Hex Hall Book One

by Rachel Hawkins

  Mrs. Casnoff’s glare swung back to me. “You did what?” she asked in a voice so frosty, I was sure I was about to be flash-frozen like a wooly mammoth.

  Elodie saw her chance. “That’s right! She’s the one who nearly killed me last night by putting a charmed bone in my dress!”

  “Only because you put a curse on my dress,” I fired back.

  “Only because you’re trying to steal my boyfriend!”

  That was apparently the last straw for Mrs. Casnoff.

  “Girls!” she yelled, standing up and slamming both of her hands on the desk. “The time for bickering about dresses and boys is over. Two of your sisters were severely injured, and another is dead.”

  “But . . . you’ve fixed it,” Elodie said softly. “You kicked out the vampires.”

  Mrs. Casnoff sat down in her chair and rubbed a hand over her eyes. “We can’t be sure that Jenna or Byron was responsible. Both claim their innocence, and last night neither showed signs of having recently fed.”

  I thought of the picture in the book about L’Occhio di Dio, the one with the witch drained of blood, and Alice saying that The Eye saw me, even here.

  “Mrs. Casnoff,” I ventured, “do you think . . . Do you think it’s possible that L’Occhio di Dio has gotten into the school?”

  “Why would you even think that?” Elodie asked, but Mrs. Casnoff held up her hand.

  “It’s just that I saw this picture of a witch they had killed, and she had two holes in her neck and hardly any blood, just like Holly and Chaston and Anna. I mean, maybe it’s possible—”

  Mrs. Casnoff interrupted. “I’ve also seen that illustration, Sophia, but there is no way L’Occhio di Dio could infiltrate Hecate. There are simply too many protection spells. And even if they could somehow get past those, what would they do? Hide out on this tiny island for months waiting until they could sneak into the school?” She shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Unless they were already in the school,” I said.

  Mrs. Casnoff raised her eyebrows. “What, as a teacher? Or a student? Impossible.”

  “But—”

  Mrs. Casnoff’s voice was gentle, and her eyes were sad as she said, “Sophia, I know you don’t want to believe that Jenna is responsible for this. None of us do. But I’m afraid that at this time, it’s the most plausible explanation. Jenna is being transported to Council headquarters now, and she’ll have a chance to plead her case. But you have to accept that she may be guilty.”

  My chest tightened at the thought of Jenna, scared and alone, on her way to London, where she’d probably be staked. Maybe even by my own dad.

  Reaching across the desk to pat my hand, Mrs. Casnoff said, “I am sorry.” She looked over at Elodie. “I’m sorry for both of you. But perhaps this will give you an opportunity to put aside your differences for now. After all, you’re the only members of your coven left here.” She looked back at me and gave a wry smile. “Whether you like it or not. Now, I’m excusing the two of you from classes today. Until we get the results of the Council’s inquiry, I want you to keep a close eye on each other. Understood?”

  We both mumbled yes and then shuffled out of Mrs. Casnoff’s office.

  I spent the rest of my day in my room. Without Jenna, it felt big and lonely, and it was all I could do not to cry when I looked at her stuffed lion, whom we’d named Bram as a joke, and all her books. They hadn’t let her take anything with her.

  I stayed in bed through dinner. Sometime after night had fallen, I heard a soft knock on my door, and Archer saying, “Sophie? You in there?” But I didn’t answer, and after a while, I heard him walk away.

  I lay awake until midnight, when the soft green glow of Alice’s spell crept through my windows.

  Throwing off my covers, I jumped to my feet, eager to get out of this house and into the sky, and wanting to tell Alice everything that had happened.

  I didn’t even bother being quiet on the stairs as I walked to the front door. My hand had just turned the knob when I heard a voice hiss, “Busted!”

  My heart in my mouth, I turned around and saw Elodie standing at the foot of the stairs, her arms crossed, and a smirk on her face.

  CHAPTER 27

  “I knew it,” she said, louder now. “I knew you were up to something. When Mrs. Casnoff finds out you’ve been doing a spell on the whole school, you’re going to join your little leech friend in London.”

