Triumph of Chaos (Red Magic) (5 page)

“About what?”

My eyes popped open, and I realized that Justin was staring down at me in concern. Hurriedly, I pushed Marcus out of my mind.

“Do you always talk to yourself?” he joked, holding out a hand to help me to my feet.

I let go of him as soon as I was upright, conscious of the warmth that shot up my arm when he touched me. “My dad wants me to go back to school.”

Justin frowned. “Trinity won’t let you back.”

“I know. He thinks a Non school would be good for me.”

Justin snorted. “That’s ridiculous.”

Even though I agreed with him, I bristled. “What’s wrong with Nons?”

“Nothing! That’s not the problem, Lena. You’re like a live wire. What’s your father thinking?”

I glared at him, suddenly angry even though he’d just said what I’d been thinking. “You mean you think I’d be dangerous to them?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Did he give you any options?”

Rubbing my temples, I thought back to the bizarre conversation. “He said I have a week to think of something else, but he’s tired of me moping around the house.”

Justin closed his eyes, considering. When he looked at me, I couldn’t read his expression, and I took a wary step back. He studied me like he’d never seen me before.

“What?”

“What about the other paths? What you were telling me about this morning?”

“What about them?”

He paused, choosing his words carefully. “What if you could find a way to study them?”

For a moment, I felt a glimmer of hope, but then I shook my head. “I tried that. I’d have to go back to Europe for it, and I don’t really think I’d be welcome there.”

“What if,” his eyes met mine, “you did the teaching?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Your dad wants you to go back to school, right?” He started pacing around the porch, his arms moving as he talked. “What if you were the one doing the instructing? What if we start a school?”

I stared at him in surprise. “I thought you didn’t agree with me about getting the magics together.”

He put his hands in his pockets. “I didn’t at first. But I talked it over with my patron, and I’ve had a chance to think about it. I think it may be our best bet.”

Curious, I studied his face. “Justin, who
is
your patron?” Until that moment, I realized that I’d never been sure if he’d taken one or not.

A familiar voice came from the lawn, and my hair stood on end. “Me.”

I crouched down, summoning Red magic. In an instant, I was covered in sparks, ready to do battle: Loki was standing on my lawn.

“Darlena, drop it.” Justin’s voice was low and close to my ear, and I glared at him.

“You set me up!” I almost unleashed all my magic right then, but I didn’t want to hurt Justin, even if he had betrayed me. “Get out of the way.”

Loki laughed, and I did a double take. His laugh was like wind chimes, not the harsh, guttural sound that plagued my nightmares. I stared at the god more closely. Although he looked exactly like Loki at a glance, his hair was different: Loki had live flames coming out of his scalp, and this god had long white hair. He sort of glowed, too, with a faint bluish-white tint that reminded me of the full moon.

Warily, I looked at Justin and then back to his patron.

The god laughed again quietly. “I see from your reaction that you’ve met my brother.”

“Loki is your brother?” I stared at him, incredulous. “Then who the hell are you?”

“Foster brother, I suppose is a better title. But there’s an uncanny family resemblance.” The god was talking to himself, as if he had forgotten all about Justin and me. I stared at him, trying to fight the panic still pulsing through my blood.

Justin sighed. “This is my patron, Baldur.”

The name tugged at my memory, and I took a deep breath, willing myself to calm down. “You’re the reason Loki was imprisoned, aren’t you?” I remembered reading something about Loki orchestrating Baldur’s death. He was so beloved by the other Norse gods that they had retaliated by locking Loki beneath the earth in eternal torment. I stared at him, trying to understand what made the god in front of me so special.

The god smiled sadly. “And you’re the reason he’s free.”

My anger flared again, and magic surged through my body. “Look, if you just came here to blame me—”

Justin grabbed my shoulders. “Relax, Lena. This is my patron. I’ve worked with Baldur for two years. I trust him.” His eyes bored into mine. “If you trust
me
, show it.”

I glared at him, but finally nodded. The energy swirling around inside me dissipated, and I gradually released my grip on Red magic. When I wasn’t sparking anymore, I nodded to Justin again. Drawing a deep breath and turning to Baldur, I asked, “How do you want to help?”

“Justin has told me about what you learned in Europe. It was good to be able to talk of the magic of my homeland. I can help guide you to educate other Witches, if that is what you truly wish.”

All at once, the adrenaline that had been coursing through my system when I first saw Baldur left me, and I sagged against the porch. “I just want to fix the mess I’ve created. I don’t want the world to end, and I want to deal with Rochelle once and for all.”

Baldur nodded, his face expressionless and calm. “There are a few ways to achieve your goals. One, you could seek to increase your individual power.”

Izzy’s suggestion about a patron popped into my mind, but I tried to keep my face blank. I crossed my arms and stared at Baldur.

The god continued. “Although, throughout history, Witches who strive to be the most powerful are usually those who become the most corrupt.”

Justin interrupted. “Darlena’s already plenty powerful.”

Baldur nodded in agreement. “Option two is to share your power.”

I looked at him, confused. “How do I do that? Aren’t all Witches able to wield their own power?”

The god stared at me so long that I began to shift uncomfortably. “Think back to the moment when you released my brother.”

