Chapter 19: Chapter Nineteen

I woke to bright daylight in an unfamiliar room. I blinked, looking around at my surroundings.

I was in a big wooden bed covered in a white bedspread with chintzy flowers on it. At the far end of the room, long lacy curtains hung over the floor-to-ceiling windows.

There was a clock on the bedside table. 10:00 AM. I was late for school.

I jumped up and hurried out the room. From downstairs I could hear the sound of tinkling porcelain. I rushed toward it.

I found Mom and Gran in a large glass room like a conservatory. They were sat at a round metal table, like the sort you’d find in the garden of an old English country manor. There was a huge spread of breakfast items on it. A big, shiny silver pot sent delicious wafts of coffee scent my way.

“I’m late for school,” I stammered. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

“Because someone attacked you last night,” Gran said, simply.

I paused. “Oh. So Mom filled you in.”

Gran nodded and patted the seat beside her. “She did. Now come and sit down. I’d like to get to know you.”

I hesitated. I desperately needed to speak to Nik, to talk to him about him being Vanpari, and to work out what we should do next about Geiser and searching Bear Mountain for Elliot. I really didn’t have time to make polite conversation with my newfound relative.

“I really should get to school,” I said.

But Gran shook her head. “I already called the school and spoke to Sister Celeste. She understands that you need some personal time off.”

At the mention of my bigoted headteacher, I felt myself grimace.

“Besides,” Gran added with a wink, “you can’t go to school dressed like that.”

I looked down at my mud- and grass-streaked nightdress. “Good point.”

Relenting, I took my seat at the table. Mom poured me a coffee. Gran used some metal tongs to pick up a croissant from a steaming stack of them and placed it on the plate in front of me. On a stone bird table beside them, their familiars munched on scattered seed mix.

“This is… nice,” I said, struggling to find words to describe the surreal homeliness of the situation. “Where’s Grandpa?”

“Work,” Gran replied.

I was famished. I took a huge bite out of the croissant. “He’s not retired yet?” I asked through my mouthful.

Mom kicked me under the table.

Gran chuckled. “That man will never retire. While there’s still work to be done in this city, he’ll be there doing it. But I knew that when I married him, so I can’t complain. I married the man and his career, you see.”

I swallowed my mouthful of croissant. “He’s in politics, right?”

Gran nodded. “He’s a federal attorney. You probably don’t pay attention to these things but there’s a lot of legal shenanigans going on regarding the peace treaty. Factions all over the place trying to get it changed and dismantled.” She shook her head. “Some of the stories he tells me. It’s almost as if some people preferred it during the Shadow War.”

I thought of Sister Celeste. She definitely seemed to look back at those dark times through rose-tinted glasses. And Geiser, of course.

It surprised me to learn where Gran and Grandpa stood on this issue. I’d kind of expected them to be aligned with Mom and Geiser. But by the way Mom was shuffling uncomfortably in her seat, it was clear they were on opposite ends of the spectrum when it came to this.

“You know Mom’s engaged to William Geiser, don’t you?” I asked.

Gran pursed her lips. “Yes, she did tell me.”

The atmosphere in the room went frosty.

“I think she should call the wedding off,” I added. “Don’t you, Gran?”

“I’ve never approved of Vivian’s choice in men.”

I knew she was lumping my dad into that category, but I couldn’t help but smirk. If she was part of the anti-Geiser brigade then she was okay in my book. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and all that.

Mom gave me a look. “I’m not calling off the wedding, Theia.”

“But Geiser’s such a shady dude!” I contested. “Why can’t you see that?”

Mom pushed up from the table, making the crockery tinkle. “I’m not having this conversation.”

“Viv…” Gran tried, but Mom walked out the room.

Her woodpecker popped its head up. It looked miffed to leave the array of seeds, but took off flying after her dutifully.

Gran sighed, watching the empty space where Mom had been. But then she looked at me and brightened.

“So, Theia, why don’t you tell me everything about yourself.” She used her tongs to put another croissant on my plate. “How are you finding Zenith? I assume there aren’t any other Elkie in the school?”

I got to work devouring my croissant. “I’m the only one. And everyone seems really preoccupied by the shape of my ears.” I rolled my eyes.

Gran took a deep inhalation. “Honestly, the kids at that school don’t stand a chance with Sister Celeste in control. Until we remove these fusty old Immortals from positions of power, things will never change.”

I was liking Gran more and more. And she was so different to Mom. It kind of boggled my mind that Mom had turned out the way she had, considering her own mother seemed lovely.

“So you know Sister Celeste then?” I asked.

