by Lara Chapman
I look at the bed across from me and see Kendall still sleeping. I fight the urge to wake her up and see if my spell worked. Half-afraid of what I’ll find, I decide against it and pull myself out of bed, each step I take more painful than the next. By the time I get to the bathroom, I’m out of breath and every bone and organ and cell inside me is screaming.
I know something isn’t right. I’m sick. Really sick. Did Cody get me sick? He seemed fine yesterday. In fact, I don’t remember anyone being sick yesterday.
I reach into the shower to turn the water on, but before I can touch the knob, I’m drowning in a sea of black stars.
Ivy is standing over me when I open my eyes. Her green eyes are darker than normal, worried. The brightness in the room burns my eyes, so I close them again.
“Hallie, wake up,” she says, slapping my hand. “Wake up.”
I squint my eyes open to prove I’m not sleeping. “I’m awake, but the light . . .”
I hear her click off my lamp. “There. Is that better?”
I open my eyes wider and nod. “What happened?”
She leans over and talks quietly into my ear. “Kendall found you face down in the shower.”
The memory of the morning comes back to me. “I passed out.”
“Well, duh. You’re sicker than sick. You’ve been knocked out for an hour.”
I attempt to turn onto my side, but it hurts too much. “Why am I so sore?”
Ivy doesn’t answer but leans close to me again, whispering, “Where’s the amulet?”
I put my hand on my stomach, then around my neck. I stick my hand inside my pillow, feeling for the hard amulet in the stuffing. But nothing’s there.
It’s gone.
Pure panic washes over me like a bucket of ice-cold water.
I look at Ivy, and we both know Kendall must have taken it.
I close my eyes again. “I’m going to be in so much trouble.”
The door to my room opens, and Ivy leans back quickly. “She’s awake,” she says to someone I can’t see.
A woman in a gauzy green dress comes closer and puts her hand to my forehead. “You’re still running a heck of a fever,” she says. “I can’t remember the last time someone was this sick at Dowling.”
She puts something into my hand, clasps her hands tight around mine, and whispers words I can’t hear.
I close my eyes, too tired to keep them open, and fall back asleep to the woman’s inaudible chanting.
The next time I wake up, Ivy is lying in bed with me. It must be nighttime, because the room is pitch black. I try to move, to sit up in bed, but I’m too weak to do it alone. Honest-to-Saffra fear shoots through me. What kind of disease did Cody give me? Maybe he and Kendall were working together all along, plotting my fate. And I thought he was one of the nice boys.
“Ivy,” I whisper. I hardly recognize my own voice. It’s so quiet, I can barely hear myself.
Ivy doesn’t budge. I take a breath and try again. “Ivy.”
She jerks away, nearly tossing me off the bed. “You’re awake!”
She reaches across me and clicks the light on.
“What’s wrong with me?” I ask her.
Ivy shakes her head. “No one knows. One of the best hedge witches at Dowling has been taking care of you, but she can’t figure it out. They’ve called for Miss A to come back early.”
I wonder if they’ve called my mom. I’m so homesick, I could cry. Mom always knows how to make me feel better, and Dad can make me laugh no matter how sick I am.
The image of Miss A makes me smile. She may not be my mother, but I always feel safe and protected around her. “When will she be here?” I ask.
Ivy shrugs. “Not sure. They said sometime tomorrow.”
“You shouldn’t be in bed with me. You shouldn’t even be in my room.”
“Uh-huh. Right. I’ll just leave you here to be miserable alone. Would you do that to me?”
I shake my head. “No, but . . .”
“Stop talking before you make me mad. I’m here. Get over it.”
I smile at Ivy, so thankful we found each other. “Where’s Kendall?”
“Since I refused to go back to my room, they moved her to my room until you’re better. Kendall was totally freaking out and wouldn’t talk. She just pointed at the bathroom, and that’s how I knew you were in there.”
