A Fine Necromance

by Lidiya Foxglove

  What if the faery blessing didn’t work?

  “You stay right here,” Professor New Jersey ordered me, jabbing his wand at the ground in front of me. “This is a special lesson for everyone here and a lucky day for Charlotte, here. Her grandfather was a werewolf, which means—she has a natural draw to Sinistral. Last night, if you came to my demonstration, you saw what happens when we purify a Sinistral ghost. This morning we’re going to demonstrate something a little more pleasant. We will purify her blood so her risk and banish her wicked blood.”

  I saw Montague and Alec shoving their way to the front.

  “Stop,” Montague said. “This is—a bad idea.”

  “You need to be purified!” Henry Wells jeered. “Purify the vampire!”

  Alec’s face cut to him. “You want to say that again?”

  “Guys, don’t fight,” I said. “It’s okay. Proceed.” I stood there and tried to look serene.

  “Char, are you crazy?” Alec cried. “What did they do to you in there?”

  Was I a little nervous? Sure. But if you couldn’t trust magical fish and priest ghosts, who could you trust? I mean, basically I was in a whole new world of logic here. I tried to ignore the fact that Firian was tricked by fellow Ethereals. I needed to go with my gut here.

  Harris was in the crowd, too, further back from Montague and Alec. I saw him cough. He looked kind of sick. I saw some of the old professors, too, looking nervous. Professor Adams was shaking his head and muttering something. But the other professors had been laying low. As powerful as they were, they were afraid of the council, too.

  Piers and Professor Pacetti stood behind me and crossed their wand in front of me. “You can all repeat my words,” Piers said. “Etherium, I have here a witch who has a dark soul in her blood. We want you to turn her to the way of order.”

  The students repeated it. Some of them enthusiastically, but there was a solid background of mumbling.

  Professor Adams was shaking his head now. I tried to look more serene so he wasn’t tempted to intervene.

  I need to go through with this, I thought. I need them to know they can’t mess with me because I have Samuel’s magic. And if I’m wrong, I’m probably doomed anyway.

  “Shine the light of Etherium upon her!” Piers cried. “May she fight only for good, all her life and unto death! Bless this child, holy spirits of Etherium!”

  Their wands sparked together and a circle of light wrapped around me.

  Oh, crap.

  I shut my eyes and huddled a little, braced for pain.

  My forehead burned. My wand burned in my hand too. I felt something trying to break its way through my natural defenses, a wave of nausea crashing over me. I wanted to drop my wand as it grew warm, but I made myself cling to it more tightly instead. They wanted to take my magic for me, and I couldn’t let them.

  I felt their spell shatter.

  Piers made a little strangled, angry sound that came out like, “Hruuu!?” It was a delicious sound to hear in the course of surprising and annoying someone I hated, but I hoped it wasn’t a sound that ran in the family. If Harris said “Hruuu!?” during sex maybe he wasn’t meant to be part of this after all.

  “Should we try again?” Professor Pacetti hissed.

  “No,” Piers snapped. “It didn’t work. Her magic blocked the whole thing somehow.” He grabbed me and hauled me into the church.

  “How did you do that?” he asked.

  “Well, I guess the faeries gave me this wand and now they’re protecting me.”

  “Like Samuel before her…”

  Pacetti suddenly made a grab for my wand.

  “Stop!” I wrestled with him. “This is my wand! What’s the problem? I spent the last two years ‘unpurifed’ and I was fine, so is it that big of a deal?”

  “It’s not Ethereal magic. This is an Ethereal college. We have to look it over before it’s permitted.” Piers tapped my arm and it suddenly went limp, allowing Professor Pacetti to take it easily.

  “If it’s safe, we’ll return it,” he said.

  “You hurt my familiar, tried to warp my blood, and now you’re taking my wand.” I was seething. “Give it back.”

  I was pissed off, and I could feel my anger flaring up into power. I’d never felt such a direct flow of emotion into magic before.

  All the candles in the church lit at once.

