Hawthorn Academy- Year Two

by D. R. Perry

  "Don't you dare." Dorian snapped at his familiar, hands still and straight at his sides. "This is our last chance." He looked right through me, his lower lip trembling.

  Somebody wasn't supposed to spill those particular beans.

  "I care about the health and safety of everyone on this campus." Nurse Smith dropped his arms. "Working with a familiar takes practice, and you're a year behind. Bonus points for bonding with a gryphon. They're a handful but not the worst. That honor belongs to the karkinos." He patted the pocket on his scrub top. "That's why I run Familiar Bonding. Take it one day at a time. Messes can be cleaned up, and most faculty and staff here accept apologies. Unlike the school you came from."

  "Thank you, sir." Dorian cleared his throat. "Did you go to the Academy?"

  "Let’s just say I’m in the know." Nurse Smith shook his head. "If you have trouble with your gryphon again, come straight to me. Understand, Spanos?"

  "Yes, Nurse Smith."

  "Good. Now help clean this up. We've got first-years without familiars on their way."

  Dorian nodded, then moved to help me. After we finished getting the trash laden bag into the can, we moved to the sink in the corner and washed our hands.

  "Your hair still has banana in it." He reached up and plucked a string from the peel off my head, washing it down the sink. "Sorry about that."

  "The day I met Ember, she got stuck in my updo, so I've had worse critter-related insults to my hair. I'm fine."

  He nodded, opening his mouth. Before Dorian could speak, Ezekiel emerged from the treatment room. He shook his head, placing one finger over his lips.

  "They've fallen asleep. Since there's time before the dinner hour, I'll let them rest."

  "Good choice." Nurse Smith nodded. "Please get the other room ready. I'm off to fetch the guest critters."

  As the infirmary staff went about their business, Dorian and I found seats. Mercy perched on his arm and he shook his head at her, reaching down to stroke the feathers under her chin.

  "What's gotten into you, girl?" He sighed. "Not enough open sky?"

  "Gryphons are pretty adaptable, Dorian. There's enough room for airborne critters to stretch their wings here. Maybe she's not used to so many other animals around. You said you found her alone, right?"

  "It was weird." Dorian shook his head. "Random. Not anything that's ever happened at the Academy before. The campus has wards to keep magical animals out, so—"

  Logan interrupted by stepping through the doorway.

  "Hey, are you okay?" He put his hand on Dorian's shoulder. "Doris told me about the trash."

  "I'm still a little meh." Dorian gazed up at Logan, who blushed and looked away, dropping his hand. "But I will be okay in a few minutes."

  "Am I interrupting something?"

  I looked up to see Arick Magnuson standing in the doorway. His hair was wet enough to drip and he was missing his blazer, which reminded me of my misadventures last year.

  "No, but what about you?" I gestured at him. "You look, um, rumpled."

  "I'm okay now, I guess. It's been a rough day." He looked at his shoes. "Nothing like what the other kids in my year say about yours, though. No fires."

  "One of those was my fault." Logan shook his head. "Lab accident. But yeah, we had an incendiary start last year."

  "Where did you hear that, anyway?" Dorian crossed his arms over his chest. "Alex Onassis, by any chance?"

  "No way." Arick shook his head. "He barely talks to anyone unless Temperance tells him to."

  "You only answered one of my questions, kid." Dorian gave Arick so much side-eye he could have been a fish.

  "Don't be so hard on him, Dorian." I shook my head. "We don't need to know the rumor mill's exact details."

  "Just trying to cover all the angles." Dorian shrugged. "Don't want to assume."

  "Someone's got to be a skeptic, I guess," said Logan.

  "I'm not trying to tell you the earth is flat or anything." Arick blinked. "Anyway, I'm sorry. Repeating rumors isn't nice, and you guys are stuck with me for a month. Sorry."

  The looks we shot at each other after Arick's self-deprecating statement could have come from the OK Corral. Maybe I relied on too much hyperbole, but the agitation level was supercharged. They barely noticed when the other first-year with no familiar, Michelina Zanelli, took the seat nearest to the door. She sat with her head down over folded hands. I couldn't see her face from behind the thick sheet of hair.

