"Help...me."
The fragile voice, breaking like shattering ice, and punctuated with a booming thunderclap, captured Selena's attention. Through raindrops pattering against the half- open living room window, Selena could make out a dark figure lurching along the sidewalk outside. Several steps later, the figure passed beneath the floating fire mage stones that lit the curved walkway to her house, illuminating the distinctive wine-red trench coat the man wore.
With a gasp, she realized she recognized the man. Uncle Franklin. A smile curled up her thin lips. Her uncle was fond of theatrics, but this was too much, even for him. She wasn't a child anymore and his zombie act didn't scare her.
Selena set aside her summer-assigned reading, carefully bookmarking the page, to get a closer look out the window. If he was trying to scare her, he'd have to work harder than that. In his wake, he left behind a trail of footprints encased in slush — on the hottest day of the year. Not a very impressive bit of magic, Selena thought with a sigh.
From her seat by the window, Selena heard her mother toss aside her daily dose of politics, the newspaper rustling as it hit the coffee table. "Selena! Get up right now, young lady, and come say hello to your uncle!" her mother called as she made her way to the door.
Selena scoffed. She was hardly a lady, and was loathe to move, but rose from her blue wingback chair just the same, if only to forgo her mother's mewling. Her knees groaned in protest after having been curled up for the past few hours. Brow furrowing, she strode to the foyer to greet her uncle.
A frantic pounding on the front door reverberated through Selena's chest. A sudden wind roared and whipped the apple trees outside, the blast nearly knocking Selena back a step when she threw open the door.
The sight that greeted her was far worse than she'd been able to discern by dim lamplight in the middle of a thunderstorm. Uncle Franklin's usual rich brown skin had turned a translucent blue, and his raised fist had already frozen solid. Before Selena's eyes, the once-flesh there splintered and fell apart into fragments on the porch. She couldn't help staring at the stump left behind or watching as the slow freeze snaked its way up his arm beneath the trench coat.
Petals blew into the house and, if not for the wind at his back, Selena wasn't sure Uncle Franklin would have managed to stagger up the few steps inside. Her mother's scream was swallowed by another crack of thunder. Selena looped an arm through his elbow to help him up into the foyer.
This was water magic, Selena realized. Her own element as well, but she'd never used it like this, not to such an extreme. This was the work of a curse. "Great martyrs of Salem, who did this to you?"
"Ka-" Uncle Franklin started, his breath snuffed in his throat as the slow freeze crept up into his neck and then his face. He was turning into an ice sculpture before her eyes. She took his remaining hand, his left hand, which clutched an envelope. The fingers burned cold against her skin but still held some trace of softness in them. "Ka-"
"Don't speak. I'm going to fight this water curse. Mom, I need you to do something useful besides cry." Selena channeled her elemental magic into her kamea, the birthstone bracelet all mages used to channel and focus their magic. Her aquamarine dangled into her palm and glowed a soothing blue-green. She pushed her water magic through the kamea and into Uncle Franklin, heating his blood and bones.
At first, she drove back the curse, inch by painful inch, but the curse fought back hard. It toyed with her as they danced, allowing her to reclaim bits of Uncle Franklin, only to take for itself more than Selena had claimed. No matter how hard she tried, no matter how powerful her magic, the curse batted aside her efforts. It struck at Selena, freezing her hand until she let out a pained shriek and had to let go. The curse would take Selena, too, if it could.
"Mom, don't just stand there. Help!" Selena cradled her hand until it had returned to normal, then grabbed her mother's hand and placed it on Uncle Franklin's.
"I...don't know what use I'll be." Mother gazed at their joined hands with wide, frightened eyes, as if she wanted to snatch her hand away before the curse could take her with it.
Selena gripped her mother's fingers to hold them in place. "Try," she gritted out, sweating with the effort of speaking while fighting this sneaky freezing curse. She felt her mother's power join hers, tremulous and almost insubstantial at first, but with a nod of encouragement from Selena, their combined powers intensified. "Good. Now, keep control."
