Once Upon A Witch: A Dark Academy Reverse Harem Bully Romance (Everafter Academy Book 2)

by Tiegan Clyne

  “Gates to the spiritual Hell, or are these physical places?”

  Lockwood asks, “Can’t they be both?”

  Of course they can. Lucifer took me to Hell last night himself.

  I decide to try out a different topic, but one that obviously feels connected to everything I don’t understand. “Do you know yet who owns or made the altar that you found in the woods?”

  “No. If you’re thinking it’s Esmeralda…”

  “I’m not. It was too amateurish to be hers.”

  “Agreed.”

  “I thought maybe… it was Aaliyah’s.”

  He looks surprised. “Aaliyah’s? Why would you suspect her?”

  “Well…” I can’t exactly tell him that it’s because Aladdin suspects her, so I fumble around and come up with something lame. “I saw her for the first time the other day, and then the next night you take me out to the altar…I mean, she just shows up and the altar shows up on the same day?”

  He’s not buying my bullshit. “The altar was found a week and a half after the arrival of the entire student body for this school year. On the basis of your argument, should I accuse all of you first years because you’re new?”

  “Well… no. It was just a theory.” And a dumb one, I admit. “What do you know about her? She keeps to herself a lot.”

  “It’s not my habit to learn my students’ secrets.” This time, the one not buying the bullshit is me, and I give him a hard look. He chuckles. “All right, it’s not my habit to disclose my students’ secrets, a fact for which you should be grateful.”

  “I thought maybe you’d at least throw me a bone.”

  I almost say, ‘considering what we are,’ but I’m not entirely certain what that might be. Anyway, saying that would probably piss him off. He plucks his quill out of the inkpot. I guess we’re done talking.

  “I would suggest introducing yourself to her,” he says, scribbling something down. “She’ll be joining your elemental control class today.”

  Well, at least that’s something. I stand up. “Thank you, Professor.”

  “You’re welcome, Miss Hemlock. Get to class.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I leave the office, a little excited to meet the mysterious Aaliyah. I really hope she’s who Aladdin thinks she is.

  As I climb down Lockwood’s tower, my excitement turns into frustration the more I think about our exchange. This little breadcrumb trail is becoming harder to track the more information I gain. Sure, I never expected Lockwood to hand me a roadmap to Esmeralda’s new house, but I thought he’d know more than he let on.

  —Aren’t you forgetting something?—

  I smile at Broin’s voice in my head. —A certain raven that I have to leave in a cage in my room?—

  —No,—he chuckles. —But what new skill did you recently ask our Dark Lord to grant you?—

  I stop at the base of the stairs. —Scrying.—I sigh. —I haven’t forgotten. I just don’t know how.—

  —Someone you know extremely well already knows the basics. Perhaps he could teach you.—

  He nudges me through our bond, and I’m feeling more than a little foolish. —You know how to scry?—

  —It is a druidic spell.—

  I should be going to potions class but I go back to my room instead. Broin is perched on my headboard when I come in, keeping an eye on the gate and courtyard.

  —I saw Aaliyah,—he informs me.

  —Lockwood says she’s going to be in my elemental control class starting today.—I look around the room. —The only mirror is the one behind the door.—

  —That’ll do.—

  I wrestle the mirror off its nail and bring it over to my bed, lying it down so the reflective surface catches the sunlight through the window. It’s utterly blinding. Broin flies up and grabs the curtain, pulling it shut. The shadow helps to keep the light from glaring through the whole room and burning holes in the back of my eyes.

  I ask Broin, —Is there an incantation or anything I need to say?—

  —No,—he answers. —It’s a matter of clearing your mind so the images can come through. Just breathe deeply and calm your mind so you can see what His Infernal Power wants you to see.—

  —So Lucifer controls the images?—I think about the things he made me experience during the ball. I haven’t told Broin about that yet but he sees the memory in my head as it plays out. I feel a flutter of dismay from him before he locks it down.

