Three students sat in her classroom, quietly working on homework. Vega’s eyes shot up to her eyebrows with hope. “Are my photographs in yet?”
“Sorry. I expect it will be in a couple more days.”
“Oh.” Her shoulders sagged. “Not that I was excited or anything. I was just wondering.”
“I’ll bring them to you as soon as they arrive. In the meantime. . . .” She would probably say no, and I would have to beg and grovel and threaten to not give her the photos if she didn’t help me. I started with the magic words I knew would soften her. “I need help with a spell, and only a Merlin-class Celestor can assist me.” I handed her the list. “The first part I am having difficulty with is collecting the ingredients.” I glanced at the students quietly working. “The second part is more complex. I can talk to you about that later.” After I figured out what I was going to tell her. I didn’t need to say this spell was for sex. Gertrude had said it was a kind of ward.
Vega’s eyes narrowed as she read the ingredients. “I suppose I could spare you a little time. I have a few of these items in my closet.” She stood and pointed a finger at her students. “Continue to work on your essay on defensive wards.” She snapped her fingers at me to follow.
She led me into a back stairwell that led up a flight to her closet. It was larger than mine and filled with jars of assorted items. It was organized and well-stocked. I couldn’t tear my gaze from a jar full of eyeballs.
“I didn’t know you needed all this stuff for wards,” I said.
“You don’t, not if you do it right, but I’m teaching high school-level morons.” She waved a hand at one wall of shelves. “This is for all the students too unskilled to channel the essence of the properties of the items needed to cast the ward.” She waved a hand at another shelf. “This is to assist those too weak to cast wards without a talisman or some item to increase their affinity—even if only temporarily.” She tapped her foot against the lowest shelf. “This is for all the problems that ensue when students fuck up the wards they were attempting and need medical assistance.” She scanned the shelves and withdrew several bottles and handed them to me.
“Wait a minute. All this time you had things that could make it easier for me to learn how to do wards? How come you never gave me any of these supplies when you’ve tutored me?”
“Such items were unnecessary for your education. You aren’t weak or lazy; you’re just ignorant. Unlike some students I have to put up with, you are capable of learning.”
I smiled at the compliment. I had always thought I had done poorly when she’d tutored me.
“Furthermore, I’m not going to handicap you with a dependence on rare herbs like dragon’s bane or items like hair of unicorn when you perform magic well through hard work . . . and the motivation of pain.” A sinister smile crossed her face.
I backed up, a twinge of fear reminding me of how unpredictable Vega could be.
She unstoppered a bottle and removed what looked like a bay leaf and held it out to me. I hesitated, not knowing if her hint of pain was intended to be a threat. I snatched the leaf from her.
She rolled her eyes. “For Nimue’s sake, don’t be like that. I’m not going to bite.” After a few seconds, a laugh loosened out of her. “I’m not Josephine Kimura.”
“Har har,” I said.
She handed me more bottles. “Take those upstairs to our room and scrub out the cauldron. I want you back here in twenty minutes to carry more ingredients up to our room.” She pushed up her sleeves. “I’m going to have to break into Thatch’s closet in the dungeon to get a few items.”
“Maybe we should just wait until he gets back. He’ll probably let us have whatever it is if we ask.”
“Where would the fun be in asking permission?”
“Stealing wouldn’t be the right thing to do.” It was bad enough I was asking for Vega’s help. If Thatch found that out, he’d go on about her finding out what the spell was for. But she hadn’t asked, which either meant she knew and didn’t care—probably not suspecting I intended to use it with him—or she didn’t know and didn’t care.
Vega nudged me out of her way to collect more ingredients. “Do you want my help or not? Either we do this my way or not at all. This is just the excuse I need to break a few doors down and tell that stingy bastard not to hoard all the unicorn semen to himself.”
“Um. . . . ” I didn’t know how to respond to the unicorn reference since I was the one who had collected it for him.
She reached past a row of jars to collect one that had tipped over in the back. Considering how long her arms were, the back of the shelf had to be pretty far with the way she slid her head sideways to force herself deeper into the shadowy depth of ingredients.
The idea of larceny and vandalism in the dungeon didn’t sit well with me. “Okay, so first, let’s do the right thing and leave a note to let him know we borrowed some supplies. Also, let’s not break any doors down. We can use my key.”
She bonked her head on the shelf. She pulled herself out. “What do you mean ‘a key’?”
I realized my mistake then. “I mean a lockpick kit. I can pick the lock. We don’t need to break any doors down.”
Her eyes narrowed. “No. You said you have a key. Where did you get a key?”
“Miss Periwinkle. It was hers.” I searched for a plausible truth about why I would have her key, grasping onto the first idea that came to me. “I stole it. Don’t tell.”
Vega placed a hand on her heart. “Clarissa, it appears I underestimated you. I’m impressed.”
I collected the items in the dungeon with Vega’s assistance, the entire time worrying Thatch would walk in on us and be furious. I knew how he was about people going through his things. The note on his desk felt like a paltry explanation for breaking into his closet. The entire time my heart thundered, and guilt haunted me.
