More than Magic Book 3: Soul Choice

What had I gotten myself into? I wasn’t ready for this. My entire body ached, and I was so tired I was shaking. I leaned against the wall, panting for breath, staring hopelessly at the dark, boiling cauldron of water in front of me. I couldn’t go back the way I came, and the only way out lay hidden beneath the water. There were five doors but choosing the wrong one could mean the end. Casting had already taken its toll on me. How many more spells did I have the energy for?

There was no choice. I knelt down, took a deep breath, and aimed my wand at the cauldron. It was too hot to touch and I already wasted a spell trying to cool it. My only hope was to empty it.

The water slowly began to churn and climb up the sides of the cauldron. A few drops splashed over, then it all sloshed back into place and resumed its rolling boil. I growled in frustration and wiped my hair back from my face; it was damp and sticky from the rising steam.

With another deep breath, I pushed myself up. I swayed on my feet and staggered to the door with the three carved in it. Wand ready, I pushed it open and found myself in a long hallway.

I started down, resisting the urge to stop and rest, knowing I’d probably never stand up again if I did. Instead, I cautiously followed the hallway to where it came to a T. Each end held a door and, this time, I couldn’t see anything that indicated which one. Hoping luck was on my side, I picked the one on the left and forced myself to jog toward it.

The door was locked.

I whirled and raised my wand. I was exposed, vulnerable. Did I have the energy for a sprint to the other door, did I unlock this one and hope I wasn’t followed, or would I have to stand and fight?

My choice was made for me. A wizard appeared in the hallway. I held my breath, praying he’d turn right. No such luck. He swung his head left and his eyes widened when he saw me. His arm shot up, brandishing his wand.

No sooner had I realized that my shield hadn’t worked, when the blast of air from the wizard’s spell hit me and threw me off of my feet. By some miracle, I held onto my wand, but it didn’t matter. I was weak and I knew I had lost. His feet echoed in my ears as he walked toward me.

My head was spinning. Fire was my strongest magic and I couldn’t even think of a way to counter his attack.

With all of the energy I could muster, I pulled the flag from my pocket and held it up to him. The fire died down as he took it from my hand. I dropped my cheek down on the cool floor with a sigh as the sound of his footsteps faded.

They were quickly replaced by another set. “Maddox? You alive?”

“Yeah,” I groaned.

A pair of cool hands took mine and pulled me to my feet. The air elemental smiled at me, several different shades of sky-blue swirling merrily in his eyes. “First scrimmage, right? You did great,” he said, holding me steady.

He offered me a little cube of a potion and I forced up my hand to take it. The taste of mint exploded in my mouth, followed by a rush of energy. I weakly returned his smile. “Thanks.”

I followed him out of the maze and into the entry room. There were a lot more witches and wizards than I had expected, all sitting around recovering. An irritated looking witch was darting around, inspecting injuries.

“What place did I get?” I asked the air elemental.

“Fifth.” He slapped me on the back and I nearly stumbled. Rak’s claws dug, just a bit, into my shoulder. “Great job.” With that, he headed back out into the fray.

I sank down into an empty bench and waited for a second dose of energy potion. Rak slid off of my shoulder and into my lap, purring. Neither of us spoke, we didn’t have to. I could sense his satisfaction at my performance. He was proud of me.

As I sat, I looked around at the other witches and wizards. Who knew how long they had been using magic? I should have started learning in my mid-teens, but I hadn’t even known magic existed until last summer, when I was just barely been twenty-one.

After my summer crash-course in magic, I hardly used it at all during the fall. A few months ago, when I had really needed it, I wasn’t good enough. My cousin – not to mention my boyfriend and our closest friends – were nearly killed. After spending several sleepless nights, replaying the events and wondering what could have gone differently if I had just known more spells, I decided I needed to find some sort of class.

Most witches and wizards, however, learned from their parents, which made spell-casting classes few and far between. I was lucky enough to live near one of the few cities in the entire country that offered them from time to time. Even then, it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. For one thing, it was once a week for only two hours. It took me that long just to get to Washington! I couldn’t complain though. Since it was one of the few classes being offered, people were commuting for more than double that, one way. Some people were even spending the weekend in the city, just to take the courses.

