by D. R. Perry
"You have a point." I yawned. "I'll figure it out eventually, I guess. Thanks, Grace. Goodnight."
"Night."
The Magipsych Fair was off-campus, in the Peabody Essex Museum's Atrium, and included the other area schools. The event was packed, but not with students presenting. We weren't required to submit projects. Messing students filled most of the tables, with seven projects on display. Gallows Hill only had two. Hawthorn brought three, two from second-year students and Hal's, which involved most of the third years.
Hal asked me to help fold and stow his table. Since the very chair he sat in was his project, he didn't want to hide it. After propping it against the wall, I turned to see a group of our friends heading toward us.
"How will you display your abstract, though?" Logan scratched his head. "All the data on the enchantments you tried before getting it just right?"
"Like this." Hal grinned and pressed a button on the chair's left arm.
A magipsychic projection expanded above his head, opening like a set of curtains on a stage. The data arrayed itself neatly, with a 3-D rendered image of the chair rotating as it assembled and disassembled itself.
"Wow." I smiled. "You already won."
"If this contraption places, then everyone's a winner."
"Hey, don't call it that." Dylan frowned. "Still think he needs a proper name."
"He vetoed Ellida." Faith shrugged. "No dragons, he said."
"How about Argo?" Dorian asked. "I mean, a moving chair is sort of like a ship."
"Why not have everyone write their ideas on paper and pull one out of a hat?" Eston said.
"I like that idea." Hal nodded. "Who's got stuff to write with?"
"Me!" Logan pulled a memo pad and stub of pencil out of his blazer pocket, but the tip was broken.
"Hang on." Kitty reached into her purse and pulled out an eyeliner sharpener.
"I've got this." Grace took off her mauve cloche hat and turned it upside-down.
"Better do it fast." Lee pointed across the room. "Judges headed this way."
Everyone took a turn with the paper and pencil, scrawling their ideas, tearing paper, and dropping them into the hat. The twins hurried over to join in. Grace passed the hat to Hal, who closed his eyes and rummaged. He opened them a second before unfolding the blue and white scrap.
"Okay. Who wrote Floaty McChairface?"
Silence reigned until Faith snorted. After that, everybody laughed.
"Just kidding." Hal smiled down at the paper. "This works." He opened a panel in the right armrest and keyed the word in. "I present Neshmet."
The chair's new name appeared on the display as the judges approached.
We let Hal do most of the talking, except when one of them asked a specific question. I hung back, cleaning up paper scraps along with Hailey and Bailey.
"We didn't really do anything, Aliyah," Hailey said. "You should be up there with the rest of them."
"The only thing I contributed was moral support."
"Still more than I did." Bailey sighed. "Feels like I wasted a lot of time. Now high school's almost over."
"It's never too late." Hailey elbowed her twin. "To make up for that, I mean."
Hailey was only partly correct.
Hal's wasn't the last project the judges looked at. When they returned ten minutes later, I rejoined the group because I knew before they said a word what had happened.
"Congratulations, Team Hawthorn." A diminutive woman with freckles, laugh lines, and salt and paprika hair extended her hand. "I'm Doctor Smith. Your Neshmet chair won. We'd like to invite you all to the state fair this spring. If you haven't applied to MIT Mr. Hawkins, please consider it. I'm in charge of the magipsychic studies department there, and the enchantments are truly impressive. I can tell your leadership and personal experience were strong elements here."
"Thank you," Hal responded. "If some of us can't be at state, is that okay?"
"As long as at least one member of your team is present and able to answer questions like the ones tonight, that's acceptable." She nodded.
"I'm there, whatever happens." Faith reached for Hal's hand.
Something flashed as their fingers intertwined. Metal. Jewelry. Rings, a pair of them. Were they engaged?
"Sounds great." Hal gazed up at her, beaming. That smile lit up his entire face.
It was almost the last time I saw him wear any sort of joyful expression.
With how busy I'd been, preparing for the Valentine's Day dance felt like almost an afterthought. Grace wasn't anywhere near as enthusiastic about it as she'd been for any of the other dances. Although she brought each of her classmates outfits again, she laid a secret on me.
