Aspect Of Winter Read online

  I clenched his hand tightly, and he gave me a reassuring smile.

  “In the meantime, don’t ever doubt that I’m doing exactly what I want to, for the time being. You matter to me. I want you to be alive and happy, and there’s nothing I won’t do to help you stay that way.”

  “You’re already doing a really good job with that,” I murmured. He smiled brilliantly at me, and then drew me in slowly for a kiss.

  A couple of minutes later, Tyler started driving me home. We didn’t say anything; there was nothing to say. He just held my hand, and then we went our separate ways.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  It was the middle of December when we heard from Aiden again. He messaged Sam and me, telling us he’d be coming to us that Saturday to prepare us in person for the Trials.

  That weekend came quickly. There was something about being constantly bruised that made time fly, and with Sam continuing the string of merciless sparring, I was aching all over.

  We were waiting at my house, where Aiden said he’d be coming. My parents were also waiting. They apparently wanted to have a word with him as well. Tyler was planning on showing up a little bit later, as he had a scrimmage or something that his coach wouldn’t let him miss after taking so much time off already.

  At around one o’clock the doorbell rang, despite the fact that I had been listlessly looking out the window for the past half-hour and had seen nobody approaching. Sam gave me a reassuring look, and I got up and opened the door, Sam standing behind me. Aiden Ombra greeted us as the door opened, his perfect smile lighting up his angular face. Still as stupidly attractive as always. He opened his mouth to speak, but Sam didn’t let him. She stepped up next to me quickly, and poked Aiden hard in the center of the chest.

  “Let’s make one thing perfectly clear, Aiden. You’re allowed to stand here right now because you’re here to ‘help.’ If even for a second I doubt that’s the case, I will take special pleasure in crushing your windpipe.”

  “Samantha, fiery as ever,” Aiden said, his light accent making the words sound pleasant and mocking at the same time. “I’ve yet to offer you my apologies in person, but consider that done now. I’m sorry.”

  Sam gaped at him. “That’s all I get?”

  He shrugged. “Be reasonable, it’s Feayr whom I almost killed. You merely got a bit scratched up, and you caused me bodily harm on several occasions. I rather think you’ve come out ahead, don’t you?”

  “You-I-I’m going to…” Sam spluttered angrily. She didn’t deal well with condescension from people. Aiden ignored her, and smiled blindingly at me.

  “Feayr, you’re looking well, I see. Has my journal been of good use?”

  “Yeah, it has. Don’t expect a thank you, though. And please stop antagonizing Sam,” I glared, “she really is going to try to kill you if you keep it up.”

  He rubbed at his arm almost absentmindedly. “I’ll keep that in mind, then. Now,” he said, suddenly looking past the two of us, “these must be your parents. It’s nice to meet you two.”

  My parents, who were in fact at this point standing behind us, looked at him coolly. My mom lifted an eyebrow sharply.

  “And you must be the boy who landed my son in the hospital.”

  Aiden looked a bit taken aback, as though he’d actually expected his charm to work on angry parents. He recovered quickly, though, and schooled his features into an apologetic expression.

  “And for that, I am sorry. I got… carried away. There’s not much more I can say.”

  My parents looked at each other disbelievingly, and then looked at me. I just shrugged wearily.

  “Now,” Aiden said, clearly at ease with everyone’s outraged expressions, “Would you mind if I took Samantha and Feayr to a more secluded location? I need to evaluate their standings at the moment, and that means a fairly heavy amount of magic use.”

  “Go ahead, but we’re not the ones you should be asking,” my mom said.

  Aiden looked back at us. “Would you two mind following me, then? I have a space prepared for us.”

  “Just hold on for a minute, Tyler’s almost here,” I said, checking my phone for his latest text. He was heading straight to my house instead of showering at home once he’d heard that Aiden was here.

  “Tyler?” Aiden’s brow furrowed.

  “My boyfriend. Also, um, my familiar. Remember?”

