by Rye Brewer
All of a sudden, the werewolf student let out what appeared to be a groan of frustration and lunged for Luca.
A loud, collective gasp erupted across the stands as Luca flinched away from the student, whose teeth transformed before our eyes into wolflike fangs.
The Briar student sank his fearsome canines into Luca’s shoulder.
Chaos erupted.
Everyone in the stands screamed, climbing up onto the seats to see through the commotion as the referee blew his whistle a dozen times. Professors from both Under Realm and Briar rushed onto the field.
The werewolf student seemed to realize what he’d done and immediately backed away, allowing himself to be led off the field by a Briar Academy professor and what looked like a few fellow werewolves.
Luca appeared to be crouched on the grass, but too many adults and teammates were hovering over him for any of us to get a clear view.
“Did he get bitten? Is he going to turn into a werewolf?” one of the young twin witches behind us exclaimed.
I rolled my eyes, refraining from turning around. Everyone knew that only humans could turn into werewolves by being bitten. Luca was a necromancer at a school filled with skilled witch healers; he would probably be fine.
Still, nothing like this had ever happened before in a soccer match, not even against Briar Academy. Sure, things got rough, and players would limp off the field with sprained ankles and gnarly bruises, but no one ever got bit.
Perhaps that one twin was right. Maybe they were beasts, after all.
Headmistress Somers appeared in the center of the field, waving her hands in a familiar gesture that indicated she was using a spell to amplify her voice.
“Under Realm Academy students, please clear the stands. Go directly to your dormitories immediately,” she shouted.
The Briar Academy students were already being rushed away from the field toward their busses by their own staff.
I doubted Briar Academy would ever be allowed back at Under Realm. This was really bad. Animal shifters were already stereotyped so negatively; to act out like this in plain view of a couple of hundred witches, demons, necromancers, and soul reapers was incredibly unwise. The Briar Academy professors shouldn’t have allowed a werewolf with such poor temper control to play in the game.
None of us needed any encouragement to follow Headmistress Somers’s commands. We knew better than to disobey her.
Eyes wide with worry, Kendra and I locked arms and joined the thick crowds hurrying down the stands and filtering back up to the castle. As we reached the field, Talia caught our attention and nodded at us to let us know she’d catch up with us as soon as possible.
I noticed Calder kneeling on the grass with a few other players, presumably helping Luca as Nurse Dahlia and a handful of other teachers purposefully blocked our view. I also noticed Aidan on the field. He and Luca, both necromancers, were close friends. Even though I knew it, I was still surprised to see Aidan’s brow knit with genuine concern. I didn’t think I’d ever actually seen him take anything seriously before.
Well, anyway… I don’t think anyone had expected the first match of the season to turn out like that.
5
In the end, Luca was totally fine. The werewolf who bit him was only fifteen, so his teeth weren’t fully grown in yet. Luca ended up with a simple bandage covering a relatively shallow bite wound on the back of his right shoulder. Nurse Dahlia would be able to work with Professor McGill to brew a potion that would prevent scarring, too.
Even better, it meant that Luca could still play soccer. Briar Academy was officially banished from Under Realm Academy grounds and banned from ever participating in a match against us again. Rumor had it that several other schools in the area followed suit, horrified by the news that one of the Briar animal shifters had been unable to control himself and bit one of Under Realm’s students.
We ended up winning the next seven games in the season with ease, making us undefeated by the time Halloween rolled around.
Halloween was the most exciting time at Under Realm Academy. Technically a celebration of All Hallows’ Eve—though everyone still called it Halloween—it was meant to be a day of reflection for magical beings, especially those like necromancers and soul reapers who had a particular connection with the dead.
But the reality was that it was a massive party. Headmistress Somers admitted to loving Halloween, including the silly human traditions involved with it. While no one at Under Realm Academy dressed up in costumes or exchanged candy, we definitely enjoyed ourselves the paranormal way.
Halloween this year was on a Monday. Classes were cancelled, and professors informally banned students from the library so that they wouldn’t be tempted to use the spare time to study. Believe me, it happened.
Decorations were strung up all over the castle. The regular wall sconces were charmed to glow a spooky purple-black, and the tapestries were magically tinted by the witches to appear darker. The demon students worked together to create scary but fun scenes in the corridors, ranging from papier-mâché exorcisms to amateur paintings of famously frightful demons.
Necromancers, whose connection with the non-living realm was strongest on All Hallows’ Eve, whispered to the regular crew of harmless ghosts, helping them stage spooky hauntings in the darkest corners of the castle. Kendra and I had gotten spooked that morning on our way to get coffee in the senior lounge when the ghost of old Professor Turteltaub, who taught in the mid-1850s, started opening and closing the cupboards of the student kitchenette like we were in a lousy reenactment of a human horror movie.
Kendra and I had cracked up instantly, delighted by the show. We saw the faintest glimpse of the professor’s twinkling eyes and frilly nineteenth-century collar before he chuckled in his ghostly way and slunk off to haunt some other students.
The soul reapers, who were usually spooky regardless of the holiday, retreated to their private classrooms to do whatever they did in the world of the dead on Halloween. I didn’t understand it, but Kendra once explained that it seemed like they just meditated all day.
