Arkadia (Halfway House Series Book 1) (16 page)

Arkadia spent the next few hours in her bedroom; she knew Eloise didn’t want her to be hanging around while she looked in her special book. She thought by making herself scarce, it might give Eloise some breathing room. Arkadia was beginning to rely on Eloise being around; trust was something that she never had the devastation of losing, because she never gave it to start with. Yet here she was, after a mere few months of knowing Eloise, she trusted her implicitly, and not just Eloise, but Bohdan as well. Arkadia hoped both her heart and head knew what they were doing, because if it all fell apart now, she may have to be admitted for losing her mind.

Pushing those thoughts from her mind, she walked over to the window and pulled the blinds, darkening the room dramatically. She went over to the closet and pulled out the shoebox filled with her special and most favorite candles. On her way back to the red shag pile rug in the middle of her floor, she grabbed some matches, a cup, and a feather. As she sat cross-legged on the rug, Arkadia carefully placed the spice-scented candles on the four points of north, south, east, and west, which symbolized earth, fire, air, and water. Arkadia sat in the middle, for she contained spirit, the link of all four elements.

Arkadia centered herself and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath through her nose, held it for three seconds, and then released it slowly through her mouth. She repeated this four times before she felt as though the outside world no longer existed. It was just her in this room right now.

Chanting under her breath, she thanked each individual element for being present in the room, accepted the goddess into her heart, and surrendered her spirit unto the goddess as her child to guide.

Arkadia raised her hands slowly outwards, palms facing up as she cast a fire spell, saying the words softly and slowly to herself. She wanted to make sure her words were not only correct, but even and focused. Eloise wasn’t kidding about not wanting the firemen around.

Arkadia knew it had worked. She had heard the sizzle of the wicks taking light, and she could smell the essence of smoke in the air. Opening her eyes slowly, she looked at all four candles, and they had all flared. The little orange flames twirled and twisted in ecstasy, the little flames were doing the dance of joy and celebration. Arkadia smiled as she appreciated the fire’s enthusiasm.

She felt her skin warm and start to glow; her heart seemed to grow a size each time one of her spells worked.
What next?
Arkadia looked around and spied the cup.
Okay, the cup it is.
However, she now remembered that she hadn’t gotten any water before she sat down.
What to do? What to do?
Something popped into her head; it seemed a tad strange, not to mention hard, but she was feeling confident.

Arkadia cast the spell of movement and water, saying the words clearly, softly, and focused. Using her finger to make small motions, Arkadia turned on the tap. A small flick of her finger saw the water travel like a slowly swirling snake through the air, finding its home in the empty cup that was sitting in front of her. A circular movement with her finger saw the tap shut off, and the last of the water following the trail to the cup. A broad smile crossed Arkadia’s face as she realized what she had done. “Dagnabbit, it worked.” She exhaled the breath she had been holding.

Arkadia felt she was on a roll, looking around eagerly, she looked at the feather. “Don’t let me down, my friend the wind, you’re next”. Arkadia said the words softly, but with a confidence in her own abilities. Putting her lips together as if she was going to whistle, Arkadia could feel the wind coming in behind her, ruffling her hair as it caressed her like a lover. She gently exhaled, the wind kissing her cheeks as it passed by, picking up the feather and carrying it around the room. Arkadia’s excitement was palpable at watching this amazing white feather dance around the room, flicking and flouncing from side to side as the wind followed Arkadia’s direction. Arkadia relaxed her mouth, calming the wind down and letting the feather float back down to the floor. “Thank you, my friend the wind,” she whispered.

Arkadia knew the last element was the hardest to work with, Earth, and looked around as to what she could control. She needed to confirm to herself that it was all four she rocked. Without all four being under her control, she was looking forward to a one-way ticket to the island.