  “Ah, yes, I’d almost forgotten what with all the preparation I’ve been doing.” Aiden gave me an evaluating look. “I must admit, I’d wondered if you were joking. I never did end up finding conclusive evidence of human familiars existing outside of stories, even in the whole of the Regent’s Archives. Perhaps it’s just another thing that makes you unique, even by our standards. You needn’t worry, however. We have plenty of strangely unique individuals at the University. You’ll still feel right at home.”

  “Glad to hear it,” I said dryly.

  Tyler’s BMW came rolling into the driveway a moment later and he sprang out, jogging quickly up to the front door. He stopped right behind Aiden, still sweating slightly, and looking very… athletic (sexy) in his clinging gray t-shirt and blue basketball shorts. He looked at Aiden suspiciously, and Aiden just offered him an unimpressed stare.

  “Feayr, is this your familiar?”

  “You could ask ‘the familiar’ yourself, you know,” Tyler snarked. “I can speak, you know.”

  Aiden just gave him a quick once-over, and then sighed. “I suppose there’s no accounting for taste. Well, come along then, Tyler, it’s time we were going.”

  “Are we driving somewhere?” Sam asked.

  “No. If you’ll just follow me to the backyard, I’ll take us there directly.”

  I waved a quick goodbye to my parents, who gave me slightly anxious looks.

  “Just try not to get hurt this time, Fay,” my mom said. “I don’t want to see you in the hospital again.”

  “I promise I won’t, Mom. Sam and I will make sure of that.”

  They waved me off, and the three of us followed Aiden around to the backyard. Striding confidently to the center of the yard, he clapped his hands and recited a short incantation. The air suddenly buzzed with energy, and I could feel a slight tug as some force pulled lightly at me towards the area in front of Aiden. The air was slightly warped there, and we watched as Aiden pushed at it and a kaleidoscope of colors emerged from a crack in the air. It was like the portal on Samhain, but far more streamlined and elegant. It opened slowly, forming what seemed to be a slowly rotating hexagon in the air, barely an inch off the ground. Aiden gestured expansively at us, and then pointed at the portal.

  “Simply step through, and we may begin.”

  “Pardon me if I’m not particularly trusting,” Sam drawled. “Why don’t you go first?”

  “If you insist, milady,” Aiden said sarcastically, giving her a half-bow before walking directly into the portal. Without even a ripple, he disappeared.

  “Good enough for me,” I said, and stepped through.

  The world went black, and I felt incredibly dizzy and shut my eyes as colors and shapes seemed to liquefy and reform around me. When I felt I had regained my equilibrium, I opened them.

  “Whoa,” I breathed. I was standing in what seemed to be an endless plain of pure white light. Looking down, I couldn’t even tell where the ground was, or if I was standing on anything at all. It was extremely disorienting.

  “You’ll grow accustomed to it in a moment,” Aiden said, standing directly to my right. Sam and Tyler appeared behind us a couple of seconds later, and experienced the same reaction. I put a hand on both of their shoulders, steadying them, and then they looked around as well.

  “Welcome to my own little pocket of Limbo,” Aiden said. “Think of it as a fold in space, if you will. We’re quite alone here, and it’s a perfectly suitable place for unobserved magical practice.”

  “Ooh. I want one,” Sam grinned, clearly enjoying the feeling of standing on what was apparently nothing. />
  “In due time, Samantha. A Limbo acquisition is one of Janus University’s starting items. You’ll acquire if you pass the Trials.” Aiden looked at Sam and I, ignoring Tyler. “Now, about the Trials. They’re rather like a more direct version of the competition already inherent in the Mundane college admission process. There are three sections to the Trials, and any prospective student must successfully pass all three to be admitted. In addition, they must rank among the top fourth of applicants in the mock arena section.”

  “Okay, so what are the other two?” I asked.

