Spellcaster, page 16
Sara nodded. “Either way, Paisley shouldn’t go anywhere alone from now on.” She grasped my hand, squeezing it briefly before she let go. “You were alone in the graveyard when they attacked, and last night if the hall hadn’t been filled with students, they’d have gotten to you much quicker. We need to travel in a group whenever possible.”
In theory, I loved her suggestion, outside of possibly bringing danger to my friends. “I should be telling Dad,” I said, “but provided he believes me, I’d be yanked out of college before we see the sunrise tomorrow.”
“No!” Belle gasped. “I think we need more information. We don’t even know for sure they’re targeting you. Maybe your magic is sensitive to what’s happening in the school. If they were targeting you, surely there’d have been more attacks than just these couple. We’re over halfway through the year.”
“All good points,” Haley agreed, pressing her pen hard into the notepad she had in front of her. “At minimum I think it’s worth seeing what the headmaster discovers. If the monsters are out in the open now, it’s going to be more difficult for this asshole to keep bringing them into the school.”
I didn’t want to leave Weatherstone, so I ran with their suggestions. “Yep, I’ll wait and see what the officials discover. Until then, let’s go with the travel in groups plan.”
Belle relaxed now that we’d agreed on a plan that wouldn’t get me yanked out. Even though it had been her suggestion in the first place. “It’s going to be difficult,” she said, tapping her finger against her chin, eyes unfocused. “We don’t share all the same classes, now that we have our affinities.” She shot apologetic eyes at me, as we were all reminded of my uselessness.
“We’ll figure it out,” Haley said, forcibly. “I think the main point is that we can’t be as relaxed as we were before. No more late-night wanderings into cemeteries.”
The three of them leveled their gazes on me, and I snorted. “Yeah, yeah, Moms. Keep your hair on. I promise to stop wandering aimlessly and giving monsters a chance to eat me.”
“Excellent.” Belle dropped her pen, rubbing a hand over her eyes. “In better news, I think I’ve found the strongest defense spell we have the capability of creating and utilizing. We’ll need to get herbs from the apothecary store because this is beyond fourth-year advanced spellwork.”
Since it was late afternoon, and we were all exhausted and starving, we returned our books and gathered up the copious pages of notes we’d taken. Then we followed Belle as she marched from the library and headed for the Stores, the small hut containing all the herbs, potion mixes, candles, and other materials required in potion making.
Students couldn’t just help themselves to whatever they wanted, but when we showed Madam Craney, the witch who ran the apothecary, the spell we were studying, she was more than happy to help us out. No talk of it being too advanced, she was all smiles as she waved her hands. “Oh, yes, dears,” she said, pushing back the huge purple glasses that framed her wrinkled eyes. Her hair was bright purple too, lovely against her brown skin. “After last night we could all use protective energy around us.”
It had been twenty years since the last death at Weatherstone, when a spell had missed its mark and taken out a second-year. The monster murder last night was a thousand times worse, and it would take this magical community a long time to get past it.
“His parents are with the headmaster now,” Madam Craney continued. She’d always kept up a constant stream of chatter whenever I’d come in here for supplies. “I hope they don’t take them to Aura Hall until the investigation is complete. They questioned that poor Logan for hours, and he is such a hero.” Her eyes twinkled as she looked back our way. “Handsome too.”
That was Logan, the handsome hero.
Her monologue trailed off as she delved into the shelves to find what we needed. The familiar scents of an apothecary eased the tension in my shoulders, reminding me of being back in Mom’s kitchen.
“Rosemary is my favorite,” Sara said, breathing as deeply as I was. “It reminds me of home, and the early mornings when Mom would mix up her healing elixirs in the kitchen.”
Haley’s smile was genuine, for the first time today. “It’s oregano for me. Mom enjoyed using it for every-freaking-thing. Not even joking. Cooking, spells, my homemade toothpaste.”
“My dad was into sage,” Belle said with a shrug, conveying that he wasn’t her favorite person. “Mom liked to grind up ashwagandha, which isn’t as strong in the scent department, but that earthy smell always reminds me of India.”
