Fire and Fantasy: a Limited Edition Collection of Epic and Urban Fantasy Page 32

  “How was your flight?” she asked, her heels clicking against the floor as we walked.

  I shrugged, keeping my eyes on the signs around us as if I actually knew where we should be going. “It was okay. I slept through most of it.”

  “That’s good. Are you excited to get started with classes?”

  I resisted the shrug this time. At the mention of college classes, my mind wandered to a recurring daydream I’d had of Liana and me setting up our dorm room. Sadness washed over me at the thought that I’d never get to experience that with her. Would I even ever see her again? I quickly reminded myself of my phone in the bottom of my suitcase. No one had bothered to take the dummy phone from me, so I figured I’d be safe with my working phone. Unless they were going to use it to spy on me… Maybe I’d have to go out and buy a new one. Either way, I’d still have a chance to talk to Liana again.

  I realized how long I’d remained silent, and I forced myself to answer, even if it wasn’t entirely true. “I guess so.”

  Sharon glanced over at me several times before speaking again. It’s like she needed something to fill the silence. “You know, you really look like your mother.”

  “You know my mom?” I asked quickly in the same moment my heart nearly stopped.

  She looked at me questioningly while we walked. “I’m sorry. I thought you knew. I’m from Sea Haven.”

  Confusion settled over me for only a split second. Then that rage I’d been feeling lately bubbled to the surface. If she was in Sea Haven, did that mean she was in on everything that happened to me with my magic being taken? Did she still have her magic?

  “I moved away years ago, and now I work in the admissions office at the university,” she explained.

  She didn’t have to say the rest. In that moment, I understood how Carson managed to pull so many strings this close to the first day of school. He’d used Sharon. Only, wouldn’t she have had to manipulate the records or something? Wasn’t that fraud?

  I noticed I’d fallen behind a few steps, so I quickened my pace to catch up. Sharon led me through a pair of doors that took us into a long hall that crossed above the road and into the parking garage.

  I didn’t know how much I could trust her, but my curiosity burned. “Why’d you leave?”

  She clicked a button on her key fob, and a dark blue crossover blinked its lights in response. She shrugged. “I always felt like Sea Haven was too small of a town for me.” At the car, she popped open the back hatch and gestured for me to place my suitcase inside. When she closed the back, she spoke again. “I guess I was just always eager to see more of the world.”

  I opened the passenger side door and slid in as she rounded to the driver’s side.

  “Don’t you miss the ocean?” I asked once we’d settled in.

  “I did at first, but the pull of the ocean kind of fades after a while. Now I don’t think I could leave all this greenery and beauty here.” She glanced sideways at me as she slowly drove toward the exit. “I know it’s hard at first.”

  Was she talking about the simple fact of being in a new place, or was she talking about losing my magic?

  “Did they let you keep your magic?” I blurted. My jaw snapped shut. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer to that.

  She glanced at me again and slowed behind another car at the exit. “No, Bree. Didn’t they tell you?”

  “They didn’t really tell me anything,” I couldn’t help but say. It was true.

  She pulled the car forward and paid for parking. Once we were back on the road, she spoke again. “Everyone who leaves Sea Haven is stripped of their magic. It’s the price we have to pay for choosing to leave.”

  My thoughts honed in on one word. Choose.

  “You chose to leave?” I asked in shock. She wasn’t forced to leave like me? Why would anyone want to leave Sea Haven? Well, that’s if they didn’t know our council was hiding secrets from us.

  “Yes. I told you; Sea Haven wasn’t big enough for me.”

  “Do you know why I left?” I asked challengingly. How much was she in on all of this?

  She looked at me again before fixing her eyes back on the road. Her blond hair grazed her shoulder. “No, and I didn’t ask.”

  That left me with a sense of comfort. It made me feel like I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t in the know. I relaxed into my seat.

  “Look, Carson Ray has a lot of secrets. I’ve learned not to press him about them, but I believe that he acts in everyone’s best interests. I would expect nothing less of the head of Sea Haven’s city council.”

