“Of course, another option is to get the power of a dozen Elder and Master witches to help,” Justin snapped. “Then we could do it tomorrow, and it wouldn’t have three more days to kill anyone or siphon their magic.” Grabbing the bag from Ava, he whipped it over his shoulder and started walking back. “But sure, let’s wait and do it ourselves. Sounds awesome.”
Sydney got his frustration. She felt it too, but his temper tantrums weren’t helping. They were going to have to take the risk.
Ainsley wrapped her arms around herself. “Should I go after him?”
Syd threw her hands up. “I’m not a fan of this self-pity, passive-aggressive bullshit, but there’s still a shifter out here, so yeah, run after him. Jax will go with you.” She narrowed her gaze on Jax. “Don’t let him do anything stupid.”
December 10
Sydney was on her fifth coffee by the time Ashcroft classes finished for the day. She hadn’t slept at all and would’ve loved nothing more than to climb under her covers and hibernate. Hide would be more accurate. But they had coven classes soon, and she needed to keep up appearances. Nothing could seem out of the ordinary.
While her mother was on campus meeting with Headmistress Chambers about God knows what, it was the perfect time to pay her mother’s secret grimoires a visit. Sydney had stumbled upon them a little over a year ago. She didn’t think her mother knew she’d found them. Sydney knew at the time that she’d need them one day; she just didn’t expect that day to be today.
Syd taxied to her mother’s house, paying with cash, and unlocked the front door.
“Hello, Mrs. Lockwood, is that you?” Hilda, her mother’s housekeeper, came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a dishcloth, a beaming smile on her face to see the daughter instead. “Sydney, how nice to see you! I’m afraid your mother’s not here.”
“I know, I’m here to see Dad.”
Hilda nodded, her soft eyes sparkled. “He’ll love that.”
Sydney’s heart squeezed. Hilda had been more of a mother to Sydney growing up than Andrea. “Would you not mention I was here? You know Mother doesn’t like me being here—in my own home—when she’s out.” She gave Hilda a knowing look.
Hilda winked before humming her way back to the kitchen.
Sydney flew up the stairs and into her father’s room. The horrid beeping of the machines greeted her. She pulled the chair closer so she could sit and grasp his hand. “Hi, Daddy.” She bent forward to kiss him on the cheek. His skin was dry, and a few days’ stubble brushed against her lips. Grabbing the lotion next to his bed, she emptied a little in her palm before massaging it into his hand. “I know you hate to have dry, cracked skin. It’s always worse in the winter, isn’t it?” She rubbed the lotion into his cool skin. “Well, Daddy, I’ve gotten myself into a huge mess. Want to hear about it?” she asked in the voice she reserved for sharing secrets with him. She proceeded to tell him everything, from finding the room to conjuring Saskia, even how she’d involved a middling who seemed almost entirely resistant to magic. “It’s the strangest thing. Sometimes a spell will work a little, but usually nothing. I can’t figure her out. I wish you could tell me if you’d ever heard of a middling like that.”
Sydney sat for a few more minutes with him, moving his legs and arms for circulation and telling him the newest Ashcroft gossip. The soft hum of the machines became almost relaxing. Usually, she hated them, but right now, they were almost hypnotic. Maybe it was the exhaustion.
She placed his hand gently on the bed. “I better go. Mother could be home anytime.” Her breath hitched when his eyelids rapidly fluttered before calming again seconds later. He did that now and then. She was positive that it meant he could hear her but had no other way to tell her that he was still in there somewhere. “I know Daddy. I’ll be back soon.” She kissed his cheek and left.
Sydney tiptoed, not wanting Hilda to know she was sneaking into the library. A visit to her dad was once thing, but Hilda wouldn’t condone her snooping through her mother’s belongings.
Sliding the French doors open, she slipped inside, closing them just as quietly. There was a large, ornate fireplace, a huge picture window that overlooked the back garden, a deep purple sofa, and her mother’s antique desk. Accent lighting highlighted the books lining the walls beautifully in dim, soft light. She loved this space and hated that it was her mother’s.
