Professor McGuinness looked confused. “I just never think about these things.”
“We need to Queer Eye for the Straight Guy him!” I said. “Or—Straight Eye for the Queer Guy…?”
“You are speaking my language, girl,” Daisy said. “Queer Eye is my soul mate.”
“Have you seen the Netflix one?”
“Netflix one?” she screamed. “No!”
“It’s really good,” I said. “It has new guys.”
“New guys! That feels like a betrayal.”
“Nah, the originals just have their own lives now. You’ll like this. The new guys are as good as the old guys.”
“But where’s my Carson?”
“You haven’t met Jonathan yet.”
“Okay, I’m listening.”
“I do think we’d better make it quick, though,” Professor McGuinness interrupted. “I think we can all hear about Jonathan later. Just try to find me something that when Samuel sees me he says, ‘You’re looking well.’”
We ended up being at the mall until it closed. We got Professor McGuinness as ready for his date with the dead to the best of our cumulative abilities.
Daisy seemed like she was in heaven and would have to be dragged out. “If my grandmother was here there would be so much drama,” she said to me at one point as I was looking at a clearance rack. “She’s a beast to salespeople and nothing is ever right. I love how you’re just like, ‘I like these jeans!’”
“You secretly think I’m a simpleton, don’t you?”
She did that ‘hmm hmm hmm!’ laugh.
Haircut, shave, a little makeup for the dark circles under his eyes plus a tiny bit of guyliner under protest, upscale leather jacket, black shirt with blue fleur-de-lys pattern, shoes that didn’t look like they had been to a shoe repair place three times already, and Professor McGuinness…
“You’re kind of hot,” Daisy said.
“Oh, really,” he said skeptically, rolling his eyes.
“No, she’s right. I bet Samuel will be impressed,” I said. We must have shaved twenty years off of dour old Professor McGuinness somehow.
“I haven’t seen him in years. I’m not trying to impress him, anyway, he is dead.”
“This is super depressing,” Daisy said. “We just made him look beautiful for a love that can never be.”
He turned red. “It’s not love. It’s just that I want to look on par with Samuel; I’m sure he’ll be a very handsome ghost. Let’s get going.”
Professor McGuinness had a car, that it seemed like he barely knew how to drive, but after being passed by every angry driver in Savannah, he found a parking space from which we could enter the parallel. I saw the air shimmer as we approached and waited for the right moment, trading electric lights and traffic for candlelight and carriages.
“Adams has a little house where I’m staying,” he said. “He’s out tonight.” He said this in a tone where I knew Adams was out with a lady, maybe his demon lady, unless he was really getting busy after leaving the confines of Merlin. “Just here…”
When we reached the house, Montague was sitting on the steps. “What the hell? I’ve been here for two hours.”
“The door is open—oh—” Professor McGuinness’ eyes widened. “I forgot the vampire problem.”
“Professor,” Montague said, standing up to get a better look. “I have to admit, you look fantastic. So that’s what you were doing.”
“And we did all this without even having basic access to a Nordstroms or a Bloomingdales,” Daisy bragged.
“Terribly sorry to leave you out in the cold,” Professor McGuinness said.
“Well, at least I don’t really get cold either,” Montague said. “But I wouldn’t say no to a crackling fire and a cup of tea.”
“Did you get your mom’s birthday present?” I asked him. He still had this distant, troubled look.
“Yes. Earrings.”
“Ooh, can I see?”
“I had them shipped from the store.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Is that a thing?”
“Yes,” he said. “It is a thing.”
McGuinness got a nice fire burning in the old parlor and made tea for everyone, and then it really was time to get to summoning. I think he was more nervous than I was, but I was still nervous. Samuel told me not to summon him, so I didn’t expect him to be pleased with me. But I do have a reason, I thought, clutching my wand.
“I’ll let you begin,” Professor McGuinness said. “More practice certainly won’t harm you. You can use the fire.”
