A Witch’s Beating Heart

by Kasey Mackenzie

  It also made me feel small and helpless in its wake. Like I couldn’t do anything to make things better.

  ((Now that’s not true,)) Pixie nuzzled my neck without digging her claws in first. ((There are all kinds of ways you can fight bigotry. And I suspect you’ll be able to do even more about it once you reclaim your birthright.))

  ((If we reclaim our birthright. That’s by no means a certainty. I mean, even if we survive our wicked witch of a stepmother once she figures out we’re still alive, there are no guarantees Misty or I will become the next Witch Queen.))

  Pixie merely mentally snorted her low opinion of that suggestion before stealing a bite of BBQ chicken from my plate. Her purr of satisfaction at successfully purloining food vibrated against my shoulder, making me smile. Some things, at least, never changed.

  Misty and Cayenne allowed Zane and me a little breathing room before they began drawing us both into the larger group’s conversation. Nobody pressured us to put a name on what we were doing, which was a refreshing change from high school. Especially since this was way too new to label. I mean...this morning I hadn’t had the slightest clue I’d be running into my secret crush, much less that I’d discover he’d been crushing on me the entire time, too. And I sure as hell hadn’t suspected we’d engage in a hot makeout session and then attend a school BBQ hand-in-hand. All on the first day we’d seen each other again!

  Then again...a year was a long-ass time to carry secret crushes on another person. It wasn’t like we were complete strangers.

  The Chancellor wrapped up his speech and then made a sweeping gesture toward the sky. By the fact all the returning students leaned forward expectantly, I anticipated something exciting and wasn’t disappointed. The fairy lights that had served as both decorative lighting and loudspeakers suddenly revealed a third purpose. Small groupings of them began to fly into the air at great speed, where they proceeded to explode in magnificent bursts of sound and color reminiscent of a mortal fireworks display. The displays became increasingly large and complex, each more breathtakingly beautiful than the last. The beauty went on for at least 20 minutes, until a bare minimum of fairy lights were left to light our way back to the much better-lighted paths leading back to the dorms.

  Which was apparently the signal that this year’s Welcome Back BBQ had come to a close. Students began breaking off from their groups to head back to the dorms. Once I checked my cell phone, I was surprised to find that several hours had passed.

  Zane leaned forward to murmur in my ear, “You mind if I walk you back to the dorm, Crystal Clear?”

  I shivered from the pleasant sensation of his breath playing against my skin. “That depends. You’re not going to claim this was our first date if I do, are you?”

  He gave an impish grin that revealed little dimples in each cheek. Dimples I’d like to claim I hadn’t stared at many times in the past but...I tried to avoid lying, even to myself. “You made it quite clear that it’s not a first date unless it’s pre-planned.”

  “All right then, I guess that’s okay.”

  Misty must have overheard, because she gave me a sisterly wink and then began herding some of the others to take off. Zane and I hung back a little, watching as they disappeared down the nearest walkway leading to Artemis House. Only then did he reach out a hand and I accepted, surprised by how natural it felt to stroll along the path with our fingers entwined. Pixie was indeed feeling magnanimous tonight, because she nuzzled my neck and then poofed back to the dorm, giving us privacy.

  Zane happened to be glancing at me when she disappeared, and he tilted his head quizzically. “Is it a good sign or a bad sign that she vanished so quickly?”

  I let out a laugh. “With Pixie, it’s sometimes hard to tell. In this case, though, it’s a good sign. She likes you enough to give us privacy rather than watching you like a hawk. With the last guy I dated, who turned out to be a jerk, it was like pulling teeth to get any alone time.”

  “Well, then I’m glad she felt secure enough to vanish.”

  “So where’s Raven, anyway? He soaking up the Eternal rays today?”

  He nodded with an eye roll. “He’s been in a snit lately, so he decided he just had to recharge more today despite his being Eternal-side all day yesterday.”

  “Avoiding manual labor, I presume.”

  “Yesterday, for sure. Today I think he just got tired of all the ridiculous interruptions from so many Northeast Tower residents. After the fifth in a row, he announced he was peacing out until tomorrow.”

  “On the one hand, I want to make a sarcastic comment about typical familiar escapism. But on the other hand, who really wants to deal with so much drama?”

  “Right? And to think I pushed my parents into helping me get this position. Which they were totally against since it flies in the face of the typical advice to use your freshman year to focus on getting acclimated.”

  That had me tilting my head in curiosity. “So what made you want to get a job your freshman year, anyway? I mean...Misty and I are going to have to work to accommodate her shopping habit.” We both snickered, since her reputation as a fashionista had been legendary at Gloaming High. “But—no offense—you don’t exactly need the money.”

  He squeezed my hand gently. “No offense taken, and it’s a logical enough question. Just the argument my parents raised, actually. But I don’t want to be just another spoiled rich-witch asshole who takes everything for granted, you know? Sure, my family insisted we go to public school but I never even had a job in high school because they strongly discouraged it. Which makes absolutely no sense to me. How are you supposed to develop an actual work ethic without holding down a damned job?”

  “Huh. Seems like they’re torn between your grandparents’ wish to instill those core values in their descendants but the expectations that govern their fellow rich-witch acquaintances.”

