Then again, my grandmother hadn’t been prepared for something to find her.
Or us.
So maybe things were worse than I thought.
“I don’t want to go with you,” I whispered. I wanted to go hunt for my grandmother. I wanted to go find her. Something told me that Erin knew more than she was letting on. Why else would she be so certain that my grandmother was dead? Wouldn’t there be some sort of sign? Maybe there would be a note or a blood drop or something. There wasn’t. There was nothing.
It didn’t make sense.
If someone had been searching for something at the cabin, wouldn’t they have found a way to communicate that to me? Maybe they were going to hold my grandmother ransom until I gave them the information or the money they wanted. I didn’t want to go with Erin. I wanted to hunt, to search for the people responsible for this.
If I had some time, I could figure it out.
I could talk to people, conduct interviews. I could do some research. I could find out exactly what Mémère had been working on. I could find out and I could solve the mystery of her disappearance. More importantly, I could get her back.
I had to get her back.
“You have to come with me,” Erin said sadly.
“I’m an adult,” I said, standing up straight. “And I have rights.”
Erin looked at me and a gentle smile played on her lips. Her bleached blonde hair made her look ageless, to be honest. I wonder if that’s what she was going for when she chose her current style. She was wearing her witching robes, for some reason, which made me think that she traveled here magically.
How did she find us after all of this time?
And how did she find us today?
“You do have rights,” Erin agreed. “But I’m a witch,” she said, and she snapped her fingers.
Then everything went black.
Chapter 4
When I woke up, the world was spinning.
I wasn’t in front of the cabin anymore. In fact, I wasn’t really sure where I was at all. Everything was jolting around and the ground beneath me was bumpy. I felt jostled. Moved. Then I realized I wasn’t on the ground anymore. I was on some sort of vehicle. I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. I felt sick and hungry and sad all at the same time. How long had I been asleep for? Hours? Days?
Then I heard a voice.
“Good, you’re awake.”
Ah, yes.
Erin.
Everything came rushing back in one wondrously painful memory and I grimaced. She made me faint and then she brought me…on a train? Is that where I am? A train?
“Yes, it’s a train,” she said. Apparently, I spoke out loud.
“Where are we going?” I asked. Not that she would tell me. Erin had a lot of stuff up her sleeves, apparently. First, Mémère had been kidnapped. Then I had. There was no doubt in my mind that Erin had definitely kidnapped me. I didn’t think she felt like she had. She probably thought she was doing me a favor, but I wanted to search, to hunt, to be productive.
I did not want to sit in a little train suite with a witch, especially one I really didn’t know all that well. It had been years since I’d seen Erin. I’d grown up a lot since then. I wasn’t the same little kid who loved to play dolls and make believe. I was grown up now. I was an adult.
“We’ll get to that in a minute. First things first: are you thirsty?” Erin actually looked a little concerned. Was she worried about my well-being? Or was she just glad she didn’t have to go find me something to drink?
“My cat,” I managed to whisper, realizing I didn’t know where Boo was.
“Is fine,” she said, pointing at the bench beside me. Sure enough, Boo was awake and seemed to be irritated, but he was with me. That was something. I didn’t know what I would have done if I had woken up in a strange place without my grandmother or my familiar.
I had come to depend on both of them so much.
I really relied on them.
I glanced at Boo. He seemed to be a little ruffled, but okay. His eyes searched mine. Was he confused? Scared? Lonely? The thought of my little kitty being afraid for me while I was sleeping hurt my soul. I reached for Boo and pet his head softly.
“Everything is going to be okay,” I told him. I didn’t know if that was true. Things were completely different than they had been when I first woke up that morning. I thought the biggest obstacle I was going to face was dealing with my asshole of a boss. I didn’t think I was going to see my long-lost aunt or lose my grandmother. Not all in the same day. It was a lot to handle.
I looked around the little train car. It was like something out of a movie. There were two opposing benches with racks overhead. I suppose luggage was supposed to go there, but I didn’t have any. Well, aside from my bag.
My bag!
I looked around and realized the bag was still with me. Good. I had strapped it over my shoulder, so it stayed in place even after I fainted. Because there was a zipper on the bag, I knew that all of my important things would still be safely inside: my baby blanket, my picture, my grandmother’s book. Everything was there. Everything I needed to make a fresh start was there.
I wasn’t sure what Erin wanted with me, but I’d find out before planning my next move. Who knew? Maybe she would drop me off somewhere and I’d have to sneak away the moment she turned her back. Maybe she would take me on an adventure. Maybe she would reveal some deep, dark family secrets that could help me on my quest for vengeance.
I didn’t know.
What I did know was that it hadn’t been very long at all since I lost my grandmother and the world didn’t feel right without her.
“Thank you for making sure my cat came with me,” I managed to say to my aunt. I tried to remember my manners as much as possible. Facing my aunt seemed strange. It was uncomfortable, but I didn’t really know why. She was my dad’s kid sister, so I spent a lot of time with her when I was little. She always came over to the house for dinner. Then she and my dad would go hunting or jogging together and Mom and I would hang out and practice spells. Even then, I couldn’t do spells, but my mom never seemed to care.
