Chapter Thirty Four
Quiet and Cunning

 

“Just a few days,” Emily scoffed as she looked at her phone. They sat on the little grassy hill, wrapped in coats. They were done with classes for the day, and a part of her still wanted to stay in the sun for a little bit, despite the fact that the sun hadn’t been seen for a bit now and had probably gone into hibernation and wouldn’t be around until next year. 

“At least he says it won’t be that much longer,” Sarah said. Jacob sat next to them, with Dennis between them. Jenna was getting some help from Leah on using her focus, so Emily and Sarah could spend some time in their human forms together. “But that’s what he said last week too, so…”

“I’m going to have words with Mangrove,” Jacob said, blowing on his hands. “After I get inside. I think Miss Melissa is serving hot chocolate. Dennis?” The puppy jumped up excitedly at the prospect. “C’mon!” The two of them skipped off, leaving just the girls sitting in the cold grass. 

“Wanna get some?” Emily asked, and then immediately realised what she said. “Chocolate milk! I meant get chocolate milk!” Sarah grinned and gave her a little kiss on the cheek, her cold nose against Emily’s face. 

“You’re so cute when you blush,” she said. “And sure, in a little minute.” Emily watched her lean back as she blew a little cloud into the air. “I just want to enjoy this moment for a little bit longer.” Their hands found each other, cold fingers intertwined. “I really like spending time with you.” She squeezed Emily’s hand.

“I like spending time with you too.” A little squeeze back. “No regrets yet?” 

“None,” Sarah said. “Thank you for being patient with me?”

Emily gave her an amused look. “Thank me? I should be thanking you.”

“Nah.” They squeezed each other’s hand again and sat there for a while longer. Emily looked up at the sky and wondered how she even got here. It somehow felt like a lifetime and simultaneously days ago that she was dreading going home. That she’d met Charlie and Sarah and Simon for the first time. But she’d been at school for months now, and it was quickly starting to feel like home. The little felt hideaway she slept in. Miss Melissa’s food. The other kids, the classes. Even the teachers, although some of them were stepping out more and more often. 

And now she was a girl and she got to be a girl and Sarah was her girlfriend and Sarah was her girlfriend and how did this even happen?! She shook her head. This was surreal to a degree she couldn’t put to words. She still touched her own face all the time. It was so soft. When she looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, she often just stared herself in the eyes, daring her reflection to be anything but the girl she saw in there, but it just stayed… Emily. Would her parents even recognize her now? She sincerely hoped they wouldn’t.. She caught Sarah smiling at her. 

“What?” she said with a giggle, and nudged her with her shoulder. 

“Nothing. Just… you. You’re cute.”

“You’re cute! And I’m glad you’re here,” Emily said.

“I’m glad I’m here too.” They were doing that thing where they were uselessly staring each other in the eyes when Emily felt her Witch approaching, and Emily’s Familiar form with it. She quickly gave Sarah a kiss on the nose, which was immediately reciprocated, when her girlfriend — gosh, she had a girlfriend — suddenly grew a lot smaller and a lot fluffier, and Emily found the world growing very large around her. She turned her head and saw Jenna and Leah walking towards them from the edge of town. Jenna waved, and Emily gave a little wave back.

“Hey you two,” Sarah said with a happy bark. “How are the classes going?” 

“Going well!” Jenna was bouncing from foot to foot, keeping warm. “Leah’s helping me with the big burst of magic stuff. Not like, practically, but the theory of it. It’s really neat, but I don’t know how she keeps it all straight in her head.”

Leah shrugged. “It just kind of clicks in my head. When you get it you get it, you know? No shame if you don’t though.” She looked around at the sky as she spoke, and Jenna just smiled. “Hey Sarah, are we still down to go running? I need to let out some energy and the teachers asked me not to use up all the magic in the School.”

Sarah nodded. “Yeah, but I am starting to feel the cold, so I do think I’d like to go inside for a minute first.” She got up and nudged Emily with a paw. “Let’s go?”

“Let’s go,” Emily said, and nudged Sarah’s head with her own. “Let’s get warm.”

Walking between Sarah and Leah, they made their way back to the School, sticking close together for warmth. Emily had noticed that her fur was thickening a bit now that winter was coming up, but it was still breezy, and walked at a brisk pace to keep her paws from touching the cold grass for too long. The sky was darkening. It was probably going to rain soon.

When they approached the dining hall, they noticed Lady Lalonde stepping outside, looking unreadable as usual. She rang the bell just as they walked past, and Emily stopped for a moment. 

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“Is everything okay?” she asked. It was hard to tell what the Headmistress was thinking, but an announcement or something that required all the students to be present was probably not good news. She looked at Emily for a moment, her jaw tight, then nodded.

“Yes. Nothing to worry about. There’s simply been… a lot happening of late, and we do not wish to keep you all in the dark.” She sighed and frowned. “You’ve been put in danger of late, and I fear there might be more ahead of us. It’s only fair you are kept informed.”

