Page 8 of Malcroix Bones Academy (Bones and Shadow #1)

The Test

Only four other circles remained, and one of those winked out while I watched, when I was still a few meters from my own table.

Meanwhile, the older adults who’d sat behind those tables also quietly vacated their seats.

I felt way too many eyes on me as I closed the last few feet in my school uniform and trainers.

Apart from the occasional squeak of my shoes, it was eerily quiet.

Then I stood in my own circle of light.

It was further from the desk than I’d realized, maybe eight feet.

A smallish man sat there, hands folded. Three blank pieces of paper lay precisely on the table in front of him.

Brown bushy hair sprouted from all over his head, seemingly all the same length, making him look a bit like a mad scientist. Despite his narrow shoulders, he had big hands and feet, and an angular face with high cheekbones and a small mouth.

A pointed chin elongated his jaw, adorned at the end with an even more pointed brown beard.

His eyes were dark brown, with lighter flecks that looked like stars.

Something round and furry sat at his feet. I couldn’t quite make out what it was, and didn’t want to bend my knees to peer down at it.

The man smiled at me, and it was a kind smile, one that instinctively put me at ease.

Well, more at ease.

“Name?” he asked politely.

“Leda Rose Shadow,” I said, promptly, that time.

“Shadow?” His eyebrow lifted, but instead of looking disgusted, or disturbed, his expression grew warmer. “You don’t say! Well, I hope you don’t mind my saying, but you must take after your father. In regard to your looks, I mean. You don’t look very much like what I remember of Clotide.”

Internally, I winced a little. My mother had been beautiful, and I’d always wanted to look like her. I’d once even hoped I might one day grow into it.

But I also knew he was right, so I didn’t answer.

At my silence, he smiled at me encouragingly.

“You haven’t been told anything, have you?” he asked sympathetically.

I hesitated, then shook my head.

He gave another encouraging nod. “Ah, well, that certainly makes things a bit trickier, but don’t let it discourage you, Miss Shadow.

For this exam, we’re not testing you on what you’ve learned.

Our goal right now is to assess your potential, or raw magical ability.

Magic is both inherent and learned, and much more instinct than skill when you’re first starting out.

I don’t see a primal around you, but that’s to be expected, of course. ”

My eyebrows rose higher as the man spoke, but I didn’t interrupt.

Magic? He did say magic, didn’t he?

And what was a primal?

My mind spun around the logical absurdity of all this, of everything I’d seen and experienced since my aunt walked me into that mirror.

Why wasn’t I more disturbed by it all? Why did I believe it all so readily?

I should be fighting this more, shouldn’t I?

Assuming it was some kind of prank, or trick, wouldn’t I feel foolish for being so gullible?

I didn’t think it was a prank, though.

Something about this place, and the man in front of me, felt undeniably real.

Once I’d admitted that much to myself, everything about this suddenly felt deadly serious. This test felt serious. It mattered what happened here.

“So do this for me, Miss Shadow,” the man went on pleasantly, seemingly oblivious to the switch that flipped in my mind since he last spoke. “We can make this first one very simple. To start, please close your eyes.”

A large glass bulb, maybe the size of a dog’s head, appeared in the air just to the right of the table. Unlike the animals made of light, it wasn’t translucent, but solid, three-dimensional. The glass appeared thin, almost delicate, but it looked to be physically there.

I stared at it, somehow still not doubting my eyes.

He’d said magic. He’d definitely said magic.

This wouldn’t be trick playing cards and rabbits in hats.

“Please close your eyes, Miss Shadow,” the man said, still kind.

I debated asking him outright what he’d meant by the word magic. Seeing the serious, slightly stern look on his face, I decided I’d better not.

I closed my eyes.

“Now, don’t worry about any particular magical or aetheric being for now,” the man said.

“Just see if you can feel a light in you anywhere, Miss Shadow. Or, really, it doesn’t have to be a light.

You don’t have to really see it, either.

Just feel around for a little spark of something…

heat, cold, pulsing… an itch, a feeling of tension, even a flutter of nerves… ”

My logical mind struggled with this.

Feel light? What did he mean, feel a little spark of something? A little spark of what? And of course I imagined itches all over my body as soon as he suggested it.

I exhaled my breath out slowly.

