To no one’s surprise, with a spell this complex, we failed twice. When we were down to what was our last stock of herbs, we sat in silence, staring at each other. “Okay, this isit.” Belle barely looked as if she was breathing, wiping sweat off her forehead. “One last time, learning from all of our mistakes.”
This time she remained quiet because we had the order memorized now. Somehow, this time, desperation etched across our faces,all four of us managed to hit every action, direction, and time frame. As if the moon goddess herself were watching our backs.
When we were done, there was an extended silence, and I was the one wiping sweat as my blood pumped with adrenaline.
“How do we know if it worked?” Haley whispered, as we watched the middle of the pentacle closely.
“We’ll know,” Belle replied, her focus never wavering. “The last step that didn’t happen the last two times will give us thesign.”
A puff of smoke emerged from the center, where the herbs swirled, and with a loud pop that had my frazzled nerves bouncing,the smoke shifted from white to the darkest of grays. As it filled the room, there was no scent or acridity, and when it cleared,all that remained of the multitude of herbs was a thick stem.
In the dim light of the candles, I examined it closer to find a dozen lethal thorns scattered across the length.
Belle reached out hesitantly, grasping a small section without thorns. “You need to stab this into the monster.” She twistedthe stem to show us shades of brown, gray, and silver embedded in the points.
Stabbing meant we had to get close, so it wasn’t the safest option, but it would come in handy if we got pinned.
Using one of the metal stirrers, Belle broke off sections of the long thorns for each of us, sliding them into glass vials so we didn’t accidentally stab ourselves. “We’ll split them,” shesaid. “That way, no matter who is with Paisley, we all can help her.”
“And yourselves,” I added quickly. “Even if the monsters are targeting me, and we don’t know that for sure yet, they are indiscriminatewith who they destroy on the way.”
Belle nodded. “I know.”
Slipping my thorny weapons into my pocket, we all promised not to leave our rooms without them. Last night’s death meant wehad to start taking this seriously.
If I wanted to make it through the rest of this school year alive.
Chapter 23
Our stomachs went on strike after we finished, demanding equal food for work, so we packed up and left the room. In the dininghall, to no one’s surprise, the twins found me not five minutes after I sat.
“Where the Hel have you been, little sister?” Jenna demanded, shuffling my friends along so she could drag a chair in besideme. “I know we saw you last night, but there’s still a monster on the loose. I was worried about you.”
“Sorry, we were in the library all day trying to figure out how someone created that creature on Weatherstone property.”
Her fierce expression eased a touch. “Did you find anything?”
“Nope, it shouldn’t be possible,” I said, trying not to let the darker thoughts creep in. “No affinity can do this withoutusing dark magic.”
“And dark magic leaves traces,” Belle added, listening in.
Alice nodded, taking a seat on the other side of me. “That’s what Dad said when I spoke to him earlier. The professors arein crisis mode, and the school is all but locked down until they figure out what happened. The council should be here tomorrow.”
Weatherstone had no options but to take this seriously; a college of this reputation would do almost anything to protect itself.The death of students was not a good look.
“I’ve missed you, little sis.” Alice hugged me, and I sankinto the familiar warmth of her embrace. Herbs might remind me of home, but my family was home.
“I missed you too,” I mumbled through my emotions, chest tight. “Have you heard from J?” Jensen was away for a month at thebeach, as part of more intense studies he’d taken on for his element. I didn’t like the feeling of him being in another state,and I tried very hard not to think about the end of this year when the twins would graduate.
Alice chuckled, her eyes lighting up. “Dad mentioned that he’s hooked on life under the sea, and we’ll probably never seehim again.”
“Disloyal bastard,” I tried to joke, but it fell flat. As much as it hurt, I would never deny Jensen his chance for happiness.Even if it meant we lost him to a Californian or Floridian coven when he graduated.
“Trev did say he might join us tonight,” Jenna said, pulling her bowl of carbonara pasta closer. “But I would have expectedhim already, so his study group for his Magma Studies class must have run over.”
Magma Studies.The fact that my brother could handle literal magma and not lose a limb would never not be odd to me. Those of us withoutelemental affinities didn’t always understand the ones who walked with the natural elements of the world.
“Are you both free this evening?” I asked, deciding that I wanted to hang with them for a few more hours. “I still need tomeet your familiars. I should have done it months ago, but there’s just been so much going on, and I don’t want to be toobusy to make time for what is really important.”
