“Yes, ma’am. I’m certain. She’s just a go-fer, not even a full secretary. She’s obviously weak and easily swayed. I’ll take care of it.” Meredith sounded arrogant and confident.
Zoe shook her head and kept moving. She didn’t want to be caught staring at Meredith’s door with, she was sure, a look of horror on her face. She resumed her apparently aimless, leg-stretching stroll down the hallway and back to her office.
Once back in her own office, Zoe closed the door and took several deep breaths to slow her rapidly thumping heart. She needed to warn Sarah and let the others know what she had just heard. Shoving papers and books into her bag and grabbing her laptop, she almost ran out the door, frantically texting the group of faculty and student mages as she headed for George’s office. For a heartbeat she considered altering her course and racing into Shelby Hall to find Sarah. To do what, she wasn’t sure, but the thought of Sarah still in Shelby and vulnerable to the designs of the coven sent a chill up her spine.
Reaching George’s office, Zoe sent up a quick prayer of thanks on seeing Mark and Robyn already there along with Josh and Annmarie. Simon was trotting down the hall as she approached. He gave a cheery little wave and stood aside so she could enter the room first. As she passed him, she caught a scrutinizing look on his face. Out of breath, she hurried into the Earth mage’s office. Simon quietly closed the door as he followed her in. Zoe didn’t wait for anybody else to speak before gasping out her news.
“I just overheard Meredith talking with the president. She said that because the girl was gone, they would quote use Sarah Riley unquote. I’m not sure who ‘the girl’ is, but Sarah is in trouble!” She dropped into one of George’s guest chairs.
Annmarie gave a small gasp. “Remember I told you that one of the girls we knew was working in Shelby and she told me and Josh that nothing was wrong, but she looked awful and was starting to fail her classes? She withdrew from school before Thanksgiving. Her parents said she was too sick to come back, and they made her stay home and got her a medical withdrawal.”
George grimaced. “That must be who Meredith was talking about.” He looked at Zoe. “What else did Meredith say?”
“That was all I heard. I didn’t stick around much longer, although I guess I probably should have. But Meredith sounded so ugly and awful that I practically ran out of Cooper.”
Robyn scowled. “I know that girl you’re talking about. She’s my advisee. I knew she was sick, but not why. That’s one Meredith owes me.”
George nodded. “We need to move a lot faster than we have been. I’m afraid it’s going to take all of us to stop this monstrosity from occurring.”
He turned to Annmarie and Josh. “You two. Find all the student mages you can. Use both magical and mundane means. We need all the help we can get. Bring them up to speed and see if you can get an idea of how strong they are.”
The students nodded and ran out of the office. George turned back to Zoe.
“Please see if you can contact Rowantree or Alder and speak with your cats also. They can all get the word out to other Watchers.”
He paused, thinking. “I still haven’t had any messages from the crows, which is a bit unusual, but I suspect they will show up sooner or later.”
Zoe jumped. “Oh! I almost forgot! A crow showed up at my window right before I heard Meredith talking. His name is Darkwing . He said to watch out for Susan Barker, she has power. He also said that the dead crow you found, Mark, was his mate and that the murder will avenge her death.”
The others looked at her. Mark raised an eyebrow.
“You certainly seem popular with the animals these days,” he smiled. “First Rowantree finds you, two cats you ‘found’ as strays just happen to be Watchers, and now the crow comes knocking, knocking at your chamber door. It seems they know an Elemental mage when they meet one; even if it’s one who doesn’t know her own abilities and strength.”
Simon nodded. “Yes, it appears you have a great deal of power from what I can tell. Don’t be afraid to use it as necessary.”
