Now I understood perfectly why Sibel had been struggling that she hadn’t been able to prevent or stave off the attack on Valenthia and that too, one brought on by a fellow werewolf. We turned a corner and came upon a room without any doors. It was simply there, illuminated by the gorgeous sunlight enchantment that streamed powerfully through the large glass skylight in the centre.
“This is kind of a library of everything we have on Esmeralda Quartz. It’s like a database of our heritage. Professors who teach classes to the more advanced students borrow books from here,” Sibel pointed.
“Why is this hidden away from the rest of the Silver Shadows?” I asked, going over to one of the elegant wooden shelves that lined the room. There were rows and rows of thick tomes and I looked to Sibel as one caught my eye. She nodded for me to go ahead and take it.
“It’s not hidden as much as it’s available when a student is ready,” replied Sibel with a touch of diplomacy.
“But Xanthe said Silver Shadows don’t have magical abilities?”
“We don’t through birth the way you do as a Crystal Witch. And most of us will only ever have enhanced abilities as werewolves. But Esmeralda Quartz had tried to teach magic to our line as we come from her. What she succeeded in doing was preserving her magic so we could use it long after she’d gone. At first it was a few moonstones that she put her magic into.”
“Moonstones!” I said. Thinking back to my own education at the coven, we had strictly dealt with quartz crystals and it had led me to believe that as Quartz Witches we couldn’t work with any others.
“Yes, she picked these crystals for obvious reasons.”
“Where do these books come in?” I asked, not making the connection.
“Because Esmeralda was a witch, she was able to transfer her magic into the moonstones very easily. Then werewolves of her bloodline were able to use the crystals to strengthen themselves. She made hundreds of crystals but she knew they weren’t enough so she wrote books about magic, many of them instruct on how to become experts at transferring her original magic into new moonstones.” Sibel fingered through a book shelf and crouched down, looking for something specific. She picked out a book and opened it on what to me seemed like a random page but clearly wasn’t. “This one is a basic book that shows how significant it is to receive a moonstone upon being recognized as a member of the true Silver Shadows.”
“Unlike the ones at Superno,” I said, crouching down next to her to take a look. It was an intricate diagram of a crystal surrounded by the same swirls that my magic produced. Although I didn’t know what the symbols around it meant – they looked like runes – I was easily able to pick up that it was showing how to charge the crystal with magic from another.
“The Silver Shadows at Superno don’t necessarily descend from Alani Quartz and Luis Grey,” said Sibel like it was obvious enough.
“OMG!” I said almost letting out an involuntary shriek, “Does that mean that in some way, Ulric and I are related by blood?” I remembered Ulric saying his ancestors had settled in Louisiana but weren’t from there. If it had to happen to anyone, it would have been me.
“That is hilarious and gross!” said Sibel, the heaviness and tension lifting off her shoulders, “but it’s not all about descent. It’s how receptive a werewolf is to either side. And while your boyfriend might be magically aligned with the Silver Shadows, if he was nabbed by Black Banes as a kid, it’s highly unlikely he comes from the direct bloodline of Alani and Luis.” Sibel gripped my shoulder, mostly to stop from falling over in the peel of laughter that emanated from her.
“How unlikely?” I frowned, unconvinced.
“Look, if it makes you feel better, everyone’s got to come from somewhere. And there aren’t that many wolf packs. With us, it’s not quite like it is for mortals or even witches. After a while everything starts to crisscross.”
“Great, I feel heaps better,” I said rolling my eyes.
“Good. And by the way, your boyfriend should definitely take a look through this. I’m sure it’ll give him extra points with Principal Silverstone too,” said Sibel handing me the book. “Chillax. You and Ulric aren’t cousins or anything.”
“How do we know that?” I moaned as my mind trailed off to the depths of what-ifs.
“You’re not even the same species so that’s a good start. If you guys were ever to have kids, they’d likely be the first ever supes to be a combination of three different species. Trust me, you’re playing with a diverse gene pool there.”
“Thanks,” I said, actually beginning to feel relief, although it was probably because my mind was too full to entertain another issue to worry about. I could always ask the principal if I still felt weirded out about it by the evening. “I remember Principal Silverstone saying there hadn’t yet been a Silver Shadow werewolf that could conjure magic,” I said leafing through the magic book I’d picked out. It was a spell book and if werewolves couldn’t do magic, it didn’t make sense why it held a space on their bookshelf.
“It’s because she holds out hope that one of us will be able to,” replied Sibel, getting up off the ground. “She’s the one that teaches the Lunar Enchantment class to third years.”
“Hmm,” I replied, “But surely if a student has magical ability it’s better to discover it as soon as possible. Especially given where things are headed?”
“She’s always said that we should learn about our wolf heritage first – become strong shifters before venturing into the world of magic,” replied Sibel. I could tell she too was curious about the magical side that she may possess and yet have never gotten to practice.
“Is Principal Silverstone able to conjure magic?” I asked getting a thought.
“No, that’s part of the problem. We’re taught by someone who knows how things should be in theory but has no real experience. She can only use Esmeralda’s huge crystal in her office to transfer the magic into the moonstones she presents to us.”
