by LJ Swallow
Andrei returns with an envelope and hands it to Ash before standing as far from Yvette as he can. Ash tears it open and we huddle around to read the instructions inside. Yvette bumps shoulders with Katherine, who steps away from her and brushes at her shoulder as if an animal soiled her blazer.
I catch Andrei's eyes and he shakes his head with a despairing sigh.
"Is that it?" asks Katherine and grabs the paper to turn it over and look at the back. Andrei takes the instructions from her and we read.
Create and use a Minor Transfiguration Potion
"Huh?" asks Ash. “Where are the instructions? What ingredients do we need?"
We turn to Jamie, who's close by with Clive, and he parts his mouth. "I'm not an encyclopaedia."
"And he's not in your fucking group," growls Remi.
"I bet the recipe and ingredients aren't in the Potions classroom—or the academy." Andrei slumps against the wall, knocking the other notices pinned to the board.
"Because it's a 'challenge'," says Yvette as if he's an imbecile.
“What we need must be inside or close to the academy,” says Ash. “Theodora won’t want us to travel far from campus.”
"Why?" Yvette narrows her eyes. "We're allowed off campus sometimes."
Ash ignores her and folds the paper before shoving the envelope in his back pocket. "Jamie will pass on any information he finds."
"Isn't that cheating?" I ask. "He isn't on our team."
Yvette makes a soft, derisive sound. "Jamie is Team Maeve, isn't he?"
"We'd better win this challenge,” puts in Katherine as I turn my back on Yvette and her comment. “I refuse to be a loser even if I’m grouped with some.”
“Then you'd better cooperate," says Andrei. "Kiss and make up with Yvette."
I stifle a laugh behind my hand and Andrei's eyes glint as both girls make disgusted noises.
Seamus finally breaks his silence. “Do whatever. I’ve better things to spend time on." He dips his head and lopes away.
"Typical shifter," mutters Katherine as she watches him approach Clive. “Seamus had better pull his weight, or else."
"Or else, what?" asks Yvette sweetly. "You'll use your lamia powers to make him take his clothes off in public?”
I lift my eyes to the sky, cursing silently at whoever chose to group us.
I blow air into my cheeks as I read the research notes that Jamie sent to our phones a few hours later.
Minor Transfiguration Potion.
Ingredients:
Sulphur
Orange oil
Moonflower petals
I haven't encountered the plant in my limited Potions study, but I read Jamie's notes to the others as if I'm an expert. Nobody believes my claim that this is my research, but nobody cares either. As long as Clive doesn't discover Jamie leaked the information, because he's likely to report us.
I clear my throat. "Found high on steep rock faces in Northern European countries, the flower only blooms in July. The daisy-like flower is distinguished from others by a pungent scent reminiscent of mushrooms."
Yvette taps her teeth and hands her phone to Kimberly. "Nobody can reach moonflowers, even if they find a location. They're high up, tiny, and impossible to see in the dark. That's why they're rare and potions that use them are expensive. Why ask the impossible from us?"
"Impossible for a witch maybe," says Katherine. "Some of us can climb easily. We can see in the dark."
"You'll climb rocks?" asks Yvette with disbelief. "You might break a nail."
"How do we know where to look?" interrupts Ash as the pair square off again.
"Scroll down." I point to his phone. "There's a list of recent locations."
"Recent?" asks Yvette as she stares at her screen. "The last date is two years ago."
"Seamus could sniff out the flower?" suggests Andrei.
"Screw you," snaps Seamus.
"Hold up." Ash runs a hand across his hair. "Your family are fox shifters?"
"Yeah. And?"
"Keen sense of smell. If we go to the locations Maeve found, that might help."
The assembled group stare at him hopefully, rivalries forgotten for fleeting moments. Seamus scrunches his face. "Dunno. Maybe."
"You have to help, Seamus,” says Kimberly quietly. "Rules."
"I don't help witches and vampires. We shouldn't be working together."
"Shit, I'm bored with that attitude," says Andrei. "You're competitive, right? I bet you'd like to beat Clive."
Seamus tenses. "Not a good idea."
