Archon's Hope: Book III of 'The Magician's Brother' Series

by HDA Roberts

  The Mages in the room paled, a couple recoiled, more than a few looked terrified. Maria gulped audibly. Prewett's eyes narrowed and her face went red.

  "Does this answer everyone's questions?" I asked affably, keeping my tone light, twirling the Spelleater around my index finger by the chain (a little obnoxious of me, but a point needed to be made).

  Prewett nodded and I tossed her amulet back to her. She caught it neatly and slipped it back around her neck. I turned to look at Maria, who immediately looked away.

  After that drama, everyone seemed to want to get out of there, so Hopkins wrapped things up pretty quickly. She mentioned the weekly magic class, which included an introductory session that evening. Finally it was done, and she gestured for me to stay as the others filed out. Prewett left too, giving me the stink-eye on her way out the door. I was rooting for her to walk into it, since she wasn't looking where she was going, but no luck, alas...

  Hopkins sighed once we were alone, rubbing her eyes.

  "Don't do that in public," she said finally, walking over to take a seat next to me.

  "Yeah," I said sighing, "I already know that was a bad idea."

  "Do you know why?"

  "From the horrified looks on everybody's faces, I would guess that it's because that doesn't happen very often."

  "That is the understatement of the bloody year!" she barked, "The human population relies on the Spelleaters for protection, Mathew! There aren't six Magicians in the world, the world, who can throw out enough power to overwhelm one of the wretched things. You just did it like it was nothing, and if the Conclave ever found out what you'd done in the Archive..."

  She threw up her hands and slapped them down onto her knees.

  "Crap," I said, realising the full scope of my mistake.

  "Quite."

  "Any sign of your brother, yet?" I asked, desperate to change the subject.

  "He's here," she said after a quiet moment.

  "Now, you tell me?"

  She shook her head, smiling wryly.

  "Which one?" I asked, "I didn't get any super-mage vibes from any of them."

  "Didn't say he was one of them."

  "Well, who is he, then?"

  "Yeah, when exactly did you think that this sort of thing became that easy?"

  "Just tell me who he is so I know who to keep away from," I said, slightly impatient, and a little desperate at this point. Archons and their nonsense just wasn't for me.

  "Trust me, Matty, alright? This is one of those things you have to find out for yourself," she said, very earnestly, it worried me a little.

  "I do trust you, I'm just tired of being the monster everyone's afraid of, and I want these Shadowborn out of here before there's a... problem."

  "You're not a monster to me, Mathew," she said, squeezing my shoulder, "nor are you one to anyone that spends more than a second in your company. Just be patient."

  "I can do that for a while, but the time's coming when I'll just hop in a shadow and make a break for Bermuda," I said with a smile (mostly joking).

  "Don't you dare! Cassandra would go mad without her Shadowborn punching bag."

  I laughed and she patted my back.

  "See you tonight," she said.

  And wasn't that just a prelude to a monstrous waste of time?

  The Magic class used to be fun. I actually used to enjoy going to them. That one very definitely wasn't fun.

  Hopkins introduced her course, which was to be a study of magical theory, history and practice, including debates and practical sessions. It was all stuff I'd heard last term, but it was made actively unpleasant by the Hellstroms.

  Last term, there had been lively discussions, mostly between me and Hopkins, where we discussed the finer points of Magical philosophy. We argued and nitpicked and debated until everybody but the two of us was bored and then we carried on after everyone had left. Naturally the Hellstroms just wanted to argue and shout and just make everyone's evening miserable.

  "Mages have the right to rule!" Darius said, shouting down the point I was trying to make.

  "Just because we have powers?!" I shouted back, "Might does not make ri-"

  "Sure it does, and it has throughout history!" Maria interjected, even louder than her brother, if that was possible.

  "Whenever one group of people believes that, other people die!" I shouted, "If you'd actually studied history, you'd know that!"

  "You calling me ignorant?!" Maria shouted, standing up.

