Secret Magic, page 3
part #1 of Nobledark Academy Series
“I’ve been dreaming of Marbys since the start of school. Everything else, in the last week of term. And I found out all this fascinating family history the night before we left for break last term.”
“And you’ve been carrying this around ever since? What did your parents say?”
“I didn’t tell them,” I said.
“What?” Jade shouted.
“Hey, keep it down,” I said.
“You were home with them the entire time and you didn’t ask?”
“I couldn’t,” I said, looking out the window. “I tried, but I couldn’t.”
“You have to go home. Like, this weekend, and you have to ask them.”
“No, I don’t,” I said.
“Yes, you do,” Jade said. “And we’re going to have to tell Thalia.”
“Oh, no,” I moaned.
“She’s as worried about you as I am,” Jade said.
“Goddess, give me a few seconds,” I held up my hand. “Do you know how hard it was to tell you?”
Her face softened then. “I do,” she said. She reached across to take my hand. “And I’m your friend. No matter what.”
I sighed. It would have to do for now.
Chapter Four
The next morning, there was a knock at my door. I’d gotten up early because I couldn’t sleep. I laid in bed staring at the ceiling, hoping I hadn’t made a huge mistake. Secrets can be kept by two people when one person is dead. All my life I’d heard that. And now my secret had two people. Soon to be three, if Jade made good on her point that I needed to share this with Thalia. There would be no way to keep it to myself then.
I opened the door to find Jade smiling at me. “Hey, compadre, let’s go to breakfast.”
“You’re not a breakfast person,” I said.
“Today I am,” she replied, still smiling. “I made coffee in my room, though, so you need to get a move on. I need another cup fast.”
I laughed, even though the knot in my stomach didn’t lessen. Jade was notorious for needing three cups of coffee to get started. She preferred to be in her room and not hex anyone into oblivion for talking to her.
“I appreciate your sacrifice,” I said.
“You should,” she grumbled. “Could you hurry?”
Grabbing my backpack, I closed my door, taking care to lock it. For whatever reason, I wanted to make sure that no one came in. I’d never felt worried before, but it was one more thing that had changed.
“Listen,” I said as we made our way through the dorm. “I need a favor from you.”
“What?”
“Can you…” I hesitated, not sure how to ask. “Can you just keep an eye out? Or an ear open? I feel so paranoid, like everyone knows I’m different.” I whispered the last word, even though there were no other students close to us.
“The only thing that’s different is that you’re creeping around like a frightened rabbit,” Jade said. “I’ve never met anyone who worked as hard as you did to get in here, Olivia. And you’re one of the best witches here, both in knowledge and skill. So get over yourself. And be yourself,” she said fiercely. “Then no one will notice a thing.” She marched on, not looking at me.
I stared at her back as we walked into the dining hall. There were three odd statues at the doors, two on the left side, and one on the other. It had bothered me from the first day I’d been here that there weren’t an even number of statues. Which made me look at them every time I entered. All of them were men, who looked like they were in agony, or angry. All three of them carried torches in their hands that lit the doorway. I blinked and shoved the thoughts of them out of my mind.
“Really?” I asked as I caught up to Jade.
“Yes, really. You’re the smartest witch I know. I’ve already heard that the Concilium is interested in you.” A lot of Jade’s family worked for the Concilium, our magical council that kept things in order, in one way or another. They were the ones who set the curriculum at this school.
“It’s only my first year,” I protested.
“That’s how good you are,” she snapped as she glared at me. “Seriously. Get over yourself and let things go back to normal. Then they will be.” She sat down with a thump at the table, reaching for the coffee carafe that was already there.
I made myself a cup of tea while we waited for the food to show up. It was amazing, the way food was served here. Once there were enough people in the dining hall, the food appeared. It looked just like it did in the movies. I loved it. There were always plenty of options, and you could eat as much or as little as you liked.
What I really liked was that there was always tea available. I took inventory—I was still nervous as hell, but I felt like Jade was on my side. I hoped she’d stay there.
“Hey,” Thalia slid into a seat across from us, dropping her bag in the chair next to her. “Thanks for waiting for me,” she said in an accusing tone.
“Sorry,” Jade said to her coffee cup. “I had to talk with Olivia. You know, about the ass kicking I handed her in class yesterday.”
Thalia burst out laughing while I glared. “It was not an ass kicking.”
“Sure looked like it from where I sat. You know, on top of you.” Jade looked up now, grinning. She was on my side.
“Holy hello,” Thalia said, looking back toward the door, past Jade and me.
We both turned around.
Madame Karathos, our headmistress who was tall, with deep auburn hair and golden eyes, looking both beautiful and calm, walked in with a tall, lithe man. He had blond hair that caught in the sun, making it look like spun gold. His head was bent toward hers, and they looked more like two lovers than two teachers.
“Who is that?” Jade asked.
“I was going to ask the same thing,” Thalia said. “You know he’s not a student here.”
As the pair came closer, I could see the color in Madame Karathos’ cheeks. She looked young, almost girlish.
“Someone’s got a crush,” Jade sing-songed quietly.