  “Give me the wand,” I repeated.

  Piers handed me the wand without any resistance.

  I ran out of the church before he realized what he was doing, but as I shoved the door open, I felt giddy.

  Is this how Mom felt when she learned to use her magic?

  Is this feeling what the Withered Lord promised her that made her stay?

  Because I gotta say, it felt pretty intoxicating. I felt like I’d gotten a little of my own back after what the council did to Firian.

  Montague, Alec and Harris were huddled together, talking, but they looked up when I ran out.

  “I told you she was going to save herself,” Harris said.

  Montague threw an arm around me. “Let’s get out of here.” Some students were glaring at me. It was pretty clear at this point that the school was divided into two factions: the ones who was glad Master Blair was gone, and the ones who weren’t.

  “Are we going to talk about what happened back there?” Montague asked. “How did you defy the purification spell?”

  “There was a magical fish on the floor of the church,” I said. “And it was actually a faery that wanted help. Which I realize sounds…strange…”

  “As faery behavior goes, it sounds normal,” Montague said.

  “So I put the fish in the holy water, and then a magical priest ghost appeared, and I thought he might be mad, but he said some wise things and put the holy water on my forehead and said it would protect me.”

  “So you didn’t really do much,” Harris said. “You really are a Chosen One. Whenever you’re in trouble, some spirit shows up and bails you out.”

  “Harris, I am telling you this after the fact, but when it first happened, all I knew was that a fish was dying on the floor and I picked it up and tried to save it, and it was slimy. I’m sorry I didn’t learn to cast Fortune’s Wheel, or throw the One Ring into Mount Doom or behead a demon, but I didn’t do nothing.”

  “You tossed a fish into some water.”

  Harris didn’t look well. We made it to Lancelot House, but when we reached his room, he stumbled toward his bed. He still was with it enough to stay stubbornly on his feet and glower.

  “Are you sick, Harris?” I asked.

  “I caught a chill in the rain last night, I guess.”

  “You can’t actually get sick from being cold. Maybe there should be a science class at magic school.”

  “Maybe it’s different for warlocks,” he growled, and then coughed.

  “That makes no sense.” I put a hand to his forehead. “You’re burning up.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Do you need to go to the infirmary? Is there a magical cure for colds?” I turned to Montague and Alec. “Why don’t you guys go see if you can find him something.”

  I had an edge to my voice. They could definitely tell this was as much as me having it out with Harris as anything else.

  “As you wish,” Montague said, with a smirk, and they left.

  Harris and I hadn’t been alone much.

  “So what is your problem?” I said. “I’m sick of it. More than two years of this bullshit. You really think I’m just some stupid ‘Chosen One’? You’re jealous.”

  “I ran miles in the cold last night to get to Stuart, trying to save you,” he said. “I thought you saved yourself and it was actually faeries and ghosts.”

  I actually slapped him. It just popped out and it felt so good that I realized why women in movies slapped men’s faces so often. I wasn’t usually violent, but I thought Harris could take a slap.

  Hell, maybe he liked getting slapped. “I deserved tha
t,” he said, with a crooked smile.

  “Yeah, you did. You want to tell me why you always do this? One minute, you seem like you’d do anything for me, and them—” I gestured at the space Montague and Alec had just left. “But what comes out of your mouth is another story.”

  “I’ve been an ass since Monty got turned into a vampire. I know I’ve been an ass, but it kinda feels like all I have. That’s what my family does. We climb social ladders, hoard money, cut out people who disappoint us…”

  “You ran away from home,” I said. “It’s not all you have.”

  “But—you can’t run away. Not really.” He looked pained. “I have to go back home for autumn break.”

  “You don’t have to. Do you need money or social ladders? I mean, what do I know? I know I didn’t grow up in a mansion as a fancy warlock. I grew up in Ass-End, Georgia, so normal that I guess it pains you, and no one there is rich, but my dad sure wasn’t the richest there either. But we had each other. My family has my back, no matter what. And I think Montague and Alec would have your back, too. And so would I, for that matter, if you didn’t keep trying so hard to push us away.”