It was my turn, and I brushed my fingertips across the leaves of the mint plant on the front desk. “Mom doesn’t use active magic these days, but she has all the herbs you could imagine. Lavender, thyme, oregano, sage, lemongrass. You name it, it’s growing somewhere in the house. Jars everywhere, windowsills crammed. I kind of miss all the greenery.”
“No active magic?” Sara queried, and I nodded. “Yeah, it’s to do with whatever happened with Logan’s mom in the forest that day.” I’d told them why there was a blood oath between us, or as much as I knew anyway. “But it doesn’t diminish her capabilities as a witch.”
“It wasn’t her fault,” Belle said fiercely. “Logan is dumber than he looks if he believes otherwise.”
Madam Craney returned with a box of items, and I had a thought. “Would it be possible for me to take a few of the potted herbs? I’d love to keep them in my room.”
Her whole face lit up. “Dear, you can take as many as you like. Our magic is stronger when we immerse ourselves in nature.”
All four of us ended up with a few trays of potted herbs. On our way back, each of us stopped in our room to drop off the plants. I set my tray on the windowsill and hoped I’d inherited my mom’s green thumb, because I now had babies to keep alive.
When we were done, we snuck into the defense spells classroom, needing the pentacles and insulated walls in case we screwed up the spell. With classes canceled, there were no students in this part of Writworth, minimizing our chances of getting caught.
“It’s complicated,” Belle warned, as she set down each piece of the spell before us. “We need to work slowly, and all of us can check we’re getting every step correct.”
“Especially Paisley,” Sara added. “She’s killing it in spell making classes, and is top of the grade.”
I’d never been top of anything, and without an active affinity I certainly wasn’t going to be for most classes here, but I enjoyed this niche in spells. Hopefully my new skills were enough to get us through a spell of this caliber.
“Okay, we need to swap out the candles for ones with sage, fennel, and lavender,” Belle said quickly, checking her notes. “They should have a dark wick laced with black basil.”
We checked to make sure Madam had given us the right ones, and thankfully their shiny surface and black wick were as described. We placed them on the grooves in the pentacle and used the multitude of flints nearby, left for those who weren’t fire elementals.
“Light them now,” Belle said, and in a few seconds we had five eerily dark flames.
Next, she separated the herbs. A similar array to what was in the candle, with an addition of salt, dragon’s blood—powerful at warding—and red pepper.
“You take the salt,” she told me. I read the instructions over her shoulder and grimaced at how quickly we had to move. A single witch or warlock couldn’t have done this on their own. It would take at least two or three to be safer.
Holding the salt in the palm of my hand, I followed the instructions and flicked it in a counterclockwise motion across the herbs on the table, purifying and mixing it through them all before we began.
“Okay, this is the order,” Belle said, voice steady, even if her eyes held an edge of panic. “I go first, and then within two seconds, Haley, you drop the lavender . . .” She gave us all our tasks, one by one, before taking a deep breath. “Are we ready?”
Belle didn’t give us time to freak out, barking out the orders again.
To no one’s surprise, with a spell this complex, we failed twice. When we were down to what was our last stock of herbs, we sat in silence, staring at each other. “Okay, this is it.” Belle barely looked as if she was breathing, wiping sweat off her forehead. “One last time, learning from all of our mistakes.”
This time she remained quiet because we had the order memorized now. Somehow, this time, desperation etched across our faces, all four of us managed to hit every action, direction, and time frame. As if the moon goddess herself were watching our backs.
When we were done, there was an extended silence, and I was the one wiping sweat as my blood pumped with adrenaline.
“How do we know if it worked?” Haley whispered, as we watched the middle of the pentacle closely.
“We’ll know,” Belle replied, her focus never wavering. “The last step that didn’t happen the last two times will give us the sign.”
