Bright Is Her Sight_An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure Page 2

  The light magic was so quick and intense the wizards could only block, not return any magic blows. They started to back up, Balthasar creating a temporary shield as they regrouped. He dropped the shield and flicked his wand, and the others joined him. Arrows of dark magic shot down the street, barely missing the locals, who dove out of the way.

  The main guy continued forward blocking every arrow and dark streak sent at him. The other locals grouped behind him and pointed their wands to the center of the street, sending a steady stream of light that built into a large ball. The dark wizards, not knowing what to do, backed up behind Balthasar, creating shields around themselves. The locals slammed their wands down and then up at the sky, lifting the ball of light high above the dark wizards.

  The huge orb lit the street like the sun and whips of magic snapped out toward them, smacking them in the faces, shoulders, and arms. Flames erupted wherever the magic touched, causing the wizards to drop their shields and pat them out. Balthasar gritted his teeth angrily and opened a portal, holding it open as the others dove through. He narrowed his eyes at the man in the front and shook his head, stepping through the portal and closing it behind him.

  The light witches and wizards pulled their arms apart to disperse the ball of light hovering over the street and looked at each other worriedly, not knowing why the dark magicals had been there. They had run them off this time, but not one of them believed it was permanent. Whatever was going on, they would be back—and probably not alone.

  2

  Joyful cries echoed across the school’s grounds, drowning out the sounds of closing portals and cars pulling out of the drive. The snow and bitter wind blowing across the hills did nothing to deter the students from gathering on the grounds to jubilantly welcome each other back from their winter vacations. They had bundled up in their new winter gear and were showing off the newest technologies and coolest gifts they had received for the holidays.

  “I totally got the newest iPhone,” one girl told the others, pulling out her phone. “Not only that, but I downloaded this app that lets me edit my photos. No more zit Tuesdays.”

  “Shoot.” Her friend giggled. “I could have done that for free for you.”

  “I don’t know if I trust you with a wand by my face.”

  “Watch this! I learned some new stuff from my brother while I was home.”

  The girl pulled out her wand and whirled it in a circle, and the group watched as the shimmer of light cloaked her. When the light cleared a moment later, the girl was decked out from head to toe like she was ready for a ball. The other girls gasped and talked excitedly, all wanting to learn how to do it.

  “I used it the whole time I was home. I didn’t have to pick an outfit once, and I can use it with the school uniform.”

  Mara walked through the crowd, keeping an eye on everyone and making sure they didn’t hurt themselves practicing new spells. She walked up to the girls and looked over the top of her glasses at the ball gown. The girl smiled nervously and tapped her wand to the top of her head, turning her dress back into her former coat, jeans, and boots.

  “Be careful with that one. We had a girl stuck in the nude for a week one time.” Mara winked.

  “Yes, Ms. Berens.” The girl sighed, the others giggling.

  Across the lawn the older kids gathered, using their wands to clean off and dry the picnic tables. They sat on the table, their feet on the seats, looking through the pictures on their Facebook pages. One of the girls showed everyone a picture of a blond boy about her age with ice-blue eyes, and a perfect smile.

  “We went on two dates, and he said he would consider coming for the Valentine’s Dance.”

  “He is pretty much Mr. Dreamy.” Her friend swooned.

  “He goes to a magical school in Washington State, but they let them use portals so he could be here lickity-split.”

  “Lucky! I ended up sitting at my grandma’s the whole time, being force-fed bread pudding and fruitcake she made two years ago and froze for future consumption. She knitted me a sweater with Santa on it, which, yes, is embarrassing, but even worse it had the words, Ho, Ho, Ho! down the side. I was mortified.”

  Everyone laughed, flipping through their own albums and bragging about the trinkets, clothes, and even trips they had received for Christmas. It was the most exciting time of the school year for them. They were starting a new semester, they had a bunch of new stuff and money to blow, and they would soon be heading into Spring. Unlike most regular kids in public schools, no one minded coming back for classes. They longed to learn as many spells as they could, and the unusual natures of their teachers gave them a very versatile education.

