Arkadia (Halfway House Series Book 1) (5 page)

Arkadia sat at a corner table in the cafeteria the next day. Nothing spectacular had happened so far this morning. The only BIG thing was getting no homework from Mrs. Eckles, which was virtually unheard of; she was a known Nazi for giving homework for every single class, but Arkadia counted her blessings and moved on … fast, before she changed her mind. Taking a sip of her Pepsi Max and for the one hundred and fifth time telling Cheyanne that she was feeling okay, and passing out again was highly unlikely, she began to feel a now familiar slow burn deep in her soul. Looking around feeling slightly panicked, she spotted him.

He was standing with a group of hockey players.
Oh good lord was he gorgeous.
Watching him laugh his dark curls bouncing, Arkadia imagined what running her fingers through them might feel like. The room started to fade into the distance as she let her eyes caress and devour every square inch of this guy. She let her mind drift and wondered how those big strong arms would feel wrapped around her body, lifting her slight frame off the floor, and pulling her hard against …

“And now I am pregnant with triplets,” she heard.

“Hang on now.” Arkadia shook her head. “Say what now?”

Vi laughed as Cat said, “Yep, and they’re going to be called Pumpkin, Orange, and Watermelon. PAY ATTENTION, ARK!” Cat punched her in the arm.

“Hey, Cat … you know those guys there don’t you?” Arkadia tilted her head toward the group of guys over near the windows.

“Ahhhh duh!! Arkadia, they are the hockey team! Of course I know them, I watch them play every game, I want to marry them and have their babies.” Cat laughed as she joked with Arkadia. “Seriously, Ark, I could tell you all their stats, the points scorers, the defense hunks; when it comes to those boys, I am your girl. Whatcha want to know?” Cat leaned forward to dramatically increase the effect of gossiping amongst girls.

“Who is the new guy?” Arkadia asked.

“Oh gods yes, who is the next hunk of godly beef?” Vi leaned over, and joined in the conversation having finished discussing the new color for the spring with Clarice, the head of the Graduation committee. Taking a sip of her water, Vi whispered, “He is ten steps to heaven. Seen him in a few of my classes and I certainly wouldn’t mind allowing him to be seen with me on his arm, he certainly is hot enough.”

A sudden twinge of possessiveness hit Arkadia straight in the chest. Swallowing past the pain, Arkadia managed a partial smile at Vi.

“You must be talking about Bohdan Drak. He just transferred from overseas. He sounds European, and he is living with his uncle.” Cat paused to take a sip of water, softly laughing as Arkadia and Vi were both hanging off her every word. “He is an uber awesome goalie, apparently. I haven’t seen him play yet, as practice is tomorrow, but by all reports he is destined for the NHL.”

“Bohdan Drak.” Arkadia let the name roll over her tongue, feeling the sound dance around her throat, coating her mouth with a warm honey sensation. She sighed and may have even swooned a little. Vi interrupted her thoughts.

“Drak, huh? Can you introduce me, Cat?” Before cat could answer, Arkadia was on her feet, grabbing Cat’s arm and roughly pulling her up.

“Uummm I just forgot … that THING … I need to give you …” Her eyes plead with Cat as she nodded, “Remember … that THING … in my locker?”

Cat nodded slowly, totally lost but obviously picking up there was something going on. Looking over at Vi and Chey she said, “Catch up with you after school.” Arkadia dragged her out past the hockey players, glancing up quickly to steal a peek at Bohdan, his dark eyes met hers, and he cocked a single eyebrow at her. Arkadia instantly lowered her eyes and rushed out the door with Cat in tow.

“What was that all about, Arkadia?” Cat asked as she pulled her arm back out of Arkadia’s grasp. She ran her hands down her pale yellow shirt, straightening it back in line with her sky blue pencil skirt. She loved shopping at the Gap; she had plans of getting a job there over the summer, and enjoying the perks of ‘employee discounts’. Cat continued talking to Arkadia, “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind a bit of manhandling, but my preference is always going to one of those delicious ice men of the hockey team.” She softly laughed and walked in the direction of the lockers.

“It’s just something weird, about … um … the new guy.” Arkadia chewed on the inside of her cheek, as she wasn’t ready to declare undying love and ownership after a simple look, but she certainly didn’t want Vi getting an intro before she did. Cat stopped dead and looked at her.

