Midnight Magic, page 155
Protective instincts I didn’t even know I felt for the fire witch welled up inside of me, and I slapped his hand away from her. Tana gasped, stepping back. She looked angry and embarrassed. Maia stepped to one side of her, and Jade had the other. I moved to her front.
“Well?” I asked, making the wizard meet my eyes instead of my roommate’s. “Don’t we have somewhere to go?”
“Eager to be made a fool of? Great. Let’s go then, water witch. I’ll drown you in your own vanity,” Otto uttered, the last bit low enough for only me to hear.
Magnus growled, and I realized he’d heard him too, but I did not want the sentinel butting in. I ignored his attempts to get my attention. My roommates started walking with us, and I turned to them, confused.
“What is it? You guys never come to lessons with me,” I said.
“Yeah, but he has them with him today,” Jade whispered, eyeing the group who were following Otto, and hanging on his every word.
“Is this allowed?” I asked, because I didn’t want them getting in trouble.
“Fuck that,” Tana said. “We’re roommates. I think it’s allowed.”
“We’re friends, so it definitely is,” Jade corrected, and Tana ducked her head, nodding.
“Alright, ladies, let’s see what these assholes are up to, eh?”
Maia winked and put a little swish in her walk. I grinned, happy knowing I had their support. Magnus loomed behind us, and I felt his stormy-eyed stare on my back the whole time. The time was coming when he and I were going to have it out. But first, I had to deal with whatever crap Otto was about to dish out.
He could be mean when he wanted. And ever since I’d rebuffed him at the mingle, he’d been nothing but. The group following us grew larger as we traipsed through the Winter Forest. It was growing colder on campus, and Westwood Academy looked like something out of a fairy tale the further we got from it with the whited-out skies and softly falling snow.
As far as I could tell, weather had no rhyme or reason here. Whether that was by design or some accident due to whatever magic the students were playing with, I had yet to deduce. It didn’t matter now.
The salty scent of Brin Lake filled my nostrils, and I frowned.
What the heck was Otto up to?
Last time he tried to make me tap into these particular waters, I’d almost swallowed up a teacher and an entire classroom.
“What are you playing at?” I snapped when he turned to face me with his arms wide.
“Scared? Of a little water?”
His clique started chortling, and I felt my fury rise. These fuckers were nothing but bullies and I was so done with them.
“Rio, it would be foolish to let him bait you,” Magnus said, and I turned to him angrily.
“Excuse me? I’m sorry, are we talking now?”
“Rio,” he growled, his pale skin turning bright red as he spoke. “Let me explain—”
“You know what? A week ago, even two weeks ago, I would have listened to you. But I’m a little busy now,” I replied, pushing past him.
“Ah, she rises to the challenge,” Otto said, grinning widely.
“What’s the lesson today, Otto?” I asked, impatient to get it over with.
Either I would pass his stupid test, or I’d fail. Either way, I was feeling antsy and needed an outlet. This was as good as any.
“Just a little healthy competition,” the wizard said, that telltale grin never leaving his face.
CHAPTER 16
I could not believe I had actually thought him handsome. Mild disgust filled me now when I looked at him. Exhaling, I motioned for him to get on with it and he tossed his head back and barked out a laugh.
“So, the first witch or wizard who can conjure up an orb of water from the lake and hold on to it, shape and all, for the longest time, will be the winner of this contest,” he announced.
“That’s it?” I asked, perplexed.
“I want to play too, Otto!” Kelly said, jumping to her feet.
“Why not? Anyone else?” Otto said, his grin growing wider with every water witch and wizard who stood.
The atmosphere was abuzz with energy and the whisper of students was like a hive full of bees in the back of my head. I concentrated on the water, putting everything else outside of my mind. Magnus was behind me, his presence soothing even if I wanted to ignore it.
“Everyone ready?” Otto asked. “Oh, before I forget, you are not just conjuring an orb, you are battling the other orbs around you! Absorb the orb next to you until no others are left standing! Do you agree?” he asked, his gaze roaming from person to person madly, as if he was somehow recoding their assent.
When his gaze landed on me, he quieted. Waiting for my reply.
“I agree,” I said.
The look of triumph that passed over his face was concerning, but I had no time to ponder his intentions. Across the lake, a visage began to take shape. Diaphanous and unclear at first. Then I saw her. La Llorona. Floating above the water on the other side of Brin Lake.
Shit.
“Begin!” Otto screamed and every water witch and wizard there began to form their orbs.
Some small as a droplet, others large as a softball. Otto’s orb was big as a basketball. Of course. He would be the one to show off.
I felt the witch next to me trying to seize my own baseball sized orb of lake water and I frowned as I felt her tugging on my magic.
What the hell was going on?
Something did not feel right. Almost a dozen water witches and wizards were battling it out on the banks of Brin Lake. Once it began, there was no stopping it.
The image of the weeping woman remained in my peripheral vision, but I pushed her out of mind and blocked her constant wailing. The water ball battle was in full rage by the time it dawned on me what was really going on. As I felt my magic being tugged and pulled with each attack, I turned my head, catching the attention of my roommates and a very concerned Magnus.
