Surviving Magic (School of Magic Survival Book 1) Read online

  Surviving Magic

  School of Magic Survival 1

  Chloe Garner

  Copyright © 2019 Chloe Garner

  All rights reserved.

  Cover design by Melody Simmons

  Published by A Horse Called Alpha

  The Natural

  Valerie looked over her shoulder as the boys continued to follow her down the sidewalk. She was about four blocks from home, and she could run flat out from here if she had to, but she didn’t like giving them the satisfaction. If she ran from them now, they’d just find her another day and make her run again. Her mom had had her in self-defense classes at eight, because of the neighborhood, and Valerie was comfortable in her own body. If someone tried to touch it without permission, she knew she could hurt them, hard and fast, and get away.

  That was the kind of thing that stupid boys wouldn’t come back for.

  “Valerie,” someone called, crossing the street, and Valerie looked over to see Hanson, long-suffering friend and one-time test dummy for the various moves Valerie had learned in her classes.

  She slowed to let him catch up and walk alongside her. He looked back once, making eye contact with the guys who had been following her, then pretended like it hadn’t happened at all, shouldering her playfully.

  “Want to go get something to eat?” he asked.

  “Do you ever think about anything but your stomach?” Valerie answered, grinning.

  “Sometimes I play basketball,” he answered. “Come on, my treat. I’m celebrating.”

  Valerie adjusted her backpack and raised an eyebrow at him.

  “Did Nikki finally agree to go out with you?” she asked, and he waved her off.

  “No, we both know that’s never going to happen. Coach put out the list for varsity.”

  Her eyes flew open.

  “You made it?”

  He grinned.

  “Power forward,” he said.

  “You say that like it should mean something to me,” Valerie said, still grinning. “Well, if you’re celebrating, then it ought to be my treat.”

  He shook his head and was about to say something when a car rolled up to the curb and a man got out.

  “Valerie Blake?” the man asked. Hanson took a half step in front of her and Valerie walked around him.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  “Valerie, your mother asked me to come get you,” he said. Valerie checked her phone, but it didn’t have anything from her mom.

  She glanced at Hanson.

  “No,” she said after a moment. “Just no.”

  She took a step back and started down the sidewalk again.

  “I have this,” the man said, taking out an envelope and showing it to her. “I don’t know what it says. She signed the envelope after she sealed it.”

  “Hold up,” Hanson said. “We’re, like, four blocks away from her apartment. Why would Mrs. Blake send a man in a car?”

  Valerie looked at her phone again, then shook her head and texted her mom.

  There’s a guy here who says you sent him to get me. Bogus?

  She lifted her eyebrows and looked at the man once more. He flipped the envelope over and she frowned. It was actually her mom’s signature.

  She stepped forward and took the envelope, going back to stand next to Hanson again as she ripped open the end of it and took out a folded sheet of legal paper.

  She knew that pad of paper. Lived on the counter in the kitchen.

  Val,

  I’ve got a lot of explaining to do, and it needs to happen fast. This is Roger. I don’t know if you can trust him or not, in general, but he’ll bring you back to the apartment. Please come with him quickly.

  Mom

  “What’s your name?” Valerie asked.

  “I’m Roger Haem,” he said. Valerie glanced at Hanson.

  “He comes, too,” she said. “I’m not getting in your car by myself.”

  Roger looked at Hanson for a moment, then shrugged.

  “We need to move quickly. They’ll be watching.”

  He went to get in the car as Valerie lingered. Hanson looked like he’d rather go get pizza.

  Valerie looked at her phone again.

  I wrote the letter. He isn’t lying to you. Stop using your phone.

  She showed the text to Hanson.

  “I don’t know,” he said as she put her phone away again. “You don’t know this guy?”

  She shook her head.

  “Mom said to go with him.”

  “And how do you know someone didn’t steal or hack your mom’s phone?” he asked.

  “Look,” she said, bending over to look into the car again. “We’ll just walk. Okay? Meet you back there.”

  “You are exposed, completely out in the open,” the man said. “You aren’t safe. She said I had to get you first, but you’re putting all of us in danger.”

  “What are you talking about?” Valerie asked. “Danger?”

  “She hasn’t told you anything, has she?” Roger asked. Hanson again was edging around to stand in front of Valerie.

  “You need to just roll on,” Hanson said. “Creepy.”

  “It’s a busy street in the middle of the afternoon,” Valerie said. “I’m certainly in more danger getting into a car with some strange dude than I am walking down the sidewalk.”

  She straightened and turned to continue on the way they’d been going originally.

  The sidewalk buckled in front of her.

  She stopped short, staring down at the trench of shattered concrete in front of her, jerking her head around as she tried to figure out what had just happened.

  She heard Roger curse quietly as he got out of the car again.

  “They don’t have to be able to see you to take aim at you,” the man said quietly. “You need to get in the car right now. Even if they do miss again, they might kill someone else.”

  “What?” Hanson asked, staring down at the sidewalk. It was like someone had smashed it with a pipe the size of a beach ball. It wasn’t possible.

  That thing.

