Chapter 1

I was always the kind of girl who believed in magic, no matter what. I never listened when the other kids said Santa wasn't real and I clapped as hard as I could every time Peter Pan asked me to. When all the other kids stopped seeing faeries in the flowers or believing in the things that hide under your bed, I kept my faith quietly.

On a cold day like today I was happy I hadn’t forgotten that magic was real. It was freezing outside and the heaters in the minivan weren’t great. I clapped my hands together, rubbing them frantically until I felt the spark of heat erupt between my palms. I pulled my hands apart slowly, my fingers pulling as if through taffy as the ball of heat began to glow a faint orange, steam already lifting from it. I concentrated on the ball of heat as the interior of the van quickly started to get warmer.

I am an Earth Elemental; my magic speaks to the dirt, plants and animals. I’ve always been able to tap into the other three elements so I can try little experiments like these without draining too much energy. My mother told me that I was born in the middle of an earthquake. The labor was hot and fast, the hospital shaking the entire time, but as soon as I cried for the first time the quake subsided.

My vision went soft and fuzzy as I concentrated on the ball of warmth floating between my hands. "Hey!" Jodi said as she opened the door of my mom’s crappy minivan. The ball of heat and energy disappeared with an audible pop when I jumped. I felt my ears plug with the sudden backlash of magic. I tried not to get angry with myself for forgetting my surroundings; the spell had warmed the interior of the minivan sufficiently so I was happy for that. Jodi and our friend Steven looked disgruntled as they climbed inside, their breaths coming out in white clouds from the October morning.

Maybe it’s the six to seven months of perfect weather southern California affords us that once the thermometer hits fifty eight or lower we become the world’s biggest babies. Usually I enjoyed the cold and wet, but this month had brought with it a sudden and strange change in the weather. It should still be relatively warm outside.

Jodi settled into the front passenger seat while Steven climbed in back. He reached between us and switched the radio from CD to FM, cutting off my Godsmack CD. "Oh help yourself, I wasn’t listening to that anyway," I said.

"I know," he said flashing me a smile and fell back into his seat. I rolled my eyes but knew it wasn’t worth the argument. Putting the van into gear I drove us over to the high school.

The warning bell shrilled overhead as we entered the hall. We all broke up as soon as first period started. Jodi was off to Chemistry Advance Placement, desperately trying to hold on to her B- while Steven and I headed for Home Economics, our easy A+ of the semester. I saw a shadow cross her face as Jodi continued down the walkway when we started to turn into our class and I shook my head. "I don’t get why she didn’t just take regular Chem. with us and get a damn A."

"Oh honey, you know she revels in trying to do something better than you," Steven said dismissively as we walked into the warm Home Ec room and found our seats at the back table. My mind started to drift off as soon as Mrs. Price started fussing over the ingredients in today's oatmeal raisin cookies. Ugh, two things that shouldn’t be in cookies.

I let Steven do most of the work since I was so easily distracted today. I stood by with a wooden spoon and stirred each time Steven said to. I knew the reason I couldn’t keep my focus was because I was hardly sleeping. Every night this week I had the same very vivid nightmare that I couldn’t get past it the next day. I was in a forest composed of mostly shrubbery and thin, tall trees, no bigger around than two hands. The forest floor was covered in fallen leaves and twigs. All the animals had gone silent and it was the middle of the night with a full moon somewhere overhead, the only light that illuminated the hidden floor beneath my running feet.

I was running for my life. The bushes and branches were tearing at the skin of my arms and catching on my jeans. I ran harder than I ever thought I could. Fire seared my lungs. The cramps in my sides were only moments from crippling me but I had to keep going. Whatever it was behind me was still coming and I needed to get to safety, wherever that was.

The bell rang startling me for the second time that day. I nearly dropped the whisk I was holding, going bright red in the face at how close I'd come to yelping in fright.

"Dude, what is with you?" Steven whispered in a hiss as he passed me my backpack.

"Sorry, I'm kinda tired. Not been sleeping too well this week."

"What else is new?" He smirked at me.

