A Spell for Twilight: Rosewilde Academy of Magical Arts Read online

  A Spell for Twlight

  Rosewilde Academy of Magical Arts Year Three

  B.C. Palmer

  Marie Robinson

  Cover Design: Jacqueline Sweet Design

  Copyright © Harbinger Press 2019

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission of the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes only. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, or any events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The original characters and storylines are created by the author's imagination and are used fictitiously.

  Also by Harbinger Press

  Rosewilde Academy of Magical Arts

  A Spell for Death

  A Spell for Shadows

  A Spell for Twilight

  The Gardstone Trilogy

  Magic’s Heart, December 2019

  Contents

  Amelia

  Amelia

  Amelia

  Nathan

  Isaac

  Amelia

  Amelia

  Amelia

  Hunter

  Amelia

  Isaac

  Amelia

  Isaac

  Amelia

  Amelia

  Amelia

  Amelia

  Amelia

  Nathan

  Amelia

  Amelia

  Isaac

  Amelia

  Nathan

  Amelia

  Isaac

  Amelia

  Amelia

  Amelia

  Lucas

  Nathan

  Amelia

  Amelia

  Amelia

  Amelia

  Amelia

  Amelia

  Amelia

  Amelia

  Epilogue

  Thank You

  Become a Harbinger

  About Marie Robinson

  About B.C. Palmer

  Amelia

  The world around me seemed thin. As if I could reach out and put my hand through it, reaching into whatever was on the other side. Ever since I came back from the Abyss with Nathan, it had been like that. Half the summer was gone. It was passing too fast, and every day since the end of my sophomore year at Rosewilde I had felt the Abyss pressing up against reality. Trying to smother me, whispering to me.

  Az-Harad was calling for me. Every day, her voice grew just a bit louder.

  “Hey, there you are.” I jumped, my heart leaping into my throat, before I felt Isaac’s hands on my shoulders. “Everything okay?”

  I took a shaky breath and put on a smile as I turned to face him. He was smiling, but there was concern in his eyes. I kissed him, a lingering electric meeting of lips that gave me a temporary escape from my own thoughts. Thank heavens for him and the others. They’re the only ones keeping me grounded, helping me know what’s real and what’s not. “I’m good,” I said, running my hand over his chest. I loved touching Isaac—he was so tactile, small touches letting me know he’s there. “I just needed some air. And to see more of this place. Your family estate is…”

  He chuckled ruefully. “It’s something,” he agreed. “No pressure, but aunt Elina is this close to dissecting Nathan on a table. It would be nice of us to go and rescue him.”

  Isaac’s family was full of academics, and Elina was so far one of the most intense. She had a fascination with all things related to the Abyss, and it was now widely known common knowledge where Nathan had been for almost a full year. I had been spared, thankfully—we’d managed to keep my own visit quiet. “Where are Hunter and Lucas?”

  “Doing their best,” he said. He reached up and brushed a lock of hair behind my ear. “Of course… we could leave them to it and sneak off. There’s a corner of the north garden that’s rarely visited, with a beautiful gazebo next to a floating fountain. Isolated, private. Could be fun.”

  I trailed a hand down his chest, hooking my finger in his waistband, and bit my lip. “That would be unforgivably selfish, wouldn’t it?”

  “Unforgivable is a strong word,” he mused. His voice went right inside me, stoking up my desire. I was insatiable for them. “I think they’d get over it.”

  “Tempting,” I admitted. And it was. Some more time away from the Roth clan would have been relaxing, especially tangled up with Isaac. But it wasn’t fair for us to sneak off and have fun while the others were forced to entertain aunt Elina. “We should go rescue them. Maybe later we can all sneak off.”

  He chuckled and ran his thumb down my cheek before he kissed me again. “Always thinking of others,” he murmured. “I suppose that’s why I’m so fond of you, in part.”

  I hummed appreciation and slipped an arm around his waist as we turned to go back in from the veranda that faced the sunset. “And what are the other parts?”

  “Well, it would be crass of me to list all of them, I think,” he teased. “Suffice it to say, your stalwart nature is another part of it.”

  “Stalwart sounds like a polite way of saying ‘stubborn’.” I glanced up at him with faux-offense.

  “I’m a very polite person,” he replied blithely. “Good breeding, you see.”

  I laughed at that, and let Isaac open the great glass doors that led back into one of the many massive libraries in the Roth mansion.

  The Roth estate was sprawling, and the mansion was placed at the very center of it. Getting to the place involved passing through a gate and then driving almost ten minutes up the winding driveway to the courtyard. We’d been here for just two days visiting so far, and if we’d wanted to avoid Isaac’s family it wouldn’t have been difficult, especially with his parents gone. They were meant to return from Paris in a few days—in the meantime, there was other family visiting, as they apparently did each year.

