Lock and Key

by Evangeline Anderson

  How she managed not to trip on all the debris that had been shaken loose by the earthquake (lovequake?) Griffin and I had caused, I had no idea but she walked smoothly and purposefully and there was a gleam in her blue eyes that made me feel incredibly nervous.

  I had a sudden feeling that we all had a lot of explaining to do.

  78

  “Now then,” Headmistress Nightworthy said, frowning at all of us, but mostly me and Griffin, who had come to stand beside me and hold my hand in his. “What is the meaning of this? I felt ripples of magic all the way in my study at the Academy! And what has happened to the Windermere Coven’s Hallowed Glade? Also,” she added, taking a moment to shoot a stern look at Ari Reyes, “I knew I saw a Drake flying in the sky a moment ago, Mr. Reyes, and since you are here, I can only assume it was yours.”

  “Headmistress—” he began but she cut him off with a curt gesture.

  “No excuses. For now, I want to know what happened here. And I’m sure others are going to want to know the same thing.”

  I looked at Griffin and he looked at me—clearly neither one of us knew where to begin. But thank goodness for Avery because he stepped up and began to explain everything.

  “Headmistress, what you felt was a prophecy coming true,” he began and then told about how he and I had sneaked into the South tower to read Corinne Latimer’s grimoire and what we had learned.

  Headmistress Nightworthy’s eyes got wider and wider though she didn’t say a word. But when he came to the part about Winifred Rattcliff capturing us all and bringing us to the Hallowed Glade where she shut Griffin and me into a sack, expecting him to kill me, the Headmistress held up a hand to stop Avery.

  “Wait a minute—are you actually telling me that a senior witch—the leader of the most powerful Coven in the entire South Eastern Territory, was plotting to have two of my students killed?”

  She sounded extremely skeptical, one eyebrow raised, as though this was just a step too far for belief, despite the strange things she saw all around her.

  “Ask her yourself,” I said, joining the conversation for the first time. I looked at Griffin. “My thumb has stopped bleeding—can you help me?”

  “Of course, my little witch.” He took my hand in both of his and brought it to his mouth. This time I let him bite me instead of just cutting myself on his fangs and to my surprised pleasure, it worked—maybe because we were now Blood-Bound. For whatever reason, the moment I felt his fangs sink into my wrist and the rush of pleasure that accompanied the sharp little pain, I also felt my power flowing at the same time.

  Pointing at Winifred Rattcliff, I said, “Veritas!” using her own spell on her. For good measure I added, “Tell the truth!” which I hoped would cover everything.

  Headmistress Nightworthy frowned at my obvious use of Blood magic—not to mention the fact that a Nocturne biting a Witch intimately was probably really against the rules—but she didn’t say anything about it. Instead she turned to Winifred Rattcliff, who was still frozen in place and asked,

  “Winifred—is all this true?”

  I saw the senior witch’s mouth working and knew she wanted to lie—or at least twist the truth to her own ends. But in the end the spell I had cast on her was too strong and she was forced to answer truthfully.

  “Yes,” she said, frowning. “The girl is the answer to the prophecy—the curse—that Corinne Latimer, her ancestor, laid on our coven many hundreds of years ago. Megan Latimer is the reincarnation of the Witch Queen and this Nocturne whelp is her Blood Knight!”

  She spat the words angrily, as though it pissed her off to have to say them—to acknowledge our new status—and then glared viciously at Griffin and me. If looks could kill, we would both have been stone dead but thankfully all she could do was stare.

  If Headmistress Nightworthy was surprised by this stunning revelation, she only showed it by blinking and shaking her head a little.

  “That is…most illuminating, thank you, Winifred,” she said formally. “But when I asked if everything Mr. Connor here,” (she nodded at Avery) “Has been telling me is the truth, what I was asking is—did you really hatch a plot to kill two of my students and then drag them out to the Hallowed Glade—or what remains of it—to carry out that plot?”

  Again the senior witch’s mouth worked and she looked so angry I thought she might almost start hissing and spitting like a cat.

