by Alicia Rades
“Ooh, or hair like, all over her body,” Talia laughed. “Like Bigfoot.”
I snickered. “How about a beard?”
“Come on now,” Amy joked. “You’re getting a little out of my paygrade here.”
I calmed my laughter. “Okay. Nightmares it is.”
“Perfect,” Amy said. “Nadine, I need an extra hand. Talia, can you get me a spoon from the wall over there?”
“What about me?” Mandy asked.
Amy smirked. “You can just sit there and look pretty.”
Mandy lay on the table top with her head propped up on her elbow and the other hand on her hip. She batted her eyelashes. “Like this?”
Amy’s eyes roamed over her. “That’s perfect. Here, Nadine. I need you to pour these two vials into the cauldron the same time I do these two. We have to pour at the same rate. Got it?”
“Got it.” I took the vials of liquid from her hands. One vial read Basilisk Venom while the other read Cockatrice Blood. A shiver ran down my spine. Neither of those sounded like friendly creatures.
“Here you go.” Talia returned holding out a big wooden spoon.
“Perfect,” Amy said. “Can you stir while we pour?”
“Sure.” Talia stood beside me and placed the spoon inside the cauldron. As Amy and I poured our vials together, Talia began stirring. A strong, putrid stench filled the lab, and dark gray steam started to rise from the cauldron.
Mandy sat up straight and pinched her nose. “Is it supposed to do that?”
“Sure is,” Amy said brightly, looking proud. “The smell will go away once we’ve finished brewing.”
She picked up another container full of dried herbs. She took a pinch and sprinkled it into the brew. It turned a thick, murky black, and big bubbles started snapping in the bottom of the cauldron like tar. A thrill went through me when I realized I was brewing my first potion.
Amy added another spoonful of dried herbs, and the potion instantly cleared. It became thin and looked a lot like tomato juice. Amy took the spoon from Talia’s hands and stirred while she waved her hand over top of the steaming cauldron and muttered an incantation under her breath.
Mandy watched in deep interest. She noticed my eyes on her and said, “She’s really good, isn’t she?”
I nodded.
Amy finished the incantation. She leaned over the cauldron and inhaled deeply. “That’s more like it.”
“That was it?” Talia asked, looking impressed.
Amy scooped a spoonful of potion into an empty vial and held it up. “That’s all there is to it. Who wants to do the honors?”
To say I was excited to see Chloe get what was coming to her was an understatement. She’d used Amy to try to turn Mandy into a frog, torn apart mine and Talia’s room, sabotaged my lesson with Headmistress Verla, then went after Verla’s cat. She deserved every ounce of terror she got in her sleep tonight.
I’d been given the honors of pouring the potion over the carpet in front of Chloe’s dorm while my friends kept watch. No one spotted us, and we hurried away before we could get caught. Talia and I invited Amy and Mandy to stay in our dorm in case anything interesting happened. It turned into a full-on slumber party, with pizza, manicures, and guy talk. Amy’s cat, Stormy, and Talia’s cat, Gus, snuggled up together on Talia’s bed.
Mandy had twisted my hair into a pair of French braids, and she was working on painting Amy’s nails. Talia stood in front of the mirror, pushing her boobs up to see how much cleavage she could get out of them.
“Do you guys think I should wear a push-up bra on my date with Cody on Friday?” Talia asked. “Or is that just setting him up for disappointment?”
Mandy laughed. “That depends. He can only get disappointed if he sees what’s underneath the bra.”
“Or feels it,” Amy added.
“See, that’s the thing,” Talia said. “I don’t know if things are going to go that far or not. Should I play it safe?”
I looked up from filing my nails. “If you want to play it safe, you’re going to want to bring the condom box with you.”
Talia’s jaw dropped. “The whole box?”
“Hold up,” Mandy said. “Condom box?”
Talia smirked and went to her dresser. She opened her jewelry box, and a bunch of condoms spilled out. “Yep. We had to restock after the Lucky Three trashed our room.”
“Oh, that explains all the condoms,” Amy said.
