[Calypso]

  Her…

  That was the only coherent thought left in my head after our lips touched.

  My heart skipped a beat, and my hands moved on their own to pull her closer — tighter, nearer, until there was no space left between us at all.

  Her.

  I’d know this kiss from thousands of others.

  And I did. Well, okay — out of how many? I hadn’t exactly kept count of the girls I’d been with this past year, but there had been enough for me to say it with confidence.

  At first, I had only meant to brush Lori’s lips with a quick, light kiss. Just to make her focus completely on me in this pleasant way. So what? I wanted to kiss her, so I did.

  I could clearly see her poorly concealed attraction to me, could hear her heartbeat racing not from anything else but from being close to me. I was drawn to this girl myself for some reason, and I didn’t deny myself the pleasure of mixing business with pleasure.

  How was I supposed to know what kind of explosion would follow in my head right after?…

  At that moment, I briefly forgot about safety precautions and the need to keep some distance from Lori right now.

  Right now I just desperately, unbearably wanted to kiss her.

  This desire only intensified when I began penetrating her aura, interweaving our magic. It was hard to concentrate while simultaneously not stopping the silent spellcasting, but then… Then…

  Lori instinctively put her hands up in front of her, touched my chest… without gloves. And I was hit by such a powerful mental attack that I nearly drowned in the unlocked memories.

  Her!

  Memories flashed before my mind’s eye in bright vivid images, awakening emotions and feelings that had no place in my soul right now, but which were actively breaking through to the surface without asking my permission.

  Oh for fuck’s sake! I had been searching for this girl for a whole year, while she was right under my nose the entire time? Seriously?! What kind of cosmic joke was this?

  My innocent “just meant to brush Lori’s lips” instantly turned into such a deep, passionate kiss that I completely forgot where I was. I hungrily claimed her lips, savoring the sweet taste of her kiss. Our tongues tangled, and I felt Lori’s mutual delight with every cell of my body.

  A soft moan escaped her lips when I ran my nails tangibly across the back of her head, and I barely held back a traitorous half-moan myself.

  I would have taken her right there on the ground, if the circumstances weren’t so wrong.

  I would have pinned her beneath me and done everything I’d been dying to do to her.

  And oh, I wanted so much.

  Patricia’s scream, as if from far away, brought me back to earth.

  Oh right… We were supposed to be doing something, weren’t we? Merging auras and all that… What for again?…

  It took me a good couple of seconds to remember where we were and what I was supposed to be doing. And that there was actually no time for hot, lingering kisses, and it was time to get down to business.

  Though I hardly had to do anything at all. Our magic at this moment of union seemed to have a life of its own, our auras merging so easily and freely, just like that.

  I even managed to draw power from Lori, to multiply it with my own and channel it into a single powerful strike. That too came surprisingly easy… paradoxically easy.

  With a titanic effort of will, I forced myself to break the kiss and pull away from Lori. I didn’t open my eyes right away, and when I did, I met Lori’s dazed gaze, her lips flushed from the kiss, making them look even more inviting.

  Her…

  I needed to process this information. So I was in no hurry to admit that I had remembered everything.

  Besides, Lori definitely wouldn’t like it if I started having such frank conversations with her right here in front of everyone.

  And the last thing I wanted was to scare her off. She would run away, retreat into her shell — and I’d never get through to her. That wasn’t part of my plan, so I needed to be careful and save this for later, choose a more appropriate moment for close communication…

  Ending in bed, obviously.

  Around us, an energy vortex swirled in a wild spiral — the concentration of our combined energy. Though this vortex was an unusual golden color for some reason, when it should have been black or red like other shadow spells. But there was no time to figure that out.

  Everything that followed took literally just a few seconds. I shouted “Get down!” to all our classmates, and they dropped to the grass on command, covering their heads.

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  Just in time: the next instant I released the energy vortex, and it swept across the entire clearing like a storm.

  All three kernals, two of which had already been roughed up considerably by the others, didn’t just get knocked out — they burned on the spot. Turned into three piles of ash in mere seconds, engulfed in strange golden flames.

  Dark creatures one moment — gone the next. And the absence of white magic hadn’t stopped us one bit.

  What’s more — the golden flames rolled further, engulfing the nearest trees around the clearing.

  Three rows of tall spruces burst into golden flames and burned in mere seconds. Just like the burned kernals, only piles of ash remained.

  Then the golden flames died down and went out.

  Honestly, even I hadn’t expected such power from the spell. Though I didn’t let it show…

  Let the others think everything went according to plan. I’d think about all this later in a calmer setting. For now, the main thing was that the mortal danger had passed.

  Our forest clearing literally exploded with joyful cries: our classmates practically screamed with happiness and relief, realizing we had pulled it off.

  The classmates were battered — they had fought the dark creatures when the protective barrier weakened — all disheveled, exhausted, and Patricia seemed to be wounded.

  But even she, half-sitting on the ground and clutching her injured leg, had her eyes shining with undisguised happiness. And there was something to be happy about — after all, we hadn’t become a gourmet dinner for those damn creatures today, and that was fantastic news.

