All of my guys looked uncomfortable. But some of the boys were practically frothing at the idea.
“Destroy demon spirits? Are you serious?”
“I’m serious. If you’re here at Merlin, you’re the next generation of leaders. Well, most of you. So—we’re going to do some groundwork first, and before spring break you’re going to tackle a demon.” He looked at me. “You ought to be interested in that, huh…Princess?”
Now he was daring Alec or Montague to start some shit with him. I glanced at them like, don’t.
“What kind of demons are we talking?” Harris asked, drawing his attention off of me. “I was under the impression that it isn’t so easy to just ‘purify’ a dark spirit.”
“You want to see what I mean?” He glanced at the calendar. “Meet me in the grove on the night of the full moon, if you’re brave enough. That goes for all of you.”
Chapter Eleven
Charlotte
“I feel like this is a bad idea,” I said, lacing my shoes as Alec stepped out of the shower looking as luscious as he always did walking out of the shower, in nothing but a pair of jeans that were just the right amount of tight.
“I agree,” Montague said, as he loitered in the door of the room Alec and I shared.
“Are we not going?” Alec asked. “I wouldn’t mind staying in tonight after all. Waste of a good weekend…” His eyes lingered on me.
“I’m trying to get dressed,” I said.
“I’m not stopping you.”
“You’re undressing me with your eyes,” I said. “And I’m afraid if you keep it up you might actually disintegrate my clothes.” I smirked at him, signaling that assuming we made it out of our night meeting with Pacetti, I was down for that later.
“I wonder if I could,” Alec said. “That would be an interesting experiment.”
“Magic practice,” I said. “Totally legit.”
He reached for his shirt and I held up a hand. “I mean, do you even need that? It’s warm out.”
“Does my princess wish it so?” He was a little sarcastic, playing off the princess thing, but I’m not going to lie, if he wanted to claim the princess thing, I’d like that.
“Your princess demands it!” I giggled. “What would Professor New Jersey say if you showed up to his big spirit purifying ceremony shirtless?”
He shrugged. “Let’s find out. Clothes are overrated.”
“You’re really doing this?” Montague asked him. “Clothes aren’t overrated, Alec, you just dress like a slob.”
“Incubi really aren’t into that many clothes,” Alec said. “If you look at old art of incubi and succubi it’s pretty much just a little strategic fabric. So if I’m embracing my heritage I might as well go all out.”
Montague gave me a look like he didn’t really like this idea. “Clothes are like a secret. If you just tell a secret right away, it’s not interesting anymore.”
Alec snapped his shirt at Montague. “It’s not my fault you need to work on your tan, vampire.”
“No fighting,” I said. “I like Alec’s hot bod and Montague’s stylish wardrobe…equally.”
“That was a deliberate pause.” Montague bared his fangs at Alec and Alec dodged, whipping him with the shirt again. I laughed, enjoying the playfulness between them before we took on whatever was going to happen tonight.
“At least neither of you have fur,” Firian said behind me. I shrieked softly, not even realizing he had appeared.
Alec flopped into bed next to me. “Charlotte likes your fur too,” he said. “She doesn’t sleep with her arms around me. I know it’s not your ideal way to interact, but…”
“It sure isn’t,” Firian said.
“But cuddling is a real need,” Alec said. “So I hope you don’t feel like you’re not part of this relationship. We will get you back to normal soon. I swear to that.”
“Aw…” I loved that Alec and Montague had definitely gotten past the standard warlock thinking that familiars couldn’t be a part of the real world. They both seemed to accept Firian now. I had also noticed Alec’s increased confidence lately. Every day, since he’d broken the spell that bound him, his magic had grown stronger and while he was still generally the quietest and gentlest of my guys, his mood had shifted. He was more present, somehow.
I slid over to Alec’s lap and then patted my leg. “C’mon, Firian. Let me have a nice moment. I’m nervous.”
