Hex Crimes

by Dorie, Sarina

  His shoulders sagged in defeat.

  “Why don’t you just undo this with magic?” I asked.

  “That is magic! It’s a potion that I spilled.” His face turned red. “One of the students interrupted me and knocked it over—onto this limited-edition, handwritten spell book. I can’t use magic to fix magic. Only a master can do that. A Merlin-class Celestor. He probably can, but he’ll be livid when he finds out. That’s why I thought. . . .”

  I tried to hand it back to him, but he wouldn’t take it. “Maybe you could send one of the students down with it?”

  “No! I’m not getting students in trouble.”

  I shoved the book at him. Reluctantly, he took it.

  He must have been able to use some magic on it, because I found it on my desk ten minutes later. I felt bad for Pro Ro, and the more I thought about it, the more I considered how handy it would be to have someone owing me a favor for once. There had been so many times in the past that I’d needed someone to divine something for me, and Pro Ro and Vega had refused.

  I took the book with me to lunch. I didn’t want to go down to the dungeon and be alone with Thatch, but sometimes I saw him in the cafeteria when I got down there quick enough. He stood at the teacher table up on the dais, inspecting the spread for lunch with disdain.

  I approached from below. Even with the mob of students to serve as witnesses who came in through the doors under Stonehenge-like archways puked on by avocado-green and mustard-yellow paint, I didn’t want to get any closer.

  “Hey!” I shouted, drawing his eye. “Thatch, think fast.” I threw the book. His eyes grew wide, and he tried to duck. The book clipped him on the shoulder and landed on the dais at his feet. It had been the perfect shot, straight at his chest if he’d only put out his hands.

  “Son of a succubus,” he cursed under his breath. “You throw like a girl.”

  “Thanks. You catch like a chemistry teacher.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Close your mouth.”

  The students giggled.

  “By the way, that book has some damage to it. I hope that isn’t a problem.”

  He stooped and picked it up. As he flipped through it, his face turned red. “What the devil? How did you get your hands on this book? This is higher-level magic, far too advanced for—” His rant ended in a strangled cry. “What in Merlin’s balls did you do to this book?”

  A favor from Pro Ro: practical.

  Rankling Thatch’s nerves and getting back at him for using me and my magic: priceless.

  It felt good to be wicked. Maybe I would try it more often.

  I was on my way to the women’s dorm after dinner when I heard the whispers. For a second I thought it was coming from the painting of an old wizened man in a witch hat on the wall. His lips remained still.

  “Stop worrying so much. It isn’t going to be like last time,” someone said so quietly I could barely make out what she said.

  “No, it might be worse,” a high nasally voice said.

  It sounded like Pinky, our resident sasquatch teacher.

  I tiptoed down the hall toward their voices, wondering who Pinky was talking to. What wasn’t going to be like last time?

  I didn’t see anyone around the corner, but their voices were louder now.

  “Why are you acting like this? No one got hurt at Zeme’s.” Her voice rose. It sounded like Josie.

  “You got hurt,” he said.

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “Then why did you leave midyear due to ‘health reasons’ after ‘the incident?’”

  Pinky used to work at Zeme’s Academy for Plant and Animal Magic, an Amni Plandai school. Josie had worked there during that same period of time. Two years ago I’d asked her why she’d left, and she’d said it had been to come to Womby’s to work with at-risk youth. More recently she had evaded my question.

  The voices came from behind a tapestry on the wall. This was the same secret passage the brownies used to get to the rooms for cleaning and the same passage I’d used multiple times to secretly navigate around the school.

  Josie was my best friend. I didn’t want to eavesdrop on her private conversation. At the same time, she’d never told me this detail of her life.

  Mostly I worried what she might do with her hot temper if Pinky pushed her too far. Pinky was twice her size—or nearly—eight feet compared to her five feet two inches. He had always come across as a gentle teddy bear, but sasquatches were technically Fae, and Fae were unpredictable.

