The academic year at All Hallows starts with its most renowned tradition: Thirteen Days of Halloween. Each day of the thirteen days leading up to All Hallow’s Eve, a famous witch or wizard from the past is called upon and asked to reach through the veil separating the living from the death.
Lavinia wants nothing more than to fit in at All Hallows, but when something from beyond the veil reaches out to her on the First Day of Halloween, fitting in at the academy will be the least of her concerns…
Chapter One
“This is going to be amazing!”
Jensen, my best friend, grabbed my hand and squeezed it. His smile spread from ear to ear and seeing it, I couldn’t help but smile myself.
Today was our first day at All Hallows Academy, one of the most renowned institutions for witchcraft and wizardry in the world.
Before enrolling at All Hallows, Jensen and I had attended high school together, and our number one dream for the past three years had been to get into All Hallows. We both worked hard to get here, and standing here today, it still didn’t feel real.
“I think you already grabbed some people’s attention,” I remarked, grinning as a group of girls walked past us, some of them throwing flirty glances in Jensen’s direction.
I knew my best friend was attractive, although I had never seen him that way—to me, he was the boy I had grown up with, who had gone to Miss Hecate’s Kindergarten for Magical Toddlers for the first time on the same day I did. I had accidentally made a doll come to life, courtesy of my lack of control over my powers, and Jensen had saved me by knocking the doll unconscious.
Miss Hecate was anything but pleased that one of her students had caused such havoc, but the incident had formed the foundation of my friendship with Jensen, and we had been best friends ever since.
Now we were here, roughly fifteen years later, and there was no one I would rather be here with, at All Hallows Academy.
“Yeah, right.” Jensen snorted sarcastically, referring back to my earlier comment that he had caught the eye of quite a few witches already.
Jensen had always been oblivious to his own good looks—a stark contrast with his brother, Flynn, and the one person I did not look forward to bumping into in the hallways.
Okay, that was a lie. Part of me was looking forward to it. The stupid part. The teenage-crush part.
During the summer holidays two years ago, while I spent most of my time hanging out with Jensen, I developed this enormous crush on his older brother Flynn and ended up making a fool of myself as I tried everything to get his attention. Flynn, on the other hand, practically ignored me and dated girl after girl until none of us could keep track anymore.
Chill, Liv. Don’t let him get into your head again. Flynn is old news.
At least that was what I told myself while I kept trying to catch a peek of him in the crowd, but so far, no luck.
“This place looks even better than I imagined,” Jensen said in awe.
“Couldn’t agree with you more.” I let go of Jensen’s hand and pulled him into a half-hug.
The academy was stunning, a magnificent piece of architecture. It stretched at least twenty meters on the left and right of a double-door entrance. Paneled windows, eight on each side, flanked the door on the ground level, and the first and second floors. On top of that was the attic built into the blue-tiled roof, with spiral towers on each side, creating a perfect symmetry. On each side of the castle were two more buildings, and down the slope of the hill the castle was built on, lay a greenhouse, the top of which was visible from our position.
Nature surrounded us on all sides: lush forests on the hill, the river crossing through the valley below, the flowery gardens of the academy all around us.
Coming from the city, it felt like going on holiday, and it certainly was a stark difference from what I was used to.
“We should probably head inside,” Jensen said, making no effort to actually move. He kept on gaping at the magnificent building, and I grinned, thankful that All Hallows lived up to our expectations, at least so far.
“Come on.” I started pulling Jensen along, which wasn’t that easy since he stopped every few seconds to stare at something else.
We entered through the double doors of the main building, and my jaw almost fell to the floor. Ceilings easily five meters high towered above us, and a gold-colored chandelier swung from left to right. Paintings decorated the wood-paneled walls of the castle’s entrance, all of them showcasing prominent witches and wizards, each one more famous than the last.
“By the Goddess,” Jensen said, his eyes sparkling. “All these paintings. All this history.” He stopped walking and instead turned slowly in a circle, taking in all the details of our surroundings. “Liv, over there!”
He pointed at a painting hanging just above the staircase, and I instantly cringed, recognizing the person in the portrait: my namesake, Lavinia Bloodbane, the one and only.
My great-great-great grandmother was a formidable witch, more powerful than any of my other ancestors. Naming me after her, had been an ambitious act on my mother’s behalf: she was so thrilled to have finally caught the eye of my father, Alaric Bloodbane, that she decided the best course of action would be to name her firstborn after the most famous Bloodbane ever. Apparently, my father opposed this decision, but they eventually “compromised”, evidently in my mother’s favor.
“Ugh,” I groaned. “Why does she have to follow me everywhere?”
Not only was Lavinia my namesake, but she also looked a lot like me, or rather, I looked like her. Dark blue eyes, reddish brown hair, a round face and a slightly too small nose. The painting only made the resemblance all the more clear; she could’ve been my twin sister.
“Well, she is your ancestor,” Jensen reminded me while he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Besides, it could be worse.”
When I looked at him questioningly, he shrugged and laughed. “They could’ve added a picture of your mother.”
I burst out laughing and punched him in the side.