  I was still frozen at the door, the knob half turned in my hand. Of all the people to catch me sneaking out, why did it have to be the one person who hated me the most? I stood there thinking of something to say that would keep her from running to Mrs. Casnoff right then and there.

  Then I remembered the look on her face when she’d asked me about the bone spell, and an idea occurred to me. I just hoped Alice would go with it.

  “Okay, you caught me.” I tried smiling sheepishly, but probably just looked deranged, because Elodie moved back a step as I came closer.

  “Since my magic was going so badly—no thanks to you—I’ve been taking, um, private lessons from one of the ghosts here.”

  Elodie rolled her eyes. “Oh, please,” she said. “A magic tutor? Who happens to be a ghost? You must think I’m completely brain dead.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Who are you really meeting out there? A guy? Because if it’s Archer—”

  “There is nothing going on between me and Archer,” I said, which wasn’t technically a lie. I mean, I was pretty sure I was in love with the guy, and I think he might’ve kissed me at the ball if Elodie hadn’t rushed in, but it’s not like we were meeting for secret trysts in the woods. No matter how much I wished that might have been true.

  Now I smiled at Elodie and held out my hand. “You wanna learn some awesome magic? Come with me.”

  Just as I’d hoped, the thought of learning new magic was too seductive for Elodie to pass up.

  “Fine,” she said. “But if this is some trick that ends up getting me killed, I’m so haunting your ass.”

  Alice must’ve known Elodie was coming, because there were two brooms waiting outside.

  Elodie’s eyes widened like a kid’s on Christmas morning. “You ride brooms?”

  I just smiled and hopped on. “Come on,” I told her, repeating Alice’s words to me. “Be traditional for once.”

  Then we were riding through the night, the cold, clear air burning our lungs. Overhead, the stars sparkled in the inky sky. I could hear Elodie laughing next to me, and I looked over at her, our eyes meeting in the first smile we’d ever shared.

  After we landed in the cemetery, I introduced Elodie to Alice, leaving out the part where Alice was my great-grandmother, and introducing Elodie as a “member of my coven.”

  Alice gave me a sideways glance at that, but she didn’t say anything.

  “So. What sorts of magic do you two do out here in Creepyville?” Elodie asked.

  “A number of things,” Alice replied. In the moonlight, her skin looked like porcelain and her cheeks were rosy. Even her eyes seemed brighter. I wondered if she had some sort of beauty spell. If so, I really hoped we’d learn that one next.

  “Sophie has mastered summoning objects,” Alice continued, “and she is currently working on a transportation spell.”

  Elodie turned to me, surprised. “You can make things appear out of nothing?”

  “Yeah,” I said, like it was no big deal even though I still couldn’t summon anything bigger than a lamp, and that made me sweat buckets. Concentrating on something small that wouldn’t leave me gasping for breath, I waved my hand and an emerald brooch appeared in the air right in front of Elodie. Her mouth fell open, and I smiled at Alice.

  Elodie reached out and took the brooch, turning it over and over in her hands. “Teach me.”

  She was a quick learner, faster than I had been, and within an hour she had made a pen and a tiny yellow butterfly appear. I was a little jealous; I’d never conjured anything that wasn’t inanimate. On the b
right side, Alice didn’t seem very impressed with Elodie, and she didn’t praise her nearly as much as she had me.

  While they worked on that, I worked on transporting myself from one spot to another, a spell I still couldn’t master. Alice said the best witches could cross oceans with that spell, but so far I couldn’t even move one inch to the left.

  Finally, Elodie and I were both exhausted and pretty tipsy with magic, so we sat on the grass, our backs against the cemetery fence while Alice leaned against a tree, staring off into space.

  “I hope it’s okay that I’m here,” Elodie said to her.

  “Why did you come with Sophia tonight?” Alice asked. She didn’t sound angry, just curious, so I answered, “Elodie caught me sneaking out, so I invited her to come along. I thought she might like to learn some new magic, too.”