“I can’t believe she hates me so much, she wouldn’t even help me.”
“She and Zena deserve each other.”
“Does she have the amulet? We have to get it back,” I say.
Ivy’s face changes. I already know the answer before she speaks. “I didn’t ask her.”
I close my eyes, avoiding the reality of how much trouble I’m going to be in. “She hasn’t always been this way.”
Ivy puts a cool rag that smells of mint on my forehead. “Shh. Sleep.”
Eyes already closed, I quickly fall back into the safe, warm peace of darkness.
The next time I wake up, Miss A is sitting in the desk chair and Ivy is sitting on the foot of my bed.
“Look who decided to wakey-wakey!” Miss A’s happy voice makes me grin.
“See what happens when you leave?” I tease her.
She puts a hand to her chest. “It’s the curse of being so wonderful.”
Ivy and I both giggle. For the first time in two days, I feel like I can actually move without screaming in pain.
“I feel like I’ve been beat up. Everything hurts.”
Miss A opens a bronze case and piddles with something I can’t see. “I know, sugar. Just hang in there. It’ll get better, I promise.”
“What are you doing?” I ask her.
“Fixing you,” she says. “Which, let me tell you, is no small task. This one was a humdinger!”
“I must have gotten it at the dance,” I say.
She sprinkles something onto my head, then places a cold rag over it.
“Speaking of the dance,” she says, “I heard you danced all night.”
I look at Ivy, and she holds up her hands. “I didn’t say a thing.”
“Hallie. When are you going to realize there are no secrets at Dowling?”
I feel my face warming in embarrassment.
“Speaking of secrets . . . ,” she begins.
Dread curls around my spine. I look at Ivy, whose face is paler than normal. I feel the absence of the amulet against my skin and know Miss A knows.
“Of course I know,” she says softly. “I’ve known since the day you took it.”
I stare at Miss A, speechless.
“You surprised me. I never dreamed you’d hang on to it so long.”
I take a deep breath and begin my worthless explanation. “I know I should’ve told you right away. But it made me feel stronger. And then I couldn’t figure out how to get it back into the case without anyone knowing, and I—”
Miss A puts a chubby finger to my lips to quiet me. “I know, Hallie.”
“Then why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because you had to discover your gift on your own. That’s your main purpose as a Seeker.”
I look at her, then at Ivy. “But the amulet doesn’t have anything to do with my gift.”
Miss A just looks at me, all joking gone, face serious.
“Wait. It does? How?”
“When you came to Dowling, what did you think your gift would be?” she asks me.
“I thought I’d be a hedge witch like my great-great-grandmother.”
“Guess what?” she says with a wink. “That’s my gift. Not yours.”
I put my hand on the wet rag lying on my forehead. Miss A? A hedge witch?
“Lady Rose said I have the gift of mind manipulation.”
Miss A nods, her curls bouncing. “You do.”
“But then I was able to become invisible.”
She takes my arm and rubs the inside of my wrists with something, leaving dark green smudges. She wipes her hands on a rag in her lap, then c
loses the lid to her container.
Is she deliberately not answering me?
She gives me a look. “No, I’m not deliberately ignoring you.”
I give her a wide-eyed look. My body aches for answers. How do people know what I’m thinking?
Miss A chuckles, and I feel myself relax. “I can read every thought in your head, silly girl. So can the headmistress. You’ve known that for a while. You just didn’t want to admit it to yourself. It’s part of the mind manipulation gift. You just haven’t learned how to close your mind off to others.”
“Does she have more than one gift?” Ivy asks. “Because I swear to you, she disappeared. Right here on this bed.”
Miss A nods. “I believe you.”
“So?” I ask. “What’s my gift?”
“Your gift,” Miss A says, “is the gift of inheritance.”
I rack my brains trying to remember what that gift is. I know I’ve heard about it before. Was it Dannabelle?
“Yes, Dannabelle had it.”
