Lives of Magic (Seven Wanderers Trilogy) (13 page)

Garrison had convinced Kian to take him out to practice moving larger objects. Kian insisted Seth go with them, but when Seth said he was too tired, Kian didn’t have a good reason not to leave him alone. Casting me a pleading look as he walked out the door, Kian left me alone in our hotel room.

I waited until I was sure they were gone then went to knock on their door. Seth answered, dressed in pyjama pants and a concert t-shirt. He looked surprised to see me there but smiled and invited me in.

“I thought Kian would have forbidden you from seeing me without his escort,” he said, sitting down on his bed. I cringed.

“Is it that obvious?”

Seth nodded.

Suddenly, I was nervous and awkward. What was I here for? Corroboration of my memories to prove I wasn’t crazy?

“I just wondered …” I could already feel the blood rushing to my face, “how you know me … and …”
How do I put this without it making me want to hide my face in a pillow?
“If you have any memories of me that you … didn’t mention?”

Well, I couldn’t get more embarrassed than I was. I was asking expressly about the second half of the waterfalls vision. Something I wasn’t in a rush to tell Kian about.

Deciding there was nothing to lose, I faced him head on.

Seth smiled at my awkwardness and his hazel eyes glinted. He got up and went to his large backpack, which looked like a grenade had gone off inside of it. Clothing and shoes were scattered all over his corner of the hotel room. He began digging inside the bag.

“My memories of you are more emotional than anything,” he told me, “and I’m still trying to sort that out.”

I swallowed.

“Kian said we have to live our own lives. That it’s important we don’t forget who we are here,” I blurted out.

“Yeah, well …” Seth sat back on his heels and produced a worn leather book with pages sticking out of it at odd angles. “The problem is that sometimes that past life influences who we become, and what we do.”

He moved over to sit next to me on the bed and opened his book.

“Garrison has known since he was small. Nine, I think. Me, I’ve been dreaming this for a few years now. So I did this to pass the time until you showed up.”

My jaw dropped as he opened the sketchbook onto the first page, where a place I knew in my soul was depicted in pencil crayon. I quickly shut my mouth and focused my attention on staring.

A low wall of stone marked the entrance to a small settlement that looked no bigger than a farmer’s field. Conical houses made of mud with straw roofs sat strewn about haphazardly. He flipped the page to a grey sky with a sun coming out from between the clouds and casting a direct glow onto a small inlet.

As he turned the pages, I felt like I was being absorbed into a world I had once known. We travelled together through fields, houses, and even along dirt roads.

Finally, Seth looked up at me with a question in his eyes.

Taking a deep breath, he flipped the page to a picture of me. This time, I full-on gasped as I was presented with an image of what I might look like in a decade. My hair was loose and I sat staring off into the distance in his portrait.

“Don’t worry about what I remember,” Seth told me as he flipped to more pictures of my past life. “This is how I see you. Now, and then.”

The next week passed similarly to the first. It was now well into the semester and I had pushed all worry about high school to the back of my mind. It was gone, like any chance of a fun senior year. What I got instead was daily marathon walks with Kian, Seth, and Garrison.

After we spoke in private, Seth became more open with me. Relief and disappointment battled inside me. I didn’t know what I wanted, but Kian’s suspicious glances in my direction and my past life’s yearning for Seth made me very aware of how much I had to struggle just to stay true to myself.

On one of our walks, we ended up in a dark corner of Central Park at night. Kian had been driving me crazy by staring at his phone every few seconds and glancing around in paranoia. His magician hadn’t called in a few days, and I was assuming he had heard of the park’s reputation. Mainly the “don’t go wandering into dark, deserted corners at night” part.

“We’ll be fine,” I told him, placing a hand on his arm.

He looked down in surprise. I felt slightly guilty for distancing myself from him since finding the others. His mood had helped to drive me away, but my feelings about Seth may have distracted me enough to annoy Kian further.

Kian relented and I held on to his arm as we paced the darkness. Sharing his warmth stilled the complaint on my lips. Garrison had wanted to explore his magic on larger objects, which meant rocks in the park. After an hour standing in the cold, I was shivering. There was no moon and the darkness enveloped the park.

Kian took Garrison aside. I could only make out their shapes in the distance as they rolled large rocks backward and forward. Garrison was pushing around some more of these rocks with his magic when Seth grabbed my arm. We had been watching from a distance.

“What is it?” I asked.

He sniffed at the air and then stood stock-still. Nervous, I dragged him over to the open area where the other two were.

“Something’s wrong,” I told Kian.

I pulled Seth behind me like a puppy. He was still staring off into the distance but his body had stiffened.

“He stopped,” he said confusedly, and began looking around the darkness in vain.

“Who?” I began, but my next words were cut off by something whizzing past my head.

Kian grabbed me and pushed me down. I found my face in the wet grass. Only after I was already down did I realize the loud crack I heard was a gunshot.

I
t’s amazing how quickly your heart can begin to painfully hammer in your chest. I tried to look up to see Garrison and Seth, but Kian’s hand was on the back of my head and pushed me back down.

