The magicals in the crowd nodded in response, prompting Alton to smile and bring his hands together in an enthusiastic clap.
“Now! I know we’re all still getting used to the idea of a Bestiary in our coven, but it is for the greater good. Given the high percentage of Mediocrity in this place, we can at least excel at looking after the Bestiary that fuels our entire society,” he added.
“Yeah, it’s a bang-up job we’re doing so far,” a young warlock said, somewhere behind me.
I looked over my shoulder and identified him quickly, based on the smirk which accompanied his statement. He was about as tall as me, and quite handsome, too, with short black hair and piercing blue eyes. He had the cutest dimples, and that triggered a warning inside me—the good-looking ones were usually jerks. Case in point: Wade Crowley.
“That’s Garrett Kyteler, pompous jerk extraordinaire,” Wade muttered, following my gaze. “If ever you need a contrarian to paint the coven in an ugly light, he’s the guy you want to talk to.”
“I don’t know, you seem to be doing a pretty good job yourself, if you ask me,” I shot back with a smirk. He took it seriously, and I felt he was genuinely offended. For some reason, I didn’t like making him feel that way, so I quickly brushed over it, shifting the focus back to cutie-pie Garrett. “If he hates this place so much, why doesn’t he just leave, then?”
Wade shrugged. “He doesn’t hate it. He just doesn’t like it.”
“Is there a difference?”
“There is when you’re part of a coven,” he replied. “He’s been in two other covens before this. I don’t know how he ended up here, but it wasn’t because of his exemplary track record. He’s an excellent warlock, highly skilled in his craft, but his demeanor can be difficult to handle. He messed up something at some point. You don’t get sent to the San Diego Coven for high points.”
“What points? And how come this coven is like detention to magicals?” I asked, getting more confused the more Wade talked.
“I’m guessing Alton hasn’t told you about the point system. You’ll find out soon enough, but, in short, your performance and actions create points, which go into the coven. At the end of the year, a line is drawn, and the top five performing covens in the States get substantial prizes, mostly in cash and artifacts. As for the ‘detention’ part… I don’t know, it’s always been like this. Alton is trying to change that, but with the characters we’ve got in-house right now, it doesn’t look like he’ll succeed.”
Alton was still going on about their efforts to improve the coven when Garrett spoke up again.
“With all the Mediocres in this joint, I must say, you’re quite the dreamer, Director Waterhouse.”
Alton responded to Garrett’s remark with a dry smile and a shrug. “Well, then, Mr. Kyteler, perhaps if you spent more time actively involved in actual coven work instead of bragging to your parents over Skype about how good a job you’re doing here, we might get ahead a little faster.” Alton’s sting was deep and painful.
Chuckles erupted from the crowd. I got a quick look at Garrett—he was fuming, but there was nothing he could do, other than cross his arms and scowl at Alton. I had mixed feelings about Garrett at that point. On one hand, the more I looked at him, the more handsome he got. Given how little socializing I’d done in my lifetime, and now that I was suddenly faced with people with whom I could be myself, my hormones were starting to loosen up a little. On the other hand, he seemed obnoxiously arrogant, although the animosity that Wade displayed toward him made Garrett even more interesting. I was officially intrigued and abstaining from a final verdict—other than the fact that he was really cute—for the time being.
“Don’t sulk, Mr. Kyteler,” Alton continued. “I wouldn’t pick on you if I didn’t think you have what it takes to be a top performer in this coven. You just have to put in the effort, that’s all. Anyway, moving on. Like I said, we’re hoping to get a higher score by the end of this year. Last year was quite… dismal, to say the least.”
“We only got 203 points,” Wade whispered.
“How bad is that?” I replied.
“The San Francisco Coven took the fifth spot with 9,789 points.”
“Oh. Okay.”
Clearly, the San Diego Coven had its work cut out for it. But was it worth it? How much money were we talking about? What artifacts were handed out as prizes? I made more mental notes to ask Alton later. My skull was becoming a pile of index cards and sticky notes.
“The Bestiary has been checked from top to bottom, and there was nothing on the cameras,” Alton said. “So, please, all of you, be careful. Unauthorized access to the Bestiary will be severely punished.”
“I do apologize,” Tobe said, staring at the marble floor beneath him, his head bowed in what felt like shame. “This has never happened before. The Bestiary has always been fully secured. I’ve never even needed additional security.”
