by Leigh Kelsey
If it was true, how had she missed it?
If it was a lie, how could she keep defending him when doubts had started to creep in?
She growled in the back of her throat, finishing off her apple and throwing it in a bin outside the dining hall as she passed. She was sure her phone would be vibrating like mad if she hadn’t turned it off and shoved it deep into her bag. Her mum forbade her to stay. Kati refused to leave. They were at an impasse.
Kati had a moonstone and rose gold key; she could find the academy and enter the grounds. Her mum could not. She couldn’t even march up to the school and drag Kati out herself, as Kati had no doubt she wanted to do. Deep down, she knew why. She knew her mum and dad were scared they’d lose her like they’d lost Theo, but why couldn’t they understand that she felt safer here?
Even with a murderer on the loose, she felt safer inside SBA’s walls. She had Rahmi and Naia. She had Mr Worth and Madam Hawkness, both of whom were on her side. She had hundred year old charms and spells to keep the Skull and Cross Bones journalists out. And she knew more spells now than she’d ever known in her life, some of them defensive.
She wasn’t leaving. No fucking way.
If the gentry assigned to watch Kati followed her to the library, she didn’t see or sense them.
Veesa the head librarian glanced up from her desk in the middle of the library and smiled as Kati shut the door behind herself; after a stunned moment, Kati nodded in response and made her way over to her. If anyone knew where to start with investigating the T.O.A., it was her. Not that Kati was about to tell her what she was looking for.
“Hi,” Kati said, stopping in front of the circular wooden desk. “Is there such a thing as the Yellow Pages for supernaturals?”
“Hmm.” Veesa tapped her lush bottom lip with a gem-covered pen. Kati hadn’t been able to see the woman the first time she’d come to the library, with students filling up its stone walls, crammed between the ebony bookcases and blocking the librarian’s desk from view, reducing her to just a gold-brown arm wafting her timetable at her, but now Kati blinked at Veesa. She wasn’t a typical librarian. Kati had basically been picturing Evie from The Mummy, but Veesa was a large woman with a pretty face, unusual coral eyes, and wildly curling copper hair. Her wardrobe consisted of dozens of shades of pink. “Encyclopedias?”
“Right,” Kati said, but she doubted an encyclopedia would help her. Still, it was somewhere to start, and it was better than going to the dining hall for breakfast. “Where do I find them?”
Veesa spun her desk chair to face a back corner of the library Kati hadn’t been in before. It was brighter than the rest of the dim room by virtue of being under a large stained-glass window, and most of the books shelved there were boring aged green or brown, nothing like the bright jewel tones of some of the other books, or sinister like those bound in human skin. Kati shuddered, praying the books she needed were bound in simple leather. Not that cow skin was much more appealing than necromancer skin when she really thought about it.
“Over there, that shelf right by the window, third row down.”
“Thanks,” Kati said, already heading in that direction.
“Ooh, wait a sec!” Veesa said in an urgent shout that didn’t really rise beyond a polite volume. It was muffled, as if she was scared to break the silence in the library rule everyone seemed to adhere to. “Here.”
Kati turned and watched as Veesa’s copper head disappeared under the desk, popping up again with a book held in the air. It was cloth bound—thank souls—and a deep, mystic purple colour that Kati associated with psychic readings and fortune tellers. The occult eye on the cover added to the general mystique.
“This is for you,” Veesa said with a smile, waving it in Kati’s direction.
“Um.” Kati took the book, glancing for a title but finding none on its binding. On the inside it said simply SECOND BREATH ACADEMY. “Thanks?”
Veesa nodded, her coral eyes bright. “The library wants you to have that book. You’ll need it, sooner or later. The library always knows.”
“Because that’s not creepy at all…” Kati murmured, giving the book in her hand a wary look.
Veesa laughed. “It’s magic, Katriona, pure and simple.”
“Kati,” she corrected automatically. “And thanks. I’ll … read this, I guess.”
Veesa nodded, still smiling. “Encyclopedias, that way,” she reiterated, then plopped back into her seat and spun around her circular desk.