Arkadia looked straight toward the plant she had up on the window sill. It was a simple little cactus she had bought years ago. Arkadia tended to have more black thumbs than green ones when it came to flora, so having a cactus was one of the few plants she wasn’t able to neglect enough for it to die. Closing her eyes, she felt the warmth of the goddess as she chanted an earth spell, asking Mother Earth to gift her with some beauty that only she was able to do. Arkadia opened her eyes and saw a beautiful yellow flower blooming from the side of her cactus, the color of the sun. “Wowsers!” was all Arkadia could say. One, she didn’t know the cactus could flower, it never had before, and two, seeing true magic from Mother Earth always took her breath away.

A soft clap, clap, clap from behind her made her jump. “Crap on a cracker, Eloise, don’t do that, you nearly gave me a heart attack.” Arkadia clutched at her heart, trying to calm her unexpected adrenaline shot.

“I have never been more proud of you, Arkadia. All four elements; that will get you a pass on your PSEs,” Eloise said with pride.

“Really?” Arkadia jumped up, her excitement bubbling over. “I would pass?”

Arkadia watched a dark cloud float past Eloise’s eyes as she stood back. Taking a step forward was a strange woman she hadn’t seen standing there, nor ever seen before. This woman was very tall. Arkadia knew Eloise was short, but next to this woman, she was virtually the size of an elf.

“You just did pass, Ms. Castner.” Her voice was flat and emotionless as she continued. “My name is Ms. Winslow, and I am your case manager. The good news is with what I just witnessed, you have passed your PSEs. The bad news is, my job is to decide whether you have breached the council laws, and based on that decision, what will happen next.” Arkadia felt all the blood drain from her body as she stared at Ms. Winslow. She was extremely thin, to the point of almost skeletal in her appearance. She was wearing a basic black pants suit, not a scrap of makeup, and her white blonde hair was sleeked back against her scalp. The cold feeling she got from looking into Ms. Winslow’s dead black eyes could have given her instant frostbite. Arkadia audibly swallowed her fear. Ms. Winslow looked like an emotionless executioner, and if she was found guilty of a breach, that is exactly what she would-be.

Ms. Winslow had left not long after she made her presence known. Eloise had told Arkadia her name was Rumor, but Arkadia couldn’t bring herself, nor was she invited, to call her anything but Ms. Winslow. She certainly didn’t give off any warm and fuzzies. If there was ever a poster child for the cold pricklies, this woman was it.

Sleep did not come easily, despite having a hot relaxing bath, a hot chocolate, and being in her favorite jammies. There she was, lying in her bed, 3:12 a.m. blaring at her in evil red numbers from her table clock, still wide awake. Half of her was joyous about passing her PSEs, and the other half had her head already placed on the guillotine. Bohdan hadn’t been home to talk to; his uncle said he had just gone home for a night, and seeing his home was a couple of countries over, she guessed he wouldn’t be home until in the morning for school.

Arkadia rolled over, hugging her pillow hard against her face as she finally let the tears silently fall.

Before Arkadia opened her eyes, she knew Bohdan was sitting on the end of her bed. She could feel his energy in the air, and it was almost electric. She guessed dragon wasn’t happy. Arkadia smiled as she opened her eyes to look at Bohdan. “Hey HOT stuff.”

Bohdan was staring intensely at her. “My most humble apologies, my queen, I was not here when you needed me, and for this I am eternally sorry.” His voice cracked a little with the pain he felt at failing her. Arkadia sat up, crawled over to him, and simply wrapped her arms around him, feeling his warmth and letting his scent envelop her.

“I am a big girl, Bohdan, I am fine. They haven’t eliminated me yet,” she said softly.

Arkadia pulled back quickly as she felt Bohdan's body go rigid with anger, his eyes ablaze with emotion. He spoke through clenched teeth. “They will NOT touch you.” The tone in his voice let Arkadia know that at this moment it was more dragon talking than Bohdan, and he was struggling to not turn all scaly in the bedroom. Arkadia reached out and ran her fingertips down his cheek, gently caressing up and down as she gazed lovingly at him.

