Sparks fly, p.1
Sparks Fly, page 1
SPARKS FLY
BIRDIE LYNN
SPARKS FLY
Text copyright © 2023 by Birdie Lynn
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Any names, places, characters and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.
First published in the United States in August 2023 by Counterpoise Press
Identifiers:
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023909468
ISBN 978-1-7367414-6-7 (paperback) | ISBN 978-1-7367414-7-4 (ebook)
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To find out more about Counterpoise Press visit www.counterpoisepress.com
To find out more about Birdie Lynn visit www.birdielynn.com
To anyone who could fill a bingo card with their most beloved romance tropes.
And for those who’ve searched for queer spaces in a magical world
and been left wanting.
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
1
“Hit me with your best shot, Pham.”
Mika Rivera aimed a devastating smile at Arthur as they circled the middle of the classroom, wands aloft. Their professor heaved a long-suffering sigh, drowned in the catcalls and whistles from the crowd of green blazers and cream sweaters around them. Arthur stifled a smirk and rolled his eyes. Enough was enough.
“Oh, no. You’re not going to break out into song, are you?” Arthur swiped his wand up in an arc, commanding the oxygen atoms in the air around him into a razor-sharp whip and snapping it in Mika’s direction.
Without blinking an eye, Mika shot his wand arm out to the side, cupping his palm. A small ball of flame materialized there, dropping the temperature in the room several degrees, consuming Arthur’s whip before it could strike true, sending the flame into a blaze.
“Not unless you go all-out Dirty Dancing on me.” Mika grinned, embers alight in his hazel eyes. “Come on, let’s do the lift. I promise I definitely won’t drop you.”
He cocked his arm back, swinging it in a couple circles for show before pitching the fireball back at Arthur. His showmanship cost him the element of surprise; Arthur had already gathered the moisture from the air to send a small tidal wave hurtling forward along the ground from behind him. It sluiced through the space between them.
“Sorry, am I in the right room? I’m here for the magic duel, not the dance battle.” Arthur’s eyes watered, bone-dry, but he couldn’t complain as the wave doused Mika—and half the class—in its wake. He smirked at how closely his rival resembled a wet puppy, carefully mussed brown curls dripping down over his eyes as he pouted.
“Nobody puts me in the corner.”
Only further confirming the resemblance, Mika gave a great shake, dispelling the moisture back into the air as their classmates burst into a fresh round of cheers.
Professor Hirst, soaked to the bone, blinked his eyes with great patience. “So who can summarize for us what Mr. Pham and Mr. Rivera have demonstrated here, regarding how the four elements can be harnessed in our world at any given time—”
But someone’s voice in the crowd rose above the others: “Autograph my ass, Mika!” and Professor Hirst’s plea for order was lost to the din for the third time in as many minutes. Arthur had half a mind to feel guilty, but he could Sense the vibrations in the air around their professor. He was already going to give them outstanding marks—as always.
No longer under Arthur’s influence, the remaining water in the classroom excused itself, evaporating into the air. He rolled up his sleeves. “Is that really the best you can do, Rivera?”
Mika gave a derisive “ha” and leaned over. For a split second, Arthur thought he had dived into an elaborate curtsy, but then he saw Mika’s wand touch the floor. He braced himself as Mika rose, pulling up his wand slowly, meeting resistance as the floor started to rumble.
Professor Hirst grabbed his desk to steady it. “I swear, if you open up a hole in the ground again—”
But he was silenced as the entire desk seemed to deconstruct itself in double time, collapsing into wooden planks and then into logs which coalesced to form an entire tree, spontaneously sprouting up from the floor. Much of the same was happening to all the desks pushed back against the wall and soon the room more closely resembled a forest clearing than a classroom, save for the fluorescent lighting.
Their classmates roared and stomped their approval. Several students in the back clambered up into the trees to get a better view of the duel, but Arthur merely shifted his weight onto his left leg and crossed his arms, eyebrows raised.
Mika was grinning, devouring the praise. Arthur waited.
Finally, Mika’s smile faltered. Arthur pursed his lips thoughtfully and looked up at the canopy of leaves above them, which were starting to shake. The students perched there hastily abandoned their posts as Arthur glanced at his watch, then back up at Mika.
“Ten seconds. Impressive. However, I do think Newton’s about to have his say here.”
Sure enough, the trees began to shake violently, and in the span of a single second they cycled through their construction all over again, de-materializing into logs, shaping themselves into planks, and constructing themselves back into desks with the nuts and bolts they’d abandoned on the floor.
