by Nissa Leder
“Everything okay?” Lucas asks, eyeing my plate. “Should I ask them to make you something else?”
“Oh, no thanks. I just had a big lunch,” I lie. I barely ate anything then either, but no one needs to know that.
When everyone is done eating and our plates have been removed, we move to the sitting room.
Once we’re all situated on the two couches facing each other, Lucas asks, “In two weeks, I’ll be having a formal press conference publicly announcing my desire for re-election and promising the Sorcery people I’m the candidate they should choose. It would mean everything to me if you two would stand behind me, on air, to show everyone your support for my candidacy.”
I expect Beck to jump out of his seat as he agrees to Lucas’s request, but he glances down at his shoes.
“I’m not sure I want to be a public figure,” I say. It’s one thing to attend a party in his honor. It’s another to go on Sorcery TV so that anywhere I go, people could recognize me.
“You don’t have to decide today. And if you aren’t comfortable being on camera, your support in the audience would be appreciated, too.”
I nod, both surprised and thankful he understands. I’d feared he wouldn’t take the possibility of no as an answer well.
“Can I talk to grandpa alone?” Beck asks, his finger frantically tapping on the empty couch cushion next to him.
I look at him—like really look, and he looks awful. The dark circles under his eyes are so prominent, it gives the impression he hasn’t slept well in days. Maybe even weeks. His skin is pale, which, considering it’s winter, isn’t shocking, but even so, he appears nearly sickly.
“Yeah, sure.”
I excuse myself and, not wanting any chance of accidentally eavesdropping, explore Lucas’s house.
The few times I’ve been here, I’ve made my way through the first and second floors, but at the end of the first floor hallway, I notice a stairway leading down.
I’m sure whatever Beck and Lucas are discussing will take some time, so I follow my curiosity and head to the basement. I’m expecting a finished area just as bright and luxurious as the rest of the house, but a cement floor awaits at the bottom of the stairs. And not the pretty concrete kind. This floor appears not to have been swept in at least a year, if not longer.
Four light fixtures straight from the nineties, bright and brassy, hang from the ceiling. When I find the switch and flick it on, only two of the lights work.
This place is incredibly creepy, which somehow makes it even more fascinating. Who would think such an extravagant house would have such a ghetto basement? I continue down the hallway, walking straight through a large spider web. After I spit out the part that got in my mouth and shake off my body until I’m confident I’m web-free, I open the first door on the right.
When I turn on the light, the picked-over bread and soup in my stomach sours.
A dusty pink couch sits against the wall to my left, with an even dirtier rug set on the floor in front of the couch. But it’s the wall-to-wall book-shelf to the right that I recognize most.
This is the same room I saw in the vision.
As the realization hits me that, if my visions are accurate and happen in real time, recently my grandma was in this very room, worry floods through me. I close my eyes and recall the vision. She’d felt excitement at finding the golden-spined book from the corner.
I bend down and search the area, desperate to find the book I saw. But it’s gone. Which means, it’s likely she took it.
What would she have done if Lucas had been home?
Telling him anything about my visions or visit to the woods puts me in danger. And there’s so much I don’t know about him or my grandma. For starters, does he know she’s still alive? Did he have anything to do with her going dark? Most importantly, what will he do with me if I confess?
There are so many unknowns, I’m not sure what to do or who to trust.
But what kind of person am I if I don’t warn him?
When I check back on Beck and Lucas, Lucas is already gone and Beck is in the crabbiest mood I’ve ever seen him in.
“Let’s go,” he snaps.
“What climbed up your ass?” I huff, annoyed that he’s taking whatever he and Lucas talked about out on me.
“Life isn’t all parties and dresses, Wren. There is real shit going on, and sometimes we adults have to deal with it all.”
I stand there in the perfectly designed living room, mouth open in shock at Beck’s attitude. He’s never been an ass like this. Can joining the fucking Mystics really change a person that much? I saw what it did to Olivia, and she’s not nearly as ambitious as Beck.
I hold out my hand and fire forms in my palm. I focus on the flames as they reach higher in the sky, twirling around each other like DNA. “Don’t forget, brother, that my magic doubles yours. You might have had more time to learn it, but I am not a child, and you might want to think twice about insinuating anything else.”
Beck storms out of the room and through the front door, slamming it as he exits the house.
In a blink, the room shifts to the familiar pink hue. But this time I don’t fight it, instead, I let the anger in me flare. In another blink, everything shifts back.
I don’t even glance in Beck’s direction on the way back to the academy.
Who does he think he is? Maybe at one time he was the achiever and I was the slacker, but that isn’t true anymore. I’ve risked so much more than he has. He has no clue what it’s like to worry that at the end of the school year, your magic might be taken from you. Or how after you saved your entire class from having their magic taken, you still ended up in last place.
When we’re dropped back off at the academy, I get out of the car first and stomp across the courtyard. I can hear Beck’s steps behind me, so I walk faster, open the academy door, then let it go, hoping it smacks him in the nose.
Callum is walking down the staircase as I cross the entryway. “If it isn’t the Jacobsen siblings.”