“And you should be,” he said, and I could feel the tension in his body as I stroked his soft fur. “I don’t trust these council warlocks, for reasons that should be plain to see.”
“Why are we going if we all think it’s a bad idea?” Montague asked.
“Well…I think we need to find out what his deal is,” I said. “Especially since I am focusing on necromancy.”
But the real reason? Harris was going, and even if we didn’t go, Harris would still go, and then he would nag me about it later. The Chosen One vs. Exiled One battle was on.
Look, if our rivalry had gone on longer than it should, at least I think we both knew it.
If you’re going to be stupid, at least be willfully stupid.
Sure enough, we walked to the grove under the light of the moon, which was lifting its way into the unseasonably warm sky. Harris was lingering outside, waiting to walk with us.
“Alec, why aren’t you wearing a shirt?” he asked.
“It’s the weekend,” Alec said. “Why? Are you distracted by my hot bod too?”
“God, no.”
“We really need to invite Harris in,” Montague said. “He must be paler and skinnier than I am.” Montague wasn’t really too skinny, anyway. Alec was perfect in a god-or-Hemsworth kind of way. Montague was perfect in a normal sort of way, with bonus vampire danger points. Firian was almost elven in his height and grace. And Harris…
“I am not.” Harris looked genuinely annoyed.
“You’re tan and ripped under there?” I asked, pointing my wand toward his necktie, which was…well, his necktie was perfect. I did the uniform necktie thing a lot, and I couldn’t knot mine like that. But you didn’t get points for necktie knots.
“We have places to be, so let’s just act like mature adults,” Harris said, picking up his pace. I could tell he was jealous, and he studiously pretended not to care, but I had to admit, he was keeping it up for so long, I was starting to wonder if maybe he really wasn’t as into me and as close to Alec and Montague as I thought.
Harris was the one who jumped in on Pacetti’s offer to purify demons, I thought. What if he really does choose the path of the council in the end?
Professor New Jersey was waiting in the grove, holding an old book in one hand and his wand in the other. “Okay, are we all here? I was waiting for you, Nicolescu. All right. So, kids—the only rule here tonight is that you don’t interfere with my magic. You’re here to watch and learn. What you see might disturb you if you’re the oversensitive type. This is real magic for the real world, where demons might just kill you like they killed Samuel Caruthers if you’re not willing to fight.”
If any of us wanted to leave, he didn’t really offer us an out, but no one tried. It was our group, that jerk Henry Wells, Jack the doodler of guitars, and two other guys.
Piers suddenly emerged from the trees. He was neatly dressed, his blonde hair slicked back, looking so much like an older Harris, but his expression was so cold that I didn’t want to run away until I saw him.
“Good evening, boys, and Miss Charlotte,” he said. “I am so excited about this new phase in your training. I heard that Professor MacGuinness never even mentioned the purify spell, and I am so glad to be here to make sure you are all truly ready for the real world and our real enemy. Someday, you will all be soldiers in the fight against evil, and coddling you only weakens us. But—don’t let me steal the spotlight. Professor Pacetti…” He took a step back, lifting a hand to the other man.
Professor Pacetti spilled dust in a circle and then drew the pentag
ram that would summon a demon with the tip of his wand.
It was quiet, except for the soft scratch of his wand in the dirt and the wind stirring the leaves. And it was dark, except for the soft glow of the moonlight. My arms prickled with goosebumps, and I felt Montague’s cool hand envelope mine.
Pacetti started hissing out spell words, choosing Latin as his magical tongue, and his voice sounded hostile. What was he summoning?
Fire burst from the pentagram, and a form took shape. It looked vaguely female, but somewhat misshapen, with long spindly arms and long pointed ears. Whoa. For all the magic I’d dealt with, I still got startled by the serious fantasy novel stuff. I took a little step back but stopped myself from reacting any more.
“A boggart!” Pacetti declared. “It’s just a weak little spirit, since I didn’t want to put you kids in any danger.”
