; it clamped down and tore at them every which way. Forcing them to stand completely still, in fear they would lose all sense of direction. Yet they did anyways. If you were cut off from the world: your sights, your smells, your hearing, that was what it felt like in this darkness. Wind flew in all directions. Ruby’s hair fluttered like pages of a book. She closed her eyes. Tomas wrapped his arms around her. His eyes were wide, searching for a point where their attackers would emerge.
As if the sky were releasing toxic gas, a thick, smoky fog swirled around the shoes and waists of the parents. It wrapped around the foreign girl in their arms. The fog had fingers, and they wrapped themselves around her, claiming her to the darkness. The mother Ruby held her securely.
Tomas lit a spark from his hand. A great blue flame leapt from the top of his fingers,
The fog shuttered off, as if repulsed by the match within his fingertips. It strayed away from them for a moment, bitten by the strength of his fire. The fog seemed to come alive. It knew how to move by itself. It was commanded by no one but whom it had been created by. Tomas knew this. His magic would not hold off the darkness. Not when the smoke could figure out how to stop them. By the look of how the smog edged closer, it wouldn’t be long.
He killed his own flame, as the fog had created a tunnel around them, cutting off most of the oxygen. He didn’t want to waste precious air. If they could reach out, they would stroke the fabric-like velvet atmosphere. If the air wasn’t so dense and didn’t clamp their mouths shut, they could suck in something that resembled exhaust fumes.
Then, it stopped.
Everything stopped.
It became clear they were in the eye of the storm. Only, the real danger was inside of it with them.
Bursting out of the smog, came two mangled creatures. They blended in so tremendously with the darkness, that all the parents could make out was some sort of mass with red eyes and black-slit irises. One of the two creatures let out a smothered growl. The black mist swirled in the air around them with its echo. Breaking through the thick air, it opened its mouth, showcasing gleaming white teeth overlapping the bottom rim of its gums. They shone like headlights—fat and round—except the tip was a dagger-like edge. As their translucent red wings beat, the misty air swirled like a demonic child shaking a morbid snow globe.
So much for going as planned, Thomas thought grimly to himself. But it was according to plan. To one of them at least.
Across the dragons’ backs, two separate knee-high boots appeared. Two bodies came from that, and soon it was easy to recognize a woman and a man. When their hands finally left the saddles, that was strapped tightly around the beasts’ ridged backs, they turned to gaze at the unsightly parents whom their duty had sent them to. By now, Ruby’s face displayed a look of pure horrorstricken worry, and her delicate features seemed a bit twisted. She was grateful that the fog slightly hid her expressions. Her own doubting thoughts chimed in her head so loud that she longed to just drop the baby and cover herself. To protect her ears from her own head. It wasn’t her child, and her own was safe. So maybe...
No, I have to make this convincing. He is not easily fooled and we need to make sure that this performance will not be our last. For our daughter’s sake. For a moment, the parents believed that Colon had actually come down and met them himself. If that had been so, they could have forgotten all hopes of surviving. They both breathed a sigh of relief. The only man who had come was stockier than Colon and wore thick gray-tinged clothing that Colon would never be found in.
The woman had on tan boots with such lavish designs that there wasn’t a single question that she was royalty. An elaborate wine-colored cloak pooled on the foggy pavement, and her hood concealed her facial features all except the leaking of her blazing red hair.
The guard stepped beside the perfect-postured red head and looked uncomfortable, as he seemed to disappear in the blackness because if his suit of onyx. His leather belt cradled a dazzling bright sword that glinted, even though there was nothing for it to reflect off of, as if to inflict threats. And just as that sword longed for that certain feeling, so it was that the two parents felt.
A smile that didn’t bring the least bit of comfort, flurried around the atmosphere, radiating from the young woman, while she snapped out a golden scroll. As soon as the girl started out preaching, “By the order of King Colon III, ...,” Ruby had tuned out the whole declaration by the soft sound of her pounding heart. “Child...,” Boom, Boom. “Die.” Boom, Boom, Boom. Would Garden’s plan really work, or would it flop like the never ending beatings of the dragon’s wings?
Not a moment was wasted, and the dreaded moment came when the young lady finished her train of words. She pushed down her dark hood, to reveal the ripe-strawberry pool of hair that covered her head. Then brushed it all back in the single, sweeping motion of her hand. She was not smiling, The woman Scarlet stood completely blank, while she spoke the first words of her own in a mocking tone, “So, what shall your choice be?”
I have to put up a good act, Ruby thought to herself. She knew that Tomas was thinking the same thing. Even though she didn’t have the slightest idea what the document really said, besides the few words that she had heard, she knew. It was in her heart, causing her thoughts to become unstable. It was about a choice. Both ending in death.
