Praxis Novellas, Mosaic Chronicles Book Two Page 6

  Nicole and Lizzie quickly divided the numbers between the two of them—Lizzie looking at those in the back, Nicole starting from the front. Austin smiled at them, leaning forward in his chair. He enjoyed researching, but wasn’t about to get in Nicole’s way.

  A couple of moments later, Nicole said, “Ah-hah!” and whirled, yanking the volume from Lizzie’s hands. She thanked the librarian, who walked back to her desk. “Let’s compare the pictures.”

  Austin took out the photograph—nothing had changed—and they put it next to the book. “That’s the one,” he said. The article labeled the place as “Britnell Manor.” Austin jotted down the address, then turned to the girls. “Let’s go check it out.”

  “Just a minute,” Nicole said. She pulled out her phone and took a picture of the house in the book, along with the description beside it. “In case we need that later.”

  They hurried through the chilly wind to the parking area behind Austin’s building and piled into his car. Nicole gave driving directions using the map on her phone, and after about twenty minutes of navigating Seattle’s streets, they approached Britnell Manor’s coordinates, according to the book.

  “Trees, trees, trees,” Lizzie said. “Don’t people ever get tired of them? They make it impossible to see anything!”

  The other two didn’t respond. Austin craned his neck, looking down each driveway until he found a place on the left that looked exactly like the picture. The mailbox addresses on either side of the house confirmed it was the one. “There it is,” he said, pointing. He turned the car around and pulled up in front, grabbed his backpack and met the girls on the gravel driveway.

  No one said anything for a moment. The brisk wind whipped around them, making goose bumps rise on Austin’s arms. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting once they got there—to actually see the figure in the photograph?

  “Where was the picture taken?” Nicole asked.

  “Over there, I’d guess.” Austin didn’t move. It felt like they were intruding. A slight magical vibration washed over him and he concentrated on it for a moment. He couldn’t pinpoint the source, but it felt negative—bad. Evil, maybe.

  Nicole zipped up her jacket. “This place gives me the creeps.” She stared at the manor. “It’s obviously empty. I wonder for how long.”

  Lizzie gasped, and Austin turned. She was pointing at a mound of dirt not far from the car, partially hidden from the street by shrubbery that lined the sidewalk. A hole was next to the pile.

  Pushing the negative feeling aside, Austin hurried to the hole and looked in. He recoiled instantly and bumped into Nicole.

  Black, decaying cloth peeked through the dirt along the edges of the deep pit. The scrapings in the sides of the hole showed it had been dug by fingers and not by a shovel. The dirt was still fresh.

  Ignoring Nicole’s warnings, Austin crouched down, holding his hand over the earth. He wanted to close his eyes to concentrate better, but didn’t want to make himself that vulnerable.

  Using his Earth Arete abilities, he focused on the soil. “Something violent happened here a long time ago.” He squinted, focusing on another shred of information. “Mixed emotions—sadness, regret, envy. Much more recently, anger.”

  He stood, noticing that the grass on the side of the hole nearest the manor was smashed down, creating a trail which led toward the house. The negative sensation from a moment earlier returned, and even though it felt like a warning, he followed the trail until it stopped—fifteen feet from the house.

  The magical waves hit him strongly, almost causing him to fall over.

  “I . . .” He hesitated, trying to ignore the desire to run back to the car. “I think this is where the creature stopped last time we looked at the photograph.”

  He turned to the girls, the hair on his arms and back rising, and decided to voice his fears. “Can you feel that? It’s . . . it’s still here”

  Nicole nodded, her face pale. She clutched his arm. “Do you have the photograph?”

  “In my backpack.” He pulled the bag down and removed the picture. The girls leaned over.

  “The figure is gone,” Nicole said. “Where did it go?”

  “Oh, crap.” Austin pointed at the manor in the photo. “The window is open—it wasn’t before. The thing is inside.”

