by Elena Lawson
I shook my head. “No, you don’t have to do that. As long as they don’t cause trouble, I don’t want to cause them any, either. I was just curious, is all.”
She nodded slowly, then closed the file and tapped her fingernails on top. “And the other unrelated part of this research?”
I hesitated, unsure how to ask without arousing suspicion. Strangers at a bar were one thing, but Cecily knew me. There wasn’t really a good way to ask, so I just spit it out.
“Say you get your familiar, but it’s something dangerous and somehow resists the bond. Have you ever heard of a witch breaking their familiar bond?”
Her eyes widened. “You said this was research?”
“Yeah,” I lied. “Evolutionary traits and all that. Maybe the witch is weak, or the animal itself is defective in some way, but the animal wants to kill the witch to break the bond rather than be tied to them.”
She glanced under her desk, where I had no doubt Thor, her white husky familiar, was hanging out at her feet. He and Fallon had been instant friends and the two of them were how we’d met as teenagers. Cecily looked as uncomfortable as I felt at the thought of breaking such a bond, but she resolutely shook her head.
“I can’t say I’ve ever heard of a spell that could do that,” she finally said. “No. As much shit as I have to deal with on the daily with this lump of annoying canine muscle, I’ve never heard of any witch breaking the bond, or even a bonded familiar resisting or wanting to hurt their witch. And that’s saying something since I was put on the Alchemist Relations desk last year for six months. Doesn’t seem like a likely theory to run with, even if it is just for a research paper or whatever it is you professors get up to.”
I knew it’d been a long shot, but I had to try. For her. “Thanks anyway. If you do find anything else about this Alistair Hawkins, will you give me a shout? I’d… I’d like to give her something, even if it’s not what she wants to hear.”
“I’ll do what I can.” She pushed away from the desk and stood. The smile she gave me didn’t have the same spark as it had only a few years before.
Thor’s nails clacked on the floor as he came out and pressed against her legs protectively, blue eyes the same color as hers watching me as if I hadn’t known him since he was a pup. Though I guessed indifference was better than scorn. The first time I’d seen Cecily after we broke up, Thor had tried to bite my head off. Furious at how I’d hurt his girl in leaving her.
“Be careful who you ask these kinds of questions, Elias.” Cecily’s gaze fell, shifting over the floor uncomfortably. “Just because I disagree with your choice of career doesn’t mean I want to see you lose it.”
My heart pounded once, twice. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Sure,” she said, rolling her eyes half-heartedly, the serious moment passed, leaving her easy smile back in its place. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything worth mentioning. Keep out of trouble?”
“Always do.”
Cecily snorted.
“Thanks. It was good seeing you.”
“My door’s always open,” she said with a coy smirk just as I slipped back outside.
Though I hadn’t gone in expecting much, I still left feeling useless. The books wouldn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know, and attempting to create something new was too dangerous to risk Harper. If Adrian and Cal were coming and going so often, their pack had to be somewhere close by.
Maybe finding them, talking to the Endurans, was our only option at this point. Even though it was witch magic, maybe they would have a unique insight that could help break them apart.
I just prayed it didn’t break Harper, as well.
19
Harper
I was still in a stupor the next day when Bianca burst into our room just before dinner. After dealing with the Endurans in the woods, and processing Elias’ kiss, I thought it would be a good idea to bury my nose in a book for a while and went to the library. But it didn’t matter how many pages I flipped through on familiar lore, and man was there a lot of it, I could find absolutely nothing on how to undo the binding magic.
And nothing even remotely interesting enough to evict the thoughts of Elias from my mind.
I chucked the book I’d brought back to my room with me to the other end of the bed, glad for a proper distraction. “Hey!” I said, trying to muster up a cheery voice. To shake off the million questions and confusing thoughts vying for my attention at the edges of my mind. “How was your visit?”
She dropped a couple of paper bags emblazoned with designer brand names down on her bed. I’d never seen her in regular clothes, I realized. But there she was in a bright yellow dress, with brown suede lace-up boots climbing her legs to her calves and a purposefully faded jean jacket. She looked good.
“It was great! My little brothers just got one of those virtual reality video game things and they’re, like, addicted to it, so I hardly got to spend any time with them. But I managed to get some shopping in, and a soak in the hot-tub.”
Sounded glamorous. And here I was hiding out in our dorm room, away from all the sidelong glances and outright stares of the other students as they returned from their weekends away. It seemed there were more than a few of them who believed I was in fact to blame for the freakish storm Friday night. Ugh.
I was about to ask her what she bought when she gasped, whirling around to face me, her eyes wide and excited. “Oh! And I told them all about you—my brothers, I mean. They are dying to come into their powers, so when I told them I was roomies with the most powerful witch at the academy, they were all ears. They’re super excited to meet you!”
I snorted, ignoring the fact that she’d told them I was pretty much a mega witch, which was so not true. A bit more powerful than most, maybe, but that was it. “Yeah, well, they’ll be waiting...” I pretended to glance at an invisible watch on my wrist. “Oh, about another four years before I can leave.”
