Maya's POV
The glass jar burst in my hands. My fingers burned as hot herb tea splashed everywhere. I shook my hands and tried not to scream as I leaped back. Grandmother Willow running up and asking what had happened was the last thing I needed, because I was unable to be honest with her. For one moment, I thought I felt something warm and tingling in my chest, but I was unable to tell her. There was a sense of... magic. However, that was not possible. Everyone knew I had no magic.
I began cleaning up the mess with a towel. The broken glass glittered like tiny stars on the floor. Glass bursting would have thrilled me three years ago. I would have assumed it meant the coming of my magic. I knew better now.
"Maya!" From the front of the store, Grandmother called. "Are you alright back there?"
"All right!" I swept up the glass pieces and called back. "Just dropped something!"
I heard her talking to a customer, probably Mrs. Henderson buying plants for her sick cow again. Everyone in Willowbrook Village came to our shop when they needed healing plants. I needed to be healed, but everyone else did. The only person in the town without the ability to use magic was me. Not by any means.
Whispers came from outside the window as I swept. Those were sounds I recognized. Down the street, Tommy and Sarah.
Tommy said, "That's her."
"The girl who was expelled from Phoenix Academy."
"My mom says she couldn't even light a candle," Sarah whispered back. "Can you imagine? Going to the most important magic school in the kingdom and not being able to do anything?"
"I heard she cried when they told her to leave," Tommy added. "Right in front of everyone."
My face burned with shame. I wanted to shout at them for not crying. At least not in public. I fought crying until I was by myself in my room. However, I couldn't hold it against them for talking. I would probably whisper too if I met a child who was expelled from Phoenix Academy for missing magic.
I heard Mrs. Henderson go as the bell above the shop door jingled. Grandmother Willow arrived when I was cleaning in the back room.
"Maya, dear, you look angry," she sais, looking at my face. "What's wrong?"
I lied and threw the glass pieces in the garbage. "Nothing," I said. "Just thinking."
"Remember Phoenix Academy?"
I gave a nod. Phoenix Academy was always on my mind. Three years had passed since they had expelled me, but I still had thoughts about it nearly every night. I still dream about my former life, my former room, and my former friends.
"Tell me what happened that day," Grandma said softly.
"The true story not what you told others."
I had never been totally honest with anyone about my final day at Phoenix Academy. Not even Grandma Willow, who had housed me when I had nowhere else to go.
"I was in Magic Control class," I mumbled. "We were learning how to make flowers bloom from Master Thompson. The others could do it. Even children who were not usually adept at magic were able to conjure tiny buds."
I remembered watching my friends make beautiful roses and daisies bloom from tiny seeds. The whole classroom smelled like a garden.
"I tried so hard," I added. "I focused with all of my strength while holding the seed in my hands. I repeatedly muttered the spell words. However, nothing took place."
I kept what happened next from Grandmother. How Master Thompson had looked at me with such sadness. How he had scribbled something in his notebook and shaken his head.
"Then what?" Grandma asked.
"Master Thompson told me to stay after class. He said..." I breathed deeply. "Magic is not meant for some people," he said. I was wasting everyone's time.
But that wasn't the worst of it. He led me to Principal Hawthorne's office, which was the worst part. Sitting in that large chair while Principal Hawthorne explained that Phoenix Academy was exclusively for gifted kids was the worst part.
Principal Hawthorne had stated, "We can't have magicless students here."
"It is not fair to the other kids who are putting in a lot of effort to get better."
I had pleaded with him to let me stay, promising to put in more effort. I committed to practicing daily. He simply shook his head, though.
"Maya," he said, "some people are born with magic." Additionally, some people aren't. Being average is not a source of shame.
Except there was shame. So much shame that I could not even look at my classmates in the eyes as I packed my things, much shame that even when my best friend Sage tried to talk to me, I pretended not to hear her.
Grandmother pulled me into a warm hug and said, "Oh, Maya."
"I am sorry for what happened to you."
I said, "It's okay," even though it wasn't, "I've gotten used to it now."
"Are you? Because whenever someone around you mentions magic, you still wince."
She was right. I did flinch. I couldn't help it. Magic was everywhere in our world. People used it for cooking, cleaning, healing, and growing. When everyone else had books, it was like being the only one who couldn't read.
"I need to return to work," I said, pulling out of her hug. "The herbs won't arrange themselves."
However, as I turned to resume my sweeping, an odd thing happened. The broom began to light up in my hands. Not as bright as true magic. There was only a warm, gentle glow that appeared to start within the wood. My heart was racing as I gazed at it.
"Grandmother?" I muttered. "Do you see—"
The light went out. The broom was just a standard broom again.
"See what, dear?" Grandmother's voice sounded different when she asked. Somehow sharper. I noticed something I had never seen before when I looked at her face. I couldn't read the emotion on her face as she looked at the broom. As if she were… afraid?
"Nothing," I blurted out. "I thought I saw something, but it was just sunlight."
I knew it wasn't sunshine, though. And judging by the way Grandmother was staring at me, I figured she was aware of it as well.
"Maya," she said slowly, "has this ever happened before?"
The shop door flew open before I could reply. The bell rang like a fire warning, not just jingling. A boy of my age stumbled in, his forehead cut and bleeding. He looked straight at me as he gasped, "Please."
"You must help me. They're on their way, and everyone in this village will be in danger if they find me here."
I looked at him. He looked at me as if I was the most important person in the world, and he had dark hair and worried eyes.
"Who's coming?" I said.
The boy looked at the door and then back at me. His voice was hardly more than a whisper when he spoke. "The Academy guards," he stated. "They believe you may be hiding them, and they are hunting for someone."
My blood froze. "Me? However, I am a nobody. I'm simply—"
"You're Maya Chen," the boy said, sounding as if he had been looking for me all of his life. "You're not a nobody, either. In the kingdom, you are the most important individual."
Horse feet thundered down the village street before I could ask him what he meant. Approaching.
The boy took hold of my arm. "We must leave."
"Now."
"But I don't understand," I answered. "Who are you? Why are guards from the Academy looking for me?"
I saw something impossible when the boy's eyes met mine. I noticed deference. And hope.
"My name is Ethan," he introduced himself. "And Maya, all of the things you've been told about yourself are false."
The horses were nearly at our door.