“My handsome protector. I love you eternally, my winged wonder.” She knew he was calming down because he chuckled at her latest attempt to find a pet name for him.

“How are your parents? I hope it wasn’t an emergency you had to go home for?” Arkadia tried to change the subject, and it was working because Bohdan relaxed his body into her touch. “My parents are fine. It is a problem with my best friend, and he is having a lot of issues within himself. I am thinking of bringing him back out here. Uncle Peter said it was fine. I am worried about him. I have known him all of my life, and we are more like brothers than friends. But that is no excuse to not be here for you,” he said his teeth beginning to clench again as he let his emotions run free.

“Look at me,” Arkadia said. She held his face in her hands and made him look directly at her. “I am fine. I passed my PSEs. It’s all good.” She leaned in, brushing her lips to his. “I need to get moving; I need a shower and to get dressed, or we are going to be late for school. Meet you downstairs in fifteen? Then you can tell me all about your friend, okay?”

Bohdan got up and walked to the door. Glancing back, he said, “Make it ten, or I’m joining you.” He snorted and walked out, shutting the door behind him.

Eloise reminded Arkadia she had a meeting with Ms. Winslow after school, so to come straight home. Eloise's exact words were, “No monkey business.” Arkadia nodded as she said goodbye for the day and wandered out to where Bohdan was waiting in his truck. Raven was sitting in the back seat, obviously getting a ride as well. Arkadia buckled up and started with the questions; nothing like taking your mind off your own problems than to concentrate on someone else’s. “So.” Arkadia turned in her seat to face Bohdan, eager to find out the story. “Tell me about this best friend of yours?”

Bohdan’s forehead creased a little with worry “I have known him all my life, Samuel is his name, Samuel Mane. He is my absolute best friend ever. When I heard he was having troubles, that’s when I had to zip home. To see if I could help.”

Arkadia listened intently, and asked, “And could you?”

Bohdan looked over to her quickly before returning his eyes to the road. “His troubles are the new people he is associating with since I have been gone. They are bad news. His parents want him to come out here and stay with Uncle Peter and me.”

“Is he cute?” Arkadia asked, and dragon let out a fierce growl. She playfully slapped his arm. “Calm down, big boy, I was asking for …” She nodded to the back where Raven was busy listening to music on her iPod.

“Oooohhhh, I see.” Bohdan chuckled. “I don’t know if he is cute. I have never looked at him like that, but you can see for yourself. He will be here next week.” Arkadia’s eyebrows rose at the speed in which he would be arriving.

“Is he … yanno … human or para?”

Bohdan glanced over at her quickly with that mischievous glint that she so totally loved and said, “He is a para; as to what, you will have to guess when you meet him.” Then he parked the truck at school.

The day went by with minimal problems. Cat and Cheyanne were full of gossip. Apparently, Sebastian had been rallying the troops to sign a petition and submit it to the local police station, demanding to have a ‘dangerous killer’ taken off the streets. This may have made Arkadia panic yesterday, but after Ms. Winslow arrived, Sebastian and his bag of mixed nuts was child’s play in comparison.

Violet was there, sitting right next to Chey and Cat at lunch. While Chey and Cat appeared very interested and supportive, as they had saved Arkadia a seat at the table in the cafeteria, Violet looked a little frantic. Arkadia might even go as far as saying she looked a little disheveled. Very unusual for Violet, but as Arkadia was beginning to believe she was trying to kill her, it looked like planning her murder was a stressful thing to do. “Who would have thunk it?” Arkadia said with an eye roll, took a seat, and grabbed her drink.

The last bell rung and Arkadia was on her way. Ms. Winslow was waiting for a meeting at precisely 3:15 p.m. with her, and as class let out at 3:00 p.m., and it was already 3:05 p.m., Arkadia didn’t have time to linger. Bohdan was going to practice, so it was leg power for her, so she grabbed her bag and hightailed it out of the school grounds.

