…..CHAPTER 20…..
November 9th
Oliver’s magic hit hers with so much force her little barrier shattered on impact. Phoebe was already spinning up a new one before her magic had even finished coming apart.
Practice over the last few weekends had been hell, but she’d already learned so much! She’d been worried that the Academy would know about Oliver’s Prime status, since she was learning her Air from him, but he’d assured her that magic was magic, and any witch could—and did—teach the basics.
She was finding that more and more true with each lesson.
Oliver was holding back, she could tell. And his power was terrifying. She managed to deflect his action, barely.
Problem was, she knew for a fact that he could do so much more.
“Hey, let’s break for a few. You’re looking pale,” he called from across the meadow.
She nodded, grateful. “Yes, please.”
He smiled wryly as he approached. “And it looks like Oscar has lunch ready, too.”
In an effort to maximize their practice time, ever since their first foray up here, they’d left before dawn and arrived about an hour after the sun came up. They’d also been coming up here with the whole family. Cara and Micah were in the cabin with Tracy, and Phoebe got to see the whole family in action.
It was bittersweet, seeing them together. It was a family life she’d once had.
Before her magic woke up.
It was also fun. The four of them played with, teased, and physically sparred with Oliver, who took it with a grin, and a few well-aimed verbal barbs. Quiet though he was, Oliver didn’t hold back with his family. At least not much.
At the table, once food was done and the kids had hied off to their shared bedroom to play, Oscar turned to her. “I’m afraid we need to talk about Academy, Phoebe,” he said gently.
She stiffened, but gave a nod. “Yes, of course.”
“I’ll let Oliver explain it all, but Principal Harper has been asking after your training. I can’t hold them off much longer. You’ve got enough of a grip of Air already. You two need to focus on other Elements. Oliver, are any of her Elements still asleep?”
She didn’t know what that meant.
Oliver frowned thoughtfully. “I doubt it. She was actively using all four. If there’s one I would say she could keep quiet, it would be Fire.”
“It’ll hide her Prime status if we can keep it that way. Being a Parallel 2 isn’t unheard of.”
“What’s a Parallel 2?” she asked.
Oliver turned to her. “Someone who can use two Elements outside of their native.” He turned back to Oscar, shaking his head. “Her power is very high, Oscar. Being a level eight or more Parallel Two will put her under a microscope. She might end up in Kansas.”
Phoebe wondered what he meant by that, but didn’t want to interrupt them. She needed to know, though, because she most certainly didn’t want to be taken so far from her new life. She was struggling to deal with it as it was. To be taken from it, facing not only new people and a new life, but a new location on top of it all… She’d go crazy. And she knew it wasn’t figurative. She was still in counseling.
Oscar sighed and rubbed his temples. “I know. But what else can we do? It’ll be better than them knowing she’s a Prime.”
Tracy met her gaze, eyes serious. “You have any thoughts, hun?”
She shook her head. “It’s all too new to me for me to know enough to offer help or ideas. But I do think I should know about Kansas.”
Oliver stared down at the wood grain of the table, mouth tightening, tracing the lines with one finger. “Kanorado, Kansas. It’s the location of a special facility for witches who’re too powerful to be allowed in public.”
Phoebe shivered. “Prison?”
“In a way. It’s…” Oliver closed his eyes and rubbed between his brows. Tracy lifted a hand to settle gently on his shoulder. Oliver leaned back in his chair, lifting his face to the ceiling, eyes still clenched shut. “It’s supposedly a luxurious home for them. There are three level nine Parallel Ones. There’s a level nine Parallel Two. There are…god, two or three level tens? And there’s one level ten Parallel One. There aren’t any level ten Parallel Twos at the moment. But you would be one, if your Fire wasn’t awake.”
Phoebe blinked. “You think I’m a level ten?”
Oliver hestitated, then nodded. “You’ll get there someday. And probably pretty fast, with training.”
Gulping, Phoebe glanced around the table, feeling almost guilty, shoulders hunching around her ears. “I thought you said I was a level eight?”
“You are. Easily. But witches also get stronger and more powerful as they age. Due to practice, mostly, because our magic becomes more refined. But it does get stronger. When they pegged me for a nine, I really was a nine. Over time, it’s gotten stronger, and I’ve had to conceal it.”
“We’ll do everything we can to keep you and Oliver out of Kanorado,” Oscar said firmly, meeting her gaze. “Any other questions?”
“I think I’m good for now,” she muttered. Oliver snorted, muttering something about bad news a little bit at a time.
Oscar shot Oliver a frown but gave Phoebe’s hand a little pat. “Perhaps. But this is your life, and we’re not going to leave you out of the discussion just because you’re new.”
Phoebe smiled, warm inside.
Oliver’s mouth twitched with a weary smile, but he kept staring down at the table. “I wish we didn’t have to send you to the Academy at all.”
