Witch, Please (Not Your Basic Witch Book 1)

by A. J. Macey

  “Hey, Cupcake,” Caspian greeted breathlessly, flashing me a smile. “Sorry it took so long, the men’s restroom was out of order, so I had to run over to the one at the other end of the floor.”

  “It’s alright, you made it just in time,” I exclaimed. As Torryn started teaching, my stomach turned slightly, making me frown. On top of everything lately, I have to feel nauseous. Maybe lunch wasn’t sitting well… or honestly, I had one too many soul cakes. Caspian gave me a concerned look as I fought the nausea, rubbing my stomach and waving him off as I focused on the lecture.

  I hope I’m not getting sick.

  October 13th

  Sunday Night

  Aris

  I was hot, cold, grouchy, nauseous, and all I wanted to do at that moment was throw something and watch it break. I had been sick before, plenty of times, but this was a hundred times worse than Broom Cough. Kye was lying next to me, fingers tapping away at his chest, and the longer he tapped, the more irritable I got.

  Thud.

  Thud.

  Thud.

  Right when I had had enough and opened my mouth to snap at him, a familiar red plane came zooming into the room. I huffed angrily as I rolled out of the dive-bombing plane’s path. Reaching out, I snatched it from the air, the paper crumpling in my fist. What the hellsticks does Torryn want now?

  Gorgeous,

  Meet us at the crystal cave as soon as possible. I found something.

  xoxo

  -Tor

  “We’ve been summoned,” I bit out, already feeling weak and achy from getting up so fast, but I focused on throwing on my shoes and jacket. Mr. Stripes took his usual spot on my shoulder, nudging my head as though he knew I needed the extra comfort.

  “Ready, Sweets?” Kye asked, his lips curling up a bit as he looked down at me. Plastering what seemed to be the hundredth fake smile on my face, I took his hand and headed out. It was quiet around the dormitory in the late Sunday evening, the cold outside air keeping students tucked in their rooms where it was warm.

  And yet, here we were, fucking walking in the wet, soppy forest.

  By the time we reached the cave, I was a dripping, shivering mess and angrier than I had been in a long time. The rest of my guys were waiting in a circle for us, all looking as cold and irritable as me.

  “Alright,” Torryn started as soon as Kye and I stepped up into the circle. “I found out what Aris is.” Even feeling down and angry, I stood up straighter, excited to finally know what the hell was happening to me. “In some very old archives, I found written records that made me think you are what they call a Conduit.”

  “A what’s-it?” I mumbled, my sick witch brain unable to process what he was saying.

  “A Conduit. Basically, you’re a powerful witch who can unlock and amplify any dormant elemental powers within your Tethers, a.k.a. the witches who form a bond with you.

  “Tether? That’s what we are?” Drayce questioned, and Petunia, his piglet familiar’s head tilted as if she was trying to understand. Well, that’s just cute as hellsticks.

  “Yes, we all had latent elemental powers, but they weren’t brought out until we emotionally aligned or ‘vibed’ with Aris.”

  “So, why did you call all of us out here to tell us that?” Caspian asked with a frown, his messy hair clearly showing he had been asleep before being summoned.

  “Well, I figured the fact every Conduit in the history of Akasha had been used by the Council or killed because of the power they held was a pretty good reason to meet out here. Excuse me for thinking of Aris’ safety, little brother,” he snapped before looking at the rest of us.

  “I also brought you out here because we have one final step, one more bond to complete the connection to Aris. This bonding is called a Circuit Bond, and essentially, it’ll solidify the overall connection between the Tethers and the Conduit. It should, hopefully, make the powers less unstable, so they’ll be less active when we’re together or emotionally charged. Right now, it’s as if Aris is the center of a spoked wheel. Each of us is one of the spokes connected to Aris, but we’re missing the most important connection—the outer wheel that’s a secondary connection between all of us, giving our bond a stronger structure. This ceremony should, in simple terms, bond all of us together.”