  It all defused when Nurse Smith returned, pushing the cart with the unbound critters, just as he had last year. We stood up and followed him as he wheeled it into the larger treatment room.

  He didn't give any explanations. Logan handed around his battered notebook from last year, which they flipped through avidly. As for me, everything from Familiar Bonding was second nature after growing up in a house over an extraveterinary office.

  When Nurse Smith let the critters out, they ambled around, checking each of us out. I held my hand down for each of them in turn, setting an example of how to behave around unfamiliar animals.

  Logan followed suit because he had at least as much experience with meeting new critters as I did. Despite our drastically different sources, some knowledge was common between showbiz and medicine. Dorian left the notebook to the others and kept trying unsuccessfully to coax Mercy down from the chandelier.

  Last year, Dylan and Logan had been reluctant to interact with the unbonded animals at Familiar Bonding. Arick was totally the opposite. If anything, he was too eager. Even the friendly poodle seemed wary of his attention. Michelina sat still and let them come to her. Eventually, a possum with golden fur and a yellow tail climbed into her lap, though she only patted its back a few times hesitantly.

  I tried to keep my observation of the quiet girl covert, but that didn't work so well. The main thing I noticed about Michelina Zanelli was how careful she was, like she thought the whole world watched her. I realized Elanor Pierce had this same trait, but the difference was, Elanor loved an audience. Michelina dreaded it.

  "Hi, I'm Aliyah," I said after moving to the seat beside her.

  "Lena." She didn't look up.

  "The possum likes you, Lena."

  "Okay." Her voice cracked, and she covered her face with her hands.

  I didn't know what to think about that, let alone do. I looked up, hoping for help from my fellow students, but Logan was busy explaining something to Arick while Dorian played tug-of-war with Mercy, who’d finally alighted on the floor. Fortunately, they were using a pull toy from the box in the corner instead of medical supplies.

  "Hmm. Class is over for now, though I've got a few words for you all." Nurse Smith looked up from the notes on his clipboard. "This year, we'll do a selection of worksheets. At the very least, it will reinforce some of your lessons from the lectures."

  "Are you saying we won't get to play with the animals tomorrow?" Arick stared at Nurse Smith like a disappointed puppy.

  "I'm saying both you and Mr. Spanos need more information than you have about magical animals. Most of the families who send their children here have familiars in the house. With Mr. Spanos, most of his relatives are psychic and unable to bond with a familiar. But you, Mr. Magnuson?" Nurse Smith tapped his pen on the paper. "You're an enigma."

  "Sorry." He winced. "My dad said something like that last week."

  "Nothing to apologize for, as long as you're willing to do the work."

  "I understand." He nodded. “And I am.”

  "What about Lena?" I asked, determined to speak up for the shy girl. Nurse Smith didn't get to answer.

  Chapter Eighteen

  "Help!"

  A clatter of footsteps sounded in the hall before the speaker turned the corner, arms full of fluffy canine—his poodle familiar, Clementine.

  "Darren?" I blinked.

  His critter was in big trouble. Nurse Smith cleared his throat, raising his voice.

  "Move! I've got an emergency here and need space."

  We
moved aside, Arick running out of the room and up the hall. Dorian stepped backward until he disappeared through the doorway. Logan and I remained front and center, in full view of the drama unfolding on the cot in front of us. The rest of the unbound critters crowded at our feet, herded beside us by Doris and Ember.

  "Her pulse is high, too thready." The nurse looked up. "Did you find her like this?"

  "She just collapsed after dropping a cup in the trash for me." Darren's voice quavered. "I don't know what did it. She hasn't been sick."

  "Ezekiel!"

  The vampire stepped through the door. He took one look at the dog on the cot, then leaned forward, wafting air toward his face and inhaling through his nose.

  "She's been poisoned. Neurotoxin."

  Behind me, Lena gasped and sniffled.

  "Neurotoxin?" My nostrils flared, red tinting the edges of my vision. I knew a magus on campus who wielded that substance: Alex Onassis. My throat choked with anger, and I could say nothing more. The air around me began heating rapidly.

