CHAPTER 4
That Could Get You Killed
We walked out of the cave in silence, until we approached Hugo’s dome-shaped ward. I remembered I’d wanted to talk to Hugo about it.
“Hugo, I can see your ward.”
He paused, his eyebrows furrowed in an incredulous look. “You can see my ward?”
“Yes. It’s beautiful. It has a shimmery, translucent pearl color.”
“Are you saying you can actually see magic?” Izzy asked.
“I think so.”
“Oh, man.” Hugo wiped his palm across his forehead and then stared at me, dazed. “Earlier, when I was using my magic, could you see it?”
I nodded. “It was a glowing aqua color.”
“My favorite color!” Izzy chimed, clapping her hands together before dropping them to her sides, pausing as her cheeks went bright red. “Sorry. The girly-girl got loose for a second.”
I laughed. Even at a time like this, Izzy could make me laugh.
“My magic was aqua?” Hugo asked, standing a little straighter. Not waiting for a reply, he continued, “Wow. I thought it would look green…”
“Okay, explain green vs. aqua,” Izzy prodded.
“Well, it’s all pretty theoretical,” Hugo said.
“What do you mean by theoretical?” I asked.
“It’s been so long since anyone could see the color of magic. It used to be a more common magical talent. In fact, one of the most famous wizards who possessed that ability was Leonardo Da Vinci.”
“Of course, Da Vinci could do it. He could do almost everything.” Izzy smiled brightly. “He was my ancestor, after all.”
“Hugo, don’t get her started on being in the house of Da Vinci, please,” I begged, using my best long-suffering voice. We started walking again, and I ducked to avoid a low-hanging branch.
“Darn, I forgot. Sorry, Addie.” Hugo winked at me.
“Oh, you two just stop. Get on with it, Hugo,” Izzy demanded, but with a grin.
Hugo laughed. “Okay, Da Vinci created the first color wheel of magic. But the most amazing thing is if a wizard can see magic, he—” Hugo stopped mid-sentence, glancing at me with a guilty half smile, “—or now, that would be she, can tell if the magic is sorcery. A sorcerer’s magic is red, blood-red, or maroon, and the most powerful and darkest sorcerers have streaks of black in the red, or even solid black.”
“So you can tell if someone is a sorcerer when they use their magic,” Izzy restated in a hushed tone. “That’s amazing.”
“And—” Hugo grimaced my way— “dangerous, too.”
“Why dangerous?” I asked. “I mean, if you could actually know if someone were a sorcerer, you could warn people. Maybe you could even see when someone is changing into a sorcerer.”
“Exactly!” Hugo exclaimed. “Supposedly, when they’re changing, their magic could have streaks of a muddy-rust color, like the mix of red and green, or streaks of dark red or maroon. Do you think a sorcerer would want you to reveal them or detect when they’re transforming? Not on your life. In fact, they’d probably do just about anything to prevent it.”
I stumbled and righted myself. I didn’t know how much more “good” news I could take today.
“She’d be a big threat.” Izzy quietly breathed the words. “They’d want her out of the way.”
“Yeah, that’s why there aren’t many wizards who can see magic.” Hugo paused, his eyes downcast. “Not many who have survived, anyway. They were usually killed before they could pass their gift on to their children.”
I fell against the trunk of a pine tree. “Oh Shih-Tzu! This just keeps getting better and better.”
“It’s bad! She cussed,” Izzy silently mouthed at Hugo.
“I’m sorry, Addie.” Hugo stepped closer to me, his features softening with sympathy. “I know this must all be very hard to hear, and we don’t mean to scare you, but we want you to stay safe.”
I sighed. It was overwhelming. Having magic made me a desecration and could get me locked up, and now being able to see magic could get me killed. And on top of that, there was the whole enigmatic wizard queen thing. By Archimedes’ screw, I didn’t want any of this. Why was it happening to me?
However, being in the dark about things wasn’t going to help me survive this. “Hugo.” I stared up at him, and the pity on his face almost undid me. “I need to hear the rest. What about the color spectrum of wizard magic? Why did you think your magic would be green?”
Izzy nodded her encouragement, patting my shoulder.
“Okay.” Hugo sighed. “The weakest wizard magic is a pale green, usually for a young wizard just coming into his magic. As a wizard grows, the green gets deeper, more vivid. And depending on the wizard’s innate talent, it can even get into the aqua and then blue spectrum, with the most powerful being a deep royal blue.”
“So you’re pretty powerful for a young wizard?” Izzy asked.
“Apparently so, but I didn’t realize it.”
“So what about witches, human mages, and shamans?” I asked.
“White witches can be white or silver. And both human mages and shamans are gold or amber or even topaz.”
“What about the Fae…fairies or pixies?” I asked.
“Let me think.” He grimaced as he tried to remember. “I believe pixies and fairies break the rules and have rainbow opalescent colors to their magic.”
“What about dark witches or mages?” Izzy asked.
Hugo tapped a finger to his chin. “They fall more in the black spectrum.” Hugo tilted his head, apparently considering things. Then his eyes met mine. “Could you see the color of your own magic, Addie?”
I blushed and stared down at the pine needles covering the ground before returning Hugo’s gaze. “Yes.”
“What color?” Izzy asked with a gasp.
“I guess you’d call it…royal blue,” I replied with a sigh.
“The most powerful,” Hugo whispered.
I only shrugged.
“That settles it,” Izzy proclaimed. “Hugo, you are officially Addie’s tutor for Wizarding 101. She needs to learn as much as possible, as quickly as possible.”