Ghoul Problems

by Sarina Dorie

  “No, it wasn’t like that.” Charlotte spoke quickly, pleadingly. “I didn’t hurt anyone—not until Jessica—but she deserved it. You know she did.” She eyed the edge of fire as if calculating whether she could jump over it. “The only thing I did was report information to the Fae. I didn’t actually hurt anyone. The Fae were the ones who did that.”

  Vega pointed to the fire and nodded to Henrietta. The student increased the size of the flames. Vega continued to grope the interior of her giant purse. As soon as she found her talisman she would be able to amplify her powers.

  “You didn’t hurt anyone besides Jessica and Sherry, you mean.” Vega skewered Charlotte with her glare.

  Charlotte squirmed uncomfortably. “I didn’t want to hurt Sherry. I was just trying to distract her from what she saw with that stupid amulet.”

  “Uh-huh. ‘Distract’ her? That isn’t all you did. You reported to the Fae. You gave their lures to your weakest classmates so that after they graduated and the school’s mark of protection had faded, they could drain girls and murder them. You might as well have been their executioner.”

  “The Fae told me they weren’t going to murder anyone. They just needed servants.”

  “Slaves you mean.” Vega recollected the other incidents of student abduction at the beginning of the year. “Were you the one planting those books in our library that were Fae lures?”

  “The gancanagh said he would free my brother if I helped him.” Her voice grew shrill and high. “I didn’t know he was going to eat people.”

  At last Vega’s fingers closed around her enchanted magnifying glass. It would magnify her powers. Like many magical artifacts, it had a limited duration, so she had to use its magic only when she needed it.

  “My brother—” Charlotte began.

  She didn’t get the chance to finish.

  An explosion of light and wind opened behind Vega. Even without seeing it, she recognized the sensation of a portal dilating behind her, a powerful one that broke through the school’s wards. Vega’s hair whipped into her face, temporarily blinding her. Papers fluttered around her. She stumbled back, one of her high heels snapping in half. She grabbed onto a desk to steady herself. Henrietta screamed, and her flames extinguished. Charlotte said something, but her words were lost in the chaos.

  The screech of wind silenced. The principal and Malisha stood in the room beside Vega, a man and woman in unfashionable black robes behind them. From the pointed hats, stern expressions, and stereotypical warts, they were probably from the Witchkin Council.

  They looked to Henrietta, who was now naked, not even having flames to wear as her pyromaniac fashion statement. She didn’t seem to be too bothered by her lack of clothes—unlike the principal, who gaped at her, unable to form words. Then again, it could have been the portal magic that had stunned the principal.

  “Where is the murderer?” the man from the council asked, his voice gruff. His cool gaze raked over Henrietta.

  “Not her!” Vega staggered into their line of vision, pointing at Charlotte before they got it into their heads to arrest the wrong witch. And to keep a pervey old man from ogling a fifteen-year-old.

  By this point, Charlotte had nearly made it to the window.

  “Over there!” Malisha said.

  She pointed, and a glittery trail of stars smelling of lavender and belladonna was released from her fingertips. A paralysis spell swirled around Charlotte, causing the not-so-teenage witch to fall to the floor and become immobilized. Ice crystals formed over her clothes as she tried to fight the spell.

  Vega hated to admit it, but Malisha had done a decent job.

  “No!” Charlotte screamed.

  The two strangers who had arrived with the principal and Malisha still leered at Henrietta like she was guilty of some crime other than a lack of clothes.

  “Look,” Vega said.

  She held up the amulet and her magnifying glass, directing her Celestor affinity through it. Using her magic in its rawest form without a spell wasn’t usually the best use of her powers, but in this case, the abundance of it combined with the magical magnifying glass forced more magic out of the amulet. As the air around “Demeter” wavered, her true face revealed itself.

  “This is Charlotte Winters, Demeter’s supposed sister,” Vega said. “She’s been hiding her true identity and age so she can work as a Fae agent.” The abundance of starlight inside was fading. Soon it would peter out, and she would be unable to have energy for wards or other spells. That was one of the problems with the magnifying glass. It amplified one’s magic, but it also used up a lot of what was there.

