“When I went there, we used to always sneak away for little parties,” her mom said, eyeing us in the rearview mirror. “But you girls would never do that, would you?”
“No way, Mom,” Celeste scoffed and elbowed me in the ribs. “We’re so devoted to our studies.”
“Right,” I replied, trying to force myself to match her happiness. “We’re just going to be studying as much as we can. No rest for the wicked right?”
Zoey clucked her tongue. “Liars,” she muttered, before flashing a huge smile.
When we arrived at Origins, the parking lot was overflowing with families unloading suitcases and kissing their children goodbye for the semester. The Louisiana sun burned down on our shoulders, making little beads of sweat roll down my spine. Since we didn’t have to wear our uniforms yet, I had opted for a yellow dress that cut low on my breasts, with a pair of heeled sandals. Celeste had opted for a black crop-top with black shorts. She had shrugged about it, saying, “I’m a witch. I think black just always works, you know?”
Celeste and I loaded our suitcases out of the back. My eyes scanned the cars. At first glance, it seemed like everyone was just a normal teenager with a normal family. But on second glance—there was something definitely different at work here. Some of the families didn’t even appear normal, with these little elf ears that cut out from their heads. There were obvious vampire families on the outskirts, their skin terribly white and their eyes bright blue.
“Wait,” I said, my eyebrows low. “I thought vampires couldn’t be outside during the day time?”
Celeste’s laughter rang out through the air before us. “Sure, hundreds of years ago, maybe. But they have adapted and besides, how are they supposed to live amongst us supernaturals if they have to sleep all the time? Naw, there are ways around it. I heard Ezra talking about it last year. Some kind of potion they have to drink to be able to handle the sun. Still, I think they got tired during the daytime. It’s why Ezra is the one to always, always suggest a party. It’s just in his nature to be wide awake after nightfall.”
On cue, my eyes latched onto Ezra’s family, just a few cars away. He hugged a very thin woman with icy eyes. Her face didn’t give over a single flicker of emotion as they embraced. When they broke, they looked at each other like they were strangers.
“I guess there’s not a lot of love in vampire families?” I murmured to Celeste.
Celeste shrugged. “It’s the same as with any normal family. There’s just always shit to get through, you know?”
“Oh, believe me, I know.”
Ezra turned his head quickly, flashing his blue eyes toward mine. My heart thudded into my chest. I knew he remembered the afternoon at the second-hand store—how he’d called me fuckable. Back then, I had thought I was another normal person with no abilities.
Now, he looked at me like I was fresh meat.
“And nobody ever has any desire to... um...” I began, turning back toward Celeste. I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
“What?” Celeste demanded.
“You know the vampires and shapeshifters. Nobody ever wants to...”
“Kill each other?” Celeste asked. Her smile widened. Maybe she thought the question was stupid.
“Sorry,” I said and bit my lower lip. I had a feeling I would be asking a lot of silly questions. I didn’t have a clue as to what to expect at all. I had to just try and ease into everything as gracefully as possible.
“No, no. It’s okay. There’s still so much you don’t know,” Celeste said and placed her hand on my arm in comfort.
I reached for my suitcase, preparing to lug it up the front steps of the right-wing, where all the girls had their bedrooms. But before I could grab it, Zoey flung her long fingers forward. She didn’t even mutter any kind of spell. The suitcases sprung up from the pavement and began to float toward the girls’ wing. I tried my best not to let my mouth open and act as though it was totally normal. Zoey had never been so open about with her powers in front of me.
Obviously, Celeste didn’t seem to notice or care. She just muttered, “Damn. I can’t wait till I can do that,” before grabbing my hand and yanking me toward the girls’ wing.
We bounded up the steps and into the foyer. Just like the foyer of the school area, this wing of the girls’ bedrooms felt like an old castle or something out of a storybook. An ornate tapestry hung, flashing colors of purple and red, with beautiful illustrations painted on it with gold. The tapestry hung from the very top of the foyer and stretched down three floors. It seemed bigger than my house at home.