  —Not exactly. He gives you the power to see them. Not the images themselves.—

  I close my eyes and center myself. It’s hard to get the noise in my head to go quiet, but when it finally does, I look into the mirror’s reflective surface. Strange shapes and colors glide across its surface like fast-moving clouds. They make no sense at first and I can’t figure out what they’re trying to tell me. I see Grandma and Redera, laughing and alive, but then I see them hanging from the tree.

  That’s an image that will never stop haunting me.

  I see Lockwood, and I see Broin, then a dark female shape moves past a window bathed in moonlight. Whoever she is, her silhouette is wearing a tall, spiky crown. More images skate over the glass: trees clawing at the night sky, water crashing over rocks, then Sirena is looking down at me from the side of a ship. The scene changes and Alice is running in a tunnel with Jasper in her arms. Gideon and Lockwood are talking in the middle of the forest, the earth around them drenched in blood. A girl in a long blue gown spins blissfully in an empty ballroom. The walls catch fire around her, then I see Lucifer’s bed in Hell, and I’m draped over his sheets with my hands nailed to his posts.

  The mirror shatters into a thousand pieces, spraying broken glass in every possible direction. Some of it hits me in the face and cuts me, but fortunately the shards are small. The biggest piece launches itself toward Broin, but he gets out of its way before it hits him. I’m thankful that ravens are nimble.

  —I’ve never seen a mirror do that before!—he exclaims.

  Shaking, I stand up and brush the shards from my school uniform. —Why would it explode like that?—

  —You came too close to something you weren’t supposed to know. Or you encountered something with so much power that it couldn’t be contained.—He’s guessing, but even when he’s uncertain he knows more on the subject than I do.

  None of it made a damned bit of sense. I grab a notebook and write down what I saw, just in case an answer should come to me later. I treat dreams the same way, because sometimes they’re prophetic. Not the ones I’ve been having recently, of course. Those are just nightmares.

  I look at the alarm clock on my bedside table. That episode of bizarre visions took over an hour. I never even felt the time pass.

  Broin helps me collect the pieces of shattered glass and we dump them into the bin along with the mirror frame. Thankfully there’s another mirror in the bathroom. It’s just not full-length, which is too bad. It’s nice to have one of those so you can evaluate your outfit before you go out.

  I throw the last piece of glass away and look out the window. Down in the courtyard, Aladdin is pushing a wheelbarrow full of leaves toward the gardener’s shed, and he looks like heaven. Even from this high up, I can see that he’s got a black eye and a huge bruise on the corner of his jaw.

  —Looks like Aladdin had a bad day,—I say to Broin. He lands on my shoulder to have a look, too. —I’m going to go talk to him.—

  —If you see Aaliyah, be cautious,—Broin warns, flapping his wings. —I don’t know anything about her. She may be dangerous.—

  I kiss his beak. “I’ll be careful.”

  I find Aladdin dumping leaves into a compost bin.

  “What happened to you? You look like you got into a fight and lost.”

  He looks at me in annoyance through the one eye that isn’t swollen shut. “Let’s just say that wolves don’t really like me that well. Come on into my office.”

  I follow him into his shed, and he sits down on a bag of rock sal
t that’s been brought in to prepare for the snow. He looks horrible. Now that I see him close up, his black eye and bruised jaw are only the beginning of his injuries. He’s got a bandage wrapped around his wrist and the stains where the blood has seeped through are in the shape of a bite. If he hadn’t already been a werewolf, he would surely be turning into one now.

  “I asked them where Rosso Lupa are. You can see their answer,” he sighs, gesturing at his beaten body.

  I wonder what injuries he has that I’m not seeing. “Did they tell you anything at all?”

  “Only that their next hunt would be after the Solstice, in Draoich.”

  After the Solstice. That would allow Broin and me to hunt them after the coven gathering. If we’re both still alive after my trial and punishment, we’ll be able to go looking for them then. We’ll certainly be in the area.

  “Thank you,” I tell Aladdin. “I’m sorry you got hurt. I really am.”

  “So am I.” He shifts on his seat of rock salt, which has to be uncomfortable. “Look, I did this for you. Now you need to talk to Aaliyah and see what she knows about the Genie. Fair is fair.”

