by Sarina Dorie
“It’s my choice.”
His lips stretched even tighter across his face. He said nothing.
“You heard what they said in there,” I said. “Half the teachers wanted me gone. It would solve Jeb’s problems.”
“As usual, you’re being overdramatic. Two teachers expressed favor of your position being cut. That isn’t the same as ‘half the teachers.’ You’ve never been one to allow morons to bully you before. Why now?” He waited.
When I didn’t answer, he went on. “Have you thought this through? Where will you go? You’ve always insisted you wanted to learn magic. Do you think you can go back to living in the Morty Realm? We both know you’ll accidentally slip up and get snatched by Fae. That leaves living in the Unseen Realm, where you will have even less protection against Fae. Neither option will help you against the Raven Court. You won’t stand a chance. What exactly is your plan?”
I couldn’t tell him about running away with Derrick. “I don’t know.”
“Why would you want to quit a job we both know you love?”
“How do you know I love it here? At the start of last semester, you told me how hard it was going to be working here. And you were right. It isn’t like teaching in the Morty Realm. You said everyone would hate me, students would attack me because I don’t have magic, I would mess up, and you would drain me.”
He leaned back in his seat. “I was being … harsh. I’m not going to drain you. Yes, students and teachers have attacked you, but you’ve done surprisingly well. If you stay, you will continue to do so.”
I tried another tactic. “If they intend to fire me, now would be an appropriate time to leave.”
“Jeb is not going to fire you. This school needs you. The students need you. Think about Imani and Hailey and Maddy. You’ve done so much good for them, and you’ll continue to do so.” He steepled his fingers underneath his chin. “Pray, tell me why you’ve changed your mind about teaching here.” His voice softened, and there was actual concern in his eyes. “What happened?”
I stared at the ground, tears filling my eyes. It would have been so much easier if he had yelled at me, but he had to act nice.
I did love Womby’s. I had always wanted to teach at a magic school. I felt like I belonged here. Even Grandmother Bluehorse didn’t hate me now. I’d gained the students’ respect and admiration last semester when I’d performed Morty magic—a.k.a. the Heimlich maneuver.
“I know what this is about.” His tone was gentle.
I swallowed and risked looking up at him. His eyes were pitying. Did he know that I’d uncursed Derrick and he remembered me? He didn’t seem angry, but then I never could tell how he would react to anything. Sometimes he was friendly and kind. Other times he blew up over me accidentally catching a poster on fire in my classroom.
“It’s about my behavior of late,” he said.
“What?” My worry turned to confusion.
“I’ve been distracted. Unprofessional.” He left his chair and came around to sit on the edge of his desk nearer to me. “I realize I’ve been spiteful and unfriendly to you at times. In my attempt to make up for my previous lack of professional boundaries with you, I have worked to ensure you wouldn’t become too … attached. I apologize if I … hurt your feelings. When I told you I wasn’t interested in you last week, it wasn’t my intention to be cruel.” He swallowed. “I know what it’s like to pine for someone who has no interest in you, to work with them side by side for years, and for it to eat away at you.”
I shook my head. “No, that’s not—no!” That was the last thing I wanted him to think. Yes, we had kissed, and I was fairly certain the attraction had been mutual in the moment, but much of that had been magic. Our affinities had that effect on people and each other. We both knew that.
Had that kiss only been a few days ago? I’d already moved on. But I supposed he didn’t know that. Had I not been so focused on Derrick, I might have been hurt by the way Thatch had pushed me away.
He frowned. “I should have handled things differently.” He laced his fingers together on his knee, staring down at his hands. “Can we put that behind us and work together as colleagues and equals? Do you think we can be … friends?”
“Friends,” I repeated. “I’ve tried to … I’ve wanted to… .” It felt impossible now with all the things Derrick had told me. I wanted to believe Felix Thatch was my friend and he cared about me. I didn’t want to believe he was still the servant of the Raven Queen and he was only keeping me safe so she could use me later.
At the same time, I trusted Derrick’s judgment. He had never lied to me and in the years I had known him, he’d always had my best intentions at heart. I wished I’d been able to talk to him. The conflicting emotions in me swelled so high I felt like they might burst through the dam I had carefully constructed to keep all that locked away.
Had Felix Thatch been anyone else, he might have hugged me or taken my hand. But I knew better than to even try. Touch was always going to be out of the question. Instead, he poked me under my chin with his wand to make me meet his eyes.
He offered me a hopeful smile. “Shall we be friends?”
I pushed the wand away. “If you were my friend, you would tell me the truth.” I needed to know about Derrick and the secrets Thatch had been keeping from me.
He chewed on his lip as if thinking it over. “Perhaps.”
“No. Not perhaps. You would. A real friend wouldn’t lie.”
He nodded solemnly. “What is it you wish to know?”
“Promise me you won’t lie.” I stared into the storm clouds of his eyes, trying to decipher if I saw sincerity there, but I didn’t know when he was telling the truth and when he wasn’t. I still didn’t know if he’d told me the truth about his childhood and he’d been raised by the Raven Queen and suffered from her cruelty—or if that had just been a story to try to make me sympathetic of him.
