The Golden Lily

"Micah's not the type to hold a grudge," said Eddie. "He's also pretty reasonable. Just tell him the truth."

"What, that I'm one of the last in a line of vampire royalty and my sister's throne is dependent on me staying in hiding and surviving?" Jill asked incredulously.

Amusement flickered in Eddie's eyes, though I could tell he was trying to stay serious for her sake. "That's one way, I suppose. But no... I meant, just give him the simplified version.

You don't want to get too serious. You like him but just want to watch how fast things are going.

It's not unreasonable, you know. You're fifteen and have been 'dating' for barely a month."

She pondered his words. "You don't think he'd be mad?"

"Not if he really cares about you," said Eddie vehemently. "If he really cares, he'll understand and respect your wishes - and be happy at just any chance of spending time with you." I wondered if Eddie was referring to Micah or himself, but that was a thought best kept quiet. Jill's face lit up.

"Thanks," she told Eddie. "I hadn't thought of it that way. You're so right. If he can't accept my feelings, then there's no point to anything." She glanced over at a wall clock and jumped to her feet. "I think I'm going to go try to find him now before class." Like that, she was gone.

Good work, Eddie, I thought. You may have just helped get the girl of your dreams back together with her boyfriend. When Eddie caught my eye, the look on his face told me he was thinking the exact same thing.

Angeline watched Jill dart out of the cafeteria, her blue eyes narrowed in thought. "Even if they make up, I don't think it'll last. With their situation... it can't work."

"I thought you were all about vampire and human relationships," I said.

"Oh, sure. Back home, no problem. Even out in your world, no problem. But Jill's a special case. She's got to stay out of sight and stay safe if she's going to help her family. Dating him won't do that, and she knows it - no matter how much she wishes it weren't true. She'll do the right thing in the end. This is duty. It's bigger than personal wants. Jill gets that." Angeline then declared she needed to get back to her room to catch up on homework. Eddie and I were left staring.

He shook his head in amazement. "I don't think I've ever seen Angeline so..."

"... subdued?" I suggested.

"I was thinking... coherent."

I laughed. "Come on, she's coherent plenty of times."

"You know what I mean," he argued. "What she just said? It was totally true. It was... wise.

She understands Jill and this situation."

"I think she understands more than we give her credit for," I said, recalling how much better-behaved she'd been since the assembly - breaking into dances aside. "It's just taken her time to adjust, which makes sense, considering what a change this is. If you'd seen where she's from, you'd understand."

"I may have misjudged her," Eddie admitted. He seemed astonished by his own words.

Part of me had expected to get chastised by Trey today for having skipped out on Brayden at the dance. Instead, I found Trey missing again from our morning classes. I almost worried but then reminded myself that his cousin was still in town, possibly muddling Trey in "family stuff." Trey was competent. Whatever was going on, he could handle it. Then why all the bruises? I wondered.

When I reached Ms. Terwilliger's independent study, she was waiting expectantly for me, which I took as a bad sign. Usually, she was already hard at work at her own desk and just gave me a nod of acknowledgment when I took out my books. Today, she was standing in front of her desk, arms crossed, watching the door.

"Miss Melbourne. I trust you had an enjoyable weekend? You were certainly the belle of the ball at the Halloween dance."

"You saw me?" I asked. For a moment, I expected her to say she'd been watching the whole dance through a crystal ball or something.

"Well, certainly. I was there as a chaperone. My post was near the DJ, so I'm not surprised you didn't see me. That, and I hardly stood out the way you did. I must say, that was an exquisite neo-Greco reproduction you were wearing."

"Thanks." I was getting compliments left and right today, but hers were much less creepy than Jill's.

"Now then," said Ms. Terwilliger, all business again. "I thought it might be useful for us to discuss some of the spells you've been researching for my project. Notating them is one thing. Understanding them is another."

My stomach sank. I'd grown comfortable in my avoidance of her and the repetitive, almost mindless nature of annotating and translating spells. So long as we didn't have to actually delve into them, I felt reassured that I wasn't doing anything real with magic. I dreaded whatever she had in mind, but there was little I could make in the way of protest, so long as this was all couched in the terms of my study and didn't involve harm to myself or others.

"Would you be kind enough to close the door?" she asked. I did, and my feeling of unease increased. "Now. I wanted to examine that book I gave you further - the one on protective spells."

"I don't have it with me, ma'am," I said, relieved. "But if you want, I'll go get it from my dorm room and bring it back." If I timed the shuttle bus right - by which I meant, wrong - I could probably use up a huge part of our hour in the round-trip.

"That's all right. I obtained that copy for your personal use." She lifted a book from her desk. "I have my own. Let's take a look, shall we?"

I couldn't hide my dismay. We sat in adjacent student desks, and she began by simply going over the table of contents with me. The book was divided into three sections: Defense, Planned Attacks, and Instant Attacks. Each of those subsections was divided into levels of difficulty.

"Defense includes a lot of protective charms and evasion spells," she told me. "Why do you think those come first in the book?"

"Because the best way to win a fight is to avoid one," I said immediately. "Makes the rest superfluous."

She looked startled that I had come up with that. "Yes... precisely."

"That's what Wolfe said," I explained. "He's the instructor in a self-defense class I'm taking."

"Well, he's quite right. Most of the spells in this section do exactly that. This one..." She flipped a few pages into the book. "This one's very basic but extremely useful. It's a concealment spell. Many physical components - which you'd expect from a beginner spell - but well worth it. You create an amulet and keep a separate ingredient - crumbled gypsum - on hand.