Ruby shouted out in a voice that was musical and deafening. “By the power of the moon and all she graces. By the light of the sun and its many faces. I call upon my power to battle the cold of night. Beware my strength, the ruby red light!”
When the light faded and Tiana could see again, Ruby looked different. Golden armor clung to her skin, flowing like water and shaping itself into a breastplate and gauntlets and then more pieces of armor and more until the girl glittered like a dark star in the basement. And in her hand the mirror had transformed into a long thin blade with a heart-shaped tip.
“No!” the gemwraith howled. “Queen the not!” It gestured and a sword of ice and hate materialized in its hand. Ruby and the wraith leapt at each other, their blades moving faster than Tiana could track.
“I guess she is a princess,” Desdemona said.
Tiana attacked from the other side, her blade lashing out with precision cuts to the professor’s chest. She couldn’t cut deep or risk killing the professor but with each scratch she marred the binding circle on his chest, changing the spell, altering the contract incised there. As Ruby hacked away, backing the beast into a corner, Tiana undid the binding spell.
If Harrison was still alive inside, he could push the beast out now. The door was open. He just needed a little help.
The gemwraith’s blade found a lucky moment and drew a line across Ruby’s belly, ripping away the golden armor and leaving behind a sheet of frost. The lost queen screamed out in agony and dropped to the floor.
The wraith stepped forward, frozen sword in hand, laughing a satisfied burbling chortle.
Which was when Tiana stepped forward, her gloved hands full of the coins she’d picked up from the ground the other day, and stuffed the professor’s mouth full of Desdemona Cho’s climax currency.
Ruby collapsed to the ground, holding her belly and screaming.
The wraith dropped his sword and jeweled phylactery and clawed at his mouth as the enchantment took hold.
“What the hell was that, Tats?” Desdemona asked.
“They hate love and pleasure, according to Ruby. So I stuffed his mouth full of your orgasm coins.”
The professor dropped to his knees, opened his mouth wide, and the wraith wriggled out. It slithered across the floor to the phylactery but just as it was about to enter, Ruby’s golden sword came swinging down, shattering the home of the gemwraith’s soul and dissipating it into the air.
In that moment, it was all over.
Desdemona propped Ruby up and helped her apply healing spells to her frostbitten belly.
Tiana cradled Harrison in her lap as he shook and moaned and spit quarters onto the floor. With her wand she cast the gentlest healing spell she knew, tracing the cuts on his chest and repairing them one by one. Eventually he opened his eyes and Tiana lost her breath somewhere in those molten maple syrup pools.
“I think you passed,” he said. A tired smile graced his handsome face.
“Then I’m no longer a student here,” Tiana said, but there was no excitement in her voice.
“Then I can do this,” Harrison said, pulling her face down and kissing her with a warmth and a kindness that made every inch of her skin sing with joy.
Epilogue
“Hey honey, what’s the emergency?” Her father’s voice was scared and exhausted on the other end of the line.
Tiana stretched out on her floor, her toes almost in Desdemona’s hair. “No emergency. We handled it.” On her bed, Harrison snored softly. His house was too destroyed to go back to and anyway, he needed looking after what with the psychic hijacking and all.
“Handled what?” His voice had iron in it. Tired iron. But iron nonetheless. “You know you aren’t allowed to engage in solo operations until you pass your semester, young lady.” She could almost hear his mustache bristling.
“It was a gemwraith from Mirrorworld but it’s handled. I assembled a team of specialists, including an extra-dimensional warrior. And anyways, I passed all my classes.”
“Extra-dimensional warrior?” Her father shook his head audibly, the phone scratching against his stubble. “I knew that school was a mistake. It’ll be good to have you home, Pumpkin. I already have our next three hunts lined up. And then after that I know a guy in Brazil who needs help with a dragon shifter.”
Ruby sat silent on her bed, staring into her mirror.
Desdemona was playing some ridiculous game on her phone that seemed to involve hiring a raccoon to build you a house.