  Students crowded the lobby inside, their luggage at their feet, stopping to talk to their friends before they went up to their rooms for the night. The cafeteria was quiet, just a few kids getting in a last-minute dinner before heading up to bed. All the decorations had been taken down, but the thrill of the holidays was still in the air.

  One of the girls giggled. “I got my New Year’s kiss from a true Light Elf straight from Oriceran.”

  Another frowned and said, “I got a kiss from my grandma,” making everyone laugh. “She always smells like baby powder. It’s weird.”

  A third laughed loudly. “Better than garlic and bourbon like my grandmother.”

  School was back in session and spirits were high.

  “My mother thought it would be funny to trick me on Christmas morning, leaving me a note saying my clothes hadn’t come in from Paris.” Kathleen chuckled as she hung her things up in the closet. “I was devastated, but when I got upstairs, she had wrapped them all on hangers and hung them in the closet. It was a good thing we took a portal to the islands since it would have cost a fortune to bring all of them back on a plane.”

  Emma laughed with Kathleen but quickly let it fade, reminding herself it was a new chance to be her own person. She unfolded one of her school shirts and carefully hung it in the closet. From the corner of her eye, she could see a floating doll moving from Aya’s suitcase to the shelf behind Aya’s bed.

  “How about you, Aya? Did you get anything cool?”

  “My parents got me some new dolls.” She smiled. “And a couple of new dresses for the springtime.”

  Alison stood in front of her closet, running her hands over her clothes. Izzie had helped her set up her closet when they got back to make it easier for her to find the right pieces each morning. Shirts and robes and skirts. She pulled her hand back and ran it down the edge of the closet, finding her Chucks on one shelf, with her Mary Janes next to them, and then her furry-topped boots on the bottom. Everything was exactly where she needed it to be.

  It was moments like this that was making it harder for her to hide her lack of ordinary sight, even if she was able to move about so well. Small details could give her away. Soon, she would have to tell them.

  “Alison, did you do anything fun?”

  Alison turned toward Kathleen’s voice, her eye’s focusing on the girl’s red and green energy swirling around her. She smiled, feeling the comfort of being around her friends again. They all had such different personalities, and they shone brightly through the colors of their souls.

  “It was okay. Normal, I suppose.”

  “Well, next year you should come to the islands with me. Feel the sand under your feet, listen to the waves, get a tan. In fact, all of you should come. It would be so much fun.”

  Aya chuckled. “I doubt my mom would give up a holiday, but I can always ask.”

  “I’m happy to be back.” Izzie stared at the new robes in her closet and let out a deep breath. “I like Mara, I mean Ms. Berens, but this is where I feel the most comfortable. And I’m looking forward to the potions class I have this semester. Apparently, they do a luck spell, a beauty elixir, and a sleep potion. I could definitely use all those.”

  “I hear the beauty elixir is amazing for the pores,” Kathleen replied. “My mom still uses the spell she learned when she was a kid, and
it’s the same one that they teach us here.”

  “I don’t know anything about pores, but between the sleep one and the beauty one I might not walk around looking like the living dead next year.”

  The girls all giggled and finished putting away their things. Izzie looked at Alison to make sure she was getting on okay and pursed her lips, seeing her knitted winter hat on the floor. She walked over and picked it up, placing the hat in Alison’s hand. Alison smiled and squeezed Izzie’s hand, nodding gently in thanks.

  “I was also really craving food from the cafeteria.” Izzie laughed, walking back over to her bed. “I know that sounds crazy, but from what I can remember of the orphanage, the food here is like a five-star restaurant in comparison.”

  “I hope they have Sundae Night again.” Emma smiled. “I really want some ice cream.”

  “I saw a flyer on the way in that said there will be an Ice Cream Social every Friday night this semester.”

  Emma wrinkled her nose. “Why would they do that during our liberty hours?”

  Kathleen snorted. “Probably to try to keep kids from going to the kemana. Of course, ice cream isn’t much of a prize compared to going down into the city.”

