by Jami Klein
"If it will make you feel better, you're more than welcome to donate blood anytime you're feeling a little low or you miss my companionship." He grinned at me.
"Stay out of my head. That's my shtick not yours."
"With the connection that we forged, anytime you think thoughts like that loudly, Stefan and I can pick them up."
I shot a guilty glance over at Stefan who was decimating the hors d'oeuvre table and had a frilly looking glass punch cup in his enormous hand. He didn't seem to be paying us the least bit of attention.
After we got tired of dancing. Andrei led me outside where we walked along the snow dusted trail. “It’s cold,” I said, staring up at the black sky.
"We’ll go back in a moment. I just wanted to give you this.” Andrei pulled a rectangle box out of his jacket’s inside pocket.
"I thought we decided we weren’t going to give Yule gifts this year, because of everything that happened we hadn't had time to go to the store."
“This isn’t a Yule gift.”
It was not wrapped in pretty Christmas paper tied up with a red bow, so I opened it.
I gaped at what I saw. On a beautiful gold chain necklace, three dark blue sapphires hung in their own gold setting. This time when Andrei’s fingers were at my neck and I felt his breath against my skin, I didn't feel the dread of anticipating the sharp poke of his fangs. Instead I felt a little fluttering in my heart. After he secured the necklace on my neck, I touched the three stones.
“I don’t know what to say.”
“The three stones are to represent you, me and Stefan,” he said. “You didn't get to keep our emerald necklace from the Sigil games, so I made darn sure that you got to keep something from this adventure.”
I choked on a sob and stared at him.
"You're not going to cry, are you?" Andrei sneered at me
I punched him in the shoulder. "Thank you. It's beautiful." I’d never been given a gift of jewelry. Not being a girly girl, my father never brought me bracelets or necklaces or anything like that. I think in some ways, my father had still thought of me as a child rather than a young woman. Buying good jewelry for your daughter signifies that she's no longer your little girl. Or at least it acknowledged that the little girl was growing up.
"Let's get you back inside," Andrei said. “You’re shivering.”
I walked back into the Yule ball arm in arm with Andrei. He excused himself to get some punch. A group of underclassmen, girls who I recognized as being in their freshman and sophomore year, came up to me.
One girl was the obvious leader. I wondered what this was all about. I didn’t want any trouble. "My name is Bridget,” she said. “I'm a sophomore and I’m in here for breaking and entering."
I had to smile. "You had to break and enter?"
"She walks through walls," another girl said. “I’m Cara.”
Yeah," Bridget said. “That’s not breaking in. It’s more like phasing in.”
"But she was deftly entering,” Cara said. "I'm in here for assault and battery. But I’m innocent.”
“Innocent?” I asked.
“Yeah.” She shrugged. “I used my magic to toss a guy off of the roof and hung him there in midair. Then I bounced him like he was on a bungee cord a few times."
“The FBMI must love you two.” I wondered where this was headed.
"We’re twelve witches," Bridget said, encompassing the other girls. "We want you to be our coven leader and make us thirteen."
My eyebrows for the climbed to the roof of my forehead. "Coven leader? Why me?”
"In the four months that you've been here, you fought a demon. You turned into a raven shifter, while still keeping your witch magic. You came in third place in the Sigil games. You rescued your class with the help of two dragons. Why wouldn't we want you as a leader?”
It sounded really good when she put it like that. Would I have done all that at my mundane high school in New Haven, or even at the Coven School for Girls. I had to be honest with them, though.
"I don't know what I'm doing. Most the time I’m lucky that I haven't made an even bigger mess out of things. I wasn't raised in a magical school, I was homeschooled.”
"We don’t care about that," Bridget said. "What matters to us is that our coven works together and learns from each other."
“Okay, I’m in." I wasn't quite sure how this was happening. But now instead of going all out trying to join a coven as an initiate, I was finally a part of one. I was going to lead one. I was now Marisol’s and Priscilla’s equal.
