Academic Magic

by Becky R Jones

  “Brian, Lisa. Are you two okay?” she asked. Brian kept his arm around Lisa and gave a small, jerky nod.

  Lisa still appeared frightened but managed a whispered, “Yes.”

  Zoe looked at Declan. “What about you?”

  He gave her a quick glance, nodded once and stared at his shoes. He had laced his fingers together and squeezed until they turned white. Zoe didn’t push him. It wouldn’t do anybody any good if he pulled his vanishing act again. She turned to the remaining student.

  “This is Darian,” Geoff introduced him. “He’s a fraternity brother of mine.” Darian nodded at Zoe but didn’t say anything.

  Zoe looked them over. All four students appeared exhausted, ill, and extremely frightened.

  “Okay, let’s go back to Mark’s, Dr. Davis’, office. We need to talk and then Josh and Geoff will take you back to your dorms and you need to get some sleep.”

  Leading the four students, with Mark, Geoff, and Josh following, Zoe headed out of the basement and continued up the stairs to the second floor and into Mark’s office.

  Chapter Twelve

  As everybody settled into his office, Mark looked up from his phone. “I texted George and Kieran. They should be here in a minute.”

  Zoe grabbed bottles of water from Mark’s small refrigerator and handed them to the students. She watched as they gulped the water and after a minute or two when they appeared to have settled their nerves as much as possible, she spoke in a gentle voice.

  “Can any of you give us an idea of what happened? How did you wind up in the basement with Dr. Cruickshank and Susan Barker? What did they do?”

  “I’m not sure,” Lisa started, hesitantly. Zoe knew her to be a good student, a freshman from the nearby area, who lived on campus. “I have Dr. Cruickshank for Intro Sociology. She asked me if I wanted to work on some research project with her. That was about two or three weeks ago.”

  Zoe and Mark exchanged glances. That was around the same time that Josh and Annmarie had seen the strange lights in Shelby Hall. Just then there was a brief knock on the door. Declan flinched at the sound and the other three looked alarmed. Zoe made a calming gesture with one hand. The door opened, and Kieran Ross walked in. With nine people standing around, Mark’s small office was getting crowded. Kieran closed the door behind him and looked at Mark.

  “Meredith and Susan left this building and went over to Shelby Hall. It looked like Susan was yelling at Meredith.”

  The four students rescued from the basement were looking very puzzled and still a bit frightened. Lisa turned back to Zoe.

  “Dr. O’Brien, what is going on? How did he,” pointing at Geoff, “make that fire in the basement? And what were Dr. Cruickshank and that other woman trying to do?”

  Zoe drew a deep breath. This was going to be an interesting explanation. Just then, there was another knock on the door, and it opened to admit George Wardmaster and Annmarie Johnson, along with two more faculty members, Robyn Harper from the English department, and Simon LeGrande, Mark’s department chair. Annmarie managed to worm her way over to the other students and gave Lisa a hug. Now the office was jam-packed.

  Simon came up to Zoe while everybody was milling around trying to find enough space to stand.

  “George tells me you’re a mage,” the little man said, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

  “Yes, I’m an Elemental,” Zoe answered quietly.

  Simon’s eyes widened. “Really? That’s fascinating. I don’t believe I’ve ever met an Elemental before. I’m Fire.”

  Zoe stifled a snort of surprise. With his short, round stature, and fastidious, almost old-fashioned way of dressing, Fire was the last Element she would have expected Simon to control. Air maybe, but just the thought of him as a mage was enough to induce the giggles. She reminded herself that she didn’t much look like what she might expect a mage to look like either. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Simon must have encountered the reaction before because he winked and smiled.

  “I know. I’m the last person you would expect to be a Fire mage,” he said in a conspiratorial whisper.

  Zoe smiled back. “Well, I still have trouble thinking of myself as a mage so I can’t really say anything.” Under all of the mage stuff, she was still an untenured professor, speaking with a full professor. Tenure was forever at the back of her mind.

