Academy of Magic Collection

by Angelique S Anderson et al.

  “No, but lions do.”

  The answer satisfied Jess. “Never mind, then,” she said.

  He moved on, and Jess followed.

  At the second, he shook his head and continued to the next. He moved between to the two on the end. “They’ve both been empty for a long time.”

  “Which one should we pick?”

  At the one to the right, he snapped his beak. “This one smells better. Let’s take this one.”

  The gryphon bounded in and leapt onto the king-sized bed. The bedframe creaked and complained beneath his weight. He turned in a circle, plopping down with a deep sigh.

  Jess put her hands on her hips. “You’re going to nap? Now?”

  “There’s no time better.”

  “What will I do?”

  “Find the others of your flock.”

  “The others?”

  He raised his head. “It’s a school. There must be students.” Then he crossed his front paws and settled his beak on them. He blinked twice before closing his eyes.

  Jess sighed. She hadn’t expected him to check out of the situation so soon. What could she do? She didn’t know anyone. She wandered back into the corridor.

  Voices sounded toward the front of the house, but Jess didn’t go toward them. How could she introduce herself?

  “Hey, don’t shoot. I’m a new student here. What’s that? Oh, no, nobody knows me. Don’t worry about it. Rase Flannigan said I could come.”

  She rolled her eyes. That wouldn’t do at all. She had to wait until Rase and the older man arrived. They couldn’t be gone that long. Even with Friday rush-hour traffic between New Haven City and Bayburgh. Sixty minutes wasn’t an eternity.

  An hour later, Jess jogged up and down the foyer stairs for the tenth time, dashing at the tears that streamed down her face. What a weepy mess she was. With the gryphon napping in her room, she had nothing to keep her brain busy, and she thought she might break.

  The sun hadn’t even sunk below the horizon, and she’d worked her stomach into upset knots. Her hands shook, and her knees wobbled.

  Somebody had found her parents. The years of homeschooling, the glamour, all of it… It all made so much more sense. The way her mother would freak out every time Jess received extra attention for excelling in high school academics or athletics.

  God. Jess’s breath caught. They’d been in hiding the whole time.

  From what? From who? She scrubbed a hand over her face. Why had they let her go to school? She could have been safer, tucked away at home… forever.

  Headlights shone into the manor, and Jess darted back down the staircase, peering through the narrow window to one side of the grand entrance. Her heart pounded in her ears. She didn’t know where to run, but Rase jumped out and darted toward the school.

  The door burst open. Rase skidded to a stop on the foyer rug. “Jess!”

  She slammed, headlong, into her best friend. “Rase. I don’t know what happened. I’m so scared.”

  He patted her back. “It’ll be okay. Blackfox will know what to do. Where’s the gryphon?”

  Jess started to tell him, but the professor stopped behind them.

  The older man tipped his bowler. “Good evening, Miss Roberts. Welcome to my home.” He hooked a large, black umbrella on the coat rack and placed his hat at the top. From the side, a well-dressed, middle-aged man strolled in, his movements almost mechanical. “Hobson. This is Miss Jess Roberts. She’ll be staying here for a time.”

  Hobson bowed at the waist. “Miss Roberts.”

  Jess drew back. “Have you been here the whole time?” She swallowed. “Were you here when I arrived?” Had he seen the gryphon?

  Hobson nodded. “Yes, miss, but you seemed frightened. I thought I might leave you to your own devices. We had no reason to fear you.”

  Jess chewed her bottom lip. Were pets allowed inside? She didn’t want to be evicted her first night.

  Blackfox cleared his throat. “There’s very little that goes on in this house that I don’t know about.”

  Rase’s eyes widened. “The ivy,” he whispered and pointed out the window. “Wait until you meet the ivy. It has this huge eyeball.”

  Jess stumbled on the corner of the foyer rug. “What are you talking about, Rase?”

  “Never mind,” Blackfox interjected. “You’ll see soon enough.”

  Jess swayed. She felt as though the world had been ripped out from beneath her. Intense sorrow welled at the edge of her mind. “What are we going to do about my parents? That’s what I need to know.”

