Chapter 11
I metwith the others in the library after classes ended and told them all about the theory that Paige and I had come up with.
Bruce blanched. “That’s hard to believe.”
“That’s what Professor Calderwood said, too,” I said. “But once we eliminate the possible, what is left, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”
“Right, except there wasn’t any magic in Sherlock Holmes’s world,” Lilia pointed out. “Who knows how else magic might affect this.”
I shrugged. “Math doesn’t lie.”
“Coincidences can happen,” Brom said quietly.
I sobered at that. “That’s true. I might be seeing parallels where there are none.” I sagged in my seat. “And here I thought we were on to something.”
Aiden hugged me around my shoulders. “You might still be. Come on, let’s see if you can find anything helpful in your grimoire.”
“That’s a good idea,” I said, brightening once more. “I’m sure I saw something about retrieving repressed memories in here at some point last year. That might help.”
The group worked on homework, Aiden completing our star chart from Easter Island for us, while I scoured my grimoire for any helpful spell.
Half an hour into our study session, Paige stormed into the library, spotted us, and made a beeline for our table.
“I need your help,” she said to me, ignoring everyone else.
“With what?” I asked. I had warmed up to her considerably during our work together in the Herbology lab, but was still wary. She had accused two students of murder in front of me, after all.
“I need your help interviewing a student who went missing, but is back now.”
“Didn’t the teachers interview him?”
“They did interview her,” Paige said meaningfully.
“Hazel’s back?” I gasped.
“No.” Paige shook her head. “Sorry to get your hopes up. But it’s another fire monster, just a girl this time.”
“Interesting.” I exchanged a glance with the others. “Why do you think that we’ll be able to get anything out of her when the teachers couldn’t?”
“You’re looking for a spell to access repressed memories, aren’t you? Well, I’ve got one.”
“How?” I asked.
“How did I get one, or how did I know you were looking for one?” Paige sounded smug.
I blinked. “Both.”
“I’m not going to reveal my sources, and I’ve been spying on you. It’s the next logical step.”
“Stop spying on me,” I snapped before sighing. “Fine. Bring the girl here.”
“No, you come with me. She’s in her room.”
“All right. But I’m going to continue looking for my spell on the way.”
Paige prevented me from bumping into anything as we made our way up to the top floor of the academy, meaning that this girl was in first year. I frantically flipped through the grimoire until I finally found what I was looking for just outside the girl’s door.
“Does this look like what you found?” I asked her, showing her the spell.
“Oh, I hadn’t found one. I just knew you wanted to beat me, so you’d find it in time.” Paige smirked at me.
I rolled my eyes and knocked on the door.
A pretty, dark-haired girl answered it. “Yes? What do you want?”
“We want to see if we can help you recover your lost memories,” Paige said, drawing the girl’s attention.
“What makes you think you can do it when the teachers couldn’t?” the girl sneered. She glared back at me. “I remember you. You jumped the line to speak to Professor Dunlop on the first day.”
“Oh, you’re the girl who gave me attitude?” I bit my tongue and counted backward from five in my head. “We have a spell created by my ancestors that is slightly different from the ones the teachers used. They were searching for the truth of what you said. We are planning on searching for repressed memories.”
The girl crossed her arms. “And what if I don’t want my repressed memories looked through? If they’re repressed, I obviously want them that way.”
I winced. “According to the grimoire, that’s not really how this spell works. It looks for magically repressed memories, not natural ones. And we can’t see them, only you can. Would you be willing to try?”
“Fine.” She turned abruptly on her heel, leading us into her room.
I looked around, always curious to see how others decorated their home away from home. In this particular case, the room was divided into four, with three beds bedecked with color. The fourth was plain and barely decorated. The girl sat on the plain bed and pointed at two desk chairs.
“What do you need me to do?”
“You just have to sit there and relax.” I read over the spell again. “And I’ll need your name.”
“Valerie.”
“There might be a slight discomfort. I’m not sure. I’ve never done this before,” I said anxiously. “You can break the link by closing your eyes if you’re uncomfortable. Do you understand?”
Valerie glared at me. “I’m not two.”
“Right.” I rubbed my hands nervously on my skirt. “Well, here goes.”
I cast the spell on her, her pupils widening until her eyeballs were black with them. I could feel the magic tied to me moving through her memories, touching each one rapidly, like a wave of water cresting on a beach, each memory a grain of sand. They all had a similar feel, soft and delicate. Finally, the wave of magic reached the end, and withdrew back inside me. Valerie’s pupils returned to normal.
“I didn’t feel any difference in any of them,” I said apologetically to the girls. “Do you feel any different?”
Valerie shook her head. “Are you sure the spell works?”
“Valid question.” Paige turned to me and I braced for the accusation. “Repress one of my memories and then search for it.”
I blinked, surprised. “I don’t know how to repress a memory.”
“Oh, that’s easy.” She quickly taught me the spell. “I guess they don’t teach that to the regular students,” she said with a sneer.
“Or maybe they only teach it to the people who need to sneak around,” I snarked back.
