Risen: The Complete Series

By Odette C. Bell

Bright things burn in this world. And I’m the brightest.
From birth, I’ve existed for one purpose – to sacrifice my life to the fire within to keep my world safe. But when the man I love banishes me to ordinary Earth, strips me of my magic, and throws me away, I refuse to give up.
I find a way to come back to our broken school and half-destroyed world. And I fight. Because that is all I, Arwyn Bright, was born for. And nothing, not even love can get in my way.
...
Risen follows a witch hell-bent on revenge and the man who banished her as they navigate a dangerous magical academy. If you love your urban fantasies with nonstop action, high stakes, and a touch of romance, pick up Risen: The Complete Series today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Jul 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005093983

Book preview

Prologue

Three Months Ago

There was no way I would stop. No way I could.

The end was finally here.

I raced down the side of the hill. The wastelands spread around me, just so much death and destruction, just so much dust, barren land, and ash.

Arwyn, Richard roared from behind me. Too late. My destiny was here, right? Because this was me – how I would end, why I’d been born, my sole reason to be.

As I skidded down the scree made of tightly clumped rocks and dust – always more dust – I saw Fenrir. The largest wolf of all sat in the valley. Its body was made of the void – pure dark death. Its power wrapped around it in coiling clouds, each one more malignant than the last.

They reached up its massive pulsing body to its eyes. They glowed these two flecks of deadly purple. They locked on me. And my gaze locked on it.

I didn’t have a moment where time stood still – I would never be that lucky. The final fight was here, and I was going to take it. Fenrir had murdered too many, taken too much land, destroyed so many dreams. I knew what I would do, but still, as he looked into my eyes and I looked into his, we were two enemies facing the same moment. I’d been born to kill him, and he had been born to kill me. Maybe the only thing that mattered about that equation wasn’t the fact we were of equal power. It was that we were equally trapped.

Arwyn, Richard bellowed louder from behind me.

I turned around and saw his uniform. It was already burned from the other wolves we’d fought through to get here. Only a few scraps of his royal blue remained. They barely made it over his large arm muscles, but at least they matched his eyes.

I even saw one fill with tears. Would he really miss me that much? Sure, we were together. And I suppose, in his arms, I’d briefly felt what it was like to actually belong to something other than a cruel destiny. But the whole point was it was over now. Sweet things don’t last. Everything ends.

I skidded to a stop at the bottom of the valley. Fenrir rose up. In the distance, I heard all the other wolves it had given birth to. I called them wolves, but they were nothing like the mammals. These were pockets of void space – complete pure destruction. Chaos given a mind, given hatred, and given one task – the annihilation of others.

Maybe the rest of the Boys – the elite fighting squad from the Academy – would be out there, fighting the small voids back. Did it really matter? None of our battles would count after this. There’d be no more nonstop, bloody, unforgiving wars. For everyone else, anyway.

Today, it would all end. Both the fight and my life.

I lifted two fingers above me using my left hand. I ensured my wrist was rigid and there was a strong line between it and my shoulder blade. The energy channels within aligned. There was a rush like I’d just jumped into the deep end of a swimming pool.

All the while, behind me, Richard screamed my name. Come back. You’re not ready.

Not ready? Funny, because Fenrir rose.

He didn’t have a body – not like mine. He could decide what his form would become, and now these two massive paws as large as houses pushed down into the base of the valley below him. The pressure was too much, and it created fissure lines that danced and cracked through the barren wasteland. There was no water here – hadn’t rained in years, ever since Fenrir and the wolves had moved in. This particular place had once been farmland, and to my left, just up the hill, I could see a few ruined buildings. There’d been a city out here. I’d been born there, in fact. Flashes of the past sparked through my mind now. Happy summers, cozy winters, family, friends – a life worth living, until the void had moved in.

All of that rage at all of that loss cascaded through me. It forced its way through my energy channels. I started to glow.

Richard reached me. He tried to pull me back, but I was already pulsing with bright energy. He might have been a royal himself, but that didn’t matter. His fingers were burnt. More of his uniform fell off, but those crystal sapphire eyes still locked on me. It won’t work, so don’t do it. Don’t sacrifice yourself for no damn point.

Sacrifice, ha? You know, everyone thinks sacrifice is something different. It’s only when you are asked to give up your life – the greatest sacrifice of all – that you truly find out what it means. There are facts you know with your head. There are facts you know with your hands. Then there are facts you learn with the last beat of your heart.

