I just didn’t know if Elric would want a relationship with Vega beyond their business relationship and alliance.
Thatch eyed me dispassionately. “By this point, I’m sure Mr. Khaba has discovered Elric’s presence and has kicked him off school grounds.”
“Okay. Fine. Just a few more minutes.” I inhaled the scent of his skin, traces of starlight and winter clinging to him. He smelled of oil paint, dusty books, and a hint of lavender that I’d always assumed was part of his magic until learning it was his shampoo.
“Two minutes,” he said.
I lifted my chin and kissed him. I was pretty sure I could convince him to spend more than two minutes with me. Ten minutes into making out and heavy petting, I grabbed onto his erection, making him forget about curfew, propriety, and all the teachers at the school he disliked, distrusted, or thought might be in league with the Raven Court.
I enjoyed seeing him lose himself in the moment, spidery lashes closed against his cheeks. He moaned as he came, twisting away just in time to avoid hitting me with a spurt of red lightning. I hadn’t expected the crackles of electricity to catch the curtains of the canopy bed on fire.
Somehow I was going to need to figure out how to sleep with the man I loved without the risk of being turned into barbeque.
CHAPTER TWO
Cinderella’s Glass Slipper
Nestled in the warmth of Felix Thatch’s arms, I woke to the sound of knocking. The odor of burnt fabric assaulted my nose as I inhaled deeply. Even after using magic to clear the air after his little accident, some of the smell had remained.
Thatch drew away, leaving me cold and naked in his bed.
“Who’s there?” Thatch asked, his voice coming out gruffly as though he’d been sleeping.
After he’d put out the flames, I was sure he would have turned me out, only he’d been so tired. Maybe his supposed Celestor magic couldn’t power him through post-coitus with a Red affinity. I supposed pleasant touch was his weakness. It would affect him somehow.
Josie’s voice came through the door, sounding scared. “I need to talk to you. Vega did something horrible. Have you heard?”
Oh God, what had Vega done now? I considered her newly acquired affinity and wondered if it had something to do with that. It hadn’t yet manifested as pain or pleasure magic. Maybe it was blood magic like Thatch’s sister, and she’d killed someone. I was always bringing out the demonic nature in my friends. I should never have let her convince me to turn her into a Red affinity.
I sat up in bed, hugging the sheet to me. Thatch retrieved my clothes from the floor and shoved them into my arms before turning back to the door.
“I’ll meet you in my office,” he said. “Give me a minute to make myself decent.”
I hurried to the bathroom to dress. Maybe the latest bad thing Vega had done was invite Elric onto school grounds, and got caught having sex in our dorm room.
A small part of me wondered the same thing. Hopefully all the favors Vega owed me would put an end to writing me notes with death threats and gifting me with poisonous flowers to try to scare me.
Thatch peeked into the bathroom around the partially closed door, his voice a whisper. He had thrown on his pants and shirt. He was still buttoning it up. “I’ll leave the door unlocked so you can leave out the back hallway up to your classroom. Give me a minute to detain Miss Kimura in the privacy of my office before you leave.”
Considering all I had achieved was undergarments so far, it would take me more than a minute. I hurriedly shimmied into my green-and-black striped leggings. Thatch handed me one of my shoes. I didn’t see the other shoe with my bundle of clothes.
Thatch closed the bathroom door. I looked under my blouse and skirt. Still no shoe. That probably meant it had gotten kicked under his bed, and I would have to retrieve it afterward. I threw on my blouse and hurriedly pulled up my skirt. The creak beyond the bathroom signaled Thatch’s departure.
I placed a hand on the door handle, about to exit when I heard Josie’s voice in the bedroom. I recoiled from the door.
“I told you to wait in my office,” Thatch said coolly.
Her voice was high and full of panic. “I need you to hurry. I can’t find Clarissa anywhere. Or Vega. Khaba said Vega left right after he caught her in her dorm room with her Fae boyfriend. That’s Clarissa’s ex-boyfriend. Vega hasn’t returned. Clarissa wasn’t in her dorm or the infirmary—”
Thatch’s voice grew louder. “Stop. Out of my private quarters. You can’t just barge in here uninvited.”
I hated that Josie was so worried about me. I wished I could tell her the truth instead of sneaking around. Thatch had asked me to wait a couple more weeks, and I had agreed, but every moment of my relationship with Thatch that I kept secret ate at my conscience.
“Stop being such a dick and listen to me,” Josie said. “I need your help finding Clarissa.”
“Calm down. Miss Lawrence is alive and well. I saw her some time ago. She’s probably sleeping,” Thatch said. “Let us go to my office to discuss this matter further there.”
The fear that had been there moments ago in Josie’s voice was replaced by suspicion. “Why do you have Clarissa’s shoe?”
I hugged the other shoe to my chest. I was a regular Cinderella all right.
