by Keary Taylor
Borden stood, looking around as if he wasn’t sure where he was supposed to go. He was talking like he wasn’t worried, like he didn’t care. But I could see it in his eyes, how much this was affecting him.
“I’m so sorry, Borden,” I said, shaking my head. “If this is too much, if you need-”
“I need to be my own man,” Borden said, cutting me off. His eyes met mine again, and I saw the conviction and fire in them. “I need to be who I am, and I won’t apologize to any of them for it. This doesn’t mean anything is changing. Thanks for listening, Margot. I didn’t mean to worry you with it all.”
I realized then, Borden’s moods could change just like the electrical storms he could create. The aura around him felt darker, the air more charged. With an angry cloud, he turned, and set off down the hall, beelining toward his first class of the day.
And I realized then, that at some point, we were all going to have to make sacrifices for this. Resurrecting magic and being what we were was dangerous and difficult. How bad did we want this, and how much were we really willing to commit to it?
If it came down to it, was I ready to sacrifice in the same way Borden was possibly going to have to?
I didn’t have any answers to those questions, so I turned and headed down the hall to go deal with my first class.
We were all in agreement, but I still found myself questioning as I walked down the hall to my English class. Was this the right thing to do? Were we sure? Once I did this, could we really go back?
But that was fear and insecurity talking.
If Mary-Beth was one of us, we needed her, and she had a right to know.
So I held my head high as I walked down the hall, and I didn’t hesitate as I turned into the classroom.
She was sitting at her usual desk in front of mine when I walked in. When her eyes caught mine, she smiled and sat up.
“Thanks for letting me go out with you guys last night,” she said as she turned, watching as I set my bag down on the ground and took my own seat. “It’s been a while since I went out with friends.”
“I was actually thinking the same thing the whole time,” I said, smiling. “It’s usually just Nathaniel and me. Borden is a recent addition.”
“How long have you and Nathaniel been together?” she asked, raising her eyebrows in a somewhat suggestive way.
I didn’t blush, because it wasn’t the way she was likely thinking. “Since last fall. It was kind of one of those quick, immediate things.”
She sighed as she rested her cheek against her fist, her elbow on my table. “You’re lucky. I dated this guy for almost all of my freshman year. But he wasn’t that into it. I could tell. Nathaniel looks at you like you’re the freaking sun, moon and stars.”
I did feel my face flush then, because I knew it was true. “Just lucky, I guess.”
More students were filtering into the classroom, and I knew my time was running out. I bent and fished the telekinesis book out of my bag. My heart started hammering and my palms were sweating.
“Do you happen to know ancient Gaelic?” I asked, trying to play it casual.
Mary-Beth shrugged. “Grandmother really wanted the entire family to learn, but it never seemed particularly useful, so I didn’t bother.”
I nodded like it didn’t matter and opened it to the middle of the book. “I think this might have been one of the books she donated. Take a look.”
I handed it to her. She took it, and I paid special attention to how she grabbed it. Her index fingers spread over the spine, and her thumb balanced between the pages, touching the paper directly.
“Probably,” Mary-Beth said. “Grandmother loves books about magic. She’s donated hundreds of fairytales and fantasy stuff.”
My heart thundered now. I hoped I didn’t look like a total maniac, but I knew my eyes were a little too wide, I looked a little too shocked.
“You can read it?” I asked before I could think of some smoother way to say it.
Mary-Beth looked at me with furrowed brows, an amused look on her face. “I know I said I shouldn’t have been able to get into Alderidge, but yes, I can read just fine.”
I shook my head, trying to keep up with my thoughts that were running a million miles an hour. “No, sorry, that’s not what I meant. I-”
But I was cut off by the professor as he dove into the lesson.
Mary-Beth just smiled at me and shook her head. “Making things fly with your mind does sound fun,” she whispered as she set the book down on my desk. She gave me a wink before turning to face forward.
Mary-Beth was a mage. She was one of us.
It was no longer just Nathaniel and I, tasked impossibly with bringing magic back on our own. There were four of us, who knew how many others there were?
We could do this.
We could bring back an entire lost race.
I practically ran to lunch after class. I waited impatiently as students floated in and out around me. I was actually biting my nails by the time Nathaniel walked into the cafeteria, Borden in tow behind him.
“She could read the book,” I blurted out as soon as they walked up. “No problem, she could read the book.”
“She’s one of us,” Nathaniel said, a small smile pulling in the corner of his mouth.
“Glad to not be the only newbie,” Borden said, and he actually did seem glad for it.
“We have to tell her,” I said as we stepped into line. I took a tray and grabbed my food. It was Wednesday. I wouldn’t see Mary-Beth again until Friday, unless I went looking for her. I thought through it as I walked from the checkout to our now normal table.
“Do we wait until this weekend?” I asked as we sat down. “I feel like it’s something we should all do together. But you don’t have a day off until Saturday.”
“My next lesson is Saturday,” Borden pointed out as he sat beside me. “Seems like an easy way to kill two birds with one stone.”
