I seemed to have a knack for irritating Nomura. According to Wade, that required tremendous skill—and he didn’t mean it as a compliment. I lowered my head slowly, once again disappointed that I couldn’t train with my Esprit under his guidance.
Nomura noticed my childish disappointment, then groaned and rolled his eyes. “Crowley, put your Esprit on,” he snapped.
Wade nodded, then took his ten sterling silver bands from his vest pocket and slipped them on his long fingers. He breathed deeply and smiled. I knew that feeling all too well now, of putting an Esprit on and experiencing the surge of power through every fiber of my body. It happened every time with my ring-bracelet.
“Now what?” Wade asked.
“Well, Merlin here doesn’t think one can do much without an Esprit these days, so I’d like to prove her wrong. Fight me,” Nomura replied, before removing his swords from his back and handing them over to me.
Wade stared at him, blinking rapidly as he tried to process the unexpected order. Nomura raised an eyebrow, then moved to the center of the training area. Each room of the San Diego Coven continued to amaze me. They were all different in design, size, and function, seamlessly wrapped within a giant interdimensional pocket right where Fleet Science Center stood. Like all the other covens, ours was wirelessly powered by the Bestiary, which had become our responsibility for the next hundred years, as demanded by tradition. The monsters inside the Bestiary were raw Chaos energy expelled by magicals during Purges. It was all a natural flow of Chaos, repurposed to fit our needs as witches and warlocks in a world that wasn’t ready to learn of our existence.
Nomura’s training hall was my favorite, mainly because of its design simplicity, and it was made entirely from Chaos energy converted into matter. It was a black marble box, with each surface polished and glazed to perfection. In the middle was the training circle. There was nothing else, and yet so much happened in this room on a daily basis.
“Excuse me, sir?” Wade asked, gawking at Nomura.
“I said fight me. With your Esprit,” Nomura replied.
“But you don’t have yours—”
“That’s very observant of you.” Nomura cut him off, sarcasm dripping from his voice. “Quit wasting my time. Come at me.”
It took Wade another couple of seconds to assume an attack stance. Judging by the look on his face, he wasn’t used to sparring with Nomura. There was fear in his heart, too. He was genuinely afraid of Nomura’s abilities, and I worked hard to stifle a chuckle when I realized that.
“I’m going to show you how a magical can defeat his opponent, even without an Esprit,” Nomura said, looking at me. He then motioned to Wade. “Come on, Crowley, I don’t have all day!”
“I’m sorry, sir,” Wade mumbled. His rings lit up bright orange. Flames gathered around his fists.
Nomura assumed a defense position, his arms slightly bent in a kung-fu-style pose. As soon as Wade released the first round of medium-sized fireballs, Nomura used his Telekinesis to swat them away like pesky flies.
“Crowley! Don’t be such a wimp! Give me something serious to work with!” Nomura barked.
I held on to his swords, biting my lower lip to stop myself from laughing. There were very few people in this coven who chewed Wade’s ass, and Nomura was one of the top three. Wade came from a legendary bloodline. His mother was the director of the Houston Coven, and his father was on the Texas Mage Council. How he’d ended up with a mild Irish accent I had no idea, but it had a way of making my skin tingle whenever he opened his damn mouth. His parents had to be first-generation Irish immigrants, I figured.
Wade exhaled, then launched a second attack. This time, as Nomura requested, he didn’t hold back. His fireballs were perfectly round and highly concentrated, burning hot red as he hurled them at Nomura’s head. The preceptor grinned and used his Telekinesis to slice each fireball in half.
My jaw dropped as Nomura advanced toward Wade, who continued his flaming attacks. Wade’s speed and precision were no match for Nomura’s agility, though, and the preceptor disabled each fireball with his Telekinetic whips. Before Wade could throw out another round, Nomura’s invisible whip grabbed him by the throat.
With one flick of his wrist, Nomura threw Wade out of the circle.
“Oh, snap,” I breathed, watching Wade hit the ground and roll like a potato across the marble floor. “Are you okay, Crowley?”
Wade groaned, then scowled at me. He managed to get back up and went after Nomura again. He was angry this time—and if there was one thing I’d learned the hard way during Physical Magic training, it was that anger served no one other than your opponent.
Nomura successfully deflected Wade’s attacks, using only his Telekinesis. Of his three main abilities, it was the one he trusted most during combat. Sometimes he used his Earth Elemental skills to manipulate the shape and size of his Esprit swords, turning them into chillingly effective weapons. Nomura was also an Air Elemental, but he rarely used that power. Not that he wasn’t good with it. On the contrary. It was extremely intense and not suited for training purposes, he’d once said.
