I knew that I was home before I could pry my eyes open to see that my mum was sitting on my desk chair, right next to my bed. Not that there was room for much else. My small double bed was packed tight between three of the walls, with enough space at one side for my door, a small desk and a very thin chest of drawers from Ikea.
"What happened?" I asked, my stomach churning. "How did I get home?"
My mother sighed, running her hand through her short dark hair, drawing attention to the wrinkles around her eyes. "How do you feel? Are you okay?"
"I'm in a crap-ton of pain, but I'm more bothered by what happened when I passed out."
She gave me a sympathetic look. "What do you remember?"
I looked down at my hands, remembering the sparks. "I remember... A lot of stuff that doesn't make sense." I frowned as I turned to her. "I swear, I didn't take anything. I only drank lager from bottles that I opened myself, and I didn't leave them anywhere. And I didn't drink that much."
"It's okay, Liv, I know. I don't think you took any drugs."
"But if I didn't have anything in my system..." I shook my head. The idea of being dosed unawares wasn't a fun one, but what was the alternative? That the stress of the moment had led to some kind of psychotic break?
"I'm sorry, Liv. I should have known that something like this would happen, and I should have tried to talk to you before. But... Well, I didn't see any of the signs, and I didn't want to bring up your father if I didn't have to."
I just stared at her. She never talked about my father. Why would she bring him up now? Did he have some kind of mental health issue? Something I might have inherited?
There was a soft knock at the door, drawing our attention.
Before either of us could answer, it opened to reveal a woman with dark brown skin and a silver bob. She gave us a sympathetic smile, wrinkling the creases around her eyes as she leaned against the door.
“Hey, so, Seph saw that you might need a hand explaining things. Do you want me to take things from here?”
My mum just nodded, quickly getting up. “Yes, actually, I should just leave you two alone to talk this out.” She turned to me. “I’ll make something for you to eat. You must be starving.”
At that, she practically bolted from the room.
I turned to the woman who was entering my room, my hackles raising. She had that kind of air about her that people who had been trained to deal with you had.
“Are you a doctor?” I asked.
“No,” she said.
“A social worker?”
She smirked. “That probably would have been the ideal career path, but no, I didn’t really think things through and joined the police instead. Though I quit years back to work… Well, to explain that, I should probably explain what’s going on with you.”
“You’re going to tell me that I’ve triggered a new mental illness, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m not. I’m going to tell you that everything you saw was real.”
I frowned. Why was she lying to me? Was she some kind of grifter, looking to take what little money my mum had? Was she preying on the fact that we all knew that getting the kind of help I might need was a long shot in an underfunded mental health system?
She sighed. “You don’t believe me.”
“No, not really.”
“That’s okay, Seph saw that would happen.”
My frown deepened. “Who the hell is Seph and why does she apparently know enough about me to predict how I’ll react?”
“She’s my wife, and she’s also a Seer. That means that she can see the future.”
Yup, this woman was definitely some kind of grifter. My mother wasn’t always the quickest to dismiss the supernatural, but being a nurse, I still considered her a woman of science. Was she so scared for me that she’d fallen for this?
The woman then pulled out a wooden stick and I tensed, wondering if she intended to prod me with it.
She smiled once more. “You know, I don’t think I would have believed it either if I hadn’t been attacked by Demons. And if Caroline hadn’t been there to explain everything to me.”
“Demons?” I asked, more than a little exasperation in my tone.
But then the end of her stick lit up and small bubbles of light left the end of it.
I reached out as one of them floated closer to me, determined to figure out if it was made up of some kind of fluorescent bubble solution or something. Maybe she’d dumped the inside of a glow stick inside of a regular tube of bubbles.
But then I reached out and my hand passed right through it.
The light was still there, but it seemed to be coming from nowhere.
I turned to the woman. “How are you doing this?”
“Magic.”
“Bullshit.”
She sighed. “Look, I can keep doing parlour tricks for you, or you can look at yourself for a moment and realise that I’m not the only one with magic here.”
I looked down at my arms, only to jump as I saw more of the sparks from before.
“What is this?” I demanded as I waved my hands, trying to get rid of them. That seemed less than helpful, however, the sparks getting brighter.
“Olivia, please, stop, you’re making it worse. Deep breaths.”
I ignored her for a moment, before I realised that she was right, I was just making it worse.
So, I lowered my hands to my bed, taking a deep breath.
Only for the bedding to start smoking.
“Shit!” I jumped out of my bed and across the room, and the woman made her way over to me, though she didn’t get close enough to touch me.
“Sorry, I should have warned you not to get close to anything flammable until the sparks were gone. But take a deep breath and they’ll go away. Magic is fuelled by emotion, Olivia. The more you panic, the worse it will get.”
I nodded, doing my best to take deep breaths, though it seemed like my ribs were fighting me at every step.
Eventually, I calmed enough for the sparks to disappear and I cautiously stepped back towards my bed.
Yeah, my bedding was definitely singed, and I didn’t see an explanation aside from the sparks.
The sparks that had pretty clearly come and gone with my frustration and panic.