With that, she flattened the front of her dress, and walked inside. “Well… that’s something, at least?” Jenna said. Emily frowned, not sure what to think, but she followed Jenna and the others into the cafeteria. They quickly found Jacob and Dennis, sitting near Sylvie Simms, Erinna the Owl on her shoulder, and joined them. “How was class?” Jenna asked. Jacob smiled when he saw her and handed her the cup of hot chocolate he’d saved. 

“Good,” he said as the blush that was rapidly taking over Jenna’s face spread to his ears as well. “Bit weird though. Miss Falls has been teaching Maths, took over from Van Zant. She looks exhausted.” Melody Falls had clearly been put in an uncomfortable position, and the flowers in her classroom, while not wilted, weren’t clearly as full of colour and life as usual. 

“Yeah, I noticed that,” Sarah said as she sat down next to Emily, Leah opposite her. 

“Attention everyone,” Lady Lalonde said. There were still a few students finding their seats, but already the room grew quiet. Ellen Lalonde commanded attention like a music conductor, her hands clasped together in front of her, her hair up in a tight bun. After a few seconds, silence descended on the cafeteria. “Thank you,” she said. “A few weeks ago there was an attack, as you all know.” 

A murmur ran through the room, and Lady Lalonde waited for it to die down. Emily exchanged glances with the others, trying to ignore the eyes in the room turning to them. She didn’t like feeling looked at. 

“In the past few weeks, the person responsible has been seen all over the world,” the Headmistress said, and then stopped for a moment, took a breath. “He hasn’t been stopped or apprehended. The magical community is… We are doing what we can. To keep you all safe. To keep the world safe. But.” A word like ‘But’, Emily had learned, was both a word and a kind of punctuation. In this particular instance, it was very clearly being used to let everyone know that bad news was coming. “We think he may be coming here soon. That’s why Lord Mangrove is travelling the country. So we have early warning if he does.”

“Not going to mention Ben and Simon, huh?” Jacob grumbled quietly. If anyone, especially Lady Lalonde, had heard him, they certainly didn’t show it. 

“We do, however, ask all of you to keep ready. If something goes wrong, you’ll have to be ready. The teachers and adults are more adept and skilled at magic, but each of you is more powerful than we are. We will need your help.” 

Someone raised their hand, and Miss Lalonde pointed. “If what he’s looking for is here,” a scrawny boy close to her asked, “why don’t we just move it?” 

“Good question, and the problem is that he’s…” Emily could see Lady Lalonde squirm uncomfortably, something she’d never noticed her do before. “He will try to hurt you,” she eventually said. “To force us to give him what he wants. Obviously, we can not and will not let that happen.”

“So why not give it to him?” another student asked. 

“If he achieves his goals,” Lady Lalonde said solemnly, “we are all in danger. There is no telling what he could do.” Jacob raised his hand. She nodded.

“So you’re using us as a shield?” he asked, sourly. “Just because he might do something bad if you give it to him?” The Headmistress sighed again, shaking her head.

“I understand your trepidation, Mister Mackie, but I’m afraid that… he could only cause harm with it. Harm that would impact you, too. He has already killed to obtain it and I don’t think Mister Vigours would be the last of his victims if he did.”

“I… see…” Jacob said, deflated. Anger, Emily knew, has a tendency to deflate when faced with calm common sense. Either that or get worse, and Jacob was a little too level-headed for that. 

“In the next few days, we will teach you more practical self-defence techniques. Together you are strong, never forget that. Especially when paired with your respective Warlocks or Familiars. 

So for now,” Lady Lalonde continued, “I want all of you to stay safe. Communicate. If you get scared or unsure, talk to one of us. We’ll be availab—” she was cut off by a distant thunder. Apparently bad weather had rolled in, although it was probably still a little ways away. Emily hadn’t seen any lightning. It quickly stopped. “We’ll be av—” Another rumble, louder this time. That didn’t sound like thunder. Some of the kids looked out the windows, and gasped. More and more people started to push to the front to see what was going on. Jacob, already close to one of the windows, practically pressed his nose to the glass.

“What’s going on?” Emily asked, but her voice didn’t carry over the noise of the crowd. So she jumped down and scurried between people’s legs and hopped up on the windowsill, trying to see what was causing the commotion.

That’s when the first of the kids screamed. Emily understood why. A giant shadow fell over the mess hall. Jacob was the first to react, his voice clearly audible over the crowd. He had one hand on his glasses. “SHIELDS!” he yelled, and several other students, as well as some of the teachers, immediately conjured bubbles over as many of the students as they could manage. The kaleidoscope of colours appeared on their surface, just in time. The roof came down with a deafening crash. Emily and, she noticed, several other Familiars were doing what they could to keep debris from hitting the unshielded kids using their own telekinetic abilities. When the dust settled, Emily looked up. Around the town were Spirits, two dozen, at least, one of them having just taken off the roof of the mess hall in a single swipe. And above them, floating in the air with his hands in his pockets, was Cunning.