That bummed me out. I’d much rather be having fun with the rest of the school than floating through the territory of the undead.
Anyway, the best part about Halloween was the dance.
It was the biggest party of the school year, even more so than prom.
The Halloween dance committee, composed of both students and professors, went all out. Before the dance was a delicious feast, full of decadent and delicious foods that we didn’t even get to enjoy during the first dinner of the school year.
Kendra, a few other students in AP Potions, and I had worked with the chefs in the kitchen to create delicious nonalcoholic—bummer!—beverages that had fun effects like levitation and hair color changing.
Talia and I had laughed way too loudly when Kendra sipped one and her ginger curls immediately turned bright, practically-neon fuchsia.
Kendra giggled, glancing at herself in the reflection of her spoon. “I kind of like it.”
“You’re really pulling it off,” I admitted, touching one of the pink spirals. “You should consider doing this permanently.”
She snorted. The effects would wear off by morning, but at least she’d get to have an unexpectedly colorful look for the dance later that evening.
After dinner, everyone was ushered out of the cafeteria so that the professors could transform it back into the grand ballroom that it had been designed to be. A century ago, when there were less students at Under Realm Academy, mealtimes were held in a smaller dining room in a different wing of the castle, while the Grand Hall remained open and available for various events.
However, as the student body at Under Realm Academy began to grow, there became a greater need for a larger space for dinner so the Grand Hall was put into use.
Thankfully, there were plenty of witches skilled at object manipulation who could do away with the long oak tables and heavy benches with ease.
Kendra and Tali
a followed me back to the senior girls’ dorms. I’d offered up my room as our private place to get ready for the dance. I usually did it every year, mostly because my dear friends never came to school prepared to dress for an occasion as important as the Halloween dance.
“I’m so jealous of your wardrobe.” Talia sighed, running her hands along the excessive amount of clothing I had hanging up.
“Perks of having a witch seamstress as an aunt,” I replied with a wink, digging around in my trunk for the pair of shoes I had in mind.
It was true. Aunt Inez was pretty cool. Because she was a particularly talented magical seamstress, she’d worked with some of the most successful witch clothing designers, some of whom had wildly popular clothing brands even in the human world. And the humans didn’t even know it.
Kendra donned a navy dress that hugged her petite form and looked good even with her temporarily magenta hair, and then she went to work, creating the perfect smoky eye. I helped Talia pick out a dress from my closet. We were about the same size, though she was much taller than me, so I recommended she try a sleeveless silver minidress. Thankfully, Under Realm Academy didn’t bother with having a strict dress code on Halloween.
I was super grateful for that. No way was I going to walk into the Halloween dance and try to win Calder’s heart in a pleated skirt and plaid blazer.
“Tonight’s definitely the night,” I announced to the girls as I wiggled my way into a pair of black tights.
“Calder?” Talia asked. “Are you going to dance your way right into his heart?”
Kendra giggled as I chucked a pillow at Talia’s head, which she used her athleticism to duck and cover from just in time.
“That’s the plan,” I replied with a wink.
“I think it’ll go well,” Talia said, applying a coat of mascara with precise focus. “Oliver told me that Calder said he likes a witch in our year.”
“Why on earth would he tell that to Oliver?” I asked, though I couldn’t deny I felt a swoop of hope in my heart.
“Beats me,” Talia responded with a shrug. “Whatever boys talk about in the locker rooms is a mystery.”
Kendra snorted. “Everyone knows Calder likes Moira. Except for Moira.”
“No, not everyone knows that,” I replied, though I wished for it to be true. “In fact, Aidan Grimsbane seems pretty convinced he still has a thing for Maude Sanders.”
Kendra frowned. “But Maude is dating a guy at Brayton University.”
Talia gasped. “Is she really?”
“Yeah, she’s been telling everyone who will listen,” Kendra replied.
Interesting. Aidan was friends with Maude, so he would’ve known who she was dating before most anyone else. Why would he lie to me like that then?
Did he not want me to date Calder? What if he was even whispering lies to Calder too, trying to convince him that I wasn’t interested?
The thought made my blood boil. Aidan disliked me so intensely that he even had to meddle enough to ensure that I would never date his best friend. If I did, that would mean he’d have to deal with me more often.
Ugh. Neither one of us wanted that.
Still, I wanted to date Calder. He was handsome and smart and nice to everyone in school, even the weird kids. He had a little sister at Wailing Creek Junior High, the same middle school that Aidan and I—unfortunately—went to together. Whenever she visited Under Realm for soccer matches or significant school events, he was so sweet with her.
I may be a rebel at heart, but Calder’s golden soul was irresistible to me.
I slipped into the outfit I’d been planning for weeks. It was an adorable black velvet romper, cut to hug my bodice and waist but be comfortably loose elsewhere. The long sleeves billowed down to my wrists.
“Oooh, you look very witchy,” Kendra told me.
I grinned and laced up a pair of patent leather boots that I usually reserved for special occasions.
“Bewitching, in fact,” added Talia.
