Regent Nyquist nodded to the box as if I was to open it here in front of everyone.
With sweating palms, I undid the silken strand that held the lid on. Carefully, I pried the two halves apart. Light spilled out, growing brighter as the gap widened.
At first, the illumination coming from the item prevented me from figuring out its nature, but once my eyes adjusted, I saw it: a tiny flower. Or, rather, a dandelion gone to seed, gold and radiant as if imbued with power.
I stared, stunned, while the regent explained his gift to the crowd.
“If you’re wondering what is in the box, I have presented Charlie with a Dandelion Wish.”
There was a gasp from the crowd. A few put their hands to their mouths in shock.
Blinking, I looked from the glowing weed to the crowd, to Regent Nyquist. He smiled, nodding at me.
“It seems Charlie is unfamiliar with the item. Let me explain for those who do not know. A Dandelion Wish is thought of as one of the most special gifts a witch or warlock can bestow. It allows the receiver to ask one wish of the giver and the giver is bound to make it happen—nothing illegal or immoral, mind you.” He winked at the crowd, pointing a finger jokingly at a few faces.
A wish? Any wish?
The crowd broke into applause. Disha patted me on the back. I sat frozen, too stunned to do anything.
“Thank you. Thank you,” Regent Nyquist said. “It’s the least I can do for the girl who saved my life. Who saved the Academy.”
At last, the attention shifted off of me. Waiters brought dishes to the tables, and everyone began to eat. The din of silverware and chatting voices filled the hall.
I needed to think of a wish. But what?
Regent Nyquist turned off his voice projection spell and sat down beside me, staring into the box as if he too were unable to take his eyes off the radiant dandelion.
“So, what do you think it’ll be?” His rheumy eyes glowed with anticipation as they flicked from the box to my face.
“Well, I don’t know. Could I maybe… think about it?”
He cocked his head. “I wish I could give you that time, Charlie, but the spell on this is very ancient and only lasts about an hour. It’s done to protect the individual who receives it, so no one tries to steal it, potentially hurting you in the process. That would be unfortunate and very dangerous for both of us, as you can imagine.”
“So, I have an hour to decide?”
My mind swam with thoughts. I could wish for some great magical power, but which one? I could ask to pass all of my classes, but the teachers were already being so nice. Passing would be easy. I could ask for money, but I hadn’t needed it in the two and a half years I’d been here, so why would I now?
The regent took a sip from his wine goblet. “Yes, it’s a very big decision. While you’re contemplating, can I ask you something?”
I nodded, preoccupied with my thoughts. Hmm, a mirror that could tell the future? An unlimited wardrobe for Disha? She practically already had one of those.
The regent leaned forward to get my attention. “Charlie, can you tell me something that’s been weighing on my mind? How were you, a junior student—a very talented one, but still, an unpracticed witch compared to the staff that was in attendance—how were you able to break out of the rigor mortis spell that kept everyone else pinned that night?” His humor was gone, the smiles and finger guns holstered. Instead, his gaze was calculating as he studied my face.
Why did this suddenly feel like an interrogation?
I cleared my throat, experiencing way too many emotions to properly process them. “I’ve been pinned before, sir. Too many times for my liking. I hate it, not being able to move. I spent all summer studying how to break free.” I laughed nervously.
Regent Nyquist gave me a strange look. “I see. How fortunate for us all.”
He seemed to want to press the matter further, but he didn’t. For my part, I couldn’t take my mind off the wish I was supposed to make. One question was hounding me, though, and I had to ask.
“Sir, could I... bring my friend, Trey, back from… the dead?” I whispered.
He shook his head. “That, my dear, is sadly beyond my powers. And against International Magical Law Two-Twenty-Three.”
“Oh. Right. Then…” I wracked my brain. I wished I could go back to my room and really think things through, but time was ticking and the regent kept staring at me expectantly.
