Crystal Heart Read online

  I screamed as I slipped on something and fell on the floor. I wrinkled my nose as I was struck by the smell of damp.

  “You’re late,” Greg said without looking up from what he was reading.

  I got up and rubbed my side. “I overslept. I haven’t even had breakfast yet.”

  “Who hasn’t had breakfast by ten o’clock?”

  “Me. I was too busy trying to get here on time so you wouldn’t moan at me.”

  “Well, you failed. I don’t understand how someone with your powers can ever be late.”

  I went to argue, but I found myself distracted by the conditions of my surroundings. I turned on the spot. This place was even more run-down inside than it was outside. It didn’t look like it had ever been cleaned, and all the furniture was worn out. I had thought the smell of damp was because of the rain, but it was just this place’s general odour. The cupboards on the wall were wonky, with doors hanging off, and only half the tiles in the tiny kitchen were still attached to the wall. The only decent thing in the room was the table Greg sat at. “Seriously, like what is up with this place? I can’t believe you actually slept here last night.”

  “Yes, this place is not quite as advertised, but it will do.”

  I was gobsmacked. Considering he came from such a privileged background, he was taking this all really well. I would have freaked out the moment I opened the door. I screamed and jumped on a chair as I saw a creature run across the floor. “Was that a rat?”

  “Oh, so you noticed Bill?” Greg put his book down on the table. “It is all right. We came to an understanding last night about our living arrangements.”

  “You named the rat.”

  “No, he told me his name.”

  “You speak rat?”

  “I can speak to most animals when transformed.”

  That was actually an interesting fact. I would have been more impressed if I wasn’t freaking out. I screamed again as a spider landed on my shoulder. I smacked it off as I jumped off the chair to get away from its web. I screamed as I saw the rat again and jumped back on the chair. I crouched down with my hands over my head.

  “Will you stop screaming?” Greg asked.

  “I can’t help it. How can you be so chill about this? That spider was the size of my fist.”

  “Your fist is quite small, and it is better than nothing. At least I have a roof over my head.”

  “A roof that’s letting the rain in.” I pointed to all the spots water was seeping through. “I can’t take this anymore. We are going.”

  Greg laughed and didn’t move from his seat.

  “This is not funny,” I shouted.

  “It really is. You should see your face. I can’t believe a little rat freaked you out this much.”

  “You are so mean,” I said, standing up. “I’ll just go without you.”

  “Wait.” Greg got up, holding my arm. “Don’t think you are getting out of training that easily.”

  I screamed as I saw that Bill had friends. I jumped forward, throwing my arms around Greg, and teleported home. Once again, I screamed as I fell backward. Greg grabbed hold of the banister and quickly pulled me toward him. I wrapped my arms around him and tensed my body. I had teleported us to the top of the stairs, and that could have gone really wrong.

  “I should probably aim better next time,” I said, looking at the bottom of the stairs.

  “Yes, that would be a good idea,” he said. “You could really hurt yourself. Your landings aren’t great in the first place.”

  “Hey,” I said, looking up at him. He was already looking down at me, and I was suddenly very aware of how close we currently were. I stepped back and turned. “Well, I will be going downstairs. We can figure out what we’re doing in the kitchen.”

  I walked down the stairs, and Greg followed me out to the kitchen. I started rummaging through the cupboards for something to eat. There really wasn’t much to choose from.

  Greg sat at the table. “What are you doing?”

  “Getting myself breakfast. What magic are we going to work on now?” I asked. “I mean, am I free to learn anything I want now?”

  “Pretty much, but I am also here to teach you about council procedures and the customs of my world. You need to know about all the different species you are potentially responsible for.”

  “Oh, so like, no pressure.”

  “I said potentially. It will ultimately be your choice to take up the position of queen.”

  “Can I learn fire or ice magic then?”

  “I can’t teach you that. Battle magic is generally something you are born with, similar to a changeling’s ability to shift or like your power to teleport. You have it or you don’t.”

  “I can’t learn battle magic then?” That was a bummer. Matt and Victoria’s powers were really cool. “What can I learn then?”

  “Spell casting, healing, defensive magic, and potion making,” Greg replied, “but I do believe that you have some sort of battle magic in you already.”

  I finally found something edible in the cupboards. I pulled out a fork and sat opposite Greg. “What do you mean? I can’t shoot fireballs.”

  “The light energy you produced when sealing Kadon—that is a form of battle magic. It’s a rare form, but from what I read, it is common amongst elf royalty. You also have plant magic. Most elves were experts in plant magic, and your display with the trees confirms it. Then, there is your teleporting and the time you shook the ground. You already know how to form a barrier thanks to the sealing spell, but we can expand on that—wait, are you eating cake for breakfast?”

  I pointed my fork at him. “Technically, it’s brunch, and there was nothing else to eat. My dad didn’t have time to go shopping while I was gone. I should probably go do some for him. Maybe we should cut this lesson short so I can go to the shop. I also need to get Christmas stuff.”

