At that, Borden held up a pencil that had been laying on Nathaniel’s desk.
Solid and simple, small and straight.
“I think we found our magic wand,” I said with a smirk. “And just think. We could enchant hundreds of pencils and spread them around the school. We’d be able to tell who our fellow mages were very quickly.”
“Pencils are cheap,” Borden said in agreement. “We could buy thousands of them and get them spread throughout the entire school.”
“We’d be able to find each other in a matter of weeks,” Nathaniel said, the excitement and fear growing in his voice. “This…we might be able to find them all faster than we’re prepared for. Think about it. What would it mean if we found dozens of others in a matter of weeks? How do we manage it? How do we teach them? Who is in charge, or is anyone in charge? How do we keep it from getting out of hand, and someone exposing all of us and then all of us are hunted into extinction again?”
My heart was racing and thundering and instantly my palms were sweating nervously as I pictured it all. We could overrun ourselves before we even knew what the hell we were doing.
“Then we need to start slow,” Borden said, and I was instantly grateful that he could think logically when I was losing all of my ability to do so. “We start with Mary-Beth. We get our feet under us. We keep learning ourselves. And we slowly, slowly expand.”
“We need a school,” I said as the realization hit me. “We need somewhere safe to learn and teach. We need a safe, controlled environment where we can explain it all. Especially our history and the risk we are always under. We need to go about this the way any other leaders get trained and educated.”
“First we need teachers who know what they’re doing,” Nathaniel said, raising an eyebrow. “How can we teach others, when we hardly know anything? It’s all been lost and scattered around the world.”
“We need more books, more information,” Borden said, clear and concise, proving that he would indeed be a successful person someday. “We need more training and experience. And then we need money. We need that school. And we need leaders to start it all.”
This escalated so quickly. I’d come here to talk about a test, something to show us who the others were. And here we were, talking about opening our own school, about discovering dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of others.
I sat back in the couch, thinking through it all.
“I’m done,” I said. I didn’t mean to speak the words out loud. “I don’t have time for anything else. School, Alderidge, all of that. It doesn’t matter anymore. Let the rest of the world get their degrees and their normal jobs. I need to be putting my time and my focus on this.”
I looked up at the two of them, and with the words, I felt my confidence growing. “I’ll finish this semester. But once it’s over, I’m calling it.”
“This is my last semester,” Borden said. “I’ll graduate at the end of April. And then I’ll be in control of all my time again. We can do whatever it takes.”
I almost didn’t want to look at Nathaniel. I knew how important his education was to him, how hard he’d fought to get here. I didn’t want him to feel like he needed to end his as well, when after this semester, he would only have one year left.
“We’ll give this everything we’ve got,” he said instead, and I understood him then. He would set his priorities, but nothing had to be decided one hundred percent right now. “And we’ll do whatever it takes to bring us together.”
Chapter Six
We came up with a plan. We needed something actionable or I would go out of my mind with how overwhelming it all was. We needed a list. A timeframe. A course that would set us down the path to accomplishing our goals.
We would tell Mary-Beth what she was. We would have our lesson with her and Borden.
We would work on enchanting the pencils, but not just to reveal who the mages were, but also anything that possessed magical properties, including books.
Once we had that, we would go through every book in the Alderidge library, as well as the Boston Public library, as well as every book and record we could get access to in Salem. And every other place that had books within a twenty-mile radius.
That alone might take us the entire year, even more. But it was clear and promising.
And we would study.
We’d learn and study until we were exhausted, and then we’d work some more.
And once we felt like we had a grasp on this, when we felt ready, we would extend. We would start testing and reaching out to others.
We would create that school. Somehow, someday.
It was overwhelming, but it was a plan, and we needed one of those. We needed direction.
So as Friday approached, I set step one into motion.
I asked Mary-Beth if she wanted to get together on Saturday, and she happily agreed. And we made plans to meet at the main doors of the school at ten o’clock.
At nine, Nathaniel and Borden and I got together at the solarium, and we went over the plan. The weather was warm for the first time in forever, so we decided it was time to return to Asteria House.
At ten o’clock, we walked across the grounds, and there Mary-Beth was, waiting for us.
“Another group outing,” she said with a smile. “I’m kind of liking the direction this is going. I’ve always wanted to be part of a crew.”
I laughed and shook my head. “You have no idea.”
“We’re even diverse,” she said as she started walking with us without even knowing where we were going. “We have one of each grade. Borden, the wise senior. Nathaniel, the handsome, brooding junior. Me, the sophomore, and Margot, the freshman who is probably smarter than all of us.”
“You forgot your own descriptor,” I pointed out as I raised an eyebrow at her. “Mary-Beth, the sophomore who adoringly always speaks her mind.”
She shrugged with a smile. “What good does beating around bushes do?”
“A hunter, this one,” Nathaniel said. “She’s just trying to quickly expose her prey.”
“Direct and swift,” Mary-Beth said in agreement as we stepped out onto the beach and set off south. “Where are we going, by the way?”
“We’ve got something we’d like to show you,” I said, trying to put her at ease.
“This isn’t like some weird sex square, is it?” Mary-Beth asked, though her tone was still joking. “’Cause I might be open minded, but when there’s more than two people involved, I kind of have to draw a line.”
“Wow,” I said, nodding my head with a smile. “That was quite the jump, Mary-Beth.”
“Well, think about it,” she said with a laugh. She was saying all of this for fun. “There’s you and Nathaniel, and anyone looking at the two of you knows you’re going to be together forever. And Borden doesn’t really make sense, considering everyone knows David was trying to get with you last year. Now Borden just follows the two of you around. And here I am now. So, what am I supposed to think? Or is this just a really poorly executed date set-up for him?”
“What, are you saying you wouldn’t date me?” Borden asked with a mocking smile and a raised brow.