Broken Wand Academy

by Marisa Claire

  “Hmph,” she sniffed. “Talent isn’t the only thing that matters, Meena. Punctuality is key to being a successful witch. If you’re late for a ritual, it could really screw the whole thing up. Tardiness is the sign of someone who isn’t a team player, and I need team players, Meena. Are you serious about this or not?”

  I gaped at her, nerves prickling with unease. “Serious about what, exactly? You called it a study group, so I assumed that just meant, like, meeting up in the library and prepping for tests… I didn’t know there would be rituals.”

  Of course I knew there would be rituals. Possibly the evil kind that required human sacrifices. But I hadn’t expected her to cut to the chase quite so quickly.

  Serenity rolled her eyes. “What? You thought we just get together and read? Don’t be absurd. The only way to really learn magic is by doing magic. Lots of it. And some of the best spells require a certain number of people. If you don’t show up…”

  “I’ll show up,” I said. “I promise. This won’t happen again.”

  She smiled, but her eyes were narrow, snake-like slits as she appraised me. “One more chance.” She looked over her shoulder at the girls lined up behind her, waiting to be rid of their trays. “We’re heading over to the Arena now. Join us.”

  It wasn’t a question. It was my last chance to get in with this group and hopefully learn more about what Serenity was doing in the woods with the scary beak people. But if they were going to the Arena instead of just goofing around on the quad with everyone else, that meant there was a potential for life-threatening injuries to occur. Even if they would disappear as soon as we left the Arena, I wasn’t sure I was in the mood for finding out what it felt like to lose a limb, and without supervision, who knew what they might actually do to me?

  “Will Yates be there?” I squeaked. “Is this allowed?”

  “I’m his T.A. I can do whatever I want in there.”

  Serenity moved closer to me, and the other girls rushed to dump their trays. The rapid succession of falling garbage made it difficult to hear what Serenity was saying, but it sounded like, “What? Don’t trust us?”

  “Not especially,” I said with a casual shrug.

  “Good.” She smiled again, seeming slightly more genuine this time. “That’s the only way to live around here.”

  ***

  Outside the dark metal door, Serenity withdrew a large silver key from deep within her cloak and jabbed it into the lock. One quick twist and the door issued the same meaty thud I remembered from yesterday. Serenity heaved it open and swept her arm toward the dark rectangle that loomed before us.

  “Is this really okay?” I asked, swallowing hard. “Professor Yates said this was off-limits without—”

  “A faculty member.” Serenity lifted her chin, eyes full of challenge. “Which I basically am now that I work for him.”

  I fought to keep my face neutral. That seemed like a bit of a stretch. On the other hand, she did have a key. I remembered what Yates told me yesterday about how Lucas Billings was supposed to be his assistant, but after his untimely death, Serenity was given the job instead. I had wondered then if the position was worth killing someone over, and found it an unlikely theory. But if it came with a key to this off-limits area, what other off-limits areas might she now have access to?

  Of course, I knew now that Serenity hadn’t killed Lucas Billings at all. Based on what the men who’d ransacked Braden’s room had been saying to each other, that was all Lyle Phorm, trying to recover something Lucas had stolen. Two things that Lucas had stolen, because the men had also said that Lucas cost the professor his beast, which turned out to not be a beast at all, but a woman named Rhea trapped in a beast’s body.

  My mind whirred as a few pieces of the puzzle clicked into place.

  Yates told me that Lucas was also an excellent Transmogrification student. He had been lured away from his martial magic studies by the prestige of working with this Phorm guy on his super-secret research. But he must have seen something that wasn’t right. Something that was so not right it was worth the risk of stealing information and setting Rhea free.

  It seemed so obvious now that I nearly slapped myself on the forehead. Rhea was the experiment. Professor Phorm was transmogrifying people into animals… and then leaving them like that.

  But why?

  And how come the experiment—if she could be trusted—just so happened to be ‘blood sisters’ with my mother?

  Serenity’s hands slapped together right in front of my nose. I startled, shaking my head out of the detective trance I’d apparently slipped into. Serenity and the three other girls who had accompanied us were all staring at me like I was crazy.

  “Where the hell were you?” Serenity demanded.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m just feeling a little woozy. No lunch, remember?”

  “Not my problem, remember?” She pointed at the doorway. “Now get in there before someone sees us.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “You said we were allowed.”

  “We are. But that’s not exactly public knowledge.”

  I took a step backward as my inner alarm system started sounding a warning. “Listen, I’m sorry, but this just doesn’t feel right. I’m going to have to pass.”

  Serenity latched onto my arm, jerking me forward. One of the other girls grasped my other arm, and together, they heaved me through the opening. Yelping, I landed on my hands and knees in the arena’s cold, concrete-walled gloom.

  The door slammed shut.

  I hunkered down, waiting for the torches along the walls to light up before I made any kind of move, but the cavernous space remained shrouded in darkness as four sets of footsteps circled around me.

  “Time for your first real magic lesson, Meena Song.”

  Chapter 7

  There wasn’t time to waste on beating myself up for walking into this trap. I crouched there, still as a statue, mentally listing all of the magical things I already knew how to do. I knew how to transport myself, but given what Yates had said about the planar magic that created this place, I doubted I would get very far. Or worse, I would wind up on the other side of the world, or floating in the vacuum of space.

  I knew how to make a pen disappear, but I wasn’t sure I had a deep enough grasp of the metaphysical concepts behind that trick to apply it to my living, breathing human body. What if I just turned myself into a pen? According to Yates, I would turn back into a person when I left the Arena, but I couldn’t leave the Arena as a pen unless someone has the decency to pick me, and I was confident that none of my current companions contained any decency at all. They would be more than happy to leave me lost in the dust forever.

