by Elena Lawson
How did things get so screwed up? How had I come to trust someone like Draven with those secrets and not Elias?
“Is everything alright?” he asked, giving me the perfect segue way to tell him. To bring him into the knowledge we’d gained so far—which I’d be the first to admit wasn’t much.
But I didn’t tell him. Instead, I shrugged. “Nothing. Just tired. It’s been a long week.”
The worried crease in his forehead softened, and he pulled me in for a hug, books and all. I nuzzled into him, relishing in the calming effect of his cold mountain pine smell mixed in with a wisp of bergamot from his morning tea. My body unwound from its tense spool and melted against him, allowing his strength to hold us both up, if only for a second.
“You had me worried,” he whispered into my hair.
I peered up into his soft gaze, and my heart began to beat faster, harder than it was a moment before. The black of his pupils almost completely took over his blue eyes, making them look as though on the verge of a catastrophic storm.
And this. This was why I hadn’t told him yet. Because I didn’t want to be the cause of his worry or his pain. I didn’t want the crease in his brow to be there because of me. I wanted to bring him only joy. I wanted to make him smile. Laugh.
I wanted more for him than what I could give.
As he leaned down to touch his lips whisper-soft against mine, my stomach fluttered, and my spine tingled, forcing a tiny whimper from my lips. My fingers clenched the books tightly against my chest, needing something steady to hold on to while my knees trembled.
When his lips left mine and I opened my eyes again, I saw in him the same riotous emotion raging behind his stare. My magic called to him, only serving to strengthen the connection and the forceful pounding of my heart.
Was this what it felt like to fall in love?
I studied the curve of his face in the morning light streaming in from the tall windows to our right. The addition of the golden rays made his jaw-line sharper and set his deep brown hair alight with threads of gold and brass. There was brass in his short beard, too, and bright copper that I hadn’t noticed before.
He was perfect. So perfect it was almost painful.
The door creaked open, and we weren’t fast enough to pull apart as Professor Donovan, the vile snake he was, slithered into the room. “Oh,” he exclaimed and froze in his tracks. “I was just… coming to ask a favor of Professor Fitzgerald,” he said the words slowly, his mind processing exactly what he walked in on.
With my heart in my throat and my knuckles white against my textbooks, it was easy to make a tear or two spring to my eyes. “Thank you, Professor Fitzgerald,” I said in a sad voice. “It just really hit me this morning that she’s dead.”
Donovan narrowed his eyes at the pair of us.
It took Elias a moment to pick up what I was trying to put down, but after a moment he did. “Anytime, Miss Hawkins. I’ll give you a pass to be excused from your next class, but you’ll have to attend the rest of the day.”
I nodded, allowing the forced tears to fall. “Thank you,” I said again, and ducked past Donovan and into the hall, careful not to meet his eyes.
I hadn’t exactly been worried all that much about Lacey the last time I spoke to him, but I hoped I’d put on a believable performance and he chalked up my outburst to unruly female emotion. Or that he would think it was my time of the month and let it go.
But as I hurried down the hallway toward my dorm room, the tears kept coming, and the weight of what almost just happened pressed firmly on my chest.
10
“Are you ready?” I asked them as we neared the south entrance of the academy. Since no one was allowed to go into the woods, we’d have to portal out from the portaling room like everyone else.
As much as it pained me, I’d decided to wait the extra hour after classes were through, so I didn’t have to parade Cal and Adrian through a thick throng of witches all waiting for their turn to leave.
A look of distaste crossed his face. “As ready as we’ll ever be,” he grumbled, grinding his teeth.
“You sure they’ll all have gone by now?” Adrian asked, positioning himself on the other side of me.
“Most of them.”
I took the first step onto into the academy and they followed me closely.
I didn’t miss their looks of awe as we passed the grand library and made our way through the gilded halls and around to the portaling room. We only passed a handful of students along the way, and even though Cal and Adrian stuck out like sore thumbs among all the finery—like I was certain I also did—they were too absorbed in themselves and their weekend plans to pay us any attention.
