Chapter Four: Arlo

His brother's voice cut through the air. "Really, Arlo? You're taking an interest in some medium girl?"

Arlo walked, hands tucked in his pockets, not enjoying the visit from his family, which included his necromancer brother, father, and a much younger nephew who was also hoping to make their way into Dreadmor someday. The nephew goggled at the gardens before dashing up to the famous statue that was rumored to be a real person turned to stone by Medusa snakes. There were other myth-like stories like that about the place, which is why it was considered legendary.

He glared at his brother. "I just think it's interesting how they're grouping us together on the same cases."

"They didn't have a medium when I went," Rican growled. "There were two other necromancers, however. The people teaching us didn't have a great opinion of mediums, and you can't blame them. Half the ones who claim to be mediums are fakes."

"No, no… her power's genuine." Arlo glanced at his father, who watched their discussion without interruption. "She was able to get all the answers from a corpse. I couldn't do that."

"Pah! You'll soon outstrip her. You just need more practice, that's all."

"I guess," Arlo said doubtfully. He didn't know how to explain how impressive Holly's powers were. His family seemed to have a preconceived dislike for mediums.

I did, as well, he thought in frustration.

Funny how one clear interaction and demonstration could change someone's opinion.

Now, his father spoke. "You seem to like this medium. Is she a werewolf?" Arnak, his father, said casually but with zero subtlety.

"No, she's not a werewolf. And – no, I like her. Just not the way you're so tiresomely hinting at."

"Might be interesting, Rican said, grinning at Arlo's discomfort. "Wonder what medium and necromancer offspring would be like."

"Shut the hell up," Arlo snapped. He held back an urge to punch his brother, though a small part of his mind now contemplated Holly just a little more than before.

Of course, he needed to say he wasn't interested in her. It was too soon and too distracting for his family. But… he was not entirely uninterested in her either.

"Is she cute? Hot? Do you have pictures?"

"I swear to God, I'm gonna punch you…" Arlo said through gritted teeth.

Arnak intervened. "Now, now, stop teasing your brother. There's something I wanted to discuss with you anyway, Arlo."

Arlo looked up at the sky, clear for once, enjoying the pale blue and the tiny wisps of cloud that drifted by. How he wished he weren't surrounded by his family. How he wished his father wasn't interrogating him at this moment. But here they were. He sighed. "Sure, what is it, Dad?"

"How are you doing in school? Has your mother been trying to contact you recently… or anyone else from the clans?"

Ah. The courteous start, followed by the real reason for the sudden interest. "School is… well, good but still new. I haven't done anything more challenging than a trip to the village to take part in a fake death investigation. I did meet a Raintotem werewolf, though, who was a necromancer. She was the one leading the investigation and instructing us."

"Ah, the Raintotems," Arnak said. "Some of our families are in contact with them, as there's a commonality of magic. Seems both our clans had similar ancestors – two necromancer brothers some hundred years back who split and married into our clans. They're not nearly as divided as we are with the Sixclaws, however. Is this the only of the clans who tried to speak to you?"

"The Redfur cousins, too. They attend the school and are the same year."

"Nothing from your mother, then?"

"No. She hasn't contacted me. Or sent anyone if that's what you're trying to find out."

His father didn't try to deny the fact, and his brother made a small tsking noise.

"Be careful," his dad eventually said. "I've heard on the grapevine that there are some plans to try and steer you back to Archon Academy. It would look good socially for your mother if that were to happen – since the school is more prestigious to them."

Arlo snorted at that. "It's all nonsense. Archon isn't even a pure-blooded werewolf school anymore. I don't see why you have to go there to amount to anything."

"It's not a pure-blooded werewolf academy, true, but you must have werewolf ancestry somewhere to attend. So, it will always be seen as a bastion of education and influence for our kind." His father's eyes gleamed a dark yellow. "Dreadmor to them is a darkness that rots away at families. The other schools don't register with them. But Dreadmor is a powerful institution in its own right, and there's a fear that more and more of the elite werewolves will opt to come here instead. Archon's funding, for all its wealth, is precarious, so they always want to be the premier academic institution for werewolves."

Great, Arlo thought. More werewolf politicsthat he couldn't care less about.

Arlo enjoyed talking with his family when they weren't trying to feed him the dirt about the dramas going on back home. He pointedly wanted nothing to do with those dramas, but by virtue of his blood, they always hovered him like a shadow on his day.

