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Moni was still grappling with her thoughts and emotions. It had never occurred to her that Sam might not want to return with her to school. She rather suspected that he had Stockholm Syndrome. That he had been entrenched in Bavaria with his captors for so very long that he now felt completely at home.
Sam was pointing at a huge portrait hanging on the opposite wall over a massive fireplace, featuring a dark robed, distinguished looking male figure in formal robes with silver hair and a goatee.
“Thatis one of our relatives, Moni. Our Great Uncle Sebastian Crocket. I believe that’s why I was named Sebastian .It’s a family name. I think he favors us a bit! It’s no wonder I feel at home here .It is a place where we are surrounded by the vibes of our relatives, egging us on to be the best Magicals that we are able to be!” Sam smiled at her, a beatific smile and then turned to stare dreamily at the portrait of their great, great, great relative that provided a dignified and imposing presence to the room.
But all Moni could think was, “FUCK!”
Moni decided that she wasn’t giving up on her mission, and she wasn’t giving in to whatever delusional spell that her twin seemed to be under. She decided that he was as good as brainwashed, probably needed to get back to America, to Pitchfork Prep Academy, and after he spent a drunken boys night out with Broody and Luca and got laid by some trampy little witch who knew her way around a male body, he might be right as rain. Or at least decide he would rather notbe confined and used as an energy battery for the Rebels any more.
“Can we talk privately?” she asked him.
“Moni, anything you have to say, I’m sure you can say, it isn’t like we’re being censored,” Sam told her. “Anyway, didn’t you notice that the walls have ears?”
“What are you—” Moni started to ask, scanning the pale granite slab walls surrounding them, plain with the exception of a formal portrait hung strategically along its expanse. But as she looked upward, she noticed a whirling liquid looking thing on the ceiling and recognized that the Rebel Clave was using hydromancy to listen in on their conversations.
“We can, however, talk outside, if you would like,” Sam told her, noticing her look of alarm. He slipped his hand into hers and walked with her to one of the blind corners of the space that turned out to be an opening onto a small outside terrace.
“Isn’t it a beautiful town?” Sam asked, throwing one arm out in an expansive gesture.
Moni stared down at the many buildings, large and small, the green rolling hills and distant mountains and waterfalls, and had to admit that the town was quite scenic.
“It is lovely,” she told him, meaning it. “But I don’t want to live here forever, Sam, and neither would you if you could spend just a little while back in America with me… All of my friends are ready to welcome you with open arms. Broody and Shady are brother and sister, and Luca, well, Luca is-is?—”
“Your boyfriend?” Sam teased. “Did you know you are blushing right now? Dead giveaway! I assume you two are serious?”
“Allof us are serious, about each other!” she told him. “It’s like having the best and most loving family in the universe… Look, Iknowyou believe you are happy here, but youhaveto seePitchfork Prep Academy. I know if you see it, you wouldn’t want to come back!” she finished in a plaintive voice.
Sam looked around and leaned more closely toward her.
“I don’t think the Elders would like it, Moni. They have waited a very long time to reunite us. I think, because we are twins and also Magicals, that we are the new definition of apower couple!”
“Wow you really keep up on language!” she told him. “Streaming media much?
But listen,” she said seriously. “I have some new skills that my best friend, Shady Watkins, taught me, some really deep magic that Iknowcan get us out of here and back to Pitchfork Prep Academy… I am literallybeggingyou to help me by lending your energy to help make an escape for us. And I alsoswearthat if you don’t like it, you can return as soon as you want… Though, I would hate to lose you for asecondtime, ithasto be your choice, Sam!”
Sam looked into her eyes for a very long time. After what seemed to be an eternity, he leaned down and kissed her on the forehead, the same way he had always done when they were kids, because he had always been taller than she was.
“Only for you, Moni,” he sighed.
Neither one of the twins were much for hanging around after the decision was made. By the time they reentered the study or whatever the huge room had been—later, Sam told her it was his own private library—they had a solid plan and the determination to stick to it.
Step one was to create a portal, a manageable one that would get them straight back to campus and leave no trace.
Moni had told him that she was able to create a portal and wasted no time in using her magical skills to do so. As both of them stood back, she created a belly button sized dimple in the air before them that, as it whirled in a counter clockwise direction, became larger and larger until it was about the size of a… pet door!
Moni knew she couldn’t say anything, but she was getting red in the face, because the portal refused to get larger even though she knew was repeating the spell correctly.
Sam chuckled, and then mouthedsorrybefore stepping up and whispering in her ear, “There must be wardings in here. I can do a quick counter-casting!” And then he proceeded to manipulate the air around the undersized portal opening until it suddenly expanded to regulation size.
There was no time to even congratulate him. He stepped aside to let her go first and then plunged in himself.
Time was odd within portals. It seemed to both of them as they navigated down the tunnel-like structure—which had the same feel under their feet as very firm jello—that time was passing quickly and slowly all at once. One minute it felt as if a thousand years had passed, and the next like only a few seconds had gone by.
It spit them out in the back gardens of Pitchfork Prep Academy, where it was deserted, most of the gardens having withered during the previous frosty nights, and no one but a curious squirrel seemed to take any notice of their being there at all.
Moni grabbed Sam’s hand, just as the portal winked closed behind them. Sam looked up at the huge building, and then back at Moni.
“I like it already,” he told her nodding, “It has great ambiance!”