“Do you think Silver Shadows are magical?” I asked Sibel following her over to a table towards the centre of the room. She grabbed a couple more books and sat down, pulling out the chair next to her for me.
“You’re mixed and both your sides work together, right?” replied Sibel, “how did you make that happen?”
“It was very random,” I answered thinking back to how it had been the drinking of blood that had strengthened both my Sanguine and Crystal Witch sides.
“Here’s a book on Esmeralda’s life,” Sibel handed me a royal blue, leather-bound book, “it’s an easy read as it’s written like a story. Her grandkids wrote it by putting together all the stories their parents, Alani and Luis had told them about her.”
“This is amazing, thanks!” I said, deciding to spend the morning reading up, “Is it okay if I stay here for a while?”
“If I give you permission, then yes,” said Sibel, “and I give you permission. Principal Silverstone will be pleased that someone who can actually conjure magic is learning about Esmeralda’s side of their lineage.”
My eyes widened and my heart pounded as I read about the origins and continued line of light magic. It was like nothing I’d ever seen or heard in my days as a young Crystal Witch, surviving on what had turned out to be scraps in the Circle of Quartz.
According to the book, Esmeralda and the ever-famous Rose Quartz – Safi’s ancestor around whom everything the S.L.A. stood for was based – had once belonged to the same Quartz Coven. In those days, out of necessity, every coven had existed in utmost secrecy, hidden from the ongoing fear and persecution of the mortal world. “Safi – you have to hear this!” I sent out as I read.
“Morning to you too, sunshine!” came Safi’s reply, “Do you know how early it is here?”
“Sorry!” I drummed my fingers on the cherry-wood table as I anticipated how she’d receive what I was about to share. “I have some information you might be interested in – about Esmeralda Quartz.”
“Sure! Because I sure as hell haven’t f
ound anything at my end. Especially not since Professor Frewin’s been gone.”
“She was a witch in the same secret coven as Rose Quartz,” I said testing the water.
“What, wait a minute – my relative Rose Quartz?” Safi’s thought came through, intense and animated, “So she definitely existed then!”
“Of course, she did!” I retorted, a little offended that despite my mentions, it had ever been a question in Safi’s mind.
“Okay, take it easy,” Safi tried pacifying me. It had the opposite effect. “So, what happened to her?”
“You need to keep an open mind for what I’m about to tell you,” I said, bracing to be both debated and doubted.
“Try me,” Safi’s voice bounced around inside my head.
“Apparently, she was a very powerful witch,” I began, “actually a much more competent witch with more potent magic than Rose.”
“Go on,” Safi urged after a moment of stillness.
“Rose was always the one who was interested in being recognized within the supernatural world, for her light magic. Whereas Esmeralda didn’t care for the limelight. She was a natural healer and had all the magic that Rose could only dream of conjuring, right at her fingertips.”
“So, there was a rivalry between them?” asked Safi. I could tell that she was intrigued and yet wary at the same time. I didn’t blame her. I was about to drop a bombshell on her family history and I knew she felt it as the pieces of the puzzle began to come together.
“Only from Rose’s side because she thought that Esmeralda would dwarf her path when witches and warlocks realized what she was. Esmeralda assured her that she wasn’t looking to upstage her and so that Rose would stop her foolish envy, Esmeralda moved out of the coven and became a lone witch. She moved into a small house, deep in the forest a way away from the coven. And that was where she raised her own two daughters in relative peace for many years.”
“This sounds like a detailed story – I’m not questioning it,” said Safi, “but where did you get such an intricate account?”
“That’s a question,” I replied, continuing to flip through the book that Sibel had given me, “and I’m sitting here in a room – one of many here – that are dedicated to Esmeralda Quartz. She’s the reason the Silver Shadows exist.” I filled her in on how Esmeralda had saved Luis Grey and gone on to be mated with Alani Quartz, as well as how the other daughter, Annika, was my father’s direct ancestor. Safi listened in what I gathered was stunned silence, taking it all in, slipping in the occasional ‘wow’ to show she was still there.
“You’ve sure found a out a lot about your family history,” she said.
“It gets more interesting,” I answered. “Eventually Rose Quartz grew as a witch and so did her powers. She was revered by covens across Europe and she started the grassroots of what has come to be known as the Supernatural Light Alliance,” I said.
“Right! Now that I do know,” replied Safi, gaining back her confidence.
“Rose Quartz had many followers who protected her from her many enemies which at the time significantly included mortals,” I said reading through the part of the book that gave a history about how Esmeralda had been deceived by her own kind, “but she perceived her biggest threat to be Esmeralda Quartz because word had spread between supes and mortals how she used her Crystal Magic to heal people and help them out of the most perilous of situations.”
“Please don’t tell me that my ancestor killed yours?” said Safi. I could tell that she was only half-joking.
“Not directly but she left breadcrumbs for Elizabeth Bathory to find her way to Esmeralda,” I sent back, hoping not to sound as bitter as I really felt.
“What? No!” came the reply.
“You don’t believe me,” I said, reading out a passage directly from the book in my hands.
“It’s not that,” began Safi, “you have to understand, this means that nothing I’ve ever learned or know about myself is true.”
