Magic Unmasked

  Our apartment was decent as apartments went, I thought. It was just awfully humble compared to the place where Jonathan lived. The beige corduroy sofa and birch coffee table looked more drab than usual as I led him into the living room. A faint whirring passed through the wall from our neighbors running their window air conditioner at full blast, as if it were July and not just a warm day in May.

  I turned on the TV to drown that out. It was on the news channel I’d been watching this morning before I’d gone out, hoping to see something had changed out in Washington. Right now they were talking about the traffic.

  “So what exactly are you sorry about?” I asked Jonathan, sitting down.

  He set my record on the coffee table and lowered himself onto the other end of the sofa. “The way I was talking,” he said. “I… I suppose it’s hard not to see people outside the magical community as something separate from us, when we live so differently, but that’s not an excuse for putting them down. I don’t think anything less of your family or your friends—I wouldn’t think anything less of you if you didn’t have magic.”

  I wasn’t sure I believed that. “But you still wouldn’t have wanted to see me again.”

  “Well.” He looked at his hands and then back at me. “We can’t ever really get close with the magicless. Not while we’re keeping such an important part of ourselves secret. If you hadn’t had magic, getting to know you would have meant constantly lying about myself. So no, I wouldn’t have considered it. But it isn’t about thinking you’d be unworthy or anything like that.”

  “Oh.” That did make sense. I hadn’t really looked at it from his point of view. I bit my lip. “I see what you’re saying. I’m—I’m sorry I got so upset at you out of the blue. I guess I was just tense with the whole…” I waved toward the news broadcast, even though they were doing some story about turtles right now and not the volcano. “Not being able to do anything more.”

  “Yeah. I know what you mean there.” He reached across the sofa and took my hand. “Are we all right?”

  His touch still sent a flutter through my chest. “I think so,” I said. “Just—you won’t call them ‘Dulls’ anymore, right?”

  He shook his head. “I really shouldn’t have in the first place.”

  I scooted a little closer to him. He looped his arm right around mine. The steadiness of his presence made any remaining jitters fade away. Jonathan knew what he was doing when it came to magic. Anything I was having trouble with, he’d help me figure it out. I’d go to that college of his and learn all about controlling it…

  Something he’d said came back to me with a pinch to my gut. We can’t ever really get close with the magicless. A ghost of the feeling I’d had walking through that mall with Lori and Denise, beside them but far away at the same time, came back to me.

  “Jonathan,” I said. “After I’m really a mage, after we get everything sorted out there… With my dad, or my friends—will I ever be able to tell them the truth? Or will I have to hide everything from them?”

  His thumb stilled where it’d been tracing over my knuckles. “Well… My parents and many other mages in the community have been pressing for us to reveal ourselves to non-magical society. If we can convince everyone that’s best for all of us, there’d be no need to hide anymore.”

  “But you don’t know when that will happen.”

  “No,” he said. “I wish it already had.”

  “And until then…”

  “It wouldn’t be that bad,” he said quickly. “You’d make plenty of new friends at the College who you wouldn’t need to keep secrets from. And you’d just edit out the magical references when you’re talking with your dad, the way we all do when we’re talking in public. After a little while you’d get used to it.”

  The pinch in my gut dug deeper. Get used to lying. Get used to putting on an act every time I was with Dad. I’d be the one putting distance between us then, completely on purpose.

  An image of Mount St. Helens appeared on the television screen—a welcome distraction from the discomfort I didn’t know how to resolve. I leaned over the coffee table to twist the volume control a little louder.

  “—have stated that the situation here is stable for the time being,” the reporter was saying. The image shifted to a live view of the mountain slope. “There have been no visible eruptions in two days. Today, those with property within the red zone were allowed to return to their homes and cabins to collect their belongings. More are scheduled to make the trip tomorrow morning.”

  “Geez,” I said. “I hope the officials do know what they’re doing.”

  “At least it looks as if we have more time to come up with another plan,” Jonathan said. “I was thinking perhaps—”

  He froze, knitting his brow. The magic shifted just beyond my awareness—I hearkened a dip in its murmur, but only vaguely. “What’s going on?” I said.

  “Someone’s reaching out to me—magically,” he said. “A family friend who might have information on the volcano. I asked him to contact me if there were any important developments. I should find out what he has to say right away.” He got up. “It’s hard to send much information this way, at this distance. I think I can give him the impression I’m in the park—meet him halfway.”

  He intoned a lyric in Latin under his breath, his face tight with concentration. After a moment, he nodded. “All right. I’m sorry, I’d better see what’s going on right away.”

  “Hey,” I said, getting to my feet. “Don’t think you’re leaving me behind.”

  Jonathan opened his mouth as if to protest, but the look on my face must have stopped him. He grimaced but motioned for me to come. “You’ll have to hang back if we don’t want to end up having a completely different conversation.”

  “Got it. I know.” After what had happened in the mall today, I wasn’t in any rush to have the higher magical authorities judging me just yet.

