by A. J. Macey
“Hey, Gorgeous.” Torryn’s murmur was filled with happiness, his freckled face splitting in a wide smile as he stepped into the hall from a side room. “How’d you sleep?”
“Like a rock,” I told him, shifting Mr. Stripes and wrapping my arm around Tor’s waist as he pulled me into his muscled chest. Popping up on my toes, I met him halfway for a tender, loving kiss that made my toes curl and my heart gallop. “How about you?”
“About the same as you. I don’t think any of us got much of anything even remotely close to restful sleep until we knew you were safely in the same area,” he explained, keeping me tucked under his arm as we walked down the hallway. “Lyra, Gabriel, and Josephina said they’d whip up some lunch about twenty minutes ago, so it may be ready. I’m assuming you haven’t eaten yet?”
“Nope, I just got up, so something to eat sounds amazing.” I almost moaned at the thought of food, my stomach growling loud enough to nearly echo off the hard surfaces of the museum. The noise made Tor chuckle, and he quickly led us to where the food was. At least one of us remembered where the hellsticks we were going.
“Good afternoon, Aris,” Gabriel greeted brightly when we stepped into the room. Lyra and Josephina called out their own welcomes from where they stood near the counters, dishing up what looked to be a thick stew.
“The rest of the boys and familiars are already in the dining room if you two want to head on in there. We’ve got stuff in there for your sweet baby, too,” Lyra offered, holding out two of the bowls for Torryn and me. Murmuring a thank you, I took the steaming dish and walked through the swinging door into the dining space. Mr. Stripes scurried down my body and joined the other familiars, who were munching away as I took my own seat.
“Ah, there’s the sleeping princess,” Drayce teased. “We thought you’d sleep the rest of the day away with how loud you were snoring.”
“I do not snore,” I countered with a huff, sticking my tongue out, so he knew I wasn’t actually upset. “Yeah, I think my body needed some rest and recharge time, you know? Finally, having somewhere to sleep without worrying about the threat of council enforcers hunting us caught up to me.”
At my reminder, the mood sobered, the guys glancing around as Kye and Xan’s parents joined us. Part of me wanted to cringe for killing the fun-filled mood, but I couldn’t pretend it wasn’t happening, as much as I wanted to.
“Speaking of,” Gabriel started. “What exactly is the plan?” No one spoke, lost in thought as the bowls were passed around. I had an idea, but I hesitated, wanting to see if the guys had come up with anything in our time apart.
“Uh, I don’t think any of us really thought that far ahead,” Torryn explained, grassy green eyes falling on me. “All we focused on was finding Aris.”
“We talked about the vlog, the one Indigo is running, when we were at the summer home. Seems she’s amassed a huge following, and we tested the waters a bit, sending an anonymous comment to see if she was someone we could trust. Seems we can,” Kye took over. “Not sure what we can do with that, but it’s not only us, which is nice to know.”
“Why are you smiling so brightly, Muse?” Xan asked, his eyes narrowing. Until he pointed it out, I hadn’t even realized I was smiling, I was just excited to know they’d had a similar thought—we needed an ally.
“I know who Indigo is,” I told them, “well, not for sure know, but I’m almost positive.”
“Don’t tease us, Cupcake,” Caspian countered, his foot nudging my ankle under the table.
“It’s Olive,” I stated simply with a shrug. “Sebastian and Brynn gave me a note when we were locked up that said rumors were whispering about how Indigo and the vlog were based at Aether. It wasn’t until then that I realized why or how she looked so familiar, even with her disguise. She’s been supportive since we met, covering up the magic I accidentally let loose at the party and keeping an eye out at the school. There’s no one else it could be.”
“Wow,” Drayce breathed, his eyes wide. “It’s so obvious now that you said that.”
“Who’s Olive?” Josephina asked curiously, her eyes sparkling with excitement as she ate her stew. “I’m assuming not the food.”