  She had the first part of that right. Carson Ray had a lot of secrets, too many if you asked me. But I didn’t believe he was watching out for everyone’s best interests. Because he certainly wasn’t watching out for mine.

  Ten

  Sharon asked me if I wanted a tour of the campus, but I declined, saying I was too tired from traveling. It was true, at least. But it wasn’t just lack of sleep that got to me. I still felt physically drained from having my magic stolen from me, and everything that had happened in the past two nights left me overwhelmed. I still hadn’t had enough time to sort it all out in my mind.

  Sharon helped me get settled into the dorms. She’d introduced me to the resident advisor and gave me some instructions about my room and my classes, but with enough already going on in my head, I had a difficult time adding all that new information to the list. The RA gave me some form I had to fill out about damage to the room and anything that needed to be replaced. I intended to fill it out right away, but as soon as I entered the room, the beds—yes, two of them, even though they said I wouldn’t have a roommate—looked so inviting that I set the paper on the dresser and fell onto the closest one. I didn’t even bother doing anything with my suitcase.

  “I’ll leave my phone number right here,” Sharon told me. I heard her feet shuffle near the dresser. “That way you can call me if you have any questions, okay?”

  I had already closed my eyes, and her words barely registered. “Okay,” I mumbled.

  “See you later, Bree,” she said, and I heard the door click behind her.

  Relief washed over me. I’d made it this far. I hadn’t been shot in the middle of a secluded field or dropped out of the plane without a parachute. Though it was early in the day and I should have been doing something productive, exhaustion overtook almost immediately, and I drifted off.

  My hair billowed around me in the wind as I stalked up the steps to City Hall. My expression remained emotionless, strong, and each step I took, each sway of my hips up the stairs, marked one step closer to revenge. Footsteps from multiple pairs of feet echoed behind me. I wasn’t sure who was marching with me, but I knew they were friends. I reached the top of the stairs and pushed through the front doors of the building with purpose.

  A pair of dark eyes stared back at me when I entered. Carson Ray stood alone with his arms crossed over his chest and his feet planted firmly shoulder-width apart. It was as if he was waiting for me and took this stance to show his own strength. It wasn’t going to work. He didn’t scare me. He couldn’t hurt me when I had all my friends with me.

  “You’re not going to get away with this,” I said firmly.

  An evil laugh bubbled up from his throat. “And I suppose you’re going to stop me?”

  My lips twitched into a grin. “Yes,” I answered simply.

  “Really?” He raised an eyebrow. “You and what army?”

  I turned to see my friends hadn’t followed me, and somehow, I knew they weren’t supposed to make an appearance until I gave the signal. I placed two fingers in my mouth and whistled. Bodies began to filter through the front doors. I knew my friends had been following me, but until I saw them come inside, I hadn’t been sure who exactly my friends were. I drew in a shocked breath when I realized I recognized them all.

  Sharon Mitchel entered first. She wore the same dark pantsuit I’d met her in, and her heels clicked against the floor as she came to stand nex
t to me. She held her head high and pursed her lips, never taking her eyes off Carson.

  Other people filled the City Hall entrance. Another face caught my eye. Noah Starr. I’d never known him well, but he’d been the talk of the school my junior year when he announced he was leaving Sea Haven for college. His eyes met mine, and he winked in my direction.

  I spun around, taking in the scene. I recognized another girl who’d been two grades above me. There was a family of four that once lived on our street but left Sea Haven years ago because their father got a job in another city. The two daughters still looked around ten, the same age I remembered them being when they left.

  Once I’d taken in several of the faces, I realized what they all had in common. They’d all left Sea Haven which meant they’d all been stripped of their magic.

  And then the last two people I expected to see stepped through the door.

  “Liana. Christina. They didn’t take your magic too, did they?” I asked in surprise.

  Liana shook her head. “No. We’re here because what they’re doing to you is unfair.” She fell into my arms in an embrace.

