Symonds beckoned me to move closer. As I stepped closer, both Jacob’s and the amulet’s glow intensified. “Okay, now move way back,” he ordered me. I did so, moving the furthest I could be, crossing to the back of the classroom and coming to a stop in front of the door to the hall. I turned around to see that the glow had all but disappeared, reduced to tiny motes of light scattered thinly about Jacob, flickering in and out like fireflies. “Interesting. You must have a teeny, tiny drop in you, but not enough to worry about unless close to a locii,” the professor told him.
Didn’t he mean locus? I thought locii was plural. I kept my mouth shut, though, not wanting to piss him off. Besides, for all I knew, it was a magickal term specific to Fae magicks or something.
“Okay, you lot can go sit down. Last four now.”
That was Laurent, Lydia, Charles, and Brent.
Lydia stood on the end next to Laurent, smiling confidently. Charles looked bored while Brent and Laurent exchanged what appeared to be knowing glances. Symonds stood before Lydia. “Are you sure you haven’t used that all up?” Lydia asked, frowning.
Symonds looked affronted. “I have to question your education if you think magick can be used up in such a manner,” he replied stiffly. “This isn’t a two-penny limited time charm.”
Lydia flushed a deep red. “Oh, yeah. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Please try to do so in future,” Symonds told her. “You may go sit down.”
I winced. He hadn’t made anyone else return to their seat until the rest of their group did. Symonds was really annoyed with her, no doubt about it. Lydia pinched her lips together and sailed back to her seat, head held high. I had to hand it to her, that girl had self-confidence and a determination to hold onto her dignity. Now, if only she’d learn to not act like such an immature brat.
The professor stepped forward, in front of Laurent. A bright, soft blue light lit up around the amulet and Laurent. “Interesting,” Symonds said, noting that the same pale blue now danced around the other two as well, albeit not as brightly. Symonds moved to stand between Brent and Charles. The blue about them flared brighter, while Laurent’s did not dim, the auras reaching for each other, tendrils intertwining. “Bound magicks,” Symonds stated. The guys gave him a quick nod of assent. Symonds turned to me. “Come closer, I want to see what happens when the power of three is close to a locii.” He bounced on his feet in excitement. I walked closer. The pink of my magick flared brighter as did their blue, while the amulet began to glow a vibrant purplish pink. “I knew it!” Symonds cried. “Strong magick indeed!”
Laurent winked at me. Uh-huh. Something told me he’d known this was a possibility. Was that why he’d been so nice to me?
“Mreow?”
“George?” I gasped, seeing my familiar standing on the teacher’s desk. He was no longer transparent but solid.
“Ma-rummmmmp,” he replied.
“Yours?” the professor asked me, looking ecstatic.
“Yes, but he was see-through until just now.”
“Oh, my, yes, we’ll have to be very careful with the five of you. Make sure you bring…George, was it? Bring him to class with you, here and to the rest of them.”
Which was the opposite of what my fellow students had advised, but okay. He was the prof, and the cat was literally out of the bag now, anyway.
“Yes, sir.”
He beamed at me.
“Such a polite child, and so powerful.” He sniffed. “I know you are all technically adults, but given my age, practically everyone at the academy is a child.”
Oof. He must be much older than he looked, probably those vampire genes.
“You five sit in the front row. Then the rest of you sit from the brightest light to least.” Lydia’s expression shuttered, and she pinched her lips together even tighter as she stood up and strode forward to seat herself in the second row, directly behind me, despite his instructions.
Professor Symonds took off the amulet, placed it back in his pocket, and then hurried over to the blackboard without saying anything to her. Wiping his name off first, he wrote the word ‘locii’ on the board.
“Okay, papers and pencils out. We don’t use tech in this room!” he said. “Take notes! A locii is a person who possesses great power and can focus on their own, but who can also act as a focus for the magick of those who are bonded magickally and spiritually. The most powerful of the bonds is when a trio form bonds, which are both physical and spiritual. The said triad bond in turn to a locii who focuses their magick, using their own to act as a carrier wave. If the locii has a familiar, they receive a signal boost, so the magick is even more focused and has a wider range. It’s especially useful for spells that require coverage over a large area. A locii’s magick is always pink, making them easy to identify.”
