2. The Mansion House
1958 Words
2
The Mansion House
Jacob tossed off the blanket, ran to the window, and threw it open.
And there she was. Emilia Gray.
She pushed herself through the window and threw her arms around Jacob’s neck. “Jacob,” she said, her voice full of pain and concern. “I’m so sorry.”
Jacob froze for a moment, unsure if he was actually awake, until the cool night air whispered through Emilia’s hair, carrying with it the soft scent of lilacs. “Emi?” he whispered, wrapping his arms around her. She felt warm and incredibly real.
She pulled away to look him in the eye. “I came as soon as I heard everything that happened. Are you all right?”
“I’m―” Jacob reached up and touched Emilia’s face, brushing a strand of long black hair from her forehead. “You’re here?” His voice sounded raw. “Are you really here?”
“I’m really here,” Emilia said. “I came back for you. I promised I would. Jacob, I’m sorry.”
He pulled her into his arms and buried his face in her hair, trying hard to remember how to breathe. She hadn’t changed that much. Her hair was long and black, and her eyes were misty grey. She was taller now but still her. Still perfect.
“Are you okay?” Emilia whispered.
“I’m fine.” Jacob pulled away and ran a hand through his hair, trying to stop his head from spinning. “I think I might be in shock or something. I’m so used to Jim being gone. I guess I just don’t understand that he isn’t coming back. Is that weird?”
“I don’t think so.”
“How did you know?” Jacob asked. “How did you know about Jim so fast? I mean, I only found out this morning.”
“I know, and I know this is an awful time. But I had to come now before it was too late.”
“He’s dead. I don’t think there’s really a time crunch,” Jacob said with a hoarse laugh. The laugh caught in his throat and turned unexpectedly into a sob. He tried to breathe, but it only made the sobs louder.
Emilia pulled him over to the bed and curled up in the corner, putting Jacob’s head on her shoulder.
Jacob didn’t know how long he had cried, but he hurt everywhere. He hurt like he had run a marathon. His throat was dry, and his eyes stung. He stayed sitting next to Emilia on the bed. She had held him as he cried for losing the father who was never there. As Emilia reached up to wipe a tear from his cheek, he vowed he would never cry for Jim again. It was over. Jim was gone.
Jacob took a deep breath. “Thank you.” He looked down at Emilia’s hand holding his.
“I’m so sorry, but we can’t stay here.” She silenced Jacob’s protest. “I didn’t come here because of your father. I came to get you. Just like I promised I would. It’s time now,” she said slowly. “I am so sorry about Jim, but I need you to come with me.”
Something wasn’t right. Emilia was here in his room. They were together, but she looked worried. Almost frightened.
“I came because of what happened at your school. What you did to your school.”
Jacob shook his head as her words sank in. “Is that what the police are saying? I was with Principal McManis when it happened. It wasn’t me.” Panic crept into his chest. He looked around his bedroom, sure the police were going to break in at any moment to arrest him.
“The police think it was some sort of terrorist attack. I love how they can invent logical explanations for just about anything.” Emilia pulled Jacob back when he started toward the window to look for police cars. “They don’t suspect you at all.”
Jacob searched Emilia’s eyes, unsure if he should be relieved or more afraid. Who else but the police would come for him?
“But we know you did it,” Emilia said. “You broke all those windows. Well, every piece of glass in the building actually.”
“What do you mean I broke the windows?”
“Jacob. You are special. Different, like me. You have abilities you don’t understand, but when you’re upset―”
“What are you talking about?”
“Magic, Jacob. Wizardry, sorcery, maleficium, whatever you want to call it. I’m a witch, you’re a wizard, and we need to get out of here.”
Jacob stared at Emilia. He ran his hand over her cheek.
She grabbed his hand. “Jacob, I’m real. And this is real. There is a whole world out there. A magical world. But you have to decide right now if you want to be a part of it. There are things in my world that are beyond your imagination, but if you come with me, you can never go back to being normal. You can never come back here.”
“Emi.” Jacob shook his head. “This is crazy.”
She brought his hand between them. It was covered in small cuts from shards of McManis’s mug. His hand warmed in her grasp. Not unpleasantly so, but as though it were submerged in warm water. Then his skin tingled and stung. The places where the skin had been broken became almost iridescent. Finally, the glow subsided, and the cuts started to fade. After a few seconds, his hand had completely healed.
“It is real.” Emilia stared into Jacob’s eyes. “Will you come with me?”
Jacob couldn’t think beyond Emilia’s return. He was tired, and his brain felt fuzzy. His school was wrecked. His father was dead.
He wanted to be angry with Emilia. To shake her for making him even more confused, to yell at her for disappearing for four years, and for clearly having left out some very important details in the course of their friendship. He didn’t understand what was happening.
Emilia’s hands were so delicate in his. He would do anything to keep her from disappearing again. He would follow Emilia Gray to the ends of the earth.
