Callie - An Enchantress Novel - Book 1

Chapter 21

"Are you sure this is the place?" Callie asked as they drove along a long tree-lined driveway.

"It's the address they gave me."

Irene stared out the window at the dense trees lining both sides of the road. The sky was clear and the sun bright, but it hardly penetrated the thick trees towering around them; their branches mingled overhead to create a tunnel. Lights reflected back at them in the mist swirling gently around the car as it crawled toward their destination, making it harder to see.

"This place is seriously creepy." Callie shivered, trying to shake off the need to turn the car around and leave as quickly as possible. "I don't think they like many visitors."

Twenty minutes later, they broke through the mist. Thinning trees allow more of the bright sunshine to penetrate their path. As they rounded a sharp turn, a large stately building loomed ahead. It had flat, well-kept twinned lawns on either side of the driveway, which split in two and enclosed a circular flowerbed containing an elaborate fountain.

The building itself was sandstone finished, standing three storeys high with twelve sets of double windows on the second and third floors. On the ground floor, a grand entrance took up half of the building, with several steps leading up to an open courtyard. The entrance doors were in a covered porch, surrounded by deep-purple flowering clematis on a climbing a trellis on one side and a pale lilac rose climbing the other. They met in the middle in a symphony of colour - light against dark.

A small man, dressed in a plain black jacket over a white shirt, danced down the steps to greet them as they exited the car. "Good morning, ladies," he greeted them. "Welcome to Shadow Academy. Do you have an appointment?"

"We've come to see Rachael," Irene replied. "I spoke to her yesterday over the phone. She said to drop by anytime today."

"Ah yes, her class is due a break in ten minutes. If you would like to follow me, I'll show you to the waiting room." He ushered them in through the main doors.

He strode purposefully across the wide foyer, passing a door marked reception, and stopped at the next unmarked door waiting for them to catch up. Both Callie and Irene were dawdling, taking in the grandeur of the place. A prominent sandstone staircase faced the doors they came through, flanked on either side by a carved wooden balustrade. The staircase split in two, leading in opposite directions at right angles to the first part. Around the edges of the foyer were four doors, two on either side. Between each pair of doors and the open staircase were open hallways.

"This way please," he interrupted their perusal, hurrying them along. He opened a door and stepped aside, granting them entrance. "Please wait here, Ms Rachael will be informed of your arrival."

Irene chose to sit by the window overlooking the extensive grounds at the side of the building. Callie examined the numerous framed academic certificates and photographs lining the walls.

"Did you know this was a school?" Callie asked, moving on to look at the frames on the other side of the room.

"I didn't even know magic schools existed. Grandma taught me at home with the others in the coven one evening a week."

The door burst open a few minutes later when a harried mid-twenty year old rushed into the room. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Miss Williams, Miss McIlroy. I'm Rachael, the school librarian. You mentioned on the phone about viewing our archives. Can I ask what you hope to discover in them?" Rachael panted and nudged her glasses back onto the bridge of her sharp nose. The brisk walk up two flights of stairs and a jog across the main building had left her out of breath.