With a shrug, Kati took the little book with her to a table in the back and found a chunky encyclopedia, flipping to T for T.O.A.
THE OLD ACADEMY’S GUIDE TO ELITISM
The next two weeks were hell. Kati found absolutely nothing to explain what T.O.A. meant, she continued to be singled out in necromancy by Mrs Hale, made to feel unwelcome by the rest of the student body, and had to endure extra classes from Mrs Grant, the spells teacher who somehow thought the sun shone out of Kati’s ass thanks to her magical aptitude. The latter was almost worse than all the formers put together.
“Excellent, Kati!” Mrs Grant praised, her wrinkled, horsey face split with a grin as Kati, once again, effortlessly mastered a defensive spell. She was on her eighth, each one more advanced than the next, and although it took her longer each time to get the hang of it, the second she understood how the wand gesture worked, or the right tone of voice to use in her command, the magic came easily.
Incantations, she suspected, would be harder, but so far she was casting spells like she’d been a master in a previous life. It was muscle memory, something she barely had to concentrate on.
Mrs Grant neared, scrutinising Kati’s hold on her wand and the stream of purple magic emitting from it, a miasma of talc and perfume filling Kati’s senses as the teacher’s ankle-length floral print dress swished. “That’s it, keep hold of the shield, focus more energy into it if you can.”
The shield attached to Kati’s raised arm, connected to her wand by a narrow ribbon of magic, was circular and as strong as bronze, but as a lightweight as a feather and made of the same violet power that emerged from Kati every time she cast a spell. Anyone who came close to her would feel an electric-like crackle that promised to fry them, and if she practised, Kati could even use the shield as a bludgeon according to Mrs Grant.
The aging teacher clapped her hands together as Kati fuelled more power into the shield, the wand in her right hand smeared with her blood. “Wonderful. You can release it now. Try and practise holding it for longer periods if you can. Tomorrow we’ll work on expanding the shock radius.”
Kati let go of the shield, panting from the exertion of holding onto the magic. Even so, she knew the spell would come instantly if she tried to cast it again. One day she’d work up the courage to ask if it was normal, casting spells this easily, but tonight she was knackered and just wanted to go back to her dorm for a shower, via the dining room to acquire a giant meal. She’d started braving the dining hall again after Rahmi gave a rousing speech about her absence making her look guilty and Kati having nothing to be ashamed of.
At this point she’d become practised in giving the finger whenever someone said something to her in the corridors, but the whispers behind her back were starting to get to her. As were the teachers clearly trying to overcompensate for the school being against her, asking her to stay behind after class to ask how she was doing, assuring her she could speak to them if she needed to. The only one she took up on that offer was Mr Worth, and not because he was nice to look at—because he knew exactly the cocktail of rage, hurt, and helplessness Kati was dealing with.
Not that her crush had gone anywhere. If anything, it had developed. Given the chance, she’d jump at the opportunity to make out with him on his desk. It was made worse by the fact that he wasn’t just cute, and nice, and kind, but secretly funny and a good listener and dealing with the same shit she was. It was nice to be understood, to have him look at her and see her, not just a maybe-murderer.
“
I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Rahmi was saying in the living room as Kati pushed open the door to their dorm. “Kati has enough to deal with without…” She trailed off, spying Kati as she slammed the door behind her, green eyes narrowed. Rahmi sighed, throwing up her hands. “Fine, tell her.”
“Yes,” Kati agreed, rounding on Naia who sat cross-legged on the floor next to the coffee table, surrounded by books. “Tell me.”
Naia glanced up, her glasses askew on her nose and her face set in an expression of reluctance. Frazzled curls had broken free from her braid and her uniform skirt was rumpled, as if she’d been sitting in that position for a long time. Sticky notes, bookmarks, notebooks, and highlighters were all strewn around her. It wasn’t an unfamiliar sight; Naia approached studying with the same level of meticulousness as commanders planned military strategy, but maybe with more highlighters. “I found something,” she said, worrying her bottom lip. “Maybe. I don’t know, it could be nothing.”
