Timespell (2 page)

Julia
stepped from the soft sand and onto the Venice Beach boardwalk, her flip flops scuffing along the gritty path. Cyclists crowded the palm-lined walkway, along with rollerbladers and skateboarders and giant beach taxis only tourists would pay for. All of them managed to get in her way as she crossed to the pedestrian-only side of the path.

The frantic chime of bells caused her to turn. A pair of girls in an out-of-control pedal cart squealed in horrified delight as they gained momentum, and they were headed right toward her. She leapt out of the way, losing a flip flop and crashing into a vendor’s table.

“Sorry,” the girls called over their shoulders, not sounding sorry as they sped past.

Julia bit back a groan. Embarrassment poured out from her, as hot as the sun roasting her back. She stood, wincing at the sight of her scraped palms and knees. “Oh, gosh,” she said, surveying the damage to the booth she had crashed into. The shopkeeper glared at her and she hurried to scoop up the pile of wrecked
magnets, each made from tiny, hot-glued seashells. She set them on the table and pushed a display upright. A cascade of postcards showered to the ground.

“Sorry,” she said, scrambling to gather the fallen postcards.

“Just go,” he snapped, tugging at the cards in her hands.

She backed out of his space and went back onto the boardwalk.

Angie, where are you?

A quick scan of the crowd showed no sign of her, and they were late for training. Not that it mattered. They had been practicing their magic for almost a year. Until they found the final Daughter of Fate, there wasn’t much more they could learn. Absently, she ran her fingers over her mark of magic. The golden designs encircled her upper arm like a tribal tattoo.

The mark glowed a faint white and immediately she regretted touching it. The magic was always there, inside her, but if she focused on it, the power began to grow. It had to go somewhere, because the feeling of expanding energy inside her could become overwhelming. Everything would sound too loud and her body would feel too warm. Pressure would fill her chest until she was breathless, and her only thought would be of how to release the magic as quickly as possible.

She exhaled slowly, getting a handle on the magic. She needed to let it out, and quick. She found a safe patch of grass beneath a palm tree and examined her wounds. The girls who had run into her in their beach taxi zoomed by again. Her hands glowed with white light, but she resisted the urge to send a bolt of magic blasting their way. Instead, she cupped her hands. The magic pooled in her palms like white mist. “Restore,” she murmured. The soothing light became a balm, sealing her scraped skin and smoothing over the scratches until it was as if she had never been hurt.

Julia examined her hands, still covered in blood. She wiped them on the grass. Angie was the best at healing. The best at all the magic, really. Her family had passed down the secret of their inheritance for generations. They had hundred-year-old books
with leather covers and worn, yellowed pages filled with the missions of past Daughters of Fate. Her parents had known that Angie would be marked when she had her surge of light.

Meanwhile, Julia had been shocked when Angie told her they had a magical connection. Julia’s grandmother died when her mom was still little, so whether her grandmother knew about the powers or not was a mystery. Her mom didn’t know, and there definitely weren’t any magical books in her home about ancient priestesses fighting an epic war against the power of the Sorceress.

“Julia!”

Finally
. Julia peered through the crowd, picking out her friend easily among the suntanned bodies on the boardwalk. A decade in gymnastics hadn’t done Angie any favors in the curves department. Tiny and pale, she looked closer to twelve than her actual sixteen years. Julia dug through her bag and found a tank top to put on over her swimsuit, not wanting Angie to feel bad about nature’s unfair lottery system.

“There you are,” Angie said, her enormous sunglasses making her look like a little kid playing dress up with her mom’s things.

“I’m usually the late one.”

“Yeah, I told you to meet with me an hour earlier than our time to meet with Indira.” Angie smiled, toying with the tip of her white-blonde ponytail. “That makes us half an hour early.”

“Wow, lying?” Julia teased as she got up.

Pink crept up her friend’s milky complexion, making it look like rose petals. “It wasn’t a lie, was it? I just didn’t tell you what time Indira wanted us to meet.”

“Sneaky, then,” Julia said as they started down the walkway. “Either way, I approve.”