Mother's steady control didn't last but a few moments before her air magic turned erratic. A whirlwind swept through their foyer, sending mail flying throughout the room and overturning a ceramic vase that had been a wedding gift. The vase struck the floor with a loud crash before splintering into fragments. Selena huffed and side-eyed Mother. "On second thought, maybe don't try."
"You don't have to be so me-mean," her mother choked out. "I'm trying my best, but just look at him! He's freezing to death!"
"Give...envelope...Cassius."
Uncle Franklin's words were strained as they came from between blue lips, but Selena nodded and squeezed his frozen shoulder. The mere moments they'd bought him to communicate his message evaporated with a chilling finality. The curse froze his throat again, and this time an impenetrable layer of ice covered his neck, his jaw, his lips, and his nose.
"No! Uncle Franklin, fight it! Stay with me." Her voice wavered close to a sob, but she forced herself to push her feelings for the man aside and concentrate, sending every ounce of power she possessed into saving her uncle's life, but the solid ice crept up his face no matter what she did. His eyes froze over next, then his forehead, and finally his graying hair.
Uncle Franklin didn't move again. Ice spread to his clothing next, draining the vibrant red of his trench as it froze over. His last frozen breath kissed her cheeks.
Her father's coworker, the man who had been an uncle to her in all but blood for the fifteen years she'd been on this earth, had been murdered in front of her.
There was no doubt that's what this was. Murder. Franklin had been murdered by a curse.
Selena sat back on her heels, at a loss. Her magic had never failed her before. Never. Why hadn't she been able to break the curse and save him?
"There has to be something more we can do!" her mother shouted, snatching a crocheted blanket off the back of a couch and tucking it over Franklin's body. As if cotton could do what her magic couldn't.
"Can't you see he's gone?" Selena snapped. "Maybe if you would've been able to keep your feelings under control long enough to help me, he wouldn't be dead!"
The words landed across her mother's face like a slap. She backed slowly away from Selena, her gaze flitting between her daughter and the man lying dead on the floor. "I'll get your father," Mom said, her voice subdued, as if it came from a great distance away.
"You do that."
As Mom's footsteps receded, heels clacking against the floor down the hallway to Father's study, and she was sure she was alone, Selena allowed herself to express a drop of the incredible sadness sitting in her heart. She stepped to the ice sculpture that had been her uncle, reaching out and cupping his cheek in her palm, a strangled sob tearing from her throat. This time, she could feel no trace of the curse fighting against her. It had already done its job. "Uncle, I promise you, I will find out who did this to you and destroy them."
"What's all this commotion, Zoe?" Father's study door creaked open. His imposing frame emerged into the hallway to tower over Mother, and, as usual, made extra effort to occupy as much available space as possible. Even his short black hair, normally slicked back to perfection, had worked its way into unkempt spikes. He fixed Mother with a glare and pursed his lips.
So, he hadn't merely been avoiding them by holing up in his office. Whatever work project he had going on consumed his thoughts to the exclusion of all else, and he was not pleased to have been disturbed. Then, his bleary, dark-eyed gaze fell on what remained of his best friend, which had already begun to melt in the indoor heat. The air conditioning in this old row home from the 1700s had never worked, and the pitiful fan enchanted by an air mage to cool the home had long since stopped running. "Ah. Oh, Franklin, I warned you to be more careful."
What? You knew he could be in danger, and you allowed this to happen? Selena stared at her father, her face a stone mask to hide the fury boiling beneath. Uncle Franklin had been his best friend. Father should have talked sense into him. Selena knew well how persuasive her father could be. If he had made any sort of real effort, he'd have found a way to make Uncle Franklin listen, and Uncle Franklin would still be alive.
"Mind your attitude, young lady. You forget that I don't have to be a mage to know what goes through that keen mind of yours. I know your tells, and your fingers make the subtlest clench when you're angry. Nobody else would notice, but I do. For the record, I did everything in my power to talk him down, but he obviously made the wrong choice."
Selena relaxed her digits and inclined her head. "Father, what did Uncle Franklin do to merit such an untimely end? After all, if I'm to join the Bureau now that I've graduated, I would like to be aware of what missteps to avoid."
