Chapter eight #2
Sliding on the white Tyvek jumpsuit and tucking her hair beneath the hood, Amaya closed her locker and headed back out to the front room. She took a deep breath at the iron door that kept most of the power confined to the garden. She nodded that she was ready and Malik pressed the button.
The iron door slowly slid open and the power hit her full force, the chaos feeding her magic. If her hair wasn’t covered, she knew the strands would be glittering in response.
The sacred garden looked similarly to a Zen garden.
A stone path wound through the meteorites stored here, sand on either side.
Scattered dwarf trees in low clay pots kept the garden from looking stark, softening the lines of the sand and stones.
There were also various sized stones scattered around the garden, feeding the magic that most of the mages in the South used as a power source.
The main Akachi piece was at the immediate right of the stone path, the first meteorite in the garden and the most important. It was maybe three feet around, but the punch it packed was indescribable.
The black mass was nothing spectacular, but at certain angles, you could see the magic shimmering around it.
The piece that Raven had brought in months ago flanked the other side of the main stone.
She stood and tilted her head, probing at the meteorite.
The legend surrounding it made her proud.
She was standing in front of an important piece of history for the Southern USA.
She started cleaning.
The sand around the stone formed a rippling circle.
Each ridge of the sand served as a buffer to the power of the Akachi.
For the main stone, ten ridges spread from the stone outward, while some of the other smaller, weaker stones used less.
Using her magic, Amaya worked to cleanse the murky energy from the sand.
The gray sand that surrounded the meteorite was now black, saturated with power.
But, as she worked, the color would slowly leach out, as she funneled the magic back into the stone.
The sand held minerals that kept the rock stabilized, and her work would aid in that.
As she manipulated the power, the sand flattened, the color draining, the magic feeding back into its source.
Satisfied with the work, Amaya agitated the sand with her power, sweeping it back into the circular shape, the ridges intact.
There was a total of ten Akachi stones scattered across the sacred garden and this was the biggest. She always started here so that she could take a breather after.
No one other than Chawi witches and mages were allowed in the sacred garden.
Chaos Chawi were rare, Amaya being one of six who worked in the garden on a rotating shift.
The other five were all her family. All women, with the same eventual fate.
She swallowed and shook the negative thoughts from her head.
“Okay, class, careful on the glass. Each Archive was built on a site where the Akachi landed. There are over a dozen smaller Archives, but only five major ones. If you notice the Chawi below, she’s carefully cleaning and shoring up the energy that the meteorite gives off.
Who can tell me which of our friends use the chaos magic from the Akachi? ”
Amaya didn’t need to look up to know the hands would be lifted.
“The Chawi, Aziza, and Mujaji!” they all yelled out.
She remembered her first trip to the Archive as a kid. Her mother had worked here her whole life and Amaya thought she knew everything there was to know. Smug for one so young. She smiled wistfully.
Amaya looked up and waved at the kids, smiling at their happy faces as they returned the greeting.
She loved when field trips came through her otherwise quiet shift.
She gave them a show, using her hands to sweep the sand in the other direction, making the stone shimmer. The oohs and aahs made her chuckle.
By the time she was done for the day, she was wiped out.
Harnessing chaos was no small magic. Dampening the residual energy from the meteorite took a lot out of her.
She went through the steps to decontaminate herself, signaling for the door to open.
Taking off her clean suit and chucking it into the basket, Amaya looked forward to collapsing on her bed.
Just two weeks off and the endurance she’d built for the job was obliterated.
“See you tomorrow, Maya. A new class of mages will be in,” Malik told her.
“Really? It’s that time of year already?”
The mages came annually to renew their power. It was a big to-do and the sacred garden would be crawling with Chawi and their respective mentors and elders. The shifter met her at the door as she exited.
“Even at the viewing station, I could feel the power. I can’t imagine how you sit in there all day,” he said to her.
“Are you going to be my guard every day?”
He cocked his head at the change in subject, but nodded.
“What’s your name?”
“Bronx.”
She nodded. “I’m starving, Bronx. Do you have to take me straight back?”
Though Levi didn’t keep his promise to make her starve, he still made her wait until he left for the night before he allowed the maid to bring up a tray.
They were at an impasse. She refused to break bread with him and he made her wait to eat.
It was petty, but she was going to win at least one of their arguments, damn it.
“‘Fraid so.”
She sighed and followed him from the Archive. The ride home was just as silent as their earlier one. Bronx pulled up to the front of the house. He didn’t get out. As she opened the door, his question stopped her.
“My wolf is calm around you. You naturally dampen magic?”
“Yeah.”
He nodded. “You want coffee tomorrow morning?”
She smiled. “I don’t drink coffee, but I wouldn’t mind a tea.”
“See you tomorrow, then.”
Satisfied that she and her guard would be on some kind of even footing, Amaya trudged back inside of her prison.
To her surprise, her bed was full of boxes and bags.
Peeking in, her mouth dropped at the clothes and luxury skin products.
Sleep and lounge wear, even work clothes filled the shopping bags to bursting.
Her eyes widened and reluctant excitement filled her.
She couldn’t wait to try some of the stuff.
Despite her tired body, she hummed in the shower, enjoying the gifts left for her.
Wrapping a towel around herself, she prayed Levi left for work early so she wouldn’t have to wait forever to eat.
She squealed when she entered her bedroom to find the object of her thoughts sitting on the edge of her bed. Amaya sighed. She’d been too tired after work to put up the spell over her door.
“What do you want?”
“You’re refusing dinner with me again?”
“You may have me here, but you don’t have me under your control. You’re a king with no crown, and no power over me.”
Levi closed the space between them quicker than she could blink.
Her breath got stuck in her throat. His power probed at her thoughts, his magic and glamour raining over her.
An ache built in her body as it attuned itself to his nearness with no input from her mind.
Levi scraped his teeth down the skin of her neck and her stomach tumbled low, liquid sliding from her sex down her leg.
She couldn’t help her body’s reaction to him, or the whimper that left her lips.
“And yet here you are, baby doll, in my grasp…under my power.” His hands cupped her throat, the sharp points of his claws lightly digging into her skin.
Her heart thundered, filling her ears with its staccato. It was hard to breathe in the charged air between them. Swirling chaos ignited the magic within her and Amaya’s knees weakened.
“You live because I will it, because I desire it. The minute that changes is the moment you take your last breath. You might wanna be nice to a brother.” He hissed and let her go.
She dropped to the floor, her legs unable to support her. He watched her, a flame in his eyes.
“I ain’t got but so much patience, shawty. Remember that shit next time you trying to pop off. Lock it,” he told the guard at her door, and she rushed up right before it slammed shut on her.
She slapped the door.
Why couldn’t she keep her mouth shut!