Approaching the large, mahogany desk, she felt her palms slick. It hadn’t escaped her mind that her mother may have the room enchanted, with one false move alerting her to a trespasser.
She reached into her pocket and retrieved a small sparkly vial, then she emptied a small handful onto her palm and tossed the bits on top of the desk. The shimmering specks remained clear before disappearing, which frankly surprised her. Had there been an enchantment, the lavender shimmer would have turned dark green or gray, depending on the spell. She was dumbfounded. There was no way it could be this easy; her mother was not a trusting woman.
Getting the drawers open would be tricky. The copper keyhole was visible, but it required an old skeleton key, which her mother kept on a gold chain around her neck at all times. It would be easy to break into if you didn’t care about damaging it, but her mother couldn’t know anyone had gone through her things.
Since her mother had likely rigged it with a curse, Sydney had had Ava perform a protection spell on her before coming over. One she prayed her mother hadn’t anticipated and, therefore, countered in hers.
Sydney drew in a deep breath. Her hands were shaking, but she ignored them and placed her fingertips over the keyhole. She recited the words to a revelation spell and waited to see if her mother had magically booby-trapped the drawer. A low, humming vibration sounded around her and then quieted altogether. Nothing was appearing. Her mother hadn’t enchanted anything.
Syd was in shock. Was this a test? Was her mother so arrogant that she didn’t consider it possible that another witch would dare cross her? Syd knew her mother had magically warded the house against anyone outside of their immediate family, so maybe she felt confident enough to leave it unprotected. As much as she drove home Sydney’s untrustworthiness, it was a shock to learn that she hadn’t considered Sydney a threat. There was only one way to know for sure. Sydney placed her hand over the drawer and recited an unfastening spell. The drawer popped open with a soft click.
A small gasp escaped Sydney. She'd prayed it would open, but she hadn’t actually expected it the spell to work. The urge to reach right into the drawer was strong, but she still needed to be careful—precise. She needed to note the location of every single object if she was to put them back exactly. Her mother was particular about her belongings on a bad day. She would notice if a single thing were out of place. She pulled her phone from her pocket and took a picture of the open drawer so she could document it. She couldn’t risk getting it wrong.
The first thing that caught her eye was a small stack of papers bound with leather string. She pulled it out, untied the knot, and thoroughly examined each paper—contracts of some kind. A few had names she didn’t recognize, maybe witches from other covens. Tying them back up, she put the stack on the desk.
Sydney noticed a small black-leather spell-book. She’d never seen it before. She squeezed the soft leather and opened it, in no way expecting what she found. Her fingers couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. Her mother had filled it with forbidden invocations, covering all areas of magic.
Sydney buzzed with delight. “What have you been up to, Mother?” she whispered to herself. “Very naughty.”
Syd took at least twenty pictures of the pages, capturing the ingredients, conditions, and incantations for many of the spells. She’d go over them later. For now, she had the one they needed.
The clock on her mother’s desk told her that she had forty-five minutes to get into her robes and stand ready for class. Her body thrummed with excitement and relief. She placed the spell-book back into its previous spot next to the stack of contracts, comparing
the drawer to her photo. It looked perfect. She closed it and used a spell to re-lock the drawer before sneaking out of the house.
She saw her friends huddled together in the Main Hall, deep in discussion.
“What are you guys talking about?” she asked, pushing her way into the huddle.
Justin leaned in further and lowered his voice even more; Syd halved the distance.
“How to lure the shifter back to the underground room.”
“What do you have? I’ll select the best one.” She winked and pulled a small table close, sitting on top of it with her head propped up on one knee.
Jax waved her presumption off at first, but then divulged the plan. “We’re going to use one of us as bait, draw it out, and attack it.” Only one of his eyebrows moved, the rest of his face like stone—as if he didn’t want to project any doubt or fear. Sydney could read him better than that.