Zoe shot a nervous glance at George and Simon and shook her head hoping to cover up her apprehension. She wasn’t fully comfortable with the idea of being a leader yet or even being seen as a leader. Never mind the whole idea of mage powers. She was not trained to be a leader, she was trained to be a researcher. Simon’s comment about her power sent a small shiver down her spine. I’m a walking time bomb. I have no idea what I can do or what can set me off. Can I be set off like a bomb? She rubbed her temples in a vain attempt to ward off the headache that was making itself known and walked back to her office. One thing for sure, she was going to sit her mother down at Christmas break and get some answers. Once again, she found herself questioning her mother’s actions. Why, Mom? Why didn’t you tell me?
“That’s about all we can do for now. Everybody stay alert and keep in touch,” George interrupted her anxious thoughts. There were nods around the room as everyone moved toward the door.
* * *
The few remaining days of the semester wound down in the thankfully normal flurry of exams, papers, and grading. Zoe was almost relieved that the amount of work kept her from thinking too much about any possible upcoming confrontations with witches and demons. A faculty mage “holiday get-together” had been scheduled for a few days after the last day of classes at the Faire Mount Pub & Brewery. The pub was popular with the faculty, so it had been relatively easy to convince everybody. George had hinted that there were faculty mages that she had not yet met. He had also told her that she was the only Elemental mage among the faculty. Hearing that only increased Zoe’s anxiety levels. Would they expect her to take charge? She had no experience dealing with witches outside of academic papers. Besides, regardless of her power as a mage, in the academic world, she was just an untenured assistant professor and full professors were not going to listen to her or follow her lead no matter what kind of crisis was going on.
The last days of the semester flew by as Zoe clawed her way out of a pile of grading, submitted final class grades, responded to student comments and questions about class grades, and gave up yet again on sending Christmas cards. It’ll just have to be New Year’s cards, or more like St. Patrick’s Day cards…again. She even managed to call her mother and tell her she would indeed be home for Christmas. Zoe avoided the soon-to-be inevitable mage conversation with her mother, rationalizing it to herself as a conversation that needed to happen face-to-face.
Before she left for what she was privately calling the Faculty Mage Committee Holiday Party, she filled in Moose and Flash on everything she had learned. They assured her that they would keep in touch with the local squirrels and raccoons. Had her neighbors ever noticed that her cats were having meetings with squirrels and raccoons in the backyard? Zoe shook her head at the mental picture of Moose, Flash, and several racoons and squirrels sitting around her microscopic backyard discussing covens and demons.
She left the cats to figure out their own plans and walked toward the Faire Mount. She had left earlier than necessary because she wanted stop by Sarah’s place and see if the secretary was home. Zoe had not seen or heard from Sarah since the overheard phone call between Meredith and the president and she was in an almost constant state of anxiety over what, if anything, had happened to Sarah. Ignoring the growing knot in her stomach she altered her route to the pub to one that would take her past Sarah’s place. Not knowing was worse than any possible bad news.
Ringing Sarah’s doorbell, Zoe mentally paged through the catalog of symptoms that might indicate magical control. Meredith had implied that Sarah was the coven’s second choice for use as a demonic vessel. Would it even be noticeable? There’s just too many unknowns. Damn. I don’t need yet another research project. To balance her mental list of symptoms of control by a coven, Zoe added possible counters to possession or magical control. Surprisingly and perhaps worryingly, Sarah was home and not out shopping or doing other holiday errands. She looked startled to see Zoe standi
ng on her steps.
“Hi, Zoe! What’s up?”
“Hi, Sarah. I was on my way to a faculty end of semester thing and just thought I’d stop in and say hi. Just a spur of the moment thing. I haven’t seen you on campus in ages. How are you?” Zoe avoided staring too long at Sarah who looked tired and run down, but not any worse than she thought she herself looked.
“Can you come in for a minute? It’d be nice to catch up,” Sarah responded.
Zoe followed Sarah into the house, wrestling with the question of whether and how to tell Sarah about the coven and demons. How did one go about bringing up the topic of witchcraft and magic in the real world without sounding like a nutcase? No time like the present to find out. But Sarah resolved the problem for her.
