Exiled - 01 (2 page)

The elder members were dressed in long white robes with golden sashes. Each of their faces displayed only a neutral expression. I stepped into the center of the altar and dipped my hands into the large stone bowl. The still-warm viscous liquid coated my fingers and palms. The blood looked black sitting in the bowl, but became bright red as I pulled my hands from it.

The elders chanted in the ancient language nobody else was permitted to understand. I moved around the altar and placed a bloody handprint on each of the six pillars. Drops of blood slid down the white stone; the blood came from the demon I had killed earlier, and it was the blood I needed to spark the birth of my elemental power.

After leaving my mark on the pillars, I returned to the center. The chief elder moved towards me and dipped his fingers into the bowl. He used the blood to draw a symbol on my forehead. I couldn’t see it, but I knew what it meant. “Chase Williams, you have completed the prerequisites for the ceremony. You have been anointed with the blood of your enemy. Now is the time you discover your place among us,” he intoned.

Each elder brought a stone into the center and set them in a circle around me. Each stone was engraved with a glyph to represent one of the elements. I moved to the first stone and reached my bloodstained hand over it. I called to my magic and recited the phrase I’d been taught. “The blood of my enemy shall be the birth of my power. The birth of my power cements my soul to the Circle.” I spoke with intensity and confidence. I waited, eyes closed, reaching deep inside myself to pull magic from within.

I repeated the phrase as I moved over each stone, letting a drop of blood stain it. One should react and reveal my element, but nothing happened each time I repeated the words.

Muffled voices reached me from the pews where other Circle members watched, but I wasn’t worried. I moved my hand over the final stone, the one I’d saved for last: the stone representing the fire element. I recited the words a final time, expecting the stone to burst into flames. But there wasn’t even a spark.

 
The voices got louder and I opened my eyes. The elders’ neutral expressions had changed, some to surprise, others to disgust. I recited the phrase again but the chief elder interrupted me.

“Enough. Take him to the containment room,” he commanded.

“Wait, what?” I sputtered as two hunters grabbed my arms and dragged me from the altar. “Dad, what’s going on?” I shouted. My pulse jumped into my throat and panic filled my voice. “Dad?” I shrieked, before everything disappeared around me.

The containment room was bright with fluorescent lights, but the sight I wanted to avoid was my father’s eyes. “I can’t believe you. You’re disgusting,” he said. He slammed his hand on the table between us.

“Riley, that’s enough,” Mom said.

“You stay out of this,” he replied, not turning to look at her. His gaze was locked on me, but he seemed to see me like an object. “This is impossible. My own son has no powers!” He kicked the table onto its side so there was nothing between us.

“Dad, I did everything you told me,” I said. He took the final step and closed the distance. He pushed his nose against mine and his magic pulsed against my skin in a burning wave.

“Don’t blame me for your failure.” He poked his finger into my chest.

“Get your hands off of him,” Mom said, pulling at his arm.

My father let my mother pull him back and smoke rose from the hole he’d created in my shirt, but the anger in his eyes was what burned a permanent scar. He turned in an instant and a stream of flame exploded from his hand. The flame coursed and crackled over the table, which ignited as my father stormed from the room. I winced as the door slammed and glowing embers showered from the table.

My mother stepped towards it, shaking her head. I felt her magic come to life around me as a small ball of light grew in her hands. The light disappeared and a burst of water appeared, dousing the flames. The room grew hazy as it filled with smoke and steam, and I struggled not to cough.

Her water smothered the flames and I watched as her magic faded. She approached me, not speaking, with smoke billowing around her. She wrapped her arms around me and her magic swelled again, not as a wave of water, but as a rush of calming energy that coursed through me. Maybe she could do this because she was a water elemental, but I think it was mostly because she was a mother.

“What’s going to happen?” I asked.

She pulled back and cupped my face, forcing me to meet her bright hazel eyes.

“I don’t know, but whatever it is, we will get through it together. You and me, always,” she said.

 
I tried to smile but failed. Darkness engulfed me and the room also faded, but the taste of smoke was still thick and burned in my throat.

I stood before the council and the elders stared down at me from their high oak benches. Their faces were again composed with blank but somewhat disapproving expressions.

“We’ve taken into consideration today’s events, and given your father’s exceptional history within the Circle, we can only agree with his proposal,” the chief elder said.

The fear and the weight I felt on my shoulders vanished. As angry as he was, he still fought for me.

“The council has discussed the situation and we are unanimous in our decision. You will be given a small amount of funds, as well as fifteen minutes at the completion of this hearing to pack your belongings. Any books or weapons in your possession will be confiscated and you will be escorted off the property. You are not to return, nor are you to have contact with anyone within this association. From this point forward, you are not to be counted among the Circle. Instead, you will continue your life outside the Circle as a mortal. Should you fail to comply with this decision, you will be dealt with accordingly.” The elder’s voice swirled around me and my shoulders bent as all the fear crashed back over me.

“Dad?” I said. My knees gave out and I collapsed to the floor.

