by Keary Taylor
“Right?” she said as she grabbed her own bag and we headed toward the door. “I barely manage to stay afloat with homework and my parent’s expectations. I don’t need this shit dragging me down into the midnight dreary.”
I laughed, nodding in agreement. “I’m Margot Bell,” I said, extending a hand as we walked out the door.
“Related to Professor Bell?” she asked.
“He’s my dad,” I nodded.
She smiled in a way that told me she’d taken at least one of his classes. “Mary-Beth Foster,” she said, shaking my hand. “You must be a freshman. I don’t recognize you.”
I shrugged. “Guilty. You?”
“Sophomore,” she said, adjusting the strap on her bag. “I, uh, I have to run to my next class. But it was really nice to meet you.”
“You too,” I said with a smile. And as I watched her walk away, I realized I meant it. It felt like it had been forever since I’d made a new friend. All I seemed to make these days were enemies.
Turning on a heel, I headed toward the library.
Unlike the first week of the first semester of school, when the library was empty, it was already packed. This was the semester when everyone realized they needed to buckle down and get things done early instead of waiting until the last minute. We were ready to get serious. So, as I walked through the aisles of study tables, I had to dodge backpacks and dozens of bodies. Instead of the usual silence, there was a low hum of voices.
I smiled as I spotted Nathaniel behind the reference desk. His back was turned to me and he was diligently working on organizing the returned books to the cart. I shamelessly let my eyes run down him, taking everything in, from his shoulders, his shirt pulling over his taut muscles, down to his narrow waist. And his exceptionally shaped rear end.
He looked handsome in his slacks and his button up shirt. It was his usual attire. But I never got tired of admiring him in it.
“Excuse me,” I said, laying my hands one on top of the other on the desktop. “Do you know where I can find the most alluring man in this school?”
The smile was already growing on his face when Nathaniel turned and looked at me. He didn’t say anything in response, simply leaned across the desk and pressed his lips to mine.
“So, this is going to be one of those low productivity days,” he said in a low, teasing voice as he stood back up.
I smiled, loving the feeling his words and lips gave me. “I’m actually headed up to Mom’s office,” I said, fingering the key that was looped over the strap of my bag. “I just wanted to stop by and say hi.”
Nathaniel smiled again, and I loved it when he did. He never smiled for anyone else. “You’re always my preferred hello.”
“Come get some leftovers when you get off tonight?”
Nathaniel nodded, and leaned over the counter once more to kiss me before I walked away.
The library was crowded, but as usual, there was no one in the McCallum Room, which always surprised me. This room was packed with books. Though it was tiny.
I threw a quick glance over my shoulder, making sure no one was within the line of sight. Then I unhooked the key, moved the books that hid the lock, and undid it. I pulled on the shelf and it swung out, revealing the way to the spiral staircase. I closed the bookcase behind me and walked up the beautiful iron staircase.
The problem with Nathaniel and I using Mom’s office regularly, since it was too cold to work in Asteria House or the solarium most days, was that it now smelled like Nathaniel and me. The scent of my mother had long disappeared, leaving my heart aching with emptiness.
It had been nearly four years. Four years since she simply vanished. She didn’t take any of her things. She took no money. She’d made appointments for the days following her disappearance. The police thought maybe Dad had killed her and hid the body. But she had simply vanished.
I knew the reason behind it was magic. Mom knew about magic and her heritage and the mages, though she called herself a witch. Mom was learning and increasing her powers and abilities.
She was the whole reason Nathaniel and I could do anything beyond telekinesis and compelling coins. She’d spent years searching for the magical books that were our entire foundation.
Which was my reason for coming here today.
I had homework. Even though it was only the second day of school, I already had assignments.
But those could wait until tonight.
For now, I needed to practice some self-assigned homework.
I took a seat at Mom’s desk. I pulled the book toward myself.
Alchemy was real. There were exceptionally vague instructions in this old book Nathaniel thought originated from Ireland. I’d been able to prove that it was possible. Though maybe not permanent. I had to wonder if this was where the term “fool’s gold” came from. I could certainly pass off the gold temporarily, but within a short amount of time, it would return to a rock.
I thought my ability to perform it had something to do with affinities. Nathaniel’s affinity was with paper and he’d never been able to turn anything into gold. But mine was earth related. And I’d been able to transform rocks into gold, both of which were naturally found in the earth.
I wondered if Borden would be able to do alchemy. I doubted it. His affinity, from our exceptionally limited experience with him, seemed to be electricity. I couldn’t see any kind of tie between electricity and gold.
I took one of the rocks from the basket beside the desk and held it in my hand.
Alchemy was a mix of words and will and blood. Thankfully for me, I was already exceptionally well versed in Latin, so I knew what words I was saying when I’d very first read them.
“Spiritus sanguinis mei, et cor meum: ut quod fuerit ferrum, et hoc in clara.” The words felt beautiful as they rolled off my tongue.
Spirit of my blood, will of my heart, take what is dull, and bring it to bright.
I took the pin on the edge of the desk and pricked the tip of my middle finger. As a drop of blood bubbled out, I pressed it to the rock.