  It couldn’t have just happened.

  “How do you know my mom?” Valerie asked, taking an involuntary step back away from the damage.

  “I only know of her,” Roger answered. “The people who know her are the ones who sent me.”

  That helped her none.

  “What’s she wearing today?” Valerie asked, scrambling.

  What was happening?

  “Purple sweater and khaki slacks,” Roger said. “And it’s ninety out here. Will you please get in the car?”

  “If you’re lying to me and kidnapping me or hurt my mom or anything, I’m going to be so angry,” Valerie said, sliding past Roger into the car. Hanson stood on the sidewalk for just a moment longer, then when it became evident that Roger had no intention of waiting for him, Hanson shouldered him out of the way and went to sit next to Valerie.

  “What kind of villain rides around the city in a limousine?” Hanson whispered. Valerie shook her head.

  “Shut up,” she said. “I don’t understand what’s going on, but he isn’t a Bond villain.”

  Hanson snapped.

  “That,” he said. “That’s exactly what I was thinking about.”

  She looked over at him, and he dropped his head, chastened, as Roger closed the door. The sunlight from outside cut off abruptly and the car started rolling as Valerie scrambled to put on her seatbelt.

  Roger was on his phone the moment the car started moving.

  “We’re on our way,” he said. “Someone needs to clean up here.”

  He hung up and looked at Valerie, but
he didn’t say anything. She dropped her head a fraction.

  “Tell me what’s going on,” she said. “Why did mom send you?”

  He shook his head.

  “You don’t know anything,” he said. “I’m not getting in the middle of that. I only just met Susan, and I know better.”

  Valerie looked at Hanson.

  It did sound like her mom.

  It was actually comforting.

  She leaned her shoulder against Hanson’s arm for the entirety of four blocks, where Roger opened his door and made an urgent motion at them to get out. Valerie glanced over her shoulder at the driver, feeling quite absurd to have ridden in a car for four whole blocks, but the way Roger moved, he just didn’t quite move right. Prey. He moved like prey. Either the man was nuts, or something big was going on.

  She tried not to think too hard about the sidewalk.

  Not yet.

  They took the elevator up to the sixth floor, where Susan Blake was standing in the hallway waiting for them.

  “Hanson,” she said. “You need to go home.”

  “Mrs. Blake,” Hanson answered. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yes,” Susan answered. “Roger is a bit dramatic, but everything is fine. Tell your mom we’d love her to come over for dinner one night next week, okay? I’ll make stir-fry and she can bring that Thai salad she made last time.”

  Every word of it rang true.

  Valerie looked at Roger, but the man still wasn’t moving right. Susan waved again as Hanson stalled at going back to the elevator, then the woman took Valerie’s elbow and casually steered her into the apartment. Roger closed the door and Susan shook her head at him.

  “You’re a disgrace,” she said. “I asked you to do one simple thing, and you put up a magic signal I caught from here, and you freaked out my daughter and her civilian friend.”

  “Civilian?” Valerie asked. Susan sighed, at Roger rather than at Valerie.

  “I don’t know what you expected,” Roger answered. “You haven’t prepared her at all, and they know you’re out here unprotected. If they’re going to get you before you come back in, now is their last chance, so I have to move fast.”

  Susan looked at Valerie and shook her head.

  “I didn’t want it to go this way,” Valerie’s mom told her. “I didn’t want you to find out at all, but here we are, and there’s no time.”

  “Mom,” Valerie warned. “What’s going on?”

  Susan sat down on the couch, pulling Valerie down to sit next to her.

  “We won the war,” she said, as much directed at Roger as at Valerie. “And I retired. All I wanted was for you to have a normal life and not have to worry about…” She waved a hand at Roger. “Everything.”

  “We won, but we didn’t chase them all to ground,” Roger said, and Susan’s dismissive wave turned into a very sharp point.

  “I’m not going to discuss it with you,” she said. “You weren’t there.”

  “Mom,” Valerie warned again.

  “I know,” Susan said. “I’m sorry. Here’s the fast version. Magic is real. I’m good at it. Your dad was the best, before he went quiet. There was a war and he and I helped win it. When he didn’t come back, I lost my stomach for it, and I came here and you have been a normal girl ever since then.”

  “Such a waste,” Roger commented, getting another very sharp point. It almost sounded like he wished he could suck the words back up again.

  Went quiet.

  Her mom’s words for her dad’s death.

  She’d been using them, just like that, Valerie’s whole life.

  And somehow she’d never heard them just like that.

  “Mom, what happened to Dad?” Valerie asked. Susan shook her head.

  “On the list of important things I never told you, that doesn’t get to the short list of things I have to tell you right now.”

  Valerie widened her eyes and started to argue, drawing that sharp finger around to her own face.

  “Young lady,” Susan said, then paused, recollecting her place in whatever she was trying to tell Valerie. “The war is back. Whatever reasons there might be for it not being completely over, it apparently isn’t, and I am tactically valuable, which means that you are in danger.”

  “Mom,” Valerie said, and Susan dropped her hand, looking over at Roger.

