by Elena Lawson
Saying it out loud, I realized how crazy it must sound. I still didn’t know them all that well. But it was completely normal for familiars to live with their bonded witch. In fact, it would be abnormal if they didn’t.
But this was an abnormal situation.
Cal moved deeper into the room, checking out the little kitchen, and peering into the bathroom. “You’ve given this a lot of thought.”
“I have.”
You could cut the tension in the room with a knife.
“Hell, I think it’s great,” Adrian said finally, his flippant tone cutting through the silence. “I can’t believe you did all this.”
Cal nodded his agreement, but there was still a hardness in his gaze when he thought I wasn’t looking. “It’s really great.”
I righted my headband, trying to get the wisps of hair from my eyes. “It’s really great, but…?”
Cal gave me a wan smile. “We don’t belong here, Harper.”
My face fell. I understood. I knew there was a chance they wouldn’t feel comfortable here, but it hurt all the same. I wanted to give them shelter. Protect them. How could I do that if they found new territory miles and miles away? I didn’t want them to leave.
The thought alone made my chin quiver.
“It would be a shame to let all that food go to waste, though,” Adrian said, and I caught him looking more than a little pointedly at Cal. “So, we’ll stay,” he added with finality. As though the food was the only reason they would.
“Yes,” Cal added after another minute of Adrian glaring at him. “We’ll stay—but only until we find new territory.”
They’re going to stay!
I beamed, unable to help myself, I launched myself at him. “And you’ll see, it won’t be so bad. You might even like it.”
His arms came around me slowly, and he barked a short laugh. “I’ll like being close to you—that at least, I know for certain.” He pulled me away from him and Adrian came into view beside him. “Thank you for this. You didn’t have to—you don’t owe us anything.”
But he was wrong. I owed them everything.
“He’s right, you know,” Adrian added, scooping up a loaf of bread I swiped from the kitchen to gnaw off a giant bite right from the end.
“When are you both going to realize that there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you?”
“The feeling is mutual,” Adrian said through a mouthful of bread.
I gathered up my last dregs of courage for this last request and disentangled myself from Cal. “Good, because there is something I was hoping you’d help me with.”
Cal cocked his head, his oakmoss eyes catching the iridescent light. “And that is?”
“Finding the witch responsible for what happened in Elk Falls… and giving them what they deserve.”
A sly grin turned up one corner of Cal’s lips. Adrian almost choked on his bread before he regained composure with a dumbfounded and more than a little excited expression of his own.
“You didn’t even have to ask.”
4
The next day in Professor Donovan’s class, I couldn’t focus.
Knowing my familiars were right outside made me fidgety and eager to go see them.
“Harper,” Bianca said, turning to me from the desk in front.
“Yeah?”
She nudged her head toward where Donovan was staring down at me from the front of the room, his hands clasped behind his back, looking annoyed.
He asked you a question, Bianca mouthed before facing the front again, leaving me fumbling as I stared at the back of her blonde head.
I glanced at the board, trying to figure out what I was missing.
There were three sigils drawn on the blackboard. Two of which I recognized. One was the spell to start a fire. The one beside it was a sigil that would extinguish a fire.
But I still didn’t know what the question was. I swallowed and opened my mouth to say as much when Kendra piped up from her seat near the front.
“They’re all to do with fire,” she said.
“Excellent,” Donovan admonished, turning to smile widely at his prized student. His gaze flickered back to me for an instant, scathing before he turned to address the rest of the class. “Today, and for the next several lessons, we’ll be learning about the elemental magic associated with fire sigils and how they can and can not be wielded. What they can and,” he said, his eyes cutting to me again. “can not do.”
I bowed my head.
Ugh.
By now everyone had seen me with the Arcane Authorities or the council representatives at some point over the last couple weeks. But only a small few knew what I’d seen, or what happened in Elk Falls.
The Magistrate wanted to keep it that way. The order for my silence until such a time as more evidence can be gathered, came down from the top mere hours after I arrived back at the academy with Bianca.
The only person of authority who seemed to believe me was Granger, but even she said I needed to do as I was asked, and not go looking for answers I wouldn’t be able to find.
It was why she’d gone easy on me. Allowed Cal and Adrian to stay. Didn’t give me endless detention for disappearing from the academy without a word.
She seemed only to be glad I wasn’t hurt and made me promise not to scare her like that again. I said I would do my best. She even kept the inquisitors from the Department of Arcane Inquiry at bay.
They wanted to run tests on me and my familiars—figure out the why’s and the how’s of what occurred that night in April when we bonded. But she said no—that until I turned eighteen, I was under the protection of the academy and she wouldn’t allow it.
I loved her for it. I wasn’t sure how Cal and Adrian would react to ever being poked by a witch’s needle again. They certainly wouldn’t go willingly.
Donovan drolled on about witch’s fire, and the sigils used to produce and to smother it. I took notes here and there while simultaneously trying to read bits of my father’s journal that I had half covered by the hefty Sigils textbooks.