  Blackfox sighed. “I don’t know that we can do much tonight. The authorities are searching for you. They continue in their insistence that they only meant to take you in for questioning. Until we have a plan or a clue, you should stay here.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  “There isn’t another choice.”

  “There’s always another choice.” Jess’s voice became a wail.

  Rase draped his arm around her. “It’s okay, Jess. Blackfox will get things sorted.”

  Blackfox took her hand in his and laid his other hand over hers. The warmth seeped into her bones. “Trust me, Miss Roberts. I want to find your parents almost as much as you do. Please get washed up. You can meet the other students, and, after you’ve had something to eat, we can meet in the library and form a plan.”

  Jess took a deep breath. “Okay.” Without looking back, she climbed the stairs.

  “If anything is missing from the room at the end, please let Hobson know, Miss Roberts.”

  Jess shook her head. If Blackfox already knew what room she’d chosen, he probably already knew about the gryphon.

  Halfway down the corridor, a girl stepped into the hall and waved.

  Jess frowned. “Hello.”

  The girl smiled but didn’t speak.

  Jess crossed her arms. “Do you want something?”

  The girl’s expression didn’t change, but she shook her head.

  “Then what is it?”

  The girl held up one finger, tugged a small electronic device from her pocket, and typed on it. Then she held it up. The gadget sounded like Alexa. “I saw what happened,” it said.

  Jess scowled. “Does that talk for you?”

  She typed more. “Yes. It’s my talkbox.”

  “Talkbox,” Jess repeated.

  The girl nodded. “It’s like I text myself and then it reads the text out loud.”

  “Are you deaf?”

  She typed a bit more and then held it up. “I cannot speak, but I hear well. Did you know your gryphon snores?”

  Jess gasped. “What? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  The girl laughed, but no sound came from her mouth. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell. I hit him with a pillow and told him to roll over.”

  Jess considered the girl. “Why don’t you hang out downstairs with the other kids? I heard them earlier.”

  She lowered the device, typed a little more, and then held it up again. “Their conversations move too fast for me to keep up. They don’t like waiting for my words.”

  Jess scrutinized her, hunting for any offense that might be lurking. But the girl’s expression held no trace of malice, so Jess smiled. “I don’t mind waiting. I have a feeling you know a lot more than you get to express.”

  The girl beamed. She typed again. “My name is Winnie.”

  “Winnie?” Jess hadn’t heard that before.

  She typed a bit. “Short for Edwina. Named after my dad.”

  “Who is your dad?”

  “He was a professor here.”

  “Does he still work here? Will I meet him?”

  Her mouth turned down. “No, he died a long time ago.”

  “Oh, uh… I’m sorry.”

  More typing. “Everybody has bad stuff in their history, right? I think it comes with being different.”

  Jess shrugged and tried to swallow the boulder of sadness that clogged her throat. “Yeah, I guess,” she said. />
  “There’s a portrait of him downstairs. I’ll have to show you later.”

  “That sounds good.”

  Silently, they walked toward the room Jess had chosen earlier. The carpet muffled their steps. Jess hadn’t had a lot of bad, had she? Not until her home burned down, and her parents disappeared. Her mom had worked hard to keep bad things away. They stopped at Jess’s door.

  “Do you need anything before I go?” Winnie asked.

  Jess took a breath. The scent of smoke tickled her nose. She licked her lips, tasting the saltiness of the dried sweat. Grit still covered her. “A hot shower, maybe?”

  Winnie nodded. “The communal bathroom is at the end of the hall. There won’t be anybody in it right now. Everyone is getting ready for supper. You have towels in the room. Soap is in the shower.”

  Jess sighed. “What about clothes?”

  “Check the wardrobe. They keep a few things in every room.”

  Jess flashed a thumbs-up. “Any other necessary pointers?”

  Winnie nodded and typed into her gadget. “Don’t climb into the wardrobe. We lose more kids that way.”

  Jess almost laughed.