Whoa. That sounded technical and also pretty badass. I could do that? George and I sounded like a pretty fierce duo, especially if we bonded later with some trio. Though by physical, I had a feeling he wasn’t talking about becoming blood brothers and sisters by cutting our hands or something.
“This means that while we practice, you five will sit inside a protective circle, so if there is a reaction, it’s contained. The rest of you will be given charms to wear, and you must wear them while practicing any Fae related activities, understand?”
They must have nodded because he continued. “Good, glad to hear it.” He turned back to the board. “Now we will start with the basics- the Fae alphabet.” He began to write, saying the phonetic sounds as he went and noting those below the symbols. The sounds of pencils scratching against paper soon filled the room as we all copied it down. The back of my neck crawled as I felt eyes boring into me from behind. To add to the unsettling feeling, it wasn’t specific to only feeling it directly behind me, where Lydia had plopped herself down. I could sense more eyes on me from the periphery. I dropped my pencil on my desk, wiggling my fingers as I feigned a cramp. My pencil rolled off my desk and onto the floor, just as I’d hoped it would.
“Sorry,” I muttered as the Professor stopped speaking and stared at me, along with several other students. Okay, so that hadn’t been as surreptitious as I’d wanted.
I glanced at the three boys next to me anyway, chagrined that now I couldn’t tell if they were looking at me because I’d drawn attention to myself or if they had been staring at me the whole time. Brent winked at me, wearing a lopsided grin. Charles smiled and looked back down at his paper, while Laurent leaned back with what appeared to be a satisfied look of appraisal. I glanced away, looking behind me as I retook my seat.
Oh, man, if looks could kill, I’d be so dead right now it almost wasn’t funny. As it was, Lydia’s angry gaze, twisted up mouth and pert wrinkled nose had me imagining little puffs of smoke coming out of her nose. I giggled at the mental image, and she glared at me even harder. I giggled harder, startling Charles into glancing back over to see what I found so funny. Others behind me must have twisted around to see, too, as I heard giggles break out behind me. Charles glanced over his shoulder, and spotting Lydia’s impotent fury, barked out a short laugh.
“Careful, Lydia, your face might freeze like that,” he said in a light, teasing tone. She turned her death stare towards him.
“Hey, leave him alone!” Brent snapped as she raised a hand up as if to slap him.
Her hand paused in midair. “Oh, you don’t want me to hurt your poor little boyfriend?”
“Displays of romantic jealousy are not tolerated,” Professor Symonds said. “Not only are they disruptive to the class, but the animosity destroys the camaraderie we strive for within these hallowed halls.”
I swallowed back another giggle, amused by how the professor got his message across. He was terrifying yet dapper and kind of cute in his own way. Not in an ‘I’d like to jump that’ sort of way; more like an eccentric uncle. Only time would tell if he would be a favorite one or not. So far, so good, though.
“Jealous?” Lydia spat. “Jealous of who? The half-
human nobody who must have gotten a more potent enchantment than your amulet so she could fool everyone?” George hissed. “Who’s faking having a familiar?” George’s back now arched. Hackles raised at full mast now, he hissed louder, swiping the air with a paw in warning, claws extended. “Or do you mean I’m jealous of the three butt boys here? We all know what they had to have done to bind their magicks like that,” Lydia sneered.
“That’s enough!” The professor’s roar shattered the air. He drew a series of symbols in the air, a ring on his finger letting off a small glow. Runes began to glow beneath Lydia’s desk. With a pop, she disappeared from view, desk, chair, and all for the second time today. At this rate, they’d have to issue her a season’s pass.
“Anyone else want to sprout hateful nonsense?” Symonds demanded. Everyone shook their heads no. “Good!” He ran a shaky hand through his hair, smoothing it down. “Continue copying what I’ve written. I’ve got to dispatch a bluey to the headmistress. That girl’s irrational hate needs to be looked into, she sounded like the very kind of radicals we’re trained to defend the realms from.”