Angie didn’t respond, getting the distant look that often took over her delicate features. Julia twisted her mess of brown hair in a knot high off her neck. Her gaze wandered ahead to the mish-mashed vendors lining the walk. A Hawaiian shaved ice would be absolute heaven, but all she saw were merchants selling crystal jewelry and energy bracelets, and an
artist drawing sketches of people with curvy, oversized heads. Something flickered into view. Julia squinted past the glare of sun and sand. A tent had appeared among the vendors that hadn’t been there a moment before.

Indira’s tent always showed up at a different spot. With gold tassels and symbols, it looked like something someone had swiped from a Renaissance fair.

Julia moved toward it, but Angie’s hand on her arm held her back.

“Listen,” Angie said. “Before we go to training, there’s something I wanted to tell you.”

“Okay,” Julia said, shielding her eyes. “That’s cryptic.”

Angie let out a deep breath. “David asked me to prom.”

She had to laugh. “Like you’d go with him after what he did.”

Angie pressed her lips together.

“You’re not going with him ... right?”

Angie’s big blue eyes became shinier by the second.

“You caught him
kissing
Kaitlyn Tesoro!”

“I know, but—”

“But nothing.” Julia gripped Angie’s arm, letting the magic flare to life between them. She dug through Angie’s memories, bringing forth images of Kaitlyn smiling up at David, reaching for him, pulling him into a kiss.

Angie’s rage erupted between them. “Stop it,” she cried, breaking their connection. “How dare you?”

“What am I supposed to do? Stand by and do nothing while you let him break your heart again?”

“I’m going to prom with him,” Angie said in a low, simmering voice. “I didn’t ask for your approval.”

“Fine. Catch Kaitlyn-herpes. It’s your life.” Julia stalked ahead before Angie could answer. How could Angie go back to him after what he did? For someone so smart, she could be borderline stupid.

“Will you slow down?” Angie called.

She stopped, telling herself to get a grip. It was Angie’s decision.

One look at Angie’s face made Julia’s heart lurch with remorse. Angie’s mouth was set in an angry slash. Julia cringed.
Crap.
Had she just used magic to tear open Angie’s thoughts? That was kind of a cardinal rule. Thou shalt not dive into thy friend’s brain and drag out hurtful memories.
Crap, crap, crap.

“I’m so sorry,” Julia said. “I had no right to do that.”

“No. You didn’t.”

Julia’s throat turned to ash.

“Listen,” Angie said, her tone softening, “you can’t do that kind of thing. We have way too much power to use it against each other. Ever.”

Julia shook her head. “I’m sorry. I suck.” Worst-friend-ever guilt washed over her in sickening waves.

“I understand why you’re worried. It’s just that, David still matters to me.”

“No, don’t explain,” Julia said, rubbing the mark on her arm again. She had felt how much her friend loved him. Of everything that happened because of the magic, those split seconds of shared emotion, flipping on and off like a broken TV, had been the biggest shock of all. She tried to block Angie’s feelings when they used their powers—the honesty of them was too raw, too embarrassing to feel—but she couldn’t block out everything.

She bit her lip, forcing herself to meet Angie’s eyes. She couldn’t decide which was worse, the awkwardness of reading her friend’s emotions or the humiliation of Angie reading hers. “I know how much you love him,” she finally said. “It was wrong of me to flip out on you. But it’s hard.” The crashing waves, barely background noise before, seemed louder now. When Julia spoke again, her voice dropped. “I felt the pain, too.”

“I know.”

Julia’s eyes stung at the sight of Angie’s slumped shoulders,
her fallen face. “Hey, don’t listen to me, okay? Yay, prom! Yay, David!”

“Come on. Indira’s waiting.”

Indira. Their magic mentor would be disappointed that they hadn’t found the final Daughter of Fate. Angie’s seventeenth birthday was the day after prom, so they had pretty much run out of time. Daughters of Future were always born of wild magic. It wasn’t inherited like Daughters of Past and Present were. From what Angie had told her, the Fates always led the Daughters to a channel of magic, and the channel was always linked to the sea. Timeways, Angie had called them. There was no way to know if the Fates would choose a Daughter of Future near their Timeway or whether the magic would flow to some other time and place. Angie made it sound like it was up to the Fates, but Indira seemed to think it was up to them ... that every generation of Daughters could find each other and create the seal if they tried hard enough.