  “I totally agree. As it happens, she’s going to be in my elemental control class this afternoon. She’s finally starting classes.”

  He nods. “I hope you get to talk to her, and that she tells you something… anything.”

  “I’ll get what I can. I know I owe you one, and a Hemlock always pays her debts.”

  He just manages to smile, too exhausted to move. I leave him sitting in the shed, splayed out and listless. He really needs to rest. Besides, class is starting soon and I have a princess to interrogate—I mean, ask some questions in a totally non-threatening way.

  I head to the classroom building that faces the great oak. Aurora is sitting under the tree as I pass, her face and eye still puffy. She glares at me as I go by, as do Cinder and Cuntzi. I ignore them all. They’re really not my problem right now.

  The red-winged blackbird soars by overhead, ducking in through an open window in the class building’s upper floor. I race inside to see if I can catch it. There’s no sign of the bird when I get to the top floor, and the open window is in the hallway, not one of the rooms. All of the classrooms are full of students and the teachers who drone on at them. There’s nobody else walking the halls but me.

  Discouraged, I go down to the first floor where my classroom is supposed to be. Erik is sitting there already, writing in a pocket-sized spellbook. He looks up at me and glares.

  “Easy, Petunia,” I say before he throws a tantrum. “I’m not here to bother you. I’m here for class.”

  “That’s what bothers me,” he snaps back.

  “Don’t you ever get tired of your own voice? Because I sure as fuck do.”

  I try to think if I’ve ever seen Erik and that blackbird at the same time. Maybe it’s his familiar and he’s constantly got it spying on me. I wouldn’t put it past him.

  The door to the classroom opens and Aaliyah walks in. It’s the first time I’ve seen her in the flesh. She’s short and her waist is ridiculously tiny, given her curves. Her black hair is lustrous and extremely long, bound in three titanium bands. I’d mistaken them for ribbons when I saw her from my window. She’s also wearing a headscarf with a big opal cabochon right over her forehead, almost a headband but also a lot like a crown. She doesn’t have any books with her. I guess she won’t be taking notes today.

  There’s a scent of dark magic about her. I don’t know if it’s coming from her or something she’s wearing, like the stone on her head. She smiles at me and nods, a twinkle in her dark eyes.

  Erik stares at her like the Storyteller Himself just gave him a present for his very own. “Well, hello there,” he says, putting on a suave and debonair voice. “Who might you be?”

  She looks over her shoulder at him. “Disinterested.”

  Oh, burn! I like this chick already.

  Aaliyah opens a pocket in her jacket and takes out a novel, which she starts to read. Erik tries again. What a fool.

  “What are you reading?”

  She looks at him as if he’s the weirdest bug she’s ever seen. “A book. Haven’t you seen one before? Or do they eat them where you’re from?”

  “Fine,” he snaps. “I’m just trying to be friendly.”

  “I don’t want your friendship,” she states calmly. “And you can keep your attitude to yourself, pretty boy.”

  The door opens again, and Professor Iblis enters holding a huge wooden box. The lid is closed and held in place by a leather strap that fits over an iron loop. A piece of bone has been put through the loop to lock it. Color me intrigued. It looks like something Grandma kept in her bedroom. Something strange and sinister.

  Iblis himself is an odd character. He’s not wearing professor’s robes. Oh, no. He’s in the white garb of a master druid, and his gray hair hangs all the way down to the floor. His beard is braided into two long plaits, each of which reach his knees, and the ends of his moustache are almost as long, the tips slightly curled. He turns his back to us and starts writing on the chalkboard.

  Aurora and Cinder come in. Cinder is wearing gloves and carrying another pair under her arm. They sit beside Erik and take out their books.Through her puffy eye, Aurora studies Aaliyah. “Who are you?”

  She opens her mouth to speak, but Iblis beats her to it. “Princess Aurora, meet Princess Aaliyah. Princess Aaliyah, Princess Aurora. There. Now you’re the best of friends.”

  Aaliyah smiles amiably enough. “Hello.”