  “The first Trial is the Practical. Some sort of challenge, it varies per individual, is set in front of the Arcane, and the Arcane must complete whatever objective is set in front of it before the allotted time runs out. The challenge is fair, but difficult, and it takes the skills of the Arcane into consideration. Past examples of challenges include lighting a candle without burning any of the ribbons hanging around and above it, reaching the top of a mountain within an hour or less, and in my case, reaching a certain place without the aid of sight.” He grimaced as he said this, probably remembering it. “The Practical tests your ingenuity under duress, and your ability to manage your nerves. Stability is often an essential spell for passing the Practical.”

  “Are we allowed to work with our familiars for that?” Sam asked.

  “Good question,” Aiden said approvingly. “No, the Practical is the only Trial for which familiar use is forbidden. The testers will assign you a score for your efforts, and if it’s high enough, you move onto the second Trial. The second Trial,” he said, smirking, “is the trial of Survival. With the use of a high-level timeskip, the Arcane and its familiar are sent alone to an unknown location for a week. The objective is to survive the week using only the environment and what supplies are provided. With the aid of the timeskip, the Arcane is only gone an hour. If the Arcane is deemed to be close to death, the Trial is declared a failure. Do try to not let that happen. The location may not be hostile, but it’s almost always brimming with creatures that are. You’ll need to either fight or avoid notice if you wish to survive the week.”

  “Jeez,” Tyler said. “I think I prefer just doing a supplementary essay. Writing about how my school has truly changed my life seems decidedly safer.”

  “Ditto,” I added. “How easy is it to pass the Survival Trial?”

  “That tends to be the second most difficult one,” Aiden replied. “Only a little more than a third of the applicants who make it through the Practical also make it through the Survival. It is, simply put, a way to measure how you’ll actually hold up when in constant danger, as many post-University professions will put you in.”

  “Well,” Sam muttered, “That’s certainly cheerful. And the final trial? The arena or whatever?”

  “The Trial of Competition, yes. You are pitted against all applicants, regardless of whether or not they passed the previous trials. A tiered system is established, involving Arcane pairs, like you and Sam already seem to be. The winners of each battle, pitting two teams against each other, advance to the next round. Eventually there is only one team remaining, and then those two team members need to fight each other. The reason all applicants are fighting is that if an applicant who has already failed one or both of the prior Trial sections manages to make it to the semifinals of their location’s Competition Trial, they may retake its previous Trials. Essentially, those Arcanes are offered a second chance at admission. The Trial of Competition, as a result, usually brings the most stress and is the most difficult to pass.”

  “And here I thought this was going to be easy compared to what I had to do just to apply,” I grumbled.

  Aiden turned to look at me in surprise. “Oh, you shouldn’t worry yourself, Feayr. You and Samantha managed to do quite well against me, and I’m a fair bit stronger than the majority of applicants you’ll be facing in the Competition Trial. As it so happens, I was the winner for my year. You two shouldn’t have any trouble making it into the top quarter, though I rather doubt you’ll come in first.”

  “Oh. Well, that’s good, at least,” I said. “So, you’re here to help us to prepare?”

  “Exactly,” Aiden responded. “There’s not much I can do for the Practical, but with my summoning and with the help of Limbo, I can simulate Survival fairly well. Once I think the two of you are prepared well enough for Survival, I intend to call in a friend of mine to tag team you two for Competition practice. Don’t be discouraged when you lose, because there’s honestly no better practice than facing a team only a few steps higher than you.”

  Sam nodded at that. “Yeah, it’s a similar concept in sparring. You push yourself harder that way.”

  “Precisely,” Aiden nodded. “You’ll also be able to discuss the match afterwards with the other team. Janus University has an enchantment on the grounds that makes it so all individuals can understand each other. In my case,” he said, touching his hand lightly to his chest, “I am actually speaking English for your convenience. However, as the University draws from a far wider applicant pool than just Earth, not all students can learn other languages so easily. But I digress. I’m here to make sure your team isn’t a complete failure. Fortunately, I have a lesser Timeskip on loan from the University. So with its help, I’m going to give a brief introduction to Survival, starting now.”

