A/N: sorry for the hiatus. It seems I get into Charlie Bone stuffs again when I get anxious about the next book coming out. : rolls eyes: I CAN'T WAIT!

But, anyway, I've been a fair bit busy for a while, but hey, I have some cool stuff I've been doing, like more minierik adventures and made myself a few dolls! Edward and Alphonse Elric and my character Astra. I should do Asa and Morgan. XD sorry, had to say that. Probably won't for the fact that it was a minor miracle that I managed to make my Astra doll from scratch and make her look GOOD.

Chapter Nine

Charlie found himself someplace else. He was dreaming, but he couldn't think of where he was. He was in a large circular chamber and there was a woman with a sheer multicolored veil and gold circlet, black hair shimmering even under the veil. Her dress was lavish, wine colored velvet and shimmering gold. Around her were ten knights, each of them just as sleep as the woman on the throne.

He walked toward the woman, as if in a trance and touched her face through the veil. "Hello?" he asked, his voice echoing.

Eyes snapped open and he jumped back. They were black as pitch and staring straight through him. "The queen of this land is walking around, searching for her mate. He will never rest until the good is set right and the bad made right. His home was split in two, but he still loves his family, hoping forever that the one will bring the two halves together and make it whole."

Charlie blinked and her eyes slipped closed again, a song filtering into the chamber from the ten knights, a sound so sad that Charlie felt like his heart was dying in his chest, breaking completely in half. Then, the knights quieted down and the woman sang in a voice so clear, it was as if she were an angel rather than an earthbound woman.

"I can see them up there

I can see him

He's watching us all and crying

And red and gold the leaves are

The red of the blood is there"

Charlie listened and looked at the woman, whose face seemed to never change, barely moving as she sang. Charlie backed away and found himself flying, a strange, small, fluttering object not far from the side of his vision. It was a small, white moth with silver tipped wings. He touched it and woke up.

He found himself in his bed in the boys' dorm. On his hand was a white moth with silver tipped wings. He blinked at it and realized what it was. It was his wand, taken a new form. He wondered how, if it had been burned up, it had taken another form.

He decided that thinking was not called for when his brain felt numb with sleep and let the moth go onto his bedside table before rolling over and going back to sleep.


During the morning run later that morning, Charlie found his friends and told them about his dream. Morgan blinked. "That song sounds kina familiar," she said, Fidelio nodded.

Charlie blinked at them. "What do you mean?"

"We've been playing it for one of the plays that's going to occur in winter," said Fidelio.

"You are?" asked Charlie, very interested now.

"Song of the Red King," said Morgan, scratching her nose.

"Mary can't play in it on account that it drives her mad," said Fidelio.

Mary Dawson's nasty look toward Charlie that day when she made him go unconscious suddenly went into his brain. To him, the song was sad, but somehow heartening. To Mary, who was very clearly with the Bloors, it was maddening, horrible to their ears.

Charlie could have leapt for joy. Uncle Paton would want to know about another part of the song they had found out about. It somehow made sense that the Bloors couldn't stand the song, maybe it could be used against them to keep them away if any one of them needed to keep the Bloors away.

Charlie spotted Billy running back inside, Catherine Pest walking behind him. He had a feeling he found a way to get Billy to get out of the Pest home when he'd found it. He also wondered if he could borrow Mr. Omnimous' three cats, Sagittarius, Aries and Leo. They too made the Bloors and anyone connected to them keep away from them with their warm purring sound alone.

It was then that Asa Pike could be seen not that far off, skulking behind the trees. Charlie watched him as he seemed to disappear, arm in sling.

"Get moving," said the gruff tone of Manfred from the other side of the group. Morgan grunted indignantly and walked off. Fidelio and Emma sighed and followed Charlie into the woods.


Morgan went into the ruins, ducking into the archway and down to the fountain. For some reason, she liked the place, though she couldn't place why. She stopped when she heard someone shift their position in the chamber with the fountain. "Hello?"

Asa was sitting on the floor, knees up and arm resting on a knee as he looked up at her with wolfish yellow eyes. "Hello, Morgan."

"I told you not to call me Morgan," she said with less venom than she had wanted.

"It's your name," he said softly.

Morgan shifted slightly on her feet, wondering what she should do. She didn't want him asking her about her mother and she didn't want him to come near her. If he did, he might kiss her again, or touch her and make her brain stop working. She was so confused about what she thought of him, that she couldn't make heads or tails of it all.

However, Asa's soft tenor shot through her thoughts. "What did your mum do to me?"

Morgan blushed and moved back toward the exit. Asa shot to his feet and snatched her wrist. Morgan reacted and threw him, or tried to. His hand stayed and brought her down on top of him, rolling her underneath him. He pulled his arm out of the sling and used it to bring her other wrist up and under his good hand to hold her down. "What… did your mother… do to me, MacGregor," he ground out, panting slightly as he gazed down at her with hard eyes.

Morgan struggled and Asa shoved his hips into hers, holding her down with the rest of his body. "Tell me!" he growled.

Morgan gasped and struggled harder, digging her phantom nails into his arm. He gritted his teeth and growled animalistically.

Then, all at once, she felt his mouth covering hers, kissing her roughly. Without thinking, she welcomed his kiss and stopped struggling, her mind lost.

Asa lifted his head away from Morgan and gazed down at her with almost amber colored eyes, darker with something Morgan had never seen before. "What… did your mum do to me? Why did you help me?"

"My… my mother… she's a nurse, u-used to be one. She can… can heal people by… transferring her energy into the injured person," said Morgan, her mouth going without her consent. Why was she telling him this? "I…we… didn't want you to die."

Asa stared at Morgan for another moment, her body tingling oddly wherever it was held down by his. Then, he kissed her again, gentler this time. She finally bucked and shoved him off slightly. "Let me go!"

