A/N- Sorry, not a lot of action in this one guys. Though you do get a bit of backstory.
Thanks, BeautifulNoMatterWhat, for the reviews! I really appreciate it. :)
Anyways, without further ado, here's the third chapter. Enjoy!
WARNING: Slight language in this chapter.
Adriane had never been one for surprises.
Or anything, really, that could sneak up from behind her and attack while she was most vulnerable. She was a warrior, after all. A fighter. She liked to actively combat anything that made to damage her. This philosophy tended to work much better when her enemy was corporal.
The conversation from the night before echoed in her ears like a gunshot. How was she even supposed to begin to deal with it?
Some people were gifted enough that they could've ignored it completely. Driven the words from their mind as if they didn't matter and then carry on with their day. Others could've spent hours forcing themselves to relive the nightmare, picking it apart slowly and slotting all the little pieces neatly together. Adriane was typically one to deal with facts on the fly, what with all the adventures she'd been thrown into. And then Emily and Kara had always been there to help her sort out the mess afterward. She'd never truly dealt with anything on her lonesome after discovering magic, now that she thought about it.
But there was no way she was talking to Kara without cleaning all of…this, up first. Otherwise, she'd probably have to explain how she went off on her parents, and she was not going to do that. No way. Adriane was, if anything, proud. She wasn't about to start going around discussing her faults, her mistakes, with anyone if she didn't have to.
In the end she was all alone, in more ways than one. She'd woken up to find a house key on the little dining room table of the rental house, with a note from her parents instructing her not to wander. She knew what they really meant. She didn't see them very much at all in the days following. They toured town, and started working on whatever convention or exhibit they were here for. Adriane couldn't bring herself to care.
She attempted the 'ignore it' tactic first. She spent the entire morning setting up the rental house's wifi, which consumed her thoughts and actions for a little while. But come lunch, with nothing to occupy her but a sandwich, Luc's voice kept trickling back into her brain and she was having a harder and harder time shutting everything out.
Adriane exercised like crazy the rest of the day, and practiced a little magic when she was sure it was safe. She was attempting to replicate functional objects with her magic, but it was extraordinarily difficult. The surfboard she'd conjured before she'd hit level 2 had stuck with her, but attempts to make more complex objects, like a bicycle, were proving futile. She actually had to visualize every single little piece if she wanted it to work properly, and that took so much energy and concentration on her part that the only time she'd succeeded in at least creating an aesthetically perfect bike she'd passed out from sheer exhaustion. She just didn't have enough power to pull off something of that magnitude.
Earth magic was easier to improve upon, and she'd come far in the two years since she'd advanced to level 2. But sometimes, when she attempted something extremely difficult, Adriane encountered, well, a block in her magic. She wouldn't be able to gather enough power to carry out her desired task. It irked her to no end.
Occasionally she wondered if the presence of Storm would help. Her first friend was her elemental paladin, after all. Mage magic was automatically amplified when worked with bonded animals or even just helpful magical creatures. Adriane figured it was safe to assume that elemental magic worked following the same basic principles, or at least in the same way as mage magic when a mage wielded it. In any case, she'd been wanting to put that question to rest for a while now. It had been so long since she'd worked magic with Storm, or Dreamer, or any of her magical friends, that she'd forgotten the feeling.
Man, she missed Storm. It hurt her to think about the beautiful silver wolf, so much so that she had just stopped. But now, so close to Ravenswood… it was kind of hard not to.
Adriane wondered if she could feel her bondeds' magic from here. They were only separated by 120 miles or so, and she could've recognized their signatures in her sleep.
Not even a year ago she had detected a colony of magical refugees hiding out in a large city park near the hotel they'd stayed in in Singapore. The creatures, most a strange hybrid between a large lizard and a colorful bird, had been hostile to her at first, only warming over after she had protected them from some sort of furry devil dog-thing that she had absolutely no desire to meet again. Adriane had to smile just thinking of them. That had been one of her favorite places to stay. She hoped Xixth and his flock were doing all right.
