Spellbound (the Spellbound Series Book 1) (17 page)

We simultaneously let off bright blue jets of energy, which collide in midair, and for a moment, we each struggle to overpower the other’s spell. Ultimately, it becomes apparent that I’m the stronger one, and the other Heather is forced to roll out of harm’s way before the spell hits her. “How refreshing,” she comments, “You’re not a weakling like the other children that pass through our realm. You really might be the one we’ve been waiting for all these years.”

I’m tempted to ask what she means, but I get the feeling that she’s preying on my curiosity to lower my guard. Instead, I fire a bolt of lightning at my doppelganger, causing her to roll out of the way again, and she retaliates by hurling bolts of lightning back at me. I focus on a recently learned spell, which causes a wide pillar of tightly packed earth to shoot out of the ground in front of me. It’ll grant me protection from my opponent’s spells, but not for very long. While mainly concentrating on maintaining the column’s shape, I run through a mental checklist of spells that I have yet to master. The only useful one happens to be the one that I’ve only learned about, never attempted; a teleportation spell. Normally, I wouldn’t try it without Krystal’s supervision, but it’s the one spell that my doppelganger would never see coming. It’s my best shot at a surprise attack.

As my column begins to crumble in a shower of earthen clumps, I try to remember what Krystal taught me about teleporting. I close my eyes, and concentrate on amassing my energy behind the other Heather, while silently praying that my body will follow suit. For just an instant, the sensation that a huge gust of wind is tearing past me hits again, and I open my eyes to see the other Heather’s back. She’s facing away from me, still firing spells continuously at the spot I inhabited mere seconds ago.

Rather than congratulating myself on successfully executing phase one of my plan, I commence the entirely unplanned phase two; I allow my energy to seep into my arm muscles, while striding towards the other Heather. I grab her shoulder, spin her around, and punch her in the stomach with such force that she’s lifted a few feet in the air before she hits the ground with an unladylike grunt. She slowly starts getting back on her feet, and coughs out, “Not bad… it’s usually hard to pull one over on me.”

“Like you said, I’m full of surprises.” I advance on the other Heather, this time with the intent to punch her in the face, but she sees it coming this time and deflects the attack. We spend the next few minutes exchanging a barrage of punches, kicks, and blocks until we’re both sufficiently bruised. During a brief lull in the action, the other Heather unleashes a huge gust of wind so strong it pushes me back several feet, and knocks me onto my ass hard enough to leave yet another bruise.

Before I can get back up, the other Heather plants her foot on my chest, and pushes me down onto my back. We’re both breathing heavily, and sweating from exertion, but neither of us is quite ready to give up. I groan, and try to slip out from under her foot, but my doppelganger merely presses down harder. Since I’m not going anywhere for a while, I ask, “What is it you’re trying to teach me, exactly?”

“Teach you?” The other Heather throws her head back and laughs. “I’m not trying to teach you a damned thing. I just wanted to see how strong you were, and you’ve certainly delivered.”

“What…?”

“I knew you were special, I could feel it the moment you arrived. You’re not like the others.” My doppelganger folds her arms across her chest, and smiles down at me. “Needless to say, when I was assigned to conduct your final test, I couldn’t resist getting a little hands-on with it. The illusion was just for fun; causing you physical damage is one thing, but I live for leaving scars on the psyche.”

In a flash, I grab the other Heather’s ankle, throw her weight off me, and pin her to the ground. “Here’s a pro tip: don’t let your guard down around me.” I grab her leg tightly, and bend it just a little too far in the wrong direction. “Now quit screwing around, and show yourself. The real you.”

I watch with a mixture of satisfaction and horror as the face identical to my own elongates, and becomes gradually more masculine. His hair smoothes as it recedes into his skull, and his limbs stretch to their original length. Within a minute, all traces of my features have vanished, and I get to see what my opponent really looks like. Morpheus scowls up at me, and asks, “Are you happy now?”

“Not really, no. Now that I know it’s you, I’m in an even worse mood.” I pull harder on his leg until he gasps in pain, and growl, “You’ve mentioned a couple of times now that I’m ‘special’. Special how?”