“If you think this place is nice, wait until you see Rosewood Abbey.”
My familiars shared a look and then stepped into the small room with me.
Kendra rushed past us a second later, one of her little minions in tow behind her. I wondered where blonde number three was and why she wasn’t leaving with them.
“Oh, you don’t mind, do—” she started, butting ahead, but when she turned back and saw who she was rudely trying to butt ahead of—and the two glowy-eyed Endurans with her—she froze.
“You go ahead,” she said with a barely concealed grimace, stepping aside for us to pass. She wouldn’t look Cal or Adrian in the eyes. Smart girl.
I smirked. “Thanks so much,” I said a saccharine voice I barely recognized as my own, eating up the opportunity to shove it in her face.
But no more than three steps later, and a pointed look from Cal later, I realized what I was doing. Throwing shit in her face wouldn’t fix anything. I shuddered, feeling dirty. What was I doing?
This wasn’t me. I couldn’t let the prestigious Arcane Arts Academy turn me into one of its snobby little self-important twits.
“Are you sure?” I turned to ask her; every word painful to eek out. “You can go first if you’re in a rush.”
A slow smile spread over her lips and the malice in it made me reconsider. Kendra tossed her yellow hair over her shoulder and strolled past me, queen bitch once more. “Come on, Sasha. Harper doesn’t mind if we go first,” she called back to where one of her clones was waiting for instruction behind her.
“Thanks, Harper,” Sasha said quietly as she passed, and I wondered if the two girls attached to Kendra at the hip were just as tightly squashed under her thumbs as I once was. Neither of them had ever said anything rude to me. And neither had ever blackmailed me or made any crude remarks toward anyone that I knew of.
As I watched Sasha open up the portal for Kendra to step through, I felt sorry for her, and the other one—wherever she was.
“Our turn,” Adrian said, shocking me out of my own head.
Cal grunted, stepping into the room as though he was afraid the floor beneath his feet was seconds from falling out. They were not comfortable here, that much was abundantly clear. “Yeah,” Cal said, and tugged me in after him, shoving me gently toward the far wall so I could open up the portal. “Let’s get the fuck out of here before brother wolf decided to rear his head.”
That was when I noticed how bright their eyes had gotten. And I could still feel the heat from where Cal had touched my arm. All the magic in the academy was making their wolves all riled up, anticipating danger.
I hurried to draw the sigil, surprised when I didn’t have to and it sprang from my palm as though it was waiting there, just under the skin, for me to be ready to wield it.
I was getting good at this.
I drew the doorway big and wide in the wall so we could all fit through it without going single file and pressed my palm into the gray stone. It fell away in an instant, dropping away as though it was never there.
Beyond was green-tinged darkness and a bright moon casting its lazy silvery blue-hue against the deep gray roof of Rosewood Abbey in the distance. The ground was wet as though it’d just finished raining and the air smelled strongly of petrichor and a hint of fire-smoke.
Granger sent a note to Martin to let him know we were coming, and by the look of the smoke rising from all three chimneys atop the roof of the Abbey, he’d been working overtime to ensure we were comfortable.
“Wow,” Adrian said, staring through the portal with eyes alight and hands still at his sides. It was probably what I’d looked like the first time I’d seen it, too.
“I know.”
“Martin!” I called after we’d closed the door behind us. I didn’t exactly expect him to be around. It had to be close to ten o’clock here by now, maybe even later.
So, when he popped his shiny head around the corner of the hallway that lead to the kitchens, a dishtowel in his hands, I was more than a bit surprised to see him there. But also, somehow, not surprised at all.
His monocle looked like it was two seconds from falling clean off his face, and what little bit of hair he had on top of his head was mussed, and not quite as orderly as I remembered it.
“Ah, Miss Harper. Welcome home,” he said and rushed as quickly as a near three-hundred-year-old man could to greet us in the foyer. His wide smile didn’t falter as he took in Cal and Adrian at my sides. I thought Granger must’ve warned him.
