Hex Hall

by Рейчел Хоукинс

  Alice's attack spells, even though I hadn't been able to sense them coming.

  But for the past hour we'd been working on making something appear out of nothing. We'd started small, hence the pencil, and Alice claimed it was just a matter of concentrating.

  But I'd been concentrating so hard that I was afraid I'd now be seeing bright yellow Number 2 pencils every time I closed my eyes. I'd vibrated the grass a bunch, and after one particularly frustrating moment, I'd sent a rock flying toward Alice, but no pencils.

  "Should we start even smaller?" Alice asked. "A paper clip, perhaps?

  An ant?"

  I cut my eyes at her and took another deep breath.

  Pencil, pencil, pencil, I thought. Bright yellow pencil, soft pink eraser, SAT, please, please . . .

  And then I felt it. That feeling like water rushing up from the soles of my feet and into my fingertips. But this wasn't just water. This was a river.

  Everything inside of me seemed to be vibrating. I felt a burning behind my eyes, but it was a good sort of heat, the way a sunwarmed car seat feels on your back on a cool day. My face ached, and I realized it was because I was smiling.

  The pencil faded in slowly, looking like a ghost of itself at first, before finally becoming solid. I kept my hands out, the magic still pulsing through me, and turned to Alice to say something along the lines of "Neener neener!"

  But then I saw that she wasn't looking at me. She was looking past me, where the pencil was. I turned back and gasped.

  Now there wasn't just one pencil in front of me. There was a pile of maybe thirty spilling over each other, and more were popping up.

  I dropped my hands and felt the magic stop instantly, like a connection had been severed.

  "Holy crap!" I exclaimed softly.

  "My, my," was Alice's only comment.

  "I . . ." I stared at the pile. "I did that," I said finally, even as I mentally kicked myself for sounding so stupid.

  "Indeed you did," Alice said, shaking her head a little. Then she smiled. "I told you so."

  I laughed, but then a thought occurred to me.

  "Wait. You said your sleeping spell lasts for only four hours." I glanced at my watch. "It's been almost four hours now, and it took us at least half an hour to get out here. How are we going to get back in time?"

  Alice smiled, and with a snap of her fingers, two brooms suddenly materialized beside her.

  "You're joking," I said.

  The smile broadened, and she threw one leg over a broom and zoomed off into the sky. She came back down and hovered a few feet above my head, and her laugh echoed throughout the woods. "Come on, Sophia!"

  she called. "Be traditional for once!"

  Heaving myself off the ground, I grabbed the slender neck of the broom. "Is this thing gonna hold me?" I called up to her. "We don't all shop at Baby Gap!"

  This time she didn't bother to ask me what I was talking about. She just laughed and said, "I'd hurry if I were you! Fifteen minutes stand between you and year-long cellar duty!"

  So I straddled the broom. I wasn't quite as ladylike as Alice, but when the broom suddenly lifted into the air, I didn't care how undignified I looked.

  I grabbed the handle tighter and gave a startled yelp as the night air rushed over me. And then I was in the sky.

  I'd assumed the broom would rush off and that I'd be hanging on for dear life, but instead it sort of glided, and I caught my breath, not out of fear but out of a feeling of sheer exhilaration. The air was cold but soft around me, and as I followed Alice back to the school, I gathered the courage to look down at the trees below me. Alice had extinguished the orb, so all I could really make out were dark blobs, but I didn't care. I was flying--

  actually honest-to-God flying.

  The stars overhead felt close enough to touch, and my heart felt like it was floating free in my chest. In the distance I could see the green glow of the bubble around Hecate, and I hoped we would never get there, that I could just go on feeling this light, this free, forever.

  Too soon, we touched down just in front of the porch. My cheeks felt chapped and my hands were numb, but I was smiling like a lunatic.

  "That," I pronounced, "was the most awesome thing ever. Why don't all witches do that?"

  Alice laughed as she dismounted. "I suppose it's thought of as a cliche."

  "Well, screw that noise," I said. "When I'm head of the Council, that's going to be the only way to travel."

  Alice laughed again. "Glad to hear it."

