Awakening (The Way Chronicles Book 1) Read online

  "Raven, if you and the good sir could spare me a moment of your precious time I'm attempting to teach the basics of magic."

  "Sorry, Professor," Raven replied quickly. "Won't happen again."

  "See that it doesn't."

  Eleria's lesson consisted of mainly things I had picked up over the past few days with a few new tidbits thrown in. The class ended about fifteen minutes early with Eleria promising that we were now done with review materials. I guess for kids who had grown up around this stuff it was all old news anyway.

  "So, I'm confused. Why are you in this class with me?" I inquired as we made our way down the stairwell. "You already knew all of that."

  "Yeah, but I never actually took the class." She shrugged. "Oliver taught me the old-fashioned way. Mentor and apprentice style, you know? I want to go into magical research once I'm done training with Oliver, but that requires accreditation at this or one of the other three academies in the world."

  "Wait..." I raised an eyebrow at her. "So you're, what: getting your Bachelor's in Magic or something?"

  She laughed and ducked her head to hide her face behind her hair. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

  I shook my head and sighed. "This world makes so much less sense than I ever knew."

  "Oh, it doesn't stop here," she assured me. "Wait till we get you to your next class. That's where it really goes down. I'm not allowed to tell you what's going to happen in there, but I promise you'll be fine. Just, don't freak out and try to run."

  I followed in stunned, no, terrified silence as she led me down into the basement level. We entered a labyrinth of hallways that reminded me of the base I had woken up in after the demon attack. We didn’t walk far before we reached room B4; it was small and cramped with only enough seats for six people. The walls were cool grey concrete and the only light in the room came from a dim lamp in the front left corner.

  The man whom, I assumed, was the professor was already arranging strange objects, some scientific and others completely outlandish, on a large table that took up a fourth of the room.

  "Ah, my first arrivals!" He was a short bald man with crooked teeth and wizened fingers. "You must be the boy with two voices!"

  My eyes widened and Raven shifted uncomfortably next to me.

  "Oh dear, don't be alarmed; I won't tell anybody" He began a laugh that quickly broke down into a coughing fit. "Hard to keep anything from old Book Keeper. Can't be done, I say."

  "I'm sorry, what did you just say your name was?" I asked.

  "Oh, my name isn't important anymore." He coughed again as he set a beaker on top of a stone block with a pentacle engraved in it. "I was given the name ‘Book Keeper’ by the Midnight Society long ago because I can never forget what I've read. Anything written this organization gets their hands on comes straight to me and it's my job to keep the books safe," he tapped his forehead. "All up here."

  I stared in confused silence for a moment as he continued setting up some weird cross between a science experiment and a magical ritual. He looked up and saw me staring.

  "Well, have a seat my boy." He waved his hand at the desks lined up in two rows of three. I only then realized Raven had already taken a seat in the middle of the front row. I sat next to her away from the door and watched Book Keeper finish setting up his equipment.

  As he did, four other students entered. The first was Trevor, who only exchanged brief pleasantries before sitting on the back row farthest from me. The other three entered one at a time and briefly nodded at us before taking their seats.

  "Alright, I'm glad to see you all survived the trip." Book Keeper wheezed from the front of the room. "Welcome to the most important class you may ever take: Discarnate Studies. In this room you will learn as much as I can possibly cram into your skulls. Or, in other words, everything there is to know about the discarnate type of supernatural creatures. In this course, we will study a wide variety of spirits and their activities, including but not limited to: vengeful spirits, poltergeist, and of course, everyone's favorites," he locked eyes with me. "Demons."

  Chapter Twenty–Seven

  The introduction to Book Keeper’s class consisted of reasonably familiar material. Ghosts could manifest in a variety of ways and could even switch classification during their...afterlife. Vengeful spirits were the most commonly dealt with spirit types and were created when a person died with unfinished business. This, he explained, was the classic tale of a murder victim coming back and haunting their killer.

