Psychic
Chapter 22

Victoria shrugged, feigning concern, “It’s not that hard to understand. I need you to give me your power.”

“What – How?”

“Psychics are a rare breed of magical creature. There is only one of us born every quarter year, and to a random family each time. Do you know why that is? Do you know why there are so little of us? Let me give you a little history lesson.

“Back before recorded history, magical creatures and humans lived in harmony. The ruling race was the Psychicae. They were, as you could tell by the name, the very first psychics. But then some of the people – the ordinary humans got suspicious of their power. They tracked down and killed every last Psychicae, except for four. These humans enlisted the help of the warlocks to do something heinous.

“Magical Law states that no one group of creature could be totally eliminated, because the balance of the universe depended on all of these creatures. So, as a compromise, a group of the most magical warlocks cast a spell, and set in stone that no more than four of us can exist at a time. And every quarter century a new psychic would be born, so that the race didn’t totally die out. Their birth family was random, a precaution set by the Warlocks, who feared the humans’ ever-growing ignorance. If no one knew who the next psychic would be, then no one could control them.

“So, henceforth, we were an endangered race, doomed to be such for eternity. After this the humans got wary of every creature not human. In the very start of recorded history, humans feared creatures of fables, except back then they knew we existed. Since then, humans slowly forgot the stories of their ancestors. Magical creatures kept out of the limelight, and humanity simply forgot that they were even real in the first place.

“But the Psychicae did have one secret that the humans and warlocks alike never stole. Our book of prophecy and the knowledge it held. Psychics are able to lend other psychics their power, something meant to be used in dire situations, a defense mechanism if you will. We cannot use our powers against each other, but we can give them to each other if we needed to.

“And now I need you to give me yours.”

“Why?” I asked, bewildered by the gleam in her eye.

She chuckled, something deep and threatening. “I might not have killed the royal family, but that doesn’t mean I was a sweetheart. If thirteen years of captivity taught me anything, it’s that the warlocks are not meant to rule. When humanity left us, the warlocks took charge as the second most powerful race. They were also the closest to humanity, besides ourselves. But the only problem was, they weren’t the ones who should’ve been ruling, we were.

“They fear our power, like they should. They fear it like everyone in the world should. In fact, the whole world should know of us again. They should know and fear us as more than a fairy tale to tell their children. And I was meant to be that ruler. I was meant to rule the magical creatures back to how we were before humanity got ignorant and dumb. I am the one meant to bring us back to that age, but I’m not nearly powerful enough to do it.

“You’ve just proven that you can beat magic which I cannot. And, if we’re being honest, I know how to properly use this power you hold. I’ve lived with it longer than you have, and I’m more trained. You are just a child, you cannot control this power you have. If you give it to me, I will use it right, and the world will finally give us the recognition we deserve.”

I didn’t look over at Magnus to see his expression. I knew what he was thinking. I expected the ‘I told you so’ to be given in his judgmental eyes.

Victoria was actually the evil mastermind everyone thought she was. Great. Leave it to me to befriend my worst enemy.

I thought Victoria would be like she was in Hawthorne’s memories, nice and understanding. But something changed in her after all those years of capture; after Hawthorne’s obvious betrayal to her trust and love. She was changed from that innocent girl.

She must’ve sensed my indecision, because she turned to Magnus, who hadn’t spoken since Hawthorne, Arnold, and Bella entered the room so long ago. He seemed to be deliberately keeping his mouth shut.

“You still trust him, don’t you? Here, let me reveal to you where his real loyalties lie, shall I?” She said, rushing up to Magnus and ripping the necklace off of his neck before Magnus could even react.

My mind unconsciously reached out to the new source of memories and thoughts. I was diving deeply into Magnus’s mind for the first time ever.

Magnus was young, maybe eleven years old at the most. He was sitting at the top of some stairs, spying in on who must be his parents and a boy who looked to be about thirteen.

“We’re so proud of you, Arnold. You will give the family name something to stand for.” The man who I assumed was Magnus’s father was.

The older boy, Arnold, smiled. “Why, thank you. I surpassed my training with ranking so high, the trainers were joking about making a whole new category to fit me into their standards. I only wish the same could be said for Magnus.”

“Yes,” the mother agreed, “You are right, Arnold. I’m afraid his marks aren’t as high as yours. In fact, I don’t know what we are to do with him. If his potentia Source didn’t block him from . . . those creatures, then I don’t know if he’d even be emitted to the Training Academy. He just doesn’t seem to be as, well, magical as you were at his age.”

Magnus runs back up the stairs as the memory changes. Suddenly he’s a bit older, maybe thirteen or fourteen by now. He stands in front of Hawthorne, who has Arnold standing at his side.

“You failed us again!” Hawthorne yelled. I could feel Magnus’s fear of the memory.

“Hawthorne, it was not my fault that the . . . creature you have me looking for wasn’t there.”

Hawthorne slammed his fist down on the table, “No! You must’ve scared her off! She was alerted to your presence and ran, I am sure of it!”

Magnus flinched and nodded.

