“My wife is the one hunting the witches who shot Lord Scylla and created the rift, so… yes, I know,” Ellie hedged.
“That’s theonlyreason you know?” Dan asked. “No other stray details that might cross your mind?”
“Obviously, you think you know something about me.” Ellie crossed her arms. “Spit it out.”
“I met you in Ligonier,” Dan blurted. “I know your magic is intense. You were scary when we met. I’m really sorry for my part in everything, but it was either help the bad guys or be forced to give up my magic.”
Ellie paused, staring at the three of them. “We met before I was a witch?”
“No.”
“No,” a second voice answered as the headmaster appeared with a hob on his shoulder, teleporting into the classroom like an angry bull. “Shut your gob, Monahan. Not a word more. Are youtryingto get called before Congress?”
Ellie opened her mouth to reply but then realized he was talking to Maggie.
“Now, Sondre…” Maggie put her hand flat on his chest. “We just ran into a classmate in the passageways. No one nearby. No one—”
“Woman, there are ears everywhere.” The headmaster ran his hand over his face as if to wipe away worry. “And you two. Go on. Anywhere but here.” He glanced at Ellie, softened his tone, and said, “Prospero risked everything for you. I don’t like her, but… seriously? Stay away from my wife.”
Then he disappeared with Maggie.
“I don’t want to get deported,” Axell said. “We should go, too. Until next time.”
“Deported?” Ellie echoed.
Axell paused. “Some witches can be sent back there. Siphoned and disposed. Others…” He glanced pointedly at her and then at Dan. “Others are too special to send away, even if theywant togo.”
“Do you want to go back?”
Axell shook his head.
Dan gave her a sad smile. “No. I’d do just about anything to stay. Going back would be a death sentence for me. Cancer. In and out of remission.”
“You know what I forgot,” Ellie said baldly. They had obviously been trying to suss out what she knew before Maggie was snatched away.
“Parts of it. Maggie knowsmostof it,” Axell said in a very quiet voice.
The next group of students started filing into the room, darting awkward looks at her, and Ellie decided that she was going to go wherever Dan and Axell were headed to get answers, but in the moment she’d looked away, they were gone.
That leaves Prospero or the chief witch.…
Ellie looked for the two men as she left the classroom and wound her way through the halls. Wherever they’d vanished, they’d gone quickly. She marched to the exit and out the front doors, only to be stopped just outside the castle by a young woman who looked about as threatening as a daisy.
“If you don’t go with her, she’s going to get hurt,” the woman said in lieu of greeting.
“And I should trust you why? Who are you? Who will get hurt? Less riddles, more facts.” Ellie stared at her. “Do I know you?”
“No, but I know you, Elleanor Zelena Brandeau. I foretold your arrival and—”
“Got it. Prophecy.” Ellie held a hand up in a “halt” gesture. “We make our own destinies in the world.”
“So you’ll risk the woman you love?”
“DoI love her?” Ellie countered. “Apparently, she erased my memory.”
“You have to save her.” The stranger offered a beatific smile that mostly just pissed Ellie off. “Or we’re all doomed.”
“From what?”