  "And bigoted!" I snapped back, standing too.

  Darius was on his feet as well, and both Hellstroms were glaring.

  We'd been shouting at each other for a solid twenty minutes by this point. All this, and the subject of the debate was supposed to have been about the ethics of using magic in agriculture. To this day, I have no idea how we veered so far off topic.

  "Alright, enough!" Hopkins shouted.

  "I should have expected this sort of attitude from someone like you," Darius sneered, ignoring Hopkins like an idiot, "You're a sheep, just like the rest, like your sheep parents. You know what happens to sheep, right? They get slaughtered."

  I very nearly did something really bad.

  Thankfully Hopkins knew exactly what was going through my head and acted before I could use my shadows to take his head off, because that's exactly what would have happened. I was that angry...

  I'll never forget that she stopped me from becoming a murderer, and I'll never stop being grateful for it. Of course at the time, it hurt like hell. Archon photobursts are very powerful, and I'm still a Shadowborn.

  "That's enough!" Hopkins said, her voice a resonant boom.

  I was temporarily blind and I cast Mage Sight in case Darius had at me again, or his sister.

  "Ouch," I muttered, rubbing my eyes.

  "I think that's enough discussion for one night," Hopkins almost roared, "We'll pick this up again next week. Mister Graves, since I see you've cast Mage Sight, you can come with me. The rest of you just stay where you are until the burst wears off."

  I was grateful for that, I desperately needed out of that room.

  I got up and walked down to the gym floor where Hopkins led me away. She motioned for me to stay quiet until we were out on the fields, where it was dark and quiet.

  "Arrogant little shits!" Hopkins shouted, which surprised me, Hopkins doesn't normally swear.

  "I really don't like those two," I said.

  "I know, they're ruining debate night!" she said with a growl, "I love debate night."

  I chuckled, "You like arguing with me?"

  "Oh please, you're just as bad as I am, you love a good argument as much as I do. As long as the opponent is worth arguing with. Unlike those two little..." she said, starting to mutter some very unflattering things.

  "Thanks, by the way," I said, interrupting her increasingly dark descriptions, "I nearly did something unforgivable."

  She waved it off, "I put you in a room with him and I started a debate. The end result was an inevitability I should have seen coming."

  "Your fault, got it," I said impishly.

  She turned her glare on me and I smiled back.

  "I knew that there would be trouble when I invited the Shadowborn, but I never thought that they would be so obstructive."

  "We've never talked about this, because, well I've never even met another Shadowborn that wasn't a Shaadre, but I'm stronger than I should be, aren't I?"

  "For a Shadowborn, certainly," she said, turning back to me, watching me closely.

  "Why aren't you worried? I mean the odds are that I'll go bad, and if I'm stronger than most other Shadowborn, won't that make me a worse monster in the end?"

  "I believe in you, Mathew," she said softly, "and I know you. You're not the going bad sort."

  "That's an awful lot of risk, when the cost can be so high."

  "It's not a risk when you know somebody."

  "You've known me six months. I could be an evil mastermind fooling you," I said, sm
iling so she'd know I wasn't serious.

  She burst out laughing, a very loud, very long and insufferable laugh that annoyed me a little bit.

  "You? A mastermi-" more laughter, full belly laughs that left her doubled over.

  "I hate you, I want you to know that."

  "Whatever you say, Mastermind," she said, doubling over again.

  "Just for that, I'm not going to argue with you any more, I'm cutting you off."

  "Oh no, what a loss," she said, deadpan.

  I grunted and stomped off.

  "See you tomorrow!" she called after me.

  "Yeah, yeah," I said, waving over my shoulder.

  "Ha, Mastermind!" she chuckled.

  I grumbled.

  After that, I just made a small dent in my already hefty pile of prep, showered and went to sleep. My dreams were slightly disturbed, but not too memorable. My phone rang, dragging me out of the, thankfully and the clock said that it was just after two in the morning.