Asa blinked at her blearily as he got up and then growled at her. "Who would like a stupid girl like you," he snarled. Then, he stalked out, foul mood setting in. Morgan sat up and rubbed her face. What was happening to her?


That night, in the King's Room, Charlie noticed something significantly different between Asa and Morgan. He was glaring at her and she was shyly looking at her notes. They were snarling mutually like they usually did, but he was in a bad mood and she was shy.

"Pike, do your homework, or do you want to spend another year here after this one?" said Manfred with a sly smirk.

Asa glared at him. "Stuff it, Bloor," he said with a growl and went back to his work.

"Detention, Pike," grunted Manfred.

Morgan blushed and looked to Asa. She suddenly jumped out of her chair, holding a hand over her mouth, eyes wide. Asa had also looked surprised, but then started to glare at her even more. "Don't give me that innocent act, MacGregor!" he growled.

Morgan shot up to her feet. "It was an accident!"

"Detention, MacGregor!" growled Manfred. "Sit down, BOTH of you!"

Morgan sat down angrily and started working again.

When it was time to leave for bed, Morgan went out right after Joshua, Mary and Rosemary, quickly gathering her things to get as far away from Asa as possible. Charlie looked to Emma and she shrugged, uncertain of what to say about it.

There was the sound of a body hitting the ground out in the hallway, books hitting the stairs and something falling down the stairs. Charlie ran out with Emma, Tancred and Lysander behind them.

Morgan was at the bottom of the steps, spread eagled and bruised. Her head was bleeding and blood tried to ooze out of her mouth. Charlie started to run down when he was shoved out of the way by Asa. Charlie managed to get down to Morgan just in time to watch Asa lift her top half up off the ground and brace her against him, using his good hand to pat her cheek. "Morgan, wake up."

Her eyes were unfocused, open and staring into nothing. Charlie noticed she had a braided bracelet on her left wrist that was gray. "She's pretty badly hurt, she needs to get to the infirmary," he said as he reached for the bracelet.

Asa pulled his bad arm out of the sling and winced as he lifted Morgan off the ground and into his arms. Charlie blinked at Asa, looking to Tancred and Lysander in confusion.

Lysander spoke first. "Pike, let us take her, you're wounded."

Asa glared at them dangerously, fangs beginning to form in his mouth. "Leave me alone," he snarled and walked slowly away.

Charlie looked to Tancred and Lysaner in confusion. Corazon and Ada appeared behind them with Gabriel. "What was that about?" asked Gabriel.

Corazon blushed darkly as she looked at Tancred and Ada lowered her gaze to the stairs. Emma was the only one looking at Charlie. He grabbed her hand and pulled her to the infirmary, seeing Asa in there, panting and sweating, his bad arm bleeding where he was wounded and sitting down beside Morgan's bed.

Emma nudged Charlie. "She has one of those bracelets you told me about, Charlie," she said softly.

Charlie nodded and walked into the infirmary to Morgan's bed. "We have to take off that bracelet," he mumbled, uncertain how to act around Asa now.

Asa glowered at Charlie, looking like a wolf protecting his territory. Charlie edged around the bed and reached down to take off the bracelet. He felt a wave of unconsciousness hit his brain as soon as he touched it. He backed away and stared at Morgan. Her eyes were closed now. He figured Asa must have closed them for her. She was barely breathing. It was as though she was in limbo between life and death and unmoving.

For the first time in a while, Charlie felt helpless. He couldn't touch the bracelet to get it off of his friend, and his friend was facing death as he watched her. He walked out wobbling slightly from the revelation, Emma catching him. "Are you all right?" she asked.

"I… need to get to bed," he said and moved away from her quickly. He didn't know how to feel. He and his friends had always been able to stick it out and come up with a way to help someone out from the clutches of the Bloors, but now it seemed like it was impossible to pull Morgan away from them now.

He sat on his bed heavily and stared at his hands, the moth fluttering down onto his right hand to sit with its wings spread. "What can I do?"


Manfred Bloor watched from the doorway as his former comrade sat staring at the MacGregor girl. When Mr. MacGregor caught wind that his daughter had fallen down the stairs and she was unconscious, he would throw a fit and he was there for damage control. He was losing his powers, but he could still intimidate.

However, intimidating Mr. MacGregor was about as useful as trying to calm a wild bull. What was needed was a scapegoat and Asa was there, ripe for the slaughter. Mr. MacGregor hated him and the Bloors would finally be rid of another nuisance.

He heard Mr. MacGregor storming down the hall and moved to hide. He found no hiding place, so he decided to leave and find someplace more plausible for an alibi for him to be.


Asa Pike sat staring at the prone form of Morgan. He heard the stomping footsteps of Mr. MacGregor, but he didn't move. He couldn't. He couldn't figure out why he couldn't, but he knew he couldn't. It was confusing.

"PIKE!" snarled Mr. MacGregor at the doorway.

Asa stood up slowly, but didn't turn. Mr. MacGregor growled and lifted his hands. Asa flew across the room and hit the wall on the other side of the room. Blood shot from his mouth on impact. He slid down and then felt those large hands lifted him up again and throw him across the room once more. "I told you and Bloor that if you hurt my daughter, I would show no mercy!" Mr. MacGregor snarled.

Asa coughed up more blood as he slid down the wall beside Morgan's bed. He shook as he looked to her hand, the one with the bracelet on it. He reached for it as he felt Mr. MacGregor's hands on him again and grabbed the bracelet. It slipped off as unconsciousness slipped over him. However, he dropped the bracelet in mid-flight and felt the impact of the wall against his back. He hit the ground, pain everywhere in his body. He was vaguely aware of Morgan's shriek, shouting angrily at her father and the sound of a fight starting.

Then, everything went black…