  “Oh my! You were right, Malisha,” Principal Gordmayer said, a hand on her heart. “She’s the one helping the Fae lure our students.”

  For once, the principal wasn’t wearing her hat. It was on the ground. The man from the Witchkin council trampled it on his way over to Charlotte.

  By now, everyone could see the Geamhradh Court’s signet glowing before Charlotte. She stopped thrashing, horror spreading across her true face.

  Vega lowered the magnifying glass and dropped it back into her pocket. “I found evidence of the Fae lures Demeter has been using to trap her classmates.” Vega leaned against the wall, trying to look casual and nonchalant, not like someone who was sapped of strength.

  Malisha rolled her eyes. “We already know, Vega. I talked to Principal Gordmayer about it this morning.” She stuck her nose up in the air like the snob she was. “I was the one who found all that jewelry and gave it to the secretary during my prep period. It’s a wonder I find the time to teach and fight our Fae oppressors.”

  Vega stared incredulously. Had Malisha found more items in the girls’ dorm—or had she taken credit for Vega’s deeds? Vega hadn’t signed the note because she hadn’t wanted to fill out paperwork. She still didn’t.

  She weighed whether it was worth fighting that battle and decided it wasn’t.

  “What about my brother?” Charlotte sobbed. “Will he be all right? Now that you have me, you can let him go. Right?”

  “What brother?” The principal’s eyes narrowed.

  “The one abducted by the Fae?” Malisha asked.

  Henrietta peered around Vega. “The one apprehended by the Witchkin Council. Ms. Bloodmire told her the news about him.”

  The pair from the Witchkin Council exchanged interested glances.

  “We don’t have her brother,” the woman said.

  Charlotte let out a wail that would rival any banshee scream. It was like icicles fracturing under pressure. Vega did feel slightly bad about her lie now, but mostly because screaming students hurt her ears.

  Charlotte had done everything for her brother’s safety, and he was still enslaved by the Fae. It probably didn’t seem very fair. By now, Charlotte must have realized it all had been for naught. She struggled and screamed with newfound energy.

  “The council will take things over from here.” The woman in black robes strode toward Charlotte.

  Her magic was so powerful, it weakened Vega’s wards and left her breathless. Then again, that might have been from using up so much magic all at once.

  The two Witchkin from the council loomed over Charlotte. Her eyes filled with terror. The woman drew her wand in the air in a round arc that sizzled with violet light. The man was still paying far more attention to the naked student in the room than the actual murderer.

  Vega sighed in disgust at his reaction. She removed her sweater and handed it to Henrietta, knowing she would probably regret this good deed later.

  Vega turned back to the Witchkin Council. “Are you going to be able to find the Fae who did this?”

  “We have evidence,” Malisha said. She carried several tomes in her arms, including the library book with Vega’s forged signature.

  The principal leaned against the wall, looking winded. For once, her old age seemed to have caught up with her.

  The arc of light the counci
l woman had drawn filled with starlight. Vega stared transfixed at this style of portal she’d never seen before. It smelled of night and impending doom.

  She wanted to learn this kind of Celestor magic.

  “Send us a report if it makes you feel better,” the man with the gruff voice said over his shoulder. “Otherwise, you needn’t worry yourself over this matter further. Your murderer has been dealt with.” He grabbed the edge of the portal and shifted it next to Charlotte.

  Henrietta held Vega’s sweater closed in front of her. “So Demeter is going to be tried for murder and put in prison?”

  The Witchkin man snorted. “A trial is unnecessary in this case. We have already collected enough evidence.”

  Vega knew what that meant. Henrietta was fortunate she hadn’t been mistaken as the guilty culprit. The Witchkin Council weren’t there to make an arrest so that Charlotte could be brought to trial. A lump settled into the pit of Vega’s stomach.

