Chapter 27: Chapter 27: Is This the New Recruit?

His eyebrows shot up. “What? I would never do that. How could you even think I would do that?”

I didn’t know the answer to that. The question had just popped into my head and I’d blurted it out without thinking. Yes, the curtain was drawn and both doors were locked, but he could walk through them.

“Well, I don’t really know you, do I? You just showed up out of nowhere. I don’t know what to think. You can walk through walls and go wherever you like. You could watch people shower…”

My mind went to all sorts of bad places after that. What if he’d been watching me shower this whole time? I suppressed a shudder.

Johnny’s face turned red. Was he actually guilty?

“I can’t believe you’d think I would do that to you.” He started to pace and ran a hand through his hair. “Okay, I know you don’t really know me, but I thought you’d know me well enough to know I would not abuse this situation like that.”

Oops. Me and my big mouth. “Okay, I’m sorry, but you kind of freaked me out standing outside my room like that.”

“Fine. I’ll go stand somewhere else.”

And with that, he stomped off — right through the wall.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

I hesitated out the front of the Angel Falls Community Centre the next day and Kellie gave me a reassuring smile. “Hey, don’t worry. You’ll be fine.”

I tried to return her smile, but my nerves were jangling. If they were expecting me to do whatever I did the other night, they would be disappointed. Because that wasn’t going to happen. I had no clue how I did it and no desire to repeat the experience. Everyone had been insisting that I had to learn control and that was the only reason I agreed to come here.

The image of Tracy lying in a crumpled heap with blood spreading out across the floor beneath her head flashed into my mind and I squared my shoulders and started up the steps.

They’d told me that to the Normals — the non-magical people — this was just a class on the different properties of crystals and gemstones, and because they were widely used in magic, we had to learn about them for real. Angel Falls wasn’t too far from a gemstone mine, so no one questioned having a course like this in the local community centre. What they didn’t know was that we also learned how to wield magic.

When we entered, Tracy steered us toward the large reception desk where a woman dressed in a beige business suit with her blonde hair neatly pulled back into a bun waited expectantly.

Tracy gave her a warm smile. “Good afternoon, Yvonne. How are you?”

Yvonne returned the smile. “I’m well, thank you.” She turned to me. “Is this the new recruit?”

“Yes. This is Maddelyn Johnson. She’s from Katoomba.”

I fidgeted with the handle of my bag.

We exchanged pleasantries, then Tracy led us to a room that looked like a school science lab with large desks and stools, a whiteboard at the front, and shelves that were covered in crystals and candles and other paraphernalia lining three walls. It reminded me of Ruby’s shop.

There were about fifteen people in the room already and I assumed they were other students.

I turned to Tracy. “Does Yvonne know what’s really going on in here?”

She smiled. “Yes. She’s a Normal, but she’s cool with it all. It would be hard to hide it from her when she runs the admin section.”

Yep. It would be near impossible without having to erase her memories every other week. I suppressed a shudder at the thought that they could mess with people’s memories.

Tracy ushered me to a desk near the front, but not in the front row. Just like school. Kellie sat on the other side of me and Laynee skulked over to the back corner away from everyone.

All chatter in the room stopped when Ruby entered dressed in a long, flowing dress with many chains around her neck and bracelets jangling at her wrists. The smile on her face looked genuine and she gave a small nod when she saw me.

I smiled too. As she greeted us, I thought how fitting it was that she was teaching this stuff after seeing what she sold at Mystical Encounters.

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Tracy stood. “Time for me to go. I’ll pick you guys up after class.”

We said goodbye, then she said a few quiet words to Ruby before leaving the room.

Ruby turned to us, the feathers in her hair moving around slowly. “Good afternoon, everyone. I hope you’ve been keeping well. We have a new student today, Maddelyn Johnson. I hope you will make her feel welcome.”

I hated being the centre of attention and lowered my head, hoping she’d move on and not do the introduce-yourself-to-the-class thing.

Ruby smiled again. “Don’t worry. You’re not the only beginner in the class.”

Thank God for that.

“I will be taking the beginner class today and Malcolm will take the more advanced students.”

As she spoke, a tall man with short brown hair and a scruffy, almost-beard entered the room. She introduced him as Malcolm Sussex.

She moved on to talk about the importance of control. It was obviously for my benefit. They’d probably all heard it before.

