Page 20 of Reluctant Witch (A Course in Magic #2)

20

Maggie

Maggie was walking through the castle when someone called out her name in a way that was overly familiar. “Maggie!”

She turned to see Monahan and Axell. She felt a strange sense of panic at seeing them after the hob’s elusive comments to her earlier. Are they “the maker and the singer” ? She was working on a plan to figure out what the hob wanted her to do, but she wasn’t ready to break all the rules just yet. If she was going to try to outwit the chief witch and his cronies, she wasn’t going to be all willy-nilly about it.

Life seemed to come at her faster than she wanted now that she was a witch, and she wasn’t quite sure what to do about it. She knew that listening to the hob she met was her plan, that figuring out what she’d forgotten was the plan, but beyond “escaped and was returned to Crenshaw” her mental gaps were pretty vast.

I rescued my son. I negotiated for his safety.

I was already sleeping with Sondre, so our relationship is not exactly a bad fate.

I was only ordered to stay away from Ellie… not them.

And they clearly know me.

Axell wasn’t approaching her like she was a stranger to him. Monahan was hanging back. He was the cautious one. Axell was impetuous and bold; it made her like him. Monahan? He was cagey, but Maggie had cracked cases with more reluctant witnesses. And Craig is safe.

This gamble is about establishing my own place here in Crenshaw.

“Come with us. I am exploring the castle. The acoustics are good in these halls. I can sing for you.” Axell closed his eyes and did just that, voice lifting in some sort of song she couldn’t translate. As he did, drums thrummed from somewhere, and other instruments—not all familiar—wound around that thudding beat.

“Why would I do that?” Maggie scanned the hall for threats.

“So we become friends,” Axell said intently. The braid against his head waved slightly as he nodded, looking exceptionally self-satisfied. “Better than magic.”

Something about the moment felt familiar, almost like déjà vu, and Maggie took a good look at them. Monahan looked nervous, refusing to meet her gaze. Axell looked like he was defiant.

“ Were we friends?”

“She remembers us!” Monahan said with a wide smile. “That’s such a rel—”

“No, she does not.” Axell leaned against the wall with one combat boot–clad foot propped on the stone wall. He looked like a model at a shoot, and she found it the most artificial thing about him. “She figured it out, ja ? This is what happened, Maggie? You deduced?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.” Monahan slumped slightly. “I hoped… it doesn’t matter.” He looked over at Axell. “This is a bad idea. Do we really need to break more rules?”

Maggie paused. “Were you told not to be my friends? I wasn’t told that.”

“Well, no, but… I sorta thought we shouldn’t, considering everything that happened.” Monahan shrugged. He reminded her of a lost puppy. Where Axell oozed confidence, Monahan had the look of someone who was vaguely starved. Of affection or food or happiness, she couldn’t say, but he had an edge to him that made her think of desperation.

He’d be a good informant back in Carolina, easy to manipulate, she thought.

Why can’t he be that now? followed quickly on the heels of the first thought. She had a few questions that she thought they might be willing to answer.

“So, we were friends, but I forgot.” Maggie folded her arms over her chest and leveled a stern stare at one and then the other. “Why should I believe that? Why should I care, for that matter?”

“You’re a scary woman,” Axell said approvingly. “Do you remember medical-magic class? I was the volunteer. Dan touched your shoulder while you were… evaluating me, and we shared much pleasure. You and me and the doctor all at once.”

“No!” Her mind rejected what he just referenced. In her memory, that was someone else, but she knew that Axell’s words were true. She had been there, and that awkward memory was her own experience.

Why was that memory erased?

She frowned, thinking about Sondre. Was he jealous? She wasn’t harboring any rage over whatever thing she’d been forced to forget, but this? This had nothing to do with her missing memories of escape.

So why was it erased? Was he insecure?

Now wearing one of her practiced court expressions, Maggie let herself stare at the two men from toe to top. “Anything else you want to share?”

“Err… Do you remember walking to the village and grabbing a stick to use to defend yourself if there was danger?” Monahan asked, gesturing like he was grabbing something from the ground.

“I do! I was with… two people.” She scowled, trying to bring that memory into better focus. The sense that she had to be the responsible one came rushing back. She held Axell’s gaze. “That was you? Monahan?”

