“Okay…I’ll try.” Everyone was looking at us. The Lockes’ mom was giving us this bitchy mama bear face like she was finally getting some long plotted revenge. I had no idea. I was relieved when we crossed the threshold from the bright outdoors with the entire school staring at us into the darker, plush interior of the main hall, but my relief was short-lived.
About a dozen wizened witches and warlocks were seated in the velvet upholstered chairs just under the grand wooden staircase, all looking about as fun as late portraits of Queen Victoria. Master Blair was standing there with his arms crossed, tapping his fingers against the sleeve his stylish black suit a little nervously. He told me before that while he probably seemed old to me, he was young in the eyes of the council. I totally got that now.
Stuart was putting out some chips and dip and offered to put people’s capes in the coat closet, but everyone refused.
As we were led in there was a lot of glasses adjusting and throat clearing.
“Here they are,” Madame Solano said. “I would propose that both of them return to St. Augustine. Mr. Xarra, I would argue, is no longer safe to have as a student. He would best be tutored in the family magic by his parents, who can watch over his behavior. Miss Byrne would get a more appropriate education if she attends Mrs. Tyler’s fine establishment. The two of them fled St. Augustine in quite a rush in an attempt to escape my oversight which I would argue, proves their guilt.”
“All that proves is that they are college students who didn’t want to be controlled by you,” Master Blair said.
“But…Master Blair…,” said the most decrepit man present, his gnarled and spotted hands wrapped around a walking stick. His accent sounded kinda like an old radio or movie star, like back when upper-crust Americans sounded weirdly British. “You cannot change the most basic fact, that Miss Byrne is a young lady, and this is a school for men.”
“What if I gave her a penis?” Master Blair said.
“Oh…my…stars,” the old warlock said.
I decided I would let this play out despite it turning into the most awkward moment of my life and I hoped it wouldn’t end with me getting a penis.
“She will still have the mind of a young lady,” one of the old witches said.
“But she is using warlock magic just as well as any warlock,” Master Blair said. “So what does that even mean? Why are we stuck in the Victorian era?”
“If only we were still stuck in the Victorian era!” he said, to some nods around the room. “It was a wonderful time! It wasn’t all stodgy, you know. It was good fun. Lots of good fun. We just knew our betters back then, that was all.”
I don’t think any conversation could be good when someone used the phrase ‘we knew our betters’. I had never seen anyone talk like this out of an old children’s book. The council was really very entertaining to watch, if I wasn’t terrified of them.
“Betters? Your rigid grip on who can handle what sort of magic is driving young witches and warlocks out of the magical world. It’s getting them into trouble. It’s undoubtedly why Mr. Xarra got himself in trouble. Why Charlotte’s grandmother lost her magic. Why her mother—”
“Ignatius Blair.” One of the not-entirely-ancient witches on the council cut him off, standing up from her seat. She was a statuesque blonde in a full-skirted black and white dress and gloves. “You have always been a talented warlock and it got you this position, but you are not so important that the council can’t remove you. In the end, we barely know where you and Professor Jablonsky came from.”
Master Blair swallowed. “You know where I came from. I’ve been attending warlock schools since I was a child.”
“I mean, you aren’t from one of the old families.”
“Jablonsky didn’t attend warlock schools,” the old warlock said.
Stuart patted Master Blair’s shoulder. “Why don’t you have a drink, old friend? Steady those nerves, eh?”
Master Blair knocked back the drink in one swig and handed the glass back to Stuart. He locked eyes with the old warlock. “Councilman de Brigue, I want you to get a good look at Charlotte’s wand.”
I had my wand in a sort of holster at my hip since it was too big to slip into a jacket pocket or tuck between my breasts or anything convenient. I took it out and held it up as Master Blair beckoned his hand.
Councilman de Brigue waved a hand over the wand and then drew back. “This is from that same tree as Samuel’s…”
“Samuel’s…” The blonde witch sounded breathless and a little angry.
“Exactly,” Master Blair said. “It isn’t just that he gave her his magic. She was the one who found the tree. She is worthy of that magic.”
“Samuel might be alive today if he had not dabbled in…such strange things,” the woman said. “If he had not been friends with you.”
Master Blair arched a brow at her and said nothing.
The witches and warlocks whispered amongst themselves. The blonde witch sat down, her face turning expressionless and icy.
Madame Solano shook her head, her eyes shut like she didn’t want to believe it.
“See for yourself,” de Brigue said.
“Oh, I believe you,” she said. “It’s just that…I know what I saw. She was strolling around St. Augustine with her familiar.”
“She was not raised magical,” Master Blair said. “She still needs her familiar to stay close at this stage. She has the intellect of a grown woman, of course, but when it comes to magic, she’s playing catch up. I’m glad her familiar is so loyal and protective.”
My stomach wrung up like a wash rag, hearing Master Blair talk like Firian would go away.
“I tell you, it is that same magic as Samuel had,” de Brigue said. “So maybe…we should let her be. Mrs. Tyler won’t know how to teach that magic.”
“It’s best if she never learns it,” the blonde witch said.
“Samuel’s abilities were very unique. This was his school. She should stay here.”
