by D. D. Chance
“We absolutely were discussing something of merit,” Claudia countered coldly. “We were discussing the process for graduation. It’s something that needs to happen, and you know it. We need to get it done.”
I blinked from one of them to the other, and Liam rolled his eyes. “Mom, I doubt we need the friggin’ ceremony at this particular time. We’ve got bigger issues.”
“And I say that you ignore the protocols at your peril. There was a reason why they were put in place. I’m not a monster hunter, I don’t pretend to know what makes a monster hunter, but we’ve been doing that damned graduation ceremony since the academy was founded. There’s probably a purpose for that besides pomp and circumstance.”
I hesitated, narrowing my focus on her. She actually might have a point. Theodore Perkins focused on her with renewed interest.
“Claudia, we have work to do,” he said, which was a remarkable sentiment given that his shirt was stained with blood.
Tyler had clearly noticed the blood too. “No. You need to get to a doctor, like, immediately.”
His father waved him off. “The cleaners are on standby to help with any medical requirements.”
I looked around. “Then why aren’t they here?”
“You don’t get to become the cleaners without learning how to wait for explicit instructions,” Symmes said. “Bottom line, we’ll take care of it. What’s the damage from this incursion?”
“Minimal,” Frost said from behind us, and I jolted in surprise. I hadn’t realized that the big man had followed us through the tunnels, but he stood now at the door, clearly perturbed. “They pushed us to determine our specific plan of attack against the Hallowells, but Liam outed them before they could get anything of substance. Still, they know that we know of their deception. There won’t be any more games played. We have to be ready for the actual attack. Something about this doesn’t sit right, though.”
“Nothing about this sits right,” Meredith Choate said, and I turned to where Zach was helping her to a chair. “We can’t have this kind of rebellion within our own walls. It goes against everything Wellington Academy stands for.”
“We need to know what they’re going to do next,” Symmes muttered, shaking his head. “They’re always one step ahead of us. We need to get out ahead of them.”
Perkins nodded. “We’ve got no way of doing that. We can’t predict our own future, let alone our enemies’.”
The future. I shoved my hands in my pockets as Perkins’s depressing assessment blanketed the group. My fingers closed around the painted miniature from the gray wizard’s inner sanctum, and a new idea kindled inside me. I jerked my head up. Zach, Tyler, Liam, and Grim all centered on me, the zing of energy shooting through us carried along with an awareness that needed no words. Even if they didn’t know exactly what I was thinking, they knew I’d latched onto something. Something good.
“I have an idea who might be able to help,” I said, and Tyler nodded sharply. He was in, even without knowing the details.
“Go,” Frost commanded. “I’ll take care of things here.”
“Keep us posted,” Tyler said, then he addressed the board. “And get yourself ready for the next round of fighting. It’ll be here before you know it.”
23
It was 11:00 a.m. by the time we reached the White Crane. This put us well ahead of the accepted time to start drinking for ordinary folks, but it was a meaningless metric for a bar that seemed to remain open twenty-four hours a day, even if it didn’t serve alcohol all that time. Still, the Crane wasn’t doing much business as we entered, which surprised me. A few men huddled at the bar, a table of women off to one side, a mixed group in the center. As we entered, the energy in the room seemed to shift a little bit.
“No monsters,” Grim confirmed, his words soft but still managing to capture the attention of the T-shirt-clad bartender standing at the counter. She eyed us as we approached, her smirk resigned.
“I’m very particular about the monsters I let into my place. You’re lucky that you made the cut.”
Today, the owner of the White Crane had pulled her gray-streaked hair into a messy bun, a pencil sticking out of it, but the dark lipstick and smoky eyes made her appear a little younger than usual. Who said the Hallowells were the only masters of illusion? She gestured for us to sit, then glanced over our shoulders. One of the women stood and strolled easily to the door, rapping lightly on it before returning to her seat.
“You knew we were coming,” Tyler said, though it was a statement, not a question.
The woman shrugged. “The White Crane has served the monster hunters of Wellington Academy for long enough that I know trouble when I see it enter my bar. It’s been a quiet run for a long while. We were due for some excitement.”
“How long have you been here?” Zach asked. “And it’s Belle, right?”
Her winged eyebrows lifted in mild surprise. “You’ve leveled up,” she said approvingly. “You’ve all leveled up, and you’re finally owning your powers. That’s good. That’s really good.”
Her words were quiet, thoughtful, and I peered at her more closely as she continued. “And to answer your question, yes. My name is Belle, same as my mother before her and her mother before her. We like to keep things simple that way,” she confirmed. “I’ve been here working the White Crane going on fifty years. I’ve seen a lot of monster hunters pass through these doors. I’m glad to see you taking up the fight.”
“You know the Hallowells? You know what they’re going to do?” Tyler asked.
She smiled a little wryly. “Those are two very different questions. The Hallowells have been a part of Wellington Academy since before the Crane was taken over by my family. They do not have much use for the minor magic of those who surrounded the first families. Pride is a powerful unifying force among magicians.”
“It can also get you killed,” Liam said.