I don’t respond with words, instead, I go straight to him and kiss him. My body falls into his as our kiss deepens. At first, my goal is to piss Beck off. He thinks all I care about is boys and parties? Well, jokes on him, I can enjoy both of those things and still have more magic than him. And what does he have? His stupid Mystics? He doesn’t have Elaine anymore because he found a way to screw that up.
“Wren? Callum?”
Hearing my name yanks me from my spite and send a sinking feeling down my core.
I pull away from Callum, my own horror mirrored on his face.
Zane looks down on us from the top of the staircase, fists clenched at his side. “What’s going on?”
“I…” My mind had been so set on pissing off my brother, I didn’t think about any other repercussions.
“Zane,” Callum says as we pull away from each other.
Zane relaxes his hands and continues down the stairs. “I didn’t realize you two were together.”
“We’re not,” I start, then realize I don’t actually know what we are. “We’re just…”
“Seeing where things go.” Callum steps to my side and puts his hand on my back. It’s a gesture to show me that he’s ready to face Zane knowing the truth together.
“How long have you been,” Zane glances at Callum’s hand, “doing whatever it is you’re doing?”
There’s no easy answer to his question, because there’s so much he doesn’t know about Callum. I don’t want to lie to him anymore, but I don’t want to cause him pain, either.
“A couple of months.” Callum’s tone is very matter-of-fact. He’s not trying to rub anything in Zane’s face, but he also isn’t apologizing.
Zane clenches his jaw and nods. “Well, I’m a fucking idiot.”
“No, you aren’t.” I oscillate between wanting to comfort Zane and knowing I need to give him space. “We just…”
“Didn’t think I could handle the truth,” he says. “I get it. I would have
thought as friends, we could have all been honest with each other. But hey, maybe I was wrong about a lot of things.”
“I’m sorry you found out like this.” It’s the only thing I can think of to say.
“Me, too.” Zane leaves us without another word.
I watch him get smaller and smaller down the hallway until he turns into the dining hall.
I lie my head on Callum’s shoulder, no longer afraid that anyone will see. I just made hiding completely pointless since the one person I didn’t want to find out about us just found out by seeing us lip-locked.
“I really screwed that up,” I say.
I’m not sure when Beck left, or where he went, but at least he isn’t here to rub my epic fail in my face.
“What’s done is done.” Callum taps his head to mine. “I’m sure, with time, he’ll understand.”
“That we’re together or that we hid it from him?”
“Both, hopefully.”
Callum had been headed to grab a snack from the dining hall, but after our accidental, impromptu reveal he isn’t hungry anymore, so he walks me to my room.
“Want to come in?” I ask.
“Sure.” He follows me into the room and shuts the door. “So, what exactly prompted your sudden public display of affection?”
I plug in my cell, which I forgot to charge last night and is nearly dead. “Beck got under my skin.” Saying it aloud makes it sound even more petty. “He wanted to talk to Lucas privately, and so I gave them some time alone. When I returned to the sitting room, Lucas was gone and Beck was in a foul mood. He decided to take it out on me by pointing out my many flaws, and it just pissed me off.”
“And that made you want to kiss me?” He plops on the edge of my bed and rests his hand on the back of his neck, making him look even more like some Abercrombie model than normal.
“He made it seem like all I care about is guys and parties. I reminded him that I have twice the magic he does now. And I figured showing him that I can have double his power and kiss boys, while he royally messed everything up with Elaine, seemed deserved.”
“I feel so used.” He waits until I’m close then grabs my arm and tugs me onto his lap.
“I really didn’t want to cause any waves between you and Zane.” My hand cups his chin. “But kissing you felt pretty great.”
His hand slides under my leg and lifts me up so that I’m straddling him. “Everything I do with you is pretty great.”
My hair falls down as I lean in close. His breath warms my face as we wait, eyes locked.
As I run my finger up his arm and over his bicep, my entire body tingles like a foot that’s fallen asleep. When I blink, the world transitions to pink.
“Your eyes,” Callum says.
I try to will my normal vision to return, but no matter how many times I blink, nothing changes. Until my limbs grow so heavy, holding them up is too difficult.
“Wren,” is the last thing I hear before I drift away.
I’m walking down a long, moldy tunnel toward the light ahead. When I step into the sunshine, a gray Victorian house appears. Bare trees surround it, their lack of leaves not from the weather, but from the curse placed on this home many years ago.
The ritual went exactly as planned. My servants did well. Soon, they will be strongly rewarded. But there is more that must be done before any of us can celebrate.
As I’m walking up the front staircase to the black double doors, something shifts in my thoughts.
At first, I think I’m still settling into my refreshed body, but once I’m inside the entryway, I realize that isn’t the case at all.
No, something else has happened.
Something I never expected. I always knew how magical the connection between Wendigo and master was, but I never thought it could be powerful enough to connect two beings directly.
Perhaps I’d been too distracted in preparations before to notice the change. Or, quite possibly, this is the first occurrence.
Regardless, now I know I’m not alone.
“Hello, granddaughter.”
