by Casey Morgan
Ignoring me, Goldwin continued telling me the results of what he saw. “I also see an indicator of another witch line here, also powerful. Since I know, first-hand, that the Greens were not that powerful, then I think it is safe to assume that this is your father’s bloodline. So —” he stood up with a big grin on his face and a flourish of his hands — “you are a full-blooded witch!”
My mind was still rolling with ideas about my unknown father and grandfather, but from the professor’s expression, I knew that this was supposed to be exciting. I faked a smile. “Wonderful. Now what?”
He hopped off his stepstool and walked quickly to a set of drawers at the far side of the classroom. “Most of your power is dormant, due to your sheltered upbringing,” he mumbled as he opened one of the drawers and started pulling out objects of every sort. Books were flung. Papers scattered. Several more silk scarves were thrown and floated gently down around him. “Now, girls,” he continued, never stopping his search, “I can’t be too involved, because if Thorn found out…well, let’s just say that would be bad for me. So, let us keep this between ourselves.” He opened another drawer and started dumping out its contents. “Ah, here, Angie.”
The book he pulled out of the drawer floated towards my roommate. I was not expecting that, so I gasped and jumped off my stool. Angie caught the book, laughing at my shock. We both look at the title: Beginning Magic.
“Oh!” Angie exclaimed. “Perfect, this is an elementary reader.”
“Actually,” Goldwin piped up from deep within his search in another drawer. “It’s the teacher’s manual for that reader. That should help you with tutoring Ruby.”
Angie nodded and started flipping through the book. “You know,” she muttered, “teaching was kind of my backup plan. Maybe all this will be helpful for me.”
Goldwin let out a yelp of pleasure, pulled a box out of the drawer he was currently in, and marched happily back over to us. He slid the box onto the table in front of me like he was giving me the crown jewels. I wasn’t sure if I should open it or not, so I hesitated.
“We are lucky,” Goldwin explained, “that you are full-blooded. Otherwise, finding an appropriate focus point would be harder.” He gestured at the box, indicating that I should open it.
I did. Sitting delicately on the purple, velvet interior was a long, thin piece of wood.
“Holy crap!” Angie snapped. “A magic wand. I didn’t think those worked anymore.”
Goldwin grunted. “Of course, they work, they just fell out of fashion a few hundred years ago. At that time, magic users found it much easier to use jewelry as focus points. Since witches were hunted, jewelry was easier to conceal than a wand.” He nodded at the box. “This was my great, great grandfather’s.”
I understood that this was a very big deal, but I wasn’t sure how to thank the professor enough. I said, “Thank you,” but the words seemed flat. “I promise to take very good care of it.”
He nodded. “This is just a temporary loan, Ruby. Once you pass the trials, then we will need to find you something more personal. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.” I closed the lid to the box, picked it up, and clutched it to my chest. “Thank you so much.”
Goldwin smiled. “Off you go now. Give it a try, but I suggest that you go out to the backfield or somewhere more private.” Angie and I turned to go. “Remember, don’t tell anyone I am helping you,” the professor called after us.
Chapter Nine
The wand worked.
The minute we stepped outside of Goldwin’s office, Angie and I went running towards the abandoned basketball court. When my feet hit the concrete, I opened the box, grabbed the thin stick of wood, and held it up before me. The feeling of freedom was instantaneous. It was like my life energy wanted to flow through the wand. So much so that when I closed my eyes and looked with my mind, I could see a little bit of energy leaking out of the tip of the wand.
When I snapped my eyes open, Angie was looking at me intently. She raised her orange-colored eyebrows in question.
I grinned back at her until she grinned at me. “Give me a spell to do,” I ordered. “Give me something quick.”
Angie laughed. “Okay! Okay!” She ran to the side of the court and grabbed a small stone. “I’m going to throw this at you. All you need to do is push your energy through the wand and defect it. Ready?”