A surly-looking woman in a black robe stood in the hallway over a long wooden table. Celeste’s smile faltered when she looked at her.
“Good morning, Miss Winters,” the woman said. When she spoke, the little mole next to her mouth showed its thick, wiry hair—just the one.
“Good morning, Professor Springer,” Celeste said. “This is my friend, Miss Ivy Whitestone. This will be her first year attending the academy.”
Celeste walked like a robot toward the table and I followed suit. Professor Springer’s eyes flew toward me. I felt like she was trying to read me or dig into my soul and see what I was all about. But she just grimaced, muttering something I could hardly hear. “Doesn’t seem to have come into her powers yet.”
Was it really so obvious?
“We’d like to know our room numbers,” Celeste said.
“Of course.” Professor Springer flicked through her notebook, finding our names. “You’re both located on the second floor with the rest of the year twos. Miss Winters, you’re in room 210, and Miss Whitestone, you’re in room 217—the one with the corner window. Lucky you.” She said it like I didn’t deserve such a view. But what the hell did she know?
It didn’t matter though as I looked over at Celeste and we both smiled, holding back our laughter at the woman. I had butterflies in my stomach as I watched teenagers whiz by in every direction. I still couldn’t really believe that I would be attending Origins. I almost had to pinch myself.
It was exciting but also the scariest thing I had experienced in my life because I had absolutely no idea of what to expect. I guess I was about to find out.
Chapter Eight
As we followed Professor Springer, she opened a cardboard box and inside found two keys—thick, ornate at the top, the sort of thing that might have opened the secret garden in that old British book my mom loved to read to me as a kid.
She extended the two keys out in front of us. I felt like I was being given the keys to a castle. Then, Professor Springer drew out two thick folders, each with our names on it.
“These are the rules for the school year, along with your syllabi,” she explained. “As you already know, classes begin in two days’ time, leaving you plenty of time to arrange your bedrooms, meet the other students, and get accustomed to the grounds.”
“Thank you, Miss Springer,” Celeste said, saying it in a mocking way.
Zoey and Aunt Maria had come up behind us. As soon as we grabbed our keys and folders, she brought the suitcases into the air again. We wandered up the winding staircase to the second floor. All the floors were divided up with doors, I guess, for increased security. I slipped my key into the second-floor door and popped it open, bringing us into a beautiful, ornate living area, with a stunning fireplace made of thick grey stone, paintings of various abstract that hung on the walls, and a little kitchenette where you could keep refrigerated snacks. I noticed a red-headed girl with sharp ears was grinding up what looked like a spinach and pear smoothie. She gave us a look that seemed almost menacing, even though I had greeted her with a smile.
I had always thought faes were meant to be nice.
“Theirs yours,” Celeste said, pointing toward the room at the very far corner. Hers was closer to the fireplace, with her name emblazoned across it in gold.
Zoey spelled our suitcases across the wide living area, almost knocking the red-headed fae-girl in the legs. She shrieked and then ducked back
toward her room, which read, “Riley Peters.” I made a mental note to watch out for her.
When I reached my bedroom, my fingers snaked across the golden letters: Ivy Whitestone. I had the weirdest feeling that I wished my parents could see it; me, entering into this prestigious academy. Sure, Hillside Falls High had been good enough for my dad—and he had been champion of the football team and homecoming king and all that. I had only known that I could have that kind of life since I had been born.
Now, I had something else entirely waiting for me in my future. Something that scared the shit out of me.
I snuck the key into the lock and opened the door. It creaked open to reveal a bedroom that seemed cut from the pages of a medieval museum. On the far wall, a four-poster bed stretched its pillars toward the high ceiling. The room had its own ornate fireplace, huge potted plants with green leaves that flattened out like pancakes. I caught my breath, unable to believe how truly beautiful this space was. And it was all mine.
“Aren’t you going to go in?” Celeste asked, laughing behind me.