  “I never really thought about it that way.”

  I shrugged. “It makes sense. It’s always hard to straddle two different worlds. Or to go against the expectations others place upon you. That’s the same whether you’re rich or poor; whether you live in a mansion or a trailer park.”

  The wry note in my voice must have struck a chord, because he switched from holding my hand to wrapping an arm around my shoulder. “I assume by the tone of your voice that I am the mansion inhabitant and you the trailer park resident.”

  “Yup,” I said matter-of-factly. Misty and I had never felt ashamed of where we came from, because our parents never made it seem like a shameful thing. And now that I knew the main reason they’d had to sell Daddy’s family farm and could only afford a trailer home was because they’d been renewing our youth spell every year...Intense awe and pride in their sacrifice were the only emotions that living in a trailer park would ever inspire. Anyone who thought that made me lesser than them could take a flying leap into the Infernal Blazes.

  “And the expectations you overcame...I assume people expected less of you in school because of where you lived?”

  My burst of laughter this time was extremely self-deprecating. “Did they ever! Those who knew, anyway. We didn’t exactly go around advertising where we came from. Not from shame, mind you, but because it just wasn’t anybody’s damn business. The teachers who knew, though, they always seemed shocked that I managed to rise above my humble origins.” I rolled my eyes. “Their ridiculous prejudices were the fuel that inspired all my late-night study sessions just so I could blow everyone else’s academic asses out of the water.”

  “Blow them out of the water you did, Crystal Clear. Class valedictorian, voted Most Likely to Succeed, and recipient of a full-ride scholarship to the witching world’s premier collegiate institution among all the Shadow Realms.”

  He assumed a snooty expression and mimicked the Chancellor’s upper-crust accent perfectly, making me giggle. “I believe the word he used was preeminent.”

  “Oh, excuuuuuse me, Miss Valedictorian. The witching world’s preeminent collegiate insti
tution.”

  We burst into laughter, something that had me feeling even more drawn to him. Nothing was sexier than the ability to let yourself be truly who you were and laugh for the sheer joy of it with someone else. I found myself torn between regret that we had wasted the whole past year when we could have been discovering these new depths of our relationship and the sudden realization that it just hadn’t been the right time. We wouldn’t be enjoying what we had now if things had happened differently then.

  If nothing else, we’d both learned a little patience. A very valuable life skill. Much like the life skills he was insisting on gaining now by working as an RA when he didn’t absolutely have to. And damned if that wasn’t also sexy as hell.

  We fell into a companionable silence for the last few minutes of our walk back to the dorm. I snuggled into his side, enjoying the warmth his body leant to mine. Who knew whether things would work out between us? Right now I was just going to enjoy every single minute we had together. Tomorrow could take care of itself…

  Chapter 8

  The next day did not start out nearly as great as the previous one ended. I overslept by 15 minutes, only to find Misty hogging the shower after having conveniently failed to wake me up even though our agreed-upon schedule clearly called for me to go first in the bathroom. I took way less time than she did and had a class starting earlier than her first one.

  I got a little revenge by flushing the toilet when she was in the shower.

  Then I ran around like a chicken with its head cut off to shower when she got out to yell at me for flushing the toilet (you’d think that witches could solve that age-old problem by throwing enough magic at it), shove my hair into an artfully-messy bun (that’s what we’re going with), and dressed in the white button-down shirt, blue and silver plaid skirt, and matching plaid tie that made up the Academy’s preppy uniform before frantically grabbing my (thankfully pre-packed) backpack and running out of the suite.

  Of course the teleporter refused to transport me no matter how much I begged. I cursed out loud before grumpily taking the hidden staircase, running down all eight flights of stairs as I scarfed down one of the oversized chocolate chip cookies Mama had packed for us. The collegiate breakfast of champions.

  Fortunately I’d scouted out the buildings where my classes would be held during my meandering the day before. I made it to my first class with two whole minutes to spare. I preferred to be more like 15 minutes early on the first day, but at least I didn’t have to live with the embarrassment of being late. My panicked rushing around also meant I hadn’t had to deal with the nerves of feeling like a new girl on her first day of school. Something I hadn’t had to deal with in longer than I could remember. Misty and I had scheduled many high school classes together, so I’d usually had her by my side. There was something both nerve-wracking and freeing about sitting there by myself, waiting for the instructor to stroll into the room and get things started.

  Apparently said instructor was way less concerned with punctuality than me. Normally that might have had me gritting my teeth, but today it made me feel less out of sorts. I randomly claimed an empty desk, which was way nicer and more spacious than the ones at Gloaming High. I pulled out my laptop and set it up in front of me to both record the lecture at the hit of a button and take notes as needed.

  The buzz of voices around me was kind of soothing, even though it felt odd having no one to chat with myself. I glanced around the room at mostly unfamiliar faces, although I did recognize a few from yesterday’s dorm mixer. One of the girls caught my eye and smiled. She had long hair that was a dark, shimmery purple and creamy white skin. A retro polka-dot headband complete with a jaunty bow topped the gorgeous waterfall of curls. Her shimmery indigo eyes sparkled at me from behind a pair of silver cat eye glasses, and she wore the cutest pair of vintage silver and blue polka-dot shoes that matched her headband. She also seemed to be the only other person besides me not there with a BFF.