I watched as the blood seeped into the pores of the stone. And instantly, it changed from red, to brilliant, shiny gold. Veins streaked throughout the rock, growing wider, bigger. They expanded until slowly, the entire rock was consumed by shimmering gold, until the entire thing was a huge lump of gold in my hand.
Will of my heart. That was the one that wasn’t exactly clear. What did that mean? Much of what I was able to do as a mage was a matter of asking the object of my attention and willing it to happen.
Was my will just not strong enough for gold?
I let my eyes close and I let my heart reach out to it. I was aware of the gold. But it was also physically sitting in my hands. It wasn’t the same as the tingle I got at the back of my neck sometimes. It felt too…normal and tangible.
But I reached out. I imagined every surface of the gold.
You are not a rock. You are precious, valuable gold.
I spoke the words in my mind, willing them to be true. I spoke the words out loud, as if it could hear me.
Stay gold, stay gold, the words repeated in my mind, over and over.
When I could think of nothing else to try, I set the golden rock down on the desk, in line with two dozen others.
All of them had been gold at one point. But now all of them looked like ordinary stones.
I pulled my journal out of my bag and opened it to the next blank page.
This was something exceptionally important. Taking notes of everything. We recorded all our experiments. What worked, a lot of what didn’t. After going through vague notes and failing at things over and over, we didn’t want future generations to have to do any guess work.
Nathaniel informed me that historically, books like these were called grimoires. The word felt dramatic, but fitting.
I finished my notes, closed the book, and cast my eyes around the office.
I wondered why it had been built, and by whom. It had been here long before
my Mom would have become a teacher. Alderidge was over two hundred and forty years old. This wasn’t a new addition. Someone had seen a reason for a hidden office a long, long time ago, and somehow, my mother had inherited this space.
I prayed that someday I would find her again and she could tell me the story.
Guilt ate at my stomach just a little bit. This was becoming less her space, and more ours. Several of my jackets were lying around the room. Nathaniel had a change of clothes in one corner. Our notes and books were scattered everywhere. There was a stack of dirty dishes that needed to be taken back to the house on one shelf.
She wouldn’t mind. I kept telling myself that, because I knew it was true. She had wanted this for me someday. She’d said, in her own words, that she was going to tell me about my blood on my eighteenth birthday. I’d been nineteen for three and a half months. This would have been the norm for a while now. We would be working on this together.
My eyes flicked to the clock, and when I found it was five, I snatched my grimoire, stuffed it into my bag and headed for the stairs. I cast one quick look back at the last stone on the desk.
It was still gold.
But the real test was to see if it stayed gold until I came back.
Every day over the entire first week, Borden sat with us and ate lunch. Every single day, David would stop by our table, and give Borden hell. Nasty words and threats. It was as if his favorite dog had suddenly decided he no longer loved his master.
Borden took it. He was always exceptionally calm, never fully rising to David’s taunts. He’d dismiss him like he didn’t matter at all to him.
And over the course of those five days, I started to believe Borden could be trusted. That he truly was done with the Society Boys.
“Meet us at the solarium at nine tomorrow morning,” I said at lunch on Friday, just before Nathaniel and I walked to put away our trays.
Borden looked at us with wide, surprised eyes.
So, on Saturday, I went to the solarium at eight, carrying breakfast in a brown paper bag.
Steam coated all the windows, blocking my view into the solarium. But I grabbed the knob and twisted, letting myself in.
It was quiet inside, though a fire crackled in the fireplace. It was warm, just enough to be comfortable.
I looked around, and realized Nathaniel was still in bed, sleeping. I smiled as I set the bag on the coffee table and crossed the solarium. I shed my coat, and then my shoes. And carefully, I lifted the covers and slid into the bed with Nathaniel.
Sleepily, one eye slid open as I nuzzled up into him. A loopy smile spread on his face as he wrapped his arms around me and tucked his chin over my head. I felt my entire body relax as I wrapped myself around him. He smelled like cotton and sandalwood and paper, and it was the most intoxicating thing I’d ever smelled in my life.
“I could get used to this,” he said, echoing exactly what I’d been thinking. He pulled me in tighter, trying to drive away the cold that had seeped into my body from my walk in the snow.
“Buy me a gigantic bed with ten pillows on it and the fluffiest blanket you’ve ever seen?” I said shamelessly.
“Promise,” he said, pressing a kiss to my forehead.
I smiled and relaxed even more, because I could picture it so easily, so exactly. Him and me, sleeping in on lazy Saturday mornings. Kids running around the house and crawling into bed with us. Sunday mornings reading the newspaper and chaotic Mondays, getting ready for another week.
It wasn’t hard to imagine at all.
“You should get dressed, sleepyhead,” I said, pressing a kiss to Nathaniel’s throat. “Borden will be getting here before too long. It’s going to get awkward if we’re both just lying here. Talk about being the third wheel.”
Nathaniel chuckled and squeezed me tighter before pressing another kiss to my temple. But he rolled over, literally over the top of me, and I laughed as he climbed out of the bed.