Mother and I didn’t always see eye to eye, and if I had to choose someone whose picture I had to stare at every day when I walked through the hallways of my school, then I far preferred a distant ancestor I didn’t know than my mother’s scrutinizing gaze.
“Hey, you two,” someone snapped, cutting our laughs short.
Jensen and I turned on our heels, facing the person who had spoken.
The speaker looked at us with as much disdain as a pompous king staring down at his subjects. He wore his school uniform with the tie knotted perfectly, the shirt tucked into his trousers, all of it looking as crisp and clean as if he had just picked it up from the dry cleaners. The red color of his tie indicated he was a senior, and the yellow marking on the sleeve of his uniform vest showed he was also a prefect. That didn’t surprise me in the slightest considering his attitude and his apparent attention to detail.
“Stop gaping, and hurry up,” the prefect said, as he gestured toward two open doors leading further into the belly of the castle. “The headmistress is about to give her opening speech. You freshmen don’t want to miss it.”
He made the word ‘freshmen’ sound like an insult.
“Thanks,” Jensen said, unphased by the guy’s snobbish behavior. “Come on, Liv.”
I shot a dirty look at the prefect before Jensen pulled me along, out of the hallway and into a common room that dwarfed the entrance—and that room was already nearly as large as my entire house.
Dozens of other students, dressed in similar uniforms like ours, were crowded in the common room. Their muffled whispers sounded like a swarm of bees buzzing. A few of the girls we saw earlier, while walking through the gardens, turned back and smiled at Jensen.
I had a feeling that Jensen was going to fit in here a lot faster than I would.
Then again, that was no surprise. Jensen had always acclimatized easily to new surroundings, while I needed time to get used to changes.
“Studen
ts.” The voice booming through the room instantly put an end to the faint murmurs from the other students. Everyone turned to gaze toward a stage erected at the end of the room. Behind a reading stand on the stage stood a black-haired woman completely dressed in black robes and a high pointy hat, a classical witch uniform only worn on formal occasions.
“For those of you who don’t know me yet, my name is Headmistress Wynona Ravenborn. For you, that’s Headmistress.” She chuckled at her own joke. “On behalf of myself and the entire faculty staff, we would like to welcome you to All Hallows Academy!”
Wynona raised her hands in the air, and the other staff members started clapping, swiftly followed by the students.
Jensen and I exchanged a look, both of us beaming from joy.
I still felt as if this was all a dream, and soon I would wake up. I pinched myself in the arm to make sure I wasn’t sleeping.
“On the first day of the new academy year, we want to inform you of a few rules you should take into account at All Hallows Academy,” the headmistress continued. “We will start tonight with a party, both to welcome the new students and to celebrate the start of the Thirteen Days of Halloween. For those of you unfamiliar with this tradition, at All Hallows Academy, we have always celebrated the thirteen days before All Hallow’s Eve, the very holiday in honor of which our academy is named. On All Hallow’s Eve itself, we reminisce about the past and honor the deceased, but in the thirteen days leading up to it, we each day honor one of the great witches and wizards of the past who helped shape this school to the place of learning it is today.”
The headmistress gestured at the gallery of portraits behind her, and I cringed again when I spotted Lavinia’s portrait. While I was usually in favor of traditions, and Halloween was my favorite holiday of the year, spending a whole day honoring my long-deceased ancestor who, for the record, was not as great as she appeared to be, was not my idea of fun.
“Today we start by honoring Magnus Thorne, the warlock who invented a potion to make inanimate objects come to life, one of the most significant discoveries in witchcraft of the last centuries.” The headmistress laughed. “For those of you unaware of the history of this powerful warlock, you’ll learn all about it in Magical History class tomorrow morning.”
A few nervous chuckles erupted from the crowd, and some students groaned, obviously not too pleased with the prospect of having history class in the morning.
“For now, please join our prefects, who will take you to your dorms,” Wynona said while she gestured at four prefects, including the obnoxious guy who interrupted Jensen and I earlier. “After you have installed yourself in your new dorm, please head back downstairs to the common room. We will have drinks—non-alcoholic, of course,” the headmistress added with a wink, “and snacks for everyone.”
Applause filled the room, and I whispered to Jensen, “Nice way to start the academic year, with a party.”
“I doubt it’ll be anything crazy,” Jensen said. “Still, it’s a good way to get to know everyone.”
I shrugged. Getting to know people wasn’t exactly my strong suit. What usually happened was that Jensen got to know someone, asked him or her to hang out with us, and that was how I established relationships with pretty much all my friends. If it wasn’t for Jensen, I probably would be a loner huddled underneath the covers with a book every night or weekend, rather than spend time with others.
The headmistress left the stage, and the students shuffled toward the prefects. Jensen and I followed the stream of freshmen until we ended up in front of the prefect we had met earlier.
“Family name A to D.” A corpse would’ve sounded more interested than the prefect did.
Jensen and I both fit into the category of family names. Reluctantly, I joined the cue of students lining up in front of the prefect to be taken to the dorms.
After most of the students had gathered in front of the respective prefects, the senior in front of us cleared his throat.
