Nothing stood out to her. No glowing red eyes watching from the shadows. No leather-coat wearing dolls rushing at her with a sword. Not even another person walking along the street who might be a hunter about to pounce.
Still, the metal coating her body rippled, ready to form into armor at the first sign of danger.
She took a step. Then another step. Slowly, Juliana resumed her walking.
A shift in the wind had her diving to the side, armor flowing up and around her as she jumped through the air. She landed in one of the overgrown lawns, rolling a few times before coming to a stop.
Something hit the ground where she had been standing. She could hear the impact. The sidewalk cracked.
Not wanting to present a still target, Juliana pushed against the earth. Flaring her magic, the earth pushed back. Acting like a kind of spring against her feet, she flew through the air much faster and much farther than she would have ever been able to jump herself.
Her instincts proved correct. A series of boulders landed in the yard, each one nearly scraping her back as they fell and she moved.
As soon as she saw what they were—boulders of loosely compacted dirt—Juliana started to form some suspicions about just who was attacking her.
But no time to ponder. Another boulder forced her to dive to one side, only for the ground to drop out from under her to form a large pit. A twist of her hand pulled the earth back up to her, raising her up even higher than the surrounding landscape.
She had seen where that last boulder had come from.
Her eyes found a silhouette atop a nearby roof, haloed by the setting sun.
The plateau of earth beneath her feet started to crumble as several earthen spikes rose from the ground around her, trapping her in one spot.
Or it would have trapped her had she not been an earth mage.
A hill rose up, destroying the spikes before her. The crumbling remnants of her plateau sifted, sliding her along to the hill. Hills continued rising as she kept shifting the top to the next one, surfing along the top.
Her mother tried to knock her off with a few softball sized stones. Juliana twisted under the first, sidestepped the second, and brought up a wall of earth to block the third. All while continuing her forward movement.
A fourth softball struck her square in the back, sending her toppling forwards. Her own earthen hill that she had been surfing atop collapsed around her, partially burying her. The only redeeming thing was that her upper shoulders and head were still in fresh air.
Her mother blinking atop the mound, effectively standing on her chest, only added insult to injury.
“Not good enough Juliana,” she said, looking down on her daughter.
“I’ll show you not good enough,” Juliana mumbled as she wiggled her fingers—which was about all she could do while half buried.
The top of the hill lost its shape, acting more like a liquid as it swept off Juliana.
She had expected it to take her mother with it, but her mother simply blinked away again, appearing just over the now freed Juliana.
“Nice try, daughter. But not good enough. Where did you go wrong?”
Juliana grumbled to herself as she got back to her feet, half-brushing the dirt off and half-magicking it off her. “I didn’t realize there was another rock coming for my back.”
“That certainly spelled your downfall, but here is a better question. Why was I able to attack you with those stones?”
Blinking, Juliana stared up at her mother. She betrayed no real clues in her face, so Juliana’s eyes dropped down to the dagger held lightly between her fingers.
“Because you’re an earth mage?”
“Because I didn’t have to worry about being attacked. I stood in one place, didn’t even have to lift a finger to defend myself. Why didn’t I have boulders flying towards me?”
I can’t concentrate on so many things at once, Juliana almost said. But such an answer wouldn’t have gone over well. Her mother would have expected her to try, if nothing else. And Juliana couldn’t deny that she hadn’t launched one single attack towards her mother.
Instead, she tried changing the topic. “Dean Anderson wants me to join his contest between the schools.”
Genoa frowned. Whether at the change in topic or at Anderson, Juliana wasn’t sure.
“Does he now?”
“I told him that I would have to ask my parents first.”
“And we say no. You’re not having a demon bound to you if we can help it.”
Juliana blinked and shook her head. “I don’t think that’s what he wants. There were several humans and demons on the list. I think he wants a mix of regular humans, humans with bound familiars, and demons. And Eva.”
“Eva’s participating?”
“Apparently her arm is being twisted to get her into it,” Juliana said, using Eva’s words from earlier in the day.
“I see…” Genoa trailed off, bringing a hand to her chin. “If you’re not being paired up with a demon, I suppose my objection lessens. We’ll have to see what your father says. And what do you want to do?”
“I’d rather not.”
Eyebrows lifting, Genoa widened her eyes ever so slightly in a look of surprise.
Before she could ask, Juliana explained. “He just wants me to compete because I’m younger yet ahead of my age group in magic.”
Though Juliana wasn’t sure how long that would last. The rest of the students were catching up while she had been more-or-less stagnating for the past two and a half years. They would still lack her combat training and experience, but in terms of magical ability, Juliana would probably be even with them by the start of the next year.
“It will make the school look good in comparison to all the other schools who should only be fielding the oldest students. But I didn’t get where I am because of him or his school, you trained me.”
Normally, Juliana might have agreed right away. But that just irritated her beyond belief. If she was going to compete, it should be under her mother’s name. She should be advertising her own school.
“Well, your father will be pleased to hear that.” There was a pause. Just for a moment while her mother turned her thoughtful expression back to a glare. “But don’t think you’ve gotten out of talking about your poor performance here.”
Juliana groaned. “Shouldn’t you be resting anyway? What are you doing out here picking fights?”
“I need to get back into the swing of things. I was far too exhausted during that hunter’s attack. This is a great way to train myself up and you at the same time.”
Great, Juliana thought. I’m going to be attacked every weekend from now on.
“But don’t worry. It won’t be happening every weekend,” Genoa said as if reading Juliana’s thoughts. “It will be entirely random.
“Have to keep you on your toes, never knowing when you’ll be attacked.”
— — —
Warding, Eva thought, is not as simple as theory says it should be.
Eva dropped her arm, removing the carapace shield from her eyes. For a moment there, she had been worried that there was going to be a far more catastrophic failure. A few bright flashes followed by magic dispersing into the atmosphere was more than she would have hoped for.
Well, no. Not quite. She had been hoping for a successful rain shield. But if it had to fail, it was best that her ward didn’t violently explode.
She had succeeded once. A stable barrier that kept the rain out was actually about as easy as Eva expected. Unfortunately, it was a barrier to everything else as well, including herself. Had anyone been inside, they would have probably asphyxiated eventually as well. Eva didn’t actually have proof that it had been impermeable to air. It seemed likely though.
Since then, her warding had been nothing but failure after failure. Each one somehow worse than the last.