  “Mrs. Casnoff said to keep an eye on you,” Elodie said to me, but she was smiling. I wasn’t sure if it was from the magic or if she was just genuinely happy to be here.

  “Why?” Alice asked, and both Elodie and I turned more serious. Briefly, I told Alice what had happened to Anna, and how Jenna and Byron were gone.

  “Are they sure it was a vampire?”

  “No. They don’t know who else it could be, though,” Elodie said.

  “The Eye,” Alice said, and I felt Elodie stiffen next to me.

  “I asked them about that,” I said. “But Mrs. Casnoff said there was no way they could get to us. There are too many protection spells.”

  Alice gave a low laugh that sent chills up my spine. “Yes, that’s what they said to me too. It was nothing for my sleeping spell to blast through their pathetic defenses. Do you really think The Eye couldn’t do the same?”

  “They don’t have magic, though,” I argued, but I sounded unsure. Elodie scooted a little closer to me.

  “Don’t they?” Alice asked. She walked toward us and crouched down in front of me. I saw her long white fingers go to the buttons of her green cardigan, and when she’d discarded that, she unbuttoned her dress.

  I sat, frozen in horror, as she pulled her arm out of the left side of her dress and pushed down her slip.

  There, just where her heart would have been, was a large gaping wound.

  “This is what The Eye did to me, Sophia. They tracked me down, they chased me until I could run no farther, and they cut out my heart. Here. At Hecate.”

  All I could do was stare at that hole and shake my head. I could feel Elodie trembling beside me.

  “Yes, Sophia,” Alice said quietly. I looked up at her face and saw that she was watching me with pity, like she was sorry she had to tell me all this.

  “It was the head of the Council himself who set them on me, who tricked me into feeling safe here, and then offered me up like a lamb to sacrifice.”

  “But why?” I asked, my voice no more than a strained whisper.

  “Because they were afraid of my power. Because it was greater than theirs.”

  My head was spinning and I felt like I might throw up. Somehow all the horrors we’d been shown that first night at Hecate were nothing compared to this one wound, this one story.

  “Your father believed you’d be safe here because he didn’t know the real story of how I died. But, Sophia, you have to believe me. You are in very real danger here.” She looked over at Elodie. “Both of you are. Someone is targeting powerful witches, and you two are the only ones left.”

  Now it was Elodie who was shaking her head. “No, no, there’s no way. It was Jenna. It was a vamp. It . . . it has to be.”

  Alice’s face went very still, like a mask had come down, and her eyes seemed to be looking through us. “Perhaps it was. For both of your sakes, I hope it was.”

  She reached out and took one of my hands in hers, and one of Elodie’s in the other. “But in case it wasn’t . . .” Suddenly my hand was hot in hers. Too hot, and I winced, trying to pull back. I could feel Elodie trying to do the same, but Alice held on until we were both making little whimpering sounds. Finally the heat faded, and she let us go. I studied the hand that now lay in my lap, thinking it would at least look red, if not blistered, but it looked normal.

  “What was that?” Elodie asked in shaky voice.

  “A protection spell. It will help you know your enemies, should the time ever come.”

  Elodie and I were quiet as the three of us flew back to the school. This time there was no delighted laughter, no weightless feeling of freedom.

  When we landed, Alice reached around her neck and pulled off the necklace she was wearing. It was just like the one she’d given me. Elodie didn’t put it on right away. She just looked at it, frowning, before closing her hand around it.

  “Thanks for the lesson,” she told Alice. Then she looked at me, her face still troubled, and said, “See you tomorrow, Sophie.”

  “Do you really think The Eye is here at Hecate?” I asked Alice once Elodie had gone inside.

  Alice glanced past me at Hecate. The huge shadowed mansion looked like a many-eyed monster slumbering in the dark.

  “Something is here,” she said at last. “But what, I don’t know. Not yet.”

  I looked back at the house and knew Alice was right. A shadow had fallen over the school and seemed to be creeping closer and closer to me. Overhead, clouds snaked across the crescent moon, and the night became even darker. I dreaded the thought of walking into the dark hallways by myself and up to an empty room.

