“Well.” Holly pinched her lips together. “You are half Morelli. The Academy and the Directorate will want to keep tabs on you.”
“You think they’ve been watching me here?” My pulse raced again.
“The Directorate posted all sorts of new security after the battle. You can’t tell me they aren’t reporting anything odd or suspicious back to them.” Holly leaned back in her seat.
“Come on, Holly,” Emiko scolded. “You’re scaring Josy.”
“I don’t want to scare her, but she needs to be realistic. The Directorate have long spoken against the Morelli because they have been very hostile to The Side of Magic. Even if Josy is a nice person and might have some special magic that could help them the Directorate would be very careful since relations have strained more in the last twenty years.”
My leg began to twitch nervously under the table. “You think I might be some sort of test subject?”
Holly shrugged. “I don’t have any idea why you’re here. My parents follow politics, and all I know is that there’s been peripheral talk of allowing those with Morelli blood back into society for a century but it’s never really happened on any large scale. There’s too much risk, and the people always vote it down.”
What Holly was saying made my head hurt. The stabbing pain poked at the back of my eye.
Emiko furrowed her brows. “Josy doesn’t need to know all this right now. She’s still taking time to get settled. You need to give her a break.”
All I really wanted was to get into bed. I was sure that a night’s sleep would help the situation. I didn’t kill Professor Lakeshore, and the Directorate didn’t seem to suspect that I did. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have let me go back to my dorm. “I just want to be done with today . . . move on.”
Holly moved her gaze to me and locked on. “Like I said. I know a bit about politics, and in my opinion, it’s always best to watch your back—keep your guard up.”
“What do you want me to do about it?” I asked in frustration.
Holly’s lips twisted into a wry grin. “I think you need to get hold of that file.”
Chapter 7
The campus was quiet and free of the usual Thursday-morning bustle— a lot like the days following the battle with the Morelli. Apparently, many students decided to go home until Monday when classes would resume.
I wore my favorite pair of old jeans and a black t-shirt with my black boots. It was nice to be out of uniform, and since classes weren’t in session, I hoped that uniforms weren’t necessary. I really needed to wear something familiar and comfortable to help shake off some of the previous day’s negative experiences.
I did spot several students entering the dining hall for breakfast, but I wasn’t hungry and figured I could go there later. For the time being, I just wanted to see if I could catch Professor Magnolis in her office. A long talk was overdue, and it sounded like a lot better idea than breaking into Chancellor Sterling’s office again to steal my file. I’d gotten away with that once, but I wasn’t going to press my luck. I was sure Magnolis would have some answers for me to calm the stories I was telling myself, which likely were not true.
Coming up on the chancellor’s building, I spotted Aspen, book in hand and wearing jeans and a blue T-shirt, slipping around the back. He must have been returning to the statue garden. A weight fell on my chest when I remembered how we broke the cat’s tail on the Borealis statue—all the bits of stone still on the ground when we ran from the courtyard. I had no idea how much trouble we might be in for damaging the statue, but I had the feeling Sterling would not be happy if he found out.
I glanced down the path to Magnolis’s building, then turned to trudge across the lawn and see what Aspen was doing. When I arrived, his back was to me as he regarded the pieces of stone cat’s tail still scattered on the ground. A few seconds later, he bent and began sweeping them up with his hands.
“If you are just cleaning that up, I think Sterling will probably notice that Borealis’s cat suddenly became a Manx.”
Aspen flinched. “I’m trying to fix it.”
I scrunched my nose. “I don’t think any amount of glue is going to put that back together the same as before.”
Aspen stood with the pieces in his hands and smiled. The grin stirred up all those butterflies that live in my stomach, and for a moment, I forgot about all my troubles.
“I was planning to use a spell.” He continued looking at me, and his smile fell away. “I take it that everything went okay last night? I heard you were interviewed about Lakeshore.”
“It was fine. But I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Emiko and Holly had me up way too late for a second interrogation.” Deep down, I wanted to tell Aspen everything because I trusted him, but I also didn’t want to involve him in this whole mess. He was on scholarship, and befriending me had already made him lose focus on his studies and take up vandalism. “Thank you for bringing me dinner.”
“I wasn’t going to let you starve, even if you didn’t want me around.” Aspen peered at the rubble he was holding. “Want to give me a hand with this?”
“Sure.” I still needed to get to Magnolis, but that could wait for a few minutes. I held out my palms, and Aspen poured the pieces into them.
He clapped his hands together several times to dust them off and then reached for the book I’d seen him with. “I’m trying a restoration spell. I’ve done a few in the past when I broke some of my mom’s precious dachshund figurines when I was a kid. The general concept is not that difficult, but getting all the details right is.”
“Do you even know what the tail looked like before we broke it?”
“Not really. I’m hoping no one will notice if the repair looks off.”
I chuckled, unsure how badly we could mess up a stone cat’s tail. Whatever we did had to be better than the twenty-plus pieces it was in now. “Okay, what do we have to do?”
He flipped to the page he wanted and pointed to the words. “First, we need to hold the pieces to the spot where they need to return. Then I can start the spell.”
