38. Thea
Thea
Collateral Damage
Monday afternoon, I head to Magical Contracts early and sit against the wall reading.
“Thea, why are you here so early?” Professor Johan asks when she arrives.
“I had a question for you,” I tell her.
“Sure, let’s go inside.” I follow her into the class, drop my bag onto my chair and walk over to where she stands by the podium.
“How are spiritborne defined?” I ask.
She quirks her head a little. “Anyone with magical ability or sight.”
“No, I mean legally,” I explain. “Is there a document that declares who’s a spiritborne?”
“Oh!” she says and then looks towards the wall, thinking.
“The Fireborn Accords declared that descendants of any spiritborne are in fact spiritborne. That was because things like fairies or trolls that evolved separate were being discriminated against. This caused a large war that nearly destroyed Europe.”
“Do you have a copy?” I ask. She walks to the wall and starts pulling out scrolls to try and find what she’s looking for. “Is there anything older, something that says the original races are spiritborne?”
Pulling one out, she stops and turns to look at me. “Why are you asking?”
Should I risk it? She seems like a good teacher, but is a witch.
“A project for Spiritborne History got me thinking about it and I decided I wanted to know about the legal origin, that it would add an interesting layer,” I lie.
She studies me then passes me the scroll. I roll it out on her desk, scanning till I find what I didn’t want to find.
Spiritborne are classified as the original three races; Witches, Elves and shifters.
“Why are witches listed as an original race, we’re evolved from elves,” I ask. “And Goblins are an original race and they aren’t listed.”
“Well the document is from the fifteenth century, at that time we didn’t know about where species came from so they listed the three most prominent.”
“But goblins…”
“They were slaves and are considered below even nightblinds,” she tells me and my stomach drops out. Are, not were.
“Oh, okay. Thank you.” I walk to my seat and attempt to focus on my work, once again reminded that the world isn’t fair.
I corner every teacher I can over the next week, and they all give me half answers.
No one will tell me why goblins aren’t considered spiritborne.
The librarian Mr. Jordan doesn’t know anything about the spell that they use on the books.
Only that he stamps them with a special tool when they first arrive.
Wednesday I’m in Advanced Curses, rethinking my decision to become a witch lawyer when my phone lights up with a GhostChat alert.
Prof-Tea:
Vero, Kai, Lennox and Thea. Meet me outside the Robins building ASAP.
All others, class canceled.
The Robins building? I discreetly open a map of the school and it takes me more than a minute staring at Otherfell to find it because I hadn’t thought to look. The small building is barely visible tucked in the back between the forge and the maintenance shed. The goblin building.
Thankfully all my work is done for class so I approach the Professor and show her the message from Tennant. She nods and I leave the class. Lennox is walking across the quad and I call out and say hello, falling into step beside him.
“Any idea what’s going on?” he asks.
“I was hoping you did. Is this normal?”
“No. Occasionally she’ll have classes that are optional for those who have the wrong type of magic, but she’s never called us out of other classes before.”
We reach the Robins building and both stand awkwardly by the door, unsure what we’re doing here.
After a few minutes Vero and Kai join us and we wait, talking of nothing.
A line of Goblins heads into the building as classes change.
“Thea?” Benson asks as he comes around the corner. “What are you doing here?”
“Not sure, my teacher just told us four to meet her,” I say gesturing to the three leaning against the wall.
He follows my gaze and studies the other witches for a moment.
Before understanding crosses his face. He looks at me again then starts to take his jacket off. “Put this on, it’s going to be cold.”
I slide it on. “Thanks. Do you know why we’re here?”
“Yes.” He turns and walks inside.
“Stupid useless goblin,” Lennox says and I spin on him.
“Excuse me?”
He pushes off the wall and attempts to intimidate me by towering over me.
“Goblins are stupid,” he repeats. “And smell. Now you smell like one.”
He wrinkles his nose.
I pull up Benson’s jacket and snuggle into it. He smells amazing.
“It’s called soap, Lennox.”
Kai and Vero snicker but I keep a straight face. Waiting for him to walk into my trap.
