Which was how I found myself awake in the common area at the ungodly hour of five in the morning on a Saturday, flipping through our Demonology text.
The Samhain Trial had to include an adversary of some type. Demons, fae, or malicious vampires seemed the most natural choice. Since we hadn’t been taught a single class on vampires yet, I was hedging my bets between demons and fae.
Goosebumps crawled up my arm as I took in an illustration of a daeva. While I’d seen many images and conjurings of demons since school started, they still elicited a visceral reaction. They were just plain ugly, and to imagine them inside people, possessing them, always made me want to take a shower.
De Spina introduced us to daevas only days before. While their diminutive size and relatively human characteristics made themslightlymore palatable than other types of demons I’d seen, these little guys were real assholes who thrived on chaos and destruction. They could produce noxious gas from their hands and mouth to force their victim to pass out before possessing them. And after that, things only got worse for the human, as the gases the daeva continually created caused the person to rot from the inside out.
After I finished reading the page on the daeva, I held my breath, knowing that evidence of how a daeva possession affected humans was coming next. I flipped the paper over and sure as hell, a photograph of a decomposing human corpse stared up at me.
My stomach heaved. “Ugh!”
“Some of our books should come with a trigger warning, huh?”
My head shot up to find Amethyst standing before me.
“Hey,” I said with a smile. “You’re up early.”
Amethyst nodded to my books, and a chunk of her purple hair fell out of her topknot. “You’re not the only one feeling the Samhain crunch.”
My lips parted, and I leaned back. Amethyst was tops in Conjuring, and fairly strong in our other classes. Only Alex, Diana, and Hunter consistently beat her outside of Conjuring.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but that’s kinda nice to hear.”
Amethyst smiled and sat down in the gray armchair opposite mine. In her hand she held our Battle Magic book, which was as surprising as her admission. Since we’d arrived in July, we’d only cracked that text once.
Unlike the act of conjuring, which often required an incantation and hence, more studying, the discipline of battle magic ran on emotions. How well the caster manipulated and used their feelings generally determined their strength. Some theorized that this was an advantage, as emotions were always with us, whereas a forgotten incantation could lead to death in battle. Or course, if witches could use both, they had a major advantage.
I wasn’t so sure I believed the emotions theory. I was at the bottom in our Battle Magic class, and it pissed me off, but my frustration didn’t seem to help one bit.
“Have you been reading that?” I gestured to the text.
Amethyst nodded. “On and off. I know Thrax doesn’t believe in teaching by the book, but there’s some interesting stuff in there. Things about harnessing your ancestors’ experiences and using them in battle.”
“That sounds . . . advanced.” Not that what Amethyst said surprised me. She wasn’t the best in our class, but that was partly because her primary interests were in fields of magic that we wouldn’t be taught until later years—like divination, tarot, and scrying. “And cool. If I could access my ancestors’ power, that’d be major.” I thought back to the night Eva had barreled into my room and told me all the amazing things Deliverance Dane had done.
“Yeah, ancestral magic issuperadvanced,” Amethyst admitted. “Most of us need to learn to master our own magic first. We—”
The door to the common area burst open, cutting Amethyst off and making us jump.
Headmistress Wake bustled in. “Ladies! Good to see you up and studying.” The headmistress’ voice boomed, and I winced. After the quiet of the morning, her tone was a little much. “I’m about to announce an impromptu field trip.” The headmistress took in my robe and Amethyst’s flannel pajamas. “What do you say you get changed, and meet me back down here in half an hour?”
An impromptu field trip. My heart thrummed with excitement even as my brain told me this was the worst timing. We hadn’t been outside of Spellcasters since our parents left in July. Four months of consistent study and work had begun to make me batty, but still—our first challenge was less than a week away. If I ever needed to study, now was the time.
“But, Headmistress Wake, we need today to prepare. Samhain is so soon.” Amethyst stood and voiced my exact concerns.
The headmistress, who had been making her way to the staircase, stiffened and turned to face us. Her laser-like gaze bore through Amethyst before she replied, “I’m well aware of Samhain’s date on the calendar, Miss Rhines. However, a spy’s schedule is dictated by their missions,notthe calendar. Do you expect to never be interrupted when performing operations for your country?”
“I guess not,” Amethyst’s voice wavered.
“Good. Because that would be foolish. And if there’s one thing my students cannot be, it’s foolish.” Headmistress Wake turned around and snapped her fingers. “Hurry along and get changed. I’ll rouse the rest of the class.”
Thirty minutes later, the entire first year had congregated in Kyteler Hall, a smaller version of Agnes Sampson Hall that I had yet to see firsthand. After a quick assessment, I deduced that I hadn’t missed much. The room was bare.
“If we’re going on a field trip, why’d they bring us here?” I asked Hunter and Eva. “Won’t we need a bus?”
A few feet away, Diana snorted. I rolled my eyes. If she wanted to answer my question, then great, but I wouldn’t ask her for help. I’d long since learned that Diana Wake was a witch best ignored.
Hunter rubbed his eyes and yawned. “I think they’re gonna warp us there.”
