by Lara Chapman
Jo drops onto the bench beside me and slaps her hands onto the table. She’s been running, and she’s out of breath. “You’re not going to believe this.”
Dread’s a heavy weight in my veins.
“What’s wrong?” I ask. My voice is thin, and I hate the way it sounds. If I’m going to fight to be the High Priestess, I need to dig up some confidence.
When she opens her mouth, the words tumble out. “I was washing the paintbrushes in the booth and heard Kendall telling Zena that she has a plan to take care of you.”
“What does that mean?” Cody asks. “What has to be taken care of?”
Neither one of us answers.
“Did she say when?” I ask.
“Tonight.”
“How?”
Jo looks at Cody.
“It’s okay, Jo,” I say. “You can say it in front of him.”
She turns back to me. “She said they’re going to burn you out.”
“Burn me out? What does that mean?”
I look to Cody, whose face has gone serious. I hardly recognize his voice when he speaks. “Kendall said she was going to do this? To Hallie? Tonight?”
“Yeah.”
“Who else heard this?” Cody asks.
Jo shrugs. “Just me.”
“And they didn’t see you?” he asks.
I point to her ears. “Clairaudient.”
Cody nods in understanding. “Thanks, Jo.”
Realizing she’s been dismissed, she walks back to the booth, looking over her shoulder at me several times. It’s funny to watch Cody take charge. I have to get better at that. If I’m honest, it’s kind of nice having someone around who seems to get what’s happening. Because I’m lost.
“What’s the story with those two? Why do they have it out for you?”
I hesitate. “I don’t know.”
Am I allowed to tell him about the High Priestess stuff? Or is it against the rules? I mean, he did tell me about his thing. Kind of.
“I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s going on.”
My first reaction is to tell him I don’t need his help, but maybe I do. Maybe he knows what “burning” me out means. Surely one of my gifts can help me fight back.
I give Cody the short story of the quest for High Priestess. Cody nods while I talk, and I get the feeling he’s memorizing every word I say.
When I finish, he takes a deep breath, then stands. “Come on.”
I grab our trash and look for a Dumpster.
“Really, Hallie?” he asks. “We’re in the middle of something kind of serious, and you’re looking for a trash can?”
My face burns red, and I drop the trash onto the nearest table.
“Where would she be?” he asks.
“Who?” I ask.
Cody gives me an exasperated look. “Hallie, focus. Kendall. Where would she be right now?”
I look around the grounds, at the dwindling groups still here. Most of the out-of-town covens have already left.
“There,” I say. I point at the stage, where Kendall and Zena are pretending to clean up.
He walks toward them with purpose, as if he can control them. Alone, they’re formidable. Together, they’re unbeatable.
“Wait. What’s happening?” I ask. I grab his hand to stop his stride.
He stops walking but keeps his eyes on Kendall. “Burning you out means she’s going to get rid of you.”
“Like get me expelled? She’d never be able to. I’m their best student.”
His eyes narrow, a mix of regret and anger. “No, Hallie. Something a lot more permanent than expulsion.”
Twenty-Three
I swallow hard. I know Kendall doesn’t like me, but would she really do something so drastic?
“How do you know so much?” I ask him.
“It’s a long story.”
I roll my eyes, more than a little tired of being put off by Cody. My eyes follow his to where the girls stand. They’re watching the grounds, looks of superior satisfaction on their faces.
“I need to handle this on my own,” I tell Cody.
He shakes his head. “No, you don’t, Hallie. You can’t. This is more than just mean-girl gossip.”
“You think I don’t know that?” I pull my hand out of his. “Let me do this.”
I’ll never be taken seriously if I can’t fight my own battles.
Cody gets it, but he doesn’t like it. “I’ll be right here.”
I walk to the stage, think about what to say. Should I be mean and threatening? Or just, “Hey! I heard you wanted to burn me out. Let’s talk.”
They watch me approach, the same satisfied grins on their faces, but I know there’s malice behind their smiles.
“Hallie,” Kendall says when I get close.
I study her face, looking for some sign of goodness in her.
I ask the one question I really want the answer to. “Why don’t you like me?”
She tilts her head and looks at me like I’m a puzzle she can’t quite figure out.
“Are you serious?” Her face is the picture of incredulity.
I have to stop myself from laughing. “Yeah, I really am. I’ve never done anything to you. But since third grade you’ve dedicated yourself to tearing me down.”
A thin laugh escapes her lips. “Okaaaay, Hallie. I think you might be a little obsessed with me. I don’t even think about you, much less ‘tear’ you down.”
I look over to Cody, who’s still watching us. He’s no longer alone. One of his friends, Junior, and the first guy I painted, Victor, are standing with him. Something like relief washes over me.
I take a deep breath, will my back to be ramrod straight. “And now you’re mad at me about the High Priestess thing as if I applied for the job.”
A slow, sinister smile creeps onto her face. “Ah, you’re finally thinking.”
“I don’t understand why you’re upset. It’s not like I asked for this anyway. I just wanted to be a hedge witch.”
“Poor Hallie,” she sneers.
