Spellsinger (Avalon: Web of Magic #5) (10 page)

Heather picked up the papers and gently handed them back to Kara. “Here. We’d better go.”

Kara grabbed the papers and turned away. “Like I said, there’s the door. It’s not hard to figure out how it works.”

Heather pinned Kara with her intense gaze. “Ever since you got involved with Ravenswood, you’ve changed, Kara! I wish we never heard of Ravenswood!”

Kara felt like she was watching through someone else’s eyes as her friends filed out of the room. They were all turning their backs on her! Or was she sending them away?

She slammed the door shut. “Fine. I can do this without you. I don’t need anyone!”

A moment later, a knock came at the door.

Ha, Kara thought. That didn’t take long.

She was certain that she would find Heather and the girls looking upset and ready to apologize for their selfishness. Instead, she was confronted by Emily.

For an instant, she felt a twinge of guilt—and worry. Had Emily or Adriane realized she’d taken the unicorn horn?

No, that didn’t appear to be it. Emily didn’t look angry, just a little distracted.

Kara bent to collect what was left of the mass of papers she’d strewn about a few minutes ago. “Emily! Good. I—we have a lot of work to do.”

“I can’t do any concert stuff tonight,” Emily said. “That’s not why I’m here.”

Kara slumped on the bed, tears threatening to spill once again. She wanted so much to tell Emily about the craziness with Lyra... but something told her to keep silent. She didn’t understand it. The moment she opened her mouth to speak about the incident, her throat started closing with panic, her chest seizing up.

Emily sat beside her. “What’s wrong, Kara?”

“Nothing. Just a weird day.”

“Listen, I’ve been reading this book we found and—”

Kara was stunned. Did Emily know what she had been up to?

“We have to be really careful with this stuff.” Emily dug into her bag. “Look, I photocopied part of the spellsinging book for you. I’ll give Adriane another part and look through the rest myself.” She handed some pages to Kara. “If this is what the Fairimental was talking about, then it’s important. We need to read it and then combine our notes, figure out what to do with it.”

“Why did they choose us?” Kara asked quietly.

“What do you mean?”

“Why did the Fairimentals have to choose us? They’ve ruined my life!” Kara wailed. “Everything was fine before I got involved with Ravenswood and this magic stuff!”

“Kara, I don’t know why it’s us… it just is,” Emily said softly. “Now it’s up to us to decide what we’re going to do about it.”

“Like how? How far is this going to go?”

“I don’t know,” Emily said truthfully. “I think about that a lot, too. You remember what Adriane told us about the Prophecy of Three?”

“Yes.” The Fairimentals had told Adriane about the Prophecy in the Fairy Glen on Aldenmor.

One will follow her heart

One will see in darkness

One will change completely and utterly

“Adriane followed her heart when she went after Storm on Aldenmor. I saw in darkness when I led us across the magic web and back home to Ravenswood...”

“So... the third one is mine,” Kara said, eyes opening wide. “One will change completely… but I don’t want to change!”

Emily took Kara’s hand. “My dad always says life is change. I think he means that we’re going to change no matter what we do, if we want to or not.”

Kara flashed on the magnificent white unicorn that had taken her to the beaches of Avalon. Fairy wraiths, the guardians of Avalon, had asked her if she was ready to become the blazing star.

“Close your eyes, child,” the wraith told her.

Kara closed her eyes. A soft breeze dried her tears.

“Now open them.”

Kara blinked and stared out across the waters. The cloud of mist shimmered in the distance, hiding whatever lay underneath.

“Do you see any difference?”

“No,” Kara said, confused.

The wraith sighed, a sound like the wind crying.

“Where is Avalon? How do we get there?”

“There are fairy maps to guide the blazing star.”

Only the blazing star could open the fairy map to Avalon—the one she had lost.

Kara blinked and looked back at her friend’s warm smile.

“Emily, something
is
happening to me,” Kara admitted. “How do I know what to do? What’s right?”

The healer smiled. “When I see Ozzie, or Ariel, or Storm, or any of the other animals, and the way they look at me, they way they love me and you and Adriane… I just know it’s the right thing to help them. Because we’re friends and we love them.”

“Yeah…” Kara agreed.

“That’s one thing that will never change.”

Kara sighed and walked to the window, looking for a pair of golden wings. “I wish I could believe that.”

“Your magic is different than the rest of ours,” Emily continued. “It’s special. We all know that. But only you can choose how to change. And we’ll stick by you no matter what happens.” Emily smiled.

Kara gave her a quick smile in return. “I’d better not change into a flobbin!”

The two friends laughed.

“I have to go,” Emily said. “But look over the spells and we’ll meet tomorrow at the glade to talk about what we do next. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Emily gave Kara a hug, then left.

Kara smiled. She was lucky to have Emily as a friend. Suddenly the locket around Kara’s neck glowed and her mind began to drift. Kara knew she should have come clean about the unicorn horn, but she still needed it. She looked over the pages Emily had copied for her. There were spells and lessons on how to use singing to control magic. Here’s an interesting one: “Spell of Silence”—I’d like to use that on Adriane, Kara mused.

Then she thought about the power she had unleashed behind the school. If her one little rhyme had been so powerful, especially when combined with the unicorn horn, maybe these real spells could help her make the finals.

She wished she could get her hands on the book itself, but this would have to do.

Kara clutched the locket close to her heart.

She was changing, all right. And it looked like everything was going to turn her way after all.

