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In this country, I’m even old enough to drink it legally.
“I wondered if you’d have any objection to a short examination tonight, Teddy,” Doctor Prince asks as we’re all sipping the straw-pale, dessert wine.
“Of course not,” I say, even as Darwin and Gabe chorus, “Why?”
I shoot them censure over the lip of my glass. They were the ones who called Doctor Prince here to help. Seems ungrateful to question her methods.
“Teddy’s aura looks healed and whole, but I’ve found that can mask injuries of the mind. From your messages, I understood Teddy burned out the source of her magic. But sitting here and looking at her aura, I don’t think that’s the case. I think her mind sealed off her magic to protect itself. If we can break that seal, I think you’ll have access to your Element again, Teddy.”
“I’ve been seeing it as a locked door,” I tell her. “There’s a little magic leaking around the edges, but my source is sealed behind that door.”
Doctor Prince rubs her hands together. “Excellent. That sort of visualization should help as we try to break the seal. Think of it as finding keys to the lock, Teddy.”
I keep that image clear in my mind as Gabe collects our empty wine glasses and I lie back on the galley couch. Doctor Prince sits at my head and Robert sits at my feet. They hold their hands over me, not touching me, just hovering a few centimeters in the air, feeling my aura.
A cold whisper of Air curls up my body from Robert’s hands, raising goosebumps everywhere it touches. Doctor Prince’s magic is an icy stroke down my spine. Cold, so cold it burns. I close my eyes and try not to shiver.
“Think back to the moment it went wrong, Teddy,” Doctor Prince says, “What were you doing?”
“Merging our magics. We’d healed Darwin and welcomed him into our circle. I felt it. The four of us became one. Then I had a vision. It started with the planetary conjunction Madame Serpa’s had me watching. Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus in Aquarius. I saw Darwin’s planet, Mars, rise, and then everything began burning. They could see it, too. It was the fae courts, the wild fae, all of them were on fire. I knew we could stop it, but I couldn’t see how. Charlie had me look around within the vision. I saw light over water. Dust devils whirling over red rock. Then it all went black.”
“Was it you who started the vision or Charlie?” Doctor Prince asks.
“Me, I think.”
“But the others could see it. Did you push the vision at them? Try to get them to see what you were seeing?”
“No, miss. It wasn’t anything that required effort. It was just them Seeing what I was Seeing. Like our Third Eyes were open, looking in the same direction.”
“Robert, what do you think?” Doctor Prince asks.
I glance down my body at the magi sitting quietly at my feet. His face, so similar to Doctor Prince’s, is composed. I can’t guess a thing from his expression. I wouldn’t sit a poker table with him.
“The mind protects itself,” he says. “Teddy, Carrie and I will shield you. Nothing bad will happen to you while we’re here. I want you to face the door that’s holding back your magic. You don’t need to find it. You just need to look in the direction of the door.”
I close my eyes and lookwithin.
I don’t have to look far. It’s right behind my eyes. A heavy oak door like the front doors to my old school of magic, Shiptons. I face the doors and remember that first day, standing on the huge, worn steps, my new uniform itching, new shoes pinching. This door separating me from my magic, bound with iron, locked with a series of impossibly complex locks, is just as imposing.
“I can’t open it,” I whisper.
“You’re not going to today,” Robert says, his deep voice soothing. “You’re just going to look at it. Get a feel for it. Describe it for us.”
“Big. Oak. Bound with iron so I can’t kick it in. Lots of locks.”
“How many? Count them aloud for me.”
I obey him just the way I’ve always obeyed Doctor Prince. They share an almost off-handed authority.
“There are five,” I say, after staring at the door for a minute. The locks are deceptive. They’re snarled and disorderly, connected by chains and hung with padlocks so they look more imposing than they are.
“Chakras,” Doctor Prince murmurs. “Look for the head lock, Teddy. It might not be at the top.”
I peer at the locks, trying to isolate them in the jumble.
“The head lock is on the right side. It’s shaped like a mandrake root, with chains coming off the arms and legs.”
“Excellent, Teddy. That’s enough for today.”