“Soap?” he scoffs.
“Yes. The thing you’re supposed to use to wash your hands with after you have them buried in the rotten animal carcasses you eat to get your power.” His jaw drops and his cheeks heat. People finding out he was a bog witch was a huge scandal last time, I only broke it a few weeks early.
“Seriously?” Kai asks as him and Vero exchange glances.
“No,” the lie is obvious.
Vero moves fast to grab Lennox as Kai reaches out and touches his face, his eyes glaze over as he memory walks.
“Gross!” he screams jumping back. Vero lets go and the three of us stand around Lennox who’s starting to call his magic.
“What’s going on here?” Tennant snaps as she steps out of the door.
“Nothing.” It comes from four voices.
She studies us each then shakes her head.
“Last week the body of Billy Sedgewick, a goblin, was found in the maintenance building here on campus. There were no obvious signs of trauma and no one has been able to figure out what happened to him.”
We all exchange glances.
“Why haven’t we heard about this?” Lennox asks.
“Do you talk to many goblins?” Tennant challenges.
“The dean has convinced the goblin community to allow you four to examine the body to see if we can get anything new. Kai, I know sometimes you can get memories from objects, Vero you can examine his blood, and Lennox, you’ll be able to — er — do your thing. ”
“What about me?” I ask.
“Since we don’t know what your power is, we can’t rule out necromancy.”
I swallow hard. Great.
“This is a privilege, if any of you do anything unacceptable, you’ll be removed from the class.”
She leads us into the building where the hallway is lined with goblins. All standing and glaring at the procession of us. I pull Benson’s jacket tighter around me, breathing in his comforting scent.
“Why are they examining him if they killed him?” someone in the crowd yells.
“Even dead he wouldn’t want a witch to touch him.”
We turn down a flight of stairs that are also goblin lined. It gets colder as we travel down.
Is that why Benson gave me his jacket? He knew why we were here, and knew I’d be cold.
An older goblin with blue streaks in his gray hair stands at the foot of a table covered in a cloth.
“Class, this is Professor Levy,” Tennant announces.
“Thank you for coming,” he says like it’s painful.
“Grith vek,” I greet, “The stone is true.”
The others exchange looks as he studies me for a moment, then nods.
“Who’s who?” he asks Tennant and the boys are introduced and directed to where they’ll be working.
“And the girl?”
“We’re not sure of her power yet,” Tennant says cautiously. “So she’s just here to observe.”
Hands behind my back I watch the three boys and Tennant work. A handful of goblins stand around the room observing them. Magic dances around the room but keeps skirting off the body. Time passes slowly and I begin to shiver, even in two jackets.
“Are you the witch who visited the library?” Professor Levy asks.
“Yes sir,” I tell him. “I apologize if I was not allowed.”
“All the goblins who were there said you were respectful. If you continue to be, you’re welcome anytime.”
“Thank you sir, I appreciate it.”
Tennant calls me over and I give a polite nod to Professor Levy and approach the body. “Try sending some magic in, see if anything happens.”
I stare at his face, eyes closed. Lazlo is the only person I’ve seen die, he didn’t go peacefully.
A single tear escapes my eye and I wipe it away quickly.
“I’m sorry this happened to you, Billy. I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to touch you,” I tell the body before placing my hands as Tennant told me. “Torth yl gul. May the stone find you.”
My magic goes into his body, searching. It comes up empty. Is this necromancy? This is the second time she’s had me try. Is that what Tennant thinks I have?
“Your magic went in, how did it feel?” Tennant asks.
“Hollow,” I admit. I stare at his strong face, his brown hair. Wait. Brown hair? I look at his hand. The ring is on.
“Why is he still wearing his ring?”
“We couldn’t get it off, his finger is swollen,” Levy says.
Tennant and I exchange a look. She comes over and together we work on the ring. She casts spells but nothing will make it budge.
“Cut it off,” Tennant tells Levy and he vanishes for a few minutes and returns with a goblin knife. He very carefully pries it under, the ring holds.
