Chapter 37: Emotions

Manfred

I had never asked Dagbert to drown Torsson, but I knew that the blame would be shifted on me. I didn't care what the others had to say. They were irrelevant and I didn't care what happened to them. If they dared to get in my way, then I wouldn't hesitate in trying to stop them. However, I did care about what Infinity thought of me. I found myself caring if she blamed me.

I couldn't make sense of my feelings for her and it bothered me. I had no desire to change who I was, but I did care about what she thought of me. I both adored and loathed how selfless and kind she could be. I never regretted the things that I did to those who got in my way, but I did regret ever hurting her. I hadn't known her then. She was just someone who had stumbled into my life and threatened to overturn everything that my family had built in the last hundred years.

She saved my life and I ruined hers. I was still ruining hers. It hurt me to see the pain and fear in her eyes when she looked at me, but I couldn't keep my hands off of her. Whether it was holding her hand or holding her down, she made me feel good. She made me feel a way that I had never felt in my life. She was like a drug and I understood why Salem had fallen for her as hard as he did.

My feelings for her didn't stop me from wanting Bone and his cronies out of my way, however. While I knew that she would be devastated if harm came to Charlie or Lyell, I needed them out of my way. I wished there was a way to have Infinity to myself and to have her conniving brother and father out of my way, but I wasn't sure that was possible at this time. I couldn't hypnotize her or have the count enchant her, because that wouldn't be the girl that I wanted. I wanted to see her eyes light up when she was excited and see her tears fall when she was upset.

My confessions to her had been mostly true, but I knew deep down inside that she would never believe me. She had admitted that she had once thought that she could save me, that she wanted this to work out just as much as I did, but I had betrayed her for the last time by using her for power. I wanted to try and fix things, to make it up to her, but now she wouldn't speak to me. Not after what Dagbert had done. For two days, she avoided me. She looked right through me with her sunken eyes and tear stained face. Although she had not been close with Tancred, she still cried for her brother's fallen friend. Tancred had saved Charlie, Asa and Billy's lives when Dagbert had tried to drown them in the underground tunnel at my Grandfather's command.

My father told me that she had been there when Tancred was carried out, that she had tried to come forward and offer to save him, but it would have been too late. Dr. Saltweather had been the one to stop her. She couldn't bring people back from the dead. That was dark magic. Whatever she would have brought back wouldn't have been Tancred, at least not fully.

Dagbert needed to be punished, that was for sure. Not only had he taken things too far and killed another student, his water flow had flooded the basement rooms that Fairy Tilpin resided in. If I had to listen to her incessant bitching for another second, I might have strangled her to death. We needed her, though. We needed her to get the Enchanter. We needed the Enchanter to bring our family honor and power. We wanted to make our ancestors proud, and eventually, we wanted to bring Borlath back into this world.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by the sound of my office door being opened. I looked up, expecting to see Dagbert as I had summoned him nearly twenty minutes ago. Instead, Infinity stood in front of my desk. Her hair was a mess. While she at least took it upon herself to shower, I highly doubted that she had brushed her hair. Her shirt was wrinkled and the bags under her eyes informed me that she probably had not slept since the night Tancred was killed. While she looked a little wild, I still thought she was beautiful. Seeing her made my heart race. I needed to control myself.

"Do you think you can just barge in here without knocking?" I scolded her. I didn't want her to think I was as excited to see her as I really was.

"Fuck you." When the words came out of her mouth, I was surprised. She was generally mild-mannered and polite. She followed all of the rules of the academy perfectly and she knew profanity was forbidden, especially when directed at a staff member. I felt my mouth twist into an amused smirk. I liked this feisty side of her.

"I didn't put him up to it, you know. If that's what you came here to yell at me about, I'm afraid you're wasting your breath. In fact, he was the one I was expecting. He's going to be punished."

"But not for what he did to Tancred. I know you just see it as collateral damage. One of Charlie's most powerful friends is out of your way. I'm sure you're feeling very confident with Salem, Asa, Billy and Tancred gone. I know that you don't see me as a threat, but know that from here on out, I am your enemy. I will do everything in my power to stop you and make sure that Billy comes back and you lose everything. I don't want peace. I want to see you suffer as you made others suffer. I'm going to tell Charlie what's in that box."

I couldn't help but to laugh at her threats. She knew that if she told anyone, that it would be the end. "Where is your confidence coming from? You're on the losing side. What makes you think I am going to let you leave here after telling me your plan? I thought you were supposed to be a genius, Infinity?" I stood up from my chair, half expecting her to run. She didn't move. She stood as still as a statue and didn't look away from my eyes. She had to have known that my hypnotist powers had come back, but she wasn't afraid of me. "Why aren't you afraid?" I asked her.