Wade managed to slip through Nomura’s defenses and delivered a fiery blow, using a flaming whip. He’d already figured out that fireballs weren’t going to touch him. Nomura hissed when the whip cut through his silken tunic. Wade froze, terrified that he’d actually managed to injure Nomura, who grinned and turned his fear into an opening.
The preceptor dashed across the training circle and delivered a dizzying array of kicks and punches. It threw Wade for a loop. Nomura then used his Telekinesis to grab him by the throat again, this time his hand making the gripping gesture just inches away from Wade’s skin.
“Now, you’re mine,” Nomura announced. “I can finish you off before you even think of a way out.”
“Yield. I yield,” Wade croaked.
Nomura chuckled as he released Wade and looked at me. “See, Merlin? Focus on how far you can push your raw power first, then worry about fine-tuning or amplifying it with your Esprit.”
I nodded slowly, in awe of what I’d just witnessed. Wade’s ego was bruised, but he, too, looked impressed by Nomura’s fighting skills.
“You really think I can be as good as you?” I asked.
Nomura gave me a faint half-smile. “You’re really hung up on that Mediocre label, aren’t you, Merlin?”
“The Reading was clear, sir,” Wade replied, giving me a sympathetic look. “Adley de la Barthe may have had her shortcomings, but she was a stellar physician. And our patented lie detector doesn’t… lie.”
Ah, yes. Adley. The unsuspecting accomplice. Adley had come to the San Diego Coven a couple of years back as the physician. She’d fallen for Finch, who’d played her into keeping his Shapeshifting ability a secret. She paid dearly for her mistake, and she was now serving time in one of the cells in our basement, awaiting a trial date. But Wade was right—despite her weakness for a friggin’ psycho magical, Adley had built quite a reputation as a physician. And her Reading had been clear about me: I had all these abilities and, even though I was a full Elemental, which was ridiculously rare, I was also a Mediocre.
“Didn’t Alton agree that Merlin should do a second Reading?” Nomura said, frowning. “I thought Adley had suggested the same, too.”
“Yes, sir,” I replied. “I guess the new physician will do that, though I haven’t had the chance to talk to him much, lately.”
“Of course you wouldn’t.” Nomura sighed. “Krieger took over all of Adley’s projects. He’s got his hands full for a while. Nevertheless, you should get tested again, if only for your peace of mind. I doubt you’ll get different results, but Chaos can surprise us sometimes. Who knows?”
That statement somehow filled me with hope, despite Nomura’s generally pragmatic approach. His teaching techniques had that “tough love” vibe, but most of his students honed their skills over the years. Hell, I’d already come a long way.
One month in this place, and I had much better control over my Telekinesis and Fire than before. Despite my complaints about not being able to use my Esprit during Nomura’s training sessions, I had to admit I was making progress.
Deep down, the fear of one day facing Katherine Shipton pushed me to try harder, to do more, and to learn as much as I could about myself and my family in the meantime. When Finch was carted off to Purgatory, he had sneered at me and said that this was far from over.
The troubling part was that I believed him. So, if there was so much as a 10 percent chance that I wasn’t a Mediocre after all, I wanted that second Reading. Katherine Shipton was most likely plotting something big and terrible, and I felt as though it was my responsibility to take her down. To prove that the Merlin name still stood for the goodness and greatness of this magical world, and not the murder and mayhem that my father had left behind.
Two
Harley
I’d grown accustomed to life in the coven.
I liked it. A lot. I’d even learned to control my Empathy around crowds of people! And we were getting awfully close to a deadline, on my part. The probation month was coming to an end soon, and the San Diego Coven was quietly waiting for me to make a decision. Should I stay, or should I go?
I’d yet to decide, but I did appreciate how Alton didn’t pressure me. In the meantime, I continued to enjoy my midcentury-style room in the coven, my pretend part-time job at the Science Center’s Archives and Library, and, most importantly, the free meals.
Lunch was served in the banquet hall, with its pristine white marble walls and long dining tables. Some of the seats were empty—the coven had lost people during Finch’s gargoyle attack. Over a dozen had died, and at least twenty were still in the infirmary, recovering from their wounds. There wasn’t enough magic in this world to fix certain injuries. It was up to the magical’s body to fight and heal itself, as best as it could.
I skipped past the knot in my stomach caused by the sight of empty seats and stopped by the buffet first. I loaded my plate with chunks of bread and a heap of cheesy grilled potatoes, which I then slathered in one of the chefs’ signature gravies. My body demanded food, drained of the energy I’d burned during my training with Nomura and Wade, and my mind required nourishment after the early morning courses in Alchemy and Occult Chemistry. Needless to say, I was making progress on all magical fronts, but I was useless if left “hangry.”