"It's almost all upcycling," she confessed. "I don't have the time I used to, so I started out with pieces from the thrift store over at the Boy's and Girl's Club."
"I don't think anyone will mind, Grace." I grinned into the mirror, holding golden straps adorned with draped blue chiffon at my shoulders. The empire waist reminded me of Jane Austen novels. "It's gorgeous."
"We'll see." She jerked her thumb at the rest of the garment bags on the collapsible rack. "When everyone else gets here to pick theirs up."
Dorian showed first. He didn't stop to open the bags he took, one for him and the other for Alex.
"I totally trust your fashion sense," he said.
Similarly, Faith picked up Hal's as well as hers. She peeked. "White? Interesting choice for him."
"All Hal's accessories are red to match yours." Grace shrugged. "I didn't want him to blend in with his chair, is all."
"This is different though." Faith held up a round hammered copper disc on a comb. "I like it." She stood at the mirror, holding it up behind her head.
Kitty took one look at the beaded yellow drop-waist dress in her bag and crowed. Eston's reaction was a sedate grin as he nodded over the silver pinstripe on navy.
"We're going to look like the Roaring Twenties." Before the door closed behind them, she added, "Thanks, Grace!"
Hailey and Bailey insisted on taking theirs out of the bag. Hailey's was sunrise mauve tulle with a tea-length circle skirt in a ’50s design. Bailey's was bias-cut peach satin in a draped mermaid, like a 1940s movie star.
"Rita Hayworth hairstyle, here I come." Bailey grinned. "You owe me twenty bucks, Hale."
"Worth it." Hailey beamed. "Thanks, Grace. The boat party is a casual event. I can't believe this is the last dance with one of your creations."
"Well, I'm going directly into business." She smiled back. "State of Grace dot com if you need anything at college or other occasions."
"Wow." Bailey blinked. "You've got a whole plan."
Grace only nodded as they headed out.
"What about school, though?"
"Salem State business school for me." She smiled. "I know everyone else is looking at Ivies abroad or in Rhode Island. I want to invest in my business while getting the parchment to support it. That's not in my budget, either financially or timewise."
"I hear you." I swallowed.
Logan and Dylan knocked on the door next. So much had changed since the first time we'd done the pre-dance outfitting ritual. For the better, because all of us felt so comfortable that their presence didn't derail me.
"Guys, I'm still not sure what I'm doing after graduation."
"I kind of figured." Logan patted my shoulder. "Whatever you do, I'm in your corner."
"Well, not everyone's early acceptance like Faith or Logan here. Even I don't have that all hammered down." Dylan sighed. "Whichever school gives me the biggest scholarship is where I'll end up. I'm waiting to see what I get after the big games on the common."
"It's all too much fuss if you ask me." Grace sighed. "That the adults make, I mean. The whole idea that everyone has to be a hundred percent sure what they want to do forever. There's no wrong way, Aliyah. Only the one that works best at the time."
"Yeah." I nodded. "You all have a point. Thanks, guys."
A f
ew nights later, it was time for the dance. Hal wasn't at the top of the stairs like last time, even though we had the same formal introductions they did at Parent's Night. Instead, Faith stood alone, behind Logan and me but ahead of everyone else. Hiram Hawkins still insisted on sticking to the oldest-fashioned interpretation of school rules. I realized that there was no way around it. He had no choice but to make an exception for Hal.
His chair sat at the foot of the stairs. He rose when we got halfway down, pacing forward slowly, as though he walked on the bottom of the ocean with leaden boots instead of across a few feet of parquet in the same atmosphere as the rest of us. Hal's grin stuck to his face like festive decals on a window. The white of his suit shone like a star. She took his hand and together, they paced behind Logan and me on the dance floor.
"By request," Dorian murmured into the mic. The music started, Never Tear Us Apart by INXS.
Logan gazed over my shoulder, nose and eyes reddening as tears trickled down his face.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
He shook his head, unable to answer with words. Instead, he turned us and I saw everything he had.
