WaterMage Rising

Chapter 3

Selena poured over the documents, thumbing through records from the archives of Singapore, including pictures of one of the supposed relics of Oberon and a portion of text from the original account of worldwide destruction about a millennium ago. Intriguing, but still not enough for her to go on.

As Selena read further, she found redacted portions of the file. When she held the faintest inked-out parts up to the light, she could make out the words, "purge" and "war expected."

Selena's pulse raced, and her breaths came fast and shallow.

A war between the magical and nonmagical worlds, when Cunningham had gone out of his way to revolutionize the Defense Bureau and include nonmagicals? What was Father's part in all this, and how much did he, as a nonmagical, know?

Selena needed to copy these documents so she could study what she'd learned without him being the wiser.

Water magic wouldn't do unless she wanted to have an inky puddle of mess on her hands and all over Father's carpet. Anything duplicated with air magic would dissipate in mere moments. Fire magic would consume the original, leaving her with nothing to show for her trouble but a grounding for the rest of her life, or worse.

Father could burn her body. She'd faced abuse from him before without flinching, but in this case, what he didn't know couldn't hurt her.

Earth magic would suit the task best, then.

She summoned her magic and channeled it through her kamea, nodding in grim satisfaction as green tendrils flowed from her birthstone and ensnared the envelope and its contents in thick vines. Her birthstone gave several pulses of light in rapid succession, then, in the span of a breath, the vines split into two bundles. The light pulses stuttered to a stop, and the vines unfurled like a flower to reveal the original documents and the duplicate set.

Now Selena needed to disguise the copy so no one would know she had it. Closing her eyes, she focused her mind on an image of Uncle Franklin's favorite animal, the serpent. He'd often said he admired the serpent for its cunning and its symbolism of health and wisdom. Ironic, considering he'd lost all of these in the end.

This time when the vines unfurled, the duplicate envelope and its contents had transformed into a sterling silver serpent charm on a long rope chain.

With a heavy sigh, Selena slipped the chain over her neck and ran her finger over the smooth curves of the pendant. She tucked it beneath her grey t-shirt, its solid weight against her skin a reminder of the price Uncle Franklin paid. Someone had murdered him for trying to do what he thought was right. That person would pay.

Whatever came of the information she would gain, she had done all she could in here tonight. If she lingered, she risked getting caught. One close call tonight was enough.

Even though all Selena wanted to do was end this nightmare of a day and sink into sweet oblivion, thoughts of the documents and her father consumed her.

When she snuck back up to her room and settled under her covers, sleep would not come. About a half hour later, the flashing lights and telltale siren of a police car approached the house. The doorbell chimed, and Selena could hear the muffled sounds of conversation between her parents and the mage police. Father must have called them, then. If Father was involved, he hid it well. The police stayed a mere ten minutes at most taking their statements before leaving.

All night, she tossed and turned as she tried puzzling out the clues.

All she had so far were whispers and hints, with nothing solid to go on, and Selena found it maddening. She needed cold, hard facts, not conjecture and fragments of speculation. Father could be innocent of these crimes. He could be a cold-blooded murderer. Or, there could be a justifiable reason that he had to bring this special defense project to fruition, no matter the cost.