Taking a deep breath, she glanced at her watch—3:14 p.m., opened the door and stepped in, trying not to pant too loud to giveaway the fact she had obviously run home and was clearly very unfit. She looked into the living room and saw Eloise sitting in her favorite armchair, sipping, what Arkadia assumed by the smell in the house, was a cup of freshly-brewed coffee. Eloise had baked some fresh scones, and they remained untouched on a fancy blue platter that was placed on the coffee table.

Ms. Winslow raised her eyes to look at Arkadia, not a cloud of emotion passing on her face. Her eyes returned to her laptop as she made a note. Arkadia ran her hands nervously down her uniform.
How can I have needed a note already? I only just walked in the door. OMG this is not going well already.

“Go grab a drink, come back, and take a seat, Arkadia. Make it quick; this is going to take a while.” Ms. Winslow barely acknowledged her existence. She had never heard a voice so cold and emotionless. It sent shivers up her spine.

The next few hours were spent telling, re-telling, and re-telling again, the list of events over the past couple of weeks. Raven and the twins had sat in for a short time each to tell what they had seen, making sure they got every detail down. Arkadia wanted to apologize for getting them all in focus with the council.

Ms. Winslow took copious amounts of notes, and such. “Better to have too many than not enough,” she replied to Arkadia’s earlier question about this being nearly over.

“So let me get this correct, Ms. Castner,” in a deader than dead flat voice, she swung her eyes around to find Arkadia waiting, “While you DID cast a wayward spell over a… one …” She located the information on her screen as she read the name, “Sebastian Coulter the 3rd?”

“That is correct,” Arkadia said, “I did cast a spell; I didn’t actually mean it for him specifically, but yanno …it just happened …” Arkadia was very nervous. She had only the day before passed her PSEs, and she certainly didn’t want Ms. Winslow to change her mind.

Ms. Winslow looked directly at Arkadia with a piercing glare. Her voice seemed to become colder with every word she said, “You meant to cast a spell, on nobody in particular that happened to bounce back and attach itself to Mr. Coulter?” Ms. Winslow raised an eyebrow in slight disbelief.

Taking a deep breath, Arkadia exhaled very slowly, and thought carefully before she said anything. A few minutes passed and she said with nothing but pure honesty in her voice, “I was upset. I was confused. I was misguided as to what was truly important in my life. I did not actively attack Sebastian; however, I did actively try to rectify it as soon as possible. I did not run, I did not hide. I asked for help, and having asked, now as you saw yesterday, Eloise has guided me to control my spells; she has taught me to focus, and breathe, and most importantly, Eloise has taught me love. Love of my Goddess, love of my family, both biological and chosen, and the real clincher, Eloise taught me to love myself,” Arkadia smiled softly, looking at Eloise as she continued, “I thought I did love myself, but in hindsight, now I see it was a projected image of me that I loved. I loved that people came to me for advice, thought I was pretty, and wanted to be my friend. That’s why nothing worked. Eloise enlightened me as to why my magic wouldn’t work, because I was a fake. Simple. The moment I became real, it began to work,” Arkadia wiped a tear from her cheek, as this was the first time she had told anyone this, let alone Eloise herself, “And I love her for it. She is and will forever be a MOM to me.” Arkadia took another deep breath and slowly let it out.

Before Arkadia finished her breath, Eloise had her arms wrapped around her, and was trying to hug her to death, or at least felt like it. Eloise whispered in her ear, “I love you like a daughter, dear child.” Eloise released her, coughed awkwardly, and excused herself to refill the coffee pot.

Arkadia looked up at Ms. Winslow hoping to see some glimmer of emotion, some gamut of feeling. Her cold black eyes stared back, barren as the slab in an abandoned morgue. Ms. Winslow looked down at her laptop, then straight back at Arkadia. Without a quiver of emotion, she said, “Now tell me about this murder.”

Crap on a Cracker. This was going from bad to worse.