by Sarina Dorie
The principal was a wicked woman who liked to torture everyone. Vega had no idea how Mr. Gordmayer could stand her.
“It would probably be for the best.” Mr. Reade clasped a hand on one knee, nodding in agreement. “I recommend switching them off every other day so that neither of them get it in their head I’m playing favorites.”
Vega admired how calm and in control her teacher was despite being punished for attending the meeting and speaking on her behalf. He had managed to make a reasonable suggestion, ensuring he wouldn’t get stuck with Malisha the entire time. He was so smart. She needed to learn such tactics for manipulation.
The adults talked about other detention details. A student flew on a broom behind the principal’s windows, far too close to the building to be safe. It was Eunice Littleton, probably trying to listen in on the conversation so she could gossip about it to Malisha.
Vega’s attention was captured once again at the mention of blood magic. She homed in on the principal’s words.
“We have several separate adults who can verify it was used in the classroom.” Principal Gordmayer looked at Ms. Stapleton.
The teacher stared at her hands. Vega had never noticed how small and delicate her fingers were until now.
“I couldn’t get through the spell she was using to infuse Ruth’s blood back into her. Even after she stopped using it, my magic kept . . . fizzling out. Nothing like that has ever happened before. I couldn’t do anything for that poor girl.” Ms. Stapleton stared at Vega with loathing. “She stole my affinity with blood magic. I couldn’t even use my magic again until this morning!”
Vega hadn’t used blood magic. She’d used pain magic. She wasn’t sure which was more forbidden, or if it mattered. Both were banned because the Witchkin who fueled themselves with these forms of energy often used others as their sacrifice.
Vega rolled her eyes. “I was using a spell to numb Ruth’s pain. It wasn’t anything bad. You shouldn’t have touched her and kept trying to interfere. I’m certain what I did was more than you could have done for her.”
“That isn’t the point.” Mrs. Gordmayer spoke slowly, enunciating each word to emphasize her disdain. “You used forbidden magic in this school. Not once, but multiple times. Nurse Margoyles can verify it. She wasn’t able to perform any kind of restorative magic on your friend.”
“That’s because she was dead!” Vega hated the way the principal tried to twist the details to blame her. “Nurse Margoyles didn’t arrive until after Ruth died. There was no way anyone could have done anything unless they intended to use necromancy.”
Ms. Stapleton and the school nurse recoiled and gasped. Mr. Reade flinched, but he didn’t retreat away from her.
Principal Gordmayer scooted back in her chair, though her expression remained neutral. “Do you understand what the Witchkin Council would do to you if they found out?” She adjusted her purple-rimmed glasses. “Not just about this one incident, but all the incidents of you using forbidden magic.”
“Ruth was dying.” Mr. Reade placed a hand on Vega’s shoulder. “Desperate students make mistakes. They grasp at any straw.”
Vega understood he was speaking about his own experiences. He had confided in Vega about his late wife dying and the means he had taken to try to bring her back—and failed. She doubted the principal knew about his mistake.
“Don’t you think Vega has suffered enough?” Mr. Reade asked. “She needs counseling and guidance. The important lesson here—”
“No.” The principal pounded her fist on her desk. “You have coddled this student long enough. Who was the teacher who permitted Ms. Bloodmire access to the restricted section in the library last year? Which teacher failed to inform me that Ms. Bloodmire used forbidden magic in her sophomore year to try to heal a student from Merlin’s Academy for Boys—resulting in his further injury? She’s fortunate his family didn’t press charges. That is the last kind of negative publicity our school needs.”
Vega understood now. The principal didn’t want Vega making her school look bad.
The principal’s nostrils flared as she spoke. “Once a Witchkin starts down the path of forbidden magic, there’s no turning back. It’s addictive and destructive. She used it once on Kenji Davis and less than a year later with Ruth. You might claim it’s desperation, that Vega is just trying to help people, but each time, more people get hurt.”