"If Mother contacts me or sends anyone, it'll have to be a damn good offer for me even to considerleaving Dreadmor. This is the place where I can be free to use my powers. No more sneaking into the woods, Dad."

"We still sneak into the woods sometimes," Rican admitted with a big grin. "Just for tradition's sake."

"Good for you." Arlo felt more and more boxed in by the second. He wanted to spend time with his family. He didn't want to spend time talking about all these things. Perhaps his dad picked up on something, for he paused, resting a hand on his son's shoulders.

"You look distressed. What's going on?"

Should I tell them? He debated for a moment. Sometimes, he really struggled just to be honest with them. It came from being the youngest in the family, from witnessing the tug-of-war growing in intensity as he aged. "I just… I don't want to talk about any of this. I only want to spend time with you. I'm here to… escape it all, you know?"

"Ah." Arnak squeezed his shoulder. "Alright. We wanted to give you a heads-up, but… yes. I understand." His eyes crinkled at the corners. "Let's focus more on you, shall we?"

He told them a little more about Holly but couldn't say much without his brother leering and his father wanting to get a look at this medium for himself, so he changed the subject. They always liked to interpret things as being far bigger than they actually were. All Holly and he did was just go to the village together for their first out-of-academy lesson. No big deal.

Sure, they might have gone there in bad moods, but they returned with the desire to get to know each other better. She was prepared to start over with him, and it couldn't help but make him feel hopeful in a way.

Plus, though he didn't want to say it to his father and brother, Holly was cute. More than cute, really. He could go for her big time if he happened to be on the lookout for a relationship, which he was not. Except…

He sighed, focusing on the small time he had left with his family, then waved them goodbye as they left, leaving him to enjoy the rest of the afternoon and the gradually fading sun.

Hopefully, his mother wouldn't think about contacting him anytime soon. Much as he loved her, he didn't like how deeply she was involved in family politics – and unfortunately, there was a current tug-of-war centered around his parents. He didn't see their marriage surviving it, and it saddened him because they did love each other. It was just this family bullshit.

Taking a full look around the academy took about fifteen minutes if you walked slowly – and on the second loop around, he saw that a pack of students had congregated in the Triscor garden with the well-known statue. Scattered around the benches were much older students, including a couple of werewolves he was unfamiliar with but had no interest in associating with. Both those werewolves examined him as he passed, but he said nothing.

At 6 p.m. sharp, Holly appeared at the entrance, her green eyes searching for him. Trying not to look too enthusiastic, he approached, giving her a thin smile. "Hey. It's good to see you here. And you're right on time."

"I try to be. So, where are we going?"

"Follow me." Together, they set off through the great wrought iron gates along a gentle path that led to a bank of wispy trees, flower bushes, and patches of green. On the east side, the swamp, filled with bizarre, potentially dangerous creatures, loomed ominously. Dreadmor's alliance with the deep supernatural still made him uneasy – but perhaps that feeling would fade once he learned how to deal with the creatures around. It seemed Holly shared some of that unease because she glanced over to the swampy woods as they passed.

"A part of me thinks that this whole arrangement the academy has is completely insane," Holly said wryly, walking closer to him. "The other part thinks this is all pretty exciting in a scary way. Or a good way? I don't know."

"I think I understand what you mean by that." He grinned. "It's all mysterious, and it means we're paying a lot more attention to everything around us, which also helps with the magic."

Holly suddenly said, "Question: Do you really think the statue in the garden is a student?"

"Probably not." He winked at her, then wondered why the hell he'd done it.

Idiot.

"I mean, they have all sorts of ways to cure people. I think you can reverse petrification. It's just an enchanted statue."

"Chloe swears she saw the eyes moving at one point…"

"Enchanted. Probably." Though he didn't know.

The way the pathway shimmered with an otherworldly light at points made Arlo pause just to take in all the unusual sights. Holly happily paused with him, and her eyes glittered from each new thing, enjoying the weave of the supernatural along with him. He suspected she'd been exposed to far less in her life than he had, so there was something of childish wonder in her gaze – the kind that infected others and made them see the world in a better light.

He enjoyed it. A lot.

Perhaps this is why people have children, he thought.

Not just for the joy of a child but for the joy of them experiencing things for the first time and seeing them through their eyes. Growing up with magic without all the burdens and fears. Just magic with no strings attached.

Holly crouched close to a luminous frog on an old, rustic fence along the path. It gave a little ribbet, the pouch beneath its jaw puffing out as a glowing blue balloon.

"Dude," Holly said, "this frog is freaking glowing."