“Good to meet you,” Martin said in his lilting accent, scooping up Cal’s hand from his side to clasp it between his two knobby ones to shake. “And you, too, young man. A pleasure,” he said, doing the same to Adrian.
My familiars didn’t know what to make of Martin, and I held back a laugh at their priceless expressions. “Boys, this is Martin. He’s been the Hawkins family butler for three generations,” I told them proudly, making sure I gave Martin a little bow and a wink, so he knew how much I appreciated him being so accepting.
“And proud to still maintain the position,” he said, straightening his spine. “Oh, the wellingtons!” he said, throwing his arms up and rushing back the way he’d come. “Do come to the dining room once you’re settled, Miss Harper. I’ve prepared a meal.”
“Martin, you shouldn’t have,” I said, my brow furrowing. Was this man insane? I was convinced a stiff wind could send him to an early grave and he was out here cooking for us at this hour? “It’s late, Martin. You should be resting.”
“Oh no, dear,” he said, turning to face me with an earnestness that left no room for argument. “I’ve been sleeping on a West Virginia schedule for this very reason. I’ll leave shortly after dinner to give you your privacy, dear.”
And then he vanished back into the heart of the house, leaving me shaking my head, and Cal and Adrian staring after him with risen brows.
“A marvel, isn’t he?” I asked and didn’t wait for a response before I pulled them over to the staircase and up to the bedrooms.
It took some convincing like it did the last time Martin cooked for me, but after the fifth please stay and eat with us, he finally relented.
“It isn’t proper,” he grumbled, taking a seat next to me at the table after he’d pulled the chairs out for Cal and Adrian on the other side.
“In the nineteenth century maybe,” Adrian said. “But not anymore.”
“Hardly anything like that is considered improper now,” Cal said with a cheeky grin, and I felt his ankle brush against mine under the table.
Martin bowed his head with a long sigh. “I’m afraid you might be right, Master Cal.”
Cal stiffened. “I don’t think there’s need for such formal titles, either, and I’m hardly anyone’s master, old man,” he joked. “Haven’t you heard? We’re just the family dogs.”
“A gross untruth,” Martin replied, seeming to be almost upset at hearing such a thing.
I’d admit, I was a little put off by the crude joke, too. I sincerely hope that wasn’t what Cal thought of himself as. A gross untruth, indeed.
“As Miss Harper’s familiars, you are her family, and that makes this home as much yours as it is hers,” he turned to me. “If you don’t mind my saying so, Miss.”
I waved an arm to the two stubborn shifters sitting across the table from us. “It’s what I’ve been trying to tell them, myself,” I agreed.
Martin beamed with pride. “So much like your father. A good heart and a good head on your shoulders. He’d have been proud.”
It felt like someone’d stuffed cotton in my mouth at the compliment. I tried to swallow it down, but that only made my eyes water with the effort. “Thank you.”
“Now, shall we eat?”
“Awww yeah!” Adrian hollered, and I wondered what their canine noses picked up that I couldn’t as they both breathed deeply in through their nostrils, moaning at what they smelled.
“Should I help you bring in the dishes?” I offered Martin, but he waved off my offering to help him.
“Nonsense,” he said, and a snapped his fingers in the direction of the kitchen. “Levitium,” he called, and I felt the magic swell in the dining room, flowing up the curved walls and into the steepled ceiling where a chandelier twinkled with hundreds of tiny crystals and lights.
The sconces on the wall flickered, and the house itself seemed to groan. The doors to the room sprang open soundlessly, and through them came our dinner.
Not one, but three enormous roast chickens, a plate of roast potatoes that could feed a small army and following that several more plates of varying types of cooked vegetables, a gravy boat, and three bottles of rather old looking bottles of red wine.
This was the beauty of magic. So little seen and appreciated anymore, this type of magic—the kind used to excite and amuse had been all but forgotten, and I squealed with laughter as Martin made the dishes dance and twirl, levitating in mid-air before he allowed them to set themselves down upon the ancient dining table.