Ruby made it convincing enough as she clutched the sleeping baby tightly in her hands. Tomas and herself stayed as silent as death itself.
“I figured that would be your choice,” Scarlet responded with her lavish accent, a wide-spread grin creeping up on her lips. She whipped out a silver and black wand, and pointed it directly at the baby and Ruby. “Hmm… Who to kill first? The baby whom I’m after, or the mother who loves it dearly, or the father who will suffer the most?”
Right when she was about to attack the baby, she had a change in thoughts. A bright purple and black swirling cloud of light exploded from the stick of wood. Before anybody could do anything, change anything, or even react, the hex had found its target, which spun backwards uncontrollably and finally fell with a thud to the black pavement.
Tomas did not move.
Ruby couldn’t contain her fear now. A ripple of scream flew from her lips. She didn’t care if she was in the protective magic field, she pulled out her own brown stick, and sent a blue shield over herself and the baby. Another purple flame shot forward, shattered the feeble shield like a baseball viciously to glass. Ruby dashed forward and at that instant, the child awoke. A last enchantment followed Ruby as she frantically skittered away, but she could not escape it. The hex hit its target, the baby, directly in the heart. Suddenly, Ruby felt it spreading through her entire body. Thoughts clicked in her mind. The child was too small for an enchantment that big.
Since it hit its target, Ruby knew that she would receive the effects that occur when you survive the nearly unstoppable spell. Her thoughts became scrambled. Things were forgotten. Important things. The effects were never simple. They were never the same. This time, they chose to steal valuable memories and common sense from the mind of the young mother.
At that moment, not only was she incredibly confused, but she had totally forgotten that the baby that was dead wasn’t her baby. Tears welled in her eyes. She could barely control the grief flustering inside of her body. A thickness spread in her throat, despairingly. Ruby swept her wand once over herself, and disappeared into the new night sky whispering the words, “I have failed you.”
Scarlet ran over to the discarded baby in shock and surprise. Her plan was that the enchantment would hit Ruby, killing her too. It hadn’t happened, but Ruby’s reaction wasn’t what she had expected if she survived. How could she just leave the baby there? After all she’d been through, after that sacrifice she gave to try and save her daughter, this is what happens. Oh, I’m unimpressed. Very unimpressed.
Scarlet bent over the pink blanket and unwrapped it from the little infant’s face. Still half in shock and half in the process of crying, an unfamiliar baby was held in Scarlet’s arms like a chunk of hard, dead-cold piece of rock. Scarlet’s mock-smile returned, but her eyes were hard as they examined.
This isn’t the baby that Colon saw, that he saw me see. How could my vision not come true? They always have... She stroked the babies cold cheek and felt its still-warm tears.
She blew breaths of wind in-between her own paling lips. They turned into a line so thin they were nonexistent. If she returned empty handed and without news for celebration, Colon wouldn‘t forgive her. Let alone let her live. Trying to calm her heart beat, her mind fluttered to all that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. Something about the way the parents looked when they came out. Sure, defiant, unafraid...
Where did Tomas go? She could barely breathe as her feet led her to where the body of Tomas should have been. Yet he wasn’t.
She spun frantically. By now, Scarlet’s heart was racing but her mind had finally clicked. It’s not the girl. She’s still alive.
Scarlet ground her teeth. Some way, some how… You won’t be what those idiot parents want you to become. I will find you. You will die.
V
North America: Mishawaka, Indiana
It was a clear day in the hospital near the tip of Indiana. in a city where no oddness had ever occurred. No strange figures had been spotted. No dragons lurking around the corner. No revenge seeking princes would take their wrath out. It was quiet and still. Quite boring. Excitement was found in small things. Tiny events were considered extraordinary. If a child was hidden in the city (if you could call it a city) no one would think to look. Because everyone always overlooked this city. Which is why Nikki was hidden there.
Right when a skeptical, crinkly nurse named Karen popped into the nursery to retrieve the baby, she was immediately overwhelmed by the headache all the crying and screaming gave her. She was working in overtime, hadn’t gotten sleep in the last week, and her stepmother was driving her crazy. Tiny things that were exciting.
She had never touched magic. Never been around it. Never wanted to feel it. However suddenly, she was overwhelmed by an intense urge to feel something different than what she had been feeling for the last forty years.
She was just about to give up both of her searches. The parents had described their baby as a plump, red faced girl that was the loudest in the room (and she had described her urge to feel something different as ridiculous and worthy of a ten-year-old). Although together all of the babies made one deplorable noise, there was not a single child who made a particular cry that could definitely be classified as the loudest. Karen ran two finger across her temple, trying to remember why she hadn’t retired yet.