  “She needs to go to one of the schools,” Susan said, and Roger shook his head.

  “She’s nowhere near qualified,” he said. “They’re all too competitive.”

  Susan shrugged.

  “Either you do it, or I run and you will never find either one of us again. You know I can do that.”

  “Magic is real?” Valerie asked, but neither of them so much as glanced at her. Susan stood.

  “Which school would you even want her to go to?” Roger asked.

  “Show me the latest faculty lists,” Susan said. Roger flicked his hand off to the side, like opening a napkin, and a piece of paper unrolled where his hand had clearly been empty a moment before.

  Susan took the list and looked down it, muttering to herself as Valerie stared at it.

  That.

  Just.

  Happened.

  After a moment, Susan smile dryly.

  “Jamison,” she said. “Survival.”

  Roger’s nostrils flared and he shook his head.

  “That’s one of the top schools,” he said. Susan flicked a glance over at Valerie without actually looking at her.

  “You think there is a set of skills she needs more than survival, right now?” she asked.

  “Mom,” Valerie demanded.

  “Let me see the enrollment,” Susan said.

  “It isn’t public yet,” Roger answered with an outraged tone.

  “I can read a calendar,” Susan said. “It’s finalized. They’re just making sure that there isn’t enough money sitting on the sidelines to change their minds.”

  Roger tightened his mouth, then flicked his wrist once more and handed Susan another roll of paper. Valerie pulled her feet up onto the couch with her and in the same motion found herself sitting up on the back of it, staring at the two adults.

  “Mills,” Susan said. “That would be Ivory Mills’ daughter. Put them in a room together.”

  “I can’t,” Roger sputtered. “It’s all already settled. And she’s completely unqualified.”

  Susan looked over at Valerie and gave her a half a smile.

  “I’m not worried about her at all,” she said. “She’s going to be a natural.”

  So many things to explain.

  No freaking kidding.

  And she hadn’t explained any of them.

  No.

  Oh, no.

  Instead, Susan Blake had gone back into Valerie’s room and packed up her gym bag.

  “I’m sorry, baby,” she’d said. “If I thought I could, I’d just keep running forever, but you don’t want that life, and… they need me.”

  She’d pushed Valerie toward the door and Roger had given her one more uncertain look.

  “You’re sure she’s a natural?” he asked.

  “I’ve been testing her for years,” Susan had answered, looking over her shoulder. It had sounded like something was back in a back room, like a dog trapped in the spare bedroom with the door closed.

  Roger had pulled Valerie by her elbow to the elevator and Valerie had just stared at the apartment door, willing her mom to come out, to laugh and throw her arms around Valerie’s shoulders and tell her that it was all just a mistake, that she’d figured it out and that nothing really had to change.

  But no.

  Oh, no.

  Roger had put her back into the limousine and they’d driven for forty-five minutes out of the city, through early-fall forests and rolling countryside, to a long drive way. A long, long driveway.

  Roger was on his phone the entire way, fighting with the entire world, but when they’d finally gotten to the end of the driveway, there were three people sta
nding out front of a huge red-brick building.

  He’d made a shooing motion at Valerie, continuing to fight with his phone, and she’d dragged her bag out of the car, looking at the two women and one man who stood on the front steps.

  “Valerie Blake,” the woman in the center said. “It is not just an honor, it is a lovely surprise to have you with us this year.”

  Valerie looked around, trying to adapt to the size of the building. The woman put her arm back, indicating.

  “This is the School of Magic Survival, and I am Lady Harrington, the headmistress. This is Mrs. Gold, the girls’ dormitory supervisor, and this is Mr. Benson, the head of academics.”

  Lady Harrington wore a plaid, fitted skirt that went to her knees, a white blouse, and a matching plaid beret of some sort, and she might have been fifty or she might have been eighty. Valerie was bad at that game. Mrs. Gold looked like she was in the act of sucking on a lemon, and Mr. Benson was already on his way back up the stairs for something important. He gave Valerie a half a wave over his shoulder and said something, but Valerie didn’t catch it. Lady Harrington watched after him for a moment, then shook her head.

  “You’ll have to forgive Mr. Benson. We are very, very close to the start of our school calendar, and there are a lot of things left to sort out. Mrs. Gold will see you to your room.”

  The limousine pulled away and Valerie turned to watch after it.

  It took an act of will not to chase after it, and it was everything she could do to not cry.

  She turned to face Lady Harrington once more, and the woman gave her a pressed-lip smile.

  “Oh, dear,” the woman said. “I know that you have not come to us under traditional circumstances. We need to get you signed up for your classes and test your aptitudes, all of that, but it can wait until you’re settled into your room. Mrs. Gold?”

  The other woman gave Valerie an appraising look and sighed.

  “This way,” she said, motioning. “Dorms are to the right.”

  Valerie picked up her bag and went up the stairs, pulling open one of the huge doors and going in.

  The floor was traditional school-quality tile, but the walls… There was nothing normal about the walls. They were covered with designs… artwork, perhaps? or, well, that there was a symbol of some kind…