Reckless Magic (21 page)

I found it ironic how easy it was for
me to believe the whole super-human, magic skills thing; but how
hard it was to take the monarchy, governing council, rules and
regulations part seriously. Maybe because I’d never personally
experienced a ruling class in action it seemed more fiction than
reality. I wondered if I had some interaction with the monarchy if
it would feel real or not.

And then I remembered that I had. I
walked into class and quickly made it to my seat before the bell
rang. Kiran sat to my left in all of his pomp and circumstance. I
understood now why the girls fawned over him; it was the idea of a
crown…. and maybe his amazing good looks. But I wasn’t falling for
it. At least that’s what I kept telling myself.

“
Well, well, well…. look who
it is,” he whispered snidely as I sifted through my book bag
looking for my copy of Romeo and Juliet. A fleeting memory of
Principal Saint telling me to leave Kiran alone crossed my mind
before I just as quickly dismissed it.

“
Hello, your highness,” I
responded sarcastically. He may have been the crowned prince, but
he was still a jackass.

“
Finally, you’ve caught up
with the rest of us. Congratulations,” he clapped his hands quietly
in mock applause. I gave him a sharp look and found the constant
smirk he wore already in place.

“
Well, we can’t all have
parents who are um, alive,” I sighed, still trying sarcasm, but
regretting the words as quickly as I had spoken them.

“
I guess not,” his tone
softened and I thought for a second I had made him feel bad. “It’s
a pity though; I had so much fun watching you struggle,” Cue the
smirk. “Thanks for the other night,” he whispered even softer and I
heard real emotion in his voice, I turned to say something to him
but found that I was speechless looking into his eyes.

The door to the classroom opened and
then slammed. In walked Mr. Lambert and another teenager whom I had
never seen before. The sight of Mr. Lambert usually made me feel
uneasy and nervous, always like I was about to be yelled at; but
today when he walked in, an overwhelming feeling of serenity passed
over me. Not only that, but I felt more focused than usual; my
senses became heightened and the magic became more alive in my
blood. The feeling reminded me of the other night in the woods,
sending a shiver down my back.

“
Excuse me,” Mr. Lambert
cleared his throat in an attempt to draw the attention of the class
forward. He tried again a little louder. “Class, please give me
your attention; this is Avalon St. Andrews. He is a transfer
student from Brazil, please welcome him to Kingsley.”

Mr. Lambert directed him to Lilly’s
seat and my heart dropped into my stomach; As the new student sat
down, I realized the very real possibility that she might never be
coming back. I watched Talbott for a moment and though his
expression was frozen in place I imagined I could see the sadness
in his eyes.

I turned my attention back over to
Avalon St. Andrews, thankful that I was no longer the newest kid in
school. By the looks of things however, he was going to have a lot
easier time fitting in than I did. He was almost too big to be a
high school student; although he was wearing the same white
collared shirt and navy blue tie every other boy was wearing, the
muscles in his arms were clearly defined through the light cotton.
His dark curly hair was long, maybe to his shoulders, but he had
tied in a messy pony tail, giving him the appearance of a biker or
something. His nose was pronounced and vaguely familiar, although I
couldn’t place it. And his eyes were clear green and
penetrating.

His most interesting feature was
almost invisible, but my eyes drifted there immediately. Under his
hairline, covering the entirety of the back of his neck and clearly
marked was a very intricate and elaborate tattoo. What looked like
angel wings were spread wide covering all of the skin between the
base of his shirt collar and hairline. Complex, but beautiful
feathers fanned out into wings I imagined belonging to the angel of
death. A symbol sat in the middle of the two adjoining wings, but
the way his hair was positioned made it impossible to identify. I
glanced down at the rest of his body, expecting leather pants or
spurs or something and noticed that underneath his white cotton
button down were more lines of the green tattoo ink. Although I
couldn’t make out what they were in the shape of, they clearly
covered his torso and forearms. He reminded me of someone and I
continued to stare at him, wondering who it could be.

“
Ms. Matthews…. Ms.
Matthews,” Mr. Lambert called loudly from the front of the room. I
looked up to see that while I was staring at the new kid, the
entire class had turned to stare at me. My face blushed red and I
cleared my throat instinctively.

“
Ms. Matthews, now that I
have your attention, please read the part of Juliet,” I silently
came to the conclusion I would never cease to disappoint Mr.
Lambert.

----

The lunch room seemed a much more
daunting place without Lilly. I grabbed a tray of food and headed
to the back of the cafeteria. I was a little bit earlier than
everyone else today since I did not stay after class to crowd
around Kiran with the other girls and make sure he was ok after his
near death experience on the camping trip. I also refused to throw
myself at…. I mean introduce myself to the new kid.

I sat down to an empty table and
relished the few moments of silence I had. Now that I was not
threatened with the possibility of losing all control, I had been
able to observe my surroundings today. All throughout the day I
noticed students and teachers using magic.

In small ways and in big ways they
used it for everything they did. Students used magic to pick up a
pencil off of the floor, and teachers used it to close a door that
was left open. Mrs. Woodsen used magic to close the windows in her
classroom and then again to open them when I was pretty sure she
had a hot flash. Kiran used magic constantly; to write, to open
books, to get a drink. At first I thought everyone was just lazy,
but after a while I began to realize that the magic was so much a
part of them that there was no other way they were able to
function. It truly was the essence of their very existence, and I
supposed mine too.

A small portion of me was jealous. I
had to remind myself that the magic was at my disposal too and then
I had to remind myself that I needed to use it. When I didn’t use
the magic that was when I began to have problems. And although I
knew I was just like everybody else, they apparently hadn’t gotten
the memo because I was still a social pariah. Not that I really
minded; I couldn’t really imagine that a girl like Seraphina Van
Curen and me would ever be friends.

