Awakening (The Way Chronicles Book 1) Page 12

  I watched her fly into the net and couldn't help but cringe. "You okay?" I called as time flowed normally again.

  Oliver turned and nodded at me as Raven called back that she was fine and that I needed to stop stalking her.

  "How are you adjusting?" Oliver inquired.

  "Pretty well," I walked to the center of the platform.

  It felt like stepping into the ring with an opponent twice my size and eight ranks above me. I guess in a way it kind of was.

  He wasn't a huge man, Oliver. Six feet two inches tall, sure, but only two inches over me. Probably only weighed about one hundred eighty pounds and yet he was the most imposing man I'd ever stood before. He gave off authority and a nearly tangible feeling of power.

  "This feeling," I commented as I began to circle him slowly. "It's what Eleria called aura pressure, right?" I referenced one of the new lessons I'd learned that morning. "Your magic is so strong that it condenses your aura into a near physical form, causing the air pressure around you to seemingly increase.”

  "In its simplest terms, yes, that would be correct." He raised his hand and beckoned me to come closer. I did as I was asked. "A normal human, an untainted one, I mean," I shivered at being called tainted but he just went on. "Wouldn't be able to feel an aura pressure unless it was incredibly powerful."

  "So, that's why I'm feeling it now for the first time." It wasn't a question I was just clarifying for myself but he nodded anyways.

  Raven hauled herself back up onto the platform and smiled at me. "Hey, Way."

  I smiled back at her, but before I could reply Oliver was talking again.

  "Well, since you're both here," he waved his hand like he was offering us the dance floor. "Let's see how my two students do against each other."

  Raven waved her hands activating a familiar dark purple aura. "It's about time we had our first dance." She joked.

  "I guess," I laughed back. "Just figured we'd have some music."

  Ready to go? I felt the magic flow into my veins like fire.

  "Let's do this." I replied in my head. I slipped off my jacket and watched my arms crackle with blue lightning.

  In a split second, Raven had tossed me headfirst into the net with her skeleton hand, thing. She was giggling from the edge of the platform and even Oliver was chuckling quietly.

  "I should've warned you," Oliver called. "I don't hold back as much on her as I did on you."

  "Yeah, that might have been helpful information." I hauled myself up the ladder and flopped on my back at the edge of the platform. "It would've saved me any hope of not looking like an idiot." They both laughed and I couldn't help but join in.

  "Come on, get up," Oliver offered me a hand with a smile. "Let me show you what you did wrong."

  I looked at his hand for a moment, and then reached out to take it. Determination flooded through me.

  My old life was over. I had fallen asleep one night and my awakening had been into a new world. It was time to stop fighting my way backwards and time to start moving forward. And that started here, with the Midnight Society.

  I grabbed my new mentor’s hand, "Teach me everything you can."

  A special sneak peak at Chapter 1 of the upcoming sequel: Betrayal.

  I had finally begun settling into the routine of life at the “School”: classes, training with Oliver and on my own at the gym when I had free time, not to mention spending tons of time with new friends. I didn’t have to talk about anything I didn’t want to; I didn’t have to constantly worry about what people thought. It was really nice.

  I wasn’t wearing the sleeve to hide the scar anymore. Pretty much everyone at this school had scars, so it wasn’t a big deal for me to show off this one that circled my forearm. The only problem I ever had with it was when it was about to storm, I’d get a weird tingling sensation.

  I made a few new friends and managed to somehow lose one in the process. Trevor continued to avoid me all the way up until Maybury was deemed safe and he was sent back to school in town. Dylan and I started working out and sparring regularly so even though Raven and Oliver still regularly kicked wore me out at least I could feel myself getting stronger and faster as the gap between myself and Dylan closed.

  My spell casting came faster, but Raven was constantly on my case about relying on Zanj too much. I still didn’t see what the big deal was. He was there, why not let him help. It made the spells so much easier and they activated faster than they ever did if I tried to cast them on my own.