“Bohdan? Ark, I have never seen you ask about a guy? Are you yanno … ‘Asking, I bags him, and will stab your eye out if you look at him’ about this guy? Or just ‘asking he’s cute but whatever’ about this guy?” Arkadia thought for a second, even with the slight thought of his dark eyes her heart said MINE.

She looked at Cat and said quietly, “First one, but if you say anything, I WILL stab your eye out too.” She laughed nervously, and Cat grabbed her arms and squealed, walking back toward the lockers with a skip in her step.

“And let me guess, you don’t want me to introduce Vi to him?” Arkadia nodded. “And that’s why the grab and drag display in the cafeteria?” Arkadia nodded again to Cat’s question. “I have never seen you interested in a guy? Them in you, for sure all the damn time, but you in them? Never.” Grabbing her books from the locker, Cat grinned like a Cheshire cat with the secret she now knew.

“Cat, you can’t say anything, I don’t know what it is, it’s just … something about him.” Closing her locker, she looked at Cat, a pleading innocence in her eyes that made Cat stop.

“Sure, Ark, it’s cool, secrets in the vault of friendship. You should come by training sometimes, I am always there waiting for Daniel to finish; they said he might start on the ice this season, not the bench.”

“That’s great, Cat, your brother works hard, and he’s an awesome player. I might just do that, stop by, that is,” Arkadia said. Daniel, her brother, trained every afternoon with the team, and that now contained Bohdan. Dan was a defense player and was a massive wall of muscle, and a damn good player. With the prospect of seeing Bohdan, perhaps she should join Cat at the training sessions more often. Both girls smiled at the secret they now shared and went off to the last class of the day.

Having finally said goodbye to the school for the day, Arkadia was walking home, and she could hear the gravel crunching behind her and braced for impact. “Oomph,” she exhaled as Emerson bumped her with his shoulder. She looked over at him as she stumbled, and his deep mysterious eyes sparkled with the mischief he was yet to find. Emerson always seemed to be seeking something dangerous; he called it thrill seeking, Arkadia called it stupidity. “What’s up fur-less?” Arkadia teased him. She knew full well that one day he would master his change and probably bite her on the ass, but for now, he needed some damn good teasing to keep him in his place.

“Not much o’spell less wonder.” Emerson growled playfully as he started to jog backward. “Wanna race?” Arkadia looked down at her gorgeous yet completely impractical for running strappy sandals, and stared back at the young bouncing werewolf.

“Unless this is the
Walking Dead
and I am about to get disemboweled by some half-decomposed and hungry-for-my-brains zombie, this girl ain’t a running nowhere.”

Emerson howled a mighty laugh. “Brains, huh? They’d be on a diet in your head.” He sprinted for home, and Arkadia could still hear him chuckling.

As Arkadia walked into the house, she groaned.
How could she have forgotten what was booked this afternoon?
She threw her bag down into the corner with a little extra grump, and wandered into the kitchen. It was her first intensive tutoring session with Eloise, and she was not looking forward to this at all, proving yet again how useless she was at magic was going to do exactly butt-all for her confidence.

Arkadia poured herself a glass of Coke, raised the glass to her mouth, and closed her eyes in expectation of some cool relief after a long day at school. She went to take a sip, swallowing a couple of times before she realized she was drinking nothing but air. She opened her eyes to see what was going on, and she gasped; the Coke she had poured into her glass was now dancing in a long stream out of her glass, looping and twirling though the air, until it found its mark and went down the sink. “What the hell?” Arkadia’s eyes went wide as she followed the last drop disappearing down the drain. Looking around, her eyes fell upon Eloise standing at the door to the kitchen, a soft smile upon her face, her finger extended and wiggling like a magical worm as she directed Arkadia’s much-needed cold refreshment into its silvery death. “I wanted that; don’t tell me I can’t drink in class?” Arkadia stated with an eye roll, placing her glass on the bench top. Eloise walked into the room; a soft energy followed her, like a long train on a wedding dress.

“Oh goodness, no, Arkadia, please get some refreshments, but in order for you to start to cleanse your mind, we can start with your body. No pop, let’s go with the purest gift from the goddess herself and have a glass of water.”

“WATER!! That’s not a gift. Coke, now that’s a gift, the creation of flavors and bubbles.” Arkadia babbled to herself. Eloise stopped at the entrance to the living room, and turned back to look at her.

