Restless (2 page)

2. CATCHING UP

THE NEXT DAY
, Leesa and Cali sat on the wide deck of the Harbor Park Restaurant in Middletown, waiting for their lunch to arrive. The sun-dappled Connecticut River flowed by beneath them. Sparkling white pleasure boats and graceful sailboats topped by colorful sails dotted the water. Happy shouts and laughter from some of the boats carried to the shore.

Cali was dressed conservatively—for her—in a sleeveless top that was solid black on
the right side and striped vertically with rippling columns of black and white on the left. She had streaked her dark hair blonde on the side above the black, while leaving the other half of her head dark. Large round earrings similarly matched her shirt: the one above the striped portion of the shirt was solid black, and the one above the black half was striped. Her shorts were black with rips across the thighs, and she wore plain white tennis shoes on her feet. The lack of color was unusual for Cali—even the tiny stud in her cheek was clear glass today, rather than the burgundy or pink she usually favored.

“What’s with the monochrome
thing?” Leesa asked.

Cali shrugged.
“Nothing, really. Just trying it out. You like?”

Leesa smiled. Actually, she did. “Yeah, I do.”

Leesa hadn’t seen her best friend in almost a week. Cali had been busy with her summer job clerking at a trendy boutique in her hometown of East Hampton. Today was her day off, giving the two of them a chance to get together for lunch. Unlike Cali, Leesa wasn’t working this summer. She had more than enough to do continuing her cram course in magic with Dominic. She didn’t need the money—Dominic’s magical wallet contained a seemingly unending supply of cash, gold and jewels, which he was more than happy to share with her whenever she needed anything.

“Guess what I did yesterday?” she asked.

“How could I possibly guess what a wild woman like you has been up to?” Cali asked. “But I’ll give it a shot. Did you learn some kind of wizard spell that makes you invisible?”

“Hmmmm…that would be fun
, for sure. But even Dominic can’t manage that. What I did is even better though—I kissed Rave!”

Cali looked at Leesa through narrowed eyes
, clearly perplexed.

“So?
You kissed Rave. What’s the big deal? You’ve kissed him before. If you told me you two had done more than kiss, now
that
would be something I’d want to hear.”

Leesa leaned forward onto her forearms so she could speak more quietly.

“I’ve never kissed him like yesterday, though. He’s gotten pretty good at that
Rammugul
thing, and I’ve learned a spell that makes me at least a little bit resistant to heat and fire. So Balin gave us the go ahead. Full on, no holding back, no timer. It was awesome!”

Cali’s face lit up.
“Does this mean you two can go at it now anytime you want? Inquiring minds want to know.”

“
Don’t I wish. We still need Balin there, at least, to monitor Rave’s fire. He eventually had to stop us yesterday because Rave was heating up, but the kiss was amazing while it lasted.”

Cali grinned
. “I bet Rave wasn’t the only one heating up,” she teased.

Leesa laughed. “No, he wasn’
t. Remember that very first kiss I told you about, when I said it was magical? You and Stacie and Caitlin teased the heck out me for saying that.”

“Yeah, I remember. It seemed so funny at the time.”

“Until it turned out that Rave’s kisses
were
magical, for real. But yesterday’s was also magical, even without Rave’s volkaane fire.”

“I know better th
an to tease you about that now,” Cali said. “Back then, I didn’t know Rave was a volkaane. Heck, I’d never even heard of a volkaane.”

The arrival of the waitress with their food
temporarily suspended the conversation. Leesa had opted for an Asian Chicken Salad, while Cali had chosen a BLT.

Leesa poured her dressing over the top of the salad and dug in. It was delicious. The chicken was tender, the lettuce cool and fresh, and there were lots of mandarin orange slices, which she loved.

“Mmmmm… this is good,” she said after a few forkfuls.

“Mine, too,” Cali said between bites. “You can never go wrong with bacon.”

Leesa smiled. “I was thinking the same thing about mandarin oranges.”

“And therein lies the difference between us,” Cali joked.

They both laughed and then got back to eating.

Once th
ey had taken the edge off their hunger, they resumed their earlier conversation.

“Anything else I need to know about this amazing kissing you were telling me about?” Cali asked.

Leesa shook her head. “Only that Balin said he thought we could do it every couple of days.” She grinned. “I’m going to hold him to that, for sure.”