Fenrir roared. The scream split across the wastelands. It pounded into me from every angle. If I hadn’t already called on my energy, I would’ve been blasted off my feet. Richard was. Though his arm had been burnt, he went to clutch my wrist again, but the scream struck him in the chest, blasting him backward. He landed several meters away, grunting, the air knocked from his lungs. His shirt fell from his chest. There went his regalia – a glowing badge just above his heart. One that signaled he was from the most important royal clan of all. Or at least he would be once I was gone. I was the last of the brights. The rest of my lineage had all gone the same way.

This was what we were born for.

So many people grope toward purpose in their life. I’d had mine from birth. But meaning requires sacrifice.

Trust me, in the end, everything requires sacrifice.

Fenrir roared one last time, brought his glowing eyes down, and locked them on mine.

I did it. I summoned.

Summoning was a rare gift, but rarer still amongst the royal clans. It required one to give their energy, to open up their channels, and to literally burn power from their bodies. There was no one like we brights, no one who could burn just as much.

No, this isn’t how it should be, Richard tried one last time.

I made the mistake of tilting my chin to the side and staring at him with my fiery red hair flicking around my face like groping fingers. Our eyes met. I wanted to say this would be a bittersweet ending, but there was nothing sweet about it.

In fractured blasts, I remembered us being together.

That didn’t matter anymore. It became like all my other memories – food to feed the light.

Grieves, I called. It was the ultimate form I could summon. As I whipped my left hand in a circle above my head, I felt the energy being pulled from my soul.

It was just as Fenrir reared. The giant beast pulled back, opened its jaw wide then wider still, then threw its energy at me. A jaw formed, but the rest of it created this massive billowing cloud of chaos. It surged toward me, dark purple strikes of lightning dancing in every direction.

It struck me with all its force just as Grieves took form above me. It was a glowing red-orange lion. It danced in a circle until it bit its own tail. Then the full force of my bright power was unleashed. I stood in the middle of the circle. Anything within the circle would burn, and that was the point – that was how I would die. But Fenrir tried to attack at the same time, concentrating the majority of his body just above me.

Grieves, burn, I screamed with the last force of my magic.

As my old life flashed in front of my eyes – from the ruined city beyond, to the magical academy where I’d trained for this exact moment – I got ready to let go, ready to give up. I’d come full circle, right? Hence Grieves biting his tail above. When you’re born but you go out into the world and learn your lessons only to come back, you complete your life. And this was me, at the end.

Arwyn, Richard screamed one last time. You’re not strong enough.

I let his words divert my concentration just at the wrong moment. Fenrir reared further back. Grieves had bitten his tail, and the summoning spell was manifesting in bright sparks of the deadliest flames. I was already on fire. Voracious licks of it chased around my cheeks, across my jaw, and down my back. I’d always wondered what it would feel like – and it was pain incarnate. Every single nerve ending exploded with it. All my body wanted was to get away. But I still channeled more and more force.

It wasn’t enough.

Fenrir suddenly broke away from me. The side of his face was burnt. But quickly the cloud of chaos consumed the damage, and he re-grew another head.

And I—

When you sacrifice everything, you do it to win. But when you don’t—

Fenrir roared one last time. I watched that new head form and a new smile spread across his lips.

He had me exactly where he wanted me – and the next move would be all his.

But the next move never came. With a grunt, Richard threw himself in from behind. Somehow he found the strength to crack through Grieves’s circle of fire and grab my stomach. He locked his own burning arms around my middle and pulled me back. He had to use the brunt of his own force to do it.

If I was fire, he was water, and I heard the crashing force of his magic like waves smashing against an already broken seawall.

I will not let you die. This has never been about you sacrificing yourself, Arwyn. This has always been about you living in any way you can.

On the words I will not let you die, it was like he gave a decree. He shoved his feet down into the burning dust just beneath us and yanked me back. It pulled me out of the spell.

Fenrir roared.

Though it seemed as if he’d absorbed all the damage I’d wrought, he was still wounded. I could see the flighty look in his eyes. He could take this moment to destroy me – and risk himself – or he could just take another in the future.

He roared one last time, then turned.

Richard kept a hand on my stomach and one flat on my chest. It was like he was trying to hold my heart in place. I couldn’t tell you if it beat anymore. My body… I’d never been in pain like this. This wasn’t just my burning skin. This was existential. I’d been born for this moment, but it had come and gone, and I’d lost—

This is enough, Arwyn. If you can’t see that you weren’t born to die, then you don’t get to play this game anymore.