The witches looked upset. The warlocks, meanwhile, seemed to have changed their tune. Like maybe I wasn’t a useless ‘young lady’ after all, but an asset for them.
Master Blair said, “You may go.” They didn’t argue, except that Madame Solano was giving me such a face that I half-expected her to do the ‘I’m watching you’ fingers.
I knew better than to trust any of them. But it seemed like I was safely able to remain at school, which meant the Locke brothers lost again and they were leaving instead. Works for me.
Once we were safely away, Montague turned to me and cupped my cheeks with his cool hands. He looked at me protectively, with a flicker of relief like a small flame in his eyes.
“What?” I said.
“I thought for a moment they might send us to the Haven. For good.”
“They said they would send you back to your parents.”
He swallowed. “I don’t think that’s what they really meant. It was just…a nicety. Truthfully, my town doesn’t want a vampire in it. My family can’t protect me from what I’ve become.”
I threw my arms around him. “It’s okay, Montague. You’re not going back to the Haven. I’ll protect you. Apparently I have the fanciest wand in all the land.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Montague
I scoffed, and kissed the top of her head. I wondered when it would ever really hit Charlotte that she was in deep.
Maybe it never would, and that was what made her so charming. She had this ability to stay light-hearted no matter what.
“Since I became a vampire, you know I’ve been hit by these memories of Rayner and Lisbeth,” I said. “I’ve seen him kill people just because they hurt her.”
“Yes.” She looked up at me, her arms now clasped around my waist, occasionally parting to run up and down my back.
“I’m starting to understand.”
“Don’t kill anyone for me,” she said, but she suppressed a grin. “I shouldn’t think that’s romantic. But then, that is wh
y girls date vampires, isn’t it?”
“Good point…” Her touch was starting to make me hard. She nested her head under my chin. Her height was just right. It felt familiar because of my memories, even though I’d never had a girl the way I had Charlotte.
Mine. She’s mine.
Yes, I was starting to understand Rayner.
He was willing to share her with Silvus, Jie and Thom. But whenever Rayner found her in some new and alien life…
I thought about finding Charlotte’s spirit living in some new body somewhere.
I had Rayner’s life loosely pieced together by now from my snippets of memories.
The first time he found her again—a French peasant. Calloused hands. She worked hard all day. When the harvests were good, she ate, and when famines came, she starved. She would have married a village boy and never seen a life outside her little world, but then he found her. He wanted to give her more than that. He couldn’t control himself, that time. He was so hungry for her; so relieved to have found her again.
He took her out of France before the Revolution, and brought her back to England, to her old home. She lived a good long life. I knew he adored her even as she aged.
But on her death bed, she told him, Please look for me again, but be gentler this time…
That was when his quest sent him all the way to China and his promises to be gentle went out the window when he saw her hobbled steps, and his uncontrolled vampire temper ran amok. He killed her in-laws, set fire to their house, and dragged her back to London again, where she would never belong. It didn’t seem like she ever fully forgave him, and that was the memory that been disturbing me the most.
But I knew where Rayner was coming from.
I was trying to cling to my humanity. But he was a true vampire. The only rule he followed anymore was his twisted loyalty to the woman he first loved. There was no one who could control him. His needs were primal. When he saw her, he took her. To protect her, he would burn the whole world down and not let anyone stand in his way.
When I held her…
Fuck me, but I understood the appeal.
“Oof, you’re holding me a little tight,” she said, drawing back, and I let go as Alec and Harris came over to us.
“What happened?” Alec asked.
“We’re fine,” Charlotte said.
“For now,” I said. “I don’t like that we’re on the council’s radar. I shouldn’t have brought Charlotte to St. Augustine.”
“Let’s call Firian and go back to my room for a group meeting,” Alec said. We all looked at Harris.
“I’m attending your meeting,” he said. “We have a number of common interests. The vampires claimed they are returning during this year’s winter ball to discuss our mutual interest in the Withered Lord, and we’re almost at that time.”
“Have you told Daisy about that?” I asked.
“Yes. I mentioned it in a letter. Her feeling is that any enemy of the Withered Lord is an ally.”
Soon we were all gathered in the attic room, discussing the fact that we had no idea what we were doing.
“Master Blair told me a little while ago that he thought the council was spying on Charlotte,” Firian said. “He’s been asking me to poke around Etherium and see what I can find out.”
“Like talking to other familiars?” Charlotte asked. “You didn’t tell me that.”
“I don’t know that anything will come of it,” Firian said. “I’ve been poking around the local spots but I haven’t heard anything. I’ll probably have to go to Etheria.”
“What is Etheria?” she asked.
“It’s the center of Etherium,” I said. “The capital. Where the Ethereal Symposium convenes and all the parts of the ethereal world converge to trade. It’s kind of a big deal place for a familiar to be poking around, from what I understand. Rosa went there once just to see it. She was very nosy.”
“Yep, that about sums it up,” Firian said. “I’ve always stayed away. I prefer being a hermit.”
