Chapter Text
The dramatic organ music had finally stopped.
Pugsley had cornered Cousin Itt near the grand staircase and confiscated the remote, although Cousin Itt had cheerfully informed him that all seven backups remained secure.
Agnes had asked whether she could keep one.
Pugsley had shouted no.
Wednesday had considered the incident a satisfactory conclusion to the afternoon.
She was crossing the Quad with Enid, Bianca, Ajax and Eugene when the iron gates opened.
A dark green car entered the grounds too quickly.
It stopped sharply near the fountain, scattering gravel beneath its tyres.
Wednesday halted.
Enid stopped beside her.
The others followed.
The driver’s door opened first.
A tall man stepped out, still wearing a heavy travelling coat over an expensive suit. His hair was dark, threaded with silver at the temples, and his face carried the strained pallor of someone who had spent the journey constructing increasingly catastrophic versions of what awaited him.
The passenger door opened.
A woman emerged.
She was elegant in the severe, polished manner of an old siren family. Her dark blue coat was fastened perfectly despite the hurried journey. Pearls gleamed at her throat. Her hair was swept into a smooth knot that had not moved even when the car stopped.
Her face had.
It was tight with fear.
Then she saw Wednesday.
Fear became anger.
Bianca inhaled sharply.
“Cassian’s parents.”
Wednesday recognised them from previous school functions.
Marcus and Celestine Voss.
Their family had funded the restoration of Nevermore’s west music hall and donated several ancient siren manuscripts to the school archives. Celestine Voss sat on two outcast cultural councils and had once delivered a lecture on the ethical exercise of vocal influence.
Wednesday remembered finding it hypocritical even before today.
Mrs Voss crossed the Quad first.
Her husband followed.
Several students nearby slowed, instinctively sensing the collision ahead.
Wednesday did not move.
Enid’s fingers tightened around hers.
Mrs Voss stopped several feet away.
Her gaze moved over Wednesday’s face, then fixed on the silver disc at her throat.
“You.”
The word carried like a thrown blade.
Enid stepped slightly forward.
Wednesday’s hand held her back.
Not to restrain her.
To keep her close.
Mrs Voss’s eyes flashed.
“You’re Wednesday Addams.”
Wednesday inclined her head.
“You already knew that.”
Any parent with a child at Nevermore knew who she was.
After Crackstone.
After the Hyde.
After the school had nearly burned.
Wednesday Addams had become a story passed between anxious parents at registration desks and family weekends. Depending upon the teller, she was either the girl who had saved Nevermore or the reason it required saving so frequently.
Today, Mrs Voss had already decided which version she preferred.
“My son is lying in that infirmary without four years of his life.”
Her voice shook.
Mr Voss placed one hand at her elbow.
“Celestine.”
She pulled away.
“He doesn’t remember his graduation from lower school. He doesn’t remember his own sister leaving for university. He looked at me and asked why I had grey in my hair.”
The Quad had gone quiet.
Wednesday met her stare.
“I am aware of his condition.”
Mrs Voss laughed once.
Harshly.
“Are you?”
“Yes.”
The silver disc remained silver.
“Do you understand what you have done to him?”
Enid’s head snapped up.
Wednesday’s expression did not change.
“I did not cause his memory loss.”
“He would never have approached you if you hadn’t encouraged him.”
The words landed in the Quad like spoiled meat.
Bianca’s face hardened.
Ajax stared.
Eugene’s mouth fell open.
Wednesday felt Enid’s hand begin to shake inside hers.
Not fear.
Rage.
Mrs Voss continued, each sentence gathering momentum from the last.
“Cassian is a good boy. He is polite. He is thoughtful. He does not force himself on girls.”
Bianca stepped forward.
“I saw him.”
Mrs Voss barely looked at her.
“You saw part of an interaction.”
“I heard the song.”
“You are a student.”
“I’m a siren.”
That made Mrs Voss pause.
Bianca’s voice sharpened.
“I know what compulsion sounds like. He used a truth-binding cadence and layered it over a compliance command.”
Mr Voss stared at her.
“You’re certain?”
“Yes.”
Mrs Voss shook her head.
“No. Cassian would not do that without reason.”
Enid released Wednesday’s hand.
Wednesday turned towards her.
Enid took one step forward.
“What reason?”
Her voice was low.
Mrs Voss looked at her properly for the first time.
Enid’s shoulders were rigid. Her hands hung at her sides, fingers curled tightly enough that the tips of her claws showed against her palms.
Mrs Voss lifted her chin.
