Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
Going back to Blackthorn Academy was always difficult, but this time was different. In the first place, Aiden was with me, and it was hard to be sad about leaving Grandfather behind when I was wrapped up in Aiden’s arms. Secondly, Bruce and his wife, Clarissa, were on the ferry with us, returning from their holiday in Ireland at Bruce’s home there.
I shook my head, still surprised that none of us had realized that Bruce had been displaced by over three hundred years in order to try to save his wife, who had been turned to stone. It had taken that long for the fruit that would save her to mature. His brother had taken over the duties of headmaster, and his descendents had put aside investments for the heir when he arrived. Once he had saved Clarissa, I had thought that they would leave the academy, but it turned out that not only had they not completed their schooling before they had gotten married, but the magical advancements that had taken place in the three hundred plus years meant that they still had a lot to learn. They had been assigned special married quarters once Clarissa had registered to attend the school, and would be staying there for the first time once we got to school today.
“Are you looking forward to your classes?” I asked Clarissa, leaning forward slightly to see the majestic woman. She was extremely tall with beautiful black hair and a stern resting face. When she smiled, though, her dark brown eyes lit up with her inner fire, practically making her shine.
She smiled now. “I am!” she said in her accented English. Not only was she from the sixteen hundreds, but she was from the Ottoman Empire, from the region known as the country Turkey in today’s world. “There is so much I wish to learn. History of Magic will be especially useful in updating me on all the time I have missed.”
I nodded in agreement. “As long as you steer clear of Ancient History. You lived through that!” I teased.
If possible, her smile widened. “That will never get old,” she said, her eyes dancing with mischief.
“That was terrible,” Aiden said with a groan. “You’re as bad as Siobhan.”
“I will take that as a compliment,” Clarissa said with a wink at me.
I snuggled more firmly in Aiden’s arms, peering out at the seemingly endless Irish Sea. I knew Northumberland Island would appear as soon as we passed the barrier between the human world and ours, but right now, all I could see was choppy waves and gray skies.
Another thing that made this return to the island easier was the thought that I only had a year and a half left.
More than halfway done.
I was surprised to find that I felt sad.
“Hey,” I said, looking up at Aiden awkwardly. “Are you looking forward to graduating?”
He grimaced. “Let’s get through our theses first, shall we? I still don’t know what I’m doing for mine, exactly.”
“I thought you and Professor Reynolds were doing something with Arithmancy and how spell effects are enhanced in their different forms?” I asked, referencing our Qualitative Spellcraft professor.
Aiden sighed heavily. “Yeah. But so much of what we’re discussing is theoretical. I feel so lost half the time.”
“You and me both,” I agreed, thinking about my own thesis with Professor Akhtar on the ley lines that linked magic around the world. “And I thought I was smart!”
“You are. Most of what I overhear you two talking about goes so far over my head, it could be flying,” Aiden said with a small chuckle.
“There it is,” Bruce interrupted us, pointing out over the sea at the island in the distance.
“That’s funny, I didn’t feel the barrier,” I said before shrugging. “You distract me, babe,” I added, looking up at Aiden.
“And I’m not even trying.” He grinned wolfishly and winked. “Want me to?”
“Not here!” I hissed, eyes wide.
“I’m not sure what you’re thinking, but I was going to ask you a question about your thesis, give your mind a puzzle,” he said, altogether too innocently.
I rolled my eyes. “Sure you were.”
We teased each other the rest of the way to the academy, where Hazel greeted us at the main doors.
“How was your holiday?” she asked, shivering slightly from the wind gusting in through the open doors as everyone entered.
“It was relaxing,” I said, and everyone nodded their agreement. “I’m feeling ready to take on the new semester.”
Bruce groaned. “Speak for yourself on that one. My classes this term are intense.”
“I was,” I said primly. “Maybe you should have spread out the higher level classes a bit more if you don’t think you can handle them.”
“You know I couldn’t do that.” Bruce scowled. “I had to focus on bringing Clarissa back first.”
“No one is saying your priorities were off,” Aiden intervened. “Siobhan meant in the future.”
Bruce sighed. “These are all mandatory courses for everything else I need to take. I’ll figure it out.”
“You can do it,” Clarissa said. “I’ll help you study.”
“Thanks, darling. Let’s go to our room.” The couple led the way up the stairs.
