by Keary Taylor
“Thank you,” I declared, and even as I said the words, my chest felt lighter, better. “Nathaniel keeps brushing it off like it was no big deal, and to Borden it’s in the past so there’s nothing he can do about it, but I’m the one who had to see all of Nathaniel’s blood in the water. I’m the one that watched them all try to drown him. I’m the one who had to let it go, knowing the police couldn’t touch those boys.”
“Damn, Margot,” Mary-Beth said, shaking her head. “Spit it all out. That shit is crazy.”
“They made our lives miserable for months,” I said, feeling myself amp up, hotter and hotter. “Borden was there, helping David corner me, he was there smacking Nathaniel around. He says it was because the Boys made him angry and that’s how he could use his magic, but that’s such bull crap. There could have been plenty of other things that made him angry so he could use his magic that didn’t involve physically harming another person.”
“It’s not right,” Mary-Beth said, shaking her head as she licked the side of her cone.
“No, it’s not!” I said, letting it all come pouring out of me. “Because even though he apologized, a few times, it doesn’t mean it never happened and it doesn’t mean I don’t still have nightmares about it. And Nathaniel needs to stop telling me to just get over it.”
“That’s right, you need to feel what you feel,” Mary-Beth nodded, chomping down on the last of her cone.
“You literally ate that entire thing in like, five bites,” I said, instantly sidetracked. “That’s insane. How do you not have a major brain freeze?”
Mary-Beth shrugged. “Apparently you never paid attention any of the other times we’ve eaten around each other. It’s just how I eat.”
“Like a vacuum?” I asked in a laugh.
She just smiled and wiped the corner of her mouth with a napkin.
I laughed, shaking my head. And finally, I felt all of my anger and frustration seep out of me. “Thank you,” I said, meeting her eyes. “I needed to vent.”
“Do you feel better now?” she asked as she folded her arms on the table and leaned forward.
“I do, actually,” I said with a nod. “It was kind of just pooling inside of me and poisoning me from the inside out.”
“Good,” Mary-Beth said with a nod. “Now we can talk about my problems. I think you may have made a mistake in thinking I’m a mage.”
I blinked at her twice.
“I’ve been working my tail off every single second outside of class, and I still can’t do a damn thing,” Mary-Beth said. And with each word, I could see the distress in her eyes growing more and more. “You all say there’s nothing to compelling a coin, but I tried to get my roommate to confess to stealing my leftovers and she just straight up lied to me. I can’t start a fire. I have no idea what my affinity is, and I can’t make even a speck of dust levitate.”
“We didn’t make a mistake, Mary-Beth,” I said, keeping my tone even. “You could read the telekinesis book. You can make a wand light up. My dad can’t do either of those things. You just need more practice.”
“So, I might still be a mage,” she said. “Just the very worst one in the entire world.”
“You’re being too hard on yourself,” I tried to talk her down. “Who says magic is easy? Who says it isn’t different for everyone?”
“None of this was hard for you,” Mary-Beth pointed out. “Nathaniel has said so. And Borden has only been doing this for a few weeks longer than me, and he doesn’t seem to have any issue. So why can’t I make anything work?”
I just looked at her, because even though I didn’t want her feeling bad about her abilities, she was right. None of us had struggled with magic, not to the extent Mary-Beth did. Sure, Nathaniel couldn’t do alchemy, and I couldn’t get it to stay, and transfiguration was extra tricky. But we could do things, even if it was in a limited capacity.
Mary-Beth had yet to do a single bit of magic herself. So far, everything she had done was simply a reaction to her blood.
“I don’t know yet,” I said honestly. “We don’t know hardly anything about ourselves, what we can and can’t do, and even why we can do what we do. Maybe there’s a reason your magic hasn’t been able to unleash yet. But we’ll find answers, at some point. Or maybe it will just…click one day.”
I reached across the table and took her hands in mine, holding her gaze. “I know it has to be frustrating. But I know you’re where you belong, and that’s with us. And even though I’m a little peeved at Borden, he belongs in our circle as well. We need each other. We need you, Mary-Beth.”
She let out a hard breath between her nostrils and gave me a thin-lipped smile. “Thanks,” she said. “I guess I needed to vent.”
“What are sisters for?” I said, winking.
She just laughed and sat back in her seat. “Alright. I’ll keep practicing. How about we head to that creepy, abandoned house you’re kind of in love with and you can help me practice?”
I just laughed and shook my head. “Yeah,” I agreed. “Let’s go.”
It was a twenty-minute walk to Asteria House. As we approached, I took a moment to appreciate the view. Normally, I came up from the beach, but from the road, it was even more impressive.
There was a massive stone fence that ran around the entire property. Iron gates partially blocked the way down the cobblestone driveway. There was a beautiful tower in the center of the house, looking out over the ocean from a third story level.
Big bushes and trees dotted the landscaping, and there was even a pool on the south side of the house, covered by an atrium.
“This place really was beautiful at one point,” Mary-Beth said as we both took it all in as we walked right up to the house. “The Asteria family must have been seriously loaded to just walk away from this place.”
