Free Bookworm II: The Very Ugly Duckling by Christopher Nuttall

him. It was far brighter than anything Charity had produced to show him how she did it, bright enough to blind ... Elaine let out a cry and covered her eyes, just as a wave of heat struck them both. But Charity’s spell hadn’t produced any heat ...
    “Cancel it,” Elaine ordered.
    “I don’t know how ,” Johan protested, feeling panic bubbling through his mind. Charity hadn’t taught him how to cancel spells. The light was growing brighter, so bright that he could see it through his closed eyelids. “How?”
    “Draw in your magic,” Elaine ordered. “Focus your mind and concentrate on bringing it back into yourself.”
    Johan tried, but nothing happened. The light was still growing brighter and the room was growing uncomfortably warm. Panicking, he wished it gone ... and the light snapped out of existence. The room seemed a great deal dimmer now the light had faded away.
    “Interesting,” Elaine said. Her face seemed soaked in sweat. There was a nasty red mark on the side of her face that had been facing the light. “But you definitely have magic.”
    “I have magic,” Johan said, dazed. It couldn’t be true ... and yet it was. He knew , deep inside, that he had cast his first spell. The light spell was merely the beginning. “I have magic!”
    “You do,” Elaine confirmed, dryly.
    She didn’t understand. Even if she hadn’t come into her magic at fourteen, she would still have been a known magician. Her magic would have been detectable, even if she had been unable to access it. No one would have teased and tormented her like Johan had been treated by his family. Her family would have respected her even if she wasn’t a strong magician. And if she hadn’t been born to a magical family, her magic would have been a sign of favour from the gods. But Johan ... he’d been completely powerless, without even a hint of magic ...
    Until now.
    A sense of exultation ran through him. He wanted to jump to his feet and scream for joy, he wanted to run home and make his father proud of him, he wanted to find Jamal and teach his older brother a lesson ... there were so many things he wanted to do. His father couldn’t keep him a prisoner now, could he? How could he when all of his children were now magicians? Johan could take magical lessons, he could master magic ... he could become powerful. He could rise ...
    ... And yet he was no longer sure if he wanted to make his family proud. What had they done for him?
    He’d hoped to go into the Civil Service and just leave them behind. He would have missed Charity, but the others ... none of them had really cared for their powerless brother. Even Charity had played pranks on him from time to time. And his father’s disappointment was worse than his rages. Even now ... did he really want to seek their approval?
    “I want to do it again,” he said, quickly. “Can I? Please.”
    Elaine frowned. “I think I should teach you how to cancel spells first,” she said, firmly. “And I also need to talk to you about what happened two days ago.”
    Johan gaped at her. “Two days ?”
    “You were asleep for two days,” Elaine confirmed. “Since then ... investigations have been proceeding. But we will want a witness statement from you.”
    “I understand,” Johan said, reluctantly. He wanted to try more magic, but he had a feeling that she would want him to take it slowly. The gods knew that his father had closely supervised his children as their magic started to blossom into life. “What do you want to know?”
    “Who carried out the attack,” Elaine said. “And why.”
    Johan hesitated. Did he really want to land Jamal in serious trouble? Now that Johan had magic too, maybe they could patch up their relationship ... he dismissed the thought, angrily. No matter the pressures piled on Jamal, there was no escaping the fact that his brother was a nasty bastard ... and that he’d tortured dozens of people two days ago. Johan had been powerless, he knew what it must