by S. W. Clarke
I gazed down at the inanimate thing in my hand. “A fragment?”
She pointed with one long finger. “It is part of a weapon, sundered in five pieces during the Battle of the Ages.”
I looked back up at her. “Why did the wisps call it my claim?”
Her eyes met mine—then flashed away, back to the key. “I will think on it.”
A lie. I knew a lie as well as anyone.
And if she was going to lie to me, then I had no compunctions about lying to her.
I sat back. “The man I saw out there at the gates…he called me ‘the sister.’”
The headmistress blinked, eyes flicking back to me. “The sister? What would he mean by that?”
“I had a sister.” I lowered my hand. “If you’ve looked through my records, you know about Tamzin.”
“I saw. She disappeared with your mother when she was ten years old.”
“And you know nothing about what happened to either of them.”
The headmistress held my gaze this time. “Nothing. It’s possible the forces of darkness know about your sister and were using her against you.”
“And who was the man who was using my sister against me? He didn’t look like the others.”
The headmistress stood, crossed to one wall of books. She slid an enormous tome out, set it in front of me. The History of Darkness, the cover read. “This book contains everything we know about the underworld and its denizens throughout recorded history.”
I set one hand on the book. “I’ll read it after I’ve had a shower. Right now, can you tell me about him?”
She sat down. “About the man who spoke of your sister?”
I nodded.
She exhaled. “The person you saw has many names. He serves the Shade, though he is not fully under her command. He is born of a human and something hellish, with a longer lifespan than any human.” Umbra paused. “In the book, he is most often referred to simply as Lucian.”
Lucian. I repeated the name once, twice, three times in my mind. And then it was written there forever. That was how I worked.
His eyes had carried more truth when he’d spoken of my sister than Umbra when she’d denied knowing anything. Which meant my sister could be out there somewhere. Or at least, she wasn’t wholly lost to the world. And if there was the smallest chance she was still alive, I had to pursue it.
Which meant I needed, more than ever, to become unputdownable.
Umbra’s hand extended overtop the book, palm up. “The key, please.”
I nearly flinched away, my face jerking up. “What?”
“I’m afraid it is far too powerful to carry around in your pocket.”
“Will it transport me back to that place? With her?”
“No. That will not happen again.”
Well, that was vague.
“But, I—” I gripped it harder. It’s my claim, I thought but didn’t say. “It allowed me to tap into my power.”
Her eyebrows went up. “I’ve no doubt it did. That is its purpose. But I can assure you, Clementine: now that you’ve touched your power, you will be able to access it without the key.”
“It was given to me by the wisps.”
“The wisps serve their own purposes, child. And not all of them are good. That key swims with dark power.”
My resistance was faltering, but I persisted. “Tell me what the wisps are, at least.”
“Souls,” she whispered, and I knew by her look and tone she wasn’t lying. “Captured souls of darkness, made benign by their entrapment inside the wisps.”
Not so benign, I thought, if they gave me this key.
“And why did the key transport me straight to the Shade?”
“The weapon belonged to the Shade for hundreds of years—until the Battle of the Ages. We sundered it then, hiding the five components across the world. The key itself was lost in the battle.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
A flicker of annoyance crossed her face. She was done with my questions. “Give it to me, please.”
Finally, I pressed the key across the desk to her.
When she took it up in both hands, her breathing quickened. She looked almost fearful of the small piece of metal, like she wanted to throw it away. When she opened her desk drawer and set it inside, she returned her focus to me.
“What happens now?” I asked.
She sighed and tilted her head at me. “What do you think?”
Chapter Forty-Three
When I limped out of Umbra’s office, Eva and Aiden were waiting for me outside. I had already told them everything that had happened from the moment I’d touched the ebony key.
They came to either side of me and helped me cross the clearing toward the medical ward.
“So, what’s the sentencing?” Aiden asked.
I glanced over at him. “Sentencing?”
“It’s a joke about how severe the headmistress can be,” Eva explained, “when you break academy rules.”
I raised one hand, lifting my fingers one by one. “9pm curfew. No going into the stables without supervision. No going into Headmistress Umbra’s office without a summons. Basically, no going anywhere without a chaperone.”
“That actually doesn’t sound so bad,” Aiden said.
“Really?” I shot back. “Sounds like middle school hell to me.”
Eva shrugged. “She could have expelled you on about eight different counts.”
She wouldn’t dare do that, I thought. Because she needs me here.
