Page 17 of Reluctant Witch (A Course in Magic #2)

17

Dan

After a few hours of aiding the healers, Dan felt like a wrung-out rag. He called, “Clance?”

The little hob popped into the infirmary and looked at Dan with a proud smile. “You did well.”

“Thanks.” Dan yawned and slid down to the floor. By the time Dan had done what he could to boost the healer’s energy, he felt like a toy that needed to be rewound. Whatever spring kept a person upright was un sprung. He sat on a heap on the floor of the infirmary, head tilted back onto a shelf that was as comfortable as bamboo sheets and feather-filled pillows just then.

“I need the headmaster to let me out,” Dan told Clancy. “I could sleep on the floor or an empty cot, but I don’t want to.”

The hob left with a pop, and Dan debated just taking a little nap.

Dr. Jemison was awake-ish now, and she was standing in the position favored by drunks, fighters, and people trying to get their sea legs. Her feet were wide apart, and she stared down at Lord Scylla as if reading things that Dan couldn’t see. He was completely inept at healing magic, as well as—so far—mind magic, illusion, fabrication, music, and fighting.

The doctor, obviously, could read things through her magic that seemed to be the equivalent of a myriad of machines in ordinary hospitals.

“Her blood pressure is still off, and her breathing is not clear yet. Her blood levels need refreshing… and there’s a minor infection near her stomach we need to remove, but she’s going to live,” Dr. Jemison said, standing with increasing wobbliness beside Lord Scylla’s bed. “She ought to be awake, though. Why isn’t she awake?”

The doctor yawned widely, her own magic obviously further drained by checking the patient over again.

“And why are you awake, Mae?” the headmaster said from the doorway.

“Because healing people is my job,” Dr. Jemison said with a smile. “Lucas lent me his energy so I could focus for a few moments.”

“They’re capable, Mae. And Monahan—”

“Is also half-asleep,” Dr. Jemison finished. “I know my limits.”

“And chose to ignore them,” Sondre scolded her. The way he looked at the doctor was more protective than a married man ought to look at someone not his wife.

Protective isn’t the same as lustful, Dan reminded himself.

He currently felt a little possessive-protective over the doctor, and she was 100 percent not his type. Some guys took a side detour on that side to try to convince themselves that they were able to be straight. Dan wasn’t one of them. He was gold-star gay. If there was an official card, he’d carry it. He had no issue with men who’d tried out the other side— like Axell —or even crossed the line regularly. Some people had distinct biphobia, but Dan didn’t. However, he had never had a bodily reaction to a woman. Ever. It was unnerving.

“Are you okay?” Sondre asked, crouching down in front of Dan.

“She’s weirdly pretty right now,” Dan announced. “I don’t like lady bits, but her”—he gestured across his own chest—“chest is pretty. Why? Why? I don’t like girl chests, Sondre. These thoughts are weird.”

“They’re not yours, Dan. It’s because you were boosting a healer who feels that way toward her.” Sondre looked around the room, even as the other healers pointedly did not look at him or at Dr. Jemison.

And Dan couldn’t pinpoint which one it was. He’d boosted several of them.

“Someone in the room thinks you’re a goddess,” Dan volunteered with a slurred voice. Exhaustion had left him no better than drunk. He’d felt that way during medical treatments, but not from magical overuse until now. He yawned. “I’m glad it’s not me, though. So so glad. That would be awkward.”

The doctor laughed softly. “Especially as I’ll need you here to boost Scylla’s magic tomorrow, Mr. Monahan. She should be able to get the barrier back up if Prospero goes into her mind and you boost it. I think if she’s able to do that…” The doctor yawned. “I’ll explain tomorrow.”

“We’ll take shifts watching Lord Scylla,” a woman with eerily bright eyes and ghost-pale skin offered. “Xavier and I… I mean…”

Xavier, a quiet Black man, lifted a hand with a thumb up. “On it, Mae.”

“Me too,” offered a white woman currently reclined on a stretcher with a rag over her face. Her short brown hair stuck up at odd angles. “I’m not going first, though.”

“Dominique, one of my friends… she’s going to be in your house,” Dan offered. “Maybe she could help, too. On-the-job training or whatever.”