I’d managed to decipher precious few passages, and understood even less, but now and then, like today, I’d come across a journal entry written in neat cursive. In English, thankfully.
Pulling the textbook and journal closer, I pretended to be studying something on the right of the textbook page like the others.
July 3rd, 1872
They lied to us. I have strong reason to believe the council, likely by order of the Magistrate himself, orchestrated the concealment of it. How could we have been so trusting?
“… but none of the sigils known to witch-kind for producing fire could cause an explosion. It’s simply impossible. They were created for the purposes of lighting hearths, candles, stoves—things of that—”
“That’s not true,” I blurted. I’d known all the teachers had been told of my so-called escapades—my unfounded accusations, but I wasn’t about to sit here and casually be called a liar in front of the whole class, even if they didn’t know anything about what happened two weeks ago.
This lesson was a sham. Professor Donovan was trying to teach me a lesson. To disprove me just like everyone else was.
But there was a witch in that warehouse. A powerful one. And he or she set a damned witch-fire bomb off and killed all those people. I wouldn’t be forced to sit here and listen to him try to tell me I must’ve imagined the whole thing.
“I beg your pardon, Miss Hawkins.” Donovan said through his teeth.
“You’re wrong,” I said simply and earned myself several whispers. Bianca tried to heel-kick the leg of my desk to hush me. “It isn’t impossible. Not if the witch is powerful enough,” I challenged, my voice rising as my own power flowed into me—spurred by my frustration. I felt Rose’s presence like a soft caress of cool air on my cheek. She appeared beside me in all her ghostly glory, cigarette poised in front of her mouth, a sneer curling back her red-tinted lips. “Not this twit, again,” she said, and huffed—I wante
d to say, yeah, this twit just called me a liar, but talking to ghosts of your deceased ancestors was a surefire way to get branded as a mental case, if I wasn’t already.
“Not,” I added when he failed to respond right away. “If the spell was infused with blood magic.”
I watched something in Donovan’s composure snap. “Enough—”
“No. you don’t get to—”
The loud blare of a siren-like bell sounded through the classroom. Like the bell in the morning, but longer, and louder.
Judging by the reactions of the other students, it didn’t mean anything good.
While Donovan was distracted as he attempted to settle the sudden outburst of chatter in the room, I leaned forward to poke Bianca. “Hey,” I said. “What’s going on?”
She shook her head, a crease of worry in her forehead. “I don’t know,” she replied, her brows pulling together.
“All students and faculty, please report to the dining hall immediately. All students and faculty—to the dining hall, immediately. Thank you.”
I gulped.
“Finally, something exciting,” Rose said with a little smirk. “Hope I’ve got enough juice to stick around and see what all the fuss is about.”
I snickered at her. Leave it Rose to be more concerned about a good time than to worry that something might be wrong. Especially since the only things that went wrong around here seemed to involve me.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Bianca said, rising from her seat with everyone else.
Donovan wove through the students until he was standing at the door. “Everyone follow me, please. Stay together and no dawdling.”
He held the door open and as the line of students moved to pass him and go into the hall, he stopped me by the arm, holding up the line. “No more outbursts, Miss Hawkins or I’ll be forced to send you to see the headmistress.”
Ha! I wanted to laugh in his face. Please do.
I stayed sweet and silent instead, Rose ashing her phantom cigarette on his head was enough to sate me—at least for now. “Yes, Professor Donovan.”
“Nitwit,” Rose scoffed at him as we went out into the hall.
I worked to suppress a giggle.
“What are you laughing about?” Bianca asked when I caught up with her.
“Uhh,” I said between fits of giggling. “Nothing. Just… Rose.”
I’d told Bianca about her. Actually, Bianca was the only person who knew I regularly conversed with a dead person. It was hard to keep that kind of thing from your roommate.
“You’re still seeing her, then?” Bianca asked as our class was held up behind a deluge of other students all trying to file into the dining hall at once.
“Still here!” Rose trilled.
“Yeah. Just her, though,” I answered Bianca. “I haven’t seen any of the others in weeks.”
“Progress,” Bianca said with a shrug.
Rose took a long drag of her cigarette and bounced in her steps. “Don’t get your hopes up, kitten,” she said, talking to Bianca even though she knew B couldn’t hear her. She blew out a cloud of smoke with a wide smile. “I’m not planning on going anywhere anytime soon.”
Great.
“I heard that.”
I rolled my eyes. I know you did. That’s why I thought it.
“Bitch,” she said, though without any true ire.
Dead bitch, I countered.
“Touché.”
As we neared the doors, she began to fade and groaned in frustration. “Great!” she moaned. “I always miss the fun parts!”
“I’ll fill you in later,” I whispered as she flickered, and then vanished.
“Maybe don’t talk to your dead aunt in a crowded hallway, mmmkay?” Bianca said quietly, leaning into my side.
I looped my arm through hers and we entered the hall. I sighed extra loudly, exaggerating a slow eye roll. “So bossy.”
“Thank me later.”
