Defensive Magic
Chapter 41: Ghost Boy

WINTER TERM - February 2nd

I rose early. I’d planned on letting Aries sleep, but he insisted on getting up too. He threw on one of my sweaters and rubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand.

“The dining hall isn’t even open this early,” he said.

I knew. That’s why we were heading to the Marblebrooks’ cottage. I was going to have to make another witch ball. And more than that, maybe I should actually tell Elandria about Ianthe’s latest threats. I was still reeling from the fact that she knows where we are. Or at least this was what I’d planned on talking about once we’d arrive.

We shadow stepped out of the Court, into town, and then, to the front gate of their front garden.

There was a fresh layer of snow over the garden. Kelyn had already switched out her Fire’s Night decorations for Bloomtide ones - pink flowers, faux eucalyptus leaves, gold and white hearts. I’d almost forgotten that was coming. I pushed the thought away for later.

I knocked on the door. Aries stood close, set his head on my shoulder. He was wearing my sweater under his coat, struggling to keep his eyes open. I tried to nudge him off of me, but Aries didn’t get the message. He just wrapped his arms around my middle. Well, it’s not like the Marblebrooks didn’t know we were together…

Elandria answered after several minutes, mug of coffee in hand, Boaz making a nest in her hair, still up, not yet arranged into her usual neat braid. Had I not spent all of Winter Break with her, I would have felt bad intruding like this. But I’d seen her even more disheveled. At least now, she was already halfway into a cup of coffee.

“Zephyr! Did something happen?”

“I’m really going to need that grimoire back.” I hadn’t meant to say that. It hadn’t even been top of mind until she came to the door but now it was all I could think about.

Elandria pushed open the door a little wider to let us in. “Let’s get you some coffee first.”

The conversation with Marblebrook was full of false-starts and fumbles. Eventually Aries spit it out: “Ianthe dreamwalked on him again. It was a long night.”

As though he didn’t sleep through the whole thing. “She knows where we are,” I explained. “I don’t love it but it’s not like I know what she can do about it. We’re an ocean away.” I wasn’t trying to downplay it. But I wasn’t ready to make it into something bigger either.

She wanted to know how that was connected to the dark grimoire. It wasn’t. I tried to say as much but instead I could only blurt out, “I learned five spells from the shape-changer’s grimoire, just like you asked. They sucked and did nothing for the mark of Orendell. Can I get the other one back?”

“I can vouch for him,” Aries said. “He learned five. Let me pick out three even.”

Marblebrook sighed. Poured two more mugs of coffee and slid them across the kitchen island counter to me and Aries. She knew I drank mine black, like she did. Aries took it upon himself to search the fridge for milk.

“I believe you, Zephyr. I’m sorry it didn’t help. I’d hoped that it would. But even you asking for it now, you see why it’s not exactly a good thing. Right?” Marblebrook asked. I knew what she was saying, or implying. I wasn’t questioning it, but also, whatever it was Orendell wanted or didn’t want seemed like the least of my worries.

Marblebrook down the last of her coffee and said, “A deal’s a deal. You can have it back– keep it even. I don’t want it back in the Sanctum. But I’m doing this because I trust you, alright? Don’t give me a reason not to.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. “Thank you?”

Elandria chewed her lip as though still questioning whether or not this would be a good decision, but instead of saying anything, she rushed upstairs. When she came back down, she led us to her office.

I flipped through the grimoire and for the first time in weeks, the pain in my arm subsided from true burn to tender ache. That alone made this worth it. I half-heard Aries ask, “Is there anything else we might be able to do about the dreamwalking? He acts like it’s not that bad. It’s bad.”

Elandria sighed and shook her head. “I was worried about that. I can have a charm made, but even that will still take a few weeks.”

Aries tried to talk more about it at breakfast. We’d gotten to the dining hall early and were pretty much the only ones there. I helped myself to more coffee. And was still flipping through the grimoire when I realized I’d gone to the Marblebrooks’ cottage this morning to ask about a witch ball… How’d I forget? I mentioned it to Aries.

“Oh… right,” he muttered. It’d been too early for him. He’d had a hard enough time just staying awake. “But didn’t you make it with Aisling? You could probably do it on your own. “

He was right. It hadn’t been an overly complicated spell… And I could bet Aisling had the required items, or most of them anyway. At least now I had the familiar summoning spell to use as a bargaining chip.

Aisling showed up a little earlier than usual. She couldn’t have expected us as she wandered in, but she hardly lifted her head once in our direction before grabbing her usual sliced cantaloupe and tea. It wasn’t until she dropped her bowl a little too hard on the wood table that I realized something might actually be amiss.

She stabbed a piece of cantaloupe hard enough the tines of her fork clinked the ceramic bowl beneath it. The sound made her flinch.

“Good morning…” Aries tested the waters first.

Aisling glanced up. Her eyes were rimmed red and puffy and she looked way too ordinary to be any kind of version of herself.

“So, Zeph’s going to need a favor…” Aries didn’t take the hint.

“Oh please— of course he does,” she grumbled. “No good morning, Aisling. How are you? Because you haven’t asked. Because if you did— ugh.”

“You’re right,” I said before Aries could put his foot in his mouth. “I’m sorry. Been caught up in my own bullshit. But I missed something. What happened?”

Aisling was still nearly in tears. I’d never seen her like this.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“Zeph, come on,” Aries said. “It’s not bullshit. Aisling, that bitch vampire is back in his head again and she knows where he is. He’s been dealing with her horror show all night.”