Hal Hawkins hadn't always felt well at our dances. I'd watched him take it easy, let Faith lead, even go so far as striking poses as she moved around him. This was almost horrifyingly different.
Although he'd grown a few inches taller than her, Hal clung to Faith, leaning his head on her shoulder as if he hadn't the strength to hold it up himself. They barely even swayed. At first, I wondered why she didn't help him back to his chair and continue dancing from there. Then I saw his lips moving.
He's singing it. To Faith.
Logan and I spent the rest of the song leaning on each other's shoulders, sniffling occasionally. At the end, Faith did lead Hal back to his chair. He moved it along to the punchbowl after Grace took her arm and led her off to dance to the next song, which was Keep Holding On by Avril Lavigne.
"I need a minute," Logan said.
"Me too."
We started away from the punch bowl, the reason unspoken between us, how we should compose ourselves before checking on Hal.
"Turn around, Morgenstern." Coach Pickman stepped in our way, brandishing a tiny package of tissues. Coach Chen stood beside her, nodding. "Take these if you want, but don't leave him there by himself."
I nodded, taking the tissues and Logan's hand. We went back like she said and found Hal alone and in as much need of the packaged paper as we were.
"Thanks. The napkins make my skin all chapped," he managed. "I don't blame you for trying to jet."
"We were coming back," Logan said.
"Well, then." Hal managed a grin. "Would you mind getting me some punch before anything, uh, happens to it? I'm not up to getting tipsy tonight."
I ladled out three cups and passed them around.
"Don't worry." Xan stepped out of the shadows beside the DJ table. "Your liquor's at another party."
"Did you just make a Mario joke?" Logan blinked.
"Played a lot of video games over break." He turned his hand and stared at his fingernails, which were purple to match his tie. "Don't ask me where."
"I know." I nodded. "Walls and ears."
"Alexander." Mrs. Onassis stepped up beside her son, bumping into me in the process. "Come away from the rabble and dance with your old mother." She looped her arm through his, locking it into what looked more like a martial arts grip than a friendly gesture.
"Old?" Logan shook his head.
He had a point. She looked more like a college student than a woman with a recently adult son.
"Flattery will get you everywhere." She dropped Logan a wink. Then narrowed her eyes at me of course.
"Eww." Hal waved one hand in front of his nose. "Sorry, Xan."
She turned her nose up to eleven and hustled away with our favorite frenemy.
"God, I wish all the parents were like yours, Aliyah." Logan sighed.
"Even magic wishes can't do that." Andre Gauthier reached for the punch ladle. "The only way out of such trouble is through, and breaking the patterns, Mr. Pierce."
"You know an awful lot about magic wishes, Mr. Gauthier." I dropped Logan's hand and put mine on my hips. "You ought to take your advice. Like standing up to Mrs. Onassis instead of hiding from her."
"She's beyond all hope. Abandon it, ye who enter her." He chuckled. "That's uncouth, but you're all adults despite your lack of diplomas. Speaking of which." He took a metal flask out of the pocket inside his suit jacket.
"Yeah, speaking of Noah." Logan stared at Andre's nose.
"The meeting's tomorrow night. I haven't forgotten." He tipped the flask over his cup. "I will be standing up to far more substantial foes than a frustrated piggy-bank for minor Greek nobility."
Hal pointed at the wall, then his ear.
"I have my ways of dealing with that, young Hawkins." Andre grinned. "Be patient. My end of our bargain is coming to a close." He raised his cup to us as though it were made of diamond instead of plastic and sauntered off.
Logan and Hal chatted for a few moments, discussing how an undeath magus could theoretically counter both space and mind magic. I used the time to try listening on my own. So much and so many felt and sounded familiar to me. One set of vibrations stood out as strange.
I followed them, sticking to the side of the room behind the chairs for sitting and the refreshment tables. Whoever I tracked kept ahead of me, though. How they were aware, I didn't know. Unless it was another mind magus. The idea of a stranger with my barely explored ability on campus alarmed me enough to tug Professor Hawkins' sleeve.
