by Fiona Starr
“Thank you. I am too, though I don’t think he’s going to be happy when he finds out.”
Her brows shoot up in surprise. “Oh, it’s like that, is it?” She shrugs. “In the end, it’s up to you. You’re of age.”
I remember my mother’s words on that point and nod.
“So, are you ready for the deluge of learning? You’re going to have your work cut out for you given that you’re so new to all of this.”
“I think I’m ready.” I nod.
“I don’t want you to get discouraged if things feel like they are out of reach. Because even when if seems overwhelming, the truth is it’s not. The kind of magic we have is pure. And I don’t mean that in any negative or exclusive way. I mean that it is actually pure. It’s the original power. The first magic, which makes it very easy to wield. You’ll find that calling on your power and using it will become almost automatic. It’s the closest thing to instinct there is. Just remember that whenever you feel unsure, okay? Your power is always right there.”
I believe everything she says. Nessa and I spent hours doing all kinds of things with my power right after it sparked. “Thank you. I will remember that.”
“Enjoy the party.” She touches my arm and then walks away.
I look out onto the wide lawn and am taken again by how beautiful it all is. There are a few people walking around the pond, and someone is sitting on the edge of the fountain. There are torches here and there, throwing their forms into silhouette. Even this has a poetic, other-worldly feel about it. It’s too dark to make out their faces, but I watch them anyway, enjoying the cool night air and the peaceful moment. The past twenty-four hours have been a blur. An upsetting, disruptive, exciting, and fantastic blur, to be sure, but I can no longer deny that I am exhausted.
“You look like you’re standing in a painting.” His voice comes from behind me.
I turn to see Angus standing in the doorway, framed by the warm glow of the ballroom with two coupes of champagne in his hands.
“You shouldn’t stare,” I say, though I definitely want him to.
“It’s hard to ignore something that moves you.” He walks over and hands me a glass, touching his to mine before taking a sip. He looks out into the yard and shakes his head. “Look at that. You know, my brother told me all about this place…the school and this place.” He glances back toward the ballroom. “He was always at a loss to describe it, said that words didn’t do it justice. Insisted we’d understand once we got here how charming and irresistible it all was. But it’s nothing like I expected. It’s more. It’s almost like…”
“Like a dream,” I say, finishing his thought and making him smile. “I feel it too. It doesn’t feel real. But I am pretty sure I’m awake.”
“I hope I was awake earlier, at the party.” He bites his lip and looks at me, his face serious again.
“I have a hard time imagining your brother talking about anything being charming and irresistible. He seems impervious to everything.”
He leans back and laughs. “Van’s just got a lot on his mind. Once you get to know him, you’ll see. He’s a teddy bear behind that hard shell.”
“And what about you?”
“What about me?”
“What will I discover about you when I get to know you better?” he asks.
He smiles. “Are you saying that you’d like to get to know me better?”
“I think so, unless you don’t think it’s wise. Maybe I should talk to your brother. Ask him how I should proceed.”
“I’d like to get to know you better, Joely.” He touches my hand and laces his fingers with mine. “Starting with your name. If it’s not like Angelina, then set me straight.”
“It’s Joely.” I spell it out. “Short for Joelle.”
“Joelle. That’s pretty What’s your last name?”
“Everstar.”
“Joelle Everstar…” His face is inches from mine. “It’s nice to meet you, Joelle Everstar. I’m Angus Wagner, at your service.”
He moves his hand over and around mine, twining our fingers and caressing my palm. I do the same to him, exploring the lines and calluses on his skin and the length of his fingers. There is a thin scar that wraps around his thumb. He’s got powerful hands, and the memory of how they felt on my body sends a rush of heat through me.
A crash of breaking glass explodes from the ballroom.
“Don’t turn away from me!” a woman shouts. “I demand answers!”
“What’s going on?” I say.
Angus tenses. “No idea.”
We hurry back to the house and stand in the doorway, taking in the scene. A tray of champagne coupes lay shattered on the floor, broken glass and spilled drinks cover the floor. The music has stopped and everyone in the ballroom has moved away from the woman who stands among the broken glass in center of the room, her shoes crunching as she points at Daria.
“How can you stand there and pretend to know nothing? I was there! I saw what happened! And I know about the others! If you think you can silence me, think again!” The woman’s face is twisted up in her anger and tears.
Daria’s voice is absolutely calm. “We’ve been over this before, Felicity. Whatever you think you saw with regard to your sister simply isn’t true. I am sorry that she’s missing, and I wish we could help, but there is nothing here for you.”
Felicity shakes her head in defiance. “Where is he? Does he think he can hide forever?”
“Nobody is hiding. Now please, I need you to leave.”
“I hate you. I hate you all.” She turns to the others in the room. “And all of you who choose to be part of this… this… monster’s game, I hope you all get what you deserve!” She reaches into her bag, grabs a stack of papers, and tosses them into the air. They rain down like giant feathers, covering the floor as she walks out of the room.
