Khourtney remained at Cassidy’s side. “Besides, no apprentice knows this kind of magic.” She smoothed the hair off Cassidy’s face. Turning to the group, she stated, “We need to get her help. Now. Before it’s too late."
Justin dug his phone out of his jacket pocket.
“What are you doing?” Sydney demanded.
He didn’t meet her gaze. “Calling campus security. We need to get her to the infirmary before she gets hypothermia—or worse.”
Sydney didn’t know if this was a good idea, but she couldn’t think of anything else. They couldn’t just leave Cassidy here. Not when a hundred Ashcroft students saw her dangling in mid-air. “Okay, fine. But how are we going to explain what everyone just saw? They watched her levitating like she was in the fucking Exorcist! It’s not like we can Persuade all of them.” She tried to calm down since the more worked up she became, the harder it was for her to think rationally.
“The Elders are already going to find out,” Ava said. “There were too many witnesses. This is going to get back to Headmistress Chambers and then to your mom, Syd. We can’t hide this.”
“Well, I’m not calling my mother. This will be just one more thing for her to blame me for. Justin, can you call your Aunt Piper or Uncle Radley?” she asked.
They were rational and nurturing. If anyone could keep a cool head and know what to do, it would be them. And they weren’t fans of her mother. Although they’d never said it outright and risked retaliation, Justin had confided the fact to her once.
Justin nodded, stepped away, and made the call.
Ainsley took her phone out and was about to dial. “We still need to get someone over here to take Cassidy to the infirmary.”
“And tell them what?” Sydney snapped. “We need a story first, that’s why Justin is calling his aunt and uncle.”
“She could be dying,” Ainsley insisted. “We don’t know what’s wrong with her or what’s happening inside her body. I can’t sit here and just watch her die. I’m calling.”
With a quick flick of her wrist, Sydney sent a wave of magic to Ainsley’s cell and launched it across the clearing. The middling’s eyes went wide with shock. “I said, wait,” Syd demanded through gritted teeth.
Ainsley didn’t speak, a refreshing change from dropping her usual two cents in. She had no stake in this; she had no reason even to be here.
Justin walked back, pocketing his phone. It was the first time Sydney noticed how pale and tired he looked. His normally glowing skin was dull, his blond hair washing his complexion out further. His eyes had lost their mischievous sparkle. She’d been so busy being hurt and angry with him that she hadn’t noticed how much this was affecting him too.
“I spoke with Aunt Piper,” he said. “They’re on their way. She told me to call campus security. Tell them we found her like this, and that we suspect she tripped and fell. Suggest she had too much to drink.”
“What about all the witnesses to Cassidy’s little party trick?” Jax asked.
“My aunt and uncle said they’re taking care of it.” Justin gave Syd a knowing look, and she relaxed a little.
Ainsley shook her head in apparent disbelief. “What does that mean? They’re going to Persuade everyone to forget again, the way all of Ashcroft was brainwashed to forget that Darren was murdered?”
“I told you we couldn’t trust her,” Sydney said, allowing a satisfied I-was-right tone to surface.
“You can trust me, but you can’t just expect me to stand by while you play with people’s minds. That’s not okay,” Ainsley said firmly.
“You don’t know anyone murdered Darren. He could’ve been in the middle of a stupid prank that went wrong. God, you think you’ve got all the answers, but you know nothing.” Sydney stormed toward her, having had enough. “So, what do you want us to do then, Ainsley?” Syd jabbed her finger into her shoulder. “Should we let a hundred plus students be terrified about something they can’t explain and can’t defend themselves against? We can’t exactly say, ‘Oh, it’s just magic, no need to worry.’ Think for once, will you?”
Khourtney picked up Ainsley’s phone and brought it over to her, inserting herself between the two warring factions. She put a gentle arm around Ainsley. “Isn’t it better to have everyone believe the party was great and go on with their lives?”