  Cathy.

  "Hello?" I said groggily, picking up.

  "Matty, can you come to my room? I need to talk," she said, her voice sounded vulnerable.

  "If I'm caught in your room, especially after dark, I'm dead in six different ways," I replied.

  "Just come, please? This can't wait."

  "Put a torch in your window so I know which one," I said, it was one thing to know where her room was on the inside of the house during the day, but the last thing I wanted was to get turned around and hop in the wrong window. That would be embarrassing to say the least.

  "Okay," she said.

  We hung up and I pulled on a set of warm clothes before calling my shadows and flying out the window. I flew high to orientate myself and then glided in the direction of Curie House, where I found the window with the torch in it, facing out towards the playing fields. I used my will to open the window and slid in, where I found Cathy sitting on her bed with the duvet up around her shoulders and her arms around her legs, which were folded against her chest.

  She looked up at me as I released my shadows, a strange expression on her face.

  "You alright?" I asked, perching on a chair.

  "Why'd you ask me to the dance?"

  I was taken aback slightly by the question.

  "Because I wanted to go, and I wanted to take you with me," I said, still confused and a little sleepy, so my brain wasn't quite up to speed.

  "But why me? What are you after?"

  "What am I after?" I asked, a little hurt.

  "I didn't mean it like that," she explained, looking ashamed for a moment, "I just want to know why."

  "Why do you need to know?" I asked, trying to buy time to think on an answer that wouldn't make me look like an idiot.

  "Can't you just answer the question?" she said, giving me a glare.

  "We've never been to a dance, and I wanted that to change. And there is nobody else I would want to take with me," I managed.

  "But why, Matty?" she asked, seeming as intent on cutting to the heart of the matter as I was on taking it slowly.

  I looked at her, my eyes locking with hers.

  "Do you... do you want us to be together?" she asked, looking down.

  Oh, and there it was. My heart started pounding as my brain went into overdrive, coming up with every conceivable way of saying no, and extricating myself before I went too far...

  "Yes," I almost whispered.

  I was just as surprised as you are. I didn't think I had it in me.

  She looked up at me, her eyes compassionate. Oh dear, that's the same look she gets when she sees limping animals. This wasn't good, and I was already half-way crushed at what I was already certain was an oncoming rejection.

  "How long have you felt like this?" she asked.

  What do I do now? What do I tell her?

  Well, the cat's out of the bag, may as well tell her the truth, I suppose...

  "Let's see, we've known each other for about four years now, so... about three years, three hundred and sixty-four days."

  She nodded; she seemed to take it rather well.

  "Why didn't you say anything?" she asked, her tone soft.

  "I knew how you felt about Des, and I didn't think you could feel the same way about me."

  "Des?!" she snapped, lurching to her feet, "I wasn't into Des! Well, I mean when I thought he'd fixed my stutter, I had a little crush because I thought he was some sort of white knight, but until that, and until you told me you were a Magician, I was afraid of him!"

  "What?" I asked, quite confused.

  "I was afraid of magic, Matty, that's why I read everything I could, I was scared! The only thing that made that fear go away was you. You were always there, so calm, and explaining everything. You made me feel safe, which is another reason I crushed on your brother, because he was like you, before he went nuts. He had a little spark of that goodness. I may have liked your brother for a while, but I've always loved yo-"

  Her hands clapped over her mouth like she was trying to pull the words back in there. I could see her trembling, tears forming.

  "Cathy, don't do that," I said, standing up, "you can't, you know that when you cry, I cry."

  "I'm sorry," she said with a sob as I went to her and pulled her into my arms, our eyes on each others.

  "Does this mean you're still coming to the dance?" I asked, tears in my eyes now.

  "I see absolutely no reason why I should wait that long," she said.

  She lifted her lips to mine.

  And oh wow.

