LUCAS

Even with all that deo, I could smell the Fenix sweat while he was being dragged out of the room by a magic chair. The situation was madly incomprehensible. It was obvious that Fenix knew about our community and was scared of our parents but I could understand how. He was like a normal dude, I mean, he has this weird sense of humor but nothing supernatural. I knew him, this had to be a mistake. But, the truth was so many things made no sense. How he had been involved in a witches’ ritual, the way he had avoided Atticus’ powers, and, shit, he hadn't even blinked when I put my fangs a few inches away from his face.

The mayor was leaning back in her chair looking at the ceiling while my father was motionless looking at the floor. It wasn’t hard to notice how angry he was. Clenched jaw and dilated eyes in his wolf form. If I had been in a similar emotional state, he would have put me down and growled at me until my spirit would have been calm. And of course, I would have grounded forever to let my bear lose its temper but, this was the typical case of ‘do as I say and not as I do’.

"I have one theory," Atticus' father said, making all eyes look at him. "Treason. Someone gave the information to the boy."

"Maybe, or perhaps an outsider witch. This would make sense, the boy borrows the books and some witch reads them for him. The thing is how we resolve this problem," the mayor said.

"Mayor, I'm sorry. I don't know how we don't notice this big security problem," my dad said. After all, he was one of the protectors of the foundation —like most of the police station— and his duty was to protect the secrets of the community. "I’ll take care to get rid of him," my father said with cold blood that made me chill.

I got up instinctively. "Dad. You can't kill him," I said.

"Boy, this isn't your business. Shut up and sit" he growled at me.

"But, he-e-e isn't de-deserve that. You ca-can't," I stuttered.

"Lucas, I will do the necessary to protect our people."

I tried to say something more but I couldn't. I clenched my fists in pure frustration. The tip of my fingers started to change and stick into the palm of my hand. Maybe I wasn’t able to say something but my bear was more than willing to intervene in this matter. The room was silent except for our growls. The situation looked pretty familiar to others of our worst arguments. The difference was that my father looked like his wolf was more angry than ever.

"Lucas is right," Rosemary said. The sound of our growls disappeared. My spirit calmed after those totally unexpected Rosemary’s words. She agreed with me, the hell must have frozen after that impossible event. "Don't misunderstand me, the faith of Fenix is irrelevant to me. However, if we kill him, we won't discover who he is and why he is doing this."

The tension lowered and the worried looks of the rest of the people in the room pounced at Rosemary. However, my father and I kept looking at each other. His eyes change again to his normal brown, the same as my hand.

"Dear, although I would want to do it, a contract of this characteristic is complicated to create," the mayor said while I put my hands in my pockets waiting for the wound to close.

"Mayor," Dorotea said from the corner where she had been observing in the most absolute silence until that moment. "I have the contract for a part-time job ready. If you want anyone could be worth it for the job, even the boy."

Dorotea started to recite some words in an unintelligible language and his eyes shone in an uncomfortable white light. When I could look at her again, a marbling white sphere not bigger than a tennis ball was in her hand. She approached the mayor and gave her the sphere.

She started to analyze carefully, which seemed like stupidity considering that it was a perfectly round white sphere, but bad experiences told me that it was better to let magic users be.

"With the approval of two members of the council would be enough. Abraham?" The mayor said, still looking at the sphere with quiet attention.

Atticus' father doubted for a second. "I will agree with your decision, Elizbeth," he finally said.

I took a deep breath and felt like the extreme tension of my muscles was disappearing. Fenix and I weren't on the best terms but the idea of someone who had been so important in my childhood being dead made me feel sick. My father didn't share my opinion. He had a swollen neck vein in the same way that when one of my little brothers broke his boxing gloves signed by Marco Antonio Barrera. But no matter how angry he was, he wasn’t going to say anything. He was a subordinate after all.

"Well, let's do it!" The mayor moved her hand in the air and the doors opened.

ROSEMARY

I had to admit that the unexpected disappearances of Fenix left me shocked for a second. But the expression of my mother made it clear that there weren’t any problems. She would never have missed the tadpole so easily.