  I nodded, glancing around the circle. Everyone wore pensive expressions, thinking over what he just told us, and much to my surprise, no one argued. First time for everything, I guess.

  “Alright, let’s do it,” Xan commanded after everyone had nodded their agreement. Torryn instructed us, having all of them hold hands with me in the center as we stood under the glass top of the clock tower. Looking up, I saw the full moon was close to completely filling the clear, circular crystal.

  “When the moon fills the circle, everyone needs to think of why they care about Aris. Let it be the only thought in your mind. There’s no activation word or incantation, just another emotional alignment with Aris like the previous bonds,” Torryn stated, looking up. “Ready? Now.”

  As if I was dreaming, the crystals started to pulse and glow in the moonlight as it filtered down the inside of the clock tower into the cavern. All five elements swirled around the space, mixing together until I couldn’t make out where one element started and another ended. Spinning in wonder, my eyes wide as I watched, feeling wave after wave of magic flow over me, filling me until I felt like I was going to burst, until finally, I collapsed to my hands and knees, vomiting. When the power subsided, I still wretched, pain radiating through me as a black goop sprayed out on the ground in front of me.

  “Holy shit, Aris!” Caspian called in distress, but I was too lost in the intense pain and pulses of nausea that were slowly lessening.

  “No! She needs to purge,” I heard Drayce explain. No one approached me until I finally stopped. Sitting back on my heels, I felt like I had run a marathon and been run over by a witches’ competitive broom race, but emotionally, I was back to my old self, not realizing until now how irritable and agitated I had been.

  “Gorgeous,” Torryn murmured, kneeling in front of me, taking care not to touch the goo. “You okay?”

  “Yeah,” I whispered, my voice raspy from all the bouts of sickness. “What the hellsticks just happened?”

  “You were poisoned,” Caspian bit out, looking into the puddle of black mass. “The bonding cleansed your system and pushed out the potion that was wreaking havoc on your body.”

  “Okay, this has gone way too fucking far. First the hex and now poison,” Kye nearly screamed, pacing frantically until Drayce laid a hand on his shoulder, stopping his back-and-forth motions.

  “Those aren’t all,” I whispered, finally realizing that all those previous instances that tripped my gut instinct were correct. “Things had been randomly missing from my bag and my room, my stuff ending up in different places than where I left them. I thought it was just witches being well... witches, but that’s clearly not the case.”

  “Anything else?” Xan questioned, his deep voice bouncing off the crystals that no longer glowed in the moonlight. I nodded, taking a deep breath and hoping they wouldn’t be mad at me, but Torryn spoke first.

  “That night when there was that cloaked figure in the classroom,” he breathed, his face dumbstruck as he processed. Knowing Tor, he was questioning how he could have missed such a detail. I reached out, stretching over the puddle to grab his hand.

  “It’s okay, I didn’t think of it until now. But Torryn’s right, there was a cloaked figure following me when I went to check on him and get him snacks after he had been hexed. I figured it was just someone trying to scare other witches because I never saw them again.”

  “Hells bells and tarot tells,” Kye muttered. “So, it’s definitely someone targeting Aris since there’s not another witch being laid out in the infirmary. What do we do?”

  “Tell the headmaster and that bald motherfucker,” Caspian ground out in agitation, his hand coming out to rub my back, showing me he wasn’t mad at me
but at the situation in general.

  “And how do we explain the fact we were out here in the cave in the middle of the night?” Torryn muttered, his hand coming to rub his eyes. “Fucking hellsticks, we can’t tell that useless bastard anything. That’s opening a lot of questions we don’t want to answer.”

  “The best we can do is stick together and hope they’ll get their shit under control,” Drayce added, Xan nodding his agreement before taking over.

  “We can try to look into it more, but we lack the resources required to conduct such an investigation. We keep an eye out for Aris. Our top priority is keeping her safe while not arousing suspicion about our connection or powers.”