  “Do you—” I started to ask Alice, but when I turned, she was gone, leaving me shivering and alone in the night.

  CHAPTER 28

  I’d figured that Elodie wouldn’t want to go back with me to see Alice again after the “my gaping chest wound, let me show you it” thing, but she surprised me by meeting me on the stairs the next night.

  “So when did you meet Alice?” she asked on our way down.

  “Middle of October?” I answered. Elodie nodded, like that was the answer she’d expected. “So after Chaston, then.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “What does that have to do with it?”

  But she didn’t answer.

  Elodie came with me for the next two weeks. Alice didn’t seem to mind her tagging along, and I was kind of shocked to discover that I didn’t find her presence completely abhorrent either. In fact, I started to suspect that I might actually like Elodie.

  It’s not as if her whole personality changed or anything, but she was definitely becoming a kinder, gentler Elodie. Maybe she was just using me for Alice. I mean, after just a couple of nights of training, Elodie could already make a small couch appear out of nothing, and she’d moved on to the transportation spell. Not that either of us could do it yet.

  But I didn’t think it was just about the magic; I think she was lonely. Anna and Chaston were both gone, and I’d never really thought about how they were the only people Elodie ever talked to, besides Archer. And even they seemed to be spending less time together. Elodie said she was too busy with “other stuff” for a boyfriend, while Archer said he was giving her some space.

  Archer and I were weird too. After the ball, something had changed between us, and the easy camaraderie we’d shared during cellar duty had evaporated. Now we usually spent the full hour actually cataloguing instead of teasing and joking, and sometimes when he didn’t know I was looking, I’d see this really faraway look cross his face. I didn’t know if he was thinking about Elodie, or if, like me, he was disappointed by the uncomfortable distance that had sprung up between us.

  November at Hecate was gray and rainy, which seemed to suit my mood. Even though I was glad Elodie and I were becoming sort-of friends, she wasn’t Jenna, and I missed my real friend. About a week after Anna had been attacked, Mrs. Casnoff announced at dinner that the Council had cleared Byron of any suspicion. Apparently, he had a solid alibi; he’d been telepathically talking to someone at the Council at that time. But no matter how many times I asked, Mrs. Casnoff would never give me an answer about where Jenna was or what was going on, and
I worried about her pretty much all the time.

  Mom, being a mom, could sense something was up whenever I called her, but I told her that I was swamped with classes. I hadn’t mentioned anything about Chaston or Anna or Jenna; it would have freaked her out, and I knew she worried about me enough as it was.

  I hated being alone in the room at night, so I started spending my cellar duty–free evenings in the library, reading up on Prodigium lore in the hopes that I could find something that might clear Jenna. So far, the only creatures I knew of who took blood from their victims were vampires, demons, and, if that one book was to be believed, L’Occhio di Dio. Since Mrs. Casnoff had already shot down my L’Occhio di Dio theory, I tried finding books about demons. But it seemed that every book about demons in the whole library was written in Latin. I tried pressing my hand to the pages and saying “Speak,” but the books seemed charm proof. The only parts I could make out were facts I already knew, like how they had to be killed with that demonglass. I sincerely hoped there wasn’t a demon at Hecate, because I suspected you couldn’t just run down to Williams-Sonoma to pick some up.

  One drizzly evening in late November, just after dinner and before I was supposed to report for cellar duty, I took a few of the books to Mrs. Casnoff. She was in her office, writing in a big black ledger. Lamplight cast a warm glow over the room, and classical music was playing softly. Like on the night of the ball, the music wasn’t coming from anywhere that I could see.

  She looked up when I came in. “Yes?”

  I held the books out. “I had some questions about these.”

  She frowned a little, but closed her ledger and gestured for me to sit down.

  “Is there a reason you’re researching demons, Sophia?”

  “Well, I read that they sometimes drink the blood of their victims, and I thought, you know, maybe that’s

  what happened to Chaston and Anna.”

  For a long moment Mrs. Casnoff studied me. I realized the music wasn’t playing anymore.