The chill in her words puts every nerve in my body on defense. My feet are telling me to run, but I know I have to face her about this. Might as well get it over with now.
Zena steps closer, her voice as menacing as I’ve ever heard.
“Understand this, Hallie. Dowling is too powerful a coven to be led by the likes of you—a Goody Two-shoes with overbearing parents and an unfortunate propensity for honesty.”
“All things I’m proud of.”
She laughs. “You would be.” She leans closer, almost whispering into my ear. “Let me tell you what’s going to happen here. You are going to step aside and let Kendall take her rightful place as the next High Priestess of the coven.”
Anger boils inside me. “Why would I do that? I have as much right to that spot as Kendall.”
“And then you’re going to convince Cody that he belongs with Kendall.”
I shake my head. I can’t believe this. “He doesn’t even like her.”
“It really doesn’t have anything to do with how he feels about her. This is about the continued partnership with Riley. Cody and Kendall are . . . destined to be together.”
Destined to be together.
My dream comes back to me in flashes.
This is it.
This is what I was dreaming about.
“What genius decided those two belong together?” I ask her. My voice sounds a thousand times braver than I feel.
“The only one who matters.” She points to herself. “My mom.”
Pointless. This is entirely, hopelessly pointless. Nothing I say will change anything. If I’m going to be High Priestess, it will have to be in spite of the headmistress, her daughter, and Kendall.
I glance back at Cody, who’s n
ow surrounded by Ivy, Dru, and Jo. Even Missy is there. Kendall’s eyes follow mine. “They can’t help you.”
“I don’t need their help. I don’t need anyone’s help.”
Miss A’s colorful figure quickly approaches. I can tell by the look in her eyes that she aims to stop me from saying something I’ll regret. She’s probably too late for that.
I end the conversation by walking back to my friends. With every step, my legs shake harder and faster until I think I may actually fall down.
Then a flash of fire shoots past me and everything slips into slow motion.
Cody rushes toward me.
I turn around.
Another flash of fire. A fireball, to be exact.
Coming from Kendall’s hand.
I should duck or run or scream. But instinct takes over, and I hold up my hands to shield my face.
In that weird way that happens only in near-death experiences, time practically stops. I see every revolution of the fireball. An inch from my hand it bounces off and shoots back toward Kendall.
With Miss A directly behind her.
Kendall ducks, yanking Zena down with her.
But Miss A is too slow, and the flame catches her flowing dress. She slaps frantic arms at the fire, but it doesn’t extinguish. Ivy runs to Miss A, Missy trailing her.
Kendall holds up her hand, and I know another fireball is coming.
I see the fireball leave her hand, like a movie in superslow motion.
I watch the fireball fly in Ivy’s direction. But she isn’t looking. I scream her name, she turns, and the fireball lands squarely in her stomach. She falls to the ground, smoke consuming her.
I look for my friends. Cody is running.
Running away.
That can’t be right.
And then I see her.
Kendall.
Running to the front door. Zena trailing her.
And Cody is right behind them.
He grabs Kendall, and a man helps Cody by stopping Zena. I recognize him as the headmaster of Riley Academy.
I can’t focus on them. I need to help Ivy.
My feet carry me faster than I thought possible. I notice a crowd of girls circling Miss A, whose dress is flame-free thanks to Missy, who was able to turn it to ice, then melt it to douse the fire. Miss A is repeating the same thing over and over and over again. “I’m fine, girls. I’m fine.”
I push people out of the way to reach Ivy, and find her unconscious. The fireball is gone, but smoke hangs overhead. I shake Ivy lightly, call her name. I tap her cheeks like I’ve seen people do on television, but she doesn’t budge. She doesn’t wake up.
Fear, despair, anger . . . it collides inside me, and I begin crying. I should have protected Ivy. I should have been more careful. How could I have underestimated Kendall?
“Miss A!” I yell for our dorm mother, Dowling’s best hedge witch. If anyone can help my best friend, it’s her.
Miss A stumbles through the crowd, mindless of the burned dress hanging off her in strips. She cares only about helping Ivy.
I push everyone back. Ivy would be mad if she knew everyone was just standing around looking at her. “Go on,” I shout. “Go!”
Soon enough Jo and Dru have pushed everyone back so that only Ivy, Miss A, Jo, Dru, Missy, and I are there. Miss A puts her hands on Ivy’s stomach, begins chanting something low and soft and deep and healing.
She looks at me with a smile. “She’s going to be all right, sugar. You need to calm down. She can feel your anxiety, remember?”
I nod, steady my breathing, and try to remember Miss A’s power. I look in fear at my best friend lying on the ground in front of me, passed out and coughing.
Wait.
Coughing.
She’s coughing!
“Ivy? Can you hear me?” I lean over her face and try to pull her eyes open with my fingers.
She slaps my hands away, and I nearly faint with relief.
I look to Miss A, who’s still chanting, healing, smiling. She lifts Ivy’s shirt, and all that remains of her fireball mishap is a red rash. “I told you she’d be okay.”
Ivy’s eyes open, slowly and carefully. She focuses on me, and I swear it looks like she’s glaring at me.