"Why?"
"None of your business, vamp," he retorts.
"Shut the hell up, Seamus," snaps Ash and Seamus glowers at him. "We need to start visiting the locations tonight."
"Tonight?" asks Katherine in horror. "I have things to do."
"More important than this?" retorts Yvette. "Typical vamp."
"Why typical vamp?" she snaps back.
"Guys!" Andrei half-shouts. "Stop behaving like first-years. Come on."
Theodora instructed some academy guards to drive each team to where they want to go and wait around to watch. I'm unsure about another trip off campus and as we follow Ash to find a guard, I glance over at the staff quarters.
Without Tobias joining me, I'm more worried about my safety.
Chapter Twenty-Two
MAEVE
For somebody who doesn’t feel the cold, Katherine certainly whinges a lot about her environment. I’m dressed in a heavy blue jacket and hiking boots whereas she’s dressed the same as usual in a small, tight top and jeans hugging her model-length legs, as she climbs up the hill as nimbly as a mountain goat. Kimberly trudges along beside me, hunched over and not speaking to anybody.
Andrei walks silently on the other side, one hand in mine and his phone in the other. How can he focus on that and not trip over the boulders strewn along our route?
Vampire skills.
We left the guard and van at a nearby lookout spot half an hour ago and hiked further into the moors.
“I’m cold,” complains Kimberly as she wraps her arms around herself, even though she's engulfed by her puffed black jacket.
“You're wearing gloves and a scarf,” comments Andrei. “That’s extreme for May.”
Kimberly tightens the scarf and looks the other way.
Sergei’s soft footsteps follow and Seamus walks ahead with Yvette—at a distance from each other.
“How much further?” whines Yvette.
“Over there.” Ash points towards a spot where the moors end in a steep rock face. I can barely see, even with the witchlight I conjured, but can tell that this stretches twenty metres high.
We reach the base and crowd together, standing closer than we have all night.
“Can you smell it, foxy?” Katherine asks Seamus.
“What? The smell of spoiled bitch?”
“Seamus!” shouts Ash as Yvette chuckles.
“You guys haven’t figured this out have you?” retorts Ash. “The sooner we complete the challenge, the better. While other teams spend their time working on the first part of the challenge, we’re a step ahead.”
“And the quicker we’re done, the less time we need to spend together,” I put in. “That must be a benefit, Yvette?”
She makes a humph sound and steps towards Kimberly. “What are you staring at?” Yvette snaps at Sergei.
“Nothing.”
His too-sharp response and the way he shiftily looks at his feet prickles the hairs on my neck. “Andrei,” I whisper.
He doesn’t respond and I nudge him hard. Almost dropping his phone, he looks around. “What? Have we finished?”
“No. I think Yvette and Sergei could get nasty with each other.”
“Makes a change from her bitching at me,” he says. “Hey, Kimberly.”
Yvette turns her head and looks at him as if he smells like the muck from the animals living on the moors. “What, Andrei?”
"I said Kimberly, not you."
> Huffing, I nudge Andrei again. "Stop it."
He ignores me “Did you find your so-called stalker yet, Kimberly?”
Kimberly’s mouth turns down. “Don’t joke.”
I look at Andrei. “What do you mean?”
“I was accused of stalking Kimberly the other night, after I left you,” he says, eyes narrowing at Yvette.
“Can we use this time to work together and not fight?” retorts Ash.
But I sense Andrei is more than irritated—he's upset. As the others inspect the rocks, I hang back and take Andrei's hand. I pull him around to face me. “You never told me about that.”
He snorts. “If I told you every time somebody pissed me off, we’d spend too much time talking and not enough time doing more interesting things with our evenings.”
“But if she’s accusing you...”
“Maeve, I don’t give a shit.”
I bite my lip. Until something happens.
“Which vamp will climb up?” asks Seamus. “There’s definitely moonflower near here.”
“Andrei can.” Katherine examines her nails. “Clambering up rocks is not my thing.”
“What about Sergei?” Andrei retorts and indicates the vamp who's now withdrawn into the shadows.