After everything I’d learned from Aiden, I knew she wanted to keep me here as much for my own sake as for the world’s. Headmistress Umbra didn’t trust me, so she wanted to keep me close. Safe. Clean.
And now that I had the memory of my magic coursing through my veins, I didn’t blame her. The Spitfire and my magic were interlocked, both based in fury and flames.
And I didn’t know if I could control the Spitfire.
Fire witches were corrupted by flame. That was her fear. That was everyone’s fear.
But I knew I had to harness the Spitfire if I was ever going to challenge the Shade. If I was ever going to find my sister.
When they dropped me off at the infirmary, I knew it was the last place I wanted to spend the night. But given the shape I was in, I knew the fae nurse would supply me with the best drugs and healing magic available.
And I wasn’t wrong in that assumption. Once again, she flitted around me and exclaimed how terrible I looked and how I needed to get straight into a gown for her examination before she disappeared behind the curtain to gather up her supplies.
As I removed my clothes to change into the medical gown, I felt something heavy in my skirt pocket.
When I reached in, I touched cold metal. My heart slowed, then thundered on with an overlarge beat.
The ebony key.
I pulled it out, gazed at it my in hand.
I had seen Headmistress Umbra put it in her desk drawer. There was no way she’d slip it back to me.
I thought back to when I’d first seen the key—when the wisps had conjured it for me. It is your claim, they had said as it floated in the air. This key was the first component to the weapon. It was what allowed me to tap into my power.
I should take it back to Umbra. I should take it straight to her office.
I should do the right thing.
Instead, I only gripped it harder; I needed my magic to find my sister. To challenge the Shade.
Good witches don’t lie, I thought.
But I’d never claimed to be good.
Epilogue
A few weeks later, classes ended, and Eva entered the qualifiers.
The academy had set up stands for an audience to watch the first round—the race through the meadow. And Aiden, Loki, and I were in the highest row of the stands, seated in the shade of the canopy as a mid-May sun sat high in the sky.
Umbra stood in the middle of the meadow before all the entrants, a mixture of fae and h
umans on horseback. There must have been fifty of them in total listening to her speak.
Eva stood among them, her purple hair in a tight bun at the back of her head. Her wings were still, her face as serious as I’d ever seen it.
I leaned toward Aiden. “Remind me again how you pass this round.”
“You have to not get caught.”
I glanced at him. “And how many usually get caught?”
“Almost all.”
My eyebrow went up. “But there are two more rounds after this.”
He shrugged. “That’s why there are only twelve guardians at the academy.”
Most of the student body had gathered in the stands. And by now, everyone had heard about me and Noir. I had become the fire witch who rode a horse instead of a broom. And that didn’t make me any less frightening to them.
If anything, I was creepier now than ever.
But none of that mattered to me, because Noir was alive. He was my horse, and he would always be. I rode him every morning, and one spring, I knew, I would ride him in the qualifiers.
And someday I would ride him into Hell to challenge the Shade.
Around us, the whispers trailed off as Umbra lifted her hands, her staff with them. She twirled it up and over her head, bringing it down to the ground with a sound like a thunderclap.
And so the qualifiers began.
The fae and humans on horseback scattered, rushing toward the trees.
Aiden pointed in the direction Eva had gone. “The professors and guardians are hidden somewhere in the forest. Eva made a smart choice heading toward the boggan’s cave.”
“Why’s that?” I asked, goosebumps raising on my arms as I remembered my encounter with the boggan.
“Because there isn’t as much tree cover in that direction. It’s an unexpected way to go, which means the professors and guardians probably haven’t hidden themselves over there.”
For the next hour, we watched—and periodically cheered or booed—as students were caught. When they were, they made their way out of the forest and to the meadow, where they had to spend the remainder of the round.
After a time, there were only about two dozen students left uncaught. Including Eva.
Aiden and I began to think she might have a chance, even as a first-year.
But then her purple hair appeared, dangling free, the bun disassembled. She didn’t fly out of the forest—she walked.
“Damn,” Aiden whispered. “She wanted this so badly.”
As she walked across the meadow to the others who had been caught, her eyes lifted to us in the stands. We gave her soft waves, and the barest hint of a smile found its way onto her lips.
A smile. That was better than tears.
Then she turned and stood with the others, her back to us.
Over the next hour, the round went on, students slowly filtering out of the forest until only ten were left.