Cali laughed. “I bet you are. Since Balin and Dominic are already watching, can I
come watch, too? Maybe I can pick up a few tips.”

“Ha!
I doubt that, Miss Sex-Know-It-All. And no, we don’t need any more of a crowd than we already have, thank you very much.”

Cali picked up her sandwich. “Well, you can’t blame
a girl for trying,” she said just before taking a big bite.

Leesa
speared a pair of mandarin orange slices with her fork and lifted them to her mouth. They tasted sweet and juicy.

“So, tell me about your training with Dominic,” Cali said. “
Have you learned any cool new spells?”

Leesa shook her head.
“Not since the last time you and I spoke. We’ve been perfecting the ones I already know. I’ve gotten really good at most of them—I can even manage a weak air shield now.”

“Sounds like you’ll be a full-fledged wizard in no time, then.”

“Not hardly. But Dominic says I’m doing really well for a novice.” Leesa glanced around the deck, making sure no one was paying any attention to them. “Watch this.”

She stared at the empty chair
next to her, willing it to slide out from underneath the table. Her telekinesis kicked in and the chair slowly moved back until it was far enough from the table that someone could sit in it.

Cali’s eyes went wide. “What are you doing?” she asked in a hushed but urgent tone. “Someone could see you.”

“No one’s watching. And even if they were, they’d just think one of us pushed it out with our feet. I’ve gotten good enough that I could move your chair with you in it if I wanted.”

“Could you levitate me, too?” Cali asked, impressed.

“Yeah. No problem. You’re much lighter than Dominic, and I’ve been lifting him.”

“Totally cool. You and I need to get some alone time, so you can work some spells on me.”

“Dominic said we’re going to start something new this afternoon. Want to come along and watch?”

Cali grinned. “Do you even have to ask?
I’m so there.”

3. HEALING

ONE OF THE PLACES
Leesa and Dominic had been using to practice her magic was a large state forest about ten miles south of Middletown. The huge forest—several thousand acres in size—contained an almost infinite number of spots offering complete privacy. On the very small chance that someone or something might notice Leesa’s magic, the forest was far enough from town to make any connection to Weston College unlikely. Unlike the parks in Massachusetts and New York where they had practiced in the past, these woods were near enough to visit several times each week.

They
parked the SUV on the dirt shoulder of a narrow two-lane road and hiked a quarter mile or so into the forest. Dominic took the lead, with Leesa and Cali following behind.

The woods
teemed with life: birds flitted to and fro among the leafy branches, and rabbits and squirrels rustled through the underbrush. Speckles of sunlight filtered through the thick canopy above and danced on the forest floor. The refreshing scent of green growing things filled the air.

The party
halted in an oblong clearing where a slab of gray rock poked up through the ground, keeping any trees or underbrush from taking root, other than a few small weeds that had found purchase in dirt-filled cracks in the stone. Branches from nearby trees crisscrossed the opening above, but a fair amount of blue sky dotted with clouds could still be seen. A fallen log slanted across one end of the clearing.

Dominic sat down on the log. “This spot will do nicely, I think.
”

Leesa set her
backpack down onto the rock floor, while Cali took a seat on the log not too far from Dominic.

“So, what’s the new spell
you said we’re going to work on?” Leesa asked Dominic.

The wizard smiled. “Not so fast, my eager young apprentice. First,
you need to warm up by running through the enchantments you already know.”

“Okay,” Leesa
replied. “
Levictius arrami
.”

She promptly floated
about eight feet up into the air. The branches of the trees were just a short distance above her head when she ended the spell and floated back down to the ground, landing smoothly on the rock without a sound.

As soon as she landed, she held her arms out in front of her, palms upward.

“
Illuminati verdus
,” she chanted.

A sphere of golden light floated above her right hand. She repeated the spell three more times
, changing hands each time. The effect made it seem as if the glowing ball was jumping back and forth from one palm to the other.

She
extinguished the light and dropped her left arm. Extending her right arm downward at a forty-five degree angle, she pointed her palm down at the rock a short distance in front of her feet.

“
Magnus irrundi
,” she said.

