Chapter 5

"Iknow someone is there." I wiped my sweaty palms on my pants. "Show yourself!"

"Interesting," a voice echoed out of nowhere.

I looked around for the source of the voice, but my eyes found no one.

The voice spoke again. "How did you know I was here?"

Whoever he was, he sounded amused…I think.

"Can you see me?" he asked.

"You're invisible," I told him.

"Oh, I am well aware of that," he chuckled.

Yep, he was definitely amused. But at least he sounded friendly.

"The question is: if I'm invisible, how could you know I'm here?" he asked me.

"I…I don't know," I admitted. "I just felt that someone's here."

"Interesting," he said again. "Can you always sense invisible things?"

"I don't know. You're the first invisible person I've encountered. And wait." I chewed on my lower lip. "Did you just call yourself a thing?"

"Of course not. You must be imagining things," he said lightly.

"Maybe I'm imagining you," I replied.

"A pretty girl imagining me? I'm flattered."

I could sense the smile in his voice. And for some reason, it made me blush.

"If you're really here," I said quickly, "then who are you? What are you?"

"Maybe I'm a spirit."

I looked up at the twinkling, multicolored lights orbiting the tree. "No, you're not a spirit. The spirits speak inside someone's head. And your voice is coming from right here, from the world outside of my mind."

"How can you tell?"

"Well, when I hear someone speaking inside my mind, it kind of echoes differently than when they speak normally."

The invisible stranger was quiet for a few moments. I bet he was studying me, which honestly made me a bit antsy. I tried not to squirm.

Finally, he said, "You aren't like other girls."

"No." I sighed. "I'm not like other girls."

"Good. Other girls are boring."

I definitely wasn't boring. Actually, most people thought I was a little too interesting. Ok, make that way too interesting. I certainly didn't fit the mold of the perfect Gaian citizen. It's not that I tried to get into trouble; I just had an unfortunate knack for getting to the truth, and that made me pretty unpopular. No one liked to be told they were lying. No one enjoyed getting caught with their fingers in the cookie jar.

I probably should have stuck to minding my own business around other people, but I wasn't very good at that. My mom liked to say I was like a cat: curious, independent, impulsive…and always getting myself into trouble.

"So you can turn yourself invisible. I've never seen anyone do that." I winced at my own statement. "Ok, so of course I've never seen an invisible person. That's kind of the whole point of being invisible, right? I just meant that…well, until now I've never heard of anyone who can make himself invisible."

A low chuckle over my right shoulder made me jump. He'd moved.

"Do you always talk this much?" he asked me as I turned toward him.

"Yes, but I'm working on that."

"And how's that working out for you?"

My smile wobbled. "I guess you already know the answer to that question."

"Yeah," he said. "But don't worry so much about it. You shouldn't try so hard to be what other people expect you to be."

"Easy for you to say," I muttered. "You have all this powerful magic. You can make yourself invisible!"

"Oh, I can do a lot more than just that."

"Like what? What other spells can you do?" I asked him, not caring how eager I sounded. I'd never met another magical person before. "Can you command the oceans? Or fly? Or control time and space? I've always wanted to control time and space!"

"You definitely dream big," he laughed.

"Come on. Tell me all about your magic. Or, better yet, show me!"

"All right."

The tree's shadow shifted. Correction: all the shadows around me shifted. I looked up and saw the moon was setting as the sun rose. The sun shot across the sky, like the day was playing out in fast-motion.

"Wow," I gasped.

"You wanted to see someone control time and space."

"Yeah…"

I watched the sun kiss the horizon. Stardust streaked across the dark blue sky, like a waterfall of diamonds crashing against a sapphire lake. It was the most beautiful, most magical thing I'd ever seen.

"But that's not what you're doing," I realized. "You're not actually controlling time and space."

"Sure I am."

"No, you're not," I told him. "You didn't speed up time. You only made it look like you did. It's just a trick using light and shadows." I pointed at the branches of the Spirit Tree, which were rustling in the wind. "You can see it there. If you'd really sped up time, those branches would be moving faster too."

"Unless I put us and the tree in a protected time bubble."

"Ok, but then what about those leaves on that scrawny tree all the way over there? They're swaying slowly in the wind too. And the birds overhead are flying at the same speed they always do."

"Interesting."

That must have been his favorite word.

"What's interesting?" I asked.

"You are," he told me. "The girl who uses logic to interpret magic. The girl who can hear the spirits' voices." I heard some rustling, like he was moving toward me. And when he spoke again, his voice was definitely closer. "Do you often speak with the spirits?"

"I…"

When I didn't finish, he prompted me, "Yes?"

"Well, I haven't exactly spoken to the spirits."

I drew in a deep breath. I'd never told anyone about this—or about my magic. Not even my brother. Not even my mom.

I'd discovered my magic during my first year of school. Even way back then, I'd realized I had to keep this to myself. Because as soon as it got out that I wasn't normal, the Government would put me in a lab and run all kinds of experiments on me. Or maybe they'd just put me in an insane asylum and run all kinds of experiments on me.

