Spellbound (the Spellbound Series Book 1) (11 page)

I move the ball of light high above my head, and see someone with purple hair standing about ten feet away. “Alyssa? Is that you?”

She starts at the sound of her name, and squints at me. “Santos? How the hell did you get here?”

I push myself off the ground, and start to wipe the leaves off of my shirt. “I touched a weird rock shaped like a witch, and wound up here, somehow. You?”

“It was a painting of a witch for me. Happy birthday, by the way.”

“How did you know it was my birthday?”

“Because it’s mine too.” I give Alyssa a quizzical look, and she explains, “It’s a spellcaster tradition. On our eighteenth birthday, or any following birthday if you’re a late bloomer, each of us is supposed to go through a ritual that unlocks the second seal on our power. That’s all Selene would tell me, though.”

Alyssa and I both turn to face the male voice that says, “That’s all any of us has been told.” The speaker sounds like he might be from Ireland, or Scotland, but I haven’t heard enough of either accent to say for sure. As he steps into the light of my spell, I see that he looks to be about twenty, with shaggy brown hair and eyes the same shade. He shakes the hair out of his eyes, and says, “I’m glad you two are getting acquainted, but can we get a move on now?”

Alyssa folds her arms, and asks, “Who are you?”

“I’m Ryan,” says the boy, “who are you two?”

“Heather.”

“Alyssa.”

“Great! Let’s get moving, then.” Ryan conjures up his own ball of bright blue light, and starts walking off into the trees.

Alyssa and I stand our ground, and I ask, “What makes you think we’re following you?”

“Listen, kid, this is my third time taking this stupid test, and I’d like to get it over with. And in order to do that, we need to get out of the woods. Now.”

“Why?”

“You don’t wanna stick around to find out.” Ryan speeds ahead, leaving Alyssa and I to stand and watch him go. It’s only been a minute since we met, so I’m not feeling very inclined to trust him, and I’m sure that I’m not alone in feeling this way. All the same, his plan is the best one I’ve heard (although, admittedly, the only one), so I start to follow him through the trees. He turns back to face me, and asks, “What clan are you from?”

I duck to avoid impaling my face on a branch, and say, “I’m not in one.”

“Well, that’s unusual.”

“Tell me about it. What about you, what clan are you from?”

“I’m a Druid myself. There’s a fair few of us, but times have been pretty hard on our side of the world.” Ryan waits a few seconds for me to ask him what he means, and when it becomes clear that I have no interest in doing so, he explains anyway. “There are just as many casters around as ever, of course. They just have a much harder time finding and joining a clan. Nowadays, people being able to use magic sounds like a crazy idea, so most never even seek out help. Most of these poor casters go without proper teaching, end up alone and scared, not knowing what they are, and they either go mad or kill themselves.”

Those poor people… their fates could so easily have become mine. A shudder runs down my spine at the thought of what I might have become if not for Krystal.

Ryan and I continue on in silence, and Alyssa eventually catches up and walks in between us. There seem to be more and more people walking among us every time I glance around; apparently, I also share a birthday with several other eighteen year olds from around the world. Most of them look scared out of their wits, and merely follow the single source of light, which Ryan holds aloft. Within half an hour, the group following us has swelled to around fifteen teenagers, counting Ryan, Alyssa, and myself.

I hear a muffled shriek coming from behind us, and I look over my shoulder to see what’s going on. Some of the other spellcasters are searching the trees for something, while the other, more spooked ones try to calm themselves down. One of them removes her hand from her mouth, and mutters in a shaky voice, “Guys, we’re not alone.”

Ryan wipes his faces, and mutters, “Shit, they’re coming out faster this year. We don’t have time to lose, ladies, so pick quickly; are we running or fighting?”

I have no clue what we’re either fighting or running from, but I’m the first to speak up. “I say we fight. Whatever they are, they can’t take on all of us at once.”

Alyssa nods in agreement, and asks, “What exactly are we agreeing to fight?”

