August, 1912.
13 years old.
"Kellin stop," I urged softly. "Somebody will see."
"Nobody is going to see," Kellin assured me. "Except you and me."
I looked around frantically, making sure the room was completely empty before turning back to my best friend.
"I learned how to do this last night," he said excitedly, a glint in his eye. "I think I've almost perfected it too."
"Just do it quickly," I begged him. "Before somebody comes."
"Nobody is gonna come, Vicky," Kellin said nonchalantly. "I warded the room."
"But we don't know how good your wards are yet," I countered. "You've only ever managed to do one before."
"And it was for you," Kellin said, raising his eyebrows indignantly at me. "And it worked, didn't it?"
I hesitated, trying to think of a retort and falling short of one. "Just... hurry it up will you?"
"Okay, okay," Kellin said and then his cheeks were filled with a massive, toothy smile.
Kellin stretched out his arms, palms facing up and squinted down at his hands in sheer concentration. I knew better than to say anything to him when he was trying to conjure up something, since I didn't want him to lose focus on what he was trying to do.
We weren't allowed to be where we currently were and definitely weren't allowed to be doing what we planned to do. If we were caught performing magic like this, we could very likely end up somewhere awful.
I hadn't perfected the spell to wipe memories yet and that was Kellin's sole backup plan if we got caught. He was trusting me to bail us out should anybody come by and catch us out of bed so late at night and I wasn't sure if I even could. The thought of facing the consequences made a little shiver run down my spine.
Kellin bit his bottom lip with his teeth, his palms starting to shake slightly. He sucked in a huge breath and let it out again, his muscles tensing up and becoming stiff.
He furrowed his brows, continued gnawing on his bottom lip and splayed his fingers out.
"Come...closer..." he breathed out to me and I, transfixed by him, did just that. I stepped closer, looking at my friend's hands with anticipation, our faces not so far apart from each other.
Then Kellin opened his mouth and burped into my face, letting out a roar of laughter as he did so. I stumbled back, fanning the air in front of me and letting out a distressed scream.
"That is so disgusting," I spluttered in horror. "You filthy animal!"
"Oh god did you see your face?" Kellin laughed, doubling over and wheezing into his thighs.
"You are a wretched thing," I said in a hoarse voice, gagging a little from the lingering smell.
"Okay that's not what I wanted to show you," Kellin said as he calmed down, wiping away tears from his face. He took another breath, taking another moment to compose himself.
"It's this."
He held a hand out again and waved over it with his other one. When nothing happened, he repeated the action and tried clicking his fingers.
"Yes, your empty hands are very fascinating to look at," I teased
"That's not it!" he protested. "It's supposed to - OH!"
Kellin let out a pleased gasp as a bird appeared in his palm, sitting passively in his gentle grip. He held it out to me excitedly and I was so shocked I could barely move.
"Oh my sweet butter beans," I whispered. "I can't believe you... is it real?"
"I - I think so," Kellin said, unsure of himself. "This is the second time I've managed to conjure one. The first one was a completely different bird."
The bird in Kellin's hand was a dove, though it was much smaller than any dove I had seen. But it held the same unmistakable snowy complexion and was just the perfect size to fit in Kellin's tiny hand.
"What was the other bird?" I asked in awe, stepping closer to peer at the animal.
"A crow I think," Kellin replied. "It was black."
"What did you do with it?" I reached my own fingers out, letting them run over the bird's wings. Only when I felt the soft feathers beneath my own fingertips was I sure that this was an actual living animal and not an illusion.
"It just... disappeared," Kellin said, his eyes never leaving the dove in his hands. "Into smoke."
"How did you do this?" I asked incredulously, running a finger over the dove's head.
"I just... thought about it," Kellin answered simply. "I felt the dove in my hand and then... there it was."
"But last night? How did you know you were capable of doing things like this?"
"I saw a bird flying in the afternoon and I just wondered what it must be like to fly," Kellin replied. "Then I think I started thinking about birds in general and well... then that one appeared."
The dove suddenly took off, flying straight for the ceiling. It was almost a blur of white, it's wings flapping loudly as it flew as high as it could.
Kellin's eyes followed the dove's movements before he lifted his hand up and faced his palm in the direction of the bird.
When nothing happened, he changed tactics and tried clapping his hands together instead. The dove abruptly vanished and seemed to explode into a thick cloud of white smoke.
"You're amazing," I breathed out.
Kellin looked at me, nervously running a shaky hand through his black hair. "You think so?"