"You needn't concern yourself with department politics just yet, my girl. You still have time to prepare yourself, and I will make sure that you are ready by this fall. Suffice it to say that he came across information that troubled him, and he made the choice to place that information in the wrong hands. At least he brought it here first."
Information in that envelope? Selena couldn't help her gaze straying to where the manila envelope in question lay inches from her feet. She bent to pick it up, fingers itching to tear open the seal and scan the contents inside.
Before she could, her father snatched the envelope from her grip, a single brow arched in warning. "Don't go looking for this, now. Get me? You have got a stellar career ahead of you, so keep your head down and focus on continuing your studies."
"Yes, Father."
"Good. Now in this line of work, you'll come across things like this, though used most often against the nonmagical, mind you. Mages have invented all kinds of sneaky ways to curse objects. Draining curses, freezing curses, stone curses, and none of it leaves a trace. It's so much worse seeing it used against a friend." For the first time, he let Selena catch a rare glimpse of emotion. Father's voice hitched at the end, and Selena thought she could see his eyes turn watery. "I want you to cultivate great power, but use that power responsibly."
Mom came behind him and placed a tentative hand on his shoulder. To Selena's surprise, he allowed the touch instead of rebuffing her with the insistence that he was fine. "Franklin was a good man. Do you have any idea who could have done this to him? It sounds as if you suspect someone in your own department."
As if to prove the futility of identifying a culprit, Uncle Franklin's remains fell apart into shards and liquified on the floor. Selena took a step back, blinking back tears. There would be nothing left of him now. Was there even a trace of his DNA in this water? This curse was the perfect one to use to get away with murder, really. No body, no discernible crime. Perhaps Selena could learn this curse, use it against whoever did this to Uncle Franklin. It would give the murderer a taste of his own medicine, and only he would know who gave it to him and why.
Father's eyes clouded over, but he placed his hand over Mom's. "I may have my guesses, love, but I'll keep silent on the matter until I'm certain. I should return to work. I leave early in the morning for my trip, and I've got a ton of work still to wrap up. Selena, you'll take care of him. Make him something like you did for your Elements exam, something to preserve him for his family. I'll make the call to his wife."
With a final look at his friend, Father retreated to his study, leaving Selena to figure out what to do. Uncle Franklin had always loved the statues at the art museum. She wasn't sure that he'd want to become one of them, but Selena had enough affinity to earth magic that she could manage it. The police may be able to recover something from the remains if they were preserved this way, and the statue could then be given to the family.
She called on her water magic, drawing all of the water that had once made up Uncle Franklin to reassemble into his form. The liquid obeyed, slowly swirling until it had retaken its familiar shape. Holding the water-statue in place, Selena added her earth magic. From his feet on upward, the water solidified into stone. She stared into his face, wondering if she'd made the right decision. Would the family want this?
"Beautiful work, Lena," Mom said. "You did everything you could, you know."
"It wasn't enough."
"Sweetheart — "
"Mom, I'm tired. I'm going to go to bed." Selena gave Mom a perfunctory kiss on the cheek and climbed upstairs, winded from the effort after having exerted her magic so much tonight.
Exhaustion flooded her limbs as she lay in bed, but she refused to succumb to sleep. She waited, wide awake, for her parents to turn in. A doorbell chime soon sounded, and Selena could make out muffled snippets of conversation, enough to get the gist of the late night visit. Father had contacted the mage police, and Mom was recounting her witness statement. Mom's soft, meek footsteps ascended the stairs about half an hour later. Two hours after that, Father's heavy footsteps caused the boards to creak.
The lights went out in their bedroom, and Selena listened for her father's loud, buzzing snores. When they finally came, Selena pushed her covers aside and crept down the steps, using a bit of air magic for stealth so she wouldn't be heard or seen. Still, her heart raced with the prospect of getting caught. Snores followed her down the steps until she reached the bottom and turned right toward Father's study.
She stood in front of the locked door and placed her palm against the handle. Her aquamarine birthstone glowed a soft green as her earth magic turned the mechanism inside. When the lock clicked, Selena tested the doorknob. The door opened, and she hastened into the study, closing the door behind her.
"Now, where would Father have hidden the envelope?"