As gunshots rang through the park, I fought Kian until he finally allowed me to sit up, all the while dragging me to a sitting position behind one of the rocks Garrison had been rolling.

“What’s going on?” My voice was a frantic mix of whisper and shriek.

Kian didn’t answer me. Instead he looked over my shoulder to where Garrison and Seth were crouched behind a tree. I could barely make out their shapes in the dark.

Crack. Bang. Crack.

The tree was chipping as bullets flew past. Whoever was after us knew where they were hiding. Worry washed over me, and I was seized with the desire to run and help them. That’s when I noticed Kian was at my side, an arm tightly wrapped around my waist.

“Let me go,” I whispered.

“No,” he said firmly. “They are taking care of it.”

I argued that I couldn’t see anything of the sort. As more and more bullets rang out, the medium-sized tree in front of them chipped further. Soon there would be nothing left to protect them.

“If they are magicians, why are they trying to shoot us?” I asked. I still couldn’t pull my eyes away from the two figures hidden behind the tree.

Kian pointed to Seth.

For a moment, I panicked, thinking that he had been hit. He sat against the tree trunk, body limp. I gasped.

“He is trying to find our attacker,” Kian whispered. “He is sensing him. Let him.”

I gaped at Kian.

“This is another lesson?” I nearly cried out in disbelief. The look Kian gave me implied a deep concern, and I regretted my words.

“No,” he growled through gritted teeth.

Despite my anxiety, I sat quietly, counting each bullet as it flew past the tree. The pressure in my chest was building, and soon I began to feel my magic buzzing through my fingers. I looked down to where my hands were firmly planted in the earth. I was clutching mounds of grass.

Every heartbeat pounded in my ears, and it grew until I knew what I was going to do. Kian’s overprotectiveness could not stop me. In the distance, sirens rang out, coming our way. But it would be too late. Our attacker was determined.

Slowly, carefully, I let my magic seep from my mind into my eyes. My vision expanded to see the world anew and illuminated the night. I was able to focus in on Seth, who was still immobile, though I could see every bead of sweat that lined his forehead. He was struggling.

Garrison was huddled beside him, hands over his ears to drown out the loud bangs that would not cease. Then I turned my attention to the bullets which flew past, blowing small bits of tree away from my friends’ defence.

I was like a hunter. I chased the shots upstream to get to their source. As I was still well aware of Kian’s tight grip on my waist, I ran through the park in search of life in my mind. The birds had flown away due to the noise, and all the other animals were hiding in their boroughs. Then I felt the presence of magic.

It was not like mine. While I felt sparks and light, this was dense and dark, and even as I approached it I felt like I was nearing quicksand. It threatened to suck me in and capture me. The weapon had been superficial. The attacker wasn’t here. This was a trap.

I felt a familiar flicker nearby and I knew that Seth and his magic were here somewhere. I sent my awareness into the surrounding area and found him struggling with the dark thing: the void in the night.

Panic interlaced with fear as the threat Kian had first told me became real. The magicians were here. My mental footing began to slip, and I found myself being sucked in. I panicked for an instant and then remembered Kian’s hold on me. I used the sensation to anchor myself back to the physical world. In this mental place, he was my foundation in the real world.

I tried to reach out to Seth’s energy somewhere nearby. He was being dragged in by the dark power. I was terrified, but Kian’s grip sent calming energy through my physical body and into my awareness. My grasping for Seth became a tendril of energy that I saw floating into the darkness in front of me and grasping a small spark. Then, with all of my remaining strength, I pulled back like my life depended on it.

My ears popped and my lungs strained. It felt as if the world remained stationary and I was moving backwards. Like I was rising too fast from the depths of a dark sea. I was catapulted into my body with such force that it sent both Kian and I rolling backwards. When I finally found my face in the ground once more, I listened. No more shots.

Before I could decide if it was a good idea or not, I pushed myself up and ran to cover the space between Seth and me. He was still immobile, and Garrison sat next to him, shaking him and calling his name.

My knees buckled beneath me. Shocked, I realized how weak I was. The effort to use my magic in that capacity had sapped my strength completely. Kian ran up as I brought my ear to Seth’s lips. They were slightly parted and my heart seized as I listened and waited. A shallow breath brushed against my ears, and I relaxed somewhat, knowing he was alive.

Then, I heard what I had been waiting for: inexplicably, I now knew the sound of his magic. The little spark that I had wrestled away from the dark thing sounded in my ears as if a bell was rung, and I knew he was intact.

I sat back on my heels and smiled. “He’s going to be okay,” I said as Seth started to choke and sputter.

Garrison tried clapping his back to help the coughing, regardless of my protests.

“It was a trap,” Seth rasped as soon as he could talk. “Whoever it was, the magician, knew we would try to find him with magic. It was like a black hole. I couldn’t get away.”

Kian blanched while Garrison looked terrified.

“I was going to get sucked in if Gwen hadn’t saved me,” Seth said.

All eyes turned to me.

“How did you do that?” Kian asked me.

I looked away from him and searched the trees for an answer. I didn’t know how to put it and didn’t have the strength to speak more than I needed to.