The righteous indignation seemed to disappear on Ainsley’s face, and she rested her head for a brief moment on Khourtney’s shoulder. “I guess so.”
This was too much. Sydney wasn’t going to sit by and watch as all her friends fell for Ainsley’s bullshit.
“If we can’t trust you, and we can’t Persuade you, then we have a problem. Maybe I should do something about it,” Sydney snapped. She’d love nothing more than to be rid of Ainsley. She was beginning to consider the ways she could make that happen.
“You can trust us,” Justin said, staring in the middling’s eyes. “I promise that Cassidy will be taken care of. My aunt and uncle will figure out what’s wrong with her—and if they can’t, they’ll find an Elder who can. Everything is going to be okay.”
Ainsley nodded at him, but it didn’t convince Sydney. She could’ve screamed with the way he pandered to her.
Syd clapped her hands together. She needed everyone to refocus their attention on her. “Can we discuss what’s important here? Justin is staying to wait for his aunt and uncle. Ava, call security and tell them that we were walking back to campus and found Cassidy unconscious. You can stay with Justin to wait for them. Jax and Khourtney, get her,” Sydney dipped her head dismissively at Ainsley, “back to campus. No one can know about her. This way, none of you are alone.”
“What about you?” Ava asked, a hand on her hip and a petulant pout on her lips.
“I have to do damage control with my mother, unless any of you would like that honor.” No one uttered a word. “That’s what I thought.”
Sydney knew better than to contact her mother, so she’d waited all night for her mother to summon her. Surely her mother had heard about Cassidy by now. Why wasn’t she demanding to know what had happened? Her mother was the hardest person to figure out. Sydney knew she should stop trying, but the innate urge to connect with her mother on some level was too strong.
She’d finally fallen asleep around four a.m., only to jolt awake a few hours later with enough adrenaline to stop a middling’s heart. Sweat soaked her pillow, hair matting against her face and neck. Ava, who was still dead asleep in bed, didn’t stir.
Light peeked through the curtains from outside. Sydney checked the time.
8:19 am.
She saw she had a pair of texts from Justin, so she knew her cell was working fine. It didn’t make sense—after everything that had happened with Langston and Jake, and now Cassidy, her mother hadn’t confronted her. She had to be freaking out. So why hadn’t she called Sydney out for all this? She never missed an opportunity to rub Syd’s nose in anything minor, let alone a mess of this magnitude. Wasn’t this the ammunition her mother needed to send her screw-up of a daughter away once and for all?
It was as though her mother could read her mind—Syd hadn’t felt the invasion inside her head, but it was a possibility—because her window swung open and one of her mother’s ravens flew inside, landing on the edge of her bed.
Fuck.
It called to her, loud and piercing.
Ava finally opened her eyes. “What the hell?” she yelped, seeing the bird not five feet from her head.
“My mother.”
“Can’t she just text you?” Ava grabbed her pillow and pulled it over her face.
The raven squawked again. “Fine,” Syd spat as she put her arm out. The bird landed on her wrist and stared into Sydney’s eyes. Immediately, Syd saw her mother’s dark violet eyes and blood-red scowl inside her mind. Her mother had a cold calmness that made Syd queasy. “Get to the library. Ten minutes. Do not make me wait.” The image evaporated inside her head in an instant.
Now that the long-await
ed summons was here, Syd longed for a reprieve, but she bolted up, spelled herself clean and dressed, and rushed out of her dorm room.
Syd stood outside the Nest library, unsure of what she’d find inside. She pushed the heavy doors open and stepped forward. They closed behind her and a rush of cold air hit her, sending shivers across her body.
She’d expected an interrogation, to see all the Master witches ready to question her about the events of the past few days, the past few weeks even. But her mother sat at her desk alone. This was worse. There would be no witnesses.