I let out a spluttering breath, blood splashing over my charred chin. It’s not a game. People’s lives are—

At stake, he snapped over me as he bodily grunted and started to drag us back. How he had the strength to pull us up the hill despite the fact my Grieves spell had given him deep burns all over his front, I didn’t know. Or maybe I did. I liked to think there was no one more determined than me. But the day I’d met Richard, that had all changed. I might be royalty – he was a true king in the making.

I’m done. His breath cut past my cheek like a sword unsheathed.

There will be another chance— I tried.

… Not for you, he said after a bitter pause.

He shoved his arms underneath me. He swayed. I looked into his eyes. Something had… broken. No, it had solidified. All the kindness I’d seen previously was gone. It was replaced with a hard stare that would no longer accept what it could not control.

He lifted me up.

No, put me down. Fenrir has just retreated a little. He’ll come back—

To kill you. I’m not gonna let that happen. Nobody gets to kill you – even you, he growled. Grunting, swaying, legs practically breaking with every shaking step, he carried me up the hill. Then he turned. He stood atop it. In the distance to the left, we could see the magical academy. That was the last part of the land that was still safe. I could see the barrier around the back of the school that kept the wasteland back.

He stared at it for one single second, then tilted his chin down as he locked the full fury of his gaze onto me. Arwyn—

Don’t worry, I’ll do it one day—

Arwyn, you’re getting banished.

What? I could barely spit that out. My brain was still too strained by the pain charging through it. But my frazzled neurons still knew what the word banished meant, and I still knew that only his family could do it. They were the true kings of this land. You can’t—

I told you. Nobody gets to kill you under my watch.

But Fenrir—

Arwyn Bright, I banish you back to the real world. You will never come here again, and you will no longer be part of this fight.

He meant it… he actually meant it. But he didn’t add the thing that he should have. I would never defeat Fenrir, never save the land. And Richard and I would never be together again.

Because this was over.

Chapter 1

I woke in a sweat. I was so sopping wet, it was like someone had cut my jugular. Foolishly, knowing better but not able to stop, I yanked a trembling hand up and grabbed my neck. My stiff fingers searched my carotid artery, swept down my chest, even sat flat against my heart. No, I hadn’t been stabbed. Not by anything but a memory.

I closed my eyes. I flopped my palm over them as I bit my lips and swore.

Then the alarm clock beside me rang. Its droning beat felt like somebody smashing a bat around in my brain.

I immediately curled a hand into a fist and went to punch magic toward it. I stopped. Because I couldn’t.

That had been a dream. Nope – a memory. So much worse than a dream.

I swung my legs over my bed, my pillow tumbling onto the floor beside me. I stared at the worn floorboards, eyes morosely searching the sections where the varnish had flaked back long ago.

I stood. I ignored the tremble in my legs.

I walked over to the alarm clock, paused, then weighed my palm down on it, putting my shoulder into the move until I almost forced the $10 device right off the table.

I stared dead-eyed at the dawn peeking through the crack in my old, mildew-covered curtains.

My apartment was a real dive. It was better than bunking at the boarding school, though. The very ordinary, very normal boarding school in this very normal town.

I crept forward, not because I was scared, but because my limbs were still spiked with adrenaline. It pulsed right up there in my jaw like somebody had grabbed my gullet, filled me up with jet fuel, and set me alight.

I’d get over it by the time I had to drag my ass into school. I always did. That particular torturous memory came and struck me nightly. Right between the brows. Then it would always follow up with a sucker punch.

I closed my eyes again. I went to say Richard with thin, daggerlike lips, but then I stopped. He was the bastard who’d banished me. He was the one who didn’t want to have a damn thing to do with me ever again.

Why call his name out now when I could just curse it forever as I rotted in this goddamn ordinary town?

Here I was, in the so-called real world. Sure, world-ending voids called Fenrir didn’t threaten to take over whole continents daily. Sure, I wasn’t expected to burn myself to death in the final fight. But that didn’t mean I was happy. So far from it.

My entire life, I’d known what I had been and what the world had demanded of me. Now? All I had to do was put on the uniform slung over my chipped plastic chair, drag myself to school, and learn boring, pointless topics while out there, back in the other dimension, everything I knew and loved was slowly destroyed.