  Oliver explained that was because Zanj handled a part of the spell called the activation sequence, which was the portion of casting a spell where the energy (called chi by some, ki or reiki by others, and just magic by everyone else) was gathered and configured into the proper form to cause the desired effect. All that left me to do, was channel the energy from my chakras and aim the effect through my hands or feet.

  Put in laymen’s terms: Zanj loaded the gun with whatever ammo we needed and I looked down the sights and pulled the trigger.

  I was also learning that everyone’s magic gave off different sensations to the people near it being cast. Whenever, Dylan’s activation sequence started it felt like a breeze going by. Mine was electric, whenever my sequences began everyone felt a tingle like a storm was on the way. Xavier’s, my first sparring partner and a friend (though we hadn’t had a chance for a rematch yet), was heavy, like the air pressure rising.

  One day, I found myself at the gym, as often happened when I finished classes. I smiled and waved as I passed people I knew from class and even a few friends. Aidan, Griffin, Opal, and of course, the one I was here to see, Dylan.

  “Hey man, what’s up?” I slapped him a high five. “We sparring again today?”

  “Nah, I can’t but Raven’s up there if you don’t mind getting your ass kicked.” He laughed at me.

  Hey you tend to learn faster when you get it handed to you. The always helpful Zanj chimed in.

  “Yeah, doesn’t mean I enjoy getting it handed to me,” I replied in my head. “Just cause she can’t injure me up there, doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.”

  Don’t be such a baby, He muttered. And go learn something.

  I sighed and headed up stairs as he pulled away. I jogged around the track a few times to get loosened up and eventually forced myself towards the Platform. When I arrived, Raven was shoulder throwing a blonde girl, I recognized, to the ground hard enough to shake the floor. I winced, knowing I’d be in her shoes soon enough.

  The girl’s name was Marinna. I had met her a few days after I’d met Dylan.

  (A little less than a month ago)

  It was a late night and I couldn’t sleep. The new surroundings were gonna take some getting used to. So there I was, wandering the halls of the dorm and running my finger down the obnoxious swirling patterns of the wallpaper, when this girl came around a corner and just about ran me over.

  To her credit, she did managed to avoid me. She twisted away and tried to sidestep but her foot caught on a rug. She was heading down, so I did the logical thing, and I caught her. She landed in my arms and nearly took me down with her as I tried to maintain my balance. In the long run I caught her, but I not without a great amount of effort.

  I looked down at her in my arms and laughed. “You okay there?”

  She turned bright red and snatched away from me; her blonde braid whipped against my jaw. “I am so sorry!”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I teased, my mouth moving faster than my brain. “I’m used to having cute girls fall for me at first sight.”

  WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT!?

  She bit her lip, trying to look angry despite holding back a laugh. “Oh, I’m sure. You just toss out a cheap compliment like ‘cute’ and girls just fall all over you.”

  “To be fair, I didn’t even have to compliment you.” I was so far off the rails I had gone from trains to planes and automobiles but my mouth just kept going.

  “Marinna,” she said, offering her hand and pronounc
ing her name slowly to make sure I understood how to say it. It sounded like. “Mare in a.”

  “Mare in a?” I raised an eyebrow. “Mare in a stable? Mare in a heat? Mare in a...what, exactly? What’s the horse gotten itself into this time?”

  Uuuugh, somebody, kill me please!

  It was stupid, goofy, and probably a bit rude, but she found it funny. Maybe just because she was tired, but hey, a laugh’s a laugh.

  “Well, what’s your name?” Marinna rolled her eyes. “Or should I just call you Smart Ass?”

  “Hey at least I’m smart,” I laughed. “But, my name’s Way.”

  “Way?” She teased. “Way what? Way cool? Way smart? Way too long for you to say the whole thing?” I couldn’t help but laugh. “Or are you offering to show me the way?”

  “I’ll show you whatever part of the Way you’d like.” It was out of my mouth before thought it through.

  Don't you dare show her any part of the Way! Zanj yelled at me. It's my body too and we are not this easy!

