Lock and Key

by Evangeline Anderson

“I…um…” I wanted to lie, but of course I couldn’t. “I was getting a strand of your hair,” I said miserably. “I, uh, hoped you wouldn’t notice.”

  “Well, I hate to dash your hopes, but I most certainly did notice. And what spell do you want it for?” he demanded, frowning at me.

  “What…what makes you think I want it for a spell?” I said, fighting the compulsion to answer his question at once with only the absolute truth.

  “Megan…” Griffin’s frown deepened and he stopped in the middle of the busy hallway, which meant I had to stop with him. All the other students walked around us, like water parting on either side of a rock.

  “I wanted it to do a spell called The True Heart Revealed, all right?” I said at last, unable to hold out any longer. “I wanted to know your true intentions towards me before I decided if I should meet you Saturday night or not.”

  “Is that so?” To my surprise, Griffin didn’t seem angry or upset about this at all.

  “Yes, that’s so,” I snapped. “So now I guess you want this back.” I held out the strand of blue-black hair in the palm of my hand. “So you can keep me from doing the spell.”

  “Why would I want that?” Griffin asked, looking honestly mystified. “Actually, I think it’s a really good idea—doing the True Heart spell, I mean,” he clarified when I gaped at him. “And if you do find out my true intentions, please—let me know,” he added. “They’re a mystery to me as well.”

  “What? How can you say that?” I demanded. “How can you not know how you feel about me?”

  “Oh, I know how I feel about you.” Taking my hand, he drew me to the side of the hallway and looked down into my eyes intently. “I want to be with you every moment, Megan. I want to touch you and look at you and smell your sweet scent. And I wish, most of all, to protect you, no matter what the consequences.”

  He cupped my face in his palm and gently stroked along my cheek with the pad of his thumb.

  “I even feel the urge to protect you from myself,” he murmured. “Which is doubtless why I am warning you against coming to see me. It is… confusing.”

  His cool touch sent a shiver down my spine and I felt like I was drowning in his pale, gorgeous eyes.

  “Griffin…” I whispered and then I didn’t know what else to say.

  “I have wanted all those things—to be near you, to protect you—almost from the moment I met you, my little witch,” he murmured. “But I don’t understand why.”

  It was on the tip of my tongue to say that it must be our two necklaces drawing us together…but somehow that didn’t seem true. Certainly the key with the Blood stones throbbed and burned every time I was near him—as it was now—but it didn’t control my emotions, or his, I didn’t think.

  “I…I don’t understand why either,” I said in a low, breathless voice. “But…I want to be with you, too. Even though I don’t completely trust you.”

  He shrugged, the intensity leaving his face to be replaced by the cool, indifferent mask he so often wore.

  “Yet another reason to do your little spell, I think. Maybe we can both get some clarity as to why we feel so strongly drawn to each other.”

  Then he folded my fingers around the strand of his hair and took my arm so we could continue on our way to the Dining Hall, as though nothing had happened.

  39

  “So he didn’t even care when you told him what you needed it for?” Kaitlyn asked, wide-eyed when I recounted this story to her and Emma later on that evening. Avery was in the other room getting his scrying tools ready. He had told us everything had to be just right in order to cast this particular spell.

  I shook my head.

  “No—in fact, he said he wants to know why he feels so strongly for me. I’d like to know too,” I added. “I mean, he looks like a male model and I’m just so…ordinary.”

  “You are not!” Emma said indignantly. “With that gorgeous auburn hair and your big green eyes!”

  “Not to mention your creamy, perfect skin,” Kaitlyn said quietly. “You’re really pretty, Megan—don’t sell yourself short.”

  “Thanks guys, but I honestly wasn’t fishing for compliments,” I said. “I’m being serious. I’d say I’m about average—especially compared to some of the girls in this school that Griffin could date. I mean, look at the Faes! They’re all blonde and gorgeous and perfect…”

  “Nobody can stop looking at them,” Emma said dryly. “And that includes the Faes themselves. If there is a group of more self-obsessed people in the world, I don’t know who they are. The whole bunch of them are like Instagram influencers who all decided to enroll at Nocturne Academy to take Biology and English Lit classes. Hash tag Blessed. Hash tag WokeUpThisWay,” she mocked.

