Page 30 of When Storms Awaken

“Of course, you do,” I laughed. “How did you get my phone number?”

“Tess,” he replied with a shrug.

Tess?How could she give him my number and not tell me?When? She sure was slick, we would be having words when we met up for battle of the bands later tonight.

“Are you going to tell me where we are going?” I asked as I buckled myself in. Nik didn’t appear to care about the speed limit in this residential part of town.

“It’s a surprise,” he replied, turning left towards the downtown business district. He wasn’t taking me to the mountain landing, then. That was the opposite direction. I hadn’t been back there since last weekend, but now that I knew the wolf and Nik were one and the same, I had no reason to fear anymore. Except…if one of his other wolf friends showed up, that is. They didn’t seem nearly as friendly, but he had said that he ‘took care of it.’ Whatever that meant.

We drove past the row of shops and continued on down the road towards the other side of town. It had been a long time since I had been down this way, and I didn’t remember there ever being anything on this side of town. It was mostly deserted.

I turned to Nik with a raised eyebrow, but he kept his eyes on the road. We drove for another five minutes in silence while I looked out the window, snow dusted pine trees lining the road as we sped by. We were headed towards the base of another, smaller, mountain. Just as I thought we were going to drive up the dirt mountain road Nik took a sharp right, parking the car at the end of the street where the paved road met the dirt.

“We go on foot from here,” he announced, jumping out of the car.

“Is it far?” I asked.

“No, it isn’t far,” he replied, coming around and opening my door for me. A tingle of surprise ran through me, he was being awfully gentlemanly today. There was a narrow-beaten path that twisted between the mountain and the pine trees and we started down it, the snow crunching beneath our boots. Nik’s hair looked shockingly bright in the reflection of the sun off the snow. As if he could sense my eyes on him, he ran a hand through it restlessly. Was he nervous?

Several minutes passed before I could spot a clearing ahead, a small frozen pond off to the left side. The view was beautiful, the snowy mountain in the background with blue spruces reaching towards the sky. In the summer I bet this meadow would be filled with beautiful wildflowers. Nik came to a stop in the middle of the clearing, spreading his arms wide.

“Here we are,” he said with an incline of his head.

“What is this place?” I asked, stuffing my cold hands into my jacket pockets.

“This is one of the places where you can access Istmere, the witch realm,” he replied. “There are lots of portals in different spots across the country, but this is one of them.”

“Where is the portal?” I asked, glancing around and seeing nothing but the mountain, the trees, and the melting snow.

“It isn’t a physical thing,” he explained. “There is a spell that accesses the portal to the other realm. There are specific places where the spell will work, usually spots with lots of residual magical energy.”

“And this is one of those spots?” I asked.

“Yes,” he confirmed. “I figured this would be a good place to practice. It can be easier to call on your magic in places that already have lingering magical energy.”

“Will it also be easier to control, then?” I bit my lower lip as he nodded. I was more worried about being able to control my magic than anything else. I was fairly confident it would respond as soon as I called on it. I didn’t want to experience that same feeling that I had the other day, where the magic built up inside of me to the point where it burst out chaotically, shattering everything around me. “Will we be going to the witch realm?” I asked.

“No,” he replied, shaking his head. “I do not recommend an unpracticed witch simply waltz into Istmere. You’ll need to be able to protect yourself if you’re ever going to go there.”

“Protect myself with magic?” I questioned.

“Yes, or with a sword or dagger.” He laughed as my eyes went wide.

“Aswordordagger?”

Nik nodded. “Istmere is like the Old World. There are no cars or technology, everything is run by magic. Gunpowder and ash prevent magic from working. You can’t cast a spell with gunpowder residue on your hands. And if you wanted to trap a witch without access to their powers, an ash circle or cage is a good way to do it.”

I couldn’t imagine a place like that. Did they know the mortal realm existed? How big was the other realm, anyway? Did they train in magic from a young age? My head was spinning with a million unanswered questions.

“You grew up there, right? Why did you come here?” I asked.

“My family came here a few years back, but I had initially stayed back in Akra. It wasn’t my decision,” he replied softly. It was clear he hadn’t wanted to leave Akra and follow his family to this realm.

“Let’s get started. I can tell you have a million more questions, but if we answer them now, the sun will set before I’ve even had a chance to teach you anything. We’ll have more time for questions later.”

He shucked off his leather jacket and threw it down onto the snow, leaving him in only a plain black T-shirt. I could see the swirling designs of the tattoos peeking out at his neck and biceps. What were they designs of? I thought about what it would feel like to run my finger down along them, my hands running under his shirt and exploring the hard muscles there. A spark lit his eyes as if he could tell the direction my thoughts had taken.

I cleared my throat and my eyes snapped back to his. “Aren’t you cold?” I asked, gesturing to his overall lack of winter clothing.