I tried to relax, to concentrate.

I tried to treat it like any problem in class, any other test I’d taken.

I had no idea what the man with the mad scientist hair and star-filled eyes wanted from me, but I tried to follow his instructions without fighting them, or even really examining them critically.

I didn’t let myself think about the how or why, but tried only to do what he’d actually said to do, and was surprised to find that I could.

I could feel something.

Right in the middle of my chest, I felt tension, heat, and a clenching that made it difficult to breathe.

I’d been feeling it for months. That feeling of a hard glass ball had vanished, but the intensity of that spot hadn’t lessened.

Some part of me was holding on for dear life, and had been since I walked through that door.

Maybe I had been since I was a child.

I tried to slow my heart rate, to relax that gripping hold. I tried to breathe all the way into the hot intensity in the middle of my chest, to fill my lungs?

There was a sharp crack.

Gasps rose from the darkness on either side.

“Ah-ha!” The man clapped his hands. He sounded genuinely delighted. “Very good, Miss Shadow! Very well done! You can open your eyes now, if you wish!”

I opened them.

I felt hotter all over. I felt a little sweaty, and queasy.

Strangely, I also felt better.

I found I was breathing easier. My lungs expanded more with each breath, and my body began to relax.

Rivulets of charge ran up and down my arms, through the veins under my skin, but it felt right there, somehow, even comforting.

Like when that weight had evaporated from around my head, I felt inexplicably lighter.

This time, it felt really good. It also felt like a relief.

I remembered the glass bulb, and glanced at where it had hung in the air.

It was gone.

Glass shards covered the top of the man’s desk, and part of the floor.

Before I could open my mouth, the man with the wild hair and pointed beard waved a hand towards the pile of broken glass, and it vanished.

I glanced around the darkened room.

I very much felt eyes on me from the other side of that darkness. I remembered the gasps at the sudden crack, and the soft murmurs that followed. I also remembered how I hadn’t been able to hear anything as the other children stood in front of their tables.

Was it only the other students taking tests who couldn’t hear?

Movement by Inspector Forsooth’s desk drew my gaze.

Eyes peered over the edge of the wood.

A small brown bear, made of brown and gold light, reared up on its hind legs so it could look at me. Its claws rested on the desk’s edge. It peered at me curiously, and something in the kind, gentle gaze resonated so much with the man sitting there, I smiled.

“Let’s try something else,” the man said, sounding excited now. “Can you aim that feeling up here, Miss Shadow? At the object above my head?”

My eyes rose, following his pointing finger.

Another glass ball hung there, maybe a foot and a half wide, and roughly ten feet in the air. Again, it dangled without any visible wires, without anything holding it up.

I frowned up at it, then looked at the man with the bushy brown hair and kind eyes. The glass looked significantly thicker than what had been in the first bulb. It also hung directly over him. If it broke, wouldn’t it rain glass chunks down on his head?

He seemed to guess my thoughts.

A sly smile formed at his lips.

“Do not concern yourself on my account, Miss Shadow,” he said warmly. “Even you cannot break this one.”

A few chuckles and titters grew audible outside the light.

Before I could react, his voice reverted back to serious.

“Close your eyes, please, Miss Shadow,” he instructed.

I closed my eyes.

“You saw the object above me,” the inspector said. “Envision it now, and aim that same feeling you used before. Right at the object, if you are able, as strong as you can. Don’t hold back.”

More murmurs erupted around me, sounding increasingly excited.

I shifted my weight, distracted by the commotion. I gradually pulled my full attention back to that tense, hot, buzzing area in my chest.

I focused on my memory of the thick orb.

A perfect replica of the object came clearly into my mind, roughly ten feet above where the man sat with his light bear.

It was strange how exact, how photographic the memory looked.

I focused on it.

As he’d instructed me, I breathed, opening myself more, holding myself back less. I focused that hot, glowing, buzzing feeling directly at the glass ball.

The view inside the ball began to change behind my eyes.

The clear, empty air inside it turned to a pink mist, then rapidly to red, then a darker, more complex blue-green.

The mist writhed. More colors wove into the dense mass, then shapes began to form inside the glass ball.

Gradually, I opened that spigot in my chest wider, and the shapes grew more detailed, more precise, and significantly more real.

I saw people’s faces.