Graduating (Covenant College Book 5)

My mom was beaming. Aric and I had arrived at my parents’ house about fifteen minutes prior, and she’d been doting on him ever since. She’d been surprised to hear we reunited – even more surprised than when I told her we’d broken up the previous spring – and now she was plying him with iced tea and cookies.

“I’m glad to be back,” Aric said, taking a cookie and leaning back on the couch, draping his arm around my shoulders. He knew I was nervous, but he was letting me take the lead.

“We really missed you,” Mom said. “Zoe especially.”

Aric winked at me. “So I heard. I’m assuming there were tears and maudlin music all last summer.”

Mom pursed her lips. “No. There was just a lot of … silence.”

Aric squeezed my shoulder. “Well, I don’t think you have to worry about that today.”

Mom raised her eyebrows as she regarded me. I could tell what she was thinking. I’d barely said two words since I’d walked into the house. Silence was my current best friend, although I was going to have to find some words – and soon.

My name is Zoe Lake. I’m a college student. I’m a monster hunter. And, apparently, I’m also a mage. Today? Today I’m going to find out the truth.

I wet my dry lips with my tongue. “Um, so where is Dad?”

“He’s out in the garage,” Mom said. “He’s working on that car of his. He promised to come in as soon as he was done.”

“Oh, good.” My voice sounded hollow to my own ears.

The look Mom sent me was unreadable. After a moment, she turned her attention back to Aric. “So, you graduated? What are you going to do now?”

Aric’s smile was congenial, friendly even. I could feel the tension in his seemingly relaxed body, though. “I’m not doing anything this summer,” Aric said. “I’m staying at our property out at the resort and just kind of … relaxing.”

“I see. And after that?”

“I’m going back to the campus with Zoe,” Aric said, keeping his tone even. “I’m going to stay in my apartment, and I’m going to be working for my family’s lumber business.”

“But you’ll keep your base down there?”

“For the year, yes.”

“Because of Zoe?” Mom pressed.

Aric faltered. “For a number of reasons,” he said carefully. “Zoe is one of them. I’m not going to lie.”

“Well, thank you for not lying,” Mom said. “Now, I’m not going to lie to you. I’m not sure I’m comfortable with how … close … the two of you seem to be. You’re two years older than Zoe, which is nothing in the grand scheme of things, but she’s still young.”

“Mom!” I was horrified.

Aric rubbed his thumb over my shoulder to soothe me. “We’re not getting married, Mrs. Lake. We’re just dating.”

“It seems like more than that to me.”

“There are different ways of looking at things,” Aric said.

“Well, I guess, as long as you’re not getting married, I don’t have anything to worry about,” Mom said. “Make sure you don’t get pregnant, young lady. That would really be a mess right now.”

“Mom!”

Aric chuckled, enjoying my mortification. “I think we have that covered.”

“What do you have covered?” My dad was standing beneath the archway between the dining room and living room, taking in the scene with flat eyes and a pinched expression on his face.

“His penis, dear,” Mom said. “I was just warning them about the dangers of Zoe getting pregnant.”

I wanted to find a hole to crawl into and hide. Dad looked equally uncomfortable.

“Oh, well, okay,” he said. “What have I missed?”

Mom patted the open spot beside her on the loveseat. “Well, Aric is back, and it looks like he’s here to stay,” she said. “And Zoe clearly has something she wants to talk to us about.”

“Oh. Well, let me get a beer,” Dad said. “I have a feeling this is going to be a long talk.”

“I think you’re right,” Mom said.

When Dad returned, he had two beers in his hand. He handed one to Aric silently and then settled next to Mom. “So, what’s up? You’re not getting married, are you?”

Mom patted his knee. “I already asked them that. I think they’re just happily fornicating right now.”

Seriously, any hole to hide in will do.

“I think she wants to talk to us about something a little more serious,” Mom said.

“I figured,” Dad said. “Frankly, I was expecting this conversation three years ago.”

I lifted my eyebrows in surprise. “You were?”

“Once you decided to attend Covenant College, we knew that this conversation would happen,” Mom said. “We kept expecting you to bring it up, but every time it looked like you were going to, something stopped you.”

Fear. Regret. Heartbreak.

“What am I?” My voice was hoarse as I uttered the words.

“You’re a mage.” Mom’s voice was soft and matter-of-fact. “I think you already know that, though. What is it you really want to know?”

“Are you a mage?”

Mom glanced over at Dad. “We both are or, more precisely, were.”

Aric stirred on the couch, leaning forward. “I thought that was impossible.”

“What?” I was lost.

“After we figured out what you were, I did some research,” Aric said. “True mages are immortal beings,” he said. “They’re not supposed to be able to breed.”

His words hit me like a fist. “Are you … not my parents?”

“We’re your parents,” Mom said quickly, trying to assuage my fear. “It’s just … complicated.”

“Well, why don’t you start at the beginning,” Aric said. “I think it’s time.”

