Denouncement Read online

  She studied Thorin’s door. It solidified at the end of band retreat, but the lines etching across its surface were taking an excruciatingly long time. Iris reached out and touched the warm wood. She traced a few of the etched lines. They deepened and solidified. She traced another section and the same thing happened. Not wanting to force Thorin’s mind to realize he was a magic user, Iris stepped back from the door.

  If she weren’t heading home for winter break the next day, she might have tried calling him to see if he was ready to learn the truth, but it was too late now. Instead, Iris walked to the middle of the room. She spun in a slow circle and took in the vastness of the chamber. It could hold hundreds of doors. She even suspected the room could expand as needed.

  “That would be a lot of people to train,” Iris announced to the empty room.

  A pain formed at the back of her neck. It wasn’t the usual tickling sensation. It felt more like a knifepoint rested at the nape of her neck. She sat down and thought about the essence of the magic behind it. It was familiar, but something she hadn’t felt in some time. Iris concentrated further. Focused her mind on the point of pain.

  “Brett,” she exhaled. “How could you have forgotten about him?” she asked herself.

  In reality, it had been easy to forget about Brett. She hadn’t felt his presence around Pacific the entire summer after graduation. Though that may have been due to the long hours she spent practicing magic on the island and her exhaustion levels most evenings. Iris shook her head at herself. Disgusted by how complacent she’d become as her powers grew. She refocused on the pain at the back of her neck.

  Brett was in Davis. Close by. Though she knew he couldn’t be in the Gallery or Doors, Iris scanned the room all the same. It was empty. There were no new lights, and those that were present were illuminating her friends’ doors. They felt pure—not tainted like the magic linked to the knifepoint at her neck. Did that mean he was in the building somewhere? Did he somehow wind up in the same dorm building just like he’d always wound up in one of her classes?

  Iris fled from the Gallery. When her mind re-entered reality, the movie was almost over. She hadn’t realized how much time could pass in the Gallery without her notice. It felt like she’d only been there for a few minutes. Iris pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind and focused on the knifepoint. It was an even paler sensation now. In fact, if she hadn’t been in the Gallery when it’d started, she may not have noticed it. This was a huge concern that sent Iris’s mind spinning once more.

  She concentrated on the magic. Tried to follow the trail back to the source. He wasn’t in the building. He wasn’t even in the same dorm complex. Iris let her mind continue down the path to one of the newer on-campus dorms. Brett was inside. Not wanting to alert him to her own presence, she pulled her mind back to her body and opened her eyes. A few minutes later, the knife sensation disappeared. Iris could only wonder how often he caused it. More importantly, why?

  All five girls and Cirrus took the same flight home for winter break the following day. The first few days of the break were amazing. Since Iris had been too swamped to hold any practice sessions during the second half of the fall quarter, they all got together to have one on the first full day of the break. They spent most of the time talking about college and catching up with Morrigan, but it was fun, so no one minded the small amounts of actual practice.

  Iris kept her concerns about Brett to herself. At least until she could confirm what the hell he was up to. It seemed like he was keeping tabs on her and nothing more. Two could play at that game. Iris spent the rest of the break seeing if she could track him down in Pacific.

  He told her he lived down the street from Cirrus, so she had a great starting location. Add to that the magical abilities she’d felt down the street one afternoon and she was fairly sure she had his house narrowed down to one of ten. After three days of nothing, Iris opted for something a little less subtle.

  She drove down his street on the pretense of going to Cirrus’s and was not disappointed. In the middle of the ten houses she thought his might be one of, she saw a wooden sign etched with ‘Moreno Family’ hanging from the eves above the front door. Iris wondered how she’d missed it.

  Not wanting to cause too much suspicion, she continued to Cirrus’s and parked out front. Rather than going in—Cirrus wasn’t expecting her—Iris opted to sit in the front seat of the 4Runner to see if Brett or his father were home. She readied, but did not pull flows into her body, closed her eyes, and extended her senses outward. Not a single glimmer of magic was in use. In fact, she’d say no one was home.

  A knock on the passenger side window made her jump.

  “You scared the shit out of me, Cirrus!”

  “Open the door.”

  Iris unlocked the door and Cirrus climbed in.

  “I saw you pull up. When you didn’t knock, I thought this might be what you were doing. They’re gone for the holidays. They have a cabin in the Big Bear area or something like that.”

  “You knew he lived here?”

  “Yeah. We’ve both lived on this street since we were kids. He was always a jerk. Teased me about being so pale and my eyes and such. Kind of the same way he’s always treated you. My brother heard him one day and said something to him. He’s never bothered me since.”

  “Really? I’d like to know what your brother said.”

  “That makes two of us. He won’t tell me. I’ve asked. Anyway, you want to come inside? You can meet him. Perhaps he’ll tell you since he won’t tell me.”

  “Na. Thanks, though. I should head home. Do you know when they’ll be back?”

  “Not until after the New Year if they follow the same pattern as the last several years. I don’t see why it’d be any different this year.”

  “There’s us.”

  “True, but they don’t see us as a threat. It makes me wonder, though,” Cirrus said and fell quiet.