  Simon stared speculatively at Declan. “Do you know that young man?” he asked, nodding his head in Declan’s general direction.

  “Yes, he’s a sophomore, and one of Meredith’s advisees. Why?” Zoe was still feeling somewhat protective of Declan.

  “I am feeling a different type of power from him. He’s not a mage, but I’m not exactly sure what he is. You said he’s one of Meredith’s advisees?” Simon’s expression combined interest and concern.

  “Yes, and I’m fairly certain that can’t be a good thing. You’re right, he has power. He vanished in my office the other day. I told George and he said that he wasn’t sure how Declan managed to do that. Do you have any idea?”

  “Vanished? Yes, George told me about that. Fascinating. No, I’m not sure I know how he did that, although I have one or two ideas that I will discuss with George. I agree, the young man should not be in any more contact with Meredith than is necessary. I will speak with him and see if I can persuade him to change his major to political science. If he should just happen to request that I be his faculty advisor, well then…” Simon smiled and winked at Zoe.

  Zoe felt a sense of relief at the thought that Declan would be out from Meredith’s control and protected by Simon. That seemed to be the best possible outcome for Declan until he could be persuaded to divulge more about his power. She didn’t want to push him, but it would be easier to protect him and help him protect himself if they knew the source of his power. From what Mark had told her, Simon was good with students and they liked and trusted him. Hopefully, he could get to the bottom of Declan’s power.

  Zoe stared around at the group of mages and students crowded into Mark’s office. Some of those students are mages, she reminded herself. This whole situation was getting more complicated by the minute. She took a deep breath and tried to calm her racing heart.

  George turned the full force of his best protective grandfather smile on the students. “Why don’t we let Josh, Annmarie, and Geoff explain things to their friends while we work on our next steps. Don’t leave yet, however. We need to break whatever hold was put on you and protect you from any future attempts. Please don’t worry. We’ll get it all sorted out I promise.”

  Kieran glanced over at the small group of students who were now absorbing information from Josh, Annmarie, and Geoff. “How are we going to protect students?” he asked in a low voice. “It’s pretty clear that Meredith is using her classes as a sort of hunting ground for students she can manipulate and bring under the control of the coven.”

  Zoe also looked over at the students. On a whim, she switched over to her magesight. It was a revelation. Swirling around the heads of each of the four students were what looked like a blood-red web of lines encasing their heads and settling down on their shoulders like a weird sort of hood.

  “Can any of you see that?” she asked the other mages. “There are webs of magic around their heads and shoulders.”

  The other faculty members scrutinized the group of students. Overhearing the conversation, the students turned and stared worriedly at the faculty. Josh squinted at the head of one of the boys.

  “Yeah, I can see something, but it’s not really clear and I have to really focus to see it,” he said.

  “I can see something, but it’s wavy and kind of smeared. If you hadn’t said anything, I don’t think I would have noticed it,” said Kieran.

  “It looks kind of like a fog around their heads,” added Robyn Harper.

  “I think that as an Elemental, Zoe has the ability to see the layers of all four Elements and thus can get a clearer picture of these webs.” George sounded thoughtful. “Zoe, c
an you see a way to unravel the threads?”

  After concentrating on the webs for a minute, Zoe nodded. “Yeah, I think I can figure it out.”

  “I think that should be our first priority,” Mark said.

  Zoe wormed her way over to the students and the others squeezed back to give her room.

  “Okay, you guys, I need you to stand still as I work on you; I’m not sure how this will work but let me know if it hurts at all. Lisa, I’ll start with you.”

