Borden touched his cheek where he got hit, but he didn’t even flinch. “David’s an asshole, but assholes with power are even worse. This is a life lesson he’s needed to learn for years. Not everyone is going to always bow down to him.”
I met his eyes and swallowed once.
If this didn’t prove his loyalty had shifted, then I wasn’t sure what would.
“Come on,” Nathaniel said, putting his hand on Borden’s shoulder. “Let’s get you some ice before that starts swelling.”
Chapter Four
On Saturday, Borden once more came to the solarium. We taught him fire starting, which was exceptionally easy for him. Not surprising, considering his electrical abilities.
As the end of January approached, I kept hoping for warmer temperatures, but winter persisted. The snow kept falling, and the temperatures only occasionally crept above freezing. Just enough to keep us from being entirely buried beneath the white snowbanks.
I was headed across the grounds after school on a Tuesday, back to the library to work on some homework, when someone called my name. I cast my eyes across the blinding snow to find Borden on the opposite sidewalk, also headed back to the school.
There was a bounty of student housing that surrounded Alderidge. While all the houses on the north end were for professors, all the houses on the west and south sides were for students.
“You headed to see Nathaniel?” Borden asked as our sidewalks joined into the main one leading for the central doors of the university.
“I’ll say hello, but I actually have some homework to do in the library,” I said as we walked side by side toward the doors.
“Me too,” Borden said, nodding. “Mind if I walk with you?”
I didn’t answer but just nodded.
“I grew up in New York, but it’s hardly any different, weather wise,” Borden said, making small talk. “Everyone is always talking about wanting the weather to turn and get warmer. But I kind of love the cold.”
I chuckled. “Must be your Scottish blood.”
“Maybe,” he said, and it was kind of nice when he smiled, and it was easy. “Should I count myself lucky I didn’t also get red hair?”
“Hey, don’t be colorist against red,” I teased. “You’re a Stewart. Mary herself was a redhead.”
Borden laughed. It was a quiet and controlled thing, but it was deep. The kind that went all the way to the bottom of his belly and vibrated through his whole body.
Looking sideways at him, I started to see him a little differently.
He seemed so much lighter. He seemed real. Like any normal person I didn’t hate. Like someone who just needed a change in his circle, just needed someone to believe that he could be different.
“You know, I’ve been thinking,” I said, moving on. “If you’re a mage, and I’m a mage, and Nathaniel is a mage, what is the likelihood there are more of us here at Alderidge? Or more in the area?”
“It seems like a pretty high chance,” Borden said. “There has to be a somewhat concentrated number of us here in the east. Out west it might be different. But a lot of people immigrated here, and their families never left the area. Look at all three of us.”
I nodded. “Exactly. If you look at family trees, they start getting really wide, really fast. Our mage ancestors could have hundreds of descendants. Somehow we need to find them.”
“We could hire a professional genealogist,” Borden said.
I just looked over at him with a glare. “Yeah, ‘cause we have those resources.”
Borden looked over at me, a look of confusion on his face. And then he realized I was being sarcastic. And I realized he was being serious.
“Sorry,” I said, looking back at the doors as we reached them and walked through. “I forgot you’re a hybrid. Formerly a Society Boy, meaning incredibly connected, and now one of us. Nathaniel and I weren’t quite cut from the same cloth as you.”
“Money is just money,” Borden said as we walked through the hall toward the library. “It does make life easier, but it’s meaningless if that’s all that matters to you. I have my own resources and money. I’m happy to use them to help…whatever all of this is.”
I shook my head as we pushed through a group of students congregating outside a classroom. “Maybe someday, but I think for now, we need to figure out some kind of test we can perform on our own. Why spend money, when we could come up with a free test?”
“You mean like the glamoured book?” Borden asked as he grabbed the handle of the door to the library and pulled it open, holding it for me.
“Exactly,” I said as I dropped my voice to accommodate the quiet nature of the library. “But something quicker and easier. I wish there was some kind of magic… stick, or something, that we could simply touch to someone and if they had mage blood, it would glow. You know what I mean?”
Borden nodded, and when I looked over at him, I could see the gears turning in his head.
“We need something simple and quick. Just imagine. If we had something like that, how many others like us would we discover?” I shook my head, my entire chest filled with longing and amazement at the possibility.
“I’ve seen you do some pretty impossible things, Margot,” Borden said. “I imagine it can be done.”
I smiled in appreciation but didn’t say anything more. We stepped up to the reference desk, just as Nathaniel returned from an aisle, pushing the return cart.
“Hey, just wanted to say hi,” I said as he walked around the desk and wrapped a hand around my waist and leaned in to kiss me. “We both have some homework to get on.”
“Glad to see the two of you are finding your stride,” Nathaniel said, pride in his eyes when he looked at me. Which just caused me to roll my eyes at him.
“Margot has some interesting ideas,” Borden said, moving along. “If you get a break for a few minutes, you should come talk to us.”
Us.
Us had changed.
Us was getting bigger. No longer just Nathaniel and I, and the occasional conversation with my father. But now Borden, too.
“I will,” Nathaniel said, and the tone of his voice told me he was intrigued.
Mrs. Walker called for Nathaniel, so he kissed me once more and got back to work.
Together, which was exceptionally weird to think, Borden and I turned, and he followed me back toward the Eidem room.
As usual, when we got there, there was no one inside. But there was a fire raging in the fireplace, keeping this far end of the library warm.
Borden took one couch, taking his books and papers out of his backpack. He scattered them across the coffee table in front of him and immediately got to work.
I took my things and laid them out. But I found my mind wandering. I found myself going through every book we’d found useful in Mom’s office. Compulsion. Glamouring. Alchemy. Transfiguration. Fire starting. Altering memories. And a few others that, so far, we hadn’t figured out the functionality of.
None of that seemed helpful to me. We couldn’t make people confess to being a mage if they didn’t know what they were. Glamouring did nothing. Alchemy was useless. Maybe there would be something with transfiguration, but we were having a really hard time with that. Lighting people on fire didn’t do us any good. And altering their memory did nothing either.