Lock and Key

by Evangeline Anderson

  Sanchez cursed loudly in Spanish but he finally let go of my arm.

  “This isn’t over,” he growled at me and pointed to his face. “You’re going to fix this you little puta-bruja! You’re going to fix what you did!”

  Then he turned and stalked away angrily, his broad shoulders stiff with rage and his ham-sized hands curled into fists at his sides.

  30

  “Well, you certainly know how to make trouble, little witch. I’ll give you that.” There was amusement and something else I couldn’t quite read in Griffin’s glowing silver eyes.

  For a moment, I didn’t know what to say to him. The key was burning between my breasts again and the cool, masculine scent of his skin combined with the fright I’d just gone through, seemed to make my tongue too thick to speak.

  “What…why did you say that to him?” I finally blurted out.

  “Say what?” he asked, arching an eyebrow at me.

  “Say that you…that you claimed me. That I was yours,” I finally got out.

  He shrugged, his shoulders rolling with the motion.

  “What else could I say?”

  “I don’t know—anything else maybe?” I protested. “And what was all that about you putting your ‘mark’ on me?” I reached up to touch my forehead but my fingertips came away dry. It was as though the single drop of blood he had marked me with had soaked right into my skin and disappeared completely.

  Griffin still looked wholly unconcerned.

  “I had to mark you as my own in order to protect you. It’s the only thing those Neanderthal Drakes understand.”

  “But you don’t own me!” I protested.

  He shrugged again.

  “It seems I do,” he said, in an almost bored voice. “At least as far as the Drakes are concerned. And anyone else who cares to look and sees my mark on you.”

  “But…but…” I sputtered, hardly knowing what to say. “But this is ridiculous and…and sexist!”

  Griffin’s lightning and pitch eyes hardened.

  “No, this is the world of magic. A world you should have learned a little more about before you entered it.”

  “And how was I supposed to do that?” I demanded. “Was there some kind of handbook I was supposed to read—something like, Vampires and Fairies and Weredragons are a Real thing and oh, by the way, you’re a Witch?”

  He smiled at me coolly.

  “Well at least it’s good to see you claiming your own status. How did you manage to leave your handprint on that big oaf anyway? Shaming magic is extremely powerful and hard to do—or so I’m told.” He shrugged elaborately. “I wouldn’t know too much about it since I’m a Nocturne, not one of your kind.”

  “I don’t know how I did it, okay?” I burst out. “Today in Elementary Casting I couldn’t even bend a spoon with my magic. So I have no idea how I tattooed my handprint on that big asshole’s cheek just by slapping him once!”

  “Language, Megan.” He shook his head and made a tsking sound with his tongue. “And I suggest you try to figure out how you got your magic to work in case you need to make it work again—I can’t be with you in every class, you know.” He sighed. “Though I’m certainly going to have to escort you to each and every one in order to keep you safe in the future—I can see that.”

  “Escort me to class?” I shook my head blankly. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’ve marked you as mine,” he said, as though that answered everything. “Sanchez and his crew will think it’s strange if I don’t walk you to classes. They’ll also see it as an opportunity to do you harm—which I can’t allow. Seeing that you’re mine now.”

  “But…but…” I shook my head helplessly. “I don’t understand. I thought you told me to stay away from you.”

  “Yes…” He glided closer and leaned over me again, cupping my cheek in his cool palm. “But I never said that I could stay away from you, Megan.”

  For the second time I was sure he was going to kiss me. Despite how aggravated I was with him, my heart was pounding in my chest and the black key was burning me—begging me to get closer—begging me to close the whisper of a distance between his lips and mine.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Darkheart?” Avery’s voice rang out in the darkness. “Get away from Megan now!”

  31

  Griffin drew away, a regretful look on his perfect face.

  “I see you’re not out unprotected after all,” he murmured to me. “I guess I could have saved myself the trouble of marking you.”