She never seemed to think there was something broken inside of me.
“I know he’s important to you,” Erin said gently.
I nodded because I didn’t have anything else to say. I pet Boo and pretended like I was back at the house, like everything was normal.
Erin noticed. She wasn’t about to let that fly.
“We need to talk,” she said. “About what happened,” she added, as though I didn’t know.
“I told you what happened,” I said. Why did I feel like she was accusing me of something?
“How did they find your grandmother?” Erin asked. “She had been incredibly careful up to this point. She followed her own rules. Even I couldn’t find her. She never told anyone your last name or she used a fake one. Hell, I wouldn’t be shocked if she used a fake first name.”
“She did,” I confirmed, and Erin smiled.
“She always was a clever woman.” Her smile faded then. “What can you tell me about the past few days? Something happened and I want to know what. I want to know who.”
“What do you mean? Wasn’t this just…a random kidnapping?”
“It was not random and it was not a kidnapping.” Erin sighed. “I know you don’t want to hear this and you probably won’t believe it, but it wasn’t a kidnapping, Max. Your grandma was killed. I’m going to find out why.”
“You?”
“Yes, me,” Erin nodded and leaned back. “I’m the head of a coven now, Max. Things are different now than when you were a kid.” Finally, she acknowledged that I wasn’t a kid anymore. “I’m very powerful, but even I wasn’t able to locate your grandmother until today. I couldn’t find her until she called me.”
“She called you?” We didn’t have a telephone at the house. How did she manage that?
“She realized she was in danger and she did a spell to contact me,” my a
unt explained. “It revealed her location to me, but it still took me a long time to find her. She didn’t have time to take out all of the wards before she was…before it happened.”
“So you didn’t find our place until after I got there,” I said.
“If I hadn’t seen you go into the cabin, I probably wouldn’t have ever located it,” Erin said. “It was very well hidden. It was well protected.”
“Fat lot of good that did,” I grumble. Gram had been careful. Erin was right. So what went wrong?
“Do you have any idea who might have wanted to hurt her?” Erin asked me.
“What is this, a detective movie?” I glared at her. “No, Erin. I don’t know. Trust me, if I did know, I certainly wouldn’t be sitting on this damn train with you.”
Erin’s eyes twinkled just a little bit and she smiled. “I don’t think you would have had much of a choice, honey. I think we both know just how good I am at what I do.”
“I don’t know who wanted to hurt her,” I repeated with a sigh.
“Then how did they find her?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Erin scratched her nose. “Did she recently make a new friend? Did she invite anyone over? Did she tell anyone she was your grandmother?”
Then it hit me.
My grandmother didn’t.
But I did.
Suddenly, I remembered the words I’d said to Tony less than an hour before it happened. I’d been so careful for such a long time, but then today I was in a rush. Today I wanted to leave the café and I’d blurted out information that should never have been shared.
My grandmother will be expecting me.
He hadn’t known until today that I had a grandmother. He hadn’t known I lived with anyone aside from an anonymous and older person.
Could that really have been it?
Could my grandmother really be missing because of my carelessness?
The realization hit my guts like a ton of bricks. Instantly, I felt queasy and sick. My grandmother was gone. It quite possibly could have been entirely my fault. If I had just been more careful: more cautious. If I hadn’t been in such a hurry to stand up for myself, then maybe this could have been avoided.
Erin noticed my silence and latched onto it. She leaned forward excitedly.
“What is it? Max, tell me.”
I didn’t want to tell her. I didn’t want to share this with her. I wanted to keep this secret all to myself because it was a horrible one. Part of me thought that if I just didn’t say it out loud that everything would be okay.
But there was no recovering from this.
There was no going back.
The only way to go was forward.
As if sensing my hesitation and my anxiety, Boo placed a paw on my lap. I looked down to see his big eyes blinking at me. Oh, Boo. Somehow, he always knew exactly when I needed a push. He always knew when I needed someone to believe in me.
I took a deep breath and nodded. I could do this. I could be honest. Maybe it wouldn’t backfire horribly. Maybe my aunt would be merciful and understanding. Maybe she wouldn’t blame me for what happened.
Maybe.
But I wasn’t holding my breath.
“Today at work,” I started.
“At work?” She raised an eyebrow. “You work? Why?”
As if holding down a job was the strangest and most unusual thing anyone could ever do. I realized then that Mom and Dad hadn’t really ever…worked. They’d used their magic for good and they’d used their magic to get money. How? I wasn’t really sure. Maybe they were secretly incredible jewel thieves. I didn’t know.
“To get money,” I told her. I spoke slowly, as if explaining this to a child. “So I can have a real life.”
“What do you need money for?” My aunt still seemed confused.
“Money is how you buy things, Aunt Erin,” I sighed. Did she really not know what money was?
“Silly girl,” she shook her head. “Why don’t you use your inheritance?”