“I’ll send a hob to fetch her,” Sondre said. “They’re opening the rest of the rooms in the castle. We’ve been vulnerable moving people in. Giving them a chance to be siphoned and sent back—or to stay here for now. Your healers can have a room to rest in, and I can assign a hob to transport them in and out without unbarricading the door.”

“All because of Scylla?” Dr. Jemison asked.

Sondre nodded. “Safety measures assigned by the new head of House Grendel.” He squirmed slightly. “The former House Grendel head was the one who…”

“Tried to kill Scylla,” Dan supplied when no one else did. “Who’s the new house head?”

“Sondre is,” the doctor said in a quiet voice. “Will you be going after Aggie?”

“Eventually. Until there’s a new headmaster, I need to stay here in the castle as headmaster, too, and my family will stay here while I’m over there.” He looked at all of them. “I need three healers on staff at all times, Mae. You have to get rested in case there are injuries—”

“You will not get injured,” the doctor said. “Do you hear me?”

“I will do my best.” He squirmed. “If I don’t succeed, can you… would you…”

“If you don’t return, I’ll look after Margaret and the boy.” The doctor gave him an unreadable look, and Dan wished that he were already outside the room instead of witnessing their awkward conversation.

“Thank you.” Sondre sighed deeply, before he turned to leave.

But Dr. Jemison asked, “Are you going with Prospero?”

“I am. She has the wherewithal to do what needs to be done,” Sondre said in a tense voice. He didn’t glance back at her, at any of them.

“Kill them, you mean.” The doctor sounded increasingly upset.

Sondre turned around. “Mae… I know you heal, but this may not involve you. If they survive, I will try to bring them back to be siphoned—”

“Which will also kill them,” the doctor rebutted.

“Probably. I can insist it’s done when you’re in attendance in case Aggie can be saved. In case any of them can, but justice must be served.” Sondre glared at her, and Dan felt like his parents were fighting. It was a peculiar feeling, but he had a bit of hero worship over Sondre, and the doctor had saved him.

Literally, she cured his cancer. So he thought she could do no wrong.

Dan cleared his throat loudly. “So, kids, I’m going to bed. There’s a lot of tension in here, and I need my battery-recharging time or whatevs.” He looked at Dr. Jemison. “Glad you’re not dead, doc.” Then he looked at Sondre. “And congrats on the new job. Don’t die.”

Then he stood, stretched, and walked to the door. At first, it didn’t budge, but after a weird ripple of magic, the door opened, and Dan strode out of the room.

Sometimes living here felt weirder than he thought he could manage to unravel. Small town where everyone lived for centuries? More drama than he had anticipated at first. It made sense because there were a limited number of people and a lot of them worked in close quarters. And magic seems to screw with self-control. That was the part no one had said out loud, but he was fairly sure it was a fact.

The infirmary door flapped closed behind him, and Dan exhaled.

A hob appeared, standing atop a suit of armor around the corner. Not Clancy. Dan had no idea which hob it was. The tiny man put a finger to his lips and gestured for Dan to follow him.

“Man, I just want to sleep. Do you have any idea how tired I am?” Dan grumbled, but he still went in the direction of the hob, who was now standing under a giant stained-glass window. Since his arrival here, “follow the hob” had always been a good idea. For whatever reason, they all seemed to take a liking to him, and so if a hob gestured for him to follow in any way, Dan obeyed.

By the time Dan reached the window, the hob had vanished again.

Dan looked around, not seeing any hobs. He turned a corner, looking from side to side. There at the end of the hall was a door—and the hob.

The hob pointed at it, and then he vanished.

By the time Dan reached the door, he had started to think about the horrors that could lurk behind the door. He’d never been led astray by a hob, but Sondre was being supercautious and talking about war and everything felt precarious today.

I can trust the hobs, he reminded himself.

Dan still thought that this world was amazing, but there were definitely some downsides he hadn’t expected to find.

In fairness, he thought, did I ever expect to find a magical world?

There was no way to love fantasy books and franchises as much as he did and not at least imagine it, but that was just fanciful dreaming. It wasn’t an expectation. Now that he was here, living in a castle, able to do actual magic, he couldn’t imagine any other future. He felt like he was home. It was that feeling he realized now that he’d chased his entire life. He suspected it was why people switched careers, moved, dated serially… the urge to find that click drove people, and he was no exception.

“Whatever’s in here, I’ll deal with it,” he muttered as he pushed the door open cautiously.

