First Magic by Raven Steele (ebook reader screen txt) 📖

I jumped on the swing and pumped my legs as hard and fast as they’d go. I didn’t even slow down when my father came outside, hands stuffed in his pockets.

“I need to talk to you, Llona. Can you stop?”

I pushed harder. My body lifted a few inches off the seat of the swing when it was at its highest point. A little further, and I could touch the sky.

“Llona, please stop. I need to talk to you about your mother.”

“Mom will be here soon. She’s taking me to the park.” I reached my hand to the sky.

“No, Llona.”

I blocked the empty sadness I heard in his voice and raised my other hand to the clouds. With neither hand on the ropes, I lost my balance and fell from the swing. I expected to hit the ground, but my always-quick father caught me in his arms and cradled me to his chest.

“I’m so sorry, Llona,” he cried, tears spilling on top of my hair. “I couldn’t protect her. I lost her. I’m so sorry!”

Over and over he apologized while he rocked me back and forth.

It seemed I’d stared an eternity into the sky while lying in his arms. One single moment in time lasts an eternity when you realize you’ve lost someone you love more than life. I’d had too many of these moments to all of a sudden be experiencing another one.

But this moment was different from the others. This time something inside me had died. I felt whatever it was flow through my blood like a poisonous virus, and I wondered if I was dying.

I used the last of the borrowed light to lighten the auditorium, and then I collapsed to the stage, the dust of the Vyken only inches from my face.

The doors of the auditorium flew open and Christian rushed in.

“Llona!” he called. He was at my side before I could raise my head. “Llona?”

“Get May,” I managed to say.

He moved away from me and untied May. Very carefully he laid her down and examined her. I slowly moved into a sitting position.

“I’m calling an ambulance,” he said and pulled out his phone.

“Is she going to be okay?”

“I think so, but we need to be sure.”

While he called 911 and explained our location to the operator, I swept my long hair to the side of my neck, covering the two puncture wounds from the Vyken. For some reason, they made me feel dirty, and I didn’t want Christian to see them.

As soon as he closed his phone, he returned to my side. “You look like you got the crap kicked out of you.”

“You should see the other guy,” I mumbled.

Christian tensed and glanced around. “Where is the Vyken?

“You mean Mr. Steele?”

Christian was silent, then, “Mr. Steele was the Vyken?”

I nodded.

“I knew something was wrong about him,” he said.

“How?”

Christian ignored me and clenched his jaw. “Where is he?”

“You’re standing on him.”

“What?” He glanced down and stepped to the side of the silver ash.

“You killed him? But how?”

“Long story.”

He shook his head. “That’s impossible.”

“I was well trained, I guess.”

He knelt down, his expression granite. “Do you know how dangerous that was? Why did you leave me back there?”

“This was my problem. I wasn’t about to get anyone else killed.” The thought of Tracey, dead on my bed, filled me with great sorrow. I slumped my shoulders.

“I got her killed,” I whispered.

“It wasn’t your fault. It was the Vyken that did this, no one else. Do you understand?”

I nodded my head because I knew that would make him feel better, but deep down I would always blame myself. Everything that had happened tonight could’ve been prevented if only I would have left. My selfishness had caused her death.

Christian’s arm came around me. “Everything will be all right, trust me, okay?”

I nodded again.

“I hate to do this now, but the police and ambulance will be here any second. You have to know what to say.”

“What do you want me to say?”

Christian glanced around the room. “Tell them the truth except for the part where Mr. Steele is a Vyken and you killed him. Since we can’t produce a body, we need them to think he got away.”

“What about May?”

“She probably doesn’t know much. I’ll try and talk to her as soon as she’s awake.”

“She knows everything.”

Christian’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean everything?”

“I told her what I was.”

“Why would you do that?”

I wished I could get angry, but there was no more fight left. “I needed a friend and so did she. She knows what it’s like to be different.”

“Different as in a social outcast or different as in “special” different?”

I raised my eyes to meet his. “Like me different. She’s a Fury.”

Christian stared at May. “A Fury? This whole time and no one knew?”

“She didn’t know who she was, still doesn’t really.”

A deep voice echoed from the hallway, “Hello?”

“We’re in here,” Christian called.

Two EMTs and one police officer rushed in. Christian bent his head and whispered in my ear. “This will all be over soon.”

It was the day of graduation. It was supposed to be a day filled with hope for the future, but as I looked around I saw only grief and sadness on the faces of my classmates. Tracey was dead. She had been one of them and had been murdered by someone we had all trusted. Mr. Steele had not only taken Tracey, he’d killed a part of our innocence.

I glanced back at May sitting two rows behind me. She gave me a weak smile and nodded her head. The big purple bruise on the side of her face had finally faded, but I could see in her eyes that what happened on prom night effected more than just her face.

That night Mr. Steele had sent May a text from Tracey’s phone telling her to meet Tracey at the auditorium. When May showed up and saw Mr. Steele and not Tracey, she didn’t think anything was wrong. She assumed Tracey was late. But as their conversation progressed, and Mr. Steele’s behavior changed from being a teacher to more of an obsessed stalker (she said he was asking all sorts of personal questions about me), she decided to leave. That didn’t sit well with Mr. Steele who then threw her into a wall.

Using the only way she knew to protect herself, May tried to set him on fire by just thinking about it, but instead, nearby chairs burst into flames, burning the sleeve of his suit. Mr. Steele had been so shocked, that he paused, giving her an opportunity to run, which she didn’t waste. However, it was only a short moment before he’d caught up to her. He had planned on killing her that night, but because she used her ability he had spared her for some future use we would never know.

One positive thing to come out of all this was it had spurred May into finding out more about herself. The very next day she had called Sophie and told her everything. And although Sophie lacked the compassion that was probably needed for that conversation, she was completely honest in telling May the history of Furies, how she could learn to control fire, and what the future may hold for her.

When Sophie extended her an invitation to attend Lucent with me where she could study under an elder Fury, May readily accepted.

I couldn’t have been happier May was coming with me. The last thing I wanted right now was to be in a new place all alone.

I glanced up into the bleachers, way in the back to where Jake sat with Heidi. Next to him, I spotted Christian wearing a baseball cap and a heavy jacket despite the warm weather. He was supposed to be incognito, but for me at least, he was all I saw.

Since the Vyken had been discovered and killed, the Council no longer felt Christian needed to be my guardian, nor pretend to be a senior anymore. That’s what Sophie told me anyway, but the next day, a man four times my age showed up and said he would be my “escort” until I left for Lucent.

Personally, I think Christian was removed from being my guardian because the Council thought he’d failed somehow. He was the one that should’ve killed the Vyken, not me. That’s exactly what Sophie had said anyway.

I wouldn’t realize