“I’ve changed my mind, Father. I’m going to give this school another chance. I’m learning more than I expected and anyway, I’ve made friends.”
Harrison reached down and took her hand in his.
Desdemona glanced at her with the biggest smile in the history of smiles.
And up on Ruby’s bed, her mirror sprung to life and the sounds of children screaming with joy filled the room.
“Yeah,” Tiana said. “I’m going to stay. Give my love to mom.”
When she hung up on her father she got to her knees and gave everyone in the room a hug. Was she a hugger? She might have been turning into one. You could blame the bad influence of Desdemona Cho or the good influence of Professor Harrison.
Next she sat next to Ruby and told her gorgeous, glowing daughters about how brave their mom had been to single-handedly fight the gemwraith and to save the handsome prince.
There’d be problems in the future. There’d be consequences for her relationship with Harrison, undoubtedly. But at that moment, Tiana Sterling was deliriously happy.
Tutoring the Wolf
a Penrose University of Magic novel by Jacqueline Sweet & Devon March
When she’s forced to tutor a bad boy werewolf, witch Cassie doesn’t realize how much she’ll learn, or how much fun she’ll have doing it.
Cassie Blake is the brightest witch of her generation and has every step of her future planned out. She’s engaged to a handsome, successful man from a good wizarding family and if she can just keep her grades up all of her dreams will come true the second she graduates.
But when she’s forced to tutor the rebellious werewolf Malcolm Sheppard everything goes wrong. He’s the worst student the Penrose University of Magic has ever seen—he’d rather spend his days pining for the rock star life he had to leave behind than studying for class. And then there’s that way he looks at her that sends shivers all up and down her spine.
1
Cassie looked around the classroom and smiled at the worried faces of her fellow students. Every single witch and wizard tremble with anxiety. Even her friend Madrigal, who usually had a bad case of Resting Witch Face, was gnawing her lips raw in anticipation of their midterm grades.
But Cassie wasn’t worried. As the hardest-working witch at the Penrose University of Magic she knew she’d ace the test. And then she’d ace the final exams. And then she’d graduate and marry Anoxamander Bluefelt and her life would be perfect. It’d been her plan—well, her parents’ plan—since as long as she could remember. They actually had the contract framed on the wall in the dining hall at the main house on their estate, if you can believe it. They loved showing it off at parties and gesturing to it over dinner whenever Cassie brought home another medal or plaque or perfect report card.
“Our families will finally be joined,” they’d say in unison, talking while hardly openly their teeth in that way they did. “We put all of our eggs in one basket with this one, but what a basket it turned out to be.” Then they’d smile at Cassie and change the topic to something else and ignore her the rest of the evening, which was fine. Really.
Professor Schtrumpf, a sleepy man who wore robes like he thought he taught at Hogwarts and not Penrose, entered the classroom. His over-stuffed valise hovered behind him, always exactly eighteen inches away. In it was the key to Cassie’s future. Her heart beat so fast she thought it might burst out of her chest and fly away.
Behind her, Victor Lee banged his head slowly and heavily into his desk. �
��I am so boned,” he said. “So boned. So boned.” He was a meathead from Sherman House whose every question in Applied Thaumaturgy could be boiled down to, “But how will this make me better at sports?”
“Shush!” Cassie said to him out of the side of her mouth.
“So boned,” Victor said, thunking his head down again.
“Be quiet!” Cassie whispered. If he didn’t shut up, she wouldn’t be able to properly enjoy the moment of her victory. After the midterm, the only grade left was the final and she had a killer idea for the project. Of course Victor would fail the test. Why was he even in Applied Thaumaturgy? It wasn’t a class known for easy As, or even easy Cs. Wouldn’t he have been much happier in one of those setting-things-on-fire-with-your-mind classes?
“So boned.” Thunk. Thunk.
Cassie’s fingers went to her wand. She had it slid into her knee socks for ease of reach. No one would care if she just cursed Victor a little bit. Penrose had a very liberal policy about students using magic on each other. They felt it built character to get hexed a bit here and there, not that Cassie had ever been the target of a curse, at least not since her first year. It just wasn’t the sort of thing they did over in Theresa Keep, aka The Keep, the all-girls house where she lived and breathed.
