by Hannah Wick
“It’s fine. Nothing to worry about.” I swallowed hard and placed the letter on the bed beside me.
“Right. It’s ‘fine’,” she said. “I know that look. What’s in the letter?”
“Can I tell you about it later? I… I need to process… Okay?”
She sighed. “All right. I’m sorry.”
I liked Cassandra, but she had a tendency to ask questions I didn’t want to answer, and as the days rolled into weeks, the questions kept coming. I kept the letter locked away, not wanting to look at it again, but the words still burned at the back of my mind. Every time she asked about it, I put her off, telling her I’d talk about it later.
Three weeks passed before she had finally stopped asking. I sat on the edge of my bed, feeling lost and alone. The words in the letter had been haunting me, and I grew more worried by the day. I couldn’t bear it anymore. I had to tell her. I needed to tell someone. Cassandra looked over at me as she peered over the top of her book that she was reading.
“What’s wrong?”
I swallowed hard. Tears burned my eyes.
“The letter,” I said. “The one I got weeks ago?”
She rolled her eyes. Fair point, it wasn’t like I’d be talking about a different letter. I sucked in a breath that burned the whole way down.
“It was from Vicky.”
She put the book down and watched me. “Go on.”
I opened my mouth, forcing the words out. “She’s… not well. She has been getting a lot of colds lately. She’s been tired a lot, too. I’ve noticed. But the cold doesn’t seem to be getting any better. And now, she has been admitted to the hospital. They want to run some tests…” I couldn’t finish. I dreaded what they might find. And I dreaded what might come next. I closed my eyes and prayed that it was just a virus and after some treatment, she would be better again. She just needed the right medicine. The right spell. If I knew anything about healing, I could have helped her. Why hadn’t I started at Aurora Academy just one year sooner?
Chapter Six
It was the first of October, and autumn had arrived. The Halloween holiday was fast approaching. Cassandra and I had fast become good friends and hung out with each other almost every day. We’d just finished lunch and were on our way to one of my favourite lessons. Herbology, with our lecturer, Maria Gray. Maria was a large woman, with her grey hair tied back in a bun, and today she was wearing a black long-sleeved t-shirt under her dark green dungarees.
“I wonder what we’ll be planting for Herbology, today,” I said. So far, we’d covered a lot of theories, about which plants were safe to use for magic, and which we needed to handle with extreme care – like hemlock.
“I’m not sure. Maybe something to do with healing or cleansing crystals. I know my crystals are due to be cleansed and so are my tarot cards,” Cassandra replied.
“Plants to cleanse tarot? Are you sure?”
“Of course. You didn’t know sage is used for cleansing? It’s not just moon-power, you know.”
“Cool. My cards need cleansing, too. Do I just sit the plant on the deck?”
“No, silly. You burn the sage, and use the smoke to cleanse it.”
“Oh.” I glanced around to make sure no-one was in earshot, but everyone was busy talking amongst themselves and making their way to their desks. “I heard if you use blood magic, it would make the cards work even better.”
Cassandra looked at me, arching an eyebrow. “You know we can’t use blood magic. It’s forbidden.”
“Yeah, but why?” I said. None of the lecturers ever spoke about it, other than to say it was forbidden. Secretly, I thought they just didn’t want us using the potent magic to take shortcuts – but what was life without a few shortcuts here and there?
“Because blood magic is dark magic. It has some serious consequences if it’s not done properly.”
I grinned. “Then let’s do it properly. I want to get better at my craft. Don’t you?”
“Of course, but I want to do it from my skills, not because of some magical aid.”
“It just strengthens the bond, that’s all.” Or at least, I thought so.
Cassandra still wasn’t sure that it was a good idea. But it was different for her. I was already at a disadvantage compared to the others since my magic had been so late manifesting, and my powers had been unpredictable, to say the least. At least Herbology was a lesson that didn’t require any actual magic.
We’d barely finished finding a desk each when Maria, our Herbology lecturer, told us we’d be working on the allotments today. One of the room’s doors opened directly onto the large garden, and we all filtered out into it. It was large enough that every student in the academy had a small patch to grow whatever we needed – but that also meant a lot of weeding.
It came as no surprise when we were told that was what we would be doing today. I wouldn’t be complaining – it beat spending another lesson with my head in a textbook. Maria told us to keep the weeds we pulled. They were going to be used for something later on, though, for the life of me, I couldn’t work out what.
“Have you all pulled your weeds from your allotment spots?” Maria called out a while later.
A few people answered in the affirmative, and a couple of us – me included – shook our heads. But in my defence, the weeds on my plot had been out of control. I needed to spend more time here.
“Quickly, please,” the lecturer replied. “I’d like to get started on brewing your potions.”
I reached into the flower bed, grabbing another handful of stems. I wrapped my fingers round a plant, and something needle-like jabbed painfully into my flesh. I yanked my hand back with a yelp. Moving the sage out of the way, a small weed came into view, hiding in the undergrowth. Its leaves were long and spear-like leaves – though mercifully not as sharp. Although it had stabbed me, it hadn’t drawn blood.