“Where…” Mr. Gacia said just before Fenix appeared from the right side of the hallway. Everyone was staring at him.

"I'm sorry. I needed to go to the bathroom," he said with a small smile.

His face and hair were wet. He had gone to the bath to cool off. The idea that I had convinced my mother too soon crossed my mind. Maybe if we had tightened the screws on him a little more, we would have broken him. Of course, the idea was quickly discarded. It was one of these foolish ideas that crossed my mind from time to time. Fenix was nervous, but not the correct level of nervousness for the situation that he was living in. He had made it clear that he understood the power and therefore danger that the people around him could represent.

He got some of my respect, at this moment he had more than Lucas at least. I didn’t like that people played with me, but he was risking his life in the game, and this shows that he's someone very brave, or very stupid. For his sake I expected it to be the first.

He walked to the desk in a firm and determined step. This didn't prevent him from gulping every five minutes. My mother moved a seat for him with a graceful spell and he sat down. My mother shifted in his seat, generating expectation in Fenix who blinked less than normal, almost as if each blink had changed to a conscious decision from a reflex action.

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"We accept your deal," my mother said.

He couldn't hide his happiness and clenched his fits like a victory sight. "The conditions are the following: You will be employed by the Foundation to work in the library. As employed you have protection for yourself and your family. If you betray the foundation or reveal information about magic outside the community this contract will be broken immediately and then, losing your memories will be your least worry." My mother has a prodigious talent for threatening people.

"I accept," he said, swallowing.

"Perfect,” my mother said with a malicious smile. “Paid, working hours, assignments, and other things will be discussed in an ordinary contract. Now, put your hand in the lower part of this sphere."

He obeyed immediately and my mother put her hand in the high part. The sphere shone and a lot of symbols started to move around them. Fayres are known for their incredible abilities to combine magic from different sources. I could detect at least twenty different writing systems but there were hundreds more, a lot of them had died before their original users could write them.

When the sphere stopped shining my mother separated her hand and Fenix did the same. The sphere stayed some more seconds floating until it disappeared in a colorful glitter cloud. Fenix stared at his right wrist with attention.

"What are you looking at?" I asked.

He kept his eyes on his wrist, moving it slowly."The spell is like a golden fine thread around my wrist, it’s beautiful." He looked at me with a bright smile and just then looked at my mother with a brave expression. "Well, the first and most important, some extra-dimensional being entered our reality through the ritual."

"What kind of extra-dimensional being did you see? Did someone else see something?" Abraham asked.

The boys and I shook our heads. I had a lapse of memories of the ritual but I would have detected some demon crossing the veil throughout and after. I could sense any demon whom I had invoked. I looked at Fenix and raised a brow. He had to give more information

"I'm not sure. He was in a pure magic state, it wasn't a body of any type at that moment. It looks like a white fog."

"This doesn't sense, boy. You're trying to fool us," Mr.Garcia yelled while his eyes turned into his animal form. Most shifters had that problem when they lost their temper.

"Not, sir. It's true," Fenix stuttered.

"You saw magic as if magic could be seen," Abraham said, almost laughing.

"I told you,” Mr. Garcia said, looking at my mother and Abraham. “He is trying to trick us. Give me five minutes with him in a private room."

Fenix's expression turned from concerness to angriness. He hit the desk which ended in a quick movement of the hand like he was in pain.

"Yes I see it, always can I see it,” he said with incredible confidence in himself. “I can see the spirits of them." He pointed with each hand at one Garcia "I can see the black veins this weird of you." He pointed to Abrahan "and can see through the glamour over the books of magic that were hidden in the library. I can see all of this." He ended with a big air mouthful.

I started to think about all the repercussions of his words. I never heard about an ability like this. Most powerful witches could sense and detect spells and sources but not see them.

"This is an unusual skill," my mother said, putting his typical pose with the arms forming an arc and his chin over them. She couldn’t show amazement after Fenix’s statement. This could give dangerous information to my classmate, that he was something so unusual that even my mother had discarded the lethal option although the rest of the things that he claimed that had happened would have been a lie. "Can you explain to us about these powers? How do you obtain it? and when?"