  He walked closer to me, his breathing a little strained. “I saved you because I had one of the Hapsburg treasures. I was able to get you home to your dad your first Christmas because I pulled strings. I got Monty a car. It won’t be the last time I save you because I’m a rich asshole, Charlotte. So if I give that up—”

  “You’re still a hell of a warlock,” I said. “You’ll find other ways to save us.”

  “What if I don’t?”

  “You would—”

  He cut me off, his tone like acid. “What if I know a way to make Firian human again but it only works if I go home and grovel to my parents?”

  “Is—is that—for real?” I stammered.

  He grabbed my arm. “You need Harrison von Hapsburg Nicolescu,” he said. “You don’t need Harris Nobody.”

  “Okay—fine.” I swallowed. “But you don’t have to act this way when we’re alone.”

  He was standing so close now that my eyes met his collar. He spoke in my ear. “How do you want me to act?” His words were more bitter than sexy, but I still felt a weird thrill race through me.

  “I want you to be yourself,” I gasped.

  “Do you really, truly want that?”

  His fingers brushed my chin. I looked up at him now, his blue eyes meeting mine with icy, yet barely pent desire. My skin shivered under his touch even though his skin was so warm.

  “I want to know what’s inside your head,” I said.

  He trailed the fingers back down my neck, and then he kissed me softly.

  At first.

  Oh…

  His lips brushed mine, tasted mine—his hand slipped to my lower back and pressed me against him. I kissed him back, following his lead.

  “I can still feel the sting of your hand on my cheek,” he said.

  “I’m not usually so violent.”

  “I don’t believe it. We have something in common,” he said. “You have a kind heart, Charlotte. But you also have a taste for…taking what you want.”

  I swallowed, glancing away as he remained so close to me that I could smell the scent of him beneath the clean, rich boy scent of his clothes and aftershave. That was the wolf in me, I guess, the wolf I barely knew but had almost lost.

  Harris had seen the look in my face when I walked out of the church. I felt like he was the only one who saw something I barely acknowledged in myself.

  When I came here, I was scared of being hurt or losing something, but even from the start, the idea of having power thrilled me. I had been warned a hundred times or more that I might die or lose someone close to me—that it was likely, in fact. Why didn’t I run away? Why did I take risks to return?

  I wanted to be a Chosen One.

  I wanted to be the heroes and heroines I idolized. Not anyone real. Never anyone real. In the Princess Bride, Wesley could get out of any situation. In Game of Thrones, Arya could take out her enemies without them seeing it coming. I wanted to be cool and composed, like my dark mage alter-ego Larius, who could wave a problem away with his hand and a dark spell.

  Now I knew the truth about Ignatius, Samuel, Stuart, and my mother and grandmother. They broke ancient rules and did what they wanted. Anything seemed possible for me.

  It gave me such a thrill, such a desire, that I couldn’t stop even though I knew at some point, I would be hurt. Which meant, Dad would be hurt. Which meant, my heart wasn’t that kind after all.

  And Harris saw that.

  “You’re right…,” I said.

  I reached a hand to his hair, dragged it through my fingers, and took a kiss from him now.

  His hands moved to my waist and gripped me. When I slipped a tongue into his mouth, he pushed me back, claiming my mouth instead.

  “I take what I want too,” he said.

  “No, you don’t,” I said. “Not if you go home and grovel.”

  “You don’t want me to save Firian?”

  “What do you need?”

  “A ring,” he said. “Another Hapsburg treasure that breaks curses. It’s in the family’s jewelry case.”

  “So…” I put my hands on his chest. “Let’s figure out another way.”

  “I’ll go home and steal it, Charlotte,” he said. “I will, if I can have you.”

  You were always meant to be mine, I thought. Still, looking at his arrogant blond head and the way he said it, my stubbornness flared. “‘Have’ me?”