I pulled the plant out and tossed it aside with a scowl.
“What’s the matter?” Cassandra said, glancing over.
“Stabbed myself with a weed. Serves me right for not paying more attention.”
“What plant is it?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen it before.”
Maria walked over, her expression a mixture of exasperation and concern.
“What did you do?”
I didn’t answer right away because I was too busy scratching my arms through the sleeves covering them. They were itchy and stung a little. But the more I rubbed and scratched, the worse the pain got. The lecturer frowned, pushing my sleeves out of the way so she could look at my arms. I sucked in a breath. I was covered in hives.
“You need to go to the medical ward,” she told me. “This will only get worse. What did you touch?”
I pointed to the odd-looking weed. “It’s the strangest weed I’ve ever seen,” I told her. “I’m not even sure what it is.”
“It’s bad news,” Maria said. “And it is not a weed. Not a naturally occurring one in my gardens, anyway. Well, we can worry about it later. Off to medical with you.”
“I’ll take her,” Cassandra offered.
“All right. Be sure to take the plant, but don’t touch it with your hands. And you can work on your potion when you get back.”
“Thanks,” I said, and Maria moved away with a curt nod. I narrowed my eyes at her retreating back. “Did she seem rattled to you?”
Wallace, a lanky guy with long, scruffy blonde hair, who’d been working at the next plot along, came over.
“Let me see the plant,” he said. I gestured to it with my foot – my hands were pinned in my armpits in an attempt to stop myself scratching.
“That’s writtle weed,” he said. “It’s not as nasty as it looks unless you’re allergic. Otherwise, it can be used to make a healing cream. If you strip the leaves, it has oil in it that can help with rashes. Like an aloe leaf – but this is harder to come by. I wonder who put it there.”
I stared at him, my mouth hanging wide open. “Ho
w could you possibly know that?”
He shrugged. “My parents work with rare and dangerous plants. I’ve been helping out since I was six.”
“So you don’t think someone was trying to… I don’t know, hurt me?” I asked, feeling ridiculous.
He shook his head. “No. Maybe someone just picked a spot where there was more room to grow. It’s more for healing than hurting. You just got unlucky.”
“Careful,” a voice came from the plot behind mine. “Your paranoia’s showing.”
“Gee, thanks Devron,” I said, fighting the smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. “Any news on your Mum?”
He picked up the plant in a hessian sack, and the three of us headed back into the academy.
“Last I heard, my father was looking at new alternatives.”
“That’s good. What’s wrong with her – do they know yet?”
He shook his head. “The doctors are useless. We’re hoping she’ll hold out, at least until Christmas. You know.”
“Maybe there is something in the herbs that could help her?” I asked. “Like, just help give her white cells a little more of a boost.”
“We spoke to our local healer, but…” He shrugged and stared straight ahead.
“Maria said something about a healing potion,” Cassandra said hopefully. “Maybe that’s something you could look into? Healing potion to boost her health system so she can live for a little longer. I know it’s a temporary fix. Nothing can stop death forever, but it might buy you some time with her. Though, I’m not sure anyone would want to live forever, if they had a choice.”
“What? You think she would want to die?” He stopped dead and glared at her. “Do you really think she would want to leave us all behind?”
“Of course not, but I can’t imagine someone would want to live forever, either. Let’s face it, life isn’t a picnic at the best of times. But if you were in pain, and feeling tired and unwell, it wouldn’t be worth living. I’m telling you now, if I was bed-bound and given the choice, I would take that chance with death and I would tell my family that they mattered before I passed.”
I elbowed her in the ribs before she could say anything to make it any worse – not that I was sure that was possible, and gave Devron an apologetic look.
“Ignore her. She didn’t mean that.”
Devron ground his teeth together, but carried on walking with us. We rounded the final corner to the medical room and stepped inside. A healer with pure white hair and piercing emerald-green eyes was sitting behind a desk, and got up as we entered.
“All right, what have we got here?”
“I touched something that gave me a rash. It kind of looked like a stinging nettle, but it looked a little different. It was darker, and the shape was a little off. Wallace says it’s called writtle weed.”
“Here,” Devron said, thrusting the sack at her. “I’m not convinced. He could be wrong.”
The healer took the bag and looked inside. “Yes, it’s writtle weed. Be careful when you pick plants you don’t recognise. Next time you might not be so lucky. Wait here, I won’t be a moment.”
“I can’t believe you found the writtle. That’s really lucky.”
I shrugged. It wasn’t like I was planning to use it. “You can have it. I wouldn’t know what to do with this. Anyway, at least one of us should show up for the rest of the lesson, or Maria’s going to have a fit.”
He nodded and took the sack from me, then left. The healer came back after a couple of minutes wearing a pair of gloves and carrying a small tub. She pulled up my sleeves to inspect the itchy rash that had now spread up my arm. “Oh, that’s not too bad. I expected it to be much worse. How long ago did you get this?”
“About ten minutes, maybe. We came straight here. I was okay until I touched that plant. I must have been allergic to it.”
“It happens. What were you doing with it?”
