I found the door I’d been looking for at the back of the cottage. I opened it, and saw that it led down a long hallway with dozens of other doors that went on and on forever. I knew if I glanced behind any of the doors, anything I wanted would be behind them.
Babcia gestured to the fireplace I’d created. “This can be your hearthfire. Here, you will be able to fashion spells that are far more powerful than the ones you can create on Earth. This cottage will remain here, Emma, until you choose to take it down.”
“As if.” I never wanted to leave. This place was my dream home.
“Arthur, it’s your turn,” Bapa said. We wandered out of my cottage and through the field, until we discovered a spot that Arthur found suitable. He imagined his own hearthfire, and soon, we were walking into a large stone mansion, one with a library that had hundreds upon hundreds of books lining the shelves. I observed the shelves with absolute astonishment, still in wonder that all of this was real.
“Mates can share hearthfires, if they so wish,” Babcia said. “So can twins, but the more people connected to one hearthfire, the more power there is to share, so the hearthfire can be less effective.”
“No offense, Em, but I’d rather have my own place, thanks,” Arthur said. He was already pulling a book off the shelf with his teeth. He placed it on the floor and began thumbing through the pages with his paw clumsily.
“No shit. I don’t have room for all these books,” I said, turning in place at the massive library Arthur had created. We’d never get him to stop meditating, because I knew now he’d want to spend all his time here.
Damn, I wished housing worked like this back on Earth. Just think about it, and it’s there. Again, I thought our ancestors were idiots for ever wanting to leave this place.
“I cannot create my own hearthfire. I will have to share yours, Emma, for now,” Ethan said, turning to me.
I smiled. “Why do you think I added a hockey room?”
His ears perked up. “There’s a hockey room?”
I scratched him behind the ears, and his eyes lolled lazily. Bapa let out a low growl and said, “You must be very careful to protect your hearthfire. As your spiritual and Unseelie home, it will be tempting for others to want to take from it.”
“The only people who will have access to your hearthfire are the people whom you give the key. No one else may be able to enter,” Babcia told me. “It is a safe place of protection and the source home of your Unseelie energy. You can connect your hearthfire on Edinmyre to your altar on Earth, so that there will always be a clear source of power coming in for you to pull from.”
“Which is why you must be careful to defend your altar on Earth,” Bapa said. “If someone damages or casts a curse upon it, it will hurt your home in Edinmyre, and therefore affect you. Make sure to keep it private.”
Arthur and I explored our hearthfires for the better part of the day before Babcia said we were pressing our luck by remaining so long, and that it was time to go. We exited the meditation and awoke back in my grandparents’ home. Puck let out a few pants and drooled on my leg, happy to see me.
“What time is it? I feel like we’ve been gone for hours,” I said.
“To me, you were only gone for a couple of minutes,” Vara said. “It wasn’t very long.”
My body hadn’t moved, but I still felt exhausted. Regardless of how cool it was, this was all very hard work.
“The three of you need to eat,” Babcia said abruptly. “Astral travel can be very taxing on the mind, and you need to keep up your strength.”
Babcia pushed Irish stew into us, with fish pie and the mulled wine. By the time the four of us left, we were all very full. We stuck together as we roamed back through the city, which was strangely quiet. It made everything eerie.
“This is useful,” Ethan mused to me on the way back to the university. “I had no idea about the existence of hearthfires, but they will surely aid us in our quest.”
“Definitely.” If we ever wanted to take our physical bodies to Edinmyre and remain there for a long time, now we had a place to stay. There were multiple benefits to this.
“We should inform our friends.Suppose one of us was kidnapped, or tortured. It would be helpful for us to meditate our way to the cottage, to keep our spirit safe and well even while our body is being persecuted. We could still communicate with each other even if we were separated on Earth. This is a good plan,” Ethan said.
Ethan’s words made my gut twist. I wasn’t exactly thinking of it like that, but I suppose it could work that way. I wish he didn’t always think of the worst-case scenario.
Once we got back to the university, I busied myself with setting up an altar straight away, to use as my hearthfire in my dorm room and on Earth. I used one of my spare bookshelves to make the space. As I placed my hand upon the altar, I felt a clear flowing connection from my altar on Earth to my cottage in Edinmyre, supplying me with a strong source of magical energy.
I wasn’t worried about anyone messing with it. I kept reapplying the ward on my room every week, so no one who wished me harm could enter.
I texted everyone to meet Ethan and I up in the clocktower on university grounds that evening. Odette arrived first. She bustled to me and grabbed my hands before bursting out, “Emma, I have something to tell you! Theo and I have decided to start our own dance company!”
“That’s wonderful!” I said, a huge smile spreading across my face. I’d been hoping Odette would pick ballet up again.
“Yes, well, with him graduating soon, he’s going to need a job, so we just decided to start our own business. I’ll be teaching ballet classes alongside him part-time until I’m finished at university. We’ve decided our first show is going to be a performance ofThe Nutcrackerthis Christmas! Isn’t that just wonderful?” Odette’s cheeks were so pink, she looked like she might burst.
“I’m really happy for you, Odette. This is good news.” I squeezed her hands. By then, the others had started to show up. Delmare had used one of Kiara’s hair potions to grow her hair back to an edgy straight-cut bob that ended at her shoulders, which Stefan was fawning over. I snapped my fingers, telling him to focus.
