Chapter 27 Birthday
Birthday
Present Day
Valarian College Dormitory
Malcroix Bones Academy
“What do you mean, you can’t come?” Miranda stared at me, her black eyes reflecting the firelight, perfectly matching the shade of her blue-black hair.
“It’s your birthday, Leda. We’re all going out…
all of us. Why do you think the theme of the night is All Hallow’s Eve?
You told me that was a big holiday where you’re from.
Your favorite holiday.” Miranda stamped her foot.
“It’s your birthday. That was the whole point, Leda! ”
I’d expected this, of course.
I hadn’t fully connected all the dots, when Mir mentioned she was throwing a Halloween-themed “event” this weekend, but I’d known she wouldn’t be happy about me not being around the night of my birthday.
I’d honestly thought the Halloween thing was on Friday.
I’d thought I could push any birthday celebrations to that night for the same reason.
But it was more than me simply screwing up the two dates.
I’d been increasingly alienating and frustrating my friends for months now, starting all the way back in summer, when I didn’t meet up with Mir, Draken, Luc, and Darragh in the South of France in August, but opted to stay in London to continue working with Alaric on our “project,” instead.
It started before that, really, when I was never able to satisfactorily explain where I’d been the night of the Eleusínia Myst?ria dance.
It got worse after my aunt died, then worse again when I couldn’t really explain what was wrong with me after Bones cut me out.
The Second Years’ Party reopened some of those wounds when I’d gone missing again and couldn’t tell them why.
And now my mysterious meetings with Forsooth, and my relative silence around my new Offensive and Defensive Magic instructor, flared up all those resentments again.
All of it served to remind them, and me, too, that I wasn’t telling them the truth about a lot of pretty important things.
I wasn’t even sure if they were mad at me, exactly, or even properly annoyed, but all of those things definitely culminated in a lot more distance between us.
That distance came from my side, as much as theirs.
Maybe it was simply the weight of all the things I couldn’t tell them.
I’d tried to make it up in other ways.
I shared all my letters from Arcturus and Valor.
I told them about my years growing up in that Victorian house in Southampton, with no adult supervision and nothing but the occasional envelope of money left on the counter to let us know whether my aunt was even alive.
I told them stories about Overworld, and the dance clubs I’d gone to with Alaric in London.
I helped Mir with her Numerology and Symbology revisions, her Ancient Languages exam, and her personal Theurgy project.
I showed them some of the more interesting spells I’d learned from Bones.
But that distance only seemed to grow wider.
I’d obviously known tonight wouldn’t help, but I hadn’t realized the depth of this particular screw-up. I hadn’t even noticed Mir getting all excited about Halloween after I’d told her how it got celebrated in the human world, or how I missed it a little.
“I’ve been decorating,” Mir pouted, staring at me in hurt disbelief.
“Draken got us a spooky carriage to ride around in between pubs, and we were going to cover it with cobwebs and magical jump scares and spirits. Luc worked out this whole illusionary environment, something in the Bonescastle graveyard. He won’t tell us what it is, but he’s really good at chimaeras, so I’m sure it’ll be spectacular––”
“I just thought we were doing it all on Friday,” I said lamely, and only half-truthfully, as I hadn’t realized the full extent of her plans at all. “I really hadn’t thought we’d be doing all of that before the weekend. Doesn’t Friday make more sense, really?”
Mir blinked at me, her mouth pursed, outrage in her eyes.
“It’s your birthday!” she exploded.
“I know, I know… I’m sorry.”
“We talked about this,” she added, her voice dropping its dramatic flair. “Leda, I know we talked about this.”
I felt my face heat as I bit my lip. “I really am sorry. But I can’t change this now. Professor Forsooth has three of us coming to his office for independent study. I made a big deal about wanting his help, and he’s moved things around for me––”
“On your birthday? You made study plans with your professor on your birthday, Leda?”
“I really thought we’d be doing the actual celebrating part tomorrow.” I winced at her hurt look. “I’m really sorry. But I can’t cancel now––”
“But why can’t you?” she asked, exasperated. “Do you really think Forsooth is going to throw some kind of fit because you want to go out with your friends on your birthday, Leda? A birthday you somehow completely forgot, despite my yammering on about it for weeks?”