This time her tone was more accusing than curious. Did she think I did this on purpose? There were other ways of getting out of class, without getting an annoyingly itchy rash.
I frowned, uncomfortable with being put on the spot. “I was pulling it from my allotment. I thought it was an ugly weed. Honestly, I assumed Sally planted it there to make my plot look messy.”
“Well, just be careful with what you are touching. Or you’re going to end up spending a lot of time in here.”
“I wouldn’t mind spending more time in here,” I said, glancing around the peaceful room. “Though preferably not as a patient. I think I’d like to be a healer.”
The healer gave me an approving smile as she opened the tub and smeared a generous amount of the cream inside on my arms. Immediately, they started to tingle and the pain receded. Whatever was in the cream, it involved some serious healing magic.
I was still marvelling at it as the healer started wrapping bandages around my arms.
“Can I ask a question?”
“Go ahead,” she said, still focusing on the bandages.
“I haven’t been sleeping much. Lavender and sage should help with that, right?”
“That’s right. Break them down and crush them, then you can steep them into a tea, or brew a potion if you’re really struggling to sleep.”
I smiled. Finally, an idea I could follow through with.
“Right, that will do you. You’re fine to go back to your lessons. If it gets worse, come back.”
I thanked her, and headed back to the allotments with Cassandra.
“Do you think we could grow something to help boost white cells?” I said as we walked. “You know, to help people recover from illnesses faster?”
“I think you should work on controlling your magic before you try to heal anyone.”
She had a point. I put the thought to the back of my mind and walked through the lecture hall and out into the allotment.
“All better?” Maria asked.
I nodded. “Yes, and I believe I have a great idea about what I want to grow.”
“Great. Pick the plant seeds you need and put them in the soil. We don’t have long left, so there’s no point in the two of you starting your potions today.”
Despite her promise, it seemed like an age before the lesson ended. I was in favour of heading straight to our dorm, but Cass was adamant we should hit the library – we had a divination assignment due in a couple of weeks, and neither of us had made a start. I reluctantly agreed, but we hadn’t been there long when all the books started to blur into one. It had been a long day, and Cassandra’s argument with Devron had sucked the energy from me. I hated it when my friends argued – although admittedly, calling Devron a friend might have been a stretch. Especially after today.
I turned around to go and find him, when someone at the back of the room caught my eye. One of the other guys in my year – Danny. I’d seen him lurking around the library before, usually with his head in a book, and maybe I’d noticed him a little more than I should have. It was easy to get distracted by his arms, so I made a point not to look.
He put his book back on the shelf, looking grim. He was always stoic, but this seemed… different. I wandered over to him.
“Hey, are you all right?” I asked.
He nodded, nudging his phone deeper into his pocket. “Yeah. I, uh, I had a phone call.”
“A bad one?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Perhaps. My father isn’t well.”
I gasped. “Oh no. I’m so sorry. My foster carer is sick, too. Perhaps something is going round?”
He shook his head. “Not like this. It’s self-inflicted. He drinks too much.”
I placed a hand on his shoulder. “I’m still sorry.”
“Don’t be. He’s an arse.”
There was a haunted look on his face. Then, I remembered the black eye the day we met. It clicked.
“He hurt you, didn’t he?” It wasn’t a question.
He nodded, and looked away. “Yeah. Look, I don’t want to talk about it.”
&n
bsp; “Uh, sorry, again. I didn’t mean to be intrusive. I… I just wanted to make sure you’re all right.”
“I’ll be fine, thanks.”
I gave him a small smile and turned away. It seemed I had a habit of upsetting people. My thoughts turned back to Devron, and his mother.
“I’m going to check on Devron,” I told Cassandra. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
I headed to the other set of dorms on the far side of the building, and worked along the doors until I found his room. Hesitantly, I raised a hand and knocked. There was a long pause before the door swung open. Devron stood in the doorframe, his eyes red and his face blotchy. He sniffled and straightened his back.
“What do you want?” he demanded.
“I just wanted to check on you. I know Cassandra can be insensitive, but she didn’t mean it. And truly, we hope your Mum gets better. Both of us.”
He gave me a brief nod and closed the door.
“Are we good?” I called out. I could just about make out his mumbled reply through the wood.
“Fine. Just some more bad news.”
Chapter Seven
I stayed up half the night talking about my idea for the healing potion with Cassandra. I was so sure it could work, if we could just find the right ingredients to call the magic from. Unfortunately, we were both so tired the following morning that we slept through my alarm. When I finally woke, I jumped out of bed, tossed a shoe in Cassandra’s direction, skipped breakfast, and we still only made it to potions by the skin of our teeth.
When we walked into the lecture room, the students were already buzzing with conversation.
Looking around the large hall I saw the tables were pushed together with four seats per grouping, and most of them were taken, other than the odd single seat here and there. Up at the far end of the hall, I spotted a familiar face and two empty seats. I smiled, snatching Cassandra’s arm.
“C’mon, I see somewhere where we can sit.”
“Where?” she said, frowning as she scanned the tables around the room.
“At Devron’s table,” I replied. She yanked her arm away and halted.