“Either of you need one?” Talia offered.
Mandy scoffed. “That would be a miracle right now. I’m going through a serious dry spell.”
“You?” Talia held out a condom toward Amy.
Amy crinkled her nose from where she sat on the floor. “That’s kind of useless for a girl like me.”
“What do you mean?” Talia asked.
Amy raised her eyebrows. “I thought you knew.”
Talia tilted her head to the side. “Knew what?”
“That I like girls.” Amy glanced from Talia’s shocked face to mine. She burst out in laughter. “Oh Goddess, you guys. You should see your faces.”
I quickly righted my expression. “I didn’t mean to assume anything.”
“No, it’s fine,” Amy assured me. “I really thought you guys knew. Just as long as you’re still my friends.”
“Of course we are,” Talia said, placing the condoms back in the jewelry box. “It just means more condoms for us.”
Amy chuckled. “You can have all the condoms you need, girl. I’m not going to use them.”
Before anyone else could say anything, a high-pitched scream echoed down the hall. It shocked me at first, but my pulse quickly slowed as a proud smile spread over my face. “Looks like it’s show time.”
Talia smiled mischievously and headed for the door. Mandy screwed on the cap to the nail polish, and Amy blew on her fingers. We all followed behind Talia as she opened the door. Down the hall, we could hear the sound of doors swinging open.
Gwen rushed out of one of the dorm rooms as the scream came again. She pounded on the door next to hers and shook the handle. “Chloe!? Chloe, what’s going on?”
Camille stepped out of the room behind Gwen in nothing but tiny shorts and a skimpy tank top. “What was that?”
“Chloe!” Gwen screamed again, pounding on the door.
Chloe’s door swung open. She looked like a total mess, with no makeup on and her hair in disarray. Her silk nightgown hung off her at an odd angle. “What the hell are you doing, Gwen? It’s like, one in the morning.”
Gwen blinked a few times in shock. “You were screaming. I thought—”
“You thought wrong,” Chloe snapped. Her eyes scanned the hallway, and she noticed a bunch of girls watching curiously. She raised her voice. “What are you looking at? Go back to sleep, losers.”
A few people murmured to their roommates as they shut the doors. I, on the other hand, stepped out into the hall and crossed my arms. I leaned against my door frame, proudly admiring our handiwork.
“Are you okay?” Camille asked Chloe.
“Yeah, just a bad dream,” Chloe admitted. “I haven’t had a dream like that in—”
She cut off as she noticed me standing there. She pushed past Gwen and Camille, her nostrils flaring. “What did you do, Nadine?”
“Me?” I asked innocently. “What ever do you mean, Chloe?”
Mandy and Amy snickered from behind me.
“You cursed my sleep!” she accused, pointing a finger in my direction.
A few girls were still peeking through the cracks in the doors. Good. Let them enjoy the show. I hoped Chloe looked as crazy to them as she did to me in that moment. It was so satisfying to watch her stand there shaking.
I tilted my head to the side. “How could I do that, Chloe? I don’t have magic yet.”
She turned her angry gaze on Amy. “It was her!”
“Me?” Amy feigned. “You really think I’d do anything to you, after you kidnapped my cat and threatened to kill her?”
Chloe’s eyes darted from door to door. She noticed a few onlookers. “I would never threaten a cat, Amy. Everyone knows that.”
Heat flared deep in my belly. No way was she getting away with such a bold-faced lie. I straightened and stepped forward. “Really? Is that why Headmistress Verla’s cat is in the infirmary? Oh, wait. Let me guess. That wasn’t you, either?”
Chloe cocked an eyebrow, but she couldn’t hide the fury etched in her features. “I told you I don’t know anything about that.”
“Too bad you’re not a very good liar,” I said.
Chloe’s features hardened. She seemed to forget about all the other onlookers. “Fine, Nadine. You want to curse me with nightmares. I’ll show you just how much of a nightmare I can be.”
She whirled around and stomped back toward her room. Camille and Gwen stepped forward to join her, but Chloe slammed the door in their faces.