I didn’t have a good answer.
Worse, I could only keep saying no, even as she got more and more agitated.
In the end, she left my bedroom altogether and slammed the door, making me wince.
She said she’d talk to the others about moving everything to the following night, or possibly next weekend, as she was pretty sure Luc had to go home for a few days, but I’d ruined it for her, and I knew it, and I couldn’t even take it back.
I was still standing there, in the middle of my bedroom, when a cautious knock reached my ears. I cleared my throat, wiped my eyes, and summoned the person in.
It wasn’t Miranda, as I’d hoped.
Jolie walked in carefully, glancing behind her the whole time, and shut the door without making a sound. She walked over to me with her sashaying step, and I felt my gut start to hurt for a different reason.
“Draken’s talking to her now,” she said quietly, once she got close enough.
She glanced back at the door. “I’m sure we can do it next weekend.
Luc won’t mind, he’s already said he can set up the cemetery and break it down pretty quickly and I’m sure Nyx and Darragh won’t care, either.
” She hesitated, watching my face. “But you really hurt her feelings, Leda. You should try to talk to her again, when she calms down. She’s been planning this for weeks.
She has little party favors, spells she’s been working on, presents.
She was thinking of you the whole time. She was still upset you didn’t tell us about your birthday last year until weeks after, and she feels like you just stomped all over her attempt to make it up to you. ”
I nodded, feeling numb.
“Leda,” Jolie began, exasperated. “I know you didn’t do it on purpose.
I know that, I can see it all over your face.
But you have to understand, from the outside, you’ve been acting odd for weeks.
Months, really. This is kind of the icing on the cake, I think, for Mir, at least. We’re all trying not to push, but that’s harder for her than it is for the rest of us. You’ve got to know that.”
She laid a hand on my arm.
“Give her this. This silly party. It’s one thing.”
I nodded again. Guilt closed my throat, making it hard to think.
A part of me wanted to blurt out where I was really going, that I wasn’t just blowing off my closest friends to attend an academic tutorial with Forsooth, one I definitely could’ve rescheduled.
I wanted Jolie and Mir to know it was more important than that, that it actually mattered.
Gods, maybe I needed to find some way to tell them.
But tell them what, exactly?
That my aunt hadn’t died from “a ritual gone wrong,” but had been murdered right in front of me, primarily to save my life?
That I’d been hunting Dark Cathedral all summer with Alaric Greythorne?
That I’d had an on-again, off-again partnership with Caelum Bones to track down dark magicians allied with his father?
That I’d spent the night in his room after Strangemore attacked me at the party?
What part of any of that could I even begin to tell my friends, who would be horrified that I’d go anywhere near Dark Cathedral, who hated Caelum Bones, and who barely tolerated my friendship with Alaric?
Even as I asked the question, I knew that wasn’t all of it, though.
Those things weren’t excuses exactly, but they avoided some harder truths.
Every time my mind toyed with the idea of confiding in my friends, I hit into the exact same wall: there was no way to pull even one of those threads without the entire thing coming apart.
That didn’t even get into the promises I’d already made, magical and otherwise.
I’d promised Caelum, and Alaric, and now Forsooth and the Golden Sun.
But promises weren’t the whole story, either.
The real problem was my friends.
I knew they’d want to help.
Jolie, Miranda, Draken, Luc, Darragh, likely Nyx and Dervish Walker, too, would definitely want in, if they knew I was hunting down and listening to broadcasts by the infamous “Priest” of Dark Cathedral.
They’d want to know everything. They’d want to see and read and listen to everything I’d put in that journal I’d handed Forsooth.
They’d want to hear about all the research I’d done, along with everything Alaric told me about his father, the feverish, drunken rantings he’d been subject to, the secret meetings and rituals he’d been half-aware of since he was a child.
They’d want to know it all, and they’d want to go after Dark Cathedral with me.
I knew that about them.
I even wanted that from them. I hadn’t been lying when I told the Golden Sun that I’d really thought, someday, I would tell them everything, and ask for their help. I’d want them to join me in finding some way to fight back.
I also knew there was a good chance I’d get them killed if I did.
What happened to Alaric only paralyzed me even more on that front.