  “Emma’s right—they’re pretty but they’re as shallow as a puddle,” Kaitlyn said firmly. “Maybe Griffin wants some substance, which you certainly have.”

  “Well, look at the Nocturnes then,” I pointed out. “They’re just as perfect as the Faes, only they have that Ice Queen kind of aura around them that makes them even more mysterious. And I’m betting they have substance too,” I added.

  Emma shook her head. “He’s being shunned by his own kind, right? So dating them is out.”

  “Well, I guess he could always date a Drake,” Kaitlyn remarked dubiously. “Though none of them are ever very friendly.”

  “You’re all forgetting about the Edict,” Avery said, coming into the room at last. “Griffin can’t date or hook-up with anyone outside his own kind without breaking it.”

  “But isn’t he breaking it by being with Megan?” Kaitlyn asked doubtfully. “By marking her?”

  Avery nodded. “Of course—which is exactly my point. If he’s going to break the most sacred Other law we have, he could have broken it with anyone. But he chose you, Princess Latimer.” He nodded at me, one eyebrow arched. “And now we’re going to try and find out why.”

  “It’s not like we’ve really broken the Edict,” I pointed out, feeling uneasy. “I mean, it’s not like we’re Blood-Bonded or anything.”

  “Not yet, anyway,” Avery remarked, grinning. “Now gather round, children—it’s time to do a little scrying.”

  He was carrying a vast silver bowl in both hands, carved all over with intricate markings. The bowl had been polished until it shone and I could tell it was a cherished artifact.

  Avery sat it carefully down in the middle of our small coffee table and went back for a silver pitcher carved in the same unknown symbols as well as a few other implements. Then he beckoned for us all to join him around the coffee table.

  We came to kneel around the bowl, bringing cushions to protect our knees from the cold flagstones.

  “This is the ceremony of scrying—the finding out of truth or future events through the medium of water, which is one of the most powerful earthly elements we possess,” Avery lectured quietly. “I will not call the corners for this spell, but I will invoke the Goddess in my incantation. I need your full and complete concentration as we go forward.”

  We all nodded our assent and Avery nodded back, apparently satisfied.

  Slowly, with great reverence, he lifted the elaborately carved pitcher and poured water into the silver bowl until it was about half full, being careful not to splash.

  “Come closer, coven-mates,” he murmured. “Let us look into the water together.”

  As we all leaned forward, looking at our four faces in the silvery reflection, I felt a prickling all along my scalp and knew something was going to happen.

  Slowly, Avery began to chant.

  “Goddess Bright,

  She of Light,

  Show us weakness,

  Show us might.

  Show us he whose heart is hidden

  Reveal to us what is forbidden

  Show us now before we part,

  Give us knowledge of his heart.

  So Mote it Be.”

  Then he held out his hand to me like a surgeon asking a nurse for an instrume
nt during a delicate operation.

  “Megan, the hair,” he murmured.

  I had kept Griffin’s hair and wrapped it carefully in a fresh tissue, just as Avery had instructed me to. Now I got the tissue out of my pocket and unwrapped it carefully, revealing the single black strand.

  Avery picked it up carefully and dropped it gently into the bowl, where it floated on the surface of the water.

  For a moment nothing seemed to happen and Emma said,

  “I don’t see anyth—oh!”

  Her words ended in an exclamation of surprise because the water in the bowl shimmered and suddenly we were looking at a picture which had somehow appeared on the surface of the water, like a movie being projected onto a screen.

  “What is this?” Emma asked, frowning. “I don’t understand.”

  I had to confess, I didn’t understand myself. The image I saw, shimmering on the surface of the scrying bowl’s water made no sense.

  It was a picture of a woman with waist-length, wavy auburn hair wearing a long white gown. She was standing on a kind of dais and kneeling before her was a man who must be a knight—at least if his silver armor was any indication.

