2.Seek and Ye Shall Find

2. Seek and Ye Shall Find

Primrose University is on the opposite side of the city from our apartment, so it's almost dinnertime when the bus takes me back home.

Well, it isn't home. It's a small, crappy apartment that I share with my mother after we lost our fortune.

I trudge up the stairs to my apartment, checking the mail first. A stack of bills waits for me. My part-time job online pays just enough to pay our rent and cover groceries. The tedious data entry work doesn't pay great but also doesn't require me to leave the apartment.

The final envelope has a red Department of Corrections seal. Once the CEO of his own Fortune 500 company, my father is now an inmate at a federal prison where he's serving a 3–5-year sentence for tax fraud.

This is what became of the grand, noble Brass family. Criminal proceedings, civil suits, and wizarding tribunals. Now our businesses and property are gone. The small amount of money we can access goes towards legal fees and Percy's care.

My father is in prison. My mother, less involved in the company crimes yet still complicit, received probation which allows her to leave the house - though she refuses to do so. Instead, she haunts our apartment like a ghost clad in an old Chanel bathrobe.

I take a deep breath and trudge into the apartment. “Hey, I’m back—"

“In the kitchen!” Mother calls out.

“Why?”

“Why? What do you mean? I’m making dinner.”

My steps quicken as I race into the kitchen. She can't cook.

Mother hovers by the oven, checking on the food. "We're having lasagna.”

I just stare, surprised at the woman looking back at me. Shades of grey have replaced the color in her hair. The lines wrinkling her face are so noticeable now that she rarely uses concealer and makeup.

Victoria Brass used to be a prim and proper high society woman with a slender frame and delicate features. Now my waspy mother has a parole officer and can't leave the state. She barely even leaves the apartment.

The timer for the lasagna dings.

Mother uses potholders to grab the pan and soon cuts and serves us both dinner. Our cramped apartment has no dinner table, so we eat at the kitchen island that cuts off the kitchen from the rest of the apartment.

This is…different. Mother dressed in a silk blouse and linen pants, a few seasons out of style but in good condition. She looks...cheerful.

"Come on," Mom encourages. "Dig in before it gets cold."

“Not that hungry,” I protest.

“You need to eat,” she insists.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” I hiss automatically before even realizing what I’m saying.

“I’m not. I hoped…” Mom winces as she picks at her food. “We haven’t shared a meal like this in a long time.”

I cough. "Right. I'm sorry."

When the news broke about my family’s sins, I came back home, hoping for a mistake and to sort this all out. Now I'm not sure where else to go. Being around her is awkward, like living with a stranger. There's so much anger and disappointment lingering from all the secrets they kept from me, but she's still my mother.

I just have no idea how to treat her anymore.

We eat in silence for a few minutes before she speaks. “How did the meeting go, Oliver? ”

I stare down at my food. “Can’t we just eat in peace?”

“Does peace mean complete silence?”

“Nice weather today,” I offer. “If you go outside that is.”

“Thought you wanted peace.” She sighs, before she clears her throat and tries again. “"Don't leave me in suspense. Please tell me about the meeting."

The fork in my hand jumps and slides across my plate as my powers act up, responding to my unease with this topic. It’s clear she isn't going to drop this subject until she gets answers.

“I met with him,” I say. “What more do you want?"

“To hear what you're doing. How you handle your magic at the start of a brand can set the tone for the rest. If you don’t lead your element, your element will think it gets to lead you.”

Never should have met with the professor. It got her hopes up.

The trouble is that branding is permanent. The watch on my wrist has a thick strap that covers up the brand underneath, a mark that looks like a silver chain. Metal’s blessing will forevermore protect my body from the harmful effects too much magic can have on humans. I can’t stop being a wizard, so I need to get my powers under control, or they will act out.

There's just one issue.

Receiving my brand and becoming a wizard feels like a cosmic mistake. My family used their magic to hurt others. How can I be trusted with the same power they abused?

“Oliver, listen to me.” My mother's urgent voice interrupts my thoughts. “Don't let us get in the way of your opportunity. Our mistakes did more than ruin our reputations; they damaged our relationships with magic. My biggest regret is that our foolishness also hurt your connection to magic.”

"Mom, please." I can’t handle this after my exhausting day.

She reaches for me, placing a hand on my shoulder. “I turned a blind eye to how your father was running our company. I didn’t want to know, so I could pretend I was innocent. But I wasn’t innocent. Our selfishness and greed hurt you, and I’m so sorry. You did nothing wrong, Oliver. Your magic shouldn’t be jeopardized too.”

Branding is permanent. However, casters can be bound and blocked from using their magic. Mom can’t practice magic until her probation is over in two years. My father will be barred from magic for much longer.

Having your powers bound is uncomfortable to say the least. It’s a punishment. Which means I can’t have my own powers bound and I can’t undo becoming a wizard either.

But maybe I can start over. Live a life without powers or metal magic. I’m only 23 years old. There’s plenty of time to start over. To do that, however, I need to get my malfunctioning powers under control first.

So lost in my head, I don’t realize Mother has left me and gone to the kitchen until she sets down a small dish with an ice cream sundae in front of me. Only a modest scoop of vanilla ice-cream, chocolate sauce, and one red cherry.

Considering I do the shopping and know we have exactly none of the contents sitting in the bowl, it’s actually pretty impressive.

“I borrowed a few things from the neighbor upstairs. You did something difficult today, asking for help, so...” She winks. “You deserve a treat.”