  “You what?” Avery demanded, charging up to us. He looked ready to do battle but Griffin wasn’t bristling with menace the way he had when Sanchez threatened me. He only gave Avery a cool, amused look and shook his head.

  “You’re too late if you wanted to protect the little witch from big bad me, I’m afraid. I’ve already marked her as my own—purely for her own good, of course.”

  “You’re lying!” Avery exclaimed. “Megan, let me look at you.”

  He seized me by the shoulders and turned me this way and that, studying my forehead. Whatever he saw must have upset him a lot because he turned on Griffin angrily.

  “What the hell is wrong with you, Darkheart? You can’t mark a different species of Other and you know it—it’s going against the Edict!”

  Griffin shrugged, as though none of this mattered to him.

  “Too late now. If I had known you were protecting her, I wouldn’t have bothered.”

  “Avery isn’t protecting me and you don’t own me!” I exclaimed, glaring at both of them. “I don’t care if the rules of the magic world are different— I refuse to live by them if they’re this sexist and misogynistic.”

  “I’m afraid you don’t get to choose the rules of magic, little witch,” Griffin drawled.

  “At least she hasn’t broken them, like you did tonight!” Avery snapped back at him.

  Griffin cocked an eyebrow at him.

  “Oh? I think we both know that she has, though. My mark wouldn’t have taken if she didn’t want it to take. If she truly didn’t want to be mine, my blood would have had no effect on her at all.”

  I opened my mouth to protest this—to say that I didn’t want to be his at all—but somehow the words wouldn’t come out. It wasn’t that the key was choking me again—I just couldn’t force myself to say something to him that wasn’t true.

  What the hell was going on?

  “Come on, Megan.” Avery had me by the arm and was dragging me back down the stone hallway. “We need to get back to the dorm.”

  “Leaving so soon?” Griffin inquired in that same, infuriating drawl. “Well then, I’ll see you in the morning, Megan.” And with an insolent wink, he turned and sauntered away leaving me wondering what in the world had just happened between us and what it meant for the future.

  32

  “Damn it, Megan!” Avery looked really upset. He kept running his hands through his hair and shaking his head all the way back to the Norm Dorm. But it wasn’t until we were safely back in the common room where Emma and Kaitlyn were still sitting on the sofa that he rounded on me.

  “What the hell did you think you were doing, Megan?” he shouted. “Didn’t all three of us try to warn you about Griffin Darkheart? Why would you wander off to find him and then take his mark like that?”

  “What?” Emma and Kaitlyn sat bolt upright, staring at both of us. “She what?”

  “Griffin Darkheart gave Megan his mark and she accepted it!” Avery exclaimed.

  I hadn’t known my new coven-mate long but I had never seen him this upset and I had a feeling it wasn’t a common occurrence for him at all. But by now, I was getting pretty upset myself.

  “I don’t know anything about any of this!” I said, raising my voice to be heard over Emma and Kaitlyn demanding answers. “And I didn’t accept his stupid mark on purpose—it just happened.”

  “Okay. All right.” Avery took a deep breath, clearly trying to calm down. “I’m sorry I shoute
d at you, Megan,” he said. “But this is very upsetting.”

  “So I gathered,” I said dryly. “But I still don’t have any idea what it means.”

  “Let’s start again,” Emma suggested. “Megan, why don’t you tell us what happened from the beginning.”

  “Fine.” I nodded shortly. “Well first of all, I didn’t just wander off—one of the cafeteria ladies caught me and I had to pretend I was going to the Healer.”

  “All right—I figured that. I heard you coughing,” Avery said. “Then what?” He made a ‘go on’ gesture with one hand.

  “Then Sanchez found me alone in the hall and threatened me,” I said. “And that was when Griffin came along and claimed me and marked me. And for the record, let me say I had no idea what he was doing and I still don’t understand the implications of it, either.”

  Avery sighed and sank down on the couch, running his hands through his hair again.