  “Oh, so you won’t show me the whole Way?” She asked, blushing ever so slightly. “Just one little part? So you won’t give me all the directions just one?”

  “A singular direction,” I laughed back “That’s all you get.”

  “Alright then One Direction” She winked. “Care to show me the way?”

  “Depends on where you’re heading?”

  Back in the present Marinna was slowly getting to her feet.

  “You done Marinna?” Raven asked, still ready to go.

  “Oh yeah,” Marinna grunted rolling out her shoulder. She wasn’t injured obviously, but the wards still allowed the participants to feel some pain. Negative reinforcement I guess. “Looks like it’s Direction’s turn.”

  I rolled my eyes at her. “Why don’t you hit the showers stable girl.” I patted her on the head causing her to snap her teeth at me teasingly.

  We all laughed and she gave me a playful shove before heading to the side to watch. I spent a second too long with my eyes on her and missed Raven approaching me.

  “So you wanna spar?” Raven asked with a smile and I turned to look at her.

  He doesn’t I do. Zanj laughed.

  “Shut up.” I muttered aloud.

  “Hey, why don’t you let me take a turn?” I twisted my head, to see Xavier standing at the edge of the platform behind me. “Dylan told me you were up here and I want a rematch.”

  “Really?” I laughed. “Do you learn better by losing?”

  “Oh don’t even start,” he strode past me to stand by Raven. “You practically hustled me last time.”

  “To be fair, he didn’t hustle you, he just didn’t know what he could do,” Raven interjected chuckling. “But y’all go ahead I’d like to watch.”

  She sauntered to the edge of platform and sat down next to Marinna. The latter gave me a half wave and I missed Xavier summoning his sword.

  “Well, we gonna do this or not?” He called making me jump.

  “Huh- oh yeah.” I took a second to focus and summoned my sword. The weight of the sword settled into my palm and I swept it to the side. I had been working with Merrick on my sword skills a couple days a week and I was beginning to really get the hang of it. Not to mention it had given me time to study my sword a bit more.

  It was an arming sword, with a black blade and gold handle. The cross guard resembled a pair of broken wings and no matter what spells anyone tried, we couldn’t seem to fix them. The right wing was broken in half with the tip missing and the left looked like it had been shredded and was missing a lot of feathers.

  Hey, quit staring at the sword and get ready to fight.

  I snapped myself out of it and focused on Xavier.

  Raven began the match by yelling: “Ready?” Pause. “Ding, ding, ding!”

  In an instant, Xavier flickered out of sight. I couldn’t see him but with Zanj’s help I managed to throw my sword up and deflect his blade while activating my own speed spell.

  We shot towards each other again. Our blades met in flurries as we danced around each other looking for openings. We locked blades and shoved off sending both of us sliding back to opposite ends of the platform. We paused there for a moment.

  “Didn’t know you could use speed spells!” I commented. “Is yours a body modification or some kind of elemental ability?”

  “Body mod,” he replied. “You’re using lightning for yours, right?”

  “Yeah. Oliver says, I have a knack for electric magic.” My blade crackled with electricity. “Here.” I dug my feet in to charge him. “Let me show you.”

  I attack at human speed and thrust at his midsection. Xavier parried and nearly dropped his sword as the electricity flowed through him causing his arms to numb. He shot back and ducked my next strike. He tried to return but I blocked causing him to snatch away again.

  “You’re pretty light on your feet,” I commented as he dodged my attacks.

  “And you’re pretty clever using your electricity like that.” He ducked again and let out a verbal blow. “You’re an ass, but at least you’re a smart one.”

  Suddenly, his sword vanished and I saw a faint purple aura appear around his hands as he cast a blade ward spell. “Too bad you’re not smart enough!” He caught my sword in his palms.

  Idiot. That spell will only keep him from getting cut.

  I could practically see the electricity flowing into his arms but in an instant he yelled: “Shokan Kyozetsu! I reject!

  My blade glowed and then shattered into shards of light before they vanished.