Belle’s gaze flipped toward him, her lined skin gentled further by the dim lights of the bar. Still, there was no question she’d seen a great deal during her time as a bartender working next to a magic academy.
“It can also get you killed,” she said. “Or, maybe worse, it can take your magic away altogether.”
Liam stiffened a little, his chin coming up. Somehow, she knew about his family and the decisions made without his knowledge to suppress his magic. What else did she know?
I expelled a long sigh, dropping my hand to my pocket, where the reassuring weight of the gray wizard’s painted miniature remained. This was a long shot, but I had to be right. “You can’t tell us what the Hallowells are doing because they’re not standing in front of you, is that how this works? You can only tell the immediate future for someone you can physically see?”
Belle shifted her attention to me, her gray eyes sad.
“That’s right. I never met your mother, Nina, but I had a mother who I loved more than anything. She died a long time ago. I’m sorry for your loss. But, as I suspect you’ve learned, you haven’t lost everything. Not quite yet.”
That statement could have been read a hundred different ways, but I thought I knew what she meant. I pulled out the bauble I’d stolen from the gray wizard’s fortress and held it out to her. “Can you tell us what the person who owns this miniature is going to do next, or what’s going to happen to him next?” I asked. “Does your sight extend that far?”
Belle’s smile was slow and pleased.
“Well, now,” she said, reaching out a heavily veined hand that did more to betray her age then her face ever would. They were a worker’s hands, used to the harsh chemicals of dish cleaning and floor mopping, but they were long and slender fingered, with a lightness to them that betrayed a lifetime of dexterity.
She took the miniature from me and bent to peer at the woman in the picture.
“She was beautiful,” she said simply, and nodded. “And yes, I’m pleased to say that I can tell you what the owner of this bauble is doing. He stands in a room filled with light
and power, and he’s angry and excited. He’s ready to go to war.”
“He maybe needs to get in line,” Liam said grimly.
She tilted her head, sliding her gaze to him. “You will all be at war before this day is done on this plane, and I can’t tell you how that battle will be won. It will be fought on the grounds of Wellington Academy, and as ever, the academy’s wards keep me from seeing too much through that veil. I don’t try very hard to pierce it either. There comes a time when disrespecting magic takes a toll on a person.”
“Will the Hallowells betray the gray wizard?” Tyler asked suddenly. He slanted a glance to Grim, and then back to Belle. “He is a monster, after all, and he’s not of their family, even if he looks like a normal human. And Elaine has reason to take issue with him now that Nina is here.”
But Belle only shook her head. “No, the Hallowells won’t betray him. That’s not in the cards for the gray wizard. He fights, and he doesn’t lose.”
That didn’t sound too positive for our side, but there was nothing I could do about that.
Belle studied the guys. “As for you, you need to find help. What’s coming for you may be a turning point from which you can’t come back. You can’t do this alone.”
“Well, that’s great,” Liam quipped, “but in case you haven’t noticed, we’re kind of all there is.”
A strange expression flitted across her face, and she nodded. “The Hallowells have done their job well. They always did. But they also have been driven by one thing other than pure power. To their detriment, and to your potential advantage.”
Tyler studied her intently, tilting his head. “You can’t tell us what that is, though, can you? Even though it’s our future?”
Her smile was somewhere between a smirk and a rueful grin. “There’s no shortage of things I can do. Very few things I can’t. But there are rules in magic for those who wish to know the highest level of power. I follow those rules and am only bound by those who are stronger than me. Even those who have only recently become stronger than me.”
Tyler grimaced, but it was clear he understood. He’d become a master at spell craft in the short time I’d been at Wellington Academy, but that carried with it a weight of responsibility. “I don’t want to compel you to tell me.”
“Ah, but if you did, wouldn’t that be something.” She winked.
Tyler glanced up at the ceiling, murmured words I remembered from what seemed like centuries ago, but was only a couple of weeks—the same spell of revealing he’d used on me. Belle’s smile broadened.
“What do you know, I just remembered,” she said with another quick grin, and her voice took on a curious resonance, low and haunting—quite possibly the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard, the sound of moonlight filtered through the trees, and wind whispering along a still, frozen lake. “You’re not alone in your fight. There are hunters who would do battle with you. Those you know and those you don’t. Those you know are held far closer than you ever suspected. They have watched you from the earliest days of your collective.”
With that revelation, Belle shook herself bodily, her face going through a range of emotions, but ending up, luckily enough, with satisfaction. She straightened and pinned a narrow-eyed gaze on Tyler. “And if you ever do that little spell without my express permission, I will flay you alive, son.”
He laughed, sounding more joyful than I’d heard him in a long time. “Agreed.”
“It’s a riddle,” Liam groaned.
“It’s a hell of a riddle,” Zach confirmed, tilting his head as he sat back in his seat, studying the shadowed ceiling.
“It’s a riddle you’re going to have to solve on your own because that isn’t the only work that needs to be done.” Belle considered me, then Grim. “What help will come from the monster realm? What alliances can you guarantee?”
Grim shrugged. “The temporary alliance of the harbinger should hold long enough to get the warriors to the field. How the battle will go, or whether they’ll change sides midbattle is something that I can’t judge. Would that I could.”