  On closer inspection of the web around Lisa’s head, she saw that one end of the thread appeared to trail off into nothing, however it didn’t disappear, but rather thinned out. More importantly, it pointed in the direction of Shelby Hall. The trailing end most likely connected the spell around Lisa to whoever had created it and breaking that connection would probably raise an alarm they didn’t need right now. Leaving that question for last, Zoe continued searching for the place where the thread connected to Lisa. She finally found it looped around the girl’s right ear. Working slowly, Zoe willed the water in the air, and air currents themselves to unwrap the thread woven around Lisa’s head. The blood thread wiggled and jerked as it fought her attempt to remove it from the girl’s ear. Zoe fought down her revulsion and exerted more pressure through the air and water. She finally overpowered the resistance from the blood thread and unwrapped it from Lisa’s ear. Once she accomplished that, removing the rest of the thread was relatively easy.

  As she worked at unraveling the thread around Lisa, Zoe scrutinized the girl’s face for any signs of resistance, pain, or even anything resembling a booby-trap. While Lisa winced slightly when Zoe pulled the thread from around her ear, nothing untoward happened and Zoe finished unwinding the thread. Once it was completely off Lisa, she turned to where the thread thinned out and led back to Shelby Hall. Not wanting to break the connection just yet, she tied the thread into a knot and left it hanging in the air. As the last bit of thread was lifted off her head, Lisa blinked once or twice like someone waking up from a nap and nodded.

  “Thank you. I can feel the difference. My head feels clearer. I don’t know why I couldn’t feel it before. It seems like an obvious change now.”

  Zoe nodded and turned to the three boys. “Brian, you’re next.”

  She repeated the process she had used on Lisa and completed it in less time. Leaving that knot floating in the air beside Lisa’s, she quickly unraveled the threads trapping Darian and Declan. Once the students were free of the threads, she looked at all four of them and willed the air and water currents to form a shield around their heads. She wasn’t sure if it would deflect any future attempts to control the students, but figured that if anybody came after them, she would at least have some warning. She moved to create a shield around Declan but he stepped back shaking his head.

  “Please don’t Dr. O’Brien. I can make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he muttered looking embarrassed. Zoe raised her eyebrows and Declan’s ears went red.

  “Please. I can do it myself.”

  Seeing him start to shake again, Zoe simply nodded.

  “Okay. No problem. But let me know if you have any trouble,” she said soothingly. He gave his typical jerky nod and stared resolutely at his shoes.

  Having released the students (she hoped) from the control of the witches, Zoe examined her four floating bundles of threads; they all led back in the direction of Shelby Hall.

  “All those blood threads are pointing to Shelby Hall,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at the others.

  Mark squinted at the knots of threads. “I can’t really tell, but I’ll take your word for it,” he said.

  “I can sort of see a vague tail of the one closest to me. Yeah, it does point to Shelby,” Robyn said.

  “Well, that does confirm our idea that the leader of the coven is somebody with an office in Shelby Hall,” George noted.

  Zoe suppressed a smile. Even with magic, the academic brain was always more comfortable once theories were confirmed.

  “I’m going to cut the connecting threads all at once. Keep your eyes and ears open for any sort of reaction.”

  Zoe pulled the knots closer together and simultaneously snapped all four connecting threads. There was a slight tremor in the air and a vibration went out from the severed threads towards Shelby Hall. About two heartbeats later a low thrumming sound reverberated through Mark’s office.

  “Well, I’m guessing that the witches noticed that,” Kieran grinned at Zoe.

  Zoe grinned back. “I hope they got a surprise.” She turned back to the four students. “I’ve put a sort of shield around your heads that should prevent Dr. Cruickshank or anybody else from trapping you again. But if you feel a change in how you’re feeling let one of us know immediately. That goes double for you Declan. I’m trusting you here.”

  Declan blushed and nodded as the other students gave him quizzical looks.

  Josh looked at his friends and then back at Zoe. “Dr. O’Brien, do you think that Geoff, Annmarie and I should do the same thing? Will our magic work like that?”

  “I don’t see why not. Geoff, can you make a shield without visible flames? That would be the only thing I’d wonder about.”

  Geoff was intrigued. “I don’t know; I’ve created blocks and shields before but never had to hide the flames.” He concentrated for a moment and a sort of flaming helmet appeared over his head.