Arnold scoffed. “Please, if my brother was maybe more like me and a better warlock we’d have her by now. I can’t believe he ended up with a potentia Source like that. He doesn’t deserve it at all.”

I felt Magnus’s low spirits connected with the memory as it changed again. This time Magnus was in what looked like a forest. He was running from something.

“There it is!” a voice yelled from behind him.

I saw two flannel wearing men shoot at Magnus as he ran – Hunters.

Magnus hid behind a tree, his heart racing.

“If you just tell us where your friends are, we’ll let you go, monster. Where is your coven or whatever they call the place y’all are from?”

“Our species has a treaty with yours, hunters!” Magnus yelled back.

The one in the red flannel laughed, “Sure, because you all wouldn’t back stab us if you had the chance. You monsters are all the same. It don’t matter how human you look, you’re all abominations.”

The memory shifted again and this time Magnus was just walking into Ms. Lu’s class, dressed in what he was wearing on the first day of school. His thoughts were the main idea in this memory.

Great, he thought, Arnold drags me all around the world and now he wants me hanging in a human high school. What are the chances a highly intelligent creature that has avoided detection from our best scouts for years is sitting in a high school classroom?

It was weird seeing a memory I knew form his point of view. I saw myself turn to greet him. I felt his emotions as I tried to engage conversation. He wanted to keep a low profile at this school, so that meant giving the cold shoulder to any and every one, especially the friendly ones.

I saw myself reach towards his potentia Source out of curiosity. But this time I also felt the tug in Magnus’s stomach as the stone glowed. It was warning him that I was the creature his stone protected him from.

Magnus’s warning bells switched on and I could feel his panic. He finally found his target, so why was he reluctant to tell anyone?

The memories flashed between updates to Hawthorne about failing to replace me and Hawthorne’s wrath. Arnold making fun of him was also a main subject of the memories.

I closed my mind off enough to where it used to be. I could now only hear the main thoughts entering someone’s mind, the ones that were so prominent that it would be impossible to block out. But the memories I’d seen of Magnus’s were still running rampant in my mind.

Victoria backed away in confusion. “But, you’re with him! I’ve seen you give reports on Olivia, on her movements and your suspicions. You were Hawthorne’s weapon!”

Magnus shrugged. “You were in my memories, you saw my reasoning. I am not loyal to Hawthorne for the same reason as you. His intentions are wrong and his morals horrid. You cannot use me against Olivia because besides what she might believe, I never stopped believing in her. My loyalties lie with Olivia, not to Hawthorne or my brother.”

Victoria snarled, “Well, I still have your amulet. You warlocks are powerless without them, are you not? Olivia knows there is no other way, now she can either give me her powers or watch you dies, yes?”

A sudden idea hit me. “Victoria, what was the prophecy? Word for word?”

“What? Why? You have already fulfilled your purpose. You completed it and now you and your boy toy have been defeated. I won, end of story.”

I shrugged, “If I am to give you my powers, I want to know the prophecy I completed before I do. You know, out of curiosity.”

Magnus and Bella both flashed me warning looks, but I ignored them, keeping my eyes on Victoria.

“Fine, if it means that much to you.

“One Psychic, stronger than the rest

“Will grow up away from the nest

“And on their sixteenth autumn equinox

“Defeat the leader who’s unorthodox”

I smiled as I replayed the words in my head. There was nothing specific in there about Hawthorne. Nothing in the prophecy that called for the defeat of a Counselor or even a warlock at all, just an uncommon leader.

“Magnus, do the other warlocks and magical creatures accept Hawthorne as their leader? Is he, per se, commonly accepted by the herd?” I asked.

Magnus, who started to understand where I was going smiled, “Yes, actually. He was, if you could say, orthodox.”

Victoria furrowed her brows, “What? What are you doing?”

I walked forward until I was close enough to see the flecks of panic in Victoria’s eyes. The prophecy says I defeated an unorthodox leader, someone not accepted by the flock. Like a psychic who Hawthorne convinced the community was evil.

“The prophecy wasn’t talking about Hawthorne, it was talking about you. Hawthorne had his people under control, and they accepted him. Not many people hated him, even if he didn’t believe it himself. But, the people don’t accept you. The people hate you because of what Hawthorne said about you, am I right? You could say that you are now an unorthodox leader because you now claim Hawthorne’s position, can you not?”

Victoria finally understood what I was getting at and I saw the fear click in her eyes. I wasn’t supposed to defeat Hawthorne, I was supposed to defeat Victoria.

I focused all of my energy on Victoria. I let my walls fall down and directed all my thoughts at her. I had no idea if it would work, and no idea if other psychics could even read each other, but since I was prophesized as the most powerful psychic ever, maybe I could be the exception.

I threw all of my fury at Victoria. All of my pent up feelings over the years. And I screamed.

Victoria clutched her head in pain and fell to the floor. I didn’t let go until she was passed out. In fact, I don’t think I could’ve let go if I tried.

Magnus came up at held me up as I, myself started to pass out. I used more of my power than I ever had before and I was exhausted.

I closed my eyes and smiled, I finally did it, didn’t I?