“You’ll see in a minute, if they don’t take you down first.” Ryan and I walk back towards Alyssa, standing in a triangle with our backs to each other, watching the trees. I don’t know what I’m expecting to see… a wolf of some kind? A bear? Hopefully, maybe a rabbit? But when I finally catch a glimpse of what’s coming after us, it’s the last creature on Earth I’d ever want to see. They’re about four feet tall, and almost as long, with eight gleaming eyes that send chills down my spine. They have just as many legs, which are just as creepy, and their bodies are covered in a thick layer of black fuzz.

I’m normally a pretty hard person to scare, but when it comes to spiders, I’m the biggest wimp in the universe. Everyone around me assumes a defensive stance, but I am the only one standing perfectly still, my limbs seemingly locked in place. The eight menacing eyes boring into mine have me completely paralyzed. I want to aim a spell at the creatures closing in on us, but all I can focus on is their eyes, cold and merciless, waiting for an opportunity to strike. The sound of a bang coming from my left snaps me out of my stupor, and I break the formation and try to climb the nearest tree.

Unfortunately, life in New York City left me ill-prepared for climbing trees; it’s slow going, to say the least. All around me, the air cracks and shines with the spells being aimed at what looks like hundreds of spiders. I climb up to a fork in the tree, and sit watching the battle unfold while my heart slows down. Alyssa and Ryan stand back to back, while most of the other spellcasters are clumped together in a misshapen cluster, and I start to notice the unique ways each of them uses their spells. One girl in particular, who breaks away from the rest of the group early on, takes her magic and manipulates it into an effective bow with a supply of arrows only limited by her endurance; Ryan is using nature itself to his advantage, and spearing various spiders with tree roots from below, while holding some of them above the ground to make easy targets for the other spellcasters; Alyssa fires bright purple bursts of energy at her targets, and runs them through with a shimmering purple blade when they come too close. All around them, carcasses begin to litter the forest floor, each oozing a disgusting white fluid, and some still flailing their legs in pain.

Watching my fellow spellcasters destroy dozens of spiders makes me realize that I envy each and every one of them. I know that I can fight just as well as any of them, and yet here I am, hiding up a tree, while they do all the work. I don’t care what the others think of me so much, but when even I think I’m being a coward, I know there’s a problem. I grit my teeth, and prepare to face my fears. Then, before I can change my mind, I hop down to the ground.

I land with a crunch in the mass of dead leaves beneath the tree, and I hear the bones in my left ankle cracking in protest as it strikes the ground at an odd angle. I have to ignore the pain for now, though. My heart is pounding, and my legs want to carry me anywhere but here, but I force myself to stay. A few of the spiders heading for the other three notice me, and change course. I do my best not to look into their eyes, but inevitably, it happens, and I start to panic. I have no idea what spell to use, and briefly consider getting back in the tree, but there’s no time. The spiders are almost upon me, and rather than run, I use the first spell that comes to mind. I let out a terrified yell, and shoot a fireball at the spiders closing in on me.

The first few spiders are immediately incinerated, leaving nothing but ash and a memory behind, and the rest begin to scurry away. I get the feeling it’s too early to congratulate myself; that seemed a little bit too easy. I fire the same spell a few more times at the spiders trying to retreat, then lay into the ones advancing on Alyssa and Ryan. Together, we manage to wipe out what’s left of the things on our end, and the five other spellcasters that survived the skirmish seem to have run out of targets as well. They look to us, and all but one of them turns and runs the other way. I don’t realize why they’re running until Alyssa shouts, and points over my shoulder; as it turns out, I didn’t just light a few spiders on fire. A few twigs and leaves must have caught as well, and sparked a blaze that’s quickly getting out of control. The forest itself is beginning to burn.

I’m too dumbfounded to do anything but back away. Since it took so long for us to notice what was happening, the blaze is too large for any of us to put out with a single spell. The only thing left to do is run. We all break into a sprint, and the pain in my ankle seemingly intensifies until I’m limping along behind the others. Surprisingly, Alyssa is the fastest runner, and pulls ahead before the smoke reaches us. The spellcaster who stayed with us manages to stay clear of the smoke as well, but only just, while Ryan and I begin coughing within the first few minutes of running for our lives. Eventually, I have to stop and place my hand on a tree to balance myself for a while. My ankle can’t take the pressure in its current state, and it feels like my lungs are folding in upon themselves. I can’t stop coughing, and soon, I’m doubled over and shaking uncontrollably.