  “We’re here to support you, Bree.” Christina took me into her own hug after Liana drew away.

  I swallowed deeply, pulling in as much courage as I could muster. Under my breath, I whispered to them both, “Carson Ray has no idea who he’s dealing with.” I whirled back toward him. I could sense my two best friends behind me, their breathing so familiar.

  A look of amusement settled over Carson’s face. “Well, I didn’t think you’d actually come with an army, Ms. Waters.”

  I hated when he called me that. “Bree,” I stated. “My name is Bree. You stole something from me, and I’m not leaving until I get it back.”

  He smiled slyly. “You may die trying, Ms. Waters, but you’re never going to get your magic back. It’s mine now.”

  And then he pulled a small vial from his pocket. He held it up in front of me, taunting me. Its blue hue drew me in. I felt its energy calling to me the way it had when Dr. Sloan extracted it from me. I reached for the vial, but Carson pulled it away, holding it above my head like a schoolyard bully. And that’s when my opportunity to strike presented itself. Carson’s little stunt left his chest exposed, vulnerable. In one swift motion, I pulled my arm back and then sent my open palm straight toward his chest. Carson stumbled back, gasping for air. His hands came to clutch his chest, and the vial he’d been holding clinked to the ground.

  Nobody tried to help Carson. Frankly, we were all proud of the super-human blow I’d just given him. I couldn’t read everyone else’s minds, but somehow I knew. As a collective unit, it was what we all wanted, to see Carson Ray suffer for what he’d done to us.

  I bent to retrieve the vial and held it up triumphantly, the blue glow reflecting in my eyes.

  I gasped as I suddenly woke. It took me a brief moment to process my surroundings and realize I was in the dorm room they’d assigned me. I couldn’t bring myself to call it “my” dorm room yet. If I had my way, I wouldn’t be staying here long. I took several deep breaths to calm my heart rate. When it finally felt close enough to normal, I replayed everything I could remember about the dream. In it, I’d gotten my magic back. Why couldn’t that have been real? And why didn’t I have super-human powers? Even nothing about my magic was particularly super-human.

  That thought led me to ponder deeply what my magic really was. I shifted onto my side and curled my knees to my chest. I stared at the wall while these thoughts swam around in my mind. My magic had never been that powerful. All I could do was breathe under water and manipulate small amounts of water. It’s not like I could control the weather or had healing abilities like our ancestors were said to have. I didn’t exactly charm people the way our ancestors supposedly did, either.

  So what’s my magic good for anyway? I wondered. I’m not a mermaid. I’m just some crossbred mutt whose magic is hardly magic at all.

  My heart sank, and I hated myself for thinking that way. My magic may have not been that fantastic, but it was mine, and I was determined that one day I’d get it back, even if that meant prying it from Carson’s cold, dead fingers.

  Eleven

  As soon as I woke fully, I shuffled through my bag for my phone and connected it to the dorm’s Wi-Fi. I hadn’t been gone that long, but I already missed my friends and family—or at least my mom. I found several messages from my friends saying they missed me already and they wished me luck. My mom had messaged me, teasing about whether or not I’d eaten all the cookies already. That reminder sent me reaching for them, and I gobbled up three before I could remind myself to slow down. Nobody asked how I liked it here; though I guess I hadn’t been gone long enough for that. To them, I’d only been gone a few hours. To me, it already felt like a lifetime.

  I didn’t want to leave the room. What I wanted to do was formulate a plan for revenge, but I ended up staring at my blank notebook paper so long that my bladder began to call out in protest. Sighing, I rose and headed down the hall to the bathroom. It sucked that there weren’t individual bathrooms in each dorm room. It meant I couldn’t lock myself in there forever until I died and began to rot. It’s not like anyone would even notice, and with my life taking a complete one-eighty, I wasn’t sure if death would be any worse than the hell I’d gone through the past few days.

  After exiting the stall, I stood at the sink to wash my hands. The water felt refreshing as it flowed over my hands. I cupped my palms together and bent to splash the water over my face. It wasn’t ocean water, but it still felt good. All I wanted to do was swim in it.