  After supper, Rase escorted Jess to the top of the stairs. The dimly lit hallway seemed twice as long in the after-sunset darkness. Winnie appeared mid-meal, filled a plate, and then disappeared once more. Nobody noticed except Jess.

  Rase stopped at the entrance to the south corridor.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “I’m not supposed to go any farther. Rules. I’ll be down the other hall. In the other wing.”

  Jess snorted. “School hasn’t even started, and they have you trained better than anybody ever has. It wasn’t like that in the mortal school. It makes me want to do something just to be crazy. Just to break the rules.”

  Rase shoved a hand through his hair. “Listen, Jess. I want to know what Blackfox knows. I want to learn. I didn’t used to care if we got kicked out of New Haven High. They help mystical creatures here. They know how to use their powers.”

  Jess leaned against the railing. She’d saved a tiny primate tribe and flown on the back of a gryphon. None of those things had been Blackfox’s doing.

  Blackfox didn’t even seem to care about her parents at all. She didn’t need him the same way Rase did. She didn’t need him at all.

  “I don’t want to screw this up,” Rase said. A tightness pulled at his eyes. “We’ll find your family. Trust Blackfox. I know he’s already doing everything he can. I’m sure of it.”

  Jess bit back a sigh and then punched Rase’s shoulder. “Don’t mind me, bud. I’ve had a crappy day.”

  “That’s an understatement.”

  Jess moved to a small, floral settee, resting against the wall between the entrances to the two wings. The atrium must be directly behind the landing. She took a seat, wondering if there was any secret passageways or elevators anywhere.

  Rase plopped down beside her on the couch. “What did you think of the other students?”

  Jess sighed. Of course he would ask, but she wasn’t in any mood to make comments about people. She ate because Blackfox insisted, and Timefix peered at her through a monocle as though she had been counting every bite she took.

  Rase nudged her elbow. “Well?”

  “They were noisy.”

  Rase frowned. “Noisy, how?”

  “Kumiko giggled too much. Freya knew better than everything and everybody, and Roger struck me as a jock without much brain. They’re the popular kids at New Haven High all over again.”

  Rase stood up. “That’s what you thought of them?”

  “You asked.”

  “You’re not being fair.”

  “What do you want me to do, Rase? Jump up and down and forget about my parents? Everybody is acting like it’s not a big deal. I’m about to go crazy. I have to do something, but I can’t figure out what it is.”

  “Is everything okay up there?” Timefix’s voice ricocheted off the fancy foyer walls.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Rase called back.

  “Jess?” Timefix asked.

  Jess stood and crossed to the railing. She waved down at the crazy-haired woman. “Yeah. Fine.”

  “Very well.” Timefix swept out.

  Jess turned back to Rase. “I’m off to bed. I’d hate to get pissed off and burn something down.”

  “Is the fire thing new?”

  “Yeah.”

  Rase chuckled. “Is that really what happened at school today?”

  “To my backpack, yeah.”

  Rase strolled to the stairs. After two steps down, he turned back. “I always knew you were a hothead.”

  Jess winced, but she hoped it seemed like a smile. She watched Rase until he left the foyer. Her skin prickled. “Winnie?”

  The girl stepped out of her room and held up her small speaker. “You got me.”

  “Why don’t you eat with the others?”

  She shrugged. Then she typed in the device for nearly a minute. Finally, she held it up. “I’ll have to eat with the others at some point, but Blackfox leaves me to myself for now. I like it that way. People make noise in my brain. It’s like a kind of feedback that muddles things. It makes it even harder to communicate.” She typed some more. “Except you. You don’t do that. So that’s nice.”

  Jess nodded. “You’re nice, too.”

  Winnie took a step forward. “Want to see my dad’s portrait? You’ll see the atrium, too. You probably saw the tower from outside. It’s behind the stairs that lead to the bedrooms on the second level.”

  “Sure,” Jess said. Then she glanced back toward her room. She hadn’t checked on the gryphon. The beastie had to be getting hungry.