  “Wonder about what?” Iris asked when she couldn’t stand the silence anymore.

  “Why are there so many of us? And so close together? You said the guy from band is from Temescal, right?”

  Iris nodded.

  “Kind of makes you wonder about nuclear runoff in the water or something.”

  “We’re not superheroes. Or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

  “No. Definitely not Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” he chuckled. “Superheroes, though. You never know. Something’s building out there. In the universe. It’s only a matter of time before it crashes into our reality.”

  “Yeah. I know. I’d hoped you guys hadn’t been dwelling on it.”

  “I can’t speak for anyone else, but it’s crossed my mind on more than one occasion. More since graduation. With you here scoping out the Moreno family, I can’t help but think we’ll have to face them at some point. Or deal with them. Doesn’t that sound weird to you? Deal with them? As though it’s our obligation or duty to see to the safety of . . . something,” he finished.

  “I don’t want to deal with anyone. I’m not a fan of conflict, but I will do whatever it takes to protect my friends and family.”

  “And yourself.”

  Iris shrugged.

  Chapter 6

  Cirrus snapped his fingers in front of Iris’s face. The sound brought her eyes back into focus.

  “If you can’t keep yourself safe, you can’t keep anyone else safe,” Cirrus told her.

  Iris drew her eyebrows in a little and looked at Cirrus. She wasn’t used to him being so serious. “And myself,” she agreed.

  “Good. Now I won’t have to knock any sense into you. I’m going to hold you to it, just so you know.”

  “Only if I can hold you to the same statement.”

  “Of course you can.”

  “Good.” She smiled at him.

  Cirrus grinned back and made to get out of the car.

  “Hey Cirrus,” Iris said before he opened the door all the way.

  “Hm?”

  “Thanks.�
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  “For what?”

  “For being such a great friend. More. For being the brother I never had. You’ve been fulfilling that role for a while now but I never acknowledged it or thanked you for it, so thanks.”

  “No problem, little sis.” He reached out and punched Iris softly in the shoulder. “See you at practice in two days, right?”

  “Yup. See you then!”

  Cirrus waved to Iris as she made a U-turn and headed home. Their conversation helped Iris feel better about some things, but also solidified her concerns that something was coming.

  “There’s no point in dwelling on it, even though that’s what you’re going to do,” she told herself with a sigh. She took the long way home in the hopes a drive and her music would help banish the thoughts from her mind. They didn’t.

  Thankfully, thinking up some new things to try at practice crept into her brain the next day. Iris jotted down some keywords after flipping through a few books she hadn’t reviewed for ideas yet. Concealment seemed like a good idea. Of both objects and oneself. Though she’d have to make sure it wasn’t like invisibility. Attempting that skill almost cost Iris her life.

  She also realized she’d never shown her friends her use of air as a shield from when she used it to block Brett’s attacks after grad night. Iris wasn’t even sure she’d mentioned the skill to her friends. She’d been too focused on offensive magic and never took the time to analyze how she’d created the shield. It was more like she’d created a larger, flat containment field when she fought Brett. Either way, leaving out when and how she came up with the idea would be a must.

  Practice went off without a hitch. Iris fell back into her teacher role easily and everyone enjoyed the new skills they were being tasked with mastering. During the lesson, Iris realized her friends fell into two different categories of magic users—those who seemed to have a natural talent for it and those who had to work at it. It was a common occurrence in life, but Iris hadn’t noticed it extended to magic before.

  Cirrus, Rowen, and Rozlynd were all naturals. Aerianna too, when it came to healing, but not everything else. Violet could do everything, but Iris wasn’t sure if she was a natural and lacked self-confidence in her own skills or she meticulously practiced everything until she got it perfect—which was what Zarina did. Neither Jaden nor Morrigan seemed like natural magic users, but they were both determined to keep up with everyone else. The largest difference between them was power. What Morrigan lacked in power, Jaden more than made up for. If he tried hard enough, she was sure he’d outmatch her someday.

  The rest of the break dragged by at a snail’s pace. Iris continued searching out the Moreno house to see if anyone used magic, but Cirrus was right. No one was home until after the New Year, so she sensed nothing until the day before they flew back to Davis. Even then, she wasn’t positive it hadn’t been her imagination. The magic use was so subtle. The lack of progress on Thorin’s door equally frustrated Iris. She got some satisfaction with that upon her return to Davis.

  Since they were out of food rations in their dorm room, Iris volunteered to go shopping the first night back. She was glad to be back at school and really looking forward to band rehearsal the following evening as the etchings on Thorin’s door were almost complete. All it lacked was his true form as Iris referred to the creatures on their doors. The sudden solidification of the remaining lines lifted her mood and brightened the blue of her eyes. She had plans to confront Thorin after practice the following night. That was until she ran into him outside the grocery store.

  “Hey! What are you doing up here? I thought you lived in South Davis.”

  “I do. I just finished dinner with friends. What are you up to?”

  “Grocery shopping. You all right?” Iris asked in concern. Thorin seemed agitated. He fidgeted and kept looking around as though someone followed him.