"Pretty cool, right?" He crouched beside her, elbows resting on his knees. Even with two giants shadowing it, the frog didn't act scared. It puffed itself up bigger and let out a more ominous ribbit.

"Do you think it's dangerous?" Holly said, now a little more doubtful.

"I have no idea."

Another ominous ribbit. The balloon pouch swelled larger.

"I think… we should maybe back away," Holly suggested.

"Mm." They both straightened and stepped back. The frog hopped after them with a booming RIBBIT! Okay. Time to go. They broke into a brisk trot, trying their best not to look back and see if the frog was following them.

"You'd think," he added slowly, "that since this path is one of the most used by students outside of Dreadmor, it would be the safest. So… I'm sure that frog probably wasn't harmful."

"Probably is not enough." Holly smiled ruefully at him. God, the way her eyes looked then, so full of mirth – his heart gave a traitorous little leap, and for a second, mild panic seized up his brain. Luckily, she didn't appear to notice anything, and her attention turned back to the path.

"The more I find out about this school and the area it's in, the more… incredible it feels. It's really as if we've stepped into another realm entirely."

"That's kinda the thing." He gestured around her. "This place is not connected with Earth in the same way. If a plane above us were to fly over, it wouldn't see anything but mountains and empty land. If a normal human were to walk close to Dreadmor, they wouldn't see or experience it in the same way. Anything that is a ‘wildland' area, as we call it –is almost like another realm leaking into ours."

"Really?" Holly frowned, clearly trying to make sense of what he was describing. "But it's not another realm, right? It's here, on earth."

"Kind of. But it's like… a magical part stitched onto the planet where the normal laws and physics of Earth don't add up because everything is influenced by magic. You might be visiting it on Earth, but it is a separate place. A separate country." He sighed. "I hope that makes sense." It used to give him a headache when it was explained to him before.

Holly nodded, but still, her eyebrows scrunched up in doubt. "It might take me a little bit to process that. I was reading about what happened with the summer camp, you know. But this is different from something like that."

"It is." He examined the sky with its wispy, puffy clouds and sighed. Now, with his family heading back to their home, he wanted to spend time with Holly, which reminded him… "Are we meeting up with any of the others, or will it just be us two?"

"Us two," she said, with a faint reddening of her face.

"Interesting." He smiled, enjoying her natural reaction more than anticipated. "Your cheeks seem a little flushed. Are you feeling well?"

"Oh!" She patted her face. "Must be the wind. Does that sometimes."

Sure, it does.

His smile widened. Time alone with Holly. Did she like him? Or at least have some attraction to him that way? He wanted to ask. But those were not really questions you dropped on someone when first getting to know them, and the last thing he wanted to do was chase her away or make her feel uncomfortable with him, especially since it was highly likely they'd be working together for the next few years, being among the few that communicated with the dead.

A tiny, rebellious spark in him alighted at the notion of how pissed off his mother might be if he ever ended up dating someone so far removed from all the family politics. If it were up to her, she'd try to find some nice woman from a not-too-shabby clan. Given his father's choice, he'd encourage closer cooperation with the Raintotems, as they had latent necromancy in their bloodline, too. That was already happening with Rican – he knew his brother happened to be going out with someone from one of the lower Raintotem branch families. There were no options in the main branch, but many of the lower ones – siblings and cousins of the main clan leader – held a few options. Of course, more and more werewolves broke away from rigid traditions in this modern day and age. But that didn't mean that some still clung to them and refused to let go even as the world shifted and evolved in front of them.

He didn't blame them, really. And now, he was associating with a medium, who seemed all human, with latent abilities to reach beyond, impressive latent abilities, in fact.

Arlo asked, "Before you came here, did you have many friends from… different magical backgrounds? Or was it more or less a normal upbringing?"

Holly's embarrassment receded as she contemplated this. "I think it was mostly normal. My family made a living from their magic. I had an aunt who sold crystals, tarot cards, and mythological creatures – and my mother did card readings in the back of the shop. I have an uncle who does ghost tours – all of us are doing things like that."

"They're all quite powerful with their magic, then?"

"I couldn't say. Only one of them went to Dreadmor – the rest were self-taught or didn't seek out an education. There are obviously powers in our family line. There are lots of legends about who we're descended from. But I never really thought to… categorically measure anything, if that makes sense."

"It does." He moved closer to her as the village slowly came into view. "There's a lot of controversy about psychics and mediums. As a result, I admit my family has a rather poor opinion of your type of magic."

