Lock and Key

by Evangeline Anderson

  “He’s being Censured,” Emma said earnestly.

  “That’s what the black line on his tag means,” Kaitlyn added.

  “Censured?” I shook my head. “What does that even mean?”

  “It means he’s bad news, Princess,” Avery said, frowning. “It means he’s being punished and not just by the Academy or the Headmistress—by the Council of Other Elders.”

  “But punished for what?” I protested. “What could he have done that’s so bad? And what exactly is his punishment?”

  Avery shrugged. “All I know is that he’s been here since I was eleven and first came to Nocturne—I was extremely precocious, as I said,” he added, preening a little. “Anyway he’s been here this whole time and he’s never allowed to take anything but Norm classes. I never see him in the North Tower—he never even sits with the other Nocturnes at lunch or dinner.”

  I thought of Griffin grinning mockingly at me from the empty table at the far end of the Nocturne row at lunch time. He had been sitting all by himself and none of the other Nocturnes had been talking to him or even looking at him. It was almost like they were ignoring him on purpose.

  “So…he’s being shunned by his own kind?” I asked. “Is that part of his punishment?”

  “I don’t know,” Avery said firmly. “All I know is that he’s bad news.”

  “But how can you say that when you don’t even know what crime he committed?” I protested.

  “Look, in order to be Censured by the Council he must have done something really bad,” Emma said firmly.

  “Like stealing the life or powers of another Other,” Avery said. “As in murder Princess Latimer—do you see why you need to steer clear of him, now?”

  “What? I don’t believe it,” I said, frowning. “I haven’t been here long but I really doubt Headmistress Nightworthy would allow a convicted murderer to roam around the halls of her school.”

  “She doesn’t have jurisdiction over the Council,” Kaitlyn said. “And they’re the ones who are Censuring him.”

  “But that still doesn’t answer the question of why he was sneaking out tonight,” I pointed out.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Avery said flatly. “Gossip like that, I can do without. Just stay as far from Griffin Darkheart as you can and you’ll be fine. I’m serious, Megan,” he said, using my name for once when I tried to protest again. “Leave that Nocturne alone. He’s what my granny calls ‘seven miles of bad road.’ So just let him be.”

  “Okay,” I said, defeated at last. “Sorry—I didn’t know.”

  “Well how could you? You just got here today,” Kaitlyn said gently. “Nocturne Academy can be kind of confusing at first.”

  “But you’ll learn the ins and outs,” Emma said, smiling. “We’ll all help you.”

  “Thanks.” I gave them all a grateful smile. “You guys…this…the four of us…” I stopped not sure how to go on.

  “It’s great,” Kaitlyn said.

  “It’s perfect,” Avery said. “We were waiting for you, Meagan—and we’re all really glad you’re finally here.”

  “Thanks,” I said and to my surprise, I felt tears stinging my eyes. I hadn’t felt this level of friendship and acceptance, well…ever. For my whole life, I’d been a misfit—a round peg in a square hole. But somehow here, in Nocturne Academy in the safety of the Norm Dorm, I finally felt like I belonged. Like I had come home.

  I remembered Aunt Dellie’s words to me that morning.

  “I’m so excited for you! You’re going to find friends and coven sisters who will be with you your whole life!”

  Could it be that my flighty, eccentric aunt had somehow been right?

  I didn’t know but as we all said good night and I turned off my lamp and snuggled down into my new bed, I thought it might be true.

  But as nice as the feeling of coming home and finally finding my tribe was, it wasn’t the last thought I had before I drifted off to sleep.

  The image that followed me down into the land of slumber was Griffin’s dark, perfect face—his lightning and pitch eyes flashing and his cool voice drawling, “Stay away from me, Megan Latimer. It’s easier for me and safer for you.”

  20

  I was woken by a light in my face and someone shaking me by the shoulder.

  “Five more minutes,” I mumbled and put my head under the pillow.

  The pillow was pulled ruthlessly away and the light came back full force.

