Furious Flames (Elemental Book 3) (12 page)
Read Furious Flames (Elemental Book 3) Online
Authors: Rain Oxford
“Can you give me a list of who was at the party on
Monday?” I asked. He listed the students, which I wrote in my notebook.
Afterwards, I thanked him and left. Kristen and Conner had both been at the
pool, and they were both seen talking to a female vampire, even though those
two didn’t go with her. One other student who spoke with her there was Mack.
At dinner, I looked for Mack, but no one knew where
he was. That last anyone heard from him was when he told one of his roommates
he left his jacket in Professor Langril’s classroom and had to go get it. The
classroom was empty of both Mack and a jacket.
By the time I returned to the dining room, Darwin and
Henry were sitting in their usual spots. I got my food and sat down, but Henry
and I both waited until Darwin tasted his before eating, since he was
apparently the only one who could detect when the food had been tampered with.
“What’s so interesting?” I asked when Darwin opened a
thick, black, hardback book to read while eating. He normally talked nonstop throughout
the entire meal.
“Remember that Langril asked me to stop by his
office? This is what he wanted to give me.”
“I thought he was going to give you a powerful item.”
“It’s a book. That can be pretty bloody powerful. I
don’t think it’s going to help me on my test, though. It’s on demon summoning
and similar rituals… unless I wanted to summon a demon to eat the council. Too
bad I don’t have the magic to do that.”
A catcall drew our attention to Nathan and Drega in
the middle of the room. Nathan made a dramatic display of attacking Drega with
magic, which fooled half the room when Drega burst into sparkles. Darwin and I
laughed. We knew how it worked, so we weren’t shocked and horrified like the
students who really thought Drega was gone.
“What just happened?” Henry asked, more confused than
worried.
“Drega’s fae power is that he can disappear. When the
rest of us were learning to make fake fire in our illusions class, Nathan
learned to make sparkles. They put the two together and it must look pretty spectacular
to anyone who isn’t in our class or doesn’t know about Drega.”
Now Henry looked very confused. “Did it go wrong?”
“No. Drega’s gone, and there are sparkles on the
floor,” Darwin said as if Henry was slow.
“He’s right there, and I see no sparkles anywhere.”
Darwin’s mouth dropped open. “You can see through the
illusion?”
Henry shrugged, losing interest. Addison sat next to
him, though he didn’t acknowledge her in any way. As if testing the waters, she
put her hand on his arm. He didn’t remove it. “It’s my last semester here,” she
said. He nodded carelessly and her expression fell. She removed her hand.
When Henry, Darwin, and I went out so that Darwin
could practice using the amulet, I updated them on the sick students,
particularly on them attacking Hunt. Darwin offered to track down the
backstories on all the students on the list and find out who put dry ice in the
pool, but I told him to focus on his test. He didn’t like that idea.
“Some of us are from countries that don’t give you a
choice,” one student said.
“Good point. How many of you have heard of the
process of mummification?” A couple hands went up and Nightshade grinned. “I
hope none of you have a weak stomach.” She then went into great depths about
the process, to the point where several students had to step out into the
hallway.
At the end of class, she told us we would continue on
Monday with Anubis weighing the heart against a feather.
In
Elemental Configuration
, Watson gave us
each a chicken egg and sent us out into the woods. We had to protect our own
egg using one element in defense and attack others with a different element.
The last five students with a safe egg got a free day while the rest of the
class had to write a report on where they went wrong and how they could do
better.
“Are they alive?” Jackson asked the professor on the
way.
“No, I took them from the kitchens, which is why
there were no eggs for breakfast today. Thus, there is no reason to feel bad
about crushing them.”
“Unless you really like eggs, in which case wasting
them could be upsetting,” one of my classmates said.
“Would you rather go back to reading about elements?”
Professor Watson asked.
Much of what he taught us was how to use elements in
our everyday lives… sort of. Since many wizards couldn’t operate a washing
machine, he taught us to do it by hand using magic in an overly elaborate way.
Three students were sent to the infirmary after nearly drowning from that
lesson.
Most of the activities, like making clay pots and
using the elements in gardening, seemed useless, but the actual practices could
be applied to life-or-death situations. It wasn’t until he sent us out on
duels, obstacle courses, or competitions like these that we realized how much
we really learned.
We all broke off on our own to claim territories. It
was a warm, wet day and there were many puddles and slippery patches in the
mud. It was actually perfect for what I had in mind. Watson’s conditions for
these activities were often questionable, but he was serious about them. Once I
couldn’t hear anyone around, I ducked down beside a tree and unleashed my power
to search for any nearby minds. There were none too close, so I got to work.
I focused on the essence of earth, since I couldn’t
use water in this attack. Fortunately, the dirt was already soaked. Whether I
was using it or not, I wasn’t controlling the water in the mud, so Watson
wouldn’t consider that cheating. I imagined a creature forming like the one
Langril made, only with less power. This was the easy part; the body.