“Right,” Bianca said, deflating as she chewed her bottom lip. “Hey! Why don’t you just come with me? We have a guest room, or you can just stay with me in my room! Uncle Sterling never says no to me. We could go next weekend.”
My first instinct was to say no. I didn’t particularly want to go anywhere near Headmaster Sterling’s house. But wait, that wasn’t quite true, was it? I sucked in a breath.
Maybe it was exactly where I wanted to be. He could have council documents there. Or files. Or any manner of things that could lead me to finding out more about my dad. If I had something to hide, I wouldn’t hide it in the academy. I’d keep it someplace private, like in my bedroom, or in a private office in my home. Somewhere no one else would stumble on it.
“Yeah,” I said hastily. “Actually, I’d love that. Sounds fun.”
She smiled wide and sat down, pulling her designer shopping bags onto her lap. My own smile faltered and an ugly, guilty feeling weighed down my shoulders and pressed on my chest.
I wanted to talk to her about my dad, to tell her what I learned, but then I would have to tell her I suspected her uncle had something to do with it. And I didn’t know exactly how close they were. Would she freak out? Tell him I was basically accusing him of harboring information, or worse, that I thought he might have actually had something to do with it?
That sure as hell wouldn’t be getting me any brownie points. And I had to admit, there was a chance I could be completely wrong. I’ll tell her, I told myself. I’ll tell her when I know for sure one way or the other.
“So,” she said, and I realized I hadn’t been paying attention. I looked up and she was holding out two headbands. A navy blue lululemon one, and a simple black one like the one I was already wearing, except hers wasn’t fraying at the edges and faded from years of use. “I noticed you had a thing for headbands.”
She must’ve seen the thrill in my expression because she laughed and I squealed, jumping off the bed. I didn’t think anybody had ever bought me anything, except for Leo and Lara, of course, but that was d
ifferent.
I reached out to touch the navy one, the fabric looked so soft, but I stopped just before my fingertips could brush the fine fabric. “You really shouldn’t have bought me anything,” I said, realizing I wouldn’t be able to return the favor. I hadn’t so much as a dime to my name.
“They’re headbands.” She gave me a mock look of annoyance. “It’s not like I bought you a damn Bugatti. Take them! Yours is... well, it was in need of replacement.”
I took them from her outstretched hands, immediately replacing the old ratty one I was wearing with the navy blue one. It fit snugly and held my hair firmly away from my face. “Thank you,” I said, more than a little awkwardly.
“You’re welcome,” she said. She stood and tossed the other bags into the closet. “Now, shall we get some dinner? I’m starved.”
* * *
It took Bianca four days to convince Sterling to let me go with her for the weekend, and when she told me earlier that afternoon, I was shocked. Not like I doubted her or anything, but I really thought this was the one time her uncle might not give in to her every whim.
From what she told me, he was quite the doting parental figure. And I thought it so strange to think of him that way and not as the snake I thought he was.
“It’s super weird, though—him saying we aren’t allowed to leave the house. I really wanted to show you around,” Bianca whispered, glancing up from the thick volume laid out in front of her on the wide wooden table between us. “I don’t know why he’d say that.”
We were in the library. The both of us were studying for a big test in Incantations tomorrow morning, when really I should have been doing more research. Trying to come up with something—anything—to do what I told Cal and Adrian I would find a way to do.
“I can think of a reason or two,” I blurted before I could stop the words from slipping out.
“What? What do you mean?”
I supposed it was alright if she knew the truth about that one thing. Now that I knew her, I felt fairly confident she wouldn’t judge me.
“Well, you never really asked why I just randomly started coming to Arcane Arts Academy more than halfway through the term.”
Her brown eyes sparked with interest, and her mouth fell open. “Dish!” she ordered me, a little louder than was necessary.
The librarian, an older woman with a large bun of silver hair and horn-rimmed spectacles on a thin gold chain, hushed us sharply from the front of the enormous room.
She must’ve had supersonic hearing. The library was a castle unto itself, taking up almost an entire wing of the academy. It had shelves stacked floor to ceiling on the main floor, with rolling ladders for the students to reach the ones higher up. Two study areas were nestled in the back, where we sat in the smaller of the two. And there was an open second level with carved banisters so the people above could see down below and vice versa.
It was my favorite place in all of the academy—or at least it was until I’d had to start spending every free second of my time scouring hundreds of pages for information I wasn’t even sure existed. I must’ve looked through over a hundred books since last Friday, and I had the papercuts to prove it.
“Harper!” Bianca urged. “Tell me!”
I leaned in over the table. “Alright! Just calm down. Quit being so damn loud. You’re going to get us kicked out.”
“Pffffft,” she said. “Please. Have you forgotten whose uncle runs this place? Now, dish before I pry it from you. Pretty sure I just saw an incantation for that.”
I gave her a snide look, rolling my eyes before the whole story began to pour from my lips like a faucet left wide open. I told her what happened in the market square at the French Quarter. About the unintentional earthquake I’d caused. And the kind council member who took pity on me and sent me here instead of Kalzir or some other awful place.