“No,” I chuckled at her silly joke. “She’s my friend back at school. She was the first one outside of the guys to know about the conduit tether bonds and my powers. I accidentally let off some magic I shouldn’t have when I got excited one day, and she covered for it because she’s a Spell Caster. The guys thought she may have been the one to let my powers leak to the rest of the school since there were rumors almost immediately, but she passed all the questions with the truth serum they demanded we give her.”
“Kyelerian Barrett Tanan,” Lyra ground out, “you advocated for truth serum on a fellow student?”
“We had to be sure!” he argued with exasperation. “She agreed ahead of time, so it’s not like we slipped it to her in a pumpkin juice or something.”
Smashing my lips together, I smothered the urge to giggle. Even though we were fugitives, hiding out in an abandoned building in the middle of nowhere Ignis, I loved that they were able to keep a lighthearted dynamic between them.
“It was Professor Bellario,” I added before Kye would get anymore talking to. “She was spying on me—us—for Headmaster Tallis.” Just muttering his name, I shuddered, the reminder if we hadn’t escaped, I would be in his clutches, killing my appetite.
“What’s wrong, Aris?” Gabriel questioned, having picked up my change of attitude. “Does this tie into what Altermin was threatening you with?”
“Threatening you with what?” Kye demanded, his gaze darting between the two of us.
“I was a present for Headmaster Tallis,” I murmured, acid building in my throat. “They were going to give me to Delilah for a little while, but Tallis was on his way to Divus to claim me.”
“I’m going to kill that slimy bastard,” Torryn growled, shoving his empty bowl away. Everyone looked pissed off, sick, or a combination of the two, so no one argued with Tor’s claim. “First, he tries to blackmail you into an inappropriate relationship, and now this... he’s a dead witch walking.”
“Something about him always rubbed me the wrong way,” Gabriel added with a disgusted curl of his lip. “Don’t worry, we’ll make sure everyone who deserves it gets what’s coming to them, but until we can really do that, what’s the plan? We got a bit off-topic.”
“You want to enlist this Indigo to help you,” Edmund pointed out, speaking for the first time since we’d convened around the table. I nodded, surprised his statement lacked the sneer or haughty judgment that had tainted our previous interactions.
“We need allies,” I explained, swallowing the nervous lump that had started to form as I finally ran through everything that had been filling my mind in recent weeks. “Change is coming to Akasha whether or not we like it, and we can’t do it alone. We might be pretty powerful, but there are only ten of us. The council and Prime Minister have seemingly infinite resources. There are witches who support us, like Bernadette and Seamus. Akasha is only as strong as its people, and if we want to take the council down, we need to be ready to bring all of Akasha with us.”
By the end of my rambling, I was breathless, nearly shaking. Not because I was nervous or scared, but because it was something I felt so strongly about as if every fiber of my being knew and believed in what I was saying. It couldn’t just be talk—it had to be real if we wanted this to work.
“Beautifully said, Aris,” Josephina said proudly, her eyes watering as she glanced at her son next to her. “You got yourself a perfect witch, Xanthius.”
A bright smile appeared on my face at her praise, happy to know at least one of his parents liked me.
“Speaking of the Prime Minister,” Kye started. “Has anyone actually seen him? I feel like this has really been only the council. Does he even know what’s going on?”
“He’s doing his annual tour of Akasha,” Edmund explained when his wife speared him with a l
ook that seemed to say, ‘you better answer that.’ “Every year, he takes a month to visit the territories, checking in and meeting with the councils there. Focusing on working out issues or offering assistance on various situations. Minister Gennady takes his position very seriously, and I think if he knew what was happening—the truth of everything—he would put a stop to it immediately.”
“Then that’s another angle we can use to try to tackle this,” Torryn suggested. “We can go to Aether and work with Olive and her vlog following while you guys work on getting in touch with the Minister.”
“Is Aether safe?” Caspian questioned. “Olive might be behind us, but we have Aris’ bullies to contend with as well as Bellario. Tallis, too, if he’s back from the capital.”
“That’s five witches. I think we can handle that,” I offered, but my nerves had started to leak through, making it come off as a question rather than the strong statement I’d intended.
