WaterMage Rising

Chapter 1

"Help...me."

The fragile voice, breaking like shattering ice, and punctuated with a booming thunderclap, captured Selena's attention. Through raindrops pattering against the half- open living room window, Selena could make out a dark figure lurching along the sidewalk outside. Several steps later, the figure passed beneath the floating fire mage stones that lit the curved walkway to her house, illuminating the distinctive wine-red trench coat the man wore.

With a gasp, she realized she recognized the man. Uncle Franklin. A smile curled up her thin lips. Her uncle was fond of theatrics, but this was too much, even for him. She wasn't a child anymore and his zombie act didn't scare her.

Selena set aside her summer-assigned reading, carefully bookmarking the page, to get a closer look out the window. If he was trying to scare her, he'd have to work harder than that. In his wake, he left behind a trail of footprints encased in slush — on the hottest day of the year. Not a very impressive bit of magic, Selena thought with a sigh.

From her seat by the window, Selena heard her mother toss aside her daily dose of politics, the newspaper rustling as it hit the coffee table. "Selena! Get up right now, young lady, and come say hello to your uncle!" her mother called as she made her way to the door.

Selena scoffed. She was hardly a lady, and was loathe to move, but rose from her blue wingback chair just the same, if only to forgo her mother's mewling. Her knees groaned in protest after having been curled up for the past few hours. Brow furrowing, she strode to the foyer to greet her uncle.

A frantic pounding on the front door reverberated through Selena's chest. A sudden wind roared and whipped the apple trees outside, the blast nearly knocking Selena back a step when she threw open the door.

The sight that greeted her was far worse than she'd been able to discern by dim lamplight in the middle of a thunderstorm. Uncle Franklin's usual rich brown skin had turned a translucent blue, and his raised fist had already frozen solid. Before Selena's eyes, the once-flesh there splintered and fell apart into fragments on the porch. She couldn't help staring at the stump left behind or watching as the slow freeze snaked its way up his arm beneath the trench coat.

Petals blew into the house and, if not for the wind at his back, Selena wasn't sure Uncle Franklin would have managed to stagger up the few steps inside. Her mother's scream was swallowed by another crack of thunder. Selena looped an arm through his elbow to help him up into the foyer.

This was water magic, Selena realized. Her own element as well, but she'd never used it like this, not to such an extreme. This was the work of a curse. "Great martyrs of Salem, who did this to you?"

"Ka-" Uncle Franklin started, his breath snuffed in his throat as the slow freeze crept up into his neck and then his face. He was turning into an ice sculpture before her eyes. She took his remaining hand, his left hand, which clutched an envelope. The fingers burned cold against her skin but still held some trace of softness in them. "Ka-"

"Don't speak. I'm going to fight this water curse. Mom, I need you to do something useful besides cry." Selena channeled her elemental magic into her kamea, the birthstone bracelet all mages used to channel and focus their magic. Her aquamarine dangled into her palm and glowed a soothing blue-green. She pushed her water magic through the kamea and into Uncle Franklin, heating his blood and bones.

At first, she drove back the curse, inch by painful inch, but the curse fought back hard. It toyed with her as they danced, allowing her to reclaim bits of Uncle Franklin, only to take for itself more than Selena had claimed. No matter how hard she tried, no matter how powerful her magic, the curse batted aside her efforts. It struck at Selena, freezing her hand until she let out a pained shriek and had to let go. The curse would take Selena, too, if it could.