  Zoe turned to the others. “Can you guys see anything over his head?”

  To their credit, the students took the admittedly strange and startling events of the last hour or so somewhat in stride. They stared hard at Geoff and shook their heads.

  “No, I don’t see anything weird. Should we be able to see something?” asked Darian.

  “No. But that’s the point.” Geoff grinned at them. “I know, me being subtle. That’s a shock.” The tension in the other students noticeably eased at his joke.

  Declan continued to stare at Geoff’s head. “I can see something, but it’s like a faint orange-y glow.”

  Geoff’s grin was replaced with a startled expression and Zoe caught a thoughtful gaze on George’s face, but he didn’t say anything. Simon LeGrande’s eyes narrowed and he quickly stilled an involuntary movement. Declan gave Geoff one more look and shrugged, returning his gaze to his feet.

  George looked at the crowd in Mark’s office once more.

  “Okay, everybody that has power, create a strong shield for yourself; pay attention to any changes in your attitude or energy level, or anything out of the ordinary. I don’t think any of us have the luxury of putting anything down to normal semester stresses or anything like that. Keep in close touch with each other and the students. That includes you four,” George gestured at the rescued students. “Make a point of coming by for office hours for any of us on a regular basis even if you don’t have a class with us. Faculty, we need to drop by each other’s offices on our way to and from classes and meetings. We can’t afford to miss anything no matter how small or unimportant it may seem at the time.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Once all the students had left the office Zoe turned to the others. “This all started when I ran into Meredith with Darian and Declan heading into this building as I was on my way over to tell you about something else.”

  Mark’s eyebrows shot up. “Why do I think things are about to get even more interesting?”

  “I was trying to catch one of you before my class. Rowantree visited me in my office. He’s hurt his leg. What’s more important is how he hurt it and what he discovered.” Zoe told them about Rowantree’s mishap on the roof and his conclusion that another attempt had been made to summon a demon.

  “Have any of you ever dealt with a demon?” she asked. “I only know about them through research, and if even only half of what I’ve read is true, that is pretty horrifying.”

  Simon grimaced and nodded. “Not as close as George here, but, yes, I’ve seen a demon.”

  George looked saddened and angry at the same time. �
��I have,” he said quietly. “Years ago. It took the combined powers of my parents and I to banish it, and it injured my mother so badly she died a year later. It was a water demon. They manifest in this world through bodies of water. It can be a lake, stream, river, almost anything.”

  Kieran turned to Zoe. “Why was Rowantree on the roof to begin with? I thought it was painful for him and the other squirrels to even pass by Shelby.”

  “He said the lights that Josh and Annmarie noticed a couple of weeks ago were back again last night. So, he went to investigate. He said that the surge of energy that knocked him off the roof could only be associated with a summoning.”

  She looked around at the others. “You guys, this is serious. Morgan, Melanie, Susan, and Meredith are witches. From what we witnessed in the basement just now, I think Susan is the leader. They’re summoning, or trying to summon, a demon. If they manage that…” she trailed off.

  George nodded. “You’re absolutely right. Summoning a demon means people will die. We need to move quickly if we want to stop them.”

  He frowned. “However, it seems unlikely that anybody would succeed with a summoning on the third floor of the administration building. If I am correct, what Josh, Annmarie, and Rowantree have seen in Shelby is not a failed summoning, but a negotiation.”

  Simon glanced at George. “You know this will result in a summoning. If you truly wish to stop it before it happens you know what has to happen.”

  George scowled. “I’m not going that far yet. It may not be necessary.”

  Simon stared at him for a moment and then shrugged.

  “Okay. But you cannot deny that is the most effective action,” he said bouncing up and down on his toes.

  Zoe was puzzled by the exchange between the two men. What was Simon talking about? George seemed very uncomfortable even having the discussion. She glanced over at Mark who was staring at Simon and George. Clearly, he was just as confused.