I closed my eyes, trying to figure out what he meant, but suddenly, I understood. When Marcus and I had joined hands, I had funneled my power into him, giving him double energy to control. My thoughts spun quickly. “Do you mean working together, like in a Coven?”

Justin flinched at the word, but his patron just nodded impassively. “That is one way to share power. Another is through education.”

“The school idea. Teaching other Witches about the other colors,” Justin put in eagerly.

I frowned. “But I don’t know enough to teach them!”

Baldur spread his hands, palms up, in a gesture of invocation. “You must teach those who know less than you.”

I snorted. “Right now, I’d say that’s nobody.”

“You are forgetting something very important, Darlena Agara. You know much more than many.”

Justin looked at me curiously, and I shrugged. “Then I guess I don’t know it.”

The god sighed. “You need to increase your strength. You could focus on your own personal power, or you could join together in a community, teaching those without magic how to safely wield power.”

I stared at Baldur, dumbfounded. “Those without magic? What, are you saying I should teach Nons?”

He nodded once. “If you choose to increase your power through others, you should not be exclusive in your teaching.”

“But Nons can’t do magic!” I argued, annoyed. “What is it with everybody and Nons all of a sudden?”

“Have you ever tried to teach them? Think, Darlena Agara. Think about how much of magic is thought and will. The power is stronger in a Blood Witch than in a Non, but with proper training and the right tools, why couldn’t anyone practice magic?”

Justin looked at his patron in confusion. “I don’t understand. It’s against magical law for Witches to reveal themselves to Nons.”

A thought occurred to me, and I frowned at Justin. “But doesn’t Trinity already do just that?”

He stared at me blankly.

“The Dreamers. Remember, Rochelle wasn’t born a Witch. Maybe there
is
some way to teach them magic.”

“But it’s still against our laws!” Justin argued.

Baldur frowned. “It’s their world too. I believe that the gods and Witches have ignored Nons for too long. They may tip the balance in the coming battle.”

The coming battle
. With a flood, everything I had read about the Norse gods came rushing into my mind. I stared at Baldur, studying his face, and then I turned to Justin. “You said he’s been your patron for two years. Have you always seen him?”

Justin hesitated, but when Baldur nodded at him, he told me the truth. “I’ve worked with his guidance for two years, but he was just a voice that would come to help me when I called. I didn’t start seeing him until just before you came home.”

I looked at the god, horrified, and he nodded again. “You, Darlena Agara, know what this means.”

Justin frowned. “I don’t understand. Why does it matter if I never saw him until recently?”

I turned to Justin, my jaw clenched. “In Norse myth, Baldur is dead. He can only come back to Earth in preparation for Ragnarok.”

“What’s that?”

I stared at him, surprised that he didn’t know the crucial story, but it was Baldur who answered.

“At Ragnarok, the gods will perish and the earth will be submerged in water. It is the last of the battles, which is why I am allowed to fight. Ragnarok is the end of the world.”

With that dramatic statement, Baldur vanished, leaving Justin and me standing alone on the porch. Justin turned to me, his face ashen.

“So the fact that I can see him now means the world is closer to ending? For real this time?”

I nodded. “I guess so.” Guilt gnawed at me. “You said you started seeing him in January. It must have been after I freed Loki.”

Justin took a deep breath. “So how do we fix this?”

“Was he serious about teaching Nons?”

“I think so. He’s never said anything to me that he didn’t mean.”

I shook my head, frustrated. “But it’s so crazy! How would we even find Nons willing to learn?”

“I don’t know. But Baldur seemed pretty insistent that the only way to take on the forces you’ve released is to strengthen your power in some way.”

I pounced on his words, looking for a fight. “So all this is my fault?”

Justin stared at me for a long minute. “Whether or not the gods were planning to end the world before you came along, you can’t ignore the fact that you freed Loki. That’s made the situation much worse.”

I sat down on the porch swing and kicked my feet hard. “I don’t know how to do this on my own.”

Justin sat beside me, holding my hand gently. It felt safe and familiar, and I focused on the way our fingers laced together.
If only it could be like this all the time. No crazy gods, no chaos
—
just us
. Justin leaned his head toward me. “You don’t have to be alone. Let me help you.”

I met his eyes, and for a moment, I was almost surprised. They were rich, deep brown, not the emerald eyes that kept me up at night.
Marcus
. Feeling guilty, I looked away and cleared my throat. “Do you want to try to teach Nons about magic?”

“Not yet. I think we should try to get other Witches who are willing to help first.”

I tried to keep my tone light, but the words felt flat. “I thought you said Covens were things that belong in horror movies.”

Justin frowned. “I’m still not sure how I feel about that, but if my patron says working together is a good thing … ”

He trailed off into silence, and we sat there for a few minutes, watching the lavender twilight creep across the sky. He traced lazy circles on my wrist with his thumb, and the longer we sat there, the more I almost convinced myself that the world wasn’t really ending. Finally, I turned to him. “Why did you swear to a god that you couldn’t even see?”

Justin squeezed my hand. “You told me yourself that White is spirit magic. What’s more spiritual than faith in the unseen?”

I nodded, even though I didn’t really understand. Red magic only felt real to me when I was using it. Meeting Hecate had been wholly different than knowing she existed, and I wondered if I could ever take things on faith the way Justin did. “Is that why you’re helping me? Faith?”