Chapter Two

“Hey, Benny,” Summer called across the cafeteria to a sandy haired guy. “Have you seen Myra?”

Benny looked up from his dinner of chicken and steak tacos. “No, isn't she usually with you?”

“Yeah, but I haven't seen her since earlier today. She hasn't come to dinner yet.”

Benny shrugged and glanced at his friends, Laura and Trent. “You guys see her?”

They shook their heads through mouthfuls of food.

“Nope,” Trent said, swallowing. “Maybe she's sick in the infirmary.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Summer said. She muttered thanks and slowly walked towards the cafeteria doors.

Her eyes roamed over each table. Almost everyone was here. They were halfway through dinner and most people showed up early for taco day. She spotted Illa coming from the bathroom and made a bee line for her.

“Hey, have you seen Myra?” Summer asked.

“What do you mean?” Illa asked. “Not since history. I thought she caught up with you.”

“No, she didn't."

"I'm sure she'll be here soon. Maybe she got caught up with track. Let's get something to eat. I'm starving.” Illa made for the dinner line, but Summer didn't move.

“I'm really worried about this.”

“Hey, it's not like Myra hasn't ever gone off by herself before. She's ok.”

“Yeah, you're probably right. I'm just on edge because of our conversation with Ibrahim.”

“If she's not here by the time we are done eating, we'll go look.” Illa put a little extra emphasis on the word look. Summer nodded. They'd use a tracking spell, simple by fae means, but effective.

Illa grabbed a couple tacos and Summer took two slices of pizza. Summer had to stop herself from wolfing down her food in line. Finally they were able to pay. They sat down at the nearest table and began to eat. Summer swept her gaze over the cafeteria. Other students poured into the room, lining up to get their food, meandering about with their friends, talking loudly or reading quietly by equal measure.

Giving her friend a sympathetic look, Illa said. "I'm sorry. We'll go soon and look, but I'm sure she'll be here."

"You're really worried, huh?" Trent asked as he walked by with his empty tray.

"Just a little," Summer said. "She wasn't in the last class with me today."

"That is strange. She's not one to skip." Trent shrugged and put his tray up.

Illa finished a taco. "He's right. It's really not like Myra to skip class. Maybe we should go now."

Summer shoved her last bite in her mouth. She nodded, grabbed their trays practically taking Illa's second taco from her and plopped them on a nearby stack on top of a trash can.

"Hey!" Illa called out.

"You said let's go now." Summer said simply.

Illa frowned, pulled out a napkin out of the holder, and ate as they walked.

Extending out her senses, Summer felt for the connection she shared with Myra, the magical link that had formed long ago. It was as strong as ever. Myra was still here, somewhere. But why would she have skipped class? It also wasn't like her to miss dinner, especially not with track practice that day.

As the girls rounded the hall to their rooms, Summer sped up.

Just as she reached their door, the bottom fell out of Summer's stomach. Had she been holding anything, she would have dropped it. Her face must have shown how she felt.

“What's wrong,” Illa asked.

“Myra, I can't feel her anymore." Summer whispered in case anyone was nearby. "She's not on this plane.”

“What? That can't be right. Myra can't travel between worlds.”

“I know she can't,” Summer hissed. “But I can't feel her anymore. She's gone, Illa.”

“Let's go in then. We'll do the tracking spell.”

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“You know that won't work if she's not in the human world, right?”

Illa crumpled up her napkin. “I know how to make it work. I might need your help, though."

Illa and Summer's room was decked out in bright colors of blue and green with a thick rug covering most of the gray carpet. They each had their beds shoved against opposite walls with a dresser right in between them. One of the drawers was open, showing some of Summer's shirts and the top was littered with school papers. Illa had claimed the closet and piled it with her things.

A bulletin board and a dry erase weekly planner hung on the wall next to Illa's bed. Their homework was written on it in a hasty scrawl with their assignments pinned to the board. Summer always wondered why Illa bothered with doing both things. Above her bed, Summer had hung pictures of herself, Illa, and Myra, ranging through several years.

Closing their bedroom door behind them, Illa rummaged in the closet and pulled out the human foci they had.

Usually she wouldn't need something like this. Summer would have been able to track Myra by sensing her magic, but the sudden lack of that sense did mean that Myra wasn't in the human world anymore. How that could be, Summer didn't know. There weren't any other fae here as far as they knew. It was just the three of them. Unless someone else came to Horizon Academy. Her nerves grew at the thought. It wouldn't be the worst thing, but she couldn't imagine anything good coming from more fae hiding out among humans.

