“All the more reason I should stay! That’s…pretty cool of you, actually. Who knew you were a feminist.”
“Times are changing,” Master Blair said. “But the council isn’t.”
I heard footsteps and voices. Firian, Montague and Alec were coming to visit. Master Blair stood up.
“I was wrong to expect that generations of change should be undone by you, and stupid to expect that the Withered Lord would leave you alone. That’s all. Please…go home and get well.”
“Master Blair—no—wait! You can’t just leave me hanging—“
The curtains shook behind him as he slipped out.
“What was that about?” Alec asked.
“What a jerk,” I hissed. “He wants me to go home and go to the University of Georgia.”
“No way we’re letting you go,” Alec said. “He can’t just throw you into this world and kick you out again.”
“Although maybe we shouldn’t summon any demons ever again,” Montague said.
“He sealed my magic!”
Harris walked in after them. He looked at all of us and the flowers I realized were by my bed. Six bouquets. Monty, Alec, Firian, Dad, probably the faculty…and…Harris?
“I think I won the bet,” I said. “I summoned a demon. I haven’t seen you do that yet.”
“And I saved you from the demon.”
“The demon was my mom!”
“This entire incident only proved how much trouble you all get into without me,” Harris said. “Montague gets turned into a vampire. And Charlotte was this close to getting pulled into the abyss.”
“You saved her because you had a shard of Hapsburg unicorn horn,” Firian said. “That is just privilege.”
“Of course it is,” Harris said, clearly clueless of the fact that privilege wasn’t supposed to be a good thing. “The privilege of my name; that’s why you need me, but it’s ridiculous for Charlotte not to attend Merlin College now.”
“Still…” Alec put a hand on my forehead, for the second he was able to. “You’re in rough shape. For a couple hours we thought you might die.”
“A couple hours?”
“You got very cold,” Montague said. “They were casting all these spells on you to save you. We waited on the bench in the hall until they said you were probably going to make it.”
That sobered me. The truth was, I didn’t feel up to much of anything right now. I was just shivering in the cocoon of a warm blanket. “Does Dad know it got that bad?”
“I don’t think so,” Alec said.
“How long will it take to heal?”
“They said a few months.”
“Oh no…so I’m going to miss the rest of the year anyway. This is going to be horrible!” Was I really going to be feverish and shivering for the next three months? I wouldn’t even be able to have normal human friends over. How could I explain anything?
“We could keep you warm in bed here,” Alec said, with an expression that told me where his thoughts were already going.
“I can,” Firian said. “You two are out of luck. But I’ll be going home with you anyway.” Now he stroked my forehead. His warm skin felt so good.
“She only lives four hours away,” Harris said. “If you study on weekdays…”
“Sure, Harris, if I had a car,” Montague said.
“Happy birthday,” Harris said, tossing Montague a key.
“A Kia?” Montague held up the keys. “That was the best you could do, rich boy?”
“I had to be very secretive,” Harris said. “My parents are suspicious.”
“This key is scratched to hell. What does the car look like?”
“My parents drained my bank account! I paid for it with the cash I had on hand, so shut up or buy your own damn car.”
I couldn’t help it. I beamed at Harris before realizing I was doing it. Then I looked away when he noticed and gave me this faint, superior smile.
“Okay, I can work with this,” Montague said. “We’re not giving up on you, Charlotte.”
“I welcome and expect regular intrusions,” I said.
And Mom…I’m not giving up on you either.
Boys Over Powers
Chapter One
Charlotte
Want to ruin your spring? Oh, good. I’ll tell you how.
First, attempt to summon your mom, who abandoned you as a kid in order to gain great power from a high demon from the Sinistral world.
Second, succeed! And get hit with a magical attack that makes you feel freezing cold all the time and can take months to fully recover from.
Third, have the dean of your magical college seal your magic and tell you not to come back, for your own safety.
And fourth…have three boyfriends, plus a weird semi-fourth who acts like he doesn’t care when you know he actually does. While you’re stuck at home with your dad trying to hide your complicated romantic life from him.
I was missing the end of my freshman year at Merlin College and I didn’t know if I’d ever be allowed to return. Master Blair told me to go to the University of Georgia. But once you’ve summoned a demon, you don’t just go schlep around a normal campus studying Shakespeare or women’s studies or whatever it was I had planned to learn. That was a different Charlotte.
Of course, I always had Firian at my side now. My familiar, once kept secret from me, was now welcome any time and spent days in human form playing video games or watching movies with me, and spent the night in his fox form curled up next to me in bed. Dad had no idea we were also…involved with each other. Familiars and witches weren’t supposed to hook up. But his loyalty, his teases, his mysterious golden eyes and soft tawny hair, his long-legged grace…well, he was good eye candy when I was stuck in bed a lot of the time, and he was also my best friend.
On weekends, Montague and Alec drove down from school to visit me, and that was when things got really tricky.
I couldn’t help but get excited when I saw them. For one thing, I was stir crazy anyway. I mean, even I had my Netflix limit. But the warlocks were even more intriguing when removed from their natural habitat.
