by D. R. Perry
"Don't you have any other concerns?" She shook her head at the paper again. "Because from what you've said already, there's nothing I can do to increase safety measures."
"Detective, I don't know how to make it any clearer. Abraham Fairbanks is behind—"
There he was, standing by the cream and sugar table and grinning at me. He tapped his temple. I glanced out at the empty lobby, the unattended counter, the unoccupied seats nearby. Then, I burst into tears. Detective Ambersmith set her clipboard aside and patted my shoulder.
"I know, I know." She handed me a tissue. "You're stressed and frightened. It's okay if you can't talk about it right now. I'll be back to talk with Logan on Tuesday after dinner. So, come and meet me then once you've had a rest. Maybe it'll be easier having your boyfriend there."
"Can't I come to the station?" I blew my nose.
"Well, I'm glad you asked that." She sighed and handed me another tissue. "It's not possible. I can't act if we discuss things off-campus. Jurisdiction is weird when it comes to between worlds spaces. The entire investigation has to happen here like it did last year."
"I understand." I wiped my eyes. I did. All too well.
Abe Fairbanks had all his interests cornered, trapped in the pocket dimension that was Hawthorn Academy. He had the means, the power, and the advantage to get everything he wanted without interference.
The lamp that was Hal's last shot at saving his life was the first item on that list.
Upstairs, I filled my friends in on what happened at Danvers Sanitarium and everything that followed, up to the futile police statement. After expressions of relief that Logan was free, Bubbe on the mend, and Leo off the board, we danced along the edge of safe conversation and saying too much.
"With Leo out of the picture, the situation from this morning is even worse."
"How can we properly look if we can't even talk?" Dylan groaned his frustration and flopped back on my bed.
"We'll have to cope with redundancy." Hal sighed. "Running over the same old ground."
"Worst efficiency ever," Faith grumbled. "Zero stars."
"Hmm." Grace peered at me, then pointed at my ear. "Can I see one of those?"
"Uh, okay?" I removed the ear cuffs and handed them over. It wasn't physically possible to forget I was wearing them, but I'd certainly forgotten the fact I could take them off in all the chaos.
Grace took her time while turning the jewelry over in her hands. She rummaged in her desk drawer and brought out a monocle, which she held up to her eye as she continued the examination.
"What are you thinking?" Hal asked.
"See for yourself, magiscience whiz." She handed both items to him.
"This is awesome." After a moment, Hal nodded. "Put them back on, Aliyah."
"Okay?" I took it from him and did.
"Now we huddle up," Grace said.
Once we met in the middle of the room, she put her arms over Dylan's and Faith's shoulders. We all followed suit. A moment later, it all came clear to me.
They'd given me the cuffs to restrict mind magic. I'd learned early on that they enhanced it with contact when I touched Logan while wearing them, but I'd assumed it was partly a quirk of how close we were.
It took a dire emergency for me to deliberately try using them to commune with a stranger, the brownie in Danvers Sanitarium. Grace seized on that immediately and made her theory, that the cuffs also blocked incoming mind magic. I felt her glee when I montaged bits of all the sessions with Mr. Fairbanks, when I’d put the cuffs in their box on the desk. Then, I saw what she did—all our faces.
"It's like Aliyah-Grace-o-vision." Dylan chuckled. "Huh."
"Shh," Hal said. Then I got a cartoonish image of a mustachioed Abe Fairbanks with his forehead on the outside of a door, zig-zags of mean thoughts spiking the wood.
We all laughed.
We didn't have an actual conversation after that, more like a series of brain art. Hal's remained like sketches, while Dylan's resembled music videos complete with a soundtrack. Faith's were verbal, words forming in front of a cursor on a screen. Our thoughts moved faster than speech.
In moments, we had a plan set up to search all eight floors in the dorm for the lamp, even the unused ones. We needed more help but could discuss that without the ear cuff huddle. Everybody knew I was starting to reach my limit.
