by Keary Taylor
I once told David that if he ever touched Nathaniel again, that I’d get him kicked out of school. But I realized now that I’d been wrong. I’d been naive. Even though Dean Lowell was a friend, he could still be bought.
David wasn’t going to disappear from our lives for at least another four months.
So all I could do was make our lives easier.
I just had to hope it worked.
I turned, and I walked out of the room.
“You okay?” Dad asked. “You’re white as a sheet.”
And as he asked, I realized how tired I was. I staggered forward to a chair in the hallway and sat on it. “Yeah,” I said, feeling a little out of breath. “Just tired. I guess this stuff takes a lot out of me.”
My father sat next to me, taking my hand in his. He rubbed soothing circles into it, while I rested my head on one hand, and looked down the hall to the room where they worked on Gerald.
I wasn’t done. As soon as they were done stabilizing him, I had to get in there and adjust his memories, too.
So, for another twenty minutes, we watched. The police came out of Nathaniel’s room and looked into Howard’s. And he must have been awake, because they slipped inside and closed the door halfway.
Immediately, I sprang from my seat and walked quietly to the door.
I listened.
And my heart raced as Howard gave a shameful, half lie account about what happened earlier in the night. He said that maybe they’d had too much to drink. That David had gotten sick of Nathaniel gloating “some girl” in his face and decided to teach him a lesson. And maybe they’d had more than just a drink, because he blacked out on the beach and didn’t remember anything else beyond throwing one punch.
Nothing about me blasting them out into the ocean. Nothing about me blacking them out.
I put my hand over my heart, and a small smile pulled on my lips.
It worked.
I’d done it. Even without knowing the right method, I’d reached inside myself and found a way.
My eyes lifted to my father, and I wasn’t quite sure how to read the expression in his eyes. He was relieved. But I thought I might have also seen a little bit of disappointment there. And fear.
I understood why.
I hated it.
But I couldn’t regret it.
I watched as the doctors slipped out of Gerald’s room and after waiting thirty seconds, I slipped inside his room, and I altered his memory as well.
By the time I was done, I was so tired my father had to help me back into Nathaniel’s room.
“What’s wrong?” Nathaniel asked, sitting up straight, only to lay back down with a pained wince and a hand held over his ribs.
“I’m fine,” I said, shaking my head as I dropped down into one of the chairs. “It…it worked. They don’t remember what really happened.”
Nathaniel looked at me for a moment, and slowly, I saw pride dawning in his eyes.
Nathaniel would fight his battles in his own way. But I would tear down the world to protect him.
A nurse walked in then. “We’re ready to discharge you,” she said.
There were five minutes of fuss and half a dozen pages signed, then Nathaniel was pulling his blood-stained shirt back on, and he was wheeled back to the front doors. I stood by his side while Dad pulled the car around to the doors. Carefully, the two of us helped Nathaniel into the front passenger seat.
“You’re staying with us for a while,” Dad said as soon as his door was closed, and the car was in gear. “I can’t let you go back to that solarium only to pass out and die. Someone needs to keep an eye on you.”
“Arthur, I appreciate it, but—”
“This isn’t up for debate, Nathaniel,” Dad cut him off. “You’re family now. And family takes care of each other.”
Nathaniel didn’t say anything else. He stared forward, and I watched in the rear-view mirror as a smile pulled in the corners of his mouth, and his eyes got red and welled. “Thank you.”
None of us said anything else in the five minutes it took to drive back to the house. Dad parked in the driveway, and again, we helped Nathaniel into the house. And then it was up the stairs.
“I must be the worst father in the world for letting you do this,” my dad said as we made our way into my bedroom. “But I don’t think he should be left alone. So you watch him, Margot. I’m not as worried about you making my grandbabies tonight.”
I blushed, and laughed, and shook my head. But I was thankful he was such a levelheaded and understanding man. He ducked out of the room and returned a moment later with a set of sleeping clothes for Nathaniel to borrow.
“Thank you, Arthur,” Nathaniel said from where he sat on the bed with a nod. “For everything. I really appreciate you. And your acceptance.”
I didn’t expect it when my father stepped forward and hugged Nathaniel. He held on to him for a good thirty seconds, saying nothing. Just showing Nathaniel that he loved him. That he was sorry Nathaniel had to go through what he did. But that he was home now. He was with family.
And Nathaniel clung to my father with his one good arm. He held him tight. And I could feel it. Nathaniel meant every word he’d said to my father, down to his soul.
“Get some rest,” Dad finally said as he stepped back. “Come get me if you need anything.”
“Thanks, Dad,” I said quietly as I watched him walk out the door.
Nathaniel and I stared at each other without saying anything for several long moments. Tonight had been terrifying. So many things went wrong and could have gone worse.
Yet here we were, together. Alive. Safe.
I was going to get in the shower. I was going to wash the blood off of me and go warm up.
But I just didn’t have the energy.