When I was finished, she sat back in her chair, her mouth hanging open. “It makes so much sense now,” she said. “No wonder my uncle kept asking about you!”
“You didn’t tell him, did you? About...” My gaze flicked to the windows behind her and what waited for me out in the woods there. I gulped.
“Of course not,” she said, looking only mildly offended.
I breathed, relieved not to find a single trace of judgment in her eyes. She went back to studying like I hadn’t just finished telling her I’d broken two of our laws and was basically sent here as a prison sentence. She was surprised, sure, that much was obvious. But no more than that.
It was official. She was starting to grow on me. With some weight taken from my shoulders, I felt lighter when I went back to studying. But within ten minutes, the words in the tome I had open in front of me started to blur together and I realized how incredibly tired I was. Not just tired of reading a million words in old, boring texts, but also tired of so many other things.
I unburdened myself of one tiny thing, but there was a herd of others stampeding through my head to take its place. I was tired of tests and failing in class. Tired of not being able to get a private second with Elias to talk about what happened between us in the woods. Tired of not being able to learn anything else about my dad or what happened to him.
Just. Plain. Tired.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in anything but a suit,” Bianca said, breaking my focus. I turned to follow her line of vision, finding Elias on the other end in his leather jacket and jeans.
What was he doing?
Our eyes locked for an instant, and his hands clenched, conveying a message of urgency. A moment later he turned and left. He needed to talk to me.
I whirled back around in my seat and swallowed as I fought a blush and the racing of my pulse.
“I’d like to get to know his history, if you know what I mean,” Bianca said, waggling her eyebrows and licking her lips. I stood so quickly my chair fell over behind me, crashing against the marble tile. I rushed to right it, mouthing an apology to the librarian who was shooting daggers at me with her eyes.
“I’m—uh—going to get a coffee. You want one?”
Bianca lifted one of her perfectly manicured blond brows at me. “Yeah. Sure. Everything alright?”
I pushed my chair back in. “Just super tired. This test is going to be the death of me.”
“Tell me about it,” she laughed quietly. “Hurry back, though. We haven’t even gotten to the chapter on the dangers of mispronunciation.”
I nodded. Yay. I couldn’t wait.
Squishing down the panic before it could do more than make my skin itch and a ball form in my throat, I rushed toward the exit after Elias. Weaving through the stacks to save myself some steps. That’s where she caught me.
“Why in such a rush?” she asked from behind me and I froze, gritting my teeth as I spun on one heel. I’d admit, I fully expected some sort of retribution from the resident queen bitch, but I did not have time for this crap right now.
I turned to face her, and she flipped her yellow-blond hair away from her chest. There was one button too many undone on her blouse, revealing a lacy cream and black bra beneath. Classy.
“What do you want, Kendra?”
It was strange seeing her alone, and I immediately scanned the aisle of books, looking for her two minions.
“Me?” she asked, feigning apprehension. “Oh, nothing really,” she continued, drawing out her vowels in that way people like her did when they wanted to sound super dramatic and mysterious. She was pulling off the dramatic bit, but I wasn’t the least bit curious what she had to say.
She stepped in closer with her manicured hands clasped behind her back, her chin raised high. I glanced longingly at the exit, mere meters away from where Kendra and I now stood between two towering bookcases.
“I just had a question,” she said, batting her lashes at me innocently, her voice so sickeningly sweet it made me want to barf.
“I don’t have time for this,” I snapped at her, stepping away. “I have studying to do.”
&
nbsp; I turned to leave.
“Is that what you were doing out in the woods the other night? Studying?”
My lips pressed together, and a clammy sweat sprang from my pores, coating my palms and the back of my neck. Shit. If I turned around and tried to make up an excuse, she’d know I was hiding something. I was a crap liar, and I knew it.
But if I didn’t say anything, she might think she was onto something.
Oh no. Had she seen me coming out of the woods with Elias?
The panic was starting to mount, and I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough to draw blood. Racking my brain. Trying to come up with something to say. Grasping at slick straws.
No, she couldn’t have seen us together. It was the weekend then. She wouldn’t have been here. Almost nobody was. They’d all gone home to visit friends and family. At least that one secret was still safe.
For now.
I shuddered to think what would happen if it ever wasn’t. I didn’t want to think about the repercussions Elias could face. It made me feel selfish and cruel.
“I saw you come out of the trees looking a bit disheveled. Meeting someone out there, were you? Not practicing magic off academy grounds, I hope,” she continued, circling me. “Oh! Or maybe you were hoping to finally bond to your familiar. Did you know that you’re the only one in the entire academy who doesn’t have one? I checked.”
Well then, she didn’t check all that well, did she? Since I did have a familiar. I had two of the damn things. And I wasn’t the only one who didn’t have one. Both Sterling and one of the other teachers’ familiars had passed on.
I wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all. What did she know, anyway? I’d give anything to go back to not having a familiar if it meant not being eaten alive by a pack of wolves.
My magic ignited within me as though she’d thrown a lit match into my gasoline filled veins. The floor beneath my feet trembled.
Stop, Harper. Rein it in.
I didn’t need to draw any more attention to myself than I already had.