(eng) Marina Finlayson - Magic's Return 01 by The Fairytale Curse

Author:The Fairytale Curse [Curse, The Fairytale]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

We huddled together between the shelves. The cupboard was so tiny there was barely enough room for both of us. We had to shut the door so we could both fit, jammed up against cold metal shelves. The space smelled of old paper and dust.

“Give me that,” CJ said. “I don’t believe you. Why should there be a file on us?”

“It’s test results. Remember Dad said everyone from magical families was tested as children?”

He’d also mentioned the importance of latency. The Gilded Cage had given me a bit more information on that too. Apparently bloodlines were a big deal: no one could be a warder unless they were descended from the Founders, the seven mages who’d trapped the Sidhe originally. No one could be a seeker unless their latency score was higher than seventy-five per cent, and people like that mostly came from the same small group of families. I hadn’t yet discovered why these rules were so important; the book seemed to assume that any reader would already know.

There were several pages of graphs, and scores for all sorts of things I didn’t recognise. I handed her the bundle labelled Crystal Jane Reilly.

“What’s perception?” CJ asked, tilting the pages toward the light of the dim bulb above us. “I got 38% in that when I was five. And 34 in projection.”

My own five-year-old attempts were no better. “I’ve got 35 in projection and 52 in resonance.” I flipped through the sheets. “I can’t find one for perception.”

“I don’t remember any of this,” CJ said, frowning at the pages as she turned them. “Look, it says here we were retested at puberty. That’s only a few years ago. I don’t remember any magical testing.”

“Me neither. They must have ways of doing it that aren’t obvious.” Considering how many weird and wonderful gadgets Dad usually had in the house, he could have been up to anything. I flipped over until I found my own most recent results. “Hey, look at that. My projection’s up to 86, and resonance is through the roof.”

CJ said nothing.

“How’s yours?” I leaned over to see, but she flipped the pages closed.

“Never mind.”

“Come on—tell me.”

“Fine. It says ‘no latency detected’.”

Her tone was flat and final. The message was clear: I don’t want to discuss this any further. I tried to get her to look at me, but she turned away. Was that a tear?

“Hey, don’t be upset.” I took the pages from her, shoved everything back in the folder and put it away on the shelf. “It doesn’t matter—there’s no magic in the world any more anyway. So what difference does it make if you’re latent or not?”

Then why are you so pleased your scores are so high? I had to admit, it felt good to know that in another place and time I might have been a mage. It was a pretty cool kind of secret to have. What might I have been able to do? Cast illusions? Spin straw into gold? And maybe—just maybe—it felt good to finally be better than CJ at something.

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