I nodded, feeling excitement bundle into my chest. Angie threw the stone at me. As I saw it hurtling towards my face, I lifted the wand and pushed my energy through. The energy hit the stone like a gust of wind. It flew back, slamming into a nearby tree.
“Wow!” Drew popped into view just to the side of his sister. “That was great!”
Angie clapped. Feeling pleased with myself, I took a bow and the hopped up and down. “Do it again!” I ordered. “That is the coolest thing I have ever done!”
Angie looked down, searching for another small stone to throw. “Okay. Okay.” She found a few and put them into her hand. “As we go through these, try to vary the force you send through.”
I nodded, raising the wand in front of me like a dagger. The first stone zipped towards me. I pushed my energy through the wand again, and the stone smashed hard into the wall behind us. The next stone I hit with less force, just enough for it to skip down the court to the opposite hoop. Next, I tried the barest hint of power. The stone stopped and fell at my feet.
Each time I succeeded in using my power, my friends would cheer and clap. I found myself grinning from ear to ear. I had never felt special in my life before, and now, here I was a witch.
I wanted to try something different when the next stone was flung at me. As I pushed my energy through the wand, I imagined that it had a hand at the end. Using that hand of energy, I caught the stone in midair. The three of us gasped. I knew that I had done it, but I could barely believe my eyes. The stone floated in front of me about four feet in the air. It didn’t move; I didn’t feel like I was going to tire or drop it. My energy just held it still.
“Did you figure that out on your own?” Drew gasped.
I nodded, still mesmerized by the floating stone.
Angie clapped her hands. “You’re a witch,” she cheered, jumping up and down. “We can teach you!” Linking hands with her ghost brother, the two of them started dancing a jig. “Now, all I have to do is get my hands on the plan for the trials, so we know what to focus on!”
The three of us cheered, and I joined their dance. There was finally a little bit of hope.
****
That afternoon was the first time I had time to myself at Ironwood. When Angie went to work, I promised her that I would stay in our dorm, just to be sure that I didn’t do any kind of newby-ish behavior in front of our classmates.
I curled up in bed with the elementary magic reader and tried to keep my eyes focused on the pages and not roaming around to the window. The pack of shifter boys was down on the lawn playing a game of football. Some of them had their shirts off. The show of male beauty was hard to not watch. But I did try to keep my mind on magic spells and what was really important.
About an hour in, I was just about to give up on reading at all, and commit to watching the game when Angie came bursting through the door. “That’s it,” she snapped. “Our plan is ruined.” Full of energy, she crossed her arms in front of her chest and stalked from one side of the room to the other, banging her heels down hard.
I sat up and gave her my full attention. “What happened?”
She brought her hand up to a vase sitting on the bookshelf and swatted at it until the glass fell and shattered on the floor. It was an oddly cat-like gesture. When her fingers traced the book that was sitting next to the vase, I called her name to get her attention on me and not destruction. “Angie?!”
She huffed, slamming her hands into her pockets. She started pacing again. “Thorn caught me rifling through his desk drawers.”
I put my hands up to my mouth. “Oh, no! Did he expel you?”
&nb
sp; She shook her head so hard it sent her short orange hair swinging. “No. He thought I was after his liquor stash. I just got a long lecture about drinking, and he fired me from being his assistant.”
“Damn.” I sunk back down onto the bed. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, Angie. I’m super glad that you’re not expelled or worse. But knowing what was on that exam was the best chance I had for passing.”
She nodded sadly. “I know. I tried.”
“Thank you,” I murmured. “I really mean that.”
“You’re just going to have to study harder,” she sighed. “No more getting distracted by the male students.” When I went to argue, she raised one eyebrow at me, that told me that she had seen what I was doing when she came in.
“You’re right.” Embarrassed, I ran my hands through my hair. “I just have to focus, no matter how many hot, shirtless guys are down on the lawn.”
“On the positive side,” Angie pulled a small bag of chocolates out of her skirt pocket, poured a few in her hand, and then passed me the bag. I looked it over, it wasn’t a brand I had ever seen, but I figured that chocolate was chocolate. “I snuck these out of Thorn’s candy stash in his desk drawer.”