A
narrow yellow beam of magic shot from her hand, striking the stone. She kept the beam focused on the rock for ten seconds before shutting it off. The gray stone was undamaged, but the surface was blackened where her spell had struck it.

Next, Leesa looked around for something to move with her telekinesis.
She didn’t see any suitable rocks or logs, so she focused her thoughts on her backpack. The pack floated up into the air and then sailed across to the far side of the clearing, where it hung itself on a protruding branch about six feet off the ground. Lifting the light backpack was no big deal, but Leesa was proud of the skill and accuracy required to hook one of the pack’s straps over the branch.

Dominic nodded in appreciation. “
Nicely done with everything, Leesa. I think we are ready to go forward.”

Before he could say anything more, Cali
suddenly slipped off her perch, scraping her elbow on the log’s rough bark on the way down.

“Ouch,” she exclaimed.

Leesa and Dominic spun around to face her.

“Are you all right?” Leesa asked.

Cali twisted her arm around so she could see her elbow. Tiny dots of blood were already seeping through the scraped skin.

“Yeah,” she
said. “It hurts a bit, is all. Anyone got a Band-Aid?”

Dominic
gently grabbed Cali’s wrist and examined the injury.

“It does
not look too bad,” he said, letting go of Cali’s arm. “This leads nicely into what I wanted Leesa to try next.”

Leesa looked at him with a puzzled expression, trying to figure out
what the wizard was talking about. She didn’t see what kind of magic Cali cutting her arm could lead to.

Dominic
recognized the look of confusion on Leesa’s face.

“I want you to
begin work on healing,” he said. He glanced at Cali and grinned. “I was not expecting Cali to volunteer to be your first subject, though.”

“That’s me
,” Cali said, “anything for Team Magic.”

Leesa
chuckled, then turned to Dominic.

“So, what do I do?”

“In some ways, healing is similar to telekinesis,” Dominic explained. “The difference is that you visualize the end result, not the process.”

Leesa frowned. “I’m not sure I understand.”

“Do not worry—I would not expect you to understand fully yet. I just wanted to give you the general gist of it. Get your spell book and read about it.” Dominic looked at Cali. “I’m pretty sure our patient will not expire while you study up.”

Cali
turned to Leesa and grinned. “Go ahead, Lees. I’m tough—I can wait.” She glanced down at her elbow, which was oozing blood very slowly. “Unless I bleed out first, that is.”

Leesa laughed. “I’ll try
not to let that happen, my oh so brave friend.”

She f
ocused her mind on her pack and brought it floating over to her. Reaching inside, she pulled out the thick, leather-bound spell book Dominic had given her. She opened the book to a spot about halfway in. She had learned that it didn’t really matter where she opened the thing—it always seemed to know what she wanted and routinely showed her whatever she was looking for. When she wasn’t looking for anything in particular, the book seemed to open to what
it
wanted for her.

She glanced down at the page. Sure enough, she had opened right to the chapter on healing. As she scanned the information, she almost forgot she was reading in the ancient script of the waziri language. When Dominic had given her the book, it was nothing but empty pages. He
had used a spell to fill it with information about spells and magic, and then employed a second spell that allowed Leesa to read the strange inscriptions as if they were written in everyday English.

The book made the healing magic sound pretty straightforward
—so straightforward that she found herself wondering if it could be used to heal her leg. Her limp had spontaneously gotten much better several months ago when her magic had come rushing back to full strength, but her leg had improved only a little bit since then. Dominic said that it might be her own magic healing her, so if her power could do so much unbidden, why couldn’t it do the rest if she directed it to? She knew it must be more complicated than that—otherwise Dominic would have shown her how to fix her leg already. She closed the book.

“I think I
’ve got it,” she said, deciding not to mention her leg right now. She could talk to Dominic about it at another time. “It seems a little too simple, though.”

Dominic smiled. “The concept
is
fairly simple,” he agreed, “but the implementation is not quite so easy. Go ahead, give it a try.”

Leesa placed her hand over the scrape on Cali’s arm, putting her palm as close to the wound as possible without actually touching it
, the way the book instructed. She silently mouthed her trigger word, “breathe,” to enter the everywhere/nowhere state and then concentrated on picturing Cali’s arm healing itself.

“Ouch!” Cali cried, yanking her arm away. “That
hurt. It felt like someone was sticking needles into my skin.”