I was relieved when we finally left the dungeon. Vega sent me to the greenhouse for a few last items while she finished up with the students in her classroom.
I cleared off all the papers and books from the desk and laid out the spoils of my conquests. Vega joined me a few minutes after I’d finished.
“So, here’s the problem with this spell. It requires three people,” I said. “It’s supposed to be complex, and I’m still learning.”
“Fine. You, me, and someone else to make up for your deficiencies.” Her mouth twisted into a smile. “How about Elric? His Fae magic will more than make up for your own. He’ll be here to take me out on a date in a few hours.”
Getting Elric involved would cause all kinds of problems. I was still waiting for her to ask me what the spell was for.
“No! Not Elric.”
“No? How about, you, me, and . . . Felix Thatch?” The way her eyes sparkled with sinister delight made me realize how compliant and easy-going she’d been about me asking her for help with the spell.
I had assumed she had offered to help me because I was helping her. Now I suspected otherwise. She knew something I didn’t.
“Vega,” I said carefully. “It’s thoughtful of you helping me collect the supplies, but I’ll take it over from here.”
“Will you? And who will you ask? You said you need two people. Two powerful Witchkin. Do you intend to ask Josie Kimura with her paltry Amni Plandai magic? Her specialty spells include cleaning, weaving, and trying to eat people. Remember what she did that one time to your face? Now that was an accident!” She cackled.
I was sure if I was as wicked as she was, I would also find this hilarious.
She waggled her eyebrows. “Perhaps Gertrude Periwinkle would be . . . more appropriate.”
If Vega didn’t know what the spell was for, I could ask her to help Thatch and myself to perform the ward without fearing he would lose his position at the school—or his pride. The problem was, I couldn’t tell if that was the case.
“Okay, Vega, what’s the deal?” I asked. “What are you up t
o?”
“Whatever do you mean?” She batted her long dark lashes at me, a mockery of innocence on her face.
“You obviously know something I don’t. Out with it already.”
She lounged across the chair at the desk. “You obviously stole this from Gertrude when you were in her office—along with that key.”
I nodded, not daring to speak. It was safest to let her think that.
“Has it never crossed your mind to ask where this spell came from? This ward?” She rapped on my head with her knuckles. “Hello? Anyone home? Who teaches wards at this school?”
I dodged out of her reach. “Got it. You found this ward for Gertrude. And you probably think it’s hilarious I didn’t know that.”
“I created this ward for Gertrude. That’s what a Merlin-class Celestor does. We know magic so well we can invent our own spells. I’m an artist when it comes to magic.”
Oh boy, now she sounded like Thatch.
“Great. You invented a spell. That means you can probably change it to make it so that two people can work the spell.”
“I could . . . if I wanted to.” She stretched in the chair, catlike and confident. “But you’ve failed to consider something vitally important to this little plan of yours.”
I held my breath, waiting for whatever horrible thing she was about to tell me.
“As I mentioned, I created this spell. I know exactly what it’s for. You intend to use my masterpiece as a magical barrier during sexual activities with . . . a man.” She lifted an eyebrow at that.
I crossed my arms. I seriously wished I had mastered mind control so I could force Vega to be a nice roommate who equally shared all the space in our room—and didn’t try to blackmail me each semester.
“There are two possible partners you could intend to use this spell with. The first is to find a remedy to Elric’s inability to tolerate condoms.” Her eyes narrowed. “Which I might add, is completely idiotic. What you made him go through because of your selfish prudishness was dangerous to him and completely unnecessary. He’s Fae. Any human disease he could possibly contract would have been remedied and cleansed by a healer. You’re more likely to pass something on to him than the other way around.”
I ignored that jab. Perhaps it was better to let her think I wanted to use the spell with Elric. “The condom wasn’t just to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. It was so I wouldn’t accidentally become pregnant.”
“Which would have been an honor if you had. But you didn’t. You broke up with him—a Fae fucking prince. I can only assume you haven’t had a change of heart and told him you wished to get back together with him, or else he would have told me by now, the dear simple-minded creature that he is. The other possibility—”
I pulled out my trump card, hoping to distract her before she mentioned Thatch. “I’m holding your photos for ransom unless you help me with the spell.”
She chuckled. “Not if I intercept them in the mailroom first.”
Blast it! Vega was worse than a Fae. I didn’t know where all this antagonism in her came from. Didn’t her parents love her as a child?
Vega smirked. “I gave Gertrude that spell for a reason. It’s strong enough to withstand the strongest of fires. As it happens, Gertrude Periwinkle confided exactly why she needed it with Professor Fucktard. That means you want it for the same reason she did. You are sleeping with that dull, boring man and thought you could keep it a secret from me.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
With This Next Magic Trick,
She’ll Make Her Problem Completely Disappear
Dread settled over me, weighing me down into the deepest depths of trepidation. Like a grave digger, shoveling dirt over my sealed coffin, each word Vega uttered buried me deeper.
“I can make his life a living hell for everything he’s ever done to me.” She smiled like a Venus flytrap that had swallowed a canary. “I can make your life a living hell.”
