Magic in the Air

Chapter Five Fire

I scan the crowd looking for Sean.

Where the hell is Tori?

It was Sean's thoughts that fill my head. I grab my phone from my back pocket.

She's at the top of the big tree behind you.

He pulls out his own phone then turns around. I wave and he smiles and starts running towards me. Damn he's fast. Sean had the fastest time for the mile. Within a minute Sean's climbing up the tree.

I swing my way down to meet him. About a quarter of the way up the tree. I may be an Aeroette but I climb like a Geotetra.

"Race you to the top?" I ask, looking in his grey blue eyes. When he doesn't answer I add, "You're the fast one, you alway accept a race."

He grins. "Fine! But no flying! Ready go!" I bolt up the tree, not even bothering to stop and make a path like I usually do. I slip between two branches and climb up until the branches are too small to stand on.

I sit there for a good three minutes before Sean finally reaches me, out of breath. "Are you sure you're now a Geo? You seemed to know the exact pattern of the branches."

I hover off the branch to prove I really have air powers. "I'm pretty sure. Though I have beaten Mia up this tree before."

Sean pulls himself onto my branch and kisses me. "And this is why you're the one who has to save the world."

"Yea I have to save the world because I can climb a tree. Makes sense. But while we're on that topic, you do have to teach me fire today."

"I don't believe I agreed to this."

"But why wouldn't you want to teach me." I tease. "I'm amazing."

"Yea sure." He laughs. "Let's go with that."

I push him off his branch and let him fall for a second before lifting him back up to my level. He burns my finger tips for revenge. This is actually normal for us. We're encouraged to hurt each other a little bit so we're "more prepared for pain." I've been burned, suffocated, and nearly drowned more times than I can count.

~~~~~~~~~
That night
~~~~~~~~~

"Fire powers are really hard to explain so we're just gonna start out with a candle. Ummm... put it out. I make a gust of wind that blows out the candle and Sean gives me an annoyed look as he re-lights the fire.

This time when I actually try to put it out, the flame raises up to two feet in the air. "Woah!"

"Guess next week you might be able to work on summoning fire." Sean say evilly.

I climb on to my cloud soft, bright white bed and rest my head on my light pink pillow.

I look around at the bright red room. The walls are covered with even brighter red curtains. The catch? The curtains are on fire. I scream and look around. I start to walk around the room to look for an exit, but the a tall flame bursts through the floor, burning my arm and wrist.

That's when I see it. There's someone in another corner. They're staring at me.

"Who are you?!" I yell loudly. There's no response.

"Tori wake up!" Someone's yelling at me. The mini hell fades away and I'm back in my bed. Jen, Minho, and Sean are next to me.

"What's going on?" I ask, scared out of my mind.

"We heard you screaming." Minho says. "The others are probably on their way over to see what's up."

"Well how did you get here so fast?" I ask curiously.

"Well I can teleport." Jen says. "Minho was right next door and." She pauses. "Well he's your boyfriend. He heard you and shoved Minho out of ten way to get to you." Sean turns bright red and I laugh a little. Chrystal, Alexis, Rae, and Mia (everyone else sleeps like a stump) walk into the room looking alarmed.

"What's going on?" Chrystal asks, talking faster than Alexis. "Where's Tori? Is she okay? What happened?"

I tell them about my dream and Jen's expression gets worse and worse as I talk.

"Umm Tori?" She asks, looking like she's about to puke. "Have you ever been under a sleeping curse?"
"My past is a little hazy." I say honestly. "I like to block it out." I pull out my purple notebook and start flipping though the pages. I finger the one I was looking for a read it out loud.

"Age 9
My father gave me a dark green plant and told me to eat it. I take a bite and I automatically fell to the floor. I tried to scream or move, buts had no control. My eyes closed and I felt myself being lifted by large arms and scraped by the trees. That's all I remember. But about a year later a wake up to 2 strange people looking over me. I later found out that it was Sean and Minho. Sean asked me what year it was and I answered. He laughed and said, 'you've been asleep for nearly a year.'"

I stop reading. "Does that sound like a sleeping curse?" I ask her.

"Yea but there's one thing that confuses me." She starts. "How did you wake up? Only very strong magic can wake someone under a sleeping curse. Nothing two pre-teens could do. I mean Sean was only eleven when you guys brought Tori here." Sean turns more red than the fire he controls.

I pull myself out of my bed, still in my black leggings and long pink shirt from the day before. "Come." I snap angrily, grabbing Minho and Sean by their wrists. I March them downstairs, through the kitchen and into our massive walk-in pantry. "What aren't you telling me‽" My voice has steel oozing from my every word.

"Well you see, when we found you." Minho starts, but I stop her.

"You suck at lying even before you get to the lying part."

"Okay fine!" She says loudly. "Sorry Sean. We suspected you were an Aeroette little bit before you were under a curse. We were watching you. And when it was Sean's turn to watch the crystal ball for unusual behaviors, he kept saying how you were his soul mate because everything about you worked perfectly with him. You weren't exactly the same but he swore there was major chemistry." Now Sean was covering his face in embarrassment. The tips of his blonde hair turn red and he's biting his lower lip.

I slip my hand into his, not pulling away when the heat causes a burning sensation that spreads throughout my arm. Minho continues.

"When we finally found your location, you were already under the curse. Sean begged us to let him go on the mission. I volunteered too because we're both Aeroettes. When we found you, laid out in a scorched field. Sean ran over and kissed you, waking you up, thirty seconds later." I look into his ash grey and blue eyes and he looks into my light grey ones.

He kisses me and we walk back upstairs to the air wing.