Wicked Academy 1: The Magic Elite

by Nissa Leder

  I’m starting to realize how much a few months here at Wicklow has changed me.

  With a deep breath, I head into the trees with Sebastian.

  A mist of fluffy white snow is sprinkled across the ground like a fine layer of glitter. High in a tree, a squirrel eases himself to the edge of a branch and looks down at us.

  “I’ve heard there are both Ordinary animals and magical creatures in this forest.” I leave out where I heard this, not wanting to make anything awkward.

  “That’s just a regular squirrel, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Sebastian smirks. “But yes, there are magical creatures here, too. Fairies, gnomes, trolls, werewolves. Things like that.”

  “Werewolves exist?” I stop abruptly.

  “According to legend, there are wolves in this forest that used to be Sorcerers. Every full moon, they turn back into a human for one night. During that time, their bites can turn Sorcerers into wolves just like them.” Sebastian watches me as he tells me the story. He stares into the sky. “So, be wary of strangers on the night of a full moon.”

  “You’re lying.”

  His eyes narrow as he grins. “It’s a real legend. Ask your friends.”

  We follow a path a little further. When we come to a tree with a red cloth tied around its trunk, we cut through the trees.

  Within three more minutes of walking, I hear the sound of rushing water. We keep going until a two-tiered waterfall surges from a cliff into a pool of water. Despite the winter temperature, steam rises from the surface.

  Fairies hover along the outside of the small lake, flying in and out of the bushes along the water’s edge.

  “This is gorgeous,” I say, mesmerized. “How is the water so warm?”

  “It’s enchanted by the forest itself.” Sebastian leads me to two large stones along the edge.

  We both sit down on the stones, finally releasing each other’s hand.

  “I’ve always like to come out here when I need a little time to breathe,” Sebastian says.

  “Or when you’re trying to seduce a girl on the first date,” I add, watching for his response out of the corner of my eye.

  His expression remains still as he stares at the waterfall. “You’re the first person I’ve brought here, actually.”

  This surprises me. He could be lying, of course, but something in my gut tells me he isn’t. “Why did you ask me out? And be honest. You don’t know my history, but it doesn’t take a lot for guys to impress me.” Saying it aloud makes me realize how bad it sounds. But I’ve always enjoyed life, and I’m not one to take things too seriously. I’ve never been embarrassed about that, and I don’t plan to start now.

  He shifts his gaze toward me. “This is probably going to sound ridiculously cheesy, but I’ve felt a pull toward you since the moment I saw you crash the first night party. And you were right before, people are so set on impressing me to get into the Mystics that I’m always afraid that it’s the only reason they like me,” he says. “And well, you’re the first person who seems to not care who I am or what I can give you. In fact, sometimes you seem like you don’t even like me.”

  “And that’s somehow a turn on?” I laugh. “It’s probably just some evolutionary trait that makes guys like the ones that play hard to get or something.”

  His eyes meet mine and the sarcastic grin on my face disappears.

  “You have the power to get anything you want because of who your family is, but I’ve never seen you use it to your advantage. You actually seem to hate the fame, which makes you more real than anyone else I’ve met at this school,” Sebastian says. “I’ve never had a family, at least not as long as I can remember. Everything I’ve achieved has been despite that, and even though your grandpa is the most famous person in the Sorcery world, I somehow feel connected to you.”

  I’ve never had someone open up to me like this, especially on a first date. Kaz shared personal details, which at the time was out of the ordinary for me, but Sebastian is holding nothing back.

  “You don’t have a family?” I ask.

  “They died when I was young, and since I had no extended family, I was raised in a Sorcery orphanage on the other side of this island.”

  Our eyes remain locked. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. It taught me how to survive on my own. How to work hard if I want something,” he says. “My parents came to Wicklow, but when they died, so did their legacy, so I wasn’t given an automatic acceptance. Yet here I am, head of the Mystics at the academy as a junior.” The familiar arrogant tone is gone, a determined one in its place.

