Discovery of Magick (Dark Light Academy Book 1)

by Tabatha Stephenson

  I was halfway to our agreed meeting point, a lamppost just outside the public pay and display car park for the beach when a familiar vehicle pulled up alongside and slowed down.

  “Need a ride?” Marla called out.

  “Sure!” I watched as they pulled over, hurrying to get in as they stopped.

  “I’m dropping you guys off and coming back at five. Meet me outside the car park,” Brent said.

  “He’s eager to get back to his friends,” she giggled.

  Friends? “Charles and Laurent are here?” I asked him.

  His eyes flicked up to meet mine in the rearview mirror’s reflection. “Yes, and we’re all missing classes to be here.”

  “Can you believe it? They registered for summer classes and are skipping! They really care about you. So lucky, three, guys! I just want one.” Marla pouted.

  Brent laughed, the sound bitter. “We’d all love to be lucky enough to be Tuesday’s, but she’s told us to sling our hooks.”

  Marla gave him a pitying look. “Aww, I’ll see if I can talk her around.”

  We arrived, and he dropped us off just past the entrance to the car park at the lamppost.

  “He’s a good guy,” she told me, getting out of the car. “They all are. No one flies, and they rents car to come all the way out to boring old Bowring just to see if they can find someone who might know if you’re okay or not. They certainly don’t then buy a stranger a plane ticket just to reunite them with their best friend.”

  “I thought a girl came to see you.”

  “Yeah, her name was Joanna. She didn’t fly out with us, though. Said she couldn’t afford to miss any more class, and if she failed, her parents would kill her.”

  That sounded like Joanna, all right. We reached the sand and slid off our sandals, placing them in our bags. The sand was soft and warm, bordering on hot. We’d agreed to meet further down the beachfront than where the cafe I worked at was, so we had to walk across a stretch of beach to get there for our milkshakes. I opened the cool bag I brought and offered Marla a drink.

  “Thanks! Hawaiian Punch, huh? You remembered.”

  I gave her a smile. “Yeah, I did.” I popped the tab on my own drink, a cream soda.

  “I can’t believe you fell for some story about me running off to join the Army.”

  “The Air Force,” I corrected her.

  “Whatever. Me, join the military? The only exercise I ever did voluntarily was ride bikes with you. As if I’d sign up to get bossed around and do push-ups and stuff. Plus, you know I’m scared of guns!”

  Put like that, I fell stupid for having believed a word of it. “But, she played me a voice message and everything.”

  “It must have been a prank. Someone must have picked up my phone to get her number or something. You should have called me to ask.”

  “Sorry.” It was the best I could do. No way in hell could I tell her that I couldn’t have called her because we were in a different world. Hang on a minute…Yesterday Aunt Tillie quite clearly told me she’d call Aunt Lisanne. I didn’t question it as they’d obviously been talking to each other, but now I wondered how. Magick mirror, maybe? I’d have to find out if that was even a real thing, damn it.

  “Okay. I’m still a little mad at you, but I forgive you. Don’t take it out on your aunt, either. I can’t see her deliberately letting you think something so stupid,” she huffed, only half-serious from the look on her face.

  I needed to change the subject since I couldn’t explain why she and Uncle Joe might have done so. Or Grandmother, I suppose she could have magicked up a fake message or had someone else do it, so it looked like a real one, and my aunt might not have known. I hated being so suspicious of everyone. They kept on and on about how it was for our safety, but not one evil mage ever came in sight. No one even had the name of one to give as a possible threat. It was a bogeyman, I suspected, meant to keep us all in line so they could profit off of the Trio and me one way or another. I was beginning to believe I was nothing but a pawn in a personal feud between my grandmother and aunts, as well as in the power stakes in realm society thanks to the locii and power of three business the guys and I found ourselves in.

