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A soft drizzle from the sky coats everything in a fine mist. Halos form around the lantern lights. Electric energy, like there’s a storm on the way, infuses the air and my bones.
My thoughts chase me up the hill and to Clermont Chapel. Just as I’m about to throw the door open, I find my breath. I inhale deeply, remembering this is a place of reverence, a sanctuary, and devoid of magic—a place for me to escape to collect myself and plot my next steps. I’m thinking chess moves here. Also, it’s the last place Bobby would expect me to go. More than likely, he’d bet that I’d go to JJ, West, or even the administration building for help.
I’m thankful that help is available, but I’ve been tasked with this mission and I need to figure out what to do and who to go to for help—because it’s not all created equal.
Also, even though I’m grateful for my magic, I need a moment alone with my thoughts, free of it in order to get clarity and regain my bearings.
I open the door slowly to find a shadowy figure wearing a top hat seated on a bench toward the front. A woman with long, dark hair sits beside him. Their postures and gestures are similar. It appears as if they’re talking, amicably. She tilts her head back in laughter. I exhale.
I pad toward the front, not wanting to interrupt, but alarmed because Bobby Gold almost abducted me and unless I’m mistaken, Imogen Hawkes sits next to her son at the front of the room. No biggie. Just a regular evening at Riptivik.
I clear my throat. JJ turns and his eyes flash with delight. “Maija, I want you to meet my mother.”
She’s as young-looking as I expect someone to be who’s supposedly drawn youthful energy from people for decades now. I extend my hand and offer a curt nod. I flinch at her touch. To JJ’s extreme cold, she’s like magma.
“JJ was just telling me about you. I feel like I know you already,” she purrs.
“Likewise.” I’m not paranoid like Dewey, constantly going on about conspiracy theories, but my parents raised me to have common sense. Everything about this woman seems wrong. She’s too young, too bright, and too energetic to be a couple of hundred years old. She’s gone too long on too little of her own energy to be so, well, alive. However, given the scene I walked into, JJ seems almost happy, which says a lot because he’d win the yearbook superlative for most miserable.
“My mother was telling me how sorry she is for everything that happened.” JJ’s usual tough exterior softens as though he’s relieved to know this.
“I regret so much from the past, and I’m so thankful you forgive me.” She hugs JJ.
I study the embrace carefully, searching for deceit. But it looks so genuine and warm, I suddenly long for my mother. They pull apart and she pats him fondly on the shoulder.
My attention darts to a creak from the old building and a rattle of the windows in the breeze.
“Maija, are you okay?” JJ asks.
“Not especially. Bobby Gold was waiting for me in my dorm room. He attacked me.”
Anger darkens his features. “Did he hurt you? What did he want?” he asks rapidly before realization dawns just as quickly. “Did he get the wand?”
I shake my head.
“My wand? She’s keeping it safe?” Under Imogen’s surprise, I sense disapproval, like she’s upset I’d be the one to have it.
I reveal nothing. JJ nods.
“It’s been so long. May I see it?” It could be the dim light or the adrenalin still coursing through me, but her eyes flash with longing.
A surge of suspicion and protectiveness comes over me. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” I stutter even though I mean to say it with confidence.
She turns to JJ. “I merely want to hold it again. It’s not like I can do anything anyway. We’re in Clermont Chapel. Remember, magic can’t be performed within these walls.”
JJ says, “We retrieved the wand so Maija could undo the curse.”
“My son, I’ve apologized for that and explained I can reverse it as well. I just need my wand.” There’s a slippery plea in her voice.
A question brews in my mind and I repeat the prophecy as if that will provide an answer. “But the prophecy says Two stars, shining light. One dim. One bright. What came before cannot be undone unless the latter frees the son.”
She rounds on me and then catches herself. “My dear, I’m sure you’re an excellent witch, but did it ever occur to you I’m the bright star? Look at me.” She beams. “I’m meant to free my son.” I swear she admires herself in the reflection of a shiny, metal candleholder.
JJ’s expression is as soft as the rain now falling outside. He wants to believe his mother’s apology was sincere. On the other hand, I’m more than skeptical.
Imogen stalks toward me. “All these years, I’ve been holding onto hope that I’d get my wand back so I could undo my wrongs and free my son from this curse.”
Beneath her fragrant rosewater perfume, I smell something old and musty like the Penny House basement. I take a step backward for every one that she takes closer to me.
“If you care about JJ as he does for you, you’ll understand that this is what must be done. You don’t want to see him suffer.” Her lips form a thin line.
“You violated the laws of nature. You’re the one who caused his suffering,” I accuse.
I steal a glance at JJ who’s lips curl to the side as if apologetic. “Maybe she’s right,” he whispers to me.
“See? I’m here to make it right.” Imogen barely conceals a smug smile.
“Why haven’t you sought him out before?” I narrow my eyes.
“I told you, I didn’t have my wand and without it, I could do nothing.”
JJ looks significantly less moody than usual.
I say, “At least you could have apologized sooner. That’s something. You could have tried to make it right.”
“It wasn’t that simple.” Imogen exhales as though I’m trying her patience.
JJ comes to my side. “Yes, mother, where have you been all of these years?”
“I’ve been waiting for the right moment to return to you, my boy,” she caresses his arm and he melts a little more as though he’s longed for little more than her warmth.
My back is against the wooden door to the chapel. On the other side, the rain patters softly.
“But where were you?” he repeats, regaining his sensibility.
She sighs. “In the astral plane.”
“How’d you get back?” I ask.
Her lips part into a smile. “Your very own Professor Arrowsmith.”
“But Professor Arrowsmith was turned to stone. She—?” The pieces come together as suddenly as Arrowsmith’s stone prison fell apart. The Hive trapped Arrowsmith’s physical body and used her energy to retrieve Imogen from the astral plane.
Distracted by my sudden epiphany, Imogen throws the door to the chapel open, and JJ and I stumble through and into the rain.
