Excerpt: The Summoning of Fate

“Curses!” she said. She kicked at one of the things that had been lying on the ground, and it skidded off into a corner. Now she new why everyone had told her to not go poking around where she didn’t belong.
“If it wasn’t for Jess,” she said angrily. “He brought me here in the first place and then goes off with his friends. Stupid Jess! Why’d I let him take me? Stupid, stupid, stupid!” She kicked some more of the things, and they skidded off. It was quite satisfactory.
She kicked another one with all her strength, and it hit something in the corner. “Ouch! Stop it, will you?”
She froze.
“Ouch, all that stomping and grumbling and kicking! I thought you’d go away nicely all on your own and then you start pelting me with books!”
Fay glanced down at the ground with alarm. “Those were books?”
“What did you think they were?” the voice grumbled. “Curses, you battered them up real good, too. The master will have me good for this one.”
“Who are you?” Fay asked.
“It doesn’t matter. No one knows I exist anyway. Just get out of here before I decide to let someone else take the blame for once.”
Fay didn’t like the tone of this one. “Well, that’d be just fine with me, but I can’t see anything in this hole, so I think I’ll just take my time and decide to not bump my head on anything for once.”
The strange voice grumbled darkly. “Demanding wench. Here, how’s that?” A light similar to the magnetic one the Lord of Tesla used flickered on over an outstretched palm. “You can see now, right? Hurry up and leave.”
The voice belonged to a young boy, about her age, probably. He had messy black hair that encircled his tan face, and his eyes were dark and brooding. They flickered a little in the static light as he said, “Well, I told you to hurry up! Or are you as deaf as you’re blind?”
“That,” Fay said, pointing to the light. “That’s the same trick that he did as the finale! How can you do that if you’re an assistant?”
“Hey, hey, who said I was an assistant?” the boy glared. “Don’t lump me with your kind, who can’t even do magic anymore. How pathetic. I’m the one behind all those tricks, you know.”
Fay gaped. “You???”
“Don’t look so surprised.”
“But that would mean…” Fay’s mind was whirring. She thought back to what Grandfather had said just this morning. Bad luck, thunder is. Wizyrds are never far behind. “But that would mean you’re a…”
“Wizyrd?” the boy said.
Fay nodded, still gaping.
“So it seems like you can think after all.”
Fay was about to make an indignant retort when a creature shrieked and tore into through the fabric of the flap. Both of them leaped up in surprise as the rusty golden bird flew around the room, looking like it was sniffing out something. It found the trail again, paused, and dive-bombed straight at Fay.
“EEK!” she shrieked. “Help me, help me! It’ll eat me! It’ll drink my blood!”
But the boy was staring in terror at what it was that had followed in after the bird.
“M-Master,” he gulped.
“Fiona, that’s enough,” said a voice she recognized after hearing it boom so nicely in the tent during the show. Now it chilled the blood in her veins. The bird flew back to its master as his eyes swept the thrashed room with its fabric and paper strewn all over the place. He took in the overturned boxes of books, the wizyrd boy with the electric ball still floating over his hand, and the girl with claw marks all over her arms. His eyes lingered painfully long on the latter. “Now, what should I do with the both of you?” he said.
It was the Lord of Tesla.