  Winnie tapped her shoulder. “Don’t worry. I opened the window for him. You picked a good room to keep a pet gryphon. It’s one of the few rooms with a window that opens.”

  No wonder the gryphon selected that one. “Lead the way.”

  Winnie nodded. “We have to sneak. Will that bother you?”

  “Doesn’t bother me a bit.”

  Winnie led Jess down the stairs and around the corner. To the left, Freya and Kumiko played cards at the dining room table. Winnie dashed ahead.

  When Freya appeared beside her, Jess swallowed her scream. “Gah! Don’t do that,” she whisper-yelled. “You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

  Freya crossed her arms. “Where are you sneaking off to?”

  Winnie watched from the shadows, but Freya hadn’t noticed her yet.

  Jess shrugged. “I’m thirsty, and I got a little lost.”

  “Sure.” Freya didn’t look like she believed her.

  Jess poked the smirking girl’s shoulder. “Maybe you can help this newbie.”

  Freya jerked her head toward the corridor. “Down the hall. You’ll see the kitchen.”

  When Jess looked back, Freya had disappeared. If they didn’t hurry, Freya would tattle to Kumiko and one of them –probably Freya—would go and blab to one of the professors. If she was going to see the portrait, she had to do it now.

  Two yards farther in the corridor, Winnie waved wildly. Jess bolted down the hall, her pulse pounding in her ears. They ran down the corridor. The narrowness exploded into a wide atrium, several stories tall. A waterfall poured out of one wall, cascading into a large pool. They didn’t slow but jogged through.

  Jess pointed to the water at the bottom. “Swimming pool?” she asked between breaths.

  Winnie threw her head back and laughed. Then she punched two letters into her device. “No,” she said.

  The duo ducked into a hallway on the other side. The floor seemed slightly inclined, but Jess couldn’t be sure. Dozens of rooms branched off of the corridor. Between each door, a spotlight shined on a portrait. Halfway to the end, Winnie slowed.

  She stopped in front of one. A pleasant man smiled outward. He wore a gray uniform with giant brass-looking buttons. Medals decorated his chest. She typed into her device. “He
re’s my dad.”

  A golden plaque beside the portrait read Edwin Clark.

  “He’s handsome,” Jess said.

  Winnie clutched her hands beneath her chin and nodded. She peered up at her father with a kind of adoration that made Jess’s heart hurt. Where had her parents gone? Would she ever see them again?

  Jess moved from portrait to portrait. What a large collection of people. They all bore names and titles from their time at the Creature Caretake Academy. It fascinated Jess.

  Clearly, the Creature Caretaker Academy had a long-standing tradition of helping creatures. Why had she never heard of them? Perhaps Blackfox meant to keep his students safe… the way Jess’s mother had tried to keep her family safe. Her stomach twisted, and she braced herself against the wall. She couldn’t lose her dinner right there. She remained motionless until the nausea passed, then she kept on.

  Near the end, she clamped a hand over her mouth to keep the shriek from slipping out. When the shock abated, she swallowed the lump in her throat.

  “Mama,” she whispered. The image was of her mother. Much younger than Jess had ever seen her before, but she would have recognized the pointed ears and green-eyed stare any place.

  The plaque beside the portrait read Myrna Roberts. It must have been done after her mother met her father. That meant her dad must know about the school, too.

  Jess stroked the side of the frame. She gasped when something stabbed her index finger. She peered at the side of the frame.

  Two words had been scratched into the painted wood: Unseen Street. She scowled. A place? How could that be? Had her mother left it for her? Was it a clue? It had to be a clue. Those two words wouldn’t have been accidentally scratched into the side of the portrait frame. It had to be intentional.

  Winnie approached, typing into her device. “What is it?”

  Jess wiped tears from her cheeks, and then she turned to Winnie. “I have to find Unseen Street.”

  Chapter Twelve

  A Lesson

  The next morning, Rase re-folded his clothes and replaced them back inside his shelves. He wiped his desk with yesterday’s t-shirt and turned to his bed. He hadn’t brought much with him to the school. He still had to eat breakfast.