  The knight had his helmet off and I could see that he had raven black hair and pale gray eyes, much like Griffin’s. He was looking up at the woman who was bending down to him. She was offering him her wrist which had a single crimson drop of blood shining on it.

  The expression on both their faces was intense—love and devotion and protectiveness on the knight’s part and adoration and respect on the face of the woman.

  “What is she doing? Feeding him her blood?” Kaitlyn spoke in hushed tones.

  “That’s exactly what she’s doing,” Avery murmured. “Oh, this is interesting. Very interesting.”

  “But it doesn’t tell us anything at all,” I protested, still keeping my voice low since the spell had not been broken. “I thought we were supposed to get thoughts or feelings. Is this what Griffin is feeling towards me?”

  “You get different things from different Others,” Avery said. “Emotions are more common for Drakes because they have a beast inside—they live by instinct. But Nocturnes are much more cerebral. So this doesn’t surprise me.”

  “Okay. So is Griffin supposed to be the knight and I’m the, uh, lady?” I asked, frowning.

  “The Queen,” Avery corrected. “You’re the Witch Queen. And Griffin is your Blood Knight.”

  “My what?” I said frowning. I remembered Avery and Griffin both saying something about the Blood Knight but I had no idea what it meant. “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “Remember I told you it’s an old Other legend?” Avery said. “About a witch who was also a Queen—or maybe I should say she was of royal blood and she also practiced the Arts and prayed to the Goddess. Her power and beauty called males of every kind to her but she chose a Nocturne to be her escort and he swore himself to her service. He was called her Blood Knight and they Blood-Bonded themselves together and swore to never be parted.”

  “They did?” I asked. “But what about the Edict?”

  “Oh, this was before the Edict, of course,” Avery said dismissively. “Like way before—the Witch Queen and her Blood Knight is kind of like an Arthurian Legend for Others. It’s that old.”

  “So Megan’s a queen now?” Emma asked doubtfully. “I mean, I know you keep calling her ‘Princess Latimer’ but…”

  “No, she’s the queen of his heart,” Kaitlyn said. “Isn’t she, Avery? Doesn’t this prove Griffin only wants to serve and protect her?”

  “And that he wants my blood,” I said darkly, looking at the way the woman in white was holding her bleeding wrist to the knight’s mouth.

  “Well, of course he wants your blood,” Avery exclaimed impatiently. “He’s a Nocturne for the Goddess’s sake! That’s what they all want. The point is, does he want all of it—i.e. to bite you and drain you completely? Or does he simply want to Blood-Bond with you by taking some of your blood and giving him some of yours, which is what the Witch Queen and her Blood Knight did? I think this…” He pointed to the wavering image in the silver scrying bowl, “Points to the latter and not the former.”

  “But they can’t get Blood-Bonded, can they?” Emma said, sounding scandalized. “After all that was then…” She pointed at the bowl. “And this is now. What about the Edict?”

  “What about the Edict indeed,” Avery murmured. “There’s no denying that this is against the Other Law.” He nodded at the Queen and her Knight. “Against the Council’s ruling, anyway.”

  “But there’s something romantic about it, don’t you think?” Kaitlyn sighed dreamily. “I mean, the idea of breaking the law together and binding themselves together against all odds?”

  “Right,” I said flatly, even though my heart was pounding at the thought. “It would be really romantic to break the biggest Other law there is while binding myself to a Censured Nocturne and no doubt getting expelled all on my very first week of magic school. That’s the stuff rom-coms and romance novels are made of.”

  “Actually, it kind of is,” Avery said mildly. He waved a hand and the image of the Witch Queen and her Blood Knight finally faded. “I mean forbidden love and breaking all the rules, anyway. But the question is, do you really want to go there? Especially with Griffin?”

  “I don’t think you should,” Emma said, frowning. “I think this is dangerous territory you’re venturing into, Megan,” she told me. “But maybe that’s just me being cautious. I mean, we just found you…” She reached for my hand and squeezed. “We don’t want to lose you!”