The boggart seemed frightened. It growled like a cornered cat, trapped in the pentagram. “I mean ye no harm, human. Me body’s already dust, so I think you have the wrong beastie.”
Aww. I actually felt bad for it. It looked so nervous and pathetic already, and its growly little voice was cute.
“Demon, it’s your lucky day. I will purify your spirit.” Pacetti waved his wand over the boggart and started chanting again.
“Please, no!” The boggart cowered. “Please spare me!”
A purple glow seeped from Professor Pacetti’s wand and swirled around the boggart. It screamed with pain.
“What are you doing?” I cried. “You’re hurting her!”
“Stay back, Charlotte. He is purifying it,” Piers said.
“But what does that mean? He said it was a weak little spirit. Is it evil?”
“I am not evil,” the boggart pleaded. “I’m just a spirit adrift and I don’t want any bad business, sir! I beg ye!”
“It’s a sinistral. It’s a dark spirit that sinistral warlocks could summon to their aid.”
“But my grandfathers are sinistral!”
He looked at me very calmly. “Yes. That is so.”
“So—so what?” I cried.
He didn’t answer, but flicked a hand to Professor Pacetti. “Please, proceed.”
“Oh, I’m not distracted by her,” he said. “Don’t worry about it. Inimicos nostros…”
The boggart screamed as he spoke a string of words, clutching her head. Wisps of ghostly matter started falling away from her body as she started to disintegrate.
This is wrong, I thought. I don’t know what’s going on, but this isn’t purifying, this is murder. In panic, I flung out my wand and cast a ward. “I protect this creature! Return to the spirit world, I release you!”
“Charlotte!” Harris grabbed my arm. I shook him off, using my wand to break the pentagram with a blast of magic that wiped the dirt clean and broke the circle of dust.
“Thank to you, my lady! Thanks to you!” The boggart fell back and then disappeared.
Piers grabbed my arm and smacked my face.
“Ow!” I was too surprised for a better reaction than that.
“You deserve much worse than that,” he said. “You interrupted a spell cast by a professor. You questioned his actions. You disturbed a pentagram. You favored a demon. That was a wicked spirit!”
“You set this up!” I said. “Didn’t you? Professor Pacetti summoned some poor little spirit on purpose to provoke me and you showed up to watch!”
“Why would I do that?” he asked, with a disdainful look. “I’m trying to help you out. I warned you all this school would be different without that lenient, deceptive, rule-breaking woman in charge. We are fighting for control of magic. For the power of Etherium. Sinistrals must be destroyed, and sinistral blood must be purified.” He finally let my arm go, and I let out my breath as I stepped back into Alec and Monty’s protective arms, but I was hardly safe.
“You will be punished for this,” Piers said. He flicked his wand and my hands were jerked behind my back into some sort of restraint. “What god do you serve?” he asked.
“What…god?”
“Yes,” he said. “It will determine where you spend your night of punishment.”
“I don’t really…serve any.”
“You serve no god?” Piers said. “Well, I suppose that explains a lot. You are so very human, so modern, but if you serve no god than you have no allies.”
“Come on, Piers. Don’t do this,” Harris said.
“You are still here,” Piers said. “I know, in the end, you understand the mission. We are the ones who force the beings of shadow into the light, we Nicolescus. And so I shall.”
“She’s…she’s of a Christian background,” Harris said, in this don’t-argue-with-me-Charlotte tone.
“Very nice. Very smart. He looks out for you, you know. Yes, you would be sleeping in the trees or in the earth tonight if you said something else.”
The earth? Is there a punishment cave at Merlin College? He and Professor Pacetti put me between them and forced me, with some grabbing and some wand tapping, away from my guys.
“What are you doing?” Montague said.
Piers looked resistant to telling him, and ignored Montague for a step, but then he faced him after all. His smile said, What the hell. “Tomorrow, she will be the first ceremony in the purification of Merlin College. She will be freed from her werewolf blood. You and Lyrman are welcome to be next.”