  I’ve always hated the pressure of being a Jacobsen. I’ve hated how often my parents were gone. How little they seemed to care about me and my brother at times. How everything they did, from holiday parties to family vacations, seemed to have some ulterior motive. But I never stopped to think about how growing up without them would have been. I can’t imagine being raised in an orphanage or anything else Sebastian has gone through.

  Yet, despite our vastly different upbringings, we both fear being alone.

  Without thinking, I slip off a boot.

  “What are you doing?” he asks as he looks at my shoeless foot.

  “Don’t tell me you brought me all the way to this beautiful hot springs and didn’t intend for us to get in the water?” I chuck off my other show then pull my pants down.

  He shakes his head with a grin. “You’re always surprising me.”

  He loses his clothes too until we’re both down to our undies.

  “Since it’s a first date, I gotta stay at least a little modest,” I say, now in a matching lacy teal bra and panties.

  Sebastian strips down to his black boxer-briefs, his defined abs on perfect display in the bright sunlight. Of course, he has a chiseled stomach. How would I have expected anything less?

  The ground is cold against my feet until I step into the water, which is hot, but bearable. Sebastian catches up with me and takes my hand as we wade further into the water until only our necks and heads are above the surface.

  “If you feel something tickle you, it’s probably just a mermaid,” Sebastian says.

  “There are mermaids in here?” I scan the water, looking for anything large. When I look back at Sebastian, he’s cracking up. “You liar!” I reach out to smack his stomach playfully with the back of my hand.

  He uses my momentum and, with our joined hands, pulls me closer to him and holds me against his body with his free hand under my butt.

  “I like you, Wren Jacobsen,” he says.

  “I’m surprised to say this, but I like you too.”

  With that, he brings his lips to mine.

  Nineteen

  Besides a few minutes of kissing and some roaming hands, nothing more happened on my date with Sebastian. He was, surprisingly, a gentleman.

  I was back to my room by seven o’clock, giving me plenty of time to fill Olivia in with the details.

  “I can’t believe you went out with Sebastian,” she says from the bathroom, as she removes her makeup. “I mean, now you’re even more the total envy of most the other girls here. Heroic parents. Presidential grandpa. And leader-of-a-secret-society boyfriend.”

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself. Sebastian and I went on one date. That does not make us a couple.” I adjust my blanket over my toes, already tucked into bed and ready to watch a movie.

  “Yet.” She peeks her head into the doorway. “And you did nothing more than kiss?”

  “And got a little handsy, but nothing past second base.” Not that the thought of taking things further didn’t cross my mind. But it was nice to keep things more innocent for once in my life. That and I still haven’t forgotten about my bet with Zane.

  When we checked in by text last week, he claimed he still hasn’t given in. I never thought he’d make it this long. But then, I’d have never guessed I’d have gone nearly the entire first semester only with going on only one date in the first week.

  “
Well, I’m thoroughly jealous.” Olivia comes out of the bathroom with her hair in a messy bun on the top of her head. “But totally ready to live vicariously through you. And chick-flicks.”

  “What movie are we watching tonight?” I ask.

  “I’m thinking a classic is in order,” Olivia says. “How about Pretty Woman? There’s nothing like watching a young prostitute falling in love with an emotionally unavailable millionaire to drown my single sorrows.”

  Olivia hops into her bed and pulls up the movie on the TV.

  Right after she presses play, someone knocks loudly on the door.

  Olivia pauses it. “What the hell? Why would someone pound like that?”

  I get out of bed and open the door to a distraught-looking Micah.

  “You okay?” I ask.

  He comes into our room, his hand on top of his head. “Tammy’s magic is gone.”

  Olivia throws the blanket off of her legs and stands up. “What do you mean gone?”

  “She can’t access her magic. At all.” He doesn’t break eye contact with Olivia. “The doctors don’t think it’s the Sorcerer Flu. They say it’s the same thing that happened to Lexi.”

