Page 10

CHAPTER 10

The headmistress hadn’t collected Professor Reynolds at all that day, and he had been a terror in class. Qualitative Spellcraft hadn’t been an issue, since we were trying to solve his mysterious curse, but he had ripped only one plant out by the roots before Professor Wainwright scooped him up and carried him out of the room without a word.

When she returned, she said, “Professor Reynolds has been given into the care of Mister Evans. He says you can meet him in the hallway after class.”

I nodded and tried to focus on the plants that would be needed for our potions lab work that week. We needed to make a list with preparation instructions for the first year Herbology students. I wracked my brain, trying to remember all the intricate details and where a first year student might make mistakes, in order to caution them. I didn’t want to have to brew a potion with improperly prepared plants at best, or incorrect ingredients at worst.

I shuddered. Both could lead to terrible results.

After class, I met up with Aiden, who looked harried. “I need to meet with Professor Dunlop regarding my thesis. He says he needs to go over some issues that Professor Reynolds had made note of, and I have to rectify them before I can start working on it. I can’t do math and watch him.”

“No worries. I have some studying to do, so I’ll bring him to my private room. He can’t get away with Darragh watching him,” I said, taking the toddler’s hand. “It’s not like he doesn’t already know where the room is, as a professor.”

Aiden ran his hands through his hair, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. “Thanks. You have no idea how much of a distraction he was this afternoon.”

I chuckled. “He was with me at first, remember. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Professor Wainwright at her wit’s end before, and she’s dealt with some pretty inane questions, like what use salt is in a protection circle.”

“Oh man,” Aiden said, shaking his head. “I needed that.” He dropped a kiss on my upturned lips. “See you at dinner.”

“Oh, you won’t come say hi to Darragh?”

“No, I’m going to try to fix this issue with my thesis. Thanks for writing it down,” Aiden said the last to the tiny professor, who was twisting my family ring around my finger.

I gently switched hands so he couldn’t reach the diamond and amethyst-encrusted ring. “That’s not for you,” I said firmly. “And it irritates my skin.” To Aiden, I added, “See you at dinner then.”

We separated, and I led the professor down to the basement, letting him take each stair one at a time. While we walked, I told him about my plant preparations for my potion. It wasn’t his specialty, and it wasn’t related to his curse, but I thought he might prefer the change of subject. It felt like that was all we had talked about in front of him, and he was probably bored of it.

Especially since he probably could have solved it in two seconds flat if he’d been himself.

Maybe he was frustrated.

“Hey, bud, do you have any insight on how we can fix this curse?” I said suddenly.

He blew a raspberry at me and laughed.

“I’ll take that as a no,” I said amiably. “Maybe once you grow up a bit more.”

I led him into the restricted section and over to the wall that hid my family’s secret room. I was so grateful that I had this space, and even more so that it contained the portrait of my eight-times-great-grandfather Darragh. He was a fount of knowledge, and I would miss him next year.

I made a mental note to ask if he could be copied, but I was fairly certain the answer would be a resounding no.

The passage to my study room was dark, and the professor clung tightly to my hand as we made our way through it.

“Almost there,” I said cheerfully. I pushed open the hidden door and the lights inside came on, welcoming us. “Hello, Darragh,” I said to the portrait.

“You have a child?” he replied, his eyebrows rising so high that they looked comical.

“Don’t be ridiculous. This is Professor Reynolds.”

“Because that’s not just as ridiculous.”

I laughed and closed the door, locking it behind me. “I know, right?” I fabricated a few toys; a set of stacking cups, a stuffed bat, and a more complicated sorting game. “Here you go, professor.”

“What happened to him?” Darragh asked.

I explained the situation, and he hummed in all the appropriate places. “Fascinating. What progress have you made?”

“Well, he’s not an infant any more, but I’m not sure if it’s wearing off or if something we did yesterday worked on a delayed timer.” I sat down, exasperated, and pulled out my grimoire. “You haven’t heard of anything like this happening before?”

“Definitely not.” Darragh hummed for a moment. “Nostalgia and a love spell, eh? Mayhaps he was thinking fondly of his childhood and reverted at that thought? Have you contacted his parents?”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” I said, surprised. “That’s a good idea.” I deflated again. “The professors probably have thought of it, though.”

“You won’t know until you ask.” Darragh stroked his beard. “Anything useful in your grimoire?”

I flipped through the pages idly. “Nothing yet. I haven’t really been searching, though. This wasn’t an intentional curse, you know. Pages were moved accidentally.”

Professor Reynolds tugged on my skirt hem. “Up!” he demanded.

“You want to see my grimoire, too?” I said, hesitating. “It’s my family spell book. I’m not sure how much you’ll remember when you’re fully grown again.”

“Up!” he demanded again, lifting one leg to try to climb onto my lap.

