Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
It’s exactly like she said. I’m hit with a sudden wave of dizziness, like every single cell in my body has been rearranged. But it dissipates quickly.
And then I’m standing inside another courtyard. This one is quintessentially charming. It’s like I’m on a little corner of New Orleans Square. A large, white plantation-style home looms in front of us.
It’s nighttime here as well, and a blanket of stars covers the dark sky above me.
There’s a fountain in the courtyard in front of the large house, complete with uplighting and perfectly kept flower beds.
Lights glow from inside the house, and though it already looks quite large from where I’m standing, I can tell it’s impossibly big by the energy it emits.
There’s another building to the right, set back slightly.
Lights are on inside that one too, and I can see people moving around inside.
Music softly floats from it, and I’m getting the sense that it’s a bar of some sort.
A wide cement sidewalk connects the building to the mansion. Beyond it, I can see the dark shadows of even more buildings. Someone exits the mansion and walks toward the other building. The music gets louder when the door swings open, and I catch a glimpse of people sitting around tables.
It is a bar. With food. And drinks. And people acting like this is totally normal.
“Sorry,” I say when I realize several minutes have passed. “This is just…”
“A lot,” Marie finishes for me.
“Yes.” I look around again. “I had no idea this existed.”
“I know,” she tells me. “And I feel like telling you I’m sorry it took so long for you to finally come home only goes so far.
” I turn, realizing I haven’t even looked behind me yet.
The two arched trees are still there, but instead of a doorway buzzing with energy, there’s just a regular door between them.
I walk around it and find that it looks like a normal door from the other side too.
“Do you want to step out and come back in?” Marie asks. “I know that would make you feel better.”
“No,” I tell her. “I’m okay.”
I rationalize that she probably wouldn’t have offered if it weren’t possible. I shake my head a few times, adjust my purse across my body, and give her a look that says I’m ready to keep going.
“Where would you like to start?” Marie asks.
“I don’t even know,” I reply slowly, looking around as I take everything in.
I walked through a portal, and now it’s like I’m standing in Disney’s Port Orleans Square.
I don’t understand how portals work. I don’t think I’ll ever understand, and I think it’s one of those situations where the more I try to understand, the more my head will hurt.
But I’m here, and there are giant buildings and a sky above me. There’s even a slight breeze gently rustling the trees that surround the courtyard.
“How about a tour?” Marie asks.
“Yes, please.” I look toward the largest building. “What’s that?”
“That is our main building,” she begins. “It’s where we host our coven gatherings and any sort of formal celebrations. It also houses Crescent Moon Academy.”
“Academy? You mean a magic school? Like Hogwarts?”
She laughs. “I mean, I suppose that’s a fair comparison, though we teach other things as well. Our science program is among the best in the South, if I may say so myself.”
“But you teach magic here?”
“Yes,” she replies simply. “Everyone who attends Crescent Moon Academy is capable of magic. Most of the witches here come from long lines of magic, but we do occasionally see someone where the gift skipped a generation as magical and non-magical families merged. This particular school has been here for nearly two hundred years. I went here, as did my father.”
“This might be a dumb question, but are male witches called wizards or warlocks?”
“Typically, we say warlocks because wizard sounds a little too comedic.” She laughs. “But witch can be used as a broad term for anyone with the gift. Throughout history, however, females have tended to be more blessed with the gift than males.”
“Makes sense.” I shrug.
Marie motions for us to walk, and I fall into step beside her. It’s quiet except for the soft music from the bar and the gentle chorus of crickets coming from the dark, presumably magical forest surrounding this place. Marie opens the large front door, stepping aside so I can walk through first.
The place looks like any grand former plantation home in the South.
It has a fancy foyer with a big, expensive chandelier, but the moment I step inside, I can tell there’s something more to the building.
It expands far beyond the size it appears from the outside, and I can sense all sorts of magic pulsating from every square inch.
“Straight ahead is our gathering room,” she says as we walk forward.