“Why can’t we just communicate via Witches Glass like we did before?” Drayce asked. “Surely, that would be safer, at least until we can determine the actual state of the school.”
“Too open to being targeted. One message or comment here or there isn’t as easy to track.” Xan took over seamlessly. “But a stream of messages definitely would be.”
“Has anyone actually checked the vlog recently? I know we haven’t,” Lyra asked, waving between the five of us who’d escaped the council’s dungeon.
“We sent that comment from the summer home, but I don’t think anyone’s checked. Let me grab mine,” Torryn offered, getting up quickly.
“Here, let’s get cleaned up while he grabs that,” Josephina stated. The tinkling of dishes, silverware, and the scraping of chairs on the floor filled the space as we carried our now empty bowls to the kitchen. Ten minutes of washing, drying, and putting away the dishes later and we were seated back at the table.
“Alright, it looks like we actually have a message from Indigo,” Torryn started.
“Olive,” I corrected with a grin. In return, I got a stern brow raise, one that was very reminiscent of the steamy ones he would throw me during class, and I almost couldn’t stop myself from nearly squirming in my seat. Somehow, I refrained, focusing on the task at hand.
First, plan to take down council, then possibly climbing any—or all—of my guys like a tree.
“Olive,” he amended, “sent a message. It’s encrypted, which is good for the likelihood of us staying hidden. Looks like she’s happy to see that you’re okay, Aris, and that’s about it other than a quick line about how basically the entire school has rallied behind you.”
“Guess that answers that,” Caspian murmured with a nod. “So, we go to Aether and... what? Talk to the other witches about everything?”
“How’s she sending such massive videos and messages but still remaining anonymous to the council?” Gabriel muttered, but I heard his question.
“She has to have some kind of impressive technomage working on it or technomagic to broadcast things on such a large scale and not be caught.”
“We could use that,” Xan stated. “She’s done a huge amount of footwork, building the support for you, Muse, but what do you think would happen if she showcased you on the vlog? The following would skyrocket. We could use however she’s broadcasting her videos to bring in those allies.”
“If we wanted, we could send a short—and I mean very short—video of you showing that you’re okay, and whatever else you wanted to include as maybe a small taste,” Gabriel suggested. “I know technorunes to encrypt the stream. It’s not something that would work for this scale of projection, but it’ll be enough for one video to Olive. I can also adjust the magic within the Witches Glass, so it can’t be tracked, regardless of what you’re doing or where you are.”
“I didn’t know you knew technorunes, Dad,” Kye exclaimed in surprise, his eyes wide like a little kid who was told their dad saved the world. My smile grew at the appreciation and excitement in his gaze.
“Yup, I’ll teach you when you guys get back from Aether. I was very tempted to mess with the holo wanted signs in the capital, but time and being discreet were of the utmost importance.”
“Maybe next time, sweetie,” Lyra encouraged. “For now, let’s focus on this.”
“You’re right, dear. I definitely will, though, if we ever get back to the capital.”
“There’s not going to be a next time,” several of my guys said, putting an end to that train of thought, but I bit my tongue.
There’s definitely a next time if this goes the way I think it will.
“I think that would be a good way to gauge Olive’s response to us. Send a very short video snippet, hang out for a day, then head up to Aether,” Drayce offered. “You guys can work on contacting Gennady and figuring out what to do with all of that.”
“Why wait a day?” Josephina questioned, her head tilted.
“We haven’t had a chance to spend more than a few tired moments with Aris since she was kidnapped. I want to cuddle my girl and spend time with all of us together,” Drayce stated. It wasn’t harsh or mean, but his tone brokered no argument, and my heart warmed, knowing they had missed me as much as I missed them.
“Fair enough,” Lyra chuckled. “Well, we can get a small area set up with a blanket or two, cover any identifying objects, get the video made up, then Gabriel can send it so you all can relax.”
“When that’s done, we can search and scour the museum to see what all we have for supplies. You can focus on locating and sending a message to the Minister,” Josephina offered, glancing to her husband, who nodded.