After a while of intense concentration, particles of
mud slowly rose from the ground. This was encouraging, which made the process
smoother and faster. As it took a blobbish form, I reached for it and lightly
pressed and pinched the mud to shape it into a bear-like creature. Although I
couldn’t really form eyes, I did my best to give it a face. To complete its
body, I pushed a small stone into each of its clubbed hands. Against a person,
it was harmless, but it was certain death to an egg.
Move along, people. No personal issues to see
here.
Despite the fact that I wasn’t controlling the water
in it, the element was necessary to make this work. I imagined the creature
absorbing the power of earth and water, but I also imagined it having a simple,
functioning mind. Unlike the one I created before, this wasn’t meant to be a
warrior. I wanted something more akin to a dog.
When it was ready, I pushed part of my power and will
into it. Although the professors taught us to manipulate elements using
candles, daggers, cups, etcetera… I never saw the need for it. They were focal
tools, according to my uncle, but they didn’t mean to me what they did to
wizards who grew up with this stuff. Perhaps I could do without because I
didn’t know what I was missing.
Unlike Lohem, this creature wasn’t powerful and
didn’t need a name. It was more like a simplistic golem. “Find other eggs like
this and take them. Don’t hurt anyone,” I said, setting the creature down. I
felt a sense of acknowledgement pass through the link between us. The creature
then seemed to meld into the ground and was gone.
I dipped the egg in a small puddle just deep enough
to submerge it, and then focused on cold. I kept the serenity of water in the
back of my mind while also visualizing the molecules of the water solidifying
into the crystalized structure of ice. I imagined it becoming colder. There
were more memories in my head of fire and heat than ice and coldness, but at
least I had some.
I thought of when a friend dropped ice down the back
of my shirt, when I had to hold an icepack to injuries, when I drank something
cold on a hot day, and when I used to play out in the snow. I remembered when
Astrid found me after her grandfather locked her up, and how pale she was in
the cold.
I realized then that I was shivering and I could see
my breath. It was almost odd that I didn’t feel cold in my chest like I could
heat when I was creating fire. I pressed down on the frozen mass that had been
a puddle moments before. Since it held the weight, I tossed some leaves on it.
Then I spent a few minutes looking for an egg-sized rock and found a perfect
decoy, which I put in my shirt pocket.
With my egg safe, I went for a casual stroll. Sure,
several of my classmates attacked, but that was my intention. About half an
hour into the walk, my instincts warned me of danger strongly and suddenly
enough that I nearly stumbled. Dena, an unassuming young woman who never
offered her opinion or argued with other students, was sitting on a thick tree
root with her shoes off. She had long blond hair in a thick braid and gentle,
light brown eyes. Her thin, fitted silver dress was long enough to drag the
ground and had steel-gray Celtic ribbons around the waist.
She stared at me without a word, but before I could
even turn back, a wolf literally appeared between us. It was not a real wolf;
it was about five feet tall and its fur was gray and silver with a luminous
quality, as if its undercoat glowed. The creature snarled. While most animals
could be calmed with magic, this was not a living entity with its own mind.
“Walk away and she won’t hurt you,” Dena said.
I nodded, but didn’t move. “Is she like a familiar?”
“She’s an elemental I created.”
“What’s the difference?” I didn’t actually know
whether my own little creature was a golem, an elemental, or something else. I
knew the undines and the gnome that helped me were nothing like Ghost or
Flagstone.
“You can create or call an elemental, and the process
is similar, but they are both very powerful entities of nature. A familiar is a
being born of this world predestined to be bonded with a wizard. They are in no
way lesser to their wizards. Their natural strengths and abilities are designed
to accommodate for their wizard’s weaknesses, and they can even have opposing
personalities given that the wizard’s personality frequently endangers him or
others.”
“So all familiars are born as familiars?” The entire
times she spoke, I was staring at the wolf. I wasn’t sure what to do if it
attacked.
“Most don’t know they are familiars, but yes.”
“What happens when they meet their wizard?”
“If the wizard hasn’t called their familiar, it’s
almost impossible to know for sure until the wizard calls on them. They may
have an odd friendship or even a stronger connection depending on how powerful
the wizard and familiar are.”
“How do you know so much about familiars if you
haven’t called yours?”
“My father’s familiar and my mother’s familiar are
constantly trying to kill each other. We’re supposed to call them in our fourth
year… but I can’t with an elemental. Unfortunately, I’ve had her too long, so
she kept getting more and more powerful. I can’t send her away now.”
“Would you want to if you could?”
Dena nodded. “She makes me tired.”
“I’ll ask around and see if anyone can help,” I said.
I could use the amulet.