"Yeah, right. C'mon let's catch Fae before French and make sure she's ok." Fae was our personal nickname for Jodi; it was short for Faery, one of the creatures of Air, her element. Jodi had been born in her grandparent’s basement in the middle of a tornado. They had thought about naming her Dorothy for the first week of her life, thank God they changed their minds. We were already waiting for Jodi by the time she made her way out of the class, books clutched to her chest, eyes downcast and having lost some of the little color she had.

"Hey Fae, how was class?" I reached out and took Jodi's hand, interlacing our fingers as we walked, opening the channel between us and started pumping comfort into her; she afforded me a soft smile. I had inherited my great-grandmother’s empathetic gifts that helped me ease people’s pain. I often wondered how many other people in my family had magical abilities. It might reveal just how many I possess.

"Thanks," she whispered. "Hey Flamer, you finish last night’s homework for French?" She asked Steve, changing the subject.

"Damnit! For the last time, it’s Pyro, not Flamer." As angry as he tried to be, Steven always sounded more like he was whining than anything else.

"It’s not Flamer but it's definitely not Pyro. It’s Drake and that's final." I had very little patience when I only had three hours sleep. I felt the magic rippling out of me and watched Steven’s face contort, glaring at me indignantly but his anger was fading under my power.

"Aw c'mon Terra!” Steven whined. Terra was my name because I was Earth, mother and the North.

"No,” I said flatly. “It’s disrespectful to what we do."

"Ugh. But Drake? That’s so normal," he whined. “It’s a totally normal name.”

"Maybe if you did your homework you'd appreciate it more, Drake." I pulled Jodi along with me, directing us to French class before we were late.

"What do you mean?" Steven asked as he hurried to catch up with us.

"Drake is another word for Dragon, dumbass," Jodi explained as we stepped into the classroom. Steven was Fire, south. And dragons, though outside our circles were commonly believed to be mythical creatures, were familiars to the Fire element. When Steven’s mother was eight months pregnant with him she was trapped in a house fire. She managed to escape on her own, the fire never touching her; she always said it was Steven who protected her because as soon as she made it outside her water broke.

"Oh." His mouth formed a perfect 'O' as he slid into his seat behind me. Jodi took the chair in front of me in the row closest to the door.

We had decided to give each other names that were saved only for us to better embrace our roles in our elements, almost like alter egos. It became easier to put yourself in a different frame of mind when performing our magics. Kind of like how people behave better in their Sunday best than when in torn jeans and sneakers.

Most of French passed in another unexciting blur until Steven slid his hand forward on his desk and I felt the very tips of his fingers press against my left shoulder blade. I slid my left hand forward as well, touching Jodi and inviting her into the channel. 

Are we still casting tonight? Steven’s thoughts filtered into our minds as if he had whispered them into our ears. We developed this ability early on when we started working magic together as a group. I wasn’t sure how it happened but I had a feeling it had to do with me being an Empath and the three of us being so closely linked together, like triplets separated at birth.

No, I checked the lunar cycle and Saturday will be marginally better and I'll take any extra help we can get. I replied while watching Madame Beaumont write today’s verb conjugation on the white board at the front of the class.

Did you finish the spell? Jodi's thoughts always sounded yellow to me. I didn’t know if that was because it was a power color for her element or if it was just my imagination.

Yeah, it's kinda long, but Angel magic always takes a little longer with the extra prayers we need.

Angel? So no elemental magic? Steven’s red thoughts spiked a bright orange. Being brought up Catholic and discovering you had magical powers tended to wage war with your moral center. Magic mixing with angels seemed like a hedonistic concept to a good little altar boy. Most people don’t understand angels just like they don’t understand magic; there was nothing unnatural about either and most people don’t realize how eager most angels are to help us, all you have to do is ask.

Well, we're asking for help... it felt more appropriate. Fae, the answer is "Où est l'ambassade américaine?" They always forgot to keep their ears open when we communicated like this. We broke the channel and Jodi answered the teacher quickly, who looked a little disappointed that she hadn’t caught someone not paying attention.

