“No, I don’t think you can!” Her hand rose toward me again.
I dodged out of the way, the smell of burning wood filling my nostrils. The smell was so similar to Ryland; it filled my head and mind with him. The smell that I always dismissed as campfire was really the smell of magic; the smell of a million spells, a million burning targets, the smell of each nightly practice he had with his father. It was him.
I turned around to face Ovailia again. The images of Ryland causing my magic to crackle on my fingertips, the electric energy determined to escape any way it could.
“You are going to kill us all!” she growled, her hands rising toward me.
I swung my hands forward; the powerful electricity that shot out of my fingers combined with the wind I had already conjured and collided aggressively with Ovailia. The energy pushed her across the courtyard, slamming her body into the wall of the building.
I looked after her, watching her crumbled body slide down to the ground. I heard her yelling angrily at me in Czech, the furious anger dripping from her voice. I didn’t wait for her to regroup. I took advantage of the temporarily-shifted barrier and launched myself off the ground.
I took off into the sky, my body flying away as fast as I could manage, terrified she would follow me. I made a beeline to the forest where Ilyan had taught me to fly and glided into the leafy canopy.
I shot through branches and flung myself around trunks and over small meadows before coming to a stop on a large branch of an old willow tree. I clung to the tree as I caught my breath, air pumping out of me in energized spurts. My breath was coming way too fast; my face stung with my over-emotional heat.
It wasn’t fair. I was stuck training with Ovailia who had rung me ragged, belittled me, and was determined that I was too dangerous to help. Then, in the end, I only proved her right.
I slunk down on the bough of the tree, my legs dangling over the sides as I waited for my heart rate to slow down; but it wasn’t my heartbeat I was feeling.
I pulled the necklace out from underneath my sweater, letting the ruby sit on the palm of my hand. It had the normal warmth from its constant contact with my skin, but I could have sworn the ruby was beating. I wrapped my hand around the gem, surprised to feel the throb of a heartbeat, the quick tempo not matching my own. I felt the beat; the tempo almost panicked and desperate.
Ilyan had asked me not to push anymore of my magic into the necklace, but I didn’t care. I didn’t even hesitate; I let my magic surge out and fill the ruby. I felt the beat of the necklace fill my mind, the rhythm echoing around my skull like a drum. I let it consume me as Ryland’s warmth followed steadily behind it.
I let my magic surge again, this time pushing the magnetic energy out of me. It collided with the necklace, and I felt my body grow heavy, like my bones had turned to lead. I closed my eyes, calling out when I saw the white room that Ryland and I shared.
I spun around, scanning the white space for Ryland. Finally I saw him, a boy sitting on the floor only a few feet away from me. I could tell he was younger, and my heart sank to my toes. He wore clothes that were ripped and stained, each article sagging off his body, many sizes too big. He sat quite still, humming a song that I was sure I had heard him sing before. His hands moved as if he were playing with something, but as I walked around to see what it was, nothing was there.
He jumped back, clutching the invisible toy to his chest as my feet came into view.
“Who are you?” The bright blue eyes of a thirteen-year-old looked up at me; the blue, deep and heavy, like he had already seen too much of the world. “Are you my new nanny?”
“Yes,” I answered hesitantly before moving to sit next to him. “My name is Joclyn.”
“Joclyn?”
I nodded my head.
“I like that name. My very favorite friend’s name is Joclyn. I call her my diamond girl.” He froze. “But you must never tell her I call her that! Can you promise?”
“I promise,” I said sadly.
“Good.”
“Why do you call her that?” I asked, though I already knew the answer.
“Her eyes... they are beautiful.” He smiled widely for a second before the grin faded to nothing. “They are gray like yours, but much more beautiful. They are almost silver, like diamonds.” He looked at me intently before returning to play with what I could only assume to be a car. The toy and his actions were out of place for how old he appeared, but something else was off. I couldn’t quite place it. He moved his hand around the invisible object, back and forth, back and forth, as he continued to hum.
“Do you know why I need a new nanny?” he asked, his focus not leaving the car.
“No, why?”
“I scared the other one too much.”
I didn’t miss the strong mocking in his voice.
“Oh, really?” I smiled. “And how did you scare her?”
“I told her what my father did.”
“What did he do?”