“ Ja. ” Axell beamed at her. “You were at the town with us, but you left the tavern with the headmaster that night. I stayed to woo Daniel.”

Maggie didn’t miss the smile Daniel sent Axell. The wooing had obviously worked. They were incredibly cute together, and she felt a flash of envy that she didn’t have that with Sondre. Knowing that there were memories missing made her feel awkward sometimes, like she was playacting at liking him. They had chemistry, but that wasn’t enough.

Although it must have been real or I wouldn’t be leverage to use against him, she thought with a tiny smile.

“Could you call me Dan ?” Monahan blurted out.

“Maybe… why do you want me to know any of this?” Maggie watched Dan look away sheepishly.

Axell, however, gave her the sort of look she imagined the best of teachers gave their students. “Because they are your memories. Memories make us who we are. So you should have them back. You know they stole things from your mind.”

“I do. Did I… was I fond of Sondre?” she asked with a slight waver. Knowing he cared was different than having an outsider say she felt for him, too.

“Yes,” Axell and Dan both said.

Relief washed over her. Magic that could change what people knew could, by extension, change what they thought or felt. Belief was a result of lived experience, so if her knowledge was false, what she felt would be, too. Quietly, she added, “Did I love him?”

“No idea, but you trusted him.” Dan squirmed. “I’m not sure how much we ought to be discussing out here in the open.” He looked around the hallway. “Come on.”

She paused. Going with them felt like a bad idea, like taking the first step before she even had a plan. She believed in trusting her gut, but this was more impulsive than she liked. She needed to weigh and research and plan.

Break the rules, the hob had said.

Axell is obviously a singer.

“What’s your magic, Dan?”

He paused. “Why?”

“Because I’m to look for a maker and a singer.” She nodded toward Axell. “He sings.”

“I don’t make things,” Dan said tensely. “I destroy things.”

“Daniel…” Axell started.

But Dan shook his head. “I do. You know it.”

After a tense moment, Axell whispered, “Ellie Brandeau makes. ”

Then they resumed walking. Maggie followed them to a section of wall that looked uncharacteristically empty. Dan stood there, both hands flat on the wall like he was checking the castle for a fever.

“It is okay,” Axell said quietly.

After several moments, the wall opened. It split as if a great silent crack was dividing the stones. At first the crack was only the width of a hand. Then the crack widened as if a section of the wall had vanished.

“What the actual fuck…?” Maggie muttered.

“It is our secret headquarters,” Dan said, sounding more cheerful now. “I mean, not too supersecret. The headmaster knows. Probably about twelve or fifteen other people know, too. We can talk here, though.”

Maggie stepped inside the room; the men followed. Glancing behind her, she saw a giant wooden door that looked like it ought to be on the side of an old church. A massive ring on the door was the only fixture.

“If you pull the ring, the door opens,” Axell offered, noticing her gaze. “You are not trapped in this room, Maggie. You are not trapped with us. We are safe together.”

Maggie gave him a long look. For someone who appeared lighthearted and easygoing, Axell had a depth to him that made her reevaluate him. He was canny where Dan was open. She smiled tentatively. “That was my concern. You’re observant.”

Axell gave her a wider smile as she studied him. “I am, and I missed your sharp mind. I missed our friendship. You are funny and frightening.”

That, too, resonated as truth, and Maggie gave him a nod of acknowledgment. Then she turned away and looked around the room. The library itself was one of the most magical places she’d seen. It reminded her of both the Library of Congress and the Duke library… and maybe the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

This room was huge and lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, complete with rolling ladders. Semicircular shelves speared out from various spots like the letter “C” had been carved of wood over and over.

“Is there an upstairs?”

“Not so far.” Dan stared around the room. “It shifts some days, though. So maybe later? It often shares what it—or maybe the castle? Or the hobs? I honestly don’t know who decides, but it offers answers… anyhow, it or a hob or both decide what it thinks we need, but only when we need it. Like it’s answering a question we were soon going to ask. I don’t know why.”

“A question Daniel was going to ask,” Axell added in a soft voice. “It answers him. It does not answer me. The library talks to him this way, not to all witches.”