“You must be the werewolf who attacked him.”
Enid’s eyes flashed gold.
“I’m the werewolf who stopped him.”
“You nearly killed my son.”
“He was using his song on Wednesday.”
“My son would not risk expulsion and disgrace unless she had led him to believe his attention was welcome.”
Wednesday’s face became perfectly blank.
Enid did not.
The gold in her eyes brightened.
“There are witnesses.”
Her voice rose across the Quad.
“Dozens of them.”
Mrs Voss looked around at the gathering students.
Enid pointed towards the covered arches.
“There’s video evidence. Nevermore has security cameras. Bianca heard the compulsion. Everyone saw Wednesday stop moving. Everyone saw him grab her face.”
Mrs Voss’s expression flickered.
“He may have misunderstood.”
“She said no to him before he started singing.”
“You cannot know what happened between them before today.”
Wednesday spoke.
“Nothing happened between us before today.”
The silver disc remained silver.
Mrs Voss looked at it.
Something uncertain entered her eyes, but anger smothered it.
“Cassian had been speaking about you all morning.”
“So had the entire school,” Bianca said. “Cousin Itt accidentally turned Wednesday into a campus-wide marriage prospect.”
“Not accidentally,” Wednesday said.
Silver.
Ajax nodded.
“He seemed pretty deliberate.”
No one acknowledged him.
Mrs Voss took another step towards Wednesday.
“What did you say to Cassian?”
“No.”
Wednesday’s answer was immediate.
“What?”
“I said no.”
“To what?”
“His request for a moment of my time.”
“And then?”
“I attempted to walk away.”
Silver.
Mrs Voss looked at the disc again.
Her mouth tightened.
“You must have done something.”
Enid’s growl began.
It was not loud at first.
A low vibration beneath her breathing.
Primal enough that the students nearest them stepped backwards.
Wednesday did not.
Mrs Voss stared at Enid.
“You cannot expect me to believe that my son simply attacked Wednesday Addams in the middle of the Quad for no reason.”
“The reason was that he wanted something from her and she wouldn’t give it to him!”
The words cracked through the silence.
Enid’s claws extended.
“He wanted the upper hand. He wanted to prove he could make her listen. So he took away her ability to move and he kissed her.”
Mrs Voss flinched.
“It was one kiss.”
Enid went still.
So did Wednesday.
Bianca closed her eyes.
Mrs Voss appeared to realise too late what she had said, but Enid was already speaking.
“One kiss?”
Her voice was no longer a shout.
It was worse.
Raw.
“You think it doesn’t matter because it was only one?”
“I didn’t say it didn’t matter.”
“You’re standing here blaming her for it.”
“My son has lost years of his life because of what happened.”
“And Wednesday lost the choice of who she gave her first kiss to!”
The world stopped.
Even the ravens along the roofline seemed to fall silent.
Wednesday’s fingers curled.
Enid’s anger had carried the words out before she could catch them.
The instant they were spoken, horror crossed her face.
She turned towards Wednesday.
“I’m sorry.”
Wednesday could not answer.
Not yet.
Mrs Voss stared at her.
The fury drained from the woman’s face so quickly it left her looking older.
Her gaze moved to Wednesday’s mouth.
Then to the silver disc.
Then back to her eyes.
“That was…”
She could not finish.
Wednesday looked directly at her.
“Yes.”
The disc remained silver.
One word.
Absolute.
Mrs Voss’s lips parted.
Her husband went pale.
Around them, the watching students shifted uncomfortably. Those who had laughed that morning about Wednesday’s sudden desirability now looked at the ground.
Mrs Voss had arrived thinking of a son who had lost years.
Four, perhaps five.
Years that might return.
Memories that could be restored through healing, magic or time.
There were specialists.
Counter-songs.
Psychic reconstructors.
Hope.
But her son had taken something from Wednesday that could not be reconstructed.
There would always be a first time someone’s mouth touched hers.
There would always be the knowledge that it had happened while her body was not her own.
Cassian might recover what he had lost.
Wednesday could never return to the moment before he touched her and choose someone else.
Mrs Voss’s face collapsed around the understanding.
“I didn’t know.”
Enid stepped between her and Wednesday.
“That doesn’t give you the right to blame her.”
Her voice shook.
The growl beneath it deepened.
“You came here and looked at Wednesday, who your son compelled in front of an entire school, and decided she must have made him do it.”
Mrs Voss recoiled slightly.
“I was frightened for my child.”
“So was she.”
