Everly Academy

by V. B. Marlowe

  “Yes, Ms. Bea,” the girls said in unison.

  “I’ll be back,” Gretchen announced before disappearing into a small room off to the side.

  “So, who wants to go first?” Bea asked.

  “I will,” Lily volunteered.

  Molly watched as Lily moved over to the brown cabinet, which was suddenly encased with a faint purple glow. She looked to Bea, who was staring at it intently. Slowly, the doors opened. From where Molly stood, she couldn’t make out what was inside the cabinet. Lily reached in and pulled out a bow and arrow, only it wasn’t just any old bow and arrow. This one was made from orange fiery flames. Lily took her weapon and stood in the middle of the room. “This bow and arrow never misses its mark, but it only works for me.”

  She looked to Bea, who nodded, and right before Molly’s eyes, objects appeared around the room that hadn’t been there seconds before. A golden apple floated midair. Lily turned her back to it, pulled back the string on her bow, and released the fiery arrow, sending it zigzagging over everyone’s heads. After a few turns it hit the apple, the apple dissolved into thin air, and the arrow came back to Lily. She did the same thing with a dart board, a teddy bear, and a stuffed Cheshire cat. No matter where Lily stood or how she aimed, the arrow would obliterate its target and come right back.

  Isleen yawned loudly. “Can we end this now? We get it, the arrow can hit anything Lily tells it to. It’s not like it takes any special skill. It’s all in the magic of the arrow. The only thing she has is the privilege of being the only one who gets to use it.”

  Lily aimed her bow and arrow at Isleen. “Oh yeah? Why don’t you show Ms. Dillinger your weapon and how much talent it takes to use it?”

  “Lily,” Bea said testily. This is exactly what she hadn’t wanted to happen. Lily stared at Isleen for a few more moments and then lowered her bow.

  Isleen turned to Bea. “Of course, I’ll need a volunteer. I think Lily would do just fine.”

  Bea shook her head. “I already have someone for that. Please retrieve your weapon, Isleen.”

  Just then the doors of the war room flew open and Ms. Halifax entered, pushing Dr. Meyer in a wheelchair. He was strapped in the same straitjacket Allison wore every morning. The tables had turned. Now he could see what it felt like. Molly’s curiosity was piqued. What were they about to do to him?

  Ms. Halifax left him in the center of the room and then stood against a wall far from everything else like she was afraid of what might happen. Isleen brought what looked like a long, thick golden straw from the cabinet. She walked over to Dr. Meyer, who screamed at the top of his lungs. “What—what are you doing? Leave me alone! If anything happens to me, the Moonhaven Coven will be on this house so fast!”

  Unmoved by the doctor’s threats, Isleen stood before him, placed the golden tube in her mouth, and blew. A puff of white powder flew from the tube and into the doctor’s face. Immediately his eyes closed, and he slumped over. She turned to Molly with an eyebrow raised. “Sleeping powder. I can put anyone out just like that. If only it worked on me.”

  Lily clapped. “Whoa. That looked like it took so much work.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm.

  Isleen was about to retort, but Bea cut her off. “Ladies, you know the rules. None of that.”

  Although it hadn’t required much from Isleen, Molly could see how such a weapon could really come in handy.

  Dru was next to display her power. She stood against the wall and disappeared. Molly gasped. “She can make herself invisible?” Several of the girls laughed.

  “No, Ms. Dillinger,” Scarlett replied. “It’s camouflage.”

  Molly looked closer and she could see, just barely, how Dru had blended herself into the intricate design on the wall. Dru stepped away from the wall and appeared as her regular normal self again. “It may not seem like much of a power to most people, but being able to hide myself like that might really come in handy one day.”

  Molly nodded. “I can totally see that.” She realized then how Dru was able to get to Bea’s laptop undetected.

  Bea waved her hand in a circular motion, and the doctor opened his eyes. He turned his head back and forth, looking drowsy and confused.

  Isleen twirled her weapon in her fingers like a baton. “As you can see, some gifts or weapons are better than others. Wait until you see what Tress can do. Show her, Tress.”

