Hawthorn Academy: Year Three

by D. R. Perry

  Mental camouflage. You're doing it.

  "What did you do, Morgenstern?" Alex whispered.

  "I'm not sure."

  "So you did do something." He let go of me and turned his head. "Uh, thanks. He found me every other time I tried going out."

  "Wait, you haven't been off campus this whole time?" I blinked.

  "His mom." Dorian shook his head. "But this is a masquerade. We thought, with costumes everywhere, nobody would know."

  "Speaking of that." Alex pointed at the box. "We should mask up."

  Dorian opened the box and handed a mask to Alex, who put it on and turned around. It gave him a grotesque visage, human but twisted so hideously I took a step back. That's when I saw Dorian's mask, a placid and beautiful but somehow masculine representation of a face. They were opposite but somehow similar although I couldn't determine how.

  "We're Dorian Gray and the portrait of same." Dorian chuckled. "Cool, huh?"

  "Wow. Well, nobody will recognize you, that's for sure." I nodded.

  "Even so, would you happen to know an alternate route to the Hawthorne Hotel? Just to sort of make sure we avoid trustees."

  "No problem."

  I took them down Washington Street to Front Street, where we had to skirt the line for the Salem Wax Museum but otherwise walked without incident. At the door, we handed over our tickets. I noticed Alex's wasn't one given by the school, which meant he'd shelled out over a hundred dollars for it. At first, I wondered why but then realized only the third-years got school passes. Then I thought he'd worked for it in the cafe.

  "Thanks again." He cleared his throat and nudged Dorian.

  "See, that wasn't so hard." Dorian elbowed him back.

  Once inside, I parted ways with them, looking for a familiar face. I found Grace and Azrael almost immediately. They were the center of attention because of their costumes, which crossed the line from cosplay over into cinematic quality territory.

  "Do you like them?" She grinned and flourished her hands along with the mesh fabric draped between them and the skirts of the black and silver dress. The collar towered over her head, pointed on either side like horns. The neckline plunged to her waist, clearly held in place with dress tape.

  "It's amazing, but I don't recognize it."

  "Dark Lilli from Legend. Az is Jack. I chose them because they sort of rescue each other."

  "While saving the world too." Azrael chuckled.

  "And wearing lots of glitter." I grinned while peering at his face, which looked practically iridescent. Whatever makeup they'd used matched the finish on the combination plate and scale armor he wore. "How are you going to dance in that?"

  "It's pretty light, glamoured to look heavier than it is."

  "Let's take it for a spin a little later." Grace jerked a thumb at the stage where Piercing Whispers had finished tuning up. "This dress might not hold up to their first few numbers."

  "How about some punch?" Az asked.

  "Sure!" Grace grinned. "Thanks." She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek, which didn't leave a single mark despite her jet black lipstick.

  "That's unsmudgable." I pointed at my lips.

  "The new Eternal Glamour line. It's not officially out yet, but I've got connections." She chuckled. "Anyway, let's play that game. Everyone else is ready to go."

  "Really?" I blinked.

  "It's better to try it when you're off-guard and don't know what everyone's wearing yet."

  "Okay." I nodded. "Let's go."

  Dylan struck the opening chords of Doing the Unstuck, a song they'd practiced at their apartment on my last visit. At least half the crowd hit the dance floor, but not us. Grace led me into a corner, sent a group text, put her phone on record in front of us, and conjured shadows. I knew from experience that her magic would make people fail to notice us, not make us look like a purple blob moving through the crowd. However, we couldn't interact with our surroundings. There wasn't much point in wandering so I stopped Grace, and we stood still. I tried looking for Logan, frustrated. Searching without my eyes was an effort in futility.

  It's not, really. Can't you sense him, of all people?

  Mind magic worked on line of sight. This search reminded me of wearing headphones on a train. The scenery goes by only generally seen because music is more present in those moments. So I tried thinking like that, attempting to hear and see without ears or eyes. I imagined sensing minds in terms of surface thoughts, vaguely whispered.

  That idea might as well have been on the moon.

