by Hannah Wick
“So we can’t use magic for personal gain?” The words were out of my mouth before I realised what I was doing. I gave a mental shrug and continued. “Then what can we use it for?”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Sally lean closer to one of her friends and whisper something in her ear. The two of them cackled, and I got the sense I’d asked a really dumb question. I should have paid more attention to Hildegard’s visits.
“You can use it to heal, or to help others. You can make things a little easier, for instance, heating water, so that you can have an easier time of cleaning saucepans, but you can’t click your fingers and expect the cleaning to be done.”
I grunted. If that wasn’t allowed, then what was the point of having magic at all? It certainly would make tidying my room a lot easier.
“So,” she continued, “let’s start with some basics. The wrong time to use magic. Does anyone want to tell me when that is?” She looked round the room and her eyes fixed on me. “How about you, Ms...?”
“Thorne. Kiera Thorne,” I said, and then frowned. How was I supposed to know? Well, other than the fact I’d had my whole life to study… and hadn’t. I was starting to get the sense that had been a bad idea.
“Any ideas?”
I thought for a moment and decided to go with the most obvious choice. “Using magic in front of mortals.”
“Yes, you’re right. That would cause a lot of problems, not to mention breaking some of our most fundamental rules. The legality of magic is beyond the scope of this class, but I will remind you: magic is a tool, not an answer to every problem you cross. Remember that, and you’ll avoid falling foul of most of our laws. Now, please open your textbooks, and let’s get down to work.”
It turned out that Theory of Magic was a lot less interesting than I thought. When our break finally rolled round, I made straight for the canteen. Armed with enough caffeine to get me through another theory lesson, I claimed a table and started flipping through my phone. A shadow fell across me, and I lifted my eyes to see a girl with long, vibrant purple hair gesturing to the empty chair beside me.
“Do you mind if I sit here?” she asked. I nodded and shuffled over to make some room. The canteen was starting to fill up. “I’m Cassandra.”
“Kiera,” I said.
She glanced at the screensaver on my phone. “Who’s that?”
“That’s Vicky. She’s my carer. While my parents are away. Or until I graduate here, anyway.”
She looked back at me, with a strange look. I could only describe it as one of pity, which irked me in a dozen ways. I didn’t need anyone’s pity – not for anything. And certainly not because of my living arrangements.
“It’s fine,” I said. “It’s not like it’s a permanent thing.”
I bit my tongue before I could say anything else. I hadn’t grown up with the rest of the magic community – Vicky and Hildegard had always kept me on its outskirts. Which was fine, I didn’t care about things like that, but it meant I was the outsider here. And since Cassandra was one of the few people who hadn't spent the last two hours whispering about me behind my back, I probably should make more of an effort to be friendly.
“Sorry, ignore me,” I said. “My brain’s kinda fried right now.”
“Well, bad news for you,” she said, glancing up at the clock on the wall. “Break’s pretty much over. Come on, I’ll walk with you.”
Chapter Five
“Who can tell me what time the witching hour is at?” Jo asked.
We were back in her lecture room for what made up the second half of the day’s theory class – apparently, they took Theory of Magic pretty seriously around here. Which was good news for me, since I hadn’t been paying any attention to the stuff Vicky had tried to teach me. In my defence, I’d figured my powers would never come through, and I wouldn’t need it. Guess they showed me.
Jo’s eyes found me – the woman had an uncanny knack of knowing when I wasn’t fully paying attention – and she arched a brow. I turned her question over in my mind. The witching hour? Well, that seemed pretty obvious.
“Midnight?” I ventured.
“No,” Sally spluttered.
“Perhaps you could share your answer with us, Sally?” Jo asked.
“Of course. It’s at three in the morning.”
“Good, and why is that?”
Sally blushed and scowled. “If I give everyone all the answers, then no one is going to learn anything.”