“Who do you think will be your roommate now?” I asked Aiden as we followed the others. “I hope they’re as flexible with our sleeping arrangement as Bruce was.”
Aiden looked surprised. “I doubt I’ll get a new roommate at this point in the year,” he said. “Not that I want to ask. I’m hoping they’ve forgotten that I’m alone, and I’m afraid that asking will remind them I’m not.”
I smiled and squeezed his hand. “Good plan. I like the privacy it gives us.”
“You’ll come back to our room sometimes, though, right?” Hazel said, her eyes sad. “I miss you.”
“Of course I will,” I promised. “I have my whole life ahead of me with Aiden. I only have a year and a half with you.” Suddenly, that didn’t seem like long enough, and my heart clenched.
What is wrong with me?
I thought I couldn’t wait to get out of here.
How am I feeling homesick for a place I haven’t even left yet?
“I’ll see you in the foyer in ten minutes?” Aiden asked once we got to our floor. “You said something about going to talk to Darragh?”
“Yes, ten minutes should be fine,” I agreed, and followed Hazel down the hall to our room.
“Lilia arrived a little earlier than you this morning,” Hazel said. “Umm, I have to warn you—”
I pushed open the door to chaos.
Lilia’s two mini dragon familiars were circling above the beds, coughing out fireballs and keening shrilly.
I clapped my hands over my ears and stepped further into the room.
“I’m sorry!” Lilia shouted, speed-reading through a book on dragons. Her normally long, brown hair was singed short, as if Pinkie had started breathing fire while still huddled around her neck. “I don’t know what’s wrong with them! This is new!”
I didn’t need her to tell me that. I also, unfortunately, had no idea what to do about it.
But I did know someone who did.
“I’ll go see if Rhiannon is in yet,” I shouted, hoping Lilia could hear me. “Give me a moment.”
Hazel followed me out of the dorm. “I’m scared to go in there. Fire, you know.”
I nodded sympathetically. Even though dragon fire didn’t affect witches in the same way as objects, Hazel was a dryad.
Who knew how it would react?
Rhiannon answered the door immediately, looking tired.
“We have a situation,” I began.
“You and everyone else,” Rhiannon said, grabbing a bag from the counter beside the sink. “I’m coming.”
“What do you mean, ‘everyone else’?” I asked.
“I’m guessing that Lilia’s dragons are acting up?” Without waiting for my nod of agreement, she continued, “Everyone’s familiars are completely out of sorts. It starts about an hour or so after they arrive, and it doesn’t stop until I put them to sleep.”
“Put them to sleep ?” I repeated, alarmed.
“Not that kind of sleep,” Rhiannon reassured me. “Rest, not death.”
“What happens when they wake up?” Hazel asked anxiously.
Rhiannon shrugged. “I don’t know yet. One emergency at a time.”
Hazel and I let Rhiannon take the lead into our room, Hazel hiding behind me to stay even further out of the way.
Rhiannon dug through her bag without looking, whistling a soft tune that I could barely hear over the shrieking dragons.
But the dragons must have heard it, because they flew in front of the witch, hovering in mid-air.
Their eyes were whirling red, every muscle in their bodies clenched tight.
“Take Pinkie,” Rhiannon crooned softly to Lilia, reaching for Dip. “You’re going to sleep, little one,” she continued in the same tone, cradling the mini dragon to her breast. “We will find out what’s bothering you and stop it.” She sprinkled a golden dust over Dip and then did the same over Pinkie Pie.
The dragons’ eyelids drooped and then closed, their wings relaxing a moment later.
“Thank you,” Lilia said brokenly. “I couldn’t leave them! I didn’t know what to do! What’s wrong with them?”
Rhiannon shook her head. “I have no idea, but I’m hoping to find out. I have a meeting with Professor Wright before dinner. Maybe he’ll have an idea of the cause. It’s school wide.”
“What do I do with them now?” Lilia asked, now holding her two sleeping dragons in her arms.
“Keep them comfortable,” Rhiannon advised.
“ Rhiannon! ” came a shout from the hallway.
“I think you’ve got another patient,” I said, squishing to the side of the archway into our dorm.
“Thanks,” Rhiannon said tiredly.
“Anything I can do to help?” I asked.