Kati dropped her bag onto the floor, picking a way across the carpet to the deep emerald armchair opposite Naia. “Something about what?” Rahmi and Naia exchanged a glance and Kati sighed. “Look, I’m knackered, I don’t have the energy for whatever secret you’re keeping. Just tell me.”
“It’s about the T.O.A.,” Naia burst out, her eyes bordering frantic. “I found two things it could stand for. One of them is good, one of them…”
“Death and misery, got it,” Kati mumbled, propping her feet up on the coffee table next to a stack of spell books and a vial of deadly nightshade dilution. “Tell me about the first.”
Naia rummaged around the books and notes around her, coming up with a large book with a luminous gemstone on the cover. “Right, so I knew T.O.A. sounded familiar when you told me about it, but I just couldn’t remember where I’d heard it. And then I found this book in the library while I was looking for research on the Middle Wars for history.”
Kati groaned. She’d yet to do that essay, and even though Lavellian, the flamboyant Edwardian-era ghost who taught them supernatural history, seemed laid back, she didn’t want to draw any more attention to herself by earning a detention. Not that they did detention at SBA—no, the students were too mature for that. Instead, they were given community-service-like punishments, helping the caretaker or cleaners with menial tasks as penance. Kati had enough to deal with, especially with extra spells tutoring, let alone adding a punishment to her crazy schedule.
“Twenty-four years ago,” Naia told Kati, a storytelling tone entering her voice, “at the same time Lady LaVoire was gathering her Black Brooms, the gentry began recruiting regular people for minor missions, supply deliveries, emergency evacuations, message running, things like that. It was effective because anyone and everyone could have been a member of the Opal Army, the gentry’s secret taskforce—Lady LaVoire’s followers had no way of knowing who was a regular citizen and who was a spy in plain sight.
“Of course, they killed people indiscriminately just in case they turned out to be an Opal, but they didn’t destroy the Opal Army. It was their members who found out where the Black Brooms met for their assignments, and it was thanks to them that the gentry—and Madam Hawkness—finally took down Lady LaVoire.”
Kati chewed her lip, digesting the story. “So the theory is … what? My brother’s part of an anti-Black-Brooms army? Then why go on the run, and why would the gentry let everyone think he was evil?”
Naia’s face split with a grin. “What if it’s to protect a secret mission?”
Kati shrugged, allowing the possibility to pierce her tired mind. It was easier to think of than the alternative. Speaking of… “What’s the second option? You said you’d found two things.”
Naia’s expression clouded. “Yeah. Pretty much the opposite of the Opal Army.”
“Knew it,” Kati muttered, trying to hold onto her optimism and conviction that Theo wasn’t evil. The problem was the more she heard that Theo was a killer, the deeper the insidious idea crept into her mind. He wasn’t a black magician, she knew he wasn’t. And yet he’d gone into the woods with two boys and one of them had been murdered.
“They’re called the Old Academy,” Naia explained quietly.
“Oh.” Kati blinked. “I’ve heard of them, actually. My dad rants about them sometimes. Assholes who want to go back to the glory days of torture and pain magic being taught in the UK.” Some countries still taught black magic, still showed students how exactly to get the most pain from their subjects—be they animals or humans—to provide the most power for their spells, but the UK had outlawed it a hundred years ago. The Old Academy wanted non-consent magic back in schools like SBA.
Kati tried to imagine it, turning up to spells class to find a bound human at the front of the classroom, an unwilling victim whose blood and screams would fuel their casting. She shuddered hard. Using plants and bones and animal blood, even necromancer and reaper blood, in spells and potions was one thing—it was freely given and safely monitored, and most of the time the blood came from the students themselves—but purposely torturing someone just to add a boost to their magic was another thing entirely.
The Old Academy were monsters, and there was no way—absolutely no way—that Theo would get involved with them.
And yet … he’d stayed silent during their dad’s rants. He’d never once made his thoughts known on the subject, whereas Kati had scowled and spat whenever the topic was brought up and their mum shook her head in disapproval, then went on to explain all the legal, harmless ways a spell could be boosted.
“It’s gotta be the first one,” Kati said, pushing the words past her swollen throat. “The secret army for good. That, or something we haven’t even found yet.”