  “If you don’t get up now you’ll be late for breakfast and let me tell you—anything that’s halfway decent to eat goes early,” Emma informed me. “So you’d better get up, Megan.”

  Groaning, I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.

  Kaitlyn was already dressed in her uniform and sitting on the bed, putting books in her black leather satchel.

  “We let you sleep as long as we could,” she told me. “But you’re going to have to hurry if you don’t want to be late. Emma is right—if you’re last in line for breakfast you might as well just skip it.”

  I wasn’t starving after the late dinner we’d had the night before but then I remembered that I had a late lunch period. Better to put at least something in my stomach before starting the day’s classes.

  I hopped out of bed, took the world’s fastest shower and was brushing my hair and my teeth at the same time when Emma came to check on me again.

  “Now that’s what I call multi-tasking,” she said, grinning at me in the row of mirrors.

  I finished brushing my hair and spit toothpaste into the sink at the same time before looking up.

  “Yup—I’ve never been much of a morning person but I make up for it by being really fast getting ready.”

  “Well, I hope you’re ready now—it’s time to go.” Kaitlyn was already waiting for us, her satchel slung over one shoulder and her long, silky hair combed just right to hide her face so that only one lovely eye peeked out.

  It occurred to me that, except for the picture she kept on her nightstand, I had never yet seen her full face. I wondered if that had anything to do with her veiled references to a fire and the scars on the backs of her hands but of course I couldn’t ask.

  She would tell me when she got ready. In the meantime, there was still a lot my new friends didn’t know about me as well.

  The black key nestled between my breasts seemed to get heavier in agreement.

  “Everybody ready? Good—let’s go,” Emma said, leading the way.

  We trooped out of our bedroom and I looked around the common room.

  “Where’s Avery? Isn’t he coming with us?” Our little group felt incomplete without him.

  “Oh, he’s probably already upstairs holding our table and fixing his coffee,” Kaitlyn said.

  “He lives on that stuff,” Emma explained. “He says the kitchens here at the Academy don’t cook a single decent meal—which is why he doesn’t mind doing a little cooking of his own most nights for dinner. I think tonight he’s planning to make us a roasted chicken.”

  I had good reason to be glad that I could look forward to a home-cooked dinner that night because breakfast really was awful. Despite our best efforts and the fact that we literally only had to climb the spiral staircase up to get there, we were a little bit late to the Dining Hall, which meant almost everyone else had already gone through the line. And, as Kaitlyn and Emma had predicted, most of the eatable food was already gone by the time we got our green plastic trays and went through.

  I didn’t bother to look at the Fae or the Drake offerings—a delicious looking fruit tart and some kind of thick-cut bacon dish respectively—knowing I had no hope of getting either one. The Sister’s offering was more appetizing—fruit salad and Eggs Benedict which looked pretty good.

  But after my dismal failure in Elementary Casting the day before, I didn’t feel like I deserved to eat from the Sisters’ menu, no matter what my tag said. So I stood with Kaitlyn and Emma and got a portion of what appeared to be greasy, hash brown casserole slapped on
the middle of my tray, along with a dried-up hockey puck of a sausage patty.

  “Oh, I was afraid of this,” Emma sighed as she looked at the unappetizing breakfast. “Usually they have some fresh fruit like bananas and oranges at the end of the line that anyone can take. But I guess they’re all gone now.” She indicated a large, empty silver bowl at the far end of the line.

  “Sorry,” I said, feeling like it was my fault we were too late to get anything decent. “I’ll get up earlier from now on, I promise.”

  “It’s okay, Megan—we’ll live,” Kaitlyn said comfortingly. “Let’s just get something hot to drink to tide us over.”

  After grabbing some hot coffee for me and Emma and hot tea for Kaitlyn, we pushed our way through the crowded hall to get to where Avery was sitting and waving at us.

  Breakfast and Dinner were the two meals the entire school shared together, all eating at the same time, and the vast hall was much more crowded than it had been during my lunch period the day before. I was surprised at the number of students at the long tables—all of the Others being careful to stay in their neat, segregated groups. Here and there you might see a Drake talking to a Fae or a Nocturne consulting with a Sister but that was only for a moment before they went back to their respective tables to be with their own kind.