“Me, too,” she whispered.
The conversation shifted and the two men rose, collecting dishes.
“Back out there, you two. Take a few minutes to discuss which Element to deal with first, but focus on something other than Air today.”
“I think Water,” she offered. “You’re trying to master it, and I need to learn it anyway,” she said as they stepped outside.
“I agree.”
The next hour or so was spent in getting familiar with the sensations of Water. It was…heavy. At least compared to Air. And slippery?
Oliver called a halt and they sat in the middle of the meadow together. She reached down to pull up a few strands of grass, side-eyeing first his cuff, then her own.
“Why is mine different?”
His face turned to hers, then he looked down at his cuff, shifted his wrist to see it. “When you arrive at Academy, you become a student, and age doesn’t matter at all, as I’m sure you can guess. Yours is a student cuff.”
“Will mine look like yours someday?”
“Sort of. Yours will be yellow instead.”
“If…if they find out I’m a Parallel, what’ll happen?”
“They’ll adjust your cuff and teach you your magic. Parallel magic isn’t as strong as the native. Your cuff? It’ll still be yellow, but it’ll have little bands of blue and green side-by-side on each side of your information, to indicate your Parallel status.”
Phoebe was over that topic, so she shifted to something else that she’d been wondering for awhile now. “So, you were how old when you became a witch?”
“Seven,” he muttered.
“I was eight. I was playing in the backyard, swinging on the swing set. I did one of those jumps, you know? Where you get going so high you pull the back legs off the ground?”
Oliver grinned. “Yeah. I did that regularly at school. On purpose. I wanted to see if I could drag the swing set over.”
Phoebe laughed at him. “Oh my god, Oliver! You were a trouble-maker weren’t you?”
Oliver just kept grinning. “Needless to say, I hadn’t thought of the ramifications, had I succeeded.”
Shaking her head, she continued. “I jumped off the swing, but I got caught on it, and was tumbling to the ground. I caught myself on a cushion of air.”
Oliver’s eyebrows lifted. “For such a short distance, and that quickly…that alone would mark you a powerful witch right away.”
She shrugged, uncomfortable with that observation. “I understand that you were…captured.” She didn’t want to ask about his magical awakening. Oscar had mentioned it with dark eyes once, and she’d taken it to mean it was a taboo topic.
He looked away, grin disappearing fast. “You could say that.”
“How did you escape?”
“Luck, mostly. And it lasted all of about ten minutes. I got out of the catchment just to be caught by agents and taken to the Academy.”
“You grew up in the school, then?”
“Yeah.”
“Is it really as bad as they say?”
“I don’t know, since I didn’t grow up anywhere else. I don’t think so. It was just like regular school, only I happened to live there, too. The teachers are both witches and regular people. Teachers for academics, and witches to show us how to control ourselves. They’re not bad people. It’s just the…restrictions. Learning about what we can and can’t do is very heavily taught. And enforced.”
The tightening of his eyes made Phoebe sigh inside.
She looked back down at his wrist. Tilting her head, she read it. “What do all the numbers mean? In our registration numbers?”
Oliver followed her gaze and grimaced. “The large number, 317709511, is my national witch number. The ‘M’ stands for Mountain Region, my local region. It pretty much aligns with the time zones. You know—Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific. And the 04 stands for the year that my magic awoke.”
“You know the number by heart?” she asked, then shrugged uncomfortably. “Of course. You’ve only been wearing it for most of your life.”
Oliver shook his head, staring off into the distance. “It’s not that. Knowing your registration number will be one of the things you’re required to learn. It’ll literally be the first thing you learn when you arrive.”
Phoebe shuddered. “I’m ready to get back to work.”
Oliver didn’t say a word as they parted to their respective sides of the meadow.
Phoebe found Water to be pleasing to work with. And when Oliver explained how in nature water was carried by the air in the rain cycle, it made sense.
“You’ll rarely find an instance where the Elements aren’t in harmony with the others. One would think fire and water would cancel each other out, rather than work together. But remember, Heat is one of the Aspects of Fire, and what do you have when you put heat and water together?”
“Steam.”
“Yup.”
She nodded and looked out over the distant edge of the mountain meadow. She knew it broke off and became a rocky descent, passable, but hard work, at the edge of their property. Beyond lay a fantastic view of mountains and trees.
“I think we should look at your magic, regarding the other two Elements,” Oliver said, motioning to her to pay attention. “On the night we found you, you were using all four, but there was no outward use of Fire. It was all inside. If you’re going to be immune to visible magical sight, it would be that one.”
“I used all four? You’re sure?”
He nodded, grim. “You were burning up inside, like with a fever. It contributed to your shock.”
“Oh.”
“Alright, here’s what I want you to do. Close your eyes, and think about Water. Don’t touch it with your magic, just think about.”
She obeyed.