  “Yes!” she nearly shrieked, at last, when the truth spell finally forced her to talk. “Yes, I was going to have both of them killed! First I was going to force the Nocturne to drink her blood and drain her dry and then I was going to have him brought to trial and put to death for his crimes.”

  “Speaking of those alleged crimes,” Griffin said dryly, “I believe that the ones I have been punished for these last fifteen years are due to your account, not mine. Why don’t you tell the Headmistress about that?”

  Headmistress Nightworhty’s eyebrows shot up.

  “Winifred?” she asked, staring at the senior witch.

  “I…I…”

  Winifred’s face twisted and contorted. This time she was really fighting it. I could see her mouth working almost as though she was having some kind of fit. But the truth spell seemed to work on her almost like a magical case of Tourette’s Syndrome so that she finally started spitting out the facts like bullets.

  “Yes, I did it!” she finally shouted. “I found two young Norms hitchhiking along the road and I took them to the woods where I knew their bodies would be found. Then I put a sleep spell on Darkheart and killed both the girls. I drained their blood and smeared plenty of it on his mouth and hands. When he was found, it looked like he had killed them. I tried to have him put to death, but that damned Fae attorney his father hired got him off. So instead I had to be-spell a magical lock to put around his neck and keep him from drinking any blood. I threw the key to the lock into the ocean and I thought he would be unable to drink blood forever! But then that little bitch found it—found it and brought it right into your school!” she snarled, glaring at me.

  “Why did you go to such great lengths to lock up Mr. Darkheart and keep him from drinking blood, as is right and natural for a Nocturne?” the Headmistress asked, frowning.

  “To keep him from drinking her blood!” Winifred Rattcliff fairly screeched, nodding at me. “To keep them from Blood-Bonding. Which is what they’ve done. Don’t you understand, Isabel? They’ve broken the Edict!”

  “Yes, I surmised as much from seeing the two of them together,” the Headmistress remarked, giving Griffin and me a sharp look.

  “No—no, you don’t see!” Winifred Rattcliff shouted. “They haven’t just broken the law—they’ve broken The Law! They’ve erased the magic that kept Others of different species from being attracted to each other.”

  Headmistress Nightworthy blinked.

  “You mean to tell me they have broken the magic of the Edict itself?”

  “Yes!” The senior witch nodded vigorously. “The Edict has been getting weaker in this last generation but it still held true for the vast majority of Others. Now it is no more! Do you have any idea what this will do to the balance of power between the different kinds of Others? Do you know what chaos it will cause?”

  “I’m certain it’s going to make policing my Academy more difficult,” the Headmistress murmured, a frown twitching the corners of her lips.

  “Now you see!” Winifred Rattcliff nodded her head vigorously, as though they were in definite agreement. “The best thing you can do is to have these two killed! Have them killed and then I can resurrect the Edict. With a full coven and a blood sacrifice I can cast it again—stronger than before! I can—”

  But the Headmistress was shaking her head.

  “I think not,” she said coldly. “There has been enough attempted murder here for one day.”

  “But…but the Edict!” the senior witch implored. “It must not be allowed to die!”

  “If what you are saying is true, it is already d
ead,” Headmistress Nightworthy pointed out. “And as we Others lived without it in the past, I am certain we can learn to live without it again. In the meantime, I am going to turn you over to the Council of Elders and let them pass judgment on you, since it is not my purview to do so. However,” she added, rounding on me and Griffin and Avery and Emma and Kaitlyn and Ari. “Students at the Academy are within my dominion and as such, we will have to have a reckoning.”

  “Yes, Headmistress,” we chorused and exchanged glances.

  But Griffin leaned down and whispered in my ear,

  “Megan, I don’t think it’s wise to allow Rattcliff to keep her powers. Not if she really can restore the Edict. Also, she clearly wants both of us dead and won’t mind using her magic to do it if she can.”

  I doubted that she could restore the Edict, but I agreed that there was no sense taking a chance. So when the Headmistress asked me to “unfreeze” Winifred and her witch crew, I did as she asked—but with a twist of my own.

