19 #2
Bernice did a double take and looked hurt. “I am keeping my promise, Clare. Truly.” She gestured to the log. “These are books I cannot understand. This isn’t a slight on Bevin. I swear it. I think this tutor might have been lying to Charles for a bigger payout.”
“That’s something to consider given Father wouldn’t have listened to Bevin or ever asked her to verify anything,” Bryan drawled as he looked it over.
“I only recognize one of these titles and it’s beyond what we learned at Morrigan.
I saw it on a list to prep if we wanted in the doctorate program.
Ask Bevin if she really read it. I’m curious. ”
“Yes,” I told Wyatt before he even asked.
“All of them.” I nodded when he slowly looked at me.
“Charles used to quiz me. He had no idea the material, but he would quiz me on things with the tutor’s cheat sheets.
I had no idea they were so advanced. He…
He equated it to having been out of school so long you forget the formulas of calculus and dismissed it. ”
“And never worried about you really knowing it to be powerful since he thought you had no magic and couldn’t use any of it since you didn’t have the foundational layers,” he muttered.
He pushed when I shrugged. “No, I’m telling you.
That’s how he would have thought. How our families would have thought.
It wouldn’t have been any harm for you to learn it then. ”
I nodded but was glad when he let it go and we focused back on the task. I felt like I blinked and it was dinner, Clare bringing us up food because she was clearly worried more than it was time to eat.
I was glad to show her what we were working on and give her the answer even. Not for Bryan or Bernice, but so she knew.
“That’s really cool, Bev,” she said as she laid it all out.
“Yeah, but Charles allowed it knowing I was handicapped without the foundation,” I told her, Wyatt explaining more.
She mulled that over a bit but then shrugged.
“Yeah, but he would have underestimated you no matter what. Fuck him. He didn’t understand any of it with that foundation.
Get that foundation and go visit him in prison and show him how fast you caught up.
Show him how amazing you are without cheating and burn those chains he put on you to his face. ”
I blinked at her, knowing this obviously wasn’t about just me.
“Yeah, I want that too,” she admitted. “But my first step is repairing my bond with my familiar. Apologizing to her. The blanket has helped. Spending time with her and seeing how cute she really is. She tries so hard.”
“She does,” I told her. “She’s always on your side.
Always, Clare. And she cries that you’re free.
” I realized there was maybe something I shouldn’t say but then decided to anyways.
“She doesn’t think Wes is good enough for you.
She thinks he’s not affectionate enough of a suitor since he hasn’t even brought her birdseed or something fun. ”
“That’s actually really cute,” Wyatt chuckled softly.
I winced. “It’s kind of my fault. She’s seen how I’m always giving Quinn berries and doesn’t understand the difference between priest and mate.
Most of the familiars don’t. They just feel the bond between us, so now they think that’s how things are.
” I gave Clare a soft look. “She wants the world for you and will work hard for your goals. You’re doing great. ”
“Thanks.” She reached over and took my hand. “I’m so sorry I hit you. I really am.”
“I won’t say it’s okay because it’s not, but I forgive you.”
We ate and I listened as she told me about the final details of the new store in case I didn’t know them.
I did, but she was so integral to it that I let her have that time.
I thought she was this excited about all of her projects, but she said she’d never been so proud of one because she’d wanted to be a part of it, not feel forced like her life before.
That was amazing. It really was.
Wyatt was looking at us in a weird way while she talked and we both noticed. He kept glancing between us until we went quiet. “I have an idea and I’m not—I’m seeing something, but I’m not sure what I’m seeing. Are you guys game to try something?”
“If you have some sick sister fantasy, Derek, I will—” Clare started but stopped when I smacked her arm. She gave a half shrug when I looked at her but then winced when horror was on Wyatt’s face. “Sorry. What?”
Clearly, there were mixed feelings on both sides.
He seemed to shake off what she’d said and focused on me. “Remember how one of Taylor’s guys helped you with the skeins and your magic went into them? I want to try that with the familiar toys. But Clare. I think it has to be a blood tie for something like that.”