Glancing up, my eyes found Sinasre cleaning dirty dishes off a table while a wealthy witch looked on in disgust. How confined he seemed in that waiter’s coat, how suffocated. I knew he and his people suffered here, trapped away from their home as they were. My mother was dead, but what would it feel like if she were alive and I could never see her? Horrible.
The portal between worlds was shut to them and it was all these stuffy, stuck up warlocks’ fault.
Anger burned in my veins. As if sensing it, Sinasre’s gaze found mine. Curiosity played on his cat-like features.
“I think I know my wish,” I said before I changed my mind.
The regent’s expression brightened. He clapped his hands together and rubbed them excitedly. “Very well. What will it be? Untold wealth? A nudge for a certain boy?” He smiled like a naughty grandpa.
“No,” I said sharply. “I wish that you let the fae use our portal to travel between their world and ours. I wish you would let them all go home if they want to.”
“What?” Shock exploded onto his face as he took in my words. “But, I… I can’t.”
“Can’t you?” I asked, all my nervous energy falling away. “Because I thought you said the giver is bound to make it happen as long as it isn’t illegal or immoral.”
His eyes narrowed. “The portal between our realms is closed for a reason. Those people are savage and violent. The ones who are trapped here broke the rules to begin with. They are suffering the consequences of their own actions. We can’t just allow them to come and go.”
He looked as if he was about to protest further, but suddenly the dandelion’s light grew brighter and brighter. It began to hover above the box, illuminating our table and then the hall. The conversation died as all eyes turned toward us.
The dandelion began to spin. As it did, small bits of golden seed fluff separated from the head and floated up to the ceiling. A hum filled the air.
Regent Nyquist went stiff beside me. As the dandelion spun faster, a trail of golden light seeped out of his open mouth. It trailed up until it joined the cloud of dandelion fluff near the ceiling.
A magical shockwave pulsed out across the room.
Momentarily blinded, I covered my eyes. When I opened them, the dandelion was gone. Regent Nyquist was stiff, blinking and wiping his chin as he seemed to compose himself.
Across the room, Sinasre was staring at me. I gave him a half smile and mouthed, You’re going home.
He seemed to understand and his expression filled with shock. As I watched, he dropped his tray of dirty dishes onto a table and headed out a back door, ripping off his waiter’s coat as he did so.
I stood. Disha stared up at me in surprise. “Where are you going?”
“There’s someone I need to talk to.”
Before she could ask any more questions, I rushed away from the table and after Sinasre.
I pushed through the door and into the courtyard. The night had grown cold and dark. A sharp wind hit me as soon as I stepped away from the building. My thin dress did nothing to keep out the chill. The wrap I’d worn was back on the chair.
I searched for him as the wind tugged at my hair. The courtyard was full of shadows. Pebbles crunched under my shoes as I took a few steps forward. As I proceeded further in, tall trees stood above me like solemn guardians.
“Sinasre?”
“Char-lie.”
He stepped out of the dark. He was shirtless, the waiter’s jacket and shirt gone, leaving his spectacular chest bare. He’d taken down his hair, too, letting it fall wild and free around his sculpted shoul
ders. Moonlight glistened in his yellow eyes as he watched me with a sort of feral alertness.
Suddenly, my nerves were back, but for a completely different reason.
I tugged at my hair with trembling fingers. “So, it looks like you won’t be around for finals, but that’s okay. You get to see your mom again. I—”
My words fell away as he pulled me into his arms and pressed his lips to mine.
Chapter Twenty-Three
SPRING SEMESTER
LATE JANUARY
Sinasre was kissing me, but the real shocker was…
I was kissing him back.
My fingers tangled in his long, wild hair and pulled him closer. He responded by leading me backward and pressing me against the west side of the building, away from the door and prying eyes. His body was solid and delicious against mine.
He deepened his kiss, his soft lips parting mine, and my head swam. He tasted of berries and freshly cut grass, like a spring morning after a short shower. Of their own accord, my hands slid down his naked torso, searching for the taut, sexy muscles that more than once had made me take a second glance. His skin was smooth and warm. I shivered at how good he felt.