  Tress’s face turned bright red as she stepped into the center of the room. Daintily, she removed a silver hairpin from the back of her head, sending her long, blond braid cascading to the floor. Then she clenched her fist and closed her eyes. Her entire body tensed. Molly took a step back as Tress’s hair started to grow. Not only was it growing, but it was moving as if it had a life of its own. It flipped back and forth like a fish out of water, reaching in Dr. Meyer’s direction. The man’s eyes grew wide as if he knew what the hair was going to do to him.

  The braid crept up his leg, torso, and eventually wrapped itself around his neck. The room fell silent as the hair tightened around the man’s throat and he went from shades of dark red to hues of purple. His eyes bulged, and he struggled in his straitjacket.

  Isleen grinned eerily. “Yes.”

  Tress’s hair choked Dr. Meyer for a few more moments until Bea clapped her hands. “Okay, that’s enough, Tress.”

  The other girls moaned in disappointment. “Her hair can grow for miles if she wanted it to,” Oriana told Molly.

  “Yes,” Tress said as her hair returned to its normal length, “but it takes a lot out of me.”

  “Wow,” Molly said under her breath. She couldn’t imagine what it felt like to be able to kill someone with your hair.

  “I’ll go next,” Marina said as she descended the staircase into the pool. Molly watched as she submerged herself underneath the water. As she swam, her legs transformed into a shimmering fin. When Marina reached the opposite end of the pool, she shot out of the water, thrusting her hand forward. Molly’s jaw dropped as a thick line of seaweed launched from her hand. The seaweed wrapped itself around Dr. Meyer and the wheelchair, pulling him into the pool.

  Molly held her breath. Marina swam to the bottom of the pool with the doctor for what seemed like way too long for Molly. “Uhhh . . .” she began, but just then, the doctor was launched from the pool where he landed soaking wet on the marble floor. He coughed and spit out water. Marina used her seaweed to sit his wheelchair upright again. “That’s what I can do,” she said before disappearing underwater.

  Molly continued to be amazed by what she saw from the girls. Jolie pulled a mirror from the cabinet. The mirror’s glass was covered with a purple sheet. She walked over to Dr. Meyer. “Anyone who locks eyes with this mirror will freeze as they are.”

  The doctor tried to turn his head away, but Isleen put him in a headlock, making that impossible. He squeezed his eyes shut, but Scarlett pried them open. Molly almost felt sorry for the man. Almost. Within seconds, his skin turned a ghostly pale white and his entire body stiffened. “It comes in handy,” Jolie said casually as she put the mirror away. Everyone was careful to avert their eyes from the glass.

  Bea cleared her throat as she waved a hand over Dr. Meyer’s head. He unfroze. “Of course, Scarlett and Oriana are their own weapons. Gretchen, are you ready, dear?”

  “Just a second.” After a few more moments of banging and rattling things around, she emerged from her kitchen area holding a plate with a donut on top. The donut was covered with pink frosting and rainbow-colored sprinkles. Molly’s mouth watered, but she knew that if this was Gretchen’s weapon, it wasn’t anything good.

  “Open,” Gretchen said to Dr. Meyer.

  He pressed his lips shut and shook his head like a two-year-old refusing their vegetables. Suddenly his eyes widened as his lips slowly parted. Molly knew enough to know that was Bea’s doing. Gretchen shoved the donut into the doctor’s mouth, forcing him to take a bite. “Chew.”

  Molly cringed as a bulge went down the man’s throat. Moments later, Dr.
Meyer’s body writhed and contorted. He shook violently for a moment until his body finally stopped.

  Molly had the urge to vomit. “Is he dead?”

  Gretchen shook her head. “Nope. But if I wanted him to be, I have a recipe for that.”

  “I think he’s had enough,” Molly said. She was afraid they would kill the man. What he had done to Allison was incredibly cruel, but she couldn’t sit by and watch a person die.

  “But you haven’t seen what Allison can do,” Lily said.

  Allison sat cross-legged in the middle of the floor, fluttering her fingers in front of her eyes as if she had just discovered them.

  “Help her, Lily,” Ms. Halifax said.

  Lily nodded and walked over to the cabinet. She removed a purple hookah and brought it over to Allison. Lily sat on the floor before her and held her hands. “Allison.”

