by L. C. Mawson
History of Magic
Ember Academy for Young Witches, Volume 2
L.C. Mawson
Published by L.C. Mawson, 2020.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
HISTORY OF MAGIC
First edition. February 3, 2020.
Copyright © 2020 L.C. Mawson.
Written by L.C. Mawson.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Author’s Note
Other Series by L.C. Mawson
Thank you to all of my supporters on Patreon for helping me rebuy games from my childhood.
(Am I going to spend the rest of the day playing My Sims? Maybe...)
Special thanks go out to Seph De Busser and Peter Allan!
Cover by MoorBooks Design.
Chapter One
I felt like I was going to be sick.
I’d trusted Ms Maltere.
Hell, she’d been the one person I’d maybe trusted most at this school.
And she was the one who’d cursed my mother.
All to get me here, to this school, to help her with a spell.
She’d said that it was to free her sisters from a curse, but when everything else she’d said had been a lie, how could I trust her on this?
And now the Amazons, the most powerful coven of Witches in existence, were coming here.
To investigate.
Which would probably involve them finding out that I was ‘Angelborn’.
A magical being who was given life partly by an Angel.
And given that the only existing Angel was my sister, who was Queen of the Underworld...
My auntie had wanted me to keep my connection to Queen Freya quiet. She didn’t want me getting wrapped up in magical politics.
But it looked like that was over now.
Especially when the school’s Head Teacher, Ms Griffin, hadn’t agreed to keep my secret.
Auntie Jess turned to my roommate, Natalie, with a sigh. “How are you feeling?”
Natalie shrugged from where she sat on the infirmary bed, and I had to admit that I was almost afraid of the answer.
Ms Maltere had sent her flying and knocked her out.
All because Natalie had been worried for me and had interrupted Ms Maltere’s spell.
“I think your healing spell has done its job,” Natalie eventually said.
Auntie Jess managed a tight smile. “Then I suggest you two return to your room and try to get some sleep. We can figure out what we’re doing in the morning.”
I frowned. “‘What we’re doing’?”
“How we’ll handle the Amazons. If Gail tells them the truth about you... We need to be prepared.” She managed another smile, but this one looked even more strained than the last. “Don’t worry, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. We’ll manage it.”
I tried to return her smile, but my gaze flickered over to the other end of the room.
To Mr Stiles.
If that was even his real name...
My sister had sent him to protect me, and I had helped Ms Maltere drain his life force to power her spell.
My auntie put her hand on my shoulder, drawing my attention back to her. “He’s in good hands now, Amy. He’ll heal. But you two need rest.”
I nodded as Natalie slid off the infirmary bed.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” I said before heading out of the room, following Natalie back to the dormitories.
Natalie was silent as we made our way over and the silence made my skin itch.
Did she hate me?
I had lied to her, after all. She’d found out that I was Angelborn, and Queen Freya’s sister, along with everyone else.
We were supposed to be friends, but I hadn’t trusted her.
And then there was the fact that I had been lying about the nature of my work with Ms Maltere.
She’d been worried about me pushing myself too far, and I’d repaid that worry with lies.
The only thing stopping me from crushing my folded arms tighter to my chest as we arrived at our room were the scars across my left side that radiated with pain when I aggravated them too much.
Scars that Ms Maltere had caused with one of her curses.
I supposed I should stop thinking of her as ‘Ms Maltere’. She was Maria Brown, the ancient Witch that had escaped the tomb an Angel had locked her in.
But I kept tripping up, the change refusing to take hold in my mind, despite everything she’d put me through.
Natalie opened the door to our room, and I nearly sighed with relief as I saw Lena and Charlotte there, waiting for us.
I wasn’t sure that I could handle being alone with Natalie and whatever she must be feeling right now.
“What the shit happened?” Lena asked before we’d even closed the door behind us. “Someone cast an immensely powerful spell in the hedge maze, and now everything’s on lockdown. You don’t want to know how many protection spells Charlotte had to get through to get us in here. Way more than usual.”
Natalie folded her arms before turning to me. “Yeah, I probably should have mentioned before that I let Charlotte and Lena come in here whenever they want. And they can because Charlotte can get past the wards.”
I just nodded. That was the last thing on my list of concerns right now.
“So,” Lena said, “what happened? You two weren’t here, so I’m assuming you know.”
Natalie turned to me. “Do you want to tell them?”
I nodded.
I was sick of secrets.
“That spell Ms Maltere wanted help with?” I said. “That was the powerful spell in the hedge maze. It was a spell to free the rest of her coven.”
Lena frowned. “Free them from what?”
“The spell the Angel put them under when they cursed Ms Maltere centuries ago, because she was Maria Brown.”
Lena stared at me for several moments.
