Page 19

CHAPTER 19

A week passed, and we settled into our new normal. Professor Reynolds’s age seemed to have settled at a precocious eight-year-old. He played pranks on everyone, laughing uproariously when it was especially explosive.

“It’s hard to believe that that little monster grew up to become our calm professor,” I whispered to Aiden one morning after cleaning a swampy mess from our bathroom. The professor was cleaning up his own bathroom. He’d filled it with soapy bubbles.

Aiden shrugged. “Maybe he met someone in school that tempered his enthusiasm. Or maybe he’s a normal eight-year-old boy.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Tell me you weren’t like that at his age.”

“I wasn’t like that at his age,” Aiden parroted mechanically.

“Ugh. Best birth control ever.”

Aiden chuckled and drew me into his embrace, wiping a smear of mud off my forehead with his thumb. “It’ll be different when it’s ours ,” he whispered. “You’ll be a better influence than my teachers ever were on me.”

“You too?” I asked.

“Oh, I’ll be encouraging them.” He grinned when I gasped, outraged. “You need some chaos in your life. And they need the chance to let loose in a safe environment.”

I melted against his body. “I can’t believe we’re actually thinking about this. Even though it’ll be far in the future,” I clarified quickly. “I want to travel without a baby for at least a year.”

“At least a year,” Aiden said in agreement. His eyes flared with fire. “As long as we can keep practicing.”

“I’m certainly not going to say no to that !”

“I’m hungry !” Professor Reynolds complained. “Are you going to hug until the mess closes? Déan deifir !”

“Did you finish cleaning your bathroom?” I asked, pulling away from Aiden.

“It’s squeaky clean,” the professor said innocently.

Too innocently.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “What did you do?”

“The soap bubbles are gone,” Professor Reynolds said, his eyes wide. “I cleaned them up.”

“Uh huh.” I peeked at his bathroom from the doorway between our rooms. It looked clean. “Okay, you did a good job. This suspicion,” I said, pointing at my head, “is because you keep lying to us. It’s hard to trust you if you keep lying.”

The professor pouted and looked down at his feet. “Sorry.”

I sighed. “Just... Try not to lie, please? Come on, let’s get breakfast.”

Professor Reynolds took my hand readily enough, pulling me out the door.

“Hey,” Aiden said playfully. “I thought I was the only one who got to hold your hand.”

I shrugged. “On the way to class?”

“You’d better.”

In the foyer, we were just in time to see the main doors open, letting in three people; two guards from the jail, and...

I blinked. “Professor, do you have a twin brother?”

“Is it just me, or is it weird that the school got guards to escort the professor’s brother to the school?” Aiden muttered.

“I don’t remember him,” Professor Reynolds squeaked. He frowned. “I should remember him, shouldn’t I?” He stared at the trio as they walked into the office, an unreadable expression on his face. “They’re going to run more tests on me, aren’t they?”

“Probably,” I said gently.

His eyes filled with tears. “I’m not hungry.” He rubbed his fists over his eyes, never looking more like a child than at that moment. “I’m going to go to the bathroom.”

“Okay...” I said cautiously.

“Do you need me to come with you?” Aiden asked.

“No! I can find my way back to my room.” He scowled.

“We’ll be in the mess hall. Come down when you’re ready,” I said.

Exchanging anxious glances, we watched the professor climb the first set of stairs.

“Poor guy. He can’t remember his family, let alone get turned back into himself. Maybe they’re planning on using his twin’s DNA or something,” I said. “There’s a whole other avenue that I hadn’t considered. Maybe we don’t have to break the curse! Maybe we can work around it.”

“There’s my optimistic mate,” Aiden said cheerfully, tucking me under his arm. “Now, I’m starving. Do you think they have French toast?”

Teasing each other, we made our way into the mess, and joined our friends at our table.

Pierre and Una were sitting beside each other. She was shyly glancing sideways at him every time she took a bite.

It was nice to see her infatuated with a guy. Usually, it was the other way around, and she got bored too quickly.

I flipped my hair over my shoulder before picking up my fork. “What’s everyone up to this weekend?”

“Thesis work,” Lilia said with a groan. “I have to brew my prelim potion.”

“Already?” Una asked, eyes wide.

“My thesis involves a series of potions being used for each successive potion,” Lilia said with an easy shrug, as if that wasn’t the most difficult concept I’d ever heard. “This one is the first, and it needs to rest for a week before I can use it in the next potion.”

“What happens if you make a mistake halfway through?” Rhiannon asked.

“I’m making a huge batch of this first one,” Lilia said. “But I’m not worried. Professor Wainwright will be keeping an eye on me, and I’ve never had problems brewing potions before.”

“It sounds intense,” I said. “What are you trying to prove with your thesis?”

“That power grows with potions brewed by the same witch and it’s better to make your own from scratch rather than buy pre-made potions.”

My eyebrows rose. “I can think of several potion companies who aren’t going to be pleased with your thesis.”

“Yeah, well, that’s their problem.” Lilia shrugged again. “There will still be witches who prefer the quick way. It has its own benefits, like time saving. But if you are after power, it’s better to make your own.”

Brom kissed her cheek and she smiled at him.