  “After last semester, I think Ice Cream Socials sound a hell of a lot better than going into the kemana.”

  Aya nodded wildly. “I second that. Don’t want any trouble this semester. Just want to cruise right through until spring break.”

  Kathleen leaned against her bedpost and shook her head. “But you never know what you’ll find there! If you stay away from the dark alleys, there’s some cool stuff in those shops.”

  “OH!” Emma gasped. “Alison, how is the dragon’s egg? I thought about it during the entire break.”

  Alison smiled and easily moved toward the dresser. Carefully she opened the top drawer and looked at the energy the egg was giving off, pulling out the warm gold-flecked egg as she sat down on her bed. The other girls dropped what they were doing and hurried over, all climbing onto the bed as Alison set the egg between them. Alison shrugged as she ran her hand over it, feeling the roughness of the shell.

  “It really hasn’t changed at all, at least not that I can tell. It feels the same. The same energy is coming from it, and I don’t feel any cracks. Do you see any changes?”

  Izzie looked at Emma, who was shaking her head. She chuckled and rolled her eyes, leaning closer to the egg to look at it herself.

  “Yeah, it looks the same to me.”

  “Dang.” Alison frowned.

  Kathleen tilted her head and stared at the egg. “Maybe the dragon is dead. I mean, we did take it from its home, jostled it a bit, and didn’t keep it under a heating lamp like I read we should have done. Or it could be petrified. You know, turned to stone mid-development. I mean, I wouldn’t want that to happen, but it would be pretty cool to see.”

  Alison closed her eyes, shutting out the dancing energies in her head. Slowly she reached out and held her hands over the egg. She could see the energy of whatever was inside dancing in an array of colors. That definitely meant it wasn’t dead or petrified, but the energy was so wild she really couldn’t tell what was going on.

  “It’s alive,” Alison told them, lowering her hands. “Not petrified, but that’s all I can tell. There is something in there, and that something still is producing pretty wild energy, but it’s almost like it’s hiding.”

  Kathleen laughed. “Of course, it is. Wouldn’t you? I mean, if you were in an egg sleeping in a stranger’s underwear drawer? I’d do anything I could not to be found.”

  Izzie bit the inside of her cheek and ran her hand over the egg. “Maybe it needs to know we won’t hurt it. I mean, if it’s a dragon, it has a good sense of danger and can think pretty clearly, so hopefully, it starts to let us in.”

  Kathleen jumped off the bed and grabbed her pajamas out of her drawer. “Personally, I think we should put it back. What would we do with a dragon if it hatched? Put a leash on it and name it Fido?”

  Alison got up and carefully picked up the egg, gently placing it back in her drawer. “We can’t put it back now. If it hatches all alone, it could die. We took it, so now we have to be responsible for it. I’ll go to the library in a couple of days and look up information on it. Maybe that will help.”

  The other girls went back to their areas and finished what they were doing. Emma grabbed some pajamas and her toothbrush and followed Kathleen down to the bathrooms. Aya was already in her floral-print ankle-length nightgown, and Izzie didn’t really have pajamas, preferring to sleep in running shorts and a tank top. Alison had already pulled her pajamas out and put them on, tightening the string on the flannel pants.

  Izzie looked out the window at the moon. She had missed Alison, and was really glad they were all back together. Alison patted Izzie’s leg and smiled, taking a deep breath.

  “It’s good to be here. I didn’t know if I would feel that way, but I definitely do. I was ready to come back before New Year’s, though I have to admit my sleeping habits are still way off. I got through like five books in the middle of the night before my brain had enough.”

  “I was the same way—I couldn’t sleep for anything. I kept having these weird dreams about places I’ve never been. It was odd.”

  “Did you learn any new magic while you were away?”

  “No.” Izzie laughed. “I think I learned enough about my magic last semester to hold me during the break. Mara taught me little things, like how to start the coffee maker from the other room and how to clean up without breaking a sweat, but it was all stuff I could have figured out on my own eventually. You?”