  “I haven’t even started teaching you anything.”

  “I beg to differ. I have learnt that battle magic is something you are born with and not something you can be taught.”

  Greg leant one arm on the table. “Mellissa, we agreed you would spend today learning in exchange for having Christmas off.”

  “Come on, relax a little. We don’t have any sort of deadline anymore. We can take our time with my training.”

  “There is taking things slow, and then there is not even starting.”

  “Fine. We can work till twelve, then we break for lunch, and we can go shopping at the same time. We can carry on in the afternoon. What ability are we going to look at first?”

  Greg sat up straight and put his hands together on the table. “Plant magic. I have a few books on the subject.” He waved his arm, and the table filled up with books. We obviously had different definitions for the word few. “We will also need a plant to play with.”

  I went and got one of the plants on the window ledge and placed it on the table. “Now what?”

  “Well, you can either try communicating with it, or you can try to make it grow. Just try not to let it go crazy like in the forest.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. He wasn’t going to let me forget about that mishap anytime soon. I put my hands around the plant pot. When I communicated with the trees, they had been like voices in my head. I didn’t actually know how I triggered it. “I have no idea how to do either of those things.”

  “You need to focus on the magic within you, then latch on to the life energy in the plant and imagine it growing. The process is similar to when you latched on to the object you wished to seal something in.”

  I felt ridiculous trying to talk to a plant. He made it sound so easy. Shutting my eyes, I focused on the magic inside me. It felt like a burning sun within me. Opening my eyes, I held my hand up to the plant and tried to latch on to its energy. Light shot from my hand, and I screamed as the plant caught fire. Greg jumped to his feet, flicking his wrist. A barrier formed around the fire, and it slowly dwindled.

  “Maybe we should be working on you
r light magic then.”

  “This is hopeless,” I said, lying across two of the kitchen table chairs.

  “Don’t be like that. You performed magic.”

  “But that wasn’t what I was trying to do.”

  “You just need to focus. Learn to distinguish how your different abilities feel,” Greg said. “Maybe you should read some of these books on plant magic yourself.”

  I put my arm over my face. “Or maybe I don’t have the natural ability to do plant magic. What happened in the forest may have just been a fluke.”

  “I highly doubt that.” Greg knelt beside me. “When you used your powers, you were feeling strong emotions, but depending on the emotion, the power you displayed changed.”

  “Right, like when the first time I teleported I was scared?”

  “Exactly, and on the boat, you were anxious. When you shook the ground, you were angry.”

  “And when I used light magic, I was scared again, but not for myself, for Matt.”

  Greg stood while taking my hands, forcing me up. “Yes, but you can’t rely on those emotions to trigger your power. I have an idea.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “We are going to meditate.”

  We cleared space in the living room and sat on the floor cross-legged. Greg went through some relaxation techniques with me. At first, I felt ridiculous, but after a while, I closed my eyes, shutting everything out except the sound of his voice, and it really relaxed me. “Good,” Greg said. “Now that you are relaxed, look within, at your magic. What does it feel like?”

  “A burning sun.” I felt his hands on mine. He turned them around so my palms were facing up. My palms were warm.

  “That’s your light magic. What else do you feel?”

  “I don’t know. It’s just the sun. There’s nothing else.”

  “Take deep breaths and focus on your magic. Are you sure there is nothing else?”

  I did as he said. He was right. There was more. “There’s a beat, like a drum, and something hard on the surface.”

  “Good, focus on that.”

  I focused on the beat. It was a constant patter-pat-pat. I let the beat fill me and tapped it out on my knee. Greg gasped. I opened my eyes. The plants on the window ledge had come to life. I gaped at them as they grew. I moved my arm left and right, and the plants followed. I could feel them, their life force like little heartbeats, drumming to the same beat as me.

  “I told you the forest wasn’t a one-off.”

  I dropped my arm, and the plants stopped moving. “It was a one-off because it won’t happen again. I don’t want to lose control like that ever again.”

  “And that’s why we practice. Now that you know how to access this power, we can work on your ability to manipulate plants, then work our way up to making things grow from scratch.”

  “Aren’t you getting a bit ahead of yourself? I think we should have a snack break.” I was starving. I hadn’t realised how hungry meditation could make you.

  “But we’ve only just made some progress.”

  I glanced up at the clock. “Seriously, is that the time? No wonder I’m hungry. It’s already past one. It’s defo time for a break.” I got up and stretched. We’d been sat on the floor for ages.

  Greg also got up. “But Mellissa—”

  “No, we agreed to have a break at midday, and you owe me lunch.”

  “I don’t owe you anything. You didn’t show up on time.”

  I poked him in the chest. “What? How could you play me like that? It was the whole reason I got up this morning.”

  “You only got up because of the promise of food and not the excitement to learn something new.”

  “Well, yeah.”

  Greg put his head in his hands. “I’m starting to see why you and Matt are such good friends.”