  “What are you going to do?” Josie growled. “Are you going to stir up trouble for me? Try to get me fired?”

  “Of course not! Why would I do that? We’re friends.”

  “Sure, we are. As long as I do whatever you say and give you whatever you want.”

  “I’m not blackmailing you, Jo. I’m not like that.”

  “Then what are you doing?” She shouted it loud enough anyone walking by could have heard. “Why won’t you leave me alone?”

  Pinky hushed her. “Josie, please don’t be mad at me. I just want to talk to you. That’s all. There’s someone I know who can help you with your . . . um . . . medical problem. Will you let me tell him?”

  She’d never told me she had a medical problem.

  “I’ll think about it,” she said.

  Two students walked up the hallway toward me. I shouted out a greeting louder than I needed to. “Hello, Ben O’Sullivan! What trouble did you get yourself into today?” I said it jovially, but he rolled his eyes.

  He and the other boy kept on walking. Josie and Pinky lapsed into silence.

  I considered eavesdropping, but I decided not to. Josie was my friend. I didn’t want to spy on her. Instead I lifted up the edge of the tapestry.

  “Hello,” I called.

  Neither answered. I squinted into the darkness. They were gone.

  Josie had been holding out on me. She had a secret.

  The only way to get to Josie’s tower was by walking through the hallway of male teachers’ dorms. It was a poor design for a school fixated on keeping men and women separate. Josie’s door was locked—a smart idea considering how mischievous some of our students were.

  I knocked. Unsurprisingly, no one answered.

  She’d used a simple password spell to lock her door. When I touched my fingers to the handle, a squeaky voice that sounded like a door creaking open asked, “Terebi o tabemasho ne.”

  Josie had taught me this basically meant, “Let’s eat television, yes?” in Japanese. It was meant as a private joke after finding a tattoo with those words in a tattoo shop. Using nonsensical Japanese was intended to throw off any students who actually could speak the language.

  I uttered the correct response: “Hai, sou desu,” as I’d heard Josie say before.

  She hadn’t made a great show of keeping her magical passcode secret from me, or else I might have felt more guilt about breaking into her room. As I’d suspected, Josie wasn’t in.

  I sat on her bed, gazing at the cozy room around me. The homemade quilt on the bed and the doilies on the table by the window and on her dresser reminded me of my grandma’s house. One of her weavings hung on the wall and a half-finished sweater she had knitted oozed over a bag next to her bed. Her room was cheery and normal with happy colors. I liked her art, and I imagined she wouldn’t be opposed to allowing me to decorate a room we shared with my art.

  She’d once shown me the bathroom and walk-in closet upstairs on an in-between floor that she shared with Jackie Frost, whose dorm room was above hers. Above that was another room, but in such disrepair, it was deemed unusable. There had been a lot of spiders up there, but that hadn’t bothered Josie as much as it did me.

  As I admired Josie’s rag rug she’d woven together, my hip bumped something hard on Josie’s bed. A hardcover book peeked out from the blankets, revealing writing in Japanese. A word was written in Romaji underneath spelled out: Shibari.

  Josie had
shown me one of her knitting books full of Regency-era patterns. Curious, I slid the book out the rest of the way and flipped through it. I was startled to find naked people tied up with ropes. I flipped the page and found a woman tied in a different position. Although a weaver and textile artist might appreciate the knotwork and the skilled photography, finding an S & M book surprised me coming from Josie. I slid the book back under the covers and smoothed the blankets over the book again, feeling guilty.

  The door creaked open, revealing Josie. She jumped when she saw me.

  “Hi, Josie,” I hopped off her bed, trying to smile and act like someone who hadn’t just accidentally found her best friend’s porn.

  “How’d you get in? I thought Thatch said you couldn’t use magic,” Josie said.

  “I didn’t use magic. I used your password.”

  “Oh,” she laughed, a nervous edge to her high voice.

  “Is everything okay?”