It took me an age to throw my clothes off, dress, pat down my knee-length pleated skirt, and back away from the window. I didn’t turn from it, almost like I expected it to grow hands to throttle me with. I looked at it, not because it was a threat, but because my eyes traced the light coming in from the dawn beyond. My dive of an apartment faced east. I’d picked it for that exact reason. I didn’t care about the paint flaking off the walls, didn’t even care that the tiles in the bathroom were all cracked through, mildew and damp rising up to the ceiling like vines. Dawn meant everything to me. Waking up with just a scrap of light reflected in my eyes reminded me of home, let me recall what I was on the inside. And speaking of that, I paused, not staring at myself in the full-length mirror to my side, but just dropping my gaze down to my hands and searching every whorl and scar.

I knew power was still within me. It was pointless to search for it. You couldn’t practice magic in the real world under ordinary circumstances. There were technically some who could – but they usually had no clue what they were and did it unconsciously. But my dimension scanned for them all the time. They picked up every single new witch and wizard and spirited them away. It was different with me, though. I’d been banished. My magic was back there. My body was over here. I shouldn’t be able to practice.

No. I’d never be able to practice, I added to myself. It had been three damn months. I had to stop looking for ways out, loopholes I could exploit to get back there. Because if I got back there, Richard would simply find out, and he’d banish me again.

I forced myself through the door and slammed it so hard, the hinges protested with a groan. I looked across to see that I’d actually split the wood. I went to punch it. I stopped. That was the old me. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’d lashed out with anger and force and punched walls or doors or even the damn floor back at the magical academy. My passion would always get the better of me. And with power like mine—

What power, Arwyn? I shoved my fingers through my shoulder-length red hair, pried out several tangles violently, then snarled at my shadow. That’s all you are. I pointed rigidly at the way my body occluded the minimal light in the corridor. You’re a shadow of your former self. You’ll never get your power back. You are just wasting away here, doing nothing, changing nothing, waiting around while everything dies. Maybe that was always your real destiny.

With those bitter words, I didn’t bother with breakfast. Would you?

I had a whole stomach full of pain, bitterness, guilt, and plain confusion to keep me full.

When that wasn’t enough, there’d always be that nightmare with one last look into Richard’s eyes at the end, the man who was meant to love me, but the same guy who’d banished me forevermore.

When you don’t have a purpose anymore, watch out – because revenge is a poor but addictive substitute.

Chapter 2

It took me an age to drag myself to school. It was a boarding school, one of those old stately affairs that sprawled over a green campus, oaks and elms standing at the edges of the verdant quadrangles,

A rich deciduous forest sat behind. The building was nestled in the foothills of a very cute village. There were thatched roofs even, cobbled streets, and fast cars that didn’t match the decor – but very much matched the elite students who went here.

I didn’t know why Richard had picked this particular place, but maybe it had reminded him slightly of the magical academy.

I said slightly. The academy was massive. It was easily the size of the entire village I was forced to live in.

And it was intricate. Space didn’t work the same way over there. Magic will do that to a place. It’ll really seep into its bones, spread out, and multiply.

I’d once heard magic was like a plant – a weed that would never stop.

I didn’t believe that. Magic was everything – lifeblood given force. No – light.

I reluctantly pulled my heavy feet down the pristine path toward the massive red-painted doors at the front of the boarding school.

I had refused to stay there. I needed my independence. Maybe Richard, in his infinite wisdom before he’d dumped me here, had appreciated it wouldn’t be a good idea to put me with others. I didn’t play nice with ordinary folks, see. And no, that wasn’t an elitist statement. You didn’t need to be a royal or a Bright to get on my good side. Because no one got on my good side.

I was an outcast. A happy one. People would always walk around me as if I was some unmentionable waste floating down a previously calm stream – but it would never bother me.

Several girls even jerked to the side now as I got too close. I secured my steely gaze on them then moved on. I briefly looked at the sun rising high behind the school. I stopped for a few seconds, taken by its bright light, by its tantalizing promise. But that just made me even more pissed off. What promise? I’d once thought the light could burn through anything. Then I’d realized all that it ever did was give way to darkness.

I went to breeze up the massive carved steps at the front of the boarding school. I won’t bore you with the details – the name, the year it was created, the important people that went here. They were pretty much just fictions in my mind. Technically, the real world was that – real. The place I lived was a magical branch. Just not to me.