“Patience, Heather. You’ll be finding out soon enough.” Morpheus lets out a strained laugh, and mutters, “You’re meant for great things, but it isn’t my place to tell you what.” Then, he snaps his fingers, and in an instant, the meadow disappears entirely, replaced by the cold marble interior of the amphitheater. I place a hand on the ground to be sure it’s not a trick, but the stone beneath me is as real as can be. For a split second, I wonder if I might have failed my test, but I dismiss the thought quickly. If I had failed, Morpheus would have let me know.

I look around for any sign of the others, and find Jasira standing by herself on the platform where we all started; evidently, we’re the only two that have passed our tests so far. After a few minutes, Ryan hobbles over to us from down the hallway, his left arm burned badly, and his face powdered with soot. Jasira and I stare at him, but he refuses to explain beyond saying, “You should see the other guy.” So far, all of us have proven strong enough to handle our tests except Alyssa, and as the minutes drag on, I begin to worry about her.

Nearly five minutes after Ryan returned from his test, the ground starts rumbling unexpectedly, and I nearly lose my balance. Something isn’t right, I can feel it in the pit of my stomach. A scream reaches us from outside, cut short by the sound of an impact so powerful that the ground shudders again. I turn to Ryan and Jasira, who look just as worried as I do, and decide that at least one of us should investigate.

Before we can look outside to see what’s going on, the battered body of a young woman smashes through one of the stained glass windows. She hits the ground just a split second before scattered shards of glass and droplets of her own blood litter the clean marble, and groans in pain as she attempts to stand up. Before she gets very far, though, Alyssa appears out of nowhere behind her, grabs hold of the woman’s hair, and drags her over to the steps lining one side of the amphitheater. Alyssa lifts the woman’s head, and smashes it against the steps repeatedly, until the polished marble is slick with blood.

My body reacts instinctively before I can truly process what’s going on, and I run over to Alyssa’s side to try and pull her off the poor woman. I don’t know what I expected to happen, but I certainly didn’t expect Alyssa to forget her prey entirely, and use a spell to slam me against the wall. Her fingers wrap around my neck, and clamp down until I can’t breathe. I grab at her hand, and try to kick her away from me, but Alyssa maintains hold on my neck until my vision begins to fade. Some unseen force pulls Alyssa off of me before I lose consciousness, and I fall to the ground, sputtering and gasping for air. The world around me is still a little blurry, and multicolored dots swim before my eyes, but I still forgo worrying about myself in favor of figuring out what happened to Alyssa.

When I spot her, she’s inexplicably bound by chains coming out of the ground, and surrounded by no less than twenty angry looking Guardians that have materialized out of nowhere. I push my way through the crowd, and crouch down in front of Alyssa, searching for any hint of the girl I thought I knew in her face. What I see instead is an expression of pure rage, and eyes that have changed from their usual golden hue to blood red. My gaze travels down to her neckline, and as I suspected, her pentagram necklace is nowhere to be found; the spell keeping her from losing control and destroying everything is no longer in effect.

I take her face in my hands, and whisper, “Allie, I know you’re in there somewhere… You need to learn how to fight this.” A deep-throated growl is the only response she’ll give. I have no idea where her necklace is, and I don’t know the spell required to keep her wild powers in check, so I do the one thing I think could possibly shock her back to her senses. I pull my face as close to hers as humanly possible, and press our lips together. The kiss is unlike anything I’ve ever shared with Nick; her lips are incredibly warm, and slightly salty, and neither of us has had the chance to brush our teeth in days. Most notably, while every kiss shared with Nick makes me crave another, with Alyssa, I feel… nothing.

After a few seconds, I pull my face away from Alyssa’s, and she stops struggling against the chains holding her in place. She coughs once, and mutters something quietly that I don’t quite catch.

I lean in a tiny bit closer, and ask, “Could you repeat that?”

Alyssa lifts her head, and I notice that the red tint in her eyes has begun to recede. Instead of returning to their usual gold, her eyes have adopted a soft brown tone, with a halo of green around the rim of each pupil. She must have used a spell to turn her eyes gold, a spell that got interrupted by her sudden outburst. She flashes me a weary smile, and says, “So much for you not being into girls.”

