by L. C. Mawson
“Amy, trust me, they have this well in hand. You should be focused on school. Auntie Jess told me that you’ve finally broken through into your magic.”
“Yeah, I have. Which is why I want to help, Dad. I have magic now, so there’s no reason why I can’t.”
“Amy, I already told you, Caroline and the Guardians are working on it. That’s dozens of Witches, Demons, and who knows what else. There’s nothing you can do that’s not already being done. If that changes, then I’ll tell you, but for now, just focus on school and making friends. Okay? Your mum wouldn’t want you to put your life on hold for her.”
I held my knees tighter against my chest, though eventually nodded, despite the fact that he couldn’t see.
“Okay, I’ll try.”
“I love you, Amy.”
“I love you too.”
“Promise me that you’ll stay safe?”
“I promise.”
He sighed. “If you have your magic, does that mean that you also have your memories?”
“Yes, Dad, it does, I-”
He cut me off before I could say anything more. “We shouldn’t talk about that now. I’m guessing that you’re not under any kind of privacy spells?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Me neither. You caught me on the way home from work, so I’m not under the protections of home. We’ll talk about this the next time we see each other. I promise. Okay?”
“Okay,” I said, despite my disappointment.
I wanted to talk about Freya with someone who remembered her better.
Who hadn’t been a child when she’d left.
But I didn’t want to put my dad at risk.
“Okay, I’d better go. But call me again on the weekend, okay? I want to hear more about this magical school of yours.”
“Okay. I will.”
At that, he hung up, just as Natalie entered the room.
“Are you okay?” she asked as she shut the door behind her.
I shrugged, my gaze remaining glued to my phone. “As okay as I can be, I guess. I just talked to my dad. I don’t think anyone has a solid lead on how to help my mum.”
“I’m sorry, Amy.”
I just shrugged once more before grabbing Maria Brown’s book from my bedside table. “Can you help me with this tonight?”
Natalie frowned a little. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea after what Mr Stiles said. He’s right, Amy. People buried this knowledge for a reason.”
“People burying this knowledge is why no one knows how to cure my mum now.” I looked up to finally meet her gaze. “Please, Natalie. This book might have the answers I need.”
She sighed, not looking convinced, but she eventually nodded. “Okay. I guess reading through it can’t be too dangerous.”
Chapter Twenty
The next day, I had my first Potions lesson after lunch.
I was more than a little eager to finally participate in one of my auntie’s lessons, curious as to what it might entail, though part of me wished that I had class with Ms Maltere again. We’d gone through as much of Maria Brown’s book as we could before Natalie had insisted on going to sleep, but it had been dense, with several parts written in languages neither Natalie nor I could understand.
We’d gone to the library at break to borrow a translation rune, but it had slowed us down, which was far from ideal when even the sections we could read had left us with more questions than answers.
It seemed Maria Brown had written the book for someone of her expertise level, without consideration for anyone else, and I was left wondering if the edits to the other books really were censorship, or if they were just to make them readable.
But I couldn’t take the chance that what I needed might have been edited out, so I persevered, even if the book tested the limits of Natalie’s magical knowledge.
I took a seat at one of the benches at the back of the room, not wanting to draw attention to myself as the niece of the teacher.
The room itself looked like the science labs at my last school, with tall, sturdy benches, though the gas taps were missing. I supposed they weren’t necessary when you could produce fire with magic, rather than a Bunsen burner.
Though, easily the strangest addition was the fact that there were large cauldrons at every workstation.
My auntie made her way to the front of the room just as I had taken my tablet from my bag.
“Good afternoon everyone.”
“Good afternoon, Ms Bennett,” the class echoed back, and Auntie Jess smiled.
“All right, so, I thought we would start on healing potions. We’ll try making a basic one today, but first, I wanted to go through a list of basic components and ingredients that you’ll always want to keep in stock. You never want to start brewing a healing potion and realise that you’re out of willow tree leaves.”
Victoria put up her hand and I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. I wished there was some way I could avoid being in classes with her altogether.
“But Miss, what’s the point? Surely our coven will keep things stocked for us.”
Auntie Jess placed her hands on her hips. “Well, if it’s ever your job to keep your coven’s stock, then you’ll need to know what exactly to keep. And many of you won’t spend your entire lives in covens.”
“Who would ever want to leave a coven?”
I wanted to slap Victoria for her haughty tone. She was talking to a teacher, and yet it was clear that she had no respect for my auntie.
Auntie Jess didn’t rise to the bait, however. She instead turned to the rest of the class. “How many of you want to get married?”
I was surprised by how few hands in the room went up. It was still about half, but that was far less than if she had asked the question of a group of girls at my last school.
I’d always felt strange for not wanting to get married. But the idea of a husband just didn’t appeal to me. I wanted kids, yes, but I figured that was something I would just do on my own.
But now a nagging thought appeared as I remembered everything that had happened at lunch yesterday.
Maybe I didn't want a husband, but how did I feel about a wife?
If there wasn’t so much danger, if Natalie and I could really date, would I want her to bite me someday?