She rolled her eyes. “You hold more power than you want your friends to know, Asante. Your heart chose wisely long ago when you abandoned everything for the love of your people. It will choose wisely again very soon.”
Grim stiffened at this obscure advice, but I was beginning to get the impression that obscure advice was something Belle enjoyed handing out more than spiked coffee. Her smile only deepened as she shifted her gaze to me. “You’re not off the hook here either. You need to talk to your mother.”
I grimaced “My mother? That’s going to be a bit of a problem.”
“Is it?” she asked. She tossed the jeweled miniature back to me. “I believe you’ll figure something out. You haven’t lost everything, yet. There are still memories to be made.”
The door rattled at the front of the bar, then burst open, newcomers ducking in. Apparently, our private audience with the bartender of the White Crane was at an end.
“Thank you,” I said to Belle, who gave me a casual shrug.
“Just because we don’t run with the first families of Boston doesn’t mean that we aren’t family,” she said, as she shifted toward the newcomers to her bar. “Good luck.”
We left the bar, heading toward the center of the academy, though with no real destination mapped out.
“So…anyone want to interpret all that for the cheap seats?” I asked. Tyler shook his head.
“I’ve got no idea. Grim, you?”
“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it?” Liam said. “You two have to go back to Fort Doom, see if there’s anything there that your dad left of your mother—like maybe another letter or something. Somewhere he kept a memory of her.”
I jolted. There was something of course, there was the room where she’d been happy, a solarium filled with plants.
“But that was an illusion,” I said to no one in particular, since no one else had seen it.
“Illusion or not, it’s all we’ve got,” Zach mused. “Belle said that the hunters are closer than we expect. That means they’ve got to be at Wellington, right? But…where? Where would they be watching us from the earliest days of the collective?”
Tyler jolted beside us, stopping for a second. He cocked a glance toward Liam. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“I doubt it,” Liam responded with a grin as a flicker of awareness shot across Zach’s face. He’d figured it out too, or they’d let him in on the joke. “Because I’m way ahead of you. We need to hit the arena. It’s not just for conducting the Run anymore, I’m thinking.”
I pictured the arena in my mind, where we’d all bonded into a collective, but I wasn’t making this new connection. “You need our help?” I offered.
“We will always need your help,” Tyler confirmed, shooting me a wide smile. “But we can start the search on our own, while you two go take care of business in the monster realm. Unless you need us?”
He posed the question to both Grim and me, but Grim shook his head. “There are those who will be watching,” he said. “Nina and I returning to the realm won’t be as noticed as…you three.” He held off from saying “you three humans,” but the guys got the idea. If anything, it only added to their excitement.
“Don’t worry about us. Go do your thing. You’ve got this,” Liam said, pounding Grim on the shoulder. “More than anybody, you’ve got this. Take care of our girl.”
“Always,” Grim said, and I glanced away, my heart doing a strange sideways shimmy as my butterflies blinked awake again.
Then as one, Zach, Tyler, and Liam took off at practically a dead run, looking as much like the leaping Akari as anyone ever would in human form. Grim and I headed back to campus as well, but he angled off to the side, walking along an old section of the wall near the monster quad.
I recognized this area with some surprise. “You’re taking me to the wishing gate?”
“There are many portals in and around Wellington. This o
ne is more universal than most. Generally speaking, if anything is assigned a higher level of innate magic than seems reasonable, it’s because it’s a portal to the monster realm. Something humans would all do well to keep in mind.”
I thought about that and admitted it made a grudging level of sense. “So what does that mean? If I wish really hard to go back to the monster realm, I can?”
“For the moment.” He spoke with a heaviness that sobered me. Grim and the Akari had talked about shutting down the access between the realms. What would happen if they did that? And which side would Grim land on?
This wasn’t the time to ask those questions, of course. We reached the wishing gate entry, the wrought iron gate still warped and slightly off its hinges from when Tyler and I had kissed here. I allowed myself to wonder for a moment what it would be like to kiss Grim in this place, and I felt his gaze settle on me. I really needed to remember that he was attuned to my emotions to an almost ridiculous degree.
“Hey,” Grim said. I glanced up at him, not surprised to feel the weight of his concern. I was attuned to everything about this beautiful monster, I suspected, from his softest sigh to his rage-iest roar. And now, with his face so close to me, his body so large, strong, and vital, I felt a new wellspring of emotion bubble up inside me, fizzy with anxiety.
“I don’t want you to close the portals,” I blurted.
Grim’s brows shot up, his face blanking in surprise. “I’m not going to close them,” he said. “Not yet.”
“Not ever.” I bit my lip, glancing away. “I won’t ask you not to. I can’t—I’m too afraid I might somehow compel you at exactly the wrong moment and something terrible will happen. But I can’t…I mean, I don’t…”
“Shhh,” Grim murmured, and he lifted my chin with his finger, forcing me to blink away the tears that had emerged out of nowhere as he smiled down at me. “Harbinger, you can order me to come back from the dead, and if there were any way possible, I’d do it. If the portals close, it will only be with your blessing. I swear that to you.”