Page 120 of Strange Familiars
I stalk over, jerk down her shirt collar, and with a perfunctory flick of my wrist, I heal her again. “What haven’t I noticed?” I snap, more terse than I intended to be.
Everyone falls silent. Pen shuffles their feet. Conall suddenly appears very absorbed in inspecting the Magecorp box. Heli rolls her shoulder, her eyes flicking between me and Danny Wong.
The room is completely quiet except for the rhythmic ticking of Harrisford’s grandfather clock.
“Well?” I fold my arms and scowl at everybody. “Is anyone going to answer me?”
Finally, Danny does. “Isn’t it obvious, Chan?” he says, and gives a hollow laugh. “Harrisford Briggs has been in love with you…for literal fucking years.”
50
Gwendolynne
I’ve almost finished packing up my dorm room when I finally get the call.
“Good afternoon, Dr.Chang.” A tinny, female voice emerges from the speakerphone of my strap.
“It’s Chan,” I correct, slightly irritable. “Dr.Chan.”
“Oh. I’m sorry, Dr.Chan. This is Marilyn Hindley from Ferguson’s Recruitment. I’m calling to discuss the job application you sent through a few days ago.”
I drop another stack of papers into an already overflowing box. “Yes, of course. Thanks for calling me back.”
“I’m pleased to say that we’ve reviewed your application and we were impressed with the strength of it. Normally, we would ask you to go through an official interview process, but your references all speak so highly of you. Plus, of course, being the Dux of this year’s graduating class…”
My heart flips in my chest, then starts thumping so quickly that I almost feel it in my toes. “Does that mean I’ve got it?” I’m kneeling on the floor among the bare, empty remains of my room. “I got the job?”
“Yes, Dr.Chan,” Marilyn confirms. “We’d like to formally offeryou the graduate position that will start on the thirteenth of August. Congratulations.”
My stomach fizzes with something that feels like both excitement…and guilt. Here I am, accepting my first job offer, while Harrisford—poor Harrisford—is still stuck inside the Void.
I tuck my hair behind my ears with trembling fingers and squeeze my eyelids shut. My guilt is gathering behind my eyeballs, threatening to spill out as tears.
No.I blink hard, several times, and swallow down the feeling. This is what Iwant. What I’ve been aiming for. There’s a reason I sent that job application off, and I cannot afford—at the last minute—to lose my focus.
“Thank you,” I whisper, ignoring the way the words catch on my tongue. “I’m…very happy to accept.”
“Excellent. I’ll send over the contracts and all the salary information shortly. And, Dr.Chan?”
I’d been on the brink of ending the call, but something had changed in the woman’s tone that stopped me. “Yes?”
Marilyn’s voice drops lower, as though she’s actually whispering into the microphone of her strap. “Are youabsolutelysure this is what you want?” she asks. “This position? You know, as the top student from Seamere College, you’d have the pick of any role you wanted…”
I pause for a moment. Lick my dry lips in an effort to distract my mind. My thoughts are churning, and just for a moment—a single, crystalline moment—I wonder what my life would be like if I chose a different path.
A whole lifetime flashes through my head. Achievements. Promotions. Rising through the Ministry’s ranks. Even becoming Britain’s first-ever female Chief Magical Veterinary Officer. The thought is so ludicrous it almost makes me laugh.
But then again…What if?
I shake my head, dispersing the visions. Those are just flights of fancy. Dreams of a life belonging to a different woman—one who’d never met Harrisford Briggs. Who’d never fallen for him. A woman with so much potential, so much ahead of her, and a burning ambition to join the Ministry.
But that’s not my life now. I am no longer that woman.
The day after I graduated as the top student of Seamere, I received the formalized offer to join the Ministry. The same offer that is extended to the top student every single year. The job I’d been working toward for seven fucking years.
And, very politely, I’d thanked them for their consideration…and respectfully declined.
I declined it because I have a new focus now: to infiltrate the Void again and rescue Harrisford Briggs. The man who, according to his oldest friend, loves me—even though he’d never worked up the courage to say it. The man who chose to sacrifice himself so the rest of us could escape. So thatIcould escape.