I looked at Nathaniel, who considered it for a moment. And finally, he gave a nod. “That sounds like a solid plan to me.”
I nodded as well. “I have some ideas about our tester as well. How overwhelmed is everyone right now? Maybe we could meet tonight after your shift?”
I could see the tiredness on Nathaniel’s face already. His face had always been slightly gaunt, but now the hollows beneath his eyes were more intense and noticeable. But he didn’t hesitate when he nodded.
“Meet at the solarium at nine, then,” I said with a nod.
It had been dark for three hours by the time I told my father where I was going and headed to the solarium. The snow was crunchy and crisp. The weather had gotten a few degrees above freezing today, and thus had started melting. But now the temperatures had plunged again, leaving everything frozen and slick.
Smoke was rising from the chimney in the solarium, and I kind of wondered how no one but Borden had ever found Nathaniel living there. Not that this end of the school looked safe. It really did look like it could all collapse and be swallowed up at any moment.
But I didn’t fear for my life as I walked past the fence and headed down the overgrown path.
Borden was already inside when I stepped in. He and Nathaniel were talking, both their arms folded over their chests, looking concerned.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, hanging my scarf on the tree stand.
“My parents called this afternoon,” Borden said. “They’ve spoken with the Society about my desertion. They’re worried I’m going to screw up my education, that I won’t be able to handle the business when it’s my time to take over. They’re cutting me off.”
My heart sank into my stomach. “The Society continues after Alderidge?”
Borden’s lips disappeared into a thin line and he nodded his head. “These families go way back. To the founding of the country, almost. They all stay in touch, they all are connected with their business dealings. My father and David’s have worked together in some form since their own time here at Alderidge.”
/> And I realized then just what Borden was willing to sacrifice. “Borden, why is this worth it to you? We’re…we’re just a couple of acquaintances. This, you could forget about magic and move on with your life. Go live the way you were supposed to. How is this worth it to you?”
Borden fixed me with his eyes, and I knew whatever came out of his mouth, he meant the words. Some people just have intensely honest eyes like that.
“There’ve been expectations placed upon the shoulders of Stewart children for centuries,” he said. “We’ve been expected to live our lives a certain way since the old days in Scotland. I’ve been a good son. I’ve done my duties. And I am still a good man who is still going to do something great and big and somehow, I am going to make my parents proud. But I’m going to do it my way. I’m going to be my own person. And if they can’t respect me along the way, then I don’t need it. Let them see the end results.”
Little by little, I was coming to realize that Borden was different. He wasn’t the same person he was when he tormented us with the Society Boys.
I wasn’t exactly ready to forgive and forget. But slowly he was proving trustworthy.
“I really respect that, Borden,” I said. My words came out tight and hoarse. “I don’t know if I’d have that same kind of strength.”
Borden pressed his lips together again and nodded. He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around me, and in that moment, it wasn’t difficult to reciprocate the hug. Nathaniel stepped forward too, wrapping his long arms around us, holding tight.
I took a deep breath as I released the both of them and let it out between my lips. “Okay, right. It’s getting late. My idea.”
We turned and I walked to the couch, leaning against one arm. Nathaniel stayed where he was, folding his arms over his chest. Borden took a seat at the desk, listening intently.
“The telekinesis book reacts to mages,” I said. “I didn’t think anything about the glamouring book before, but if you think about it, it’s already the only test we have. What if we were able to take some kind of hybrid approach with the glamouring book and the transfiguration book?”
“Create an object that transfigures itself when held or touched by a mage, but remains glamoured when touched by any regular human?” Nathaniel asked.
“Exactly,” I said, the excitement in my voice increasing. “It needs to be easy and quick. I mean as in something we can walk through the halls at school with and touch people, without them even knowing what we’re doing, and instantly be able to tell.”
“We joked and said a stick earlier, but that would be the easiest thing,” Borden spoke up. “You could walk around with it and touch people without them even noticing.”
“So, we’re wanting to create a magic wand that glows when it touches another mage?” Nathaniel said, the humor of it showing in his face.
I chuckled just twice, recognizing how ridiculous it was. “Yes, I’m talking about creating a magic wand that glows when it touches others like us.”
Borden laughed and shook his head. “This is ridiculous. But it should work.”
Nathaniel’s eyes were wandering, and I could see the gears turning in his head a million miles a minute. “I think we can make it work. That isn’t to say it will be any time soon. Transfiguration hasn’t been going the smoothest.”
At that confession, Borden gave me a look, to which I simply shrugged.
“I think we need something simple, something that doesn’t look suspicious,” Nathaniel said, and I knew he was always thinking about our safety and how our ancestors had essentially been hunted to extinction.
At that, Borden held up a pencil that had been laying on Nathaniel’s desk.
Solid and simple, small and straight.
“I think we found our magic wand,” I said with a smirk. “And just think. We could enchant hundreds of pencils and spread them around the school. We’d be able to tell who our fellow mages were very quickly.”