  Aiden made a quick clenching motion with his fists, and my world went black. When I could see again, I was at the edge of a cliff, beneath a dreary gray sky. Spinning around quickly, I spotted Tyler around twenty feet away, and rushed over to him. There was a bundle of supplies on the ground next to him. Once we were next to each other, we immediately assumed our customary back-to-back position from our sparring time with Sam. I activated my version of Ward around the two of us, feeling the customary drain of energy, and formed Tyler’s spathas in his hands. Sam had taught him to fight with two blades, since he was used to switching hands from a stint of lacrosse practice with a broken arm.

  We spun around slowly, and I took in the stormy sea at the bottom of the cliff, and the sloping grassy hills leading away from the cliff, eventually reaching some sort of forest.

  Aiden’s voice suddenly filled my mind. “Your objective, Feayr, is to survive for the next day. You’ll need food, and it is provided in what you have been given. Make sure you don’t lose it, and try not to get too much attention from the beings in the area. They don’t take kindly to trespassers.”

  At that moment, several hissing roars filled the air, and I watched in horror as the ground in front of us began to fracture. Five serpentine heads attached to long gray necks swayed slowly in before us, and five mouths slowly opened to reveal long rows of razor-sharp teeth.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Tyler stepped in front of me, holding his swords out protectively as we both took a step back.

  “Uh, Fay, any idea how to fight this thing?” he asked nervously as we kept our eyes on the five serpentine heads.

  “I think it’s a hydra,” I said, feeling a strange mix of abject terror and fanboy excitement. “I used to be obsessed with Greek mythology, and this one came up a lot. Um, if I remember correctly, it’s got sharp teeth, poisonous fangs, and its heads regrow quickly if you cut them off and don’t seal the wound somehow.” I edged back towards the cliff a little as I spoke.

  Tyler glanced at me in alarm, keeping his feet spread apart for maximum balance and mobility. “You mean, I have to cut that thing’s heads off?”

  “Well, we could run.”

  “I choose that option. Got a distraction plan?”

  I glanced back at the water behind us. “Well, now that you mention it… think you can hold it off for a bit?”

  “Uh…” Tyler said doubtfully. “I’ll, um, try? This is basically five against one, though.”

  “Just try to distract it for as long as you can,” I said, stepping back further and closing my eyes. “This is going to take all of my attention.”

  I held my hands down by my sides, p
alms extended, fingers reaching, and felt the cold air humming with energy. Reaching further, I could feel the icy waves crashing into the rocks below. So I started pulling, slowly, curling my hands into fists, bringing the water up to me, and converting it into ice and snow as I went. It was harder to freeze due to the salt content, but it was still manageable. I heard Tyler swear in front of me and an extremely loud hiss, followed by the slight crackling noise I associated with my Ward coming into effect. I felt the drain almost immediately, but it was negligible thanks to Tyler’s presence. Spells cast on him worked better and cost me almost nothing. The familiar bond was good for something, after all.

  I did my best to tune out the noise, and kept pulling. A few seconds later, my eyes snapped open. Tyler was unharmed, though shaken, and two of the five heads now had nasty cuts high up on their necks. The heads weren’t focusing us anymore, though. They were captivated at the sight of a snowy white replica of its double rising up from the water. Five icy necks writhed slowly, and the hydra couldn’t look away.

  “Um, Tyler? Now’s when we start running. I’ll keep the Ward up, let’s just hurry before I have to let go of the snow.”

  Tyler nodded curtly, dropping one spatha as he grabbed my hand, and we ran as fast as we could around the hydra. One of the heads turned to look at us for a moment, but then went back to looking at the replica. To conserve energy, I began to release my hold on the water lower down while we ran, making it look like the heads were slowly lowering back into the sea. The hydra surged forward, bringing itself to the edge of the cliff to not lose sight of it. Once I felt my snow replica submerge completely, I let go of the magic, breathing a sigh of relief as the tension left me. We were pretty far from the hydra now, but we kept running.