Mika breathed hard, and Arthur sucked his teeth sympathetically. “I hear magical stamina is indicative of your stamina in bed. I wonder if that’s true?”
Professor Hirst didn’t even attempt to protest as the students launched into a chorus of jeers, louder than ever.
Undeterred, Mika shot Arthur a grin through the sweat. “Like you could last any longer.”
Wordlessly, Arthur tapped his wand to an antique cherrywood chair beside one of the desks, closing his eyes as he pulled up his wand, bringing a blossoming cherry tree along with it.
Keeping his eyes closed, he willed some of his own energy into the tree, aiding it in its genesis. He extended his awareness to the breeze outside and invited it into the classroom. Cherry blossom petals drifted in the air.
Someone started counting. Arthur felt the chair’s fatigue, felt its creaking, stubborn tendency to want to be a chair. He siphoned off a little more of his energy into it, encouraging it as the chorus of voices crescendoed to a climax. Just a little longer…
“Fifty-five, fifty-six—”
He was going to need a long nap after this spell, but after opening one eye to see the look on Mika’s face…it was worth it.
“Fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty!”
Arthur lowered his wand as his classmates yelled, staunchly fighting the desire to lie face down on the floor. He winked at Mika.
“Newton’s First Law: ‘An object at rest will remain at rest unless continuously acted upon by an external force.’ Read a book once in a while; you might learn a few things. Although…” Arthur pocketed his wand and gave Mika a sympathetic look, relishing in how his jaw clenched. “Can’t really help you with the stamina thing.”
And even after three years of divination classes at Stonebury’s Conservatory for Young Mages, Arthur couldn’t possibly have predicted the impeccable timing of the class bell, chiming to signal the end of class in that precise moment.
“Fun show today. I think you might have topped the one on Monday.”
Arthur turned to find his coworker, Tan Fernando, calling up to him from the library floor. He twisted away from the bookshelf ladder to perch back against it, squinting against the sunlight streaming through the nearest floor-to-ceiling window.
“I’ll admit, I can’t turn down an opportunity to put Rivera in his place.”
“Never a dull moment with you two around.” Tan smirked.
Arthur lowered his wand, lowering the books he’d been re-shelving along with it. He’d used up enough energy for the day.
“He loves to put on a show, I’ll give you that.”
“Oh, please. You’re as into it as he is.”
Arthur narrowed his eyes at the condescending glint in Tan’s gaze. “Excuse me?”
“Just saying.” They shrugged. “I’d love to actually learn something in Evocation for once.”
Arthur rolled his eyes. “Take it up with Professor Hirst. He just can’t let the practical demonstrations go.”
Tan chuckled, and Arthur bristled. “Profe
“Aye-aye, captain.” Arthur saluted his classmate dryly as they walked away, turning back to the shelf to levitate his stack of books back up to eye level.
“Sweet, I’d been looking for that one.”
Mika had materialized, seemingly out of nowhere, to climb a neighboring ladder and roll at high-speed to where Arthur stood. He snatched one of the floating books out of the air.
“Oh, would you look at the time.” Arthur glanced at his watch without looking at it. “We’re closing in…five minutes ago.”
“This is a twenty-four-hour library, ass.”
“Not sure if you were aware—” Arthur busied himself with returning a book to its proper place on the shelf— “but the library is for people who are, you know, literate.”
“I read,” Mika protested, cracking open the book he’d stolen as if to prove his point. It probably would have been a more emphatic argument if he hadn’t opened Feminismagic: Everything We Learn Today is Thanks to Women upside down.
“And I work.” Arthur returned the last book in his collection to the shelf. “Not all of our parents are employed by the biggest tech company in the magical world. Some of us have to innovate and work for our tuition, you privileged piece of shit.”
“You mean the frou-frou phone charms you’ve been handing out?” Mika adopted the Lithuanian flavor that so often wormed its way into Arthur’s speech. He started throwing the book up and down. “No offense hon’, but I think your side hustle would have more luck at Featherwood’s.”
“First of all, it’s called Auratech. Second of all, heteronormative much? And third of all, congratulations on proving my point that you don’t understand the value of hard work.” Arthur raised his eyebrows. “Pray tell, what did you do this summer? Catch a tan in Miami?” He tried his best approximation of Mika’s grating American accent in retaliation.
Mika tossed his book up extra high. “Nah, this brown beauty’s all natural.”
He offered a rakish grin that made his hazel eyes sparkle, honey skin gleaming in the sunlight, bare forearm flexing under a rolled-up shirtsleeve as he hung lazily from the ladder.