The way I understood it, years ago, the truly magical from Planet Earth had realized magic couldn’t stay here. It destabilized things and called the wrong forces to it – like Fenrir. So they created a pocket. That’s where I’d been born. That’s where I lived—

No, I told myself with the firmest voice ever that operated like his cerebellum slap – that’s where I had lived. This was my future.

I was so in my head, I didn’t realize I was charging up the steps too fast. The thing about being an outcast is you’re not untouchable. You’re just unappealing.

Just like at the magical academy, there was a pecking order here. But unlike back there, I wasn’t royal. I was right down the bottom, the trash that needed to be kicked to the side whenever anyone important showed up.

I breezed right past Belle. She was new – had only transferred about three months ago too. She was as pretty as a Botticelli picture – so Belle made for an appropriate name, ha? She had silken black hair, the perfect figure, and this soft face that drew your eyes. She didn’t have high cheekbones or anything like that. She just had this gentleness to her. In other words, she was exactly the opposite of me.

I brushed her shoulder. It was unintentional, but she still looked at me, eyes bright as she teetered like a tuft of grass in a gale.

Before she could lose her balance – because apparently she was an oversized children’s toy without functioning legs – the hottest guy in school rushed up, grabbed her arm, held her still, and shot daggers at me. Watch where you’re going. You might be a goddamn outcast, but that doesn’t give you permission—

I looked at him once, letting my eyes align with his. Did this man really think that he could somehow get on my bad side? More, did he think that he could somehow make me scared? I had fought a world-ending void, for God’s sake.

I let our eyes lock together for several seconds. Okay, it was probably a microsecond – not my point. I had always been able to squeeze more out of every single interaction. Unlike this idiot, I wasn’t scared of death.

I turned, and without a word, strode into the atrium.

Ugly pariah, he spat viciously. You okay, Belle?

It wasn’t her fault – I just overbalanced. I’m a little weak today. Don’t know why. I’ve been having the craziest dreams.

He slipped in beside her. He flicked her the kind of smile that was not appropriate for school – hell, that would be inappropriate for a sleazy bar after dark. You just need someone to help you sleep better, then?

I rolled my eyes.

Class. Learn. Home. Sleep. Dream. Repeat. I let that soulless mantra play over and over in my head. It was the only thing that had gotten me through the past three months.

And it got me through class. I didn’t even know what the subject was. Did it matter?

This was how this world worked – not mine. The maths and science and sociology we were taught were relevant to Earth, not my home.

Every single person around me had no idea about the true nature of reality – the undercurrent of magic that still existed in this world that was controlled by everyone on the other side. They had no clue about the sacrifices we made daily to keep them all safe.

By the end of the day, I was beaten down – not by the prosaic things I had to learn, not by the angry stares everyone shot me, but by my own mind. A tiny little voice of reason pointed out I had always been my own worst enemy. I hadn’t been banished to prison. I’d been banished to a virtual paradise – it’s just that I had come along with me. And I was my own prison bars.

I intended to go straight back home. I’d close my eyes and try to get some real sleep. My nightmares only ever came in the early hours of the morning, presumably when dawn was just beginning to split across the horizon. Even over here, without my magic, my body was still activated by light.

This was no way to live, I knew that, but—

I was walking past one of the old chemistry labs. I heard a crack. It wasn’t something breaking – some old beaker thrown on the ground. It was too sharp.

I drew to a standstill, feet stopping, knees locking up, this rush of adrenaline pounding through my stomach and up into my jaw. It wired my teeth shut.

That crack spoke – not to the ordinary me – but to something deep within.

Right on the tip of my tongue, sliding along my palate, driving up into my trigeminal nerve and back again, I swore I felt magic.

This wasn’t the first time I’d tried to trick myself into thinking there was a source of power around me. In the first few weeks, it was all I’d searched for. I’d wanted so desperately to go home.

But this….

I took a step, forcing myself to move on, telling myself it wasn’t there, but there was another crack. This time it was louder. It couldn’t have been made by any material surface breaking. It wasn’t glass, wasn’t wood – it was potential. And yeah, trust me, potential has a sound.

I reached over, cold, clammy, and slow, but somehow on the inside moving faster than I had in months.

I grabbed the handle. I opened it quietly. I pulled the door open a crack. I saw Belle.

She was down on her butt, back shaking against an old brown chem lab table.