"Look at what you just did!" I said, a laugh escaping my lips after the words. "This is amazing."
"I mean it's not anything like the mind games you play," he teased.
"What mind games?" I laughed, rolling my eyes.
"Oh you know," Kellin grinned. "Just the way you convinced your brother to give me his chocolate bar."
"It's not as hard as it looks," I lied. It took everything in me to make Mike give Kellin that chocolate and I'd had to sleep it off for four hours afterwards.
"You're right," Kellin said shooting me a wink, "it's harder."
"You could learn how to do it if you just focused," I countered. "Everything I can do, you probably can too."
Kellin shrugged. "Maybe I'm not meant to be doing the same type of magic as you."
I blinked at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"
Kellin opened his mouth and then closed it, struggling for words. He scrubbed his face with his hands before he straightened his back and sighed.
"You know how there's different types of magic?" he began and I nodded along. "Like for different things?"
"Like Elemental?"
"Yeah, like that," he answered. "Maybe I'm just better at... this kind and you're better at... that."
Kellin and I didn't know how far we could go with our powers and had no clue what we were capable of. Everything was so new to us and it was strange, yes, but it was also so exciting.
Maybe he had a point though. Mike had told me something in which he thought he'd seen Kellin talking to animals but at the time I hadn't thought much of it.
A sudden noise outside the room had the hairs on my arm standing on edge.
"We should go," I said to Kellin softly.
"I've warded-"
"Kellin."
"Fine, you're right," Kellin sighed. "Let's go."
We crept to the door, opening it to peek our heads around the corner. The corridor outside was so dark I could barely make anything out. I stepped out gingerly, straining my eyes to see down the corridor. It looked as if everything was just being swallowed into a black void with no end or beginning.
Kellin appeared beside me, keeping watch behind us. I couldn't make out anything definitive about his features save for his basic shape and figure.
"Do you think you can give us a bit of light?" he whispered.
"I... I can try," I said doubtfully.
I could barely see my own hands in front of my face but I did my best to focus on them the way I had practiced. I could do this, I'd done it before and now was no different. Okay, maybe I only did it a couple of times but I still did it and that's what really mattered here.
"Vic?" Kellin's voice was soft and unsure. I felt him shift closer to me until our shoulders were touching. Feeling the warmth emanating from the other boy made me a little more confident and more determined to conjure.
"Just give me a second," I muttered back. I could practically feel the anxiety creeping through my fingertips and the pressure to succeed increased. My hands were cupped together and gradually small sparks started to form in my palms. I was not going to be left embarrassed by being unable to conjure up a stupid little-
"There!" I exclaimed proudly when a little ball of fire finally flickered to life in my hands.
Kellin's face was illuminated by the small flame and he was grinning widely, all teeth and excitement.
I shifted the ball over to one hand, holding it up so that we could finally see a few feet in front of us.
"Do you remember which way?" I asked softly. Kellin and I had entered the room through a back door and I was wondering why the hell we didn't leave through it. This time we had exited the room through the main door and to me, both corridors looked exactly the same.
"It should be this way," Kellin spoke.
"Should?" I mumbled but Kellin wasn't listening to me anymore. He had started off down the left corridor, walking swiftly, his shoes making muffled clacks on the tiled floor.
Although in the silent halls, his shoes hitting the ground sounded like drums to me and I couldn't tell if it was because I was so on edge already or because it was echoing.
Whatever the case, I flicked the hand that wasn't holding fire in the direction of Kellin's feet, focusing on the sound and the way his shoes hit the tiles.
The clacking gradually became quieter until it stopped completely, and I smiled triumphantly at the fact that I'd successfully cast a silencing charm. If Kellin had noticed what I'd done, he showed no knowledge of it.
You'd think that because I was our only light source, Kellin would have let me lead but the boy was moving quickly in front of me, sometimes disappearing into the dark before I could catch up.
Kellin paused, one hand on the stone wall as he peered round a corner. I crept up behind him, trying to see past his body but he quickly flattened me against the wall, shaking my hand frantically in an attempt to extinguish the flame.
We were plunged into darkness again and my eyes were taking too long to adjust. Kellin hadn't moved his body away from mine and I was suddenly very aware of the rise and fall of his chest against my own. I didn't notice the stones digging into my back from the wall behind me and I wouldn't notice until tomorrow morning when I'd wake up with a dull ache all over.
I suddenly heard what had startled Kellin: voices. They were muffled but I could make out faint giggling followed by harsh shushing. Kellin held his breath as they came closer and I silently prayed to all the wizards in the world to get us out of this one.
