Page 14 of Unbound

“Let me give you the rest of the tour, though since it’s late, I’ll save the dormitories and faculty areas for the morning.”

I follow Marie down a hall before we enter a large cafeteria. Like the gathering hall, this room also has large windows. They overlook a grassy field behind the building. Even though it’s dark outside, I can see a dimly candle lit garden full of flowers and herbs, with benches and swings tucked along the paths.

“The students eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner here,” she says, “but we also use this room for other social gatherings. The coven really is one big family. Since probably ninety percent of our students are legacy students, it’s quite the tight-knit community.”

She quickly adds, “But we’re always open to new members.” She points toward a door at one end of the cafeteria. “There’s a kitchen through there, which I believe is locked at this time of night. And those closets contain cleaning supplies. Trust me, I know.” She gives me a knowing smile. “I was put on cleaning duty multiple times when I was a student here.”

“You guys can’t just wave a magic wand and have everything clean itself?” I ask, only half joking.

“If only life were just like Harry Potter.” She chuckles. “It won’t take you long to learn some simple spells to make your life much easier, though. Being able to manipulate energy can be pretty handy. You’ve already proven to have a decent grasp of that all on your own.”

“Yeah, I can see how it’d be like having an invisible helping hand around.”

I tip my head, thinking.

“If I drop the remote, I can just do this.”

I hold my hand out, imitating the motion I’d make if I were telekinetically zooming a remote back into my hand.

“Exactly. And you’d never have to worry about being too short to reach something on the top shelf.”

“I didn’t even think about that.” Though to be fair, I am above average height for a woman.

“Okay, now this way.” She motions for me to follow her toward the left side of the cafeteria. “This leads to our student areas. This hallway will take you to the library and then to all the classrooms and dormitories. I’ll definitely bring you back to the library during its open hours. It’s one of my favorite places, and somewhere I think you’ll find most helpful with researching and learning who you are.”

We step into the hallway, which is dimly lit by period-appropriate sconces along the walls. It takes me a minute to realize they’re not actual candles but fancy LED bulbs. I suppose it makes sense. If this place was built two hundred years ago, of course they’d update it for modern times as the years passed. The library is several yards down the hall, behind large wooden double doors. Marie looks up and down the hallway, then turns to me with a sly smile.

“It’s usually locked,” she says, “but I happen to know the incantation to get in. Since it’s my favorite place in the whole Covenstead, I have to at least show it to you before we leave.”

Another rush of excitement goes through me, and I stay close as she quickly crosses the hall, whispers something in Latin, and waves her hand over the doors.

There’s a sharp click. Then they slowly creak open. She conjures another ball of energy, using it as a light, and tosses it into the air. It illuminates the room just enough for me to look around in awe.

I’ve always liked libraries, but it was hard to check books out with how much we traveled from job to job. You couldn’t exactly tell a library in another state you were returning a book three weeks late because you were busy hunting ghouls out of state. But this library is like nothing I’ve ever seen before in real life. It’s huge and filled with modern couches and lounge chairs.

Yet somehow, it’s still warm and inviting, and I can tell there are ancient books in here filled with knowledge the Order would’ve forbidden me from ever knowing. The library opens into a lounge with a beige L-shaped sectional in the middle. Multicolored throw pillows cover the entire thing, and it looks like the kind of couch you could sink into with a good book and stay there for hours. Behind it is a display of the students’ favorite books for the summer.

“Wait.” I look at Marie. “It’s summer. Is this a year-round school?”

“About thirty percent of our students stay for summer school,” she says. “But that only runs until July first, and it’s mostly for older students who want to catch up or get ahead before applying to college.”

“Oh.” I mentally wonder how you put a school like this on a college application. I take a tentative step farther into the library, my eyes going to another colorful display to the left of the lounge. It’s filled with young adult books, and there are cushions and large pillows scattered across the floor. Large cartoon images cover the walls, probably characters from some book I’ve never read.

Everything is warm and inviting and exactly what I would’ve wanted when I was a child. It’s what I want for Gia, even though she’s not a witch. This is what she should have. A school she can call home. Classmates who are her friends. Kids she can actually get to know and who can get to know her because she isn’t moving every few months.

“The first floor houses what you would call normal books,” Marie says as she holds up her hand, bringing the ball of light higher with it. “The magic section is upstairs, and the farther toward the back you go, the more mature the books get. Only eighth grade and above are allowed up there.

Since everyone here has the ability to cast spells, we don’t want the wrong information getting into the wrong hands.” She makes a face and shakes her head. “Or the right information getting into the wrong hands. You know what I mean.”

“I do,” I say, still fascinated by all of this. Life would’ve been so different if I’d grown up with my birth family.

How cool would it have been to go to school somewhere like this? What would my life be like? What would I be like? I suppose this goes back to the whole nature-versus-nurture thing. Would I be who I am today if I’d grown up differently? In some ways, of course not. Growing up as a demon hunter changes you.

I probably know things a lot of the witches and warlocks here don’t even know. According to Marie, my family went against the grain when it came to using their magic to hunt demons.

How much of who I am was shaped by the Order? I guess there’s no way of knowing unless someone invents a time machine or casts a spell that can take me back. And even still…there’s part of me that’s scared to change anything. Because despite all the shit I’ve been through, I like who I am.

I might not have made the right choice every single day, but I did the best I could without hurting people. Except for right now—I push that thought away, shaking my head at myself.