I turned to look at the statue. It was tall, and I wasn’t, but Borealis stood on a stone base that was several feet high. I could stand on the edge next to the statue and easily reach the spot where the cat was forever held in the crook of his arm, with the nub of a tail hanging below the stone sleeve. I pulled up the hem of my shirt to make a pouch and dropped the fragments inside. I still had to hold it secure with one hand, but the other was free to help climb the statue. Once there, I gathered all the broken bits into my hands again and held them close to the repair point.
Aspen muttered a few words under his breath and set the book down. Within a few seconds, his hand glowed blue. He stepped toward me as I watched, mesmerized.
The broken bits began to vibrate in my hands, and one by one, they rose into the air and fitted themselves in the correct spots on the statue. The stone fused together, and even the cracks seemed to weld together, healing the damage.
“It’s working!” A massive smile spread over my lips, and Aspen closed the gap between us until his hand was no more than a few inches from me.
The back door to the chancellor’s building creaked open, and I darted my gaze toward the noise. Sterling stood in the opening, a scowl pulling at the corners of his mouth.
Aspen was too engrossed in completing the spell and watching the pieces of stone knit back together to form the repaired tail, so I had to think fast. I didn’t want to explain to Sterling how we’d accidentally vandalized the Academy’s property, even if we were fixing it now.
With the repair nearly complete, I hoped for the best and dropped my hands. There was no time to warn Aspen of my plan. I had to do something that would take all attention off what we were really doing. In a flash, I reached down and wrapped my arms around his neck. Before he could react, my mouth was on his. Electricity jolted inside me, and I just closed my eyes and went with it. Surprisingly he didn’t pull back like I might have thought he wo
uld. His hands found the base of my neck and raked into my hair. He still had no idea Sterling was walking directly for us. Aspen actually kissed me back, and for a second everything else in the world went away. No Sterling, no Morelli, no Directorate, no silly magic I seem to be terrible at, and definitely no broken stone cat tails. Basically pure heaven—until it wasn’t again.
“Mr. Rivers, Miss Barrows.” Sterling’s voice cut through my perfectly imperfect moment.
In surprise, Aspen released me and took a step back. My eyes widened, and my feet slipped from the statue’s stone base. Before I could do anything to stop it, my body was flying through the air—all legs and arms—and I slammed into Aspen. He tumbled backward, and we ended up in an awkward heap.
“What in Merlin’s name is going on out here?” Sterling demanded as I scrambled off Aspen and popped to my feet. Aspen pushed from the ground and stood as well.
“First, you are out here climbing on and disrespecting school property. And then it turns into some sort of make-out session.” Sterling glared at Aspen. “Mr. Rivers, may I remind you that you are on scholarship at this school, and model behavior is a part of that agreement.”
Aspen glanced furtively at the cat’s tail, which appeared to be fully restored, and then back at Sterling. “I apologize, chancellor. Um . . . Josy thought she saw something on the statue and was just trying to clean it off.”
I gulped but didn’t say anything. Aspen’s story was pretty good, and I didn’t want to mess it up.
Sterling glanced at the statue and walked through the opening between us. He raised up on his toes to examine the area around the cat. “Hmm . . .”
All I could hope was that was a good “hmm” and he wasn’t going to notice any difference in the tail’s appearance.
The chancellor turned back to us. “Well, it looks fine now.”
“Um . . . yes,” I managed. “I thought I saw something that wasn’t there.”
“You two are wasting my time. You know there is an investigation for a death in process.” Sterling’s tone was sarcastic.
“Yes, sir,” Aspen and I said in unison.
“Now get out of here,” Sterling ordered, and without looking at us again, he marched to the still-open building door.
Aspen and I didn’t say a word to each other until the door clicked shut.
“Josy?” Aspen was the first to speak.
My heart sank. I had kissed Aspen, and he was going to tell me how we can’t do that. I closed my eyes and bit the inside of my cheek before I uttered a sound. “I was just trying to create a distraction. I didn’t mean anything by it.” I opened one eye, expecting to turn to him and finish my explanation. But instead, he was right in front of me, his forehead wrinkled with disappointment.
“So you didn’t really want to kiss me?”
My breath picked up. What kind of answer did Aspen want? Should I tell him yes? Maybe no was the right thing to say. But as I gazed into his amazing blue eyes, the words caught in my throat. All I wanted to do was kiss Aspen Rivers again. So, I raised up on my toes, and that is exactly what I did.
I barely even heard Chancellor Sterling banging on his office window. Barely.
Chapter 8
“I have to go.” My lips were on fire for more kisses, but I reluctantly pulled from Aspen’s embrace and stole a look at Chancellor Sterling’s window.
He wasn’t there, but I had the feeling that if we didn’t get out of here, Sterling would be back to yell at us again.
Aspen looked as if whatever guard he had built up over his time here, or maybe even his whole life, had melted away. His entire demeanor had relaxed, and a warm smile crossed his lips.
“Why? There are no classes. We can spend the day together.” He paused for a second in thought. “About a mile’s hike from here is a gorgeous overlook of Eagle’s Height. I study there sometimes just to get away from this place.”