“Do I need to pack anything?” he asked.
“Only if you want to.” Emilia gave him a hard, serious look. “Jacob, are you sure this is what you want?”
“Yes.”
Emilia offered to help him pack, but there wasn’t very much Jacob wanted to take with him. He already had everything important packed in a box under his bed. Pictures of his parents. A book his mother had written her name in. All of the notes his father had left on the kitchen table every time he went out of town. Jacob kept the box packed in case a social worker came for him. All he had to do was throw some clothes into a bag, and he was ready to go.
He turned off the lights and walked out the front door. He hesitated with the key in his hand for a moment before leaving it in the lock. Under the streetlight, a very shiny black car waited for them.
Jacob didn’t look back as he walked to the car. He didn’t need to. There was nothing left for him there.
Emilia opened the car door for him.
“Nice to see you, Jacob,” Samuel, the Grays’ driver and gardener, spoke from the front seat. “I am very sorry for your loss.”
Jacob nodded, studying Samuel’s reflection in the rearview mirror. Samuel had dust-brown hair and laugh lines that never faded. But there were new, harsh lines around his eyes and forehead Jacob had never seen before. Lines that hadn’t come from Samuel’s constant knowing smile.
Emilia climbed into the car. “If we hurry, we might make it before everyone wakes up.”
“Somehow I think there’ll still be trouble,” Samuel said as they drove away from Fairfield.
“Where are we going?” Jacob asked when Samuel turned the car onto the highway. Since Emilia had left, he had only been on the highway twice for school trips. It was strange to see the night whisking by at sixty-five miles per hour.
“To the Mansion House. It’s about two hours away.” Emilia chewed her bottom lip. Jacob recognized that worried look. “Aunt Iz might be awake when we get back. She didn’t want me to come with Samuel, but I convinced him I had to come. I wanted to get you myself.”
“Two hours away.” Jacob shook his head. “Two hours away and you never once came to see me?” His head started to spin again. As the minutes ticked past, things made less and less sense.
Emilia looked at him with pain in her eyes. “It wasn’t my choice. It’s so complicated, and it’s not supposed to be me who explains. There are rules that can never be broken. At the house, you believed me when I told you you’re a wizard. Now you have to believe me when I tell you there are rules and responsibilities that come with those powers.”
“Powers.” Jacob rubbed the skin on his palm that had been healed less than an hour ago. “Powers?”
Emilia shook her head. “Not now. You should sleep.”
He didn’t want to close his eyes and risk her being gone again when he opened them. The first rays of light crept over the mountains. He had a hundred questions. Where had she been? What was he capable of? But really, he was too tired to push for answers. So he sat with his fingers laced through hers and watched the sunrise.
They crossed the border into Massachusetts and drove through a small town. A paperboy pedaled past on his morning route, the sole inhabitant moving down the sleepy streets on his bicycle. Would Jacob’s school or his father’s death be in the newspaper?
They drove past the town and onto a smaller road lined so thickly with trees it was impossible to see more than a few feet on either side of the car. Samuel turned the car left onto a driveway no one would notice if they didn’t know exactly where to look. A hundred feet down the drive, they came to a tall stone wall surrounding the property. A set of iron gates etched with strange symbols swung open. The car shuddered as it passed through the gates.
Emilia squeezed his hand. “Don’t worry. It’s just the fortaceria. A spell to turn outsiders away.”
Jacob nodded, amazed he hadn’t been rejected by the gate.
The driveway was so long and the trees so large, at first he couldn’t see the house at all. When the building finally came into view, Jacob had to agree with its name. It was a mansion. Not anything hugely luxurious, but delicate and stately. Definitely larger than any of the houses in Fairfield, but somehow it still seemed homey.
As they stopped in front of the house, several people came running through the front door at once. They called to the car, but Jacob couldn’t make out their words over the crunch of the gravel. First out of the door was a dark-haired boy, tall and muscled, who seemed to be the same age as Jacob. Then a small, blond girl of maybe eleven or twelve, still wearing her pink pajamas. A red-haired boy came next, dragging Molly, the Grays’ cook. Last came an older man, small and toady, wearing a maroon bathrobe. He had Aunt Iz on his arm. She was, of course, smiling her wry smile as the car stopped.
The dark-haired boy ran to open Emilia’s door. Jacob thought he heard Emilia whimper as the boy reached in and pulled her from the car.
The boy crushed her to his chest. “What the hell were you thinking? Do you have any idea―”
“Dex, I’m sorry,” Emilia said, “but I had to go―”
“Go running into the epicenter of an incident like this? Do you know what could have happened to you?”
“Yes, Dexter, I do. That’s why I had to go.” Emilia pulled herself away. She glanced at Jacob in the car. “Please, Dex,” she whispered in a voice almost too quiet for Jacob to hear.
Dexter brushed Emilia’s hair off her face and kissed her before pulling her back into his arms.
- Writer
