Over the next several weeks Evelyn and Brandon met Puck for a few hours after school, continuing the lessons as much as possible every weekend. At first things went fairly easy, the initial couple of weeks spent healing and growing bigger and bigger plants had little affect on Evelyn. She took to the simplest forms of green magic as easily as a child takes to coloring. It wasn't until the third week of their meetings when Puck started upping the ante that the strain of constant magic use began to show.
"Control them Eve! See them wrapping around the tree in your mind and make them do it!"
Evelyn wiped sweat from her forehead, groaning with exhaustion. Growing the vines out of nothing had been hard enough. It had taken constant hours of effort, concentrating every bit of energy she could muster just to sprout the plants from the ground, and further hours of concentration to accelerate their growth. But no matter Puck's urgings or encouragement, Evelyn simply couldn't get the plants to move. It was draining, as if her magic was a physical substance that poured from her body like water from a pitcher, sapping her energy reserves as it flowed from her body.
"OK, ok. Just give me a minute to catch my breath, Puck." She sat on the ground heavily, the look of discouragement spreading across her face.
Puck looked between Evelyn and the tangled mass of vines that lay lifeless on the ground at her feet. As days went by he had become more and more frantic and nervous towards Evelyn's lack of progress. Evelyn was years behind, a fact he was more than happy to point out at every available opportunity, and his fear that she wouldn't be ready for the task at hand grew with each failed attempt. "We don't have a minute, Eve! You're almost eighteen! We have to go back before then, and if you're not ready you'll never be able to save the spell!"
"What does her age have to do with anything?" Brandon asked, interested in the conversation for the first time. Throughout the weeks of lessons Puck had never mentioned anything about a timeline, much less her upcoming birthday.
Puck's intake of breath was sharp, his sudden nervousness palpable. "It's just... just a goal. That's all..." As he mumbled his skin went pale, telling Evelyn more than he wanted her to know. He had let something slip.
"Puck? Answer him please. Why does my age matter?"
Puck closed his eyes and sighed. "Please don't, Eve. Please don't make me tell you."
"Puck, tell me," Evelyn said, this time with more authority.
Puck winced. "It's just... It's this world, Eve. It kills magic. What's inside you, the magic you were born with, it grows when you're young. On your eighteenth birthday it's at its strongest, but each day after it begins to die. Unless you go home where your magic will continue to grow, each day you spend after that age in this world will weaken your abilities. If you stay long enough, they'll die altogether. Once your magic dies, even if it's only for a day, what you lose can never come back. Ever."
"So you're saying if she stays here, then she'll eventually lose all of her magic?"
Puck looked at Brandon sadly. "Yes. If she stays here, Eve will eventually become fully human. Magic can't live in this world, at least not for long."
"So how are you still here?" Brandon asked with a bit of attitude.
"Brandon!" Evelyn snapped, shooting him a look.
"It's OK, Eve. He's scared of me is all." Puck said, pulling himself to his feet and turning back to Brandon. "I'm weakened here, but I can't lose my magic. I was born into both magic and this world long ago, before this world was cursed to destroy magic. Evelyn was born into magic, but she wasn't here before the curse. Her magic can't fight your world's drain."
"And how was our world cursed?" Brandon asked.
"By my queen. When humans chased the Fae from this world she cast a spell to destroy magic here. By doing that it forced us all to follow her and Oberon into the next world, keeping all of us safe from humans."
"You? Safe from humans?" Brandon scoffed.
Puck's skin darkened. "Humans may not have our magic, but they created other weapons we couldn't fight. Weapons that our magic couldn't touch. Centuries ago humans began to hunt us, kill us. That's why we had to leave, because of your kind."
Brandon was on his feet. "Well maybe humans wouldn't have had to kill your kind if you all hadn't used magic against them!"
"Puck! Brandon! Both of you stop it right now!" Evelyn glared at them each in turn. "This is hard enough without you two going at each other!"
Puck's skin lightened. "Sorry, Eve."
"Yeah, sorry Evelyn." Brandon said, forcing himself to calm.
"Now look, I still have almost four weeks before my birthday. I'll push as hard as I can until then, and do what I can to help you," she said, looking at Puck. "On my birthday, that's when we'll leave, OK?"
Puck smiled. "On your birthday. We can't wait any longer though."
"We won't, I promise." Evelyn pulled him into a hug. "You two just take it easy on each other until then."
"Anything I can do to help, I will. Even if it means trusting him, as long as I get you back safe," Brandon said, backing up a few steps to lean against a tree.
Puck smiled at him. "Anything to help?"
Brandon's eyes narrowed. "That depends on what you're thinking..."
"Oh, nothing too painful..." Mischief spread across Puck's face as he spoke, and before either Brandon or Evelyn had a chance to respond the ground around Brandon's feet began to bulge. Brandon jumped in surprise and tried to move, but the thick vines Puck summoned grew too fast, and within seconds had wrapped around both Brandon and the tree, covering nearly every inch of his body all the way up to his neck, pinning him solidly against the trunk.
"Hey!" Brandon called out in shock.
