Chapter Two: Martin

Finally, that casual display of magic hit his mind like a lightning bolt. It shocked his nerves and cleared away the initial fog and confusion that had consumed him moments before.

Her command over water might hold some of the answers after all, even if something about the casual display sent shivers down his spine, touching on a memory he still wasn't prepared to handle.

Martin attempted a smile, hoping he didn't appear scary. He was somewhat taller than her, and she currently looked like a deer in the headlights.

"Hey," he said before clearing his throat since it came out a little too raspy. "I couldn't help but notice your display of water magic." He gestured to the fountain.

She smiled, giving a slightly less alarmed expression in return. He took that to be a good sign. "Yeah, my schtick is water magic. I'm not the best at it; that's why the professors tell me to get some extra practice. The fountain here is a slightly more scenic way of being able to practice the magic, so I come here from time to time."

He nodded, though his emotions still churned. He had no way to possibly express to her how much he needed that magic. Doing so from the start most likely would scare her the hell away, so he needed to figure out a better approach.

That might be easier than anticipated, given that there was something about her that he liked: her energy, her smile, and the way her eyebrows lifted in abject curiosity.

"Honestly, I've envied people who can do that type of elemental magic. You know, fire, wind, water. People might consider them classics, but there's always something incredibly useful about them."

Her lips twitched upward. "I've never thought about it that way. I always saw it as a bit basic."

"Uh… magic is not basic," he snorted. "We might be in a school where everyone has magic, but out there in the world, only a tiny number of people will ever have that ability. So, I think it's cool."

"Ha." Her cheeks reddened slightly, and she looked suddenly shy. "Well, thank you, I guess. It didn't feel that special since most people in my own family have some form of magic that is a bit more interesting. What about you? What's your magic? Actually, what's your name while we're at it?"

He grinned, knowing it displayed perfectly pointed canines, almost too perfect for a human. He reached out a hand to shake, and she grasped it, hesitantly at first, then with more strength and warmth. "I'm Martin Gallagher. You?"

"Willow Colson." She folded her arms, one eyebrow firmly raised. "What kind of magic do you have?"

He matched her expression. "I have enhanced senses, strength, and speed. Also, I'm a shapeshifter."

Though a few people were standing around, people shapeshifting on the school grounds wasn't exactly an uncommon occurrence. Before Willow's eyes, his form rippled in a strange, not exactly painful, but itchy transition into a tiger. The orange hair matched his orange stripes. He had that powerful binocular vision that tigers had, with even more enhanced ability at night. It wasn't night right now, however. His muscles flexed as he stretched, his tail flicking upward, and he yawned to bare huge fangs.

Willow let out a chuckle. "This is the first time I've seen a tiger shifter! Whoa." She reached out a tentative hand. "Can I pet you?"

He let out a low, rumbling purr, which she took to mean yes. While Martin could, with some effort, speak, he preferred to avoid it except in an emergency. Plus, his accent needed serious work anyway. His purring intensified when her fingers started scratching behind his ears.

"My cat at home really likes it when I do this, so I was wondering if it might be similar for you…?"

He let the purring do the talking. After a minute of pleasant scratching, he backed away and shifted back into human form. Before he got too distracted, he said, "I can't do the changes back and forth between forms too often. It can get exhausting, and sometimes I'll end up stuck in a form for a bit."

"Fair." She smiled. "Well, Martin Gallagher. It was nice to meet you. I haven't seen you around at the academy before. Are you a first-year?"

At this, his smile faded slightly. "I used to be a student at the academy, but right now, I'm taking a break. There were… some matters that I had to attend to. The professors did say that I was allowed to visit, as any student or former student would, unless that student was expelled. I wasn't expelled before you ask."

"Oh." Her brow crinkled. "I guess that explains why I haven't really seen you around. I… hope that whatever you're dealing with works out well in the end." She rubbed the back of her neck. "I do need to go to my next lesson now. Perhaps I'll see you around sometime?"

"Perhaps," he said, silently cursing himself for not asking for her number before she disappeared into the academy. He also wondered if he might have scared her away with the mention that he was not exactly a student right then.

Though he hadn't lied – he also hadn't been forthcoming about everything. He spent a few more minutes in the gardens, going to a spot he once remembered as a source of happier memories and happier times.

Though that time had passed, a part of him still wanted to honor those memories somehow.

As he headed toward the exit to make it back into the village of Oakwend, Professor Umber spotted him and approached him with a hurried air.

"You," Umber said. "Since you still like to hang out on the school grounds so much, why don't you just complete the rest of your years here? Why the need to keep avoiding school?"

At this, Martin froze, though he didn't quite turn to face his former professor. "I… I need more time."

"You shouldn't wait too long, Martin. Some of what you have learned will be forgotten if you don't use your mind. And…" He paused. "You know it wasn't your fault."

"I know it wasn't. But not everyone in the village believes I had nothing to do with it."

"Village people," Umber said with some irritation. "You shouldn't put stock in what others think of you. It's no way to live your life."

"It is the life I currently live," Martin replied before leaving the professor behind and taking the scenic route toward Oakwend.