"Dylan, go get Lee and Dorian. Might as well include Xan if you can find him. Just show them the picture of you know what from our lab notes"
"What about Logan?" I asked. "Should we wait for him to get out of the infirmary?"
"Go to him after we're done here," Hal said. "We can handle this without him if he needs rest."
"We're all sleeping like logs tonight." Dylan chuckled.
"Maybe that's a good thing, with exams and all." Faith shrugged. "Anyway, let's get started."
We managed to search the entire dorm although it took the whole afternoon and part of the evening, up until dinner. None of us found Gamila's lamp. Somebody must have gotten there first. The best-case scenario was one of the first years. The worst, we didn't want to consider.
Dinner was almost over by the time I left Logan in the infirmary. He'd stay overnight, and Ian had already ordered his food from Penelope. I needed to do that for myself so I headed for the cafeteria.
One glance up at the arch in the lobby told me that Ember still sat on her nest. Gale stood watch as she slept there. As I watched, Julia soared up with a bundle of food in her talons. She dropped it off, and Gale immediately opened it, crooning to wake Ember. They shared their meal, an assortment of fish heads from the kitchen.
"Fishhead roulette's not for me." Dorian nudged me with his elbow. "Let's go get the beverage variety. The last thing I want to see is you passing out."
"I miss her."
"I get it." He sighed. "Eventually, old Julia here will feather a nest."
"It's okay to miss her too. Mercy, I mean." We got in line for food.
"I do every day. Like Julia here misses Filberto. And like Logan misses Doris."
"Bubbe won't be able to help him as she did for you."
"I, uh," he tapped his temple. "Heard how she's in the hospital. I'm paying her kindness forward. As soon as Nurse Smith lets him have another visitor."
"Thanks, Dorian."
We ordered our food, pizza slices. After that, we moved to the beverage section where Dorian looked around before speaking again.
"Did Xan really come out of nowhere and fight Crow? Without magic?"
"He didn't say anything?" I watched him get beverage roulette as he spoke.
"No. Not a word, although I asked about that cut on his hand. I went with Lee to the Witch's Brew this morning. He and Izzy told me. So, was it true?"
"Yeah, he did." I gestured at a table in the corner. "Let's sit and talk."
Over lunch, I told him everything. The magic-canceling dagger, Xan's trash talk, how I'd have ended up unconscious on the deck without my magic, like Arick. Dorian leaned across the table. I met him halfway, and he whispered in my ear.
"Okay, so I might be a total idiot. I'm in love." He sat back down, his face the utter picture of serious for once.
"I kinda figured that."
"Was I that obvious?"
"Not really. But everyone talks to me about this kind of thing lately for some reason, so I've been looking for it more."
"It doesn't bother you?"
"No. Should it?"
"When I got here, you two were enemies. I watched you help him despite that. So I figured, if anyone knew whether making big declarations to Xan Onassis is a good idea, it'd be you." He swallowed. "I'm not a total coward anymore, but old habits die hard. I trust your judgment. So, should I tell him?"
"Absolutely."
He nodded, then got up to drop off his tray. I followed him, expecting we'd say see you later, and I'd go upstairs for a nap. Dorian wasn't running on the same track as me. He made a beeline for the café, where Xan was behind the counter on shift. And
he did it, right then and there.
Xan blushed but nodded and said something back. I didn't need to hear what, because that connection I'd sensed between the two of them since the masquerade ball flourished like mulberries in July. Kayleigh the manager shooed Xan out from behind the counter and grinned as the pair embraced.
I stood under Ember's arch, smiling until my cheeks hurt. Then I got back on the stairs I showered and went to bed, hoping the morning would bring even more promise.
Chapter Thirty
Monday birthed exam week, and nothing at all was normal about it.
Someone knocked on my door at four-thirty in the morning. I opened it in rumpled pajamas and bed head, worrying over a medical emergency for either Logan or Hal. Or Ember's eggs hatching. It wasn't any of those things.
"Hi, Aliyah."