“You kept me here,” I told him. “You were … uh … holding me and stuff and I just had something to grab a hold of. Like a rope when I was being sucked into quicksand.”

Seth nodded.

Recounting what happened was painful. The dismal feeling of the dark shape that had nearly consumed us stayed with me long after I felt I had escaped. Like a bad taste in my mouth, it persisted in my thoughts and feelings.

Kian and Garrison both looked confused and horrified as Seth and I described the thing. When we were done, I turned on Kian, even though my eyes were drifting shut.

“Why would they do that? Shoot at us?” I asked him. I knew he kept secrets, but I never thought they could be the kind that would put us in danger.

“I don’t know,” Kian said. “The noise and shots are to frighten you. Do you feel any different?”

“Exhausted,” I said. “Why?” My suspicions were growing but I could draw no conclusions. When Kian shrugged, all I wanted to do was go back to the hotel.

“Are you saying the magicians know where we are?” Seth’s voice was still weak.

Kian nodded. “Maybe.”

“Then why don’t they just grab us now and get it over with? They must have more power than that?” I asked. Shivering at the implication, I imagined being dragged into something like that and not being able to get out.

“They could,” Kian replied, not making me feel better, “or they could wait until you are stronger so that you would give them more power. Don’t forget that only you have access to your memories. You will be at your most powerful when you have recovered them.”

The night pressed heavily on me like a dark blanket, stifling my emotions and impairing my breathing. I took little gasps and squinted in the moonlight to see my friends. Something didn’t feel right.

“Then aren’t we doing exactly what they want by trying to regain our memories?” I asked. It felt like a classic scenario of you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. A lose-lose situation.

“Your efforts may be the only thing keeping you alive,” Kian said quietly. “If they thought your power was not on its way to improving, then you would be caught by now. They know where we are, but it’s impossible to say where the attack came from, or how close they may be.”

I felt like a lamb being fed and cared for just to be slaughtered. All we could hope for was a brief moment between getting magician-level power and being kidnapped. Then we could escape, ward off their attacks, and what? I had no idea what I would do then.

I thought of how the bullets were meant for our bodies and the black hole meant for our magic. Suddenly, I felt fragile. We were too exposed. Even if the magicians didn’t succeed in destroying both, our bodies could not function without our magic and vice versa. I felt that to be true and it made me shudder visibly. Kian saw my face.

“You’ve put it together then,” he said grimly. “Your magic is attached to your soul.”

“What’s going to happen?” I asked. Would I ever be able to sleep peacefully again?

Kian shrugged and stood, crouching low. Garrison followed him and they helped Seth stand. He was sweat-soaked and swayed on his feet. I crept behind them, staring into the shadows as if I could actually see anything that might be lurking there. My feet dragged.

“You have shown them your strength,” Kian said as we walked and hobbled out of the park. His voice contained a mixture of pride and resignation. “They will not stop. You just have to keep beating them, until you are capable of ending them completely.”

“But that black hole —” I began.

“Could have been a trap. The guns were a distraction. Probably an illusion.”

In the dark, I huffed. “Probably?”

Kian didn’t answer me.

We came onto the street where the streetlights felt like we had just broken into daylight from a dark abyss. I felt the park at my back, ominous and dangerous. I glanced at Garrison’s watch. It was only one in the morning.

I was paranoid and couldn’t stop swivelling my head uncontrollably as we walked back to the hotel, dishevelled and silent. My feet felt like they weighed a ton and I realized how much magic I had expended. I was exhausted.

At the hotel, Kian pushed a foul-smelling liquid into my hands. The cup steamed as it warmed my hands but turned my stomach. The avocado spread in Oregon had been the first of his medicinal creations. The teas were new.

Kian was under the impression that he could improvise remedies because he had once been able to, but he couldn’t find the right ingredients here. So he threw together a bunch of herbs and whatever looked right to him at the moment and would make me drink the result. If Seth or Garrison saw him putting on the kettle in our hotel room, they would bolt. I didn’t have that luxury.

I looked into the cup. It looked like he had tried to make a disgusting loose leaf tea and hadn’t bothered with the tea bag. The water had barely changed colour.

“Drink it,” he said. “It’ll make you sleep better.”

“Are you sure you got the right ingredients?” I asked, trying not to sound too skeptical.

Kian stopped brushing his teeth and looked at me for a moment, considering. “I had to think of a few substitutes, but it should have the same effect.”

I sighed.

The next few days passed by in a blur. The morning after we were attacked, the news began covering a story of a drought affecting half the country. Scientists were baffled and everyone was yelling that we had to stop global warming. I knew better.

We watched the coverage of dust storms that could have been an apocalypse descending on towns. Drinking water was spoiled and hundreds of thousands of farm animals died. Farms were abandoned. Politicians came out and began blaming each other.

I felt violated. Kian confirmed that whatever trap Seth and I had fallen for probably seeped some magic and gave the magicians strength for this latest disaster. I had to control my shuddering at the thought.

Kian kicked a hockey bag towards me. It looked like it could contain a body.

Five days had passed since the attack. It had taken this long for Seth and I to get our energy back, and Kian wasn’t wasting any time. He had dragged us back to the park, despite our protests.