I blinked at her, completely aghast. “I can’t believe this is mine.”
Celeste shrugged. “You know this is the best supernaturals academy in the world, right? It’s not like they wouldn’t go all out on the personal rooms. Parents demand it.”
“Sure. But you’ve never seemed like you cared about this kind of stuff,” I said, still flummoxed.
She shrugged. “I don’t. And Mom doesn’t. It’s not our way. You know, we come from that super crazy long line of witches. We’ve had money stocked away for like a thousand years. It sounds crazy. But we’re not ones to flaunt it. Your mother was obviously the same if she could afford to send you here.”
She was right and then I thought back to the diners Zoey, Aunt Maria, Celeste and I had frequented—eating grilled cheese sandwiches and grits for like three bucks a pop. It was kind of nice that the Winters lived like this, really. They knew they had to keep their riches for the long line that would extend into the future, so they lived like normal people—er, normal witches, that is.
I sat at the edge of my bed and Celeste bounded around my room, inspecting everything. “These are much nicer rooms than the ones they gave us last year, though,” she continued. “We would have never dreamed of our own fireplace. And this view you have of the grounds. Jesus, just look at that!”
I did.
I could see lush Louisiana willow trees from the corner window and the sunlight poured in through the window. The view stretched out toward a river that snaked along the edge of the grounds. On the left side of the window, I saw a series of sports fields—football, baseball, tennis courts. This surprised me since I hadn’t imagined the kids would play any kind of normal sports, but then again, why wouldn’t they. I had to stop thinking like this—always just assuming.
Celeste seemed to read my mind. “It can get pretty fucking competitive,” she stated as she continued to walk around the room. “Since we’re all kind of coming into our powers at the same time, most of us can’t really control them. Last year, I accidentally set fire to a tennis ball. I was just so pissed off at the girl I was playing with. Actually—it was that girl out there, the red-headed one—Riley.”
“Right. She seems nice,” I said, laughing.
“Ha. She’s a part of the—erm. The queen bitches of our class, I guess you could say.”
“Really? There are queen bitches here, too? I thought I’d left them all behind in the cheerleading squad at Hillside.”
Celeste’s face looked grave. “Riley’s not the one you should really watch out for. But she can be pretty fucking wicked.”
From my bedroom, we could hear the steady stream of other girls that were in the second year moving into their bedrooms. Zoey and Aunt Maria popped in again to say goodbye, having been caught in conversation with a friend Zoey knew. She had apparently gone to school with her.
They said their goodbyes to us, and Celeste only got a little teary-eyed. Since she had gone through this the year before, Celeste gave her a little kiss on the cheek and said, “See you on parents’ weekend! Tell Dad bye again and that he’s not allowed to miss parents’ weekend this year.” She arched her brow toward me and added, “He just hates being around all the drama. Every parent at Origins is obsessed with making their kid the best.”
A moment later, I was engulfed by Aunt Maria. I wrapped my arms around her as tight as I could and then we finally released one another. She held me at arm's length so she could look me square in the face. “Remember, your parents would be so proud of you, Ivy. Just remember you got this, girl. We have people looking out for you, so you’re as safe as anyone could be. Okay.” She smiled and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. I watched as her eyes pooled with tears.
“Don’t cry, Aunt Maria. You’re going to make me tear up.” I said and pulled her in for one last hug. “I love you.”
“I love you too, baby girl.” She said and released me. I watched her and Zoey leave the room and shut the door behind them.
A few minutes after they had left, there was a rap at the door. Celeste and I turned quickly to find a black-eyed, super-skinny, big-busted girl standing in the doorway. She jutted out a hip and rested one hand on it, which somehow made her enormous breasts bounce up higher, look even fuller.
When she spoke, it was in a French accent, but super icy, like she was saying the evilest thing on earth.
“Girls, bonjour. It’s marvelous to see you again, Celeste.”
