Chapter Thirteen #2
She closed her eyes and every time she saw the firestorm she created in her mind, all she could think of was what would happen if it jumped free. She could feel that it wanted to hop down and race along the ground. It almost seemed to be asking her free it.
“Maybe imagine it rotating in the opposite direction to break it apart,” Caiden suggested, from her other side. The witch had positioned himself between her and Meryn.
She couldn’t help it. The calmer they got, the more freaked out she became.
“Tell the little baby firenado, thank you for coming to play, but it’s time to stop now,” Meryn said, in a clear voice.
Kiera felt tears run down her cheeks as she looked at the small woman past Caiden’s shoulder.
“Meryn, hush!” Kendrick ordered.
Meryn rolled her eyes and smiled up at her. “Just thank it for coming, then say we’ll play again later.” She seemed so sure of herself, that Kiera began to believe her.
Kiera nodded slowly, then closed her eyes. ‘Lil baby firenado. Thank you for coming out. I’m sorry I don’t know how to play with you yet.”
“Amazing,” Caiden whispered.
Kiera opened her eyes, the plume had shrunk down to about a foot high, still spinning in her hand. Feeling more confident now that she had actually connected with this magic, she continued. ‘When I know what I’m doing, we can play again’ she promised.
The plume flickered as if acknowledging her promise, and it shrunk, then disappeared.
Hunter stood next to Aiden, both frozen in place. Zev, Konstantine, Aedan, and the twins stood behind them.
“What in the hell were you thinking!” Kendrick demanded, his hands on his hips.
Kiera blinked, then pointed at Meryn. “It was her idea.” She shamelessly threw the cute pregnant woman under the bus knowing they wouldn’t do anything to her.
Kendrick whirled on Meryn, who looked up at him smugly. “It’s not my fault, I can’t get up remember?”
He began to sputter.
Meryn ignored him. “Do you think you could mix earth and water for like a mud golem?”
Now that the fear had passed, excitement took over. “I can try!”
“No, you can’t!” Kendrick exclaimed.
The twins went to step forward, and Kendrick pointed at them. “No.”
Kendrick looked at Kiera. “I thought you were a null.”
“What’s that?” Meryn asked.
“A null can negate any magic,” Caiden explained. “That’s what I thought she was too. I thought she’d take the magic and extinguish it. If nulls are strong enough, they can even prevent spells from being cast in a radius around them.”
Meryn looked at Kiera. “Let’s call Zoe. We can see if you can suppress her Inferno!”
“No!” both Kendrick and Caiden said at once.
She crossed her arms, looking up at Kendrick. “You’re boring.”
Kendrick gasped.
Anne laughed at his expression.
Ryuu replaced Meryn’s juice glass with a full one. “Ahh, I remember the days when you were this reckless,” he reminisced. “I distinctly remember you saying, ‘Who needs cannonballs if you have magic?’ That was your pirate era, I believe.”
Kendrick looked at Meryn with a hurt expression. “Boring?”
“Yeah, boring. Look at you, freaking out over a li’l baby firenado. Let’s blow stuff up.”
Kendrick kept eye contact and brought both arms up to point at the house behind them.
Meryn chewed on her lower lip. “Good point.” She looked to Nigel. “Can you guys cause an earthquake for her to stop?”
“That would still destroy the house!” Kendrick exploded.
“Ryuu, maybe we should get some tea for Kendrick, he looks like he’s about to stroke out,” Meryn said, looking worried.
“Yes, denka,” Ryuu said, then went inside.
Kendrick rubbed his temples. “My father is laughing at me. I know it.”
Caiden clapped him on the shoulder. “New magic is exciting.”
Hunter walked past Kendrick to pull Kiera in his arms. “You, okay?”
“Yeah. I’m surprised you didn’t try to shoot the fire though,” she said, smiling up at him.
Hunter pointed to Aiden, then to the house. “Aiden reacts when Ryuu does. Ryuu was calm, so we didn’t think there was any danger.”
Kendrick’s head swiveled to Aiden, then Hunter. “No danger?” he asked, in a low voice.
Caiden chuckled, then cleared his throat. “You said it yourself, you, me, and even Ryuu had this under control,” he reassured Kendrick.