“Crafty,” I laughed and elbowed her a bit as she sat down on the bed next to me. “That will show him — stealing his chocolates.”
Angie nodded as she held up one of the pieces before her eyes and looked over the label. “Hey, it’s a pretty big deal. These are swiss. They were probably expensive.”
I unwrapped the purple foil on a piece and stuck it into my mouth. It was good — milky and creamy with a finish that clung to the tongue a bit.
“Oh!” Angie turned to me quickly, causing the whole bed to shake a bit. “I ran into professor Goldwin in the hallway. He’s agreed to give you a practice exam on Friday.”
I raised my eyebrows while unwrapping another piece of chocolate. “Do you think I’m ready for that?”
Angie shrugged. “No, but I think it is a good idea. Unfortunately, he won’t do anything practical. It’s going to be a written exam where you describe what you should do to cast the spells.”
That sounded hard, but if the professor was willing to help, I needed to try. I popped another chocolate into my mouth and thought. “Who did Thorn replace you with?” I asked.
“Hmm?”
“For his assistant? Who did Thorn replace you with? Do you know?”
“Oh,” she said around a mouthful of chocolate. “Jasper. That stupid bear.”
I thought about the boy with the ice-colored eyes. He seemed like a nice guy. “Do you think Jasper would help me?”
Angie raised her eyebrows for a minute as she thought it over. “I doubt it. He’s a pretty by the book guy. Passing out flyers for that fight was the most daring thing I have ever seen him do.”
“Fair enough,” I sighed, taking one final glance out the window at the hot men running around. Even from this distance, I could tell that Jasper was on one of the teams. Was there some way I could convince him to look at the plan for the trials? Maybe I could bribe him with something?
Popping another chocolate into my mouth, I sighed. Angie took the book from me, and we started on my lessons again. I didn’t want it to feel hopeless, but there was so much to learn that it kind of did.
Chapter Ten
“Well, Ms. Thrushmoor, you received a thirty-eight percent.”
The practice exam did not go well. With less than a week of studying, nothing was straight in my mind. I couldn’t remember which incantations went with which spells. Plus, the incantations seemed to be made up of nonsense words, so I was sure that I wasn’t spelling them correctly.
I sighed and looked down at the paper covered with red ink and the professor that was holding it. Goldwin didn’t have anger in his yellow-colored eyes. He mostly just looked sad for me. A feeling I totally understood.
As I leaned down to take my failed practice exam, Goldwin hissed, and jumped about three feet away from me.
“Put that thing away,” he shrieked, balling his little hands into fists and flushing a bright shade of red “You harlot! How dare you show such a thing in my presence!”
My hands slapped into my breasts, making sure that my nipples had not escaped the confines of my bra and offended the professor — but everything was still clothed and in place. I stood up, feeling confused, and offended on my own.
“What’s wrong, professor?” Angie asked, unconsciously putting a hand on her own chest.
Goldwin growled like a dog and pointed at my chest again. I looked down, running my eyes over my blouse and everything. As far as I could tell, there was nothing wrong with me.
“I’m sorry, professor,” I started, “I’m really not sure how I have offended you. Trust me, it wasn’t intentional. Keeping in mind my level of little experience, can you please explain so I can not do it again?”
Heat was blooming in my chest. My temper was raging, but I kept it under wraps, knowing full well that I couldn’t make an enemy out of the one professor at Ironwood who had tried to help me.
My speech seemed to take the air out of his lungs. Goldwin shook his head, rustling his golden locks from one shoulder to the next, and let out a deep breath. He rubbed a palm over his wrinkled face. “Of course, Ruby. I’m sorry.” He seemed genuine, but I noticed that he wouldn’t look back up at me. “It’s your necklace.”