“I was born four centuries ago in the fields of Ireland,” Mom said. “Your father a few years before me, but in Germany. Mages are born to non-magical families. No one knows why. It’s not genetics. It’s not breeding. It’s merely … luck.

“When I was born, mages were sent to special schools so we could learn how to control our powers,” she continued. “I went to a school in London.” Mom held up her hand when I opened my mouth. “And, no, it wasn’t like Hogwarts. I know how your mind works. It was very different from Hogwarts. You need to let that go.”

I couldn’t help but be a little bit disappointed. When was something connected to magic going to be fun?

“My training lasted ten years,” Mom said. “I was almost twenty before I left the school. After that? I was supposed to do my job.”

“Job?”

“Mages were prevalent during the middle years of the last millennium,” she said. “Do you know why?” She shifted her eyes to Aric when I shook my head. “Do you?”

“Because vampires were rampaging across Europe,” Aric replied. “They were taking over.”

Mom nodded.

“Wait, so you’re saying mages were created to wipe out vampires?” That didn’t bode well for a certain tan vampire I knew.

“No,” she said. “Mages were created to control the magical population. Like anything else, if one faction gets too powerful, everything can crumble around it. That’s what happened in Europe. Oh, they didn’t know it was happening. They called it a number of different names, the most insidious was the Black Plague.”

“The vampires covered up what they were doing by creating the rumor of an illness,” Aric said. “That makes sense.”

“So, what were you supposed to do?” I asked. “Kill them?”

“Only those who did wrong, only those who were evil,” Mom said. “Not all vampires are evil, just like not all humans are evil.” Mom shot Aric a knowing look. “Or all werewolves.”

Aric didn’t seem surprised that Mom knew what he was.

“When you wipe out the bad, the good can thrive,” she said. “That’s what we did. That’s what we always did when one faction got out of control. It wasn’t always vampires. The werewolves came very close to taking over Russia in the 1700s, and we thwarted that effort. When the witches tried taking over the new world, that was us, too.”

“How did you end up here?”

“I met your father fifty years ago,” Mom said. “Mages were prohibited from being together, and we followed the rules for a long time. Then … well … we didn’t. And, after a time, we decided to make a break from our ranks and go into hiding.

“The time when we chose to run was a peaceful one,” she continued. “It was easier than we thought it would be. We planned ahead, picked a spot we thought was remote – but would still hide us – and then we became the Lakes.”

“You picked this spot because of the werewolf population,” Aric said. “The wolves here are known for being quiet, keeping to themselves. You thought they would hide you.”

“They have hidden us,” Mom said. “The longer we stayed here, the longer we didn’t use our powers, the more they dissipated. We are no longer magical.”

I shot a look toward Dad. He was quiet, contemplating. If he had something to add, he was waiting until Mom was done.

“That’s how you got Zoe,” Aric said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “You became human, so you could breed. When you did, all that latent mage magic went into her.”

“Yes.”

“Do the other mages know about me?”

Mom shrugged. “I don’t think so. However, even up here, we’ve heard about some of the happenings at the college. It’s only a matter of time before they find out.”

“Are they going to come for me? Are they going to try and put me in one of their schools?” I was starting to panic. Aric tightened his arm around me.

Mom shared a strange look with Dad. “They may try and come for you, Zoe,” she said. “They can’t make you go anywhere, though. You’re … different. Even from the mages we knew.”

“How?”

“You’re the product of magic,” Dad said, finally deciding to join the conversation. “You weren’t chosen, like the rest of us. You just are. You’re more powerful than any mage who came before you, and probably any that will come after you.”

“So, she’s safe?” Aric asked, relaxing slightly.

“From other mages? Absolutely,” Mom said. “The power she’s been advertising over the past two years will draw the attention of other groups. They’ll try to control her – although it won’t be as easy as they’d like to think.”

“We’ve already dealt with some of that,” Aric said. “Why didn’t you tell her sooner? It might have helped with some of the … angst.”

“We wanted her to come to us,” Mom said.

“We didn’t want to overwhelm her,” Dad added.

“Zoe has a specific personality,” Mom said. “She needs to learn things on her own. Even as a child, when I told her the pan was hot, she would have to touch it herself to make sure. You can’t tell her what to do, or how to live. She has to decide that on her own. She’s independent, and we’ve always encouraged her to embrace that.”

“I’ve noticed,” Aric said, his tone dry.

A thought occurred to me. “If you were immortal, why did you give it up?”

“Living forever isn’t everything,” Mom said. “Living a full life is. We didn’t feel we could live a full life without each other, and eventually you.”

“Am I … immortal?”

Dad’s head rocked from side to side. “You’re a hybrid,” he said. “You’re human with powers.”

“What does that mean?”

“You could be a new beginning,” Mom said. “You could also be the only one of your kind ever. We don’t have those answers.”

“But … am I human?”

“You’re the most human person I know,” Mom replied. “Flaws and all. What you do with this, well, that’s entirely up to you.”

Oh, well great. Like I didn’t have enough on my plate.