  “Well, there you all are at last!” Avery exclaimed. Despite our late night, he looked bright-eyed and bushy tailed, as my Aunt Dellie would have said. I looked at him suspiciously as I plunked down my tray.

  “Avery, don’t tell me you’re a morning person?”

  “Guilty as charged.” He grinned at me charmingly and took a sip of his over-creamed-and-over-sweetened coffee. “I’m always up with the sun, even when I’m sleeping in the dungeon. It’s just the way I’m built.”

  “Ugh,” Kaitlyn groaned, sipping her tea. “And he’s so annoying about it too! He’s up at six humming and singing to himself even on Other holidays when we can sleep in.”

  “What are some Other holidays?” I asked, curiously.

  “Oh you know—All Hallows Eve is a big one for the Sisters,” Emma said. “And of course everyone celebrates Winter’s Solstice.”

  “And Valentines Day is big with Nocturnes for some reason,” Kaitlyn put in. “Only they call it ‘Bleeding Heart Day’ and they hold a kind of Sadie Hawkins dance right here in the hall.”

  “You mean the girls get to ask out the guys?” I asked. I had a brief mental image of asking Griffin to the prom and then pushed it out of my head—it would be unspeakably stupid for me to go anywhere near the tall Nocturne again, after all my new friends had warned me about him.

  But speaking of Griffin, where was he?

  I looked around but didn’t see him anywhere. Maybe the moat monster—the Guardian—had eaten him when he tried to sneak out the night before.

  The key at my throat throbbed anxiously at the thought and I absently put up a hand to quiet it.

  Shh, I’m sure he’s fine. Take it easy, I thought at it.

  “Yes, the ladies ask the gentlemen to the dance,” Avery answered my question, smiling. “I, of course, always have more offers than I know what to do with.”

  “He took Emma and me both to the last one,” Kaitlyn said, smiling fondly at Avery. “He’s such a gentleman.”

  “I most certainly am,” Avery remarked. “And the Goddess knows, there are precious few of them left in this school! So many ruffians and rogues…” He winked at me. “If only I could get asked to the dance by one of them.”

  “Ha-ha, Avery,” Emma said sourly, poking at her chunk of hash brown casserole which was oozing orangish grease all over her tray. “Ugh—why can’t they ever give us Norms anything normal for breakfast?”

  “Is it like this every day?” I picked up my sausage patty and dropped it from a few inches up back to the tray. It bounced and clattered like a poker chip and I had the feeling I might bend my fork if I tried to cut it.

  “Pretty much.” Kaitlyn sighed. “I think because there aren’t many Norms and we’re not powerful or important like the Others, they think they can feed us crap and it won’t matter.”

  “We just get the leavings from everybody else’s old meals made into a casserole,” Emma said. “I’m serious! The Sisters had yummy-looking, crispy hash browns for breakfast yesterday and the Drakes had sausage patties—only yesterday they were fresh and juicy. Today, we get what’s left from yesterday all mixed together into this mess.”

  She made a face at her tray and then pushed it away in favor of her coffee.

  “I told you before, I’ll get a Sisters meal along with my coffee and you two can split it,” Avery remarked.

  “And get you in trouble if somebody reports you—which Nasty Nancy certainly would? No way!” Kaitlyn said loyally.

  “They’re really strict about the food here,” Emma said, eyeing my plate. “But you don’t have to put up with getting the same slop that Kaitlyn and I do, Megan. You can get food from the Sisters’ selection so you should.”

  “I don’t feel like I deserve it,” I said and forced myself to take a bite of the casserole, which was every bit as greasy and gross as it looked. I swallowed with some difficulty. “Maybe if I can ever manage to start doing magic, I’ll eat from the Sister’s selections. Not until,” I added, when the other three started to protest.

  “Well, if you want to be a martyr, we can’t stop you,” Avery remarked airily. “Oh, look at the time.”

