Lock and Key (Nocturne Academy 1)

“Why did you go to such great lengths to lock up Mr. Darkheart and keep him from drinking blood, as is right and natural for a Nocturne?” the Headmistress asked, frowning.

“To keep him from drinking her blood!” Winifred Rattcliff fairly screeched, nodding at me. “To keep them from Blood-Bonding. Which is what they’ve done. Don’t you understand, Isabel? They’ve broken the Edict!”

“Yes, I surmised as much from seeing the two of them together,” the Headmistress remarked, giving Griffin and me a sharp look.

“No—no, you don’t see!” Winifred Rattcliff shouted. “They haven’t just broken the law—they’ve broken The Law! They’ve erased the magic that kept Others of different species from being attracted to each other.”

Headmistress Nightworthy blinked.

“You mean to tell me they have broken the magic of the Edict itself?”

“Yes!” The senior witch nodded vigorously. “The Edict has been getting weaker in this last generation but it still held true for the vast majority of Others. Now it is no more! Do you have any idea what this will do to the balance of power between the different kinds of Others? Do you know what chaos it will cause?”

“I’m certain it’s going to make policing my Academy more difficult,” the Headmistress murmured, a frown twitching the corners of her lips.

“Now you see!” Winifred Rattcliff nodded her head vigorously, as though they were in definite agreement. “The best thing you can do is to have these two killed! Have them killed and then I can resurrect the Edict. With a full coven and a blood sacrifice I can cast it again—stronger than before! I can—”

But the Headmistress was shaking her head.

“I think not,” she said coldly. “There has been enough attempted murder here for one day.”

“But…but the Edict!” the senior witch implored. “It must not be allowed to die!”

“If what you are saying is true, it is already dead,” Headmistress Nightworthy pointed out. “And as we Others lived without it in the past, I am certain we can learn to live without it again. In the meantime, I am going to turn you over to the Council of Elders and let them pass judgment on you, since it is not my purview to do so. However,” she added, rounding on me and Griffin and Avery and Emma and Kaitlyn and Ari. “Students at the Academy are within my dominion and as such, we will have to have a reckoning.”

“Yes, Headmistress,” we chorused and exchanged glances.

But Griffin leaned down and whispered in my ear,

“Megan, I don’t think it’s wise to allow Rattcliff to keep her powers. Not if she really can restore the Edict. Also, she clearly wants both of us dead and won’t mind using her magic to do it if she can.”

I doubted that she could restore the Edict, but I agreed that there was no sense taking a chance. So when the Headmistress asked me to “unfreeze” Winifred and her witch crew, I did as she asked—but with a twist of my own.

“I unfreeze you all,” I said, after Griffin had bitten my wrist again—not just because I needed to bleed but because I was getting really addicted to the way it felt when he bit me. “All of you, except your magical powers,” I continued as the witches which had been frozen like a bunch of kids playing statues began to move again. “Those will remain frozen for as long as you wish to use them to do harm or evil to anyone. From now until I revoke my spell, all of you will only be able to use your magic to do kind, thoughtful acts that will spread love and caring and not harm anyone in any way.”

There, I thought with satisfaction, that had worked out nicely. Nobody could actually say I had stripped the senior witch and her hench-witches of their powers. I had only limited them in the scope of their magic.

They could use their talents to make rainbows appear and conjure unicorns and make flowers bloom and heal people all day long. But the minute they meant anybody any harm, their magic would dry up like a dead tree, choked with Spanish Moss, and they would be unable to follow through with the hurtful spells.

“How dare you impose sanctions on me, you little upstart?” Winifred Rattcliff glared at me.

“I daresay the Council will impose more than that on you, Winifred,” Headmistress Nightworthy said dryly. “Especially when they hear about the two homicides you laid at Mr. Darkheart’s door. Are you truly complaining that you can no longer use your magic to do harm? Because I think that says more about you than it does about Miss Latimer and her attempt to curtail your baser instincts.”

Winifred Rattcliff looked angry enough to spit venom like a cobra. She pointed at me.

“I told your mother when we found that prophecy together that she ought to abort you, you little bitch!” she snarled. “I told her having you would only cause trouble and look what has happened! I was right!”