Upon the Stars (Love Lines Book 5)

  UPON THE STARS

  By Diana Nixon

  To my beautiful daughters…

  You are the miracles of my life…

  All Rights Reserved

  Copyright @ 2017 Diana Nixon

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, duplicated, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  Edited by: Mona Tippins

  Cover Design by: Amina Black

  A Guide to

  the Love Lines Series

  The events of the story take place in modern Britain. There are people who possess various supernatural powers. They live in the world of humans, but there is one special place, where they come for their education and to develop their talents. It’s a closed university called Dever.

  The Education in Dever

  People are invited to become Dever’s students when they reach their eighteenth birthday. Their gifts determine their attachment to a certain faculty, named after one of the founding families of the university.

  Dever's Departments

  Fairey: faculty for the future Keepers — people whose main job is to protect the world of supernatural from the world of human beings. Its students possess the powers of fire and spirit.

  Feta: faculty for those who read people's fates. Its students use a palm-reading method to see someone’s fate. They possess the power of water.

  Meridin: faculty for the oneiromancers — people who interpret dreams. They know everything about prophetic dreams and its significance. Its students possess the power of wind.

  Ventura: faculty for those who can see into the future that has already been decided by someone. This distinguishes Venturas from Fetas, who read only fate, but a person can change it, and this decision will be seen by any Ventura. Its students possess the power of water.

  Vero: faculty teaching those who are able to distinguish truth from falsehood. Its students possess the power of earth.

  Embry: faculty for those who have the gift to heal people. Its students know everything about all the plants and especially flowers, knowing the meaning of which, they can speak without words, using different combinations of flowers. They possess the power of wind.

  Wizardy: its students are taught to rule over magic. This department is the highest level of education in Dever. Only the best graduates from the previous faculties are allowed to enter this one.

  The education in the main departments takes four years and at the department of Wizardy – three years. All the graduates pass their final exams showing an individual performance using one of the nature powers they possess. These performances are the part of the program of the Festival of Arts that takes place every October.

  The main judicial authority for the wizards and those who possess other supernatural powers is the League of Keepers with the Council as its main body.

  Prologue

  “The weather’s changing,” said a dark-haired boy to his mother, who was standing next to him. The clouds over their heads thickened, blurring out the stars and the moonlight. The surroundings started to drown in the inky darkness, lulling the wildness of the wind. Lightning flashed, touching the surface of the lake they were standing by with its soft, deceptively calming light. The wind rushed the water, forming it into waves, one by one crashing into the rocks on the shore. The old trees bowed their tops as if unable to confront the powers of nature. A few drops of rain fell from the sky and landed right on the boy’s small palm.

  “They are close…” The woman whispered, looking down at the water of the dark lake that was splashing over her bare feet. “We need to hide.” The lake had never lied to her. She could read every little change in its waters.

  A new blast of the wind slammed more raindrops into their faces. There was no mercy in that wind, no grace in the waves… Only terrifying power that could not be stopped and suppressed.

  “Who are they?” The boy asked. “And why do we need to hide from them?” His mother’s troubled expression bothered him. He had never seen her so dreadfully frightened. Her poor attempts to look calm wouldn’t fool him.

  “Because they are the evil, Son,” the woman said, lifting her child from the ground.

  “Are they different from us?” The little one asked. He was only six, but he already knew so much more than his parents would ever want him to know. Being born a wizard, he possessed the powers that no one and nothing could ever take away from him.

  “They are, my boy,” his mother replied.

  Pure curiosity filled the boy’s eyes. “How different are they?”

  The woman looked at the lake again, and took a few steps away from the water. The wind played with her long, bronze hair and her timeworn, gray dress. “We need to go,” she said, ignoring her son’s question.

  Just when she turned around to leave the shore, the boy screamed, “Look! Something’s moving in the water!”

  The woman’s heart missed a beat. Carefully, she turned around, her bright-blue eyes full of terror, and swallowed hard, watching as a huge diamond rose from under the water’s surface, making the waves around it grow higher and higher.

  “What is that, Mom?” The boy asked in a barely audible voice, wrapping his arms around his mother’s neck.

  “It’s Dever…” The woman replied. She gave the shining diamond one last look and rushed into the depth of the forest, holding her only child tight and close to her heart, hoping she would be able to protect him from whatever the magical diamond had brought to their land with its sudden appearance.

  Chapter 1

  Eileen

  There was something heavy in the air that wouldn’t let me take a breath. I felt like I was suffocating. I shut my eyes tight, trying to calm the burning fear rising within; my heart raced in my chest. Something terrible was about to happen. I could feel it with every fiber of my body and mind, and no matter how hard I tried to persuade myself that it was just another trick of my wild imagination, I knew another war of good and evil was coming.