“I guess I should tell you, I quit my job the week before classes ended. That shit I told you about? With the ‘project’ that the provost was working on?” she made air quotes with her fingers as she said the word project. “Total b.s. One of the work-study students working on it got so sick from overwork that her parents withdrew her from school! Then the provost comes to me and says I have to fill in! They had me running everywhere doing the weirdest shit and then expected so much overtime, I just said screw it and gave notice. The provost got all angry but who cares? I was never going to ask her for a reference anyway, stupid tramp!”
Sarah stopped and drew a deep breath, calming herself down. “So, anyway, I’m unemployed right before Christmas with no money. But, weirdly, I feel great. I should be worried sick, but it feels like I made the exact right decision. I have no idea what I’m going to do, but I guess I’ll figure it out.”
Zoe looked at Sarah speculatively. “I think you need to come with me. My treat. You need to meet some of these people and there are some things you need to know. Get your coat. Let’s go.”
“Oookaaay. That’s not the response I was expecting,” Sarah’s eyebrows went up.
“I know, but I think things will clear up once you get there.” Zoe smiled at Sarah. “I’m glad you quit and I’m glad you’re obviously okay.”
With a puzzled look, Sarah grabbed her coat and followed Zoe out the door. As they walked through the neighborhood toward the restaurant, passing the gaily decorated houses, Zoe pressed Sarah for more details on the provost’s supposed project.
“Well, she wanted me to buy tall black candles. She said that she loved Halloween and they would be on sale after the thirty-first. That was one. She also wanted me to go to a live butcher and get a couple of chickens for her. How weird is that? I didn’t do it, so I have no idea if she ever got the chickens. She wanted me to stay late, like really late, a couple of nights. Said there’d be a big bonus if I did. That one, more than the others for some reason, struck me as really strange and creepy. The first time, I made up an appointment; the second time, she asked me around lunch time and after she left for a meeting that afternoon, I just took off. I gave notice by email the next day. She also started asking me all sorts of questions about my background, my parents, that kind of thing. The woman has not said more than five words to me the entire semester. Suddenly she is interested in my family? What the hell? And, on top of all that, the work-study students were looking worse and most of them seemed scared to death all the time.”
“What about Susan Barker? Was she involved in any of this?” Zoe was curious how well the secretary hid (or didn’t) her real relationship with Melanie.
“Not that I could tell. She just sits at her desk answering the phone and doing all of Melanie’s scheduling stuff and anything else that gets handed off to her. She kinda reminds me of a nasty spider in her web. I don’t like her at all and she doesn’t like me. Melanie sometimes seems like she’s scared of Susan too,” Sarah answered.
Zoe made a face. That made sense, especially if Susan was the leader of the coven. Sarah was still angry, and Zoe had to smile. She should have known that Meredith and Melanie could not control Sarah. She was not an impressionable student. It was quite clear that the faculty mages needed to talk to Sarah and hear her story.
They reached the restaurant just as Mark and David walked up. Sarah and David were introduced to each other and the four of them went into the bar. Inside they found George Wardmaster, John Gardner, Kieran Ross, and Robyn Harper. In addition to those she had come to think of as the Faculty Mage Committee, there were about four or five other faculty members in the group. One, Jessica Sanders, Zoe knew was in the English department with Robyn Harper. The others she knew by sight from meetings but had never met. I wonder why none of them helped out before? And what do I need to do to figure out who’s a mage?
The late arrivals found chairs or barstools and started ordering drinks and making small talk. George cleared his throat and the group quieted down. He sat at the end of a table exactly as if he was chairing a meeting.
“I know everybody has questions, but since Zoe brought Sarah, who works in the provost’s office, I think we should let her tell us about this first.” He nodded at Zoe who felt her hands get clammy. She cleared her throat and glanced at Sarah who gave her a puzzled stare.
“I brought Sarah because she has information that we need to know. Also, she quit her job in the provost’s office and you need to hear that story too. And, she needs to know what we are,” Zoe’s gaze traveled around the group, daring anybody to question her actions. There were some wary glances exchanged between a couple of those who Zoe didn’t know, but everybody nodded. She turned to Sarah who was looking very curious now and a little bit concerned.