Merlin College was the most elite warlock university in the US of A, so if you liked boys who already seemed like men, who acted like gentlemen, and never dressed down, you were in the right place. And I did. They were still pretty normal guys when you got down to it, but the trappings were delicious.
Okay, maybe they weren’t even that normal.
Montague Xarra had been turned into a vampire the summer before. Now he was immortal and extra enticing thanks to that vampire allure. His family didn’t have that much money, but they were an old Spanish magical family from St. Augustine, Florida, which I had always thought of as a place for grandparents to take cheesy historical trolley tours, but apparently had a secret side. He was the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome, and was even sexier when he was anywhere on the five o’clock shadow to beard spectrum. He could have eaten the boys I liked in high school for breakfast.
Literally. That part was, admittedly, a little awkward. My dad was starting to wonder why he never ate any of our food.
But Montague’s sexiness was superseded by Alec Lyrman, whose mother was a succubus. Which made him an incubus. Half-demon. Maybe even more tall, dark, and handsome. His eyes were tinged with red, his skin was golden brown with tattoos I was still discovering, and he was so—ahem—potent, that he had been enchanted so he could only make skin-to-skin contact with me for about three seconds, which hadn’t stopped him from occasionally invading my dreams and finding creative ways to entice me.
Incubi were, apparently, all “the more the merrier” with their partners, and I think Montague liked having Alec around to keep him in line so I didn’t become the wrong kind of prey. They had been friends since they were kids, and both tolerated Firian, who was my familiar and so wasn’t going anywhere.
So yeah. Three boyfriends. And I was wildly attracted to all of them, but I had to keep Dad from figuring that out. This
was not a thing you tell your dad. Especially your human dad.
But probably, any dad.
As if that wasn’t enough, there was Harrison von Hapsburg Nicolescu.
I mean, I just called him Harris, but when he sent me a “get well” card that was actually the name on the return address. Harris was a total A-lister among young warlocks. He had royal lineage, riches, had apparently saved my life with a pinch of dust from a unicorn horn from the Hapsburg family treasure, had bought Montague a car just so the guys could still visit me, and…he never showed up himself.
He had never acted like anything less than an entitled asshole, so I don’t know why, every single time the car appeared on the weekend, I went to the window to see if Harris would appear, and when he never did, I felt like Christmas had come and I got everything on my list except one crucial thing.
But…it probably had something to do with Daisy.
I never checked Facebook. Most of my friends from school didn’t use it much. Dad, on the other hand, used it a lot. When I tried, I learned more than I ever wanted to know about the political beliefs of our next-door neighbor, my 8th grade English teacher, and Jan down at the market. When I saw Ms. Simon tell Jan she was “drinking the Koolaid” and the whole town tossing gun statistics at each other under a post that started with, “Got my flu shot!” I decided this was not a thing I wanted in on.
But now I was stuck wrapped up in an electric blanket in bed or on my couch for months on end, and I couldn’t even visit my old friends, so at some point I started clicking around on old social media accounts.
Which was when I found a friend request and messages from Daisy sent around the time of my departure from Merlin College.
Hey giiiirl. I just got on Facebook and I was like, who else would be on Facebook when witches hate computers? You, right? If this is THE Charlotte Byrne, you should hit me up sometime. Harris told me what happened. I hope you feel better. But I know you’ll figure out a way to get your mom back, cause summoning demons when you’re still in college IS BOSS AF.
Hey girl you know how to buy stuff on Ebay?
I hope you’re okay. I guess you’re not on Facebook much. Maybe I’ll write you a letter. I enjoyed hanging out at the ball. If you ever come to Chicago let me know and I will show you what a good witch party is like. Going to the Cardamom Club tonight. Me & my fam Cash pre-partying~ <3
She finished all of this off with a picture of her wearing a tiara holding a big black and white cat who was also wearing a tiara.
“Firian? How should I answer this?”
He glanced. “‘Hey girl. Of course I know how to buy stuff on Ebay. I just bought my ‘fam’ a body pillow of a naked elf girl.’”
“Is that what you want for your birthday, Firian?”
“It gets lonely down there at the foot of your bed.”
I shoved his face away from my laptop and tried to say something. I felt awkward. She was Harris’ fiancee. She was a gorgeous witch who lived in a big city with lots of friends, and clubs, and parties. “Why is she bragging to me about going to parties?”
“Maybe she’s lonely.”
“No way. Look at her.”
“She isn’t my type,” he said, slinking back onto the bed, and staring at my right side with a fixed golden gaze. Sometimes he seemed particularly foxy. “I think she is enthralled by you.”
“Me?” I scoffed. “No one has ever been enthralled with me.”
“Challenge accepted,” he said, giving me a soft kiss on the shoulder. He continued, “Look at these messages. First, a very admiring greeting. Last, concern for your welfare and inviting you to her house. But it’s the middle one that seals it. She’s intrigued by your human lifestyle. Witches are exotic to you, but to witches, Ebay is exotic. Anyway, you underestimate how intriguing you can be. You showed up at that party making a hell of a statement in a punk pink dress holding your familiar’s hand. You must seem like the ultimate rebel.”