“Oh, you want us to try a Genetic Numinous Duplication?” I asked him. “That’s normally for blessings, but I guess it could work in this way. I’ve never read about it not succeeding because someone doesn’t have a familiar.”
“I have no idea what you just said,” Clare whispered.
“I do, but I didn’t know the term for it and I’m a fucking professor,” he mumbled. “How much have you been hiding from Mrs. Reid and me when we’re ‘teaching’ you?”
“Nothing,” I answered honestly. “It’s exactly like you were saying—everyone has been saying that I had all of these parts and pieces over here.
” I gestured above my head to the right.
“But I didn’t have the foundation pieces.
” I gestured down at the floor to my left.
“So I could connect them. I’m starting to. ”
“That’s so fucking cool. Yeah, I want to do a genetic duping,” Clare said. “Worst-case we mess up some product?”
I thought back to my reading. “I don’t know. I think it was a barrier I read about? I think that’s how most estates have their founding barriers that the heads of the families take over and keep up.”
“I have no idea,” Wyatt drawled. “Just start simple. Is there a toy Clare knows how to make or can’t mess up?”
I nodded. “There’s no right answer for one.” I glanced at Clare and saw she was just as excited as I was, both of us going to my work area and gathering the right stuff.
“What do you remember reading?” Wyatt asked me.
“They passed things back and forth,” I muttered, looking at how we were set up. “I think it was a blessed stick or something that was like drawing the property line and they kept passing it back and forth.”
“Okay, then go with that. Hand each other items to use on the toys,” he suggested. “Clare, stay open to Bevin but don’t try to use your own magic. Go along for the ride basically.”
“Text Tracey,” I told him. “She knows the toys better than anyone.” I didn’t wait for him, too excited. “You’ve seen these. Your familiar has one now. It’s just a nesting toy for birds. Tie it and there’s no wrong answer.”
“I got this,” she promised.
And she did. We counted down and then I let out the magic that I infused with the toys to help familiars and handed her the first piece and then took one for myself.
She handed me something next and took one for herself.
That was our pattern, and faster than I normally make the toy myself, two were done.
“That was a rush,” she breathed when we finished. “I felt the magic like circling me, dancing over me, but not like making me work for it. Maybe a bit through me, but not like in a tiring way. Just sort of recognizing me?”
“I felt it too,” Wyatt said the same time Tracey did.
“You know them best,” I told Tracey and gestured for her to go ahead.
She moved closer and scanned them with her magic, chuckling when she was done. “I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference if I hadn’t seen which one you each did. Amazing.”
“May I?” Wyatt checked before doing the same. “I can’t feel an energy difference. It’s Bevin’s magic. I would want to check them against other toys like that.”
None of us could wait, so Tracey went to get some and they confirmed that it was the same, everyone excited with the possibilities.
“So could I like learn the toys and help you when you have toy magic blocked off?” Clare asked while studying my schedule on my wall. “I don’t see it here anywhere.
I sighed. “I don’t really have toys built in. Just kind of running with it.”
It led into a really good point that apparently Tracey, Mrs. Reid, and Wyatt had been wanting to bring up.
They wanted more structure to the sessions when right now it was who caught me during the blocked-off times or who decided that they needed it.
The council members amongst themselves and who paid it.
It was time to start organizing better after the initial help that everybody had been getting to really figuring out who was getting more attention.
Logging it better than my notebook and honestly not having a gatekeeper for me like I couldn’t handle it.
Not like they were the boss of me, which would cause more issues and the problems would lock in on.
But more a manager how the stars had it and they had the gatekeeper and nobody got through. We kept going round and round about it, but then the next drama came up and we never settled on anything.
And the assholes who wanted direct access to me, knowing they could get further with me, used that. They knew I would have a harder time saying no to their familiars and I was socially inept.
They used me. Shocker.
But we didn’t want it to be Kate because Kate would get run all over just as much as I would and she didn’t have my abilities to make threats to keep them in line. Basically, the same thing we kept saying but never had the time to make it a reality.
Again… Shocker. Maybe if I could get a fucking week without something major happening?
Probably not.