The first class was an intro, no spells at all. It was immediately obvious I was the only one with no real training. Two students – one from Pennsylvania and one all the way from Kentucky – were adopted and their parents were a different type of magical being. Other than them, the rest of the class seemed to fall into three categories: people who worked around non-magics and wanted to get in some extra spell-casting time; witches and wizards looking for jobs and taking the class for their resume and extra practice; and a handful of D.C. locals who just wanted to hang out with other magics and do stuff.

The next four classes were spent practicing the four basic spells and exploring what could be done with them. The fire magic class, which was my strongest spell, left me feeling pretty confident, but the earth class was incredibly discouraging. I didn’t even know the word for an earth spell before walking into the classroom. Rak reminded me that improvement was the reason I was there in the first place, which made me feel better.

Last week we discussed spells for self-defense and offense. The instructors promised some sort of a scrimmage in Class Six. I hadn’t known what to expect until I arrived and they clipped a flag onto my pocket. With no more warning than that, I found myself running through a maze, using spells I hardly knew to defend myself, while trying to make it to the exit. It hadn’t sounded that difficult at first, but once I was in the thick of it, I knew I was in over my head.

Still… fifth. The thought made me smile. Only four people lasted longer than I did. Maybe I wasn’t so bad after all.

I bit back a yawn, hoping I’d have enough energy for the second half of my evening. My smile widened. After this, I was going with a group to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History for an after-hours tour all about the unsung contributions of magics.

I was handed another energy potion, this one a liquid. Enjoying the odd sensation it caused, I sipped it slowly. It was like jumping into a hot shower after being outside in the cold. But, instead of warmth flooding my body, it was energy.

After giving the potion a few minutes to kick in, I got up and headed for the locker room to get my purse and change clothes. On the way, I passed a work-out room with a couple of magics using the machines. There was a girl, who couldn’t have been much bigger than me, lifting an insanely large stack of weights. Probably a vampire. She must have worked for MES; the facilities weren’t open to the public, with the exception of people taking classes like I was.

The Magical Enforcement and Secrecy Agency was sort of like every non-magic government agency rolled into one, and then some. It had originally been established to enforce our most important law: keeping our existence a secret from non-magics. As time went on, MES took on an increasingly larger role. Now, nearly every job in the country fell under the MES umbrella somehow. If a magic didn’t work directly for MES, someone in their company probably did.

After I was changed, Rak and I left the locker room to meet the bus for the museum tour. I was pleased when at least a dozen people joined us. Other than when I was with my friends, these classes were my only opportunity to spend time around other magics.

We boarded the bus and started across the city. I looked out the window, half paying attention to the scenery. Growing up in Maryland, I visited D.C. all the time for school. Now, on the rare occasion when I found myself in the city, I always thought that I should do it more often. Before my classes, it had been almost a year since the last time I visited. Some friends and I went last spring for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival.

The thought made me laugh. I couldn’t believe how much my life changed over the past few months. A year ago I would never have expected taking Japanese classes to be anywhere on my to-do list. Of course, a year ago I hadn’t known anything about magic either. In fact, right around this time last year, I was filling out an application to spend my summer studying on a cruise ship.

The idea of a sixty-day cruise to several new countries, with college credits as an added bonus, seemed like a wonderful dream. How could I ever have imagined that I’d learn magic along the way? It was there, on the ship, that I met other magics who realized I was a witch with no knowledge of our world. I had become close friends with all five of them. Even though I had only seen them once since the cruise, I spoke to at least one of them every day. Of course, it helped that I was dating one too.

The bus pulled up around the back of the museum. We gathered on some low, stone steps around a fountain while our instructor gave a brief introduction about himself and an outline of our evening in the museum.

I pulled out my phone and checked to make sure I hadn’t missed a call from my boyfriend. He usually called after work and, according to his schedule, had been off for half an hour already. Nothing. I shot him a quick text to let him know the tour was about to start and that I’d let him know when it was over.

“Texting Thomas?” Rak guessed.

I nodded as I typed. “I hope he’s not still at work.”