To tie us together like that...
My quickening pulse and the warmth spreading through me gave me my answer, and I found myself hesitantly raising my hand with the other girls, though my palm only came as high as my shoulder.
I lowered my hand with everyone else as Auntie Jess gave us all a sad smile.
“Look, girls, I know that you don’t want to hear this, but you’re not likely to find your partner in your coven. Even if you live in a city with multiple covens, they’re typically divided by Light and Dark magic.
“I know that most of the straight, pure-blooded girls in this room will have some hope of a handsome pure-blooded boy falling for them and that they’ll live happily ever after with them. But pure-blooded men are rare, and so are often discouraged from staying long-term with any one partner. And even before that, because they’re so rare, falling for one is statistically unlikely.
“Hell, even for those of us who like women, you don’t always fall for someone convenient.”
My heart jumped to my throat as my mind took a moment to process what she’d just said.
Had I heard her right? Had she really said, ‘those of us who like women’?
Before I had time to really think about it, my auntie pulled her hair back, revealing two small scars on her neck.
“My husband was a Vampire,” she said, and I realised that the scars were bite marks. “When you’re not married to another Witch, options become limited. Most Coven Heads don’t allow non-Witches to live in a coven. And yes, some covens allow you membership if you live nearby instead of on coven grounds, but trust me, that arrangement skews far more towards the coven than the Witch, and it is usually reserved for Witches with impre
ssive talents.”
She put her hair back down, covering up the marks. “Most of you probably hope to meet another Witch and solve your problems that way. Others think that they can comfortably live apart from their partners. And by the number of you who didn’t raise your hands before, I think a large portion of you are simply planning to forgo deeply committed relationships, accepting it as the price for coven membership. But in truth, you’re thinking like that because covens are safe and familiar, and some of the most ambitious amongst you will have their eyes on Coven Head positions. But most Witches spend their life going through phases of living in and out of covens, which means that you have to focus on learning skills that will help you as a hedge Witch, as well as skills that will help you in a coven.”
She turned to the blackboard behind her and waved her wand, muttering under her breath as she did so.
A list of ingredients appeared.
“Now, if you’ll all collect what you need from the storeroom, I’ll guide you through the process of making a basic healing potion.”
I WASN’T SURE WHAT to expect from myself when it came to making potions, but I found as I followed my auntie’s instructions that I knew a few tricks.
Especially when it came to using a knife, knowing exactly how thin or thick to cut things and how to crush them with the heel of my palm and the flat side of the knife
Whenever I’d been at my auntie’s, she’d always involved me in making ‘soup’ with her, and I’ll admit, it shouldn’t have taken me this long to realise that we had never been making ‘soup’.
My auntie wandered the room as everyone was letting their potions simmer, waiting for the right moment to drop their willow leaves into the mixture.
She eventually came over to me with a grin. “That looks like exactly the right colour, Amy.”
I smiled back with a sheepish shrug. “Well, I guess I’ve already had a little practice.”
“Yes. I will admit, it was incredibly frustrating to try to teach you without being able to tell you what exactly I was teaching you. But it looks like you picked it up regardless.”
I nodded, focusing on my willow leaves, despite the fact that they were already prepared. “So, um, before, when you were talking to everyone, you said something...”
My auntie stiffened slightly. “I did?”
“Yeah, you said that you, um... Well, you said those of ‘us’ who like women...”
My auntie didn’t answer, and I dared to look back at her, only to see her giving me a confused frown.
A moment later she cursed under her breath. “I’m sorry, Amy. I honestly thought that you knew. It’s not as if I try to hide it. But I guess it just never came up. But yes, I’m bi. Is that why you didn’t want to talk to me about Willow and the effects of her lowering her suppression? You didn’t think I would understand?”
I nodded, returning my gaze to the willow leaves.
Auntie Jess sighed. “I actually fell in love with a coven girl when we were teenagers. But I was foolish and went about making promises I couldn’t keep. I knew that coven life wasn’t for me, and I knew that I wasn’t going to stay.”
My hand instinctively went to my wand as I remembered what Gail had said when she’d given it to me. “Is that why you gave her your mother’s wand?”
I looked back up to see Auntie Jess’ jaw tighten for a moment before she sighed once more. “You really are too damn perceptive. You know that, right?”
I just gave a small shrug, not sure how to answer that. I hadn’t meant to dig up old wounds, I was just curious.
I decided to change the subject. “So, you and Nightingale's dad were bonded?”
Auntie Jess raised an eyebrow. “Well, you knew that we were married.”
“Yeah, but when Natalie talked about it, she made bonding sound more... permanent. Like there wasn’t a divorce option.”
“There’s not.”
“So then how did he leave?”
My auntie’s gaze turned hard and she muttered a protection spell, her hand in her pocket, presumably on her wand. “He didn’t leave,” she said once no one could hear us. “He was killed.”