  At the sound of her name, Allison’s head snapped up, and she looked Lily in the face. This was a huge improvement. “Allison, do you remember your hookah? Do you remember what it does?”

  Allison didn’t respond but continued to look at Lily. Gently, Lily put her hands on the sides of Lily’s face and turned it to face Dr. Meyer. “Why don’t you show Dr. Meyer what your hookah can do?”

  “Nooooo!” Dr. Meyer screamed. “Nooooo!”

  Allison looked at him and scowled, and Molly wondered if she understood what he had been doing to her. How he had betrayed her more than anyone by taking her sanity away.

  She must have because she took the hookah, walked over to the protesting doctor, and gently blew a puff in his face. A faint pink cloud rose in the air, and as soon as it made contact with the doctor, he stopped moving. The room fell silent as everyone waited to see what was going to happen. Suddenly the doctor had a fit of outrage, yelling screaming, and writhing much like Allison had been doing every morning for years thanks to him. The smoke from the hookah was driving him mad.

  Bea clasped her hands together. “Now, the good doctor has had enough. Ms. Halifax, please take him away. I think the basement will make a great place for him.” Molly wondered how many other people were down there.

  Ms. Halifax wheeled him away, and the room quieted down. Bea turned to the girls. “I’ll leave you all to practice now. Remember, be careful with these gifts I’ve entrusted you with.”

  She motioned for Molly to follow her into the hallway. Bea waited until the door slid closed behind them. “So. What do you think?”

  Molly nodded. “I think I can work with this.”

  20

  “It’s too early for this,” Owen muttered to himself as he leaned the ladder against the side of the house. With each step he took higher and higher up the ladder, he wished he could be somewhere else. Grunting, Owen hoisted himself up. Isleen was perched on the roof, hugging her knees to her body, the baby-blue material of her dress pooling around her. He sighed. Understanding the mood swings and motivations of teenage girls was not his forte.

  A small smile crept across her lips when she saw him. Well aware of the crush she had on him, Owen took a seat beside her. “I just remounted these shingles, Izzy. While I admire your consistency and perseverance, I’d rather not have to do this every week.”

  She bit her bottom lip and stared off into the evergreen forests that surrounded the estate. “This isn’t just for show, Owen. One day I’m going to do it. One day I’m really going to throw myself off this roof and end it all.”

  “But you won’t die, Izzy. We both know that. Sure, you’ll end up breaking every bone in your body and be under an incredible amount of pain, but you won’t die.”

  Izzy shook her head. “Maybe the pain will make me forget that I’m here.”

  “Is this place really that bad? I know it sucks that you can’t leave, but you girls have everything you can imagine. Beautiful clothes tailor-made especially for you. Fancy balls every month. Whatever you want to eat cooked up for you within moments. A spa, a beauty room, a pool, a beautiful garden—”

  “Stop!” Izzy said. “Just stop. Those things sound wonderful, but after two hundred years it gets old. You’ve only been here for five, Owen. While that may seem long to you, it’s nothing compared to two lifetimes.”

  She had a point, so Owen said nothing to counter that. “Let’s say that you were finally able to leave Everly, what would you do?”

  Izzy ran her finger along the tear in her dress. “I would live a life like in the books I read. I don’t need anything fancy or extravagant. Nothing like the life I used to have. I just want to marry the love of my life and live in a little house and raise three beautiful children—a boy and two girls, and just be normal. I want to be able to come and go as I please. I would go to the markets and to the cinema and travel all over the world and see different places and meet new people.” She placed her hand on Owen’s. “You can’t tell me that you don’t get tired of talking to and seeing the same people day after day.”

  Owen’s body went rigid under her touch. That was not the way he felt at all. He pulled his hand away. “No, Izzy. I don’t.”

  She frowned. “Well, it’s different for you. You have your father. At least you have family here—real family.”

  “I suppose that is an advantage.” Owen couldn’t imagine how he would feel if his father wasn’t there with him, and he didn’t want to imagine it. “Why don’t you come down? There’s still time for you to grab some breakfast.”

  Isleen wrapped her warm fingers around Owen’s bicep. “Let’s get out of here. Just you and me. We can totally do it. You have the keys to the truck. One of those nights when Ms. Bea allows you to pass through the barrier, take me with you. We can just keep driving and never come back.”

