Reckless Magic (22 page)

“
Eden, there is no more
homework. Don’t you get it? You are Immortal! You’re magic can do
the homework for you,” his voice was stern as if I should have
known this forever.

“
I can’t cheat!” I protested
louder.

“
You’re unbelievable. And
you have so much to learn. You’re lucky I’m here, you really are. I
have so much to teach you!” he gave me a playful smile and I
guessed he won, because I couldn’t think of any other reason not to
let him help me with my magic.

21.

“
Do you want to follow me?”
Avalon was suddenly behind me as I dug through my backpack looking
for my keys.

“
Follow you?” I replied
confused, pushing my things around inside of my book bag and
reaching deeper beyond the books and loose leaf paper.

“
We’re going to work on your
magic, remember?” Avalon stood next to me, fidgeting a little, as
if his muscular frame was having a hard time containing all of the
energy within. He rocked back and forth on his heels and bit his
thumb nail nervously. I noticed that his right hand was constantly
drumming a beat into the side of his Dockers and imagined that he
was playing a rhythm to god-knows-what kind of angry rock music I
was too innocent to listen to.

I squinted at him, trying to figure
him out. The same feeling of peacefulness and tranquility passed
over me again and once more I felt completely focused. I had no
reason to fidget or wiggle at all. My energy seemed to be
completely balanced.

“
Magic, Eden,” Avalon nodded
his head in the direction of my backpack and heat quickly rose to
my cheeks. How could I keep forgetting the magic when it was so
helpful in situations like this?

“
Oh yea, I forgot,” I
finally focused my magic on the missing keys and used it to direct
my hand where to go. I pulled them out of my worn book bag, feeling
quite triumphant. “Do you want to go to my place?”

“
Just follow me. We have to
go somewhere where no one will bother us,” he smiled wide and
pointed to his car: a bright red, four door truck, with extended
cab and monster wheels. It not only stood apart from the rest of
the black something or others, but stood above them as well. I
couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

----

I followed Avalon for twenty minutes.
I could tell he wanted to speed, but drove painfully slow so that I
could follow him. We drove over the bridge and into Iowa up into
the bluffs that look down over the Missouri River.

Eventually the road ended and we
continued on a dirt path through some trees. I had never been more
thankful for my Rover as I bounced along behind Avalon’s ginormous
truck.

We continued for miles on a dirt path
barely wide enough to accommodate Avalon’s massive vehicle. Every
once in a while a tree branch smacked down on the roof of his truck
and I fully expected him to eventually get impaled.

After a while Avalon stopped his
truck. His was parked precariously near the edge of a one of Iowa’s
famous cliffs. I kept my Land Rover a little ways back and in a
more secure area. I loved my yellow SUV and was totally not ready
to watch it plummet into the Missouri River just yet.

Avalon hopped down from his cab and I
noticed that he had changed out of his school uniform. I looked
past him to see a winding path that snaked carefully around his
truck and into a clearing surrounded by trees on one side and the
cliff’s edge on the other. The sight was beautiful, but I couldn’t
help the small tremors of terror making their way across my arms
and legs. The familiar acceleration of electricity surged through
my veins, reminding me that I was a scaredy-cat.

Avalon wore a short sleeved black
t-shirt and loose fitting jeans. His hair was out of the pony tail
and hung wildly just below chin level. His jet black hair was semi
curly, creating the image of chaos carefully framing his prominent
two-dimpled grin. My suspicions from earlier were confirmed and I
could make out green tattoo ink tracing his forearms up to his
biceps and beyond the shirtsleeve.

I shut my engine off and exited my car
as well. Still in my school uniform, I felt oddly out of place next
to Avalon, who looked like he belonged in a juvenile detention
center. A chill ran up my spine reminding me oddly of Saturday
night and the last time I was in a wooded area. Images of murderous
men flooded my memory and I shook my head to bring myself back to
the present.

“
What’s with all of the
ink?” I jutted my chin at Avalon’s sleeved tattoos, hoping I
sounded a little bit cool.

“
What, this?” he held up his
arms and shrugged. “I guess I like to define exactly who I
am.”

“
Ok….” I wished I knew what
he was talking about.

“
Like this,” he pointed to
his right forearm and then suddenly took off his shirt. Although I
was surprised by his gesture, I finally understood the strange
markings on his arm. The entire right side of Avalon’s torso and
arm were covered in an intricate and large tree. The tree was
amazingly defined and detailed.

The branches of the tree start at his
shoulder and wrap themselves around his arm and to the front and
back of his body. The branches and trunk of the tree were thick and
gnarled looking. The trunk of the tree wrapped itself from his
lower back, around to the right side of his stomach, covering his
rock hard abs.

The trees’ branches had no leaves, and
were barren, but strong. One branch in particular wrapped its way
down Avalon’s arm and to his forearm, breaking off into smaller
branches along the way. It was as if someone took a beautiful
painting and wrapped it around half of Avalon’s body. The image was
powerful and beautiful at the same time.

I walked closer to him, letting my
fingers trace the lines running down his forearm. “So what does it
mean?” I asked, a little breathless. I had never seen such a vivid
tattoo before, although I was not completely sure why it was so
powerful to me. Maybe to see such a detailed image on a human body
was unusual.

“
A tree is the symbol of
Eternity, or Immorality. It has been since the beginning of time,”
his own fingers traced the lines of the branches.

“
Ok, so what is on the back
of your neck?” I remembered the first tattoo I saw from that
morning.

“
Oh that?” he lifted up his
hair in the back and revealed the two strong wings I had seen
earlier. In the middle of the two wings was a snake wrapped in a
circle eating its own tail. The same image of the snake eating his
own tail wrapped around his left wrist as well, creating a tattooed
bracelet.