Enid pointed towards Wednesday without taking her eyes from Mrs Voss.
“She was terrified.”
Wednesday inhaled sharply.
Enid knew it was true.
The silver disc did not need to confirm it.
“She couldn’t move. She couldn’t say no again. She couldn’t stop him. And when she finally could move, your son was already on the ground.”
Enid’s claws flexed.
“And that was me.”
Mrs Voss stared at her.
Enid stepped closer.
“It wasn’t Wednesday who stole Cassian’s memories.”
“Enid,” Wednesday said quietly.
Enid glanced back.
Wednesday saw the guilt in her face.
The determination beneath it.
Enid turned forward again.
“It was me.”
Her voice carried to every corner of the Quad.
“I picked him up.”
A growl rumbled through her chest.
“I put my claws into his shoulders, and I threw him away from her.”
Mr Voss’s face hardened.
“You admit that?”
“Yes.”
Enid bared her teeth.
“If someone has to be blamed for the wall, blame me.”
“Enid,” Bianca warned softly.
Enid did not stop.
“Blame me for the concussion. Blame me for throwing him too hard. Blame me for not caring where he landed because all I could see was his hands on her.”
Her voice broke.
She forced it steady.
“But never, and I repeat, never blame Wednesday because your son stole her choices from her.”
The growl deepened.
It came from somewhere older than language.
The wolf beneath Enid’s skin had recognised the threat in the Quad before the girl had formed the thought. It recognised this one too.
Not physical.
Still dangerous.
An attempt to turn the wounded into the guilty.
Enid’s eyes burned gold.
“She did not lead him on.”
A step.
“She did not confuse him.”
Another.
“She did not owe him attention because he wanted it.”
Mrs Voss moved back.
Enid followed only far enough to keep herself between the woman and Wednesday.
“She said no.”
Her claws gleamed.
“That should have been the end.”
The last word emerged wrapped in a growl so low it seemed to vibrate through the stones beneath them.
No one spoke.
Wednesday looked at Enid’s back.
The rigid shoulders.
The half-transformed hands.
The stance broad enough to shield her.
Enid was frightened.
Wednesday knew it.
Frightened of Cassian’s parents.
Of her own parents arriving.
Of possible punishment.
Of what her strength had done.
But she stood there anyway.
Not claiming innocence for herself.
Not asking anyone to excuse the force she had used.
Only refusing to let them place Cassian’s guilt on Wednesday.
Mrs Voss’s gaze moved past Enid.
“Wednesday.”
Enid’s growl sharpened.
Wednesday touched her arm.
The sound stopped.
Not instantly.
But it softened.
Enid looked back.
Wednesday’s fingers rested lightly against her sleeve.
Chosen contact.
Permission.
“I can answer her.”
Enid searched her face.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Silver.
Enid moved half a step aside.
No farther.
Mrs Voss looked at Wednesday.
“I am sorry.”
Wednesday studied her.
The silver disc waited.
Mrs Voss’s voice trembled.
“I should not have blamed you.”
Wednesday said nothing.
Mr Voss placed one hand at his wife’s back.
She did not lean into it.
“I saw my son frightened and damaged,” she continued. “I wanted someone else to be responsible because he could not tell me what happened.”
“Your son is responsible for the assault,” Wednesday said.
Mrs Voss closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
The word seemed to cost her.
Wednesday’s expression remained unreadable.
“Enid is responsible for the force used to end it.”
Enid flinched.
Wednesday’s fingers tightened on her sleeve.
“Those are separate facts.”
Silver.
Mr Voss looked towards Enid.
“You may have caused permanent harm.”
Enid lifted her chin.
“I know.”
“And you would do it again.”
Enid looked at Wednesday.
Then back at him.
“If that was the only way to stop him?”
Her eyes glowed.
“Yes.”
Mr Voss absorbed that.
Wednesday spoke before he could answer.
“She stopped when he ceased to be a threat.”
Bianca nodded.
“She did.”
“She didn’t follow him,” Eugene added.
Ajax stepped forward.
“She could have. He was unconscious. She went straight to Wednesday.”
Mrs Voss looked around at them.
Witnesses.
Not abstract ones.
Faces.
Students who had seen her son use his gift and watched Enid respond.
Bianca folded her arms.
“There is video. It will show the entire incident.”
Mr Voss’s shoulders sagged.
“We will watch it.”
His wife looked as though she might be sick.
“What happens now?”
“That decision belongs to Principal Rosin,” Bianca said.
“And Wednesday,” Enid added.