The irritated nurse was not in the mood for parents that couldn’t even identify their own child. Hair like an angel. Dimples the size of moon craters. Any information like that would have surely been more useful. Her sarcastic thoughts brought a slight smile to her face. Maybe I’ll start my own comedy show, be on live TV, and actually make some money instead of the trash I get here.
A crib caught Karen’s eyes. The lighting seemed different around it. The atmosphere seemed perplexed at how to handle itself around the crib. Karen walked over to the side of it without realizing what she was doing. A certain feeling was filling her that she couldn’t explain. It wasn’t the sight of the child, who was, although cute, quite like any other baby. Except for one thing. The baby girl was wrapped soundly in her pink blanket and was just starring at the ceiling. Not moving. Not gurgling. And her eyes seemed to be stirring—the green into the browns.
Is that child actually not crying? What a miracle. Something became unsettled in her as she thought that, as if it wasn’t right to talk about a child when they couldn’t understand anything you were saying. Karen’s thoughts continued however, for a while as she found herself staring at the queer child.
She couldn’t figure out how, but this would be a child she would remember. In forty more years if she lived that long.
“I wonder whose parents are lucky to have you,” she said softly to the baby girl. The tone of her voice surprised even her. She couldn’t remember the last time she talked like that.
The girl looked up and stared sideways from her bed. Straight into Karen’s eyes. They met hers. Karen almost fell backwards in shocked. Although she couldn’t understand why until she realized how odd this behavior was for an infant. Does she actually know I’m right here? It’s as if she understands and is trying to answer… How strange. Karen slowly walked to the end of the crib where the baby’s name was boldly printed on pink paper: Chrystan Nicole Richard.
I think that was the name of the baby I was sent to get. Karen sprinted over to the sign out sheet and saw that the Richards and their new baby Chrystan were indeed checking out. Humph. Puffy faced, screaming baby I‘ll say. She’s the quietest baby I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Actually, it seems so abnormal for a baby of this age to act this way. It had only been two days since she was born.
In a quick motion, Karen swooped up the calm thing and rushed her over to the room where the parents would be eagerly waiting. She stopped when she got to room 130B. Cradling the baby for probably the last time, she peeked in the pink blanket. The girl was fast asleep! The hospital was bustling with machine growls and doctor yells. Karen would have never fallen asleep in all of this chaos. Goodness! Karen thought to herself. She quietly peeked in the room where both parents sat staring off in different directions. They don’t look a thing like her! The baby’s cheek bones are round and circular, but both parents have slim long ones. Their hair are both a color near black, but the baby’s is unmistakably auburn. Am I sure this is the right baby?
Her thoughts were coming together to create an oddly-pieced puzzle. By now, Karen had serious doubts about whether all of her marbles were in the glass bowl or not. Ah well, she thought, it is not my problem nor my duty to try and explain why this is.
Karen walked into the hospital bedroom.
“Here’s your baby,” Karen said as if reading from a script. She sounded delighted. As always when she was in front of people.
The woman took the baby lovingly from Karen’s arms and Karen quickly walked away. She couldn’t be blamed, she had to remind herself. It would have been the doctor’s or nurses’ faults if a child was mixed up.
Karen went on her way through the hall but stopped dead. Standing in the middle of a deserted hallway was a creature. It stood at least three and a half feet tall and had the resemblance of a wolf. Without breathing, Karen examined it within the second she had stopped, gathering details as quickly as she could. It was white, and its fur was gathering in large pellets on its chest. And its nails were like a birds’.
Karen blinked. The creature was gone.
Karen collapsed, unconscious, on the ground.
VI
Charlotte held the baby in her arms as if something was erroneous in her heart but her mind couldn‘t process what. She quickly unveiled the soft, pink shield because unlike most moms, she had not yet seen an up-close of her baby yet. The baby had been taken straight from her. Doctors had claimed that were some signs of brain damage. Although when they tested they found nothing, they still kept the child under watch. Charlotte and her husband Ted were forced to look at their baby through a thick piece of glass.
The baby that she saw now was nothing less than a stranger, and not a single thing like she remembered from the finger-smudged, glass pane. She had taken pride in the fact that her baby was the most red-faced and the loudest of the bunch, taking it as a sign of early dominance. What she didn’t know was it was a sign of the foreign disease.
“Does she have your eyes, dear?” Charlotte asked as the baby girls eyes opened and her tiny lips made an “o” of a yawn. The girl’s eyes where deep muddy brown but had speckles of green and gold splattered here and there like a muddy pile of autumn leaves.