Noah stood outside my door. I'd forgotten he was scheduled to move in until after graduation.
"Oh, hi." I shoved my feet into slippers and stepped out of the room where Grace still slept.
"I've got stuff downstairs. Can you help?"
"Um, okay." I rubbed my eyes as I followed him. Then rubbed them again at the stack of suitcases. "It's four days, Noah."
"I'm the first vampire to graduate from here. Making the best impression is an enormous burden."
"So is impressing Dylan," I mumbled.
"Gesundheit." He gave me a fish-eye. "That was a sneeze, right?"
"Anything you say." I yawned and hoisted bags up to my shoulders and snagged a third with wheels, dragging it behind me. "What floor?"
"Down to goblin town." He chuckled. "Infirmary, away!"
"When did you become a morning person?" I groaned.
"This is like after dinner for me now." He grinned. "It's going to suck taking exams at the equivalent of three AM, though."
They'd given him Zeke's old quarters, which was good because a regular dorm room might not have accommodated his wardrobe. A refrigerator stocked with bagged blood sat in the corner, beside a sink and a microwave, amenities the rest of us didn't have. It had a restroom en suite, too.
"I've got room envy."
"It's only four days." He winked.
"Can I go back to bed?"
"Why not pop in and see Logan first?"
"Are you kidding? He's asleep."
"Am not." Logan stood in the doorway, rubbing one eye with a knuckle. I perked up immediately.
"How are you?"
"Sleepy. And you?"
"Same." I yawned again. "Do you want a hug?"
He nodded, and I went to his side. We stood there for so long I wasn't sure whether it was real or a dream.
Noah cleared his throat, so it was real. We stepped aside and took seats in the infirmary's waiting room as Noah went to fetch whatever else he needed. Then we went straight from hugging to full cuddle mode.
An alarm woke me later in an infirmary bed. I opened my eyes and immediately saw Logan in the next bed over as he rolled toward me. We sat up and stretched.
"Are you cleared for taking exams?"
"Yeah." He glanced at the clock above the door. "You'd better head upstairs and get dressed, though. You have half an hour before breakfast ends."
We hugged again, and I rushed out to the stairs and up them to my room. I hurried through my morning routine in half the usual time. I barely managed to grab toast before the café closed.
As I headed through the doors to the academic wing, it occurred to me that I hadn't studied at all over the weekend. Or for most of the previous week either.
"Who got the bright idea to have exams right after Bishop's Row?"
"I know, right?" Faith leaned against the wall outside our classroom. "I didn't study."
"You're not alone."
Professor Hawkins let us in after that, and we had the next three hours to mark lettered circles and fill blue books silently. Except Hal finished after an hour, with Dylan ten minutes behind him. Dorian sauntered out right before the two-hour mark, and Faith with a half-hour to spare. Logan was halfway to the front of the room when the professor called time. I set my pencil down and stretched before standing, then headed out of the room and down the hall to Creatives, where everyone else was engrossed in finishing their latest projects. Almost. Grace walked in behind me.
"Thank goodness Lab practicals are tomorrow." She grinned. "My brain feels like a fried egg."
"Mine feels like a spilled smoothie."
"Let's go make something, then."
We did, all the way up to the lunch bell, where I spotted a cluster of middle-aged people arriving on campus, dragging wheeled suitcases toward the entrance to the faculty wing. As the last one entered, I saw Andre Gauthier hustle out before the door closed. He glanced at me and nodded as he power-walked directly toward the academic wing.
Not a peep from that man's mind.
The phenomenon was so curious, I turned around and greeted him.
"Hey, Mr. Gauthier." I gave him my most adult-friendly grin. "Do you need help with anything?"
"Er, ah." He slowed his pace, seeming a bit more winded than he should have been. "No, not really. Just late to, hmm, audit a first-year lab."
"Okay, see you later." I stopped following him halfway across the lobby.
Don't buy that story for a minute.
I didn't. So I did my best to focus, trying to break through whatever wall he had up. I couldn't. The barrier, whatever it was, felt springy and flexible, not anything rigid. So, it was shatter-proof.