When I turned back to my friends, Talia’s eyebrows were raised. “Wow. She’s really intense, isn’t she?”
I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter to me. I’m not scared of her.”
“I heard you and Chloe went at it the other night,” Grant said to me after class on Friday. I hadn’t meant to meet up with Grant again, but he happened to be sitting in the same study area in the Main Foyer I usually sat in after Introduction to Tarot.
I scoffed as I settled into one of the plush red chairs. “Believe me, if we went at it, she’d have a chunk of hair missing.”
Honestly, I couldn’t believe she’d gone all week without retaliating. At least Verla’s cat was back to normal, but I still didn’t know what Chloe might do next. I’d been watching my back for days, and she had yet to strike. I figured it was all part of some elaborate plan to put me on edge. It was working. Between my feud with Chloe and everything going on with Lucas, I barely had a chance to breathe all week.
I didn’t want to ask Grant about Lucas, so I asked about Talia instead. “So when are you planning to ask Talia out?”
Grant frowned. “About three weeks ago. Every time I get close, I chicken out.”
“Why?”
“Because she already rejected me once,” he admitted.
I sat straighter in my chair. “What? When?”
“On move-in day,” he reminded me. “I asked her out, and she said we should all go out for muffins instead. I’m afraid she’ll reject me again.”
“I wouldn’t call that a rejection,” I told him. “She’s been waiting for you to ask you out again and has gotten sick of waiting. She’s got a date with some guy named Cody tonight.”
Grant groaned. “Cody White. Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to compete with him?”
Grant sank down in his chair. “She never would’ve gone for me anyway if she’s got guys like Cody asking her out.”
“Hey, don’t say that,” I scolded.
Grant ran his fingers through his dark hair. “Damn it. I missed my chance, didn’t I?”
“No,” I reassured him. “She can’t date him forever.”
“You don’t know that,” he grumbled.
Grant’s eyes went wide as they connected with something behind me. He sank even further in his chair until he was practically hiding.
“What?” I turned around to see what he was looking at.
“Speak of the devil,” he murmured.
My eyes landed on Talia. She looked really cute in a casual red dress that fell to her knees and black boots. She wore her hair up in a high ponytail. Cody walked alongside her and tugged playfully at the ponytail.
“You look like a freshman with your hair up,” he told her. “You should wear it down.”
Talia reached up and touched her ponytail. “You think so?”
“Yeah, you’d look so much hotter,” he said. “Here, let me show you.”
He reached into her hair and pulled the elastic out of it. Talia’s hair fell around her shoulders. She ran her fingers through the strands to straighten them. “How’s this?”
“Perfect,” Cody said, shooting her a smile. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Can I have my elastic back?” Talia asked.
Cody looped it over his wrist. “And risk you putting your hair back up? No way. It’s mine for the night.”
Talia walked alongside Cody toward the doors. She noticed us as she was passing and waved. Good luck, I mouthed.
As soon as Talia was out the door, Grant straightened. “What a jackass.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Is someone a little jealous?”
Grant’s face fell. “That’s not what I meant. The way he took her ponytail down like that… It’s an asshole thing to do.”
“It was harmless,” I argued.
Grant crossed his arms. “If I were dating Talia, I’d let her wear her hair any way she chooses.”
Before I could respond, Grant’s face fell as his eyes connected with something else across the foyer. “Uh oh.”
I turned to see Lucas across the room. My heart lifted in my chest, then started pounding furiously. I hadn’t seen him since that day I snapped at him by the cafeteria. I hoped he didn’t come over here to talk to Grant. I didn’t know what to say to him.
And then I saw her. I didn’t know who she was, but she was walking alongside Lucas and laughing. She was a tall blonde, with legs that went for miles and a tiny little waist. Her hair flowed around her in perfect curls. She looked like she belonged on the runway.
“Who’s that?” I asked Grant before I could stop myself.
“Lena?” he asked. “She’s nobody. A necromancer in one of his classes. They’re writing a paper together.”
