Chapter 50
Gwendolynne
I’ve almost finished packing up my dorm room when I finally get the call.
“Good afternoon, Dr. Chang.” A tinny, female voice emerges from the speakerphone of my strap.
“It’s Chan,” I correct, slightly irritable. “Dr. Chan.”
“Oh. I’m sorry, Dr. Chan. This is Marilyn Hindley from Ferguson’s Recruitment. I’m calling to discuss the job application you sent through a few days ago.”
I drop another stack of papers into an already overflowing box. “Yes, of course. Thanks for calling me back.”
“I’m pleased to say that we’ve reviewed your application and we were impressed with the strength of it. Normally, we would ask you to go through an official interview process, but your references all speak so highly of you. Plus, of course, being the Dux of this year’s graduating class…”
My heart flips in my chest, then starts thumping so quickly that I almost feel it in my toes. “Does that mean I’ve got it?” I’m kneeling on the floor among the bare, empty remains of my room. “I got the job?”
“Yes, Dr. Chan,” Marilyn confirms. “We’d like to formally offer you the graduate position that will start on the thirteenth of August. Congratulations.”
My stomach fizzes with something that feels like both excitement…and guilt. Here I am, accepting my first job offer, while Harrisford—poor Harrisford—is still stuck inside the Void.
I tuck my hair behind my ears with trembling fingers and squeeze my eyelids shut. My guilt is gathering behind my eyeballs, threatening to spill out as tears.
No. I blink hard, several times, and swallow down the feeling. This is what I want. What I’ve been aiming for. There’s a reason I sent that job application off, and I cannot afford—at the last minute—to lose my focus.
“Thank you,” I whisper, ignoring the way the words catch on my tongue. “I’m…very happy to accept.”
“Excellent. I’ll send over the contracts and all the salary information shortly. And, Dr. Chan?”
I’d been on the brink of ending the call, but something had changed in the woman’s tone that stopped me. “Yes?”
Marilyn’s voice drops lower, as though she’s actually whispering into the microphone of her strap. “Are you absolutely sure this is what you want?” she asks. “This position? You know, as the top student from Seamere College, you’d have the pick of any role you wanted…”
I pause for a moment. Lick my dry lips in an effort to distract my mind. My thoughts are churning, and just for a moment—a single, crystalline moment—I wonder what my life would be like if I chose a different path.
A whole lifetime flashes through my head. Achievements. Promotions. Rising through the Ministry’s ranks. Even becoming Britain’s first-ever female Chief Magical Veterinary Officer. The thought is so ludicrous it almost makes me laugh.
But then again…What if?
I shake my head, dispersing the visions. Those are just flights of fancy. Dreams of a life belonging to a different woman—one who’d never met Harrisford Briggs. Who’d never fallen for him. A woman with so much potential, so much ahead of her, and a burning ambition to join the Ministry.
But that’s not my life now. I am no longer that woman.
The day after I graduated as the top student of Seamere, I received the formalized offer to join the Ministry. The same offer that is extended to the top student every single year. The job I’d been working toward for seven fucking years.
And, very politely, I’d thanked them for their consideration…and respectfully declined.
I declined it because I have a new focus now: to infiltrate the Void again and rescue Harrisford Briggs.
The man who, according to his oldest friend, loves me—even though he’d never worked up the courage to say it.
The man who chose to sacrifice himself so the rest of us could escape. So that I could escape.
Now, with hindsight, I can appreciate it with burning clarity. The way he’d tried, using several approaches, to convince me to save myself. And when I didn’t agree, well. He made the decision for me.
The man who, once I figure out how to find and remove his Source, I still hope to go in and rescue, and bring him home.
And I will. Bring him home, that is.
I am Gwendolynne Chan, the smartest witch at Seamere, and now I have a new goal. To stop Magecorp, and everything Nathaniel Price stands for…
From the inside.
“Yes,” I say, more firmly, more resolutely. “It’s the job I want.”
This will be a good job. It may not have the prestige of the coveted Ministry role, but at least, being private sector, the salary is almost as high.
With some extra weekend shifts, it’ll be sufficient for me to live on, with just enough left over to send to my parents so that they can save their restaurant.
And I can use my position to achieve my objectives. To rescue Harrisford, and then the world.
Marilyn clicks off the call, and I take a moment to blow out a long, slow exhale. Then I go to dump the final few objects into the last empty box. An indignant yowl alerts me to the fact that the box is already occupied.
Percy’s furious little face pops up. His ears are flattened, his whiskers pulled right back.
My box, he hisses.
I roll my eyes. “Unless you’re going to help me fit more into that box”—I gesture at the one next to it, which is already full to bursting—“then I’m gonna need you to hop out of this one, quicksmart.”
Very deliberately, Percy crouches back down. I poke his chest. He grumbles.
Finally, though, he grudgingly starts to channel me a little bit of extra magic.
“Thank you,” I say, with only a touch of condescension. Then, using Percy’s magic, I perform a charm to expand the already full box.
After sealing it with packing tape, I straighten, hands on hips, and survey the bare bones of my room. Although I’ve lived here for four of my seven years at Seamere…it’s never truly felt like home.
Now that he’s finally secured ownership of the box, Percy props his paws up on its edge. He looks around, surveying the state of his looted kingdom from his stately cardboard castle.
I hope that wherever we’re going, he mutters, the tip of his tail flicking, the accommodations are better than this.
I think of my flat in Manchester, where I’m planning to go until my new job starts. I think of the clutter, of the daggy carpet and the old TV and the giant pile of shoes stacked beside the door.
“I wouldn’t get your hopes up,” I say, deadpan, and Percy growls, his tail swooshing even harder.
I grin at him before turning to pick up the full box. Balancing it on my hip, I tug open my front door, keeping it ajar with my foot. Then I pause.
This feels…
Momentous.
After seven brutal, punishing years, I’m no longer a Seamere student. I’m walking out this door as a graduate, with nothing but a trove of memories, a single box, and a lovable arsehole of a cat.
Oh, and Pudding. Since Harrisford never returned from the Void, I figured I’d better adopt her, temporarily. Keep her safe for as long as needed.
We can’t communicate, of course, but I know all about reptile health and husbandry—so I think I’ll do a pretty good job of looking after her until Harrisford comes back.
And he will come back.
I’ll get him back.
“Percy, Pudding, let’s go,” I say. Then—more to myself than to anyone else—I add, “Wait for me, Briggs. I’m coming for you.”
I take a deep, steadying breath, steel myself, and step through the open door…
As the newest employee of Magecorp, Limited.