  “Of course everything is okay. Why wouldn’t it be? You’re okay. I’m okay. I’ve never been more okay.” She laughed again, an edge of hysteria to her voice.

  I went over and hugged her. She leaned her head on my shoulder and sniffled.

  “I heard Pinky and you talking,” I said.

  She drew back, all color draining from her tan complexion. “You were eavesdropping?”

  “You were shouting at each other. That isn’t eavesdropping. That’s you broadcasting your conversation so students could hear. I tried to get rid of students so no one would know what you were talking about.”

  “Thanks,” she said glumly.

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “No.”

  I could have insisted, but she was my friend. If she wasn’t ready to tell me about her medical condition, I would be patient. And when she did tell me, I would be the understanding and sympathetic friend she needed. That’s what friends were for.

  Someday I might need a patient and understanding friend to tell my secret to.

  “I have an idea about what might cheer you up,” I said.

  She made an attempt at a smile.

  “Let’s talk about how we’re going to decorate our room when we’re roomies!”

  She laughed. “Okay. That will cheer me up.”

  I knew I would have to work on Vega if I was to convince her that switching rooms was in her best interest. The problem was, I had to be clever and try to convince her it was her idea. No easy task considering Vega was as cunning and crafty as witches came.

  Each day I hung out in our room, trying to make conversation with her in the hope of bringing up the topic of how much of a favor it was to her if Josie switched rooms with her.

  “What’s wrong with you? Were you vaccinated with a phonograph needle?” Vega demanded. “You never shut up.”

  Good. Maybe I would annoy her into convincing her to switch rooms with Josie. In hope of driving her crazy, I spread my love and pink glitter everywhere in our room.

  On Friday, I didn’t expect Vega to linger in our room after dinner. As it was, she already wore a beaded and fringed flapper dress when I walked in. She was tall compared to me, and in a short dress she showed off an obscene amount of leg.

  She glanced away from her shoe collection in the bottom of her wardrobe, looking none too pleased to see me. “What are you doing here?”

  “Contrary to your preference, this is my room too.” This was the perfect segue I needed. “So I noticed you’re not fond of having me as a roommate.”

  “That’s an understatement.”

  “You know, I never wanted to torture you by forcing you to share this room with me.” I cleared my throat. “And Josie wasn’t trying to undermine the time you put in before her and take the tower from you.”

  Vega selected a pair of high heels that glittered almost as much as her dress. “Right. Because who doesn’t want a room all to herself.”

  “I think if you asked her nicely, she might be willing to trade rooms with you. She would take this room down here with me, and you could have the tower by yourself.”

  Vega snorted. “No one in her right mind would want to share a room with you.” She crinkled up her nose at me. “And if you had any sense at all in that head of yours, you wouldn’t want to share a room with her.”

  “Sounds perfect. Two freaks who aren’t in their right minds would share a room if you traded.”

  “Josephine Kimura is a freak. She attacked me with spiders, you know.”

  I plastered a smile on my face, fighting the urge to defend Josie. Arguing with Vega wasn’t going to get me what I wanted.

  Vega sat down and buckled the slender straps of her shoes around her ankles. “You don’t believe me? She probably was the one who set off that storm, bringing her impure magic onto the roof. Or maybe she snuck some Elementia up there to play a trick on me, and things got out of hand. In any case, she’s a menace. Stay away from her.”

  “Okay. Thanks for the warning.” I hesitated, uncertain if I should nose my way into Josie’s business. “Do you know anything about her having a medical condition or anything like that?”

  “Only if you’re referring to her being mental.”

  I sat down on my bed across from Vega, considering how I might be able to change my tactic to indebt her to me. “So . . . where are you off to tonight? Are you going to be out late? Curfew is at ten.”

  “Curfew is for you. Not me.”

  She was so entitled it made me laugh.