  I gave Marla a playful shove and ran away laughing, into the edge of the surf. She shrieked with laughter and gave chase. The water was cold, and the wet sand squished a bit between my toes, a relief from the heated grains that had started burning my feet. We goofed off, flinging water at each other and playing tag until we got to the stretch of beach the street the cafe was dead-ended on. We wiped our feet dry on my towel and slipped our sandals back on. The first stop we made was to buy her an overpriced beach towel of her own.

  The second was to use the cafe’s bathroom before finally ordering our milkshakes and two cheeseburgers to go, opting for a mint chocolate chip for her and bubblegum for me. We walked back the way we came, finding a section of beach that wasn’t too overcrowded, and sat down on our towels to eat. Then we played around some more before packing up to go. The day had sped by way too fast.

  “So, which one were you dating?” Marla asked me, startling me.

  “Just Laurent, I think,” I replied.

  She raised an eyebrow at me, her mouth quirking in amusement. “You think?”

  “Okay, promise you won’t think anything bad of me, okay?”

  “Never,” she swore, holding out her pinky. “Pinky-swear.” I hooked my pinky with hers and shook it solemnly.

  “Alright, it’s like this. Charles and Brent are together but are best friends with Laurent, and they all kiss and do other stuff together, too, sometimes. And when they did, I sometimes kissed them and stuff, too.”

  She looked at me, wide-eyed. “Shut up!” she exclaimed, looking delighted. “You did not!”

  “I did,” I mumbled. “And I think I have a big crush on both Charles and Brent, too.”

  “So, you met a throuple and became their fourth! Oh, my God, you have a harem!” She grabbed my forearm. “You need to pull your head out of your ass. They are all so gone on you, it’s pathetic. They are nothing without you.”

  “They were all together like that before me,” I protested.

  “And then you became their glue,” she insisted. “I don’t know what danger they think you’re in, but I do know one thing, whatever made you break it off with them, you need to fix it. I would kill to have a guy look at me the way I see Brent looking at you or how the other two look when they talk about you.”

  “They talk about me?” I squeaked.

  “Yeah, they do. They listened to me tell them about all the stupid stuff we did as little kids and in high school and then told me stuff like teaching you to dance, sorta, while at some fancy party your grandmother threw.”

  One hand flew subconsciously to the locket around my neck, remembering that night.

  “They gave you that, huh?” She gave me a knowing look.

  “Yeah, it has a picture of the three of them inside.” I couldn’t bring myself to tell her that the truth was, I had been betrothed to all three of them, pretty much. But looking back, she was right. I had been dating all three of them, I simply had been in denial, helped along by the fact that only Laurent had actually asked me. We walked in silence for the remaining short distance.

  “Right on time,” Brent said from where he sat inside his car, once we reached the road. “Want a lift?”

  “No, thanks,” I said. Marla and I gave each other a tight hug.

  “Call me,” she said.

  “I will,” I promised.

  “You sure?” Brent pressed.

  “Yeah, I have a lot to think about.”

  “Alrighty then.”

  I watched as he did a three-point turn and drove them back to their motel, Marla twisted around in her seat waving at me until they were out of sight.

  Chapter 31

  My aunt and uncle didn't come home that night at all, just as they'd said. Which was fine by me; I had a lot on my mind, the sort that weighs so heavily on yo
u that to parse it all, you needed junk food and a lot of it. I walked to the nearest convenience store and came back laden with frozen hot wings, a Hawaiian pizza, a box each of Twinkies, Ho Hos, and Little Debbie Star Crunch, plus a banana moon pie. I put the pizza and hot wings in the oven to heat and poured myself some RC Cola from the two-liter I found already chilling in the fridge.

  Setting a timer, so I didn't forget the food I had cooking, I hurried to the shower and took a quick one. I got out and slipped into my fave shortie pajamas with no time to spare before the timer started yelling at me to come and get it or eat it burned. I took the food out and took a pizza slice, heaping several hot wings onto the plate beside it. Eyeing the rest of my food purchases spread out in front of me and remembering the Little Debbie's back at the store, I muttered. "I should have gotten the Nutty Bars, too, and some oatmeal pies."