  I'd opened myself to a cacophony nobody else in the room endured. Like being in an electronics store with televisions and radios and music players turned up as high as they'd go except with hundreds of devices, not just forty or fifty. I didn't see the inside of people's heads or hear thoughts. That was telepathy, something only psychics did. Without a device or cooperation, mind magic was vague and sensory, a random collection of humming frequencies. Our textbooks explained that brains have energy, a low-grade electrical impulse, that mind magi could conjure and manipulate.

  And banish. The books won't tell you that, though.

  I shuddered. At least my inside voice came in loud and clear over that din. Now that I remembered it shouldn't be verbally coherent, the wall of sound began to make more sense. I remembered untangling a box of Bubbe's old costume jewelry, where feeling the knots in silver-plated chains was as important as watching my fingers while undoing them.

  Two threads of frequency stood out, off in the corner near the stage. They felt familiar so I walked toward them. A glance at Grace revealed nothing about my guess. Her poker face was on point that night. A pair of costumed superheroes with full-face masks leaned against the wall holding their phones, one in red and black and the other in pink and white, both with spiderweb designs.

  I hadn't noticed this anywhere else in the room yet, but something besides the clearly related costumes connected the pair above their hearts, a harmonious frequency that made me think of Beethoven's Ode to Joy. And that made it all too obvious.

  "It's them."

  "Bingo." Grace dropped the umbral magic. "Who are these masked friends?"

  "Hal." I pointed at the one in red and black. "And Faith."

  "Dammit. I wanted everyone to think I was Miles."

  "You're even more heroic, I think. Anyway, she's got more spider-sense than us." Faith pulled hers off too, and they both stepped away from the wall. "Go find the rest. We're hitting the dance floor."

  "Just a sec." Hal removed his mask, then tapped the screen on his phone a few times. "Sent it to the group text."

  My phone beeped. Grace took me into the corner and activated her magic again. I had to repeat this process three more times. Each would send the video they'd taken of me finding them. Those, along with Grace's recording, would be my proof for the headmaster.

  This time, it was easier to sort through, and I found the next pair in a few moments. The thread led me to the bar, toward a knight in wooden armor and a veiled priestess who could have walked off a Tarot card except for the phone in her hand. They had a connection too, loud and clear as the one between Hal and Faith but it made me think of that old Beatles song about friends. I nudged Grace, and she dropped the shadows.

  "Hi, Iz. And Lee."

  "How did you know it was me?" He lifted the visor on his helmet. "Everyone else from school was clueless."

  "Knight of Wands hanging out with the High Priestess?" Izzy winked. When she finished tapping her phone, mine beeped again. "Aliyah's been my divination guinea pig since we were five. Of course, she knows it's us. Let's dance, knight in wooden armor." She grinned at Lee.

  "Cool." He nodded. "Are you guys coming?"

  "Nah, I've got to find Cadence and Logan."

  After they left, Grace hid us again. By then, the wall of sound had reared its indecipherable head again. At first, I couldn't imagine why this exercise had suddenly gotten harder.

  This isn't fire or solar magic. Mind is harder to su
stain without practice.

  I sighed, hoping for a miracle to get through the rest of this strange game. I needed the proof, especially now that I was sure I had mind magic. It came on golden wings.

  "Peep?" Ember soared through the air over the dance floor, searching for me.

  I'd forgotten she wasn't with me when Grace started this because I always tried to block out her alone time with Gale. Now she wanted to hang out with me. Homing in on the familiar bond was a eureka moment. I tried thinking of Cadence and Logan, picturing their faces in my mind and how I felt with them. I followed the first familiar frequency, trailing it to the door.

  I found a pair of women wearing the same green and gold costume, accented with fans. Identical makeup instead of masks hid their faces. One wore her ash brown hair in a bob, but the other's was a wig. That's the one I knew. I didn't hear a bond between them although they laughed together, holding a phone. I nudged Grace, who did the thing with the shadows.

  "Cadence!" I chuckled. "Nice Last Airbender cosplay! Are you Kenoshi or Suki?"

  "Wow!" She blinked. "How did you know it was me? With the wig and everything? Brianna's Kenoshi. I'm too short." Cadence handled her phone, then tucked it away as mine beeped.