“It doesn’t appear so,” her husband Ted responded searching their girl’s eyes.
“She has your fingers though.” Charlotte tried again, this time holding up the frail baby’s long fingers.
“I’m not sure if she looks like us in any way I can see!” Ted said with anguish. I swear it looked just like us the last time we saw her! he thought. It was strange to Charlotte and Ted.
Immediately panic swept through them. What if someone had gotten their child mixed up with another? Then again, the odds were against that weren’t they? Wasn’t it nearly impossible, since their child’s name was on her crib? They shook away the thoughts, refusing to accept that there was any chance of a mix-up.
On the way to their home that afternoon, the sky clouded over. Rain fell in silent drops. The world seemed still and solemn. Almost as if the sky was in morn. The parents grew into an argument. One that shook the whole car, and rattled the window panes in the house. The walls of the home soaked in the hatred. The child Nikki was silent the whole time.
Chapter Two
Magic
I
“BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP!” an alarm clock screamed to a dazed girl. Her eyes flew open in a sudden realization, and Nikki sprang up with urgency, her long hair flying out like dandelion fluff. Something was wrong. She felt her forehead and pulled it back with a wince. My head is dead hot. Of course, I’m going to get sick right before my birthday. Yep. This is the sort of luck I live with. She turned her head to see what time it was. Instantly, some sense was knocked into her like a fat, brick wall. With a panic rising through her throat, Nikki registered what the clock was giving a final warning of.
“Nooo...” she uttered, falling for a moment back into the cool sheets. Nikki no longer cared about the short spikes of heat that ran through her body. This would be the forth time this month she was going to be late to school. There was no use trying to rely on her parents waking her up anymore. Not since... She pushed it aside with a heavy heart. I don’t need to think about it this early in the morning. It consumes enough of my time already. Reluctantly, she flew out of her bed and threw on the nicest clothes she could come up with within a three second time period. Which ended up being a red t-shirt and dark jeans.
Before anything or anyone could stop her, Nikki had grabbed her bag, raced down the stairs, and was outside of the door in a flash. The bright sunlight met her eyes in a reflective glare they had not anticipated. Although instead of feeling overheated, it felt nice. Got a couple minutes until there‘s not a chance that I‘ll be on time. I have to make it, somehow. I know that if I just make it to school... A hope stirred inside of her as her gut told her that everything would end up fine today. She almost laughed out loud. School was never fine.
Why does middle school have to be so far away? Nikki whined to herself. She hated whining, but this seemed legitimate enough. She was a runner in disguise, a fact never to be known by anyone but close friends, and she pumped her legs heartily in a rhythmic pattern.
The air was crisp, silent, and sweet. No cars traced the streets. Animals and insects were hushed. It was almost edgy, as if the world waited for a sound. Nikki loved it. For a second, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to forget everything...
“Oomph!” Nikki gasped as she ran straight into a tall, thin girl, that she recognized almost immediately with a friendly smile. It brought her back to the reality of life. “Kay!” Nikki cried in her surprise. The blond girl looked at her still in the trance of being run into, but then smiled warmly. Her slim body posed naturally, in a striking way.
Kay twirled a strand of shoulder length hair nonchalantly. It was a regular pattern for Nikki to meet up with her once she had passed Kay‘s street, two blocks from where they were now. It didn’t surprise Nikki that Kay had started the thirty minute journey without her.
“Hey Chrystan, late this morning? I was afraid you were sick or something...” Kay responded, although she knew differently. There was an awkward pause where they looked at each other, silently reading eyes. Kay studied Nikki’s face, which was slightly saddened. Nikki saw something she couldn’t describe. As quickly as she had seen it though, it was gone.
They started walking again.
“Last night’s homework sure was brutal,” Kay continued, as if nothing had happened.
“Yeah, I hate Mr. Shiner so much, he doesn’t teach the lessons in a way we can understand. It’s like he thinks we’re teachers too and he just needs to refresh our memories of it.”
“Totally! It makes me so mad….”
The air thickened as Nikki no longer listened. It wasn’t Kay, whose conversation she was always happy to partake in. It was something else. Her eyes were drawn to across the street. Nikki stared at the bushes and trees that lined the sidewalk in heavy army-lines. For a moment, nothing looked off, but deep inside of her, she could feel it. Her eyes widened when the oddity became a reality.
There, halfway hidden by the bushes, was a very white, shaggy creature. Nikki stared closer and saw that the creature’s paws were scaly and ended in long bird-like talons. It’s head and body however was covered in thick fur and it was shaped like a wolf. It was so breathtakingly beautiful, Nikki couldn’t help but look.