  Not one, but two freshmen have randomly lost their powers?

  “Do you think it has something to do with the magic trial?” I ask.

  Both Olivia and Micah turn toward me.

  “What do you mean?” Olivia asks.

  “I’m not sure, really.” I have no idea how any of it works. I’m probably the last person that should be theorizing about anything to do with magic, but something in my gut tells me it’s connected. “Maybe agreeing to the magic trial has corrupted our power somehow?”

  Olivia’s mouth closes into a straight line.

  “It’s just a guess,” I add, realizing I’m probably just going to freak everyone out.

  “It makes sense.” Micah drops his hand from his head. “But if that’s really what’s happening, we’re all in danger.”

  “Honestly, it was just a stupid thought. I have no idea what I’m talking about.” I shouldn’t have said anything. Causing a panic isn’t helpful.

  “Where’s Tammy right now?” Olivia reaches out and takes Micah’s hand.

  “Headed home,” he says, but we know that unless her magic comes back, she won’t return.

  “How’s she handling it?” I ask, remembering the crushed look on Lexi’s face when she lost her powers.

  “She’s pretending it’s no big deal, but she’s afraid.” Micah follows a tug from Olivia and sits next to her on the edge of her bed. “I’m sorry I made you two feel bad for being worried about the potential of losing your magic at the end of the trial. I don’t think I really realized how devastating it would be.”

  “I don’t think any of us really know how it feels,” Olivia says. “We were just about to watch the first Lord of the Rings, your favorite movie. Wanna join?” She reaches for the remote and clicks a button to take her to the home screen.

  I resist laughing at her total lie. Micah needs a distraction, and I don’t think Pretty Woman is the movie to help him feel better.

  He and Olivia share her bed as we all watch Frodo start his long journey to save humanity by destroying a ring.

  I only pay attention for the first half-hour, distracted by thoughts of what it would be like to lose my magic out of nowhere.

  Worrying about it won’t help anything. All I can do is hope that my group does well on Friday, and whatever happened to Lexi and Tammy never happens to me.

  Twenty

  Word of Tammy leaving Wicklow travels like a hurricane. By Tuesday, Dean Waters calls an assembly for the freshman class, promising that the cases of missing magic are being investigated, but there is nothing to worry about. But she has no answer to how it’s been happening, which defeats any attempt at reassurance.

  Our professors spend the first half of the week cramming a semester’s worth of review into a few classes until my head hurts. Thankfully, Thursday classes are cancelled, giving us one day off before tomorrow’s exam.

  After sleeping in until almost noon, Olivia and I swing by Micah’s room to pick him up and we all head to lunch. Since Tammy left, he hasn’t been himself. Olivia has been there for him, making sure he’s eating enough and not spending too much time moping in his room.

  None of us talk much while we pick at our food. Between the stress of the exam and worry that whatever happened to Lexi and Tammy could happen to any of us, my appetite is nonexistent.

  The three of us hang out in my and Olivia’s room for a while, but then Micah excuses himself to go to his room and take a nap.

  After he’s gone, I say, “Has he mentioned anything about talking to Tammy lately?”

  Olivia shakes her head. “No. I asked him a couple of days ago, but he just ignored my question. I’m worried about him.”

  “What is your group going to do now that you only have four members?”

  “Dean Waters said the assignments will be adjusted accordingly for the exam tomorrow, whatever that means.”

  “At least that’s good news.”

  She shrugs. “I guess.”

  Olivia excuses herself to the bathroom to take a hot bath, so I decide to go for a walk. With so much nervous energy bouncing inside me, I need to do something to burn it off.

  As I’m walking down the hallway, Elaine’s door is open.

  Since we are taking this week off of group practice, I haven’t talked to her much. If anyone is freaking out with all the pressure, she must be.

  Although I wouldn’t go as far as to call us friends, we’re more amiable than ever.

  When I stop in front of her room and turn to enter, shock rips through me.