  As we watched, the bubble around Hecate began to dim.

  "Guess that means I should go in," I said. "So, same time, same place tomorrow?"

  Alice nodded and then reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a small pouch. "Take this with you."

  The bag was soft in my hand, and I could feel its contents shifting.

  "What is this?"

  "Dirt from my grave. Should you ever need extra power for a spell, just pour a little on your hands and that should do it."

  "Okay. Um, thanks." It would be nice to have a little extra magic mojo, but inside, all I could think was, Grave dirt? Gross.

  "And, Sophia," Alice added as I turned to go.

  "Yeah?"

  She walked up to me and took my shoulders, pulling my head down to her mouth. For a second I thought she was going to kiss me on the cheek or something, but then she whispered, "Be careful. The Eye sees you, even here."

  I jerked back, my heart pounding and my mouth dry, but before I could reply, Alice gave a sad smile and faded away.

  CHAPTER 23

  "So," I breathlessly asked Archer a week later, "have you picked out the perfect shade of pink for your tux yet?"

  We were in Defense, and I was only winded because I'd just delivered a blow that had sent Archer to the mat for the fifth time that day. My lack of oxygen had nothing to do with how good he looked in his tight T-shirt. I couldn't believe I'd knocked him down so many times. Either he was getting worse, or I was getting a lot better. I mean, I was never going to be on

  American Gladiators, but I wasn't half bad. And I'd been out all night.

  My necklace bumped against my chest as I leaned down to offer

  Archer a hand. Alice's charm had worked like a . . . well, you get it. I'd only gotten about two hours of sleep for the first three nights, and yet I'd woken up feeling fine. The first morning I'd lived in fear that Mrs. Casnoff was going to pull me into her office and ask if I knew anything about a sleeping spell someone had put on the school, but when that hadn't happened, I'd started to relax a little. Now I didn't even bother to sleep. I'd just lie there in the dark, feeling as antsy as a kid on Christmas Eve until I saw the soft green glow spill through my windows. Then I'd rush outside, jump onto my broom, and soar through the night sky until I got to the cemetery.

  I knew what I was doing was dangerous and maybe a little stupid. But when I rode through the sky or did spells so powerful I'd never dreamed they existed, it was hard to remember that.

  Archer grinned as I helped him to his feet.

  "No, seriously," I said. "Elodie was saying earlier that you two were going to match. So what shade is it? 'Tickled Pink'? 'Rambling Rose,' maybe? Ooh, ooh, I know! 'Virgin's Blush'!"

  The All Hallow's Eve Ball was just a week away, and it seemed like that was all anyone was talking about. Even in Byron's class our assignment had been to compose a sonnet about the outfit we were going to wear. I still had no idea what I was wearing. Ms. East was in charge of teaching us the transformation spell that would create our dresses and tuxes. Just yesterday she'd given us each a dummy dressed in something that looked like a pillowcase with armholes. I didn't know why we couldn't just transform clothes we already owned, but I figured it was just another one of Hecate's dumb rules.

  The shapeshifters and faeries had to get their own clothes, which meant that boxes had been arriving nonstop for the past few days.

  And then there was Jenna. I'd offered to make her a dress, but she
'd looked at me like I was completely stupid and said there was no way she was going to that "idiotic dance."

  We'd been working on the spell every day in Ms. East's class, but so far everything I'd attempted had come out a little too poufy. Ms. East said that was just because I was too excited, but I didn't really buy that. There was nothing all that exciting about the ball for me. I wasn't "giving myself" to anyone.

  "Shut up," Archer said good-naturedly, lifting his arms over his head to stretch. "For your information, only my bow tie will be pink, and I plan on rocking it, thank you very much."

  I tried to smile back, but I was trying not to stare at the ribbon of skin that was showing beneath his T-shirt as he bent over.

  As usual, my mouth went a little dry and my breathing sped up, and that weird, almost sad feeling settled in my stomach.

  I never thought I'd be glad to hear the Vandy's braying voice, but when she shouted, "All right! That's it for today!" I could have kissed her.

