Inner Darkness (Book 2 of Dragonfire series)

Chapter 4

The next day went by rather quickly, probably because I was eager to go to Professor Waylon's class. Nothing special happened all day until Defense. We did an exercise that required us to really control our magic. There was a small maze made of magic floating at hip height in the middle of the training center. Mr. Galtero explained the exercise.

"The purpose of this maze is to help you control your magic, and think before you make a move. You will form a thin line of magic the width of a pencil and snake it through the maze and try to reach the red ball in the top left corner of the maze. Who wants to go first?" A young faerie volunteered and eagerly transformed into a sparkly light green outfit. She furrowed her eyebrows as she focused the ball of magic between her hands into a thin string. She slowly urged it into the maze, contemplating each turn before commuting to a side. Eventually, she lost her focus and got lazy, causing her magic to bump into the side of the maze. She sighed and looked to Mr. Galtero.

"Can I do it again? I didn't mean to mess up." She obviously wanted to show off the the rest of us older faeries.

"No, we need to get through this and move on. You only have one try." A few other girls tried and failed before I heard my name.

"Alena, why don't you try?" I heard a familiar toad like voice say. Amirah stood behind me with her arms crossed, surrounded on each side by other girls. Accepting the challenge, I transformed and walked up to the maze. I took a deep breath and summoned some magic between my hands. I transformed it into a thin snake, and it began slithering through the maze. I made the snake slither left and right, keeping it perfectly in line. I didn't have to turn around to know Amirah was unnerved from my skill. As I was almost to the red ball, a wave of emotion washed over me. I felt extremely angry for no reason. I tried to stay calm, but my hands started to shake and a bead of sweat trickled down my forehead. I grunted, and tried to hold my ground but I couldn't do it. The snake burst into flames, encasing the entire maze. I stopped and stepped back in horror as Mr. Galtero put out the fire. I heard snickering behind me, and I turned around to see a blonde girl standing next to Amirah lower her hand from her temple. Cheap trick.

"It's a shame Alena, you were so close!" Amirah taunted me.

"It's a shame you had to use one of your minions to do the dirty work and cheat for you," I shot back and walked away with utter confidence. She just wrinkled her nose and pretended she had won the conversation. I walked over to Stella and gave her a look expressing everything I was feeling.

"Alena, what happened? You were doing so well." Mr. Galtero asked me.

"I smelled something really bad coming from behind me and it made me lose my focus, sorry." Amirah and her posse gasped with offended looks, making me smile even bigger.

"Alright well, seeing that we no longer have a maze, today's class will end early." Everyone cheered and thanked me for catching it on fire, even though it truly was an accident. I suddenly remembered what I had next, and grabbed Stella before practically running upstairs. We walked in with a group of girls and stared at him in awe. I sat in the row behind the first row and took out my notebook. Within a few minutes, every desk was taken. I noticed that the class consisted of only girls.

"Good morning class, welcome to our first day together. Some of you may notice that there are only girls in this class, that is because your magic works differently than guys do. Even though I am male, my magic actually works more similarly to yours because I too transform." We all have each other weird looks.

"What? Guys can't transform!" Stella whispered to me. I shrugged as he continued to speak.

"I am from a realm of angel-like beings. I do not completely transform like you do, I just gain wings." The room erupted with begs and pleas for him to transform but he just laughed and shook his head. "No, not today, possibly another time." For the rest of class we had to make a family tree. He said knowing our origins would help us to better understand our powers, and therefore help us control them. I struggled with this because my only origin was my mother Vesta. I frowned and looked at the single connection to me on the white piece of paper. After class Professor Waylon asked me to stay. He waited until everyone left before speaking.

"Your magic is obviously much more advanced than your peers, and therefore works differently. How would you like to have a one on one session with me? That way we can really focus on you specifically." I nodded and thanked him graciously. I walked out of the classroom and saw Stella waiting for me in the hallway.

"What was that about?" I sensed she was slightly jealous. I explained to her what Professor Waylon had said to me. "Lucky! I wish he wanted some one on one time with me." She crossed her arms and forced a frown. I just laughed and pulled her arm to follow me downstairs. Cullen, Stella, Derek, and I had planned to go into Magix to get dinner. Stella changed into a tight, short red dress, and I changed into a similar black dress before meeting them in the main entranceway.

"You guys look great," Derek commented as he wrapped Stella in his arms. I walked up to Cullen and he pulled me into a kiss. I smiled as he ran his hand over my platinum blonde hair, and finally rested on the middle of my back. I tried dying my hair back to its original color over the summer, but it changed back every time I transformed. The four of us walked outside and got into the black car waiting for us. We decided to checkout a new restaurant called Blackhat. I got out of the car and froze as I looked across the street.

Three girls. The tallest had long, silver, straight hair that extended to her lower back. The shortest had shoulder length, curly hair that almost looked like an afro around her head. The one in the middle, her height was somewhere in between her friends, had black, wavy hair that cascaded down her back. I tensed instantly and formed a fireball in my left hand as I crossed the street towards them. I faintly heard Cullen call after me, but I couldn't understand him. I placed my right hand on the tallest girls shoulder and turned her to face me. She screamed and swatted my hand away. I slowly turned around to look for Cullen, who was standing a few feet behind me. He formed a ball of water around my hand, putting out my fire. I tried to speak, but found myself lost for words. Cullen quickly embraced me in a hug and whispered calming words into my ear.

"It's ok, you're alright. It wasn't them, they are in prison. You have no reason to worry, I'm right here." I took a deep breath and got my composure back. I took his hand and he guided me back to the restaurant. It was hard for me to enjoy my meal after seeing those girls. How is it that they looked so similar to the witches? I had a pit in my stomach, and it wasn't from the food. I knew something was wrong....I could sense it with my flame.

I didn't talk much on the way to Kronborg, and when we got back, I went straight to bed. Cullen offered to stay with me but I needed to be alone.

I am in my parent's living room, pinned against the wall with icy shackles. My arms and legs are splayed. It's happening again. The witches stand before me, arms extended towards my chest, towards my flame. Their sharp nails are clawing through me layer by layer, hungry for my power. Finally, Aradia grabs the flame, but realizes it is attached to my soul. After an unsuccessful attempt to seperate them, she decides to take everything, fire and soul. I cry out, begging for her to stop, but she shows no mercy. In fact, she laughs at my weakness. Kiora joins in and pulls at the flame, slowly tearing it out of me. I scream in agony as I render helpless.

I jolted awake, screaming, only to see Cullen, Stella, and Kokel in my doorway. I quickly placed my hand over my mouth to shut me up. I was breathing heavily as sweat ran down my face. I realized I was looking down at them. Why am I so tall? I looked down at myself and saw that I had transformed and was hovering above my bed as my wings flapped anxiously. Confused, I slowly lowered myself to my bed and start crying. Kokel and Cullen exchange words before him and Stella left me alone with Cullen. He crawled on my bed and pulled me into him. I transformed back into my normal clothes and fell asleep to the rise and fall of his chest.