And when the sun had dropped far enough, Umbra came to the center of the meadow. A second thunderclap sounded, and she declared the round over.
Those who had passed came out of the forest, along with the guardians and professors.
“Look,” Aiden said to me, “Torsten passed.”
I nodded, but my eyes were drawn elsewhere.
To black hair and black eyes.
“Is that Liara?” I whispered.
“Wow,” Aiden said. “It is.”
She and I hadn’t spoken since that day in the amphitheater. We had avoided each other completely, and apparently she’d been busy. Now she had passed the first round of the qualifiers—and had done so as a first-year.
Even though we had avoided each other, I knew she and I would have it out eventually. I could see it in her eyes whenever she met mine.
I just didn’t know when.
“That’s uncommon,” Aiden said. “Really uncommon.”
The ten who had passed were filed out of the meadow for the next round: guardian fights. And while the rest of the student body left to watch, Aiden, Loki, and I came down the stands to where Eva stood.
Soon, only we three were left in the meadow.
She pressed her wild hair over her shoulder. “Thanks for coming, you two.”
“Are you kidding?” I clapped her on the back. “Loki and I wouldn’t have missed it.”
Loki meowed at her.
“Sorry you didn’t make it,” Aiden said.
Eva smiled, kneeling as Loki came to rub against her. She ran a hand over his back. “That’s all right. I have four more tries.”
She didn’t seem nearly as despondent as I’d expected. In fact, I had thought we’d have to spend the next few hours—or days—cheering her up. But ever since the morning she’d mended Noir’s leg with her healing magic, she hadn’t seemed nearly as stressed out about the qualifiers.
That had been stress enough for a lifetime.
As she rose, she looked at Aiden and me. “How about we skip the next round?”
“And do what?” Aiden asked.
“I know of a wonderful coffee house in Vienna,” Eva said, hooking arms with both of us. “There’s nothing keeping us here.”
“Evanora Whitewillow,” I said, “are you suggesting we cut school and start our summer break early?”
She shrugged. “Yes.”
“That’s exactly the kind of rule-breaking I approve of.” I paused. “And I hope you both enjoy your time in Vienna.”
When I unhooked arms with the two of them, they turned back toward me.
“I’m sorry,” Eva said. “I forgot…”
I raised a hand. “It’s fine. Sometimes I forget, too.”
I hadn’t left the academy since winter break. If I did, whoever had been watching me in the fae solstice market might find me again. Plus, I was still under Umbra’s strict rules.
And so I was the only student who would remain on the grounds throughout the summer. I was staying with the one other person who lived here year-round: Quartermistress Farrow.
Which meant a whole summer of mucking stalls and caring for horses.
Well, I could think of worse fates. I’d get to be here with Noir, learning to ride him all summer. Farrow had promised to instruct me.
“You two go,” I said, smiling at them. “Loki and I will see you in the fall.”
We hugged, and then Aiden and Eva left through the trees.
When they had disappeared into the forest toward the leyline, I glanced down at Loki. “Looks like it’s just the two of us again.”
His green eyes glittered as he lifted them to meet mine. “My worst nightmare.”
I smirked, pressing my hands into my pockets. “Mine, too.”
And so the two of us crossed the academy grounds together as the mid-afternoon sun sank toward early evening, my fingers firmly wrapped around the ebony key in my pocket.
Clementine’s story continues…
Clementine’s story continues in GOOD WITCHES DON’T CHEAT, now on preorder—
Witches who play with fire are bound to get burned.
It's my second year at the academy, and I have to prove I'm not the villain people think I am. Now that I've joined House Spark, I've learned three things:
I'm a fire witch who's impervious to flames.
My magic is nearly impossible to control.
Everyone's scared of what I could become.
Turns out every fire witch in history was corrupted by her magic, and I'm next in line if I don't figure out how to keep my flames from turning into a firestorm.
Welcome to the Academy of Shadowed Magic, home of the last witch in the world.
Good Witches Don't Cheat is the second book in the Academy of Shadowed Magic series, a new adult urban fantasy featuring a badass, snarky heroine, laugh-out-loud humor and all the magic and mayhem you'd expect.
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About the Author
S.W. Clarke is the urban fantasy author of the Mortality Bound series, the Dragons and Other Mythical Creatures series, and the brand
-new Academy of Shadowed Magic series.
Her books feature smart, kickass heroines who have no issue getting into (and out of) trouble.
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