“I sound pretty cool when you put it that way. But still, Harris…and Daisy…”
“Harris has been avoiding you,” Firian said. “As he should. You’re busy enough. So I don’t see any conflict of interest.”
I wouldn’t mind having a female friend in the magical world, that was for sure. Especially since I was feeling so lonely myself, just stuck under my blanket waiting for weekends. I started writing back, betraying a shiver while my arms were out from under the blanket.
Firian was way too alert. “Charlotte, you’re getting cold. I thought you were starting to pull out of this.”
“I am! I’m fine!”
“But the healer said if you shivered you need to get under the blanket.”
I yanked the blanket over my head and finished typing in a blanket fort, although that made it worse because less of my skin was in contact with the blanket.
I never got sick. I was usually fairly active, too. This whole situation was the worst. I tried not to think about the fact that my mom had caused it. Then I would start fretting over every word she said, and how scary she looked, and whether there was any hope of saving her. I had a running list of ideas, things I could have done differently, that went something like this:
Need to summon spirit of cousin Samuel.
Need to find grandparents in Australia. They must have gone so far away to protect us, but now we need to talk. Good thing it’s so easy for me to get to Australia, ha ha ha.
Need to find cousin Ina. The one Mom saved from death by joining up with the Withered Lord. Ina better be friggin’ awesome.
Mom used to do yoga with me when I was little. Show her yoga tape? BOND OVER MAGICAL VHS TAPE AND RETURN HER TO NORMAL.
Study more demon stuff. Win her back in battle. Defeat the Withered Lord? Is that possible?
I mean, mostly it was just a list of leads and stupid ideas and impossibilities. I was pretty sure there was no way any ordinary witch could defeat a high demon. I was definitely sure I couldn’t save anyone with a 90s yoga video. But I had to at least think about these things.
It was hard to know what to say to Daisy, though.
Hi! Sorry this reply is late. I was avoiding Facebook. I can help you with Ebay any time. I’m doing pretty good, considering my mom is apparently a servant of a high demon and wanted to bring me along for the ride. Just another day in the witching world huh!? Harris probably told you I got this chill sickness thing but I’m improving.
“You are indeed. But you still need a little help,” Firian said, reading over my shoulder.
“Rude!” I said.
“Am I?” I hastily sent the message as Firian climbed under the blanket with me and put his arms around me. “Is this rude?” He licked my cheek with a surprisingly seductive, velvet tongue.
I giggled, our faces lit by the glow of the monitor. I shut the computer and rediscovered his face in the shadows, with my fingertips. He kissed them, then he kissed me, and then I let him tumble on top of me. His warm skin heated mine, and I almost felt back to normal when we were close like this, his legs straddling mine, his hands finding my arms and sliding his thumbs down them, a massage that ended in him pinning me to my pillows.
“Mm…” I kept thinking I should stop him. Our relationship was already taboo.
But being close to Firian, I felt happy. Safe. Excited and eager for more. What could be so bad about that? Dad always told me to follow my gut. The witching world had so many rules, but Master Blair told me he brought me to Merlin College to break a few rules.
Firian unbuttoned my pajama top and ran a hand over my breast, and then the curve of my hip. “You must be ready for more,” he said. “Because I am.”
“My door isn’t locked,” I said. “And, on a larger level, I don’t have any condoms.”
“I‘m not sure I can actually get you pregnant,” he said. “Just in case, I could go to the drug store.”
“What if the drug store girl says something to Dad!?”
“If you’re not ready…,” he said. “You just…feel
ready to me. You smell ready.”
“I…don’t know.” But Firian usually knew me better than I knew myself. That was kind of his deal. So I sensed he was right, but at the same time, I wondered how to handle that with Montague and Alec.
“You’re not thinking of them, are you?” he asked.
Firian was more possessive than Montague and Alec. He was my familiar, so protecting me was his sole mission in life. It was no wonder that if you got romantically involved with your familiar, they got intense.
My cell phone rang. I threw my head out of the covers and grabbed it off the nightstand.
“Pendleton, Ermengarde?” I read off the caller ID in confusion, but I already had a feeling.
I didn’t know Daisy’s last name but that sure sounded like a witch.
Chapter Two
Charlotte
“Hey. It’s Daisy! We should talk.”
“Okay. Uh, sure, let’s talk,” I said, buttoning my top back up.
“You finally wrote back,” she said. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you forever. So…your mom is under the thrall of a demon. When Harris told me that I was like, what.”
I was briefly silent. I forgot that Daisy was not always that sensitive. I was not usually that sensitive either, but this was the topic where I froze. “Yes. She left when I was a baby.”
“What demon?” Daisy asked.
“Why do you want to know?”
“Because!” Daisy sounded a little frantic.
A Witch Among Warlocks: The Complete Series Box Set Page 26