“As usual, my Celestor abilities of divination make your question clear in my mind. Let’s just get this confession over with.” He sighed. “I’m in love with Gertrude Periwinkle.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Join the Dark Side—We Have Cookies!
Felix Thatch must have been the worst Celestor ever—which would make sense because he wasn’t actually a Celestor. Since sleeping with Miss Periwinkle he’d become a brainless moron who couldn’t see past his nose. She had to be sucking his Celestor divination powers away with her siren magic. Or maybe that’s what love did to people. All I knew was I wasn’t like that with Derrick.
“That isn’t a secret,” I said.
His brows furrowed together. “Isn’t it?”
“No. Everyone knows.”
“As usual, you exaggerate. Surely not everyone.”
“You don’t have a subtle bone in your body. It’s obvious who you hate.” Most of the year that had been me. “It’s obvious who you love. I’m happy for you. Really.”
He looked completely surprised. For once I was the smart one out of the two of us. I laughed.
“And you aren’t … hurt?” he asked.
“You deserve each other. The two of you make a cute couple.” Besides the fact that they were both a little bit wicked, he had pined for Miss Periwinkle before my biological mother had aged her. He had continued to be interested in her and friends with her even while she’d looked like an old woman. It was romantic and sweet.
His squinted at me. “I don’t understand. What do you want to know about, then?”
“Derrick.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Not this again.”
“You never gave me that spell.”
“Is that all?” He waved me off dismissively. “I was busy. I forgot. I’ll put it in your box.”
I knew what he was busy doing. Or who he was busy doing.
“I need to know about him. Why are you trying to keep us apart?”
“Is this the reason you want to leave? You’re jeal
ous I have someone I’m in love with, and you have no one?”
“No!” Why did everything have to revolve around him and Miss Periwinkle? Then again, if I hadn’t realized Derrick was right under my nose and I could be with him, maybe I would be resentful about him and Miss Periwinkle. “Look, I just want the truth. You say we’re friends and I’m a colleague, but you won’t tell me about his curse.”
He nodded solemnly. “Indeed, I have been keeping secrets from you about Derrick. I’ve feared if I told you the entirety of the truth you might do something rash and accidentally destroy the counter curses I put in place to protect you both.”
Finally, it sounded as though he intended to tell me everything. I leaned forward. This is what I needed to hear to clear up everything.
“You’re an adult. I should treat you like one.” He tidied an already tidy stack of papers.
The way he didn’t meet my eye might have been embarrassment. Or guilt. I nodded in encouragement.
He cleared his throat. “I need to get over my distrust of other Witchkin and learn to reciprocate—”
Someone knocked on the door.
Thatch stood, his head tilted to his side, a hopeful smile on his face. “Come in.”
Miss Periwinkle strode through the door, wand in hand. A tray of tea levitated in front of her.
“Are those biscuits?” Thatch asked. “For me? That’s unexpected.”
Oh no! Not cookies. His weakness. I suspected he’d do just about anything for his doggie biscuit.
“It’s just a little something I picked up in town.” Her eyes narrowed at the sight of me.
The tray clipped me on the shoulder as it floated by.
“I do hope I’m not interrupting.” The tray dropped noisily onto his desk.
“Not at all. Miss Lawrence and I were simply having a conference about her future at the school.” He shooed me off like he would have one of the students. “Miss Lawrence, we can discuss these matters later.”
I crossed my arms. “No, we need to talk about this now.”
Miss Periwinkle batted her eyelashes. “If you need to speak with Miss Lawrence, and now is an inconvenient time, I quite understand. I can go back to the library.” She turned toward the door. “Sebastian Reade and Darshan Rohiniraman were asking me for assistance earlier with some research they’re doing. I’ll simply come back after—”
That manipulative witch!
He snagged her around her elbow. “There’s no need to rush off. We can have tea now.” He steered her toward his chair. “Please, take my seat.” He waved me off again. “Miss Lawrence is leaving.” His voice was stern and unyielding. He didn’t take out his wand, but I knew that would be his next step.
Miss Periwinkle hid her smirk behind a cup of tea.
“How about we finish this conversation after dinner,” I said.
Thatch nodded, but his eyes were glued on Miss Periwinkle. Some friend he was. Why did it not surprise me the dungeon was locked up after dinner?
I wanted to see Derrick, but he wasn’t in his room. I worried where he could be. Khaba could help me.
I peeked in the administration wing, hoping to catch Khaba. His door was closed. His voice thundered from the other side. “Don’t tell me it’s ‘no big deal.’ If you know one of your friends has decided to run off and apprentice with an avian delivery service, the school needs to know. You can’t just not report it and think we won’t notice someone is absent from classes.” I’d never heard Khaba raise his voice to anyone. He was always so friendly and calm.
The girl within the office said something too quiet for me to hear through the closed door.
Khaba’s voice couldn’t have carried louder if the walls had been made of rice paper. “No, you don’t know it was her choice. That Fae may have coerced her or enchanted her. Students don’t have the defenses or skills to be able to tell the difference. You need an adult to look over employment agreements to make sure you aren’t selling your souls. You’re too young and too naive to realize that nice lady with black wings and an employment offer that seemed too good to be true was too good to be true.”