Thatch’s voice was a low rumble in response. “That isn’t Miss Lawrence’s shoe.”
“Yes, it is. It’s a size six. We’re the same size.”
“You are mistaken.”
“Stop lying!”
Something thudded, soft and muffled like a fist on flesh.
“Ow,” Thatch said in an unexcited monotone. Considering his pain affinity, he’d probably enjoyed that.
Josie yelled, her high voice turning deep and edging on demonic. “Why do you have her shoe? Tell me. Right now.”
“I admit it.” Thatch sighed. “You’ve caught me, Miss Kimura.”
I waited for him to admit the truth. My heart thudded more quickly in excitement. A mixture of trepidation and hope swelled inside me. I could stop lying to her. Only, I needed to be the one to tell her. He would probably say it in some way that would hurt her feelings and make her hate me.
I stared at the door knob, hesitating. If I left the bathroom, I didn’t know if I would make things worse. If I didn’t, he might make things worse.
Instead of going where I thought he was, Thatch said, “I stole it. I happen to know Miss Lawrence is perfectly fine because she came to me twice tonight looking for her shoe, and I sent her back to the infirmary. She’s wandering about in the school wearing one shoe, looking for the match.”
“I cannot believe you. Give that to me. Why do you have to be such a big jerk?” The door slammed.
I listened to make sure she truly was gone this time.
The door opened again, and Thatch left, taking with him my momentary excitement that I might have an excuse to tell Josie the truth. I understood Thatch’s concern. Not only did Josie despise him for spurning her love, but she was friends with Khaba—and she was unable to keep a secret under the best of circumstances. And Thatch didn’t trust Khaba. So ultimately if I was going to convince Thatch that it was safe to tell Josie, he needed to see that Khaba wasn’t looking for reasons to get him fired.
Unfortunately Khaba did want to fire him because he thought Thatch was behind Derrick’s and Brogan’s deaths. He was convinced Thatch still worked for the Raven Queen. I hadn’t helped the matter when I’d confided to him about the bargain between Thatch and Elric, which had made Thatch look like a big jerk.
I realized then I was going to have to prove Thatch’s innocence to Khaba.
CHAPTER THREE
With This Next Magic Trick, She’ll Make Her Problem Completely Disappear
I would have gone straight to my room to sleep, but Thatch had wanted me to use the secret passage leading up a stairwell past supply closets to my classroom. I carried my right shoe under my arm since I
still didn’t have the left shoe, holding a fireball spell just above my palm to light my way and burn away any spiderwebs in my path. There were enough spiders in the passage to fulfill a jorogumo’s fantasies. I used my key to unlock the door from the stairwell to the back of my classroom.
As I exited from the door at the front of my classroom and headed down to the main floor via the public stairs, Josie found me. Hurriedly, I extinguished my fire spell before she spotted it. No one was supposed to know my magic was back.
Another secret I was keeping from my best friend.
Josie’s wand glowed buttery gold, light radiating three times as far as my fire spell had. She hugged me and handed me my other shoe. “That bag of dicks stole this.” She used her usual endearment for Thatch.
“Thanks,” I said. Reluctantly I drew farther back, under the premise of putting on my shoes. I didn’t want to hug her too long and set off her affinity.
She removed her black-rimmed glasses and wiped them off on one of the mismatched patches of her loose bohemian dress. Josie’s hair was long and black with lavender streaks threaded throughout that matched her lacy witch hat. She hailed from Seattle, but her secret jorogumo nature came from her Japanese ancestry.
“So, are you going to tell me what’s up with all these rumors about Vega murdering you?” she asked.
“That’s not what happened. I was the one who killed her. Almost killed her.” I crouched to buckle my shoes.
She laughed. “No way! How did little ol’ you do that?”
“I was trying to use a magic technique that Thatch is teaching me.” I considered how much it was safe to tell Josie without revealing my affinity and endangering her with knowledge of what I was. The fewer who knew about my Red affinity, the less likely it was the Raven Court might torture them later.
“How can you use any magic? You were drained.” Josie pursed her lips. “Please don’t tell me that jerk told you it’s possible to regain your magic. I already told you it’s impossible.”
The best way to lie was to sandwich it between two truths. I hoped. “It isn’t impossible. Gertrude Periwinkle, our librarian, regained her magic. So did Ludomil Sokoloff, the custodian. It took a long time. But Thatch got his back more quickly. He’s helping me, using some Celestor techniques.”
“But he’s obviously not doing a very good job of it.”
I stood, trying not to fidget like a guilty liar would. “The problem isn’t the teacher. I’m just a horrible student.” It sounded like a reasonable excuse. “He showed me some Celestor magic. Some telepathy-empathy stuff. I was trying to use it on Vega to persuade her not to blackmail me. I guess I did it wrong, and I stopped her heart.”
“No, you didn’t. Sorry to say, she’s still alive.” Josie looped an arm through mine and ushered me down the stairs.
