A Handful of Hexes

by Sarina Dorie

  Another month at least. I nodded and tried not to look as disappointed as I felt. “No problem. I get it. We’re here for kids first.” The fact that he’d even been willing to teach me again was a triumph.

  “Do you know why I changed my mind about mentoring you myself?”

  “You like my cooking?”

  “No.” He tapped his chin. “But that helps.”

  “Is it because Vega is hateful and mean?”

  “You don’t know the half of it.” He snorted. “No. It’s because of the way you conducted yourself today. You saved Maddy, and she trusts you now. Had I asked Vega, she wouldn’t have come with me to save Maddy. Not without a price. She’s lived in this world far too long to do anything for free. She won’t help anyone but herself. You saw her at the staff meeting.”

  “I see her every day as a roommate.” If I had listened to Vega and bargained with him and insisted he agree to do something for me—like teach me my affinity—it would have made me like her. He wouldn’t have been able to count on me to do the right thing and save a teenager from the Fae. I’d almost allowed myself to become selfish and greedy like Vega.

  Guilt clawed at my insides as I considered that.

  Thatch inclined his head. “Thank you for being you today.”

  That had to be the nicest thing he’d ever said to me. His compliment sent a tingle of warmth through me, making the cold ice of my disappointments melt away. I forced myself not to grin like an idiot.

  Realization sank in. “Hey, you just thanked me, didn’t you? You told me not to thank people. You owe me a favor now, don’t you?”

  Of course, he’d also thanked me for being not like Vega, and she would have asked for a price. Maybe this was a test. I quickly added. “Not that you need to do anything for me. I don’t need any wishes or favors. I’m not greedy like that. I’m just wondering why you would thank me when you told me not to thank you.”

  “I will repay your kindness someday. Just not today.” He stood. “I will teach you after the winter holidays.”

  If he had been anyone else, I would have run up to him and hugged him. Instead, I saluted him as Imani had. Triumph soared through my heart.

  Thatch gave me a stiff nod that felt like a dismissal.

  Thatch owed me a favor. He was going to teach me … after Christmas. Assuming I didn’t mess things up, making him change his mind. Knowing my ability to get into trouble, that was a possibility.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Secret Messages from the Crab King

  Imani, Greenie, and Maddy sat together in my classroom after dinner studying. In order to give Maddy a place to get away from crowds of unattended students during free time, they came to my classroom after school or after dinner on days like today. It was times like this among a small group of girls her age that Maddy looked like any other kid. She was still extraordinarily beautiful, even with new glamour spells set up each morning to diminish the allure of her siren magic.

  I dragged myself to the closet door, not particularly thrilled to go down and collect another stack of magazines for collages. Every time I went down there I would swear I heard breathing. Could Julian be a ghost? If he was, my closet where he had died would be the most logical place for him to haunt.

  “Is everything okay, Miss Lawrence?” Imani asked.

  “Do you need help carrying? I’ll help!” Greenie leapt to her feet. “What do you need?”

  “Doesn’t the closet feel … you know, creepy?” I asked.

  “No. It’s just quiet and full of spiderwebs.” Greenie skipped down the stairs past me, holding up her wand. Pale green incandescence lit the way for her. She turned into the supply nook, the green luminescence fainter.

  I called after her from the top of the stairwell. “Grab an armful of magazines and more scissors if we have any.”

  I listened to papers rustle. Behind me in the classroom feet shuffled.

  “Let’s get this party started, bitches,” someone said from the door to my classroom.

  I stepped out of the stairwell to see Hailey, followed by Balthasar. His mop of black hair fell into his eyes. Instantly, I was on guard.

  I pointed a finger at Hailey in warning. “Watch your language.” The relaxing evening I’d looked forward to enjoying with my favorite students instantly evaporated.

  “Sorry, Miss Lawrence,” Hailey said sheepishly. “I didn’t know you were in here.”

  It was my classroom. Duh. “It shouldn’t matter. That language isn’t appropriate for school.”