He didn't feel much like talking about any of it. The trouble was that when you lived in a tiny village in close proximity to Dreadmor Academy, nothing went unnoticed – unless it had to do with serious supernatural beings who could steal memories and make people forget the questions they wanted to ask.

The village lay in a southwestern bend, opposite the swamp area, but close to another woodland and mountain area. It was a beautiful place, except for one noticeable feature: It was completely landlocked, which was part of the reason people struggled to believe his tale. Even now, as he walked through the village, some of the locals stared, but they did so in a way that suggested they knew. Though their version of the story was warped by rumors carried from one person to another, none of them knew what had really happened, not even Martin himself at times.

Now, he stared beyond the village with its stone and wooden houses and stone fencing to the slightly fogged-out woodland beyond.

Fog. He shivered.

His teachers and family insisted it wasn't his fault. But they didn't really know why three people drowned in a place where there was no water and no coast or why one of them had gone missing and had never been found.

Still, he continued to stare at the fog, wondering if that might be the connection until his little sister crept into the fray.

"Hey, Martin." Her smooth voice cut through his focus. "You're not thinking about looking in the woods again, are you?"

"It's foggy," he murmured, though he'd also looked on other foggy days and found nothing. But on the day the world changed, it'd been foggy. All they wanted was some laughs, some fun, and games.

That was all.

"Remember that you asked me to look up some information about what happened?" she asked when her brother answered. "I thought about it a lot, and I asked around. I even talked to Professor Z'Hana about why the normal police force never found anything."

Martin swallowed nervously, and in his mind's eye, he saw the waters rising. His skin became clammy with sweat. Eva noticed, and her voice softened. "Unless you'd prefer not to talk about it. I just thought since you were staring again…"

"I'm fine," he said. "What did you discuss?"

"The professor was sure that a fae with water-based powers most likely had something to do with what happened. She's been carefully dipping around the fae areas to find out which ones have been active recently. But it still doesn't really explain what you said you saw."

"Fae with water powers." He thought back to the student in the garden, the way she'd so calmly weaved the water as if such a thing would never be a threat to her – only an old friend.

"We already discussed that when everyone was interrogating me." He'd hated every second of the interrogations. Sometimes, it felt like the police were fishing to find a good reason to lock him away.

"Yes, but the other thing that may be of interest is the idea of there being realm overlaps," Eva said. "Which isn't completely out of order when you think about it since this entire region has realm overlaps with the fae, including the swamps and the mountains. So, it stands to reason that we have an overlap in this spot as well. The professor confirmed as much."

He nodded. "But we never found anything that might prove this to be true. After all, all the overlaps you see here – well, you see them. They're not exactly hidden, are they?"

"True," Eva said. "But Z'Hana says not all overlaps are visible all the time. Sometimes, there needs to be certain conditions. Until then, it's a bit hard to get an investigator on the case since she said the local police wouldn't be able to help with something like that. They'd need to find someone supernatural once we figure out where the overlap is and how it happens."

He sighed. It offered a small explanation, but it didn't leave any way to fathom when and where this place chose to appear. "Yannik's still missing. His family might say I didn't do anything wrong; they sure as hell don't talk to any of us anymore." He took a half-step toward the woods. "I wanted to find out about the place again. But what if I find it and more people die? What if I get trapped?"

He closed his eyes, and the faces of four friends swam before his vision. Samantha, Corey, Fox, and Yannick. The good version of them, where they smiled and laughed. Not the bad version, where none would ever move again.

An overlapping spot was his sister's latest theory, hashed out with the professor. That professor would probably want to see Martin back at the academy again. None of them really made it a secret. But how could he?

How could he face everyone there? The friends of friends, the people who knew them all, and who were now missing. Better only to see them the times he visited the favorite spot of his lost friends.

In the end, his sister bravely joined him on a walk through the foggy woodlands, but they couldn't find the place where it happened. Until it did, and until he knew how it happened, there would be no progress. Yannick deserved to be found. And, if they did find the place… His mind wandered back to the dark-haired girl.

He'd need someone with her type of powers. He'd needed someone like her five months ago.

"I'm glad you're opening up more these days, big bro." Eva patted his shoulder as they finished their weave through the woods. "I prefer being able to help as opposed to watching you vanish for hours at a time doing whatever the hell you were doing."

Stalking off into his tiger form more often than not. Tiger-based emotions weren't as intense as human ones, so he found it easier to cope with the whole situation. However, he needed to do more than just cope.

If that place did exist – if it only appeared sometimes, he needed to figure out how to find it again. Then, he needed someone with water powers so they could keep from drowning while searching for Yannick.

It was not the most well-hashed-out plan. It was not even a particularly noble plan. He just wanted to prove he wasn't crazy, that the place existed, and that Yannick might finally be put to rest.

"I know you've heard it a million times from everyone and continued, "I really think that chasing this road is going to be endless, and you'll never be happy so long as this is what you're doing. I'm happy to try to help, but it's also because I want you out and back with us. You know that, right?"

"Right," he said. Her words made sense. All their words made sense. But he didn't know how to adequately express how important it was to find that place again. It burned within him. It kept him awake at night, kept him wishing that, somehow, he might find that rugged coastal path once more, travel down the thin steps, and find that strange cave at the water's edge.

No matter what they said, he had to find that place.