The fact that Serena was going to be annoyed was probably an understatement. Living with Priscilla might be a little uncomfortable too considering I was sure she was going ask me to join her coven. But quite frankly, the witches in Priscilla’s coven didn't last very long. I think there was safety in numbers. I liked the number thirteen. It had always been my lucky number.
"As your coven leader, I'm going to put all the organization nonsense on you, Bridget because you seem to have a better handle on that. Set up our meetings, and I'll attend. When do you want our first session to be?” I asked.
“After Yule, we’re all going home for the holiday.”
I forced a smile. That figured. At least Stefan and I would spend the break together here at the Jewel Academy.
Priscilla and Betty were seated with their dates, drinking hot apple cider and picking at a tray of cookies. They were ignoring me, but that's okay. They were grieving.
Janine and the Unkindness were fascinated with all of the shiny objects and they chattered to me and to each other while flitting from one place to another.
Stefan approached me and asked me to dance. I didn't think Andrei would have a problem with me dancing with Stefan, and to be honest, I was looking forward to it. As he took me around the dance floor. I look at the wall of remembrance where the pictures of the students we had lost during the field trip were posted. I couldn’t look at all the familiar faces, Bobby, Maya, Abigail, and Grantaire.
Poor Agent Fines.
“Do you think the powers that be knew the merfolk would capture the class?"
"Students died, Stefan," I said, shocked.
"People die all the time. In addition to being a detention center, I think the Jewel Academy is also a type proving grounds for the FBMI and the CMIA."
“My father was recruited from here," I said, resting my cheek on his wide chest as we danced along with the other dancers.
“It would explain why some of the students are here by choice, others because they did a very bag thing, and others that they just shoved in here because they didn’t know what else to do with them."
“Like me," I said.
"I think you need to ask your father a question or maybe ask a question to the pearl," Stefan said. "I think I can hold him off long enough for you to ask your question. If I jump out of the circle of protection he should just let me go."
“No, Stefan. Don't be ridiculous.”
"If you don’t ask the question, I will."
"What question?"
"I want to know if your father hadn’t died, if you had still mind controlled your mother, would you still have been sent to the Jewel Academy?"
"That's impossible question to answer," I said. "The whole reason why I tried to mentally manipulate my mother was because I didn't want to get in trouble. The reason why I was in trouble was because I was acting out because my father died."
"I've only known you these past few months. From what I’ve seen, you would have gotten in trouble sooner or later anyway."
"That's not fair," I protested.
"Not fair, but accurate," Andrei said in my mind.
“You stay out of this," Stefan growled.
I looked around and Andrei was dancing with Marisol, probably to annoy me. It worked.
“Stefan, I don't want to risk your life over a question that has no meaning.”
"It does have meaning," Stefan said. "If your father was alive, he would've protected you from comin
g here. Isn’t that what your mother said when you talked with her last? Faced with the choice was to send you to Jewel Academy or have your aunt and uncle snap you up, she chose the Jewel Academy."
"She believed the FBMI was putting me here for everyone's safety. So what you're really wanting to ask my father is if the Jewel Academy is more of a training center than a detention center."
"Yes," Stefan said.
"I don't think we have to risk the Pearl of Wisdom's guardian to get that answer." I said. "All we have to do is find someone we think who knows that answer and I just need to root around in their mind."
“The only ones I can think of who would know the true purpose of Jewel Academy would be Headmistress Magee and probably Andrei's mother. I think that's too dangerous for you to risk," Stefan said.
"I agree, and I also don't think asking the FBMI or the CMIA directly is a good idea either, at this point,” I said.
“Then who?"
“The Enforcers would know.”
"It's going to be hard for you to crack an Enforcer’s mind,” Stefan said.
"Yes, it needs to be subtle. But that means I’ll need to spend some time with them.” I looked around for Chris, but I didn’t see him. “We might not be able to hang out as much.”
“What you do the daytime business no concern of mine," Andrei said in my mind.
“I let you know I find out,” I said.
“Come with me for second,” Stefan said, leading me into alcove.