  “I unfreeze you all,” I said, after Griffin had bitten my wrist again—not just because I needed to bleed but because I was getting really addicted to the way it felt when he bit me. “All of you, except your magical powers,” I continued as the witches which had been frozen like a bunch of kids playing statues began to move again. “Those will remain frozen for as long as you wish to use them to do harm or evil to anyone. From now until I revoke my spell, all of you will only be able to use your magic to do kind, thoughtful acts that will spread love and caring and not harm anyone in any way.”

  There, I thought with satisfaction, that had worked out nicely. Nobody could actually say I had stripped the senior witch and her hench-witches of their powers. I had only limited them in the scope of their magic.

  They could use their talents to make rainbows appear and conjure unicorns and make flowers bloom and heal people all day long. But the minute they meant anybody any harm, their magic would dry up like a dead tree, choked with Spanish Moss, and they would be unable to follow through with the hurtful spells.

  “How dare you impose sanctions on me, you little upstart?” Winifred Rattcliff glared at me.

  “I daresay the Council will impose more than that on you, Winifred,” Headmistress Nightworthy said dryly. “Especially when they hear about the two homicides you laid at Mr. Darkheart’s door. Are you truly complaining that you can no longer use your magic to do harm? Because I think that says more about you than it does about Miss Latimer and her attempt to curtail your baser instincts.”

  Winifred Rattcliff looked angry enough to spit venom like a cobra. She pointed at me.

  “I told your mother when we found that prophecy together that she ought to abort you, you little bitch!” she snarled. “I told her having you would only cause trouble and look what has happened! I was right!”

  “You’re the reason my mother died!” My voice was shaky but I met her eyes without flinching. “She moved away from the magic world and made herself forget all about it, just so she could raise me as a Norm. And her magic turned on her and killed her. All because of you. All because you wanted the leadership of the Coven and you didn’t want anyone to disturb the status quo.”

  “Why shouldn’t I have leadership of the Windermere Coven?” Rattcliff demanded. “Why should it always go to a descendant of Corinne Latimer? She didn’t even like the coven! She hated it!”

  “Because they made her leave her Nocturne lover and forced her to stop doing magic the way that felt right to her!” I shot back. “Well, nobody is going to do that to me—to us!” I gripped Griffin’s hand tightly and felt his answering squeeze in return. “Griffin and I are Blood-Bonded and that means we’re together forever.”

  As I spoke, my voice seemed to echo strangely across the Glade. I was dimly aware that Griffin and I were rising into the air again but I wasn’t sure if I was doing it—or if someone, maybe Corinne Latimer—was reaching out to lift us up.

  “I am the Witch Queen!” I heard my voice rolling out across the miles. “And Griffin Darkheart is my Blood Knight. We will never be separated—not by power or might—and the Edict shall NEVER be restored. From now until eternity, all races of Others are free to mingle and to love and no one will ever revoke this right. This I, Megan Latimer, descendant of Corinne Latimer vow and declare. SO MOTE IT BE!”

  The last words actually thundered out of me and then I felt the power abruptly waning and Griffin and I were sinking back down to earth. Weakness overtook me and he caught me in his arms and lifted me up, holding me protectively close to his chest.

  “Oh my Goddess, Princess,” I heard Avery say beside me. “Do you know what you just did? You made an Edict of your own—an unbreakable one! Oh, this is going to cause so much trouble!”

  He was right, of course, but I didn’t find that out until later. At the moment I was too tired to think of anything but the comfort of my Blood Knight’s arms around me and the warm feeling of knowing that Griffin and I would never be parted again.

  Epilogue

  “So why didn’t you ever tell us about the key?” Avery demanded, frowning at me over his cup of hot chocolate.

  Our little coven was down in the Norm Dorm, trying to recover from our weird adventures and I was still feeling a bit shaky. Still, the delicious chocolate he had brewed us—using the brand-new caldron Griffin had bought him as a ‘thank you for letting me into the club’ gift—was helping a lot.