  We hustled down the stairs and along the street to the park. Jonathan paused for a moment to get his bearings with the person he was meeting and then set off at a brisk clip down one of the paths. He veered off it partway along and stopped near a few close-spaced trees. He didn’t need to tell me I should duck behind those. I sat down on the grass, leaning against the trunk, like I was just soaking in the May sunshine.

  Footsteps rustled across the lawn a few minutes later. “Carl,” Jonathan said. “Thank you for reaching out.”

  The man responded in a rich baritone voice that might have sounded warmer if it hadn’t been a little ragged. “You were a little tricky to find, Jon. But I thought it’d be better you heard it from me than be taken by surprise.”

  Jonathan’s voice tightened in turn. “Heard what?”

  “I can’t get into the details—too many of them are restricted to our department. But we’re sure now the volcano is about to blow—less than twenty-four hours.”

  Less than twenty-four hours? I tensed against the tree, and the murmur of magic warbled around me. I clenched my fingers before they could twitch anxiously against my leg, provoking who knew what effect I didn’t mean to create.

  “What?” Jonathan said. “So what are you going to do about it? We have to get in there—”

  The other guy cut him off. “It’s too late. I did my best, but there’s no chance of us pushing through that kind of motion in time now. I’m sorry, Jon. I really am. But I’ve got to get back. Technically I shouldn’t have told you even this much.”

  “Carl—”

  The footsteps hurried away. Jonathan exhaled sharply. He strode between the trees I’d been hiding behind. I stared up at him, my stomach twisted into a hundred knots, and he gazed down at me. The color had drained from his face.

  “They’re not going to do anything?” I said, my voice wavering.

  “They have to,” he said. “They—” His jaw clenched. “I’ve got to go. I’ll make them listen. I promise.”

  He dropped his hand to my shoulder with a hasty squeeze and dashed off be
fore I could find the words to answer.

  Chapter Eleven

  Jonathan

  The Circle met in their chambers in the main Confederation building every Saturday afternoon to discuss that week’s business. It was only just after three. I didn’t think I’d be too late.

  “Hey!” the cab driver shouted as I leapt out. I paused, fishing out my wallet to pay him as quickly as I could. Then I dashed for the main door of the historic office building adjacent to the College.

  My shoes rapped against the wooden floors as I hurried down the hall. The Circle’s chambers were deep within the center of the building—the safest location if some external threat emerged. A holdover from the days when they might have feared inquisitions and burning at the stake, I supposed.

  The building around me was quiet, the air cool and still. A few mages might be at work on the weekend alongside our leaders, but most would be home with their families. As if nothing in the world were all that wrong. As if who knew how many other families might not be decimated by an eruption in the next twenty-four hours.

  I turned a corner in the halls and there they were: the grand mahogany-framed double doors that led to the literal inner circle of mages. A violet tassel hung over the knobs, indicating a meeting was in session. Indicating they weren’t to be disturbed.

  I gazed at it, my heart hammering in my chest. My grandfather was in there, along with the nine other of the most prominent experienced mages in the continent. I’d never set foot past those doors in my life. No one did except the members of the Circle and their assistants.

  What did the rules matter? It was following rules that had left all those people around Mount St. Helens heading back to their mountainside cottages assuming all was well for the time being. It was following rules that had left me with a hollow stomach when Amy had said, sounding so hopeless, They’re not going to do anything?

  My father had waffled, the mages in the Environmental Department had waffled, and now they were going to throw up their hands and say it was too late to appeal to the Circle anyway. But the Circle could act swiftly if they wished to. If someone convinced them there was reason to.

  I’d thought in the ride here of all the magical options open to us with enough mages at work: illusions to frighten those near the volcano farther away, mass adjustments of the scientific equipment, a false news bulletin—nothing anyone could trace directly to us. Nothing anyone would realize had anything to do with magic, since secrecy was still so terribly important to the figures in that room.

  Just marching in there to confront them would have to get their attention. I’d needed my conviction and my ideas to do the rest.

  And if they punished me for the intrusion, so be it. At least I really would have done everything I could, unlike others who claimed the same.

  I dragged in a breath and strode up to the doors. With the words already bubbling at the base of my throat, I tossed the tassel aside and threw open the doors.

  My grand entrance didn’t have quite the desired effect. All that lay on the other side of that entrance was a short velvet-carpeted hall. A woman I recognized from some function at Uncle Raymond’s house startled where she’d been standing by the wood-paneled wall, looking over a notepad.

  “What are you— Jonathan Lockwood?” she said, stepping forward as she stared at me. “You can’t go—”

  A jolt of determination and fear pushed me onward. I sprang for the door just beyond her that I dearly hoped opened into the main chambers.

  “Stop!” she shouted. I’d already shoved past that door and barged out into the rounded room on the other side.

  Ten gray- and white-haired mages sat around two arcing tables like crescent moons that formed a split circle in the middle of the room. A huge silver chandelier poured light over the windowless space. The man who’d been standing, speaking to his colleagues, cut himself off to blink at me. My grandfather Lockwood, sitting at the far end, made a noise of consternated surprise. My chest tightened. I summoned my voice.

  “I—”

  That was all I got out. With a spat-out singsong phrase in Latin, a blast of magic walloped me from behind and froze me in place—including my mouth.