  That's right. Get fired up and then find him. Make him pay.

  I almost gave in because familiar-based magi had a code. Familiars were off-limits, always. Attacking someone's critter was a heinous act, like harming an infant. I lifted my foot and switched my breathing pattern to suit a sprint, but before I could take off, cold fingers interlaced with my blazing ones.

  I looked to my left, expecting to see Dorian. He was an ice magus, after all, and had been nearby last time I checked. But it wasn't the new kid holding my hand. It wasn't even Logan, who'd used his water magic to counter my fire before.

  "Chill. You've got to cool it, Aliyah."

  "Dylan?" Logan named my savior. He stared down at our hands, blinking. When I copied him, everything looked normal.

  "Yeah. It happened in the café. I followed Darren."

  I shivered because Dylan's grip on my hand was colder than his air magic, which usually mirrored ambient temperature. The involuntary movement shook me out of my anger, and Dylan's grasp too.

  "Administering antidote." Nurse Smith snagged the syringe off a tray Ezekiel held out toward him. "Darren, you have to keep calm. Hold her down."

  "Okay."

  But he couldn't. Darren trembled, his grip too loose. He paled and doubled over, holding his stomach. Was he picking up on her symptoms? Clementine flailed, nearly bucking off the cot in the grip of a seizure.

  I rushed around to the other side of the dog, Ember swooping down in tandem. She dived to the opposite side of the cot, leaning against the poodle’s hindquarters before she could fall off. I reached out, grabbing Clementine by the scruff of the neck with one hand and blocking her back with my other shoulder. After that, I locked an arm around her, pinning her to the cot on her side.

  "Antidote incoming." Nurse Smith worked quickly, taking the dog's front paw in his hand and giving the injection with a grace I hadn't imagined he possessed.

  She whined, crying and straining against my grasp. Darren, now definitely affected by his familiar's dire state, reached toward her face. Her teeth clicked together, jaw clenching and eyes rolling. He pulled back just in time. The impact of this entire ordeal felled him, and he collapsed into the nearest chair, slumping over and dry-heaving.

  Dylan, always quick to respond to rogue bodily functions due to his time in food service, placed a wastebasket under the ailing magus.

  "Will she be okay?" Dorian asked.

  "I don't know." Nurse Smith shook his head, his forehead a tangle of furrows. "She's not improving as expected."

  "This antidote is supposed to react with great alacrity." Ezekiel shook his head. "In magi. But neither of us are experts in extraveterinary medicine."

  "Call my grandma."

  "The headmaster's already on it." Dylan nodded. "He saw the whole thing upstairs. We just have to wait for her to get here."

  Bubbe showed up with one of her levitating animal crates that transported heavier critters too sick to walk. When she was ready to leave, Darren followed, shakily leaning on her arm. Headmaster Hawkins stood by and waited for them to depart.

  "I'll want a statement from you, Mr. Kahn, including a list of everyone in the café leading up to this incident."

  "I'll talk to my boss. She was manning the counter too." Dylan nodded. "I should get back up there to finish my shift."

  "No, I've closed the café down for now." The headmaster sighed. "It shall remain out of commission until it's been swept for evidence and thoroughly sanitized."

  "You don't think it was something in the food or drink?" Nurse Smith asked.

  "I've yet to rule that out." He sighed again. "But I hope not."

  "Mr. Brown said it's a neurotoxin." I raised an eyebrow, taking a deep breath as I went ahead, damned the torpedoes, and stood up to the headmaster. "I hope accidental contamination isn't all you’re ruling out, sir."

  "My investigation's details are on a need-to-know basis. You, Miss Morgenstern, do not need to know."

  "What about me?" Hal stood in the doorway, clinging to Faith's arm.

  "No."

  "You're the headmaster." Hal narrowed his eyes. "Sir."

  I wondered what that exchange was about, but didn't get a chance to ask.

  "Everybody out of my infirmary." Nurse Smith waved his hands in a shooing gesture that didn't include Hal's father.

  Even Zeke filed into the hallway with us, heading up the ramp and into the lobby. He turned down the corridor beside the stairs toward the takeout window. The vampire CNA was friends with Penelope but didn't much like mingling with the rest of the students. I couldn't blame him, with anti-vampire sentiment rampant on campus.