“Tobe, please,” Alton said gently, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Do not blame yourself in any way. We don’t know how the gargoyle made it out of its glass box, but we will find out, sooner or later. In the meantime, we just need to be more vigilant. We’ll be deploying a few patrols through the city, as well, particularly where the gargoyle was captured. The creature is likely to have left energy residue in the area. Other monsters still running loose might be drawn to it, which would bode well for our Bestiary. The more creatures we capture, the more energy is provided to our covens, and, of course, the more points for us.”
“I’ll post a list of names for patrol rotations by midnight, tonight, outside the dining hall,” O’Halloran interjected. “There will be short, three-hour shifts, in pairs, in allocated districts of the city. Nothing too difficult. Just make sure you stock up on glass jars.”
“That being said, I will let you know of any future developments,” Alton said, then smiled at me. “Now, I want you all to meet Harley Smith, who was quick-witted and brave enough to assist Wade in capturing the gargoyle.”
Oh, crap, no!
As soon as he mentioned my name, my body was nearly crushed under the landslide of emotions pummeling me from all sides. I instinctively grabbed Wade’s forearm and immediately chastised myself for it, but it was the only thing I could think of. The harder I squeezed, the less intense the emotions of two hundred magicals felt. This was all so new and… heavy.
“Ouch,” Wade issued a low-voiced warning.
“Sorry,” I murmured, but didn’t let go. Instead, I squeezed harder, overwhelmed by so many feelings at once.
“Harley will be with us for the next month, and she’ll be attending classes with the juniors,” Alton added. “Given her late discovery, Harley is quite far behind, but I trust she will—”
The mirrors behind him and Tobe all started to hum, their surfaces rippling more visibly and their bronze frames squeaking at the joints. The crowd forgot about me as they all looked at the mirrors, along with Alton and Tobe, who moved farther to the side.
I gasped, finally able to properly breathe again.
“Oh, man, I need to tell Alton not to mention me to people anymore—or ever again—especially in a crowd,” I muttered, then wiped the sweat off my forehead, letting go of Wade’s arm. I got a peculiar whiff of disappointment from him, before the hum got louder, reminding me that something weird was going on with those mirrors.
“What’s happening?” I asked.
“Someone is coming through,” Wade replied.
“Is that normal?”
“Normal, yes. But it’s usually expected. This wasn’t scheduled.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Because Alton clearly wasn’t expecting it, as evidenced by the look on his face,” Wade grumbled, prompting me to get a better look at Alton.
He was right. Alton was stunned, and not in a good way.
Chapter Twelve
“So, you people just… what, travel through mirrors? Like parallel dimensions or something?” I asked. I’d stopped wondering how weird things happened from the moment I accidentally tossed my first-grade nemesis across the road with just the power of my mind. I was more interested in the actual process.
“You’re not too far from the truth, actually,” Wade said. “The coven is in an interdimensional pocket, like a strip between blobs of space. But the strip is infinite, and you can sort of poke it in different places. Think of our world as a giant bag of… blobs, bundled and glued together with this interdimensional strip. The mirrors are like holes in different blobs. You step into one, and you pass through the strip, then make it out into another blob.”
“Like teleporting.”
“Except you don’t get disintegrated and reintegrated upon arrival to your destination,” Wade replied. “Mirror travel only works with a particular spell and if you know your destination. And any mirror will work. It’s an old spell, conjured up by ancient Egyptian warlocks. They were the first to discover the magical properties of reflective surfaces.”
I nodded slowly, watching in awe as three figures slowly emerged from the mirrors, like bodies coming up to the surface of a mercurial lake. Two warlocks and one witch came forward, all three in their late thirties or forties, and superbly dressed. Had this not been a magical gathering, I could’ve easily seen them sauntering down a runway for custom, tailor-made outfits—with a predominance of dark blues and gold, as they all seemed to adhere to a similar color palette.
“Are those uniforms?” I whispered, taking in every detail, every crease and hand-crafted button, every thread and shimmering lapel. The warlocks were in full suits, complete with waistcoats and ascots, while the witch had opted for an elegant skirt-and-jacket combo.
“You could call them uniforms,” Wade replied, his voice filled with tension. “Navy blue and gold are the colors of the California Mage Council. They tend to wear them when they attend assemblies such as this.”