This is the happiest I have seen her in months. All because I'm getting help with my magic. The past months have been so hard on us both. Even if I hate some of the things she did and allowed my father to do, I can't add to her suffering.

"The meeting went… it went better than I imagined.” I didn’t do anything embarrassing like cry or accidentally tear out the guts of the building, so that’s something.

"Oh, sweetheart, that's wonderful!" She lights up and almost looks like her old self. "When is he going to meet you again?"

"Uh, I’ll be back at the campus again before you know it.”

It's not a lie. Oh no.

My hands frantically search my pockets, but the realization hits me like a punch to the gut – my pocket watch is missing. Did I leave it at the university in my haste to get away?

I frantically check all my pockets again and scan the table. My pocket watch is nowhere to be found. That watch is a family heirloom that has been passed down for generations.

I need to get the Brass family watch back before it's gone forever, just like our good name.

~

The Primrose University campus feels more peaceful at night. Much more my speed. I walk along the well-lit paths without being noticed this time.

Anxious thoughts swirl around in my head about the missing pocket watch. Made of precious metals, the watch is an heirloom passed down for generations to the eldest metalbrand in the family.

Not the proud symbol it once was, but I coveted it for so many years. As the second son, I never thought I’d be the heir and receive the watch. Then Percy decided to pursue ice magic instead of metal. I hate to lose such a valuable item when my family has so few these days.

A million questions without known answers haunt me, winding me tighter than the antique clock-face. What if the watch isn't there anymore? What if someone took it? Is there a chance it moved to some sort of lost and found ?

The questions have my feet thundering across the campus, focused on finding my missing watch and nothing else—I freeze in the doorway before entering the lecture hall, all thoughts falling away as I take in the surreal view.

Two men are there in the darkness of the room, engaged in some bizarre ritual I cannot look away from.

Professor Monroe walks in circles around a shirtless, trembling man. All the windows in the lecture hall are open, and the moonlight bathes them both in a soft silver glow. I watch transfixed as the professor gives orders to the other man.

“Breathe, Argyle. Open your eyes.”

“O-okay, which one should I do?”

“Do both.”

“…Am I doing either one?” wonders the man trembling before the professor.

“No.”

The shirtless man is wet for some reason. His chest glistens with liquid that shines under the moon's light, and blue cloth is wrapped over part of him. He's a stranger, but the man giving him orders is familiar, sort of.

I recognize the professor I met earlier. He's wearing the same clothes but nothing else about him looks remotely the same. Instead of being open and friendly, he’s transformed into hard lines and firm conviction.

“I’m trying,” whines the shirtless man—Argyle. “I swear I’m trying. ”

“Should I make you do what I say?” The professor’s voice cuts through the darkness and goes right through me.

Argyle makes a high-pitched pleading noise and nods furiously.

“Open your eyes.” Liam’s eyes glow when he gives the order, the blue taking on a shining ethereal hue that looks familiar, but I can’t place it as I watch spellbound and still frozen in the doorway.

The man with his back to me must open his eyes because Liam says, “Good boy.” I see the stranger’s shoulders shudder as mine do the same. “Argyle, use your power.”

A glow appears on the blue cloth... no, that's not right. As the blue swirls lining his body brighten, I realize they're part of him. Half the man's skin is tanned and human looking while the other parts are blue and scaly. The blue colors on his body pulse and glow with power but nothing else happens.

“Sorry, Li. Nothing’s working. I can’t concentrate. How does anyone ever get anything done in a place like this? I can't...”

“No, now you can’t.” Liam's eyes shine brighter as the glow along Argyle’s skin vanishes. His skin is still tan and blue in a swirling, unpredictable pattern, but the glow that lit his features ebbs; it flows out of his skin and travels into the professor.

Wait, is he... I blink and rub my eyes. There's no way I saw that right. I must be missing something .

If the glowing energy radiating from Argyle relates to his powers and Liam absorbed the energy... Did Liam take someone’s magical power? That’s possible?

No, no, that’s not possible.

Anyone with magical ability and the tokens we use to channel power before branding can practice magic unless they’ve been bound. Binding only happens as a consequence for bad behavior or when one fails to partner with an element. And after branding, any wizard with an element inside them is permanently linked to the element and its magic. Taking magic isn't possible... is it?

What in the world is happening here?

“Whoa, that’s weird as hell,” Argyle comments, echoing my own thoughts. “My magic is just missing.”

“You know what I can do,” Liam says.

“Yeah, but it was hard to imagine something so fundamental just being gone. I’m not sure I like it. Can I have my powers back? Wait, do I need to beg? Isn’t that a thing for you?”

“No, not with you.” The professor is quick to respond, but the other man is faster, assuming he knows what to do now.

“Okay, I’ll beg. Please, pretty please? Pretty please, Mr. Professor Sir? Pretty please with a cherry on top?”

“Argyle, stop talking.” His eyes glow and the man falls silent .

Liam's gaze is focused and predatory as he looks at Argyle with an intensity I feel across the room. His glowing eyes carry a hypnotic power. He's nothing like the patient, easy-going professor I saw before. Now Liam is in complete control, and it’s both intimidating and dead sexy.

What would it feel like to be trapped by his stare and those strong arms of his? What would it be like to be with someone so assertive and powerful? Someone who demands your compliance?

The commanding man places a hand on Argyle's head, and I gasp at the sight.

Liam's eyes snap up to meet mine, and for a moment, we just stare at each other. His gaze is silver like mercury and filled with an intensity that paralyzes me. He may as well be pinning me down with steel bands.

"Oliver," the professor says, his voice tight and strained. "We need to talk."