We shifted, moving together to follow Lyra and Gabriel as they led the way into another room. This one had clearly been a meeting room. The walls were blank, save for a few bookshelves pushed against them. A long table stood on one side, but the other was empty, perfect for what we needed. Bending down, Lyra grabbed blankets to hand out to Caspian, Drayce, and Xan, who then secured them to the wall with an incantation. Gabriel finished typing on and drawing several runes on the Witches Glass screen before passing it to Torryn.
“It should be ready to go. Just try to keep it under ten seconds; otherwise, there’s a risk it would be too big to encrypt with just these technorunes,” Gabriel explained. “I’ll give you a silent countdown with my fingers for when it starts, and when you’re getting close to the end, I’ll do three seconds down to zero. Sound good?”
I nodded, a lump forming in my throat, and my tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth in a wash of nerves. Stepping up to the cocoon of blankets, I faced Torryn. The rest of the guys, as well as the others, watched with encouraging smiles and even a few thumbs up. Taking a deep breath, I attempted to calm the rattling anxiety working its way through me, but it didn’t do much.
What do you say when you’re trying to rally a collective of witches to go against everything they’ve ever known?
I mentally shook myself, shoving the sensation of inadequacy away and focused.
Come on, Aris, it’s only ten seconds.
You can totally do that!
“Ready, Gorgeous?” Torryn asked, bringing up the Witches Glass.
“Let’s do this,” I exclaimed, trying to put as much enthusiasm into my words as possible. Based on his small, sympathetic grin, I didn’t do as well as I hoped, hiding my nerves. Gabriel’s hand came up, three fingers lowering as he watched the screen.
“Hey, everyone,” I started giving a sassy smile to the camera. “My name’s Aris Calisto, and I’m a wanted witch. Proudly, I might add. If you think the rest of us, the Mixtas and other witches who get pushed aside, deserve to be recognized for who we truly are, then we’ll need your support. Change is coming to Akasha soon. I’ll make sure of it.”
With one final smirk, Gabriel’s fingers reached zero, and Torryn stopped the video. It wasn’t until they started to clap that I realized I was trembling now that it was over, my body buzzing with pent up energy.
“That was per
fect, Aris,” Josephina cooed at the same time Gabriel gave a similar sentiment.
“Alright, we’ll get this sent,” Lyra promised, giving me an encouraging smile. They huddled together and got to work.
Please let this work!
December 3rd
Tuesday Evening
Aris
After the video was sent, we sat around in comfortable silence. So much had happened lately, these small slices of time between the chaos were golden. After a few moments, Lyra clapped her hands to get our attention and motioned down the hall.
“You guys go spend that time together. You’ve earned it. Go have fun!” she said firmly, doing her best attempt at being serious. I smiled up at her, glad she suggested it, so we didn’t seem rude when we left.
“I could use a long shower,” Torryn admitted, groaning and stretching as he stood up.
“Make sure someone puts that ointment on her magical burn after her shower,” Lyra fussed, coming over and gently checking under my collar, wincing at the angry-looking mark. Anger flashed across her face as she glared over my shoulder at Edmund. Clearly, she wasn’t ready to forgive him yet.
“We will, Mom,” Kye promised, kissing her cheek as he passed.
“Have fuuun,” Lyra sang out as we trailed out of the room. My cheeks heated at the laughter in her voice, knowing exactly what she was insinuating.
“Oh, gods!” Gabriel yelped, nearly falling out of his chair. “Use protection! On the run is no time for a witchling!”
“Dad! Why?!” Kye groaned, pulling me down the hall behind him but letting go when Mr. Stripes protested the rough movement. He was my tiny striped protector, making everyone back off and be careful with me. I stroked his back to calm him.
“It’s okay, baby, he’s just trying to escape humiliation,” I teased, laughing as Kye scowled down at me.
“That was classic,” Caspian wheezed, laughing so hard, he wasn’t making any noise anymore.