Phoebe’s eyes darted to her parents. “To be honest, I’m a little surprised to be back.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but Phoebe cut me off.
“Can you guys hang on? My parents are about to leave.”
We took a handful of steps back to give her privacy, and Phoebe went about saying her goodbyes. A few minutes later, her parents drove away, and Phoebe turned back to us, her face more relaxed than moments before.
“Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to sound so short. It’s just that Dad is scared to death about the curse of our year. We went towarover me returning to Spellcasters. I didn’t want him changing his mind last minute.”
The curse. . . I’d forgotten that many of my classmates still believed that the curse was real. I wished that I could tell them they were safe—that the so-called curse was really more of a prophecy and only applied to Alex and me, but I couldn’t. Telling the truth would mean spilling too many dangerous secrets.
“His concern is understandable,” I said.
“Of course it is, but that doesn’t mean I’ll just accept not being able to follow my dream,” Phoebe said. “Especially since after I convincedhimto let me come back, it took nearly as much debate with the headmistress to make it happen. Like seriously,somuch work. Thankfully, Di vouched me.”
“Did you have to do an internship?” Alex asked, clearly curious about how deep nepotism ran at Spellcasters.
Phoebe nodded. “Kind of.” Her eyes flashed to Eva and me and she bit her lip. I assumed she might know a little of what happened during our internship. “Thanks to Dad’s connections, a Master Poisoner took me on as an apprentice. Not my first choice, I’ll admit, but Headmistress Wake approved it. Beggars can’t be choosers.”
“What about a Beltane Trial?” Hunter asked.
“I have to take my own mini-Beltane Trial within the first week of classes,” Phoebe shrugged. “It sucks because I don’t get a partner, but it’ll be worth it.”
“Sounds like you lucked out,” Eva commented flatly.
“Definitely,” Phoebe replied, and then her eyes lit up. She threw her hand into the air to wave at someone behind us. “Hey girl!”
I turned to find Diana, Headmistress Wake’s daughter and my once-enemy, approaching. With almost unparalleled self-assurance, an aquiline nose, a statuesque frame, and long, blonde hair, Diana always reminded me of a super model walking the catwalk.
As soon as she reached us, Diana pulled Phoebe into a hug. When they broke apart, the headmistress’ daughter faced the rest of us.
“Welcome back. I heard you four experienced an interesting summer internship?”
“That’s one word for it,” I muttered.
Diana arched an eyebrow, her steely blue eyes latched onto me. “Right. Well, Mother is waiting to speak with you and Eva in her office. You can leave your luggage outside the car, and someone will bring it up. It’s all tagged, right?”
We confirmed that it was, and Diana waved for us to follow her. Although I didn’t need an escort to the headmistress’ office, I said nothing. The only other night I’d been there, Diana’s other friend, Tabitha, had been killed. No one wanted to be reminded of that day.
Alex and Hunter trudged behind us, and while Diana shot them a surprised look, she didn’t comment or stop them.
We entered through an ivy-concealed side door near the back of the academy. I’d never seen the doorway before, but wasn’t shocked by its existence. A place like Spellcasters was sure to have many secrets I hadn’t discovered. Some I probably never would.
As we walked down the corridors, a sense of coming home overtook me, and tension that I hadn’t realized I’d been holding in my neck dissipated.
Diana spun around to walk backward and face us. “Notice anything different?”
We were passing the main entryway to the school. Two stairwells, with a black and green banner bearing the Spellcasters prophetess mascot hanging between them, curved and climbed up the three primary levels. The hallways led to upper level classrooms and the towers in which the initiates, second-years, academics, and staff lived during term. My gaze climbed upward to the only other distinguishing factor of the entryway—the enormous, circular, stained glass windows that depicted the four elements.
Even though witches didn’t use elemental magic—that was a fae characteristic—we still revered nature. After all, our power was just modified energy, and that came from nature too, albeit indirectly.
But as far as I could tell, the windows looked the same.
Unable to deduce what Diana was referring to, I shook my head. “I give up. What changed?”
Her hand twirled in the air, and graceful, thin fingers wiggled. “Wards. They added about two dozen since last term. Half of which were put in place after your internship.” She darted a conspiratorial glance left, then right, before locking eyes with me again. “So a fae court is working with the demons, huh? I’m not supposed to know what happened during your internship, but Mother couldn’t help but get overexcited when she told Father. I overheard.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Eva actually discovered it.”