  I inhaled deeply, looking up into the night sky. It was full of small, shining stars together with the moonlight reflecting all over the surface of Lake Tahoe as if in a huge mirror.

  “Eileen, why don’t you go and get some sleep?” My father asked, coming up to me.

  I smirked, humorless. “Sleep and I are no longer friends.”

  He smiled down at me and wrapped a soft plaid blanket around my shoulders, saying, “Everyone’s having trouble with falling asleep these days. Which is not surprising at all…” He sighed; his gaze went up, to the night sky.

  “Here everything feels so different,” I said quietly. “Even the air.”

  It had been almost a week since the day Dever and its dwellers were moved to the States because of the danger of being disclosed. Humans couldn’t find out about the existence of our world, and especially about the existence of the university. But after what happened at Tara’s wedding, chances were high we would never see the Cumbrian Mountains again – a place where Dever used to be located for centuries. Thanks to its shape and magic, we could travel all over the world, with no need to leave our bedrooms or even pack our things. We could fall asleep in one place, then disappear under the water, protected by the transp
arent diamond surrounding Dever, and wake up on the other side of the world, safe and sound. So here, on Lake Tahoe we had found our new home that was nothing like our home back in Britain. The forces of nature that were protecting our university did their best to hide us from the unwelcome guests and human eye. But the only thing they couldn’t protect us from was fear…

  “I know you are scared, Eileen,” my father said, squeezing my shoulder. “Everyone is.”

  Unlike previous times when we knew exactly what to expect from our enemies, whether they were the members of Dragons Brotherhood or the Lords of Mind, this time we didn’t even know who our enemies were or what we were running away from.

  “You still believe that the magicians who accompanied Lords to Tara’s wedding were somehow different from us?” I asked my dad. One of the happiest events in our friend’s life turned into a disaster that no one could see coming. Not even Tara and her ability to predict the future could save her. She was attacked by one of the magicians and was missing now, as well as Marion Blanche, who froze Tara’s body and took it somewhere we couldn’t find it. We still didn’t know why she did that.

  My father spoke again, “If what you saw is true, and Marion did freeze Tara’s body to hide something that obviously none of us was supposed to see or know about, then, I have no doubt that the spell that hit the poor girl was different from anything we have ever dealt with.”

  There was one thing that I couldn’t stop thinking about. “Do you think Tara can be still alive?” I asked, looking hopefully at my father. I blamed myself for losing her. She had helped me so many times, but when she needed help, I couldn’t do a damn thing to help her.

  My dad’s expression was as dark as ever. His eyes were full of worry and I could swear I could feel fear radiating from his aura that he was so terrible at hiding from me tonight. I had never felt anything like this from him before. He was one of the strongest magicians ever, but obviously, what was going on in our world now scared the hell out of him.

  “I don’t know, Eileen… I wish I could say that I do believe she’s still alive, but…”

  “But you know that if it were true, Marion would find a way to let us know about it.”

  We didn’t know how to find or contact Marion. The only thing we knew for sure was that she didn’t go home to Fontainebleau, which is in France. And neither of us could create a mental bond to talk to her. Not even Evan, who had always been so damn good at piercing into people’s dreams.

  “One thing I have no doubt about is that whatever Marion did was done for everyone’s best,” my father said. “She would never risk Tara’s or anyone else’s life if she didn’t know what she was doing. Marion is a very talented and powerful wizard. That’s why I think we should find a way to learn more about the unexpected guests visiting the wedding. If my assumptions are correct, there is one person here who could help us with that.”

  “Who are you talking about?” I asked, curious.

  “William. He used to live in New York, and to me, the city has always been associated with hermits – the descendants of Dever’s founding families. Some of them are magicians, but they use their magic very rarely, or don’t use it at all. Others simply hate magic and everything related to it, because it is the only power they could never have.”

  “Just like those Lords we had to destroy to save the world we live in…” I said, recalling one of the most terrifying nights in my life, when we almost lost Evan forever. Good news, my friend managed to resist the desire to turn to the dark side and stayed with us.

  “Do you think it could be the reason for their alliance with the Lords?” I asked. “Do you think the hermits wanted to destroy Dever and everything related to it just to become humans, with no supernatural powers at all?”

  “This is one of my theories.”

  “What are the others?”

  My father smiled down at me, saying, “My dear daughter, I will never stop admiring your bravery. And your unstoppable desire to save everyone around you. But this time, let me be in charge of whatever is going on in Dever. I don’t want you to get into more trouble. No matter how much you love getting into trouble.”