Across the classroom, Cassie caught Madrigal’s eye. Her bestie had tears welling up in her eyes. Maddie didn’t have an arranged marriage contract waiting for her post-graduation. She had to find a guy the old-fashioned way, by dating, like a savage. Maddie was dressed to impress that day, in a curve-hugging little black dress, with calfskin ankle boots, crimson leggings, and a belt made of silver roses. She’d been practicing new enchantments on her hair and it looked just amazing. But it had to. With so many of the most eligible wizarding bachelors promised off, there were few men of good breeding with desirable reputations left. Maddie had to be on point at all times, at least outside of The Keep. Inside The Keep, where no man ever went, it was all sweat pants and hoodies and big soft slippers.
Professor Schtrumpf sighed as he reached out for his valise, only to have it swing around behind him. He turned again, reaching for it while keeping his eyes forward, but it always stayed eighteen inches directly behind him. He was a rounded man, with a great bearded head that hung heavy between his shoulders, as if all the magical knowledge he’d crammed into it had weighed it down.
“Professor,” Cassie asked. “May I ask a question?”
“Yes, Miss Blake?” He didn’t look up as he spoke. Was there a note of disappointment in his voice? The class must have done exceedingly poorly on the exam. Oh well, it would only make Cassie’s A all the more impressive.
“Sir, why don’t you just scrub the enchantment on your satchel and do it over? You’ve done more impressive feats in the classroom already.”
“Brown-nosing won’t change your grade now, Miss Blake. I don’t fix this silly bag because my wife gave it to me as an anniversary present. She purchased it from a very well-meaning man who must have studied at an inferior school, perhaps Duncairn University, knowing their penchant for grim humor. Or it could have been one of those deluded hedge wizards from Our Lady of the Labyrinth, goddess knows they do some sloppy work in the desert.”
Cassie’s toes tightened in her boots. Her jaw began to throb. What had he meant by that changing her grade comment? Why would she need to change her grade?
“Class will be brief today, students. The next lesson is only for those of you who adequately passed our midterm. The rest of you have two weeks to try and remember that you’re wizards and witches, and that this is Applied Thaumaturgy. The point is to create something new, people, not to slavishly recreate the mistakes of past generations.”
Only two students! That was the worst record yet. A bead of cold sweat ran down Cassie’s back.
“The only reason I am even offering a make-up test is because if I failed all of you who deserved it, the Dean would be up my nose again. She thinks this class is too difficult.” His face contorted like he’d just eaten the world’s sourest lemon. “I think the rest of Penrose is too easy on you children. When I attended this school back in—let’s just say in times past—poor grades were met with whippings in the college square. You paid for failure with blood and too much failure saw your magic locked away forever. Not like these modern day ideas of grade inflation, students are our customers, are we providing a pleasant experience. Nonsense!”
Only male wizards invoked “the good old days” as if they were good or even that old. Every witch at Penrose knew just how bad those days had been. They hadn’t even let women attend the school until World War II, and they’d kept them bottled up in The Keep until 1978. When a wizard went on about “the good old days,” he was talking about a time when they didn’t have to share campus with woman, mortal-born wizards, or the Afflicted. Back when only pure-bred mages wandered the halls and the only rule was don’t get caught.
“I’m going to read two names now. I’d like you all to take note of these names, as you’ll undoubtedly hear great things from this witch and wizard in the years to come. Those who graduate Applied Thaumaturgy with honors have gone on to do amazing things. Virgil Dixon, the first wizard to successfully visit the moon and return, was a graduate of mine. Lysisandra Port, who revolutionized wizarding economics with her theories sat in this very desk,” he said, tapping the seat where Madrigal sat.
Cassie braced herself. She hoped Maddie wouldn’t be too upset with her. She was used to getting that look from the other students in class. It was probably going to be the same look she got when she walked down the aisle on her husband’s arm.