“You think so?” Thalia asked.
“Look at her,” I said. “She’s trying to keep it together, but… yeah. I think so.”
We watched the two of them moving along the dining hall. I half expected him to lean down and nuzzle her neck, or her ear.
“That’s some serious chemistry,” Jade said.
“Yeah, it is,” I said.
As they passed us, the tall man looked up, and his eyes met mine. Something flashed in them, and unlike with Caspian, it wasn’t anything that made my lady bits tingle.
It was anger. Deep, raging anger.
I blinked, taken aback by the intensity I saw in his eyes. Why would this guy be looking at me like that? Glancing at Jade, I felt the paranoia I’d been carrying come back with a rush. She didn’t seem to notice—not that the guy gave off a creepy flash, or that I’d just fallen back into my state of worrying.
A crack of what sounded like thunder boomed through the dining hall, and then the entire room shook. I grabbed for the table even as the cups rattled and toppled over. There was a moment of silence, and then the hall erupted into sound and noise.
Madame Karathos had fallen to the side, her arms out toward the tall blond man to steady herself. He held Madame in what seemed to be a far more intimate gesture than two professional people should be sharing in front of the entire school, but what did I know?
Madame Karathos touched her mouth, and her voice amplified through the dining hall. “Please remain in your seats, if you would. Look to those around you and assess if there is anyone at your table who is hurt.”
The noise subsided a bit.
“If you have someone near you who has been injured, please help them to the infirmary,” Madame Karathos continued. “Everyone else, please stay where you are.”
A few people got up, moving toward the door of the dining hall. The infirmary was across the school yard, as it was known. The original building of Nobledark had been a large rectangular shape with a school yard on one end and a garden on other, and part of the building stretching out from the middle of the rectangle. My dorm was an offshoot built later that came out of the top of the rectangle. You did a lot of walking here.
“What the hell was that?” Thalia asked.
Jade and I looked at each other then. This couldn’t be anything to do with me. When I’d been in Hell, with all the sirens, the hellway, the path that allowed the denizens of Hell to come strolling up here, to the human world that we all lived in, was closed. The woman, Iliana, my mother, had directed all of us to send Marbys somewhere that he couldn’t pull any more crap. Not that I’d stuck around.
“It could have been an earthquake,” I said.
Thalia was looking back and forth between me and Jade. “Whatever it was, you two look guilty as can be,” she said.
“What?” I said.
“Did you put something in your coffee?” Jade asked at the same time.
“I didn’t even get a chance to have any coffee,” Thalia said loftily. “Your totally guilty response shows me that something’s up, something you haven’t bothered to share with me.”
“I told you,” Jade muttered, drinking from her nearly empty cup.
I sighed. “You’re right,” I said.
“What is it?” Thalia asked, her voice rising.
“Don’t get your panties in a bunch,” I said. “Let’s get together tonight.” I didn’t want to, but it looked like I’d be telling my story again.
Madame Karathos’ voice amplified through the hall once more. “All students, if you will please return to your dormitories, it would be appreciated. We need to make sure that the school is safe, and then the normal schedule will resume.” Madame sounded calm and together.
I swiveled my head around until I saw her. She was still standing with the tall blond man, but they weren’t touching any longer. He was talking, leaning down toward her. She smiled at him, and the sight of them made me feel as though there was more than met the eye here.
If this guy was someone official, or even Concilium, why was he here playing grab ass with Madame Karathos? Totally unprofessional, and totally not appropriate. The man looked up and met my eyes. A shiver of unease passed through me. Then he looked away. I watched them for a moment more and then felt Jade tug at my sweater.
“Let’s all go back to your room, Olivia.” She raised her eyebrows meaningfully at me.
Oh. That meant it was confession time again. It had come sooner than I thought it would. Damn earthquake. I got up, swinging my backpack onto my shoulder. Might as well get it over with.
“What?” Thalia sank to the floor as I spoke, her mouth open, and her hand reaching up to cover her mouth.
“It’s true,” I said.
“What does that have to do with what just happened? And how the hell are you a siren?” Thalia asked.
“Don’t forget the half demon,” Jade interjected.
“Not helpful,” I snarled.
“Oh, well, don’t pull out the horns and claws,” Jade held up her hands. She looked at me and laughed. “Come on. You got kind of growly there for a minute.”
“Is that even a word?” I asked, laughing as I rolled my eyes.
“It is now,” Jade said.
We both looked at Thalia.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
She was staring at me. Then her eyes widened. “No wonder you’re getting so good with shooting water!” she exclaimed.
I stared and then laughed again. Earlier this week in Combat (Magic) I’d hit her with what I thought of as my water cannon spell. I hadn’t meant to—I’d been aiming for my partner, and it bypassed my partner entirely, and walloped Thalia in the head.
“I don’t even know where to start,” Thalia said.
I sat on the bed. “What do you want to know?” I asked.
“Where’s your birth mom?” she asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I can feel her, I know she’s around, she’s alive—”
“What does she have to do with the stone?” Jade asked.
I thought about it then, seeing the three stones on the flat rock. Once the white light shot out of the stones, the stones disappeared and the three women showed up. “I don’t know,” I said.
