by Rain Oxford
“He really thinks he’s in control of their relationship,” Henry said.
Mr. Grant sat next to me a few minutes later. Henry narrowed his eyes threateningly, but he said nothing.
“Mr. Sanders, something strange happened last night, and I was hoping you could shed some light on it.” Mr. Grant’s tone wasn’t suspicious, so Henry’s posture relaxed slightly. “I was waiting for Ms. Hunt to arrive, when the next thing I knew, we were standing outside. I thought that you were going to hurt some students and that you were controlling the storm. Then you told me to go inside and I couldn’t stop myself. Obviously, I assumed it was a crazy dream when I woke up this morning, but five other teachers remember the same thing, and the four students are missing.”
“They’re not missing or hurt. They’re in the infirmary, asleep.”
“Why?”
“Those four have mild mind-control powers and have been using them to mess with us. They were intentionally stopping us from breaking the curse. Now that they’re asleep, we hope to get the curse broken soon.”
“You’re not controlling the storm, though?”
“No.”
He didn’t look like he was buying it, but he nodded. “Last night was confusing. What motivation did those students have to stop us from breaking the curse? It makes sense that you had to put them under to stop them from messing with our heads, and it really feels like my head was messed with last night, but now there’s no way to question them to prove or disprove your story. Do you have any evidence?”
“I can’t prove that someone can control minds, but they confessed to what they did and could do in front of Ms. Hunt, Henry, and Dr. Martin.”
“How did you catch them in the first place?”
“It’s complicated.” I wasn’t going to reveal my most powerful ability when they were already suspicious.
Mr. Grant frowned. “That doesn’t instill confidence.”
It was pretty well-known that I could read minds, and I didn’t hide my powers outside of the school, but the people who knew about my abilities were not likely to tell my coworkers. Not for the first time, I wished I had been a little more secretive about my powers. Between my reputation at Quintessence, my clashes with the council, and the twins, most of the staff had correctly deduced what I could do and who my father was. I just never confirmed it, and maybe that was one of the problems.
“You’ll have to decide for yourself whether you trust me or not.” If my coworkers wanted to make my life hard, I would deal with them when the problem arose. I wasn’t going to ask them to trust me, especially since I didn’t trust all of them. I was at the school to protect the students and help Remington.
I took my plate to the kitchen. When Mr. Grant tried to follow me, Henry blocked him at the door. “I want to trust you because Ms. Hunt does, but you need proof to accuse students like this.”
I poured myself another coffee and let my magic seep into his head. I was used to presenting evidence to my clients. Sometimes, the clients didn’t want to believe my evidence, going so far as to call photographs fake. I never let it bother me. In the paranormal world, I couldn’t take pictures of someone’s mind or trace a spell back to the wizard who inflicted it.
Maybe I was expecting people to challenge me because I didn’t always have proof.
However, Mr. Grant wasn’t trying to challenge me; he was trying to clear up the confusion in his head. He still remembered watching those four students grow up from little children, even though they had never actually been there. He wanted to trust them because they were his students.
“When we break this curse, I will wake the students,” I said. “Then you can interrogate them or let them go.” As soon as I deal with their mind control powers. The twins could control minds and Jamie damn sure had the dark nature of his father, but they hadn’t played a part in trapping us.
Mr. Grant hesitated. “And they won’t be hurt?”
“You can go check on them if you want. Dr. Martin won’t let anyone hurt them.”
“Okay.” He left.
“That’s not going to be the end of this,” Henry said.
“I know.”
I ignored the stares and whispers as I headed to my office. Despite the storm, the strange visions, and children with mind control powers, there would still always be paperwork to do.
* * *
One minute, I was filling out book order forms for the library, and the next, I was in one of the strange visions. I was back in the house with the boy. This time, however, he wasn’t huddled on the floor; he was standing in front of me, wobbling slightly and staring at the ceiling.
I looked up, trying to see what he was focused on, but there was nothing there.
“Who are you?” I asked him.
Instead of answering, he grabbed my arm and a vision was forced over me… inside my vision. Suddenly, I saw through his eyes. He was coloring with pencils, but the colors were strange. He didn’t care what the color looked like. He liked the sound and smell of the color. It was nothing I could describe, but I suddenly didn’t want to see yellow ever again.
Someone was talking in the background, but the boy wasn’t paying attention. He was focused on the music of his art. Since it was a memory, I couldn’t manipulate his focus. His thoughts were strange as well. Somehow, they weren’t in English, or any language. It was a language barrier. Spoken language for him was like a dog barking.
I had been in Darwin’s mind a thousand times, but perhaps this child was even beyond him. At the same time, he had trouble communicating with people.
When the voice in the distance became angry, the boy stood and went to the door. His fine motor skills weren’t fully developed, so his trek was wobbly. At the door, he looked out into the living room. The house itself was out of focus. Two people were standing in the room. One of them was a woman.
The other was John.
The boy didn’t look at their faces, but I knew John when I saw him. “I’m here to take my son.”
“How did you find us?” the woman asked.
“I can find him anywhere.”