There was a cracked beaker above her, some blue viscous liquid leaking down the chipped melamine behind her. But that was frigging irrelevant. There was something in her fingers. Sparks.

A visceral punch snapped through me. That was magic. She was a witch—

She pushed up. She shook her hands. I could see how freaked out she was as her eyes steadily pulsed wider and wider. The human body has parameters. Lucky, because trust me, magic can move those parameters. And when it does, you will think and feel and experience things that are meant to be beyond your biological programming. If you’ve never truly imagined hell, don’t become a bright. Because your own magic undirected can create it.

She desperately shook her hands again. She went to scream, but she screwed her lips shut, the skin like melted plastic wrap. Get off me. Get off me. I don’t know what you are, but go away now. Go away, she let out a muffled scream.

Bad idea. Her fear fed the magic. It got brighter but somehow darker too. Go ahead, ask me what that means. Easy. It pumped out more illumination, but the base level of its vibration got lower – hence the darkness of it. When you want to truly light up something, you have to lighten your heart at the same time.

Her fear fed the spiral.

She shoved up to her feet, swayed, then started running through the chem lab. Whatever she touched started to shake.

She had to be powerful. By the looks of it, she’d just discovered her magic. Maybe she’d unconsciously produced a spark or two over the past several weeks – but she was about to burst into flames. Her fear would feed her force into a frigging inferno.

I stood there, hand still on the handle, eyes wide, body frozen. I had nothing. No force. I could rush in and try to help her, but I would just get a face full of magic for my troubles.

But—

I couldn’t help it. I pushed the door open quietly. I got down on my knees and darted over to the massive bench at the front where the teacher usually sat.

Pressing my shaking shoulders up against it, I eased around and stared at her.

She reached the back of the classroom. I could feel her fear from here. It was the equivalent of teetering right on the edge of a cliff as if you’d driven your overpowered car right to it and slammed on the brakes at the final moment. It still left you hanging over the edge. You could drag yourself backward, but with a single spark, you could plunge forward, too. I knew what would happen.

She crumpled down to her knees. She grabbed her head. Go away. Go away.

Her magic burst into life. It started in her hands and rushed around her body. It reached her cheeks, danced into her eyes, and covered her with a whoomph.

She screamed. But the shriek couldn’t go far. Her magic was now playing back on itself. It created an echo chamber around her body, her belly-shaking scream dancing from cloud of force to cloud of force.

She ran to the door at the front of the classroom. She reached a hand out to it, but her uncontrolled power got there first, slamming it shut. Then the door caught alight.

Orange-blue flames licked over it. They were not ordinary fire by any stretch of the imagination. They moved far too quickly, glowed far too brightly, and did strange things to the wood. They cracked it, healed the cracks, then damaged it further. They disrupted the internal bonds between the molecules.

Belle shrieked. She bounced off the door. Something fell from her.

She turned. She ran to the other side of the room.

I looked down at what she’d dropped. It was… a necklace.

I inched out of cover, reached toward it, paused, fingers knowing something my body didn’t, then grabbed it up. I pulled it close, knowing what it was even before my eyes locked on it.

Magic had once existed in this world, and it had left its mark. Not just on people’s DNA – not just on the occasional hidden witch or wizard. There were very old talismans here, too. Almost all of them had disappeared.

But not this one.

I stared down at what was in my hands and almost couldn’t think. My body shut down, my breath coming out in a single wheeze that felt like it would spell the end for my respiratory system.

The necklace was simple – just a string of black beads. It looked pretty plain. There was a larger square bead at the front. Shiny, it appeared kind of cheap to an untrained eye, yet it gave me exactly what I needed.

What’s going on? What is going on? Belle continued to break down on the other side of the room. She punched her hand into the wall, but unlike me, she didn’t mean it. And unlike me, she didn’t know how to use her magic. More of it spread over the wood. It exploded outward. It formed a circle, almost naturally creating a spell, but then it collapsed in on itself. It did so with this rushing crack. She heard it, all right, and she clenched her hands over her ears, screaming so loudly, I thought she’d pass out.

I didn’t care. This necklace….

I glanced back at Belle.

I didn’t for a second think she knew what this necklace was. Her reaction was not an act. This was someone learning they had magic – in the rawest, most broken way possible.

This necklace… was probably what had activated her latent magical DNA.

This wasn’t just an ordinary talisman – this was a hide.