  I sat down and began to eat, mentally preparing a list of pros and cons to believing the guys and renewing our acquaintance. Not relationship, acquaintance. Even if I went back to Dark Light, assuming the academy let me return after being away for so long, they needed to be clear about what we were and weren't to each other. If they wanted to be with me, like boyfriends and girlfriend and not just a magickal partnership between friends, they needed to ask me plainly. And they all three had to be in agreement.

  I probably should have tried to think my way through the mess with my grandmother, my aunts and uncle, and the guys' parents, but I just couldn't bring myself to focus on any of that. Instead, my mind kept circling back to The Royal Trio.

  Taking the last bite of my fourth Twinkie, I knew what I had to do. My heart and my mind were on one accord– drive me to distraction until I caved in and had a proper talk with Laurent. We needed to clear the air one final time.

  "George," I said to her, causing her to look up from where she was nibbling ham and cheese off of her pizza slice. "I am going to go out for a bit. I need to go buy you something to fasten to your collar."

  She looked affronted.

  "I know, you're not really a pet, and you probably think of what you're wearing as a choker necklace or something, I get that. I need you to wear this thing, though, so I can tie a note onto it for you to take to Laurent."

  At that she stood up and sauntered across the table, purring, her tail in the air. She butted her head under my chin.

  "Okay, then, since we agree."

  I tried to think of somewhere close by that might have one of those bone-shaped poop bag holders and be open this late in the evening. It'd have to be a supermarket or big-box discount store, I reckoned. They were too far to get to by bike, and I'd just blown the rest of my cash so I could eat my feelings. Wait, the convenience store, it sold cat food and stuff. It might have doggy poop bags and sell them with a holder. I put the rest of the food away, leaving George with her slice and meat carefully picked off of a chicken wing. I knew it wasn't good for her, but we were two girls eating to cheer ourselves up. It's not like I usually fed her junk food, though I probably should look at cleaning up my own diet.

  First things first, I reminded myself. Go see if they have the thing for her collar.

  They did, so I bought one, and a pack each of the Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies and Nutty Bars I'd regretted not getting earlier. I made myself promise not to eat any until tomorrow. Once I was back home, I wrote Laurent a note, asking him to come to see me in two days. I was off again then, and we could talk as long as we needed to. I arranged for him to meet at a coffee shop, a couple of streets away from where I worked, so we could be away from any prying eyes. I probably was veering off into paranoia, but if anything was going on with my aunts and uncle, I didn't want them to come looking for me in my usual haunts and find me with Laurent.

  After folding the note up, I took the poop bag holder out of the package and removed the roll 0f bags from inside it. I then placed the message inside and clipped the bone-shaped holder to George's collar with the hole for dispensing the bags facing outward, so the paper inside was visible. I took it off and used the pen to write a large L on the paper, so he'd be sure to notice it. Headlights shone through the living room window, making me panic for a moment that my aunt and uncle had returned after all. It was just a car backing into the driveway across the street, though, causing me to heave a heavy sigh of relief. "Okay, you best go, just in case they do pop back."

  "Mrwrumpp," George said.

  "Remember, Laurent. Don't let anyone else have the note. Only Laurent."

  She gave me a final headbutt against my shins, then faded into the between. After she left, I cleared away my junk food extravaganza, taking my trash out to the wheelie bin to hide the evidence. I could hear Aunt Tillie now, asking me why I'd eaten that instead of a proper meal from either the cafe I worked at or the nearby Hilton Head Diner. That done, I waited to see if George was returning with a response, so I went into the living room with another glass of RC Cola and the Moon Pie, turned on the TV, and browsed the apps for something to watch. Three hours later, I had to pee desperately, was yawning my head off, and still no George. I decided tonight was a wash and hoped for better things tomorrow.