The kiss we shared made me want to believe that everything could be normal at the Academy. I could have a real life . . . a happy one. Why couldn’t I go on a date with Aspen? My heart begged yes, but my head knew that reality was much more complicated. I was part Morelli, and The Side of Magic had secrets. Dark secrets. If I was going to have even the slimmest chance at that normal life I’d been fantasizing about, I needed to get a better idea of how my family’s past played into those secrets. Otherwise, I might find myself dead like Lakeshore.
I cleared my throat and placed my hand on Aspen’s chest. It was warm and muscled, and his heart beat under my fingers like a drum. “I’d love that more than anything, but I have several things I need to take care of.”
“How about if I come with? I can help you.” His hopeful grin nearly decimated my willpower, but I had to stay strong.
“It’s a bunch of boring stuff I need to do on my own. You’d just be bored.” I avoided telling him that I was going to visit Professor Magnolis. I was sure that, being her teacher’s assistant, he would insist on tagging along. So, before he could open his mouth, I made up an excuse. One I was pretty sure would work.
I smiled sweetly at him and slid my hand to his face. “Honestly? If you come along, I’m positive that I’ll never be able to focus.”
His eyes twinkled with pleasure. “Is that so bad?”
Aspen’s words made me break out into a full-on belly laugh, and he continued grinning. “Do I know you?” Until a few minutes ago, Aspen had always been a “responsibility comes first” kind of guy. “I’m sure you have some of your own studying to do.”
Aspen sighed deeply and rolled his eyes. I knew I was right; he likely had a stack of books waiting in his room. Until a few minutes ago, he'd probably planned a date with each of them instead of trying to get me to go on one. Without a word, he grabbed my hand and pulled me from the courtyard and Sterling’s line of sight to the side of the building. He stopped and leaned in to kiss my cheek, which, of course, made my knees all wobbly. “You finish whatever you need to do. I’ll be in my room most of the day . . . maybe at the library, when you want to find me.”
I smiled inside and out, then raised up on my toes and placed a soft kiss on his lips.
Aspen’s breath hitched. “You sure you can’t take care of that stuff tomorrow?”
With a nod, I forced out the words I didn’t want to say. “I’m sure.”
He cursed under his breath in disappointment but followed it up with a smirk. “See you later then.”
“Okay.” Before I could change my mind, I dashed away and back onto the path.
✽✽✽
Moments later, I found myself in front of Magnolis’s office. I raised my fist and rapped on the door.
“Just a moment,” Magnolis’s muffled voice sounded from the other side.
The ghost of Aspen’s kiss still hovered over my lips, and I crossed my arms over my chest in an attempt to ground myself. It wasn’t working. Having him not here was almost more distracting than having him with me. I didn’t know if that was true, but it felt like it.
I touched the tips of my fingers to my lips and leaned back against the door frame, lost in the memories of a few minutes ago.
Click.
The door opened, and I tumbled backward into Magnolis’s office, falling right on my butt. Somehow the professor had managed to get out of the way and was staring at me in horror.
“Josy! Are you alright?” She flung her hand out to me, and despite my disorientation, I took it and pulled myself to my feet. Heat, which I knew was coloring my pale skin beet-red, burned my face and neck.
“I . . . I . . .” I patted my body, but nothing seemed damaged. “I think only my pride is wounded.”
Magnolis chuckled. “Wounded pride can heal. I should know since mine has been damaged more times than I can count. What brings you here?”
I pressed my lips together. “We are overdue a conversation.”
Professor Magnolis sighed. “I had hoped that your life here would simply fall into a groove and we’d have more time before you sh
owed up at my doorstep.” She pushed the door shut and gestured to the padded chair in front of her desk. “Please have a seat.”
Without a word, I did as she asked.
Biting her lip, Magnolis rounded to the other side and took the spot in her chair. She released a heavy breath and leaned her elbows on her desk. “I can’t answer all the questions you likely have rolling around in that head of yours.”
My stomach tensed. “Can you answer some of them?”
“Maybe. It depends on what the questions are.”
I thought for a second. “Why am I here at the Academy?”
“Because you were invited. I oversaw the invitation myself.” The professor leaned back in her chair and folded her hands on her lap. “The determination was made that you belonged at the Academy.”
She knew that was not the answer I had been looking for. “There haven’t been any Morelli at the Academy for twenty years. And Aspen said none of them ever worked out.”
“Not apparent ones at least. Your mother was one of those who concealed her identity so she would not be discriminated against.”
A lump caught in my throat. I wanted to talk about Mom and Dad, but I didn’t know if I was ready for that. I pulled at my long, white hair. “My identity isn’t concealed, though. People know exactly what I am. How does my being here tie into my benefactor? The one who’s paying for my education and providing money to the school.”
Magnolis’s forehead crinkled. This was not something she wanted to speak about. “I can’t say very much because your benefactor has asked to remain anonymous. But you should know that your right to be at the Academy was fought for. You do belong here.”
“Is that why the Academy has such a thick file on me? How much does Sterling or the Directorate know about my background?”
She tipped her head, and her expression remained flat. “Sterling and the Directorate know what your benefactor wants to reveal.”
Spellcaster Academy Box Set Page 13