“I don’t care. You’re not taking Ahz.”
“Get out of---”
She didn’t let him finish his command. “Omtakha!” She pushed her hands towards him as if she was shoving him away, but she never touched him. Instead, magic struck him and tossed him across the room. His head hit the wall hard. “Tvakham!” More magic struck him, but the effects weren’t obvious.
The woman ran to her son and crouched in front of him, meeting his eyes. Ahz instantly felt her love, worry, and desperate desire to be free. She had escaped a horrible place that she was afraid of being sent back to. This all made Ahz extremely uncomfortable, so he broke eye contact and gazed up at the wall.
“We have to go, honey.” Her words didn’t mean anything to him, so he didn’t move. She grabbed his arm and her emotions flooded him again, painfully strong.
Unable to express what he was feeling, he whined loudly and tried to pull away. When she released him, he turned around and stumbled back to his room to color some more. There was a loud sound of wood breaking, but Ahz wasn’t bothered enough to look.
* * *
“Mr. Sanders!” I woke with a start at Mrs. Konwerski’s shout. My heart was racing and filling my chest with pain again.
Ms. Holland sighed with relief. “Thank goodness. You wouldn’t wake up. We were afraid you were hurt.”
Konwerski just glared at me, and I got the idea she had been hoping I was dead. She was an ill-tempered woman in her early sixties with white hair and suspicious brown eyes.
This isn’t going to be a nice visit. “How can I help you?” I was irritated that they had disrupted my vision, but it was my own fault for not locking my door, so I wouldn’t take it out on them. Fortunately, the pain in my chest faded as my heart slowed, as the only danger I was in was of being annoyed.
“We need to discuss last night.”
“There’s not enou
gh coffee in the world,” I said. As if she was waiting for me to say so, Ms. Holland held out the cup for me. I took it cautiously. “Thank you.” I released my magic into her mind.
She was just as confused about last night, but Mr. Grant had told her “my side of the story” and she wanted to hear me out. She did trust her students, but she also thought I was a level-minded person who must have seen something that convinced me they were guilty. She didn’t believe they were guilty, but she trusted that I wasn’t acting irrationally. She thought by getting me coffee, I would be more willing to explain my reasoning to her. I also saw in her mind that she hadn’t put anything in it or handed it off to someone else.
“Do you admit to controlling the storm?” Konwerski asked snidely, as if she had caught me in a lie.
I ignored her and looked at Ms. Holland. “I already had four suspects in mind who were messing with us and stopping us from breaking the curse.”
“How did you determine it was them?” Ms. Holland asked.
“A combination of observation and questioning witnesses and victims.” That was true enough. “Last night, I set a trap to get proof. By having Henry declare in front of the students that Ms. Hunt knew who was behind it, the culprits thought the jig was up. They snuck out of the West to stop Remington from busting them.”
“How would they do that?” Konwerski asked.
“They each have minor forms of mind control.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“If they have that ability, why haven’t they used it before?” Ms. Holland asked gently. “And why would they stop us from breaking the curse? And why wouldn’t their powers be affected like ours are?”
“That’s a good point,” I said. “They have perfect control over their magic…” Like I do. That probably means that their magic isn’t elemental-based. Of course, mine wouldn’t be, either. Or, perhaps my magic is somehow immune… which would mean that theirs has to be as well. I thought John was a wizard, but if all wizard magic was created by elementals, then my powers should have been affected. What the hell was John?
“Mr. Sanders?” Ms. Holland asked.
“Sorry. As I was saying, the trap was going to be proof because only the culprits would be desperate enough to try to stop Ms. Hunt. Obviously, I would have interrogated them in front of Ms. Hunt and other witnesses. Instead, the damned storm formed.”
“Which you believe the students started?” Konwerski asked, sneering.
“Get out.”
She gaped at me. “Excuse me?”
“I don’t have to explain myself to you; I work for Remington. I’m good at my job. I don’t have all the answers yet, but I will get them, and Remington will deal with the children as she sees fit. I’m not going to take your shit. You have nothing useful to say to me and I don’t have to deal with you, so get the hell out.”
“Mr. Hunt will hear about this. He hired me personally and won’t take kindly to a newbie talking to me like that. Just because you’re dating his daughter doesn’t mean you’re better than the rest of us. I know you’re only dating her so that he’ll give you the school when he retires, but I won’t let that happen!”
She turned to storm out, only to stop dead in her tracks. Remington had joined us when I was halfway through telling Konwerski to get out, so she heard everything the headstrong teacher said. Remington crossed her arms, which other people probably thought was a good sign, because she couldn’t kill without uncrossing them. Of course, she could strike like a snake.
“Ms. Hunt! I was just---”
“Save it. I’ve received several reports of you harassing my new staff and thought you just needed time to adjust. You repeatedly refer to this as my father’s school and have even told students that I was a stand-in until my father could find me a husband. Apparently, I have been too lenient against your blatant undermining of my authority. You are fired. As soon as this curse is broken, you are to leave the premises and never return.”
Konwerski blanched. “You can’t do that!”