He wore his underwear and a gray t-shirt. And I shamelessly stared as he walked to the rack that held his clothes, my elbow digging into the mattress, my head propped up by my hand.
“Do you sometimes feel like we’re just in this limbo waiting time, before our real life begins?” I asked, watching Nathaniel as he dressed. “Like, we know exactly where things are going to end up, but we have to wait out our dues?”
A small smile pulled on his lips as he looked back at me. “We’ve only known each other for just over four months.”
I smirked at him. “And you don’t fool me for one second into thinking you feel like it’s only been that long.”
He smiled, and I knew I’d nailed it. “You’re only nineteen years old, Margot.”
I climbed out of bed and walked toward him. “A nineteen-year-old who grew up surrounded by university professors and students.”
“I’m only twenty-two,” he said with a smirk as I wrapped my hands behind his neck and his hands settled around my waist.
“Who has raised himself since he was three years old,” I said, my voice dropping lower and quieter as I stared into his green eyes.
“Time is the enemy of all men,” Nathaniel finally conceded as he lowered his forehead to mine, staring into my eyes. “It will pass no matter what. And someday, we are going to get to that future we both know is coming.”
I smiled, and honestly, I couldn’t wait for our future. I couldn’t wait for what we both knew was coming.
But I was also going to really enjoy the journey while getting there.
We ate together, then Nathaniel restocked the fire. It grew hotter, and the condensation dripped from the glass ceiling to the ground below in an endless cycle of evaporation.
Right at nine o’clock, there was a knock on the door. And it told me something that when Borden walked in, I didn’t feel a massive knot of dread in the pit of my stomach. I was actually starting to trust him.
“Morning,” he greeted the both of us with the nod of his head.
“I hope you slept well,” I said, which was out of my character. But I was nervous. Because once we stepped down this path, there was very little chance of going back.
“Thanks, I did,” Borden responded, nodding his head.
“So, Margot and I have talked,” Nathaniel began. And once more I marveled at his confidence when it came to teaching, how focused and direct he was. “You’ve shown to be trustworthy this week. You’re not caving to the Society Boys. So, we’ll teach you something today. We’ll start slow. And then we’ll continue every weekend until we’re confident.”
Borden nodded, and I found myself surprised at how patient he was being. “That sounds great, thank you,” he said.
Nathaniel grabbed the Coin of Compulsion from his bookshelf and walked over to the couch, indicating for Borden to sit at it. He handed him the book.
“Read this,” he said. “It’s short, it won’t take long.”
And over the course of the next hour, we taught Borden how to enchant a coin. And we showed him how it worked by giving it to Nathaniel. Borden was a gentleman. He didn’t ask too deep. He didn’t dig too personal.
But he’d done it, easy as could be, because really, this was the easiest thing in the world to do.
And when he walked out of the solarium later that day, I felt even more confident. Despite being David’s right hand man and being absolutely awful to Nathaniel last semester, Borden was different. He was someone we could trust. And things were going to be different.
Monday morning, I walked into school to find Borden and Nathaniel talking in the common room. I started crossing the room to join them, when I watched as David and Gerald and Howard crossed the space toward them.
I didn’t hear what was said.
But I saw it as Nathaniel got that glazed-over look in his eyes. The one he used to keep himself out of a fight. His hands curled at his side. But they locked by his hips.
“Your ego is going to be the death of you someday, David,” Borden said in response to whatever had been said.
“Grow up and move on.”
David grabbed Borden’s shoulders and shoved him back a few steps.
I watched as Borden’s jaw clenched tight. I watched his fingers curl into fists.
And I saw a spark of electricity crackle over his hands.
“I just want some answers,” David said, his voice taunting and rising, now that he knew he had everyone’s attention. “What makes you think you can just walk away from blood like this? What makes you think you’re better than the Society? You really looking forward to being cut off from the name Stewart?”
“Walk away, David,” Borden said, his tone darkening.
“Does it turn you on?” David taunted as he shoved Borden again. “Their freaky brooding shit? Are they letting you into their little love nest? Is that what it is?”
For the first time ever, I watched as Nathaniel took a step forward, all the tendons in his jaw standing out. “Back off.”
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. Every syllable of Nathaniel’s voice was a deadly warning. I saw the tendons in his arm standing out in stark contrast to the muscles on his arms.
I could swear he grew two inches taller.
David looked at Nathaniel, scoffing as he looked up and down. There was something in his eyes, though, that told me he’d just now realized Nathaniel was five inches taller than he was.
David turned his eyes back to Borden. “I heard Daddy Stewart found out about your desertion. That he’s not too happy about some things. I wonder how that happened?”
“Why so jealous of the name, David?” Borden taunted back. “Wish your daddy was a Stewart instead of a Sinclair?”
David snapped. His fist flew, but Borden’s instincts were quicker than expected. He ducked and was only clipped in the cheek instead of straight in the face. But when Borden came back swinging, David didn’t stand a chance.
He caught him square in the mouth. His lip split, and instantly blood started pouring from his mouth.
Gerald and Howard jumped on David before he could swing again, and Nathaniel stepped in between the two of them.