K
ARA STOOD BACKSTAGE
at the school auditorium, nervously twirling a lock of long, blond hair. After running through a half dozen outfits, Kara settled on a sequined tank top, brown suede pants, and her new Valero boots. One moment she thought the outfit looked stylish beyond compare—and the next, she was convinced it was hideous. She hadn’t been truly satisfied with anything she’d tried on. Nothing would be good enough, Kara was beginning to think... especially herself.

Even more frustrating, she had gone through every page of the spellsinging book Emily had copied for her and hadn’t been able to find a single rhyme that could make her magically enhanced singing voice last. The spells all seemed to have been created for some other purpose. She had tried to sing as soon as she had gotten up and discovered that her voice was back to normal—horrible! But not for long. She pulled her shirt down over the unicorn horn concealed in her back pocket.

Kara stole a quick peek at the audience. Inky, who was presiding over this round of the competition, was chitchatting with reporters. Johnny was talking with folks in the front row, mostly members of the Town Council and their families, along with teachers and a few representatives of the school board. Web cam operators had set up their equipment to capture the entire event.

Johnny suddenly turned and looked right at Kara. The instant their gazes met, she felt the locket tingle and her fear melted away, replaced by excitement. A barrage of flashes illuminated Kara against the curtain as half a dozen photographers swung their cameras into action. She produced her perfect Kara smile for the crowd.

Touching the locket, she felt more determined than ever to be a winner and make him proud.

A group of girls gathered around Kara.

“That is so cool, Johnny gave you his locket!” a girl from her homeroom said.

“Can I see it?”

Some were just excited, and wanted to touch it, or try it on—not that Kara would let them. Several others really were jealous and shot daggers at her for wearing the locket at all.

Good, Kara thought. Maybe some of them would get psyched out, that would make it easier for her.

Closing her eyes and leaning against a back wall, Kara smiled.

A loud knock made Kara open her eyes. She was startled to see Adriane standing before her wearing a black vest, stylish jeans, and black leather boots. Her hair, glistening with subtle red highlights, looked amazing.

“Hey,” Adriane said.

Kara nodded. “You look… good.”

“Thanks, I just, um...” Adriane frowned. “We need to talk.”

Kara hesitated, a sudden pang of guilt jabbing her... then she shrugged. “Now?”

“It’s just... some strange things have been going on.”

“You
would
think that,” Kara muttered.

Adriane’s eyes widened and she looked ready to deliver a nasty comeback—then she forced a smile into place. “Look, I haven’t been myself lately. I don’t know why it became so important to win this contest.”

Kara tapped her foot, waiting.

“Okay, what do
you
think is going on?” Adriane asked.

“Nothing,” Kara said impatiently, looking past Adriane to where the contestants were starting to line up.

Kara had drawn her lot when she first arrived. She was number twenty-three. Thank goodness she didn’t have to go first!

“Can’t this wait till later? They’re almost ready,” she said.

“No, it can’t,” Adriane stated. “Listen, Kara, I know you’ve been really… busy lately.”

“So?”

“
So
, we all need to work together if we’re going to figure this out,” Adriane insisted.

Kara restrained her urge to agree with Adriane. She wanted to trust her friend... but some instinct told her not to let her guard down.

“I don’t know why I pushed you,” Adriane said, “I don’t want to compete with you… I mean, let’s just call a truce before—”

Kara stared at Adriane cautiously. “Before what?”

“Well... before something else happens,” Adriane whispered, adding, “You know it and I know it. I’ve heard you sing, you know.”

Anger flared within Kara. “And you’re worried I’m gonna embarrass myself?”

“What?” Adriane threw her hands up. “This contest... it was
never
supposed to be about the two of us. This is for Ravenswood. You’re the president, our leader. If you go out there and—”

“That’s it,” Kara said, her cheeks flushing crimson. She pushed past Adriane to join the others.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Adriane called.

Kara stopped listening. She took her place in line and saw both Adriane and Heather take their places close to the front. Good. She didn’t want to deal with either of them right now. She was nervous enough as it was—and Adriane trying to psych her out... that was really too much to deal with.

As the music started and the curtain went up, Kara noticed two of the other girls casting worried looks at her locket. Suddenly feeling like a prize creep, Kara slipped the locket under her blouse, hiding it from view. A minute ago, she thought it was so cool showing it off. What was happening to her?

Then the show kicked off!

The waiting—and the watching—turned out to be a lot harder than Kara had expected. One by one, boys and girls took the stage, and some were
really
good. Much better than Kara...and she knew it.

“And now, contestant number six, the rock and roll warrior!” Inky announced.

Adriane leaped into the spotlight, jamming on her cherry red Fender guitar. She swung the guitar back over her shoulder and sung a classic rock song. She was extraordinary! Kara twiddled with the locket again, feeling its energy course through her. Then Inky was onstage again, introducing “lucky” number seven—Heather Wilson. The redhead started to sing and the entire auditorium fell silent. Everyone backstage was buzzing—even Adriane—saying Heather not only had it in the bag to be one of the finalists, but that she would be the one to beat on Saturday during the preshow! Kara noticed several of the girls who were scheduled to go on after Heather walk away from the line and bow out. Others were asking to have their numbers reassigned. It seemed no one wanted to face the humiliation of following Heather’s amazing performance. Kara saw Inky nodding and smiling, hanging on her every note. Even Johnny was enthusiastically caught up in the performance.

Kara knew she should support her friend, but she just couldn’t bring herself to care. Instead, she drew comfort from the warmth of Johnny’s locket. It began to pulse with light in her fingers—

One of the teachers rushed over to her. “Kara! You’re up next!”

Kara allowed the teacher to lead her to her place in front of the handful of remaining contestants. She nervously rubbed the locket around her neck. Several of the other girls looked at it once again—and she thought about putting it away.