“Try to find out what would cause all the familiars to freak out at once?” Rhiannon shrugged. “It’s not like I have time to research right now, if I’m being run off my feet taking care of everyone’s pets.”
“I’m heading to the library after I leave my things anyway,” I said. “Good luck.”
Rhiannon waved as she left.
“Although it looks like it’ll take longer than ten minutes to get going,” I added, looking around the room. The dragon fire had burned pretty much all the material in the room, and their wings had knocked over everything else.
“I’m sorry—” Lilia began.
“Nothing to apologize for, and it won’t be difficult to put everything to rights,” I reassured her. “Thank goodness I’ve gotten that boost of energy from returning to a nexus point. It’ll be a cinch to fix this and my magic will be replenished by morning.”
It was quick work to return everything to its normal state, but Aiden still knocked on the door before we were done.
“Everything okay here?” he asked, eyes wide with surprise. “What happened?” He extinguished a smoking ceiling beam with a flick of his wrist. The fire had gone out, but the embers had still been smoldering.
“Thanks, I hadn’t gotten to that one yet,” I said with a tired smile. “There’s something wrong with the dragons. Well, all the familiars.”
“That explains the increased chaos,” Aiden said thoughtfully. “No idea what caused it yet?”
“Babe. I’m good, but even I need some research time.”
“How fortunate that we’re heading to the library.”
“I know, right?” I beamed at him.
“We’ll finish up here,” Lilia said. “Good luck.”
“Thanks. I have a feeling we’re going to need it.” I took Aiden’s hand in mine and we headed out.
The halls were full of students and teachers, either chasing a runaway pet or standing in groups discussing the problem.
“If the professors don’t know what’s going on, how are we going to solve it?” I asked anxiously.
“We’ll figure it out. I have faith in you,” Aiden said.
“No pressure,” I muttered under my breath.
Surprisingly, the library was quiet. We headed for my family’s heritage secret room in the back of the restricted section, taking the hidden passageway and ducking into the room filled with books. It lit upon our entry, and the portrait of my eight times great-grandfather Darragh greeted us cheerfully.
“Good day, Darragh,” I returned. My heart twisted at the thought of leaving him behind when I graduated.
Why was I thinking about all the things I’d miss when I left?
Where was that girl who couldn’t wait to get out into the world?
“Do you know of anything that would cause all the familiars to act out at once?”
Darragh’s bushy eyebrows snapped up in surprise. “No, but my grandfather was a specialist in the care of magical creatures. You could ask him.”
“Umm, you know that he’s probably dead, right?” Aiden said cautiously.
“I might be dead, but my mind isn’t gone, boy.” Darragh glared. “He wrote textbooks on all sorts of magical creatures and their behaviors.”
“Right,” Aiden mumbled, his cheeks flushing.
“Perfect. Where would we find those?” I asked.
Darragh pointed at the overflowing bookshelves behind us. “That would be a good place to start. You’ll be looking for Callum Doyle.”
I crossed to the bookcases, which had helped me with my research in the past, and started examining the shelves. When I had first discovered this place, I had taken the time to organize the shelves in order by subject, since alphabetical and date published made no sense, as all the books present were written by either Doyles or their spouses. The magical creatures books were under ‘M’, and I found Callum’s section easily. Unfortunately, he seemed to have been prolific in his lifetime, and there were twelve massive volumes.
“That’s going to take longer than,” Aiden glanced at his watch, “the two hours we have before dinner.”
I winced. “We’d better get started. Any we don’t finish, we can bring with us to dinner and the others can help.”
“You’ll bring the books back, right?” Darragh asked sternly.
“Of course,” I reassured him.
“You’re not supposed to take the books out of the room, but I’ll let it slide this once, since it’s an emergency,” the portrait said.
“How would you stop us?” Aiden asked curiously.
Bushy brows furrowed in a scowl. “You don’t want to test me, boy.”
“I thought he liked me?” Aiden whispered to me.
I covered my chuckle with a hand and a cough. “I think he’s in a bad mood because you insulted him.”
“Sorry,” Aiden said.
“Hmph.” The man in the portrait crossed his arms and shifted on his stool. “Maybe if you polished my frame, I’ll forgive you. After the emergency is over.”
“Yes, sir,” Aiden said with a little bow.
“Well…” I said with a sigh, pulling out the first volume. “We’d better get started.”