by Martha Carr
Henry jiggled the blue box on his desk and wiggled his eyebrows. “I’m thinking inside the box.”
Raven snorted. “You’re the only person I know who’d be proud of that.”
“What can I say? I have my moments.” He grinned and chuckled in surprise when his familiar leapt onto the box and stayed there. “And you have good taste too, Maxwell.”
“So let’s see what you came up with, shall we?” Bixby waved her tiny hand across the room and nodded. “Pull those items out. If it came wrapped, unwrap it. I’ll move around the room to see what you’ve brought and I’ll help each of you set an intention for drawing forth the magical history of what your item happens to be. It will be different for everyone, of course. That’s why you were asked to bring them in.”
The woman clomped down the steps and made her rounds from one desk to the next, humming and nodding and muttering a few suggestions to each student.
With a muted sigh, Murphy pulled a stack of folded green velvet from her satchel and placed it on the desk.
Henry narrowed his eyes and stared at her object. “Those aren’t your mom’s graduation robes, are they? ʼCause if that’s what we have to wear when we’re finished with this school, I might skip that part.”
She gave him a small, self-conscious smile. “Not graduation robes. Only one of her dresses.”
“It looks fancy.”
“My mom wore it to the capitol after she graduated. I think Fowler Academy sent her as a dignitary or something before the war. Or maybe after.” She wrinkled her nose. “I should’ve asked.”
Raven leaned forward and pointed at the green velvet dress. “That’s a high honor, isn’t it? A mage dignitary?”
“Yeah.” The girl’s face lit with pride, and she ran her fingers gently down the front of the gown. “It really was.”
“Then how did your mom end up in Brighton again?” Henry frowned and his laugh sounded a little confused as if he tried to put the pieces together. “She’s a seamstress now, right?”
Murphy’s smile faded a little but that dreamy look returned to her face. “She met my dad at the capitol. They fell in love and he didn’t want to hang around in the busy city to play politics. So she followed him here and they got married and…well, now I’m going to school here like she did.”
“Woah. Some kinda falling in love.” He scratched his head, his brow rumpled in thought. “My parents don’t have a story like that. I think.”
“What about yours, Raven?” The question was innocent enough, but it made him turn toward Raven with wide eyes.
She swallowed and pressed her lips together. I can’t blame her for asking. She doesn’t know. “I, uh…I don’t know how my parents met, honestly.”
“Really? I’m sure your grandpa has tons of stories. Have you asked him?”
Henry turned toward Murphy and shook his head slowly. She was too busy wondering how her friend could possibly not know these things to notice his warning.
“Yeah, I’ve asked him.” Raven shrugged and tried to smile back at Murphy, but it felt too forced. “I’m still waiting to hear the stories.”
“Oh. Does he… Okay, everyone knows Connor Alby keeps to himself and doesn’t leave your ranch. I never even considered that it might be because—” Murphy clamped her mouth shut, then leaned over Henry’s desk to whisper, “He hasn’t forgotten, has he?”
“What?” Despite the fluttering in her stomach, Raven laughed wryly. “You mean like dementia? No, Murphy. My grandpa has all his lights on upstairs if that’s what you mean. I know he remembers more than he’s willing to say—or to tell me.” She turned toward the black drawstring bag on her desk and nudged it with her fingers. But he was starting to talk about the past. At least before he left.
“Well. Here we go.” Henry yanked the blue box’s lid off, picked up the wedding band, and made an exaggerated show of setting it in front of him. “My special something. It’s not much to look at, I guess.”
“But it came from your family, Derks.” Raven smirked at him. “That definitely has meaning.”
“If you say so.” He nodded at her black bag. “Is that what you brought? Something from your family?”
“Um…kind of.” She widened her eyes at him and grinned. “Maybe even better.”
“Oh, wait. It’s a dragon scale.”
“Nope.”
“Dragon claw. Dragon tooth. Dragon patty?”