“Shit,” Aisling muttered. Her breath hitched. “Yeah, that’s not bullshit, Zeph. Is she– is she still uh… up there?”

“She’s gone for now.”

Aisling sighed. “What happened to the witch ball?”

“She burned through it faster than expected,” I said. “We need to make another. It’ll be fine. It worked. I just need to make the next one last longer. That’s all.”

Aisling was already drying her cheeks with her sleeve. She might have decided she couldn’t be mad at me just this second but I had a sneaking suspicion the anger was well deserved. This wasn’t the kind of thing to let fester, not when it came to her.

“You can still be mad at me,” I said. “What did I do? Just tell me because I don’t want to do it again.”

Aries rolled his eyes as though she was being ridiculous, but Aisling was somehow usually more grounded on this kind of thing than any of us.

Aisling sniffled. Tears at the ready all over again. “Now you’re going to make me feel stupid,” she said.

“You always make me feel stupid,” I told her.

That got a laugh, or at least something like it. “I wanted to talk to you. My friend. And I get that last night you were on a date. I came to your door and well, I wish I hadn’t. And then this morning, you were gone. And I know that’s nothing but it’s not the first time it’s happened. It’s been— I get that you’re all happy and in love and I’m happy for you. I want to be anyway, but I don’t even get to talk to you— I did something really stupid, and all I really, really want right now is for you to stroke my hair and tell me it wasn’t that stupid. Okay?”

She was in the chair next to mine. It wasn’t hard for me to throw an arm across her shoulder and pat her hair. It was more brown than auburn at the moment, a little greasy, so not her. It was more concerning than anything else.

“You’ve seen most of my stupid behavior. Out with it. You know I probably did worse.”

She sniffed. “Yeah… your worse is sitting across the table judging us.”

“Aries,” I muttered. Aries tried to avert his eyes. I know he was still caught on the witch ball. There’ll be time for that later.

“I slept with Ripley.”

Of course this was about Ripley. The boy who couldn’t stop watching her, even when she called him creepy. The boy who showed up and stayed and waited. I should have seen this coming. I just didn’t think I’d feel anything about it.

“Ghost boy’s probably describing it as an out-of-body experience in his dream journal right now,” Aries said.

Aisling muttered, “He said I made him feel seen.”

Aries raised an eyebrow. “You did sleep with the softest trans boy at the Court. That’s gotta come with a monologue.”

I gave Aries a hard look. Not helping.

Aries turned his attention back to his breakfast sandwich. Probably for the best.

“How was it?” I don’t know what the hell I’m meant to ask.

Aisling knew that too. She laughed hard enough another tear slipped down her cheek. “I don’t know. Fine. Good? He was there and, I don’t know, nice? I was lonely. And yeah, it was fucking fun.”

That wasn’t the end of it. Aisling didn’t make me ask.

“He’s not looking for fun though. For some reason I found the one man in all of Mesym hellbent on commitment.”

I sniffed. “You already know there’s at least two.”

Aries craned his neck, as though to ask if I was talking about him. Of course, I was. But I didn’t need him to worry over it. I shot him a wink. He ducked his head, pretending not to be listening.

I was still stroking Aisling’s hair.

“So, you don’t want commitment,” I said.

“No, I don’t know that. I don’t know what I want. But it feels like I should know, right? He talks about it like I’ve already rejected him, but what if I’m not?” Aisling asked. “Zeph, when did you know?”

Aries glanced up from his sandwich. “When did you know, Zeph?” he asked. “You better not say last night.”

Aisling stabbed another piece of canteloupe. “Last night? Do I even want to know? No. I don’t. We’re talking about me, nitwit. Besides, Zeph’s been in love with you for weeks.”

“Weeks?” Aries balked.

“I don’t know when I knew anything,” I said quickly. “It’s hard enough to know what I’m feeling on a good day. Besides, it’s not like Ripley’s even in love with you, you just met– what? Like two weeks ago?”

“It’s been a month, Zeph,” Aisling snapped.

I bit my tongue. I really had been too caught up in my own bullshit.

“But, it’s not like we had the smoothest start. The whole I-see-ghosts thing creeped me out for a few weeks, but now it’s really not that big a deal. Most of the ghosts are just people. Really shitty people. Did you know half of them just refer to him as ‘girl’?”

“For fuck’s sake…” I muttered.

Aries spoke up instead. “To Zeph’s point, ghost boy probably doesn’t assume you’re in love with him, just that you like him enough to sleep with him… which isn’t nothing. You don’t regret it, right?”

“No,” Aisling said tentatively.

Aries shrugged. “If he asks to do it again?”

Aisling rolled her eyes. “I think he wants more than just sex.”

“Then let him ask for it,” Aries said. “I took Zeph on a literal date and he didn’t even notice. You’re already doing better by our standards.”

When was this? He had to be talking about the Statuary. “Baby, I knew that was a date…”

Aries snorted, ignored me. “And if you ask him on a date to even just see if there’s something there, even better.”

He reached his hand under the table, squeezed my knee. He wasn’t looking at me, just Aisling, who for the first time all morning actually had some color in her cheeks.

“If you’re not a fit, you’re not a fit, but at least you gave it a shot.”

“You’re right,” she said. “Thank you, Aries.”

It was hard to believe Aries of all people was giving actual good advice here, but he was. I didn’t even have anything to add, until I realized, maybe I still did…

“And if you still wanted that familiar summoning spell. I have it,” I said.

“Oh, yeah. Ripley still wants it,” she said.

“Maybe you could show him. Might help clear things up—for both of you,” Aries said.