“There is something wrong,” I screamed above the noise.
A sharp pull to my left had me turning back to the battle. A wizard with spiky, blue-tipped blond hair was grunting hard, trying to absorb my ball. I felt sick, like I’d been kicked in the stomach.
“Fuck this,” I growled and used what little I knew of my powers to overpower the wizard.
With a pained cry, he collapsed to the shore, clutching his stomach and vomiting. I had no time to feel bad, the next attack was on. Sweating through my clothes despite the cold, I fought and won. All around me people were screaming and cheering, I felt my magic pulse and grow, like an ever swelling wave.
A tsunami of energy filled my veins, blocking out all the others, and the weeping woman called to me. But before I could face my timeless foe, Octavius Grimes filled my vision. Wind whipped wildly around us, making the horror filled screams of students sound far away to my ears.
“Face me, water witch. Why couldn’t you just play nice,” he grunted, sending his giant orb of the lake’s powerful waters to attack mine.
“You’ve been siphoning power all this time, haven’t you?”
“Of course I have! How do you think this all works, Rio? The Council of Covens is the biggest leech of all. And I am destined to be the Cumatilis Coven representative by the time I am through with Westwood Academy,” he said, trying another attack.
I was ready, though. Having kept my guard up, I blocked and sent his orb spiraling away from mine.
“Doesn’t that seem wrong to you, Otto? No one should be stealing anyone’s powers!” I yelled over the growing noise.
“It doesn’t matter, I’ll have your powers soon,” he growled, and that was when I really looked at him.
The handsome visage of the boy who’d once turned my head was no more. Otto looked like something out of a zombie apocalypse movie. Sallow cheeked with a power hungry madness lurking in his eyes, the wizard snarled and attacked.
I had no choice. Eyes open, I pulled all the powers I had within, and those newly acquired, and focused them on my orb. Giving in to the ever-present lull of that power, I willed the water obey, and obey it did. Falling into that trancelike state, I began to cast the spell of my ancestors, whispered across the veil to my ears. I wove the magic they carried through the ages and called their power to me.
* * *
“Le ja'o' in obedece,
Water obey me,
In wojel in espada,
Be my sword,
Forja le bejo,
Forge the path –
Tuméen teech u páajtalil teech yéetel teen le bejo'
For you are the might, and I am the way
Teen u portador le ja',
I am the waterbearer!”
* * *
With a piercing cry, Otto fell to the ground, all life seemingly gone from his body. He was nothing but a shell. And as for me, I was finally who I was born to be. Water Witch.
“Rio!”
“Someone, stop her!”
“What is wrong with her?
I heard them all screaming and trying to reach me, but it was too late. The power was too great, and I was right in the middle of it. I walked into the lake, felt myself fall beneath the still surface. The murky depths were clear as crystal to me, and I did not lack for air.
That was where I faced her. Inside the whirlpool I’d created using the combined powers I had been born with, and those Otto had stolen that had been passed unto me when I defeated him.
She waited for me in the center of it all. Her skeletal face was forever doomed to wear that mocking smile. The tattered remnants of her moldy dress and veil floated around la Llorona as she reached for me.
Death has come for you now, my child.
You are mine!
You brought death to your mother as she did to hers.
Unworthy of love.
Unworthy of life.
“No,” I thought my reply back to her.
“I am not unworthy.”
Your only worth is to be mine, child of Milagros, daughter of miracles.
Your only miracle is death.
I cringed at the raspy cackle of her voice inside my head. Despair threatened to drown me. Then, I heard it. A thump, thump, thump, and I turned my head to see the whirlpool slowing. In those greenish waters, I saw a mighty kraken batting his enormous body against the wall-like barriers of the whirlpool.
It was Magnus.
He was trying to get to me.
Tears filled my eyes. Maybe we had a long way to go, and a lot to discuss, but that one act told me everything she’d said was wrong.
Do not hope, child.
Hope is a silent killer.
“Hope isn’t a killer,” I pushed back.
“But maybe, I am.”
With one last glance at Magnus, I focused all my attention on la Llorona, and pulling every ounce of magic I had, I gathered it like so much wool, weaving it into a giant, powerful, pulsing thing. Then, I pushed it all at her. Banishing that damned bitch back to the hell she’d come from.
“This is for you, la Llorona,
Le ja'o' in obedece,
Come, Water, obey me,
Ta'ab ka purifica,
Come forth and purify!”
All I remember is blinding white light, a scream so loud my eardrums rang, and falling beneath the water to the bottom of the lake. Then…blackness.
CHAPTER 17
“There you are,” a husky voice spoke beside my head, but I had no energy to blink.
“She’s awake,” another familiar voice said.
More whispers, and the muffled sounds of crying reached my ears. I heard someone knock, and the warning growl of the man next to me had me smiling against my pillow. Slowly, I blinked, coming back to myself.
My heart pounded as I replayed the last moments when I’d been conscious beneath Brin Lake. I saw the weeping woman. Heard her wails and cries. Her implied threats. Then, I’d shut her up. For good.