The idea of reaching out to Ravenswood magically was filed away for a later date. God, she missed Dreamer. And Storm. Losing her again so soon after she had just gotten her back…
A thought wormed its way into her head, unbidden. If she were to go dark, would Storm go too? Adriane gasped, humor gone, and frantically tried to shut down, but this time she just couldn't. Would Stormbringer be dragged, against her wishes, into darkness? Would Dreamer be forced as well? Or would they go willingly, bound to protect and serve Adriane even against their own free will?
"NO!" The word slipped past her lips before she could stop it, and the rock in front of her she'd been shaping into a wolf's head shattered into a million little pieces. Adriane couldn't bring herself to care.
The dark-haired girl slid to the floor, her head in her hands. She would stop thinking like this. She had to. She was never, ever going to go dark. She would fight tooth and nail for herself and her friends, she resolved, and woe be to anyone who got in her way.
Unnoticed, the wolf stone on her wrist pulsed a deep, dark gray.
Her pride kicked in that night, as she tossed and turned in her bed without sleep. She was a fighter, a leader, a protector. She was the warrior mage, packleader of Ravenswood. She did not run. That was the coward's way out. She confronted her problems, faced her fears, and never let anything stand in her way.
So that was what she did. Adriane spent the whole night and into the first light of morning going over that one conversation in her head. Picking it apart 'til it was bare and dry.
Emily was the largest roadblock. Adriane refused to believe she'd willingly gone dark. Willingly given up the love and care and concern of her friends for the unthinkable. Before, on the rare occasion that Adriane had considered which of the mages would betray them all, it had always been Kara, out of jealously and a thirst for power, or herself, in anger and a desire for revenge. Never Emily. Kind, sweet Emily who gave everyone all her heart had to offer and expected nothing in return. What lure did the darkness have for her?
Adriane forced her mind back, back to that day nearly two years ago when the three mages had stood apart on the threshold of the Gates and lost everything. Each other. Avalon. Ozzie. They'd let the Sorceress win.
Adriane remembered the horror she'd felt as everything had clicked in to place.
Something in her had broken free as she'd watched Kara kill Drake for his magic. Something hungry, beastly- evil, dark and evil. She'd turned on one of her best friends, one of her only friends, with the fury of a mistwolf and the rage of a dragon. Even now, a part of her couldn't comprehend how Kara had survived. Adriane had intended to kill her.
And then... Drake was alive, the Sorceress was there, and Adriane had doubted her blonde friend. Doubted her. The twisted once-human had offered Kara dark magic, like so many times before, and Kara had refused, like so many times before. But Adriane had doubted her. Been unsure, for a long moment, whose side Kara was going to be standing at in the next few seconds. To Adriane, that was a worse offence than trying to kill Kara; questioning her unwavering loyalty.
But that wasn't even the worst part. No, the worst part was standing there, with her arms around the blazing star, watching the Sorceress waltz through the Gates of Avalon. Feeling and realizing the impact of her words. Turning, and seeing Emily. And Ozzie.
Dead.
Remembering still made tears come to her eyes, but this time, Adriane didn't try to fight them. She instead forced herself to move on, digging through more memories, searching for an answer, any answer.
They'd fought for their friend after that. Brought her back to Ravenswood. Then Phel had appeared, and saved the healer. At least, that was what Kara and Adriane had agreed to tell Emily. The watered-down, simple truth.
They'd neglected to tell their friend exactly how she had gotten on to the Web with the unicorns after being turned at the Gates of Avalon. They didn't tell her how much damage she had caused to Ravenswood in the few minutes she'd been in control of the forest's magic. Adriane didn't tell her how she'd been prepared to fight her, to annihilate her, in order to protect the only home she'd ever had.
They couldn't, however, hide the fact that she'd killed Ozzie. Her best friend. And perhaps that had been her undoing.
Who was Adriane kidding? It had destroyed her.
