Chapter 10
“Where’s home?” I asked. “Rowan West?”
“We have a place in the mountains in New York,” Vesta said with a happy smile. I could feel the excitement she had for going home through our bond. “I think we’re making a side visit first, though. Get your stuff and meet me back here.”
“Side visit?”
“Get your stuff, ET!” she demanded with a mock frown. “You’re keeping me from my holiday, alien invader.”
“That’s a wilco, ma’am,” I said, spinning and running for the stairwell.
My gear was ready, just one medium-sized pack that contained mostly clothes, but some standard kit like trauma gear, basic survival, money, and my dad’s pistol.
The Nighthawk Sandhawk 10 mm single stack had been Dad’s most prized weapon.
It was a bit narrower than my Glock but slightly heavier.
I likely didn’t need it at all, not here on Earth where my third protocol was so adept and powerful, but redundancy is often the key to survival, and old habits die hard.
Plus, one of the ten round magazines held dummy rounds, each containing a Damara ruby.
I was keeping them close now, to protect them but at the same time to give me access to their stored magical energy: a twofer.
In addition to the pack, there was a canvas bag of gifts, so I carried that in my left hand.
Winter parka on and pack on my back, I hit the stairs at a run, jumping down entire flights just because the light gravity felt so freeing. I landed on the first floor and then staggered as a weight hit my back. A deep rumbling purr told me who my new passenger was.
Vesta was facing the stairwell door as I came through it, her face lit up with excitement. Her parents were over talking with Gina and Toni, but the rest of the pack and her aunt Ashling stood in a clump with her.
“Ah, there’s the lad, and in record time,” Ashling greeted me. “Oh, and his wee beasty,” she added, her eyes on Buster.
Holly looked mildly surprised, like she had expected me to be late. Alex just gave me a nod and Kristin shot me a quick smile.
“Looks like we’re all here, Gina, so we’re off to Maine and then back to home base for the Solstice, Christmas, and New Year’s,” Declan said, turning toward us.
“Maine?” I whispered to Vesta but the entry of Arcane was suddenly gone and we were standing on a snow and ice-covered walkway in front of a host of white buildings set in an idyllic New England town.
A large white wooden sign held upright between two sturdy posts proclaimed Barncot Academy for Girls.
“It’s a witch academy,” Vesta said. “Used to be just a prep school but it was failing financially with a lack of students about ten years ago. Mom and Dad came to its rescue, turning it into a school for young witches. About half of its graduates end up at Arcane, but the other half goes on to regular colleges or joins the big wide world of grown-ups.”
“Did you ever go here?”
“I did a semester here. My last semester, in fact, before Arcane. Right after my attempt at regular high school failed so spectacularly. Barncot lets out for winter break at the end of this week, and we always come here for the end of semester dinner.”
“Where are we? Maine?”
“Barncot, Maine. About seventy miles north of Portland.”
“Looks like Vermont,” I noted.
She snorted. “It all does. Upstate New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine; it all looks the same.”
“Oh. I didn’t realize that. Makes sense though.”
“I forget how much you don’t know about this world,” she said.
“Some is just experience. I know a fair bit, but I haven’t experienced it like this, here, now.”
“So much to teach you, so little time,” she said with a smirk.
Just then two women approached our group, one older, with a bearing of command, the other much younger, her dark face composed and blank.
“Welcome,” the older woman said with a big smile.
“Right on time,” she said, turning to each of us one at a time.
She lit up when she saw Vesta and her mouth opened to say something, but at the same moment, she saw me.
Surprise flashed briefly across her features and her shock changed to become a burning curiosity.
The girl beside her was also staring at me, face blank but anger building inside her. Anger and jealousy.
It took a second, but I realized the wave of intense emotion wasn’t directed at me, although her eyes didn’t leave me, but instead at Vesta. She flicked her gaze down to where we held hands and then brought them up to meet Vesta’s.
“Well, who do we have here?” the older woman asked.
“This is Craig… my beloved,” Vesta said simply, “Craig, this is Headmistress Adaline Blake, and this is the academy’s Head Girl, Maya Sharma. Hey Maya,” she added, smiling brightly.
I realized that Vesta thought of Maya as a friend. And Maya smiled back, just like a friend, but inside she seethed.
“Oh Vesta, that’s wonderful,” Headmistress Blake said. “Isn’t it, Maya?”
“Amazing,” Maya said with a soft tone and slight accent.
“The odds are actually fairly fantastic,” Vesta’s mom said, her eyes lingering on Maya for a moment before flicking to me.
“What pack are you from?” the headmistress asked me.
“Ah, I would say Chiasson, but I have some allegiance to the Jandreau pack as well,” I said.
“He’s not a werewolf, Headmistress,” Vesta said in a light tone. “He’s a witch.”
“But…” Blake said, waving a hand at up and down my form. “If that’s not were…” she trailed off.
“He’s one of the first-born children from Golf Alpha,” Stacia said. “The gravity is a real thing.”
“Oh,” the headmistress said, knocked off her base. Maya’s eyes were a little wide as she heard that.
“What element, Craig?” the headmistress pressed on.
“None?” I answered, glancing at Declan and Ashling, my brows up.
Declan was frowning, but his aunt looked very amused. “His mother was an Air witch and his father descended from Earth witches,” Declan answered. “But Craig’s a special case.”
“Very special,” Holly said with a laugh.
“Hey,” I protested. “Fair point, but hey.”
“Special as in too weak for an element?” the headmistress asked carefully.
“That’s kinda true,” I admitted.
“No, not accurate,” Declan said. “Your strengths just don’t fit the known model.”
“Really?” Maya asked, her dark emotions currently pushed to one side by intense curiosity. “I thought there wasn’t magic on Golf Alpha?”
“Just trace amounts,” Vesta said with a grimace. “It’s stifling.”
“You’ve been there?” Maya asked, incredulous.
“Briefly. Very briefly,” Vesta admitted. Just then my passenger slipped from my pack to my shoulder, her big head butting my ear as she ma-rowed loudly.
“Oh, my word. That’s the largest Coon Cat I’ve ever seen,” Adaline Blake said, leaning backward just a bit.
“She refuses to be left behind,” I said. “Buster is fifth-generation Greenacres.”
“She’s… intense,” Maya noted, wide eyes locked on Buster.
“And completely unafraid of werewolves,” Stacia noted.
“And venomous giant centipedes,” Vesta added, reaching up to scratch Buster’s cheek.
“So much change in just a few months,” the headmistress said.
“But come along. The young ladies are excited for tonight’s dinner.
” She glanced my way. “And likely to be more excited than normal,” she added with a sigh.
Turning, she led us up a shoveled path toward a large rectangular, one-story building.