  They looked up at the actual house and Lizzie screamed. The trampled grass no longer ended where they stood, but now led all the way to the porch. And like in the picture, one of the windows was open.

  Austin handed the photograph to Nicole. “We need to make sure no one’s home!” He dashed forward.

  “Austin, wait!” Nicole called. “It’s dangerous!”

  He didn’t stop, not caring whether they followed or not. What if there were people inside? He had to do something!

  He knocked frantically on the door. No one answered, so he tried the knob—locked.

  “It’s probably empty,” Lizzie said as she and Nicole caught up.

  Austin ran across the huge porch to the open window.

  “What are you doing?” Nicole asked.

  “Going in.” Austin looked back at them. “We have to warn the owners.”

  “No, we don’t!” Nicole said at the same time Lizzie cried for him to stop.

  Austin again ignored them and pushed the window open the rest of the way. He swung his legs over the ledge and ducked under the frame.

  The room was dim, and he had to wait for his eyes to adjust. Streams of muted light barely shone through windows that hadn’t been washed in years. A few items throughout the room were covered with sheets. Cobwebs draped everywhere. A dead rat lay along the wall to his left. The wood floor was coated with at least an inch of dust. Then he noticed markings in the dust on the floor where something big had recently shuffled from the window. The tracks stopped four feet from him.

  Magical pulses, so strong he felt like he should be able to hear them, washed over him. He put his hand on his pounding heart, remembering the last time he’d felt pulsations that strongly. It had been while in Arches National Park in Utah.

  Austin took a breath of stale, musty air and moved to the side, letting the girls peer in through the window. He pointed to the floor. “The creature is right there.”

  “I can sense it,” Nicole said.

  “And he knows we’re here, too.” A strong wave hit him, and he backed against the wall. “Did you feel that? It just pushed against my magic. I . . . I think it wants us to leave.”

  Nicole and Lizzie stepped away from the window.

  “That’s a great idea,” Lizzie said. She cleared her throat and reached in, grabbing Austin’s arm, tugging him. “Besides, I have to take the Arete history test.”

  Austin nodded, but hesitated still. Lizzie’s persistent yanking convinced him, though, and he climbed out the window, leaving it open behind him. The desires of that thing were completely clear—it wanted to be left alone while it completed its task.

  Once they were in the car, Austin said, “I’m positive it’s going to do harm to the place. We have to stop it.”

  Nicole shook her head. “I don’t think we can—it happened in the past, back when the picture was taken.”

  He scowled. She might be right, but that wouldn’t keep him from returning. He at least had to try.

  ***

  Austin pulled the picture out of the backpack and laid it on the kitchen counter without looking at it. He didn’t want to know if there were any changes. He and Nate had a study session, and Nate was already impatient.

  “Thanks for coming with me,” Nate said. “The Arete exam isn’t going to be pretty, and this session today should really help. I’ve heard the TA who’ll be conducting it is really good.”

  Austin didn’t reply. He couldn’t keep his mind off Britnell manor and the figure they’d followed inside. What had happened there so long ago? And were they sure it was in the past? What if the picture showed the future? He dismissed that idea as quickly as it came to him.

&nbs
p; The TA took things too slowly, and Austin, bored the entire time, doodled in his notebook. But Nate got a lot out of it and talked constantly on the way home. Austin had a hard time following the one-way conversation until Nate asked a direct question.

  “Did you see what he did with that clod of dirt?”

  Austin rolled his eyes. “Yes, and I could do that before even entering the university.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Nate mumbled.

  Most Aretes didn’t come to their power until around eighteen years of age, which was why they didn’t enter Arete universities until that time. But Austin had always been somewhat ahead of the others. His Restart—the moment when an Arete’s powers manifest themselves—had happened at fifteen. It was nearly unheard of, and his parents had hired a private Earth Arete tutor. Austin learned quickly from the woman. By the time he turned sixteen, he could already move several pounds of dirt at a time, and at eighteen, he could control vast quantities of dirt, along with aspects of the other elements. Most Earth Aretes at eighteen still struggled with a teaspoonful of dirt.