“
What does that mean?” I
asked, not sure if I was grossed out or in awe again of the
detailing that went in to each of his tattoos.

“
That literally defines who
I am. Some day you will understand,” he spoke cryptically and I
wasn’t completely sure I wanted to understand.

“
Ok, so this one is pretty
self-explanatory,” I pointed to his left forearm; a picture of a
beautiful bird rising out of an intricately drawn fire. The bird
looked commanding and angry; its wings were spread, but remained
close to his body as the tattoo sat long on his skinny, but
muscular arm. The one wing reached out across his chest until the
image of the tangled tree met it and the other one across his
shoulder blade.

“
Is it?” he asked and cocked
his head a little to the side.

“
No, I guess not. I mean at
least I know it’s a bird,” I responded defensively, realizing that
I had no idea what the meaning was.

“
I’m just giving you a hard
time,” he gave my shoulder a rough but playful push. “This is a
phoenix,” he pointed to the bird again, “It’s just another symbol
for Immortality.”

“
But we’re not really
immortal, right? I mean we’re not really going to live forever?” I
remembered Principal Saint telling me that immortal was not a
literal meaning for our people.

“
No, we’ll never live
forever as long as Lucan is in charge,” Avalon spat on the ground
in disgust. I searched my memory for Lucan and remembered that he
was supposedly our king. My king.

“
What do you mean?” I asked
innocently.

“
As long as Lucan tries to
control the magic and keep our people separated, we will never live
forever. Our magic isn’t strong enough. But he doesn’t care about
us. He only cares about himself, his bloodline and his damn
prejudices,” he spat again and I was more confused than
ever.

“
I have no idea what you’re
talking about,” I tried honesty. Maybe Avalon would give me some
explanation.

“
The king,” he said,
frustrated. When I gave him an even more confused look he
continued, “Lucan is the one who has taken away our freedom!” he
exclaimed heatedly.

“
We’re not free?” I asked in
a very small voice.

“
No we’re not free, and
we’re dying as well. As long as we live under his bondage, we will
continue to die. But he could care less. All he cares about is that
his blood remains pure, and the blood of his line. The monarchy
must never become tarnished,” I could almost feel Avalon’s disgust
as an oppressive force weighing down on me.

“
Ok, you need to explain….
now,” I tried to be forceful, hoping that he remembered I was new
to this whole thing.

“
Sorry,” he grunted, not
sounding sorry at all. “Derrick is the king that outlawed
intermarriage, well for everyone but his precious line. This
happened a long time ago. Derrick was the first king, the first
Immortal to rule our people. The people cried out for a king and
they were given one. Too bad the first thing he did was execute the
Oracles.”
“The who?” I interrupted, trying to stay focused and keep my head
from spinning out of control.

“
The Oracles, they were
something like prophets or advisors to our people before the king.
There were four of them and they represented one of each of us, and
together they were all powerful. They were also the first to die.
So anyways,” he shot me a serious look that let me know not to
interrupt again, “After Derrick executed the Oracles, he banished
the shape-shifters. He claimed they were deceitful and manipulative
because they were able to take any form. He turned the other
Immortals against them and those who didn’t escape were hunted and
thrown into prison until their magic was weak enough that they
could be killed. And since the Titans had pledged their allegiance
to protect the king before one had ever been elected they were
forced into service and remain there today as nothing more than
glorified prisoners.” He took a moment to spit on the ground once
again. “The only free people are the witches and mediums, but I
would hardly call what we have freedom. We live under tyrannical
rule and a king who is just as heartless and sick as his
forefather. And who knows what the next king will be like; he seems
even more clueless than those who came before him. Our people are
going to die and they do nothing about it.”

“
But what could they do
about it?” I thought about Kiran and found it hard to believe he
would actually want us all to die. He may have been immature, but
he was not a ruthless killer.

“
They could break the ban on
intermarriage for one. They could allow the full magic to flow
between us and they could release us from their dictatorship,” the
whole monarchy thing might have been new to me, but I knew enough
about world history that if what Avalon just told me was true, then
I also knew that what he was saying could probably get him
killed.

“
What marriage ban?” I
asked, feeling more confused than ever.

“
The one that got us into
this whole mess to begin with. We are not allowed to marry outside
of our own kind.”

“
You mean, like
humans?”

“
No, well, yes, but mainly a
witch has to marry a witch and a titan has to marry a titan. They
keep us compartmentalized that way, and they restrict the flow of
magic. See before King Derrick, an immortal could marry whomever
they chose and no matter who they married their child was always
unique. Like a witch could marry a titan and then have a medium for
a child. It was all allowed and the magic flowed freely. But since
Derrick, our magic is deteriorating and the royal family could care
less,” Avalon laughed bitterly.

“
But isn’t their magic
deteriorating as well? Won’t they eventually have to intermarry?” I
asked, feeling like I was beginning to understand the whole thing
and realizing the people I was a part of had just as many problems
as humans.… if not more.

“
They are the royal family.
They can marry whomever they choose,” Avalon said slowly as if I
were having trouble understanding his words. I didn’t really blame
him. “Not that they would marry just whomever, they only choose the
best of the best. And for them that means either a witch or a
psychic. They rotate between generations. Up next is a most
promising psychic, I’m sure.”

“
What? So Kiran has to marry
a psychic?” I had a hard time getting the actual word
out.

“
Yes, that’s the law. Just
to ensure the royal blood stays strong. His father of course
married a witch, and now it’s his turn to carry out the imperial
edict.”