Speak of the devil, Seraphina entered
the cafeteria on Kiran’s arm and suddenly the granola bar I’d just
taken a bite of was threatening to resurface. I saw that now too,
not just the magic but the respect and reverence Kiran demanded.
His very presence elicited sycophantic behavior from everyone, both
student and teacher. I also noticed how protective Talbott was, but
in a more natural, body guard way; he never left Kiran’s side. I
saw him always on the defensive, and after last Saturday night I
could hardly blame him. Kiran looked my way and I quickly bit into
my granola bar again, staring down at the table. I rechecked my
mental force-field and found all intact. I breathed an audible sigh
of relief, but it appeared too premature. A uniformed boy plopped
down across from me. I refused to look up from my lunch.

“
Go away. Your minions are
waiting for you,” I said through bites of an apple.

“
Oh, I’m sorry. Was this
seat taken?” a polite and surprised deep voice sans cocky English
accent asked. I looked up quickly, horrified.

“
Oh, no! I am so sorry!” my
face quickly turned a shade of crimson red. “I thought you were
somebody else,” my hand flew to cover my mouth after I spit apple
all over the table and all over Avalon St. Andrews.

“
It’s alright. No worries,”
he laughed, while wiping a bit of apple off of his cheek. How
terrible.

He gave me a genuine smile that I
returned immediately. The same peaceful feeling from earlier filled
my entire body and my senses were once again sharpened. I could
hear every conversation, every fork touch the plate, and every
small chewing sound in the cafeteria. I did my best to drown it
out; it was actually kind of gross.

“
You don’t have an accent,”
I said bluntly.

“
Were you expecting one?”
his skin was tan, tanner than most of the students here. His
sleeves were rolled up and I could see a deep shade of olive
glistened beneath the green lines from his tattoos; it had to be
from living in Brazil.

“
Oh, I just thought, since
you transferred. I’m sorry, I just expected an accent,” I blushed,
not really sure why I felt embarrassed.

“
I’m American, just like
you,” he smiled as if he had made a joke, but if he had I didn’t
get it. “My parents were working in Brazil until last week. We only
lived down there for the last year.”

“
That’s nice. Accents can be
so irritating anyways,” he looked up at me confused, but I didn’t
dare explain.

“
Do you mind if I sit here?”
he asked.

“
Oh no, not at all. As long
as you don’t mind the outcast table,” I gave him a sardonic
grin.

“
I don’t mind; I’m pretty
sure I prefer it,” he glanced over his should at Kiran and all of
his fans; he shook his head and took a big bite of his turkey
sandwich. I was pretty sure Avalon St. Andrews and I were going to
get along just fine.

“
Me too,” I rolled my eyes
in the general direction of the monarchy.

“
I’m Avalon by the way. And
you’re Eden?” when I nodded my head, he continued, “So I heard a
rumor that you like saved his life this weekend?” he jerked his
head in Kiran’s direction.

“
Where did you hear that?” I
asked mortified.

“
All of the girls were
talking about it this morning. You’d think they’d be grateful, I
mean they still have their precious prince to worship,” he grunted
in disgust.

“
You’d think,” I agreed with
another mouthful of apple. I realized how disgusting my eating
habits were around Avalon and I quickly swallowed. The bite was a
little too big and I began to choke a little. The apple stayed
lodged in my throat as I continued to cough and gulp my bottle of
water.

“
Use your magic,” Avalon
suggested, but confused.

Oh right. I held up my finger to him
and focused on my magic. The electricity was flowing through my
blood at a steady pace. It only took a minimal effort to determine
that the apple would no longer be stuck. And just like that I was
able to swallow the detrimental piece of food and cough no
more.

“
Thank you,” I cleared my
throat, feeling like an idiot.

“
Do you enjoy choking?” I
heard the laughter in his voice.

“
Ha. Ha. No. It’s just that,
well this whole magic thing is new to me,” I gave a sheepish grin
and took another swig of my water, just in case.

“
What? New to you? How can
that be?” Avalon stared at me intently, his green eyes
sparkling.

“
I was raised by humans,” I
explained dramatically. I wiggled my fingers a little, to add a
theatrical flair.

“
I’ve never heard of that
before,” Avalon sounded skeptical.

“
Well, I had never heard of
this before.” I gestured to the room filled with my peers, my
Immortal peers.

“
So you didn’t know about
magic? You didn’t know what you were capable of?” He still sounded
skeptical.

“
Well, I knew I was capable
of something. But I just thought I was crazy. I guess I figured it
out Saturday night, when people started turning into animals and I
could move trees with my mind,” I said it all very casually, but
the truth was I still could barely get past what I was able to
do.

“
Huh,” he grunted. “You mean
to tell me, that you were able to save the prince’s life and do
what you did to those shape-shifters and you had never even used
your magic before?” he squinted his eyes at me,
unbelieving.

“
I guess,” I looked across
the room to where Kiran sat, surrounded. He met my eyes, and I
realized that he was watching me. I quickly turned my attention
back to Avalon.

“
That seems impossible,”
Avalon was still skeptical.

“
Yea, to me too,” I looked
down at the table, ashamed of what I did and worried for
Lilly.

“
What are you doing later?”
Avalon asked suddenly.

“
French homework.”
Ugh.

“
That seals it. We are going
to practice your magic later tonight and that’s final,” he leaned
back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest as if his
decision was the final authority.

“
I told you, I have French
homework. It’s going to take me all night,” I protested; although
the thought of sitting down to learn a language that completely
escaped me made my head spin.