The description sounded like the woman could have been someone from the Raven Court.
Khaba shouted. “Friends don’t let friends sign contracts in blood, especially not with Fae.”
I’d never heard Khaba go this long without using a pun.
“You’re Fae,” she said louder, in a cheeky tone that could only belong to a teenager.
“I am indentured to this school—not an emissary of the Raven Court. My loyalties lie with all you snot-nosed brats who insist on running straight into the hands of your enemies.”
The girl began to cry. I felt bad for her. She’d let her friend get lured in by some kind of scheme. I had always thought the Fae weren’t supposed to be able to snatch kids or drain their souls in this realm without reason. It was in the Morty Realm that Witchkin had to be careful not to use magic or break any rules. But it sounded like the Raven Court was always pushing those boundaries to their benefit.
I walked downstairs to the counseling department where the teacher mailboxes were. Thatch still hadn’t placed the spell in there. No surprise. A spider scuttled into the shadows of my box. As I ascended the stairs to Khaba’s office, Juliet Stevens ran out in tears. First semester she had been in my seventh-period advanced art class. I wondered which of her friends had been lured away.
I waved at Khaba from the door. Today he wore a magenta zebra-striped shirt halfway unbuttoned.
He leaned his head into a hand, looking more depressed than I’d ever seen him. “Another one bites the dust. It’s the second student we’ve lost in one week. A record.”
“What do you mean by ‘lost?’ Like dropped out? Or snatched?”
He opened a drawer and removed a large glass jar full of sweets from within, plopping it on his desk with a thud. “Don’t you ever wonder where students go who disappear from your class list?”
“I always thought they were being transferred to a different class or a different school.”
He popped the lid off the jar and selected a neon-green candy. “Womby’s is the end of the line. Students don’t go here unless they have to. If they drop out of magic school early, it isn’t good. Either they’ve been seduced by black magic or they’ve done something to get themselves snatched.” He held out the jar to me.
I shook my head. I didn’t want the mood-enhancing properties of his magical Prozac right now.
Khaba scowled. “Lachlan Falls is usually a safe place for students because we’re on the border of the Unseen Realm and not directly in the Faerie Realm. Usually townsfolk keep an eye on students and look out for them.” The instant Khaba placed the candy in his mouth, the tension left his frame. He relaxed into his chair. “Unfortunately, the Raven Court has been offering students ‘employment opportunities.’ If this keeps up, we’re going to have to ban Lachlan Falls, except for escorted outings.”
“Oh no!” The Raven Court had been swooping in on my students? How much of that was directed toward me? I had heard the Raven Queen say in Derrick’s memory how she intended to use Derrick to get to me. What if she was now using my students to do the same? I didn’t want to endanger their lives by staying at the school.
Khaba pushed the candy into one cheek, talking around it. “Can you imagine what a mess that is going to be to monitor? And how am I going to get teachers to agree to spend their evenings and weekends babysitting students on field trips to that damned Internet café?” He leaned back in his chair, a smile on his face, despite the gravity of his words as the candy worked its magic on him.
He might have felt better, but I didn’t. What if the Raven Court had snatched Derrick? I glanced over my shoulder and moved to close the door. “I’m concerned about Derrick. Have you seen him? Has he checked in with you today? Or yesterday?”
“No. When’s the last time you saw him?” His cheerful expression was too buoyant for
the occasion.
“Sunday night.”
“Oh. That isn’t good. He usually stops in and drops off confiscated items or fills out reports on student infractions a few times a day, even on weekends. I thought it was odd he hadn’t turned in any reports, but I also suspected he was distracted.” He arched an eyebrow at me, his smirk sly, as if to imply I was the distraction. “And then he never came back to see if we could delve further into his memories, but I thought that might be explained by him not being ready to face those memories.”
“Do you think something’s happened to him? Maybe the Raven Queen snatched him. What should we do?”
He pointed to his back. “Get over here.” He unbuttoned his shirt. “I need you to wish to find Derrick.”
Today the lamp had migrated below his shoulder blades. I rubbed the knots in his muscle.
“Are you imagining your wish?” he asked.
I focused. “Yes.”
“Ask out loud.”
“I wish Derrick was here.”
He chuckled, the good-mood candy making him sound more devious than friendly. “That’s a nice idea, but let’s start with where he is. I have limits to my powers. My magic doesn’t extend far beyond the school and the grounds. I can’t retrieve Derrick from off campus, and I can’t transport myself beyond our boundaries—which is why I have to walk to Lachlan Falls just like everyone else. Once in a while I can transport myself if it’s school business, but that takes more magic and far more rubbing.”
I’d never known how his magic worked. This made sense why the art supplies he’d scrounged up for me with my wish last semester had been kind of crappy.
“So you can’t ever leave here?” I asked.
“No, not with magic. Your mother saw to it that I was truly bound to the school. Not a slave to the lamp, and not stuck in the small confines of a lamp, but limited in my abilities. I can only grant wishes related to school business, not for my own personal gain.” He snapped his fingers and pointed to his back. “You aren’t rubbing. And you aren’t thinking about your wish.”