“Shit,” she eventually said. “She was the one who cursed your mother, wasn’t she? That’s why it was so strong.”
I nodded, more than a little surprised that she’d made the connection so fast. “Yeah. She wanted to force me here so that she could get me to help her with the spell.”
“But why? I mean, no offence, Amelia, but why did she need your help specifically?”
I sighed. “I’m apparently this thing called ‘Angelborn’. My parents adopted another kid before I was born, and she grew up to be Queen Freya, an Angel of Life. When my parents were struggling to have me, she did something, and I was born with part of her magic. She left years ago, and she blocked my memories of her along with my magic. I didn’t remember her again until I broke through.”
Lena turned to Charlotte. “Holy shit. I was right. The Angelborn and the Vampire. Natalie is the Vampire.”
I frowned. “What are you talking about?”
Char
lotte turned to me. “I’m a Seer. Not a particularly powerful one, I only make prophecies when I’m really drunk and they aren’t very coherent, but I made one just before we got here. That the Angelborn and the Vampire would be bound by blood and pain to heal the rift.” She sighed. “I’m sorry, I know it’s vague, but I have no idea how to control this power.”
I frowned. “So, wait, how do prophecies work? Like, do they always happen?”
“No. I have a connection to Fate’s plan, but if she changes it, then the prophecy is useless. And you always have free will. Fate is just really good at predicting how people will react and nudging them in the direction she wants.”
Lena nodded. “Not to mention, there are rumours that someone’s fighting her. Changing her plans.”
My frown deepened. “So, it’s useless?”
Lena shrugged. “Not if we can get Charlotte to see something more.”
Charlotte shook her head. “I wouldn’t hold out hope. I’ve never managed it before. But if you think it will help... I suppose I could try.”
“Don’t push yourself,” I said, and she gave me a weak smile.
Lena cut in once more, turning to me. “Anyway, you need to finish telling us what happened. Ms Maltere asked you to help with this spell, but when did you figure out she was Maria Brown?”
I cringed. “I... I didn’t... Natalie came to find me, and she sensed that the spell was wrong, and then Ms Maltere...”
Tears were streaming from my eyes before I even realised that they were building.
“I’m sorry.”
Natalie put a hand on my arm, and it took everything I had not to instinctively yank myself away, assuming that the touch couldn’t mean anything good.
“It’s okay, Amy,” Natalie said, her voice shockingly gentle. “She was a teacher. You had no reason to assume that what she was asking you to do was wrong.”
“I should have been able to sense it.”
“You’re still new to magic. You didn’t even know what death magic was.”
“I should have known. I should have...”
“You stopped the spell. That’s the important thing.”
“Except you and Mr Stiles were still hurt.”
Lena frowned. “Wait, Mr Stiles? What happened with him?”
I tightened my posture inwards, refusing to meet her gaze. “He... My sister sent him to protect me. Except I didn’t know that, I just knew that he was lying about who he was and had a tattoo that said that he was married to someone in Lord Uther’s house. You know, the same Lord Uther who tried to kill my sister.”
Lena cringed sympathetically. “Shit, he’s Prince Damon’s heartbond?”
“Does everyone but me know that my sister’s married to the son of her enemy?”
“Yeah, it’s pretty common knowledge. How do you not know that?”
“Well, she wasn’t dating him when she left home. And it didn’t come up in anything I read about her.”
“How much have you read?”
“Well... I got distracted by researching curses...”
Lena shrugged. “To the best of my knowledge, Prince Damon never liked his father, but it’s weird. You would think that as the Consort to the Queen, there would be a lot of information on him. I mean, even before marrying Queen Freya, he was his father’s sole heir. The thing is, most people had no idea that Lord Uther even had a kid. He just appeared one day when he was thirteen. No one had heard of him until the King at the time, Queen Freya’s father, took him in and declared him his heir. He didn’t know that Freya was alive at that point.” Lena smiled. “My theory is that he knew that his daughter was out there somewhere, and that Prince Damon and Queen Freya were Soulbound.”
I frowned. “Soulbound?”
“Fate sometimes binds two people together if she wants them to play important roles in each other’s lives. Like getting married or killing each other. The bond draws the people together, so if Prince Damon was Soulbound to Queen Freya, all the Queen’s father would have had to do was take Damon in, and he would eventually be drawn to the Princess. Which he was.”
“How common is it?”
Charlotte twirled her hair between her fingers before answering my question instead of Lena. “It’s not that common. I might not be a powerful Seer, but I can see those connections, like the one between me and Lena. Given the prophecy, I would have thought you and Natalie would be Soulbound, but no, you’re not.”
“Maybe it’s not needed,” Lena said. “I mean, to be fair, Charlotte, without knowing about the bond between us, you never would have even talked to me. Maybe they don’t need that push.”