  Well, on second thought, no. Maybe a firm handshake.

  "Holy hell weasel," I muttered an hour later.

  I was staring at my latest attempt at a ball gown. At least this one had avoided a serious case of the poufies, but it was also a noxious shade of yellow-green usually found in baby's diapers or around nuclear disasters.

  "Well, Miss Mercer. That's . . . an improvement, I suppose," Ms. East said. Her lips were pursed so tightly, it was a wonder any words had come out at all.

  "Right," Jenna said. She was sitting on a desk next to me. She spent most of the class reading those mangas she liked so much. "You're getting better," she said encouragingly, but she frowned as she took in my latest creation.

  "Yeah, at least this one didn't knock over three desks," Elodie sneered from beside me.

  Her dress, of course, was gorgeous.

  I'd assumed the ball was like the monster version of prom, and that the dresses would be similar to anything you'd see in a regular high school.

  Yeah, not so much. The dresses most of the girls were working on looked like something out of a fairy tale.

  But Elodie's dress was easily the prettiest in the class. High-waisted with delicate cap sleeves and frothy skirts, it looked like something you'd wear if you were in a Jane Austen book. I'd teased Archer about it being pink, but even I had to admit that the shade of pink was really lovely.

  Nowhere near "Electric Raspberry," it was more the pale pink that you sometimes find inside shells. It seemed to glow like a pearl, and Elodie was going to be devastatingly beautiful in it.

  Damn it.

  Frustrated, I turned back to my own dress. I put my hands on either side of the dummy's waist and thought, Beautiful dress, beautiful dress, something blue, as hard as I could. It was so annoying to know that I could now make something as big as a chair appear out of thin air, but I couldn't seem to make a dress that wasn't completely heinous. Okay, so the chair I'd conjured up last night was toddler-size, but still.

  I felt the material shift and slip under my hands. Please, I thought, my eyes squeezed shut.

  Then I heard Elodie and Anna burst out laughing.

  Crap.

  I opened my eyes to stare at a bright blue tulle monstrosity with a skirt that would hit me at mid thigh. I'd look like the really slutty bride of Cookie

  Monster.

  I muttered a really bad word under my breath, which earned me an evil look from Ms. East, but surprisingly, no punishment. I guess she couldn't really blame me after she looked at the dress.

  "Wow, Sophie, that's really something." Elodie sauntered over to me, one hand on her hip. "I think you have a real future in fashion design."

  "Ha-ha," I muttered, which, as far as comebacks go, is about as cool as saying, "So there."

  "I can't believe I actually invited you to join my coven," she said, turning those bright green eyes on me.

  I groaned inwardly. Elodie's eyes were only that bright when she was about to deliver a huge smackdown. The last time I'd seen her like this was the night she'd called Jenna a bloodsucking freak after they'd found Chaston.

  "Here you are, the head of the Council's daughter, and you can't even make a dress. Pathetic."

  "Look, Elodie, I don't want to fight. So just . . . just leave me alone and let me work on my dress, okay?"

  But she wasn't remotely finished with me.

  "Why do you even care about making a dress for the ball? Who have you got to look pretty for? Archer?"

  I fought very hard to keep cool, even as my hands tightened around the material in front of me.

  Elodie leaned in closer, so I doubted anyone else heard it when she whispered, "You think I don't see the way you look at him?"

  Keeping my eyes on the dummy, I said in the lowest, calmest voice possible, "Stop it, Elodie."

  "I mean, your crush on him is just so sweet. And by sweet, of course I mean tragic," she continued. From the corner of my eye, I could see that almost everyone had stopped working and was watching us. Ms. East was pretending to ignore us, so I knew I was being thrown to the wolves on this one.

  I took a deep breath and turned around to face Elodie, who was smirking at me in triumph.

  "Oh, Elodie," I said in a voice that was so sweet it practically dripped syrup, "don't worry about me and Archer. After all, I'm not the one planning on having sex with him at the ball."

  The class erupted into giggles, and Elodie did something I'd never seen her do: she turned bright red and actually sputtered in her attempt to come up with a serious put-down.