“Okay, and how do we ensure it falls for the bait? It could be anywhere on campus, possibly attacking another witch and increasing its power. Why would it be drawn to our bait-witch when thirty-four other vulnerable apprentices are walking around—not to mention the rest of the coven? We need something concrete.”
Were they really this stupid? Did she have to think of everything herself?
Ava gave her a disbelieving look. “Why don’t you just yell our plan?” she said through gritted teeth. “I don’t think Daniel and Penelope heard you all the way across the room.”
She gave Ava a death stare in return. “Seriously, tell me how you’re planning to pull this off.” She slid off the table to reach around Jax, feeling inside her cubby for her emerald robes. She slipped them on over her clothes, the only one not yet ready. “We have to do this where middlings aren’t around, or we risk injuring them in an all-out battle, not to mention exposing us. The shifter has magic now. It can turn into a fricking mist and, literally, slip through our fingers if we aren’t perfectly accurate with our attack—assuming we’re strong enough, that is.”
“Wow, great pep talk!” Khourtney said, covering her face with her hands.
Sydney checked her watch. “We have five minutes before Máthair McKellen and Athair Choi call class to order, so do you want to know why I’m late?”
Everyone groaned. Langston nudged her in the shoulder. “No games, Syd. Did you find something or not?”
She knew she was smiling smugly, but she didn’t care. She’d earned this one. “I have a way to stop it. I found a spell that can enchant an object—an object that we can use to bind and house the shifter. It has to be in mist form to work, but it’s the best way.”
Khourtney’s eyebrows knitted together. “You heard Saskia. She said we need it in human form. It’s too dangerous otherwise.”
“I remember what she said, but think about it. If we have a portable object, we can trap it wherever it is. There’s no way it’ll let us lure it anywhere near the underground room.” The expressions staring back at her ran the gamut from shock to relief to worry. She recognized the anxiety on Langston’s face immediately. It had become his standard look as of late, and it weighed on her.
“Oh my God, this could really work,” Justin whispered before leaning against the wall. His gaze distant as though he were picturing the entirety of how the plan would go down.
Jax beamed. “That’s great, but how do we get it into mist form?”
Surprisingly, Ava came forward with the plan, her face full of hope. “We blast it until it drops its disguise. The human form has a lot of surface area to connect with. If the thing has any brains, it’ll lose the body and resort to mist. Then we can trap it.”
“That’s brilliant.” Jax clapped Ava and Sydney on the back. “Well done, you two!”
Sydney put her finger over her lips, and they all quieted. “And there’s a way we can lure it to us without using any of us as bait.”
“Gather round everyone,” Athair Choi announced from the front of the Main Hall. “We need to move through roll call as fast as possible. We have a lot to cover.” He clapped his hands together impatiently as if they were kindergarteners.
Sydney deflated, longing for the days when she wouldn’t be at anyone else’s whims. Her friends groaned but moved toward the front of the Hall to stand before the fireplace. Embers floated up, swirling in the air and landing on the brick floor. Syd stared at the hypnotic flames, allowing them to calm her scattered mind and ragged body.
Once the apprentices were gathered and roll call was complete, they headed to one of the East Wing classrooms. Sydney and her friends lagged behind for a few minutes.
Jax checked the doorway to make sure everyone else had gone ahead. “How?”
They watched her eagerly. Although they were alone, she still leaned in and whispered, “A witch’s magic is tied to her body. We know this. And after death, that connection remains. You can use a witch’s bones to summon or resurrect the magic they performed—if you have the exact spell they used.” She smiled even wider. “Saskia used magic to bind the shifter. And we have the exact spells and runes she used to do it.”
Jax grabbed her excitedly by the shoulders and met her gaze. She could see in his eyes that he understood everything. “And we know her burial site. If we dig up her bones and use them with a summoning spell, the shifter will have no choice but to come to us, since Saskia tied its energy to herself through the magic she used binding it.” His face lit up in a way she hadn’t seen in months. “Have I told you that you’re brilliant?” He was giddy and kissed her on the cheek.