“Yes, unfortunately,” Gran replied. “She taught at my Sunday school when I was a child. She was old even then, but not Immortal yet. If I recall correctly, she left the position after some scandal broke out. She’d had a child out of wedlock, which I’m sure you know was once considered very sinful. Women were often forced to have their kids adopted. Terrible, terrible times. Anyway, after the scandal broke she disappeared for a few decades. By the time she came back to run Zenith—now Immortal—the world had moved on and everyone decided to turn a blind eye to it all.”

I recalled the photograph Retta and I had found in her office, with the chubby boy perched on Sister Celeste’s knee. I felt bad for her having been forced to give her kid up for adoption. Yet at the same time, wasn’t that the same backward world she seemed to want to return to?

“What was she?” I asked. “Before she became Immortal.”

“A Mage. Her familiar was a rook.”

“Does anyone know what happened to the kid?” I asked.

Gran shook her head. “No. The whole thing was swept under the rug. Besides, once she became Immortal she’d have been forced to sever all ties to her mortal family anyway.”

I shuddered at the thought. Severing ties with my cousins Juniper and Birch, or Aunt Shanaya and Uncle Salix, filled me with revulsion. “I don’t know how anyone could do that,” I said.

“Then you should count yourself lucky,” Gran said in a kind, soft voice. “It means that you have people in your life who love you, who it would be a sacrifice to lose. Sister Celeste clearly did not.”

I couldn’t help but feel sympathetic toward the horrible old nun. People became the way they were through circumstance. Clearly some dark shit had gone down in her exceptionally long lifetime to make her so dogmatic.

“So, are you taking any Mage classes?” Gran asked, placing yet another crumbly croissant onto my plate. Her familiar, satisfied after gorging itself on seed mix, came and perched on her shoulder and looked at me quizzically.

I paused. “Nah. We didn’t have Mage classes at my old school so that bit of me has sort of withered away. Although, I did have some beginner’s luck thanks to Geiser.”

“Oh?” she asked, quirking her head to the side.

“He gave me a veiling necklace. Only he didn’t tell me what it was for. Or that it would make my Elkie ears shrink.” I rolled my eyes.

But Gran’s expression wasn’t what I expected. “A veiling necklace? Did it have a sapphire gem, by any chance?”

“Yes…” I said, curiously.

“I don’t think it was Geiser who gave that to you,” Gran stated. “I think it was your mother.”

“What?” I gasped. “What makes you think that?”

“Because passing an heirloom down the generations, along the maternal line, is an old Mage tradition. Ours is a veiling necklace with a sapphire gem, which has the additional benefit of absorbing the powers of its owner and growing stronger over the years.”

“We do the same thing,” I stammered. “Elkie, I mean. With our bows. The wood comes from the forests where we’re born, then when a relative passes away their bow is forged with that of the eldest child.”

I was surprised to hear we had a similar practice in common. And also that Mom was behind the veiling necklace instead of Geiser. She must have asked him to gift it to me knowing that out of some sense of obligation I’d actually put it on, whereas if it had come from her I’d have rejected it outright.

“But why would Mom want my ears to shrink?” I asked, hurt.

Gran shook her head. “It’s possible your mom didn’t realize it would have that effect on you. The family has always been fully Mage, so it’s never come up.”

“Huh.” I sat back in my seat, stunned.

Just like spell books—something Mom had been trying to force on me every birthday since I’d turned thirteen—the necklace had been yet another attempt of hers to get me to open up to my Mage part.

“You know, you needn’t be afraid of being a Mage,” Gran said. “It could really open up a lot of doors for you. Magic is a wonderful thing to master.” She pushed up the sleeve of her silk shirt, showing me a beautiful tattoo of a band of golden pearls snaking around her wrist. Then she tickled her familiar under its chin, making it chirrup. “Who knows, maybe one day you’ll feel comfortable enough for your grandfather and me to help you find your familiar?”

“Okay, that’s definitely one step too far,” I said.

But I was chuckling. Opening up to Gran was easy. She wasn’t pushy about my Mage part like Mom was. She seemed to completely understand why I’d chosen to ignore it all these years, rather than whining on about it mournfully like Mom always did. She made being a Mage seem so much less blargh. And old women with tattoos were totally badass.

I was so comfortable chatting with Gran I completely forgot the time and the urgent, pressing need to speak to my friends. It was only when my phone buzzed with an incoming message that I finally snapped back to reality.

I grabbed my cell and saw a message had come in from Retta.

Did you elope with Magic Boy or something?

I frowned, confused. What was she talking about?

Then it struck me. Nik hadn’t shown at school either. But why? Had something happened to him after I’d left the house?

I looked up at Gran. “I’m really sorry but I have to deal with this.”

She waved a hand as if it were nothing. “I understand. Kids and their devices!”

I got up from the table and typed my reply quickly as I left the conservatory.

I’m at my gran’s. We left Geiser’s cos someone broke in and tried to kill me in the night.

I hit send and waited for Retta’s reply. It pinged back almost instantly.

Shit just got real.