“Dinner is served, my lady,” he said with a bow of his head in my direction.
I wanted to kiss Martin’s rosy cheeks, and couldn’t wait to dig in. The smell of all the delicious plates now almost overwhelming. My stomach growled.
“Martin!” I shrieked, unable to get out more than the one word in my wonderment.
“I could get used to this,” Cal said, looking to share the moment with his brother, but Adrian was already tearing into the roast bird closest to him and only offered Cal a muffled “Uh-huh,” his mouth already filled with tender meat.
I snorted, happier in this moment than I remembered being in a long time. Yes, I thought, catching Cal gazing at me over the glass he was filling with sweet-smelling wine. I could definitely get used to this.
11
I don’t think they wanted to admit it, but I was pretty sure they found the old Abbey just as creepy and foreboding at night as I did. After Martin left, we sequestered ourselves in the bedroom I’d chosen to be mine.
It must’ve been reserved for guests before because there were no family portraits in this room. No clothes in the closets, or items in the dressers or nightstands. It was a blank slate, which made it the perfect choice.
A grand king-sized bed with tall columns of thick, carved mahogany reached up at each corner to a canopy of gossamer white curtains. The bed itself was laden with a golden-hued down duvet and even more pillows than Bianca liked to keep on her bed.
The chamber was gigantic, with a curved stone balcony at the far end overlooking the gently sloping hills, and in the distance, the twinkle of the sea in moonlight.
A walk-in closet and bathroom that could fit two of my dorm room were through an archway at the other end of the room. I didn’t think there’d been any updates to the plumbing since the late nineteenth century, though. I’d have to fix that once I gained access to my father’s estate.
“This is your room?” Cal asked, stepping in behind me.
I sat down on the edge of the bed. “Yeah. I like this one best. Most of the others have too much of my parents in there. It’s weird.”
Adrian followed us inside. “Ain’t no way I’d be sleeping in a dead guy’s room, either,” he said.
“Adrian,” Cal growled.
“No, it’s okay. He’s right. It�
�s super uncomfortable,” I said, getting back up from the bed. “There are two other guest rooms just down the hall that I was thinking you could use. They don’t have their own bathrooms, but they’re both really nice.”
Cal and Adrian shared a look. It was Adrian who spoke first. “I think that’s the biggest bed I’ve ever seen,” he mused, inclining his head to where I was just sitting.
“Yeah,” Cal agreed, coming closer. Each step he took while holding me hostage with a haughty stare made my stomach tighten more and more. “I think we’d all fit with plenty of room to spare…” he trailed off, stopping an arms-breadth away from me. “If you don’t mind sharing.”
Do I mind?
Just having them this close made my magic sing. The veil of fog over my mind that came only when they were away had gone completely. Everything was in crystalline, sharp focus. The thought of sleeping in the same bed made my face flush, but I’d be the first to admit, being that close to them would probably make for the best sleep I’d ever had.
And I didn’t think I’d slept more than five or six hours a night max since Lacey.
“No,” I said after a moment’s hesitation, looking away to try to conceal my blush. “I don’t mind.”
Cal reached over and lifted my chin. The callouses on his fingertips against my skin did strange things to my knees and the hairs on the back of my neck. I shivered, closing my eyes.
“There’s more here than just the bond of a witch and their familiar,” he said in a low voice, the deep bass of it vibrating behind my breastbone. I wasn’t sure if he was expecting a response, but I gave him one, anyway.
“How do you know?”
How did he know it wasn’t just the bond playing tricks on us? Messing with our emotions.
“The better question is,” Adrian came to stand just behind me, his eyes hungry and glowing a vibrant gold. “Do you not feel it, too?” he brushed his hands against my arms, running his fingers from my wrists all the way up to the nape of my neck and back down again. I shivered, that delicious ache I’d known only with Elias flooding me. It pooled low in my belly and made my chest heat with a violent flush.