Mrs Voss looked at her.
Enid’s claws had begun retracting, but her posture remained protective.
“Because she gets choices now.”
Wednesday’s gaze shifted towards her.
The sentence struck deeper than Enid could know.
Or perhaps she did know.
Mrs Voss nodded.
Slowly.
“Yes.”
Principal Rosin’s voice came from beneath the archway.
“Mr and Mrs Voss.”
Everyone turned.
Rosin approached with Nurse Valera beside her.
She took in the gathering crowd, Enid’s golden eyes and the Vosses’ expressions.
“I asked that you report directly to my office.”
Mrs Voss looked towards the infirmary.
“Our son…”
“Is stable and asking for you.”
Her face crumpled.
Rosin continued.
“But before you see him, there will be a formal conversation regarding what occurred.”
Mr Voss nodded.
Mrs Voss looked at Wednesday one last time.
“I am sorry.”
Wednesday did not offer forgiveness.
She offered truth.
“You should be.”
The silver disc remained silver.
Mrs Voss flinched.
Then she nodded.
“Yes.”
They followed Rosin towards the school.
Nurse Valera remained behind for a moment.
Her eyes moved over Enid.
“Are you injured?”
“No.”
“Are you transformed?”
“Not fully.”
“Do you have control?”
Enid breathed slowly.
Her claws retracted.
The gold in her eyes faded.
“Yes.”
Nurse Valera nodded.
“Good.”
She followed the others.
The Quad remained silent after they left.
Students began dispersing carefully, conversations kept low.
No one approached Wednesday.
No flowers appeared.
No one attempted to offer her a poem.
Ajax exhaled.
“That was…”
Bianca looked at him.
“Choose wisely.”
“Intense.”
“Adequate.”
Eugene looked at Enid.
“You scared them.”
Enid stared at her hands.
“I scared myself.”
Wednesday released her sleeve.
Enid immediately looked up, something wounded crossing her face.
Then Wednesday took her hand.
Her fingers slid between Enid’s.
Enid froze.
Wednesday ignored the watching friends.
“You disclosed private information.”
Enid’s face fell.
“I know. I’m sorry. I was angry and she said it was only one kiss, and I…”
“You should not have told them.”
“I know.”
The silver disc at Wednesday’s throat remained quiet.
Enid swallowed.
“I’m really sorry.”
Wednesday looked towards the archway where Cassian’s parents had disappeared.
“They needed to understand the magnitude of what he took.”
Enid blinked.
“That doesn’t make it mine to tell.”
“No.”
Wednesday tightened her hold.
“It does not.”
Enid nodded.
The honesty hurt, but Wednesday would not spare her with a lie.
“I won’t do it again.”
“I believe you.”
Silver.
Enid looked at their hands.
“Are you angry with me?”
Wednesday’s jaw tightened.
The disc waited.
“Yes.”
Enid nodded again.
Wednesday continued before she could pull away.
“I am also grateful.”
Enid looked up.
“You defended me when you could have protected yourself.”
“I don’t care what they think about me.”
“I know.”
Silver.
Wednesday’s voice softened.
“You cared what they said about me.”
Enid’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Wednesday looked away, ears beginning to colour.
Bianca watched them.
The Quad had witnessed Enid Sinclair become something fierce enough to make stone feel fragile.
But Wednesday did not look frightened of her.
She looked anchored.
Enid lifted their joined hands slightly.
“You didn’t deserve any of it.”
“No.”
Silver.
“You know that, right?”
Wednesday’s throat worked.
“Yes.”
The answer was quiet.
Enid’s thumb brushed the back of her hand.
Wednesday allowed it.
Behind them, Cousin Itt’s translator suddenly sounded from an upper window.
“My beautiful niece is blameless, brilliant and available only through a rigorous application process!”
Wednesday closed her eyes.
The entire Quad looked up.
Pugsley’s voice followed.
“Give me the remote!”
Agnes called after him:
“I have located Backup Three!”
Cousin Itt cheered.
Enid stared at the window.
Then at Wednesday.
Wednesday opened her eyes.
“The application process is fictional.”
The silver disc flashed red.
Enid’s mouth fell open.
Bianca made a strangled sound.
Wednesday looked betrayed.
From above, Cousin Itt shouted:
“I knew it!”
The Quad erupted into laughter.
Wednesday stared towards the lake.
Enid tightened her hand around hers.
“No drowning.”
“I was considering murder.”
“Better.”
Wednesday looked at her.
The disc stayed silver.
Balance, once again, had returned.