  “Does that mean we can go back to doing group stuff?” I perked up, hope filling me. I had missed them terribly, and the only thing I wanted was to be able to spend time with them without shame or worry about being discovered.

  Hopefully, this bond worked, and it mellowed out the powers.

  “Yes,” Drayce smiled at me, knowing where I was going. I did a little dance from my spot on the ground, a wide smile spreading over my face. “I’ve missed that smile, Angel. Let’s get back and get some rest.”

  I nodded, each of us leaving in pairs, as we usually did, back to the campus.

  At least there was one good thing that came from this—I got my guys back.

  October 21st

  Monday Night

  Aris

  “I literally can’t read anything else about potions,” Drayce groaned, closing his level four potions book and sliding it across the table. The past week had been a blur, every professor throwing every last ounce of teaching they could muster in before we had our exams. It felt like everything was due at once, so most of it had been nonstop homework and studying. Only a few more days until freedom!

  “I take offense to that,” Caspian chimed in from his spot a few chairs down.

  “Yours is the only potion I want to brew,” Drayce flirted, throwing him a wink. Cas’ face burned a brilliant red as he groaned and adjusted in his seat, flipping his book to the next page as he actively ignored us.

  My eyes grew fuzzy as I read over my notes, closing slightly despite my best attempts. We’d already been studying for a few hours, preparing for our midterms on Wednesday, and I was about to lose my mind, along with my energy. It didn’t help that Xan had snagged us a mentoring classroom to use, so it was secluded and quiet as well. If it gets any deader around here, I’m going to fall asleep for sure.

  “You with us, Muse?” Xan asked, laughing lightly as I blinked up at him with bleary eyes. “Your snores are distracting me.”

  I glared at him, the second guy to call me out for snoring.

  “I don’t snore, they’re cute little breaths of air,” I protested with a huff. “I’m just struggling to stay awake, and I still have History and Magic 101 notes to cover,” I groaned, lightly hitting my head on the table at my to-do list.

  “We just learned how to make Brainiac Brew. You want one?” Caspian asked excitedly.

  “Bring it on.” I should probably be afraid to be his guinea pig, but I was desperate at this point.

  “Hell, yes.”

  “Give me one.”

  “Good thing I made a double batch,” he mumbled as he took a pack of vials out of his bag and passed one to each of us. I popped the cork, the liquid inside a brilliant shade of gold, smelling like fresh, crisp apples. I was expecting something along the lines of rotting apples, but I was pleasantly surprised.

  “Cheers! Here’s hoping Sprinkles doesn’t kill us all,” Drayce teased, clinking our glasses together and downing them all at once. The concoction tasted as good as it smelled, a slight warmth working its way from my belly and moving through my body, waking it as it moved. Moments later, I was wide awake and alert, feeling like I could take on the world.

  “Damn, babe, that was some good shit. It’s not my first energy aid, but it’s probably the best,” Drayce complimented, handing the empty vials back down to Caspian, who gave us a proud grin, his whole face lighting up as he tucked them away.

  “Now to focus. Let’s study until this alarm goes off,” Xan said, fidgeting with his witch’s glass and setting it on the table in front of us. “Then we can reward ourselves with a pantry run.”

  He knows me too well.

  “First one to hit their goal gets the Hex Mix. You know they only keep one bag in that pantry,” I sang out to Kye, who narrowed his eyes at the challenge.

  “You’re on. And just for that, I’m not sharing,” he said before focusing back on his project.

  With the help of Cas’ energy mix, I was able to power through my notes. The concoction also helped me not be so bored studying, so things actually soaked into my brain as I read them, all of it seeming interesting now. Hopefully, he had another round for tomorrow and maybe, even for Wednesday.

  The sound of The Hex Girls’ ‘I Put a Spell on You’ playing shocked us out of our studying. I gave Xan a sly smile at his song choice before Kye and I glanced at each other, a challenging grin on both of our faces. I shoved my books away and hurried out the door, sprinting down the hall to the pantry. By the time he got in there, I was happily munching on a bag of Hex Mix.

