In Exchange for Magic

I shot a panicked look at Ez, who was absolutely incredible. He threw his head back, white light pouring from his mouth and eyes. It was raw energy, and it crackled through the air, frying the leaves clean off the trees. Bane shrieked and stumbled blindly away, his men trailing after him in panic.

Nienna lay forgotten, motionless.

Tears flooded down my face, and I could tell that I was acting hysterically. I tried to reach out to hold Ez, but the energy knocked me back, searing my hands. The light twisted up into the sky, ripping through the fog and clouds.

I began screaming, while Ez was completely silent. I screamed so loud that, my voice was mangled into a hoarse whisper.

I suddenly felt weightless. My hair was lifted up off my head and my limbs floated away from my body, as if I was suspended in water. Ez suddenly collapsed, the white light coming to an end. I looked up and gasped.

The sky had been ripped open. A bright sphere of swirling colors had taken the place of a cloud. I looked at Ez, and was surprised to find that he was about three feet lower than I was. I panicked when I realized that this was exactly the same way I'd entered Attannia... By way of the Portal and the black smoke. It wrapped around my waist, like an elephant's trunk, and bound my hands to my sides.

Ez lifted his head up off the ground, his face soaked with tears. He weakly tried to get up, but he winced. His leg gave out and he flopped back on the ground.

A rushing filled my ears and I couldn't hear anything except for Ez screaming, his face pressed into the forest floor. His anger seemed to radiate from his body, much like the white energy. His cousin gone, and now I was going...

I tried to call out to him, to jolt him awake and make him do something... But I barely had time to catch my breath before the Portal closed itself in front of me, cutting off my view of the lush forest... And replacing it with a long tube made of the colored smoke. I flew backwards, my heart racing like a humming bird's.

-_-_-_-

The cupboard doors burst open with all the force of a jet engine. I was launched across the room and slammed into the back wall, my head smacking the stone.

The tiny window blew out, sprinkling glass all over the floor. It twinkled so politely as it hit the cement.

It took me a while to collect myself. I focused on the things around me at first. I was in a dimly lit room. A stream of light was pouring through the tiny broken window near the ceiling of the room. The cupboard's doors were wide open, and the corners were splintered from where they hit the wall. Dusty boxes and pipes lined the walls.

I was in the basement of the Geller Home for Girls.

I was back.

I was back.

I started to cry.

-_-_-_-

I was still sobbing, my face in my hands when - a few minutes later - Ms. Geller charged down the stairs. She grabbed my arm and heaved me to my feet, her face contorted with fury.

"Where have you been?" she hissed, giving me a shake.
I could only manage to sob.
"What in the hell happened to your dress?" she cried, seeing my new red number and wondering where the yellow one I'd been wearing when I had left had gone. "Tell me how you think you can just come and go as you please?"

She was trying so hard to be quiet that she forced the words out between her teeth. I was too busy crying to care when she spit on me.

"I want to go back..." I managed, and then choked on the thickness in my throat.

"Three days!" Ms. Geller positively shouted. "You've been gone for three days!"

I collapsed, sinking to my knees and shaking violently. Ms. Geller continued to shout but everything after "Three days," was just numb noise.

Three days. Everything I'd done in Attannia for the past few months had been compressed into three days. I tried to work out how long I'd been with Ez, but my sense of time had been radically twisted. I remembered lazy weeks just sitting around. I remembered running and panicking and hurting. I remember laughing and joking. I remember being tense to the point of breaking, and I remember Ez.

Ez.

"Fine!" Ms. Geller was screeching. "Fine! If you don't want to get up, you can just stay down here!"

Her bottle-orange hair was flapping uselessly around her face, reminding me of a fire. She whorled around and stomped up the wooden stairs, leaving me alone on the cold ground.

I stayed up all night. I punched and scratched the inside of the cupboard until my knuckles bled. When I was too weak to lift my arms anymore, I lay down in the middle of the room, not caring about the crushing darkness. I stared at the cupboard, willing my all my heart for it to light up. Willing with all my heart for it to open and take me back in.