  The house itself had three wings, each equipped with a kitchen large enough to support a catering staff, and there were at least a dozen bedrooms in each wing. Why anyone needed a house that big, I couldn’t imagine, but maybe it had been different a couple of centuries ago, when the house was built. The Roths had come over to pursue a fortune in the New World in the mid-1800’s and built their vast estate with a combination of money and magic. Back then, the whole family probably lived here. Apparently, much of the extended family still did, on and off between travels.

  Personally, I’d never stepped foot in a genuine mansion before, so maybe this was considered on the modest size. I doubted it, though. Isaac’s parents, Walter and Lydia Roth, were anything but modest people. The walls were teak wood, the floors were either some exotic wood like acacia or lingum vitae, or covered in plush carpet that felt like clouds under foot. It was surprisingly un-magical, with just a few exceptions. All the doors led to rooms that were right where they would have been on a blueprint, for one thing, and the lights throughout the house were all regular every day electric lights.

  We crossed a library that, according to Mrs. Roth, had at least ten books that were more than five hundred years old. This particular library—there was one in each wing, obviously—was largely dedicated to genealogy. There were journals and ledgers going back centuries, tracking every member of the Roth family right back to Uric Roth, who I learned was a thirteenth century petty lord related to the Bavarian royal family. He’d been a magician, as had virtually every Roth since.

  The library let out into a wide hallway where portraits of prominent ancestors adorned both walls, separated by ornate brass sconces. The wallpaper depicted various magical creatures cavorting in the forest. H
and painted, of course, and over a century old but still pristine, and one of the handful of magical concessions in the house. The unicorns, nymphs, satyrs and harts all moved in slow motion, creeping through their scene on an endless loop that I’d watched for almost two hours the first night we’d stayed here. If you watched long enough, it told a story about a hunter chasing this or that creature through an enchanted forest, and the various ways he was tricked or led astray.

  We came eventually to the doorway into a sitting room where the boys, Aunt Elina and a couple of cousins—Hesperia and Corin—were all seated, having an intense discussion that only Hunter and Lucas looked up from when we came in. Aunt Elina, which was what she insisted on being called, was a gracefully aged woman of about fifty, with shocks of white hair sweeping back over her ears, her hair so perfectly curled that I was certain magic was involved. She had the majority of her white and black mane drawn back into a large silver butterfly clip at the moment, which matched the embroidered pants-suit that had thin silver vines dotted with butterflies tastefully winding along the hems and the collar of her jacket. I like her, but she could talk without ever growing fatigued. Hesperia and Corin both took after her, and they had only graduated around five years ago. Twins, but easy to tell apart as Corin had her hair dyed bright red, while Hesperia dyed hers a deep blue that was almost indigo and shimmered in the sunlight.

  “…from the twelfth century,” Elina was saying, waving a wine glass that was mostly empty. “Now he held that the so-called under-gods—those beings that make their home in the Abyss—were in fact the original creators, who were later usurped by the deities we classically consider to be ‘The Gods’. Very Greek, but then old Saladin had quite the love affair with Hellenic culture. Still, you should read his treatise, it’s rather insightful. Puts me in mind of The Aegean Quartet, you know, a lot of comparative mythology all mashed up with alchemical symbolism and just a dash of Saladin’s own take on Zoroastrianism.”

  “Still lecturing, Auntie?” Isaac asked as we took seats. I sat down between Nathan and Lucas on one of the six carved wooden couches that filled the space while Isaac took one of the empty chairs that had been rearranged to help facilitate conversation. “I’m surprised anyone’s still awake.”

  “Perhaps your friends are more academically inclined,” Elina said.

  “Or hostages,” Isaac muttered.

  Elina shot him a scolding look. “Nonsense,” she said. “We’re having a lovely conversation is all.”

  Hesperia cleared her throat softly. “I’m not sure it quite qualifies as a conversation, Mother,” she said, her eyes sparkling with amusement. “You’ve been the only one speaking for nearly half an hour.”

  “Well, forgive me for having a passion,” Elina said dramatically, throwing her free hand in the air and waving her hand as if scattering her interest to the wind. “I’ll shut up, if it will make everyone happy.”

  “Of course it isn’t like that,” Isaac groaned as he poured himself a fresh glass of wine. “It just gets taxing after a while, Auntie. Like our whole lives are just one encounter with the Abyss after another. The whole reason for coming out here is to get away from that. To give Nathan and Amelia both a chance to just breathe for a bit.”

  Elina shot me a look that was half irritation, half chagrin. “Of course,” she said at last. “I suppose I hadn’t thought of it quite in that light. My apologies, Nathan. And Amelia. Is that where you ran off to, my girl? To get away from my prying?”

  I flushed and shook my head quickly. “No, no,” I said. “I just… needed some air.”

  Beside me, Nathan stiffened slightly, and I felt his knee press against mine in silent question. It’s insane to think that almost a year ago, he wanted to kill me. And now? We’re not only on the same side, but we’re even friends. Nearly dying to save the world does that to people. I’ve seen the way he looks at me with the others, when he doesn’t think I’m paying attention. And it’s throwing me off, but I think I like it. He’s different.