  “Thanks—I don’t want to lose you guys either.” I gave them all a grateful look. “And thank you for working the spell for me, Avery,” I added. “But I’m afraid I still have no idea what I’m going to do on Saturday night.”

  “I can tell you one thing you’re going to do—you’re going to call me,” Emma said firmly.

  “And me,” Kaitlyn chimed in.

  “And me,” Avery said, nodding. “Check in with us and let us know where you’re going—if you go,” he added. “And then text us every hour on the hour after that so we know if we need to come looking for you.”

  I felt a little tug on my heart strings. There at the last, before he’d sent me to my Aunt Dellie, my dad had been so distracted I could have disappeared for days and he wouldn’t have noticed. And now I had three good friends who wanted to make sure I was okay no matter what.

  “Megan, you’re crying.” Kaitlyn sounded concerned.

  “Am I?” I leaned over the scrying bowl again to look at my reflection. Sure enough, tears were rolling down my cheeks and, as I watched, one of them fell into the water.

  “Oh!” Emma and Kaitlyn gasped as one.

  For when my tear touched the surface of the water, another picture suddenly appeared in the ripples it cast.

  It was a perfect red rose with blood-red petals and long, curving thorns. It bloomed briefly in the water and then the image was gone, replaced by nothing but the blank silver bottom of the bowl.

  “Oh my God—did you see that, Avery?” Emma exclaimed.

  “What does it mean?” Kaitlyn asked.

  But Avery shook his head.

  “Honestly, I don’t know. The scrying bowl is supposed to show either true intentions or sometimes it shows an image of the future. But I don’t know what the rose could symbolize either way.”

  “Could it be that Griffin is going to send you roses?” Kaitlyn asked me doubtfully.

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged and wiped at my cheeks, wanting to be careful that no more tears fell in the bowl. “I guess it could.”

  “He doesn’t exactly seem like the sentimental type, though,” Emma pointed out, frowning.

  “Even if he was, I doubt you could interpret the images of the scrying bowl quite so literally,” Avery said dryly. “It tends to speak in symbols and portents—not really obvious images. I mean, it’s not like one of those fake crystal balls
.”

  “So those are all crap?” I asked as he got up and carefully picked up the large silver bowl, holding it with both hands.

  “Afraid so,” Avery said. “It’s just a copycat of real scrying—which isn’t easy to learn to do, by the way,” he added modestly. “My Aunt taught me since my mother couldn’t. It’s kind of a family skill.”

  “Like Griffin’s skill controlling beasts?” I asked.

  Avery nodded. “Sort of like that, yes. Different families of Others have different specialties—especially witches.”

  “What’s my family’s specialty then?” I asked curiously. “What do the Latimers do better than anyone else? Is there some kind of skill I’m supposed to have that comes naturally to me?”

  “Besides being stronger than everybody else and always heading up the Windermere Coven?” Avery asked. “Well, until this last generation, anyway when Nasty Nancy’s mother took over as the Head Sister.”

  “Is the leadership of the coven a hereditary thing?” Emma asked. “I mean, is it passed down from mother to daughter or something?”

  Avery nodded as he set the silver bowl aside.

  “It’s supposed to be. Unless there’s a generation with no magic—then the leadership passes to the next strongest member of the coven.” He frowned at me. “We know your Aunt Dellie is a Null so she couldn’t take over. And you say your mom also didn’t have any powers?”

  “None that I ever saw,” I said, shaking my head.

  “Hmmm…” Avery looked thoughtful, his blue eyes far away.

  “You still haven’t told me if there’s some special magic my family does better than anyone else,” I pointed out.

  “Oh, well…” He hesitated. “Now, don’t let this give you any crazy ideas but rumor has it that Corinne Latimer practiced, well…”

  “She did Blood magic, didn’t she?” Kaitlyn exclaimed, excited.

  “Well…yes, she did.” Avery nodded reluctantly. “But that’s only according to legend. And it’s probably wrong because she is also the one who had the Council outlaw it.”

  “What? Why would she outlaw her own magic?” Emma asked blankly.