  “Why aren’t you a tutor? Why aren’t you up in front of everyone?”

  Austin’s hands instantly started shaking. He tucked them into his jacket pockets, hoping Nate hadn’t noticed. Him? Stand in front of a large group of people? He’d rather jump off a bridge. He shook his head. “It’s his job, not mine.”

  Nate didn’t say anything else, and they got back to their apartment building a few minutes later.

  “Why’s our door unlocked?” Nate asked.

  Austin’s thoughts instantly jumped to the safety of the photograph, and he rushed down the hall to the kitchen area. He stopped abruptly.

  “Mark? What are you doing?”

  The RA for the building yelled in shock and turned from the stool where he’d been sitting. “Nothing. Just . . .” His eyes flicked around the room, barely resting on Nate and Austin, then shifted away. “Just doing apartment checks. Everything looks good.” He glanced down at the picture clenched in his hands.

  “Give that to me.” Austin motioned to it.

  Mark stared at it a moment longer, then put it on the counter. “You shouldn’t have something like that around. Freaked me out. There’s a bad feeling in it. Does Professor Coolidge know you have it?”

  Austin pointed down the hall toward the front door. “Time for you to go—we have homework to do.”

  He waited until the RA left, then looked at the picture and felt the blood leave his face.

  “Holy . . .”

  Nate joined him. “Oh, wow.”

  The figure was at the window, staring straight into the camera—at the viewer. The expression was distorted into a glare, hair tumbling down one side of the face, skeletal fingers gripping the curtains on either side. Austin’s hands shook so hard he was glad he wasn’t holding the picture. “It’s looking at us—it sees us!” He turned to Nate, grateful not to be alone. “I think it’s a warning for me not to go back.”

  Nate’s eyebrows shot up. “You actually went there? Why would you do that?” He backed away. “This is getting really weird,” he said, then strode to his room.

  Austin pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed Cody’s number.

  “What on earth did you send me?”

  Cody chuckled. “Imagine how I felt! I watched it go through an entire cycle twice. Where in the . . . uh, vision . . . are you?”

  “The creature thing is looking out the window and staring straight at the camera.”

  “What? It is? It never did that before. What did you do?”

  Austin shook his head. “We might have messed it all up. We found the place and went inside. Cody, the thing knew I was there! It pushed against my magic. It wanted me to leave.”

  “Whoa, man. How come you did that? I wanted you to find info on the manor, but I didn’t expect you to actually go there!”

  “Why wouldn’t I? Isn’t that part of gathering information?”

  “Um, no, dude. And I bet the photograph won’t follow the cycle I saw again.” He abruptly changed the subject, talking about girls and school for a moment. After a couple minutes, he said he had to go. “Oh, and . . . Austin?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Do me a favor and don’t be stupid.”

  “All right, I won’t.”

  After they hung up, Austin called Lizzie. She didn’t answer. “Call me back as soon as you can. Actually, just grab Nicole and come over. Something’s changed with the picture. And it’s not good.”

  Lizzie and Nicole arrived an hour later, and Austin showed them the photograph.

  Nicole held it, head tilted. “Nothing’s really going on.” She paused. “Other than the window not being open anymore.”

  Austin snatched it from her. The window was closed, and so were the curtains. “The drapes are shut. They weren’t before.” He quickly told them about the figure looking at the camera. Then he brought up his conversation with Cody. “If going there changed things, it might mean we can prevent the creature from doing something bad!”

  Lizzie frowned. “But how do we know something bad will happen?”

  “I felt it—I felt the malice.” Austin started to pace, thinking. They needed to protect the house, and especially the people who had lived there. The place had been well cared for during the time the photograph was taken—obviously, the owner would want it to stay safe. But what could Austin and the girls do on their own? The magic behind that creature was strong—stronger than Austin’s magic.

