Free Gods of Chaos (Red Magic) by Jen McConnel Page B

thinking about messing with another person’s will, even if magic was the only way to make Marcus help me. Sometimes, the methods of Red magic veered dangerously close to those little Black spells Rochelle had taught me before I was kicked out of Trinity, and I knew how my parents felt about Black magic.
    They weren’t alone. Even though Trinity taught White, Black, and Green magic, the emphasis was always on the kinder two forms of magic. I’d dabbled with Black magic because of my temper and my friendship with Rochelle, but that didn’t mean I really understood this dark craft. According to my training, Black was almost always evil, White was good, and Green was of this world. And Red? Based on everything I’d done so far, Red was death and destruction. Firmly, I pushed the image of the bodies in the vault out of my mind.
    After I emailed Mom back, I tapped my fingers, not sure what to do next. Something Marcus had said yesterday niggled at the back of my mind. Didn’t he have a sister who practiced something called Blue magic? My limited experience with Red magic had made me question the balanced concept of the world that I had been raised with. If there were more than just four types of magic, what might I be up against?
    It seemed like the only gods interested in acts of chaos were the Red patrons I had encountered so far. I knew that Green gods were generally related to nature and the earth, like my mother’s patron, Demeter, the Greek goddess of the harvest. White and Black patrons were always harder to pin down. At Trinity, we mostly focused on the Greco Roman pantheon, and since they were a farm-based society, many of their deities practiced Green magic. There were a few who weren’t ever identified in my classes as having any correspondence to one of the three magics—I remembered now that Hecate had always been described as being above the divisions of magic.
    Suddenly, with a flash of intuition, I realized that I knew exactly how to get Marcus to listen to me without messing with his free will. I pulled up an Internet search engine and hit a few keys. In a moment, I had a photo and an address on the screen in front of me. It was time to expand my plans, and even though I felt a twinge of guilt at what I was about to do, I reminded myself of what was at stake. If Marcus didn’t help me, I had a feeling that we’d both be vulnerable to Hecate. I was ready to do anything to stop her, and I knew I couldn’t do it alone. I needed Marcus; I couldn’t afford to be picky about how I got his help.
     
     
    ***
     
     
    I found the school easily: it took up a full city block, and the old brick building pulsed with magic. It reminded me of Trinity, and I felt a pang of longing as I sat down on the curb across the street to wait.
    I didn’t have to wait very long; the website had mentioned older students having off-campus privileges for lunch, and the sun was high in the sky when I got there. Soon, girls in blue uniforms began trickling past me, laughing and joking. I scanned their faces, hoping that I would recognize her.
    A girl with hair that was such a dark brown it might as well have been black emerged from the gate. She was walking slowly, carrying a book in one hand, her finger tracing the open page as she moved. Her lips moved silently, and I smiled. She was older than the picture I’d found, maybe thirteen or fourteen, but I was certain that was her.
    “Isadora?” I stood up quickly and approached her. She paused and looked up, curious.
    “It’s Izzy. But yeah, that’s me.”
    I stuck out my hand. “I’m Darlena. I’m a friend of Marcus.”
    She eyed my hand without moving, and then looked into my eyes. “No you’re not.”
    Taken aback, I didn’t know what to say. She went on, seemingly oblivious of my surprise.
    “But you’re like him, so I guess you won’t be too bad.”
    “What do you mean?”
    Surprise crossed her face. “You don’t know?”
    Confused, I shrugged. “What did he