When she awoke it was still dark out, Katy knew she had not slept long since it was almost midnight when she lost her temper. Katy looked around and found her wand, it sat on the stand next to her bed; she picked it up and put it back in her sleeve. She then lit a ball of fire and looked at her watch it was just a quarter after three in the morning. Katy cast a few protective spells and the Custos and the Celo spells.
Katy could hear Tony’s and Deen’s slow breathing, and little snores from Sandra who, Katy assumed, sat by Tony’s bedside. She also heard louder snores; she guessed they were Edgar’s as she had not heard them before, even thought she had spent her summer break with him, there where silencing spells to prevent disturbance from other bedrooms in the tent. She got up off the bed and looked around; she did not see anything, but she knew that there was at least a guard by the doors. She made a move to make herself invisible when a hand grabbed her. She immediately took a defensive stance and was about to strike when the voice stopped her.
“Katherine Lillian. I wouldn’t do that.” Headmaster O’Cuinn stated as he released her arm.
Katy turned around and looked at the headmaster. “Sorry, headmaster.”
“No apologizes needed, I understand where you are coming from, but there are two guardians out there, and both have a nice potion to see those who are invisible, thanks to a certain young witch.” The headmaster said with a wink and then flipped his hand and a chair appeared out of thin air and he sat down.
Katy went back and sat on the bed. “How did you find out about the potion?”
“Deen, of course, he told his mom and dad after you ran off this last break. I have to say it is quite clever. Antonio is working on it to make it last longer, but an hour is a fine achievement for a first year, you have a bright future with potions.”
“Umm… Headmaster…” Katy did not know how to ask her question because just the thought of Riley made her see red.
“You want to know if we have proof of young Riley hurting Tony and Deen.”
“Yes.”
“No, we don’t, and we should discuss that temper of yours. That temper can get you into some serious trouble.”
Katy hung her head in shame. “I… I don’t know… I just can’t…” Katy didn’t know how to put her feelings into words, but then again if she did, she may not have done what she had done. She let Riley see her power, did she regret that? No… she only felt shame in the fact Sandra had witnessed it, she held her head back up. “He has been behind this from the start; he just went a step to far. He should have come after me.”
“He has a lot of power as well, and he is not opposed to using deadly spells, you really wouldn’t stand a chance. And your loss would be too much for the people who care for you to bear.”
“Umm…” Katy really did not know what to say, she knew this would to have end she just did not know how it would end, but she knew they would all find out soon enough.
“Now get some sleep Katherine, tomorrow, or should I say today, shall be a busy day for all.” The headmaster then got up and walk out of the room.
Katy laid back down, but she tossed and turned until the early morning hours and drifted back to sleep right after dawn had broken. But sleep would not last, just a couple of hours later she sat up with a start. She remembered the last Eleball game. The bolt of yellow… Katy forgot about it in her need to find the journal. Katy got up and was set to go and demand answers, but she did not have to go far.
“I have told you, with the guardians, we still can’t guarantee her safety. She is bright enough to get away if she needs to, and she will think she needs to get away. Just because she stayed last night doesn’t mean she has given up the idea of stopping Riley Solomon.” Edgar stated to the headmaster as she walked up.
“I may want revenge, but I am not stupid.” Katy said, as she startled both Edgar and the headmaster.
“See Edgar, she won’t go looking for trouble, not when trouble is looking for her. I am sure she will be fine in her classes, and when not in class I am sure she will be here.” Headmaster O’Cuinn looked down at Katy and waited for her to verify his words.
“Yes, I will just go to classes, the library, my dorm, and here.” Katy said with a nod of her head. Though Katy knew that was a lie, she would figure a way to end this once and for all, all she had to do was figure out how to open that blasted journal of her father’s.
“See, Edgar, now if you excuse me, I have some business to attend to, see you later.” Headmaster O’Cuinn then swept from the room and left Katy alone with Edgar.
“Katy, you need to do exactly what you told us you will do, we have no clue what Richard and Wesley Solomon have taught Riley. And as we have all found out you have a bit of a temper and we don’t want to see anything happen to you,” Edgar said.
Katy just nodded and then left the hospital wing and went back to her dorm where she laid on her bed and cried. The emotions she had hidden away from view, the ones that show she truly cares, the sadness, the love, they now came to the surface, it was easier to be angry then to feel what she was feeling, which was a cold lonely feeling. She knew she had to do something, but the questions were what could she do and how?