  As the female witch shoved Charlotte through the portal, the stars disappeared. The space on the other side of the doorway was replaced by a yawning mouth of fire. Heat filled the room, the hungry energy of the crackling flames sucking at them invitingly. Henrietta leaned forward, breathing deeply as she drew in the power of her affinity.

  Charlotte screamed in agony. Her face contorted in anguish. Vega stared at her body disappearing into the pit of fire. The odor of charred meat fumed out of the portal.

  Vega wanted to look away, but she wouldn’t let herself. She needed to be strong, the kind of witch who could face the harsh realities of the magical realm they lived in.

  Charlotte’s screams died away. The portal closed with an air of finality.

  The principal turned away. Malisha’s face looked green.

  Both council members slowly faded from sight, like mist meeting the light of dawn.

  Vega blinked. No trace was left other than a cloying scent of aftershave she hadn’t noticed before. The absence of three people in the room and their magics suddenly made it easier to breathe.

  “Wait. Where’d she go?” Henrietta asked.

  Vega swallowed the lump in her throat. The absence of heat from the portal left her chilled.

  Henrietta shook Vega’s arm. “Demeter is an ice affinity. Her strength isn’t fire like it is for me. It’s her weakness.” Tears filled Henrietta’s eyes. “Did they just . . . kill her?”

  “They executed her.” Vega’s voice sounded hollow and distant.

  After all that had happened, Charlotte was gone from the school. There would be no more deaths. Vega supposed she should have felt some kind of relief, but a small part of her, that wicked monster inside that hungered for decaying corpses, was slightly disappointed.

  “Well, that was more than enough excitement for one day!” Principal Gordmayer coughed. “We are fortunate Malisha figured out who the murderer was! Just in time too, I see.”

  “Oh, really?” Vega crossed her arms. “Malisha figured it out? All on her own?”

  “What can I say? I’m a brilliant detective.” Malisha shrugged as if indifferent. “One does what she can in the line of duty. And it truly looked like we arrived just in time, before the murderer managed to kill anyone else.” She looked to Vega and Henrietta as if she expected to be thanked.

  Did Malisha truly expect she could get away with taking full credit for saving the Lady of the Lake School for Girls from a murderer? Vega considered how much effort she wanted to put into this battle.

  “This school is indebted to Malisha Bane’s loyalty, determination, and heroism,” Principal Gordmayer gushed.

  “Uh-huh.” Vega told herself she didn’t need good deeds ruining her reputation, even so, it needled under her skin that her nemesis got all the credit for figuring out the same thing Vega had.

  “I am a hero, aren’t I?” Malisha beamed. She picked up the principal’s conical hat and brushed it off. She handed it to Mrs. Gordmayer with a curtsy like the brownnoser she was. “It’s true. No Celestor is more brilliant than I am. Nor more loyal to this school.”

  “Or humble,” Vega muttered.

  Henrietta reached into Vega’s sweater and pulled out her amulet. Her expression brightened as she looked to Vega. Fortunately the portal was closed in the sweater’s pocket, and Henrietta wouldn’t be able to get any of Vega’s whiskey or lipstick.

  Mr. Gordmayer burst through the door. “Allegra, I’ve been searching for you everywhere! I need to inform you—” He took one look at Henrietta’s long legs, the hem of Vega’s sweater just barely covering her behind, and he turned away.

  The principal waved him off dismissively. “We know. The problem has been dealt with. Be a dear and get the incident reports ready for me. I need Malisha to fill them out.” She turned to Malisha. “And I’ll need you to make two copies of everything, one for me and one for the Witchkin Council.”

  Malisha’s eyes looked as if they were about to bulge out of her head. “But they said we didn’t actually have to—”

  “Better to be safe than sorry, dear.” The principal straightened her hat, her eyes in shadows once again. “They might ask for it later. We want to be prepared.”

  Vega covered her mouth with her hand to hide her smile. She could see being a hero didn’t go without punishment.