No, it wasn’t somewhere you hunted birds from. It was a hidden magic magnifier – hence the changes in her DNA.

And it was finally something I could use to go back home. Better – if I could figure out how to activate it, I could change my identity.

I became so absorbed by what I was holding that I didn’t realize there was another different crack. My mind should have warned me what it was.

I’d been on missions just like this for years. When witches or wizards are discovered in the real world, they are quickly identified and taken back to our dimension. It’s necessary. The last thing you wanted was for magic to get a proper foothold back in the real world. Do that, and it wouldn’t take long until Fenrir would reach this planet and rip it apart.

As that crack sounded out, my teeth reacted first. It was an old body memory. It was like being punched in the jaw repeatedly. I clutched the hide to my chest. I slowed down my breathing. Shit.

I finally paid attention to the real world. That crack would signify one thing – the Boys.

The Boys were a sexist, pathetic name for something very powerful – a team of the school’s strongest warriors.

They were often royals, just like Richard and me. But they had to be more than elite – they needed to be the strongest of the strong.

They were the ones the academy used for its proper missions. Because no, unlike this boarding school, back there in my world, you learned from day dot how to fight. School wasn’t a place to foster dreams. School was a place to stay alive.

As the crack got louder, my teeth chattered more wildly. It told me magic was spreading out.

Belle gasped. What the… what the hell is that? She went to run back toward me.

I could use this necklace only if it wasn’t taken from me. But I would never get that chance if—

Just slow down. Everything is going to be okay. You have magical powers, but so do we. And we are here to help you. I heard a familiar voice. It was Richard’s best friend.

It brought a tear to my eye, and it shivered against my eyelashes as I stared morosely at the wall ahead. My lips opened. Patrick, I muttered.

I was not stupid enough to put any vocal force behind it.

"Who the hell are you people? What’s going on with me? My hands are on fire. They are on fire. I can’t stop this," Belle screamed.

I heard the crunch as Patrick sank down to his knees. I imagined he even grasped up her hands. He always had a kind side to him. Unlike Richard. Richard might be water, but he was the kind of water that would gladly crash through any obstacle in its course.

Patrick was like gentle rain. Listen to me, there was the scrunch of fingers tightening around one another. You’re magical, but so are we. We are here to help you.

I heard Bell’s breathing slow down. Magical. This is—

Magic. And it’s all right. We’ve got a place for you. There’s a place for all of our kind.

I squeezed my eyes closed. Sure, for all of our kind – except for me.

I now held the hide right over my heart. It was an instinctive thing, something I very much could not stop. My fingers closed in around it, tightening, gripping it to the point of cracking it, but all that did was focus my emotion like nothing else. I’d been trying to describe what was happening with Belle’s emotions, but I’d forgotten my own. And by bypassing my mind, I did something my conscious form simply couldn’t hope for.

I fed the hide just what it needed to save me.

It lit up so slightly, the glimmer would only be visible underneath a thick blanket. But I was a bright, born to see when few others can. My attention locked on it. My breathing slowed down. Everything stopped.

Where… where are you going to take me? Belle stammered.

Patrick laughed. Home. Where all of our kind belong. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to see your family. You’ll be able to come back here occasionally—

A lie – my mind pointed out. The Boys said that to everyone they picked up on Earth. They very, very rarely let them go back, and when they did, it was only ever as part of a sortie like this. The Boys would tell any new magician what they wanted to hear, all to move them on as fast as possible and save this realm.

Belle grunted. I don’t have anyone here. I’m an orphan.

Don’t worry. We’re your family now. Patrick’s voice was so frigging kind.

I heard him laugh softly as he pulled Belle to her feet.

I… hold on, she said desperately.

It sounded like her fingers clutched toward her throat. I could be making that up. What a ridiculous thing to assume without any visual data. I still grabbed hold of the hide even harder.

This was my only damn chance.

She did not suddenly scream at the fact she’d lost her necklace. She just broke down and started to cry.

It doesn’t matter, Patrick said kindly. Your life will change from now on. And it will change for the better. You’ll learn what you are, and you’ll be able to make a difference.

My eyes slid closed as my brain tried to interpret that fib for me. Now they opened, one by one.

That there was the greatest lie of all, wasn’t it? Because those of us who could make a real difference weren’t allowed to.

I’ve always just wanted to help people, Belle sobbed.

Then congratulations. Because now you can.

There was another crack. And with that, the Boys disappeared, Belle with them.