“I don’t blame you for being mad at me,” I say. “I never should have confronted them like that. I wasn’t thinking.”
“I don’t care about that,” Ivy says.
I reach down and help her sit up. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see someone awake in my entire life.
“What I want to know,” she says, “is why you didn’t tell me you had the gift of shielding.”
Twenty-Four
I stare at her, confused. The hit to the stomach must have twisted some things up in her head.
She coughs again, holds her stomach in pain.
“That’s going to be sore awhile,” Miss A says. She reaches for Ivy’s hand and pulls her to her feet. “Why don’t you sit down on those chairs for a few minutes, Ivy? Hallie, you stay with her. The girls and I have some work to do.”
She motions for Jo, Dru, and Missy to follow her to the stage, where most of the damage from the fireball is.
I look for Cody but don’t see him anywhere. Also missing are Kendall and Zena.
“So?” Ivy asks. “Why did you keep it a secret?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Really. You don’t remember stopping the fireball with your bare hands?”
“I did?” I try to remember what happened. The fireball came toward me, and I lifted my hand. “I did! I held up my hand, and the fireball bounced off.”
I don’t say what I’m thinking, that I caused Miss A to catch fire, which caused Ivy to run to her and get hit by the fireball. It’s times like these when I really wish I was just a regular witch. Or at least a white magic witch. Then my magic would actually help people, instead of hurting them.
Ivy pulls Lady Rose’s barrette out of my hair. “Here,” she says. “This was about to fall out.”
I look at the barrette in my hand. At the red stones and the small clear crystals. It sparkles beneath the cndlelight. When the realization hits me, I smile.
“This,” I tell Ivy. “This is why I could shield myself from the fireball.”
“A barrette?” she says, eyebrows drawn together. “What’d you do, steal it from the library?”
I don’t answer right away, and she rips the barrette from my hand. “Are you kidding me? You actually took something again? You know what will happen. I can’t believe you’d do this.”
I slap a hand over her mouth. “Lady Rose gave it to me. She said it made her feel safer and that her grandmother had given it to her. Sneaky.”
I guess this is what they kept warning me about. They knew something was going to happen but couldn’t tell me, so they protected me the only way they could.
“You’re lucky they like you. If they were like Kendall, you’d be toast right now.”
“Literally,” I say. We both laugh, and even when Ivy holds her stomach in pain, we keep laughing.
I put Ivy to bed and head back outside to clean up. I’m disappointed I didn’t get to tell Cody good-bye. I owe him a huge thank-you for chasing after Kendall and Zena. I don’t know where they were running to, but he stopped them, and I’m grateful.
Only a few dozen girls are still on the grounds. Some are stacking chairs, some removing candles, some picking up trash. I stand at the top of the stairs and watch them work together, and I feel isolated, separate from everyone else.
I wonder if I’ll make it through Dowling. I used to just “know” I’d be fine, but now I’m not so sure. Do I even want to continue here? Nothing I do works out the way I plan. The people closest to me get hurt.
“Now you’re jus
t being silly.” Miss A puts an arm around my shoulders.
For once I’m glad she heard my thoughts. I wouldn’t have had the guts to say them out loud.
“I don’t know, Miss A. Think about it. Nothing I attempt to do works out like it should. It was one thing when Kendall got a forked tongue. But now you and Ivy got hurt. I don’t want that to happen ever again.”
She puts her hands on my shoulders and turns me around to face her. Her makeup has melted off her face, and what’s beneath is a determined and intelligent woman. I wonder why she puts on so much makeup and dresses so outrageously. She’s better like this. When she’s just . . . her. Miss A.
“Now, you listen to me, little girl. What happened tonight was not your fault. No, ma’am. That was Kendall’s and Zena’s fault, and if I had my way, I’d make sure they never stepped foot in Dowling again.”
“Where are they?” I ask. “I haven’t seen them since . . .” I don’t finish the sentence. I can’t.
“Since Ivy was hit?” she asks. “You can talk about it. It’s okay.”
I nod, unconvinced, and repeat my question. “Where are Kendall and Zena?”
“In their room,” Miss A says with a shake of her head.
“What’s going to happen now?” I ask her. “Will I get . . . expelled? Suspended?”
The thought of calling my dad and telling him I was kicked out of Dowling gives me a headache. He would be devastated. As would I. If I don’t stay—if I can’t stay—I think I’ll always wonder what my life would have been like. And I think that would be an awful way to live.
Miss A chuckles, and it makes me grin. “Expelled? Not hardly. It was self-defense, my dear.” She gives me a wink. I smile even though I know I shouldn’t.
“You know, Hallie, you don’t have to go through this alone.”
“Through what?”
“The High Priestess competition. You don’t have to do it alone. I will help you. Lady Jennica and Lady Rose will too. I don’t think you should expect any help from the headmistress, though.” She laughs at her joke, and I laugh with her.
“Do you really think I could do it? That I could be the High Priestess?” Just saying it out loud sounds absurd, like I’m asking if I could be a two-headed purple-and-green giraffe that survived on lollipops and cotton candy.