Angus and I pick up one of the papers. It’s a missing person flyer. There’s a picture of a smiling dark-haired girl with a tiny silver nose ring. The top of the page says MISSING in all caps, and at the bottom is her name, Abigail “Abbey” Hartness, along with all the details that are known about when she was last seen, followed by a phone number and email address to contact with any information about her disappearance.
“How awful,” I whisper.
Angus drops the paper, letting it fall to the floor with the rest of them. “She went missing at the end of last term. Gone without a trace. My brother had a few classes with her.”
I spot Daria on the landing, a cell phone pressed to her ear. She’s listening to the person on the other end of the line. Then she drops the phone into her pocket and addresses the party.
“My apologies, everyone. Master Damon has asked me to extend his most sincere regrets at such an unpleasant disturbance in our otherwise glorious night. Please, don’t let this unfortunate moment take away from the festivities.”
She waves a finger in the air and the flyers all collect themselves into a pile and fly neatly over to the fireplace where they pop into flame. The mess of glass is gone. The quartet starts playing chamber music again, and the crowd shuffles back into the center of the room.
Angus shakes his head in disbelief. “Like nothing ever happened.”
I’m glad he’s as horrified as I am. “Remind me never to go missing,” I say.
Chapter Ten
JOELY
I’ve been up for hours. Between Angus and Van and the party and the kissing and the weird scene with the missing girl, I barely got any sleep. I’ve spent the last hour texting with Nessa, catching her up on everything.
I wanted to make sure she wasn’t upset that I left without saying goodbye. She was upset, but she said she understood, and then spent the rest of the time telling me how Ash was behaving differently toward her since we did the charm, in all the best ways.
After everything else that’s happened, it doesn’t surprise me. I’m happy for her, and for him, if it ends up that they get together.
I’m brushing
my teeth when someone knocks on my door.
“Rise and shine, it’s the first day of the rest of your life!” Roz calls.
“Come in!” I say, finishing up and taking a drink of water.
She hurries in and hands me a little booklet with my name on the cover. “Your schedule, madame.”
“This is my schedule? It’s like twenty pages…”
“Thirty-two, to be exact.” She laughs. “Oh, don’t worry. This includes all the stuff you need for The Society, too. We have our school classes and also classes and events going on at The Society. It’s a lot, so they do this to help us keep it all straight.”
We’re going to breakfast in ten minutes if you want to join us. I can go over everything with you and make sure you know where you’re going today.
I nod enthusiastically. I’m starving and also feeling a little clueless about what my classes are going to be like now that I am in a magic school. “Thank you. For both.”
When we arrive at breakfast, the dining place is about half full. I grab a seat next to Winter and Roz as my sisters appear at our table.
Eliza’s tall and thin, like our mom, with long sandy blonde hair that she has pulled back in a French braid. She’s got a willowy build and when she walks it looks like she’s floating. Everyone uses words like ethereal and angelic to describe her, and they aren’t wrong, but at the moment she looks like she ate some bad seafood. “How are you even here, Joely?” Her voice has that bratty tone she gets when she sees someone with something she wants.
“Nice to see you too,” I say.
Kate is tall and thin like Eliza, but where Eliza is light, Kate is dark. She has dark hair and dark eyes and in the summer she gets very tan. “I think it’s great, Jo. But you shouldn’t have left the way you did. Mom and Dad are furious.”
I really don’t want to have this conversation here in front of my new roommates and the rest of the world. “Do you know Roz, Winter, and Georgia?” I say, trying to change the subject.
Roz nods. “How’s it going, Eliza? Did you get your schedule yet? I bet we have herbology again with Fester.”
Eliza glances at Roz like she’s an inconsequential thing she has to put up with. “I haven’t checked.”
Winter smiles up at Kate. “I’m pretty sure we had Potions together last term.”
Kate nods. “That’s right. Your team won the most original potion competition.” She smiles and it seems genuine.
I’ve never been especially close to my sisters. Being a non-mage in a house of witches brings with it an automatic separation no matter what you do. But aside from that, there was always a barrier between me and them that they don’t seem to have with each other. The two of them have a lot in common and they have always been very close friends as well.
I used to think that the distance between us had to do with how close my dad and I are… That they were jealous of the way Justice Ulysses Everstar paid so much attention to me and guided my education so closely. I was going to go into a law practice when I graduated from Covington and passed the legal exams. He always beamed when he talked about us working together in the future.
A pang of guilt spears through me at the thought of all of that going away. But it doesn’t really have to be over, does it? I can still study the law and keep on that path. My dad graduated from Blakeborne with a law degree, after all. Maybe once things settle down, I can talk to him about that.
My roommates are doing a great job chatting my sisters up, so I just sip my water and check the menu to see what I want to order for breakfast.
“So what dorm are you in, Joely?” Kate asks.
“Rubydown. These are my roommates.”
The look on my sisters’ faces is absolute disbelief.
Eliza scoffs. “Rubydown? But that’s for The Society.”
“I know.”
“Wait, you’re saying that you’re a member of The Society?” Kate says.
I shake my head, feeling a little superior but not wanting to be a complete jerk. “Not yet. Initiation hasn’t happened yet, but I will be soon.”