Sinasre was beautiful and savage, an otherworldly creature that intoxicated my senses. I wasn’t sure everything I sensed was all on the up-and-up—fae were masters of deceit, after all—but, at the moment, it didn’t matter. He simply felt wonderful. My heart pounded wildly against my chest as tingles skipped down my skin.
His luscious lips left mine and trailed kisses down my neck. Heat burst in my veins, igniting my desire. I groaned and gripped him, dragging his body closer to mine. If we weren’t so close to the building I might pull him on top of me.
He tasted me, running his tongue across my collarbone, then nibbled on me with sharp canine teeth. The sensation sent thrills up and down my spine, turning my resolve into mush. His teeth trailing along my neck brought forth an image of Rowan laying on top of me as he prepared to bite me, and, before I could do anything to stop them, the impassioned events of that night last year flooded me as if they’d happened just yesterday: Rowan hurt and bleeding from Mink’s slash to his shoulder, Disha and I feeding him blood from his mini fridge, Rowan attacking me and sucking my blood in the most exquisite way to create the most arousing night of my life.
I stiffened my hands against Sinasre’s chest and held him back. He looked up, his pupils big and round, leaving only a small sliver of yellow around them.
“You want me to stop?” he asked.
I nodded. “It’s very nice…” I paused, not wanting to hurt his feelings.
“But,” he said, reading well into my thoughts, “I’m not Rowan.”
“But… it’s not fair on you,” I said, feeling guilty.
“Fair?” He frowned as if this concept made no sense to him. “I’ve been wanting to kiss you since that night in the forest, at our party. So I would say it’s more than fair. It’s… glorious.” His gaze fell to my lips.
I smiled and rolled my eyes at his exaggeration.
“You don’t smile enough, Char-lie.” He brushed his thumb over my lower lip, sending a thrill down my body. “Did you like it?” he asked.
“Like it?”
“Kissing me?” He cocked his head to one side, sending a cascade of red hair tumbling over one bare shoulder.
I smiled again. “I did.”
He was a fine male specimen. And he knew how to turn me on. What was there not to like?
Except, as good as it had felt, it was far from the best kiss I’d ever had. That honor belonged to Rowan Underwood and no one else. Whether or not I liked it, he had stolen my heart. There was no rhyme or reason to what I felt for him, and no amount of denial had helped break that connection. Love had a mind of its own, at least mine did, and no amount of logic had been able to chip away at its stubbornness. I doubted more kisses with this hot guy could manage either, no matter how heated.
“So, if you liked it,” Sinasre continued, “what is wrong with enjoying it? You bask in the sun for the pleasure of it, don’t you? Then, why not bask in my admiration for you? I promise you it will be pleasurable.” He flashed a wicked smile, then lowered his mouth within an inch of mine.
I took the invitation and leaned forward. We kissed again, and I learned a thing or two about clandestine slips of the tongue.
“There you are,” Disha tiptoed on the lawn, hiking up her dress.
Sinasre and I sat on a cast iron bench, our hands intertwined and resting on my thigh. Disha’s brown eyes widened and her perfect eyebrows went up and stayed there as she took in the sight.
“I’ve been looking for you all over,” she said, “but I guess I shouldn’t have worried.” She winked at me, then tossed me my wrap, which I was thankful for. Sinasre had kept me warm for a bit, but sitting here while we waited, I had started to get cold and using a warming spell in front of Sinasre had felt wrong for some reason.
Disha sat next to Sinasre, took a deep breath, and glanced out toward the barrier of trees that separated the courtyard from the lake.
“It is nights like this I miss Drew the most,” she said in a wistful tone.
We were silent for a moment, enjoying the quiet night. It was too cold for bugs, so not even crickets could be heard.
“So… what did you wish for?” Disha asked after a moment. “Everyone inside is talking about it.”
Sinasre answered before I could. “Your generous, selfless friend used her wish to help us, the fae folk.”