  “Uh-huh. Whatev.” She dropped her worn backpack on the floor and slid into a chair at the front of the horseshoe of tables. She never chose to sit near my desk during class, so I found it curious she did now.

  Hailey might not have been the most academically gifted student, but she was clever. She didn’t do anything without a reason. After her numerous tricks in the past, I knew to keep an eye on her.

  Balthasar ambled over to Maddy where she sat in the back with the other two girls. “Come here often, beautiful?”

  Maddy giggled and turned her face away.

  Hailey rolled her eyes. “We’re here to study, not flirt, barf breath. Get your butt over here.”

  Maddy’s skin glowed, siren magic rising in her now that a teenage boy was present. I couldn’t see the wards protecting her from using her magic, but I could feel a pressure in the room, a tension like one might feel in a rubber band being stretched beyond its capacity.

  “Can I help you two with something?” I stepped in closer, blocking Maddy from Balthasar’s view.

  “No,” he said. He joined Hailey near my desk and plopped into a seat.

  “Thatch sent us up here to do makeup work for alchemy,” Hailey said. “He has to run some errands and do recruiting. He said you could help us with fractions and shit for doubling the size of this potion.”

  I gave her my teacher glare.

  She coughed. “I mean, poop.”

  I assisted her and Balthasar. He continuously turned around and smiled at Maddy. She kept giggling. Each time they looked at each other, Maddy looked even more radiant. I wondered if Hailey had seated herself closer to my desk to avoid Maddy, not because she’d planned on setting my desk on fire.

  “If you want to be in here and get help, you need to keep your eyes on your work,” I said. I pointed at Maddy. “And you need to stop giggling. It encourages him.”

  Balthasar sighed and rolled his eyes before returning to the book in front of him. He was supposed to be tripling a recipe and writing down all the steps. It was a lot like a high school chemistry lab.

  I sat at my desk, keeping an eye on Balthasar as I worked on a drawing of my own. It had started off as a doodle on scratch paper when I had been showing one of the students how to draw people using proportions in my advanced class. The lines had taken on a personality, reminding me of Derrick. Maybe it was my subconscious sending me a message.

  It wasn’t good-quality paper, just recycled computer paper, so I started over on thicker, acid-free parchment. This second sketch lacked the emotion of the first one. I tried to capture Derrick’s nose ending in a round button and the wide innocence of his blue eyes, but the person I’d drawn ended up looking like a twelve-year-old. I returned to the first drawing, continuing in graphite. I grabbed a colored pencil and added a splash of blue to his hair and eyes. It was hard to imagine Derrick without blue hair.

  It had been a long time since I’d worked on my own art. As I sketched, his gesture grew more natural, his body three-dimensional. I finished him, posed as though walking. My vision blurred, the air tingled, and the room filled with the scent of faraway places. A warm wind rustled papers on my desk.

  The lines I’d just drawn shifted on the page. I watched in awe as the Derrick I’d created came alive. He wore tattered clothes, his hands shoved into coat pockets. The floor under his feet looked as though it was made of stone. He stopped at a shuttered window, opened it, and
closed his eyes.

  A breeze came rushing in at him, wafting his hair away from his face. The wind blustered out of the page and washed over me. Icicles dripped from overhangs in the picture and the sky was dreary with the winter overcast, but the warm air brushing my hair aside smelled of jasmine, freshly cut grass, and cardamom. He caressed my face with his wind affinity, and for a moment I felt like he was actually there beside me.

  I didn’t understand how this was possible. The only other time one of my drawings had animated itself was when Derrick’s hand had been on mine. I didn’t know if the magic had been mine or his own. Was this me? Or did this drawing mean he was near? I didn’t know if that was good or bad after what the emissaries of the Raven Court had told me, and I didn’t care.

  I wanted Derrick.

  The image shifted. Derrick turned to me, his head tilting to the side. His brow furrowed in confusion. He spoke, but I couldn’t hear him. I thought I might have seen his lips form the shape of my name—or perhaps I only wanted him to say my name. His eyes locked onto mine, and for a moment I felt as though he saw me through the pencil and paper and magic.