A puff of smoke emerged from the center, where the herbs swirled, and with a loud pop that had my frazzled nerves bouncing, the smoke shifted from white to the darkest of grays. As it filled the room, there was no scent or acridity, and when it cleared, all that remained of the multitude of herbs was a thick stem.
In the dim light of the candles, I examined it closer to find a dozen lethal thorns scattered across the length.
Belle reached out hesitantly, grasping a small section without thorns. “You need to stab this into the monster.” She twisted the stem to show us shades of brown, gray, and silver embedded in the points.
Stabbing meant we had to get close, so it wasn’t the safest option, but it would come in handy if we got pinned.
Using one of the metal stirrers, Belle broke off sections of the long thorns for each of us, sliding them into glass vials so we didn’t accidentally stab ourselves. “We’ll split them,” she said. “That way, no matter who is with Paisley, we all can help her.”
“And yourselves,” I added quickly. “Even if the monsters are targeting me, and we don’t know that for sure yet, they are indiscriminate with who they destroy on the way.”
Belle nodded. “I know.”
Slipping my thorny weapons into my pocket, we all promised not to leave our rooms without them. Last night’s death meant we had to start taking this seriously.
If I wanted to make it through the rest of this school year alive.
Chapter 23
Our stomachs went on strike after we finished, demanding equal food for work, so we packed up and left the room. In the dining hall, to no one’s surprise, the twins found me not five minutes after I sat.
“Where the Hel have you been, little sister?” Jenna demanded, shuffling my friends along so she could drag a chair in beside me. “I know we saw you last night, but there’s still a monster on the loose. I was worried about you.”
“Sorry, we were in the library all day trying to figure out how someone created that creature on Weatherstone property.”
Her fierce expression eased a touch. “Did you find anything?”
“Nope, it shouldn’t be possible,” I said, trying not to let the darker thoughts creep in. “No affinity can do this without using dark magic.”
“And dark magic leaves traces,” Belle added, listening in.
Alice nodded, taking a seat on the other side of me. “That’s what Dad said when I spoke to him earlier. The professors are in crisis mode, and the school is all but locked down until they figure out what happened. The council should be here tomorrow.”
Weatherstone had no options but to take this seriously; a college of this reputation would do almost anything to protect itself. The death of students was not a good look.
“I’ve missed you, little sis.” Alice hugged me, and I sank into the familiar warmth of her embrace. Herbs might remind me of home, but my family was home.
“I missed you too,” I mumbled through my emotions, chest tight. “Have you heard from J?” Jensen was away for a month at the beach, as part of more intense studies he’d taken on for his element. I didn’t like the feeling of him being in another state, and I tried very hard not to think about the end of this year when the twins would graduate.
Alice chuckled, her eyes lighting up. “Dad mentioned that he’s hooked on life under the sea, and we’ll probably never see him again.”
“Disloyal bastard,” I tried to joke, but it fell flat. As much as it hurt, I would never deny Jensen his chance for happiness. Even if it meant we lost him to a Californian or Floridian coven when he graduated.
“Trev did say he might join us tonight,” Jenna said, pulling her bowl of carbonara pasta closer. “But I would have expected him already, so his study group for his Magma Studies class must have run over.”
Magma Studies. The fact that my brother could handle literal magma and not lose a limb would never not be odd to me. Those of us without elemental affinities didn’t always understand the ones who walked with the natural elements of the world.
“Are you both free this evening?” I asked, deciding that I wanted to hang with them for a few more hours. “I still need to meet your familiars. I should have done it months ago, but there’s just been so much going on, and I don’t want to be too busy to make time for what is really important.”
We fell silent for a moment, all of us caught up in last night’s death. That warlock had his whole life ahead of him, and then he was gone. Just fucking gone. I refused to put off these important moments any longer.
“We’ve been waiting so long to introduce you,” Jenna said, and she looked younger as her face softened. “Let’s go right after dinner.”
“I’m done,” I said, pushing what remained of my fried rice away. “Let’s go.”