“Water; and you have ten minutes to get changed, organized, and into the living room before class starts.” And with that, she left.

Arkadia stood, stunned for a few seconds, knowing she had neither the time, nor the desire to argue, so she grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and went upstairs to her room. Quickly changing her clothes into something comfortable, she padded back down the stairs into the living room. Descending the stairs, Arkadia immediately was engulfed in a myriad of scents. Trying to identify some, she stopped, letting them encase her. Lemongrass her nose told her; vanilla, and lavender also hinted their presence in the surrounding air. Arkadia continued down the stairs and into the living room, her eyes traveling around the darkened room, Eloise having already drawn the curtains, and lit what honestly seemed like thousands of candles. Fat ones, thin ones, short, tall, and grouped ones. On every surface wide enough to hold the tray, there was a lit candle. The sensation of the flames all dancing was like a bunch of teenagers under the influence at a rave. Walking in further, Arkadia let her eyes open, not the two she used on a daily basis, but all her receptors. They could be called her other senses, but really, they all fed information to the brain, and when all fully opened at the same time, Arkadia felt a warmth deep in her soul that she hadn’t felt for years. “You’re glowing, Arkadia.” Eloise’s smooth as honey voice melted across her ears. “Do you feel her, your goddess? She is waiting for you, Arkadia, waiting for you to accept her as your True North.”

Taking a deep breath, she slowly exhaled. “I feel her, I do, I just wish when I needed my magic to be there it was, because my ‘WOOHOO’ versus my ‘OH SHIT’ is sadly unbalanced.”

Eloise came around to Arkadia and took her hand, leading her to sit on the deep red plush mat in the center of the floor. With the furniture all pushed back against the walls, the living room was quite spacious. Crossing her legs and urging Arkadia to copy, she sat opposite her, her hands resting upon her knees, breathing evenly and silently. Seeing Arkadia follow made her heart sing, she knew Arkadia was difficult from the reports she had previously read before she came to the house, but right now, at this very second in time, she saw hope and a path to glory for Arkadia; it was just a matter of keeping her on the road.

“The magic is in every cell of your body. You are the very essence of magic, the goddess is you, and you are the goddess, one and the same, mind, body and soul.” Eloise spoke with the softest calming voice Arkadia had ever heard. Eloise stared deep into her eyes as her words caressed and danced around her mind. “You have the ability to be a very strong and powerful witch. Your destiny is very important for the future of gifted children. You must believe in yourself, in order to pass your PSEs and avoid being lost to the shadows.” Arkadia’s mind was giddy with excitement, important she thought, powerful, she always knew she was more special than anyone else. “THAT’S where you go wrong,” Eloise spoke, her voice thick with annoyance, “Your magic fails because you THINK you’re more important.”

Arkadia interrupted getting pissy right back at her. “Hey now … YOU said I was important, YOU said I was powerful, YOU said it.” Eloise took a deep calming breath. Anger had no place in this room, it was poison, a mold that once released, its spores could settle into every aspect of one’s life, and grow, festering until you were nothing but an empty dark shell.

“Arkadia, you ARE all of those things, but when you put your own importance above anyone else’s, you betray the goddess, for every living thing has equal and balanced importance, and unless you are equal and balanced with yourself and your surroundings, your magic is destined to fail.” Arkadia threw her hands in the air a show of frustration.

“So balance me, Eloise, and let’s get out of here,” Arkadia said.

“If only it was as easy as an arm flail ... let’s begin with casting a spell.” Eloise put two glasses in front of them, one empty and one full of water. “Move the water from one vessel to the other; it’s going to require what type of spell, Arkadia?” Arkadia looked at the glasses; vessels my ass, she chuckled to herself, a glass is a glass, but to get out of this class early, she would call them moon pops if she had to.

“I’ll need a traveling water spell,” Arkadia said with pride, knowing she was right.

“Excellent, Arkadia, then go ahead, move the water from one MOONPOP to the other.” Eloise reminded Arkadia with a smile that she could hear every thought she had, even though she ignored most.

“Ahh … yesss … sorry … uumm …” Arkadia stumbled over her words, “let’s get this moving.” Arkadia closed her eyes, taking a slow deep breath and felt herself center in the room, and she began to cast her words.

