Shift

TWENTY-EIGHT.1

Blaze was down on his knees with a sponge in his hand, scrubbing the remnants of the giant rune circle off the wooden floor. His dress pants were coated with a layer of chalk dust, but he didn't care; there were about thirty others in the same situation, and none of them were complaining.

His mind was drifting about in a haze, a side effect of total bodily exhaustion. He could remember the crescendo of the spell most vividly; his body had vibrated with the power of their chanting and the song of the spell had left him deafened to everything outside the confines of the rune. When it had all ended, he was drained and shaking, but had felt inordinately accomplished. He had done it.

But that was when things got particularly fuzzy. He remembered hearing Kayden's scream and seeing Naven on the floor beside her from across the room. He remembered darting across the circle to pin him down, adrenaline fueling his depleted body. There had been a scuffle, a fight of sorts, and then suddenly the ballroom had erupted into confused shouts, everyone demanding to know what was going on.

By the time Blaze had finally gotten his bearings, Naven's body had been tied up with old-fashioned rope and Kayden was nowhere to be seen. Lira and Carsten were explaining the situation to everyone as best they could, using the handheld microphone from earlier. Blaze only remembered a few snippets of their impromptu explanation: "Naven compromised the potion component... working late last night... every safety precaution was taken... concerned for the mental state of those casting... a team of skilled potestas oversaw the operation..."

Skilled potestas, Blaze had thought idly. Yes, I was such the skilled potestas last night.

And then someone had grabbed hold of his shoulder and he had found himself face-to-face with his father.

"Is this what Joseph was talking about?" Silas Merg had demanded through narrowed eyes. "This 'operation.' Did you—were you there last night?"

When Blaze answered, "Yes," he had been prepared for his father's anger, for a burst of words telling him how irresponsible he had been, how careless, how reckless, how utterly useless—

Instead, his father had drawn him into a hug.

It was nothing long, just a pull to his chest that had caught Blaze off-guard. And then, right before letting go and walking away, his father had said four simple words that Blaze had never heard from him before: I'm proud of you.

Now, Blaze frowned as he scrubbed the floor. His father had been proud. There had been a certain warmth in his grip that Blaze hadn't expected; he hadn't felt anything like it since before his mother's death.

He dipped the sponge in a bucket of water, watching the chalk and ash swirl around his hand. He wondered what her reaction would have been if she was still around. He could almost see it, her hand intertwined with his father's, a surprised look on her face at the news. But then she'd probably pull him into a hug that only his mother had been able to pull off. She'd probably kiss his forehead and tell him she loved him.

When he was younger, he would squirm away from her kiss and rub the mark off his forehead with the palm of his hand. But he knew he would wear a million marks of her lips for the rest of his life if he could have her back for a single day.

"Feels like when we were serving our punishments."

It took Blaze a full second to realize that Helio was standing in front of him. He glanced up and saw he was holding a blue towel. With a shake of his head, Helio knelt down to join him and began drying the wood Blaze had been soaking with water.

"What?" Blaze asked belatedly, realizing he didn't know exactly what Helio had been talking about.

"You know, back at Sir Mallard's," Helio said. "When we helped all those kids cast that fire spell and then we had to clean up all their runes because none of them could get them to work."

"Oh yeah." That day seemed so long ago, but it had only been about month. "That day was crazy."

"Crazier than today?" Helio grinned.

Blaze shook his head. "I hope nothing is ever crazier than today."

"Is cleaning too much for you?"

"You know what I mean," Blaze said, but Helio did have a point. It was slightly anti-climatic: just an hour ago they had both cast a spell designed to shift the very fabric of magic and had stopped a deranged politician from endangering everyone's lives. Now they were stuck acting as Le Lieu janitors, scrubbing away all traces of their hard work. "Why is there even a mark anyway? Shouldn't it have just gone away after the casting?"

Even in his much-improved mood, Helio rolled his eyes. "One of the spell-writers made an announcement about it earlier. They never put an automatic wipeout clause in the spell; the whole thing was so complicated that they didn't want to mess with it even more. They're already running preliminary tests to see if it worked by the way; we'll know in like an hour. And then..." He grinned. "Party time."

"I doubt they'll throw the party if it didn't work."

"Well I'm being optimistic."

Blaze shook his head. "How are you functioning right now? You didn't get any more sleep than I did."

"Some non-er energy drink. They sell them in the vending machines. Want one? I'll pay."

Blaze realized he must look terrible if Helio was offering to pay for him. "I think I'm just going to take a nap." He glanced around the room. Most of the rune had been scrubbed away. There were only a few remaining patches here and there, and the other volunteers seemed to be taking care of them. "And I need to head upstairs anyway. There's no way I can dance in this. I look like a chimney sweep."

"Chim chiminee!" Helio laughed.

Blaze stared at him blankly. "What?"

"It's from some musical about a woman with a magic umbrella. Or something like that. God Blaze, you're usually the one who knows all the non-er crap."

"Sure." Blaze knew now for certain that he needed to sleep; he should have caught the Mary Poppins reference, if not from the movie, then at least from all the commercials about the Broadway show. "I'll see you later, Helio."

"All right, man. Take care. Oh!" he added after Blaze had dropped his sponge on the ground. "If you see Lexi, could you tell her that I want to talk to her?"

Blaze didn't have the mental willpower to debate whether the "talk" Helio wanted was good or bad. So he just nodded his promise and walked out of the ballroom.

When he slid his room key into the slot and opened the door to Room 495, he half-expected to see Lexi curled up on the couch with A Progressive Book of Magic. But Lexi was nowhere to be found. Instead, lying asleep on the white leather sofa was Kayden.

Almost immediately Blaze felt a jolt of adrenaline rush through him. Kayden. He had completely forgotten about her after she had collapsed on the ground and he had jumped atop of Naven.

Despite all the time they had spent in the same bedroom together, he had never really looked at her while she slept. But seeing her face now, calm, smooth, and devoid of any bitter expressions, made his stomach ache. She looked so worry-free despite the fact that her one leg was propped up on a pillow and nestled next to an ice pack.

Blaze's stomach churned. The feelings didn't go away, he realized, partly in wonder and partly in horror. He glanced at his wrist, just to be certain, but there wasn't even a shadow of the mark that had been there for so long. The spell was severed, and his heart still pounded in his chest at the sight of her.

His hands felt clammy all of a sudden, and he remembered their talk right before the casting. They had both been certain that their feelings had been a side effect of their bond—but they had been wrong. At least, Blaze had been wrong. He didn't know how Kayden felt; it was all too possible that her feelings had actually been nothing but a conjuration.

Blaze didn't know what to do. He shifted in his spot and glanced down at his outfit. Chalk dust and dirty water stained his dress pants and dyed his shirt cuffs grey; he looked ridiculous. I'll go get changed first, he thought to himself, and then I'll talk to Kayden once she wakes up...

"Blaze?"