  The desperation in her green eyes tugged at Owen’s heart. “That would never work. Only my father and I would be able to pass through, not you.”

  Isleen let go of him and pouted. “Then we’ll figure something else out. There has to be a way.”

  The two of them were quiet for a few moments until Isleen spoke again. “Let’s say hypothetically that we were to get out. You’d want to build a life with me, right? We would be so good together. I know it.”

  Owen didn’t have those sorts of feelings for Isleen, but he didn’t know how to come right out and say that to a girl who was a volcano always on the verge of erupting.

  Isleen scowled. “I’m not a child, you know. I’m eighteen, for crying out loud.”

  “I know you’re not a child, Izzy.”

  “Then what’s the problem? Why wouldn’t you want to run away with me? What’s wrong with me?”

  Owen looked her in the eye. “Izzy, there’s nothing wrong with you. I mean, sometimes you’re not the easiest to get along with, but that’s not why—”

  “Then why?”

  That was Owen’s problem. He searched his mind trying to find the proper words. The last thing he wanted to do was be the reason Izzy finally launched herself off the roof. How could he tell her that he just didn’t see her that way without hurting her feelings or breaking her heart?

  “It’s her, isn’t it?” Isleen asked before Owen could put his words together.

  “Who?” Owen asked even though he knew exactly who she was talking about.

  “Ms. Dillinger,” she said in a mocking tone. “Little Miss Perfect who everyone seems to be mesmerized by. What’s so special about her?”

  “Now, Izzy, that’s not fair.”

  She ignored him and barged on. “I’ll tell you what. There’s nothing special about her. Everybody only cares about her because she’s something new and different—like a new shiny toy on Christmas morning, but after a while, you’ll grow bored of her and see her for what she really is, nothing special.” Izzy balled her hands into tight fists. “Do you like her?”

  Owen wasn’t sure what to say, but he wasn’t going to lie. Isleen would see through it anyway. “I do. She’s very nice. You should give her a chance.”

  Isleen scoffed. “Trust me. I know she’s not as nice as she p
retends to be, and she is not going to be the one who gets us out of here. I don’t know why Bea thinks she is.”

  Owen opened his mouth to say something else, but Isleen cut him off. “I think I will have some breakfast.” She hoisted her dress up around her thighs and proceeded to climb down the ladder, which was a feat in the heels she was wearing.

  He leaned over the roof watching her, but she didn’t go into the house for breakfast. She kicked off her shoes and disappeared into the dark canopy of the forest.

  That night Lily poked her head out of her bedroom door and gave the signal. She shined her flashlight three times in one direction and then three times in the other. Tucking the flashlight into the pocket of her nightdress, she tiptoed from her room. She didn’t need light to show her how to get to the basement. When you’ve lived in a place for two hundred years, you get to know every inch of it by heart.

  Behind her she heard doors opening and closing gently, but she didn’t stop. The girls knew they only had a window of a few minutes before Ms. Halifax would take her nightly trip to the kitchen for a hot cup of tea.

  Lily padded down the two flights of stairs that led to the basement and then hurried down the long, dark passage. Once she made it to the secret room, she lit the lantern which sat in the middle of the round table. That was all the light they needed. Any more and they might have been detected. It was hard to get anything by Ms. Halifax. She could hear everything and would notice any little thing that was out of place.

  As soon as Lily took her seat, she was quickly joined by Gretchen, who led Allison by the hand, and Jolie. This was her alliance. These were the girls she trusted with her life. Lily was probably the one who didn’t belong. After all, she was royalty and should have technically been a part of the royal alliance Isleen had formed. They needed her. They needed the numbers, but Lily didn’t believe in Isleen’s theories. She didn’t feel like any one of the girls were better than the others. Being born to an Indian chief didn’t make Lily more valuable than Gretchen, whose father had been a woodcutter. Drusilla felt the same way, but she’d made a commitment to the other princesses and she wanted to be loyal. Isleen had been working very hard to get her alliance to stop socializing with the other girls, and Lily was worried that her persuasion may work one day, especially as the night of the final blood moon grew closer and everyone was feeling more desperate.