Julia wondered if it might be a little of both.

The symbols on her arm grew warm as they approached Indira’s tent, but thinking about the missing final Daughter made it hard to feel her usual excitement about practicing the magic. This might be their last training ever. Her heart rebelled at the idea. She and Angie would find the last Daughter somehow. Indira wouldn’t be any help—she never was, with all her
“It’s up to you, Daughters”
crap—but that didn’t mean that she and Angie couldn’t use the powers of Indira’s crystals or find something here that would help. She pulled back the silky flap that served as a door, tilting her head a little as she peered inside, but instead of Indira, a guy met her at the entryway.

Julia stopped short and so did he. His eyes widened and Julia heard his sharp intake of breath.

She shook her head vaguely. No one else knew about the magic.
No one.
So what was this person doing here?

She swallowed drily, unable to stop herself from staring. Between his half-buttoned shirt and smooth, tanned skin, he looked like a pirate. An incredibly gorgeous pirate. His black hair
spilled over his forehead in waves, almost hiding silver eyes that shone like mercury.

Those eyes, surrounded by rows of thick, black lashes, flashed with recognition. Julia didn’t know what to make of that, because she had never seen him before. She definitely would have remembered those eyes.

The thought made her blush. She tried to control it, as well as her heart, which was beating like crazy. How long was she going to keep staring? She was making it obvious that she thought the guy was hot to the power of hotness, and she had a boyfriend.

“Excuse me,” he said softly.

“Right.” She moved out of the way.

He hesitated at her side before walking on.

“Do you know him?” Angie whispered.

Julia had forgotten Angie was there behind her. She shook her head.

“He seemed to know you.”

Angie swept past her and stepped into the tent. Julia held open the tent flap, unable to move forward. Was she really going to look back at the guy? She squeezed her eyes shut. Yeah, she really was.

He wove in and out of the crowd, stopping to brace himself against a palm tree. His chest heaved. Before she could decide if something was wrong, his head swung up and their gazes locked.

Julia’s heart slammed against her chest as he began to vanish into thin air.

His hands melted away, then his legs and torso, and finally his desperate face. If she hadn’t spent the past few months in training to become a Daughter of Fate, she would have questioned her sanity before believing her eyes.

“Come in, Julia,” Indira said in an airy voice.

Julia swallowed the lump in her throat and obeyed, blinking rapidly as she backed into the cool, dark tent. She turned and met the gypsy’s eyes. As always, she was a little skeeved out at the sight of them. The woman’s good eye had an iris as dark and
shining as a drop of fresh black paint on a sheet of paper, but the other eye had no iris. It was just a scary, milk-white ball.

Other than that, she looked too young to be a magical guru lady, with her amazing gold-toned skin and the longest hair Julia had ever seen in real life. Then again, she moved and spoke in this mystical, otherworldly way, practically oozing ancient wisdom. She could have been a thousand years old and Julia wouldn’t have been surprised.

“Indira,” Julia said as the gypsy knelt behind the low table in the center of the tent. “Who was that guy?”

“All in good time,” Indira said, getting out the talismans and candles that helped them hone their powers. Her hand motions were like a slow dance.

Julia held back a groan of frustration. Usually she liked watching the ritual, but today she dropped to the satiny cushion beside Angie and wished Indira would hurry up. She needed to know about that guy.

After a moment, Indira smoothed a cloth on the table, the signal that she was finished with her preparations.

“Okay, so who was the guy who left the tent?” Julia asked again.

“Someone the Fates have chosen,” she said. “His time in your life is nearly here.”

Indira always said things like they came backward out of a fortune cookie. “But what
is
he? I mean, he disappeared.” Julia looked at Angie. “Really disappeared. Like a ghost or something.”

Indira’s good eye focused on a flame as she lit a long, thin stick of incense. The white eye glowed for a moment. Julia shuddered.

“Clear your minds,” Indira said to them.

“But what about the guy?”

The intensity of Indira’s stare stopped her cold. “Clear your mind, Daughter of Present. Ethan’s time is near, but his time is not yours yet.”