“What?!” Disha exclaimed. “You mean you didn’t wish for my hair to never get frizzy again. What kind of friend are you?”
I chuckled. “I did consider getting you an unlimited wardrobe, but I figured you already have one of those.”
She pursed her lips and nodded, admitting it was true. “So instead you wished for this miscreant and his ilk to be able to go home?”
I nodded.
She beamed. “Good for you.” She held up a hand in front of Sinasre. I high-fived her.
“Yep,” she said, “my BFF has the biggest heart out of anyone in the whole world. That’s why that day—when I spotted her walking down a hall, looking like a lost puppy—I said to myself… Disha, that puppy is gonna be your BFF, and that was that.” She sighed placidly and smiled up at the star-speckled sky.
Up ahead, two dark figures emerged from the trees, just who we’d been waiting for: Anama and Lancer. Sinasre had sent a friend to share the news.
They walked lithely without making a sound. When the light of a lamppost revealed their features, I was surprised. They both appeared flushed and excited. None of their typical indifference marred their expressions.
Sinasre stood and embraced his sister, resting his cheek on the top of her head, careful to avoid her fawn horns.
“Is it true?” she asked, her light green skin appearing flushed.
“It is,” Sinasre said.
Anama sniffled as if she were about to start crying. “We’ll see Mother again!”
Lancer stepped up. “We can really go home?” His white hair shone under the lamplight, and his slender, angular face was so changed by emotion that I almost didn’t recognize him.
“Yes.” Sinasre nodded. “We can go home.”
Lancer smiled revealing pearly white teeth, and he was lovely. I’ve only ever seen him looking serious and too cool to care. Chin held high, he extended his right arm out toward Sinasre, who took hold of it and wrapped a large hand around Lancer’s forearm.
They were all smiling, their eyes full of something that hadn’t been there before, a certain kind of brightness.
I realized that it was happiness, and I had caused it.
A strange sensation fluttered in my chest as if my heart had sprouted wings and was trying to fly out of its confines. Sinasre and the others had been away from their families for a long time, and because of me, they would soon be with them again. I’d done the right thing. My wish would never feel wasted.
“Well,
what are we waiting for?” Lancer demanded. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Yes,” echoed Anama.
Sinasre turned to me, a question shaping his features as if he needed my permission.
“Go,” I said. “Be with your family.”
“We have Char-lie to thank for this,” Sinasre said.
Anama and Lancer’s eyes widened with incredulity.
“She received a Dandelion Wish from one of the regents, and this is what she asked for.”
Anama took a step closer, her eyes wavering with tears. She seized my hands in hers and peered deep into my eyes. “My brother wasn’t wrong about you, then,” she said. “You’re one of the good ones.”
She smiled beautifully, then wrapped me in a tight embrace. “I will never be able to repay you, but I promise I shall endeavor to do so. Call on me if you ever need me.”
“And me,” said Lancer.
“And me.” Sinasre gently caressed my cheek as his sister let me go, then turned and began walking in the direction of the Enlightenment Fountain.
“I’ve sent word to Father and the others,” Anama told Sinasre as they went. “I was with Lancer when you called. The rest on campus are coming later. We want to make sure everyone gets the news. Father will be so happy.”
Sinasre wrapped around his sister’s back. “He might go crazy,” he said, a smile in his voice.
Their father had been stuck on this side of things, too. I couldn’t imagine how he would feel once he found out he would be able to see his wife again.
Disha kicked off her high-heeled shoes, picked them up, then looped her arm through mine. “Let’s go witness the fruits of your selflessness, Charmander.”
I inhaled, feeling lighter than I had in a long time. “Yeah, let’s do that.”
We walked after the excited fae who were talking about all the things they would do when they got home.
“You do realize you screwed up your chances of tapping that.” She pointed toward Sinasre, whose back muscles rippled with every step.
I sighed dramatically. “I do.”
“And of finally losing your virginity.” She added with a huff.
Junior Witch Page 17