“Pencils are cheap,” Borden said in agreement. “We could buy thousands of them and get them spread throughout the entire school.”
“We’d be able to find each other in a matter of weeks,” Nathaniel said, the excitement and fear growing in his voice. “This…we might be able to find them all faster than we’re prepared for. Think about it. What would it mean if we found dozens of others in a matter of weeks? How do we manage it? How do we teach them? Who is in charge, or is anyone in charge? How do we keep it from getting out of hand, and someone exposing all of us and then all of us are hunted into extinction again?”
My heart was racing and thundering and instantly my palms were sweating nervously as I pictured it all. We could overrun ourselves before we even knew what the hell we were doing.
“Then we need to start slow,” Borden said, and I was instantly grateful that he could think logically when I was losing all of my ability to do so. “We start with Mary-Beth. We get our feet under us. We keep learning ourselves. And we slowly, slowly expand.”
“We need a school,” I said as the realization hit me. “We need somewhere safe to learn and teach. We need a safe, controlled environment where we can explain it all. Especially our history and the risk we are always under. We need to go about this the way any other leaders get trained and educated.”
“First we need teachers who know what they’re doing,” Nathaniel said, raising an eyebrow. “How can we teach others, when we hardly know anything? It’s all been lost and scattered around the world.”
“We need more books, more information,” Borden said, clear and concise, proving that he would indeed be a successful person someday. “We need more training and experience. And then we need money. We need that school. And we need leaders to start it all.”
This escalated so quickly. I’d come here to talk about a test, something to show us who the others were. And here we were, talking about opening our own school, about discovering dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of others.
I sat back in the couch, thinking through it all.
“I’m done,” I said. I didn’t mean to speak the words out loud. “I don’t have time for anything else. School, Alderidge, all of that. It doesn’t matter anymore. Let the rest of the world get their degrees and their normal jobs. I need to be putting my time and my focus on this.”
I looked up at the two of them, and with the words, I felt my confidence growing. “I’ll finish this semester. But once it’s over, I’m calling it.”
“This is my last semester,” Borden said. “I’ll graduate at the end of April. And then I’ll be in control of all my time again. We can do whatever it takes.”
I almost didn’t want to look at Nathaniel. I knew how important his education was to him, how hard he’d fought to get here. I didn’t want him to feel like he needed to end his as well, when after this semester, he would only have one year left.
“We’ll give this everything we’ve got,” he said instead, and I understood him then. He would set his priorities, but nothing had to be decided one hundred percent right now. “And we’ll do whatever it takes to bring us together.”
Chapter Six
We came up with a plan. We needed something actionable or I would go out of my mind with how overwhelming it all was. We needed a list. A timeframe. A course that would set us down the path to accomplishing our goals.
We would tell Mary-Beth what she was. We would have our lesson with her and Borden.
We would work on enchanting the pencils, but not just to reveal who the mages were, but also anything that possessed magical properties, including books.
Once we had that, we would go through every book in the Alderidge library, as well as the Boston Public library, as well as every book and record we could get access to in Salem. And every other place that had books within a twenty-mile radius.
That alone might take us the entire year, even more. But it was clear and promising.
And we would study.
We’d learn and study until we were exhausted, and then we’d
work some more.
And once we felt like we had a grasp on this, when we felt ready, we would extend. We would start testing and reaching out to others.
We would create that school. Somehow, someday.
It was overwhelming, but it was a plan, and we needed one of those. We needed direction.
So as Friday approached, I set step one into motion.
I asked Mary-Beth if she wanted to get together on Saturday, and she happily agreed. And we made plans to meet at the main doors of the school at ten o’clock.
At nine, Nathaniel and Borden and I got together at the solarium, and we went over the plan. The weather was warm for the first time in forever, so we decided it was time to return to Asteria House.
At ten o’clock, we walked across the grounds, and there Mary-Beth was, waiting for us.
“Another group outing,” she said with a smile. “I’m kind of liking the direction this is going. I’ve always wanted to be part of a crew.”
I laughed and shook my head. “You have no idea.”
“We’re even diverse,” she said as she started walking with us without even knowing where we were going. “We have one of each grade. Borden, the wise senior. Nathaniel, the handsome, brooding junior. Me, the sophomore, and Margot, the freshman who is probably smarter than all of us.”
“You forgot your own descriptor,” I pointed out as I raised an eyebrow at her. “Mary-Beth, the sophomore who adoringly always speaks her mind.”
She shrugged with a smile. “What good does beating around bushes do?”
“A hunter, this one,” Nathaniel said. “She’s just trying to quickly expose her prey.”
“Direct and swift,” Mary-Beth said in agreement as we stepped out onto the beach and set off south. “Where are we going, by the way?”
“We’ve got something we’d like to show you,” I said, trying to put her at ease.
“This isn’t like some weird sex square, is it?” Mary-Beth asked, though her tone was still joking. “’Cause I might be open minded, but when there’s more than two people involved, I kind of have to draw a line.”