  I made a helpless gesture; I felt as helpless as ever. “This time, I have no choice but to follow your orders, Dad. I have never been to the States before, and honestly, everything about this lake and the surroundings make me want to lock myself in my room, crawl under the blanket and never leave the safety of my bed.”

  “But the lake is so beautiful, don’t you think so?”

  “It is beautiful. But I feel like we won’t be able to find peace here… By the way, why this lake in particular?”

  “William’s father told me a lot about it.”

  The mention of Joseph Fairey made my worries grow. He was no longer alive, but his former connection to Dragons made me doubt his every word and action. “What does he have to do with our ‘trip’ here?” I asked dryly.

  “He used to be one of the League of Keepers members assigned to keep an eye on the local hermits. They have always been harmless. But the Council believes we need to control them, just in case they decide to expose our existence.”

  “Are those hermits the same as those living in New York? How many of them are out there?” I looked into the darkness of the forest, surrounding the lake. Since the day of our arrival, I had that weird feeling as if someone had been watching us. Could that be the hermits?

  “Their community is countless. They live all over the world. But those who live here, are different. They are Native Americans, the descendants of an ethnic group called Waroi that is known for possessing magic of a very special kind. Their magic is held within their songs. They don’t use spells or any other attributes of magic that we use. But they sing. And by singing songs, they create their magic.”

  “What is so special about their songs?”

  “No one but Waroi members know how to sing them. No one knows what those songs are about, or how strong the magic held in them is. But William’s father once said that Waroi people had found a way to control the powers living inside them. They never attended Dever’s classes, they never knew about the tricks we use to control the unexpected exertion of the powers we possess, but they know how to suppress them.”

  “How is that possible? I thought the powers we were born with can’t be abandoned or suppressed.”

  “Remember the day you met Marion for the first time? She didn’t use magic, did she?”

  Dad was right. Marion Blanche, one of the strongest members of her clan, had lived for years without using magic, until the day she had to use it to protect her daughter, Elena, from death.

  “Yes, I do.”

  “She did quite a good job in controlling her powers. But it is not the same as what Waroi people are capable of. According to what I have heard, they can ‘heal’ you from whatever power you possess.”

  “Wait a second… Does that mean they know how to turn us into humans?”

  My father nodded, wordless.

  “So… What exactly do you have in mind?”

  “I want Waroi people to share their knowledge with us. It could change everything. People, who don’t want to have powers could be ‘healed’ and become humans, living the lives they have always wanted for themselves.”

  “What about those hermits attacking us at the wedding?

  “I’m sure they will continue working on their plan on how to destroy our world. But if Waroi could share their knowledge with us, we could make hermits believe that people like them can find a way to coexist on this planet with the people like us.”

  For a moment, I thought about what it would be like to become a human again. To get back to the life I used to have before Dever. I had never been just a human, like those born with no supernatural powers in their blood, but I still remembered the days I took pills to recover from illness instead of using magic spells and drinking potions.

  “I know what you are thinking, Eileen,” Dad said.

  I smiled. �
��I know you do. You, of all people, know how much my life changed the day I inherited your powers. You know how much easier everything would be if I could just…forget about them.”

  “Would you really want that?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t think I know how to live without magic anymore. I know I still need to learn a lot about how to use it properly, but abandoning it? I’m not sure I’m willing to do that.” Half a year ago, I would gladly do anything to return to my human life. But not now. Too many things had changed since then.

  “How about helping me find a compromise?” Dad asked.

  “Do you really believe Waroi people will willingly share their magical secrets with us?”

  “I don’t believe that.”

  “Then how do you suggest learning more about them?”

  “Do you trust me?”

  “Of course, I do.”

  “Then give me some time to figure out a few things that I’m not sure about yet, okay?”

  I nodded. “Okay.”

  “Now, let’s go find Will. I want to ask him a few questions about his life in New York.”

  I looked at the lake again, and my father and I headed back to campus.

  It was almost ten in the evening when he and I entered the cafeteria, where Christian and our friends were having their late supper. The moment we came to their table, their talking stopped.

  “Is everything all right?” I asked, suspicious. I knew my friends well enough to see when they were hiding something from me.

  Evan gave my father a careful look, which my dad immediately recognized. “Shall I give you guys some privacy?” He asked. “I hope you are not plotting anything behind my back. Are you?”

  “Of course not, Mr. Fairey,” Christian responded. His expression was unreadable, but thanks to the bond he and I shared, I could feel his worry, as well as everything his mind and heart were filled with at the moment.