  Chapter 32

  I’d woken up the next to find George curled up on my lower back, Laurent’s reply inside the plastic bone on her collar. He’d agreed to meet me, so here I was, sitting at a table in the coffee shop, listening absently to someone ordering a double cream latte with a shot of sugar-free hazelnut when Laurent made his appearance.

  “Hi,” he said, his usual confident demeanor conspicuously absent.

  “Hi,” I said back. “What kind of coffee can I get you? I invited you, after all.”

  He shook his head, taking a seat across from me. “No, thanks.”

  Well, this wasn’t awkward at all.

  “So, um, I bet you’re wondering why I asked you here.”

  He swallowed then, his eyes shiny with unshed tears. A long moment stretched between us, and I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t admit that I felt horrible seeing how he was hurting. He reached a hand up, swiping a hand down his face before finally saying something. “I think I have a pretty good idea.”

  Okay, this was not how it was going to play out. I was not the villain here. I was a girl who was hurting as much as he appeared to be, one who wanted answers so she could understand the cause of her pain and move on from it. I needed to hear him tell me one more time what his truth was and be honest for once about what the Trio are to each other, and what it really meant for me to be their fourth. Forget the locii business for now. This was about us, not our magick.

  ”Do you?” I’d chosen a sleeveless mock turtleneck to wear today, and now I reached inside the collar to fish out my locket. His eyes followed my hands, zeroing in on what I wore.

  “You’re wearing it?”

  “Wow, you really do have strong observational skills,” I teased, trying to lighten the moment. “I’ve not taken it off, except to bathe, not once. I keep it tucked inside my shirt usually. Not the earrings and headband, though. Those are too fancy to wear with most things.”

  He turned eyes filled with cautious hope to my own. “Why would you do that?”

  “If you’d asked me when I first got here or even a few days ago, I wouldn’t have had an answer,” I confessed. “I guess, deep down, I knew something my brain was doing its best to ignore.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah, but first, tell me again. I need to hear from your lips about the night of our betrothal ball. And then all about how you guys went to Bowring.”

  “Alright. Um, I think I will take that coffee if you don’t mind. No, sit down,” he said as I started to get up. I’ll get it. What were you drinking?” He glanced at my refillable travel mug as he asked me.

  “Mine is still over half full,” I admitted. “So, I’m good.”

  “Okay, I’ll be right back, okay?” He ran a hand through his hair.

  “I’ll be right here,” I assured him. I had to admit, vulnerable, flustered Laurent wa
s cute.

  I watched as he ordered himself an almond milk latte before asking the barista for two cherry Bakewell slices. He paid and returned to our table, placing one of the pastries in front of me before taking his own snack off the tray. After getting rid of the tray, he retook his seat.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “They looked good.” A hint of a smile tugged at his lips. He gave a small sigh. “Right, so, where to begin?”

  “At grandmother’s, the night of the party. You were talking to your father and said–”

  “No, don’t. So, yeah,” he glanced away. “I know what I said, but I swear, you only heard part of the conversation. That bit was completely out of context.”

  “So enlighten me.” I took a bite of the pastry. It was sweet, while the cherry was tart. It was absolutely scrummy. Oh, my God, how had I never had one of these before? This was one of my new favorite things!

  “We’d been joking around before, remember? About honeymoons and Bora Bora and going to the Bahamas, and all that. You mentioned that you’d never been to a real beach by an ocean, and well, neither had we. I thought about how it would be nice to get away from it all, not to mention all of them,” I knew immediately he meant our families, “And get some bonding time. You know, cement our friendships with each other. I knew asking for something pricey like those places was a long shot even though he’s got the money, but it would leave things open for him to offer up somewhere else, cheaper, but maybe still with a beach. I was trying to point out to him that somewhere outside the realm would be more relatable, make it easier to for you to relax with us.”

  “Just friendship?” I asked, latching onto that part. “Because the word you used with him was ‘woo’.”

  He played with the handle of his mug. “Not just friendship. But, we can’t only have sex, not if we want something solid and real.”