I turned to the woman. “So, who are you?”
She smiled, a little wider than before. “I’m Mina, and I’m mostly Human, but my grandmother was a Witch, and I can draw on my wives’ magic to wield a wand.”
I frowned. “Did I hear that right? It sounded like you said ‘wives’. As in, plural.”
Her smile widened, her gaze sparkling. “Both of my wives are Demons, and Demons have a custom of taking two wives.”
“Okay, so, you’re part Witch and your wives are Demons. I’m guessing my father was something like that? I mean, I think my mum would have told me if she wasn’t Human.”
“Yes, your mother’s Human. And as far as we can tell, your father was a Demon Slayer.”
My frown deepened. “Wait… Your wives are Demons and you came here to help me, someone whose father was a Demon Slayer?”
She shrugged. “The Demons and Slayers haven’t been at war for centuries. They mostly live in a disgruntled peace now. Which means that I can help you, which is good, because you definitely need help.”
I looked down at my hands. “To stop me from setting things on fire?”
“Well, that, and… What do you remember of last night?”
I cringed. The last thing I wanted was to think back over everything, but Mina’s tone seemed to suggest that this was important. “I tried to break up with my boyfriend, then he started insulting me. I snapped back at him, and then… Well, then he said something about a curse.”
“Do you remember the terms of the curse?”
“He said… He said that I had to find someone to love within a year, or… Or the curse would tear me apart from the inside out.” I bit my lip. “Are you trying to say that he has magic as well? That the
curse was real?”
The sympathetic look returned as she nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. We think he was the one who called the Guardians – the people that I work for – before fleeing. He probably cast the curse in the heat of the moment, and then you tapped into your magic to fight it. You’ve had access to your magic for a while, but I guess this was the first time you’ve ever felt the need to use it.”
“To fight off the curse?”
She nodded. “And then you passed out from the effort, without having lifted the curse.”
She moved her stick – a wand, I assumed – to point at my left shoulder, and I pushed my dress aside to see a black tattoo across my skin in the shape of a rose.
“So… That’s the curse?” I asked, prodding at the skin. It didn’t feel any different.
“Yes. We’ve taken a look and… Unfortunately, we don’t yet know how to lift it.”
I turned to her, ice running down my spine. “You don’t?”
“No, but don’t worry. We’re going to keep looking.”
“But if you don’t find anything… How fucked am I? Assuming I don’t ‘find someone to love’?”
“We won’t let it come to that.”
I folded my arms, less than convinced by the platitude.
“And in the meantime, you should learn how to use your magic. I could find you a tutor, or there’s a boarding school called Ember Academy that you could attend alongside other magical beings your age.”
“The school sounds good,” I said quickly, more than eager to leave Sam and his friends far behind me.
Chapter Three
My mother hugged me tight the next Sunday when I stood by the front door, my suitcase already packed.
Mina had told us that new students usually only showed up at Ember Academy at the beginning of the year, but I wanted to go as soon as possible.
I couldn't go back to my old school and face Sam and his friends.
"Are you sure you want to go?" My mum asked as she pulled away. "We could still get a tutor like Mina said and we could look into other schools again."
The only other schools close by were a Catholic school and a private school. I didn't fancy the former and we couldn't afford the latter, no matter how much my mum kept insisting that she would find a way to pay for it.
"I'm sure," I said. "And I'm looking forward to it. Really. Mina said that they're good with autistic students, and maybe it will be good to get to know other… Well, other kids like me."
We hadn't really talked about the whole 'magic' thing since Mina had left. I hadn't wanted to pry too close to anything to do with my father.
She nodded. “I know, and I understand. It’s just…” She trailed off but her gaze flickered to my chest and, despite how quickly she looked away, I definitely noticed.
That was the other unspoken part of this. The curse.
Maybe it would really hurt me, or maybe it wouldn’t amount to anything, but either way… I couldn’t just sit around and wait to see what happened.
And if Mina failed to find a way to save me from it… Maybe I could save myself. Maybe I could find someone to love. There had to be one person out there – just a single person – that wasn’t a total asshole like Sam had turned out to be.
But I knew that I wouldn’t find them if I stayed.
No, I’d been here long enough to know that that wasn’t possible.
So, Ember Academy was likely my best chance.
And even if I couldn’t find romance there, maybe I could make this last year count for something.
“I’ll come home every weekend,” I promised.
I knew that if I stayed, I would just stay in my room and would never have any hope of breaking the curse.
But I also knew that leaving meant that my mother might not get to spend this last year with me, if it truly was my last.
She simply responded by pulling me in for a tight hug.
Before either of us could figure out what to say next, there was a knock at the door, and Mum pulled away.
She opened the door to reveal Mina standing beyond with a soft smile. “Olivia, are you ready to go?”
I nodded, grabbing my suitcase. “Yeah, I am.” I then turned back to my mum. “I’ll see you on Saturday.”
She smiled before hugging me once more, tighter this time, though she let go after just a moment. “I’ll see you then,” she replied as she pulled away, her eyes sparkling with unshed tears.