"We all know you have the most developed skills, Andrei," says Yvette snidely. "I'm sure you've spent time in the past climbing up and down places quickly."
"What does that mean?" he growls and drops my hand.
She pulls a non-committal face and shrugs.
"Don't rise to her," I whisper to Andrei and seize his coat sleeve.
He mutters somethings I swear is 'stupid bitch' then blurs from view. I twist my head from side to side. Great. He won’t be back.
"Oh, for fuck's sake," retorts Katherine and I blink as she kicks off her shoes. She appears halfway up the rock face half a second later. "Foxy. Climb behind me and tell me how close I am."
Seamus mutters too and I'm growing as exasperated as Ash, who shuffles from foot to foot nearby. "I can't scale bare rock faces," Seamus protests.
"Try," calls Katherine.
As Seamus scrambles after Katherine, I debate sitting on the ground and waiting. The walk here took longer than I thought and the terrain harder to navigate in the half-light from the spell in my palm.
I link my arm through Ash's. "Don't stress. We'll find what we need and get the hell away from the others."
"Honestly? I reckon this is just the start. Once we start making the potion, Yvette and Katherine will start throwing it at each other."
I straighten. "And they'll transfigure?"
"Nah." He rubs a hand across the top of his head. "This is a minor recipe that only works on inanimate objects, not anything living."
"I did worry about that," I admit.
Ash chuckles. "Theodora may be crazy asking us to do this, but she isn't crazy enough to give us access to a potion that could cause chaos."
"Yes. The thing in the tunnels has the chaos side covered."
"Maeve, we can't be certain it's a 'thing'." He wraps an arm around my shoulders and kisses the top of my head.
"The heartbeat?" I whisper. "That tells me something lives down there."
His silent response isn't reassuring.
Yvette stands with her arms crossed, gazing up at the figures scaling the rocks. "Anything?" she shouts.
"Give me a bloody chance!" Katherine calls back.
A laugh bursts from my lips. Honestly, compared to everything that's happened in my life recently, this has to be the weirdest. Mental magic. Threats inside and outside the academy. Discovering I'm a Winterfall. At this very moment, those are surpassed by watching a vampire, shifter, and witch argue over a flower.
Ash looks at me quizzically.
"Don't you think this is amusing?" I ask him and gesture at the trio.
His mouth twitches at one corner. "A little."
Blowing air into my cheeks, I look around for Andrei, but he hasn't reappeared. Knowing him, he's halfway back to the academy by now.
"Where's Kimberly?" asks Yvette, breaking from her supervision.
Ash tips his head. "Dunno."
"And Sergei," she says coldly.
"They won't be far," I say and smile.
"Kimberly disappeared and two vamps have too?" retorts Yvette. "That's not good." She yanks down the hood covering her brown hair as if that would give her a clearer look.
"They haven't 'disappeared'," I say with a sigh. "They've probably found somewhere else to sit and wait."
"Really?" says Yvette in disgust. "Really? Kimberly wouldn't put herself in danger like that."
"She isn't in danger," says Ash. "Calm down."
Straightening, Yvette stalks away into the dark. "Kimberly!" she calls.
"Shit." Ash looks between the pair climbing the rocks and the direction Yvette disappeared. "I'm not too worried, but we should stick together."
"Where do you think Andrei went?" I ask.
"You know Andrei," he says with a sigh. "The academy. If something pissed him off, he won't be back again however long the walk." Ash chews on a nail as our focus shifts away from the activity on the rocks. "What's wrong?"
"Why would Kimberly walk off?"
"She won't be far," I say, but worry creeps across my scalp like spiders. Did Sergei and Kimberly leave together? No. That's ridiculous.
I'm alerted by a thud nearby and Seamus straightens from his heavy landing at the base of the rocks. A few seconds later, Katherine lands softly beside him. She shakes her hair over one shoulder and delves a hand down the front of her top.
"Here." She holds out a bunch of white flowers, practically shoving them into Ash's hands. "And look at me!" You would think Katherine had rolled in something unpleasant from the way she brushes dirt from her knees. "Omigod!" She sniffs her palms. "Gross."
Seamus rests against the rock, arms crossed, silent.