Fenix reclined his back on the chair more relaxed. "I think that they're inherited. My grandmother had the same ability and I have been able to see magic since my childhood." He got up, suddenly. "But this isn't relevant now. I'm talking seriously, something crossed into our world when I solved the Rosemary error."

ATTICUS

Fenix had committed a terrible mistake. All of us were conscious that Rose made mistakes, like everyone, but knowing it is not the same as saying it. It’s like the Santa Claus rule, all of us know that he doesn’t exist and we can talk about it as long as there are no children around. Rose's mistakes are the same but vice versa, she doesn’t make mistakes as long as Rose is around.

Never will I forget this summer day under a tree in her garden surrounded by sun and without one blood droop when we were six years old. I should have argued with her about whether Pluto was a planet.

She stared at him, narrowing his eyes and smiling with the commissure of her lips. "I didn't make any errors. I followed the instructions of Daemonium Vocans of Riono Miocato. One of the best invokers in history," she said, marking the last word.

"No, I read the book and I'm pretty sure that the corner with obsidian of the pentagram must be facing the real north, not magnetic north, in this kind of ritual," he said.

They exchanged glances intensely. I didn’t know what Fenix was thinking. He was arguing with a witch about witchcraft like he was an eminence. It was the most stupid thing I saw he did.

Dorotea took a step forward. "I'm sorry to interrupt but," she looked at Rose. "Did you borrow the first or second edition? The first edition has a lot of errors," she asked.

Rosemary's face was still. I started to imagine what terrible things she was going to do to Fenix for this. I put myself close to her and touched her shoulder. She had helped me when I lost control and I wanted to do the same for her. It wasn’t the moment for punishment to Fenix.

"These things happen, maybe the book was misclassified or the edition wasn't available," I said, trying to de-escalate the situation.

"Stop Atticus, this is ridiculous. He is right, it's my error." She looked at her mother. "But, I'm going to fix it."

She was admitting her error. We had been friends since we were babies and I had never heard her say 'It's my error' or something similar. It was of her basic attributes, something that was written in her ADN. Why at that moment? Why with that guy?

"Dear, relax. First, we need to know what kind of creature it is. Dorotea, can you make an estimation, please?"

Doroteas took a sheet and a pencil from Elisabeth's desk and then started to write complicated math formulas that I couldn't understand. "Considering the moon phase and the pentagram was irregular. I think that the creature is from the elemental plane."

My father stepped back, crashing into the library which was just behind Elisabeth’s desk. His eyes were unusually open and his breath was loud and deep. I had never seen my father with that face of concern. My own hearts started to beat irregularly only knowing that he was scared.

"Elizabeth we need to mobilize the foundation, everyone," my dad said

"You're right. This thing needs a few days to obtain enough power but in two weeks could be catastrophic. Officer Garcia, we need you to inform the police captain about the situation."

Lucas' father stood at attention."Of course ma'am, but what is the situation?"

"An elemental, a force of nature made flesh. They accumulate energy and then." My father didn’t finish the sentence, his dark and lost look speaking by itself.

"We need all the police to search for this thing before it'd be too powerful. This is not a joke, elementals were involved in catastrophes like the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa or the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. Understand?" Elizabeth said.

Lucas’ father nodded and left the room. I heard the static of his radio when he was in the hallway. I felt a chill. Both Elizabeth and my dad weren’t scared people. They lived long lives, they had experimented through everything; wars, famines, diseases. My father called his assistant and they started to make a lot of calls on the side of the room. The mayor got up and took her bag.

"Dorotea starts with preparations, in case we cannot expel this thing the facilities of the foundation will serve like refuge." She headed to the door and Rose followed her. Before leaving the room, Elizabeth turned around and faced her daughter. “What do you think you are doing?" She asked, frowning at Rose.

"Fixing my error," Rose said with his pretentious attitude.

"Not dear. This is so serious that the adults are going to fix it. You and your little group," she pointed to Fenix, Lucas, and me "stay here helping Dorotea."