A History of Hexing

by Evie Wilde

  “He’s trying to save people.” I motioned around the room at the few who were regaining consciousness. “Why would he do that if he tried to kill them in the first place?”

  “That’s why we need to find Kyler.” Dash stumbled as he tried to leave. His eyes fluttered, and he fell back onto the chair.

  “He’s running out of time and energy to help all these people,” I said of Sonny. “How do we get rid of this hex?”

  “I don’t have the answer,” Aurelius said. “But I think the five of you need to be even more prepared now. The who and why are beginning to bother me.”

  “Cass,” Braeden said, and I moved to his bed. His skin was beginning to turn gray again, his eyes bloodshot.

  “I’m here, Brae, I’m here.” I turned to Aurelius. “We need to do something. If I lose him…”

  “We can try different anti-hex spells,” Aurelius said.

  “Oliver, place your hand on Dash’s.” Oliver did as I asked, and I raised my wand.

  “What’re you doing?” Oliver asked, fear in his voice.

  “Something Aurelius taught us,” I replied.

  Aurelius frowned.

  I waved my wand.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Cassandra

  Magic is as much about the heart as it is the will. The will is the ability; the effectiveness comes from the heart, Cassandra. Things done with the heart are things done with purpose. Follow this simple rule, and your future will be bright, and your time as the greatest witch will be infinite. You control your own destiny.

  I looked around and found myself alone in the room except for Dash, my mind having blocked out everyone and everything else. I studied Dash, the man I loved and had made love to. To the man with whom I had an unbreakable connection. A man who was tough on the outside but intimate and vulnerable on the inside. I wanted to save him, to show him how much another person could care about him. “You are me, and I am you,” I said to Dash. “Like the night and the stars, we are inseparable. I love you, Dash. With every ounce of my soul.”

  Magic is as much about the heart as it is the will. This spell, Cassandra, is an evil spell and has stayed much longer than it should be allowed. Say the words, and this spell shall be void.

  I looked around for the voice, but then I realized the voice came from inside my head, being encouraged by my heart and soul, the desire to heal too strong to allow me failure.

  “Premis adaptus medico,” I said and finished waving my wand, placing it against Oliver’s shoulder, the power passing through my body and into my wand, and then into Oliver, overwhelming us.

  Oliver tensed and stared straight ahead. His energy fluctuation resonated through my body, and I suddenly felt Dash’s and Braeden’s energy rise. The room came back into view, but the voice never returned. I glanced around to see who might have been talking to me, but I knew it was not a person. It had been the me within, the part of me that believed in me.

  Dash opened his eyes and looked around. At first, he seemed dazed and far off, like he was returning from another reality. He blinked several times and then recognized who stood next to him. “Cassandra,” he said. “Is that you?”

  “It’s okay, Dash,” Oliver said and patted him on the shoulder. The pain on Oliver’s face showed the incredible amount of love he had for Dash. “Everything’s going to be okay. We got you.”

  Dash tried to move but grabbed his head. “My head’s fucking killing me. Like I’ve got a damn hangover.” He tried to stand but dropped back to the chair.

  “Slow down,” I said. “We don’t know how long this is going to last or if it even worked.” I looked at Braeden who was still unconscious. Was it because I focused too much on Dash? No, everything I said about Dash went the same for Braeden. I was still alive because Braeden had spent most of his life protecting me. Like Dash, he was my lover as well. And like Dash, I would be devastated if I lost him.

  Dash took a deep breath and placed his hands on his knees and steadied himself as he stood. He noticed Braeden and then looked at us. Despite the underlying rift between the two, Dash cared for Braeden as much as he cared about the other guys.

  “He’s still sick,” I said. “But we’re trying.” I ran my fingers through Dash’s hair, keeping him calm.

  “What happened?” Dash asked. “Why am I here?” He looked around the room. “And why are all these people sick?”