“Once you learn proper control, you can perform more advanced magic. Healing, for example, takes a huge amount of concentration. Most people can transfer some of their magic into a wound and the magic helps with the healing, but to truly heal, to knit bones back together and draw the flesh together, takes true skill. Not everyone can master it.”

I shuddered at the mental picture that painted for me. Sometimes I cursed my vivid imagination.

After she finished speaking, she turned to me. “Malcolm is one of the teachers here and takes classes for me if I’m tied up at the shop.”

He smiled and said hello to me. His smile seemed genuine and his three-day-old beard look gave him an “art teacher” kind of vibe. The collared shirt and skinny jeans added to the picture.

Ruby left him to take the more advanced students while Laynee, me, and another young girl with short, blonde hair followed Ruby into the next room that basically looked the same as the first one. We sat at separate desks.

Once Ruby had established that I knew nothing at all about magic till I blasted Tracy into a wall and was a complete newbie, she told me that it was nothing to be ashamed of. “I assume your parents aren’t showing any signs of being magical?”

“Um, it’s only me and Mum,” I told her, not really wanting to talk about it here in front of the others. “And I was adopted, so maybe Mum didn’t tell me about magic because she’s just a normal human.”

Ruby was nodding her agreement. “It seems very likely.” She pushed a lock of purple hair behind her ear. “My guess is that one or both of your real parents are Descendants.”

She had a faraway look in her eyes, like she could somehow see who my parents were if she concentrated enough.

She looked back at me and smiled. “Never mind. We’ll discover what your levels are and what you can do as we go through these lessons. You’ll be fine.”

I cringed inside. I was afraid of what I could do.

She launched into a lecture on how to focus on our power in order to use it. “You need to search within your very core until you feel it there. It usually feels like it’s at the centre of your chest.

The others had probably done this a million times before. I felt guilty for making them sit through it again, but had to remind myself that I hadn’t set this class up to have me, a clueless beginner, put in with people who had probably grown up all their lives knowing magic existed.

We each had an empty cup on the desk in front of us. The first thing we were told to do is to use our power to move the cup. It seemed simple enough, but impossible at the same time.

Ruby told us to close our eyes and take some deep breaths and told me to focus on finding that spark within. I pictured Dragonia in my mind. Her scales. Her wings. The crystal ball in her mouth. It helped me to centre my thoughts.

I searched for the spark Ruby said was there. I concentrated on my chest. I reached deep inside myself.

Nothing.

There was nothing there.

My eyes flew open. How was I supposed to do this?

“Once you have found the spark, concentrate on making it bigger. Stronger. Bring it out of its hiding spot and feel it travel down your arm and into your fingers. Now use it to nudge the cup. Maddie, are you having trouble?”

“Uh, yeah. I can’t find the spark.”

I heard the sound of a cup hitting the floor and we turned to see Laynee picking it up. “Sorry.”

Her red face peeked out from behind a curtain of long, dark hair. I could relate to not wanting to be the centre of attention.

“Well done, Laynee. And Shauna too.”

Shauna’s cup was near the edge of her desk. They were probably bored with doing such basic magic. I felt like I needed to apologize.

Ruby turned her attention back to me. “Now don’t worry if you can’t find it the first time you try. It’s not always easy. Let’s try again while the other girls see if they can make their cups fly.”

I felt a little out of my depth, especially with the others succeeding so easily.

Ruby sat next to me and spoke in a quiet voice. “Okay. Close your eyes and use the relaxation techniques Tracy taught you. Take your time. There’s no hurry. This isn’t a test.” I did as she said. “Relax each part of your body. Focus inward by picturing the image you decided to use in Tracy’s lesson. Concentrate on it and on my voice. Breathe slowly. That’s it.”

I felt more relaxed with her talking me through it.

“Great. Now, draw your focus into a sharp point. Move that point to the middle of your chest. Search for something that feels similar to the feeling you felt the other night when your magic was released.” I sucked in a breath. I didn’t want to relive that. “Don’t panic. In this calm setting, you won’t have a repeat of what happened the other night. You won’t hurt anyone. Keep concentrating. You can do this. It’s there. Find it and just keep it there.”

Who was I kidding? This wasn’t going to work. Mum was right. Magic didn’t exist. Maybe I still needed to be back at Mirrabooka House. It all seemed so unreal.

But then I felt something deep in my chest. Down low. Like it was coming up from my gut.

Maybe that’s what I’m supposed to be feeling and finding.