  Her arms went around my neck and her body was against mine, and it felt... right, like she fit there, like she was my missing piece. She was warm and soft, the kiss moist and tender. I smelt the scent of her shampoo, flowers and fruit. She moved tentatively at first, and then the kiss deepened and lengthened. After four years of build-up, one might have expected a kiss like that to be less than imagined.

  It was so, so much more.

  It ended and she pulled back just a little, a wide smile on her lovely face.

  "My first kiss," she whispered, "I'm glad it was you."

  "This feels like my first kiss, does that make sense?" I asked, smiling back at her.

  "A little, your first kiss was a succubus, and it's not like you asked. The Faust bitch is another thing, but we're not dwelling," she said with a cold smile, "though I'm going to do her in one day."

  I smiled at the girl I loved, the one Jocelyn had only briefly allowed me to move on from (now felt really stupid about that, by the way. Why had I waited so long?), and I held her tightly again.

  "Are you going to be all clingy now?" she asked with a giggle.

  "You say that like I wasn't before," I said, kissing the top of her head.

  She laughed softly, leaning back again, smiling, lovely.

  "I can't believe you made me wait four years for this," she said, leaning in again.

  "Sorry."

  "Not yet, you're not," she said with a glare before thumping my shoulder gently and kissing me softly, "but I suppose I might just give you the chance to make it up to me."

  "I'll do my best," I said, holding her.

  Morning found us lying together on her bed.

  I should make it clear that nobody was naked. This isn't that sort of story. And I'm a gentleman... most of the time. I certainly was with her. She was the one I wanted to get right.

  We'd talked all night, having a whole bunch of previous conversations over again, only with all the real feelings in place. It was amazing, and just having her there, soft and warm, up against me... it was the best thing I'd ever experienced in my life.

  "Is this going to be weird?" she asked.

  "Maybe a little, at first, it's a change."

  "What do we do?" she asked, snuggling into the crook of my neck.

  "We remember that no matter what else we may be and whatever else we may do behind the bike sheds when nobody's looking," she squeaked at that, blushed and swatted me in that way that melts my heart, "we were, ar
e and will always be the very best of friends. If you feel strange, just remember that. Besides, you've been sleeping with or next to me for years, it's not that big a change."

  "Really?" she said, sliding over on top of me, kissing me again, now more confidently, "Sure about that?"

  "Not so much now," I said in a slightly shaky voice which only made her smirk, cupping her face, brushing my thumbs against her cheeks.

  She giggled and moved in to kiss me yet again, only for the alarm clock to go off.

  "Crap," she said, and then her eyes went wide, and she darted to her feet, "You're in my room! And it's daylight, how are you getting out again?! We'll get caught, I'll get expelled, well, you will. Oh, what do we do?!"

  "You can't have forgotten that I'm a Magician already?" I suggested as she scrambled around her room in a near-panic. She really had perfected 'cute panic', sort of like a Smurf on amphetamines.

  I stood and pecked her once on her lips before casting my invisibility glamour (the technical term, I hate it, but still have to use it).

  "See you at breakfast," I said, and simply dropped out the window. I used my Will and lowered myself gently to the ground before walking in the direction of the Big Square. I crossed it quickly and darted into the East Corridor that went past the dining hall towards the chapel and led to the smaller square which was next to Kimmel House.

  I dropped my glamour once I was sure nobody was looking and grinned from ear to ear as I walked back to my room to change for breakfast.

  Best night ever...

  Breakfast was an interesting experience. Bill figured it out almost immediately and started giving us pointed looks. Eventually Cathy started blushing, at which point I started rubbing her back, which made her jump for a sec before she relaxed and smiled, leaning into the gesture.

  "Oh, that's just weird," Bill said.

  "Then don't watch," I said as Cathy smiled.

  "Don't watch what?" Belle asked, sitting next to Bill.

  "Their increasingly disturbing P.D.A.," Bill said, gesturing at us.

  "No," Belle said, "there's no way! It's literally been a day!"