My stomach twisted with guilt at my blunder. So much for not continuing to dig up old wounds. “I’m sorry, I didn’t-”
“You didn’t know. It’s okay.” She took a deep breath as she examined my simmering potion. Eventually, she turned back to me. “He was part-Demon. It was only a small part, but he ended up in the middle of a scuffle between some Slayers and some Demons. The Slayers killed him, and the Council of Light decided that they would rather cover it up than admit that a mistake had been made. I had to tell everyone that he had left me, rather than saying that he had died.”
I frowned. “But you can tell me now?”
“No, technically, I’m still not allowed. But I don’t care anymore. If the Council came for me, Gail wouldn’t let them. Not once I told her the truth. We may disagree on a lot of things, but I trust her that much.” My auntie then looked me over. “How do you know so much about bonding with a Vampire anyway?”
“Natalie told me.” I looked back at my work as my cheeks flushed.
My auntie grinned. “And why were you talking about bonding with your roommate?”
“No reason.” I knew that I must be crimson by this point, and my voice squeaked as I realised that if my auntie didn’t believe me, it might be grounds for her to split us up.
My auntie must have noted the fear in my voice as she put a hand on my shoulder. “Hey, you’re not in trouble, Amy. I just want you to talk to me.”
I nodded, relaxing a little. “We kissed once. In the summer. She was at that party I went to. Of course, I had no idea she was a Vampire at that point. She nearly bit me, and I think it scared her. She says that because she’s part-Witch, she can’t be with anyone. She’s got emotions that Vampires don’t normally have to deal with until they already have a source of blood to drink from.”
Auntie Jess gave me a sympathetic smile. “Yeah, Nightingale is much the same way. She’s more Vampire than Witch, but she still has enough emotional juice to struggle to control herself. In all honesty, I think she should find a nest to take her in so that she can be with her own kind for a while, but she keeps brushing off the idea. I may have never regretted not being part of a coven, but I do worry about the effect it had on her.”
I just nodded, realising why Nightingale had been so fast when fighting those attackers.
And why Natalie’s muted nature had seemed so familiar to me.
“Well,” my auntie eventually said, “there are plenty of non-Vampire fish in the sea.”
I nodded as my thoughts went to one particular non-Vampire with flaming red hair and all too human freckles.
Chapter Twenty-One
As I walked into my next class, I was surprised to see that there were no tables or chairs in the room.
No, everyone was just milling around.
Though ‘everyone’ was a very small group of students, and as I looked around, I recognised Natalie, Lena, and Willow. And as I looked to everyone else, I found my eyes either straining with glamours, or finding features like pointed ears or crimson eyes.
A woman with a pair of amber, sparkling butterfly wings approached, and I had to put all of my effort into not letting my surprise show on my face.
Eventually, magic would run out of surprises for me, but ‘eventually’ wasn’t here yet.
I wondered how I hadn’t noticed her around the school grounds before.
“Ah, you must be the new student. Amelia, right?”
I nodded.
“Welcome. Just call me Tilly. As much as I’m a teacher here, I dislike formalities. Now, this class is usually for those who have magical heritage besides ‘Witch’. Those with more innate powers that do not need to be channelled through a wand. However, it seems you’ve shown a propensity for using raw Energy that’s rare for most Witches, so it seemed like a good idea for you to join us in these classes until you can l
earn a little more control.” She looked around the room before stopping. “Ah, Willow. You still don’t have a partner in this class, right?”
“Right,” Willow agreed as she made her way over.
“Then would you be so kind as to help Amelia today? I’d like to start her with Energy training. That won’t be a problem, will it?”
“No, of course not,” Willow said, though her cheeks turned crimson.
If Tilly noticed anything, however, she didn’t say it. “Great! Then I shall leave you to it.”
She headed off across the room as Willow turned to face me, a little stiffly.
“It’s so weird calling a teacher by their first name,” I muttered as we got close and Willow relaxed.
Was she really so nervous just to talk to me? What had I done to seem so scary to her?
“Well, it’s good practice for uni. And actually, the rumour is that she doesn’t want students knowing her last name.”
“Why not?”
“Well, I can only guess, but given that she’s a Faerie... Well, they don’t have children of their own. Or, at least, it’s rare. When Angels have kids with Humans, and the kids aren’t chosen as Angels, then they’re Fae. And most Fae choose to stop ageing as children. It’s one of the side effects of going to the Glades of the Fae. As there are so few of them on Earth, most go to the Glades, and very few return, except for short trips to recruit Human children. Fae don’t have children because most are children themselves, but they can turn Human children. But those Human children never leave the Glades. If Tilly is here as an adult, then that can only mean that one of her parents was an Angel. So, I can understand why she doesn’t want us knowing who she is.”
She smiled, turning to give me her full attention. “But weren’t we supposed to be doing something else?”
“Yes. ‘Energy training’. What’s that?”
Willow folded her arms as she looked me over. “Well, it’s a pretty rare form of magical training. Most consider Energy so innate that there’s no use in any kind of training for it. Either you’re powerful or you’re not. But for those with either weak or uncontrollable Energy, there are some techniques that you can use.”