  “I’m sorry for the interruption, your Eminences,” the woman who’d been waiting in the hall said. “I should have caught him before he made it this far. It’s been so long since anyone’s tried to breech the chambers…” She let out a soft chuckle.

  I flexed my muscles, but all I accomplished was a prickling of magic digging into my body. A figure was striding from the darker edges of the room, beyond the ring of the Circle and the glow of the chandelier. My uncle came into view with a glower and a scowl on his face, both of which he aimed at me.

  “I’ll take care of my nephew from here, Melissa,” he said. “Thank you.”

  He gripped my shoulder and muttered a lyric of his own. The prickling squeeze of the magic released, everywhere except my mouth. My lips just held there slightly parted. I glared back at Uncle Raymond.

  He swung me around and propelled me toward the door. I could have fought him, but that wouldn’t exactly impress the Circle with my maturity and self-discipline. So I let him escort me out into the main hall and then down it.

  “Keep your voice down or I’ll stop you speaking again,” Uncle Raymond said, his hand still clamped on my shoulder. He murmured a few more words, and the vice on my jaw fell away. “What in Hades’s name was that ridiculous display about?”

  “The Environmental department has determined the volcano will erupt any moment now,” I said quietly but quickly. I wasn’t going to throw Carl to the wolves by telling my uncle how I’d found that out. “There are people up on the mountain right now. More going tomorrow. If the Circle acts quickly enough—we have to do something.”

  “The Circle prefers to follow proper procedure,” Uncle Raymond said with a hint of a sneer. “And they’re not cowed by over-passionate teenagers. You’re too old for these kinds of melodramatics, Jonathan. If the mages actually in the Environmental department felt they could present an appropriate plan of action, they would have.”

  My hands clenched at my sides. “Not when they’re too afraid to present anything even the slightest bit risky. Isn’t it worth at least a little risk when there are that many lives at stake? Why are so many of you so stuck in the same old ways you can’t see that?”

  “It’s easy to say that with the shine of youth in your eyes.” He stopped and turned me toward him. His dark eyes peered into mine. “If I tell you to go home and forget about this, you’re not going to do that, are you.”

  It wasn’t even a question, but I’m not sure I could have pretended anyway. I just stared defiantly back at him. He sighed.

  “Well, your father is on his way. Until then, to make sure there’s no trouble, since I need to get back to your grandfather—”

  My father? He must have sent some sort of magical call, like Carl had to me.

  Uncle Raymond nudged me toward a narrow door set deep in the wall. It opened to a small room with gray walls and a padded chair. A small circle of light gleamed on the ceiling. He motioned me in. As I crossed the threshold, a strangely intense silence settled around me.

  “What—” I started to ask, but Uncle Raymond was already shutting the door on me. The lock clicked over.

  All right then. It wasn’t as if a lock could stop a mage. I sank into the chair to give him time to leave so my way would be clear. The chair’s legs stuck to the floor when I tried to adjust its position. Bolted down, I realized. That was a little bizarre.

  The silence pressed even more heavily on me. I focused on the rhythm of my breath. After a few minutes, I stood up again and stalked right up to the door. I inhaled slowly, meaning to collect the thrum of magic around me into the intent of my words—

  There was no thrum. There was no magic. My lungs constricted as the realization hit me. The room felt so horribly silent because it was. Not only couldn’t I hear anything, I couldn’t hearken anything
either.

  A cold jolt of panic shot through my veins. I swallowed thickly, my hands opening and closing at my sides.

  I’d never not had the magic before. It had always been right there with me, ready to work with my will, for as long as I could remember. But no matter how I grasped for it now, there was nothing there to reach.

  It was this room. Something about it—of course the Confederation would need holding rooms, spaces where they could ensure a mage wouldn’t cast any magic, for times… well, for times like this. When they had a mage they didn’t quite trust but weren’t quite ready to send straight to a Dampering or burning out.

  Was this how it felt to be Dull? Surrounded by this awful quiet for eternity?

  My feet carried me of their own accord, pacing from the door to the opposite wall and back again. It was a short trip. Not enough of a distraction to ease my discomfort. My pulse was thumping hard and fast, but that rhythm hardly seemed to penetrate the magicless silence.

  I had to think. I couldn't let Uncle Raymond’s gambit distract me from my purpose. This torture would only last until Dad got here. What was I going to do then?

  I couldn't get to the Circle. Who else could I reach who'd make a difference? If Dad had been going to do anything, he would have already. Carl hadn’t been prepared to act, and he’d been my best chance within the Environmental department.

  A different sort of stillness settled inside me like a rock sinking in my chest. What if the only one who could make a difference now... was me?

  The lock clicked over. The door opened to reveal my father's grim but not entirely unamused face.

  "Jonathan," he said. "This wasn't a call I expected to have to answer. Come on. I'm sure you're ready enough to be out of there."

  O gods, was I. I practically bolted for the hall.

  The magic's hum wrapped around me in a welcoming embrace, and the tension in my chest released. I sucked it in with a gulp of air—and finally had the wherewithal to be embarrassed that I was being collected and escorted home by my father.