Vega was relieved the principal hadn’t figured out she’d used forbidden spells a third time. And even more thankful Mrs. Gordmayer didn’t know about her ghoul powers.
The principal stood, looming over the desk. “We are all fortunate no one else has figured out that she used it again in front of the entire school, injuring others in the process.”
Scratch that. Principal Gordmayer had figured it out. Vega swallowed the lump that suddenly formed in her throat.
Mrs. Gordmayer glared, loathing in her eyes. “Had any of your peers figured out how you broke through my spell, I’m certain they would have written to their parents—who would be swarming my office right now demanding your expulsion.”
Vega shrank back in her chair. She didn’t know why the principal didn’t just expel her. Maybe her parents had “donated” to the school recently.
Mrs. Gordmayer pointed a finger at Mr. Reade. “I blame you for this, giving Ms. Bloodmire permission to check out books from the restricted section and shielding her from consequences. It’s fortunate the librarian informed me that book has been conveniently ‘lost’ so that you don’t ever suggest another student check it out.” Mrs. Gordmayer cast a snide look in Vega’s direction as if she doubted she had actually lost that book before turning her hostility back on Mr. Reade. “I have long wondered whether your ‘interest’ in Ms. Bloodmire’s education was strictly academic. Ever since the incident with the Davis boy, I have suspected why you would cover for her. Your motivations are now clear to me.”
“No!” Vega shook her head.
Mr. Reade wasn’t like that. He was a nice old man. If Mrs. Gordmayer thought his interest was lecherous, she was wrong. Vega didn’t know how to convince her of that.
Mrs. Gordmayer jabbed a finger in Vega’s direction. “Close your mouth. I am not addressing you.”
Vega shrank back in her seat farther, fearing for her favorite teacher now. She didn’t care what the principal threatened her with—detention, suspension, or expulsion—but to threaten Mr. Reade was deplorable.
Mr. Reade’s brow crinkled, his dismay evident. “I don’t know what you think my intentions are, but I assure you, they are strictly out of concern for students.” His eyes were so sad, so wounded.
The principal grew red in the face as she continued. “Of course you would cover up her involvement in forbidden magic after your own sordid history. I remember you borrowing that book for yourself over an entire summer. Perhaps you didn’t think I would check the library records. I’ve seen the signs in a user of forbidden magic. Enough students have passed through these halls, high on pain magic and sex magic, that I can spot it.”
Ms. Stapleton and Nurse Margoyles subtly scooted their chairs back from both Vega and Mr. Reade as if they were contagious.
Mr. Reade shook his head. “I do not use forbidden magic.”
Except that one time, but Vega wasn’t going to give his secret away.
“She learned these spells because of you. Once her parents learn about this, you do realize it’s your job on the line?” Mrs. Gordmayer stared down at him with disdain. “They will demand I fire you.”
Vega wrapped her arms around her middle. Her parents wouldn’t dare! Unfortunately, that sinking sensation in her gut told her she was lying to herself.
“What do you think I will be forced to do?” Spittle flew out of the principal’s mouth as she spit out the words. “It isn’t just their admission fees and their generous donations we’d be losing. Think about their influence on the community if we displease them.”
Vega wanted
to take all her knowledge of the forbidden magic she knew and punch it in the principal’s face. She probably could kill her if she wanted.
But there were too many witnesses. Also, she didn’t want to get Mr. Reade in trouble.
Vega needed to save Mr. Reade and his reputation. That meant she was going to need to tell them the truth. She hated risking her own safety, but she didn’t see any other choice.
Vega forced her voice to work, despite the way it trembled. “It’s true my parents will probably withdraw me from the school if they think I’ve learned forbidden magic here. My mother will gossip about the school at social gatherings and make it look bad if she blames someone at Lady of the Lake. But the truth is, I didn’t learn forbidden magic at school.” Aside from that one spell in a book that had been stolen from her.