  He looked at the huge round clock face painted with elaborate designs hanging on the far wall of the Dining Hall which drew my attention as well. I hadn’t paid much attention to it the day before but now I saw the significance of the paintings.

  There was a green and gold dragon twined around the number 3, a gorgeous flower with silky purple petals and a vivid green stem twined around the 6, a black cat was arching its back at the 9, and at 12, a single glittering drop of ruby red blood hung from the top curve of the 2.

  A symbol for each group of Others, I thought. But where were the Norms? Clearly they didn’t count enough to be painted on the clock. Just another example, besides the substandard food, that plain humans without some kind of power were second class citizens at Nocturne Academy.

  I wondered again if I belonged there.

  “I’ve got to get going if I’m going to make my first class in the South Tower on time,” Avery said, breaking into my thoughts.

  “I have to go too.” Emma got up and picked up her untouched tray with a sigh. “Don’t know why I even bother.”

  “Let’s go,” Kaitlyn said as she and I both got up as well. “What’s your first class, Megan?”

  “Physical Education,” I said and made a face. “I’m really not looking forward to it.”

  Kaitlyn brightened.

  “Oh—that’s my first class too—we can walk together.”

  “Great, because I have no idea where it is. It just says ‘left field’ on my schedule and I didn’t think there were any fields around the castle—isn’t it all surrounded by the lake-moat?”

  “Not the back part,” Kaitlyn said as we dumped our trays in the dirty chute. We waved goodbye to Emma and Avery and turned in the direction she pointed. “Come on—let’s go.”

  21

  Kaitlyn chattered in her quiet, friendly way as we walked, pointing out features of the castle I had missed during my crazy first day. But I noticed, as we got closer and closer to where we were going, that Kaitlyn got quieter and less-happy looking.

  By the time we turned down a short hallway off of the main corridor between the North and West towers, and reached a solid wooden door which led into the girl’s locker room, Kaitlyn had gone altogether quiet and had an apprehensive look on what I could see of her face.

  “Hey,” I said, touching her shoulder to stop her before she pushed through the door. “Are you okay? You seem kind of upset.”

  “It’s the new Gym teacher—she’s a Drake,” Kaitlyn said in a low voice. “She’s…kind of rough so far. Last year it
was a lot easier. We had a Fae teacher and all she wanted to do was sit around and brush her hair so she let us do whatever we wanted. We didn’t even have to dress out. This year…well…” She shrugged unhappily. “You’ll see.”

  I guessed that I would. With a sense of apprehension, I pushed open the heavy wooden door and found myself in a locker room which looked pretty much like any other such room I’d ever been in—well, with the exception that the walls were made of gray stone instead of tile, that was.

  Rows of lockers lined the walls with long benches in between to sit on while you changed, I supposed. Further on was a long row of shower stalls with green plastic curtains and opposite them, a line of sinks and mirrors. There were stacks of white towels on a wooden bench outside the showers—the implication clearly being that everyone was expected to take a shower after class.

  I began to get an uncomfortable sensation in the pit of my stomach. Yesterday I had deliberately chosen long-sleeved winter blouses, even though they were hotter, just to hide the scars on my arms. I didn’t want to expose them to everyone in my gym class if I was forced to shower here.

  “Does everyone have to take a shower after class?” I asked Kaitlyn.

  She nodded unhappily. “We didn’t have to last year but this year the new coach insists on it. She says, ‘Let me explain this to you—it’s hot out there in the Florida sun! You get hot, you sweat. You sweat, you stink. So you have to take a shower.’”

  Kaitlyn’s low, gruff imitation of the Gym teacher’s voice would have made me snort laughter but the fact that we were given no choice about showering took all the fun out of her act. What was I going to do? Maybe I could take two towels and wrap one around my shoulders and hold my arms really close to my sides…

  “Hurry up, hurry up—who’s holding up my roll call?” a deep voice suddenly boomed through the echoing locker room, making me jump and put a hand to my heart. It occurred to me that Kaitlyn and I were the only ones in the large stone chamber—was everyone else already out on the field?