"Great job!" I say, but neither share my enthusiasm.
"Um." Katherine cocks her head. "Where are the others? Why were they allowed to leave already and we're stuck here?"
I exchange a look with Ash as Katherine sinks into her pouty persona.
"Yeah, fuck this," mutters Seamus and strides away.
Ash buries his hands into his jacket pockets, elbows at right angles. "Oh, man..."
"Hey, at least we have the flowers," I say brightly. "That's one good—"
A scream shatters the quiet, bouncing from the rocks, and I'm unable to detect the direction the noise came from. Swearing, Ash charges away and I follow but can't keep up.
A small ball of light bobs in the air a few hundred metres ahead and as we approach, I see witchlight in Yvette's hands. The light shines brightly enough to show Kimberly with a tear-streaked face, one hand in Yvette's as she trembles.
"Was that you screaming?" asks Ash, reaching them in several long strides. "What happened?"
Kimberly shakes her head and wild eyes look to Yvette.
"Yes. Kimberly, tell us what happened," cajoles Yvette.
"Something followed me," she whispers.
Oh crap. Hairs lift on my arms.
"A vampire?" retorts Yvette.
"Maybe," comes Kimberlys quavering voice. "I could feel it..." She hunches her shoulders. "In my hair."
"What?" I walk over and inspect her head. "Here. There's a leaf."
"No. Not that. I never heard him coming but I felt his breath. His evil."
Yvette laps up her dramatics and murmurs soothing words, and I run a hand down my face as I look to Ash for help.
"Are you hurt?" asks Ash. "Did this person touch you?"
"No." The witchlight flickers across Kimberly's face as Yvette holds it higher, like we're at a campfire telling spooky stories. "I saw him through the dark. Pale. Tall." She looks at me. "Dark hair."
"Are you suggesting Andrei chased you?" I choke out. "That's ridiculous!"
"I knew it!" says Yvette in triumph before hugging the shaking girl to her. "Who else cou
ld it be?"
Something in me snaps. I've held back for weeks, refusing to be drawn into Yvette's nastiness and accusations, but she's lapping up Kimberly's story—and I know what her next move will be.
Mental energy projects from me and Yvette stumbles backwards as the magic hits her head. "Stop accusing Andrei of this shit!" I shout at her.
She holds her forehead. "Are you assaulting me, Maeve? A fellow witch? You must be spending too much time around your disgusting boyfriend."
The anger rises and I focus the magic into a funnel in front of me. How dare she talk about us like this.
"Whoa." Ash steps forward and stands between us, cutting my planned hit dead.
"She has no proof!" I snap out and try to pull back on the anger drawing energy towards my magic. "Yvette is victimising Andrei. She's planting ideas in Kimberly's mind."
"And you're in denial," shouts back Yvette, looking around Ash's shoulder. Sensibly, she doesn't move any closer and Ash's position and warning in his eyes stops me lashing out again.
"I don't think you're being fair, Yvette." Katherine's dulcet tones interrupt as she steps from the dark. "Kimberly, are you sure you saw somebody?"
Kimberly grows rigid as Katherine approaches, and she looks between the two girls.
"Back off, Katherine," says Yvette.
"I'm sure Kimberly didn't see anybody." She fixes her eyes on the scared girl and tips her head. "Right?"
"I—uh—" Kimberly darts a look at Yvette. "Somebody was near me."
"But how could you see who this ‘somebody’ was, in the dark?" I ask.
"These moors can be scary at night. If you're already worried vampires are stalking you, maybe you imagined him?" puts in Ash.
"I think she did," says Katherine, smiling sweetly at Kimberly.
"Don't you dare!" Yvette shoves at Katherine's arm and the vampire rounds on her. "Stop using your magic on Kimberly."
"I am not." Katherine pushes a strand of hair from her face and leans closer to Yvette. "Kimberly has doubts, that's all."
"I am so fucking sick of this!" half-shouts Ash with a vehement tone that silences us all. I haven't seen him angry for a long time and my heart leaps. "Nothing happened. We have the moonflower. Walk back to the fucking van."