  “Yes,” he said. “And I don’t want to wait. I swear I will save Firian.”

  “Are you bargaining for me?”

  “I’m demanding to have you,” he said, his eyes already penetrating me as much as anyone could with any body part, frankly. “I’ve been wanting you for over two years. I’ve held back. I was engaged, and I would never cheat. I tried to resist you for our own good, both of us, and now I wonder why I tried to do anything for your own good. You’ll get yourself in trouble with or without me. You’re determined to do it. So I might as well…just…”

  He held me close, kissing my neck. I was hot with the need to succumb.

  “My boyfriends will be back with your medicine any minute,” I said.

  He lifted his hand and locked the door. “So we have a minute.”

  “I’m going to slap you again.”

  “Go ahead.” He swept me with those eyes. “I know you want this. We both know. Haven’t we played this game long enough?”

  I did want it. He was right. It didn’t make much logical sense, but “Sexual Attraction to Assholes” is generally not a logical sense sort of thing. I’m sure there were a few like, brain surgeons or NASA scientists who went home and had dirty sex with some guy who rode a motorcycle.

  But then Harris would win.

  He also didn’t have a motorcycle. I could do better.

  And as much as I wanted him, I didn’t want to give him the upper hand.

  “No,” I said. “You can’t just demand me. And you definitely can’t blackmail me. Do you know a single thing about romance?”

  “I don’t need to know a single thing about romance,” he said. “Your expressions are so transparent.”

  “I’m transparent? Your skin is practically see-through, and your desperate attempts to show me up are worse.”

  “They’re not desperate,” he said, “if I do show you up.”

  “Save Firian first,” I said. “Show me you mean what you say. I love Firian, and I always will, and if you care about me you’ll have to care about him.”

  We heard Montague and Alec coming. “I save Firian, and my prize is you. Every inch of you,” he said under his breath.

  I must have been blushing so hard. “Maybe,” I said.

  “No maybes,” he said.

  “Earn it, and there won’t be any maybes.”

  He unlocked the door with another flick of his finger and lay in bed.

  Chapter Sixtee
n

  Charlotte

  When Alec and Montague came back, they brought some medicine for Harris, and they both seemed super pissed off that Piers and Professor New Jersey tried to make an example of me and hurt me, and that if they tried to do anything about it they would just get expelled or something.

  It’s nice that y’all want to be protective, but I am so turned on right now! I just had to turn down Harris and now I want to get me some while he lays here feverish and frustrated! Evil laughter!

  That was what I wanted to scream, but didn’t.

  “I feel like they did it not just to hurt Charlotte, but also to taunt us,” Alec said. “They don’t like Sinistrals and they’re trying to goad us into doing something so they have an excuse to get rid of us.”

  “So we’re just supposed to take it while Charlotte gets hurt?”

  “We have to,” Alec said. “It might go against your vampire rage instinct—”

  “‘Vampire rage instinct’?” Montague’s brows drew together. “She’s our lady. Rayner would never have let Lisbeth get hurt under his watch.”

  “Guys, I wasn’t hurt,” I said.

  “You were lucky,” Harris coughed. “But they’ll find another way to get what they want.”

  “Can we talk in our room so poor, poor, sick Harris can take a nap?” I asked sarcastically.

  “You and Alec can go,” Montague said. “I have some stuff to do.”

  “What stuff?” I asked, baffled.

  “I have a paper to finish,” he said.

  Okay, whatever, I guess he needed some broody vampire time. I looked at Alec and lifted my eyebrows.

  Good old Alec. One signal and I could make him forget about everything else.

  We stepped outside the other guys’ room as Montague flicked on his desk lamp and picked up a book and Harris seemed to fall into an instant sleep. Boring.

  “I still need to get my workout,” Alec said.

  “Hey, I could come work out with you,” I said. “Maybe it would be good for me to get buff.”

  He pinched my arm. “You’ve got a long road ahead in that case.”

  “Or I could just watch you.”

  “There’s a treadmill with a nice view.”