Her friends were all questioned by the Elders, and per her insistence, they’d all pleaded ignorance. It was the only way. Taking the blame was the least she could do since it was essentially her fault—hers and Ainsley’s. If the middling had left it alone, as Sydney had insisted, none of this would be happening. Langston would be okay instead of locking himself away, ignoring everyone. She pushed her anger down, not wanting to try explaining that to her mother too. She didn’t need her reverting to her old ways of poking around inside Syd’s thoughts.
Sydney’s mother clasped her hands atop the desk. Her dark crimson nails looked more like dried blood than polish. Who knew, maybe it was.
Her mother wasted no time on niceties. “Who else was involved in the discovery of the room in the forest?”
“No one.”
“You lie.”
Sydney forced her mind to swirl, a proven way to ensure her mother wouldn’t be able to decipher her private thoughts. Her mother couldn’t discover that Ainsley had been there—that a middling knew all the things that Ainsley knew. About magic. About them.
“I’m not lying.”
A fierce jolt of fire spread inside her head. She doubled, her hands flying to her temples. No. She would not succumb. With all her strength, she pushed her mother out.
“You’re getting stronger,” her mother spat and finally let go.
Relief spread through Sydney’s body, the dull ache behind her eyes a welcome change from the stabbing pain. “No one else knows, Mother. I found it that day I went riding.”
“The day you fell into a hole with a middling. You’re trying to tell me that the middling didn’t notice the door. That you didn’t open it and go inside with her.” Her mother stood and crept around the desk toward Sydney.
“I think the door was shrouded against middlings, but once I saw the door, I did an additional shrouding spell just to make sure the middling didn’t see it. Coach came and pulled us out.” She prayed her mother wouldn’t detect her lies. “I went back the next day to see what it was. That’s when I opened it.”
Her mother moved closer, staring with an intensity that sent shivers into Sydney. “Why are you keeping me out if you have nothing to hide?”
Sydney’s throat constricted, her skin suddenly hot and prickling with sweat, despite the chill in the air. “I don’t like relegating control of my mind. Do you?” she snapped, praying it would be enough. If her mother tried again, she didn’t know if she would be strong enough to keep her out. “Please believe me. No one else knew about it.”
Her mother’s fingernail gently traced Sydney’s cheek, trailing down her chin. “I will believe what I see. Now you can allow me in, or I’ll find another way to catch your lies.”
Her mother always kept her promises.
“Mother, it doesn’t have to be this way. You would never do this to Gerald.”
“I would never have to.”
Sydney dropped her arms to her sides, waiting for the burning sensation. She steeled herself, drawing upon every ounce of power she had to replace her true memory with another. She concentrated on building her lie into the picture she wanted in her head while her mother’s magic explored her mind.
Her mother released her mental hold on Sydney. Their eyes met.
Sydney suppressed the urge to inhale a sharp breath, remaining instead as steady as she physically could manage.
“Seems you’re telling the truth for once.” Her mother turned on her heel in a swift motion, her champagne-colored dress a whirl under the golden lights. “You told Máthair Bello you believed the entity to be a shapeshifter. How did you learn this?”
There was no way she could tell her mother about Saskia. She’d want proof of how Syd had garnered such information, which meant endangering Oswald. She refused to do that. She wouldn’t expose him after everything he’d risked helping her. “I don’t know for certain. A fog left the room when I opened the door, and Jeremy said that something resembling a middling named Kai suddenly dropped its form and attacked them as a mist. I’m assuming that whatever it is can take different appearances because I saw two versions of another student named Max in the gym on Samhain.”
Her mother seemed to consider this. “So, you don’t actually know what entity we’re dealing with?”
“No.” She noticed a strange look of relief on her mother’s face. It was slight, but there. Odd. Her instincts lit up in warning, although she couldn’t pin down why. Her mother knew something and was not about to share it with Sydney.
“I want to help in any way I can. Tell me what I can do,” Syd said.
Her mother steepled her fingers. “I think you’ve done enough.”