  Aurora sniffs. “And what, exactly, are you the princess of?”

  “Princesses normally come from kingdoms, my dear,” Iblis tells her in a condescending voice that makes me smirk. “And Princess Aaliyah is no different. Now… everyone, put your wands on your desks.”

  We put them down in front of us.

  “Now put your hands at your sides.”

  Puzzled, we obey.

  He opens the box, and a low snuffling sound rises from inside it. “I know, Henry,” he says, “but you can’t keep all of it.”

  The professor carries the box around the room, dumping earth by the handful on top of our wands. Cinder stares in horror as her immaculate white wand vanishes beneath a wad of moist, black earth. She instantly pulls the second pair of gloves on over the first. It’s like she’s terrified the germs will reach out and gobble her down in one bite. I’d pay good money to see that. Well, if I had any money.

  When Iblis reaches me, I spot his familiar hiding in the box. The poor little thing is a star-nosed mole and it’s trying to keep him from distributing any more of the dirt. Iblis catches me looking at Henry, and he gives me a wink. Without ceremony, he takes his little familiar and puts him on the desk beside my wand.

  “This is Henry. He is close to the earth element and will be very helpful to you in learning about what it is and how to control it.”

  The rest of the students turn and look at the little creature, which is busily trying to burrow into the dirt on my desk. Cinder covers her mouth with her hands, her cheeks blown as if she’s about to barf. Aaliyah, in comparison, looks charmed.

  Henry stays with me all through the lecture. For the whole hour, we have to leave our wands under the dirt. Iblis says this is “seasoning” the wands for use with the element, which makes sense to me. Cinder is horrified and keeps wanting to clean her wand. I’d mess with her but it would be far too easy.

  The lecture doesn’t really tell me anything I don’t know already. It does, however, convey things from a different perspective. I’ve done gardening before, and Grandma taught Redera and me about the cardinal elements and their uses.

  I will confess that this is the first time I’ve encountered the spirit of earth as a personified force. It was always a vague energy before; now, once Iblis is done with his lecture, I feel like I should introduce myself and offer to shake hands. He makes the earth element seem that real and that personal.

  Class ends when Iblis brings his box
to each of our desks and has Henry kick the dirt back into it. Once Henry reclaims all of the soil, he plunges face first inside and burrows all the way to the bottom of the box. Iblis shuts the lid, slides the bone into place, and walks back out while humming to an unidentifiable song.

  Aaliyah slides out of her seat. Erik tries to stop her, but she gives him a cold glare. I can see a flash of green fire burning in her dark eyes. He backs off, his face now two shades paler, and lets her leave without saying a word.

  That new princess is a Darkblood. I’m sure of it.

  Before I leave the classroom, I spot one of Aaliyah’s hair bands on the floor by her chair. It’s like Lucifer himself wants me to uncover her identity. Well, I know just what to do now and this certainly will help. I stuff the band into my bag and head outside.

  My roommates are waiting for me in the courtyard, holding signs that say ‘Flick Off’ and ‘Flick You’. Jasper, hanging rather cutely over Alice’s forearm, is trying to nibble one of the corners.

  Sirena holds up her sign. “We’re going to watch Erik totally suck at trying out for the Flick team. Wanna come?”

  The offer is tempting. “Actually, I’m hanging out with Broin tonight. Tell Erik to break a leg from me. Or his neck. Preferably his neck.”

  They both laugh, grinning at each other. I watch them cross the courtyard to chat with some of our other classmates. I’ll be honest, I’m a little disappointed about missing this game, but I have something important to do. It’ll probably take me all night, too, so I had better get started.

  I make my way back into the girls’dormitory. Inside my room, Broin is sitting by the window in his human form, his long legs stretched out on my bed. He looks over at me when I enter and pulls his lips into a sexy lopsided grin.

  “Aren’t you going to watch the tryouts with your friends?”

  I give him a sweet smile. “No. I’d rather spend time with my Daddy.”

  He quirks one of his thick eyebrows and drapes his legs over the side of my bed. “What do you want, Little Red?”