“I know the answer,” a voice called out. I turned around, noticing a young woman with red hair. She was three rows behind me, to my left, half hidden from my view.
“Go ahead,” Jo replied.
“Because magic is more effective when the veil between worlds is thinner.”
The class hummed with conversation as they wrote their notes, and the lecture carried on, underscoring exactly how little I knew about the magical world. It was a relief when the lecture finally drew to a close.
Cassandra stood up beside me and smiled, sliding her chair under the desk. “I’m in dorm room N3, on the top floor, if you want to hang out after lectures have finished.”
“No kidding? Me, too. We’re roommates. Neat.”
“That’s awesome. We can talk more about the guys in our year.” She looked around, her eyes glazing over the guys in the room. “Mister Right has to be here somewhere, right? I just need to find him. I mean, they can’t all be losers.”
“As long as none of them are as bad as my ex, I won’t be complaining.” Nor, though, was I in any hurry to jump into another relationship. The memory of Greg and Suzie was too fresh in my mind, and I didn’t think it would be fading any time soon. Anyway, judging by how today’s lessons had gone so far, I was going to be pretty busy trying to catch up to everyone else.
Cassandra declared she was in need of a chocolate hit, so we headed for the snack bar. It seemed like Aurora Academy took pretty good care of its students. Unfortunately, we weren’t the first to have that idea, and the queue was already several people deep. We joined the end, and I couldn’t help but notice the guy in front of us – tall and lean, with a phone glued to one ear.
“What are you talking about?” he snapped into the handset. “You can’t do that!”
There was a long pause. The guy frowned.
“Do you think he’s all right?” I whispered to Cassandra.
She shrugged. “From the look on his face, I’m guessing not. Looks like he just got some bad news.”
“Should I talk to him, maybe say hello?”
Cassandra laughed. “No. That’s a terrible idea. Do you want him to know we were listening in?”
She made a good point. I nodded as he collected a coffee and headed off, and she cocked her head to one side, checking out his backside as he went.
“Great eye though, he’s hot!”
“Hot? You really think so?”
“Oh, heck yeah. I wonder what kind of guy he is… I bet he drinks his coffee dark,” Cassandra grinned.
“I wish I was as confident as you. I just can’t seem to go up and talk to guys. I don’t fit in.”
Cassandra laughed. “Yeah. I have trouble too.” She gestured at her purple hair. “This isn’t dye.”
“No way!” I gasped. “How is that possible?”
“We don’t know. But my Mum tells this crazy story of me breathing in some sort of hair growth potion when I was a baby, and when my hair finally grew, it came out purple.”
“Well, I think your purple hair looks amazing,” I smiled.
We were halfway to our next lesson, when I stopped abruptly. I could have slapped myself for being such a dolt.
“What’s wrong?” Cassandra asked, looking confused.
“I forgot my bag. I left it in the Theory of Magic room. You go ahead without me, I’ll be right back.”
She scoffed. “Don’t be daft. I’ll wait for you.”
I nodded, spun around in the opposite direction and headed back towards Theory of Magic.
I turned the corner, raced down the hall, and took the next corner, then turned right. This place was a maze. I found myself facing a row of doors, all closed. I frowned, looking around. All the hallways looked the same down here. How the heck was I supposed to know which way to turn next? I took a deep breath, slowly making my way past the rooms. There had to be a map, somewhere. I just had to find it.
I read the signs printed on the door. Aura Magic Theory, Meditation, Study of the Chakras... I hadn’t heard of any of these before. Was I even going in the right direction? I wasn’t so sure. I carried on, hoping that by some miracle I was going the right way, and not about to become the laughing stock of the whole academy.
I turned left and then paused. I braced myself, hoping that this time I had got it right. If I hadn’t been so busy talking to my new friend, I might have remembered the route. Should’ve, would’ve, could’ve. Too late for regrets now.
I took one more turn, trying to decide whether this corridor looked familiar because I’d been here before, or because the architect lacked any sort of imagination.