Inside, the room was lit by candles, and a small wooden table was heaped with an odd assortment of food. On the side of the room farthest away from the door, in the darkest shadows where the candlelight only barely touched, was Axell.

“Daniel.” He didn’t stand in greeting, and it was obvious that he had taken a moment to create the whole scene. It was all about enticement, from the inviting way he was sprawled on a love seat—one arm across the back as if inviting a person to fall into a waiting embrace—to the choices of the food on the table to the candles casting a calming light across the room.

“Hi.” Dan shut the door and turned the oversized key in the lock. Sure, people could teleport from place to place, but they needed to know where they were going, so the likelihood was that a locked door was enough to assure privacy.

“I thought you might be hungry,” Axell said mildly, as if the word was only literal, but Dan knew well enough that there were other offers in that word. With him, there always were.

“How…?” Dan gestured around the room.

Axell lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I had time and wanted to do something special for you.”

“Why?” Dan caught and held his gaze, even though the shadows made it harder to do so. “Why do all this?”

“I like you.” Axell shrugged again. “You need to have food… and the last time you went with the headmaster you came back very sad.”

Dan looked away. He hadn’t told Axell everything. He couldn’t tell Axell for his own safety, and Axell’s, too. “This was easier than that. I just had to boost the energy of the healers.”

“No helping the scary witch erase memories?”

Dan gaped at him. “I… we… I never said that!”

“Ellie and Maggie both have memory holes. They’re both married now.” Axell shook his head. “You think I am stupid because I am a singer? Just a stupid musician?”

“No!”

“Maggie no longer remembers her anger with you,” Axell pointed out. “She is here thinking headmaster is a good man. They had sex before, but then Maggie was angry. And now, Ellie follows the scary witch like a sad woman. Before she was not this eager to be with her.”

Dan shushed him. “What if someone hears you? Stop. Stop saying these things.”

Axell stood and crossed the room. “ You did this thing for them, Daniel. You did a terrible thing.”

Calmly, Axell reached out and curled around Dan’s slightly less-bony-than-before hip. Dan froze. He always did when Axell reached out.

“You did these very bad things, and I still am here.” Axell’s hand tightened. “I am still here with you. I made you a romantic date. I do not want you only for sex, Daniel. You can refuse me, and you can do bad things. And I am still here. Are you here with me? Do you forgive my mistake, too?”

Dan felt like ice had hit him, thinking about the danger Axell could be in if anyone realized what he knew. “Don’t risk dying from drugs, please, and you can’t tell anyone what you know, Axell,” Dan whispered. “They’re dangerous. Ellie was raging, fighting.…” He felt tears escape and race over his cheeks. “She was willing to die to get out of here. Maggie’s kid was on the ground like a dead person, and there was Prospero. Sondre helped her and all, but it was her. If they know you figured this out—”

“It is done now,” Axell whispered back. He pulled Dan a little closer. “I am not reckless enough to say what I know. That witch is scary, and the headmaster does not like me already. I will not tell.”

Dan closed the rest of the distance between them and accepted the comfort of Axell’s embrace. “I couldn’t tell you about it. They said—”

“Who cares what they say? You can tell me anything.” Axell stroked a hand up and down Dan’s spine. “You asked why I used the drugs. It was because I thought my heart would break inside me. I could not sing. I found someone who made me feel good and alive and real, but then you pushed me away and I hurt.”

“Axell—”

“I do not mean it is your fault,” Axell said quickly. “I chose to give in to the bad feelings, but you asked why. That is why. You pushed me away and would not let me help you.”

“If I told you, she would erase your mind,” Dan said softly. “I was afraid.”

“Then be afraid with me. I was afraid, too. Stop pushing me away, Daniel. I am where I want to be, where I thought you wanted me to be. Do you want to be with me?”

“I do. ” Dan wrapped his arms around Axell. “You could have anyone you want, though, so—”

“Apparently not any one,” Axell rebutted with a wry smile.

“But if I stop running, will you still want me?” Dan asked in a small voice.

“Yes.” The word resonated with truth. “I will want you the same. More.”

And Dan was glad he had finally found the courage to ask. He tilted his head slightly. “Then kiss me, please?”

Axell’s mouth curved into a smile briefly before finding Dan’s lips, and when they kissed, Dan was sure that this was exactly what he wanted.

This is home. He’s my home.