  I didn’t get what his problem was. It was the school holidays. It was meant to be two weeks of getting up late and pretty much doing whatever I wanted. Instead, I was stuck with him bossing me about. Maybe I should go back to the magic world and become queen, then I would be bossing him about. There was no deadline on me learning any of this stuff. He needed to learn to relax.

  I pulled at his arm. “Look, I promise to stop complaining and try even harder after I’ve had something to eat. Oh, and been shopping. I really need to get some food in this house.”

  Greg looked down at me. “Fine.”

  “Yes!” I shouted, running out of the living room and pulling Greg along behind me.

  “Why must you drag me?” he asked.

  “Because you don’t know how to move with excitement.” I grabbed a coat and was still running as I teleported us into town.

  Gregory

  Greg stepped back as he looked at the garland he’d just hung. He had no idea how he had ended up doing this. They were meant to spend the whole day on magic lessons, yet somehow Mellissa had gotten him to help her put these ridiculous things all around her house.

  “What are these decorations for exactly?” he asked.

  “Christmas,” she replied, balancing on a chair, trying to put up another strand of garland on the other side of the room. If she wasn’t careful, she would fall off, which was highly likely. She was probably the clumsiest person he had ever met.

  Greg walked over and took it off her, placing it effortlessly where she’d struggled to reach. “Yes, I know that, but what purpose do they serve?”

  “To make the place look festive. Surely you have special occasions you celebrate in the magic world.”

  “Well, we have the coming of winter festival, but we don’t decorate our homes. We just light up the city. There are also the solstices.”

  “I bet Novosvillas looks amazing all lit up.”

  Greg smiled. “Yes, it does.” He looked down at the floor as his smile faded. He had missed this year’s festival as he’d been in the human world searching for the keeper of the Heart Crystal. It was one of the few times his father’s position as elder was fun. He always got the best view of the lights. It was something he actually enjoyed doing with his father each year.

  When he had left this time, his father still hadn’t been happy with him for disagreeing with him. He had discovered that his father voted in favour of Lady Gabrielle’s proposal for Mellissa to go back home, but that didn’t seem to change his father’s disappointment in him. Greg shook his head. He was done seeking his father’s approval. He was doing what he thought was right from now on. Although, putting up Christmas decorations had not been on his agenda for the day.

  “Mellissa, we should be getting back to learning magic,” Greg said. “We have wasted enough time with shopping.”

  “I’m not finished yet. Besides, I don’t count lunch and that shopping trip as a break, since you spent the whole time explaining council regulations and quizzing me.”

  “Well, you need to learn about that stuff, as well as developing your powers.”

  “Yes, you have told me that at least three times today, but right now, I would like to do something that doesn’t involve me having to think too much.”

  He’d been trying to make the most of the time they had, but she kept trying to waste it. Mellissa climbed onto the coffee table and leant on the fireplace as she tried to hang something above it. Her struggle was fairly amusing. Greg walked over and took the string of lights off her.

  “You really need to stop balancing on furniture like that before you hurt yourself. Besides, there is a better way for you to do it.”

  She folded her arms. “And how’s that?”

  “Magic.” Greg flicked his wrist, creating a small horizontal barrier. He stepped onto it, then created another, slightly higher than the other, putting one foot on it. “It’s just a variation on the barrier I have taught you.”

  She walked around the barriers. “How is this safer than balancing on furniture? At that angle, I can barely see the barrier.”

  “But you can feel the magic. Just give it a try. It’s exactly the same spell
, just angle it differently.”

  “Fine.” She flicked her wrist. “Disseptum.” A barrier formed in front of her at an angle. She pouted as her shoulders slumped. “I can’t exactly walk on a slope.”

  “No, but you can slide down it.” Mellissa glared at him. Greg laughed, jumping from his steps. “All you have to do is flick your wrist at a slight angle.” He took her wrist, showing her the direction she should move.

  “Disseptum.” With a slight change in angle, she flicked her wrist. The barrier appeared horizontally. She stepped on it, casting the spell again and again until she was high enough to reach the ceiling. Greg passed her the fairy lights, and she hung them up. She ran down a couple of steps, then jumped into Greg’s arms with a squeal. “Okay, that is a cool trick to know.”

  “A little warning before you jump next time, please.” She stuck her tongue out at him. “Well, next we can work on you not having to say the spell out loud.”

  She flicked his nose. “No, we are going to decorate the tree.”

  Mellissa ran out of the room and returned with two more bags of decorations and dropped them beside an artificial tree in front of the window. Greg looked up at it. It almost reached the ceiling. “I still don’t understand the purpose of the tree.”

  “Well, Christmas is all about giving gifts to the people you care about, and that’s where we put them until we give them out.”

  As usual, her answers didn’t really explain anything. He was starting to think she didn’t actually know the answers herself. She just blindly followed the customs she’d been taught. She had probably never questioned them. He couldn’t really blame her. He had spent a long time blindly following his father’s example without question. At least she appeared to be doing this all because she actually wanted to and enjoyed it.