I looked away as tears welled in my own eyes and I did my best to blink them away.
The last thing I wanted was to arrive at a new school with red, teary eyes.
“Are you nervous?” Mina asked as we headed outside, making our way down the path.
I turned at the end to see my mum still standing at the door, watching me go, and I waved goodbye.
She returned the wave and I hesitated for a moment before finally turning the corner and leaving her behind.
I turned back to Mina, remembering the question. “A little, I guess. But I’ll be okay. So, how long is it going to take us to get to this school?”
“Not long. There’s a public portal not far from here, and that will take us straight there.”
I nodded as we headed to the nearest metro station, before heading down to the platform.
Only, instead of going to the ticket machines, Mina turned to another set of stairs that went even further down, but there was a barrier over them.
NO ENTRY – MAINTENANCE STAFF ONLY
“Wait, we can’t–” I started, but Mina just walked through the barrier. She didn’t step over or around it or anything, she just passed through it, as if it didn’t exist.
And then she disappeared.
So, more magic, then?
I took a deep breath and followed, not wanting to seem slow to catch on.
Mina stood there, waiting, and she smiled as she saw that I’d followed her before heading down to the bottom of the stairs.
There wasn’t much there, it was barely bigger than a cupboard and dingily lit, but my attention was drawn almost entirely by the large, intricate pattern painted on the far wall.
“I take it that’s the portal?”
Mina smiled again as she pulled a vial from her pocket. “You’re catching on quick for someone who refused to believe that magic could be real.”
I shrugged. “Why would I keep resisting it after I got over that?”
“Well, you’ve got me there. And yes, this is the portal. I just need to activate it with some Faerie dust, and we can be on our way.”
“Wait, Faeries are real as well? Will I meet any of them at Ember?”
She shrugged. “Perhaps. Though, they tend to keep to themselves. You’re most likely to encounter Witches, Demons and other Slayers. Everyone else has much lower population numbers, or keeps to other realms.”
At that, she took her vial and threw the glittering contents at the wall, the pattern beginning to glow with a bright light before the light expanded, moving in to fill the spaces between the lines until we were facing a circle entirely made of light.
“You just need to step through, and then we’ll be at Ember.”
I nodded at the instruction, taking a deep breath and clutching the handle of my suitcase tight as I stepped through.
The portal was almost like pressing against a large bubble, a thin membrane pushing against me for just a moment before popping and dropping me onto a stone path.
I stepped forward, not wanting to block Mina’s way as I stared at the towering buildings around me. They were all made of thick white stone that was pieced together in intricate designs that almost gave me a headache.
I turned back as shoes hit the stone behind me, indicating that Mina had exited the portal.
“So, what do you think?” she asked.
I gave a half shrug, fiddling with the edge of my jumper, very aware of the hole in the sleeve. I’d kept meaning to learn how to patch it, but I never remembered.
Most of the kids who
could afford to come to a school like this would probably have just replaced a cheap jumper like this without a second thought.
I bit my lip. “When Mum asked you about the cost of this school, you said not to worry about it. What did you mean by that?”
If I was here on charity money and everyone else was rich…
Mina gave me an understanding smile. “I meant that individuals never pay for their place here. Larger magical institutions deal with all of the expenses of the school. Queen Freya of the Underworld built it, and now she, the Guardians, the Witches’ covens, the Vampire nests, and the Werewolf packs all split the costs.”
I frowned. “What about the Slayers?”
“Well, they fall under the Council of Light’s jurisdiction. Them and the Guides. And the Council didn’t like Queen Freya’s involvement in building the school, so they refused to contribute. But the school still takes Slayer and Guide students who want to attend.”
“Wait, the ‘Council’ only has two species?”
“Well, it used to be three, but the Witches decided to go their own way a while ago. Now the ‘Council’ is mostly just what remains of the Guides, and the Slayers who protect them. But I imagine this will all be covered in your Magical History class. For now, I should introduce you.”
She nodded to a woman approaching with dark hair and loose, dark clothes that were failing to conceal the fact that she was rather heavily pregnant.
“Apologies for the wait, Mina. I keep forgetting how long it takes me to get about campus now.”
Mina smiled. “You know, you could have sent Jess. I would have settled for the Deputy Headteacher.”
The woman shook her head. “Nonsense. I greet all of the new students.” She then turned to me with a smile. “I’m Ms Griffin, the Headteacher here at Ember Academy. And you must be Olivia.”
I nodded, my voice refusing to come.
She just widened her smile. “Well, I’m sure you’ll love it here. I’ll take you up to your room and introduce you to your roommate. But first, would you mind if I examined you? Many of the staff here have expertise that could help with lifting your curse.” She then turned to Mina. “An old friend also agreed to help if I sent her the information.”
Starlight & Shadows: A Limited Edition Academy Collection by Laura Greenwood, Arizona Tape, Juliana Haygert, Kat Parrish, Ashley McLeo, L.C. Mawson, Leigh Kelsey, Bre Lockhart, Zelda Knight Page 26