A minute ticked by, then two. Three, four – for a full five minutes, I remained there, crammed up against the old bench behind me, the hide clutched in my fingers so tightly, my thumb started to bleed.

As the minutes slipped past like ice melt, finally my senses realigned.

I opened my hands. I stared at the hide. I’d done it. I’d given it enough magic to keep me hidden from Patrick, of all people.

I… now had a chance.

Richard had always told me chances don’t come for free. Nothing does in this world. Everything costs. But he’d always been wrong. I believed in fortune. Now I held it. But luck does require one thing of you. And it is simple. Don’t let go. And trust me, I wouldn’t.

I never would again.

Chapter 3

I took the hide home, shaking the whole way, sweat dribbling down my brow. I kept looking over my shoulder, thinking Richard would be there. Because he’d come. Personally. He wouldn’t leave this down to the Boys. He knew I was at that school.

If he thought something was wrong – if he had an inkling of what I now held – he would come and check on me personally.

No, I told myself quickly, coldly, with the thought equivalent of a slap. He hadn’t come to see me in three months. When he’d dumped me here, he’d done so with the kind of finality that suggested we were over for all of time.

I was alone. But I had to be careful. Practice magic, and I would alert him. My only chance was to get the hide back to my apartment and try with all my frigging might to use it.

I got to my front door. I opened it, dropping my keys three times. By the time I actually forced them to slip into the lock, I doubted I’d ever breathe normally again. There was a lump of pure hard emotion up near my throat. I couldn’t even swallow around it. Fine. Let it choke me. It wouldn’t matter. If I could get back….

If-I-could-get-back-home was a game I’d played with myself ever since I’d been banished here. If I could get back, I’d go straight to Fenrir. If I could get back, I’d slap Richard. If I could get back, I would change everything.

Now it wasn’t a game. Now it was real. I clambered upstairs. I got to my bedroom. I slammed the door shut. I knelt down in front of my bed. And only then, like someone revealing a fragile baby bird amongst a room full of predators, did I open up my fingers. Eyes wide, I stared at the hide. It was so very simple. Even I would’ve walked past it. No wonder Patrick hadn’t felt it.

This thing is seriously powerful, I said as I poked it.

I felt just a charge of latent magic within. It was probably my own magic that had been extracted from me and fed back to me. It still hurt like hell. I jumped a little and bit my finger. Then the world’s biggest smile spread across my cheeks. It was the first grin I had given in so long. Atta girl. I patted the hide. I bite when I first meet someone, too.

I got closer to it. I closed my eyes.

This would take hard work. I’d give it.

Freely.

For the next several hours, I tried every single trick I knew. Not only did I need to activate the hide’s magic, I had to figure out a way to hide myself with it.

I tried but failed. So I kept trying.

I didn’t sleep. Didn’t want to, couldn’t dare let myself. Every single waking moment, I channeled my whole being into the hide until finally, just as dawn broke across the city, I did it.

The hide released a spark of magic – so small, it was an insignificant speck. But it was the equivalent of a faint crackle in dry grass. The spark sat just above the central stone. It crackled backward and forward, paused there, waiting for more.

I leapt to my feet, knees wobbling – but there was no way I would fall over now.

That’s it. I’ve got you.

I pressed the hide against my chest and jolted toward the window. Flinging the tightly closed curtains open, I stared across at the dawn. My eyes traced the golds and purples, blues and oranges, drawing them into my soul, drinking them like a desert to its first drop of rain.

Taken by the moment, I put the necklace on. It felt like picking up my ceremonial staff. As a Royal, I had one. It was what differentiated us from every other practitioner. No, it wasn’t just elitism, never was when it came to power in the other realm. It was a symbol of my sacrifice. Mine was a silver staff, carved with a bird’s head on top. It was so tall, it stood above me.

I had wielded it like no one else, trust me.

As I placed the necklace on, I did so with the kind of ceremonial force I’d only ever used when plucking up my staff.

At the beginning of every single school year at the Academy, there would be a procession. The most powerful would walk first – a recognition of those who’d laid down the most to protect the school in the previous year. At the beginning of the last school year, I had walked right at the front, Richard just a step behind.

I placed my hand flat on the pendant.

It felt like a friend – maybe the truest I’d ever had. This one wouldn’t banish me. This one would see me return.

Now I’d connected to the magical magnifying part of the talisman, all