“Water, Water, Water,

By the power of three,

Lift, move, traveling fluid,

Follow my voice from A to B.”

As Arkadia watched the water, her eyes flicked to Eloise, watching to see a glimmer of pride, or hope, or any emotion from her. As she glanced back to the water, it began to ripple and displace on the surface. Pride began to well in her stomach, Arkadia’s eyes growing wider as the water began to rise and funnel past the lip of the glass. Willing it to continue, she saw the liquid spinning within its own tunnel, like a mini tornado coming out of the vessel. Arkadia was about to will the watery tube to relocate into the other glass, and she glanced quickly to Eloise. Their eyes met, an alarm registering in Eloise’s eyes, and Arkadia knew she had made a fundamental mistake, a millisecond of broken concentration. She registered the spell was now wild and untamed. Looking back to the tube, it swirled in a passionate dance through the air, taking the target that had grabbed Arkadia’s attention. She gasped in horror as the funnel of water pounded into the shocked face of her teacher and den mother, Eloise.

Arkadia didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Eloise sat there drenched. Apparently unknown to Arkadia, although it was only a single glass of water, when in the midst of a transporting spell, water can double, sometimes even triple, its volume before regaining original formation in the new location.

“I am going to the Island of Shadows, I just know it!” Arkadia began to stand up.

“SIT DOWN,” Eloise said with a deep animalistic rumble. Giving herself a small shake and taking a deep breath, Eloise looked at Arkadia. “Don’t ever, EVER, break contact with your target. As you get better and more confident, this won’t be an issue, but for the moment, you MUST always watch the element that you’re working with, understand?” Her voice had returned to a softer more supportive tone. Arkadia sheepishly smiled.

“I am sorry, I didn’t–” Eloise halted her with a simple hand movement. “No sorrys, we are both learning each other. Its only water and I don’t shrink. How about you get some air flowing and dry me off?” Eloise asked.

Taking the challenge, Arkadia took a long deep breath, exhaled slowly, and again felt the warmth from the candles licking her skin, surrounding her from every angle as they seemingly cheered her on with a happy dance, flickering left and right. Arkadia raised her hands outward, palms raised to the roof, and she began to chant.

“Wind, Wind, softly blow,

I call up into the Sky,

Come to me a gentle flow,

I’ve got something that needs to dry.”

A soft whisper of breath grazed her cheek, gently placing a kiss upon her skin. She decided it was better to feel the wind than to try and see it, and kept her eyes closed. Arkadia could feel the energy in the air building and a breeze beginning to play around the room. She reached out with her mind to where she knew Eloise was sitting and tried to channel the direction of the air flow. It seemed to be working well, and Arkadia smiled as she felt the soft breeze following her direction.

In the distance, a familiar rumble of an engine was coming closer. Her body knew who that rumble belonged to well before Arkadia’s brain did, and as it came closer, Arkadia could feel her heart race with a gallop verging on a heart attack. Her blood felt like it was boiling with the heat of attraction, and she knew it was him – she knew it was Bohdan. He must live out past her house and was on his way home from training. Arkadia’s mind was running mad with the thoughts of Bohdan's training session, his rock-hard body skating around on the ice, getting all hot and sweaty, biceps rippling with every puck that he stopped. With a sudden freezing of her blood, Arkadia remembered where she was and what she was supposed to be doing. Opening her eyes, she gasped. A virtual tornado had been unleashed in her living room, a torrent of wind swarming round and round the walls, picking up every piece of paper, flower, and candle; anything that was light was now flying like an armed projectile around the room. Arkadia jumped to her feet and screamed,

“STOP, STOP, STOP,
BY THE ORDER OF LIGHT,
STOP THIS WILD WIND
MAKE THINGS RIGHT.”

Everything seemed to instantly stop, papers and candles dropping from the sky from wherever they were, the living room was now a complete shambles. Looking around, Arkadia’s eyes fell upon Eloise, her red hair now could only be described as a wild woman’s mane, blown dry to within an inch of its life. Before Eloise could say a word, Arkadia said, “I’m so sorry,” and ran from the room, taking the steps two at a time and leapt from the door to her room onto her queen-sized bed. She buried her face into the pillow just into time to muffle the tears that flowed hard and fast. She knew she was a loser, she knew she was useless, and she knew she was destined for the Island. Sobbing herself into a deep sleep, there were no dreams for her tonight.