We were casting this weekend, calling on our guardian angels to help us watch over our friend Tracy who was in a very abusive relationship. It was as difficult to watch as an after-school special. Her boyfriend, Nick, was careful to only ever bruise her stomach and back. I was tired of absorbing her pain through our English and History classes and decided to do something about it whether she liked it or not.

After French, Jodi and I stopped at my locker to trade out books. Just as Steven passed us he let his hand brush my forearm, Mike, was all he had time to say. I closed my eyes and sighed, shaking my head behind my locker door.

"What?" Jodi furrowed her brow at me, knowing she'd been left out of the channel.

"Mike," I hissed through my teeth, my jaw clenching.

"Hey Shay! You left this in my car last night," Mike was nothing more than a grin, stretch over his face so wide there wasn’t room for any other features. He held out my jacket, looking like a puppy pleased at having fetched the right stick.

"Oh... um... thanks," I said weakly.

Last night? Bright yellow thoughts burst into my mind.

"I was wondering what you were doing tonight?" Mike asked hesitantly.

"Why, don’t you have a game?" I asked as I tossed my jacket into my locker. I watched his freckled cheeks grow a faint pink.

"Yeah, well I just wanted to know if you were going... ‘cause I thought you could wear my away jersey." Pink became red as he held out the jersey to me and I didn’t automatically reach for it. "It... if... um... if you wear a jersey you get in free you know..." He trailed off lamely.

"Oh, yeah, I know, I just don’t know if I'm going tonight or not."

"Oh."

Dude he looks like he just watched you kick a puppy. Jodi’s teasing voice came in my mind.

Shut up, I hissed at her.

"Listen, I'll think about it." I tried to smile in a way I hoped was encouraging. He was a nice enough boy, but totally not my type. I had never had the chance to reject a guy before. It was a little awkward.

"Ok, cool, here take it anyway just in case you decide to." He pressed the jersey in my hands before I could wave him off and leaned down to press a kiss to my cheek. "Besides, even if you don’t, it’s not like there's anyone else I’d want to wear it," he whispered to me, hoping to exclude Jodi from that moment. As her fingers lingered on my back, hidden by my bag hanging on one shoulder, she could hear everything as clearly as I did. He gave me an impish smile before turning and leaving. I fell back against the lockers with a heavy sigh, closing my eyes again; they burned from lack of sleep.

"Well?" Jodi had shifted away from me and had all her weight on her left leg, cocking her hip to the side and crossed her arms over her chest.

"What?" I slammed my locker shut, shifted the weight of my bag on my shoulder and started to storm away.

"What do you mean, ‘what?’ Why don’t I know about last night? When did you cave? I thought you didn’t like him?" Her speech increased like machine gun fire as she hurried to keep up with me.

"You didn’t know about last night because there's nothing to know. He called; I was bored so I said yes to coffee. And it’s not that I don’t like him, I just... I don’t know. He’s vanilla, yanno?" I wasn’t looking at her as we waded through the throng of students all pushing in different directions for classes until I found the right hallway and led our way to class.

"Vanilla? What're you talking about, there are plenty of girls who would love to sample his flavor," she grinned as we walked into the class, freeing us of the mass of students.

"Gross, dude," I rolled my eyes as I nearly threw my bag down on the table we shared. This was a good class to have a private conversation in. The teacher always placed ten problems on the board that we were to copy down and solve while he read his newspaper at his desk across the room. He was only two years away from retirement.

"So are you dating then?"

"Do I sound like a girl with a new boyfriend?"

"Well no... But wait, I thought you said you were working on the spell last night? What the hell?" She said the words with her yellow voice.

"Couldn’t sleep." I took a deep breath as I started in on the first problem.

“Again?” Jodi asked, easing her tone now and I shrugged in response.

"I had just finished the last lines to dispel the circle at the end and he called, I knew I wasn’t going to sleep anytime soon, and I figured why not? I mean I can’t keep rejecting him if I don’t know him. We went to Starbucks, had a really boring conversation for about an hour. I told him I was tired so he took me home and then I finished the spell. End of story. Juicy huh?"