  They would need help. They’d have to gather a group of Aretes who could work together. That way, they’d keep the creature from causing harm to the manor.

  He turned to the girls and told them his thoughts, then asked Nicole, “Do you still have the picture you took of the manor’s entry in the book?”

  “Yeah, here on my phone.” She pulled it out and loaded the photo. “Got it.”

  “Read the description out loud.”

  She squinted, holding the phone close, probably trying to read the tiny print. “It says that the owner, Mr. Britnell, died alone a couple years after his wife and infant son disappeared. People thought they were kidnapped or something, and it broke his heart. Then there’s other stuff about how big the place is, and what Mr. Britnell did for a living. He owned a fishing company.”

  Austin didn’t respond. He stared out the window, watching students walk past. “I’ll bet the figure from the photograph is about to kidnap Britnell’s wife and child.”

  Lizzie squealed, hands over her mouth, making the others jump. “We have to do something! We have to stop the guy before he gets to them!”

  “Whoa, hold on,” Nicole said. “Are we sure we want to get involved?”

  Austin shook his head. “I’m with Lizzie—we have to at least try. And we’re going to need every Arete student we know—we’ll tell them it’s practice.”

  “How are we going to use our abilities to stop him?” Lizzie asked. “I don’t think me starting the place on fire will do any good.”

  Austin paced again. “We’ll focus on our magic itself—the foundations of our individual powers. Since the figure is in the house now, we’ll keep pressure on him, holding him there until we can convince him to leave the wife and boy alone.”

  ***

  Gathering Aretes took a lot longer than Austin expected, and by the time everyone met up at his place and left for the manor, the sun was an hour from setting. The group was small—only seven students. Most of the other students Nicole and Lizzie had contacted, including Savannah, were taking midterms or studying and couldn’t come until later. Coolidge, the only professor any of them had been comfortable asking was on a date with his wife.

  Nicole insisted on driving this time, and Austin sat in the front seat. They were followed by a few other cars of students.

  Feeling the need to do so, knowing there would be a change, Austin grabbed the photograph. “Uh . . . guys? The picture’s changed again.”

  “What�
��s different?” Lizzie asked from the back.

  “He closed another set of curtains. Look.” Austin handed the picture to her.

  Nicole’s hands turned white on the steering wheel. “I just realized something.”

  Austin looked at her, momentarily distracted by the way the sunlight danced across her face. She was so pretty. He gave himself a mental shake, focusing again on the conversation. “What’s that?”

  “The changes are happening faster. The intervals—they’re speeding up.”

  Austin faced ahead, his eyebrows knitting. She was right. Before, transformations would happen after several hours. But now? Between seeing the figure at the window and both sets of drapes closing, it had only been an hour.

  “We’ve got to hurry,” he said. “There might not be enough time to save the kid if we don’t.”

  Nicole stepped on the gas and pulled around a couple of cars, ignoring their honks.

  A few moments later, they arrived at the manor, piled out, and met the rest of the students on the driveway. Austin scanned the place. Both curtains were shut and the hole by the street was still there, grass still trampled. He was glad the storm from earlier had blown through, leaving what should be a clear, moonlit night—an oddity in Seattle. But it would help to have the extra light.

  Everyone turned to Austin, waiting expectantly. He cleared his throat, feeling his cheeks start to burn. “Nicole? Lizzie? Can we talk for a moment?” They stepped away from the others. “Would you two arrange everyone around the house? I want to check out a few things. Oh, and while you’re at it, let them know we’ll be using our power to push against the magic of the guy inside. It’ll take some getting used to, but I think everyone here should be able to do it.”

  Lizzie raised her hand. “I’ll organize the Aretes if Nicole will tell them what to do.”

  Austin looked to Nicole—she agreed. “And Nicole, make sure anyone else who comes knows the plan, if you wouldn’t mind.”