  “Mrs. Lawrence, I need your help,” Hailey said.

  I blinked. The vision was gone. Before me remained an incomplete drawing of Derrick.

  “No, no, no,” I said, fighting back tears.

  “How long can we stay to study?” Maddy asked.

  “Hold on a sec,” I said, a little breathlessly.

  I sketched again, trying to regain that meditative state, but it eluded me. I craved seeing my best friend and boyfriend, even if it was only for a minute. I wanted to know where he was and that he was safe. I didn’t want him to suffer and be cursed. If he was all right, we could be together again. I didn’t know what that “together” would look like. Friends? More? So much time had passed I didn’t know if our feelings for each other would remain the same.

  “I don’t get this summarizing stuff at all,” Hailey said.

  “Summarizing means you put it into your own words,” Imani said.

  “Shut up. I didn’t ask you.”

  Imani made a face at her. “She’s just going to tell you the same thing.”

  “Mrs. Lawrence!”

  “It’s Miss Lawrence.” Frustrated with the interruptions, I threw down my pencil and gave up on my drawing. I went over and looked at what Hailey was doing. “What part are you having trouble with?”

  “All of it.”

  We worked together for five minutes before I returned to my desk. All five students read or wrote silently on homework, but I couldn’t get back into the magical groove. Hailey came up to my desk, and I shoved the drawing under some sample projects I’d been making earlier.

  She asked me her question, getting sidetracked halfway through. “What’s that?” She pointed at the papers on my desk.

  I shuffled them together more neatly, so the drawing of Derrick was better hidden. There was no reason to feel embarrassed, but I didn’t want her to ask who he was, and then have to bumble through an explanation.

  Hailey wasn’t looking at my drawing of Derrick, though. She plucked up a paper on my desk that said: Secret Message. I groaned. I should have hidden that better.

  “This paper has been burned,” she said. “What’s the secret message?”

  “There is no message. It was a joke.” Or more accurately, it was an attempt at an art assignment that would entice the students, but I had failed in my execution.

  I’d drawn a made-up treasure map and a message. At the top, the words were written in white vinegar since that seemed like a cheaper solution than lemon juice. I’d heated up the top part of the paper with a candle before accidentally setting the edge of the paper on fire. I didn’t need another flames-of-seraphim problem in my classroom and decided to set the experiment aside.

  She lowered her voice. “Is it for the Ruby of Knowledge?”

  “Divine Knowledge. And no. I’ve decided not to look for that anymore. Too dangerous. I don’t want students pushing me into more pits.”

  “I didn’t push you!” She slammed the paper down on my desk.

  “Fine. Accidentally elbow me. Whatever you kids call it these days.” I would be good, stay in my bed at night, and not look for the ruby. I was counting down the days until Thatch rewarded me with a real magic lesson.

  If I was patient, I would learn the kind of magic that would protect me from perverts like Julian Thistledown—and any other Fae who wanted to use me for my affinity.

  Balthasar came up beside Hailey. “That looks like a treasure map. Does it lead to anything good?” He picked it up.

  “It isn’t real. I made it up,” I said. “But now it’s just a failed idea. I thought it would be fun to do heat-activated messages, but I decided it was too dangerous.”

  “I’m pretty good with heat spells,” Hailey said.

  That was putting it mildly. As far as I could tell, fire spells were her specialty. Hailey grabbed the paper from him. More of the message revealing itself where her hands touched it. The air smelled sour and burnt.

  I snatched the paper out of her hands. It was warm, and I waved it around to cool it off. A small section of the map had been revealed.

  “That’s cool. I want to do that for an art assignment,” she said.

  “We’ll see. Let’s get back to your makeup work. If you want to see the rest of the secret message, I’ll give it to you after you’re done with Professor Thatch’s assignment.”

  “Cool!” Balthasar said. He elbowed Hailey. “Race you.”

  They argued over who would get the map. Maybe they thought it actually led to something.