"How was the conversation boring?"

"Dude... he's a football player and that's it. That’s all he's got, there ain't nothing else in there,” I said with an edge to my voice. “I was hoping maybe he was misunderstood or something, or you know, didn’t feel like he could be himself around the fellas and he'd magically be substantial when you gave him a chance."

"And? X equals negative three not positive." Jodi corrected me. I suck at math.

"And, nothing,” I said as I added the negative sign. “He hates to read, doesn’t know how I do it. Hates school, doesn’t know why we have so many honors classes. Loves to play ball and loves to watch it on the weekends.” I made a face like I had just sucked on a lemon.

"Ah... disappointing,” Jodi said as she nodded her understanding, "Vanilla."

"Right," I said and Jodi let the subject lie for the rest of class. After class we split up; she left for band and I for Chem. It was my least favorite class and today was going to be worse. When the tardy bell sounded over the speaker and Steven hadn’t joined me I knew he wasn’t coming to class, leaving me with no distraction at all to get through the hour. I concentrated on each little task to keep myself from constantly checking the clock, which only ever made classes go slower.

Lunch was a blessed break from the monotonous day. We found Steven lying out on a patch of grass where we usually spent lunch on decent days. Now that the chill in the air had let up being outside wasn’t so bad. And with the extra heat Steven let off, we didn’t have anything to complain about. I let my bag fall to the ground with relief. Jodi sat to lean against the tree; her legs stretched out in front of her and crossed at the ankles as she pulled out an apple from her bag. I sat Indian style forming a triangle out of the three of us. I closed my eyes and set my hands on the ground on either side of me with my fingers splayed. I took a deep, satisfying breath of autumn air that tasted more of winter even though it was so early in the season. I ground and centered myself, pulling energy up into me to help get through the last few hours. I knew I was going to need a nap tonight before we went out if I was going to be any kind of company.

I could see Jodi's yellow energy to my left and Steven's fading red to orange to my right, but I was only vaguely aware of them in my blissful oblivion. My fingers melted into the soft earth, my hands disappeared into the grass up to my wrists. I could feel the water that nourished the earth snake up my arms and swirl through my veins as my small pulse found the deep rhythm of the Earth’s. All too soon, a breeze stirred in the air that shouldn’t be there and it lifted the ends of my auburn hair and tickled my face. Jodi was trying to get my attention.

"What?" I asked quietly as I slowly, reluctantly came back to myself, blinking as I opened my eyes.

"Ten minutes."

"Huh?" I began extracting my hands from the ground, the grass tickling my wrists as it retreated down my skin.

"You've been out for ten minutes. That’s the limit at school, remember?" Jodi had already finished her apple and was half way through a turkey sandwich.

"Damn... it goes by so fast here." I pulled my bag over to me and retrieved a soda that was still cold and savored the sparkly sugar as it coursed quickly through my system.

"Hey, what did Mike want?" Steven propped himself up on his elbows to look at us.

"Oh, to ask if I'd wear his jersey to the game tonight."

"When is that boy gonna give up?" Steven snickered as he stole my soda and took a long drink.

"Maybe when Shay actually turns him down for late night coffee," Jodi said with a sly smile. That caused the rest of lunch to be spent dragging me through a boring interrogation and the two of them discussing Mike in full detail, from freckles to football.

The warning bell came all too early and the three of us gathered our things to trek across campus for fifth hour electives and then found each other again in English class which went by in a blur. The first twenty minutes were devoted to elective reading and the rest we broke up into groups to finish our work on next week’s presentations. I pulled my desk away, making Jodi and Steven follow me. I had to put some distance been me and Tracy; her stomach hurt, which meant so did mine. It wasn’t a big difference but it helped me get through class.

"So are you going to the game tonight?" Jodi asked as we walked out to my mom's minivan two hours later when history was finally over. I was more than a little drained due to my close proximity to Tracy during History. If she wasn’t wincing from the pain when she reached for something, then her depression and stress were biting at my skin.