  “Okay, that explains it. I guess he felt he had to mark you in order to get you away from Sanchez.”

  “Is…is Sanchez still mad at you for what happened in gym today?” Kaitlyn asked, her voice a little wavery.

  “You could say that.” It was my turn to run a hand through my hair. “I marked him—not the way Griffin marked me,” I added hastily. “I mean, when I slapped him, it left a mark. One that apparently won’t come off.”

  “You mean you marked him magically?” Avery’s eyes went wide. “You shamed him?”

  I threw up my hands.

  “I don’t know! I was so angry at him for hurting Kaitlyn and then being a dick about it and all I remember is the feeling of my anger—or maybe some kind of power—flowing from me into him.” I shook my head. “At the time, I thought I must be imagining it. But now Sanchez has a big blue mark in the shape of my hand on his cheek and he apparently can’t get it off.”

  “Because it’s permanent,” Avery exclaimed. “Megan, do you have any idea how much raw power it takes to make a permanent mark on another Other? Especially against their will? And you didn’t even know you were doing it!”

  “Tell that to Sanchez,” I said dourly. “I’m sure he’ll believe it.”

  He scrubbed a hand over his face and shook his head.

  “Well, at least we know you’re not a Null. But this doesn’t feel like first-time magic either. I mean, this is not a normal Flame-up. You must have done something before, Megan—think.”

  “Well…” I bit my lip and once again the memory of my mother lying in her hospital bed came to me. Only this time, I couldn’t fool myself that I’d had nothing to do with easing her pain. This time I knew I would have to tell the truth.

  “Go on.” Avery was watching me warily. “I can tell you have something to say, Megan. Spit it out—what happened?”

  I took a deep breath.

  “When my mother was dying, I helped to ease her pain. I didn’t know exactly what I was doing at the time—I still didn’t even know that magic was real and that all this…” I waved a hand, indicating the entire Academy, “even existed. But I did help her—I’m sure of it now.”

  “But how could you help her if you didn’t know any magic?” Emma asked blankly. “I mean, wouldn’t you have to say a charm or do a spell or something?”

  “Yeah, don’t you have to call the corners and invoke the Goddess to make anything happen?” Kaitlyn asked.

  “That’s how a normal witch would do it,” Avery said, frowning. “But I have a feeling our Megan is anything but normal. So fess up, Princess Latimer—how did you do it?”

  “Like this.” I pushed up the sleeve of my robe, baring my forearm with its neat rows of white scars.

  “I don’t understand,” Emma said, shaking her head.

  “I don’t either,” Kaitlyn confessed.

  But Avery was looking at me with wide eyes and a pale face.

  “Megan,” he said, his voice little more than a whisper. “Tell me you didn’t.”

  “Didn’t do what?” Emma demanded impatiently.

  “I cut myself, all right?” I said, frowning at them all. I was feeling really defensive by now. “I did it at first because it helped me feel better about the fact that she was dying. But one day I went into the bathroom of her hospital room and did it right there. And it helped—somehow it helped. I felt her pain pouring into me and she was able to rest after I cut for her. So…” I shrugged. “I kept doing it.

  “Blood magic,” Avery whispered and shook his head. “Oh my god, Megan—you did Blood magic!”

  “What does that even mean?” I demanded. “What’s the big deal with Blood magic, whatever it is?”

  “It’s banned magic,” Avery exclaimed. “It’s just about the most forbidden magic there is! It’s been outlawed by the Council because it’s too powerful—too easy to twist to dark purposes.” He shook his head. “Not that it’s a ban most witches could break. Not one in a hundred is strong enough to even attempt it.”

  “But I didn’t know I was doing magic! You have to understand.” My throat was tight and my voice choked with emotion. “My Mom…she was in so much pain and nothing they were giving her was helping at all! She was crying and hurting and I loved her so much! I would have done anything—anything to help her.”

