Free The Wizard's Secret by Rain Oxford Page B

candles,
although I had no idea how he lit them. I could just make out that there was
something etched into the candles. He was whispering something I could barely
hear.
    The magic Merlin taught me from his world used a
different language than mine and was extremely difficult to use. The tradeoff
was that it was very powerful. Basically, he could do with his words and mind
what I could only do with my staff. I often told my wand or staff what to do,
but the words had no power. Unfortunately, I had never once been completely
successful with Merlin’s magic. I accidently used one of Merlin’s spells wrong
and spent a month cleaning spiders out of my room. That was one itchy lesson.
    Of all the magic users on Caldaca, necromancers were
the only ones who relied on words. Wizards and sorcerers had wands or staffs,
magicians had their hats, elementalists used movement, and mages and seers
didn’t need anything.
    When he leaned back, heavy smoke rose from the candles
and accumulated in front of him. “Sonya Dracre, answer my call,” he said. The
smoke began to swirl violently and I heard several whispers before it suddenly
dispersed, blowing the candles out with it.
    I quickly returned to Kirin and pretended to look for
something in the saddlebag so Asiago wouldn’t know I had been watching. “What
happened?” I asked.
    “Something was holding her back. I could sense her,
but something was physically holding her there. Since you said you met her in a
mansion, I’m betting there is an object inside that is keeping her there. Or,
it could possibly be the house itself.”
    “I found a really creepy doll that she somewhat
recognized.”
    “I doubt it’s a doll. Nobody ever curses or haunts a
doll.”
    “My mother creates dolls of people and uses them for
curses.”
    “If she’s so powerful, why hasn’t she made you return
to her?”
    “I don’t know, but I’m sure she has a plan to get
exactly what she wants from me, which is dark magic. That’s another reason I
need to have my sorcery removed and hidden somewhere.” I laid my bag down on
the ground to use as a pillow. “I’m going to sleep.”
    We both settled down and I tried very hard to shake
the feeling of being watched. After a while, I rolled over to look at him. He
was fiddling with the string around his wrist. “What?” he asked.
    “Are you going to eat me in my sleep?”
    “Friends are like potatoes. If you eat them, they
die.”
    “Is that a no?”
    “Are you a potato?”
     
    *          *          *
     
    There were whispers all around me, half lost in the
wind. I was in the forest on my way to fight Magnus and the syrus was right in
front of me, except everything had a blue tone. It was the whispers that woke
me. The whispers had told me how to open it. They wanted me to help. But it
wasn’t Merlin.
    The whispers were in my head, trying to convince me
to open the chest. Part of me wanted to do it, while the rest of me fought
against it. The creature in there was so much more sinister than Merlin. It
wanted to hunt.
    I felt the unmistakable sensation of being watched
and looked up into the trees. There were hundreds of sets of small, glowing,
red eyes staring down at me. Suddenly, I couldn’t move, yet it wasn’t out of
fear; my arms and legs were turning to stone. One of the creatures flew down
and I realized it was a massive black bird.
     
    *          *          *
     
    I shot up out of my sleep, ready to attack a foe that
wasn’t there. My movement startled several creatures in the tree above us,
causing them to make strange howling sounds that sent chills down my spine. I
looked up and saw four sets of glowing red eyes.

Chapter 7
    Standing so quickly had
disoriented me, especially since I was still half asleep. The glowing red eyes,
however, chased away the fatigue pretty quickly. I didn’t make any more sudden
movements because I wasn’t sure what the creatures were. Kirin nudged me in the
back and I