Naia nodded but the sympathy overflowing in her eyes disagreed with Kati.
Kati shoved to her feet. “I’m going to bed. See you in the morning.”
“Kati,” Rahmi said gently, snagging her wrist as she walked past. “Even if your brother is part of the Old Academy, that doesn’t change the fact that we’re friends. It doesn’t change anything about you. Okay?”
Kati forced herself to nod, biting back sharp words and stinging tears. The urge to lash out, to cover up her weakness with hostility, was so strong she nearly snatched her wrist back. “Okay,” she said instead, with immense effort. “Can I have my arm back now?”
Rahmi smiled, letting go. “See you in the evening.”
“Yeah,” Kati said, ignoring the crack in her voice, and locked herself in her room.
When the tears finally fell, Kati wasn’t sure whether she was upset or furious with Theo. Both, she decided. She slumped onto the bottom of her bed, eyeing the curled up lump of fur snoring beside her, and dug her phone out of her pocket. She’d texted Theo once a day every day since he left. Usually begging him to let her know he was safe, or to tell her what had happened, why he’d run. Tonight she angrily tapped out a message and pressed send before she could reconsider her anger.
People are dying, Theo. The same way Colen Greensmith died. And thanks to you, everyone thinks I’m the one killing them. What the hell are you involved in?
Too worked up to sleep, Kati reached into her bag and drew out the first book her hand brushed, planning to do an assignment a few days ahead for once. Thanks to the extra training and all the time she’d spent in the library looking for anything related to T.O.A.—during which Kati had turned up nothing like Naia’s findings, but had found the Orangery Association, people obsessed with plants, Thomas Opthorne Anwell, a renowned reaper who’d first patented the style of scythe reapers used to this date, and the Obelisks of Apparition, a company that vowed to trap any unwanted ghosts in columns of shungite and jet—she was woefully behind in her homework. But instead of pulling out her supernatural history exercise book, her hand closed on the clothbound little book Veesa had given her.
The occult eye on the cover stared at her; Kati half expected it to blink. With a shrug, she cracked it open and began to read—and promp
tly got so bored that thinking about Theo was preferable. It seemed to be the dullest history of Second Breath Academy to have ever been written, and included gems such as this:
Grant Wilde, the second headteacher of our esteemed academy (1819-1851), fought hard in his time at the helm to unite reapers and necromancers under one universal facet: magic. Ingrid the Terrible, our third headteacher (1851-1867), undid all her predecessors’ hard work the minute Wilde’s body cooled. Perhaps most famous for her decapitation of those who didn’t follow her rules, and for her hatred of non-legacy necromancers and reapers—those with humans in their family line— she also accomplished much greatness during her sixteen years as headteacher, foremost being her discovery of Eternal blood as an ingredient in the anti-wrinkle tincture, a recipe that most follow even today. She also did much work expanding the original academy building, including adding what was then called the West Tower, but now is known by most as the Stolen Tower, which vanished without explanation in 1799, curiously the date of a student’s death by accidental poisoning.
And that was just the first page. Kati shut the book and shoved it aside, not giving a shit about past headteachers. She was only interested in Hawkness, who held Kati’s future in her hands.
Sybil Esperanza was pretty cool though—her mum had told Kati all about the woman who’d first come up with levitating rugby and then gone on to trounce anyone who dared to challenge her team to a match. Kati had been forbidden to try a single levitation spell by her parents, even though she’d whined for hours and hours, but next week her class was due to learn it in theory and spells, and they’d practise in P.E. for the next two weeks before Mr Prise opened Levby team tryouts.
Not that Kati had time during the week to play, but that was what weekends were for.
Dolly rolled over in her sleep, snorting, and Kati decided she had the right idea, changing into her pyjamas—tonight a faded Diamante vest and cotton shorts—and climbing into bed. It took a long time for her mind to shut off, circling around the Opal Army with hope and the Old Academy with dread, flitting from Theo to the shield spell she’d learned earlier tonight to the way a third year woman had flinched when Kati crossed her path in the hallway.