"Right." She folded her arms but didn't seem too offended. "It doesn't help that there are a lot of fakes out there. They really drag down the magic, faking being possessed or making up crap with the tarot. However, we don't really have a good opinion of necromancers either."

"They're dark, evil. They'll raise an army of the dead and go on a rampage." He snorted. "It doesn't help that we did have a few necromancers like that in the past. They've also screwed up the image."

She laughed, and the laughter made him feel warm. "Yeah. I guess we have a lot to learn about one another."

"That we do." The village consisted of several buildings clustered together – all houses and cottages. Most of the village's trade came from the students and their relatives who came for sports events, magical challenges, lectures, or just simply to visit. As a result, a few restaurants and coffee places had sprung up, and some beautiful gardens had been erected for sightseers. The village even had an old movie theater where they showed classic films.

Arlo didn't really have a plan beyond walking here and seeing where the mood took them – and this suited both of them fine.

Holly stopped when they approached the old cinema, and Arlo made a mental note to see what might be playing at a later date. They both grabbed a coffee with a waft of cream on top and walked together, shoulders occasionally bumping.

"Do you like movies, Arlo? Maybe we can see one sometime."

He sipped his coffee carefully as it was still steaming hot. "I'm not really into movies, but I think it could be a cool thing for us to do if you want."

"Why not? Or we can go into one of the gardens…"

"I don't really care as long as it's something I get to do with you," he said, intending it to be casual, but her reaction suggested this came across as a little more than just casual. Her movements became a little awkward, her voice shyer.

"Oh, well. That settles things, then."

"And, well, I do remember you saying that you wanted to bring your friends, but you didn't. Why did you change your mind?"

"Oh." Some of her hair fell in front of her face. "To be honest, I wanted to spend the time with you. I just got… nervous that it might seem really weird, so that's why I said I'd bring some friends. But really, I wanted it just to be us hanging out."

"I see. Thanks for telling me." A part of him wanted to reach over and brush the hair out of her face so he could better see her expression to gauge what might be going on behind those eyes. However, that seemed a little invasive, so he instead kept a respectful distance, as he said, "I was hoping to spend some time alone with you. It's fun to see the world through your eyes with your background with this type of magic."

"Ha. I bet my mother would love you," she said, grinning as she sipped her coffee. "Maybe we can arrange a video call at some point if you want to have a tarot reading. Because she absolutely will want to do that."

"Huh. It works even over a call?"

"Yep."

Wow, that actually sounded intriguing. However, he wasn't sure if he wanted to meet her parents just yet. "I'll consider it. Though, of course, I wouldn't say no if you wanted to try to do a reading yourself."

They continued to chatter, walking from one end of the village to the other, and along this section was a spread of farms and homesteads, with some of the fields directly merging into enchanted woodland and magical hot spots beyond.

On a whim, the two of them took a small detour, jumping over a fence and making their way through a field toward a glowing woods. The soil shimmered in a strange rainbow of colors, and they soon came upon what looked like an old well with a broken bucket and swollen rope wrapped around a bar above it.

They wanted to examine the shimmering woodland without actually stepping into it. They weren't completely insane.

Footprints in the soft loam indicated that plenty of other people had had the same idea. There were even a few that had trekked right into the woods themselves – though Arlo didn't think that would be wise, at least not before knowing exactly what types of supernatural creatures might lurk within.

"Look! I think I know that one!" Holly exclaimed, pointing toward a flickering light within the trees. "That's a will-o'-the-wisp, isn't it? Those phantom lights that appear in woods sometimes?"

He squinted, crouching slightly to match her vantage point. He thought he could make something out: faint, green, almost a trick of the light. "I've heard of those, too. Best not to follow them. It doesn't usually end well for the follower."

She unconsciously clung to his arm, fingers splayed over the bare skin where he'd rolled up his shirt sleeves and buttoned them up. A faint shiver of electricity rippled through the little hairs on his arm, coursing deeper into his bloodstream, causing him to hold his breath for a second.

That feeling intensified. At first, he thought he might be having some strange reaction to Holly, maybe even to her magic. The lingering sensation, however, continued even when they broke apart. It seemed he wasn't the only one who noticed something.

"Do you feel it?" she whispered, now rubbing her arms, looking away from the woods and at him. "What is that?"

"I don't know," he whispered back, though he wasn't sure why they were whispering. "There's something… different."

They stared at each other. Then, still following the odd, tingling pull, they turned their gazes to the well near the border of the woods.