"I have finally embraced my magic. I've been studying and practicing. I'm stronger than you." She held her hand out, all of her finger tips pointing towards me. They were glowing with the familiar soft glow that came with her magic. I felt as if I had been struck by something.

A loud, high pitched ringing noise filled my head. I hadn't been expecting it and it dropped me to my knees. My vision went black and I couldn't see anything. The pain was so excruciating that I couldn't gather any of my thoughts. I thought that it was going to last forever. The high pitched ringing was backed by whispers. I couldn't fully focus to be able to tell if it was Infinity's voice or not.

The darkness dissipated and I shrunk back from the sudden bright light that filled my eyes. "Manfred?" I heard a voice try to pull me back into reality. "Are you alright?"

My eyes focused and Dagbert was knelt down beside me. "What's going on?" I asked. "Where am I?"

"We're in your office. I came just like you asked me to. What happened? I passed Infinity Bone as I was walking here. Did she do something to you?"

Infinity Bone? Things were starting to come back to me. Had she been here? I looked around the room. I was sitting at my desk. I must have fallen asleep and had a nightmare that disoriented me. "Why would she have been here?" I asked him.

"I…I don't know, sir. Sometimes it seems like something is going on between you two. I thought I saw you two holding hands the other day, when Bone knocked the portrait off of the wall."

I looked down at my hand, the one Infinity had held. I vaguely remembered it. I was having a hard time remembering the last few days. The stress of everything happening must have been causing gaps in my memory. I did, however, remember why I had called Dagbert to my office. "That's not what we're here to talk about. We're here to talk about your punishment?"

"Punishment?" Dagbert looked upset, but I didn't care. "For what?"

"Now you're being stupid." I liked Dagbert, but I didn't like when people played dumb with me. He was starting to make me angry on top of the frustration I was already dealing with. "The flood. Fairy Tilpin is angry and I've had to listen to her bitch about being relocated for the last two days."

His glacial eyes looked around the room. "It's a big house. Put her in the west wing."

"First you destroy a part of my property and then have the nerve to tell me to put her in our personal quarters?" I narrowed my eyes at Dagbert and I could see him becoming uncomfortable. "I'm disappointed in you, Dagbert. I thought we had an understanding. I'm afraid you're getting detention. The headmaster has ordered it. No going home on Friday. You killed him. You weren't supposed to do that. You were only supposed to scare him. What possessed you?"

Dagbert looked away from my eyes and down at his feet. He was smart enough to know that I could hypnotize him if I wanted to. "I couldn't stop myself." I had to strain to hear his quiet voice. "I suppose I was trying to prove that I was as strong as my father."

"Ah, the family curse." I had almost forgotten. "You believe it, then?

"I have to. It's written in the annals of the North, and they have never lied. When the Lord Grimwald's first son is in his thirteenth year, he attains full power and either he or his father dies. In eight hundred years the prophecy has never failed. My mother gave me the sea-gold charms to help me overcome my father. But Tancred…he got under my skin." He clenched his fists. "He stole a sea-gold creature. He taunted me. He had to be stopped!"

I began to feel guilty about my anger towards Dagbert, but even that excuse wouldn't be enough to appease Infinity. She would still be furious, maybe even more so. "You shouldn't have done it though. You'll have to make amends with Fairy."

"I'll clean out a room for her or carry her stuff upstairs, if you like." Dagbert offered. I had to give him effort for trying.

"Good idea. I daresay we can find somewhere in the attics. She seems to like the dark. You can go now." I dismissed Dagbert.

"Thank you, sir." Dagbert walked over to the door, probably grateful that his punishment had not been worse. "I always try to do what you want. Always."

"I know you do." I smiled at him. "And very soon you'll be called upon to perform the hardest task of your life. Until the time comes, I need you to keep an eye on Charlie Bone." I thought back to a few nights ago. Dagbert and Dorcas had successfully captured Charlie Bone's wand/moth, but I hadn't taken into account that the wand was crafty and it had bested me a second time. The moth had shattered the jar I was keeping it in, and I was almost positive it made its way back to Charlie.

"A picture traveler?" Dagbert snorted. "What can he do?"

"Don't underestimate him." I warned. "The blood of a Welsh wizard runs in Charlie's veins. And something tells me that he has reclaimed his wand."

"What about his sister?" He raised his eyebrow suspiciously.

"Yes, she's very strong, but in a different way. Infinity is only capable of healing magic. The wand, however, doesn't respond to her. It only responds to one magician and it has picked Charlie. If Infinity becomes a problem, then I can handle her." I stood up from the desk. "In fact, I don't want any of you engaging her at all."

Dagbert raised a suspicious eyebrow at me but I knew that he would respect my wishes.