“Freshmen,” he said, in a way that made him sound infinitely better than all of us simply because he was older, “My name is Matthew Dustmoon, and I’m the prefect responsible for your group. You can see me like a mentor of sorts.”
I snorted. Of course he was one of the Dustmoon witches. Aall of them were known for acting like they were the Goddess’ own offspring.
“If you have any questions, such as where your next class is, or where to find the cafeteria…” Matthew paused for a second. “Well, check your maps and calendars, which I will hand you in your respective dorms.”
I was pretty sure all the other, friendlier prefects, ended that introductory sentence by saying stuff like how the students could always ask them for guidance or help, but of course with a Dustmoon witch, you would probably have more luck asking Satan for a cookie.
We followed Matthew through the labyrinthine halls of the academy. There were twelve students in our group, and most of them were chatting away, while I tried to memorize the path we took, which corners to turn left, when to turn right.
Jensen, on the other hand, was too busy gawking at everything he saw—“Oh, look, Liv, a mirror!” and then “Oh, Liv, check out that bookcase, isn’t that a rare edition of Griselda’s Grimoire?” followed by “That statue looks just like you in the morning,” when he gestured to a statue of a gargoyle.
I punched him on the arm for the last one and gave small remarks on his other comments.
While Jensen seemed pretty relaxed, I was a ball of stress. Not only was I nervous about what the dorms would look like, but the party this evening and the prospect of having to mingle with people I didn’t know, made everything a thousand times worse.
After following Matthew for what seemed like an eternity, he finally led us to a common room decorated in green, the color chosen to indicate freshmen in All Hallows Academy.
Jensen whistled, impressed.
My mouth dropped open, and I struggled to shut it again.
The common room was enormous and decorated with a style and elegance I could only dream of. Five large couches were deposited in the middle of the room, all of them covered in green pillows. A dark-green tapestry decorated the left wall which was flanked by a circling staircase on each side. A billiards table was stationed to the left of the room, bookcases lined the walls, and another table on the right allowed room for a dozen people to sit behind.
A few students let out cries of ‘ooh’ and ‘wow’, obviously as amazed by the sheer size of our common room as I was.
Matthew snorted, as if the very thought of being impressed by something was beneath him. The only thing he had probably ever been charmed by was his own mirror image.
“Your dorm is upstairs.” He pointed toward the spiral staircases. “Curfew is at ten on weekdays, and you better believe we’re strict about it. I don’t care what you do in your dorm after that time, but you’re not allowed to wander around, and if we catch you, you’ll get detention, no matter what excuse you come up with.”
When no one said anything, he turned to us and snapped, “Understood?”
“Understood,” a few students mumbled.
I rolled my eyes. Curfew at ten? I was eighteen, not eleven.
“Dorms are separated,” Matthew said while he started climbing the staircase on the left. “This leads to the boys’ dorms, and the staircase on the right leads to the girls’ dorms. Each of the dorms has separate bathrooms, and the bedrooms are divided per two or three students. You don’t get to choose, and there’s no use in begging.”
A collective groan erupted from the other students, and Matthew turned sharply and glared at us. “When you become sophomores, you’ll move to different dorms and then you can choose your own bunk buddy. Seniors don’t have to share at all.”
I started to grasp the picking order around here. Freshmen had the least privileges of all, and we better get used to it.
Matthew started by guiding us through the men’s dormitory, indicating which students were assigned to which room.
Everyone who was assigned a room, went inside their rooms to begin unpacking their belongings, and our group thinned with every chamber we passed.
The last room in the men’s dormitory was for Jensen, who got paired up with a dark-haired guy, who vanished into the room so fast I could barely get a look at him.
I shot Jensen a sad look. I would rather share a room with him than with a stranger—even if he snored loud enough to wake a dragon.
“Hey hey, Liv,” Jensen said while he wrapped me into a hug. “This doesn’t mean we won’t hang out all the time.”
He was right, of course. In our high school, we had also been separated, with me staying in the girls’ dorms and Jensen in the boys’ dorms, but still… I had other friends there, at least. Here, I didn’t have anyone but him.
Most of our classmates didn’t enroll to any of the magic universities after graduating. They either started working in the family businesses, or they went to the human universities and campuses, to get a glimpse of life on the other side, away from magic.
With magic waning every generation, it was no surprise that more and more people looked for other ways to earn a living.
Besides, in the human world, our gifts could actually make a difference: make a surgeon a little more precise, make a scientist slightly cleverer, and so on. We might not be capable of the big feats performed by wizards such as the mighty Merlin anymore, who lived over a millennium ago, but we could still mean something.
The students who hadn’t started a job or joined the human world, had gone off to academies all over the world, and only four of us came to All Hallows. Jensen and myself, and the Terrible Twins: Georgina and Elvira Nightshade. I didn’t look forward to seeing them again, and luckily with the dorms split up by last name, I had been able to avoid them thus far.
Now all the boys had been assigned to their dormitories, Matthew led us to the girl’s dormitories.
Dragging my feet, I cringed every time he assigned girls to a particular room, dreading when my name would be called.
A Cursed All Hallows' Eve Page 34