Grant said it like it should’ve eased my nerves, but it did the exact opposite.
“If she’s nobody, why did you say uh oh when you saw them?” I demanded.
Grant bit his lower lip. “Because Lucas told me you two got into a fight. If you want my opinion—”
“I don’t, thanks,” I snapped.
I felt bad as soon as I said it. I didn’t mean to take my frustrations out on Grant, but seeing Lucas with Lena made this red-hot jealousy ignite inside of me that I didn’t know was there. I’d never met Lena, and already I wanted to slip a potion into her lunch that would turn her into a frog. I mean, the girl was too pretty for her own good. There was no way she and Lucas were just writing a paper together.
“They look awfully comfortable together.” I tried to keep the bitterness from my voice, but it didn’t work.
Grant shrugged. “Well, yeah. They went out in high school.”
My body went rigid, and Grant noticed. He was quick to add, “But they weren’t serious. Not like that.”
I wasn’t sure I believed him. The way Lena looked at Lucas, it was like she still had feelings for him… Fresh feelings.
Lena threw her head back in laughter at something Lucas said, though I didn’t hear what it was. She reached out and casually touched his arm. My teeth ground together. Lucas’s gaze darted in my direction, and my heart jumped as our eyes locked. He looked away quickly and pretended like he hadn’t seen me, but it’d been as clear as day.
Lucas reached out for Lena’s hand, and my jaw dropped. He entwined his fingers in hers and whispered something I couldn’t hear. It felt as if time stood still, but I must’ve been the only one frozen in time, because Lucas and Lena continued up the grand staircase hand-in-hand. Grant gasped from beside me.
Lucas shot one last glance over his shoulder, and he looked straight into my shocked eyes. It was in that moment that I realized he’d done it on purpose. I could feel a fault form in my heart at the blatant rejection.
I took back what I said about Lucas being a jerk. Rubbing this rejection in my face to intentionally hurt me entered entirely new territory.
Congratulations, Lucas Taylor. You’ve just graduated to full-level asshole.
Chapter 15
Lucas
I saw the way Nadine looked at me when I passed through the Main Foyer with Lena. Her expression was full of l
onging, but it quickly shifted to unadulterated loathing when she spotted Lena at my side. I couldn’t explain it, but that look in her eyes tore my fucking heart in two. I hated how much I’d hurt her, but I had to protect her.
And so I did what I had to do to keep her away. I grabbed Lena’s hand.
Nadine’s features darkened, and a heavy weight dropped on my stomach. But I couldn’t back down now. Nadine had to know we could never be anything more than friends. If acting like the asshole was what got her to get over me, then I’d do it.
“Just go with it,” I leaned over and whispered to Lena.
Lena smiled back at me as we started up the stairs. “Just go with it? Lucas, are you flirting?”
“Believe me,” I said. “You’d know it if I was flirting.”
Lena batted her eyelashes at me, and my stomach sank. I didn’t want anything to do with Lena. But here I was, holding her hand.
I really was a jerk, wasn’t I?
I watched for Nadine over the following week, but I didn’t see her. I was pretty sure she was the one avoiding me now. It was probably for the best.
On Thursday, I stayed in bed, my head buried under the pillow. It was Halloween, a sacred holiday for the coven, which meant we had off school for the festivities, but all I wanted to do was sleep.
“That’s it,” Grant said from across the room.
I was awake, just not moving.
“It’s time for you to get out of bed.” Grant grabbed my ankle and tugged.
I jerked it away. “Get off me, man,” I snapped. “You’re not my mother.”
Not like I’d let my mom drag me out of bed, either.
“It’s Halloween,” Grant emphasized. “You have to get out of bed.”
I pulled the pillow off my head and rubbed my eyes. Grant stood beside my bed in a suit and cape. His hair was slicked back, and he wore fake vampire fangs.
“You’re ready already?” I groaned. “The festival isn’t until dark.”
Grant shrugged. “No, but there’s plenty to do before then. We could hit up Main Street and shop the sales.”
“That crowd is worse than Black Friday,” I complained.