Chapter 19

A pair of arms grabs me from behind, and roughly steers me though the crowd, away from Alyssa. Ryan and Jasira attempt to force their way through, but are likewise grabbed by Guardians, and herded down the hallway that leads to our room. Athena walks alongside us, and I ask her, “What’s going on?,” but she remains silent, her lips stretched into a thin line. The Guardian holding me shoves me into the room where the others are waiting, but before they can slam the door in my face, I plant myself in the doorframe. I lock eyes with Athena, and growl, “You’d better give me some answers, right now. Why are we being locked up in here? And what’s going to happen to Alyssa?”

If Athena is offended by my tone, she doesn’t show it. She merely scowls right back at me, and says, “Alyssa is being detained, while we hold council to decide whether punishment is necessary, and if so, how severe the punishment should be.”

“Punishment for what, for beating the shit out of that Guardian like she was supposed to?”

“No, for attacking you.”

“Why? Because I’m ‘special’, right?” Athena’s eyes widen, but she says nothing, so I continue. “Yeah, I know about that. But nobody’s taken the time to explain why.”

“If I give you a brief explanation, will you stay in your room until you are called?” I nod, and Athena glances up and down the hallway before leaning in closer to me. In a hurried whisper, she says, “A select few spellcasters us can detect the spiritual resonance of those around them. Those of us here who
can
feel your presence believe you are something called a Conduit, a being of immense power. And if Alyssa had succeeded in strangling you a few moments ago, then you would have been sent home without unlocking your power completely. If you are here, it means the time swiftly approaches when your strength will be needed most. Ergo, you cannot afford to waste another year with your true potential still locked away.”

In the few seconds it takes for her words to sink in, I’m taken back to a couple of nights ago, sitting in the sand, listening to Alyssa’s story. I remember her telling me that everyone thought she was a Conduit… and I can’t help thinking now that considering her strength, she’s a much better candidate for the position. The way Athena is talking, it’s starting to sound like there’s a lot more than just the outcome of a few tests at stake, and if it concerns the lives of others, I don’t think I want that kind of responsibility. Not yet, at least; I’ve always dreamed of being a hero, but I’d much rather start small. I ask, “Needed for what? And are you sure you’ve got the right person?”

      
“The terms were as follows; I would answer one question, and you would remain in your quarters. I fulfilled my half of the arrangement, now you fulfill yours.” Athena waves her hand, and I’m pushed a few feet back into the room. A second later, the door slams shut, and I can just barely make out her fading footsteps through the thick walls.

I turn to see if the others heard the same thing I did, but Ryan is pacing around the room, off in his own world, and Jasira is nowhere to be found. I assume that she’s in the bathroom, probably cleaning herself off. For a moment, I forget about everything around me, and allow myself to entertain the idea that I really am a Conduit, like Athena says. I can see myself using all that power for good; stopping crimes, preventing disasters, rescuing people in need. I could use that power to fulfill my childhood dreams, but at what price? I know literally nothing else about being a Conduit; for all I know, it could mean the end of my life as I know it.

I walk past Ryan to my bed, which pulls him out of his own head long enough for him to stop pacing, and ask, “What the hell was all that about?”

“Be more specific,” I reply.

“Alyssa’s little episode just now… I won’t pretend I know her well, but I’m pretty she doesn’t normally snap and try to murder people.”

I almost ask Ryan why he’s acting like he doesn’t know, until I realize that I’m probably the only person Alyssa’s ever told. I briefly explain her condition, and add that without the inhibiting spell on her pentagram necklace, it’s bound to happen again. Ryan shakes his head, and mutters, “Oh, perfect. That’s only information we could have used ages ago.”

“But it wasn’t any of our business until we saw it firsthand.”
      
“Then how did you know?”

“I… we talked for a while. Just before we wound up on the ship.”

“I see.” Ryan shrugs, and resumes pacing slowly around the room. As he comes to a window overlooking the meadow, he asks, “You don’t think they’re going to punish us as a group, do you?”

“Probably not, why?”

“Because it would really suck if we came this far just to fail.”

I nod in agreement, and lay back on my bed. Unbidden, memories of home flash through my mind, and I realize how badly I wish I were there. I haven’t had much time to get homesick between running from the fire in the forest, and everything that’s led me to where I am now. On some level, I suppose the longing was always there, whether I noticed or not. On a whim, I ask Ryan, “What’s your home like?”