She swallowed the anxiety building in her. “I learned forbidden magic at home.” She was making herself vulnerable—as well as her entire family. This was the kind of honesty that could get her family in serious trouble. “The first time I used magic that I wasn’t supposed to, I found it in an old book. I didn’t know what the spell was for. It was an accident. I was a child. It resulted in the death of my little sister.” Her chest burned. The spell hadn’t been forbidden, but the results of what had happened couldn’t have been considered anything less than criminal.
Mr. Reade looked at her with such sorrow in his eyes. “Oh, Vega. I’m so sorry.” He placed a hand on her shoulder.
She didn’t deserve that kindness.
Vega couldn’t meet his gaze. “My parents covered it up because it was a scandal. They sent me to live with my grandma for a while. What my parents didn’t realize was that my grandma didn’t just teach me advanced magic to satiate my curiosity, she taught me how to use forbidden magic so I would know how dangerous it was. That spell I used to ease Ruth’s pain I learned from my grandma. The one to break through your barrier when I was—” Out of control? “I was angry. I broke it with pain magic. I used forbidden magic she taught me to try to help Kenji.” Those techniques had come from Baba. She had no intention of mentioning that the spell itself to try to help her late boyfriend had come from the book the principal had been so concerned about.
Ms. Stapleton covered her mouth. Nurse Margoyles leaned her head in her hand, her shoulders sagging as though Vega had just dashed all her hopes to the floor. Mrs. Gordmayer’s mouth opened and closed like a fish struggling to breathe out of water.
Vega supposed the principal was out of her element here.
“Mr. Reade had nothing to do with it,” Vega said firmly. “These were my mistakes. You should probably expel me.” Though if they did, that meant the school would be losing income from her tuition. Vega was taking a giant risk, hoping the principal wouldn’t kick her out.
“Can’t you see?” Mr. Reade asked. “This student needs our help. Isn’t this why any of us became teachers? To guide students from their mistakes and help them become better people? We need to correct this behavior before it becomes too extreme. Vega’s lost so many people. She needs our support and help through this difficult time in her life.”
The principal’s silver eyebrows lifted in surprise. “Your bounty of compassion never ceases to amaze me.”
“I have some tonics that will help Ms. Bloodmire resist the temptations of dark magic,” Nurse Margoyles said.
Vega hoped these were vegan tonics.
“I am a mandatory reporter of forbidden magic in the home.” Principal Gordmayer wet her dry lips. “I need the name of your grandmother.”
Vega hesitated. She didn’t want to get Baba in trouble. Her grandmother had said the Witchkin Council had never found her where she lived deep in the enchanted forest of the Faerie Realm. The few times individuals from the council had reached Baba’s home, she had “persuaded” them to never return.
Vega hoped she hadn’t overestimated Baba’s powers and that honesty wasn’t going to be her grandmother’s death sentence.
The last thing she needed was one more death on her hands.
Her voice grew tremulous, giving away her trepidation. “They call her Baba Nata—Baba Natasha.”
Ms. Stapleton gasped. “The Witch of Nightmares?”
“Son of a Fae!” Nurse Margoyles said.
The principal’s face paled. “That will be all, Ms. Bloodmire.” The principal looked absolutely mortified. And more than that . . . miserable.
Probably Mrs. Gordmayer understood the futility of reporting Baba Nata to the authorities. Satisfaction blossomed inside Vega.
Vega rose. None of the staff stood to go. She looked at Mr. Reade, wanting to thank him away from the principal. She owed him a debt.
Principal Gordmayer’s eyes narrowed. “You are dismissed, Ms. Bloodmire. We have an intervention plan to discuss on your behalf.”
Mr. Gordmayer offered her a shortbread cookie on the way out. She always declined because cookies typically had eggs and butter. Shortbread only had dairy, which would result in a tummy ache, but it wouldn’t activate her demon magic.
Vega decided to live dangerously and accepted. It was the first time she’d succumbed to the enticement of cookies.
Nonvegan food was the gateway drug to more dangerous temptations. This was only the start toward rock bottom on her path to party ghoul. Hence the reason the principal loathed Vega.