So, I turned my back to Nathaniel, and like he could read my mind, he unzipped my ruined dress. With my back still turned to him, I zipped it down the rest of the way, and stepped out of it. I knew he could see everything in my black underwear and strapless bra. But I didn’t glance back as I looked around for a sleeping shirt. I found one in a drawer and pulled it over my head.
I turned to find Nathaniel trying to unbutton his shirt. I crossed to help him, and I felt him studying my face as I undid them one by one. But neither of us said anything. I peeled off his shirt, and when I went to pull on my father’s sleeping shirt, he shook his head.
“Anything touching it hurts,” he admitted.
And so I left it off.
I helped him pull his shoes off and I helped him peel his ruined slacks off, until he was just in his underwear.
And then I helped him lay in my bed, which looked so painful. And then I turned out the light and crawled under the covers beside him.
I reached a hand up, laying it on his bare chest. He covered my hand with his, pressing my still-freezing palm into his warm skin.
“Thank you for saving me, Margot,” he whispered in the dark.
I leaned forward and gently pressed my lips to his split one. “Always,” I promised.
Chapter Twenty
As I’d predicted, every single one of the Society Boys were back at school on Monday. They took their finals, along with everyone else. There were no police. There was no further investigation.
Students whispered about it at school. No one really knew what happened, because it had only been the eight of us on the beach. There were plenty of theories. None of them were quite right.
But maybe my seeds worked.
David simply looked at the two of us from across the halls or the common area. He looked confused. He looked dark.
But he stayed away.
As did all the other Society Boys.
I had two finals that day. I didn’t expect to do well, considering everything that had happened over the weekend, distracting from studying. But when my final grade came back, I got an A in Latin and an A- in Writing.
Nathaniel aced both of his finals that day.
And the ones ove
r the next three days.
I got a B in physical education, but it was really difficult to care about that. I got an A in World Geography.
When the last final was taken and the final grades posted, I walked back to the solarium, hand in hand with Nathaniel with a lot on my mind.
“Something wrong?” Nathaniel asked.
My gaze shifted up, tracing the roofline of all the houses, even though I wasn’t really seeing them. “Learning what we have, having gone through all of…this… I didn’t think my priorities were ever a question, but things are just different.”
Nathaniel looked down at me with confusion. His poor eye was still mostly swollen shut. The stitches stood out in stark contrast against his skin. But with that one good eye, I could see worry.
“I’ve always had my future planned out, ever since I was a little girl,” I said. “I was going to go to Alderidge and then become a professor here.”
“But now the plan is changing?” Nathaniel asked for clarification.
I stopped on the sidewalk, looking up at Nathaniel. “I guess it just feels like I might be needed more elsewhere,” I said. “What we’ve discovered, it’s big. I feel like this could be my study, my life’s work. Learning magic and bringing it back from extinction. What good is getting a typical university degree, when I know my path no longer lies in being a professor?”
Nathaniel brushed his thumb over the back of my hand. “I understand what you’re saying. It makes perfect sense to me. And I think you’re right about our paths being different from what we thought they would be just six months ago. You’re not one to do what’s expected of you, Margot. If you’re done with Alderidge, go with your gut.”
I actually huffed a laugh and shook my head. “I didn’t really expect you to just make this so easy,” I said with a sigh as we continued back down the path to the solarium. “You’re one of the hardest working students I know. You worked your butt off just to get in on that scholarship. You’re really okay with it if I just drop out?”
“I would never get it in my head to tell you what to do, Margot,” he said as we turned the corner around the fence and started down the overgrown path. “I saw what you did to the Society Boys on the beach.”
I laughed and shook my head. But immediately I sighed. “I’m going to stick it out for one more semester,” I said. “I think in the end Dad would understand, but I think he’d be disappointed that I couldn’t finish one whole year. And I think I need to prove it to myself.”
We stepped inside the solarium and we both hung our jackets on the coat hook.
And still being gentle to not overdo it, Nathaniel wrapped his hands around my waist and pulled me to him. I placed my hands on his chest, being delicate and cautious.
“Whatever you choose, Margot, I know you’re going to amaze me every day,” he said, locking with my eyes. “I’m just honored you’re letting me come along for the ride.”
A smile crossed my lips. I brought my hands to the back of his head, and I guided his lips down to mine.
Chapter Twenty-One
The day after Christmas, Nathaniel and I spent a lazy day in the solarium. He was dressed in the sweater I’d bought him. I wore the necklace he’d gotten me. We were lying on the couch and the fire was roaring. We were both enjoying the lazy days between semesters. They wouldn’t last long.
“I think we should go back to your mother’s office and find that book,” Nathaniel said as I turned the pages of a different book. “The memory altering could probably have saved a lot of other mage’s lives. Seems like an important skill to have.”
I rolled onto my back, looking up at Nathaniel’s face. “Once the break is done,” I said. “I’m not setting foot back inside that school sooner than I have to.”
Nathaniel chuckled and leaned down and kissed me.
And then he sat bolt upright when there was a knocking sound against glass.
I stood up, Nathaniel right after me.