“Ew.” Murphy laughed and shook her head.
“No, Derks.” Raven loosened the drawstring. “It’s not from a dragon at all.” It was brought down by a dragon, though.
“Well pull it out, Alby!” Henry thumped a fist onto his desk and Maxwell didn’t even flinch. “Don’t keep us in suspense here, huh?”
“I’m working on it. Keep your head on.”
“You know, I’ve had that mastered since the day I was born.”
Murphy snorted and dropped her forehead into her hand.
Raven opened the top of the bag but paused when Professor Bixby clapped in excitement.
“Miss Chase, this is very good. What a phenomenal item for this assignment. And thank you for bringing in something I’m sure brings more personal attachment for you than you might have wanted to share.”
Exchanging curious glances with her friends, Raven pushed up a little in her seat for a better look at the item. When Professor Bixby moved aside to the next student, she was finally successful. It’s a good thing I decided not to bring my mom’s war mage patch. That’s like wearing the same jacket.
“I don’t get it.” Henry shook his head. “She brought a triangle with some stitching. What’s the big deal?”
“It’s a war mage’s patch,” Raven muttered. “Her mom’s.”
“Huh.” He glanced at his grandmother’s old ring, then at Murphy’s mom’s dress. “You have one of those too, Raven, don’t you?”
“Yep.” Her fingers went on their own to touch the silver and red pin on her jacket. “I brought something better, though.”
“I guess you’ll have to leave that to Judge Bixby to decide,” the other girl muttered as their vertically challenged professor moved from desk to desk. “It looks like she was overly impressed by Bella’s patch.”
“I’m not worried about it.” She opened the top of the black bag again and reached inside. “I have history right here. That’s Bixby’s weak spot, right?”
Henry licked his lips and stared at her bag as he nodded faster and faster. “The suspense is killing me, Alby. Just do it alre—woah.”
She drew the miniaturized Swarm skull from the bag and set it gently beside it, lowered her hands into her lap, and grinned.
“What is that?” Murphy asked with wide eyes.
“It looks like a bird skull.” Henry frowned. “What kind of bird doesn’t have eyes?”
“Not a bird.” Raven smiled at him and wiggled her eyebrows. “I had to shrink it to fit it in that bag. I couldn’t shove it under my arm before riding a dragon to school. Watch.” She cleared her throat and tapped the top of the fist-sized skull. “Invorto adtenuum.”
The faded, off-white skull shimmered. In the next moment, it ballooned to its normal size and took up the entirety of her desk and pushed the drawstring bag off.
“Holy crap!” Bennett shouted. “Look what Raven brought.”
“Pulling more tricks out of a bag now, huh, Alby?”
“What the hell is that thing?”
“My brother came home with something like that. It was taken off a dark witch selling curses on the other side of the pass through the Mountains of Jared. His was much smaller, though.”
“Yeah, that runs in your family, Perkins, doesn’t it?”
A round of laughter rose around her desk, and the students closest to her continued their speculation while a few others at the front of the room turned to see what all the fuss was about.
“You really did it this time.” Henry grinned and stretched a hand tentatively to touch the skull. His hand withdrew immedi
ately. “You know what it is, right?”
Raven glanced at Bella, who’d turned in her desk and now stared at the skull with wide eyes. That’s right. You can’t top this with a war mage patch. “Of course I know what it is. My grandpa brought it back with him from—”
“Miss Alby!” Professor Bixby stood in the center of the room and pointed at the Swarm Skiffling skull, her face completely white. “Adtenuo!”
The skull shrank again to the same size that would fit in the bag, and Raven leaned back in her chair. “This is my item, Professor. It has meaning and magical significance.”
Her disapproval carved into her features, Bixby stalked a path down the center aisle between the desks, her eyes wide and fixed intently on the skull.
“It’s a part of history. Isn’t that what you wanted us to—hey!”
