Runebinder (The Runebinder Chronicles #1)(44)

Devon slowed the car to a crawl. Tenn wanted to beg the guy to clear the snow with Fire or even Air, but to use magic out here would give them away quicker than the dull thrum of their engine.

Tenn kept his eyes on the horizon, on the trees that loomed pitch-black in the deepening dark.

The headlights caught on a graffiti’d billboard. He knew it before the words resolved through the swathes of snow.

Silveron Academy

Empowering Youth

for an Empowered Future

Water surged at the sign, at the familiar crest, at the pictures of campus. Water surged, and even though he wrestled it down, he couldn’t keep it from spilling between his fingers.

“Your father and I went to school around here,” Mom says.

Dad had stayed back home—couldn’t get the day off work—so it’s just the two of them heading up to Michigan to check out Silveron. He still can’t believe his mother had not only agreed to let him apply, but had offered to drive him the eight hours to check it out when he was accepted.

Hell, he still can’t believe he was accepted.

He doubts he will ever forget seeing that large white envelope on the kitchen counter, his name printed in royal blue. He will never forget the feeling of his heart in his throat and his hands shaking as he opened the envelope and pulled out the letter. Congratulations! You have been accepted to Silveron Academy. Together, we will create a magical future.

A magical future.

So why does he feel—even now, even as they drive—like he’s giving something else up? He’s supposed to be excited...and he is. He just didn’t realize how excited he could be while feeling terrified at the same time.

He stares out the passenger window as the cornfields roll into evergreen forests and the air stops smelling like pollution and starts to smell, well, green. It makes his heart swell a little bit. It’s also a reminder that even the scents here will be new and different.

“You’re going to love it out here,” Mom says. She reaches over and puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Mom?” he asks. His voice sounds small in the silent car. Why does it sound so small? He has the opportunity to learn magic.

“Yeah, sweetie?”

“Do you think I’m making the wrong decision?”

She glances over at him, then looks back to the road. She doesn’t take her hand away.

“I think you’re making the best possible decision you can.” She pauses, considering her words. He glances at her and tries to memorize the lines of her face, the way the light catches on her hair in the sunset. Even now, it makes him miss her. “There’s nothing back home for you. This is your chance to make something big out of your life. I know you. You’d never forgive yourself if you let it pass by. You’re meant for bigger things.”

He sighs. Bigger things. He can’t think of anything bigger than being one of the first students at Silveron, being among the first to learn how to use magic. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, the promise of an exciting career and a ticket out of his backwoods town. He knows she’s right: there isn’t anything back home for him.

Besides, this is his chance to make her proud. That, perhaps, is the most important thing of all.

I will do something great with my life, he thinks. That will make this worth it.

He goes back to staring out the window. He tries to find the stirrings of excitement he’d had at discovering his acceptance. Instead, he finds only the fear. He knows he will accept Silveron’s offer. He knows he will spend his high school years here.

He knows that whatever they find when they reach the Academy will be his future. He just hopes it’s one worth the struggle.

With a furious wrench, Tenn pushed Water back down into submission. It seemed to squirm against his concentration. Silveron was still a hundred miles and a few hours away, but that didn’t calm the memories. The closer they got to that cursed Academy, the more Water wanted out. It recognized home. It recognized the beginning of his pain. He gritted his teeth and didn’t relax until the Sphere finally died down.

“You okay?” Jarrett asked, squeezing Tenn’s thigh.

“Yeah,” he said. “Just...memories.”

Jarrett nodded like he understood, but Tenn knew he didn’t. Jarrett was an Air user: for him, memories and emotions weren’t tactile things. That wasn’t what scared him, though. He’d thought that Jarrett’s presence could calm Water’s raging, but Water wasn’t giving in. He should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.

“We are going to have to park soon,” Dreya said. “We are nearly out of gas, and the roads are becoming impassible.”

Jarrett nodded.

“Any towns nearby?”

“Yes.” Air glowed faintly in her throat as she searched—just enough to see, but not enough to be seen from far away. “We will come to one in a few minutes. It is deserted.”

“Good. Let’s find a place there and settle in for the night. No use being outside in the snow if we don’t have to.”

Dreya nodded and turned back to quietly confer with Devon. They pulled off at the next exit and drove into town.

Tenn couldn’t see anything in the darkness, just the snow slashing through their headlamps, so he opened to Earth and pushed his senses out like sonar. The place was small, barely a handful of houses and commercial buildings. Podunk, his mother would have called it. Much like his own hometown.