Illa had a purple crystal, a polished stone, a drop of water pressed between pieces of glass, and gems that were said to be of the sun in Faery. All of these items linked to Faery and would do much more than just bridge the barrier between the two worlds. These weren't human foci at all. Illa had kept these hidden?

The air buzzed slightly as Illa gathered her power. Under Illa's focus, the objects hummed with the magic of Faery. The gems molded together and turned into a miniature sun, blinding Summer when she looked at it. The water pulled itself free of the glass and became a hanging drop, hovering next to the sun, yet somehow not evaporating. The stone didn't need to change form, though it did seem to shine a little brighter. Lastly, the crystal broke, releasing air from Faery that kept its shape as if it were still trapped.

Without a word, Illa brought the four elements together. The water drop and air dissolved into the miniature sun instantly and the stone merged with them a moment later. They blended into a disc so bright, Summer and Illa shielded their eyes against it. All the elements together to forge a tiny piece of Faery. It would only last for a few moments.

The disc represented a very small portion of Faery that connected to their current location, maybe only a few miles across if that big. If this didn't work, they did have other options, but it would get much more difficult. Summer squashed a guilty feeling as she remembered their conversation from earlier. They had just promised to be better than ever and now this.

Tiny trees appeared roughly where the ones were just outside their school and a building rose next to them. It sprouted up wide and squat, a tree that had been magicked hollow. Much smaller shapes formed towards the edges, but were too indistinct to see what they were. The magic that was able to permeate the worlds and come back to create this crude map just wasn't strong enough for anything more.

A pure white spot shimmered slightly to the side of the 'building'. That's where Myra was. Physically she wasn't far from the school even if she was in another dimension.

“Who could have taken her?” Summer finally asked.

“I don't know." Illa said, annoyance coloring her voice. "Maybe someone who escaped Faery with us is here? Maybe they know Myra is fae too and took her to Faery? I don't know why, though.”

Summer ignored Illa's tone. “Unless Myra knows. What if she does? That could be really good for us.”

“It could be, but we still can't tell her anything about her parents.”

“I know. Let's go get her back.”

“No, we both can't go. You stay here just in case she comes back before I can get to her. I'll be back as soon as I can.”

Summer frowned, but Illa was right. There was no telling what Myra went to Faery for and no way to know when she would be back. It could just be a quick pop in and out with no harm done. By all that was natural, Summer hoped so. And she had to do something while she waited on Illa and Myra to come back. Maybe she could figure out if other fae were here. It would be as easy as sensing Myra before she learned to distinguish the feel of Myra’s magic and their connection.

Illa set down the remnants of her tools and swirled her hand in a complicated gesture. The world opened up in front of her, revealing a narrow swath of a dark sky and the black outline of trees. Wind ripped through the hole she'd created. Wherever this opened up to, it was already night.

Long shadows dotted Illa's dorm room. Glancing through the window, Summer could barely see the sun over the tops of the trees in the human world. That could mean it was about the same time in both places. Or it could mean this was someone's demesne that was always dark. Or that there was a very long time dilation.

Summer abruptly shut off those thoughts as she watched Illa walk through the gate she'd made. It closed up almost instantly behind her.

She deliberately avoided thinking about one of the other magical objects they kept. They didn't need to call him back yet. They'd find Myra, get her back home, and he'd be none the wiser.

Moving slowly, Summer left their rooms and walked through the school, her heart open to the presence of other fae’s magic.

The school wasn’t terribly big. It only had a couple hundred people split between ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade. At roughly fifty students per year, they were also split up into classes of about seventeen each and rotated with those same students between subjects. It made it very easy for Illa and Summer to stick close to Myra, but the school’s purpose was to have smaller groups bond over one year and then change up the groups the next year. It made networking within the school much easier from what Summer saw.

A lot of people were still at dinner, but some were trickling out. A few headed to their rooms or the library to study while most of them took their books outside to enjoy the first few days of spring. It had been bitterly cold and only now was winter really beginning to release its hold.

No one caught Summer’s attention yet, but that didn’t mean anything. She still had the excuse of looking for Myra as she openly watched small groups walk by her. Over the next twenty minutes, dinner ended and everyone left in increasingly larger groups.

Closing her eyes, Summer willed herself to sort through the feelings of so many people. Someone here wasn't human. She just had to find them. A hint of excitement was in the air as the weekend was coming soon. Spring break wasn't far off either.

Bubbling chatter rose up, suddenly loud. Summer clamped down on her senses. Focus.

A couple had small twinges of magic about them. Just enough for them to be witches one day if they wanted, but none with enough to be fae. Not that Summer had really expected anyone else here now. The other fae, whoever they were, had to be with Myra.