“I can understand how hard that is,” I said, truly empathizing with her.
“I trust you, Kat and if you think that what you’ve found is a true story, then I believe you,” said Safi, “but it might take me a while to process it.”
“I know,” I said realizing that I’d inadvertently done to Safi and her understanding of herself, what had been done to me when I’d discovered I was part Sanguine. And the choice had been taken out of my hands which path I wanted to pursue when I’d been bundled off to Bloodline Academy. No matter what Rose Quartz had done and that her choices had had such overarching impacts on the supernatural world, I didn’t want to be the one to take away a decision that belonged only to Safi. “You don’t have to do or change anything you don’t want to,” I said, adding, “whatever you want to do with what I’ve told you – even if it’s nothing – as your best friend I won’t hold it against you. Not now or ever.”
“Thanks, lady,” came Safi’s voice. It was laced with sadness and it pained me that I’d been the one to unravel her family history for her. I couldn’t help think that maybe I should have remained silent. How did what I’d said help her? She wasn’t me. She had so much more to lose. “My mom’s always been very guarded with Aviar and I,” Safi said after several minutes. “When we were kids, the only time we felt close was when we asked her to tell us stories about magic. I loved listening to the part about how as Crystal Witches and Warlocks we had originally descended from the fae.”
“Same here,” I smiled, feeling that she was right next to me and not a world away.
“No matter how her story began, she always ended up talking about Rose Quartz. As we grew up a bit, I started asking her lots of questions about how and why Rose had risen to prominence – it was all innocent stuff – I was curious about our famously powerful family line. But more than that, it was the only time I felt my mom truly connected with me.”
“What did your mom say?” I asked, easily imagining Safi as a young and rambunctious child, wanting to know everything she could about summoning her own magic by learning about her ancestor’s. Wanting her mom to love her for who she was, like every child.
“Sometimes she’d tell us the tales that have been passed down through our generations,” Safi mused, “stuff that isn’t taught at any school – family stories. When she talked about Rose, it was almost like she was talking about someone she’d known and grown up with. But other times, there was an air of superiority about the way she spoke.”
“I’ve known for quite some time that your mom doesn’t like me,” I said, getting that weight off my chest. It was something that had remained unspoken between us since I’d discovered the Sanguine side of me. “I get that she’s not fond of vampires but I’m your best friend.”
“I know,” came back Safi’s reply, “it’s something I’ve felt for a long time. But I wished it wasn’t so and I ignored it. It’s not just you, a few years ago Aviar’s first girlfriend was a Sanguine vamp. When mom found out, she went nuts. I never met her but if my brother liked her, she couldn’t have been that bad.”
I wished Safi would have been there, in the beautifully enchanted library with me. I would have hugged her. “I guess it would have been bad for your mom’s image,” I offered, “Aviar dating a vampire.”
“Yep, sometimes I think that’s all she cares about. She doesn’t like anyone who’s different or threatens her. Kind of sounds a lot like the version of Rose Quartz that you’ve found.”
“I’m really sorry,” I said, wordlessly. I shut the book and put it back on the bookshelf. What had I been trying to prove? It was one thing to know the truth for myself but I was no one to shove it down Safi’s throat when there was nothing she could do to change the past.
“Me too, lady,” replied Safi, “Kat?”
“I’m here.”
“Tell your profs not to come looking for Professor Frewin. I’m going to talk to Aviar and see if we can try something from here.”
“But Safi…”
“I’ve go
t to run, let your profs know and we’ll talk soon.” And she was gone. I wasn’t sure how I felt with whatever Safi and her brother were planning but there was no way to find out as she had actively put a block on what she was thinking. We’d ignored each other at certain points before but never done that. We’d simply taken it for granted that we wouldn’t peer into each other’s mind without permission. And I tried for the very first time and failed. What was she planning?
Chapter 18
“Hmm, I’m not sure that this is the best way forward…” Principal Silverstone thought aloud with a hard frown that creased the otherwise perfect skin on her forehead. I’d gone to see her to convey Safi’s message and had hoped it wasn’t too late. I’d left it until the early evening – as late as I could without feeling guilty and paranoid that the Silver Shadows had already sent out a team to find Professor Frewin, likely headed by Professor Norden.
“My friend knows the ins and outs of how things work there pretty well,” I tried to assure her, “and her brother actually knows witches and warlocks who work inside the supernatural prison where Professor Frewin’s being held. I don’t know what they’re thinking of doing but if anyone has a chance without being caught or getting the professor into further trouble, it’s them.”
Principal Silverstone was quiet. She took her moonstone from her desk and closed her eyes as she held it. “Was there anything else?” she asked, “How’s Valenthia? I was on my way over to visit her had you not come by.”
“No, that was it,” I said having decided not to tell her that I was planning to go and see Moldark again, “and she’s exactly the same.”
“Alright, tell me if you need anything. And, come by tomorrow, I’m trying something new – I want you to have a moonstone for protection when you do venture out into enemy territory,” said Principal Silverstone making me flinch for lying to her by omission. I nodded and headed towards the door without looking back.
Sanguine Spell Page 19