“What does it mean?” Ivy asks.
“It’s really rare. I’ve never known a witch with that gift.”
“Just tell me!” I say.
“The gift of inheritance means you can absorb the gift of other witches if you touch something that was theirs. Saffra’s amulet gave you the gift of mind manipulation. The broach Lady Rose asked you to hold gave you the gift of invisibility.”
I touch the bracelet still on my wrist. Lady Rose was testing my gift. “What gift does this give me?”
“Transformation.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It means you can change physically something about a person,” she says.
I shrug, then take the bracelet off. “Well, it must not work, because nothing like that has happened.”
Miss A takes the bracelet with a small smile. “We’ll see.”
“Miss A,” I say, terrified to say any more. But I know I have to come clean. “I lost the amulet. I think Kendall has it.”
“The amulet is safe,” she says. Her face is calm and untroubled, and I let my body relax.
“So now what?” I ask, shifting in my bed to get more comfortable.
“Well, there’s one more thing you need to know, Hallie.” Miss A looks at Ivy.
“You can say anything in front of her,” I tell her.
Miss A nods, then takes my hands in hers. My empty stomach clenches in dread.
“The gift of inheritance is incredibly powerful. It’s not a . . . normal gift.”
“I knew it,” I say. “I knew there was something wrong with me.”
“Sugar, that’s not what I mean. The gift of inheritance is a dark magic gift.”
“Wait just a minute,” Ivy says, holding up her hands. “Isn’t that forbidden?”
“Well, normally, yes. But some witches, very rare witches, are born to be . . . special. Like you, Hallie.”
“I don’t want to be a dark magic witch,” I tell her. “Can I change it?”
Miss A shrugs. “You can’t change who you were meant to be. Generally speaking, the spells you cast are going to have negative results. That doesn’t mean you can’t train yourself to learn good magic too. It’ll just be harder for you.”
I feel sick. I should never have allowed myself to think I could start fresh. It doesn’t matter where I go, I’ll always stand out. And not in a good way, not in the way I want. I think back on the wishes I’ve made, how they’ve never really had the results I wanted.
“No matter what I tried to do, everything I wished for came out horrible.”
“Exactly. That’s the dark magic part of your gift.”
I close my eyes and try to imagine myself as a dark witch. I can’t believe I was born to be this.
“You want to hear the funny thing?” Miss A says secretly.
“Please,” I beg.
“Your roomie? Kendall? She has the gift of transformation as well. But she isn’t a dark witch, so her transformations are good, even when her intentions are not. You can thank her for your makeovers.”
The irony that Kendall made us pretty is still funny.
Ivy and I both smile, then burst out laughing. Even Miss A laughs with us. And I have a feeling everything might just be okay after all.
Twenty-Four
Two days later I’m back to normal.
Well, no, that’s not entirely true. Everyone in the building now knows I’m the first dark witch since Dannabelle. Like her, I intend to make my gift as useful as I can. And when the occasional spell goes wrong, well, I’ll just smile through it like Dannabelle did.
It’s impossible to believe I’m going to be as powerful as Dannabelle, that even Kendall can’t surpass my abilities.
I still miss the weight of the amulet around my neck. It seems so out of place back in the library case.
Kendall hasn’t spoken a word to me since the night of the dance, which is rude even for her. You’d think she’d at least fake giving a flip about me being so sick.
But today is different.
When I wake up, Kendall is sitting up in bed, fully dressed, watching me sleep. I scream when I see her staring at me.
“Omigod,” I yell. “Are you trying to kill me?”
She gives me a small grin, and I worry that I might be right.
“You know, Kendall, I’m really tired of the games. I’m tired of trying to get you to like me. I’m tired of trying to help you and getting pushed away. I’m just tired of all of it. You win. We won’t be friends. I’m okay with that.”
I swing my legs to the floor and stand up.
Kendall holds up a hand to stop me.
“What? What could you possibly want with me, Kendall?”