Theory of Magic was printed on the last door to the left, right beside Laws of Magic and History of Prophets and Oracles.
Opposite that was a storage room. The lights were out, but the door was open. I frowned, peering in. Jo might have left my bag in here if she wanted it out of the way, so I didn’t interrupt her next lecture. I stepped inside. There was a large cupboard with several drawers hanging open, and one of the smaller drawers was empty. The others had medical equipment in, and there was no sign of my bag anywhere.
“What are you doing here?” a voice snapped. I turned around and found a woman with short blonde hair and a pinched expression staring at me. Her uniform marked her as one of the academy’s healers.
“Hi, sorry. I saw the door was open. I thought someone might have left my bag in here, but I guess not.”
“Fine. Leave it be and get to your lesson.” She looked at the drawers with suspicion. “Did you take anything?”
I shook my head. “All right. Off you go.”
I stepped out and hurried back to the Theory of Magic room. I swung open the door and went inside. It was deserted – Jo must be on a break. I spotted my bag right where I’d left it – under my chair – and grabbed it quickly. If I didn’t get a move on, I was going to be really late for my next lecture.
I had made a few left and right turns before stopping. Should I have turned right out of the lecture? Nothing was familiar. Instead of looking at rows of lecture room doors, I was looking at a double door, leading out onto a field. Where the hell was I? Now I was really lost. I groaned and circled back slowly, wondering if I would ever make it out of this maze.
After taking a few more left and right turns, I finally found my way back towards the Theory of Magic lecture room. Rather than being empty, it was now full of students facing a lecturer at the front of the room, who was in full flow.
“There you are!”
I turned around. “Cass! Seriously, don’t sneak up on people like that, you almost gave me a heart attack. But I’m so glad you’re here. I couldn’t find my way back and ended up facing a damned field. Do you remember where to go from here?”
She laughed. “Yes. Come on, the lecturer is gonna throw a fit. She does not like people being late.”
We made it to our next lesson some time after the other students, but luckily before the lecture itself had started. I looked around for some empty seats, but before I could find any, Cassandra linked her arm through mine and towed me towards the back of the hall. It took me a moment to realise what had caught her attention: phone guy. She made a beeline straight for him and turned her brightest smile in his direction.
“Hey there. I’m Cassandra. What’s your name?”
“Devron,” he grunted, without raising his eyes from the desk in front of him. He couldn’t have made it clearer he wanted to be left alone if he’d hung a sign. It turned out my new friend wasn’t so good at taking hints, though.
“Nice to meet you. Mind if we sit here?”
“Actually,” he said. “I do. I’m not in the mood for company.”
I pulled Cassandra aside, apologising to the guy.
“I thought we were going to give him space?”
“We are. I just asked for his name. He has no idea that we overheard his phone call. Come on, let’s go and sit over there.”
The lecturer for Energy Perception had organised herself while Cassandra was antagonising Devron, and now stood at the front of the room.
“Good afternoon. My name is Beverly Candle, and yes, I’ve heard all the jokes, thank you. Let’s get down to business.”
The woman turned just as Cassandra and I took to our seats.
“Please do not make a habit of coming into my lectures late,” she said stiffly.
“Uh, sorry,” I said. “I got myself lost, and Cassandra had to come and find me.”
“Might I suggest you get yourself a map?” She arched an eyebrow, then gazed round the students in their seats. There was an obvious line dividing the three columns. I counted six tables per column.
“There are many types of energy that can be observed and interacted with, and over the coming three years, we will study each of them. But for today, we’ll be starting with something straightforward. Do any of you know how to find your aura?”
I raised a hand. Perhaps those tests weren’t completely useless after all. “You look at the edge of your hand, at the faint outline surrounding it.”
“That’s correct. Well done. And can you tell me what the colours mean?”
I shook my head. “Sorry, I’ve got no clue. All I saw was a white outline.”