Celeste’s matched her tone. “Hey there, Margot. How was your summer in Paris?”
Margot tossed her long silky hair back. “Oh, oui, c’est très bien. You know what Paris is like in the summer. It’s the greatest place on earth!” Here, she dropped her fingers to her lips and actually kissed them. “But regardless, it’s time to return to our work here at Origins. As you know, I’ve been voted the leader of the second year girls. I’ll be holding a meeting to go over a few of the house rules and various events of the upcoming year in—“ She flashed her wrist toward her face, glancing at her watch. “—just another ten minutes from now. Make sure you’re not late.”
Margot began to turn out of the room before ducking back. Her black eyes found mine.
“Darling, I don’t suppose you introduced yourself. How terribly rude of you,” she said.
“Je m’appelle Ivy,” I returned, my nostrils flared. I had taken a semester of high school in French and could basically only say that much.
I regretted it immediately. Margot wanted to let me know just how idiotic she thought that was. Her lip bobbed a bit like she was looking at something really cute—a little animal or something.
“Adorable,” she said. “How lovely to try to speak in my language. But don’t bother, mon petit. You said you’re Ivy? Ah, yes. I see it here on the door. Ivy Whitestone. And, what are you?”
I glanced toward Celeste. I couldn’t outrightly say what I was—an oracle. It gave everything away, and it was very clear that I needed to keep a low profile until the last moment when my powers revealed themselves.
“I’m just um. Just kind of a fae,” I offered, shrugging.
“Just kind of a fae,” Margot said, mocking me. “I didn’t know anyone at Origins could be ‘just kind of’ anything. Well, perhaps they’re getting a little lax on the old application process, hmm? I’ll have to speak to my father about that.” She cleared her throat in this ridiculous French way and then echoed, “Just ten minutes until the meeting, girls. Please don’t be late.”
When Margot disappeared back into the living area, I turned, wide-eyed, toward Celeste and she grimaced.
“She is something,” I said and rolled my eyes.
“She’s a fucking bitch,” Celeste retorted, whipping her hair over her shoulder. “She’s a witch like me, which means she’s in almost all of my classes. It drives me nuts. She’s kind of queen bee around here. She basically tortured everyone into voting her as the leader of the second year girls. I guess t
hat gives her even more power.”
“Great,” I grunted.
“Yep...”
I walked over to where my suitcases were. My nerves had been shot about what was to come with my abilities, any changes that might happen and god knows what else. I hadn’t really put any thought into being nervous about other classmates.
It looked like I was going to have my hands full.
Chapter Nine
When the meeting started, I found myself in the midst of around fifteen girls, all of us second-year students. Celeste and I sat to the side of an enormous red couch, not talking. I wondered if maybe Celeste was as nervous as I was, although I felt pretty sure that wasn’t true. Around us, the girls showed themselves to be from all around the world. Their chatter was a variety of British accents, French accents, Asian accents, and Latin American accents. Of course, most of us were from the United States and Canada—but it was thrilling to be around such diverse people from all over the world.
I hadn’t expected that, although I guess it made sense. We—er, they—were supposed to be the best of the best. I guess I was something else—something “other.” But that was a secret I had to keep to myself.
Margot popped up and stood in front of all of us, beaming. I knew that this kind of happiness could only come from incredible power.
“Bonjour, everyone,” she said, drawing her long fingers together. “Welcome to another year at Origins Supernatural Academy. I suspect that all of you had incredible summers. Riley was only just telling me about the fae camp she attended in Southern California. It sounded absolutely extraordinary and a little bit slutty, to tell you the truth.”
She winked at Riley, the red-head, who—it seemed—was a good friend of hers. Riley beamed back at her. Beside her sat another girl, with curly brown hair. She was as gaunt as any of the other vampires I had seen, which I assumed meant she was one, as well. Using a finger, she twirled one of her curls, looking half-bored with her thoughts, obviously somewhere else. Her blue eyes sparkled when Margot clear her throat.
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