"If you were vampire, I'd be worried," I said, and gave a nervous chuckle. I wondered if he was going to try to sneak a kiss. And I wondered what I would do. Would I stop him and claim that Andrei and I might be starting something? Because Andrei and I were still in the middle, not sure where we were. Would I enjoy the kiss? And if I enjoyed the kiss, did that mean Stefan and were starting something.
Stefan thrust a box into my hands. “This is also not a Yule present,” he said.
I opened this box with shaky fingers and inside were two sapphire earrings. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a coincidence that they matched the necklace I was now wearing. I put them in my ears.
"Thank you." I went up on my tiptoes to brush a kiss across his lips. The fact that I hadn’t kissed Andrei flitted across my mind. I tried not to think about it. Especially since I knew Andrei could pick up my thoughts.
"I wanted you to have something that you would make you feel proud and powerful. When you wear these earrings, I want you to remember that these were part of a dragon's hoard."
"I will," I said shakily.
“Let’s get back to the party before we’re missed," he said.
The rest of the night passed in a magical wave of laughter, games, dancing and food. It was the best time I've ever had the Jewel Academy. I finally felt that I had a direction in my life. I belonged here. Even if the Jewel Academy wasn't what it seemed, my mother had been right. I had needed to be here after my father died.
I kept the news of my new coven to myself as Priscilla and I walked back to the dorms. Priscilla seems subdued and I knew from a brief touch of her mind that she really didn't want me in her coven, but she didn't feel like she had a choice. The good news, though, that no matter what she decided to do, it wouldn’t affect me either way. Since I was no longer an initiate to her coven, she was going to have to fetch her own coffee.
I was confronted by Headmistress Magee and Mrs. Barnes. They better not be thinking of taking away my necklace and earrings. Because I would fight until my last breath to keep. These were mine. I earned them. If Azure wanted them back, he was going to have to take it up with me.
“You have visitors,” Magee said, trying to warn me with her eyes.
“Is it Azure or Rose?”
“They’re coming here?” Mrs. Barnes asked, clutching her rope of pearls.
“I’m not sure.”
“It’s family,” Magee said.
Mom? I broke out into a grin at the fluttering of happiness in my heart. She must've seen what happened on the news and wanted to stop by to make sure I was all right. I bet I could convince he—not magically, of course—to let me come home for Yule.
I followed them to the main gates. An alarm went off in my brain when I didn't recognize the expensive black car. For a wild moment, I thought Zadachin had come to take his revenge on me. But then my father got out of the car. I sucked in air at that visual gut punch as my mind rewrote that to seeing my father's twin brother and my aunt get out of the car. They approached me and I had to stop myself from running towards them. He was wearing a tuxedo and she was wearing a fur coat. They both held out their hands me. I glanced at Magee and Mrs. Barnes, but they wore matching expressionless faces.
I took my aunt and uncle’s hands and squeezed. It was nice to see family at Yule. "What are you guys doing here?" I said. “It’s too late for the ball. It just got over"
"We just come back from gathering of her own," my aunt said.
"We come to take you home for Yule," my uncle said. “Grab your things, and let’s go.”
My jaw dropped. "My mother allowed this?" I snapped my head around to look at Magee.
"Your real mother is deceased as is your father. We petitioned the court to take over your guardianship. You’re our blood relation, after all.”
“All is in order,” Magee said flatly.
“Go pack your things. We’re taking you home for the Yule break. Unfortunately, you have to come back in February. But we can have a nice long time getting to know one another.
It would have been a dream come true, except Magee and Mrs. Barnes didn’t look very happy about it.
Lola’s adventures continue in Blood of the Ruby. Exclusively on Amazon….
Mindbender Lola Bragg knows she is free once she graduates the Jewel Academy. But she's made some enemies, including the powerful Federal Bureau of Magical Investigation. After laughing at their recruitment team, Lola knows she's going to be watched very carefully this year. They're looking for an excuse to shackle her to their agency. But before graduation, she needs to survive potion class, with the teacher who holds a big grudge against her and her family.
Jewel Academy Book Five: Blood of the Ruby