“Victor Lee,” Professor Schtrumpf read. “Good job, my boy. Your ideas about navigation by selectively mimicking aspects of a pigeon’s mind were novel and well researched.”
Thunk. Thunk.
“Victor, please stop trying to cram your face through the desk. You passed.”
Thunk. Thunk.
“Ahh well, he’ll figure it out later.”
The professor fixed Cassie with a cold stare. “And the other passing grade went to, Madrigal Pierce.” He dropped a thick stack of papers onto her desk. “The subject matter of cosmetic enchantments is too frivolous for such regard, Miss Pierce, but I cannot deny that your ideas are not revolutionary. Well done. Please remain in class after the failures have left and we can discuss next steps. I have suggestions for your final project that I’m sure you’ll find very interesting.”
There had to be a mistake. She’d spent weeks on that paper. Maddie couldn’t out-academic her. Something had gone wrong with the world. Was it a hoax? A trick? Some sort of old wizard lesson in humility?
“As for the rest of you, the school is closed for two weeks. Spring Break, they call it. That means you have fourteen days to revolutionize the world of magic, or you will likely fail my class. I suggest you do not dawdle.”
Cassie could feel the eyes of her classmates watching her. They wanted to see her crack, to see her cry. But she would not give them the pleasure. There had to be a mistake. She stayed in her seat as the rest of the failed students left, one by one, in stunned silence. As they took their graded papers from Professor Schtrumpf, he muttered comments to them. Mostly they were subtle encouragements, or hints as to where to take their research. But some students were given only silence or a “truly terrible idea, Donald. Just awful.” If any professor spoke to her like that, she would have died on the spot.
When the last of the failed students had left, the professor turned to her. “Leave, Miss Blake.”
Maddie and Victor both chose that moment to find the desks in front of themselves extremely interesting.
“Professor, sir, there must be a mistake. I’ve never failed anything in my life.” She tried to keep her voice confident, but it swerved into an unfamiliar whine at the last moment.
“Leave, Miss Blake. You did not pass. Your theories were excellent, but unimaginative. Magic is not baking. It is not engineering. It is poetry spoken by a madman.
It is love and nightmare. It cannot be contained by simple equations like you propose. Your work lacks all heart, Miss Blake. It is technically perfect but dead on arrival.” Disappointment dripped from his voice. For a moment, it was as if the professor was her father, berating her in her bedroom again. Her cheeks flushed hot with shame.
“But what can I do?”
“That, Miss Blake, is not my problem. I have students with real promise here to teach and you are stealing time from them. Good day, Miss.”
Cassie gathered up her books and satchel and left from the classroom at a run. She made it as far as the women’s restroom before the tears came. But she knew a powerful charm to hold them back. Hidden in one of the stalls, she slid her platinum-tipped wand out of her knee sock and tapped each of her eyelids three times while speaking the words that would hold back her sobs and brighten her heart. It wouldn’t stop the feelings entirely, just push them back a bit until she had the space to deal with them properly.
The Penrose University of Magic was one of five prominent magical universities in North America. They were known as the Five Ivies and they were: Dunwich, located in Massachusetts, near the town of Innsmouth—oldest of the universities on the continent and possessing a reputation for turning out more dark wizards than all the others combined; Voudoun University, aka Voodoo U, the infamous party school hidden in the middle of New Orleans—Cassie’s best friend growing up had gone off to school there to major in communications, she routinely sent Cassie snapchats of her adventures hanging out with celebrities all over the world; Our Lady of the Labyrinth, located in the desert of New Mexico, the school had no grades, no official semesters and referred to the students as “our friends,” though they did have a killer wizard golf team; Fourth was the Northern California Arcane Polytechnic Institute, usually called ArcPoly, it occupied the same physical space as Stanford but was shifted ten seconds into the future, many of the students co-matriculated, earning double or triple degrees in computer science and business and a wizarding discipline—they were extremely successful and extremely douchey, the new money of the wizarding world.
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