“Can you imagine what it would be worth if it was fixed up?” I said as we walked up the porch that was in surprisingly good condition. But as we got to the double front doors, we found they were busted, as if someone had kicked them in.
“Can you imagine how much money it would take to fix this place up to make it livable?” she asked, raising an eyebrow as we stepped inside, only to immediately step to the left to avoid the massive hole in the floor. Looking up, we found the reason was due to a hole in the roof, which had let in years’ worth of rain, causing the floor to rot out.
“Come on,” I said, nodding my head toward what was once the kitchen.
Mary-Beth followed me in, looking around for spiders and signs of danger.
I walked to the far back counter, to a line of rocks that were sitting there. They looked ordinary, nothing more than stones taken from the beach. But I grabbed one, pricked my finger, said the words, and watched as the stone slowly changed from gray to shimmering gold.
Mary-Beth’s eyes widened in absolute wonder. “You’re telling me you know how to turn rocks into gold, and I can’t start a simple fire?”
I smiled, but it was awkward and forced. “That’s what I’m trying to do anyway.” As the entire stone turned to gold, I set it down on the counter and looked at it. “I’m getting better at it, but I can’t make anything stay gold. Within a few hours, it changes back.”
“Fool’s gold?” Mary-Beth said.
“I thought the exact same thing,” I said with a smirk. “I could certainly trick someone for a little bit, sell it, but they might get a little peeved when they go back to it and all they have is a simple rock.”
“Is it possible?” she asked as she crossed the decrepit kitchen and picked up the lump of gold. “To make it stay permanently?”
“The book doesn’t say anything about the gold changing back,” I said as I turned for the fireplace. I rubbed my hands together, creating heat, and then snapped my fingers, instantly causing flames to jump to life in the fireplace. “So, I have to be doing something wrong. I just can’t figure out what it is yet.”
“It shouldn’t, but that makes me feel slightly better that I can’t do anything,�
� she confessed as she tossed the gold from one hand to the other.
“Yet,” I corrected her as I walked back into the kitchen. “And Nathaniel can’t do it at all. He’s tried. Borden doesn’t even know alchemy exists.”
Mary-Beth raises an eyebrow at that, a smirk on her lips.
“Guess the secret’s out,” I said. “I trust you more than I trust him.”
She smiled and I appreciated that she didn’t try to lecture me with some speech about growing up.
“So, what’s the plan once you figure out how to make it permanent?” Mary-Beth asked as she looked down at the gold in her hands. “Because once you do, you’ll suddenly be exceptionally wealthy.”
I leaned against the counter, looking around the destroyed house. “I’ve never really cared about being rich. I mean, we never had much growing up, though we always had enough for our needs. I’ve just kind of always associated being rich with being an asshole.”
“Hey, now,” Mary-Beth said.
I laughed. “Until you came along.” She smiled and all was well again. “So, having a lot of money never equated to happiness for me. But…having some would make things easier.”
I turned and looked out at the ocean through the cracked window. “I’d like to be able to buy a house for me and Nathaniel. Have enough money that we didn’t have to work outside jobs. So, we could just work on magic. Resurrecting it all, it’s going to take time. Our entire lives. I don’t think we’re going to have time for everyone’s regular version of normal.”
Mary-Beth looked around the house. “You should buy this place,” she said simply.
I looked over my shoulder at her. “What?”
She shrugged. “You already love this place. It’s private. Big enough that we could all live here and not bother each other.”
“We’re all going to be roommates now?” I asked, laughing at the idea, even as I pictured it.
“Why not?” she asked. “We all get along, for the most part. Resurrecting magic will happen a lot quicker with us all working toward the common goal. It would be like…a boarding school.”
A school.
We’d talked about a school. How one day it would be needed.
I turned back around and walked into the living room.
This place really was massive.
“It would totally work as a school,” Mary-Beth said as she followed me in, looking around.
“It really would,” I said, an excited smile pulling in one corner of my mouth. “A home, and a school.”
And instantly, I was having all kinds of ideas, making all kinds of plans for the future.
Chapter Ten
I walked through the doors of Alderidge on Monday, and shouting and cheering floated all the way down the hall from the common room. Being human, curiosity got the best of me, and I followed the noise.
A thick ring of students was circled up around the center of the common room. I pushed my way through, getting closer and closer to the scuffle happening in the middle.
I stepped into view just as David pulled back his fist and connected it with Borden’s jaw.
He spun hard to the side, falling to his hands and knees. I couldn’t see where it was coming from, but I watched as blood dripped onto the tile floor beneath him.
David, flanked by Gerald and James, took another step forward. But Borden spun around, fists swinging.
He caught David square in the face, and he went careening back onto the tile, his head hitting it hard as he fell back.
James and Gerald didn’t hesitate. They launched themselves onto Borden.
There was blood all over the place. Streaking the floor, on their faces, fists, their clothes. It was getting worse by the minute.
I focused on one particular puddle of blood on the floor. While everyone else was watching the fight, I asked the blood to move beneath James’ right foot. I brought another beneath Gerald.
Like a perfectly orchestrated dance, they both slipped, falling forward, and smacking their heads together like it was an old cartoon.