“Someone enchanted his ring.” He gets on his phone and a dozen more goblins come inside. I step back with Tennant and wait as they debate. Finally. They cut his finger off.
The illusion breaks and his body becomes a map of all the things that happened to him.
The knife clatters to the floor as Levy see’s it. I pick it up and that’s when I notice it.
The raw skin where the cuffs had held him.
I’m not the only one they took.
The room moves in slow motion. My grip on the knife tightening.
“How long was he missing?” I ask.
“Three months,” Professor Levy replies, his hands moving reverently over the damaged body.
“Others?” I ask.
“We’ve had maybe a dozen goblins go missing across the country this year,” one of the new goblins asks me. “Do you know what this is?”
How could I think I was the only one with a soul shard. My feet move me. Tears make me blind. The steps crash into me as I attempt to climb them. To get away.
Even if I save Lazlo, it doesn’t matter. They’ll take others in our place.
I don’t know how to stop them. My body shakes as I lose my battle against a full breakdown. I walk out of the building in a daze.
“Thea!” Mavrik calls, wrapping his arms around me the second I step outside. He sends a wave of warmth into me. “Are you okay?”
I nod even though I don’t mean it.
There is no way for me to stop this, no way for me to even tell them what is happening.
No one would believe me.
And Vivien would take me before I find Lazlo.
“Let’s go train,” I tell him. He looks at me skeptically and then agrees. He keeps glancing at me sideways as we make our way to the field. I swallow the fear and force the anger to the surface.
My fist swings as I think of what they did to Billy.
Mavrik rubs his arm where I made contact. I swing again. I miss as I think about the things they did to me. I let out a scream and try and try to kick out Mavrik’s legs.
“Hit me!”
I swing for his head.
“Okay, let’s go,” Mavrik says, dodging out of the way as I throw everything I have at him. He doesn’t hold back. A shot to the ribs knocks the breath out of me. I keep swinging. Neither of us using magic as we pummel each other.
He lands a shot on my jaw that makes me see red. I run and tackle him to the ground, fists flying as I pin him down.
“Fuck,” he finally spits, rolling us over and pinning my arms down with his knees. “You’re gonna have to heal me before we continue. Some of us feel pain.” Our breaths mingle as I try and jerk him off me. Finally my brain clears enough to see him. He’s a mess: lip bleeding, eye swollen.
He could’ve beaten me the whole time, let me win because I needed it. That’s what finally breaks me.
The sobs take the little breath that I’ve found. The tears start to crystalize as they fall. He lets me up and pulls me into his arms.
“Don’t cry,” he rubs my back. “I can handle your anger. Something in my chest twists when you cry.”
Time stands still as the tears stop. Banshees can feel their mates tears.
“Wow, can’t believe that worked,” Mavrik teases.
“Sorry,” I say.
“Don’t worry about it. That was awful what they did to him.” I turn to look at him, our lips centimeters apart. I want to kiss him. I blink.
“How did you know what happened?” I ask as I scoot away.
“I was hiding in the corner.”
I huff out a laugh and shake my head. We climb to our feet and survey our damages.
“Nurse?” he asks.
“Nurse,” I agree. My hands are more broken skin than intact as I pick up my bag and start walking. Both of us are awful healers. Lazlo said banshee’s usually had healing magic. Then again, Mavrik’s shadows aren’t exactly normal.
“I feel pain,” I tell him.
“I know,” he says. “But you fight like you can’t. You didn’t even notice you got cut by the goblin blade in the morgue.”
I glance at my hand and sure enough, a large cut.
“Why couldn’t I see you?” I ask. “Normally I can spot you when you’re invisible.”
“I threatened the shadows.”
“How?”
“Sun bathing.” We dissolve into laughter as we enter the nurses office. She shakes her head and quickly heals us.
The rest of the week passes by slowly. Quite a few goblins come up to me and thank me for helping. When I asked Benson he told me that Billy’s brother released the video of me asking for permission to touch him. Said it made a lot of the goblins, not respect, but not hate me anymore.
I’m so tired, I’m ready for the weekend to come where I can figure out once and for all if Zair is Lazlo.