The large double doors are closed, and she quietly cracks one open so I can peer inside.
At first glance, it reminds me of a church.
There’s an altar at the front, but instead of a cross, there’s a large crescent moon glowing against a floor-to-ceiling window.
My mind immediately goes to thinking it’s some sort of projection or hologram, but now that I’m here, I know better.
It’s magic.
Rows of chairs face the altar, and there’s more pagan and voodoo-themed artwork decorating the walls. The place smells strongly of sage and has a rather calming air to it, which is a striking difference from any feeling I’ve ever gotten stepping inside a Christian church.
“We have formal meetings in here,” Marie tells me. “Anytime there’s important news or an important decision for the coven to vote on, we meet here.”
“Okay.” I nod, my mind reeling as I try to take everything in.
“The school can accommodate several hundred children,” she goes on. “There are dormitories on either side, divided for boys and girls. Classes, of course, are mixed. We start with third grade. That’s typically the age when most active powers make themselves known.”
“So if a magical family had a kid, they wouldn’t necessarily know if they had powers until that age?”
“Powers usually make themselves known pretty early on, but typically,” she says as she closes the doors so we can step away from the gathering hall, “the majority of the coven doesn’t have active powers.
We all have the ability to cast spells, tap into our intuition, and see or hear things non-magical people can’t.
But powers like telekinesis aren’t something everyone here can do. ”
“Really?”
She laughs at my genuine shock. “Really. I meant it when I said it, Wren. You come from a line of powerful magic. For as little as you’ve been allowed to tap into your powers, look at what you can already do.
I can sense so much greatness inside you.
It saddens me to know that you’ve gone nearly thirty years of your life suppressing who you truly are.
” She puts a hand on my shoulder, then laughs.
“Now, don’t go getting a big head and thinking you’re some prodigy. ”
“I’m far from it.” I resist the urge to ask if she can just go ahead and locate some of the Blackwoods on the East Coast and see if I can go to their Covenstead instead. But the words quickly die inside me when I realize I wouldn’t only be meeting my family.
I’d have to tell them what I just did. Or undid, I suppose.
“Let me give you the rest of the tour, though since it’s late, I’ll save the dormitories and faculty areas for the morning.”
I follow Marie down a hall before we enter a large cafeteria.
Like the gathering hall, this room also has large windows.
They overlook a grassy field behind the building.
Even though it’s dark outside, I can see a dimly candle lit garden full of flowers and herbs, with benches and swings tucked along the paths.
“The students eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner here,” she says, “but we also use this room for other social gatherings. The coven really is one big family. Since probably ninety percent of our students are legacy students, it’s quite the tight-knit community.”
She quickly adds, “But we’re always open to new members.
” She points toward a door at one end of the cafeteria.
“There’s a kitchen through there, which I believe is locked at this time of night.
And those closets contain cleaning supplies.
Trust me, I know.” She gives me a knowing smile.
“I was put on cleaning duty multiple times when I was a student here.”
“You guys can’t just wave a magic wand and have everything clean itself?” I ask, only half joking.
“If only life were just like Harry Potter.” She chuckles. “It won’t take you long to learn some simple spells to make your life much easier, though. Being able to manipulate energy can be pretty handy. You’ve already proven to have a decent grasp of that all on your own.”
“Yeah, I can see how it’d be like having an invisible helping hand around.”
I tip my head, thinking.
“If I drop the remote, I can just do this.”
I hold my hand out, imitating the motion I’d make if I were telekinetically zooming a remote back into my hand.
“Exactly. And you’d never have to worry about being too short to reach something on the top shelf.”
“I didn’t even think about that.” Though to be fair, I am above average height for a woman.
“Okay, now this way.” She motions for me to follow her toward the left side of the cafeteria.
“This leads to our student areas. This hallway will take you to the library and then to all the classrooms and dormitories. I’ll definitely bring you back to the library during its open hours.
It’s one of my favorite places, and somewhere I think you’ll find most helpful with researching and learning who you are. ”