Professor Bixby snatched the miniature skull off the desk, grimaced, and didn’t even look at her when she pointed at the door out of the classroom. “Come with me, Miss Alby. Now.”
The woman waddled toward the door and jerked it open. It struck the opposite wall with a loud bang. Confused, she stared at her now empty desk in shock. What did I do?
A soft chuckle came from the front of the room. “Maybe you should’ve gone with those journals.” Bella flashed her a wide, predatory grin. “And the Magic Meld too, huh?”
Raven’s face burned hot and she clenched her fists in her lap. She promised. Before she could tell the girl off for breaking their little truce, Professor Bixby squeaked in indignation.
The woman spun in the doorway, her usually chipper expression replaced by a decided scowl. “You’ll join us as well, Miss Chase. Let’s go.”
“What?”
“Don’t make me come over there and pull you out of your seat by your ear. I said come with me.” Bixby shuffled into the hall and left her class in stunned silence.
With a frustrated grunt, Bella packed her satchel and stormed across the classroom. She reached Raven as she slung her satchel over her shoulder and stood. “Look what you did, Raven Alby. Nice job.”
“Hey, I’m not the one who broke a promise not even an hour after making it.”
The girl stuck her nose up and stormed into the hall.
Raven glanced at Henry and Murphy with a shrug. “I’ll see you guys later.”
“Yeah, good luck.”
“Thanks.” I’m gonna need it.
Chapter Thirty
Professor Bixby marched the two girls across the main hall and toward the other end of the building. Raven hurried a little to step beside her classmate, who’d earned and broken her trust in the same morning. “It looks to me like a Chase does throw their word around for no reason.”
“You’re only upset that Professor Bixby didn’t praise your personal item as much as she praised mine.” Bella tossed her hair over her shoulder but stared at their professor’s back rather than look at her.
“You know what?” she whispered. “I have no problem admitting that part. But that’s not your fault.”
“Then why are you hissing at me?”
“Because you lied to me!” Her unintended shout made Professor Bixby turn and point another short, accusatory finger at them both.
“Silence. This isn’t a field trip, girls. If you ask me, both of you crossed a line this morning, and I’m inclined to say that it’s as far as this school should allow either of you to go. Headmaster Flynn has the final word on that, however. So shut your mouths or I’ll shut them for you and keep them shut.” A yellow zap of light flickered from the tip of her wand. “Don’t think I won’t.”
When the professor turned again, Bella rolled her eyes and hurried after her. Raven clenched her fists at her sides and fell in behind her. It would feel good to shove her into the wall, but only for a second. Don’t make this worse for yourself, Raven.
They followed Bixby up the winding staircase to Headmaster Flynn’s office, completely silent while their footsteps echoed against the stone. When the woman stopped on the second-to-last step, Bella almost ran into her. Raven snorted.
After a brisk knock on the huge wooden door, Bixby pulled it open by the iron handle and stepped inside. She stood at the door and pointed with the same angry finger toward the floor inside the doorway. Bella stepped in first and stared at the office, and Raven followed.
Professor Flynn stood slowly from behind his desk and regarded them calmly as he set a pair of reading glasses down beside the quill he’d been using. “Good morning, Professor Bixby.”
“Headmaster.” Bixby pulled the door shut behind her with a loud slam, grunted at the effort, then turned and shook her finger at the girls. “I’m sorry to have to interrupt your morning with something so unbecoming from two of our brightest students—that was not meant as a compliment, Miss Chase.”
Bella’s smile faded at that and she raised an eyebrow.
“These girls have… Well, they disrupted my class in the most unseemly—”
“Professor?’ Flynn pursed his lips, his eyebrows rising in concern. “What happened?”
“This happened!” The professor wobbled across the office toward the headmaster’s desk and set the shrunken skull in front of him. A little shiver ran through her body, which made her frizzy copper hair tremble on her head. She wiped her hand on her long robes and shook it again. “The assignment was to bring in a personal item with magical significance. We’re working on historical lineages, Headmaster.”