I look behind me at the ground we’ve covered so far, but what I see doesn’t encourage me any. The flames are racing up the trunks of nearly every tree, spreading in much the same way I imagine that a virus on a crowded subway car would. I’m almost certain that the air contains far more smoke than oxygen at this point, and completely certain that if I don’t move quickly, I will die here. I take a few painful steps forward, then break into a light, limping sprint, but it’s too little, and far too late. Voices call out to me from afar, but I can’t make out what they’re saying, or respond properly. All I can do is cough, and continue coughing, until I can taste blood in the back of my mouth.

I make an effort to move more quickly, but I lose my balance after a few steps, and tumble forward down a short hill. I only stop rolling when my back rams into a tree, triggering a series of more intense coughs. The world before my eyes begins to shimmer, and everything I see is covered in multicolored spots that appear and disappear rapidly, and it feels as if my entire body, nay, the entire world, is spinning.

I don’t have long, and I know it, but I spend a moment dwelling on the futile wish that I could die in any other way; dying isn’t exactly something I look forward to, but burning alive or being overcome by smoke inhalation were never methods that made it into my top five. The flames are coming much too close for comfort, and every breath is so torturous that I almost wish my lungs would just give up. I try to get up and run, or at least crawl, but neither my arms nor my legs will obey my commands.

Another voice calls out to me, this time from much closer. I’m not sure if I’m hallucinating or not, but I could almost swear that the voice sounds like Nick’s. Then, I feel a pair of arms grab me by my armpits, and lift me into a sitting position. I spit out the blood pooling in my mouth, and while I’m fairly sure I turned to the side before doing so, I’m not conscious enough to care whether it dribbled onto my shirt or not. Once the feeling of choking on blood has subsided, I just surrender, and let myself imagine that Nick’s arms are carrying me to safety, no matter how much it may feel like I’m being dragged off into oblivion.

Chapter 13

For a while, there is no pain. No forest. No smoke. No fire. Instead, it’s a rainy Saturday back in April, where Nick and I are laying side by side on his bed. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen his room, and it’s about what I expected out of him; there’s photographs of family members that abandoned him long ago, paintings of Landon’s that have never seen the inside of an art gallery, and souvenirs from a road trip that brought him and some high school friends all the way up and down the East Coast. There’s even a playbill signed by the original cast of Rent, but whether he actually met them or bought the playbill on eBay remains a mystery. Nick’s bed is barely large enough for one person, let alone two, but our bodies naturally fit one another in a way that allows us to lie together in perfect comfort. His arm wraps around me, I nestle my head onto his chest, and for the first time since January, I feel completely at peace. I fall asleep in his arms without a care in the world.

The memory slowly dissipates, and when my eyes open, I’m nearly blinded by the sun’s glare overhead. It appears I’ve made my not-so-glorious return to reality. I can see the clear blue sky above me, so I know I somehow made it out of the forest, but beyond that, I have no clue where I am. I groan, and turn my head to the side, which is when I notice Alyssa sitting by me. She looks relieved that I’m awake, and calls out to the girl washing her hands in a nearby stream. Thankfully, both of them look unharmed; I seem to have taken the most damage from the fire. I sit up slowly, and ask, “What happened?,” in a voice that’s unsurprisingly raspy, given the trauma my throat has been through.

“You fell behind while we were running from the fire,” Alyssa explains, “and I guess you must have passed out from inhaling too much smoke. Ryan said to ‘leave your stupid ass behind’, which is a direct quote, but I headed back and dragged you to safety.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. We walked on for a while after that, but we stopped here, and Jasira,” she says with a gesture towards the girl I haven’t met, “has been fixing up all of our injuries since. Ryan wandered off after his were taken care of… he seemed pretty pissed.”

“Thanks, both of you,” I croak out. “For a while there, I didn’t think I was gonna make it.”

“Don’t mention it.” We both turn to see Jasira returning, and wiping her hands on her shirt. At a glance, I could have sworn she was Krystal because of her caramel skin tone. But unlike Krystal, she’s about the same height as I am, and her straight, jet black hair is pulled back in a pony tail. “Think you can walk?,” she asks, “I think we ought to get moving before Captain Douche gets back.”