A spark of ire flashed hot in Arthur’s gut. He flicked his wand, and the book fell on Mika’s head; Mika tumbled down the ladder and onto the floor.
He rubbed his elbow where he’d banged it on the way down. “Fuck—”
“—off, I quite agree. Bye.” Arthur effortlessly slid down his ladder and stepped over Mika to make his way over to the time-punch pad, leaving his mortal enemy grumbling swear words under his breath.
Arthur wasn’t usually a competitive person.
Well, that wasn’t true.
Arthur had learned to be competitive. After all, he’d had good reason for it: scholarships were hard to come by at Stonebury, and he’d secured every single one he could get his hands on. God forbid his GPA fall below a 4.0—his tireless hard work leading up to his last year at university would be all for naught. Mika’s insufferable insistence on effortless achievement kept Arthur on his toes, fueling his fire to come out on top of someone who had so little regard for his wealth and social status.
Needless to say, Arthur relished leaving Mika behind in the dust. He tapped his wand to the crystal pad next to the time-punch machine, clocking himself out of his shift before doubling back to step right over Mika—still working his way up from the floor—on his way out of the library.
“Well, everyone,” Professor Silverton announced as she passed out tests down the rows of students, “if these exams are anything to go by, you all have a lot of work ahead of you for midterms…except for a select few, who got perfect scores. Congratulations, and treat yourselves while everyone else studies their asses off.”
Arthur’s Sense pricked the hairs on the back of his neck, and he looked up to find Mika making a face at him from a few seats down the live-edge wood table spanning their row. He was holding up his test; Arthur seethed at the sight of the large 100 circled in red at the top.
He flashed his own 100 back at Mika alongside a careless, raised eyebrow before dismissing him in favor of gazing out the long windows behind Professor Silverton’s desk, framed by seamless wallpaper featuring an abstract splotch of forest green watercolor. From this south-facing window, he could see where the island on which Stonebury stood gave way to the lake surrounding it. In his mind’s eye, he walked down the cobblestone-paved pathway stretching over the water, bridging the school to the mainland across gentle waves and leading into Watergraafsmeer—into the hip and upcoming block where he’d spotted the ‘For Rent’ sign in the shopfront on weekend trips into the city. While Professor Silverton rattled off areas of focus in Transmutation and engineering enchantments to work on for the midterm, Arthur lost himself in daydreams of buying the shop with meager savings to house Auratech, upholstering it in sleek metallics and sparkling lights designed to help his inventions throw light, drawing oohs and aahs from eager customers—
“Mr. Pham?”
Arthur was wrenched from his reverie.
“Sorry, Professor?”
“I was hoping you could demonstrate the wandwork required for number seven on the exam? About how kinetic patterns harness the energy of atoms for us to create magic?”
Arthur blushed, burying his nose in his exam, scanning the paper quickly. “Right, of course, I—”
“Please, Professor,” came an all-too-familiar voice, and Arthur knew he’d been half a second too late. “If I may?”
Instead of walking all the way around the long table, Mika sat on it and pivoted around to jump off, straightening at the front of the class. Arthur flushed deeper. Showoff.
“Like this?”
Mika pulled out his wand and arced it in a perfect Fibonacci spiral. The atoms in the air around his wand locked into place, glowing in a complex, intertwining pattern before dissipating harmlessly, unable to maintain the energy without organic material to cling to.
Mika shot a surreptitious wink at Arthur.
As Mrs. Silverton applauded, Arthur fumed. Engineering was his! How dare he!
Once Mika leapt over the table to return to the squashy armchair that was his seat, Mrs. Silverton began her lecture, and Arthur straightened. He wouldn’t be caught off guard again. Having gone all out in the class before was no excuse.
“It is widely known that bismuth is the best conduit for Crystaltechnology, but can anyone tell me why? Yes, Mr. Pham, go ahead.”
Arthur’s hand had shot up before she finished the question, and he knew even before he heard his name it had been a fraction of a second ahead of Mika’s. “The circuitry of man-made crystals allows us to more finely manipulate the massive amounts of energy required to run Crystaltech, like catching the energy with a funnel and channeling it into very specific areas where it needs to go.”
“Well said, Mr. Pham. I expected no less from our resident crystal engineering tycoon.”
Arthur’s heart swelled.
“But Professor—” Mika’s hand was still up, and heat spiked in Arthur’s gut. He treated himself to a fantasy about launching down the table to strangle Mika. “What other crystals have been experimented with for Crystaltech use? Wouldn’t crystals with a higher capacity for storing energy—say, the versatile Clear Quartz—be better suited to handle such energy levels?”