“Sarah, this may sound strange, and please don’t think we’re crazy or in a cult or something. But everybody here is a mage; they can do magic through controlling one of the four Elements, Air, Fire, Earth, and Water.” Zoe paused, slightly embarrassed. “I just discovered that I’m what’s called an Elemental mage. I can control all four Elements.”
The faculty mages she didn’t know looked surprised at the revelation she was Elemental mage. George must not have had a chance to tell them about her newfound powers. Or, he had purposefully left it up to her.
Sarah’s eyes got very wide, and she slowly gazed around at the whole group. “No shit. Ummm…okay. This is a first. Um…is like the provost or the president a mage too? Umm…because like I told Zoe on the way over here, between those two, there is some weird shit going on.” She glanced at the bar as if wishing she could grab another beer.
George answered her. “No, they are not mages. They are witches and have formed a coven to raise a demon and give themselves power in both this world and in the arcane world.”
Sarah gave a short bark of laughter and nodded slowly. “Is this going to get any weirder? Mages, witches, and demons. Like all my childhood fairy tale books are like real! But, umm…a coven makes like a lot of sense from what I’ve seen. Damn! I quit just in time!”
“How long has it been since you quit?” Kieran asked.
“I quit before the last week of classes. I didn’t give notice, just walked out. I sent an email to HR formally quitting once I got home.” She looked around the group again. “What is going on?”
While George explained what they knew and what they guessed, Zoe and the others ordered beers and talked quietly among themselves. Zoe got a beer for Sarah and passed it over to her as she listened wide-eyed to George. Sarah shot her a grateful glance and took a long drink.
John Gardner looked at Zoe. “I suspected, as did George, that you had some power. There are not very many Elemental mages. I’m happy to help you understand the Earth power, but I know you have a lot of help with that,” he said gesturing to David.
“Well, I certainly don’t deal with something as large as a college campus. And, anyway, we all have our personalized ways of doing things. Zoe can probably enhance her own powers by learning from all of us,” David smile graciously.
John nodded. “And, if George is correct in his guess, you are a very powerful mage.”
Simon nodded his agreement. “Yes, I felt something but couldn�
�t quite pinpoint it. I thought that maybe the cloud around Shelby was throwing me off.”
Mark glanced over at his department chair. “Until George mentioned it last week and you helped with the students we found in the basement, I had no idea you were a mage, Simon. I still can’t feel anything. Why didn’t you say something?”
“Well my dear boy, I wanted to see how long it took you to figure that out. Professional development and all, right?” Simon gave a high laugh, almost a giggle.
“Okay,” Mark smiled. He gestured to Zoe. “And now we have a bona fide Elemental mage on the faculty.”
Zoe was embarrassed at all the attention. These guys had all known for a long time that they had mage powers, she was still a total mage newbie, yet they were all looking at her as if she were something special.
Mark gave her arm a light punch. “Not to worry. You can totally handle all this power!”
She grimaced but laughed with the others.
George finished filling Sarah in on the details and they joined the others at the table they had taken over. Sitting at the head of the table, with his white hair and smiling green eyes, he resembled a regal Santa Claus.
“We are just about a week away from the shortest day, and thus longest night of the year,” he began. “The Swann fountain has been turned off for the winter, but there is still power flowing from the locus under the fountain. We will need to move quickly in order to prevent the coven from summoning a demon. Anything else means massive amounts of destruction and loss of life in the city.”
Everybody looked at everybody else. Zoe spoke up. “Well, the coven will have to get all their members to the fountain, and they will all have to participate. The student who left school at Thanksgiving was likely going to be used as a vessel for the demon to possess which would allow it to more easily manifest in this world. They still need a host for the demon, that’s why when the girl’s parents withdrew her from school, the coven moved on to Sarah as a replacement.”
Academic Magic Page 17