"Shhhh! We're gonna get caught."
"We will if you keep talking," came the softer reply.
"Ryan," said the other in a desperate plea. "Please can we just go back to bed, I can't even see."
"You can't see because you didn't bother to cast a night-vision spell," the boy - Ryan I assumed, argued. "That's not exactly my fault, is it?"
"What do you mean 'didn't want to'?" the other voice said irritably. "I don't know how!"
"Well just don't let go of my hand," Ryan muttered, "we're almost there anyways."
"Where even is there?"
"You'll see, I have something I want to tell you-" Ryan suddenly stopped and my heart seemed to quicken its pace.
"What?" Came the other boy's frantic voice. "What is it?"
Ryan almost laughed. "I guess everyone's out of bed tonight."
Kellin let out a breath and sighed, stepping away from me. I suddenly felt very very cold without his body pressed up against mine and wanted to step closer to him again, but I shook my head at the audacity of such a thought.
"Come here both of you," Ryan's voice called in the dark. "What have you two been up to?"
"Nothing," Kellin's voice answered. "Vic, if you will please."
I hesitated, unsure if I could even conjure it again. But after a moment surprisingly the flame sparked to life again in my hand, flickering gently and illuminating the three faces in front of me.
Ryan immediately shielded his eyes with a gasp, muttering what sounded like a spell and blinking furiously.
"Could have warned me you were going to provide light," he scolded. "The night-vision spell I casted practically blinded me when you created that flame."
I couldn't even open my mouth to apologize, still so stunned by the two figures in front of me. Ryan didn't seem too phased by us being out at night but his friend seemed to mirror my feelings in his expression.
"That's an impressive fireball though," Ryan complimented me. "And I didn't even hear you say the spell for it."
I couldn't bring myself to explain that I hadn't said the spell. I usually never did. Things just seemed to do what I wanted without me having to announce them first.
"Ryan," the boy behind him began.
"Okay, okay, we're going," Ryan sighed in response.
"Where?" Kellin asked.
"To the gardens," Ryan answered him.
"But you can't," I said quickly. "You'll get in trouble if they catch you-"
"See!" the boy behind him exclaimed. "I told you."
Ryan just rolled his eyes and smirked, looking between the two of us nonchalantly. "You're only in trouble, if you're caught."
"What are you doing in the gardens?" Kellin asked.
"Don't you know?" Ryan said, raising his eyebrows curiously. "Everybody's meeting there to see."
"See what?"
"The fight between those two twins."
Kellin and I exchanged a glance.
"You have to come," Ryan insisted. "I'm honestly just going to see them conjure if anything."
"They're the best," the boy behind him said. "The things they can conjure I couldn't even dream of."
"You can," Ryan said, turning back to him. "You just think you can't. You're just as capable as anybody here."
"I can't do what you do," the other boy said, rolling his eyes. "And that's just a fact."
The two seemed to be drifting toward an argument and Kellin stepped in quickly before they could spiral into one.
"Do you know the way?" he asked.
"No, Kells," I said quickly, grabbing his arm. "We're not going."
"We have to," Kellin said to me. "We've never seen anybody besides each other conjuring and maybe we can learn from them."
"But Kellin if we get caught-"
"Then don't," Ryan said, breaking out into a grin.
Kellin shrugged. "He's got a point."
"That's not how it works," I sighed.
"We're going there now," Ryan admitted. "It starts at midnight and most people have left already. I know my way around, I can take you guys if you decide to go."
Kellin looked at me hopefully, mouthing a please and squeezing my arm encouragingly.
"If we get caught I'm going to cast an invisibility spell and leave you to suffer," I said to him.
He smiled back at me. "Deal." He let go of my arm and his smile grew. "But only because you have no idea how to cast an invisibility spell."
"Perfect," Ryan said. "Let's go."
"I'm Brendon," the boy behind him said as they walked beside us, the only light coming from my hand. "That's Ryan."
"Kellin and Vic," I introduced us. Kellin stayed close to me, paying attention the route we took in detail. If it came to it that we'd need to run, Kellin would grab my arm and I'd follow blindly. He always knew how to navigate these massive passageways and I'd trust nobody else but him with that task.
Brendon and Ryan chatted happily to us during the walk, making conversation and getting to know us.
They didn't ask why we were out of bed in the first place and so I didn't comment on the fact that the two hadn't at any point stopped holding hands.