He wore his proud, arrogant smirk now. “You are no son of mine,” he said.

“Riley Williams,” Mom demanded, firmly but with a hint of desperation. “You can’t do this.”

Riley shook his head. “It has been done Tessa. It’s for the good of the Circle.”

“Tessa Williams...” the elder continued.

“I will not stand for this!” Mom said, ignoring him.

“This is not your decision, it is the decision of the Circle and our word is final.” The elder finally gave way to anger.

“Well, the Circle is making a terrible decision. How can you send him away like this? He’s just a boy.”

“We are not sending him alone. You, Tessa Williams, are also found guilty,” the elder pronounced.

“Guilty? Guilty of what?”

“There is only one way a hunter births a child who has no powers. That is if the child has only one gifted parent, and…”

“How dare you!” Mom interrupted, but the elder raised his hand.

“You have committed the ultimate crime. You have risked exposing the Circle to the mortals and disrespected your husband in an unbecoming manner. This ruling is the will of the council, and so shall it be. This meeting is adjourned.”

A film came over my vision and I couldn’t see the expression on my mother’s face. The tap of shoes on the marble floor moved towards me and her small hands wrapped around my waist and pulled me to my feet.

I shot up in my bed, beads of sweat falling from my face and covering my chest. I couldn’t see anything until my eyes adjusted to the darkness.

The room was silent, except for my own heavy breathing. My pulse pounded in my throat as if trying to escape while I tried to shake the remnants of the dream from my mind.

The scenes were the same every time, just flashes of that day. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t escape it. Going back to sleep wasn’t an option; I knew I would fall back into the nightmare. I peeled the sweat-covered sheets off my body and headed for the shower to try to wash the dream away.

~~~~~~

Chapter 3

I wiped a streak through the grime on the mirror. Wet blond hair stuck to my forehead and the dark blue eyes that stared back at me were different than those I remembered from my youth. It’d been almost three years since we’d been exiled from the Circle, and I wasn’t sure I recognized the person in the mirror now.

I shook that thought away and pushed away from the sink. It was five in the morning; going back to bed was pointless, and I was hungry. My mom was already awake. She was a vision of beauty sitting at the kitchen table with a book in her hand. She didn’t have to try to draw people to her, with those warm hazel eyes that could engulf you and somehow assure you that everything would be alright. She was petite with a slender build, but I knew the strength she carried. Her dark brown hair was shoulder length and always falling in her eyes, but there were no hints of gray yet, which was impressive given the stress of the past three years.

“You couldn’t sleep either?”

“No,” I admitted.

She moved towards me, reached up on her tiptoes and kissed my forehead. “Well, I guess if we’re both awake we might as well have breakfast together. It’s been too long.” She started to gather eggs, a frying pan, and other essentials. “How about French toast?” she said. She knew it was my favorite.

“French toast sounds great, Mom.”

She puttered about the kitchen. “So your birthday’s coming up, the big eighteen. Do you have any idea what you want?”

I shook my head. “You shouldn’t get me anything and you know that. We don’t have the money anyway. I’d rather just not think about it.

She stopped and turned to me. “I’ll be damned if you’re going to have a birthday and not celebrate it. We’ll make it work.”

“You always do, but no matter how many good birthdays I have, they’ll never make up for the bad one.”

My mom sighed. “Chase. Riley. Williams.”

“Yes?” I replied innocently.

“This is our life now. I don’t regret what happened and neither should you.”

“Mom, things could be better for you if I…” I loved my mother, but sometimes I hated that she couldn’t admit our life was better in the Circle.

“Chase, my life in the Circle was a lifetime ago, and I don’t miss it.”

“Not even a little?”

“No, and you’re old enough now to know that your father and I hadn’t seen things the same way for a long time.”

That caught me off guard and my first instinct was to defend my dad somehow, but he didn’t deserve that. Mom was trying to share something with me and I didn’t want to stop her from treating me like an adult.

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve always known your father is a fire elemental and I’m water. They’re opposing forces of nature. My magic is for healing, and his element holds nothing but destructive power. Being polar opposites may be why we fell in love, but we couldn’t sustain it. Your father was always a proud and arrogant man, and so hard on you. Nothing you did was ever good enough, and granted, that’s part of the reason you are so good. You never stopped trying to impress him. It might be hard to believe, but once upon a time he was gentle, sweet, and kind. He wanted us to be one happy family. Then one day, something changed.”

“What?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know for sure. His power controlled him, and he became obsessed with you being his legacy, instead of his child. As much as you miss your old life, you need to understand exile is for the best for both of us.”

“It’s just hard to see that sometimes.”

“I know you have to bear the burden of being Riley Williams’ son, and that’s not fair. You’ve never been able to relax since the Underworld wants to kill you just for being his son. None of this is something a normal seventeen-year-old has to deal with, but hunters are never normal,” she said with a smirk.

“Yeah, try telling the Circle that,” I said.

Mom shook her head. “We don’t need the Circle, Chase. We don’t need their help. We don’t need their money and we don’t need their problems.”