Page 38 of Enchanted Village

He gathered his things from his classroom and headed back out through the castle to get to the road that led to the end of the school grounds. He never minded the long walk, and in fact, he enjoyed the peace and quiet to collect his thoughts. Now, as he looked around, he saw his uncle had gotten a jump on decorating, even with two weeks left to go before the Thanksgiving holiday began.

The castle was bedecked with what looked like fireflies dotting the hallways and icicles that never melted strung from the rafters. There was the constant smell of something baking, chocolate cakes or warm fruit pies. As he walked, Silas caught sight of two students that were charming the snow on the ground to spin into several different shapes. Silas saw the snow turn into a unicorn, then a dragon, then a reindeer just in the time it took for him to stride past.

It had to be a charm of some kind, Silas reasoned, as the first snow still hadn’t fallen yet. No doubt it was his uncle’s handiwork, and he had to marvel at the ability. Even as he looked on, a fresh wave of snowfall fell from above and doused the grounds in even more glistening white. The snow even continued in the corridors, untethered by science. It wasn’t the kind of snowfall that could be explained by nature; this was magic, pure and simple.

Other students had clearly been enjoying the snow as well. As Silas continued to walk, he saw that there were snow sculptures all over the grounds. These weren’t the basic snowmen he was used to. Rather, he saw everything from phoenixes to mermaids to dragons.

It made him think of Margaret. Surely she would appreciate the students’ fascination with the creatures. Bernie, however, might take offense to the dragon Silas was currently looking at. It was quite wonky, and the wings were all wrong.

“I’ll have to see about this one getting fixed,” Silas said to himself. After a shake of his head, he turned to continue down the corridor, but something just past the glittering snow stopped him, caught his eye.

There was a boy standing nearby, frozen. Not just still—he was well and truly frozen, the frames of his glasses just peeking out from beneath the ice that encapsulated him. And not just a boy—Wyatt.

Silas rushed forward and quickly dusted off the snow that had just fallen on the boy, then started to panic when the boy remained solid, unmoving in the ice.

“Oh god,” Silas said. “How did this happen? I—”

“Warnd.”

Silas nearly jumped. What had made that sound? It was low and squeaky but definitely nearby. He whipped around, feeling all the more confused when he saw nothing there.

Well, he wasn’t going to wait around. He reached down to lift up the boy, finding that, even barely tipping the scale at probably 130 pounds, he was deadweight.

“Warnd.”

And suddenly, Silas knew it was a voice.

“My warnd.”

Silas looked at Wyatt now, finding, with a jolt, that the boy’s eyes were moving even though the rest of him was frozen solid. But what did he mean? And then Silas saw it in the ground: the boy’s wand.

“Ah!” Silas said. “Your wand. Of course.”

Silas grabbed the wand from the snow and handed it to the boy, whose fingers moved ever so slightly to grip it. He mumbled something then that sounded like nonsense to Silas but must’ve been a spell, since Wyatt instantly defrosted.

He fell forward into the snow, gasping for air.

“Easy, now. Let me help. We should get you to the infirmary,” Silas said. “Here, I can carry you—”

But Wyatt held up a hand and looked at Silas with horrified eyes.

“No offense, Professor, but do you know what they’ll say about me if you carry me?” Wyatt said, teeth chattering, “Could you just help get me somewhere warm?”

“You got it,” Silas said. “Somewhere warm . . . the staff lounge is close. Come on, then.”

Thankfully, the staff lounge was empty at this hour, but a fire still roared in the corner. He guided Wyatt to the armchair that Silas himself had grown so fond of, allowing the boy to collapse into it.

“I’d take the boots off,” Silas said, nodding to the sopping wet snow boots the boy wore. “I imagine that’s not comfortable.”

Wyatt nodded, sloughing them off quickly and then tearing off his wet socks as well. As he did, Silas found a blanket in the cupboard and returned to hand it to the boy, who took it quickly.

Now that the boy was not in immediate danger, Silas felt he needed to get some answers out of him. Starting with how he had ended up frozen solid.

“So,” Silas said. “Do you want to tell me what happened out there?”

“You don’t have to stay here with me,” Wyatt said, shivering and pulling the blanket tighter, not answering Silas’s question. “I’ll head back to my room just as soon as . . .”

He looked into the fire. Silas had a sudden fear the kid was going to fling himself into it.