Page 16 of Bonds of Magic (Vesperwood Academy: Incubus #3)

“Especially after Erika’s unfortunate loss,” Kazansky added. Rekha’s face went sour as Kazansky kept talking. “I certainly don’t have the time to give Cory additional lessons, but I don’t want to see him sent home. You’re the best chance he has.”

Rekha’s eyes narrowed. “The best chance he has, sure. But why should I have to do it? What’s in it for me?”

“Helping a fellow student isn’t enough?” Kazansky arched an eyebrow. But if she expected Rekha to wilt under her gaze, she went unsatisfied. Rekha crossed her arms over her chest and glared.

Kazansky sighed. “I will make sure that any havens you apply to are aware of your extracurricular activities. I expect you’ll be applying to Hex, yes? This will certainly help your chances of admission.”

“I’m the strongest student in the class,” Rekha retorted. “I think my chances are already pretty good.”

“Then you’ll do it because I’m telling you to,” Kazansky said, staring back at her. “It wasn’t a request, Rekha.”

The two of them looked at each other for a long time, neither one blinking. They seemed to have forgotten I was even there, and I had the urge to back away from them slowly and see if I could get out of the room without them noticing.

Finally, Rekha tossed her head and said, “Fine. Whatever.” She turned to me. “Meet me in the first library at the start of Fifth Hour. And you’d better be ready to work. I don’t fail at anything, and I don’t intend to start with you.”

***

Professor Ramos, another Historian, was covering Haven Selection while Professor Romero recuperated. We were still meeting in the library, but it didn’t feel as cozy without Romero’s warm presence.

That afternoon, Professor Ramos stepped in front of our group and clapped her hands together loudly to get our attention.

“Alright, quiet down, quiet down.” She waved her hands like she was trying to calm a gaggle of geese.

“Today, Professor Karve of Hearth will be joining us. As this lecture series represents one of your best chances to learn about the havens at Vesperwood, I expect you’ll all pay strict attention. Got that?”

She sounded like she’d be more at home in a gymnasium than a library.

That thought brought Noah to mind. I was still mulling over what had happened the night before.

I had a thousand more questions for him, but we didn’t have another lesson for four more nights, and it wasn’t like I’d get any alone time with him in Combat.

“You’ll probably have lots of questions,” Ramos went on, “and there will be time for some of them at the end. But you may want to jot down questions for your interviews as well.”

That snapped me back to attention.

“What’s with the interviews?” I hissed at Felix. “I thought the applications were like, paper-based.”

“You’re supposed to interview with your top three havens,” he whispered back. “None of them are obligated to accept your application, but they all have to allow interviews with whoever asks.”

“But what happens during them? What’s Ramos talking about with questions?”

“The interviews aren’t just a way for your haven choices to get to know you. They’re also so you can get to know them, and see if you really want to apply. You can do a million research papers, but if you don’t actually like the individual haven at Vesperwood, you might not want to join.”

“But mostly, the interviews are one more way for faculty to judge you,” Ash put in brightly from Felix’s other side. “Sounds fun, right?”

“And so, without further ado,” Ramos said, “please welcome Professor Manish Karve.”

She put her hands together to clap, so the class followed suit, though it felt a little funny. Professor Karve stepped out from behind one of the bookcases theatrically and did a little bow. It felt like watching a two-hundred year old magician step onto stage.

He nodded in acknowledgement of our applause, then brought one hand to his neck to straighten the little blue bowtie that sat there.

He wore a three-piece suit with a blue pocket square and a tiny red carnation.

A pair of pince nez glasses perched on his nose, and he was completely bald except for two tufts of hair that sprouted from behind his ears on either side of his head.

His hands were thin and bony as he held them out to make shushing motions at us. I wondered when the last time was that he’d eaten—or seen the sun.

“Thank you, thank you,” he said, smiling beneficently at us. “Oh, I am very pleased to be with you young people here today. What a joy you are to us. What hope you bring for the future of witchkind. You are the lifeblood of Vesperwood, truly.”

“I bet you fifty bucks he’s not thinking of the paranormal students when he says that,” Ash grumbled under his breath.

“You don’t have fifty bucks,” Felix murmured.

“Yeah, why do you think I want to bet for it?”