Through the organized, beautiful chaos of the solarium, we saw Borden Stewart at the door. He stared at us through the glass, snow falling onto his head and shoulders.
Instantly, I felt my palms grow hot.
Cautiously, Nathaniel went to the door and opened it.
“What do you want, Borden?” I asked in a growl as I stepped beside Nathaniel.
There was something I’d never seen in the Society Boy’s eyes before. He looked uncertain, maybe even nervous.
“I need to talk to you, Margot,” he said. He looked nervous. Worried about Nathaniel, but even more nervous about me.
“You can go tell David that nothing has changed,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “He needs to go find a new pretty toy.”
“It’s not about David,” Borden said in a quick tone. “It’s about what happened on the beach.”
My eyes widened just a bit and I looked at Nathaniel.
“The Boys keep trying to figure out who brought the drugs, who got us into this mess,” Borden said. He looked from me, to Nathaniel, and back to me again. “And I can’t figure out what the hell they’re talking about. We didn’t take any drugs that night. None of us were even drinking.”
My heart started racing faster.
“But I remember you,” he said, fixing me with his eyes. “I remember you screaming like a banshee. I remember flying through the air and into the ocean.”
My heart was drumming in my ears now.
“I remember walking out of the water, and something coming out of your hands, and then black.” Borden’s words grew darker by the moment.
Something like fear and dread and excitement grew in my veins.
“I don’t know what you did to the Boys to make them forget, to make them think something totally different happened,” Borden said. “They all think they did drugs and passed out on the beach right when you ran out.” He shook his head. “But I know what really happened.”
“You were high,” Nathaniel said, shaking his head. The evidence of their beating was still all over his face. “Go home to your castle, Borden.”
Borden shot a hand out to stop Nathaniel from closing the door.
And suddenly something blue crackled over his hand.
Like lightning.
My eyes snapped up to Borden’s.
He gazed back at me with a dead serious expression.
I looked back at his hand. The electrical lightning continued to crackle over his hand.
A curse slipped over Nathaniel’s lips.
“My entire life, I thought I was alone,” Borden said as he removed his hand from the door. There was a black scorch mark, in the exact shape of his land, left on the door. He brought both of his hands up together, and I watched as lightning sparked between them, crackling back and forth. “I thought I was the only freak in the world. Until that day on the beach, when I watched you do two impossible things.”
Dread dropped heavy in my stomach.
“Teach me,” Borden asked, and there was something in his voice that wasn’t just asking. He was begging. “Please,” his words came out as a whisper.
But I shook my head. “After what you’ve done to Nathaniel, you’d dare come and ask us to help you?”
And with my words, I realized I’d just ratted Nathaniel out. Borden’s eyes flicked up to meet Nathaniel’s. There was understanding that dawned in his eyes.
“You and your boys nearly killed him that day,” I said, disgust dripping from my words. “And you want me to help you?”
“I can only access it when I’m angry,” Borden suddenly said, his words coming out in a combined jumbled rush. “Calm and happy, I can’t make the lightning happen. But when I’m angry… It’s the only reason I stay with the Society Boys, because they piss me off more than any other people on this planet.”
His words stunned me silent. I had to blink five, six, seven times as I processed what he’d just said.
“David’s an entitled asshole, and I know you think I am, too,” Borden said as he tucked his ha
nds back into his pockets to protect them from the cold. “I might be rich, and I’ll never escape the royalty reputation around here. But I swear, the only reason I’m with the Boys is so I can have control over this. If you teach me, if you can help me, I swear, I’ll never even talk to David again.”
His eyes burned with sincerity. They burned so bright I almost forgot that he’d been with the Boys the night they’d tried to kill Nathaniel.
I saw it in his eyes. In his lips. In the arch of his eyebrows.
“The name Stewart is from Scotland,” Nathaniel said. “A long line of kings and violence and war. And…more than one accused mages in the area were Stewarts.”
I let my eyes slide closed as Nathaniel’s words sank down into me.
Borden was one of us. A Society Boy. But also, a mage.
“I swear, Margot,” he said, and I hated that I believed him. “If you will help me, I will be loyal to you. And Nathaniel. You will have my resources. And I will make sure David and the rest of the Boys never, ever bother the two of you again.”
I opened my eyes, and for the first time, I saw an innocent, scared and confused boy.
I saw a cousin. A brother. An equal.
“Please, Margot,” Borden breathed, looking absolutely open and desperate. “Teach me what I am.”
Everything in my heart wanted to say no. I didn’t want to forgive. I didn’t want to trust that he could change like he was promising.
But as I looked up at Nathaniel, I saw in his eyes that he’d already forgiven Borden Stewart. He had hope in his eyes. There was excitement in him.
In that look between us, I saw Nathaniel’s answer.
So, with a tight breath in my chest, I looked back at Borden. I met the eyes of a different man. Someone I didn’t know. Someone I would have to forgive.
“Alright,” I said. “Come inside.”
THE END OF BOOK ONE
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