I didn’t see an easy way to avoid touching her without offending her.
“Actually, her heart did stop. She wasn’t breathing. I called for help, but no one was around, so I used CPR to resuscitate her.” I left out the part about me using electricity to Frankenstein her heart back to life. “Jackie Frost came in and saw me doing first aid and assumed I was doing necromancy or something.”
“Wow. So you were the one using forbidden arts, not Vega. She’ll be so jealous.” Josie winked at me, her dark brown eyes sparkling with delight. “There’s nothing worse than Morty science.”
“Yeah, well, that isn’t the end of the story. I woke up and Elric was in my room. He and Vega started making out. I wasn’t feeling well, so I went downstairs—”
Josie made a face. “I wouldn’t be feeling well either if I saw my evil roommate sucking on my ex-boyfriend’s face.”
I nudged her with my shoulder. “I wasn’t feeling well because I was having magical problems. One of my students went to get Thatch, and he had to do some fancy Celestor spell to get my magical system working again because my soul kept wanting to leave my body.”
Josie made a face. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the one who evicted your soul from your body in the first place as some kind of joke.”
We passed posters advertising Josie’s knitting club and my art club. Shadows shifted around us. A creak on the steps behind us drew my attention. I glanced over my shoulder. No one was there—unless it was Thatch following to make sure I safely returned to my room, and he was using an invisibility spell.
“Felix Thatch isn’t like that,” I said. “He’s saved my life a few times now.” I wanted her to understand he wasn’t evil. I wanted to tell her he was my boyfriend now, though I knew he wouldn’t want that. I settled for trying to acclimate her to the idea that he was a decent human being. “He can actually be really nice when he wants to be.”
“You mean when he isn’t stealing your shoes?”
“That was a joke. I don’t care about that. It’s actually pretty funny.” I laughed, but it sounded forced.
As we came out to the main floor, the light of Josie’s wand fell on the painting of my biological mother. Alouette Loraline’s eyes watched us emerge into the hallway. She wore a high-collared Victorian gown, the brim of her witch hat shrouding her eyes in shadows. Green snakes circled around her arms, the emerald and black not so different from the stripes of my leggings. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw the snakes slither and shift.
The last time I’d passed this painting in the middle of the night I had been using my awareness to reach out beyond myself. I had felt a woman’s presence, full of animosity and hate. I now assumed that had been Vega, angry about every supposed wrong I’d unwittingly done to her.
I didn’t want to reach outside myself. I was afraid if I did, I might get stuck outside my body again and not be able to get back in without Thatch’s help. But looking at my biological mother’s painting out of the corner of my eye and seeing her lips move tempted me.
There was just something uncanny about that painting of Alouette Loraline. The more I stared at it, the more I would swear it wanted to draw me in to tell me a secret.
Josie followed my gaze. “Do you think he hates you because he really was in love with her like they say?”
I blinked. “What? Who?”
She smacked me in the shoulder. “Thatch, dummy. He was supposedly in love with Loraline. This isn’t the first time you’ve heard it, is it?”
I drew back, rubbing my arm. There was nothing like pain to bring me into the present. A scuff on the stairs we’d exited drew my attention. I squinted into the shadows. No one was there.
I looked back to Josie. “I guess he might have been in love with her, but he’s over her. He said so.” A flicker of movement from the painting caught my eye. “He used to hate me when I first started here. He didn’t want to work with me, but he’s over that. We’re friends now.”
“Did he tell you that you’re friends, or is that your assumption?” She placed a hand on her hip. “Because he doesn’t do friendship. He has associates and . . . colleagues.” She imitated his British accent.
It was hard not to laugh at her exaggeration of his speech pattern. The light shifted, our shadows shifting along the walls like phantoms. The sneaky smile on Alouette Loraline’s face in the painting seemed to shift from cunning to surprise.
“What the hell?” Josie said. “Are you doing that?”
A whisper came from beside me, and I started. The hiss of air echoed first from my mother’s portrait, then to the stairway, to the dark passage, and then the painting again. Light swirled in front of us, spiraling and snaking in streaks of silver and gold. I stumbled back from the painting. I smelled winter and starlight.
A woman’s voice, deep and resonant, a hint of accent lacing her tone said, “Roses are red. Magic is blue. I took her head, now I’ll have yours and your boyfriend’s too.”
The light died away.
Josie and I both screamed and ran.
END OF EXCERPT
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sarina Dorie has sold over 150 short stories to markets like Analog, Daily Science Fiction, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Orson Scott Card’s IGMS, Cosmos, and Abyss and Apex. Her stories and published novels have won humor and Romance Writer of America awards. She has sold three novels to publishers. Her steampunk romance series, The Memory Thief and her collections, Fairies, Robots and Unicorns—Oh My! and Ghosts, Werewolves and Zombies—Oh My! are available on Amazon, along with a dozen other novels she has written.
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