  Everyone was talking over each other, while my ears still rang from the sudden energy release, and I struggled to focus on their words. My classmates breathed out in admiration and noisily celebrated the solved problem, asked what we should all do next, looked at me with hope, while I…

  I just sat on the grass thinking about how badly I wanted to be alone with Lori. And that I couldn’t care less about all this missing white magic right now — I was shaking from entirely different emotions.

  “Holy shit! What even was that?” Grey exclaimed, nervously ruffling his already messy hair and staring in shock at the burned trees.

  “That power!! What kind of spell was that?”

  I had no idea what spell we had actually created.

  “You’re badass,” Iranor nodded respectfully, addressing Lorelei.

  “I never doubted Calypso, but you really surprised me, Lora. Such powerful aura coming from you, just wow! So much for quiet little Lorelei, huh!”

  I lost it, hiding my face in my hands.

  “Hey, what’s up with you?” Iranor turned to me.

  “Nerves?”

  I nodded, unable to stop laughing, and Iranor patted my shoulder understandingly, not suspecting that I was laughing for an entirely different reason. Yes, it was nerves, but nerves on different grounds.

  “Quiet little Lorelei.” That’s what had had me losing it.

  Oh ye-e-eah, if only everyone had such a “quiet one.”

  If only you knew, Iranor, how this “quiet one” can set things on fire and how masterfully she can drive you insane when she wants to… And she definitely wanted to, judging by our hot encounter a year ago at the masquerade ball in Rauf-Pool.

  I would have liked to proudly say “I seduced her, she couldn’t resist me!” but no, it was all the other way around.

  I was the one seduced, and I was the one who couldn’t resist. And how could you resist a beautiful, confident girl who had clearly marked you as her prey?

  …we met on the day of the summer solstice. Every year on this day, traditional summer fairs and colorful city festivities with songs and dances were held throughout Forland, where kids especially loved to make noise. But I, of course, wasn’t interested in kids — I was interested in the ‘adult’ part of this festive day.

  The traditional summer masquerade ball at Rauf-Pool was probably the most popular youth hangout in all of Forland. Rhythmic club music, dancing till morning, an interesting eclectic crowd. But most importantly — anonymity.

  The club had its signature gimmick: entry was strictly allowed only in some kind of mask, which were handed out to everyone at the entrance. The selection was huge, something for everyone. The masks were small, covering only the upper part of the face.

  But the gimmick was in the special charms placed on the masks for all the girls — charms that completely concealed one’s identity from everyone else’s attention. Meaning, you look at a girl in such a mask — you see her real appearance, hear her real voice…

  But you can’t recognize her. Even if you know the person well. And you can’t remember her aura — the anonymity charms on the mask concealed the girl’s aura and prevented you from focusing on trying to scan it.

  Maybe you could somehow fool these charms if you wanted to, but why?

  The whole point was that anyone could be hiding under the mask, and no one would remember you later, wouldn’t recall your antics, wouldn’t shame you.

  Do whatever you want, go all out, live life to the fullest here and now, allow yourself everything and don’t think about consequences — that’s roughly what this massive party’s slogan would be if it had one.

  That’s probably why the club was so popular among young people who always crave new thrills. It was especially popular among the offspring of government officials and various public figures, whose children had to be proper and respectable in public, while their wild blood demanded an adrenaline release.

  Rauf-Pool had a strict rule: what happens in the club, stays in the club. An excellent place, right up my alley. How many smoking hot beauties I’d picked up there, mmm. It was pleasant to spend time with them on mutual no-strings-attached terms, then go our separate ways and forget about each other forever.

  But only one smoking hot beauty had broken all my patterns and gotten under my skin.

  …Lori found me on the dance floor herself. That’s exactly what she said.

  “I’ve been looking for you all day, and you’re making me wait,” I heard a pleasant female voice behind me.

  Someone out of nowhere hugged me from behind while I was sipping a ginger cocktail at the bar, and scratched their nails across my chest, casually unbuttoning the top button of my shirt.

  Damn, she moves fast! Usually I’m the one who ‘attacks’ first. Who was this daring one?

  I turned around, staring with interest at the curvy girl in a beautiful glittery dress. Black and so short that your eyes naturally fell to her long slender legs in high heels.

  “Hard to show up when I didn’t know I was invited,” I replied with a smile, giving the sultry brunette an appraising once-over from head to toe.

  “Glad you did though hate to have missed you. What’s your name, beautiful?”

  “Owl,” the girl smirked, adjusting the mask that mimicked owl eyes.

  “Tonight I’ll be your owl,” she declared confidently.

  “Well then, tonight I’ll be your rabbit, since you’ve caught me,” I smiled.

  I happened to be wearing a “rabbit” mask. A Playboy-style rabbit, the kind you usually see on logos of certain adult stores.

  The Owl laughed and pulled me by the hand, leading me to the center of the dance floor…