“What about Cassidy? Is she okay? Did the Elders Persuade the middlings that saw her—”
“The girl will be fine, and of course, we have taken care of it. We were able to manage the situation largely because Justin called for help. He understood the situation was out of his element.” The implication in her tone was obvious: Sydney hadn’t gone for help, and therefore, everything that had happened since was her fault.
Her mother wasn’t wrong.
“You and all the other apprentices will refrain from having anything to do with the shifter entity and remain in the dorms when instructed to do so. These restrictions are for your own safety. I am investigating the matter. It’s none of your concern from this point on.”
“Please, let me prove—”
“You are a child, and this is an adult matter. I don’t want you getting hurt. You will do as I say, for your own protection. And if you don’t want to obey your mother, then you will obey your High Priestess. Is that clear?” Her voice was sharp steel. Sydney wished her mother’s words had even an ounce of warmth to them, then she might believed them.
“I understand.” She would give her mother a couple of weeks to make good on her promises. After that, all bets were off.
Chapter 8
Ainsley
December 9
The weekend and Monday passed, and Ainsley hadn't heard a word from Justin or the others. Were they avoiding her? Ainsley didn’t know Langston well, but she couldn’t stop wondering how he was holding up. He hadn’t been in History yesterday morning, not that she expected him to be. Ainsley might not be a witch, but she could imagine how devastating something like this must be. Was that the reason everyone was MIA? Well, that and Cassidy Jerome’s possession.
Ainsley walked into the still empty classroom. Professor Winslow sat at his desk, working on his laptop.
Butterflies raged a war inside Ainsley’s stomach as she took him in. She hadn’t seen or spoken to him since their weird encounter on campus Friday night. Gooseflesh popped across her arms as she recalled the way his eyes changed and their odd exchange of asking each other, ‘what are you?’ She knew it hadn’t been Winslow, but the nagging feeling wouldn’t leave her until she spoke to him again.
More students entered the classroom, chatting and laughing. There were tons of witnesses now. Her heart thrummed low in her ears, a steady drumbeat reminding her that her adrenaline level was at the brink. Fighting the urge to hide in the back of the room or turn around and leave, Ainsley took a calming breath and headed straight for Professor Winslow. As soon as she did, he stopped what he was doing to address her.
“Ms. Davenport, is there something you need?” His eyebrows knitted together, which complemented his slack mouth. He was obviously not pleased about being int
errupted before class. “Well, on with it,” he said with a wave of his hand, his bare hand.
“Uh, I was just wondering how your walk was the other night?” She sounded like an imbecile. She added a wide smile in the hope that he’d think she was just trying to be friendly.
“I beg your pardon, Ms. Davenport?” He leaned back in his chair and gazed up at her, a quizzical expression on his face.
Heat filled her cheeks, radiating down her neck. “Your walk. Didn’t I see you walking Friday evening on the west campus?” She gazed at him with narrowed eyes, trying to gauge if anything was off about him.
Winslow sat forward in his chair, his protruding belly at the edge of his desk. “You have me mistaken with someone else. I was in my office grading tests the entirety of Friday evening.” He didn’t break eye contact. “Now, if you’ll please find your seat, I have a class to teach.” He did everything but shoo her away.
Ainsley grew lightheaded. He was telling the truth; she could see it in his eyes. His eyes. His normal, blue eyes. There were no yellow or amber or oddly shaped irises. She realized she was leaning forward, gawking at him.
“Ms. Davenport, are you all right?”
Nodding vigorously, she turned and found a seat in the front row.
Her phone vibrated with text after text, and she carefully pulled out her cell, hiding it behind her stacked books to read each one. Hopefully, Winslow would be too engrossed in his lecture to notice it. He had a reputation for swiping cell phones from students who used them during class time. Jax and Ava were messaging her. She was surprised to see them across the classroom, even more surprised they were checking in with her. Sydney sat between them, seemingly disinterested in anything that wasn't on her phone.
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