Fury that tasted like venom radiated from her in waves. Dwelling underneath her skin she housed enough cold maliciousness to freeze Hawaii. I didn’t want to taste this darkness inside her, but I couldn’t turn off this new power I’d learned.
I edged back.
All the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Vega had sent me poisonous flowers with a note—probably not to kill me—but to frighten me and make me worry. She had spied on Thatch and me when we’d been in his room and tampered with the wards to mess with me. All that time she’d known Felix Thatch and I were together, but she had pretended not to, trying to make me feel guilty or to worry she might find out. She let me think the only time she’d known we’d been together had been when she’d caught us in the dorm after the jorogumo incident.
“You’re my ‘secret enemy’?” I asked.
She snorted. “Not that secret.”
“And that note from the Princess of Lies and Truth? Did you plant that in the book to make me worry?” I didn’t know if she had learned those details about Jeb and used them to her advantage—to make me worry—or she’d made it all up. I hated how Thatch must have suffered reading that note.
She shrugged indifferently. “If a miracle happens within a mile, I would be remiss if I didn’t claim it.”
Rage percolated inside me. “Why would you do this to me? I’ve always tried to be nice to you and be your friend.”
“Because you have everything, and you don’t appreciate it. You don’t deserve it. I do.”
Her words sent chills through me. I didn’t know what she intended to do in order to ensure she got what she thought she deserved.
I fought the rising panic, trying to figure out how to appease her. “Okay, Vega. What do you want? More photos? The beating heart of one of your enemies?” I wouldn’t have put it past her to want mine.
“I want his position as department head. I want a room to myself and the sovereignty to go dancing whenever I please without him telling me I’m not allowed to. I want him to suffer for his indifference to my needs.” She cackled like the Wicked Witch of the West.
I closed my eyes, trying to think of a way to get myself out of this one. It occurred to me if Vega was this evil, she might have been the one I had sensed down in the dungeon, the female presence. I probed her with my mind, trying to sense whether she felt the same. There was definitely enough acidity stewing in there. So much it was hard to see beneath that shield. Now more than ever I was certain she’d been playing me all along, spying on me to scare me and amuse herself.
“What are you doing? Praying?” She laughed again. “That isn’t going to help you.”
Dark mirth filled her body. She might have looked languid, but her muscles were tense, ready to spring at any moment. Satisfaction flavored the air around her, the bitter scent of cyanide mingling with the sweeter fragrance of apples. I couldn’t control her or read her mind, only sense the revenge stemming from a long chain of hurts.
“I’m sorry he was indifferent to you,” I said. “I can only hope Elric treats you better than Felix Thatch did. You deserve someone who loves you.”
“I will have you know, Elric does love me. More than he loved you.” Doubt filled her words.
I sank through that exterior, sensing something deeper. “You should be with someone who loves you.” It was more than doubt that tormented her. I dug into her wound until I found it. “You need someone you can love.”
The pain inside her heart tore open, overwhelming her momentarily with its intensity before she stitched it up again with callousness. “Don’t you dare try that nice act with me. I don’t need your sympathy.”
“No, of course not. You don’t need sympathy. You need love.” I opened my eyes, truly seeing her as she was, not how she wanted others to see her. She wanted to be loved. I didn’t think she wanted Thatch, maybe not even Elric. She was in love with an impossible idea of Dox Woodruff. She wasn’t ever going to be able to love until she let him go.
“Stop looking at me lik
e that. I don’t need anything from you or anyone else.” Vega stood, overturning the chair.
She was so close I could see the flecks of yellow in her dark green eyes, the shadow in her soul so dark it was almost black.
“He haunts you,” I said. “Have you considered letting him go so you can move on?”
“No one is haunting me.” She shoved me away from her.
Her hurt wasn’t like Thatch’s, a void in him where part of his soul was still raw and missing. Vega’s hurt impaled her heart like a dagger, a ghostly spike with Dox’s name on it.
I imagined my astral self. Invisible and unnoticed, I reached inside her and palpated that wound. I had never done this before, but it felt right.
She gasped and clutched at her chest. “What . . . are you . . . doing?”
I heard her words, but they were distant. The rhythm of her heart, a sorrowful beat, out of sequence with her energetic spirit, thudded in my ears.
My fingers closed around the spike in her heart. It was jagged and sharp, like a sliver of broken glass, hardened by years of obsession and failure. I yanked it out and dropped it away from her. The vision faded.
I blinked.
Vega fell to her knees, her face red. Her hand remained on her chest, fingers stiff. I caught her before she fell over.
“Vega?” I asked, pushing her up.
She didn’t answer. I reached out with my mind to see if her heart was beating. I couldn’t tell the difference between my own heartbeat and hers. I placed my palm on her chest.
There definitely wasn’t a heartbeat.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Payback Is a Witch
Secretly, a small part of me had always wanted to kill Vega. I could have made an endless list of times she had threatened me, blackmailed me, glued me to the wall, laughed at my expense, and done a number of other things to make my life miserable. Some of her antics could have gotten me killed—like with the Pit of Horrors—or the time she’d tricked me into using a warming spell to call the Fae when she’d been teaching me a lesson.
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