She stuck her tongue out at me, but I ignored her.
Focusing on the interview that we just had with Valerie, I snaked my magic into Paige’s head and probed around, finding the memory easily. A pulse of magic down our bond, and the memory turned more solid, somehow, sinking to the bottom of the pool of her memories.
I withdrew and took a deep breath. “All right. Hold very still, just like Valerie,” I said.
“What do you mean, just like Valerie? We haven’t interviewed her yet!” Paige snapped. “Just get this over with so that we know it works.”
I guess the repression spell works.
I felt pleased with myself.
Once again, I said the spell created by my ancestor and sent my magic forth into Paige’s mind. Even though I knew what I was looking for this time, I let the spell progress at its own pace, slowly sinking through her memories until it reached the repressed one. It felt like a stone, hard and smooth. The spell wrapped itself around the stone and squeezed until hairline cracks appeared on the surface and it burst, returning to normal.
Job done, I left Paige’s mind and sat back, pleased. “Well? Do you remember now?”
“I would say it works,” Paige said.
We turned back to Valerie.
“If the spell works, then why couldn’t it find one in your mind?” I asked, confused. “It’s obvious that you were missing, and you have no memory of where you were. So if the memory isn’t repressed, where is it?”
“Taken,” Paige said grimly. “If it’s no longer in her mind, someone took it. Probably the kidnapper. Memories are impossible to destroy, so even then, he must be storing it somewhere else.”
“What could be used to store a memory?” I asked myself out loud. “It would have to be a specialized vessel.”
“Bodies of water work fairly well,” Paige said. “Not the ocean, but freshwater. A lake or a pond. A well.” She frowned. “We’ve got a well on the academy’s property. Maybe we should check it out.”
“We should. During the pep rally. We’ll get my friends and make a trip out of it,” I suggested.
“No, that’s too many people. We don’t know who to trust,” Paige insisted.
“Fine.” I shrugged. “Aiden and Bruce, then.”
“Better.” Paige turned back to Valerie. “We’ll do our best to find your memory. If you can think of anything that might help us, please let us know.”
“Where were you found?” I asked suddenly. “Were you in one place and then suddenly somewhere else?”
“I was in the library, and returned there as well, but I was facing a different direction,” she said. “And the clock was much further ahead than it should have been. I missed a whole day of school.” She pouted. “I was really looking forward to today.”
“What was supposed to be today?” I asked.
“I had my first real Care of Magical Creatures class. We were going to be introduced to one of the school dragons.”
“Oh, that’s too bad.” I paused for a moment. “You know, one of my friends is in third year and her specialty is magical creatures. I could ask her to bring you out to their stables if you want?”
“Would you?” Valerie exclaimed excitedly. “Yes, please!”
“I can’t promise anything,” I cautioned her. “I’ll talk to her at dinner tonight. I’ll get a message to you and we’ll plan for the meeting to take place this Saturday. Does that sound good?”
“I’d be willing to go before sunrise if it means I get to meet a dragon!”
I chuckled. “You wouldn’t want to do that. They’re grumps if they don’t get their beauty sleep.”
“Right. Of course.” Valerie beamed at me, her hands clasped behind her back. “Thank you for asking your friend.”
“No problem. It’s not your fault you were kidnapped.”
Paige and I left the room silently.
“I’m not sure what to do next,” she admitted. “Beyond checking out the well.”
“We can ask the teachers if there’s a pond or something in the woods. Or maybe the townspeople?” I contemplated out loud.
“I suppose.”
We clattered down the stairs. At our floor, Paige headed for her dorm, and I continued downstairs to the library where my friends were waiting for me.
“Any luck?” Aiden asked, his head rising from his work the instant I entered the library.
I shook my head. “Afraid not. Her memory is completely gone. Rhiannon, your thesis is on magical creatures, isn’t it? Would you be willing to introduce her to one of the dragons?”
Rhiannon gaped at me. “I’m not involved with the dragons!”
“Oh. I guess that makes sense, since you would’ve mentioned them before. Can you talk to your professor and ask him to give Valerie a tour? She missed class today due to the kidnapping.”
“I can try,” she said dubiously. “But if that doesn’t work, I can give her a tour of the lab animals. They’re not as exciting as the dragons, but she’ll be allowed to pet them.”
“That might be a good compromise.” I smiled at her. “Thank you.”
“When? This weekend?”
“I suggested Saturday, but she’s willing to move that, especially for a dragon.”
Rhiannon rolled her eyes. “I’ll try.”
“We should get dinner before the pep rally,” I said, noting the time.
We all headed for the cafeteria, but I tapped Bruce and Aiden’s shoulders to get them to hang back with me. “Are you two willing to skip out tonight?”
“What’s the chatter?” Bruce asked, his eyebrows rising.
“You’re a goof,” I informed him. “There’s no gossip. We’re just going to track down a hunch we had.”
“We?” Aiden asked.
“Paige and I,” I clarified.
“She’s not so bad, huh?” Aiden grinned. “You’re getting along better now.”
“Now that she’s not hurling accusations at everyone, yeah.”