  “No, not really, and I was okay with that. I figured I would have plenty of time the rest of this school year. With this crew, you never know what we’ll get into.”

  Just then Kathleen and Emma came back into the room, talking loudly about Kathleen’s vacation over winter break. Alison watched their energies dance in front of her. She could tell that Emma was a bit jealous of Kathleen, but who wouldn’t be? The girl lived in the lap of luxury, but in a way, she was just like Izzie and her, obviously pining to spend time with her parents but never really getting to—the only difference being that Kathleen’s parents were alive, and theirs weren’t. At least, Alison’s weren’t. Izzie still had no idea what had happened to her family, and her memories were getting foggier every day.

  The loudspeaker clicked on, and there was a pause before the lights-out chimes sounded. Izzie patted Alison’s hand and headed to her bed, and the others went to theirs. Izzie quietly grabbed Alison’s coat and her own and hung them on the posts by the door, hoping for one of their late night walks. She could feel that it might be another sleepless night.

  Once everyone was snuggly tucked in the bed, Kathleen threw out a stroke of light that zoomed across the room and flipped off the light switch. It didn’t stop there, though, moving across the walls and spreading over the ceiling. Izzie turned on her back and looked up as the light magic painted a beautiful night sky on the ceiling, the moon shining brightly in the corner. She smiled, figuring it was the sky from her trip, especially given the way she made the stars twinkle and shine.

  “Goodnight, ladies,” Kathleen whispered.

  “Night,” Emma replied. “What a beautiful moon.”

  “Goodnight,” Aya echoed shyly.

  Alison rolled onto her side, imagining what the moon would look like out her bedroom window. She pulled the blankets over her shoulders and snuggled in, determined to at least try to go into a trance to replenish her energy. She still wished she was normal when it came to sleeping, but as a Drow things were different. She had to admit, though, she got more rest in the trances she fell into than in all the nights she had ever fallen asleep. She set her mind free and faded into a reverie.

  Her conscious rolled through the school, searching the energies and listening to secret conversations in the hallways. Alison was used to the colors that shot into her mind, but hearing things was new. As she passed
through the upstairs her mind paused to circle another soul, this one deep greens and blues, calming and comforting. As her light touched it, it reached for any darkness it might find in whoever it had come across.

  Alison’s conscious came whizzing back all too fast and hit her like a brick wall, knocking her out of her meditative state. She jolted slightly as if waking up from a bad dream and ran her hand over the covers, sensing everything in the room. Nothing had changed and they were still safe, but there was something about the strange energy her mind had found that wasn’t right. Everyone had darkness, even if the search for it took a lifetime, but there was something about this energy that left her slightly uneasy. This darkness wasn’t natural, and she had no idea how that could be.

  She shook her head and rolled back onto her side, pulling the blankets up to her chin. She had another sleepless night ahead, and her brush with the dark swirl of magic simmered in her chest.

  3

  Alison could hear soft footsteps carefully stepping across the hardwood floors of the room. She had heard those same footsteps dozens of times, so she knew that Izzie was still awake after lying there for a couple of hours. All the lights-out calls had gone out and the mansion was silent, all the teachers tucked away in their cabins and the older kids asleep in their rooms. Izzie sat down gently on the edge of Alison’s bed and smiled, seeing her face lit up by the moon through the window. She was awake as well.

  “I can’t sleep,” Izzie whispered.

  “Same,” Alison replied, sitting up in the bed with a grin. “Shall we go on one of our adventurous walks around the grounds?”

  Izzie smiled widely. “You read my mind.”

  “With these bum eyes I gotta do something,” Alison quietly joked.

  The two girls stifled a giggle as Alison got dressed in a sweater, jeans, thick warm socks, and her boots. Izzie quietly fetched Alison’s fuzzy hat and gloves from the closet, careful not to wake up the others. The Drow sat on the edge of Izzie’s bed while she got ready, donning her heaviest wool sweater, jeans, boots, and gloves.