  Imani, Greenie, and Maddy whispered quietly at the back of the horseshoe of tables. I suspected they were doing more off-topic talking than working from the way they bent their heads together. I circulated and inspected what the students were working on. Maddy stopped whispering the moment I came over to see what they were doing. Her eyes were wide and round. Imani looked away.

  I crossed my arms. “You both look guilty.”

  They shook their heads.

  Greenie whispered, “We were just talking about secret messages. Maddy thinks someone is sending her—”

  “Shh!” Maddy shook her head.

  “Is it a boy?” I lowered my voice. “Tell me who. We’ll get him to stop if he’s bothering you.”

  Maddy shook her head. “You won’t be able to make him stop. It’s the Crab King.” Her eyes filled with despair and fear. “He’s haunting me. He keeps reminding me of our bargain.”

  “You mean the King of the Pacific?” I asked.

  “Yes, he’s sending me messages.”

  I would have considered him a sea monster or kraken more than a crab, but whatever. He was a monster mishmash.

  “How is he sending you messages?” I asked.

  As far as I knew, the wards around the school were dense and impenetrable. Even the major houses of Fae like the Raven Court couldn’t get in. Unless they were invited.

  Imani and Maddy exchanged worried looks.

  “Just tell her. You can trust Miss Lawrence,” Imani said.

  My apprehension rose.

  Maddy leaned in. “Go to the library before it closes today. Hardly anyone is in there after dinner. In the back corner, there’s a section of art books. If you take all the books off the shelf, you’ll see.”

  “What will I see?”

  Maddy stared at her hands in her lap. “His message.”

  The library would be closing at eight—in just a few minutes. I could have waited until the students left, but I wanted to see what the King of the Pacific’s message was and if Maddy was in danger.

  I locked the door to the closet. “Okay, I’m going to pop into the library for a few minutes.” I gave Imani and Greenie a meaningful look and glanced at Balthasar and then to Maddy.

  Imani nodded. She knew whom to keep an eye on. Maddy would be fine so long as she w
asn’t left alone.

  “Keep working and save any homework questions for when I get back.” I pointed to Hailey and Balthasar. “You are not allowed to leave until I see your finished work.”

  Balthasar puffed himself up, raising his chin. “If I wanted to leave, I could. It isn’t like Thatch cast a binding spell on us or chained us to these seats.”

  Hailey punched him in the shoulder. “Shut up, dumbass. Do you want to pass or not?”

  I rushed down the stone steps, traveling from the ancient section of the school to the nineteen-seventies mustard-yellow and avocado-green section, and into the wing with the red brick that reminded me of an old schoolhouse. The corridor outside the library was surprisingly warm and dry compared to my dank and damp section of the school.

  Thatch leaned against the counter of the library, speaking quietly with the elderly librarian. “I made up some of that special paste for you. This one will mend the spines of old books and smells like lavender and roses.”

  He knew how to make paste? He’d majorly been holding back on me. I could have used some paste for the student collages instead of using up all that glue my mom had sent me from the art supply thrift store in Eugene.

  Mrs. Periwinkle giggled. “I’m flattered you remembered.” Her shy smile turned into a scowl that made her jowls more pronounced as she glanced up to see me. “Miss Lawrence, may I help you?”

  Thatch straightened, looking like he’d been caught doing something naughty from the way his cheeks flushed red. Maybe it was the fact that he’d shoved students off on me because he preferred flirting with the elderly librarian instead of babysitting them.

  “Don’t mind me. I just wanted to look at the art books.” I had no intention of interrupting them. It was kind of amusing actually.

  I headed straight for the back corner of the library. Rows of shelves hid me from view. Peeking through the gaps above the books, I caught Thatch leaning against the counter again. He reached across and adjusted one of the skulls on her witch hat.

  From the way Mrs. Periwinkle giggled, I took it she didn’t mind the attention. I supposed I couldn’t blame her even if he looked young enough to be her grandson. He was attractive enough even Josie had been drawn to him last year.