  With the door wide open for anyone to see, Elaine is lip-locked with my brother. Her arms are slung over his neck, and his are wrapped around her, both hands resting on her butt.

  “Seriously?” The word comes out of my mouth before I can stop it.

  They both look at me and pull their hands from each other like kids who just got caught stealing from the cookie jar.

  Before either of them can respond, I stomp away, down the hall toward the stairs.

  “Wren, wait,” I hear Beck say, but I don’t slow down.

  I’ve never cared who he dated, and honestly, I still don’t. But after he made such a big deal about Kaz and me going on a date, he has no right to be dating Elaine behind my back. Sure, we aren’t the picture-perfect ideal of friendship, but we’ve known each other our whole lives and are in the same group here at Wicklow. A group that determines whether we end the year with magic, which means there’s a lot on the line.

  I keep a fast pace as I walk down the hall in case Beck is following me. Eventually, I’ll hear him out, though I already know that no matter what he says, hiding something like this from me was inexcusable. But right now I don’t want to talk. I need some time to cool off, or I’ll just end up saying something I’ll regret.

  Instead of taking the stairs leading down, I go up two flights. When I get to the next floor, I take a left and head down another hallway, determined to walk off my anger.

  Someone exits a door ahead of me, and when I realize it’s Sebastian, I curse under my breath. Of course I’d run into him.

  He glances up from his phone and smiles when he sees me. “Well, if it isn’t Wren Jacobsen in the junior dorm hallway.”

  “I didn’t realize that’s where I was,” I say.

  “You just wandered here?” His right eyebrow lifts skeptically.

  “I was trying to get away from my brother.” I glance behind me. It doesn’t seem he followed me. “I thought dorms were in the East Wing.”

  “Most are. But some of us have larger rooms to ourselves.”

  Sebastian is dressed in clearly expensive denim jeans, and a navy henley shirt with a white stripe across the chest. His blond hair has that carefree style to it, as always. How can he look so good all the time?

  “Well, I learned something new. Be
tter be going now.”

  I turn to leave when Sebastian says, “Or you could stay. I don’t think anyone is going to come looking for you in my room.”

  My intuition screams at me to keep walking. It’s the safe choice. But right now, I don’t want Beck to find me, and with everything on my mind, Sebastian is the perfect distraction.

  “Just for a little bit,” I say.

  When we’re in his room with the door shut, I sit on the couch and fold my hands in my lap.

  His room is even bigger than mine and Olivia’s, but the vibe is completely different. Ours has an elegant theme, while his is more sleek. The cream-colored couch sits on a gray rug on the side of the room closest to the door. There’s a huge TV on a espresso-wood entertainment stand, and modern artwork hung on the walls.

  “What did you have to do to get a room like this?” I ask.

  “You can apply for a single your junior year, though there are only ten available.” Sebastian lights a candle and sets it on the dresser. “I’ve heard it’s random.”

  Sure it is. Places like Wicklow don’t make arbitrary decisions. Usually things like this go to the biggest donor. But if Sebastian was raised in an orphanage, I’m doubting he has a lot of money.

  “So, what has you hiding from your brother?” Sebastian sits next to me, only a few inches between us.

  “I caught him kissing one of my group members.” I realize now how stupid it sounds that who my brother kisses has me mad enough to run away from him like I did. “Earlier this year I went on a date with his roommate. It was a great date, and I thought we’d go on another one, but my brother decided he was uncomfortable with his little sis dating his new bestie.”

  “You went on a date with that Kaz guy?” Sebastian lowers his chin.

  “Yeah. He’s a really great guy. So great, that my brother thought he needed to be protected from his own sister.” That part still stings.

  “Ouch.”

  “Right?” I say. “But anyway, seeing him with Elaine just triggered me. It all makes perfect sense now. Elaine has been oddly nice to me and way more relaxed in our group practices since Thanksgiving, when she was at my house at a party my parents threw.”