  On the other end of the spectrum were demons, who’s origins were widely debated. Apparently, even though it was true that traditional Judeo-Christian prayers worked to exorcise them, many demonologists debated if this was because the words themselves had power or if they worked simply to focus the power within the exorcist like any other spell.

  As Book Keeper finished this ‘review’ session, he passed his hand over the beaker he'd set on the pentacle earlier. "Has anyone in this class not yet been tainted?"

  I looked around to see if anyone was raising their hand. When no one responded, I finally raised my hand.

  "I–" I lowered my hand slowly as everyone's eyes turned on me. My face burned as I forced myself to continue. "I don't know what that means."

  I heard a laugh behind me and ducked my head fighting off the urge to either throw a desk or attempt to disappear.

  It's been a while since you've gotten embarrassed like that. Zanj commented.

  "Shut up." I growled in my head.

  "Oh, it's quite all right," Book Keeper carried on. "The humans know it as, the sixth sense."

  "I see dead people." The same voice joked from behind me.

  "Yes, yes, quite." Book Keeper replied absent mindedly. He was focusing on sprinkling a handful of red powder into the beaker.

  "Being tainted gives you the ability to see the world as it truly is. It pulls back the veil and allows you to take a clear look at the world that you live in, to see the spirits and monsters that ordinary humans cannot comprehend. It's–" I raised my hand. "Yes, what is it?"

  "I think, I understand," I replied. "But how do I get it?"

  "Well, like this, of course." The pentacle under the beaker began to glow and the liquid bubbled.

  Red mist began pouring out of the beaker. I turned to look at Raven, just to see everyone was already getting to their feet. I jumped up and knocked my chair over.

  "What the hell is going on?" I demanded.

  "It's okay, Way," Raven and the others were pulling their desks back making space in the center of the room. "It doesn't hurt much and it'll all make sense later, I promise. Just, remember what I said earlier."

  "You're not making any sense!" I shouted and then stared in confusion as the boy who'd laughed early pulled my desk away without a word.

  "Way," Raven drew my attention. "You trust me, don't you?"

  "Well…” I hesitated.

  Lie. Zanj ordered.

  “Yeah, but…” I looked around to see the room was growing hazy with red mist. "Doesn't mean this makes any more sense."

  "It will, just give it another minute. A big part of this is learning to believe in what you can't understand. Just trust me."

  Behind you! I spun swinging my hand. A jagged golden bolt of lightning shot from my fingers striking something I couldn't see. My arm recoiled like I had just fired a gun.

  I heard muttering behind me: "An lightning bolt?" "That's really good.” “Especially, for a newbie." "How did he even know where to aim though?"

  "Z stop fighting!" Raven ordered aloud rushing the Z so it sounded like a slurred ‘s’.

  Home boy over here had a hobgoblin breathing down his neck!

  "I had a who, doing what?" I demanded but got ignored.

  "Way, trust me," she pleaded. "It'll be ok. It won't feel nice, but it's necessary."

  What’re we gonna do?

  “If she wanted me dead, I would be.” I responded.

  Then…

  “We’ll trust her on this o
ne.”

  Suddenly, I was struck in the chest by something and knocked of my feet.

  As I hit the ground, I felt something like claws digging into my arm and a weight on my chest. Warm blood flowed down my left arm as whipped my right arm up to try and shove the thing off. My hand passed through nothingness but I could still feel the weight bearing down on me. A cold chill ran up my veins from the wound making its way through my body incredibly quickly.

  Slowly, as though I was looking through a frosted glass window, a strange red skinned humanoid creature began to appear. Golden electricity sparked around my hand.

  Try again. Zanj ordered.

  I pulled my fist back and swung hard at where I thought its jaw might be. I connected this time and the creature flew off me; it became more visible as it hit the ground, stunned. I caught sight of two more of the creatures in the room.

  They were horrible: red skin, black teeth, eyes way too large for their bald skulls, hunched over with their hands dragging the ground, and standing about waist height.

  So, you can see them now?

  "Yeah," I replied breathlessly. "I can see them."