What the heck? Nikki thought. A squeak slipped through her mouth. As Nikki opened her mouth and stretched her vocal chords to form choked words to Kay, two pale skinny hands reached out of the bushes and grabbed the wolf creature back in the shadows. In the quiet air, Nikki swore she heard a soft voice scold, “Arola, no, you have to be back here!”
“Oomph,” Nikki gasped for the second time that day when she stopped and this time Kay, who had set a pace behind Nikki, ran into her.
“Okay, what is your problem, Chrystan? Are you having some distraction problems today or are you just having off-and-on stopping issues?” There was a hint of laughter in Kay’s voice that allowed Nikki to know she was joking, even thought most of her tone was annoyed.
However, Nikki was too dazed to laugh. Her heart was pounding in her ears. This event had nothing to do with her. It was probably just some child whose dog had gotten loose. His scaly wolf-dog got loose... She must have imagined some part of it. Her mind wasn‘t processing words fast enough to make sense.
“Neither,” Nikki finally answered Kay. “Come on, we have to look behind those bushes. There—there’s someone... or something...!” Nikki stuttered out.
She had started walking absentmindedly towards the spot where she thought the scene had taken place, but Kay grabbed her arm.
“Look, if we go and look now we’re going to be twice as late for school as we were going to be originally.”
“If we wait until later, whatever was there isn’t going to be,” Nikki reminded her.
“Do you really want to be late for school?” Kay asked with pleading eyes.
Nikki sighed. “No... Let’s just check real quick, then we’ll make a run for it.”
“Fine.” Kay reluctantly let Nikki go so they could take a look.
Nikki and Kay crossed the street as hastily as possible then sprinted towards the bushes. It’s not going to be there, it’s not going to be there, kept repeating in the rhythm of her heart and in Nikki’s head as if what lie behind the bushes was trying to convince her it was true.
They reached the other side of the street.
Nikki pulled back the surprisingly thin brambles, the thorn catching on her skin. Was it this thin before? How could a person….or animal hide back here? To her, none of that mattered. All that mattered was seeing behind...
It wasn’t there.
Great waste of time, she thought sullenly. Her heart sank, unexpectedly.
“Are we going to go to school or not?” Kay urgently asked. “There obviously isn’t anything here; we’re getting later by the second.”
“Yeah, I guess we’d better get there.”
They took off. The wind whipped through both of their long hair, and as they ran, Nikki tried to make sense of what had just happened.
I don’t understand it. How could it just disappear? I swear that wolf creature-thing was there, and I wouldn’t imagine something like that. Well at least I haven’t imagined anything like that until now...
“What did you think you saw anyways?” Kay asked. Her breath was slightly taken, but the sentence was strong.
Nikki was surprised at her tone. It was curious, not doubting. “Er... It’s sort of hard to explain. I mean, are there such things as wolves with bird claws?”
Kay stared at her with wide, secret eyes. “I can’t say I’ve seen one before, but that doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist.”
The ran a bit faster, staying silent for a moment to catch up with their lost time.
Kay broke the silence after a while.
“Chrystan, I don’t think you should worry about it. It was probably nothing,” she gasped through their running.
This was what Nikki had been expecting to hear all along. “I just don’t think I would imagine something like that. Even if I did, I didn’t think my imagination was that wild.”
“You know what I call things that I can’t explain?” Kay asked, as she slowed down in front the white granite steps of Simber Middle School.
“What?” Nikki enquired back. She looked at Kay with her heart pounding loudly. Not because she was slightly out of breath, but because she was nervous. What will she say, that it’s strange that I saw something that wasn’t there? That I’m weird? Or that I actually might have seen something that wasn’t just my imagination?
“Magic.”
Nikki stopped halfway up one stair. “Are you serious? Do you honestly believe in that sort of thing?” She looked suspiciously at Kay as if she thought this was just to mess with her.
This time it was Kay who turned grave. “Of course I do. Don’t you?”
While Nikki stared right into her eyes. She was forced to bite her tongue from what her mind begged her to say, and managing to mutter, “Yeah... I suppose...maybe.”
In her thoughts, Nikki was immediately roused with the feelings of betrayal. She just couldn’t figure out why.
II
A cold autumn whisper echoed through the white stone of Simber Middle School. No one was outside, but Nikki knew that if they went in the school, they could arrive to their class just in time for the final morning bell. Although it was obvious that they had made it at the right time, Nikki’s brain was scrambling to make sense of how that had happened. It felt like she had just crossed a time zone.