  Maybe I’ll be nice and share… probably not though.

  October 23rd

  Wednesday afternoon

  Aris

  Our study night started with the Brainiac Brew from the night before, meaning we were all a bit more cheerful. Not to mention Xan, always the responsible one, brought the snacks with him. Clearly, he’s already learned how to keep me from getting cranky.

  Two successful nights of studying made me feel like the exams wouldn’t be so bad. Though all of that flew out the window as soon as Professor Bellario slid an exam across my desk. I opened it and started reading, realizing she was quizzing us on the handbook instead of our individual study plans. Thankfully, we would be having a one-on-one individual exam with her after.

  Thanks to Xan, I was humming The Hex Girls as I took the exam, the catchy tune actually helping me breeze through the monotonous questions. As soon as I turned it in, she pulled me aside to show her what I could do. She decided we all should be capable of simple spells, so I had to light a lantern and put it out again before using a simple communication spell to send an airplane. The latter was something I didn’t realize not all Mixtas could do.

  “Let’s see what you’ve learned,” Professor Bellario said in her fake voice. The more time I spent with her, the more I hated her. Focusing on holding back what I could do, I let the lantern fizzle a few times before finally lighting it, using everything in me to keep the light small and controlled. Thanks to our completed circuit, the magic was far easier to control. Before this, I probably would have exploded the poor lantern, giving us away.

  “How’s that?” I asked in a fake hopeful voice. She tsked for a moment as she jotted some notes.

  “It’s impressive for a Mixta; you could barely start a small flame before. I’d say the mentoring has done you good,” she answered, something else in her voice I couldn’t place.

  “I’ve been studying hard,” I promised, walking over to the papers she had laid out for the next part. I wrote a quick note, thanking her for helping me find my magic and sent it off. The paper flew around the room for a moment before dive-bombing her hair and getting stuck in the frizzy mess on top of her head. “Whoops,” I said, wincing at her angry expression.

  “Impressive, Miss Calisto,” she said, narrowing her eyes at me suspiciously. “You’re dismissed.” My heart pounded in my chest as I gathered my stuff and hurried from the room. I wasn’t sure if she suspected me of cheating, or if she knew I had more magic than I was showing, but either way, she was someone I needed to look out for.

  October 25th

  Friday afternoon

  Kyelerian

  The Divination technical exam was mind-numbing. Thanks to the boost of magic we all got the other night, mixed with Caspian’s knack for making pow
erful Brainiac Brew, I was killing this round of midterms. This was the last exam I had before Familiar Studies, which I wasn’t worried about in the least. Thanks to an angry little chicken, I had learned to pay better attention in class. That particular chicken was pecking away at seed I had put on the ground, occasionally hitting at my shoes, which I was sure was not an accident—little feathered brat.

  As I filled in the last answer, I glanced at the clock on the wall, groaning inwardly when I realized I still had a thirty-minute wait. This professor was a stickler for time, making us all wait until the end of class to turn our tests in and leave.

  My thoughts drifted back to the night in the cave, bonding as a group. The fact I had bonded with four other guys for life should probably weird me out—especially because I hate people—but it didn’t. Somehow, our little ragtag band of witches seemed to work. Aris drew us all in, her cheerful personality and bubblegum pink hair so hard to get out of your head. The mere thought of her cute smile had me grinning down at my test.

  What Torryn had told us about Aris being a Conduit and us being her Tethers made sense. She made us stronger, pulling out magic we hadn’t known we’d had in us. After we completed the circuit, my magic settled, and it was the most balanced I had ever felt.

  As class droned on, I thought over my other exams, wondering how well I did on them. The only one I was really questioning was my history class; boring classes really aren’t my strong suit.

  The moment the clock tower chimed, I hurried to grab my bag, slapped my test on her desk, and booked it out of the room with Raptor at my heels. Thoughts of Samhain and spending extra time with Aris had me grinning the entire way.