“Borden!” a voice boomed, and I found myself more than a little shocked when it was Nathaniel who broke through the crowd and grabbed him before he could lay into anyone again. “It’s over. It’s over. Let’s go.”
“It’s not over,” Borden said, and his voice shook with untamed rage. “Not this time.”
David propped himself up on an elbow, glaring death at Borden, his former right-hand man, as he ran a thumb over his bleeding lip.
“Come on,” Nathaniel said as he pulled and shoved Borden away from the crowd. The bell rang and knowing they had somewhere else to be and seeing that the fight between Society Boys was over, the crowd broke off.
I sighed, because I knew that all I could do was go with Borden and Nathaniel.
Borden was shaking with rage. I’d never seen him so angry. His bloodied hands were still curled into fists and he looked like he would snap if Nathaniel breathed wrong. His eyes were dark and dangerous, his lips set in a thin line. The breath heaved in and out through his flared nostrils.
Nathaniel peeked into a classroom and when he deemed it empty, he opened the door and shoved Borden inside.
“What happened?” Nathaniel demanded after backing Borden into a wall.
He took four deep breaths again, harsh and wild. He ran his hands through his hair, and I realized his hands were shaking.
“I got a letter from the Dean this morning, delivered right to my dorm,” Borden said. “I’ve been expelled.”
“What?” I said, folding my arms over my chest, my eyes widening. “On what grounds?”
“Cheating and falsifying grades,” Borden glowered. “My economics professor is claiming he saw me cheating off Howard Starrling on the last test. Which I didn’t do great on because I’ve been working on mage stuff. Yet they still think I cheated off Howard. And then my professor says I went and changed my overall grade from a C to an A.”
“Do they have any evidence?” Nathaniel asked, his voice calm and even.
“Of course not,” Borden scoffed. “But this is all backed by the Society Boys and I no longer have my father’s support. They’re framing me. And now I’ve been kicked out of school? I’m supposed to move out of my dorm in a week, because it’s designated for students only.”
I’d been hard on Borden before. But things were different now. I was watching his entire life fall apart.
I hadn’t had to sacrifice anything yet. But Borden was losing everything.
His family. His social circles. His school. His reputation.
It was all disappearing. Because he was committed to doing this. To learning magic. To bringing back a race of people who had been hunted into extinction.
“You can stay with me,” I said around a dry, thick throat. “We have an extra bedroom at my house that’s just being used for storage. We can clear it out and you can stay there. I don’t think Dad will mind.”
Borden stared at me, still breathing ragged and hard. He stood there with his hands on his hips, and suddenly, I saw him different. As someone who was vulnerable. Simply human. Subject to faults and mistakes, someone who could be torn down in days or minutes.
“I can find my own place, Margot,” Borden said, looking away. “But thank you. I appreciate it.”
“We need to stick together,” Nathaniel countered. “It doesn’t do any good if you’re far away.”
“I’m not going back to New York,” Borden said, his tone a little harsh, but I forgave him, considering the circumstances. “There’s plenty of housing in Harrington. I’ll find a place close by.”
And I knew it then, that the plan I talked about with Mary-Beth needed to happen sooner than later. We needed a safe place. Somewhere that was ours. Somewhere that we could all be together.
I had to get a grip on alchemy. I had to come up with the money to buy Asteria House for us all.
And I had to fully forgive Borden and move on with our lives.
Nathaniel came to my hous
e that night. It was becoming the normal. He’d come over after his shift at the library, if we weren’t all gathering to practice magic. He’d eat the leftovers from whatever Dad or I made. And we’d go up to my room to talk, or we’d hang out in the living room with Dad, or we’d go for walks across the frozen campus.
Tonight, we went up to my bedroom. Dad had been feeling a little under the weather, so he’d gone to bed just after eight o’clock. Nathaniel and I tried to keep quiet so we wouldn’t wake him up.
“I think maybe we need to do something to help Borden,” I said as Nathaniel and I laid in the bed, facing each other. Nathaniel’s eyes were closed, though I could tell he wasn’t quite asleep.
“What do you suggest?” he asked without opening his eyes.
“Borden is in his last semester, so it’s not fair that he get expelled in the last few months before school is over,” I said, largely talking to myself. “This is all David’s doing, I know Borden didn’t cheat on that test, he said so himself that he didn’t do very well on it. And I believe him that he didn’t go change his grade.”
Nathaniel made an acknowledging noise, but hardly stirred and still didn’t open his eyes.
“I think maybe I can go to the Dean and make him forget that any of this happened, revoke the expulsion,” I said, going back to that night that I altered the Society Boy’s memories of what happened the night they tried to drown Nathaniel. “It would serve David right to have this all rewind on him anyway.”
“Sounds like a good plan to me,” Nathaniel muttered, though I wondered if he’d really heard what I’d said.
But I just smiled and leaned forward. I pressed a kiss to his cheek. He smiled slightly, though he was too tired to even do anything more.
I pulled the blanket up over the both of us. I snuggled myself in and Nathaniel lazily laid an arm over my middle.
He was breathing deep and low in a matter of seconds.
I just smiled, looking up at the ceiling.