Leesa looked chagrined. “I’m sorry.”

Cali laid her hand on Leesa’s forearm. “Don’t worry. It didn’t hurt that much—it just startled me is all.” She twisted her arm so she could check out the scrape. “It’s still bleeding, though. I think it looks pretty much the same as before.”

Both girls turned to Dominic.

“Is it supposed to hurt when I try to heal her?” Leesa asked.

Dominic shook his head. “When healing is
done correctly, the patient should not feel anything but a slight sensation of warmth as the injury mends. It can hurt a bit the first few times, though. I was counting on Cali’s bravery to handle the pain.”

“That’s me,”
Cali said. “Brave to the core.” She held her arm out to Leesa. “Go ahead, Lees, do your worst. I can take it.”

“
What did you picture while you were trying to heal her?” Dominic asked Leesa.

“I pictured the scrape
healing—closing up.”

“And what did the book tell you to picture? What did I tell you to picture?”

Leesa thought for a moment. When she realized what Dominic was talking about, she felt like slapping herself in the head. She could be so dense sometimes.

“I’m supposed to picture
the wound already healed—as if nothing had happened to Cali’s arm.”

“Exactly
,” Dominic replied. “Go ahead, try it again.”

Leesa placed her palm close to Cali’s elbow. This time, she concentrated hard on an image of unblemished skin. She thought she felt a bit
of heat radiating from her hand, but couldn’t be sure she wasn’t imagining it.

“That
should be enough,” Dominic said.

Leesa moved her hand away from Cali’s arm. All three of them looked down at her elbow. There was no trace of
the scrape—no blood, no loose skin, nothing. Instead, they saw a smooth patch of skin, several shades lighter than the rest of Cali’s tan arm, but otherwise unblemished.

Leesa couldn’t believe she had healed Cali’s scrape on just her second try. It hadn’t been much of a
wound, for sure, but it was completely gone nonetheless.

“That
is freaking amazing,” Cali said, running her fingers softly over the new skin. She looked up at Leesa and grinned. “Couldn’t you have made it a little more tan, though, to match the rest of my arm?”

Leesa laughed. “If you want to scrape it up again, I’
ll try.”

Cali laughed, too
. “No thanks,” she said, putting her arm down at her side. “I think this will do just fine, thank you.”

During their banter, the two girls failed to
notice Dominic studying them. Finally, Leesa saw the thoughtful look on the wizard’s face.

“What is it?” she asked.

“I’m not sure.” Dominic stroked his short, pointed beard, the way he often did when he was deep in thought. “Do me a favor and hold each other’s hand.”

Leesa and Cali looked at each other with puzzled expressions. Cali reached out and took Leesa’s hand. They turned to face Dominic.

“Now what?” Leesa asked.

“D
o your everywhere/nowhere, and then just think hard about your magic. Do not try to perform any of it; just concentrate on reviewing all the magic you already know in your head.”

Leesa
had no idea why Dominic was asking her to do that, but knew he must have his reasons.

“Okay, here
goes.” She closed her eyes and mentally recited “breathe.” She began thinking about everything she had learned from Dominic over the last five or six months. She started with one of her first powers to materialize—her ability to move things with her thoughts—then moved on to the plant growth spell, the air shield, the illumination spell and the energy beam. She had just begun thinking about her levitation spell when Cali uttered a sharp gasp.

“Holy crap!” Cali exclaimed.

Leesa’s eyes flew open. She thought maybe she had somehow hurt Cali again. Instead, she found Cali staring wide-eyed down at their clasped hands. Leesa followed Cali’s look and felt her own eyes grow wide with astonishment.

A soft g
olden glow had enveloped both their hands. It wasn’t very bright, but it was definitely there. Leesa was pretty sure this had nothing to with her illumination spell—she had not uttered the incantation. So what the heck was going on?

“Are you doing this
?” Cali asked her, entranced by the slightly pulsating light surrounding their clasped hands.

Leesa shook her head. “No
, I’m not.” She paused, studying the strange glow. “Not on purpose, anyhow.”

She looked up at Dominic.
“What is it? What’s happening?”

For a long moment, the wizard did not reply. He kept his gaze fastened on the two girls’ hands. The
golden glow slowly faded, until it disappeared completely.