He didn’t succeed in doing anything but falling on his butt. He looked surprised for a second, and then started crying.

“Oh, you poor thing,” I cooed, and then cleared my throat. “Sorry about that, professor.” I held my arms open. “I’m trying to treat you like your adult self, but sometimes little kids just want a cuddle. This is hard for me, too, in vastly different ways, obviously.”

Professor Reynolds let me pull him to his feet and pick him up. I hugged him loosely, fully expecting him to slide off my lap and back onto the floor when he got bored.

He didn’t, instead twisting and turning around until he was facing the desk. He reached out for the book, but I pushed it out of the way of his grasping baby fingers. He screwed up his face, ready to cry again.

“Oh, no you don’t,” I scolded him. “This is not for you, no matter your age.”

The toddler pouted for a moment before squirming off my lap and walking over to the sorting toy.

I watched him for a moment before returning my attention to the grimoire. I sighed. “Maybe there’s something about maturing plants or livestock that could be applied here,” I suggested to Darragh.

“That’s clever thinking!” he said encouragingly.

“Pssh, I bet you say that to all the ancestors.”

“Only if they deserve it.”

By the time dinner rolled around, I had a headache and I was no closer to an attempt than I had been before I entered the study room. I hoped Aiden had had more success with his thesis.

Thinking about his thesis made my stomach jump uncomfortably with guilt. I should have been using my study time more efficiently to start writing my own. I had enough notes to start writing the report, or at least the discoveries that we had made when the ley lines had been bottled up at the Ayers Rock nexus point. I needed to start writing them down in proper form.

I once again wished that I had access to a computer.

We reached the mess hall after most of my friends. Aiden was saving us seats, so I left the professor with him and went to get my food. He looked more relaxed.

He didn’t leave me in suspense once I sat down. He kissed my cheek. “I fixed everything Professor Reynolds had flagged. It was a simple math issue.”

“I highly doubt it was simple,” I replied.

Aiden shrugged. “It wasn’t. But it was just that, not more than that.”

“That’s a relief.”

“Thanks for keeping him occupied. Did you get anything done?”

I sighed. “Not as much as I’d hoped, but it wasn’t his fault. I tried researching a new angle, and didn’t come up with anything.”

“For your thesis?”

“I should have focused on that,” I moaned. “Now I have to make up that time.”

He squeezed my shoulders. “You’ll figure it out. I have faith in you.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t you guys have an Olympic meeting to go to?” Lilia asked.

“For dessert,” Bruce jumped in. “We’ve still got twenty minutes.”

“I love dessert,” Una said dreamily. “Pierre, what’s your favorite dessert?”

Startled, Pierre looked up from his food. “I’m not really one for sweet things,” he replied. “I prefer spicy food.”

“Oh man, I’m sorry,” Bruce said with a chuckle.

“Why?”

“Because you’re in the UK, mate! Our spice is limited to salt and pepper!”

Lilia nearly spat out her stew, she laughed so hard. “Where is the lie?” she spluttered, wiping her eyes. Once she got herself under control, she leaned conspiratorially across the table. Adopting a gangster-style accent, she drawled, “If you need some hot sauce,” her eyes darted left and right, “I know where to get the good stuff.”

The rest of the table cracked up, Pierre included. “I may take you up on that.”

She sat back, eyes wide with surprise. “Excellent. A fellow spice-lover. Maybe we should spike the chili.”

Pierre shook his head. “Even if we used banana peppers, these bland food enthusiasts would breathe fire.”

“We’re not dragons!” I protested.

“You know what he means,” Lilia said, waving a hand in my direction. “I think you’d faint at the sight of thyme in your food.”

“Who puts time in food?” I asked, confused.

“The fact that you don’t even know what thyme, the herb, is, is telling,” Lilia said haughtily.

“I know what thyme is,” Hazel added quietly.

“And it’s used for...” Lilia asked.

“Potions that involve time,” Hazel said sheepishly.

“My point stands.”

“You prefer spice?” Una said suddenly, getting to her feet. “All right then.” She swept away from the table, leaving us to stare after her.

I leaned forward to see past Clarissa and Bruce. “Are you okay?” I asked Pierre.

“I’m fine,” he replied.

“Then what’s wrong with Una?”

“You may want to ask her that.”

“No, really. Why are you being so cold to her?”

Pierre shrugged. “I am a shiny new toy. I’m not interested in investing time in a fling when I have work to do. Clarissa, did you find your ring?” He changed the subject so abruptly that my head spun.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” I exclaimed. “I completely forgot to ask at lunch.”

Clarissa shook her head. “It’s fine. We didn’t completely search the room.”

“But the longer it goes missing, the harder it’ll be to find,” I insisted. “I’ll help you right away.”

“We have the Olympic meeting,” Aiden reminded me gently.