  “Well at first it wouldn’t let me,” I said, taking another sip and licking whipped cream off my upper lip. “And later, I was afraid you’d want the whole story—which included Griffin’s matching lock and the reason he was locked up in the first place.”

  Avery and Emma and Kaitlyn all glanced at Griffin, who was sitting quietly beside me on the couch. He was the only one not drinking hot chocolate but he didn’t seem to mind, probably because he knew he would be having a sip of my blood instead, a little later on. He looked quietly back at my coven-mates without saying a word.

  “I see,” Avery said at last. “Okay, we’ll forgive you on that one. Especially since Mr. Darkheart here, was wrongfully accused.”

  “I never would have believed he would kill people,” Kaitlyn said loyally, giving Griffin a shy smile. “That’s not who he is.”

  “It almost was,” Griffin said quietly. He looked at me. “I almost killed you, Megan, when we were trapped in that damned snare together.”

  “You didn’t though,” I pointed out. “You found the will to stop before you drained me completely.”

  But he shook his head.

  “No,” he said, looking down at his hands. “No, I didn’t—someone else stopped me.”

  I remembered having a confused impression of him talking to someone but I had been too out of it to understand what was going on. I frowned at him quizzically.

  “Who was it? Who stopped you?”

  “I don’t know.” He shook his head. “Corinne Latimer maybe? Or maybe the Goddess herself. All I know was that the voice I heard and the presence I sensed was female and she—whoever she was—gave me the will to stop and helped me to save you instead of killing you.”

  “That’s amazing,” Emma whispered reverently. “Do you really think your ancestress came back from beyond the grave to save your life, Megan?”

  “I don’t know,” I said honestly. “But I wouldn’t be surprised. I think she wanted Griffin and I to have the chance she and her Nocturne never got.”

  “The chance to Blood-Bond and live happily ever after, you mean?” Avery raised an eyebrow at me. “Because is the Headmistress really going to let you do that? I mean, are you and Griffin allowed to go all around breaking the Edict in public?”

  “There is no Edict, now,” I reminded him, frowning.

  “Oh certainly—there’s no magic spell that keeps all the different races of Others apart,” Avery said sharply. “But there is a social convention which has been in force for centuries in all the Other communities across all the worlds and realms. And if you thin
k you can get rid of prejudice and hate just by floating up into the air like a pretty-pretty flower and snapping your fingers, you are sadly mistaken, Princess.”

  “Hey, that’s not very nice, Avery!” I exclaimed, glaring at him.

  “Well, it’s true!” he shot back.

  “I don’t think—”

  “He’s right,” Griffin said quietly, cutting off my angry flow of words before I could get started.

  “What?” I turned to him uncertainly.

  “The prejudice against Others loving different Others is very deeply ingrained in all our peoples,” Griffin said. “I think we have to expect to get a lot of anger and disgust directed at us for quite some time—maybe even the rest of our lives—before the tide starts to turn and people accept the new order of things.”

  I thought of the glances we were getting in the halls now and the way I had heard some of the other students whisper, “Did you hear? They’re Blood-Bonded! A Sister and a Nocturne! Isn’t it awful?”

  Well, it was mostly the bitchy bubble-headed Fae girls in our English class saying things like that but still, the emotion was definitely there. Not that I cared—I would be with Griffin even if everyone in the whole school shunned us. But still, it would have been nice not to be stared at and whispered about quite so much.

  “But what about the attraction that some Others are going to feel for other, uh, Others?” Emma asked, breaking my train of thought. “I mean, there’s bound to be some cross-species romances cropping up now that there’s no magic spell to keep people from being attracted to each other.”

  “What are you trying to tell us, Emma?” Avery asked, grinning at her. “Maybe you have your eye on a hot Fae guy and now you think you’ve got a shot with him?”

  “No—of course not!” Emma exclaimed, making a face. “I wouldn’t be caught dead with one of those conceited assholes! I just meant…other Others. You know.” She cast a furtive glance at Kaitlyn, who was sipping her hot chocolate and staring dreamily into the fire.