Eliza does this thing with her lips that makes her whole face looks pinched. “But that isn’t possible.”
I shrug. “What do you mean, of course it is… I’m here, aren’t I?”
She crosses her arms and looks down at me, clearly not buying my story. “So you’re saying that not only has your magic just sparked for the first time ever, but that you’ve got ancient magic?”
Kate looks confused. “But that doesn’t make any sense. Nobody in our family comes from one of the Ancient lines.”
She was never supposed to be a mage.
My father’s words come back to me and they leave me with a ball of dread in my stomach. I feel like I am missing something, and part of me really doesn’t want to know what that something is.
My sisters leave and I study the menu again, suddenly not hungry.
Roz eyes me. “I wanted to ask you about your sisters.”
“What about them?” I ask.
“Eliza’s right about the way magic runs in families. I’m sure there is an exception to everything, but it’s kind of unlikely that you’d have Ancient Magic and they wouldn’t.”
“How do you know they don’t?” I am genuinely curious because I don’t know. “My magic just sparked. Is it possible that they have it too, but their Ancient side will spark later?”
Roz shakes her head. “No. I really doubt it. For one thing, your sisters would know it. It’s a thing to be an Ancient. But also, The Society would know it. You’ll find out more about this at initiation and in your classes, but there’s this magical energy called the Vessel that senses ancient magic. That’s how they find us and bring us together. The Society exists because of the vessel. If your sisters had ancient magic, they would have been named before they came here.”
Winter taps the table. “But what about Felicity and Abbey?”
“Felicity is the one who crashed the party at the cottage last night,” Georgia offers for my benefit.
“What about them?” Roz blows on her coffee and takes a sip.
Winter continues, “Abbey has ancient magic. Or am I supposed to say had… I never know how to talk about her. But Felicity is a normal mage.”
Roz nods. “Yeah, and Felicity is adopted.”
Winter and Georgia’s mouths fall open.
“How did I not know that?” Georgia says.
Winter touches my arm. “Abbey used to have your room. You would have liked her. It’s terrible what happened. How does someone just disappear like that without a hint?”
Everyone continues chatting while my head spins.
She was never supposed to be a mage.
I can’t let go of it. Is it possible that I’m not my parents’ biological child? That doesn’t compute on any level. And yet…
She was never supposed to be a mage.
He was so angry… What made him so upset? Did they adopt me? And were they expecting a non-mage for some reason? But that’s not really possible, is it? I mean, you can’t tell if an infant has magic or not. Magic doesn’t start to show up until we’re older. No. It can’t be that. So what then?
“Do you, Joely?” Georgia asks, and I realize I have missed the entire conversation.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening.”
Georgia smiles patiently. “Your schedule… When do you have potions?”
Chapter Eleven
MARCO
“Enough!” I punch the table, making the breakfast dishes jump, and spilling orange juice all over Angus. But at least it gets the two of them to stop shouting at each other.
“Marco! What the fuck!” Angus jumps to his feet to get out of the way of the spill while Van tries to mop it up.
“I’ve had enough of you two fighting. Ever since you laid eyes on that girl, it’s like you can’t think straight, either of you.”
“What are you talking about?” Angus presses a napkin to his shirt.
“I’m thi
nking just fine. My head is always clear,” Van says, carrying the dripping napkins to the trash.
“Bullshit. I was there, remember? Just because you keep things to himself and Gus wouldn’t be able to hide his feelings if he tried, that doesn’t mean I don’t know what’s going on in here.” I tap my head. I don’t need to say anything because they both know exactly what I mean.
“Fuck,” Van slams the dripping mess of napkins into the sink. “Marco, we discussed this. We can’t do that unless we’re all together, and only when we are sure it’s safe. If he starts to look for us it puts other people in danger.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I know. I know… But I can’t help it if I hear things.”
Angus looks from me to Van. “Wait? What did you hear, Marco?”
Van shoots me a glare that tells me just how many times he would kill me if I say what I am about to say.
I look away, not willing to challenge him, especially over this. “Nothing. It isn’t important.”
But it is important, more than they realize.
It’s clear how Angus feels about Joely. And last night, right before I fell asleep, Van’s thoughts trickled into my head. He’s angry. Really angry. About lots of things.
He’s pissed off that we’re all in place now and he doesn’t have a plan yet to get to Master Damon. He’s pissed that we can’t shift and run whenever we want. He’s angry that right when we’re about to see all of this through, Angus is hooked on Joely, and we both know how he gets. Van’s worried that Gus will mess things up with the plan because he can’t keep his head straight.
But the real problem that I see isn’t Gus.
It’s Van.
Van thinks Joely is his mate. Like, the automatic kind of mate bond that happens when an alpha runs the pack. But we haven’t been a pack for a long time, not since Tobias…
Which is why we’re here, and it’s why everything matters so much.
Van’s right, the sharing of thoughts is something we can do because we’re wolves. And if we allow ourselves to slip into that habit, Master Damon is going to find us. And that simply cannot happen. He can’t know we’re here. Not until we decide, and it’s too late for him to do anything about it.