  “Hey there. Didn’t I see you sitting at Trey and Del’s table at the Artemis mixer?”

  I relaxed slightly at her friendly smile, nodding. “Yeah. My sister and I are in Northwest Tower 8.”

  “Twins, right? If you’re both freshies like me, I mean.”

  Her personality was so sparkly it reminded me enough of my sister’s to be even more soothing than the buzz of voices in the background. “Yeah, fraternal. Which tower did you get banished to?”

  She laughed. “I’m in Northeast 8. So I guess I’m like your mirror-image twin. The name’s Penny Morgan.”

  “Nice to meet you, mirror twin. I’m Crystal Gibbs. Thanks for taking pity on me and saying hi. Normally Misty’s here to be my icebreaker in the first class of each day.”

  “Well, now you have your mirror twin instead of your fraternal twin.”

  We shared a grin, but before we could say anything else the instructor finally put in her appearance. A woman so tall she could have given Misty a run for her money jogged into the room, locks of ice-blue hair snapping in the breeze inspired by her hurrying. She waved a hand and stepped behind a podium at the front of the room. I pressed Record on my laptop, which would use magical amplification to capture the lecture in an audible format.

  “Hi everyone. I’m Professor Roseberry. I am so sorry I’m late! You know that awful stereotype of the absent-minded professor in the mortal world? Yeah, you’re looking at the woman who inspired that saying back during my jaunt on Earth. Of course, that’s the typical reason I wind up being late to class. I won’t hold it against you if you quietly sneak in a few minutes late to class if you don’t hold it against me—provided you keep up with all coursework and make passing grades. This is the beginning of true adulthood after all. Falling behind will only result in failing this course—and the possibility of expulsion from Eternal Academy entirely.

  “Today, however, my tardiness actually wasn’t my fault! I won’t bore you with all the details, but let’s just say that we’ve already had our first Someone thinks they’re a badass genius who can get away with sneaking into a Restricted Area suspension of the semester.”

  Formerly friendly eyes began dripping with pure frost as she glanced around the room. “Let me assure you that none of you are badass enough to handle a Restricted Area and you’re damned sure not genius enough to get away with sneaking into one. And yet, people remain dumb enough to try. This isn’t a challenge by the way. Just a statement of fact.”

  Penny and I exchanged wide-eyed glances. Low whistles broke out around the room as the severity of her warning seemed to cool the room even more than the frost in her eyes. And then she flashed a sunny smile and moved on as if her words hadn’t terrified us all.

  “Now that we’ve got that warning out of the way, let’s move on to what brought you to this class. It’s my task to fill your hungry witchy minds with the core knowledge necessary to begin the next level of your magical training. Infernal Magic 101.

  “Each of you successfully claimed your Eternal familiars after completing primary school. High school was all about mastering more advanced Eternal magic. Here at this academy, you will take that Eternal mastery still further while also beginning to work Infernal magic. It would normally be impossible to work high-level Infernal magic in the Shadow Realms before you actually claim your Infernal familiar. However, some of the Restricted Areas simulate pockets of the Infernal Realm. During Magical Lab sessions, you will begin learning how to harness low-level Infernal energy, which is vastly different from Eternal magic.”

  I found myself leaning on my elbows, listening raptly. I’d always wondered how the universities managed to teach students how to channel Infernal magic before they actually claimed a familiar from that realm. How freaking cool that they could both simulate the Infernal Realm and protect students from frying their brains without a familiar to buffer any mistakes.

  “This first semester will be focused on teaching you the integral theories and some of the basics of channeling Infernal magic. This is a mandatory cla
ss that you must achieve a B or higher in to advance to more advanced classes. For those who pass all the Infernal Magic classes, your final senior project will consist of claiming an Infernal Familiar. Those who fail will obviously be locked into first-level Mastery for at least ten years, at which point they can make a second attempt for an Infernal familiar. Only fully-familiarized witches can test for second- and third-level Mastery. Failure at that point means a witch simply doesn’t have the necessary strength to advance further.”

  Goosebumps danced along my skin at that reminder that nobody was guaranteed to advance to the upper levels of magical Mastery. First-level witches were unfortunately the least powerful in the Shadow Realms, both in magic and political standing. Only those who came from truly wealthy or well-placed families could still move among the witching world’s elite. And that was really only because they could still pass on kickass magical genes to future progeny, providing they married more powerful witches.

  “Those who succeed will become fully familiarized witches.”

  Which was when our careers and adult lives would finally begin. You know, assuming Misty and I weren’t brutally assassinated first…

  Professor Roseberry launched into a fascinating (at least to me) lecture detailing the major differences between casting Eternal spells (AKA charms) and Infernal spells (AKA curses). Spells that used both types of magic were much stronger, more difficult to cast, and called cantations.

  Eternal magic was much more orderly and structured than its opposite, and it involved a whole lot of spoken words to properly channel magical energy into the right shapes.