Felix rolled his eyes.

“I’m here today to talk to you about the ancient and venerable haven that is Hearth,” Professor Karve said, his voice thin but full of pride.

“Our origins go back to the fifteenth century in Europe and farther back in Asia and other parts of the world. We have been behind much of the mechanical development that propelled witchkind and humankind alike into the future. There are even those who say it was a witch who showed Herr Gutenberg the key to creating his printing press, or—” he paused here to tap one long finger against his nose “—that Gutenberg was a witch himself.” He smiled again.

“Perhaps we’ll leave that to the Historians to sort out. ”

He began to pace as he talked. “Some may see Hearth as stodgy and traditional, but Hands are always working to create new, useful items and spells that increase a witch’s magical capacity, or simply improve the conditions of everyday life.

Rather than being hidebound and conventional, we seek to follow the spirit of innovation wherever she may lead.

Within Hearth, there are multiple concentrations that allow… ”

He continued to talk about the various subsections of Hearth, but I found it hard to concentrate. The internal divisions hardly mattered to me, when I couldn’t do magic in the first place. Besides, my brain had returned to picking apart everything Noah told me the night before.

He said he’d been in a fight and almost died, but instead he’d lost his ability to dream. Did the loss happen on its own, because he was so close to dying? Or was the ability taken away from him by whoever he was fighting?

He said he wished he’d died instead. Was losing the ability to dream really so bad for an incubus? Was it painful? Would I feel the same way, if I could somehow find a way to get rid of my own ability?

The way he’d said it, I wish I’d died that day . I could understand feeling that way right after a fight. But did he really still feel that way now? Was there really nothing in his life worth living for?

“...the bowels of the earth to identify and extract ores that cannot be seen from the surface,” Karve said, catching my attention and bringing it back to the present.

“Truly one of the most impressive senior theses I have seen in years. I brought the prototype with me, of course, and if you’ll give me a moment, we can do a brief presentation. ”

He walked creakily back behind the bookcase, and a few thumps and one clang later, reappeared holding what looked like a thirty-pound Nerf gun—if Nerf guns were made of silver and gold, and had visible gears, hand cranks, and bells.

“Now, I’ll need a volunteer for this,” Karve said, holding the device to his chest. “Does anyone have a piece of jewelry or a watch containing multiple metals or alloys? Not your vocator, please. Those have enchantments that would complicate this demonstration.”

A murmur ran through our group, but no one raised their hand.

“I promise to return it unharmed,” he added.

Finally, Crystal Marks stepped forward. “You can use my necklace, I guess.” Her hands went to the back of her neck as she undid the clasp.

“Thank you, my dear,” Karve said, as she held out a thin chain with a heavy pendant that looked like an acorn. “Hold it right there.”

The acorn swung at the end of the chain, shining in different shades of silver and what might have been white gold or platinum. Crystal looked nervous, and I couldn’t blame her.

“Now, if I can just remember how to work this,” Karve said, hefting the device so the gun pointed directly at the necklace in Crystal’s hand.

He turned a dial on the side of the gun once to the left, then to the right, then to the left again. Next he spun one of the hand cranks, which caused a small piece of metal to slide to one side, revealing a button beneath it. He muttered an incantation under his breath and pressed the button.

The gun groaned to life, gears twisting on both sides as the body of the device shook. A bell rang and a little vent popped open on the top, letting out a puff of steam.

“Professor Karve?” Crystal said nervously. “What’s happening?”

“Don’t fret, child,” he said. “It’s all working exactly as—”

The end of his sentence was cut off as bright light flashed out of the gun in a widening circle, reaching the necklace and enveloping it in a golden glow. Crystal gasped when the light hit her fingers and dropped the chain, but the necklace remained aloft, hovering inside a sphere of light.

Then it began to break apart.

First the chain pulled loose from the acorn, and then the acorn began to unmake itself. Streams of liquid metal spun off of it, forming smaller, molten spinning spheres within the large ball of light. The chain unknit itself and reformed as another sphere, it too revolving around an internal axis.

“You see?” Karve said, grinning out at the class. He looked every inch the mad scientist. “It has separated the necklace into its component elements, and rendered them accessible for further use. Of course, we plan to return the necklace to its original state, but as you can see—”