“My what?”
Now it was her turn to look at me like I was stupid.
“Your inheritance. You didn’t really think your parents left you with nothing, did you?”
“Well, I suppose I…”
“No, you didn’t think,” she shook her head and leaned back in her seat. “That’s the problem with your generation, you know. You’re much too rash for your own good.”
“My generation?” I felt personally offended. Was she really attacking my entire generation? For no reason?
She waved her hand as though I was being a petulant child.
“Go on,” she said.
“What are you talking about?” I pressed. I wasn’t done yet. What inheritance was she speaking of? As far as I knew, my parents had died penniless. My grandmother had never mentioned an inheritance and we certainly hadn’t lived as though I had one. I’d worn hand-me-downs and thrift shop clothing for years in an effort to save money and minimize our expenses.
Now I was finding out there was an inheritance?
“Of course, your parents didn’t leave you penniless,” she said, shaking her head. “I mean, I also didn’t know where you were, so it’s not as though I could fly over on my broom and inform you,” she winked playfully.
“Why wouldn’t my grandmother have told me?” I asked quietly. “We could have used the money.”
“I’m sure she had her reasons,” Aunt Erin said, her eyes suddenly gentle. She lowered her voice. “Max, she was in hiding for a long time. Years. Longer than anyone really should be. I’m guessing – and this is just a guess – that she thought using your inheritance money would draw attention to the two of you, and that seems to be one thing she didn’t want you to do.”
I shook my head and pulled Boo closer to myself. Wow. Just when you think you have everything all figured out, your grandmother vanishes and you find out you secretly have money. Who knew?
“So you work at a café,” Aunt Erin pushed me back to my story.
“Worked,” I said. “Past tense.”
“But you worked there today.”
“And then I quit. Well, I kind of got fired. It’s all very complicated.”
“Why don’t you start from the beginning?” Aunt Erin said carefully. “That might help.”
“My boss is a jerk,” I said. “He was constantly keeping me late at work and making me work overtime. Grandma didn’t like it, but I was worried about money and worried about saying no to him, so I did it. I did whatever he wanted.”
“But not today?”
“Not today,” I agreed.
“What was different about today?” She asked, but she said it in a way that made me think she already knew the answer.
“Today…today I was just tired of it,” I told her. “I’d had enough. I was tired of getting home late and tired of my grandmother worrying about me. I just wanted to get off work when I was supposed to.”
I didn’t say that I was tired of feeling useless.
I was tired of feeling powerless.
My aunt didn’t need to know that much about me.
Today, something inside of me changed. Today was the day I realized I was tired of being a doormat. I was tired of being pushed around. I was tired…of so many things. I was just tired.
My aunt regarded me thoughtfully. Then she surprised me by asking another question.
“Maxine, when did your parents leave?”
“Max,” I corrected her, finally. “And I don’t know. Ten years ago, I guess. Give or take.”
She shook her head and a soft smile covered her lips.
“Max, your parents left exactly ten years ago today. Exactly.”
“What?” That was strange. I didn’t even realize precisely how long it had been since they passed away. Their death was a tragic accident. It was something like out of a fairy tale story book. They had been there, and then they were gone. We were a family, and then we weren’t. I had been lucky that my grandmother was stil
l living at home when they died. Mom and Dad had passed away while they were out of town. They had been killed while conducting research for a book they had been writing. At least, that’s what they told me at the time. I never really believed that it was the whole story. My grandma had been babysitting me when it happened.
My aunt nodded and looked expectantly at me.
“Max, don’t you think it’s a little strange that your grandmother was killed on the anniversary of the day your parents went away?”
I gulped and looked away. I looked out of the window at the trees rushing by. None of this made sense. What was my aunt trying to tell me?
“Yes,” I finally answered. “It’s pretty weird.”
“Your parents warded you, Max,” she finally said. “Your mom was a witch.”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “They both were.”
My aunt tilted her head and then shook it slightly.
“No, just your mom.”
“What are you talking about? Grandma said my parents were magical.”
“Yeah, they were magical, but there’s more to magical beings than just being a witch. Didn’t your grandmother teach you about shifters and vampires and demons and angels?” Aunt Erin looked concerned.
“Uh, none of those things are real,” I said, but my voice came out tiny and squeaky.
They weren’t…real.
Were they?
I closed my eyes because so much of what was happening felt impossible. This couldn’t be possible. None of it could be. Yet even as the thoughts floated through my mind, I knew that they were. I knew that this…whatever was happening…this was insane.
“Max, think about it.” Erin’s voice was firm, but gentle.
“You’re going to have to explain this to me,” I said. “And please, for the love of dragons, use small words so I don’t miss anything.” I shook my head. “No offense, but if you’re about to tell me that vampires are real, I might need you to pinch me. This is crazy.”
“They’re real,” she said. “So are fairies and demons and angels. All of it. It’s real. I’m a little surprised your grandmother never filled you in. She taught you magic, didn’t she?”
Hybrid Academy Box Set Page 4