I blushed at my friends’ compliments. We all looked amazing. I had no doubt that we would turn heads when we entered the Grand Hall.
About twenty minutes later, the three of us joined the crowd of students arriving fashionably late to the dance. Everyone knew that the only people who showed up on time were freshmen and socially awkward people.
The Grand Hall had been transformed into an eerie nightclub. Purple and white lights flashed from floating orbs high above our heads, illuminating layers and layers of black taffeta strung from the ceiling in cascading swaths. The stone floor was scattered with glittering bits of confetti that caught the lights and sparkled throughout the room. It was probably the best I’d ever seen a Halloween dance decorated.
Even better, loud music pounded throughout the room. It sounded like the remix of a hit pop song and instantly made me and my friends bob our heads along to the beat. A crowd of seniors had already gathered toward the end of the Grand Hall, where Oliver had taken his rightful place as the DJ. The guy may struggle with his witch classes, but he had killer taste in music.
Kendra, Talia, and I squeezed our way into the crowd and started dancing with our classmates. However, just as I was starting to lose myself in the music, the horribly familiar itch between my shoulders returned.
I frowned.
No, not now…
At this point, after my meltdown in the bathroom about a month ago, I knew better than to scratch at it. I didn’t want to experience that painful burning sensation again.
I tried to ignore it, keeping my face neutral as I inhaled and exhaled slowly.
For a few minutes, it seemed to work. I continued dancing, smiling and waving at classmates who said hello to us in the thick crowd. The odd itchiness, which remained firmly centered right in the part between my shoulder blades that I couldn’t reach, did not abate.
I was so annoyed. It had been so long since the first time it happened, I had been able to brush it off as a freaky moment and nothing else. But, if it was happening again, what did that mean? What the hell was wrong with me?
I couldn’t seem to figure out what triggered it either. The first time the burning itch happened, I was sitting in the quiet library, not thinking about anything except how boring it was to read my own family’s history out of a dull textbook. This time, I was in the middle of a hot, crowded dance floor, with music so loud that it made Talia and Kendra have to shout in my ears to be heard.
There was literally no connection between the two events.
Suddenly, all feelings of frustration left my mind; I’d spotted Calder not far from the dancing crowd, getting a drink at a nearby table.
Here was my moment.
“I’m thirsty,” I yelled in Kendra’s ear. I gestured over to the drinks table in explanation.
Kendra smiled, the purple lights making her hair glow an ethereal shade of violet. She nodded and then nudged Talia in the side, who had turned to chat with some other demons. I winked at Talia as I slid through the crowd toward Calder. She waggled her fingers at me in goodbye.
Calder was standing at the table with Luca, whose shoulder had mostly healed at that point. He looked so handsome in a pair of fitted black jeans and black button-down, the sleeves of which he’d rolled up to his elbows.
Playing it cool, I walked up next to him and reached for a cup of unicorn juice—it was not made out of unicorns, but it did taste like cotton candy.
I was pleased when Calder noticed my presence right away.
“Hey, Moira,” he said, offering me a friendly grin.
“Hi,” I replied casually. “Hey, Luca. How’s your shoulder?”
“All healed up, pretty much,” Luca said, shrugging both of his shoulders to prove it. “And thankfully, I haven’t started howling at the moon yet.”
Calder and I laughed at his joke. We all knew that there was no way a necromancer could turn into a werewolf, especially not from the nibble of an immature one.
“Hey, Moira,” Luca added. “While I’ve got y
ou here… can I ask you something?”
Um, what.
I glanced at Calder, but he was grinning as if he knew what Luca was about to say.
Oh, no. Oh, no. No, no, no. Nooooo.
Please don’t tell me Luca was about to ask me out. Please don’t tell me Calder had been encouraging Luca to ask me out because he personally didn’t have any interest in me.
The itch morphed into a deep burn, and I tried not to flinch or squirm.
“What’s up?” I asked coolly.
“Well… maybe this is kind of awkward, but…” Luca began.
Oh, no.
“…do you think Kendra would be into me?”
Huh?
“What?” My eyebrows shot up in shock. I was relieved it wasn’t me he was asking out, but also surprised. I couldn’t remember Luca ever showing interest in Kendra. Maybe I wasn’t as perceptive as I thought.
Kendra had certainly never mentioned being into Luca, though I did remember her once mentioning that she thought his hair looked nice. And she had been really concerned when he was bitten. Of course, the whole school had been.
Luca was a good guy. He was studious like Kendra and cared about his future. Honestly, they’d make a great couple. I definitely shipped them.
“I just figure… you guys are such good friends. Maybe you could give me some advice on how to get her attention?” Luca chewed on his lip.
Calder shot me a wink, amused by his friend’s awkwardness. I tried not to go weak in the knees at that gesture.
Ignoring the pain that now felt like it was deep in my spine, I forced a wide smile.
“Absolutely, yes,” I told him. “Kendra likes straightforwardness. You should just go up to her and ask for a dance.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed, clearly anxious at the prospect of being so bold. It seemed funny to me that someone who was so daring on the soccer field would be utterly skittish at the thought of approaching a girl as sweet as Kendra.
Teenage boys were weird.