Belle, Haley, and Sara, who had been chatting while I caught up with my sisters, turned as we got to our feet. “I’m going to the Barracks with the twins,” I said, patting my pocket to remind them I had our new spell. “I won’t walk alone.”
“We’ll keep you safe.” Jenna looked mildly affronted.
Belle smiled briefly. “Go, have fun. But good to see you’re sticking with our new pact. No one walks alone.”
Jenna’s expression relaxed when she realized it hadn’t been a dig at her ability to look after me, but a reassurance to my friends that I was sticking with our plan. “Good idea, girls,” she said as she swung her bag over her shoulder. “You can never be too safe these days.”
They waved us off, and we headed to the Barracks. I’d passed this building so many times, heard the animals, seen the animals, and sure as heck smelled the animals, but I’d never been inside. The Barracks was exclusively used by advanced nature sprites who had claimed their soul-creatures.
Jenna and Alice used the side entrance near the forest, and I gaped at the sheer size of the Barracks. “It’s deceptive from the outside,” I breathed. The ceilings must have been thirty feet high, wood slats extending for a mile in every direction I looked. “It’s the size of a small town.”
Alice chuckled, looking around as if she’d forgotten the grandeur. “It sure is, but there was no way any of us would dump our animals in a cage when we’re not with them. They get accommodations as good as or better than ours.”
“That’s what I love about you nature sprites.”
We walked along the main aisle through the building, and I could see into the animal enclosures as we passed them. The polar bear had what looked like an acre of actual ice, snow, and a large pond. “They also go out into the wild every day,” Jenna said as I peered inside. “Our familiars are humanized, so they pose no danger to witches or warlocks. But they’re still wild at heart and need to revel in their freedoms.”
Having heard them talk about their familiars, and then seeing the truth of it here, was so vastly different that I found myself filled with questions. “Do either of you stay with Simon or Morris at night?” I asked, noticing that most enclosures had a bed set up in the corner. Even the snowy ones.
“Yep,” they said together.
“More often than not,” Jenna added, voice a little dreamy, and I was taken aback by how calm she appeared. The Barracks soothed that frantic need of hers to overachieve and control every aspect of the world.
As we walked, they ran through a list of animals and their witch or warlock companions until we reached their familiars. Morris and Simon were next door to each other, and we entered the sheep’s territory first. Inside, it looked and smelled like a farm, with grassy fields, a watering tank, and bales of hay scattered around the edges. I could see Alice’s bed set up in a far-off corner, and as soon as she stepped past the gates Simon beelined for Alice. I tried not to laugh, because I’d never seen a sheep run, and there was more than a little waddle in his gait. His cream-colored coat was short at the moment, no doubt shorn for summer, and when he got close, Alice dropped to her knees and held her arms out for him to bound into.
He was freaking bounding, and it was adorable.
The pair remained locked as her magic sparkled the air, a light dusting of happiness and tranquility. The nature sprites were the least intrusive and combative of affinities, but they were strong in other ways. They created peace, and I still believed it to be the toughest and most elusive magic of all.
“Simon,” Alice said as she stood, one hand on his head. He appeared larger than a regular sheep, standing waist height on her. “This is my sister Paisley. She’s our best friend too, just like Jen.”
Simon strode forward and I marveled at the sheen of silver in his cream coat, even while his face was darker. He stopped before me, and I shot a quick glance at Alice, wondering about the etiquette here. “Should I pet him? Is that rude?”
She laughed. “Not at all. He loves a good scratch behind the ears.”
He absolutely did. Butting against my hand, I ended up spending thirty minutes scratching his head, telling him how beautiful he was, between chatting with my sisters, who were deep in conversation about their process of applying to covens.
“It’s a lot like college,” Jenna said, her voice wavering, stress tugging at the corners of her lips. “You have application exams—a practical next month that will take us away from the school for a week—and then endless questionnaires to determine where you fit. We have to list ten jobs we’re hoping to secure after graduation. I didn’t know it would be this intense, to be honest, but at least our college work is wrapping up. Just a few larger assignments are all that stand between us and graduation.”