* * *
Fast forward over five years later: if Mrs. Gordmayer discovered Vega hadn’t reformed her immoral ways, still used forbidden magic, and had sabotaged the person she had mistaken as competition, she would fire Vega.
She was already in hot water, and it wasn’t even her first day.
CHAPTER THREE
The Present: Gnome Sweet Gnome
Vega could balance a lot of things while flying her broom, but a trunk wasn’t one of them. She would have put the trunk inside her purse using magic, but the interior of her purse emptied into the spacious false bottom of her trunk. Putting the trunk inside the purse would have been tantamount to putting her purse inside her purse. Space-time didn’t like that.
The last time she’d attempted to do such a deed, she’d lost all the contents of her trunk. It was a pity since she’d had some of her rarest books, talismans, and poisons inside.
And her favorite rhinestone heels.
Since the trunk contained its own space-enhancement spells, it didn’t play well with the portal magic of her closet. Portals were serious business. Vega only used this form of magic on inanimate objects these days. She didn’t want another accident.
Hence the reason she was forced to carry her trunk two days after her job interview to her new residence.
On Monday morning, the day Vega was evicted from her dorm and former place of employment, she wished she still had servants to carry her trunk for her. But this was the price of freedom now that she’d practically been disowned by her family. Vega made do using a levitation spell on the trunk to lighten her load. She carried her beaded black purse across her shoulder.
Unfortunately, she had to walk from her old place of employment to the permanent portal outside of Encantado Charter Academy that took her to the grounds of Merlin’s Academy for Boys. Unlike temporary portals that could close at any minute, these were far more stable. She’d never heard of one chopping someone in half.
Young men in athletic uniforms flew across the athletic field behind the castle-like architecture of the school. One of them whistled at her.
She held her head high and ignored them. Once she made it to the other side of their lawn and into the forest, she would be able to walk through the nearest portal to Lady of the Lake School for Girls.
It would be there, in her new school, that she would finally have a room to herself—even if it was only for two months during summer vacation while she found new employment for the school year.
“S’up, witchy woman?” a male voice bellowed behind her.
Vega considered hexing her annoying catcaller�
��s balls to fall off, but she could only do so many things at once. Her levitation spell and plotting her future took priority.
If all things went well, and the principal didn’t decide she’d made a mistake hiring Vega, she might allow her to apply for one of the vacancies that had opened up at the school that Mr. Reade had told her about.
That was assuming Mrs. Gordmayer didn’t find out Vega had impersonated her and got rid of the gnome relocation expert. Her breakfast churned at the idea of not getting a job in the fall.
“Vega, I’m just teasing!” A man said from behind her. “Are you mad at me?”
A Greek Adonis with swoon-worthy features whooshed up beside her on a broom. Castor Troilus hopped off and jogged to keep up with her. Like her, he’d just graduated and finished his internship, though his had been at Merlin’s Academy. And like her, he was a superb dancer and frequented Café All Hexed Up.
He was gorgeous and knew it. Unfortunately, he wasn’t afraid of intimacy and wanted to date her. As hot and irresistible as she was, something was obviously wrong with him if he hadn’t given up by now.
Vega arched a perfectly groomed eyebrow at him. “Were you the moron catcalling me?”
“Moron is my middle name.” He flashed a self-deprecating grin. “So, is this another coincidence you just happened to walk by as I was outside again? Or are you stalking me?” He waggled his eyebrows. “If it’s the latter, I don’t mind.”
Vega supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised to run into Castor. Fate kept throwing them together. He was wearing a blue-and-white tracksuit, Merlin’s Academy colors. Students on brooms flew in the distance, tossing a ball around. She suspected he was their new coach.
“Let me help you with that.” He handed her his broom and took the trunk from her.
“It isn’t heavy.” She didn’t put much protest in her words. If it made him feel manly to carry something for her, she wouldn’t deny him that privilege. “Don’t you have students to supervise?”