Natalie folded her arms. “Or maybe trying to decipher prophecy is a fool’s errand. Right, Charlotte?”
Charlotte shrugged. “Well, yes, there is a reason why I’ve never been too bothered by my lack of talent as a Seer. Prophecies are unpredictable, and difficult to interpret correctly.”
Natalie sighed, running her hand through her hair. “Especially when we’re exhausted.”
My hand was on her arm before I could think, moving her to her bed. “Yeah, you were hurt, we should let you rest.”
Natalie placed her hand over mine, stilling my movements. “I was actually thinking about you, Amy. Fuelling that spell... I’m not actually sure how you’re still standing.”
I shrugged, not sure either.
“Maybe we should get our pyjamas on and try to get some rest.”
I nodded, having to agree that if I didn’t get changed now, I would likely lose any ability to later.
Chapter Two
I awoke with a groan, distant impressions of dreams flitting through my mind, too quick for me to make sense of.
Whatever I dreamt of, I couldn’t remember it, but I was left with lingering pangs of regret that I couldn’t place.
I shrugged off the sensation, figuring that it’d probably just been a nonsensical stress dream.
I turned to my side, my eyes still closed, as I attempted to get some sleep.
Only, when I rolled over, I bumped into another body.
The skin was soft but cool to the touch and I instinctively reached out to warm them.
They curled into me just as my sleep dissipated enough for me to remember that I had never really ‘gone to sleep’.
No, I’d just been sitting next to Natalie, and then I’d gotten more and more tired as the night went on...
Natalie stirred beside me before swiftly moving away.
Bolting from the bed as fast as she could.
I remained where I was, not wanting to admit that I was awake.
I’d only just woken up enough to realise that it was her sleeping beside me, after all.
So, I would let her think that curling up to her had just been an unconscious move I’d made in my sleep.
Not that it wasn’t. Again, I had been half-asleep.
And she’d said that she hadn’t wanted to be close, so her moving away so quickly shouldn’t have been a surprise.
So, why did it sting so much?
I suppressed a sigh. What was I doing? I had a... Well, a thing with Willow. A kind-of girlfriend thing, even if we hadn’t said the words.
So why was I getting hung up on Natalie rejecting me?
I already knew where we stood, this wasn’t news.
And I didn’t want to be with her, anyway.
I just had to convince my rebellious body of that fact.
I rubbed the places our skin had touched, hoping to rub away the lingering feel of her.
And then I groaned and sat up, deciding that lying there, stewing in my thoughts, wasn’t a good idea.
I looked over to see Natalie dressed and looking at her phone.
If I hadn’t just felt her beside me, there was no way that I would think that she had just been there.
That she hadn’t been up for hours.
I glanced over to the other bed and saw Lena and Charlotte lying there, neither of them worried about being curled around each other
.
But I supposed they’d been friends for years. And Soulbound as well, whatever that meant for them.
Or they were just too asleep to notice.
I returned my attention to Natalie, seeing that she was finally looking at me.
“Sleep well?” she asked.
I shrugged. “Well enough, I think. You?”
“Same.”
I nodded before grabbing my phone, not sure what else to say.
I frowned as I saw a text from my auntie.
Come to my house as soon as you’re awake.
I groaned as I pushed myself from my bed. I couldn’t see how the text could lead to anything good, but I knew that there was no point in delaying, so I grabbed my tablets and took one dry.
It was going to be a long day...
I ARRIVED AT MY AUNTIE’S house to find the door unlocked.
Still, I knocked as I let myself in. “Hello?”
My auntie came out of the kitchen with a smile, though it faded as she looked me over, her gaze sticking on my neck.
I cringed. I’d forgotten to check that my scars were covered before leaving my room.
After all, I didn’t have to hide them from my friends anymore.
“What’s that?” she asked as she approached, and I sighed.
There was no getting out of this one.
“I tried to free my mum from the curse, but Maria Brown left a second curse underneath it.”
Auntie Jess winced. “I know. Sarah’s focus for weeks has been on bypassing that second curse. She got close enough to sense it and then backed off.”
“Yeah, I think anyone who knew enough about magic to know what it was would have. But I didn’t. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have tried to do it alone.”
Auntie Jess sighed. “Don’t apologise, Amy. This is my fault. I didn’t even think that you would be able to get so far with breaking the curse even if you tried... But if you’d felt that you could come to me, I would have known, and you wouldn’t have done this alone. Only I spent years lying to you before I brought you here. It’s no wonder that you didn’t trust me.”
I shook my head. “Whether I trusted you or not shouldn’t matter. I’m in this mess because I trusted Ms Mal- Maria Brown.”