“No—” I tried to struggle away. He gripped my wrists tight. “No! Let me go! I’d rather leave school than lose the blood of my grandfathers.”
“For one thing, you can only lose the blood of one grandfather,” he said, digging at my grandmother’s multiple lovers. “Unless your father was part werewolf as well? And for another, why do you cling to the blood of beasts? You don’t even know the man.”
“But it’s part of me! Part of my mom!”
“Your demon mother?”
“Yes! I still believe in her! She’s not lost. Even if you never let her back in Etherium, I can still save her for my dad’s sake. She still loves us and she doesn’t need your purification, and neither do I. I’m a Wyrd witch.”
“Your mother is evil. She is lost. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you can embrace your talents. As for Wyrd, the faeries will never embrace a human. They have graced you with a wand, but you’re going to run into the cold reality of their control. You have an Ethereal familiar. You are an Ethereal witch. Not a warlock. A witch. But I am not sending you to Catherine because I know she wouldn’t allow you to use your potential. I hope you appreciate that. You think I’m the cruel one? Welcome to tough love, Charlotte.”
He forced me along to the campus chapel. I had been inside just a couple of times. Last year Montague asked me if I wanted to go to the Christmas concert before holiday break. I might not have been very religious, but I loved that. The chapel was glowing with candles that made the interior warm and cozy, and the small campus choir sang beautifully. Montague looked sad and he told me later he had been banned from the basilica in St. Augustine, and he hadn’t talked about it to anyone else. From what I had seen of his little parallel town, it was close-knit and married to old traditions, so this must have been crushing.
I wondered what Montague was thinking about the chapel being turned into a prison. I understood why he and Alec didn’t stop them. I’m sure Piers would have expelled them, and that would be much worse for me.
They threw me inside and locked the doors.
“Maybe you’ll find a god in there,” Piers sneered behind the door.
Chapter Twelve
Harris
My cousin knew what he was doing. I’m sure the council blamed Charlotte for all of the problems at Merlin College. He wanted her power, but he wanted her to be scared of him first.
This was the battle my ancestors had fought. Ethereals and Sinistrals had been fighting each other for thousands of years. The battle had always been bitter. A long time ago, Ethereals were the protectors of humanity. All around the world, witches and
warlocks, shamans, holy men and wise women had served their people, protecting them against vampires, werewolves, malicious faeries and demons.
“Sometimes, they were so effective that the threat no longer seemed real…” My mother whispered this to all of us children once, as she lit candles to cast a simple ward upon our great estate, Ladyswald. “And once people stop believing in the danger, they wonder why they have given such power to a witch. As their weapons grew stronger, their world more toxic, their belief became the truth. The vampires and werewolves no longer came for them. Humans worry over endangered species and polluted waters, without realizing how much they have already lost. Magic…magic has been dying for a long time, but as long as we exist, there will be dark forces for us to fight…”
We didn’t hear fairy tales growing up, we heard the truth about our dying magical world. About our legacy and destiny. My father’s holy ancestors in the European courts, their magical artifacts protecting the realm. The fierce warriors of light in my mother’s family, who would do anything to end the race of vampires who fed on death.
They were my idols, once. I thought I would be like Piers. I’d work my way up the council, fighting nobly for Etherium until the day I died.
I knew where Piers was coming from, because it was the same world I had been raised into, of centuries-old relics and Bibles painted by hand with the birth of every child recorded on the front page and the date of their death written in later. The old world that still clung to us with every breath, the memory of a world where there was true darkness in the wood, and people needed Etherium in all its forms just to protect themselves from wolves and the curses of dark warlocks, the tricks of the fae, and the vampires that would leave you drained of life.
I knew the battle between good and evil was real, and the side of good could not always be nice, but these days the world just felt different. Maybe there was another way entirely.
A Witch Among Warlocks: The Complete Series Box Set Page 57