“Yes, I’m well aware of that.”
“And Miss Alby thought it would be a wonderful idea to bring this…this thing into my classroom, never mind onto the school grounds. And Miss Chase! She began to talk about Magic Meld, Headmaster, and threw it around like it was a common levitation spell.” Flynn’s eyes settled on Bella for a moment before he glanced at Raven. Bixby didn’t notice, however. “I tell you what. There’s certainly something going on here, and I have half a mind to—”
“Thank you, Professor Bixby. That will be all.”
“These students are perfectly equipped to know the difference between appropriate magic and endangering everyone around them by engaging in this useless—”
“Professor.” Headmaster Flynn extended a hand toward the woman as he stepped around his desk. When he reached her, he bent at the waist and took one of her hands in both of his. “I understand your concerns and I assure you, they will not go unaddressed. I agree with you and I will handle this. Thank you for bringing Miss Alby and Miss Chase to me so I may do exactly that. Now, if I’m not mistaken, I believe you have an entire classroom of students with no professor to instruct them and no idea how to proceed.”
“Oh. Oh, yes.” The woman nodded furiously, patted the back of Flynn’s hand, and withdrew hers from his grasp to turn away. “Thank you, Headmaster.” On her way out, she stabbed a finger at Bella and then at Raven, still furious although she barely reached to the middle of either girl’s torso. “You two should be ashamed of yourselves.” She opened the door enough to slip through and vanished down the stairwell. The door shut behind her with a much softer thud.
Headmaster Flynn studied his students with a small, grim smile. “I believe I’ve spent enough time trying to correct Professor Bixby’s choice of words this morning. It seems she was too rattled to realize my intention. I do hope that the two of you are more clearheaded as of this moment. So first, let me say that her parting words were undoubtedly spoken in haste and fear. I don’t expect either of you to be ashamed of yourselves, nor should you be. Is that understood?”
The two girls nodded and Raven stepped forward and gestured toward the skull on the headmaster’s desk. “I don’t know why that made her so upset, Headmaster. It’s a relic and it’s something to be proud of. The Swarm was defeated and that’s what ended the war. Why is it suddenly such a big deal to talk about it? Professor Bixby said to bring something with meaning. That’s exactly what I did.”
Bella scoffed, but she ignored her.
Headmaster Flynn set a few fingers on th
e edge of his desk and tilted his head slightly, his expression calm. “Is there anything else, Miss Alby?”
“What? No. I guess that’s it.” Her cheeks flushed a little. I have no reason to be embarrassed.
Slowly, the headmaster turned his attention to the shrunken skull of one of the Swarm and tapped it with a finger. It grew to its natural size again on his desk, and his office fell completely silent. When he turned toward his students, Flynn’s face had gone a little pale around his graying beard.
He wasn’t afraid of Leander. Why is he afraid of an old bone?
“As I understand it, you two discovered a rather similar thread within the histories of your families. Recently, yes?”
The girls nodded.
“We both come from a family line of powerful mages,” Bella said.
Raven glanced at her, received no response, and added, “And our moms were war mages.”
“Indeed they were.” The man shook his head slowly and gave the giant skull a final glance before he stepped toward his students. “I had the honor of meeting each of your mothers at one point in time. They were fine women, incredibly skilled war mages, and fierce warriors who put everything on the line to do their part in protecting this kingdom. You would do well to remember this, even when attending your classes and presenting items of significance to your professors.”
“I don’t think either one of us can forget that, Headmaster.” Raven raised her chin and held Flynn’s gaze, even though she felt Bella turn to look at her in surprise.
“That’s very likely the case, Miss Alby. In any event, Swarm relics are not toys or trinkets or appropriate ingredients for spells of any kind—including the Magic Meld. And yes, I’m now speaking to you, Miss Chase.”