  I hurried back to my room and grabbed my towel and toiletries Mom had bought me and then headed back to the bathroom. Since I was alone, I took advantage of the private handicapped bathroom and stripped down before entering the shower. The cold water hit the nape of my neck, sending chills up and down my spine. It was so refreshing to be under the water again. It was nothing like diving into the salty ocean, but it was better than sitting in my room all dry.

  I didn’t know how long I sat under the stream of water. The cold didn’t bother me, not when I was used to the chill of the ocean, so it could have been hours. After everything that happened, I was shocked to find that I’d actually been able to shut my mind off briefly. No thoughts of revenge. No wondering about my magic. I wouldn’t call it relaxation or bliss, either. It was more like numbness.

  And I decided that wasn’t good enough for me.

  I needed more than a stream of water. I needed a bath or a pool or something I could submerge myself in. I shut off the shower, and an eerie silence settled over the room. After drying myself off, I quickly dressed and returned back to the dorm room they’d assigned me. There, I grabbed the stack of papers the RA had given me and shuffled through them. I thought I’d seen a welcome pamphlet she said had a list of activities in it. She’d said there was a pool here, didn’t she? But where?

  I found the pamphlet and flipped through it until I found mention of the pool and its hours. My heart dropped when I discovered the rec center wasn’t open until school started. Disappointed, I flipped through another few pages. A photograph of a lake caught my eye. It was so strange to see such a small body of water. I was used to water as far as the eye could see. This lake—pond?—couldn’t have been more than two acres. But it was something. I quickly read through the information and saw there was a small swimming area with no hour restrictions. I checked the campus map at the front of the pamphlet to figure out how to get there.

  Excitedly, I hopped up from the bed and zipped open my suitcase in search of my swimming suit. When I stood, I noticed the empty notebook lying on the bed.

  I still need to come up with a plan, I thought to myself. My gaze drifted to the pamphlet on the opposite end of the bed, reminding me of the pond in the campus’s nature reserve. The planning can wait, I decided.

  The water was cold on my toes, but after a moment of standing at the edge of the pond, my body adjusted, and it
became comfortable. I wasn’t sure about going any further, though. The water had a brownish-green tint to it, and when I looked a few feet out, it was so murky I couldn’t see the bottom. Small waves danced across the surface of the water, and I knew I longed to be submerged too badly that it didn’t matter.

  I stepped forward. The water hit my knees, sending excited jitters throughout my body. I loved the water. How could Sharon say she didn’t miss it anymore? Had she been lying to me, trying to make me feel better?

  The water rose to my chest. As soon as I walked out far enough that it licked at the bottom of my chin, nerves overtook. What would happen when I went under water? Would I be able to breathe?

  I swallowed my fear, pinched my nose shut like I’d seen people do in movies, and dipped my head beneath the surface. A sense of comfort washed over me. The water felt so inviting, so much like home. I opened my eyes a sliver to test it out. The water here was different than at home. It was calmer and murkier, but the way the light filtered in and danced on the sand near shore was mesmerizing.

  My lungs began to ache the longer I held my breath. I dropped my fingers from my nose but didn’t draw in a breath. Still, I was curious. Without my magic, was I only human, or did I still have some of my mermaid ancestry running through my veins? No one had ever cared to explain that to me. Then again, I’d never thought I’d lose my magic. I always thought of it as a constant, as something I’d always have, like my heartbeat or my thoughts.

  It felt as if a weight was lying on my chest, and I couldn’t take it anymore. My only choices were to continue with the experiment or break the surface for a breath. I opted for the more dangerous option. Opening my airways, I sucked in a breath. Water filled my mouth and my nostrils. Normally, this action would provide relief. Today, it only brought pain.

  An image flashed before my eyes. In my imagination, the water around me changed color to a clearer blue, and my father stood above me, holding my head under water. In an instant, the image I’d seen in my dream disappeared.