I tensed. All kinds of scenarios played through my weary mind as I opened the message. People didn’t message at such a late hour unless there was something wrong, right?
Hey maddie do u wanna go to a party 4 halloween? A bunch of us r going it will be fun
I had to read it twice. A party invite?
I clenched my fists. This was what he was texting me about in the middle of the night? Here I was thinking that something bad had happened to him.
I closed my eyes and took a slow, deep breath. Exhaustion hit me.
This was probably the party that Kellie had told me about. Whatever. But surely he could have told me during the day.
I resisted the urge to reply right away. I needed to wait till I’d calmed down first. Plus, I didn’t want him to know that I was still awake at this ungodly hour. He might want to know why. I’d told them I wasn’t going to tell anyone about the Rebels and I meant it.
I would answer Blake in the morning.
The heaviness I’d been feeling since I blasted Russell started to feel like a heavy weight on my soul and I put the phone on my bedside and my head on my pillow. At least I hadn’t passed out straight afterward like I did when I’d hurled magic at Tracy.
My eyes fluttered closed and I was asleep in seconds.
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The next morning, I woke to find that I’d slept till eleven. I must have really needed it to recover from the night before. I was still lethargic as I pulled myself out of bed, but I was glad I wasn’t out for days like last time. How would I explain that to Tracy?
I found a small package on the vanity in the bathroom with my name on it that contained a small clear quartz crystal from Kellie and instructions on how to use it to replenish my magic. I followed the instructions carefully. “Do not draw the magic out too quickly” was written in big, bold letters, so that’s what I did.
Tracy was the only one home, so she sat and talked to me while I had my breakfast. Then we headed down to the police station so I could give them my statement. Parkinson did the interview and we went over what I’d already told them the day before. All standard stuff.
It was hard reliving it, especially thinking about when it had hit Sophie that there was no coming back from this. It made my heart hurt.
After reminding me of the “official” story I had to give people, Parkinson finished up the interview.
We grabbed a late lunch at Herbie’s and once we got home, Tracy announced that she was going to teach me how to create a shield.
Excitement ran through me, but I was still more than a little anxious. The things they said last night about my lack of control came to mind. Then there was the fact that I’d used so much magic. What if my magic level was still too low? What if I couldn’t do it?
“Don’t look so worried,” Tracy said. “It’s not as hard as you think.”
I tried to smile. I could do this. I had to learn this. She didn’t have to tell me how important this was.
I expected her to take me into the lounge room, but Tracy led me to a door that led down some stairs to a huge room with training mats in some sections and targets on the far wall. My jaw dropped. It was rare for a house to have a basement, so for them to have a full-on training room that must have stretched the whole length of the house was just amazing.
“This is our training room. For this exercise, we can’t use the lounge room because I’ll be throwing magic at you and I don’t want to set the curtains on fire. Don’t worry, I won’t be using a lot of power. It won’t really hurt you if you fail to block it.”
Well, that makes me feel a whole lot better. Thanks.
We sat facing each other on one of the training mats. My nerves were jangling, so I tried to slow my breathing.
Tracy smiled at me. “Just relax. This is basic magic. Slow your breathing. Close your eyes if you need to. Concentrate on bringing forth your magic. Hold it in the middle of your chest. Now, instead of pushing it down your arms, imagine it radiating out of your body from within and just pushing forward. Now you need to shape it into a shield. Make it flat. Make it kind of rounded. Make it spread out, feeding it more magic. That’s it. Feed it some more. You’re getting it. That’s great.”
Wow. It worked. I could see a smoky white shimmer floating in front of me.
“Now, hold it in place. I’m going to try to penetrate it with a little bit of magic. Don’t worry. If it gets through, it won’t hurt you.”
She waved a hand and a wisp of magic shot forth from her fingertips.
24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLrgFP64cr8
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Author's Note: I’d love more feedback from you about this story. Is it interesting enough? Is there enough tension? Do you like the characters? Are there any boring bits, or do you think that all the small things that happen are relevant to the story? Please let me know in the comments so I can improve my writing and tell better stories.
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