“All right.” I looked into the flames, although this reminded me uncomfortably of summoning Alec’s pissy mom. I lifted my wand and shut my eyes, finding my concentration. It had been such a crazy week, and that made it harder to center myself, but I was getting better at the tricks. Breathe in and out…feel the magic flowing through the wand… Montague was watching me carefully, making me feel self-conscious, although he also seemed to relax by the fire. I wondered why he was lying to me, but the trouble with Montague is that a part of him was always far away from me.
I felt kind of blocked up. I was the tiniest bit afraid to summon Samuel, maybe. I don’t know why. I guess there was a lot of hype surrounding him, and then I feared he might be mad at me.
I also didn’t want to give my wand to Professor McGuinness. I knew I had to keep it safe, but it was mine. My wyrd wand. It was what led me here and made me special.
I could hear Harris sneering, Is that the real reason? You’re afraid of losing your Chosen One status, eh?
The fire started roaring high enough that Professor McGuinness had to intervene with a bit of hand waving.
“Charlotte…?” he said. “What is troubling you?”
I bit my lip. “Fares wyrd as she must,” I murmured. Fate didn’t leave room for a big ego. Classic fantasy novel stuff, again—power corrupts. Rings, thrones, the ‘Fortune’s Wheel’ spell in Fortune’s Fate that dealt death to your enemies but also slowly sapped your vitality stats… “I’m good,” I said. The fire calmed down.
A moment later, a smoky form drifted out of the fire and we all took a step back as it coalesced into the slightly translucent form of Samuel Caruthers.
Even though I had summoned the dead before, this did feel different. I had already heard Samuel’s voice in my mind, and our wands came from the same tree. Samuel was my blood. But unlike my poor mom, he wasn’t here to try and drag me into the abyss.
He looked debonair and vaguely disappointed. “I knew you’d do it,” he said. “But I tried to tell you not to. Please, Charlotte, I am trying not to get attached. I don’t want to be a ghost.”
“Um…sorry,” I said. “We won’t get attached. I promise. I just have a question.”
But I had so many questions. So many!
Samuel Caruthers looked a lot like my mom. They could have been siblings. I didn’t realize how much they looked alike from the few photos I’d seen of him. I wanted to ask him about his life, about my mom and Ina. I wanted to ask him what the heck I was supposed to do about the faeries and the Withered Lord and his friggin’ mom.
“What is the question?” he asked.
“Wait—uh…” Professor McGuinness stepped up now. Samuel seemed like he had just noticed him. Maybe our world was sort of translucent to him too.
“Igor? Is that you?”
Igor? I mean, why not.
“Yes, it’s me. It’s been a long time.”
“I hardly recognized you! What happened to the all-black? Are you wearing a hat?”
“Well, the young ladies told me my look was a little musty.”
You know what else is musty? Calling us ‘Young ladies’.
But I behaved myself. Samuel looked happy to see an old friend.
“I know I’ve always been a pretty…provincial warlock, compared to you, roaming the world…magazine covers… Well, what am I saying? I am very happy for you, Samuel. I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed our time t
ogether at Merlin. I never really—told you. I think when you invited me to that picnic, and then down by the creek, you were trying to signal something and I knew it even at the time but I was just too nervous to reciprocate.”
“I knew you were,” Samuel said. “I was pretty disappointed anyway, but in hindsight, you wouldn’t have gotten the teaching job if…”
“And damn all that,” Professor McGuinness said. “I could have been there when…maybe I could have…”
“Picnic? Creek? Y’all were serious!” I said.
Samuel looked grim. “I’m glad you weren’t there, Ig. It was—not a pretty scene. Why should you die with me?”
“I think I was just a coward,” Professor McGuinness said. “The rest of you were trying to improve the world and I just wanted a cushy job.”
“Fame and fortune never suited you,” Samuel said.
“Well, the fortune part, I wouldn’t mind, but the fame? You’re right.”