“That’s perfectly fine. I’m impressed you’ve had any experience with it at all. Many young witches don’t see the appeal. Aura colours tell someone a lot about what kind of person they are, and what mood they are in. They can also tell us how strong their gift is, whether they’re under a spell, or have any life energy. For beginners, all you will see is a white glow. But as you improve your skills, you’ll be able to see other colours as well.”
“Cool,” Cassandra whispered, leaning against her desk. “How did you find out about the auras?”
“I heard it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But I had trouble accessing my powers, so I had to find an aura to find out if I had magic or not.”
“But couldn’t they just have checked your aura, to see how much magic you had?”
I frowned and cocked my head. Now that she mentioned it, that did seem kind of strange... “Maybe my aura was blocked or clouded? But why wouldn’t they have told me if it was?”
“That must be annoying. It’d kill me if I couldn’t know what happened, especially if it was serious.”
“It is. I intend to find out, and I suspect that Sally and her cheerleaders know. And I can guarantee that the lecturers know. Everyone knows, except me.”
I ground my teeth together. Yet again, Vicky had been keeping things from me. Dammit, I wasn’t a little kid anymore.
“I don’t know what happened, so not everyone,” Cassandra said. “But if I knew, I swear, I would tell you everything. It’s your right to know. It shouldn’t be a secret. It’s not right.”
Damn straight it wasn’t. I seethed my way through the entire lesson, and almost missed when it ended until Cassandra nudged me and said if we didn’t get moving, the lunch queue would be halfway out the door.
Cass was right – when we made it to the hall, it was packed. The tables were all occupied, even the ones facing the wall. There went any chance I had of getting a decent meal inside me – my digestive system was a nightmare if I had to eat standing up.
“Don’t worry,” Cassandra said, reading my face. “There are more seats outside in the flower garden. That’s where I had my breakfast this morning. Plus, it’s a nice day. Why stay stuck inside when the air is so fresh out?”
She made a very good point. And better still, when we made it t
o the front of the queue, there was plenty of food to choose from. Roast chicken, lasagne, burgers, salads. My mouth watered.
“I’ll have chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy, please, and a cup of coffee?”
The cook plated up my food and passed it to me, then pointed towards the coffee machine at the end of the room.
“Happy?” Cassandra said, as I loaded a cup onto my tray.
I grinned. Hot food and caffeine – today was already getting better. “Yes. Thrilled.”
After lunch, we had a double Divination lecture. There was a lot to take in. We were given our own tarot deck and were told about each layout and clarifiers. Honestly, it was a lot of confusion. The most basic was the three-card layout. I hoped that was the first one we were to try ourselves. My jaw almost hit the table when Rick, the divination lecturer, told us to learn the four-by-four layout. I stared down at my deck, wondering where to even begin. Talk about throwing us in at the deep end. Two hours later, it felt like my brain had melted, and the only thing that I could remember was to read it from left to right, and top to bottom. So when Rick announced the end of the lecture, I got out as fast as my legs would carry me, and made straight for the safe haven of my dorm, Cassandra trailing beside me, declaring that if she never saw another tarot card, it would still be too soon.
We tumbled through the door, and something immediately caught my eye. A letter was on the ground under the door. Cassandra stooped to grab it.
“Who’s that from?” I asked, eyeing it suspiciously. Cassandra inspected the envelope before handing it to me with a shrug.
“No idea. It’s for you.”
I recognised the handwriting. It was from Vicky. I perched on the edge of my bed and plucked the letter out.
“Is everything all right?” Cassandra asked.
I read the letter with a frown. A heavy stone sank to the pit of my stomach. I felt nauseous. Hopeless. I fought back the urge to vomit or cry. Whichever came first. I crushed the paper in my hand, trying to understand what was going on. Letting it sink in.
“We’re friends, right?” Cassandra frowned when I didn’t answer her. “You can talk to me.”