She laughed deeply, the first in a long time. But she noticed that Khourtney still seemed worried. “What is it, Khourt?”
“I still think we should wait for the solstice. Your plan is great, and using an object like that is truly amazing, but it’ll only work if we can overpower the shifter. Saskia said we need to harness the energy of a major celestial event.”
“Well, we can’t wait that long,” Syd said with finality in her voice. There’s a full moon in two days. We’ll do it then.”
“Will that be strong enough?” Justin asked Khourtney, rubbing his temples with his index fingers as he asked.
“I don’t know. It’s hard to say—”
“It will be more than enough,” Sydney said, cutting Khourtney off. She didn’t need anyone breeding negativity or doubt. “We outnumber it, and it’s still trying to regain its power from all those years of desiccation. We can beat it. We will beat it.”
Ava exhaled sharply and put her hands on her knees. “Finally, a win.” She glanced up at Sydney. “Nice work, Syd. You might’ve just saved our asses.” She put up a palm for a high five.
“We only have two days to get everything ready before the moon is full,” Sydney said. “Everyone needs to be all in. We can’t afford any mistakes. Got it?” She looked to each of them and saw their determination.
Langston caught her eye and mouthed that he loved her.
She nodded and winked before they headed off to the classroom, knowing she didn’t deserve him.
Chapter 14
Ainsley
December 12
Ainsley fought the urge to tuck her cell under her mattress and pretend it didn’t exist. Instead, she checked the screen every twenty seconds for missed texts. Tonight was the full moon—their celestial event. She could barely sit still.
Her hand vibrated, making her jump.
Ainsley slid the text from Sydney open.
Meet us at the west woods bridle path at 9:30 sharp. We need you there in case something goes wrong. You’ll need to let our families know. Since the shifter isn’t after middlings, you should be fine.
Ainsley’s fingers clenched the phone as her head swam for comprehension. Should be fine?
Sydney couldn’t know how fine any of them would or would not be. It could kill Ainsley right along with the rest of them. Her heart went from a steady beat to feeling like she’d just won the five-hundred-meter dash. She was exhausted, having barely recovered for their all-night jaunt in
the woods two days ago. How was she going to get through this?
Yes, she wanted to help, but she had no magic, no powers, nothing beyond good-will and chutzpa. What could she do?
She bolted up, figuring she could worry on the way. The walk across campus to the woods—alone, she noted—would take her fifteen minutes, and she needed to get changed. She wondered if she should pack a weapon of some kind? She shook her head at herself. Idiot. As if a knife could do a damn thing to a mist.
Rummaging through her drawers, she piled on several layers, and then her jacket, hat, scarf, and boots. She pocketed her cell and darted toward the door, so she wouldn’t be late.
As she swung it open, she ran full-tilt into Harper and Helen, both of whom gasped at nearly being bowled over. When had they become friends?
Helen put her hand to her chest. “Oh my God, Ains, you scared the shit out of me.”
Harper laughed and dropped her bag inside the door. “We thought you might want to join us for a quick study session since the calculus exam is tomorrow, but you’re obviously on your way out.” Her disappointment and disapproval were evident.
“And you look like you’re in quite the hurry. What’s so enticing?” Helen smiled wickedly, widening her eyes like Ainsley was on her way to a strip club. “I bet it has something to do with Justin. You’ve been spending a lot of time with him lately. We were just saying how we barely see you anymore.” She batted her eyelashes innocently but got her judgment across.
It was clear they were both annoyed, even pissed, that she’d been MIA. If they only knew why. Ainsley forced a weak smile. She was already on the verge of puking from nerves. Calculus used to make her feel that way, but now she’d give almost anything to stay in and study. “You caught me. Since the library hours and curfew are extended this week for finals, Justin promised to help me study, but thanks anyway!”
Wilde Abandon (Ashcroft Academy Book 3) Page 11