“We had different paths,” Samuel said. “At some point I realized I had to accept that…”
“I am in the fight now,” Professor McGuinness said. “I promise you, Samuel, I will protect these children.”
Samuel reached a hand out to Professor McGuinness and their fingers brushed, but Samuel seemed to be made of air.
Well, this was getting sad. They both seemed like they regretted some decisions and would have liked to talk more and my brain was like, Oh shit, you’re not supposed to form attachments to the dead. I can’t let Samuel become a sad ghost.
“So…you were killed by the Withered Lord?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said. “The Withered Lord came in the night to assassinate me. He has a bone to pick with our family, Charlotte, ever since your grandmother freed her wolves. He brought them up from childhood, but not kindly. She gave him her magic to rescue them, but he still felt like he had lost the fight, and he doesn’t lose many fights.”
Shoot. I was really hoping there would be a twist and it wouldn’t be the Withered Lord. Not a pretty scene? He doesn’t lose many fights?
“But he is lashing out because he knows he’s losing,” Samuel said. “That’s the good news.”
“Cool,” I said. “So…you really think…we have a chance?”
“Oh, yes,” Samuel said. “It must be done. It’s our best chance to earn entry to Wyrd, and that would change the magical community as we’ve known it for thousands of years, breaking the old guard and giving us—or…you—more opportunities.”
“But we might die though?” Daisy said.
“Well, anything worth doing can kill you,” Samuel said.
“Do you think we’ve trained enough?” I asked.
“You will always feel like you haven’t trained enough,” Samuel said. “But the core of magic is your will and your heart, not your age. Fares wyrd as she must, Charlotte. Everything has fallen together, not as we anticipated, but it never does. You know what you must do.”
“But we might die, though.” I glanced at Daisy. “And my dad…”
“Well, I can’t force you to do it,” Samuel said. “But I gave you my magic. You are the one I chose. Ina and I never had children. You are the only Caruthers, and we’re a tough lot. You can make us all proud, and you can save Emily from that dark place. I have faith in you.”
Do you even really know me?
I guess I thought he would be like, You’re going to go kill the withered Lord? No way! That’s too dangerous. You need fifty years of training first!
“Samuel?” I swallowed down my nerves. “I need to give my wand to Professor McGuinness for safekeeping. I can trust him to keep it safe, can’t I?”
“Yes.”
As I handed my wand to Professor McGuinness, Samuel smiled. “And you’ve passed another faery test. That wand gives you power, and surrendering that power to someone else isn’t easy to do. The faery queen will look upon this favorably. But don’t summon me again.” He bowed to me. “I will be close, but unseen. Fare well, Charlotte. Igor…”
He drifted away, melding back into smoke, and now the fire crackled like a normal fire again. Professor McGuinness quickly rubbed his eyes. “Well…he seems at peace.”
“He seems like he’s making the best of a sucky situation,” Daisy said. “But he shouldn’t. Like, he’s dead and that demon killed him like it was just a fun night out. I can’t wait to have his head. I mean, the demon. And if we also get to change the world?” She squeezed my shoulder. “Girl, don’t be scared, we’ve got a whole team assembling. And you’ve gotta help Alec, right?”
“Definitely. You’re right. No one said being the Chosen One would be easy.”
“If we can make Professor McGuinness look like a million bucks with an outfit from Stein Mart, we can do anything.”
“Yeah, that checks out.”
Professor McGuinness looked at the fire sadly. “I swear I will keep your wand safe and sound, Charlotte, until the time comes. I just hope you’re all right at Merlin…”
“We’re stronger together than scattered across the country, even if we have to deal with Piers,” Montague said. “There is still nowhere else I’d rather be right now.”
“I hope you can compel him not to notice we left for the weekend,” Daisy said. “Otherwise, this is going to suck.”
Chapter Thirty
Charlotte
“You are all coming with me.”
Piers looked mad. He was surrounded by like, ten guards. They also looked mad.
This was going to suck.