  I gave him a weak smile before I looked back to Elina. “Believe me, get a few drinks in him, and Nathan will happily talk about his theories.”

  “For now, though,” Lucas said, “I have to admit I’d be happy to discuss almost anything else. No offense, Aunt Elina. Corin, weren’t you in line for an apprenticeship with Master Tormayne? I haven’t heard you mention it since we got here, did it pan out?”

  Corin smiled sweetly, but before she could answer, Elina spoke for her. “She starts this winter. Tormayne is on some kind of sabbatical after he experimented with a new alchemical formula—something to do with dream therapy—”

  “Dream analysis,” Corin corrected. “He’s trying to develop a formula that will allow a person’s consciousness to split during sleep, so that one part can dream while the other part… sort of observes, and remains conscious. That’s the whole reason I applied in the first place. I was supposed to start this spring, but he can’t really take anyone on until he’s fully recovered. I’m excited though. Oh! And Hesperia has news, too!”

  Hesperia only reluctantly admitted that she was invited to a research project in Sweden, an archeological site where she had been asked to employ her specialty with necromancy in conjunction with a talented psychic illusionist in order to recreate pieces of history for interactive exploration. Almost like time travel, except far safer, she said.

  After that, Elina let us go round robin, explaining our interests and hopes for after graduation, which was only two years away now. When it came to me, the conversation stalled considerably.

  “I… guess I haven’t really thought about it,” I admitted.

  Elina scoffed. “You must have some aspiration, though. Smart young women always do.”

  If there was a somewhat backhanded remark in that, I tried to ignore it as I reached for something that might sate her need to know more about me. Or at least to make a show of it. Elina was difficult to read in that way—I was pretty sure she only really cared about what impression she made. “I have considered re-applying to MIT,” I admitted. And it was true, though it had really just hovered on the periphery of my thoughts while I tried not to be sucked into the abyss, driven insane by manifestations of my own thoughts, killed myself with magic, or cause the end of the world. “I was supposed to go there before I was… accepted to Rosewilde. I still have an interest in physics—uh, the usual kind—and it might dovetail with magic in an interesting way.”

  “Ah,” Elina said.

  That was all she said.

  Nathan cleared his throat. “It’s always a shame to waste a brilliant mind, Elina,” he said, unwilling to call her ‘aunt’ anything no matter how many times she insisted. “Summoning as a Path is closely tied to space-time dynamics. With the right course of study in traditional academics, Amelia could be sending people to other planets one day, or unlocking faster than light travel. Too many magicians focus entirely on magic and not enough on mundane science, in my opinion.”

  Elina seemed to consider that, and her attitude softened a little. I sent him a grateful look and he pressed his leg against mine again, but he left it there this time. We spent the next hour or so talking academics, science, and anything that had nothing to do with the abyss, right up until dinner was announced by the butler, Carmine. An actual butler, with a tuxedo and everything. Carmine was also the staff manager for the other four people that took care of the estate.

  It was awkward staying in a place that had ‘staff’, that wasn’t a hotel or something. Everyone seemed fond of Isaac, though, and of Lucas. Nathan got a tepid reaction, and Hunter seemed just as uncomfortable with it as I was. We all managed to make it through dinner, though, as we took the conversation like an unexplored river. Mostly it was an easy ride through pleasant terrain, but once in a while everyone on one side had to steer hard to port or starboard to keep from crashing into rocks. Chef Aubrey arrived with each meal to explain each of five courses, and when it was done, I couldn’t quite understand how she’d managed to f
igure the exact amount of food needed to make me feel sated but not over full.

  “I’ll just bet my brother has several bottles of that 1937 Glenfidditch in the cellar,” Elina said when the last of the plates were cleared. “What say we open one up?”

  Isaac snorted. “You’re welcome to tap father’s special reserve and suffer the consequences, but I’m afraid you’ll be suffering alone.”

  “It isn’t warded or anything,” she said innocently, “which is practically an invitation.”

  Isaac glanced down our side of the table. Silent communication passed between the five of us, first Lucas, then Nathan and Hunter began to get up. I followed, hoping this was when we finally managed to get some time to ourselves.

  “Right,” Elina said, waving us on. “I can take a hint. I’m no longer hip enough to entertain the likes of you youngsters, I understand.”

  Isaac went around the table to offer his aunt a pick on her upturned cheek. “I’d like to show Amelia the north garden,” he said. “And, yes, spend a little time on our own. We’ll be here for two weeks, Auntie, there’s plenty of time.”

  “Let them relax, mother,” Hesperia said. “I’m sure they’re all tired of the third degree.”

  Elina rose from the table, resigned as she literally threw in the towel—the napkin, in any case. “All right, all right. If you all decide you’re feeling bold, though, you’ll find me, at least, in the west library, enjoying a ninety-year-old scotch that cost nearly a hundred thousand dollars.”