  What the- Zanj and I were both dumbfounded.

  In a moment of shock, I almost missed Xavier summoning his sword and swinging it at my neck.

  “Zanj, trace that spell,” I demanded as I ducked and fell back.

  Already on it.

  It was my turn to be on the defensive. I kept myself as close to him as I could to void the effectiveness of his reach. I blocked at his wrists and gave a sharp twist followed by an upwards sweeping elbow. His sword fell to the ground, as the point of my elbow contacted his jaw. His head snapped back, he spun away, and his sword burned away on the ground to reform in his hand.

  I ducked and went to my internal dialogue, “You done yet?”

  Collection and concentration complete. Your turn.

  “Trace, on.” I spoke the words softly but aloud. I couldn’t seem to get the spell without vocalizing it. The spell activated sending green lines sprawling across my arms. Copying Xavier’s trick from earlier I caught his sword. “Shokan Kyozetsu! I reject!”

  His blade shattered just like mine had done, the pieces reverting into fire.

  His eyes flew wide and he let out a shocked sound. Time around us slowed again as I attacked with my hands.

  My fist connected with his stomach and then his jaw. He hit the ground but spun on his back and then up to his hands in order swing his foot hard into my head from a handstand position.

  I rolled aside and we shot forward again trading blows. I hit him hard, knocking him back at the same time he rocked my head back. I spun with the impact swinging my arm around as time fell back into reality.

  “Lightning bolt!” I told Zanj as my hand came up in the shape of a gun. My elbow met Xavier’s and I saw his fingers in my face. The energy flowed through and out of my arm sending the bolt arcing into his nose, just as a similar attack made of fire exploded into mine.

  The wind whipped around me as I flew through the air, just to come slamming down on the edge of the Platform. I laid there for a moment, letting the pain subside and then sat up.

  “Man,” Xavier grunted sitting up on the opposite side. “Thought I had you there.”

  “Same,” I pulled one leg up and looked at him across the Platform. “You’re a lot better than I thought.”

  “I took it easy on you last time.” He replied laughing. “By the time I realized you actually knew what you were doing, it was way too late.”

  “I actually had no idea wha
t I was doing last time.” I laughed in response. “I just got lucky.”

  And you had my help.

  “Yes, but he doesn’t need to know that,” I replied silently. I finally stood up and crossed to meet Xavier in the middle of the Platform.

  “You’re good.” Xavier offered me his hand. “I’d like to have you in my hunting party this weekend.”

  Marinna and Raven had reached us at this point. Raven responded for me while I picked my jaw up off of the floor. “Wow, that’s quite an offer.”

  Hunting parties were groups of Midnight Society agents and advanced students who were sent on ‘Field trips’ around the country. They were, simply put, monster hunts. Which I guess is what all Midnight agents are technically, but these guys went out and looked for them.

  “Well I’ve been trying to get you two on board ag-“ He stuttered and restarted. “On board for years, and if I can’t have you, might as well have the next best thing.”

  “Oh so I’m plan B?” I punched him in the shoulder.

  “More or less.” He laughed and punched me back.

  “He’ll have to get Oliver’s approval,” Raven said and turned to me. “But I imagine it’ll be fine if he wants to go.”

  I thought about it for a moment and raised my hand in front of me to summon my sword.

  “Oh thank God,” I breathed as it formed in my hand.

  “Oh, were you worried it was gone for good?” Xavier laughed yet again. “I can’t do something like that. I can just temporarily break the connection you have with it.” He paused. “Wait a minute…you used it on me though. How’d you do that, if you don’t even know what the spell does?

  “I’ll tell you in a minute but let’s get out of these people’s way,” I gestured to the guys waiting on the edge of the platform. “I need a shower but if y’all wanna come hang out at my place in thirty minutes or so that’d be cool. Then, I’ll answer all your questions and ask a few of my own.”

  “I’d love to but-” Marinna put her hands up and laughed. “I gotta get to class soon and I don’t hunt.”