But there was no danger of that here. The invisible stranger was either a magical being or a figment of my imagination.

"I sometimes hear the spirits when I'm dreaming or feeling tired," I told him. "They're not talking to me. They're just…talking."

There was another pause, then he said, "You have magic."

"Yes." I had to force the admission from my throat; I wasn't used to sharing my secrets.

"You aren't human." He sounded impressed.

"No," I agreed with a sigh. "I'm not human."

"Where in the Many Realms are you from?"

"From here." I pointed at the ground. "From Gaia."

"Are you sure about that?" he countered.

"Yes," I said, and even I realized how defensive I sounded.

I was really grateful when the invisible stranger didn't press me further.

"What kind of magic can you do?" he asked instead. His voice was casual, calm. Obviously, he could tell I was on the verge of freaking out, and he didn't want to spook me.

"Not much," I admitted. "I have only two spells, and they're pretty lame." I kept talking to cover my embarrassment. "I don't have any spell books or magic teachers, so I've had to teach myself."

"And how did you do that?"

"I learned magic by watching TV."

"That…is not what I expected," he said, his tone uneven, like I'd caught him off guard.

"The news sometimes shows Knights doing magic," I replied. "But they don't often show the preparation to the spell. I guess people don't understand that magic doesn't just happen without some kind of setup to make it work."

"But you do," he said.

"Sure." I shrugged. "I mean, it's just common sense, right?"

He laughed. "Oh, you'd be surprised how quickly common sense goes out the window when people come face to face with magic."

"Yeah, I guess that's true," I conceded. "But it's pretty silly. There's a logical order for everything—even magic. Not that I'm an expert or anything. I still don't really understand magic all that well."

"You understand it well enough to learn spells from TV," he replied. "I've never heard of anyone doing something like that."

"I'm just stubborn, I guess. I keep watching until the news accidentally shows something I can use," I told him. "This one time, the news camera captured a few seconds of a Knight preparing to go into battle. It was pretty cool. The Knight performed a short sequence of movements that looked like a cross between a dance and a martial arts exercise. The cameraman probably thought he was just doing some cool pre-battle stretching routine, but I was pretty sure there was something magical about the Knight's movements. It turned out to be a body-odor-masking spell. The Knight used it to sneak up on a bunch of Cursed Ones. They're supposed to have a really potent sense of smell."

"The Cursed Ones also have a really potent smell," the invisible stranger commented.

"So you have seen them." I nodded. "I thought so."

"Oh?"

"Well, yes. I mean, you're obviously a Knight."

"Am I now?" he chuckled.

"Of course. You have magic and you've faced the Cursed Ones."

"Actually, all I said is I've smelled them," he said lightly.

But I was certain. "You're a Knight. You're so chivalrous."

"Was that a hint that I should recite poetry or offer you my coat or something?"

"You don't need to do anything. I know you're chivalrous, Sir Knight. It all comes down to your smile."

"I thought you couldn't see me."

"I can't. But I can hear your smile in every word that you speak," I told him earnestly.

His laughter echoed in my ears like a happy memory. "I love the way you see the world."

"Which is how exactly?" I wondered.

"With so much more than just your eyes."

I wasn't sure what to say to that.

"Tell me about your other spell." His voice grew more serious. "How did you learn that one?"

"From a poem."

"A poem?"

"Yes. It was in the news," I replied. "A video montage of Knights marching into battle. The audio track was a short poem, only a few lines long."

"And you knew this poem was magical?"

"Yes. I could hear it in the voice of the girl who recited it. It was clearly a spell. Granted, I didn't know what that spell would do, but there was only one way to find out."

"You tried a spell without knowing what it would do?" He sounded impressed by my recklessness. "I would have done the same," he added in a low chuckle.

"I was desperate for magic." I brushed my fingers across the Spirit Tree's trunk, and multi-colored lights began to pulse beneath the smooth, translucent bark. "Any magic at all."

"So what does this poem-spell do?"

"It's a minor glamour spell. I use it to conceal pimples." The admission sent blood rushing to my cheeks.

He laughed. "Oh, there's no reason to be embarrassed. Knights do things like that all the time."

I clutched my hands together, hopeful. "Really?"

"Absolutely. Knights want to look fabulous just as much as the next teenager. Trust me on that."

That actually made me feel a little less silly.

"Thank you," I told the invisible stranger.

"For what?"

"For being so nice to me. And for not telling the Government about my magic." I angled a tentative look in his direction—or at least where I thought he was standing.

"I won't tell anyone about you," he promised. "But I hope you'll tell me more about yourself. I've never met anyone like you."

Something about this invisible stranger made me want to open up to him, to spill my whole life story.

But a savage, monstrous shriek cut me off before I could even begin.

I recognized that sound. I'd heard it so many times before. On the news. Beyond the town wall. But never in person.

So I knew what I would see even before I turned around: the Cursed Ones. They were here. Somehow, they were here.

Fear clutched my heart like a metal-spiked glove. A single bite from a Cursed One was a death sentence. A single bite and your life was over. Because that bite made you Cursed too.