  Ms. East chose that moment to shout, "Miss Mercer! Miss Parris!

  Back to work!"

  Smiling, I turned back to my dress. But the feeling of triumph was immediately deflated by the bright blue disaster in front of me.

  "Does your magic feel off or anything?" Jenna asked softly.

  "No, it feels the same as always. Water rushing up from my feet and all that."

  "What?" Anna sneered, propping a hand on her hip. " How does your magic feel?"

  "Uh . . . like something coming up from underneath me," I said, rushing to get the words out.

  "That's not what magic feels like," Anna said.

  I glanced around and saw that there were a few other witches staring at me in confusion.

  "Magic comes from above," Anna continued. "It feels like something falling over you, like . . ."

  "Snow," Elodie finished.

  My face was hot when I turned back to my dummy. "I guess mine is just different, then."

  I heard some whispers, but I ignored them.

  "You'll get it," Jenna said, shooting Anna a dirty look.

  "Oh, I know I'm gonna get better," I told her, running a hand over the tulle bustle in the back of the dress. (A bustle? Screw you, magical powers.)

  "This is the dress I'm making for you."

  "Oh, really?" she asked, her smile widening.

  "Yeah, we'll probably have to hem it, though. Don't want it dragging on the floor."

  She playfully smacked my arm with the back of her hand, and before I knew it, we were laughing.

  I spent the rest of the class attempting to make the ugliest dresses possible, which was only funny to me and Jenna. I lost count of how many times Ms. East threatened to throw us out of class, and Elodie rolled her eyes so much that Jenna finally asked if she was having a seizure. This made us laugh so hard that Ms. East finally did kick us out, and gave us both a seven-

  page essay to write on the history of clothing spells.

  I didn't care. To have Jenna laughing again, I would have written a hundred pages.

  "I don't know what changed," I told Alice later that night as we moved through the forest, picking mint for some spell that could slow time. "One minute she was the same sulky Jenna she's been for the past month, the next we were friends again."

  Alice didn't say anything, so I said, "Isn't that great?"

  "I suppose."

  "You suppose?" I said, mocking her accent.

  She straightened a
nd glared at me. "It's just that I don't approve of your having a vampire for a bosom companion. It's beneath you."

  I laughed. "Oh my God, beneath me? Come on."

  Alice sighed as she shoved another bunch of leaves into the small leather sack she'd conjured. "Your friends are your concern, Sophia. I'll try to respect that. Now tell me about this party you have coming up."

  I bent down to pick another bunch of mint. "It's a ball, actually. For

  Halloween. It should be awesome. Especially since I can't manage to make a dress that doesn't completely suck. Oh, and--bonus--I get to suffer through watching a girl I despise be totally beautiful and seduce a guy I like. Should be good times."

  "Elodie?"

  I nodded.

  Alice scowled. "I don't care for that girl. She's been quite hateful toward you. Undoubtedly because your powers are so superior to her own.

  There are few things more abhorrent to me than a weak witch."

  "Wow, tell me what you really think."

  Alice blinked at me. "I just did."

  "Forget it. It's just so unfair that she's such a heinous person, but her dress spell has turned out so beautifully. She's going to look amazing."

  And have sex with Archer, I added silently.

  I'd forgotten Alice could read my mind. "Oh. Is Archer that boy you fancy?"

  There was no use in denying that I "fancied" him. I nodded.

  "Humph," Alice replied. "Why not just use a love charm on him?

  They're frightfully simple."

  I shoved some more mint into my bag. "Because I . . . Look, this sounds stupid, but I really like him, and I don't want him to like me back if it's just, like, some spell."

  I thought Alice might argue with me, but she just shrugged and said, "Attraction has its own magic, I suppose."

  "Yeah, well, there's probably no chance of him ever being attracted to me. I thought maybe at the ball . . . but I can't even make a decent dress."

  I turned to Alice. "Why is it that when I'm out here with you, I can do completely kick-ass spells, but when I'm in the school, everything I do blows up in my face?"

  "Confidence?" she suggested. "You feel unsure of yourself in that school, and it's reflected in your magic."