"Sir, I, uh, sense an unfamiliar mind here."
"Thank you for telling me, Miss Morgenstern." His brow furrowed as he pressed his hand to the wall. "Please fetch Mr. Young for me."
It was easy to find Lee. He stood by the door, gazing at it because off-campus dates hadn't been approved at all this time.
"Professor Hawkins needs you."
"Why?"
"It's a security issue."
"On my way." He headed off immediately. I kept my ears open. Moments after Lee joined the headmaster, all sense of Hiram’s alarm deescalated.
Logan beckoned from the edge of the dance floor. When Dorian's voice announced this was another request, I understood he'd made it. So I went directly into his arms before I even recognized The Only Exception by Paramore. We danced through to the first chorus, leaning with heads on each other's shoulders. He spoke.
"You deserve so much love, Aliyah," he murmured in my ear. "Like the princess finds in a fairy tale. But—" He swallowed, hands trembling against my shoulder and back. "I'm no prince. I don't know what kind of love lives in my heart because my life's mostly been a mess. But you're the first person I ever wanted to give it to."
"I love you too." I lifted my head and pulled back so he could see my face. "My life was pretty decent, but having you in it makes it a million times better."
He nodded, eyes shining.
Everything but Logan went away after that. That focus on him was almost like wearing the ear cuffs. Not only being in tune with him but attuned to each other and that song. The feeling extended to almost all the remaining music. We paused before the final song, because Hal once again rose from his chair.
Dorian played Disenchanted by My Chemical Romance to close out the evening. An odd choice.
Cadence had explained The Black Parade album to me ages ago since it was one of her favorites. It was about a dying young man's journey out of his life, carried away by a terminal illness. In the track Disenchanted, the patient looks at his life, warts and all, accepting it before laying it to rest. The lyrics fit Hal's situation so closely I wondered whether Dorian's precognitive mother had suggested he play it.
A little over halfway through, he collapsed, seizing on the floor. Dorian cut the music as of the lyrics mentioned going away, his face white as a sheet. Faith pressed her fingers to Hal's neck and her ear to his chest.
"He's not breathing
!"
I joined her on the floor as we began CPR. Nurse Smith and Charles took over a moment later, but Faith never left his side. When they put him on a gurney instead of Timmy the karkinos, I knew this was the worst he'd ever been.
Minutes later, they had him out the door to meet the Emergency Medical Extrahumans at the ambulance. Mr. Fairbanks tried to stop Faith from leaving, but she held her hand up, brandishing the new ring at him. He stepped back and let her go, looking for all the world like he'd been slapped.
Maybe we all had, with an all too brutal and mundane reality.
School rules meant the rest of us had to be in our rooms with the lights out. I'm not sure any of the third-years slept.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The Trouble With Andre
Andre Gauthier
The incorrigible children had me over a barrel since October, and I wasn't sure how many of them knew it. Waiting practically all winter to finally exit such a compromising position hadn't been ideal. Although once they owed me a favor, Petra's long wait would end with a well-timed wish.
"Don't get ahead of yourself, Andre."
"Make yourself scarce, Gamila." I sighed over the collection of documents supporting the new arguments on my desk. Including one bombshell endorsement certain to ruffle feathers and tip scales. "You know the risks if they see you at the meeting."
"And you know what's at stake if you wish from afar." She shook her head. "You could get Logan's help to manage her release mundanely, you know. He's her blood kin."
"I could, but I want a sure bet." I smirked to banish the threatening sting at the corners of my eyes. "Wishes are guaranteed by the Queen herself."
"What will you do if Leo gets hold of my lamp and simply undoes it all?" She tapped her foot, reminding me of the classrooms downstairs. "Or worse, Abraham. Can you not imagine the ruin he'd cause?"
The shudder racked my body before I could hide it. The lamp's powers would have revealed my feelings to her regardless. Perhaps an empath had done a turn in it. I reached for the drawer—the small one, which most of my peers might use to store writing implements.