  I looked at Oliver and Aurelius and then hugged Dash. “It worked.” I held Dash’s face in my hands. “Sonny actually made you better for a little while but then you fell ill again. He’d removed just enough of the poison that my light energy, combined with Oliver’s, healed you further.”

  “Not on Braeden,” Oliver said. “He’s still out.”

  “Tell me what the hell is going on,” Dash demanded. He moved me back, becoming agitated. He’d completely forgotten our conversation from moments ago.

  “We still need to figure out what was poisoned at the festival to do all this damage,” Aurelius said. “It’s not over.”

  “That’s what this is,” Dash said. “From the festival. I remember now. People started barfing. Some choking on their own puke. And then people started dropping to the ground. All over the place.” He looked around the infirmary. “Who did this?” None of us answered, sending him into a rage. “Who fucking did this!”

  I put my hand on Dash’s arm, trying to calm him. He swallowed hard and stared at Braeden. “Who did this to us?” he asked again, calmly.

  I let go of Dash’s arm. “Was it the food or the drinks?” I asked. “It had to be one or the other. They’re the most obvious.”

  “I don’t know,” Dash said. “I ate a little bit of everything. Drank some punch, maybe only a glass.” He pointed at Braeden. “Braeden loved the stuff. He must have had five or six glasses of the punch.” He put his hand on Braeden’s shoulder. “We started laughing and dancing around.” He looked at me. “Then we started talking about you.” He shook his head and looked at the floor. “Then he went down, clutching his throat, puking, writhing on the ground.”

  “That’s it,” I said. “We just need to figure out which hex was put on the punch.”

  “Are you sure it was the punch?” Oliver asked, and Dash nodded. “I’m going to see what I can figure out.” Oliver left, talking to himself. He glanced back at us and at the sick and dying. He carried the weight of the problem on his shoulders.

  I hugged Dash again and stepped back when a male nurse pushed his way between Dash and I. “What’s your problem?” I said and grabbed my wand. The entire campus was on edge, not just me.

  “He’s the first to come out of it,” the nurse said and checked Dash’s pulse. Dash’s face grew strained and angry. The nurse was risking a punch in the face. “The lot of you need to leave,” he said. “I need to attend to this young man.”

  “If it weren’t for her I'd be dead,” Dash said. “You need to back off.” Dash looked at me, and I shook my head, seeing his fists clenched. Kyler had already been in a fight and was facing the possibility of being thrown out of school. I didn’t need the same for Dash. We had to stay together.

  The nurse stayed between us. “I’ll have you all removed from the academy if you don’t leave now,” he said. He eyed each of us, even Dash who was using every bit of will power not to hit the guy. I shook my head at him again.

  “Dash, don’t.” I looked to Aurelius who was already on his way toward the door. “You can’t,” I said to the nurse.

  He turned and stood in front of me, his eyes locked on mine, the dark depths of his pupils something I’d never seen before. The darkness was chilling. “I can and I will,” he said. He stepped aside. “Go before I call Headmaster Eliphas.” He glanced at the wand in my hand. “I suggest you don’t even think about that.”

  “I’ll be back,” I said to Dash, and I looked at Braeden one last time. I looked back at the nurse before I left the infirmary, his eyes still dark and deceptive. Outside, I found Oliver looking at his computer, his
attention on something interesting, at least to him. “What’re you doing?” I peeked at the screen, knowing he hated for people to look over his shoulder, though this time he didn’t seem to mind at all. I rested my chin on his shoulder.

  “Hitting the school’s database to find hexing spells.” He hit a button on the screen, and several rows of hexes appeared. Some were color-coded, others in bold letters. Oliver was the most organized man I’d ever been around. His room was the same way, every item neatly in its place. It was just another thing that made him more loveable.

  “You hacked the school’s system?” I asked. “Am I going to lose you all to expulsion? You know we can’t let that happen.”