A moment later Oliver made a satisfied noise. “As I thought. Looking at you with my magic, your Water Parallel is clear. Okay, now do the same with Earth. Just think about it. They way it feels to you.”
She waited.
“Huh. It’s barely there. You might get away without it. Now for Fire.”
Again, she turned her mind to the feel of the Element.
“Good,” he murmured. “No Fire. I was right. Anyone looking at you would notice your Water, but Fire is silent, and so is Earth. That’s good news.”
“Does that mean I’m not Prime, then?” She popped her eyes open.
“Oh no. You are. What I’m looking for isn’t whether you have them. It’s whether anyone who is level eight or higher can tell if you have them. Being Parallel 1 isn’t unusual. What matters is that your use of all four that night was negligible enough to potentially conceal two of them. I’m not surprised water shows. It’s extremely compatible with Air, so you used it with ease. Because you used it, it means you can’t hide it. Earth is sort of iffy. But your Fire is well concealed, mostly because your use of it was internal, but also because it wasn’t as strong as the others.”
Phoebe gave him an impish sort of smile to see how he reacted. “Whew. Well, that’s a load off.”
With a snort and amusement that lit his green eyes, he waved for her to follow. “Let’s talk to Oscar and see what’s next.”
As usual, the Handler was seated beside a tree next to the path to the cabin that lay barely visible behind him.
After discussions, they returned to the field to continue practicing Water.
By the end of the day, she had enough of a handle on it that she was comfortable.
The drive back to Denver was full of laughter as the Dale-Carson family joked around, teasing and playing.
And when they arrived back at the Bureau building, Oscar took them up to their floor but remained on the elevator. “You coming home with us, Oliver?”
He shook his head. “Since I’m here, I’ll stay.”
“Alright. Have a good night, you two.”
The doors slid shut and they trudged down the corridor to her own apartment, passing his that sat by the elevator.
“You don’t have to walk me to the door,” she said.
He shrugged.
“Want something to drink?”
“I wouldn’t say no to some water. Which is ironic.”
She grinned. “Shh…”
In her tiny little allotment, which wasn’t really hers, just a temporary home until she left for Academy, she got them both some water.
“I want to thank you and Oscar for helping me,” she said, staring down into her water.
“You’re welcome.”
“You could’ve just turned me over…”
Shaking his head, Oliver lifted her chin so she met his gaze. “We would never have done that. You needed help, not condemnation.”
She swallowed. “Is the Academy like being condemned?”
He looked away and let her go. She missed his touch. She missed being touched at all, but knew she’d better get used to it. Hugs from the children were one of her favorite remedies to loneliness or sadness. Now she’d never have that again.
“It can be. I don’t want to scare you, Phoebe.”
“I’d rather be prepared.”
He sighed, eyes sliding closed in weariness. “Academy is all about making a witch safe for the public. That means learning not just rules and laws. It isn’t only about learning your magical control. It’s also about learning to set aside yourself.”
She figured as much.
“So, I’m expected to become a public servant. But not the elected kind.”
“That sums it up. Nothing we do can be personal.”
“I can’t live that way.”
“None of us can. We can only try our best.”
Her fists clenched, the one around her water turning white. She eased up so she didn’t break the glass. “It’s not fair.”
He didn’t say anything.
Phoebe looked up from her glass to see him staring at her. He looked away. “No. It’s not. It’s my life. I should be allowed to live it as I please. If I’m not hurting anyone… But there’s the rub. Any non-witch will point out that witches do harm people. Often. With their magic.”
Phoebe closed her eyes, was startled to feel a tear slip free.
Oliver caught it on the side of his finger. “I hate this,” he whispered. “That’s why I’m fighting it.”
She blinked at his words. “You’re…fighting it?”
“I am. There’s a war coming. A war between witches and normal people, and we witches will be forced to fight in it. Because if we don’t, we’ll lose everything.”
“How can we lose more than we already have?” she cried in frustration.
His gaze met hers but he said nothing.
Yeah. He didn’t have to.
Phoebe hesitated. Then she stepped forward with a boldness she didn’t usually show. Oliver’s surprise shifted to interest as her mouth hovered close to his.
“This is something they don’t allow,” he whispered.
“I don’t care.”
His mouth twitched with a tiny smile, and then he closed the distance in a soft, chaste kiss. “Me, neither,” he murmured against her lips. “Because this is something I’m fighting for.”
“A kiss?”
“A chance to fall in love someday and build a life, raise a family, give my heart… You know. Like a human being.”
She smiled against his lips. “Are you talking about me, in that ‘fall in love someday, build a life’ scenario?” Oh my god, I can’t believe I just asked that!
“I could be.”
She laughed softly and kissed him back. Again, just a soft brush of lips, but it was more daring than she’d ever been in her sheltered life.
When he shook his head ruefully and stepped back, she missed his warmth.
“Good night, Phoebe.”
“Good night, Oliver.”