Nods of agreement went around the room. So, hate against humans and same sex relationships were things looked down upon, at least publicly here. Yet my mother’s family disowned her over my father. Why? And more importantly, how had they been allowed to not only get away with it but retain their high places?
Chapter 8
“Hold up,” Laurent said as I left to go to the cafeteria with my friends. He’d been among the first out the door as class ended, surprising as he’d been sat in the front row next to me. My friends and I’d waited for everyone else to file out, hoping to avoid Lydia in case she was hanging about after getting into trouble. Laurent had to have been waiting around for me.
“What do you want?” I asked.
He glanced at my friends. “We need to talk.” Yeah, those were never great words to hear. “Alone, please.” He held up his hands. “No funny business, I swear. We can talk here in the hall if you like.”
Jacob threw me a look filled with concern as he noticed me chewing my lip in consideration. “You alright?”
“Yeah,” I told him. I turned my attention to Laurent. I’d hear him out. If I didn’t, he or one of his friends would probably start bugging me. I had a pretty good idea what this would be about anyway, given the magickal display during our testing. “But George stays.”
“Mreowmph.” George sat down next to my feet, giving Laurent a no-nonsense stare.
Laurent nodded. “Okay.”
“We’ll just wait for you in the cafeteria,” Felicia said, pointing over her shoulder in its general direction as she spoke.
“We’ll save you a seat,” Joanna added.
“Don’t take any crap,” Jacob told me. He leveled his own stare at Laurent. I think he intended to look menacing, but he didn’t quite pull it off. “You better not mess with her.”
Laurent smiled. “Far from it.” Watching my friends leave, he said, “You have some loyal friends there. I knew from the moment I met you that there was something special about you.”
“Yeah, my magick,” I said.
He cocked his head at me. “Aside from that. You’ve inspired loyalty already in people you’ve barely met. Hell, Lydia’s pissed about Rina defending you, even. That’s part of her beef with you, actually. She thinks you’re stealing her best friend.”
“And her boyfriend,” I retorted.
He bristled. “I wasn’t hers, to begin with, none of us were ever theirs. We keep telling you all that and won’t stop saying it until you get it through your heads.”
This time it was me who held up my hands in mock surrender. “I know. I only meant that that’s how she and Jennifer seem to see things. Rina, well, she seems to know differently. About that, at least.”
“My sister knows a lot more than she lets on, I’m sure,” he muttered. “But, I did want to ask you if you’d consider making at least part of Lydia’s ideas true.”
I stared at him. Say what now? Was he asking what I thought he was? “What? You want me to go out with one of you?” Surely not. That would be beyond the pale, wouldn’t it? I was a social nobody, and they were considered royalty among the student body.
“Me, yes.“ He cleared his throat. “I was a bit of a coward earlier. I should have asked you to sit with me before, and maybe be my study partner.” He turned his head away, an unexpectedly shy expression crossing his face. I found the ice around my heart thawing. “And maybe more, if you decide you like me as much as I think I like you.” He met my eyes once more. “I shouldn’t have let my worry over all the clique bullshit stop me, and I shouldn’t have suggested you hide anything.” He swallowed. “I hope you can forgive me.”
Okay, so not a declaration of undying love but an apology that felt honest. I looked down at George. George looked at me, then stood up and walked over to Laurent. He twined around his legs, purring. I took that as George sensing Laurent’s sincerity.
“Apology accepted. So, you, um, think you like me? As in like like?” I winced. That sounded like I was twelve.
A blush stole over Laurent’s cheeks. And he stared down at the floor. “Yeah. You don’t hate me, do you?”
“Yes.” I realized my error when he looked up and stared at me, stricken. “I meant, yes, I’ll sit with you and um, try being your girl, maybe.”
His entire face lit up. “Really?”
“Yes. See, George likes you, too. “ I lifted a finger up. “But, my friends get to sit at the table, too. And I don’t want to have Lydia bothering us while we eat.” I didn’t want her bothering us full stop, but that was an unlikely scenario and not something he could control.