  Oliver smiled. “No, but I can if you want. Hack the system, not get expelled.” He pointed at the screen. “Headmaster Eliphas had me run statistics on students and student grades. Then I taught his secretary how to run reports the headmaster needed. I taught her how to manipulate class scheduling.” He tapped the screen, puffing his chest out. “Then I showed her how to catalogue spells, hexes, and potions.” Oliver let out a loud sigh. “If you ever need IT help, I’m your guy!”

  “This is why I love you, Oliver. Because you have a passion for things.”

  Oliver blushed, and I thought for sure he was going to try to steal a kiss. He made eye contact and held my stare for several seconds. He wanted to say something. He wanted to ask if I were ready. I just knew that was what he was thinking. And if he’d asked, I would have said yes because I was so ready for him. He was the final piece to the puzzle. I loved him equally and wanted nothing more than to experience the same physical connection I'd had with the others.

  “Calm down, brainiac,” Kyler said as he joined us. “I saw how that nurse treated you,” he said to me. “We can go back in. I’m sure I can change his mind.”

  “No, it’s okay. Dash will make sure Braeden is taken care of.” I considered asking him what was wrong.

  “What?” Kyler said, regarding my stare. “He shouldn’t have spoken to you like that.”

  “What’s the story with you and Sonny?” I finally asked. We needed to figure out what the hell was going on, and for some reason my gut was telling me Sonny and Kyler’s altercation was somehow connected to everything happening on campus.

  “I spoke with him before you guys left,” Kyler said. “Everything is good now. There’s no reason for you guys to keep worrying about it or me.”

  “I don’t want any of you getting booted from school.” I held their hands. “None of this is worth losing you guys.”

  “I agree,” Kyler said. “I won’t let that happen.

  “Okay, then do you have any idea how any of this happened? Or why?” I glanced back at the infirmary and noticed the male nurse standing at the entrance, watching us.

  Kyler shrugged. “It’s all a big fucking mystery to me.”

  I looked at Kyler skeptically. Although I thought we’d had a breakthrough in our relationship, I also thought he’d yet to really open up. No matter how much we tried to forget or hide the past, it stayed with us like a shadow on a sunny day. I loved him, however, and respected his need to keep things close to his heart. Everything with Kyler had been that way so far and for a moment I thought maybe whatever happened between he and Sonny was the sole reason for his hesitation to open himself up to even me.

  “There is something,” Kyler said.

  “I knew it.” Oliver crossed his arms and shook his head, staring at Kyler, frustrated.

  “Sonny did mention you could cure them with your fire?”

  I looked at Kyler in disbelief. “It’s fire, Kyler,” I said and walked away.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Oliver

  I was missing some important detail. A letter or number missing from the equation that would solve or reverse the curse. Nothing in the school’s database gave any hint as to what that missing detail could be. But I felt like the answer was so obvious that it was causing us to overlook the obvious. People were looking to me to figure out what everyone else could not.

  If there were a silver lining to the calamity it was that Cassandra skipped all her classes to hit the library. She said she wanted to figure this thing out. She felt like everything that had happened since she stepped foot onto campus was because of her. I didn’t know if that were true or not, but I did know we were all in it together.

  When I watched her leave this morning, I felt my heart flutter, if that were even possible. Of course, I knew the other guys had been with her which meant I was last. It didn’t bother me in the least. I was new to love and sex and girls. Things could go as slow or as fast as they needed to move. But one thing was for sure—we all cared equally for Cassandra.

  I stepped from the classroom building and saw Cassandra leaving the dorm, carrying a large book that looked like something Aurelius usually carried around. I watched her for several seconds, admiring the way her gray yoga pants clung to her body, the way her hips swayed as she walked. A lite breeze wafted through the courtyard, and her hair blew gently in the wind. Not a day went by that I didn’t think Cassandra was the most beautiful and talented woman in the world.

  “Cassandra,” I called after her. She stopped and waved. Yeah, the most beautiful woman on the planet. She started my direction, and I caught up with her halfway across the courtyard. “What’cha reading?”

