Page 21 of Shattered Illusion

“Alright.” I skip along beside Thaddeus’ long strides, excitement about what’s to come adding a little extra bounce in my step. “So how often can we get one of these containment rooms, and how secure are they?” He raises a brow curiously. “I’m only wondering if I’ll be able to go in there myself and practice or if I need you with me all the time. And also… well… if I do go by myself, will anyone be able to just walk in on me?”

“Ahh. Youcan,” he stresses the word, “book one of the rooms, but I think until you have a better handle on the magic and what each rune does, you should have Jasper or I with you in case you get overwhelmed.”

“Gotcha.” My head bobs like a bobblehead.

Our conversation is cut short as we enter another hallway after going down three flights of circular stairs and across a mainsection of the castle into another wing. This one is different from the rest. That much is easy to see.

Supernaturals of all walks of life flutter down the corridor, laughing, chatting, and… did someone just growl at me?

My head whips around, looking for where it might have come from, but I come up empty. No one is paying attention to the new girl or the professor in their midst. That works well for me. If I can stay in the shadows and master my magic, I’ll be better off.

Thaddeus makes a left at the T at the end of the hall, and this one is by far emptier than the previous one. Along the walls are steel-type doors, kind of like the ones I’ve seen in pictures of old-time submarines. There are no windows looking in, so anything could be happening beyond them. He stops outside one of the doors and presses his hand to a panel on the right, which lights up green after a few seconds.

Almost like an airlock releasing, the door swings open, showcasing a large, empty room. There’s nothing inside save for a few recessed lights in the ceiling. The walls are a pockmarked dark charcoal color, and the floor has a resemblance to the stone on the outer walls of the castle.

Thaddeus ushers us inside, but it’s not as easy to enter as it seems. A thick barrier with the consistency of slow-moving molasses presses against me as I pass over the threshold into the room. A resounding pop echoes around the cavernous space as I finally make it through, making me stumble. He closes the steel door behind him after he joins me in the room, and a sound like one you’d hear from a pressure cooker fills the silence until it gradually fades away into nothing.

“Sorry. Guess I should have warned you about the ward in the room,” Thaddeus murmurs sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck in a sign of nervousness. “It’s what keeps the magic contained so there aren’t any accidents.”

I was wondering what made these magical containment rooms so special, but now I know. Hopefully, it’ll get easier to pass through the more I come in here to work.

“Now. What are we starting with, Thaddy?”

He pulls out his phone, flicking through the pictures until he stops on one. He flips it around for me to see, and it’s easy to make out what we’re doing first. I admit I haven’t taken the time to look over the marks covering my body, and well, this girl is avoiding mirrors like the plague, but there’s no denying the mark looks like a dancing flame.

So fire. He’s going to want me to manifest it.

If we were anywhere else, I would tell him hell no. It would be my luck to burn the entire place down. But with Thaddeus here, I feel a little more prepared to do this.

With a nod of my head, he pockets his phone once more. “Fire, while volatile, is easy to control once you get the hang of it. In the beginning, it’ll try to take on a mind of its own, but that’s where you need to focus To press in on the flame and will it to do as you say. Magic is a combination of power, concentration, and will.” He holds out an icy blue hand, snaps his fingers, and an almost identical in color flame appears in his palm. It flickers, casting a light show all around us, but never moves away or grows in size than what it is.

“That’s amazing,” I murmur in awe, moving closer. “But why is it blue and not red and orange like regular fire?” Almost like compulsion, my hand reaches out, my fingers dancing through the pale fire. “And it’s cold. Why?”

“Shit.” Thaddeus immediately extinguishes the magic in his hand, then grabs mine, looking it over. “It was fucking ice fire, Bailey. Why the hell did you touch it?” He’s still staring at my hand and grimacing, but I don’t know why. It doesn’t hurt. There are no marks. The flame didn’t even hurt me. “How? Your skinshould be covered in burns,” he murmurs quietly, almost like he’s asking himself.

I shrug a shoulder. I don’t know. But I only have one answer for him. “Magic?”

He finally takes his eyes off my uninjured hand and pins me with a hard stare. “This isn’t a fucking game, Bailey. You could have gotten seriously hurt.”

“I know it’s not a damn game, Thaddeus. This is my fucking life! I don’t know why I touched your damn fire, but I was drawn to it. And you yourself said the more runes, the more power. Maybe one of my runes protects me from it.” Gah. I can’t do this. Nope. Not right now. My emotions went haywire yesterday, and I was supposedly glowing. It’s a rabbit hole I feel myself going down now. And if Thaddeus and I clash like oil and water while attempting to practice my magic, there’s no way either of us will get out of this training session unscathed. “Maybe this was a mistake. Thank you for trying, but I’ll find someone else to help me.”

Tears gather in my eyes as I head to the door, and I hear Thaddeus curse under his breath. His hand wraps around my arm, halting my steps. But I don’t turn around to look at him. He doesn’t need to see just how overwhelmed I am. And it wasn’t even the fact that he yelled at me that got me to this point. It’s… Everything. His anger was just the cherry on top of my shit life sundae.

No matter how convincing my brave face was when he picked me up at my room earlier, it’s long gone now.

“Bailey, wait. Please give me another chance. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I just… fuck. I’m supposed to protect you, and I thought you got hurt.”

“I know, Thaddy. But this is my life. The only one I have, and if this is what fate means for me, then I’ll work my hardest to be the best damn curiomancer this world has ever seen. But I can’tfreaking do that when I’m so damn overwhelmed all the time.” My chest heaves as I suck in breaths, working hard to calm the volatile emotions.

Thaddeus pulls me into his arms and holds me as I rage against the power pushing against my skin. Smooth, soothing circles on my back finally calm my nerves enough that I can breathe, and I don’t feel like I’m going to be split apart.

The only difference between yesterday and today, though, is that there was no glow. Not like the show in Axel’s office. Does that mean I have some semblance of control, or are the situations completely different?

I clear my throat as a prickly sense of humiliation washes over me from yet again letting my emotions get the best of me. As Thaddeus said yesterday, magic needs control, and that’s a subject I’m severely lacking in.

“All good, Bailey?”

“Yeah,” I mutter, taking a step back and clearing my throat before retreating to the middle of the stone room. Because that’s what it makes me think. Stone, like a cave. Like this one room was roughly carved into a rock to hold back the errant magic that can go awry.

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