  “Um, no, actually,” he ran a hand across his face and through his gelled hair. “I’ve been feeling off the last few days. And I’ve been having these weird dreams where . . . yeah. Nothing to worry about, you know, just weird.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “I doubt it. Nothing like these dreams.”

  “I do. I swear.”

  Thorin looked skeptical.

  “You want to grab a coffee and try me? The least it’ll do is allow you to get it off your mind.”

  “Sure. Why the hell not?”

  Ten minutes later they walked along the winding paths of the North Davis greenbelt. Hands wrapped around cups of de-cafe lattes in an attempt to warm their frozen fingers from the frigid night air. Their breath puffs of white mist rising up before them. Iris felt guilty. If she’d been around more the last few weeks of school, she could have helped Thorin realize his powers sooner. Unfortunately, it could not have been helped.

  “So, you want to tell me about one of these dreams?”

  “I don’t know where to start.”

  “Would it help if I told you I used to dream about flying so much I woke hovering over my bed on a dozen occasions?”

  “You did what?”

  “Want to tell me your dream now?”

  “No. I’d rather hear about yours.”

  “I just told you the gist of mine.”

  “But what about the side effects?”

  “What side effects?”

  “Was there anything else besides hovering? I mean can you . . . ”

  Iris spun her empty coffee cup in front of her. “Do magic? Yes. I can. And so can you. You just have to . . . Thorin?” Iris turned around to see Thorin several paces behind her. She hadn’t realized he’d stopped walking.

  “How the hell?” Thorin demanded in confusion.

  “If you keep your voice down and get up here I’ll explain,” she reprimanded him.

  “Magic?” he whispered once they were walking again. “It’s not possible. Magic doesn’t exist. It can’t. Can it?” he added after a long pause.

  “Magic is the easiest way to explain it. Besides, it’s how we explain away things we don’t understand. What I’m actually doing is opening myself to the flows of power that run through the Earth and all living things on the planet. Once I’m connected to them, I can request things of the molecules that make up items and they comply with my request. You can do it too. That’s why you’ve been having weird dreams. And don’t worry, they’ll go away.”

  “That’s a relief. How long did it take yours to go away?”

  “Mine haven’t, actually. But all my friends’ odd dreams have, so don’t worry about it,” Iris added after a doubtful look from Thorin. “What have you been dreaming about, anyway?” Iris asked in curiosity. She was interested in seeing if there was something she hadn’t tried yet.

  “They’re like an Escher painting. Things keep morphing into other things and then bouncing back into the original object. It’s really trippy. Especially when it’s raining.”

  “I bet,” Iris agreed. She fell silent and thought about what Thorin said. Asking the molecules of an object to form into something new had never crossed her mind. Iris raised her coffee cup in front of her face, opened herself to the flows of power surrounding her, and asked the lid of the hot-liquid cup to balloon upwards and turn into the lid of a cold-liquid cup. The lid complied to change shape, but not color. When she stopped funneling power into the request, it melted back into its original form.

  “That’s pretty much how my dreams went. They were all over the place though. No logic to what something changed into or why.”

  “I wonder why they go back to their original form rather than stay in the altered state,” Iris mused out loud. She didn’t expect Thorin to answer, but he did.

  “Because it’s their original form. Most items remember what their original form is and are happier in that state of being. You’d have to apply environmental stimuli to get them to alter their form permanently. Like heat or something.”

  “Or I could ask them to remain in their new form and see what happens.”
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  “How do you do that? In fact, how do you do any of it?”

  “Sorry. I’ll explain it better,” she told him before pushing the ability to alter objects from her mind.

  Chapter 7

  Thorin kept quiet while Iris explained magic to him. He asked her to repeat something or re-explain it occasionally, but he left off all of his questions until the end. It was like he’d written a mental list. The questions came out in order based on Iris’s explanation. It impressed her, but the questions were still the standard ones everyone asked upon her telling them they could do magic. Not for the first time, Iris wished all of her friends had figured out their abilities at the same time. This process had become repetitive.

  “So, last question: can you teach me?” Thorin asked about an hour after they’d gotten coffee.

  “No. I just told you all this stuff so you wouldn’t be so confused anymore.” The cold and stupidity of the question made her bristle and drip with sarcasm.

  “Woman! I hate you right now.”

  Her eyes flared as heat surged through her body at his tone. She glared at him for a moment. Then she realized she’d started it and let the statement pass. “Of course I’ll teach you. Why else do you think I spent an hour of my life wandering around in the cold with you?”

  “My charming good looks and wit?” Thorin smiled that smile at her.

  “You have a point there,” Iris agreed as she bumped her shoulder into his. She let the contact linger for a second before grinning back at him. Her previous flash of anger subsided into a quickened heartbeat and flushed cheeks. The brief sting in her eyes made her thankful for the cover of darkness.

  “Can you teach me something tonight?”

  “Sure. Is your place empty?”

  “No. All my roommates are back from break. I bet at least one or two are home now.”

  “No worries. Let me check with my roommates. The dorm room will be a little cramped, but maybe they can go to Cirrus’s place instead.” Iris split her mind and sent her little self to the Gallery. She knocked on Aerianna’s door and waited less than a breath for it to open.