Katy did exactly what she told the headmaster she would do the last two weeks of school, she studied, she sat next to the beds in the hospital wing as she waited for Tony and Deen to wake up, and she also worked on the journal. She sat through her tests, but it was hard every day she went to class, because the seat next to her was empty. And that just fueled her pain and rage, though she now could hide it better, nobody would guess she was in so much pain.
It was the last day of finals and she walked back to the hospital wing, but before she arrived, she saw Riley as he stood across the doors of the hospital wing. She knew he was invisible because of the slight glow to his skin. Katy had started to take the potion, to see those who were invisible, every time she left a classroom. This was an upgrade to her old one, this one was better, not only would it show those hidden by spells, but it also worked around any secret, so that which was hidden from view would be seen. He had a cocky type of smile on him, and then he lifted his wand and Katy just had time to see that the guards had not responded and the word “how” was uttered from her lips as she collapsed.
Katy woke up what seemed like hours later, she laid on a bed, in an unfamiliar but familiar place. She sat up and looked around she saw a window and the door. She got up and tried to open the door; she tried any spell she could think of to open it but it would not budge. She then tried the window but as soon as she threw the first spell, it shot back at her and knocked her down. Katy knew she was in trouble. She got up and went back to sit on the bed and thought of how she got into this mess. Why had the guards not seen Riley? Why had they not seen her fall? And how did she get to be here? And most importantly how was she going to escape from here?
Katy did not know how but she ended up back asleep that night and when she awoke in the morning, someone sat in the chair beside her bed. It was the person who she wanted to hurt for the pain he had caused her soul. It was Riley. But before she could cast a spell, he placed a binding curse on her. She could not move, and she could not cast a spell.
“Don’t try we had this room lined with herbs that render all that sleep here powerless until they leave the room. It was a creation of our mother’s; she really was a powerful witch to bad she was an Earth and untrustworthy. It is almost as bad as my little sister being a Fire.” Riley said with a hatred that dripped from every word he spoke. “How are you a Fire? Mother was an Earth and dad is an Air. Mother comes from a long line of Earth and of course dad’s family is all Air, dad was the first one to marry outside the elemental power of the family. So again, how are you Fire?”
Riley asked himself that question rather than Katy, as he knew Katy could not answer that question, as she had asked herself that question every day since she entered this world. Katy kept silent and let him talk. She did not know what to make of it that her mother created the room that now held her captive in. The room she may very well die in. She knew she should be afraid but somehow all the anger and pain had drowned out the fear of her possible impending death.
“I don’t get it. Why didn’t dad just take you in? Why not deal with you here? Why go through this? Why make me do what I have done? Why did I have to attack an assistant? Why attack a guardian’s child? Just because they were close to you? It does not make any sense.” Riley asked to himself, and Katy let him.
Katy took a chance and asked her question. “How did the guards not see you? When you attacked me?”
“I have a magical hat. Your first potion, as you know, only works with people who use the spell. I slipped them some of that potion, instead of the new one you created and gave to them. I have a magical hat that when I put it on, I am invisible.” He said as he held up a faded old baseball hat. “And as for you passing out and falling, I threw a hat on you as well right when I hit you with the spell. Well, I had your own Fire member put it on you, Oscar, I gave him one to use as well so the guards wouldn’t see him. So, it just looked as if you disappeared. Oscar was so keen to betray you. You all thought he was normal born, but that is because his parents disowned him for being a Fire, his parents are Airs, there must have been a Fire in his line. But since he was keen to show his loyalty to the Airs, I gave him a chance. You know what? The fools are looking for you. In fact, they were here. They left you.”
Katy did not say anything because she knew that if they were here it means they did not get in. Or she would be with them now. So, Katy let Riley go back to talking to himself.
This went on for hours; Katy realized that he was there to watch her, why she did not know. But she did figure out that he thought if he talked it out, out loud, his doubts, he may be able to find the answers he searched for. She also knew it would not work. She also knew that soon she would figure out how this was going to end the hard way.
Riley left after another hour, he left Katy alone again and released from her bindings. Katy knew that she had to get out of this place. Then something triggered in her mind. Riley said this room stripped her of her powers but when she woke up, she was able to throw a stream of magic at the window. Maybe just maybe there was a loophole in her mother’s room.
Kris Charles - Author 