The Apprenticeship of Julian St. Albans (36 page)

CHAPTER 26

Julian
stood in the doorway to the luck garden at the Temple, grinning at Mary
Margaret, who was in the other doorway, ready to inspect his work.
“Well?” said Julian, gesturing to the round room with its curving
path, lucky clover and terraced flowerbeds.

She
grinned, walking the longer path in its S-curve around the room. Julian met her
partway so they could sit on one of the benches against the wall. “I think
you did a beautiful job,” she said. “I’d almost call it Journeyman
work, but we both know you’ve still got learning to do.”

Julian
chuckled. “My magic’s grown by leaps and bounds, but there’s a lot of
knowledge left to cram into my head,” he agreed.

“Which
is why I’ve agreed with Dr. Tamlinson and Father Stephen to share your time,
for free while you’re an Apprentice, of course,” said Mary Margaret.

Horace
trilled happily and came swooping down from the hanging plant where he’d been
hiding; Julian had installed a circle of seven air ferns around the skylight at
irregular heights so the bird now had somewhere to perch when they were there.
Mary Margaret laughed and held up a hand, kissing his shining head before
handing him off to Julian.

“I
agree,” said Julian, winking at the bird, “It’s wonderful news, thank
you. Alex will be relieved that I’m spending more time in warded buildings, not
that he’d admit it.”

“I’ll
admit it just fine. I like you safe.” said Alex, coming in to join them on
the bench. “But why am I admitting it?”

Julian
giggled and told him the news, and they sat in the sunshine and talked about
schedules and logistics, and Alex once again suggested driving lessons.
“It’s not as if we can borrow Jones all the time,” he said. “I
think he wants to stay in the country for a while, now that he’s finally back
there.”

“Maybe,”
said Julian, making a face at the idea of yet more lessons. “But only if
you do, too.”

“Maybe,”
said Alex, making the same face right back.
 

Father
Stephen arrived and they gave him a tour of the garden and tips on how to care
for it when Julian wasn’t around, and started discussing what sort of tasks
Mary Margaret considered Julian fit for on a regular basis, as well as tasks
that Alex could do for the Temple, should he choose to accompany his boyfriend
in his charitable endeavours. Even Horace was finding a way to be useful, as he
continued to take wishes to the recovering tree while its legal status was
disentangled.

It
wasn’t the future that Julian had envisioned for himself even a year ago, but
it felt good to be making choices for himself, and to live a life full of equal
parts magic and love, with friendships on top of it all.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Amy Crook has made her living for the past
15+ years with art and design. She lives in San Leandro, CA, with two cats, a
roommate, and a pair of custom-made tentacle pillows. She’s a dilettante geek
and non-practicing goth. That means that she loves in-jokes and things with
skulls on them, she tends not to go too deep into most geeky pursuits, and she
rarely dresses up as a Goth (though she does use her purple tentacle parasol to
ward off the sun). Strangers stop her on the street to tell her that her hair
is long. She loves tea and gin, and she hates it when the trees try to have sex
in her sinuses. She’s a real geek girl, for certain values of “real,” “geek,”
and “girl.”
 

This
is her second novel published, and a sequel to the first.