  "Hi!" Brianna waved.

  "What are you doing at the door?"

  "Waiting for Piercing Whispers to finish their set because Brelanor is a thing." Cadence sniffed. "Also, Arick's my date."

  "No Crow?" Grace blinked.

  "Never again." She shook her head.

  "I'm sorry." Brianna patted Cadence's shoulder. "What happened?"

  "Ask Aliyah." She glanced at Grace's phone, which was still recording. "Or Hal, later. I don't want to talk about it."

  Brianna's forehead crinkled. Grace led us away from the door and set up her shadows again.

  "One more. How are you holding up?"

  "I'm tired, but let's finish this."

  Of course, Grace didn't have much more to do. I focused again, expecting difficulty. But it wasn't. Not once I realized that I didn't hear Logan's frequency like I'd done with everyone else's. Instead, it sang in my chest.

  "You're humming," Grace said.

  "Oh?"

  "Yeah. You're My Best Friend."

  "I think you're awesome too, Grace."

  "No, the song. By Queen."

  "Oh!"

  Grace dropped the shadows because she had to hurry to keep up with me as I rushed toward a figure in white hooded robes with a pair of wings at the side of the dance floor. He turned while holding his phone in front of him. His head was down, the hood's shadow obscuring his face. I would have known him anywhere, though.

  He pushed the hood back, his smile saying more than two year's worth of words. Logan had put something in his hair, making it almost white instead of his usual ashy blond. I knew the character too because we'd watched the Good Omens miniseries over the summer.

  "Aziraphale!" I clapped. "Those wings are amazing. You must have put a lot of work into that."

  "Not really." He grinned. "I borrowed these from Azrael. That's my favorite of Elsa's dresses, by the way."

  "I know." I blushed.

  We stood staring at each other. I smiled so much my cheeks ached. Ember sat up on my shoulder, peeping at us.

  Grace reached out and plucked Logan's phone out of his hands to shut off his camera. Then she did the same with hers. My phone beeped twice in a row.

  "You're way too cute." Grace chuckled. "Angel and ice queen."

  Azrael sauntered over with cups of punch. He handed them out. "Never would have shipped Elsa and Aziraphale. Aliyah and Logan is another story."

  Logan blushed. I gulped down the punch. All that work had made me thirsty. Once I set the cup down on an empty table, he held out his hand. I took it, and we danced through the rest of the Piercing Whispers set. The change between acts took about ten minutes, so we sat. I sent the videos in my messages to my school email to make things easier in the morning.

  A man I'd never seen before sat beside me. He wore his black hair shoulder-length and it had ample amounts of silver at the temples. His face was largely unlined. Straight, even teeth smiled from his almost too pale complexion. His eyes didn't twinkle so much as glitter. He wore purple robes adorned with silver chains and skulls. The skeleton mask that went with it rested in his lap.

  "Andre Gauthier. Charmed." He put his hand out as if for a handshake.

  I focused on the minds in the room again, imagining them as guitar strings and pulling on the most familiar ones. Here was the man Noah wanted to meet, and this was the only way I could think of to call him over without alerting the trustee. If I ended up reeling more of my friends in than originally intended, so be it. I took the adults in charge of Hawthorn Academy seriously and as possible threats. Safety in numbers.

  "Um, Aliyah. Morgenstern." I gave him mine, but he kissed it. I noticed he wore black gloves embossed with bones. "Aren't you a trustee for Hawthorn?"

  "I know who you are, young lady. Yes, I am." He glad-handed like a salesman. Or a politician. But spookily, in an old “creature feature” way.

  "What do you want?" Logan's bluntness surprised me, but I welcomed it.

  "Logan Pierce." He grinned again. I realized what he was trying to do. Make everyone he met feel connected to him, somehow. "You were almost my nephew."

  "How?" Logan went stony-faced.

  "Leo's sister. We were supposed to get married, or didn't you know?"

  "Dad never mentioned a sister."

  Mr. Gauthier raised an eyebrow at Logan's blank expression. "Never mind that for now. You're both friends with my niece. The good one who takes after me."

  Logan and I sat there blinking at him.