* * *
Half an hour later, I heard a loud whistle, made my
way back to my egg, and sent a silent signal to my earthen creature. Just as I
unburied the clump of ice, the creature returned. Like a proud, excited puppy,
the creature projected images of himself stealthily stealing the eggs of the
other students and putting them in an old towel on the floor in the greenhouse
like it was a nest. He also took an entire box of eggs from the kitchen.
I laughed and told him he did a good job. Still
pleased with himself, he vanished and I felt his presence dissolve entirely. By
the time I reached the edge of the forest, the students who lost their eggs
were all either complaining about getting shot at with fire or that their egg
just vanished out of thin air. Dena, Jackson, and two others were the winners
besides myself. Watson frowned as I handed him my egg in a block of ice, but it
was unbroken and safe nonetheless. I had just enough time to return the “saved”
eggs to the kitchen before my next class started.
* * *
I returned to my bedroom exhausted, soaked, and
shivering. Darwin, who was studying at his desk, gaped. “What happened to you?”
“Professor Nakari happened. Given our location, she
decided we needed to learn to fend off a tsunami. She sent us out to the lake
and broke us into two groups. One side had to make a tsunami and the other had
to send it back.” Despite the fact that the sun was still up, I stripped and
crawled into bed. “Also, Mack wasn’t in class.”
“Did a shark get ya?” he asked, indicating the bite
on my left thigh.
“Professor Nakari didn’t realize there were kappa,
and kappa apparently don’t like being dropped on people.”
I was about half a second from falling asleep when
the door opened. “Devon, you’re needed in the–”
“Go away!” I told Addie. “If I have to get up,
someone is going to die.”
“Two more students are sick.”
* * *
I stood in the infirmary, trying not to wipe my eyes
in exhaustion. “The first three are in comas and the second two are very sick.
Nathan was already aggressive when Keigan brought him in. I sedated him, but
Caleb was okay.”
“So far, we have four wizards and one shifter. Was
Conner aggressive?”
“Not before he went into a coma. He was the last of
the first three to get sick and the first of them to go into a coma, though.”
“Maybe he didn’t have a chance to get aggressive.
Maybe Caleb isn’t aggressive because he’s a shifter, or maybe he hasn’t reached
that point yet. How is Hunt?”
“He’s not sick at all. Keigan and I finally came up
with a potion to slow their fever, which can buy us a few days. Without it, I’m
almost certain that Len, Kristen, and Conner would be dead in a few more hours.
I’ve come at this every way I can; it’s not a sickness. I mean, it may be a
sickness, but it’s not viral or bacterial. This is the work of extremely
powerful magic, either blood sacrifice or contagion.”
“Contagion as in, hair, skin, nails, blood,
etcetera?”
“Yes. The wizard would need something connected to
the victim. Even a strand of hair would work, but there aren’t that many
powerful people I know who could do this.”
“It has to be someone close.”
“It would also have to be someone who really knows
their stuff. Killing someone with magic is rather easy.
This
is far more
vengeful than that.”
“Off the top of your head, who could do this?”
“Logan and Keigan for sure. Vincent, possibly, but I
doubt it. None of the other teachers. They would have to know old magic, so not
even anyone on the council would know it. Whoever it is would have to be
extremely hateful.”
“What about bad guys we know? Felicity? Gale? The
shadow walkers who possessed the golems? The shadow man… Krechea?”
“Krechea would have the know-how, but not the power.
His shadow walkers could only possess the golems because the key is missing.
Besides, Logan, Vincent, and Keigan are keeping him occupied.”
Krechea’s shadow walkers
? The puzzle was
beginning to come together. Krechea was a leader of these shadow walkers, who
possessed the golems to kill Hunt. They had the power because the key to the
tower was missing. I could buy that if the key was as much an item of power as
the way to open a door. According to Baldauf’s book, the tower was like a
portal.
Is it a portal to some kind of Hell
? Thinking of my uncle’s
letter, I also wondered if it was some kind of portal in time.
“I thought Krechea was powerful,” I said.
“He is there, but not here. I didn’t know Gale or
Felicity, but Logan said Gale is human and Felicity is dead.”
“Gale is human, but he had the amulet.”
“Ask Logan about it, but I doubt any of Gale’s
victims were powerful enough, even combined. He would also have to know how to
do this, which I find doubtful.
I
don’t even know how to do this to
someone.”
“They all have fevers?” I asked. For some reason,
that felt extremely important.
“Yes. Len’s fever is up to one-oh-five.”
An unwelcome thought occurred to me. “What about a
dragon? They’re ancient, powerful creatures with a long history of magic. Could
a dragon do this?”
“If you’re referring to April, then no. She wouldn’t
know how or have the power. If you know an older, more powerful, malevolent
dragon, it might somehow be possible.”