Kiera stepped back to look at Meryn, who was grinning from ear to ear while pushing her hands together. “Boom”, she whispered.
Kendrick looked back and forth from Kiera to Meryn. “No.”
Ryuu stepped outside and handed Kendrick a teacup and saucer. “Sit down.”
Kendrick took the cup and sat back down in the chair. He took a sip.
Ryuu walked around the chairs until he was standing in front of Kiera.
“Miss Kiera, my magic is a bit different from what Storm Keep is used to working with, but I think for the purpose of seeing if you can negate magic, it should work.” He held out his hand and a small water sphere rose from his palm.
This time when she reached for his magic, she felt a wave of coolness run through her.
When she traced it back to his hand, she was shocked at what she found.
There was no end to it. He had a seemingly infinite source of magic.
She looked up at him and he winked. She swallowed, then reached for the small blue threads of water magic holding the sphere together.
Unsure of what to do, she plucked them. The sphere collapsed.
Ryuu nodded. “Excellent work.” He went back to his position behind Meryn.
She turned to Hunter. “I can do magic!” she yelled.
He picked her up and spun her. “I’m so proud of you!”
“What the hell are those idiots at the Academy actually testing for?” Kendrick grumbled.
Hunter sat her down. She turned to Caiden. “What can I do?” she asked.
Caiden tilted his head. “Nothing… and everything,” he said simply.
“Badass,” Meryn whispered.
*****
Kendrick looked at Caiden. “As much as I hate to admit it, we may need the Witches’ Council.”
Caiden practically snarled. “Like hell we do!”
Kendrick held up a hand. “Do you remember Meryn saying that the Witches’ Council is like the clean ledger hiding the bad one?”
Caiden didn’t say anything.
Kendrick continued. “Meryn also met all the council members and said that none registered as a threat.”
Caiden sighed.
Kendrick kept going. “Their responses to the enforcers deaths have been neutral and for lack of a better term, honest, at least from their perspective.”
“That just means they’re being careful of what they say for public opinion,” Caiden said, pacing back and forth on the deck.
“True. I’m willing to take a chance. We can bring forward a valid concern to the Witches’ Council about the Academy,” Kendrick said, looking over to Kiera. “With your permission of course.”
Kiera thought it over. “You want to use my powers to possibly drive a wedge between the Witches’ Council and the Academy?”
He nodded, then shook his head. “I think we can use this as an example of gross incompetence to flush out the major players.” He turned to Meryn. “Of those in charge in Storm Keep, who has hit your radar as problematic?”
Meryn thought it over then shuddered. “That Karl guy made me puke, literally. Andrei is also a douche.”
“No one else from the Witches’ Council?”
“Nope, I got weird images, but otherwise they were benign. If my empathy hadn’t tried to put my buh-rain on a spin cycle I would have been fine after meeting them.”
Caiden looked down where Kendrick sat. “You really think they’re being used?”
“We can see.”
Kiera squeezed Hunter’s hand. “Report it. What if I’m not the only one? What if there are others that don’t quite fit the cookie cutter mold? If the Witches’ Council truly cares about representing the people, it should be everyone, not just those with high test scores.”
Caiden nodded. “Where do we start?”
Kendrick turned to Meryn, smiling. “Didn’t you say they liked you?”
“Yeah, because I’m covering their asses in their dealings with humans,” she replied.
“Who did you like best?” he asked.
“Daia,” she answered immediately.
“Why? What about her made you respond like that?” Kendrick asked, looking surprised.
“She likes coffee.”
Kendrick rolled his eyes. “Of course that’s why.” He leveled his gaze at her. “Do you think she’ll come?”
“Seventy-thirty our favor.”
“Call her.”
Meryn got her phone out and put it on speaker.
“Hello?” a woman answered.
“Hey Daia, it’s Meryn, remember me?”
“I don’t see how anyone could forget you,” Daia replied in a warm voice.
“I may have a problem and may need a favor,” Meryn started.
“Are you safe?” she asked, sounding concerned.
“Oh yeah, totally.”
They heard a sigh of relief. “That’s good. What’s going on? I’m not sure how I can help.”
“My friend was like super tested at the Academy, they ended up being a total bust, right? But I just saw them doing magic stuff on the back deck,” Meryn twirled her phone on the table.