A sad look streaks across her face. She motions for me to sit next to her.
My feet don’t move, sensing a trap.
“I won’t bite,” she says, rolling her eyes. I perch myself on the edge of her bed, ready to spring out of the way if she tries anything funny.
I don’t say anything, just wait for her to spew whatever venom is coming.
“I know how you got sick,” she says quietly.
“What are you talking about?” I ask.
“That night. The night of the dance.”
“What about it?”
“I was really mad when we came back.”
“About?” I ask, like I don’t know it’s about Cody.
She gives me the look again. “What do you think, Hallie? Jeez, you can be so irritating.”
I stand to go to the bathroom.
She grabs my arm, and I look at her with all the anger inside me. “Let go of me.”
She drops her hand to her lap. “Let me finish.”
I cross my arms but stay standing. I’m not sure where this is going, but I don’t have to be psychic to know it’s bad.
“So Zena . . . well, she put a spell on you for me.”
I stare at Kendall in disbelief. “You aren’t serious. You made me sick? On purpose?”
She nods, head down. “I knew that any spell I put on you would backfire. Everything I tried to do to set you back only made you more popular, more beautiful, because of my gift of transformation for good. So I asked Zena to do it for me, thinking that, if I didn’t participate in casting the spell, it might actually work.”
“What kind of spell did she use?”
Because I might just put it on her! I don’t care whose daughter she is.
“It was a hex, really. I never dreamed it’d make you so sick.”
I consider calling Miss A, telling someone about this before Zena actually kills me. But I have to handle Kendall on my own. For once. “It’s one thing to not like me, but to actually hurt me? That’s low, Kendall. Even for you.”
“I didn’t mean for it to be so bad. I just wanted you to . . . I don’t know.”
I look at Kendall. She looks the same on the outside, but something’s different. Maybe it’s just how I feel about her that has changed. I actually
feel pity for her.
“Why are you telling me this? You know I could get you into a lot of trouble.”
She shrugs. “I don’t know.”
“Know what’s really pathetic? While you were trying to hurt me, I was trying to help you.”
Kendall looks shocked. “What?”
“I just wanted the real you to be shown. I remember the real you—the one who laughed at my stupid jokes, the one who always defended me. That’s who I wished you’d become. The real Kendall. Not this monster you’ve turned into.”
Kendall’s eyes fill with tears, and I nearly panic. I have never seen her cry. Not even when the dodgeball hit her in the face in fourth grade.
“When?” she asks forcefully.
“When what?”
“When did you put that spell on me?”
“The night of the dance. I said it right before I went to sleep. Probably about the same time you were trying to kill me.”
She takes a deep breath. “I’m going to show you something, but you have to stay calm. I’m already scared enough for both of us. Don’t. Freak. Out.”
Every cell in my body does the Jell-O jiggle.
I cross my arms over my chest in a show of fake bravado. Like nothing she could show me would surprise me.
She opens her mouth and sticks out her tongue.
Her forked tongue.
As in her look-at-me-I’m-a-snake tongue. I stare at it in shock and fight the urge to run from the room.
I hear Miss A’s voice in my head telling me I have the gift of transformation. This can’t be happening. There’s no way this is real.
“What is that?” I ask, doing my best to keep the disgust from my voice.
Kendall closes her mouth, wipes tears from her face. “You should know. You did it to me.”
“I don’t get it,” I tell her.
“Come on, Hallie. Don’t be stupid. When you cast the spell for the real me to be shown, this is what happened.” She points at her tongue.
My mind is reeling. I wanted the real Kendall to be shown, and she gets a snake tongue? The real Kendall . . . is a snake. I fight dueling emotions of pity and victory.
“That’s what this is about. You want me to reverse it,” I say.
She doesn’t confirm my suspicions but stays silent.
“Look, Kendall, I don’t even know how to reverse it. You know how my magic works. I would probably just make it worse.