“What about you?” I asked Hazel, who seemed lost in thought.

She blinked, focusing on me. “Oh, sorry. What was that?”

I repeated my original question.

“I’m collecting rare plants in the Dark Forest this weekend with Professor Calderwood,” she said. “I need some of them for my thesis, and the others are for the higher level Herbology and Potions classes.”

“Clarissa?” I asked.

“Bruce and I are heading to the mainland to meet up with the Blackthorn family,” she said. “Something about power transfer.”

Bruce added, “If I want to take over as Headmaster of this school, I need to have the support of the rest of the family, which means getting to know them.”

“Doesn’t one of Ophelia’s children want the position?” Aiden asked.

Bruce grimaced. “Yes. The old man wouldn’t be good for the school, though.”

“Isn’t he only in his forties?” Brom asked.

“It’s all in his attitude,” Bruce said. “He’s not connected to the youth today the way I am.”

“The youth today?” I repeated, chuckling. “Are you sure you are?”

Bruce laughed with me. “You know what I mean.”

“Why are you asking us about this weekend?” Una asked, changing the subject. “What are you up to?”

“I’ve gotten permission from Professor Akhtar to go back to Liangshan Yi to take measurements for my thesis.” I almost bounced in my seat. “He’s coming with me, of course, but he said I could bring a friend.”

“And Aiden is...”

“Unavailable,” Aiden replied with a sigh. “I would love to go back, but I need to catch up on my own thesis work. The Magical Olympics combined with Professor Reynolds’s... umm... inability to assist, means that I’m about two weeks behind where I should be at this point.”

I frowned sympathetically and rubbed his arm. We’d discussed it the previous evening, after Professor Akhtar had told me we were going back to China on Saturday.

“So you’re working with Professor Dunlop for now?” David asked.

“Yeah.” Aiden shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “He’s great at helping with the spellwork, but he doesn’t have the background that Professor Reynolds has. Had. The math is over his head, and I’m struggling,” he admitted.

“Ouch. I’m sorry to hear that,” Bruce said.

“Hopefully, his twin will be able to help turn him back to normal,” I said cheerfully.

“His twin?” chorused the rest of the table.

“Yeah, we saw him heading into the office this morning,” Aiden said. “Spitting image of the professor.”

“I had no idea he had a twin,” Lilia said.

“How would you? It’s not like we know much about the professors,” I said. “I don’t even know if Professor Akhtar is single, and I spend nearly all my time with him.”

“That’s an excellent point,” Una said. “He’s very good looking. Could you find out for me?”

Pierre tickled her ribs and she squirmed in his hold, laughing.

“I’m joking!” she gasped when he stopped.

“You’d better be,” he whispered, leaning close to her ear.

I only heard because I was sitting directly opposite them.

We had a fun-filled breakfast, but when it came time to leave for class, Professor Reynolds hadn’t joined us.

“I don’t want to leave him alone for the entire morning,” I said with a frown. “I’ll go get him.”

“I’ll go with you,” Aiden said quickly.

“Bruce, would you mind telling Professor Dunlop where we are? We’ll join the class as soon as we can.”

He nodded. “I’m sure the professor will understand.”

Aiden and I raced each other up the stairs to our rooms, which were empty.

“Okay, now I’m worried,” Aiden said.

“It’ll be fine,” I said grimly. “The baby tracker I put on him should still activate.” I cast a spell and a blue thread zipped away from me, out the door and around the corner. “It’ll take me two seconds to find him. Why don’t you head to class?”

“Yeah, okay.”

I left him at a run, chasing the thread up the stairs to the fourth floor. On the way, I passed by Aiden, who looked worried.

“Just go to class,” I said. “I’ve got this.”

“Yeah, okay,” he said.

I did a double take, feeling like that was déjà vu. “That was weird,” I muttered. The thread led me down one of the boy’s hallways, and into a room. I knocked on the door, breathing hard from my run.

A student walking down the hall gave me a funny look. “You know that’s the boy’s bathroom, right?”

I frowned.

Maybe Professor Reynolds came up here to this bathroom instead of using ours.

Why?

Bells of suspicion were ringing in my mind.

What did he do to our bathroom?

“Would you mind checking for Professor Reynolds, please?”

The boy looked confused. “Wouldn’t he just use the professor’s bathroom?”

“He’s the one who got de-aged about a month ago?” I said impatiently. “Who knows what he’s up to!”

“Oh, the kid! I forgot about that.”

I found it hard to believe that anyone could simply forget that one of the teachers had been cursed, but I was living it. “Can you check for him please? My tracking spell goes in here.”

“Yeah, all right.” He disappeared into the room, but returned quickly. “There’s nobody in there.”

“What?” I gaped at him.

“See for yourself.” He held the door open for me.

I followed the thread to one of the urinals. It ended on the urinal soap. “He’s mocking me!” I groaned, slapping my forehead. “Who knows when he did this. Ugh!” I whirled around, intent on finding Aiden so he could help me track down the mischievous professor. He should have come with me. “Thanks for your help,” I said to the guy as I left.

I halted so suddenly in the doorway that he bumped into me. “Fuck!” I shouted. “How could I have been so stupid ?”

I took off at a run, hoping I wasn’t too late.