Even though I wasn’t looking at Rak, I could sense his agreement. Thomas was the Resident Magic Coordinator for the Upstate New York branch of MES. According to him, he spent most of his time in the office making phone calls and doing paperwork. But, like many MES employees, he doubled as a Special Agent. If there was any trouble, Thomas was one of the people who went to take care of it.

A woman came out of the museum and exchanged a few quiet words with our guide. The non-magics were all cleared out of the museum and it was time for us to enter. We went through a large set of glass doors and into the lower level of the museum.

It was surreal to be wandering around inside of a public building with Rak trotting by my side. I could sense how much he was enjoying the experience. He would never complain about actually being a cat, but I knew he sometimes wished he had more freedom to explore. Even though we had only been bonded for seven months, I could hardly remember what it was like to not have his feelings and emotions in the back of my mind. In spite of that, I was glad we hadn’t been bonded during my cruise. He could never have joined me on the ship and two months away from him would have been hard.

The museum tour was just as amazing as I expected. Our guide had incredible first-hand accounts of life in America over the centuries. Even though magics did their best to not interfere with outcomes of non-magic events, it seemed we still played an important part in history. There were even a few famous historical figures that had been magics, much to my surprise. We were encouraged to keep a low profile and out of the public eye.

Time flew by and all too soon we were in the main lobby, wrapping up. The lobby had been renovated since the last time I was here. I had fond memories of watching a giant pendulum knocking down pegs, while waiting for a huge panel in the wall to slide open to reveal the Star-Spangled Banner. The pendulum was gone and, where I remembered the cloth flag, was a giant fake metal one. I spotted a doorway that looked like it led to an exhibit. I was fairly sure that the renovation involved the flag. I was on my own to get home and it didn’t look like they were kicking us out yet, so I went over to poke my head in.

I found myself in a dim, almost narrow hallway and walked in, Rak trotting behind me.

“Whoa,” I gasped, as I caught sight of the flag.

As I was trying to decide if I wanted to double back and read the wall, a man came in. I recognized him from the tour. He looked my age, but of course, could have been much, much older.

“Enjoying the tour?” he said.

His voice was soft, almost menacing. We were in one of those places where the atmosphere just made you want to speak quietly. I tried to tell myself that he just had a rough voice and was whispering because of the exhibit, but that didn’t explain why he was glaring.

“Yeah, it’s great.” I edged back and sensed Rak’s concern. Something wasn’t right.

He took a step closer to me. “I hope you paid close attention to the contributions that non-humans have made to history.”

The wording caught me off guard. I was used to differentiating between magics and non-magics, but hadn’t heard non-humans. For a moment I wasn’t sure if he was referring to familiars or other magics who weren’t human, like werewolves or elementals. Not sure how to respond, I nodded.

“Good,” he sneered. “Keep it in mind.”

Swallowing hard, I nodded again. “I will.”

It wasn’t the first time a vampire had hissed at me. I thought I was fairly good at resisting the effects, but it caught me off guard. I couldn’t move, felt like I couldn’t breathe. Then, he was gone.

The moment I recovered, I sucked in a deep breath and pulled out my wand. The vampire was nowhere to be seen. Rak’s alarm mirrored mine. He darted around the corner, tail straight up and every hair standing on end.

“I don’t see him,” he said softly.

Warily, I tip-toed out of the exhibit. Most of the others had left the lobby. I cast my night vision spell, just in case, before hurrying out of the museum after them. The closest entrance to the Metro was across a wide, open field. There were enough other magics heading that way, and more than enough non-magics, that I felt safe. The vampire had waited until I was alone to make his strange threat. I doubted he’d do anything else with so many people around.

Rak reluctantly climbed into my large bag, out of sight of the non-magics. Instead of meandering, while looking at the Washington Monument, I set off across the National Mall at a brisk pace. I trotted down the escalator and into the station. Without slowing, I reached into my bag for my Metro card. Rak passed my wallet to me.

“Thanks,” I whispered.

The three minutes before my train arrived felt like some of the longest of my life. I waited, heart still pounding, on the platform. If the vampire was still following me, there was no sign of him. I practically leapt onto the train and sat down at the back of a car, where I could easily see all the doors. I swallowed nervously and sensed Rak’s tension.

It was going to be a long ride home.