Twenty-Two
I jerk awake like I’ve just recovered from nearly drowning.
There is no water in my lungs, but something else smothers me.
Fear.
“Wren.” Callum is sitting next to me on my bed, concern tightening his forehead.
He’s propped my head up with pillows, but I sit up.
“She knows,” I blurt. I’ve always worried my grandma might sense my presence the few times I’ve been in her head, but I’d never had any real reason to think she actually had. “She told me hello.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I passed out, I was back in her mind. She was walking up to some old-looking house, happy. And somehow, she felt me in her head or something,” I say. “This is bad.”
“Why?” Callum keeps his gaze on me and his hands at his sides. “Maybe this will make her want to end the connection between you and the Wendigo.”
I hadn’t thought about it like that, but maybe he’s right. If my grandma is worried I might be able to see in her head, then why wouldn’t she want to sever the connection. “But what if it means I’m a threat. She doesn’t know I was in her head before, but if she starts to worry I know too much, what’s to stop her from killing me or something?”
“Try not to freak out. We don’t know what any of it means. Why worry until there’s a reason?” He reaches out and takes my hand. “I’m here for you. Always.”
Just knowing someone cares about me eases my nerves just a little.
In one week, I’ll be expected to focus for an entire day, going class to class, and completing my exams in front of my Professors.
And there’s no way I’m going to pass second year if, in the middle of exam day, I’m hit with a vision.
“I need to get more tea. At least enough for finals.” It’s the only solution I can think of. “Somehow.”
Callum sighs. “I didn’t mention this before because I’m not sure if there will be poppy berry there, but Dean Waters has a cabinet of herbs in a room connected to her office.”
Breaking into the Dean’s office…not something I want to have to do. Getting caught would mean expulsion, which would make my need for the poppy berries less crucial, I suppose.
“Okay, well, that isn’t ideal, but I don’t know what else to do,” I say. “The more I use intense magic, the more often I’ve had the visions in the past. And exam day is going to be the most vigorous day of the semester.”
I wish there was another option that made more sense. My only other choice is to ask Lucas if he can find me some, but that would mean being honest with him, which has risks of its own.
“We can do it tomorrow night,” Callum says.
“I can’t ask you to risk getting expelled.”
“You didn’t ask. I offered.” He squeezes my hand, running his thumb up and down my finger. “I promised myself when I came back to Wicklow, I’d help you keep your magic. Just because the trial is over doesn’t mean my commitment is done.”
“Tomorrow it is.”
We wait until nearly midnight to leave my room on Friday. It’s the safest time we can think of. The only people still out and about are hopefully busy in friends’ dorm rooms, either lost in a movie or busy drinking.
I resist the urge to wear all black, which would feel fittingly stealthy. But if we do bump in to anyone, looking like an assassin might be too suspicious.
We make it to the stairs without running into anyone.
Callum takes my hand in his. “Now it just looks like we’re on a midnight lovers’ stroll.”
A wave of heat slides across my skin at the sensation of his skin on mine. “Good thinking.”
We make it to the bottom floor, unnoticed by anyone, but as soon as we turn toward the hallway, we see Professor Belrose locking up her classroom, two doors down from Dean Waters’ office.
“Shit,” I say.
Callum squeeze
s my hand. “Play along.”
Professor Belrose sticks her key into her cardigan pocket and heads our way. She’s wearing a long maxi skirt and a loose top, and if I dare say so, looks straight from the 70s. If I had to guess, she’s in her mid to late fifties now, which would have put her as a kid in that era. But apparently the fashion sense stuck.
“Hello, Professor,” Callum says when she notices us.
She glances at our locked hands. “I didn’t know you two were a couple.”
“We’re in the early stages.” He tugs me closer.
I lean my head on his shoulder.
“What has you both out and about this late?” She pushes her glasses up on the bridge of her nose and tucks the long strand of hair hanging in her face behind her ear.
“We wanted to practice for our exams in the courtyard, but it’s a bit too cold and dark outside now,” Callum says. “Wren is going to help me with my transfiguration magic and I’m going to help her with her dueling, which requires some extra space.”
“I’ve been really stressed about the finals coming up,” I add.
Professor Belrose grabs the key from her pocket. “If you promise to be careful and lock up when you’re done, you can use my classroom.”
“Really?” Callum smiles the fakest smile I’ve ever seen him wear. “That would be amazing.” His foot taps against mine.
“So generous of you.” I take the key from her. “We’ll make sure everything is back in place and locked up when we leave.”
“I’d expect nothing less from two of my best students,” she says. “Have a good night. I have a spare key, so just bring that one back to me on Monday.”
She turns and heads up the staircase we just came from.
“Exactly as I’d hoped,” Callum says as we head down the hallway.
“Are we actually going to go into her classroom?”
“Just for a little bit in case she comes back, then we’ll pick our time and make our move.”
It’s 12:15 when we get into her classroom. Security patrols are every half hour, so we wait until the security guard sees us in here. When he asks what we’re doing, Callum tells him Professor Belrose offered us her room to practice in and holds up her key.