  Good. He chuckled. Let's try that lightning bolt again.

  "Sounds good" I growled. As I raised my hand, one of my classmates snapped her fingers setting a hobgoblin ablaze for getting too close them.

  I aimed pointing two fingers like a gun at the nearest hobgoblin. I felt the energy flow through me as another bolt arced from my fingers, struck the creature in the center of its chest, and sent it flying into a wall, where it vaporized into red mist on impact. As I recovered from the recoil, I turned to shoot the last one only to see Raven dealing with it.

  A dark purple light covered her hand. She reached out toward the red beast, as though to snatch it from the ground. That confused me enough to stop me from attacking, given she was ten feet from it.

  A spectral skeleton hand materialized from the light around her hand and followed her arm’s motion, flying forward and snatching the hobgoblin up by the throat. I stared in morbid fascination as it kicked for a moment in terror and then went limp, before vaporizing into red mist.

  With a flick of her wrist, the skeleton hand, and the glow around Raven's own hand, disappeared. She looked to me and smiled, "Congratulations."

  The whole class began to applaud and the boy who'd laughed actually went so far as to clap his arm around my shoulder. He was maybe an inch shorter than me, with his brown hair buzzed short giving a perfect view of his big ears.

  "Good job, man!" He laughed again, but this time it was a friendly laugh. "Much better show than when I was tainted. I got my ass kicked by a brownie."

  I laughed and pretended I knew what he was talking about as he went on.

  "I'm Dylan, by the way. Raven and I go way back."

  I raised an eyebrow at her and she giggled.

  "Yeah, he's like the big brother I always had to bail out of trouble." She pushed him gently and got in between the two of us. "Don't forget who killed that brownie that was busy kicking your ass." She stuck her tongue out at him.

  "Um, children?" Book Keeper's voice came from the front of the room. We all turned to look at him as he continued. "Class is dismissed for today so please put the desks back where they belong before you leave."

  As we put the desks back, Raven and I accepted an offer to grab ice cream with Dylan.

  "One question," I said before I stepped out the door. Book Keeper looked up and made a questioning noise at me. "Is class gonna be like this, every day?"

  "Oh, no, no," Book Keeper replied. "Some days will be much less exciting; others will be much more."

  I felt my eyes grow wide as I turned to leave. I shook my head, "I'm looking forward to the less."

  Chapter Twenty–Eight

  I met Raven and Dylan at the ice cream shoppé near the entrance to campus about fifteen minutes later.

  "It's on me, today," Dylan smiled when I arrived. "I feel kinda bad about laughing at you earlier."

  "Nah, it's all good," I shrugged. "I don't really want anything."

  "What?" Raven gave me a shocked look. "You don't want ice cream?"

  "Don't want. Can't have. Same thing really." I shrugged again and when Dylan cut his eyes at me in confusion: "I'm lactose intolerant."

  "Oh," He drug it out for a few seconds. "Nah, man, it's good, they've got Italian ice too."

  "That, I'm in for." I smiled. "Get me whatever's good, I'll find us a table." I picked one outside on the patio under the awning. As I waited I watched the clouds roll in and a cold breeze blew past.

  "It'll be too cold for this soon." I jumped at Raven's voice behind me. "Then how’ll you make friends?"

  It was good natured jab but it really hit home despite that. I'd never really bothered making friends before and now, here...here I might have another chance, if I managed to trust anyone for five minutes.

  "Hopefully, you've got a bunch I can steal." I laughed as Dylan walked up with a tray of frozen treats.

  "Alright, we've got chocolate for me," he set a bowl down in front of himself. "Mint chocolate chip for Raven and a special surprise for Thunder Fall over here." I chuckled at the odd reference and accepted a bowl of pink ice from him.

  "Trying to make a joke?" I inquired waving a spoonful at him.

  "Well, you've got the earrings," Dylan punched me jokingly in the shoulder. "I figured pink was probably your color."

  Raven choked on her ice cream trying not to laugh triggering a coughing fit. We laughed loudly enough to get a couple of sideways looks from the others on the patio but I didn't care. I was having fun again.