  Trying to get Vega to swap rooms without owing her wasn’t working. By this point, I was probably at Plan D. Maybe E. It was now time to switch tactics to blackmail. “So you’re saying if someone mentioned to Jeb that you’re out all night, you won’t get in trouble?”

  She whirled on me. “You just don’t know when to keep your mouth shut, do you?”

  “I wasn’t saying I would tell. But someone might.” Okay, so for two seconds I had thought threatening to tell Jeb might be a good idea, but from the murder in her eyes, I suspected she would hex my mouth closed before she allowed me to do that.

  A knock came at the door.

  “Just a minute,” Vega shouted.

  She applied a fresh coat of scarlet lipstick. “How do I look for my date?”

  She was gorgeous and glamorous, as always. Not that I was about to tell her that. “You’re going on a date?”

  “Yes, attractive women do that occasionally.” She looked me up and down as if I wouldn’t know anything about that.

  I thought my striped stockings under my black skirt and my pink blouse was the perfect combination of cute modern witch with Glinda the Good Witch.

  “Are you going dancing? Who are you going out with?” I asked.

  Vega flashed her Cheshire cat smile. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

  It wouldn’t have surprised me if she was going dancing with Thatch. It was one of the few ways he could bribe her into spying on me. I wasn’t jealous.

  The knock came again.

  “In a minute,” Vega shouted, annoyance leaking through her tone. She flashed a cloying smile at me. “Be a dear and get that for me, will you? I imagine my date is here.” She pulled a fur coat out of her wardrobe.

  I trudged over to the doorway, expecting to see Thatch.

  It definitely wasn’t Thatch. I gasped and stepped back.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  You’re Dead to Me

  My jaw dropped. I gaped at Elric, Prince of the Silver Court. He wore an old-fashioned suit that could have belonged to the late Edwardian era or the twenties. His long silver hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and he twirled a flat cap on his finger. The boredom on his face melted away the moment he saw me. His eyes shifted from green to violet.

  A smile as radiant as sunshine lit his face. “Hello, Miss Lawrence. How lovely to see you.”

  As always, he was beautiful, like a Neoclassical painting come to life. An artist couldn’t have painted such perfect c
herub lips or such a chiseled jaw. Staring at him stole my breath away. The air sparkled more intensely around him than Khaba.

  It was just a glamour of magic, I knew. One more way for a predator to draw in prey.

  “How are classes? You must be a week in at least?” His gaze flickered to the green stones of the amulet he had given me, only two glowing brightly with magic since I’d used one wish already. “Have you enough art supplies this year?”

  I finally regained my breath and remembered why I disliked him. “You’re Fae. You aren’t supposed to be here. Mr. Khaba will be furious. Jeb will be furious.”

  He waved me off. “I didn’t sneak in. I was invited.”

  Vega elbowed me to the side as she strode past me. “I’m ready to go to the club, darling.”

  She wore a glittering flapper hat that managed to show off the way her bob haircut curled upward and framed her face.

  “Miss Bloodmire, you are a vision of loveliness!” Elric said in his usual cheerful way. “I hope you don’t mind dinner somewhere else first. I wanted someplace that serves organic. And I found a little place that serves fat-free, vegan, non-GMO food that doesn’t taste like sawdust.”

  “Aren’t you sweet!” Vega touched the tip of his nose with a finger in a show of sickly lovey-doveyness. It had to be an act. She wasn’t this nice to anyone or anything.

  Standing next to Elric, I always felt dainty and petite—which I was. But Vega made him look short next to her long, lean frame.

  “You’re going dancing?” I asked her. “With Elric as your date?”

  Maybe it was a ruse. Elric had used Vega to get into the school before so that he could see me. I watched him warily, wondering if he was about to apologize and beg for me to forgive him.

  A small part of me wanted to forget what he’d done and lose myself in the bliss of my affinity. I also understood that what I’d wanted to be love wasn’t. It was intoxication.

  Vega lifted her nose up into the air. “You aren’t the only one who can get a hot Fae prince around here.”