“I won’t hurt you,” he said. “Please, get my cousin. He should see this as well,” he told one of the guards. “Daisy…you can go back to your room. This doesn’t involve you.”
“I’ll stay,” Daisy said, crossing her arms. “If you’re going to traumatize my friends, Piers, then you might as well traumatize me too.”
“Well…you are a loyal friend, I’ll give you that,” he said. “Fine, come along. Maybe that is a good idea, actually. You all need a better understanding of procedure.”
Procedure. Is there any word in the English language sexier than ‘procedure’? Besides most of them? I prayed that whatever he was going to do to punish us would be boring.
Piers took us to a small chamber in the basement of the main hall and opened a big glowy portal with one circular swish of his wand. “You must be silent,” he said. “I am bringing you here to observe. If you interfere, you will be painfully zapped and dragged from the room, which will only cause more distress, I’m sure.”
“We’re going to Etherium?” Harris asked.
“Where else?”
“Why?”
“To witness the trial of Amelia Halt.”
Ignatius.
Oh no.
We were urged through the portal by Piers, who looked like he wasn’t really enjoying this either, but was doing his sworn duty or something. He tried to give Daisy a vaguely apologetic look, but she wasn’t interested.
We stepped into a hall with soaring ceilings. Light fell through tall windows with stained glass panes at the top. The floors were marble or something marble-like, and there were a lot of people and some animals walking around, which was the big tip off that we were in Etherium.
“Come, let’s get seated before it begins,” Piers said, waving his hand.
We settled into this court room that smelled pleasant in the most unfeeling way and the vibe was definitely procedural. We probably only had to wait for ten minutes before stuff started happening, but it was a long, excruciating ten minutes.
The judge entered and took his place behind the big table with the gavel. Standard court stuff. He was wearing a long white wig and everything. Then, the councils filed in, both witches and the warlocks, at the same time as Ignatius was brought to the stand, escorted by a businesslike young witch. Piers had joined them down there, and he seemed stiff, and was trying not to look at us.
Ignatius looked like he had lost weight and sleep in considerable quantities. He had the cheekbones
of a supermodel. And…he was wearing a plain black dress.
This embarrassed him tremendously. That was obvious, even though he was holding his head high, which made me cringe. As prison uniforms went, it wasn’t even ugly. It didn’t look that different from my prom dress, which was black and very classic, bordering on boring.
But they made him wear it to shame him, and that made me want to look away, even though he was attractively androgynous and could have worn absolutely anything.
“So—,” Daisy started.
“Shh.” Harris was sharp.
Ignatius didn’t seem to notice us yet, which wasn’t a surprise, because the lights on us were dim, and more people had filed in to witness the trial. I didn’t see an obvious jury, so I assumed the councils were the jury.
Ignatius slowly rolled his shoulders back, let out his breath, and put his hands on the stand like he was bracing himself.
Madame Solano stood up, squinting her old eyes at a piece of paper before looking up at him. “Amelia Halt,” she said. “You will be judged this day by the council of witches, as all witches are, but as you see, in light of your situation, some of the warlock council is present as witnesses.”
“If that is what you decided,” Ignatius said, his fingers twitching. I could see how nervous he was, but two of his fingers were the only tell.
“Miss Halt, you say that when you were a child, your mother said, and I quote from the witness account, you wanted to be a boy, and your mother said, why not be a boy. Can you elaborate on whether or not she performed a spell on you to physically alter your gender?”
“My mother is dead,” Ignatius said. “So am I on trial for her spell? Or is her spirit on trial?”
Catherine said, “We need to know your charges. Did you physically alter yourself? Or are you using illusions?”
“I am aware of the law. It has no bearing on my charges. I understand the charges. I was born a witch and therefore, attending a warlock school without explicit permission is illegal. I also understand that gender swapping spells have been illegal for hundreds of years, but in that case, the law only says that the caster is to be held accountable. The caster is dead.”
A Fine Necromance: A Paranormal Academy Series (A Witch Among Warlocks Book 3) Page 19