“I have already done it. I even have a letter of warning and a letter of termination written up. I was willing to give you the warning. Now I see that it would do you no good.”
“I was hired by Mr. Hunt!”
“And now you’ve been fired by Ms. Hunt.”
“You don’t have that authority!”
“I have full authority because this is my school. Go to your bedroom and do not leave it except to eat or use the bathroom. If you attempt to cause trouble, you will be locked up and escorted to the wizard council once the curse is broken.”
Konwerski left, shaking.
“Do you have everything handled?” Remington asked me.
“Yes. I was explaining what happened last night to Ms. Holland.”
She nodded. “In that case, I should make sure Mrs. Konwerski finds her room safely.”
She left. It was nice that she trusted me so much. Darwin and Henry trusted me and always had my back, but it was different with Remington. She didn’t have an animal brain telling her to listen to me because I was an alpha or mind reading to see that I was telling the truth.
She wasn’t using me for my abilities. She hired me for my powers, but she was dating me for my personality. She also trusted me not to usurp her authority or take advantage of her position. I did things my way when it came to solving cases, but when it came to her students and staff, I would never go behind her back.
“Have you told her yet?” Ms. Holland asked.
I flinched because I had forgotten she was there. “Told her what?”
Ms. Holland scoffed. “It’s all over your face. That’s love. You love her.”
“I don’t know what love is; I was married. I think you’re getting respect and affection confused with love. Besides, there are many kinds of love. I love my friends, my mother… probably even my uncle.”
“So you love your friends, Ms. Hunt is your friend, and you’re in a relationship with her, but you don’t think you’re in love with her?”
I considered it. I had a few girlfriends in my past that I really never got serious about. Regina would have been just another one if she hadn’t pretended to be pregnant. Then again, I guess I let myself get tricked. I wanted to be serious with someone and she was willing. She was also beautiful and could pretend to be so sweet. I never actually trusted Regina, though, especially after I found out she had lied about being pregnant. Nevertheless, I stayed with her and convinced myself that I loved her until I couldn’t take it anymore.
When she finally went too far and cheated on me, I never once considered taking her back. I left and shut her out as much as I could. I refused to even hear her out. I never asked for an explanation because I didn’t want one. I didn’t care enough about her to want to know why she betrayed me. I felt pissed and upset that after everything I had done to be a good husband, she had to throw it away.
And I was relieved.
Remington Hunt didn’t pretend to be anything. She had flaws and worked to overcome them or accepted and admitted them. She didn’t make excuses. If I was doing something she didn’t like, she would tell me. She wouldn’t go behind my back and get “attention” from another man. I could trust her around anyone, even Flagstone.
I remembered her kissing him, and it made me sick. If she decided to go back to him, she would tell me first, but the thought of breaking up with her provoked very different emotions than when I divorced Regina.
The idea of not kissing her at night or seeing her smile when she saw me for the first time in the morning had me nearly out of my seat. The thought occurred to me that another storm could hit while she was outside or Konwerski could attack her. Hell, she could be used against me by whoever gave orders to those students.
I forced myself to stop thinking that way. Remy was the toughest woman I knew and didn’t need me becoming overprotective. That would have been the fastest way to drive her away.
“Should I come back later?” Ms. Holland asked.
I shook my head. “No. Where was I?”
“The storm had formed.”
“Right. No matter how guilty the students were, I wasn’t going to let them get killed, so I went out into the storm and found them. I created an ice shield that bought me time to talk to them, because I thought they might have been responsible for the storm, as well. They weren’t, but they admitted that they messed with us to distract us from breaking the curse. They promised they weren’t hurting the elementals, but it was implied that they’re working with someone who is.”
“So we still can’t do magic?”
“Not yet, but it shouldn’t be long now. Anyway, the ice shell broke, and I did… something. I did magic and the storm calmed for a moment, but I think I had just startled the elementals. I don’t have any special elemental powers.”
“Do you think someone else was watching over you?”
“I think the person who is messing with the storm dislikes me, and I think if anyone on our side could control the elementals, they would have stopped this already. I took the kids to the East to interrogate them. Dr. Martin also had some sleeping potions in case we needed them. You interrupted us, though.”
“I was in the Center, and then I was outside. I remember feeling really unsure. I thought you were behind this. I really thought you had trapped us here and were going to hurt the students. Then I went back to the Center and I don’t know what else happened. This morning, I couldn’t remember what made me so convinced. I mean, I don’t know you that well, but I don’t think you would attack students. For one thing, it would hurt Ms. Hunt’s reputation.”
At that point, I remembered that we never discovered who wrote letters to other teachers to get them to attack Remington. “Maybe Remington is the target, not the school.” Maybe whoever cursed the school also made the letters. “The kids later confessed to mild mind-control powers in front of Ms. Hunt, Dr. Martin, and Henry. I have to go, though, so we’ll have to finish this later.”
I went to my room and updated my notebook. Normally, I would ask questions and go places, like the council and Chris’s house. My familiar was a perfect guard and I could pawn my stakeouts on her. Instead, I had to improvise. I had so many more questions than answers, so I wrote them on a separate page.