  “Of course you would!” Kaitlyn exclaimed, suddenly much more animated than I’d seen her since that morning. “When you love someone you’ll do anything—dare anything.”

  “And anyway, it’s not your fault,” Emma said loyally, joining in to defend me. “Like you said, you didn’t even know what you were doing.”

  I lifted my chin defiantly.

  “I’d do it again even now that I do know,” I told them. “It was the only thing that helped my mom—the only thing that lessened her pain and let her die in peace. Cutting for her was…” I choked up for a minute and had to swallow hard and swipe at my eyes before I could go on. “It was all I could do for her. The only way I could help her.”

  “Oh Goddess…” Avery was swiping at his eyes too, his anger melted in the face of my grief. “I’m so sorry, Megan,” he murmured, his voice choked. “I get it now. I’m sorry I yelled at you. And I kind of want to give you a hug.”

  “Me too, Kaitlyn said.

  “And me,” Emma added.

  I gave them all a watery smile.

  “I wouldn’t mind a hug right about now.”

  The three of them gathered around me and we wrapped our arms around each other. As we did, I felt something flowing through us—a power not unlike the feeling I’d had when Griffin had marked me. But this was a warmer sensation—a feeling of love and understanding.

  A feeling of coming home.

  When we broke apart, there wasn’t a dry eye among us. But somehow, the awful pain of my mother’s death—which had never really lessened since she died—was a little more bearable now. It was like my coven-mates had each taken a share of that unspeakable agony for me and they were helping me shoulder the load.

  It was wonderful.

  “Thank you for understanding, guys,” I said to all of them. “I…I’ve never had friends like you before.”

  “And you never will again,” Avery said seriously. “We’re connected now and we all share your secret. We won’t betray you, Megan, but no one else can know about this.” He looked at all of us seriously. “I mean it—the Other Elder Council wouldn’t be nearly so understanding of you doing Blood magic as we are.”

  “Wouldn’t they forgive her, though?” Kaitlyn asked with wide eyes. “I mean, since she didn’t even know what she was doing at the time?”

  “And because she was doing this, uh Blood magic, to help someone she loved?” Emma added.

  Avery shook his head.

  “I don’t think so. Blood magic is strictly forbidden and the Council won’t look on it kindly no matter why Megan did it.” He sighed. “Well, at least it’s in the past.”

  I had a sudden thought and bit my lip.

  “Um, it might not be as far in the past as you think, Avery,�
�� I said in a small voice.

  “What are you talking about?” His blond eyebrows drew low.

  “I might have done it again today,” I confessed.

  “What?” Avery demanded, frowning. “What do you mean?”

  “When I slapped Sanchez and marked him—I think I was bleeding,” I said. “Coach Vasquez made me run in my regular school shoes and they cut into my heels. I wouldn’t even have known if Griffin hadn’t pointed it out to me in English class—that I was bleeding, I mean. I was so preoccupied with getting Kaitlyn to the Healer, you know?”

  “Goddess of the Shadows and the Light…” Avery ran both hands through his hair this time. “This isn’t good, Megan. Whatever you do, you can’t let people know you’ve been doing Blood magic.”

  “Well how are they going to find out?” Emma asked reasonably. “None of us is ever going to tell and Megan is going to be really, really careful not to do it again. Right, Megan?” She looked at me anxiously.

  “Well, now that I know what I’m doing and that I’m not supposed to be doing it, sure,” I said, frowning. “But…” I looked at Avery. “What if…what if it’s the only way my magic works? I mean, I haven’t been able to do even the simplest things otherwise. What if I have to cut myself to get a result?”

  “No, no—absolutely not.” He was shaking his head emphatically. “That’s like saying the only way you can get your car started is to hotwire it every time. Or the only way you can get into your house is to break a window or throw a bomb and blow up the front door. There’s just no way your magic should be so inaccessible that you can’t get to it unless you’re doing something completely illegal.”