"Of course,” I said.

“I wasn’t sure after your conversation with Mike.”

“That was just to get away from him,” I said, waving a hand in the air. “We wouldn’t make you endure it alone. Just make sure you’re at the top of the cheer section this time." Jodi had no choice about going to the games since she was unforgivably in the band and was forced to play at all the games.

I dropped them both off at Jodi's house. Steven only lived one block over but he always helped Jodi with her parade make-up before a game.

"Hey, call me at six and make sure I'm awake ok, Flamer?" I called to Steven through the passenger door window.

"Bitch!" He called back over his shoulder but I could hear the smile in the word as they made their way up Jodi's front walk.

I made it home, pulled the van into the driveway, and practically crawled my way to my room. I could feel all the life drain out of me, knowing my bed wasn’t far away. I think I was asleep before I even hit the pillow, shoes and jacket still on.

I was immediately engulfed in a swirl of green and faded yellow as I sped through the forest. There was a cold sweat on my forehead and my shirt clung to my back even though it was an unseasonably cold night. I lost my footing momentarily and slid on some loose dirt and rocks, coming down on my left knee. My fingers clawed at the ground as I struggled to regain my footing and make up for the precious few seconds I had just lost myself. I felt it behind me gaining speed at the sound of my fumble.

I swore to myself as I finally thrusted from the ground and pushed past the cramps tearing the muscle from my abdomen. I knew what I was looking for was close but in the dimmed moonlight I felt the pressure of the forest walls cutting off my peripheral vision. The root of one of the infrequent trees rose up just three inches from the earth and hooked my toe. My body went rigid with momentum and I fell face down into the fallen leaves, my arms outstretched trying in vain to catch anything to save me.

All the breath I had left in me was pushed out as I hit the ground hard. Dazed, I was aware of the taste of moist dirt in my mouth and twigs poking me through my shirt. My foot throbbed in pain and I shook my head to try to get my bearings. A cold gust of air blew over me and I knew it was near and closing the distance between us with every wasted second. I struggled to free my foot, feeling the root twist and take hold of my ankle, pulling me into a tangle and refusing to let go. I looked up at the tree it belonged to with a plea on my lips but before I could do or say anything I felt a cold tendril wrap around my shoulder, claws digging into my skin and I began to scream.

"Shay! Shay! Wake up!" My mother shook me aggressively. I woke with a start, realizing that I really was screaming, and apparently crying. I felt the cold wetness on my cheeks and took in deep gratifying breaths. "Honey, are you ok?"

"What?"

"Honey, are you ok?” My mom repeated, her brown eyes wide with worry. I was shaking and couldn’t think of anything to say. “Sweetie it was just a nightmare, you're ok.” She knelt on the bed, brushing my hair away from my face.

“Mom?” I managed, my voice harsh.

“Yes, baby, you’re ok. Just breathe.” I took a moment to concentrate on my breathing like she said, slowing the rate of my heart. “That’s better. Do you want to tell me about it?”

“No, I mean, I don’t really remember it.”

“Are you ok now?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, sorry I scared you.”

“It’s ok, honey. Here, Steven's on the phone, he said you wouldn’t answer your cell." She handed me the house phone with a worried look still creasing her brow.

"Oh, thanks," I took the phone with an amazingly steady hand.

"Are you sure you're ok?"

"Yeah mom, just a nightmare." I waved her out of my room and pressed the phone to my ear. "Hey Steven."

"Babe, you ok? I could hear you screaming through the phone." He sounded genuinely worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What's up?"

"Babe, its six, remember?"

"No..." I looked at my clock and saw the red numbers glaring back at me.

"The game?" He asked slowly.

"Oh right. Yeah, I'll be there in like forty-five." I hung up and turned to look at the mirror. Angry red tear streaks marked my face. Any color I had was gone and my eyes were swollen and bloodshot. I took one more breath and pushed off of my bed and winced. "What the hell?" I pulled at the collar of my shirt and saw four ragged angry welts on my shoulder.