“Damn it,” I cursed, and then remembered that the professor was on the other side of Aiden.

He was munching happily on a piece of bread that he dipped into his stew.

“Sorry,” I said, even though it seemed as though he wasn’t listening. To Clarissa, I added, “We can be a little late to the meeting.”

“We might not get the events that we want,” Bruce hedged.

“But my mother’s ring?” Clarissa pleaded.

“How about this,” I suggested before anyone got upset. “Bruce, Aiden, and Pierre can go directly to the meeting. You and I will go to your room. We’ll join the guys as soon as we can, and they can sign us up for any events we might want while we’re gone.”

Clarissa nodded. “We’ll hurry,” she promised.

“What about Professor Reynolds?” Aiden asked.

“Professor Dunlop said he’d look after him during any Olympic events. This counts, I would think.”

We finished our dinner quickly and headed up to Clarissa and Bruce’s room. It was mostly similarly furnished to our temporary quarters, but with little touches that marked it as a more permanent bedroom. There was an extension spell put in near the front that made it look a lot bigger, and there was room for a couch and two desks before the bedroom.

“That’s clever,” I admired.

“It was Bruce’s idea,” Clarissa admitted readily. “He wanted the castle to feel more like home to both of us, especially since we’re hoping to live here in the future.”

“He’s tied to the building in ways we mere mortals aren’t,” I said with a chuckle. “This extension spell is tidy, but it’s bound with blood magic. I wouldn’t be able to cast something like this.”

Clarissa shrugged. “Being a Blackthorn has to be good for something,” she joked.

“I won’t tell Bruce you said that.” I pointed at the bedroom. “You put your mother’s ring on your bedside table?”

“I did.” All laughter fled her expression and she led me over to her side of the bed. “I usually take off my jewelry and put it in this shell dish before bed.”

The shell was a pretty pale pink, and obviously empty. I cast a spell over it to show me any invisible contents, which turned up empty, as I was expecting.

“Okay, let’s give this tracking spell a try,” I said, taking a deep breath. “I haven’t attempted it before,” I added apologetically. “It might not work.”

“That you’re trying is what’s important,” Clarissa reassured me.

Taking comfort in her acceptance of my potential failure, I cast the spell for lost objects.

Nothing happened.

I frowned.

“I should be seeing a trail of magic to the ring,” I muttered, looking around the room and squinting, as if that would help me see. “It should lead my eyes right to it.”

Clarissa put her hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay.”

“It isn’t, but thanks.” I plucked a bobby pin from my bun and dropped it, kicking it under the bed. I cast the spell again, and a trace of magic showed me exactly where to look to find my lost pin. “Maybe you’re the one who needs to cast it?”

“We can try that,” Clarissa said.

I taught her the spell, and she shrugged. “Nothing.”

I could see that she was trying to hide her disappointment, and possibly even tears.

“We’ll figure this out,” I said, holding my arms out to her.

She hugged me tightly, squeezing her boobs against my neck. I had never felt so short in my life as I did next to this female beast shifter.

Thankfully, she released me before it got too awkward. She wiped her eyes and sniffed before straightening her shoulders. “We should get to the Olympic meeting.”

We headed to the auditorium on the second floor. There was a low murmur of voices as if a bunch of people were having conversations at the same time, typical for a party.

Opening the doors, we found several dessert tables surrounded by students and faculty. Multiple pages were pinned to the walls around the room. I moved closer to one to read it. “These are how we sign up for the events,” I said to my friend. “Look, this one is for dragon polo.”

“We should find the guys and see if we’ve already been signed up for anything,” she replied, her taller stature helping her to look around the room.

“I think we should look at the lists ourselves,” I countered. “That way, we can sign up for anything they missed.”

“Great idea.”

We slowly made our way around the room reading the general categories of events. There were the expected ones, like flying, competitive curses, and charms, but some also surprised me, like divination and cooking.

I signed up for several, after making sure my name wasn’t already included. Either Aiden didn’t know me as well as I thought, or he hadn’t finished making the circuit.

We finally spotted the guys sitting in seats near the front of the room.

Clarissa curled up on Bruce’s lap, her lips going to his ear to tell him of our failure. His mouth hardened and he stroked her knee gently with his thumb.

I sat beside Aiden, not wanting Pierre to feel left out. “You missed some.”

“We found out it wasn’t first-come-first-served, so we decided you’d want to sign up for your own events,” Aiden replied, pressing a kiss to my temple.

I nodded my acceptance. “Thank you.”

“Besides, I signed you up for one surprise,” Aiden said, his eyes sparkling.

“You didn’t!” I gasped.

“You’ll like it, I promise.” He inclined his head. “If you get selected.”

“Aiden! That’s so stressful!” I slapped his arm lightly.

“You’ll find out your events in two days,” he countered. “It’ll be fine.”