Fairbanks-proof too, I'd wager.
The answers to how Andre protected his thoughts and what he was doing while shielded would have to wait. My stomach grumbled, so I hurried back to my friends.
"Are parents visiting for graduation already?" I nudged Hal as we entered the cafeteria.
"Not exactly." He shook his head. "Leo's not coming back. So we're missing a trustee. That's the last of the out-of-town alumni arriving to cast votes, but it's a technicality. I already told Logan his mother arrived this morning. She's the only one qualified for the spot."
"What about my mom or dad? Couldn't one of them try for it?"
"Neither of them are the oldest alumnus in your family." He sighed. "If Bubbe weren't still recovering, she'd be eligible. Same with my grandpa, if he weren't headmaster."
"Wow. I had no idea that was part of the requirements. Are you worried?"
"I keep telling myself at least it's not Mrs. Fairbanks."
"Why not Petra? She's older than Mrs. Pierce, I thought."
"No secondary degree." Hal shrugged. "I don't like it, but there's nothing we can do. There's only one good thing about this."
"Which is?"
"The trustees will be occupied through the meeting, vote, and most of the night getting her up to speed. We'll have no trouble from them, at least."
The fact that I didn't have any more sessions scheduled with Mr. Fairbanks was an enormous relief although the idea of Logan's mother as the new trustee still galled me. After dinner, as I watched the crowd of visiting alumni leave, I felt a little better.
Hal turned out to be correct. Mr. Fairbanks gave us no trouble at all. At least, not for the remainder of Monday.
Tuesday was another story entirely.
I woke early the next morning before it would have been light out in Salem. Grace still slept, so I dressed and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. After that, I headed downstairs and into the twilit lobby, staring at the darkened cafeteria.
"Hey, you." Noah stepped through the doors to the academic wing.
"What are you doing up?"
"Just finished the Lab practical."
"Oh, they didn't let you take it in the library?"
"They would have, but I didn't want to make the professors set the entire thing up in two places so I got it done before sunrise." He cleared his throat although vampires don't have to do that. "I'll get us both in trouble if I say more. But there's a shockingly important item in there."
"Huh?" The only important magica
l item I could think of on this campus was Gamila's lamp. I banished the thought the moment after it entered my mind. Noah had all but told me someone was listening.
"I can't say more." He tugged his earlobe and glanced at the wall. "Don't want anyone thinking I'm passing you answers. Or anything."
"That's nice of you." I nodded. "Hey, for accommodations, couldn't they have covered the windows and let you take it with the rest of us instead?"
"Andre Gauthier insisted." He shook his head. "He said it might have been embarrassing. I’m required to wear gloves. Something about preventing accidental use of vampire senses to identify things, but it felt like their typical brand of prejudice. Anyway, it's over now. I'm going to bed. It's tiring, keeping two sets of waking hours."
"Won't you have to do that in college?"
"Oxford Occult offers every course of study through their Night School."
"So you accepted?"
"I'm leaning that way. It's hard to say no to a full scholarship at the world's oldest English-speaking magical school." He gave me a half-smile. "Dylan's going. So, there's that."
"What is that, exactly?"
"I don't ask you to define things with Logan."
"That's fair." I raised an eyebrow. "I think there's a difference between defying definitions that don't fit and being cautious."
"Which is wise in both our cases."
"You sound like Bubbe. It looks good on you."
"Ditto, kiddo."
The lights came on in the cafeteria. We spoke at the same time, but not entirely over each other.
"Get your rest."
"Get those grades." Noah chuckled. "Love you."
"Love you too."
We went our separate ways for the day.
I had breakfast before everyone else, then got my gym uniform and headed off to run laps because my nerves wouldn't let me sit still. The fine spray of water in the shower washed away sweat but not anxiety. This was an enormously important day academically, but it felt like more than a difficult exam was coming.
Like everything's about to go sideways again. Just like last year.