We moved to sit at the many tables usually used for mealtimes. Except there wasn’t even a pleasant smell coming from the cafeteria for lunch yet. And the long serving table had been completely removed.
“Why do you think they—” I started to ask Bianca when Granger entered the space, her chin high and strides purposeful. The room fell silent.
Granger was followed in by a small contingent of Arcane Authorities. Five officers, and an overseer. He stood next to Granger where she rooted herself—in the spot where the food usually was.
If they were going to bring us all in here, they could have at least had some snacks out. My stomach growled.
“I apologize for the disruption,” she began, folding her hands delicately at her front. There was something in her eyes I couldn’t read. She was maintaining her professionalism beautifully, but I got the sense she was a stone’s throw from cracking.
Dread pooled in my stomach. Please don’t be about me. Please don’t be about me.
Was I being arrested? Oh, shit. And I looked hideous in orange…
“There’s been an—an accident,” she continued. One of the officers behind her scoffed at her choice of words. “Miss Dellamora was found on the grounds this morning by Professor Ironside.” She paused, as though unable to say the next part. I wondered if she was found smoking pot, or perhaps she’d stolen something. Rich kids did that a lot, didn’t they? It didn’t matter because in that brief moment I knew whatever this was had nothing to do with me, and I slumped into my chair, relieved.
Granger’s eyes met mine for an instant before her gaze settled on a spot just above all of our heads. Looking, but not really seeing anything or anyone. “She’s dead.”
A shriek sounded from near the windows, a girl who looked to be a first-year student had broken out into sobs. The girls around her sat in varying degrees of shock, disbelief, and despair.
I didn’t know her, but I ached just to see the effect of the loss.
Distantly, I hear Bianca over the rush of whispering echoing around the cavernous room. “It was Lacey’s first year,” she said, and I heard the thickness in her voice.
“Did you know her?” I whispered back.
She shook her head. “Not really. My uncle was friends with her father, so I saw her sometimes.”
My skin had grown cold, and I chaffed my arms to stave off the chill.
“Please,” Granger said, projecting her voice as much as she could without outright shouting over the voices clamoring to be heard. “Please,” she repeated, her voice strained, and the students quieted. “The Arcane Authorities are launching an investigation to uncover what exactly was the cause of this—of this unfortunate event. I, of course, have offered the full co-operation of the academy.”
Another teacher, the one who taught Ancient Languages joined Granger at the front. “Students personally affected by this loss will be permitted to return home until such a time as they feel able to resume their studies.”
Granger inclined her head to the other professor, silently thanking him for finishing when she could not.
“In light of these events, classes are canceled for the rest of the day and will be canceled tomorrow as well… thank you,” she added as an afterthought and rushed from the room, the sound of her heels clicking against the marble floors might as well have been gunshots it was so damned quiet.
Once the authorities had filed from the room, The Ancient Languages prof drew in a breath. “Will you all please make your way back to your dormitories in as calm of a manner as possible. Dinner will be served at the usual time.”
“Awesome, a long weekend,” I heard Tucker, the guy who I’d seen making out with Kendra in the hallway several days before say to his buddy. They bumped fists and a heat sizzled up my neck.
“Have a little respect.” It was Kendra who’d said it, shocking the anger out of me. “A girl just died, you idiots.” She pushed off from the table and tossed her hair as she walked away, calling back to her little blonde minions, “Let’s go,” but not stopping to make sure they listen
ed.
So, she had a heart after all. Had to have been buried deep, though, under layers of blackmail, nail polish, and two cans worth of spray on tan. Ever since I told Granger the truth about Cal and Adrian, Kendra Van Damme hadn’t so much as glanced in my direction. Now that my secret was out, it would be easy for me to tell Granger that she’d been blackmailing me, but I didn’t.
It was much more fun watching her squirm. Crossing the hall to avoid me. Leaving the lavatories when I entered. It was glorious.
Though I’d won this round, I knew it wasn’t the last time I’d be bitten by her.
“I’m going to get ready to go,” Bianca said stealing my attention. “I might as well head out to see my brothers. They’ve been bugging me about picking up some new gaming console thing for them.”
“Will you be back soon?”
“Yeah. Maybe tomorrow or Saturday. I still have some ruined clothes to replace if you recall,” she said with a smirk. “And I could use some retail therapy.”
I managed a weak laugh, grimaced. “Right. I will pay you back you know.”
“Oh, I know you will,” she said. “See you soon!”
I caught a set of gray-blue eyes watching me from the corner of the room near the doors and lifted my hand to give Elias a little wave.
He looked delicious standing there in his baby blue button-up, dark gray vest, and slacks. His hair carefully combed back, and beard trimmed to only a hint of shadow.
If Bianca needed retail therapy, then I needed Elias therapy. The sounds of the group of girls crying softly at windows was starting to get to me. Whether I knew the girl or not, the fact that someone had died right outside these walls made my skin itch.
Elias mouthed something to me, but I couldn’t decipher it, squinting to show I didn’t understand. Cabin. Now. He mouthed more simply, and all daydreams of Elias therapy vanished.