  “But I’m soooo busy. I used up my prep period investigating the crime.” Malisha turned comically doleful eyes on the principal. “Can’t Vega do this? She has a prep period this afternoon. She knows—”

  “Sorry, dear. Vega wasn’t there to hear all the information you shared with me. Besides, I think she has enough to do, rewriting her lesson plans after what happened to her desk.” Mrs. Gordmayer offered Vega a curt nod.

  That was one small act of justice she’d earned.

  “Does this mean I’m done with detention?” Henrietta asked. “I really want to get something to eat before lunch is over.”

  “I’ll second that,” Vega said. After her lack of breakfast, she deserved something for her hard-earned efforts. If it wasn’t going to be human flesh she got to consume, the least she could be given was a salad.

  * * *

  Lunch was almost over by the time Vega made it to the cafeteria. She probably could have arrived sooner, but her high heel had been damaged and needed repairing, and she had needed to grab a new sweater. There was no way Vega intended to teach looking like less than her most fantabulous self, so she’d taken a detour along the way to the teacher dormitories. Only the stragglers who either didn’t care about being late to classes or had an open period remained.

  In the cafeteria, it didn’t surprise Vega to find the desiccated remains of lunch at the teachers’ table. Someone had used the soup ladle in the salad, and she wasn’t about to ruin her diet by consuming contaminated lettuce. The rolls were all gone, and the only one left had a bite taken out of it. She didn’t dare take food from the student tables and get any of their germ crumbs. Everything that was left was scrambled together like a food fight gone wrong.

  Vega had wasted another meal helping students instead of helping herself. It made her sick how nice she’d been. And more than that, ravenous. She was fortunate there were no more freshly dead bodies at the school, otherwise she might not have had the willpower to resist.

  As it was, it felt like an abyss had opened up inside her.

  Vega suspected she had committed more than her fair share of good deeds for the day. But when she spotted Henrietta rushing into the hall, her eyes scanning the tables in disappointment, Vega suspected she was going to be forced to commit another.

  At least the student was wearing her uniform now.

  Henrietta ran up to her, panting. “Ms. Bloodmire, will you give me a hall pass so I can grab some food and I won’t be counted late to class?”

  Vega was already reaching for her pocket. “If I must.”

  Not that she kept hall passes on hand at all times. The bulky pad of paper would have ruined the svelte line of her f
igure. Naturally, she kept hall passes in her purse—the contents of which could conveniently be reached from her pocket portal.

  Vega scribbled a note on the hall pass. “We wouldn’t want some other teacher to give you after-school detention for returning late from lunch.” She wrote a large “V” for her signature.

  Henrietta smiled. “You’re the best.”

  Vega grinned back. “I know.”

  Vega strode out of the cafeteria toward the door. It took Henrietta thirty whole seconds to realize what the note said.

  “What?” Henrietta shouted. “You gave me a detention for being late to fifth period? But I asked you to write me a hall pass excusing me from being late!”

  “I’m ensuring no other teacher gives you a detention for your tardiness. You should be grateful I didn’t give you two detentions, one for being late to your next class and one for not showing up to detention yesterday in my classroom after school.” She smoothed a hand over her short bob, not a hair out of place.

  “But that isn’t fair! I had to go to in-house suspension.”

  “Today I have a special lesson in mind for you after school, one to protect yourself from ice.” Vega kept walking, feeling immensely satisfied with herself. “You’re welcome.”

  “But that’s extra work!” Henrietta complained. “I already have assignments to make up from my classes today.”

  What didn’t kill the girl would make her stronger.

  The bell rang, but Vega didn’t hurry. She enjoyed the leisurely walk in the quiet hallway. The world once again felt right, now that she had reestablished herself as the wicked teacher at the school.

  When Vega reached her classroom, she found her students silently sitting in their seats. A tray of lunch had been set on her chair. Hazel had actually brought Vega something to eat. She had even performed a minor spell to keep the roll warm and her coffee cup filled with steaming hot liquid, and she had kept all contamination from her salad.

  It appeared sasquatches had magic good for something after all.