  “Got it from the library,” she said. “It goes back through hexes for the last 300 years, but I couldn’t find anything remotely close to what we’re experiencing. Nothing.” She shook her head in frustration. “I even called down south to my old guild, and nobody had a clue.”

  “We’ll get it figured out. I promise.” I looked toward the library. “You heading back there?”

  “I was going to study some more, but I’m glad I ran into you instead.”

  “Study at the library?” I was definitely in love.

  Cassandra pointed toward the trees lining the backside of the campus. “There's a place in the woods I like to go and study. It’s quiet and peaceful.” She looked in that direction again. “Want to join me?”

  “Seriously?”

  “Seriously, but only if you carry my book.”

  “Deal.” I took the book and tucked it under my arm, looking around to make sure no one else was going to be joining us. Sometimes, the other guys conveniently showed up when Cassandra and I were alone.

  “Have you checked on Dash and Braeden?” she asked.

  “Dash is still groggy, and Braeden is still passed out and running a fever.”

  “You’ve got something on your mind, Oliver.”

  We cut between two buildings and headed into the forest. “You know I’m good with what’s happened between you and Dash and Braeden. I just want us to all stay as a cohesive group. All three of the guys are like brothers to me.”

  “I agree,” she said, and wrapped her arm around mine. “But you each offer something different. You each have unique talents.”

  The last comment made me blush. I wasn’t so sure my talents would live up to those of Dash or Braeden, but I was willing to try.

  We walked for almost a half-mile before we stopped in a small clearing where stars winked and the moon glowed like a massive nightlight. The setting was as perfect as anything I could have dreamed up.

  I laid the book on a tree stump and opened it to the content page. “There are so many things that go into a hex and spell,” I said. “You have to take into account the object you are placing the hex on. If it’s a person, you have to account for DNA. If it’s a liquid, you have to take into account its molecular structure. There are force considerations. Gravity considerations. With the poison hex, you have to know the exact amount of poison to use or you risk failing.”

  “Oliver,” she said, and I stopped. “My head is spinning.”

  “Sorry. Bottom line is that we still don’t have a solution. There's just a lot of factors to consider.” I felt my face turning red and looked away. I knew what she was thinking. Why does h
e always get lost in the technical details? With her, I thought it was because I really had other things on my mind, things I wanted to do with her.

  Cassandra moved closer, and I took a deep breath when her arm bumped against mine. She laid her hand against my hand. “I love the way you explain things,” she said and kissed me on the cheek. “But I can’t perform a correct hex spell without some inner voice encouraging me to do so.” She looked at the ground, and I could tell her confidence had taken a hit. She then elbowed me in the ribs and smiled. “I bet not everything you do is so technical.”

  I shook my head emphatically, noticing the seduction in her voice, the way her body moved closer to me, purposely bumping against me. She moved her hand over my thigh. I figured it was about to happen, and I did my best to stay calm.

  “I’m not sure I'll ever be able to help Dash and Braeden,” she said.

  “You will,” I replied, and suddenly our lips were together.

  At first the kiss was sloppy and awkward, but then Cassandra’s mouth opened. I opened mine as well, and our tongues met to play. Her mouth was warm, her tongue dancing around mine. I grew hard against my jeans, and my cock ached from want.

  I pulled back and retrieved my wand. “There’s something I've been working on just for when this happened,” I said. I stood and raised my wand. “Premio fantastic aspecto,” I said and waved my wand, spinning in a circle.

  Although the clearing stayed dark, a small hut-like structure appeared. Surrounding the structure were dozens of colorful plants and flowers. Soft, classical music played from an unseen source. I offered my hand to Cassandra and with a huge smile she accepted.

  I put my arms around her waist and with both hands grabbed her ass, squeezing and pulling her against me, a gentle oh escaping her lips when she felt my hard cock. She put her hands on my chest, and this time I kissed her more forcefully as if I actually knew what I was doing.