Chapter One
Afternoon was well underway when my friends and I pulled up to the iron gates of Spellcasters Spy Academy.
Eva gripped my hand as Hunter spoke the password that would allow us entry. “It’s different this time, isn’t it?” Her eyes, the color of cornflowers, never left the cold metal that surrounded the school.
I leaned back, content to wait as Headmistress Wake’s blue magic shimmered and swirled around Hunter’s car. It seeped in through the window cracks and car vents, rippling across my skin and lifting every hair follicle in an effort to validate our worthiness.
“Undoubtedly,” I replied, watching the academy’s prophetess symbol crack in half as the gates opened to allow us entry.
How could it not feel different? So much had changed.
At the start of last year, my peers knew me as the only witch in the last forty years to claim the legacy route into the academy. Not thinking others would see this as entitled and lazy, I waltzed right into school to find that many people resented my choice.
Now I was one of two head junior spymasters for the Grind-year. While everyone would have bet on Alex, my boyfriend, being a shoo-in for the male head junior spymaster slot, I doubted that many believed I would snag the other position. I barely believed it still.
“Are you ladies nervous to meet with Headmistress Wake?” Hunter asked, his bright green eyes latching onto Eva in the rearview mirror.
“Yeah . . . I’m nervous about that. Who knows what the battle-axe will say?” Eva whispered as she peered out the window.
My heart ached for my best friend. While I’d been through a ton of shit last year, she’d undergone her fair share of traumatizing experiences too.
“You two know that Hunter and I will be with you every step of the way, right?” Alex twisted in his seat, his Caribbean blue gaze hard. “I realize the headmistress didn’t ask to see us, but I don’t care. I’m not letting either of you deal with this alone.”
“Ditto,” Hunter said.
For the billionth time since our little group had formed, gratitude overwhelmed me. My three best friends had been my rocks for the last year. As we began our Grind-year—the most difficult level at Spellcasters—I had a feeling I would lean on them even harder in the months to come.
Finally, the cloud of blue magic dissipated, and the gate opened wide enough for us to drive through.
Hunter pressed on the gas. “Took long enough.”
He was right. It had taken a long time for the wards surrounding the school to accept us.Muchlonger than last year. After the events of our Culling-year, I was very grateful that Spellcasters had tightened their security. Not that I truly believed any magic could keep out a royal demon determined to break in, but it still made me feel better.
Needing a moment of introspection before my meeting with Headmistress Wake, I gazed out the window. Dense trees lined the miles of drive. Flashes of blue lake and the gold spires topping Merlin Amphitheater—the birthplace of so many of my nightmares—punctuated the greenery.
When the trees finally broke and the academy appeared, I sucked in a breath, as impressed by the school as the first time I’d laid eyes on it. Spellcasters always reminded me of the perfect mix of a gothic cathedral and a German fairytale castle. With its stone gargoyles, beautiful stained-glass windows, and green-topped towers at the four corners of the estate, it was unlike any place I’d ever seen.
Hunter pulled around to the right side of the main building, where the students who kept cars at the academy parked alongside the staff and visitors. Some of our classmates were in the lot, unpacking suitcases from their cars; among them was a girl I hadn’t expected to see again.
“Holy crap,” I breathed. “Look! It’s Phoebe Pudeator. They let her re-enroll!”
Phoebe’s parents had insisted that she leave school before our Beltane Trial last year. As she hadn’t completed the final trial, everyone assumed she’d been expelled.
“I wonder if Diana had anything to do with that?” Alex mused. “They’ve been best friends since they were young.”
Eva’s lips flattened. She didn’t like Phoebe much. Not only because the girl was rude to me last year, but because Hunter spilled the beans that he’d messed around with her before he met Eva.
I understood how she felt. I’d experienced jealousy after I’d learned that Alex had kissed Diana before we started dating.
I opened the car door and exited. “Let’s go find out what happened.”
“Hey, Phoebe,” I said once I was close enough for her to hear.
Phoebe had been talking to her mom, and when she turned around, shock flitted across her face.
I supposed her reaction was natural. When she’d left the academy, her best friend and I had still regarded each other as enemies. I’d never have approached Phoebe during our Culling-year.
“We’re surprised to see you back,” I continued.