  "Faith. My sister married her father, unfortunately." He shook his head.

  I narrowed my eyes, heeding the inside voice instead of snaring myself in his social maneuvers.

  "So you're an undeath magus."

  "And you're the extramagus." He grinned again. "Already making a name for herself as something of a hero. We could use more like you."

  "She's one of two here." Dylan sat, trapping Andre Gauthier between us. "I'm the other. So, tell me what you've got against Noah Morgenstern."

  "Excuse me?" Mr. Gauthier blinked.

  "A former student who got expelled last year." I raised my eyebrow. " My brother."

  "He got turned through no fault of his own." Dylan pressed his lips into a flat line, and the temperature dropped a few degrees. "You were the swing vote. The one responsible for kicking him out in the first place."

  "Ah, well." Mr. Gauthier sighed. "He was an exemplary student and a fine athlete. Talented musically, too. I wish I could have voted otherwise."

  "So why?" Dylan asked before the words were out of my mouth.

  "Rules. Thurston's arguments were morally correct but procedurally unsound, even if they swayed Dunstable and Glen."

  "So change them." The air warmed as I spoke.

  "That's...a delicate exercise." He shook his head. "Students whose natures pose a grievous threat to others aren't allowed admission."

  "Extramagi are so dangerous that we go on a special registry like vampires." I tried smiling, but it felt more like a grimace. "So I should be expelled."

  "And me," Dylan added.

  A trio of figures stepped out of the crowd milling beside the dance floor.

  "Me too." Dorian lifted his mask. "I came from The Academy. Got a record."

  We all blinked. Everyone thought he'd only gone there because his overprotective parents wanted him to live in a fortress.

  "Yes, Mr. Spanos." Mr. Gauthier nodded. "You do, but your sentence is over. Stealing an item from black market mobsters is hardly in the spirit of criminality."

  "You have to tell us that story yesterday, Dorian." Noah grinned without showing his fangs. "This was all my idea. I only want my diploma, Mr. Gauthier. With you on campus, along with Faith, I don't see how I could be a threat. Please, bring my situation up at the next meeti
ng."

  "We don't have one until February."

  "That's fine. I only need to study for and take the final exams. I can wait."

  "The classrooms aren't sunproof."

  "I get accommodations," Logan said. "My IEP says I can take tests in the library if needed, and there aren't windows in there. Why not Noah?"

  "You certainly have some dedicated advocates, Mr. Morgenstern." Mr. Gauthier sighed. "I'll bring it up at the appropriate time, but no guarantees."

  "Yeah, I know. Some of the trustees aren't so reasonable about vampires." Noah raised an eyebrow at Gauthier's costume. "Thanks for not being one of those."

  "You'll each owe me a favor if I succeed."

  "No." Noah shook his head. "Only one of us benefits so only one owes—"

  "Then I choose Mr. Pierce."

  "I ought to owe you." Noah blinked.

  "It's okay." Logan nodded. "He says we're practically family."

  "Then it's settled."

  His phone beeped so he excused himself. The main performer didn't bother introducing himself. Everybody in eastern Massachusetts knew Aurelius Voltaire. He opened with the song Vampire Club, which packed the dance floor. I hoped it would give Noah good luck. Logan and I stayed out there for four entire songs.

  "Can I cut in?" Dylan asked.

  "Yeah, I wanted some water anyway," Logan nodded. "If that's okay with Aliyah?"

  "Sure."

  Dylan and I danced through the opening of When You're Evil. He shook his head, chuckling at the lyrics with a strange smirk.

  "What?"

  "The irony in this song. I wanted to ask you something. Extramagus stuff I don't want to say on campus."

  "Go on."

  "Do you, like, see things?" He glanced to his left. "Um, that other people don't see."

  "No, can't say I have."

  He gulped, hands trembling.

  "You're not going crazy." I drew a deep breath. "I hear stuff other people don't. It's something that can happen to us. A way of sensing magic."

  "How do you know?"

  "Logan's been researching it." I sighed. "The records are super obscure, mostly written by an old green dragon in the sixth century who researched all kinds of rare extrahumans. He tested similarities between dragons and us. Extra magic sense happens to them, too."