  I took a mouthful and the flavor of strawberry hit me. I shivered at the cold and set it back down.

  “So, someone explain exactly what happened to me in that class, before I break something!” I demanded, unable to hold it in anymore.

  “Oh, sorry, man!” Dylan replied. “It’s something every new student here at the school has to do. Most of us in your class are hunters though, so it’s already happened to us.”

  “There’s a difference between discarnate and carnate creatures,” Raven continued for him. “Carnate, anyone can see. We usually have to kill those with physical weapons made of specific materials, since they’re resistant or even impervious to magic.”

  “Discarnate on the other hand,” Dylan jumped back in. “Are invisible to normal humans and can’t be touched physically, though they can touch you.”

  They both looked at me to make sure I was following, so I nodded.

  “So, pretty much,” Raven continued. “When a discarnate creature causes an injury a bit of their essence enters the wound. Normally, that’s not a huge deal but in the proper set of circumstances: confusion, adrenaline, and full awareness that something supernatural is happening, it changes you.”

  “Thanks to the elevated heart rate from the adrenaline rush,” Dylan practically dove in front of her; it was like they were fighting over who would get to finish the lesson.

  He continued. “The essence hits the brain while it’s activated in a very specific way and permanently alters those areas.”

  I only half heard the last part of the explanation. I was too distracted by a small multi-eyed mouse like creature scampering over the cobblestones.

  “So, is that normal?” I asked.

  “Completely,” Raven shrugged. “Would a squirrel be weird to you?”

  I shook my head.

  “Eventually neither will that.” Dylan said and after a pause when on. "So, tell me about yourself Way."

  "What do you wanna know?" I asked. "I don't really know where to start."

  "Where you from?" He asked.

  “Lot’s of places,” I shrugged. “Moved around a lot. My parents’ jobs had us moving around and if I ever had an ‘episode’ as the doctors called them, it was suggested for me to have a change of scenery.”

  “I’m sorry, man,” he sighed. “I’d imagine it’s pretty rough growing up like that.”

>   “Can’t say it was the easiest,” I shrugged. “But hey, I survived this far. What about you?”

  “I’ve lived here most of my life,” he replied. “My parents died when I was little.”

  “Oh man, I’m so sorry.” I felt terrible for asking.

  “Nah, man, you’re good,” he reassured me. “But where are you from most recently, before Maybury?"

  "Auburn, Alabama." I replied without thinking and Raven raised an eyebrow at me.

  "Wait, I thought–" Suddenly, a loud church bell rang out making us all jump.

  It rang six times and Raven jumped up and swore. She had completely forgotten what she was about to say.

  "I'm supposed to meet Oliver right now!" She took a running started and vaulted the railing at the edge of the patio.

  "Wait!" I yelled after her but was left calling to empty air. "What am I supposed to do now?”

  Dylan laughed and clapped me on the shoulder. "I guess you'll just have to come to PT with me."

  And with that he grabbed me by the bicep and hauled me off to the gym.

  "Why am I here?" I whined jokingly and looked around.

  "Workout, practice spells, spar, you name it." He replied heading for the weight racks. "It's up to you.”

  I worked out with him for a while before looking up at the Platform.

  You thinking what I'm thinking?

  "Oh, yeah."

  I took the stairs this time and strolled down the center of the empty running track towards the platform. I saw the movement of two figures streaking back and forth faster than my eyes could follow.

  "Oh, wow," I breathed trying to keep up with their movements.

  "Damn." I sat down on the edge of the track and dangled one leg. "So this is what training with Oliver looks like."

  Allow me. I felt the magic flow through me as the world slowed down.

  Raven dove and rolled past Oliver coming up to her knees spinning. The way she moved looked like a dance. A violent, painful, beautiful dance.

  Oliver's foot drove into her stomach hard knocking her to her back. She rolled over her right shoulder and shoved off the ground with her hands to try and land on her feet. Unfortunately, she was way too slow.