The dark-haired girl winced, hugging a flimsy pillow to her chest. The weekend after that was hazy in her mind. Kara and Adriane had tried everything to reach out to Emily. That Sunday, between cleaning up Ravenswood and prepping the Manor for the upcoming graduation dance (how frivolous it all seemed now), they'd caught up to their red-headed friend and did everything they could think of to get her to come back. Talked to her in the park after breakfast. Jumped at the chance to convince her when they caught her returning books to the Ravenswood library. They'd left her alone for the afternoon, after she'd run away from Tweek's tactless pie-chart presentation, but came around to her house before dinner. Dr. Fletcher had greeted them at the door, and told the two that Emily had come home sick after lunch throwing up. Neither Kara nor Adriane saw the healer at school the next day, or the day after that. They'd resolved Tuesday night to go check up on their friend the next morning.
And then… that night happened. Dark, dark magic in Stonehill.
The next morning, their curly-haired friend was gone without a trace.
Adriane stopped her thoughts there, because letting them continue would mean reliving all the grief and pain, all the press and police, and her fucking parents suddenly showing up at her doorstep… No. No. Back to Emily.
What had gone wrong?
Okay, so maybe she and Kara could have been a bit more persistent. Maybe after Emily had left the library, they could have… what? Run after her? Repeated the same stuff to her and expected a different result? Adriane rubbed her palms into her eyes. She remembered the looks Emily had been giving her and Kara that day- hurt and pain and hopelessness all rolled into one. Tweek had thought they needed to give Emily some space. The blazing star and the warrior had agreed.
Even so, Adriane didn't think that fit. Emily had known they were there for her, always. The abandonment at the Gates was a one-time thing. Hadn't she and Kara made that clear? They weren't going to give up on Emily, ever.
That sentiment hadn't changed over the two years Adriane had been gone, either. If Emily had gone dark- and that was a big if- Adriane certainly wasn't about to believe she had done it on her own accord.
Maybe she was reading too much into Gran's words. Maybe Emily really was taken by dark magic, or a dark magic wielder. It was a more reasonable solution to what had occurred.
Adriane shuddered. Reasonable or not, it was still an awful thing to have happen. The warrior couldn't honestly say what she preferred: that Emily had been taken by the Dark Sorceress or had become a dark mage.
Move on, she told herself. She could think about Emily's disappearance all night and not arrive at a satisfying conclusion. What had Luc said next?
Oh, yes. The part where Emily's fate, whatever that was, was also going to befall her and another.
She'd just established that she didn't have a clue as to what exactly happened to Emily that night. So her own imminent future was up in the clouds, for the moment. As for the 'other' this was supposed to happen to… well, if it wasn't Kara, then Adriane would eat her foot. Or something equally unappetizing.
That left only Gran herself, the largest piece of the puzzle. Adriane's conclusion after hours of contemplation was that there as something else going on. Gran had to be hiding something. Why had she not spoken to Adriane about what she had…seen? Heard? However it worked… And then she had called Adriane's parents and begged them to take her away. That was not like Gran. Gran would never do that to her without a good reason; a really good one. Gran had seen how happy she was at Ravenswood, and had to suspect something about the magic she and her friends possessed. There had to be something Gran had left out, something that had scared her very badly… but what?
Argh, this was getting her nowhere. Adriane flopped off her small bed, and made her way over to the one window in her tiny room. It must face east, she thought drearily, because the base of the skyline was slowly taking on a healthy pink glow. Adriane tried to get the non-existent crust out of her eyes as she watched the sun rise. She needed to talk to Gran, she decided. And not in an e-mail, or a letter, or even over the phone. Face-to-face. Her head hit the side of the windowsill. Just another reason to get to Ravenswood.
Okay, action plan time. She'd sleep, for however long that took. Then she'd contact Kara and tell her…something. What did she want to tell her? Something. She'd sleep on it. Then she'd somehow get to Ravenswood.
The warrior fell back down onto her bed, intent on falling asleep now. The good thing about extraordinarily vague action plans is that they're flexible. And if she happened to sleep the whole day away, no one gave a damn.
A/N- Please Review! :)