It was the only word either Brandon or Evelyn could get out. "Bye Eve!" Puck called brightly. A moment later the air became alive with an almost electrical crackling sound as Puck transformed into an enormous bird and flew off, leaving Evelyn no opportunity to make him undo the magic.
"Puck!" Evelyn screamed out at the swaying branches in the canopy above where Puck had broken through in his escape, but a few falling leaves were all that seemed to reward her efforts. She turned helplessly to Brandon, whose own efforts to struggle against Puck's latest trick were yielding the same results as Evelyn's shouting.
"Well this sucks..." Brandon groaned, trying to wiggle his arms out of the vines. "When I said I'd help I didn't mean tie me to a damned tree!"
"Are you hurt?" Evelyn asked as she rushed over.
"No," Brandon replied as he struggled. "Just stuck. He didn't make them tight enough to hurt."
Evelyn sighed with relief. "Well at least we have that going for us. Hold on, I'll try to pull them off." She gripped a vine with both hands and pulled as hard as she could, groaning with the effort as she put everything she had into it. The vine didn't so much as hold against the tree as fight against her efforts. The harder she pulled, the tighter the plant seemed to become. It was as if she were trying to uncoil a snake from its prey.
"I don't think that's going to work," Brandon said, amusement breaking into his voice.
Evelyn looked up to find him grinning down at her, nearly laughing. "And what do you think is so funny?" she snapped. "He's got you tied to a tree and I can't get you out!"
Brandon just shook his head, still apparently amused. Evelyn wondered if he was just faking amusement for her sake, but she was honestly too tired to reach out to sense his emotions.
"I think you know why he did this. You're going to have to untie me his way."
Evelyn groaned again, tapping her forehead against the vines in frustration. "I know why he did this, I just wish he didn't. I'm not ready."
"Oh, I think you are," Brandon replied. "At least I hope you are, I'd rather not be tied up out here all night."
"I'll go home and get an axe or something, cut you out..."
"Oh, no, no, no," Brandon said. "It's at least a fifteen minute walk to your house from here, and it'll be dark soon. No offence, but I'd rather not have you swinging an axe around me in the dark. Come on now, get up and do this. I believe in you."
"At least one of us does..." Evelyn mumbled under her breath.
She stood and took a few steps back, taking in the entire scene. The vines she had pulled at seemed to be loosening themselves just a bit, but not enough to allow Brandon any movement. Brandon was right and she knew it, Puck was forcing her to learn how to control her powers.
"Remember what he said, visualize it and make it happen," Brandon said.
"Really? You're the teacher now?" Evelyn snapped.
"No, I really have no idea what the hell I'm talking about," Brandon laughed, "I'm just trying to be helpful and not freak out is all."
"I know, I'm sorry," Evelyn said softly. She closed her eyes, picturing how the vines grew up and around. She visualized them sliding off and away from Brandon, falling to the ground like so much rope.
"Uh, you OK, Evelyn?" Brandon asked nervously, breaking her concentration.
"Hush!"
She opened her eyes again, staring down the vines. This time she kept them open, seeing in her mind's eye the movement she wanted them to take. Her breathing became steady as her concentration grew. Evelyn had to make this work. Unlike the other batch of vines laying lifelessly on the ground to her right, Evelyn knew if she failed again Brandon would be stuck out here the entire night, if not longer. The thought of him tied helplessly to a tree all night sent a shiver down her spine and focused her energy.
Then, as if responding to her fears, the jewel began to warm and vibrate. Lightly pulsing at first, the stone's vibrations and heat grew steadily in intensity as Evelyn concentrated harder and harder on the plants.
The vines had a response of their own. As if sensing Evelyn's magic, they began to tighten. Slowly, steadily, they thickened and tightened, giving Evelyn the impression once again of a coiled snake putting everything it had into the final stages of a kill. The smile on Brandon's face twisted into a mask of fear as the vines continued their work. "Eve," he winced, "Eve this is getting bad..."
Panic welled up in Evelyn's chest, gripping her heart like an icy hand. The more vicelike Brandon's bonds became the more Evelyn redoubled her efforts, her own fear forcing parts of her mind she didn't know she could access into action. The jewel's vibrating pulsed to the beat of her own heart, its heat threatening to burn her skin as magic built within Evelyn's body.
Brandon cried out as the vines fought against Evelyn's efforts. Her eyes burned and head pounded, but still Evelyn put more energy into summoning the magic she knew she had. Then, in painfully slow movements, the vines began to obey Evelyn's magic. Inch by inch they slid down and outward as Evelyn threw everything she had at them. White spots began to form in her vision and her head began to spin, but still Evelyn concentrated on forcing the vines apart.
It ended as quickly as it began. One moment the vines remained wrapped around Brandon, stubbornly clinging to their prey. The next they fell to the ground in a snapping heap, piling around Brandon's feet like raked leaves. He let out a sigh of relief as air re-entered his lungs.
"Evelyn!" he shouted, "I knew you could do it!"
The triumph on his face quickly faded as he looked into Evelyn's exhausted eyes. Her face was pale as death, eyes red and bloodshot. She smiled at him weakly, relief evident even through her fear and weakness. "I did, didn't I?"
Before Brandon could react Evelyn's eyes rolled to back and she fell to the ground as lifelessly as the vines around the tree.