“Why don’t you ask her?” Thalia said.
“Because I don’t want to talk to her,” I said. “Or any of them. They’re Underworlders,” I stressed. “And we all know what Underworlders are like.”
“We know what they tell us,” said Jade.
Shaking my head, I looked at my friends. “Wait a second. I’m the one who isn’t who she thought she was. What is it with you two? Underworlders are the bad guys.” Even as I said it, I cringed at hearing myself. Raven was a pain in the ass, but was she bad? I shied away from answering that. I didn’t want to.
And the other siren women—were they bad? They’d banished the giant asshole, even if it wasn’t permanent, I remembered. They hated him way more than I did. And Raven’s teacher, the beautiful woman who’d said she was a Gorgon. Madame. She hadn’t felt bad.
“You really believe that?” Thalia asked.
“You don’t?” I shot back.
Thalia shrugged. “Most of us have Underworlders somewhere in the family tree.”
“Then what are you doing here?” I asked. Everything about Nobledark centered around keeping Underworlders from causing problems, hurting humans, and whatever other shenanigans they wanted to perpetrate on the magical world.
“It’s a good job,” Jade shrugged.
“So I’m the only one who’s been really bothered?” I asked.
“There’s always one crusader,” Thalia said.
“I need to sit down,” I flopped onto my bed. “I’ve been killing myself trying to keep this a secret, and now you’re telling me I don’t need to—”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Thalia got up and came to sit next to me. “You’re lucky enough to be friends with the people who don’t get all excited about who’s good and who’s bad.”
“Yeah, my family tree has some definitely shady branches,” Jade said with a small laugh.
“What about everyone else?”
“There are people here who believe in this shit,” Thalia said. “I do, too, but not to great extremes.”
“So you’re okay with all this?” I sat up.
“Well, I didn’t say that either,” Thalia replied. “I’m scared to death for you. You need to keep it secret—”
“Will you keep it secret?” I asked, all laughter gone. “If not, you need to tell me. This is a huge burden, and I know I’m asking a lot.”
“I’m your friend,” Thalia took my hand. “Who your parents are isn’t your fault. And you’re so on board with all the things they love here. Anyone who knows you knows that.”
My shoulders sagged in relief. The partial lifting of the burden I’d felt when I told Jade lifted even more. I still had my friends. They wouldn’t be turning me out in the courtyard to be stoned, or anything like that.
“But this mix, the siren and demon—that’s dangerous. Why did you think the earthquake had something to do with you?”
“I didn’t,” I said, “but I wasn’t sure. When I was in Hell, there was a definite hellway. It was blocked on their side, but it was clear that it was a pathway to this world.”
“What, you were under the school or something?” Thalia looked confused.
“I don’t know!” I threw up my hands. “There’s so much I don’t know. What if the pathway was activated by my being here?”
“You were here all last term and nothing like this happened,” Thalia replied.
“You need to go see your parents and sit on them until they tell you what you need to know,” Jade said. “Like I told you. I can’t believe you didn’t ask them anything while you were home.”
“My entire world just fell off a cliff,” I said. “Excuse me for not making the right call.”
“Well, you’re going home this weekend,” Thalia said. “You have to. You have to know what your parents know.”
“Maybe they don’t know,” Jade said.
Thalia snorted.
“I’ll go see Madame Karathos this afternoon,” I said with a sigh.
“All students will please return to their second class of the day,” Madame Karathos’ voice boomed into my room. “The rest of classes will proceed as normal. Everything is fine.”
We all waited, but nothing else was forthcoming.
“That was suitably vague,” Thalia said.
“Oh, no. You don’t get to go thinking everything is weird now,” Jade said.
“But it is,” Thalia replied.
With that less-than-comforting thought, we left the dorm and walked across the yard to the class building. At least I’d be in Intention, where I had no distractions. Other than my own thoughts. Which flew to Matty Pearce and Caspian Silverwood. I pushed the thought of both of those guys away.
And I needed to think about why I would tell Madame Karathos I just had to go home, when I’d been there only a couple of days before. I followed my friends out of my room, feeling buoyed by their presence. If they were still here, still my friends, I’d get through this.
I had to.
Chapter Five
The rest of the week passed quickly. I saw Matty everywhere, not just in class. Every time our eyes met, he grinned, and I felt my panties melt a little more. I didn’t want him to stop looking at me, but I also found this sexual tension frustrating. Not only because I wanted to drag him off to a closet somewhere, but because I didn’t understand why this was happening now.
I only saw Caspian from a distance, which was fine. He was so beautiful that he was intimidating, and admiring him from a safe distance was all I needed. Or could handle, if I was being honest. He kind of came off like a bully. There was the whole matter of him threatening me—definite bully vibe. I didn’t want to find out what he meant. Regardless of my thoughts on the matter, he and Matty Pearce figured in my dreams the next three nights.
On Friday, I felt excited and nervous. I’d gotten permission from Madame Karathos to portal home after my last class today. When I’d gone to her office and asked if I could go home Thursday after classes, she’d been surprised.