“Done! Um,” he rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. “Actually, that was something Brent and Charles were going to go handle while I spoke to you. They were going to tell her she needed to sit somewhere else. She’s acting way too immature to be considered a royal, as silly as that tradition may seem to you.” He grimaced. “We’re supposed to be role models, and she’s simply not up to it, the way she’s been.”
Wow. I hadn’t expected that.
“So, um, Charles and Brent…” I trailed off, hoping he’d take the hint over what I was asking.
“You want to know if they’re a couple?”
I nodded. “Professor Symonds said something about bonds, both physical and…” Boy, this was an awkward conversation.
“Yes, they are a couple, and sometimes I join them.”
Whoa! “Together?” I squeaked.
“Yeah,” he nodded. “And sometimes just with one or the other of them. Never behind anyone’s backs. Power of Three, right?” He smiled gently at me. “That doesn’t mean I can’t love you.”
Right. “But, if we date, you’ll stop, um, having sex with them?” My cheeks flamed. I couldn’t believe I’d just said that never mind that we were even having this conversation.
“If that’s what you want,” he said slowly. “But I won’t break off my friendship with them, and we’d still have to share a level of intimacy to maintain our magickal bond. Like, kissing and touching and stuff before attempting to cast a big spell.”
I nodded. “Okay. I’ll have to think about that part before, you know, committing past anything really casual between us.”
He nodded back at me. “No rushing into anything. Just casual girlfriend and boyfriend. Hand holding, study dates, kissing?” he looked at me hopefully as he said that last word.
I smiled back at him and gave a small laugh. “We sound so high school! But, yeah.”
He held his hand out to me. “Then, may I carry your books?”
I laughed again but handed him my bag. He took it, then held out his other hand for me to hold. Oh! He wasn’t going to make any of this a secret, was he? I bent down, scooped up George, then took his hand. “Such a gentleman,” I teased.
“For now,” he teased right back.
I laughed. “Before we go to lunch, we should take Geo
rge back to my room.”
“Nah, it’ll be fine. He needs to eat, too, doesn’t he?”
I hadn’t thought of that. Where would I even get cat food? I’d have to obtain permission to go into the village to buy some or have someone go get it for me.
“They’ll feed him, don’t worry.”
“Huh? In the cafeteria?” Seriously? Though I suppose it wasn’t any different than places that let dogs in or going to a cat cafe.
“Yeah. He’s a familiar, and you’re at an academy of magick.”
That made sense. “Cool. I was getting worried. Oh, man, what about a cat box?”
He laughed. “I bet you’ll find housekeeping is ahead of you there. Symonds would have notified them by now that your familiar has finished manifesting.”
I hoped so. I didn’t want to have to clean poop off the floors. I noticed the royals from year two were lining up outside the cafeteria doors already. “We haven’t missed lunch, have we?”
“No, we have another ten minutes to get our food and sit down, then another thirty or forty to eat. It’s alright.”
The sound of low chatter from those in line stopped as they noted our clasped hands.
“Staking a claim on her already, huh?” called out one of the male royals.
“I saw her first. Not my fault you’re too slow, Harvey,” Laurent quipped back.
Harvey gave me a wink. “You get tired of him and want to be my focus, if you know what I mean, come find me.”
Yeah, no.
Laurent’s hand tightened around mine. “My cousin here is just jealous,” he said. “Ignore him and his terrible pick-up lines.”
Harvey’s friends laughed. “He told you,” one of the boys said.
“Yeah, yeah, yuck it up,” Harvey replied good-naturedly, pulling the door open for us. “Go on, you two, go get your lunch instead of breaking my heart.”
I snorted at that. As Laurent shouldered the door open, I could hear the low hubbub of the diners inside. I felt their eyes as they settled upon us, actually spotting one or two who nudged one of their companions and gestured towards us—great, more gossip, just what I always wanted.
Discovery of Magick (Dark Light Academy Book 1) Page 7