  When I turned, I noticed Dorian was nowhere to be found. He'd either faded into the crowd of students milling about socializing or had headed up the stairs without saying goodbye. I asked where he went, but Dylan and Logan didn’t know. Lena stood nearby, back pressed against the wall, shrugging.

  "Dinner?" I jerked my thumb at the cafeteria, including the shy girl in my question. She shook her head and made a beeline for the stairs.

  "I'm not hungry after all that." Logan sighed. "I'm going upstairs to hit the books, and maybe the showers. See you tomorrow."

  "I'm not hungry either, but I could use a cuppa." Dylan beckoned, sauntering toward the cafeteria. "Come on."

  Once we were seated with tea and toast, which I insisted Dylan include, I asked him the million-dollar question.

  "What's with the super-chilled air?"

  "I don't know, but I’m worried it’s the good old E-word."

  "You need to do something about that right away." I picked up my tea to keep from fidgeting. The idea that Dylan might also be an extramagus had me on edge for reasons I couldn't define. "If last year taught me anything, it was to ask for help. The headmaster said I should have gone to Luciano about it."

  And you're still not telling anyone about me, or asking your crush whether he's got a devil on his shoulder. How interesting.

  "Don't worry, I'll learn from your mistake. Watch."

  He pulled out his notebook from the lecture, the one that transcribed everything off the magical blackboards. These worked two ways, letting us ask teachers questions outside class by writing them in the book.

  "Do you have a pen?"

  "Sure." I pulled one from behind my ear and set it on the table. I didn't want our hands touching again, especially not when he could see my face.

  "Thanks."

  I watched him print out words requesting a meeting with Professor DeBeer immediately. The words faded, typical when the recipient saw the message. A new one appeared briefly, instructing him to report to her office in twenty minutes. At least he'd have time to finish his toast and tea.

  "I'm going to nip this in the bud." He grinned. "No secrets, no lies."

  "Good." I held the teacup in front of half my face, hoping to hide any awkward expression that might cross it. "Make sure you say the E-word right away. That was my mistake, not telling anybody."r />
  "Well, you've got Luciano, so I can barely blame you. He's not an approachable fellow."

  "You'd be surprised if you were in his class. He looks and sounds stodgy, but underneath it all, he’s a big softie."

  "How?" Dylan's eyes narrowed. "He's a poison magus. Don't you suspect him? You know, about Clementine?"

  "No way." I shook my head. "He taught for decades overseas in very exclusive schools. If he were the type of guy to do stuff like that, his career would've ended ages ago."

  "Fair enough." Dylan chewed on a triangle of toast. "But he was in the café right before it happened."

  "That doesn't mean anything. Darren mentioned the trash can. I'm surprised the headmaster only asked for a list of people. Familiars have their own powers, and some are natural enemies. Bubbe uses herbs and light or sound to soothe them, but I haven't seen anything like that outside of the academic wing and the cafeteria. That's one reason we have Familiar Bonding, right?"

  "Yeah. To make sure their bonds with magi tempers their instincts. I hadn't thought of that."

  "Another thing. Those ties go both ways. Our critters influence us, too."

  "I just can't imagine any familiar so bad they turn their magus evil. Gale keeps me company and helps just by being here. He’s vain as a peacock but kind when it counts."

  “Some people might use their familiar’s instinct as an excuse for bad behavior. Or lean on their critters so much the bond goes sour.”

  "I know what you mean. Logan's family is a case in point.” Dylan shook his head. “He lived with you for a week, so you know about their dysfunction. They're awful. I’d hoped they were the exception."

  "According to Bubbe, they are. She says very few magi with familiars get as close as the Pierces to outright exploitation."

  "I want to ask Logan how he's doing. His parents tossing him out, then calling the cops is madness. But I don't think he's ready to talk."

  "It hasn't been that long. Just give him time." I shrugged, mostly at myself. Because there I sat, unable to take my own advice.

  "Yeah." Dylan swallowed, then looked at me. "I'm sorry."