Maggie wandered around the room studying the assorted tables with various workspaces—including easels and tables with chessboards inset into the wood.

“Bookwheels. Very fitting,” she said, half to herself. She rotated one of them that resembled a Ferris wheel. Six books were open on the platforms, and as she skimmed the books, she realized that someone was studying mind magic. Without looking back at Axell and Dan, she asked, “Your research?”

“I didn’t like that you and Ellie forgot so much,” Dan said quietly.

Maggie turned in a full circle, seeking the one witch she had to avoid at all costs. “She’s not here, is she?” Her voice cracked slightly. “Brandeau. I was told… you don’t understand.”

“We do.” Axell reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “She was your friend, Maggie. You trusted her and—”

“And they erased it!” Maggie scowled.

“Yes… with my help.” Dan stepped closer to her, his hands held outstretched with palms out, as if trying to show he was harmless. He didn’t feel harmless, not if he was a part of erasing her memory—and Ellie Brandeau’s memory, too.

Dan said, “You asked what my magic is.…”

The two exchanged a look.

“I amplify other magic,” Dan said after a long moment. “Like when you and Axell and the doctor…”

“Had pleasure,” Axell said.

Maggie snorted. “I was going to say got off, but your way sounds more elegant.”

Axell simply smiled.

“Can we not mention that around Sondre?” Dan asked. “He already doesn’t like Axell.”

At that Maggie paused. She had questions there, too, but her own business was more pressing, selfish though it was. “We’ll loop back to that,” she said, glancing between them. “Talk to me about this amplifying thing. Can we talk about that?”

“We are alone here, Maggie.” Axell opened his arms wide, as if to gesture at the expanse of the library. “It is only us. Just three friends talking among books.”

The tension drained from Maggie as the truth of that statement washed over her. She was intrigued by why these two men were erased from her memory. That was part of the mystery that was safe to ponder, more so because it was in the shelter of a gorgeous magical library. They weren’t pursuing the forbidden subject— yet —so Maggie thought about her backlog of questions.

“So what do you know about my escape?” Maggie settled in front of an empty bookwheel, idly spinning it. “And how do you get research books to appear here?”

As she spoke, several books appeared on the various book trays.

“Damn, where was this when I was in law school?” Maggie tapped the cover of a book. “Or studying for the bar exam?”

“Probably right here.” Axell stroked the side of the wheel reverently. “Antique and magical.”

“Like the headmaster,” Dan teased. “Maggie has a type.”

For a moment shock held back her laughter, but then Maggie barked out a loud laugh. They both joined in, and afterward, she remarked, “Everyone is probably thinking things like that, but no one else has had the balls to comment.”

“Daniel has very nice balls,” Axell said mildly.

“Too far.” Maggie shook a finger at Axell. “File that under things I don’t want to know about my friends.”

“Friends?” Dan echoed.

“With you? Yes.” She eyed Axell. “The jury is out on you so far.”

“Says the lawyer,” Axell murmured with a smile.

And Maggie had a strange feeling that she could be happier here than she remembered being. A man she was falling for, friends who were a shade inappropriate, and thanks to magic a secret school far away from her violent ex where her son would be safe.

Aside from the recent drama with the toxic water and whatever she was forgetting, Crenshaw offered a good life.

Once the barrier is back in place…

Once I figure out why they erased my memories…

Once they realize that I’m more than leverage to control Sondre…

“Do you think they are trying to keep you away from Ellie, or Ellie away from you?” Axell said lightly. “Do you know why?”

Maggie sighed. “I think you two need to tell me what you know, and then we can figure out the plan.”

Dan reached out for Axell’s hand. “I have terms.”

“Oh?”

“You agree to help defend Axell if Sondre gets pissed off at us.” Dan stared at her as he spoke. “You don’t remember it now, but you’re going to be angry with me when you hear what I did. And Sondre already doesn’t like Axell… so… those are our terms.”

Maggie nodded and said, “I’ll draw up a contract.”

The research table suddenly had legal paper and a pen. She glanced at it. “I could get used to this.”

Then she looked at them. “Let’s get started. Full names? Your terms?”

As long as Craig is safe, I’m done having anyone—especially a bunch of nameless old witches—tell me what to do, or remember, or be.