The Milagros curse was over. I’d done the impossible and banished la Llorona to the bowels of hell. In that moment, I’d seen my mother and my grandmother, felt their spirits and those of my ancestors fill me with love and light before lifting, rising from the agony, and departing through the veil. Where they went, I can’t be sure, but if that creature was in hell, then they surely went to heaven.
A tear rolled down my cheek for them, and I mumbled a quick prayer for their souls.
Lelo would approve.
The thought flitted through my head and I felt a sad smile cross my lips. I wondered when I would see him again. Hopefully soon.
“Easy,” Magnus’ voice sounded softly in my ears as he helped me sit up.
My head ached, and I was parched. I needed a bath and something to drink, but all that faded away at the look on the blond giant’s face as he stood beside me. Magnus took my hand in his and held it to his cheek as his eyes filled unashamedly with tears.
“I knew you would come back to me, hjarta mítt,” he whispered, kissing my palm.
“You’ve called me that before, hjarta mítt. What does it mean?”
“It means you are my soulmate. You are my heart, Rio Milagros.”
I gasped at his fervently whispered words and my own emotions were so great they spilled over and rolled down my cheeks.
Was it possible to be exhausted and so full of happiness at the same time?
Magnus leaned down, one hand on my head, and kissed me. I gave myself over to it, pouring all the love and feelings I had for him into that meeting of lips.
When we finally parted, I smiled. Magnus kissed my head, half lying down with me. He whispered things to me. Things in his native tongue I did not understand except for when he called me hjarta mítt. My sentinel cradled me in his arms, and I felt safe for the first time in a long time.
“Magnus, I lo—”
Just then, my roommates pushed their way into the room, and I laughed at the flowers, balloons, and other stuff they had to give me.
“Rio! Holy shit, girl, look at your hair,” Jade said, squealing.
“I love you too,” Magnus whispered, kissing my forehead.
I smiled at him brightly, my heart in my throat. Then, I thought about Jade’s exclamation. She mentioned my hair.
What about my hair?
“Hey, we’re getting a new roommate,” she continued without taking a breath. “I will finally have someone to share my double with. Isn’t that great? Maia said so. Tana isn’t all that happy, though—”
“Geez, Jade, take a breath!” Tana said, rolling her eyes.
“Stop. What the heck did you mean about my hair?”
“You didn’t tell her?” Maia asked, looking at Magnus, and the big man merely shrugged.
“Show me,” I demanded, opening my hand.
Jade handed me her phone, and I flipped the camera app on.
Holy fuck.
The long dark tresses I had grown up with were gone, replaced entirely by various shades of blue from the deepest navy, to the palest azure.
The sound of more footsteps as others entered my room in the infirmary met my ears, but I was still staring at my hair. And shit, my eyes. Their color seemed vague until I focused and then they changed as well. Navy to teal, teal to sky blue.
It was crazy. It was cool. And now it was me. I was a water witch and a pretty powerful one, apparently.
“Hello, Rio,” Headmistress Armstrong looked at me curiously before turning to the rest of the room. “May we have a moment?”
My roommates nodded and said their goodbyes. The blonde witch with her scowled once before leaving. But Magnus, he did not move.
“I assure you she is quite safe with me, sentinel,” the headmistress said, a small smile on her face.
With how way things worked at Westwood Academy, I fully expected Magnus to obey without question. The fact that he looked at me first meant something had changed. Unsure what to expect, I looked back at him and, to my surprise, felt him brush against my mind.
I closed my eyes and saw Magnus and his kraken, both man and beast, were fully focused on me. His concern was for my well being only.
Well, not only.
I also felt his unconditional love, his passion, his desire, which incidentally made me blush, and his resolve.
He would do anything for me. The knowledge made me brave. I opened my eyes and squeezed his hand, understanding that he might be a sentinel, but he was my sentinel. And he was the only man I would ever love.
“It’s okay,” I said to him.
Only then did he move. Offering a short nod and a growl as he passed the headmistress.
“I trust he will remain loyal to Westwood?” Armstrong asked.
“As long as Westwood remains loyal to me, then, yes,” I said, answering her with a certainty I only now felt.
“I see,” she replied. “You did something that most witches only dream about. And not all of them good, Rio. You took quite a sum of magic from the other treaders,” she said, explaining the thing I’d only discovered when fighting for my life.
“That was Otto’s design, not mine. I only did what I had to, to survive.”
“I know that, Rio. It is the one thing that saved you from the Council raining down their justice on your head.”
“The Council of Covens? Aren’t you the head witch?”
“I am. But I must do as the council votes. And so, I am here to ask, will you return the magic that does not belong to you?”
I had learned about magic in the classes I had been forced to audit. Magic was finite. There was only so much to go around, and it was often inherited or willed from one generation to another. What Otto did was illegal and despicable. I had no desire to keep anyone’s magical stores.
“Of course. But I don’t know how.”
“I will work with you when you are well. Thank you, Rio. This will go a long way to securing your place here, and that is very important. Even if you don’t see it now,” Armstrong replied softly.
She looked older and tired. I was tired too. But I knew whatever had started here was only just beginning.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