“So, Firian…you can travel anywhere in the world from Etherium?” Charlotte asked. “I don’t understand. It sounds so strange. You have this…whole other place you go…”
“Because those worlds work completely differently from this one,” Firian said. “It’s hard to explain. If I want to go somewhere in Etherium, I just set off down the path. The path goes different places every time. It’s many days’ journey to get to a place like that, but you can’t measure it in miles. Everything works on fluid rules of intention.”
“So why isn’t Blair’s familiar spying on the council?” I asked. “Why isn’t his familiar going to Etheria?”
“He said he wants to keep his familiar out of council business. I guess he or she would be suspicious.”
“But Firian, you’re already on their radar!” Charlotte said. “You need to be careful too.”
“I don’t mind looking around,” Firian said. “It gives me something to do, since I can’t be here.”
“Maybe you should also look for Master Blair’s familiar,” I said. “Just for something else to do. He always seems like he’s hiding something.”
“Uh, yeah, he pretty much admitted he’s hiding something,” Charlotte said.
“I’ll see what I can manage,” Firian said. “But so far, none of these people seem like they want to be found. I’ll find something in Etheria.” He sighed. “It’s a huge city and everyone there is important. I’ve heard the traffic is terrible.”
“They have cars?” Charlotte’s eyes widened.
“No. Even worse. Foot traffic. If I’m in fox form I get stepped on, but if I’m in guy form, I have to make sure I don’t step on magical frogs and stuff.”
“Ohh…okay.”
“You’re not going to do it because of traffic?” Harris asked.
“I’m going to do it. I will always protect Charlotte. I just want to complain first.”
“Does that mean I can’t call you?” Charlotte asked.
“You can always call me, and I’ll come immediately,” Firian said. “I conduct my other business around you. Think of Etherium like my game life. I can shut it off, go have dinner with you, and jump right back in where I left off. I mean, time will have passed, like an MMORPG, but I’ll be in the same place.”
That seemed like about all we could do right now, so talk turned back to classes and school drama.
Firian didn’t see what was going on at school as much this year. He conjured himself a drink and looked out the window. Firian was a little more introspective and solitary than Alec, Harris and me, and besides that, he was a familiar, not a real human. So I shouldn’t even talk to him. I was raised with the idea that you never, ever said a word to another kid’s familiar, even when we were young and they all hung around.
I was jealous, because he had a bond with Charlotte that Alec and I could never match. But I actually felt bad for the guy too. He had obviously been raised too human or something. And I was weirdly glad that he kept showing up whenever shit was going down, because I didn’t have Rosa anymore. So when Firian appeared, I felt like, as long as I was with Charlotte, someone still had our backs.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Firian
It was strange, but for the first time I had a purpose outside of Charlotte. Whenever she called me, I appeared, of course. I was thrilled whenever I sensed that she needed me or wanted me.
But in Etherium, I set off on the path to the capital. If anything was going on with the Council of Ethereal Witches and Charlotte, I’d probably hear about it there.
I had never made this trip. I was a nobody among familiars, and I liked it that way. Like any journey in Etherium, you got there by picking a path and just starting to walk, and focusing in on where you wanted to go. So I kept thinking about Etheria as I trudged along. Even though I had never been there, I knew about it, of course. The center-point of the city was an elegant palace built in ancient times, like if a palace from ancient Greece or Babylon had been
kept up all this time. It bordered a sea, with columned promenades and towers, and gardens that grew all throughout. The Ethereal Symposium met there, which was the governing body of Etherium.
Not that you could really control a place like Etherium. The most important job of the Ethereal Symposium was to judge and banish Ethereals who broke the rules and were deemed too criminal to live in Etherium anymore. They became Sinistrals and could never return to Etherium again. Ethereals could fall. Sinistrals could almost never rise back up.
You would think this magical world would be more evolved than Earth. But it wasn’t, really. If true gods existed, they didn’t live in Etherium and Sinistral. The older I got the more I realized that the magical realms were just trying to figure their shit out like humans, only they had a lot of power to handle at the same time.
It was a good thing that true Ethereals and Sinistrals couldn’t use any magic when they came to Earth. I could imagine them trying to conquer the place. But instead they became weak and even here, they relied on human belief to fuel their power. That’s why some of them went to Earth to become artists or religious leaders, or why many of the most powerful Ethereals and Sinistrals posed as gods or prophets. If humans stopped believing in magic, these worlds would be in crisis.
Only witches and warlocks could use magic on Earth. So no matter how intimidating high Ethereal spirits seemed, if you dropped them in a rough neighborhood in the real world they could get mugged as easily as anyone.
This was vaguely comforting to me as, after an eternity of walking, I came upon a village I had never seen before. It definitely was not Etheria. It was too small, for one thing, just a cluster of exposed beam, thatched roof houses with an inn and a tavern. Towns in the magical world tended to look exactly like humans would imagine them—not unlike towns in Fortune’s Favor, in fact. I wasn’t sure who was influencing who, but that was just how it was.
The seelie fae seemed to run this town, with a few angels thrown in for good measure, but there were travelers from all over. I saw other familiars, some in animal form. I went inside the tavern, hoping Charlotte didn’t call me just as I was getting somewhere.
A Witch Among Warlocks: The Complete Series Box Set Page 40