I looked down. The moonstone had indeed shifted out of my blouse, where I usually kept it concealed. It must have swung out of my shirt when I bent down. When I tucked it back away again, Goldwin met my eyes.
“Where did you get it?” he asked.
“From my grandmother.”
“From Rose?” His yellow eyes widened, and his eyebrows lifted as high up his forehead as they could. He blinked a few seconds, lost in thought. Slowly, he raised a hand to his lips. “Well, I never!” He looked at me again. “I had no idea that she trifled with such dark, dirty arts.”
I found myself putting a hand over my chest to conceal the necklace further. “I thought it was just a moonstone, professor, harmless and cheap.”
Goldwin shook his head. “That is all you can see, but to a trained witch, the abilities of that necklace would be obvious —” I glanced at Angie to see that she was crestfallen since she didn’t know what it was either — “It’s like a sign selling your wares.”
I stood up a little straighter, the implied meaning of his words hitting me to the core. “Are you saying that this necklace indicates that I’m a hooker?!” Why in the world would my grandmother send me such a thing?
“No, not quite.” Goldwin shook his head again. “It’s a succubus necklace. Such a necklace allows you to do one of three things. You can either gain the knowledge, power, or life force of your victims. I think this particular necklace sucks in knowledge.”
I clapped my hands. “Wonderful! Knowledge is precisely what I need. How do I make it work? Do I just hold it up to a book or something?” The shocked, open mouths of my two companions indicated to me that I was very, very wrong. I shrugged. “What then? I have no clue. Granny didn’t send instructions.”
“Umm,” Angie stuttered. “Ruby, succubi suck what they want out of their victims, through…” She looked down at the professor and reddened as she looked back at me. “…through relations.” She raised her eyebrows and widened her eyes, making sure I knew exactly what she meant.
I slapped a hand over my mouth. “Oh!” I squeaked and turned to the professor. “If I show it to a person, does that mean that I intend to make them my…victim?”
“Precisely,” he agreed.
Okay then. Well, now I understood his violent reaction. Not only did he think I was trying to proposition him, but he also thought I was trying to cheat. Both were very inappropriate…or were they? My mind started to spin.
“I would advise that you lock that necklace away before it brings you any harm.”
I nodded at the professor, but I could feel the moonstone warm against my ski
n. In the past few days, I had gotten used to wearing it. It was like a constant reminder of my grandmother. I didn’t want to take it off.
“I will do as you advise, professor,” I lied, grabbing Angie’s hand and pulling her out of the classroom. As soon as we were a few feet away from the door, I stopped and pulled her beside me. “This changes everything!”
She blinked at me. “How so?”
“All I have to do is learn how to use the necklace and suck knowledge out of one of our classmates!”
Angie’s frown turned deeper. “Look, Ruby, I don’t want to question your life choices, but you would, you know…have to have sex with someone. Do you really want to do that?”
I grabbed the collar of her blouse and pulled her to me. “If it helps me pass the trials, I will gladly give my virginity away.”
My friend looked me up and down for a minute, trying to see how serious I was. Finally, she nodded. “Okay, then who?”
I dropped the fabric of her blouse that was in my hands and tried to relax my shoulders. “Who is the smartest boy at Ironwood?”
She thought for a second, tapping her forefinger to her pursed lips. “I really have no idea.”
I let out a sigh. Maybe I should just pick the first guy I came across. Or who I thought was the most attractive. That was a tough one, there were so many hot guys here. A hint of worry crossed my mind. What if my chosen man didn’t want to sleep with me? I mean, lots of guys had given me looks, but maybe they were just being polite.
“We have to consider,” Angie continued, breaking up my train of thought, “that we don’t really know how the succubus necklace works. I can’t recall if it gives you all of your victim’s knowledge or just answers particular questions from what they know.”
“Like a magic eight ball?” I offered.
Her eyes shot open wide. “A what?!”
I waved my hand. “Never mind. So, perhaps we should assume the worst. Let’s assume that I can only get specific information from the person I choose. How would I even know what I want?”