  Other than those two things, I really only knew how to make a protection ward, which I could then use to throw their magical blasts back in their faces. That was better than nothing, but it was still going to be four against one. I didn’t like those odds. Especially not in the dark.

  “You may be talented, but you’re not the brightest bulb in the box, are you?” Serenity’s voice echoed off the concrete walls.

  “Crayon,” I shot back, possibly proving her point, but I couldn’t resist. “I’m not the brightest crayon in the box. That’s the saying.”

  One of the other girls let out a snicker that gave me a great sense of satisfaction.

  “Shut up!” Serenity screeched. “Same thing.”

  “Not really,” I said, slowly settling back on my heels so my hands were free.

  A memory had just returned to me, something Leia had done for me on my first night at the Academy. I concentrated on visualizing the movements of her hands, slowly mirroring them with my own.

  “Bulbs are never bright in the box, Serenity,” I said, very slowly, as though speaking to a child. “They just have the potential…”

  With one last flick of my hands, flames billowed from the sconces dotting the concrete walls. Three of my would-be attacks gasped and backed up as I rose, turning in a circle to smile a
t each one until I was facing Serenity. Eerie shadows flickered across her face like an endless stream of bats flying toward the sky.

  “Am I supposed to be impressed?” She feigned a yawn and patted her mouth. “That’s, like, baby’s first parlor trick. If you like playing with fire…”

  She lifted her arms, pressing her wrists together and curving her hands into a U shape. Her fingers twitched rapidly, along with her lips. A spark appeared, suspended in the air between her palms, and then quickly blossomed into a small ball of flames, like a very tiny sun.

  Grinning maniacally, she blew me a kiss that sent the flame streaming toward me like a blow torch. I threw myself on the ground just in time for the white-hot heat to soar over my back. Tossing the hair out of my eyes, I looked up as Serenity flung her upright wrists out to either side and then let them swing toward the ground. A circle of fire slithered through the arena dust as though following a trail of gasoline, hemming me in.

  “Now that’s more like it,” Serenity chirped from the other side of the growing blaze. “We can see your pathetic terror, but you can’t see us at all.”

  It was true. The brightness within the fiery ring cast blinded me to everything beyond. To make matters worse, its crackle obscured the sound of their footsteps and breathing so I had no idea from which direction their attacks might be coming. And then, of course, there was the smoke. Excellent.

  “Why are you doing this?” I said between coughs. “What did I ever do to you?”

  Serenity’s high-pitched laugh rose above the fire’s dull roar. “Is that a serious question? Your pointless showing off nearly got me killed yesterday!”

  “What the hell do you call this?” I waved my arm at the flames.

  “Payback,” she snarled.

  “You weren’t even hurt!” I wheezed as smoke found its way into my lungs. “This is insane! You’re insane! And the rest of you are even more insane for going along with this!”

  “I’m insane? You’re the narcissist who didn’t give anybody else in class a chance to participate. You’re the psycho who turned a simple training exercise into a deadly attack!”

  “Deadly?! Don’t you think that’s a little dramatic? I accidentally severed an arm—that wasn’t even yours, I might add—and it grew back as soon as we left this torture chamber. But if you want to talk about deadly attacks, let’s go. What really happened to Lucas Billings?”

  Serenity plunged through the flames, fists clenched like she meant to settle this the old-fashioned way. I balled mine up and lifted them like a boxer. We circled each other, teeth bared and eyes shooting daggers.

  “Why would you ask me that?” she said in a low, flat tone, unlike anything I’d heard her use so far.

  “Well, he was supposed to be the one with the key, wasn’t he?” I made a sympathetic face. “You were just second choice, isn’t that right?”

  “Lucas Billings was my friend,” she spat. “Exactly what are you trying to imply?”

  “Nothing at all. Just making sure I’ve got my facts straight.”

  “Suicide is a serious problem in magical schools,” Serenity hissed. “I don’t appreciate you making light of my loss by insinuating I had something to do with it. And for what? The glory of grading first-years’ papers? If that’s something you think is worth killing over, you’re even more disturbed than I thought. But…”

  She paused to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

  “But what?” I growled.

  “But I’m really not surprised. Given what we all know about the Young-Mi family.”

  My body thrummed with magical energy. I could feel it surging in waves toward my hands, demanding release, but in what form, I didn’t know. So I held it inside, unwilling to unleash it lest it cut her to ribbons and prove her right.

  “If you say one word about my grandmother…” I warned. My hands felt swollen with the volume of magic I was holding back. If I didn’t do something with it, I feared I might rip my own arms off with it.

  Serenity lifted her eyebrows, all faux innocence. “Who said anything about your grandmother? I was obviously talking about your mom.”

  “You know nothing about my mom,” I grunted. Sweat dripped down my face, partially because of the fire, but also from the strain of keeping so much magic bottled up. I knew now why witches preferred to use wands to channel this incredible energy into something outside of themselves. If only I had mine with me now.

  “Kim Young-Mi? Well, I guess it must have been Song by the time you knew her.” She made an exaggerated pouty face. “Oh, I’m sorry. You didn’t really know her at all, did you?”

  “Stop it.”

  “Poor little orphan,” she sang. “All alone in the world.”

  “I’m not an orphan. I still have a dad.”

  Serenity scoffed. “Non-mages don’t count.”

  “Shut. Up.”

  “Besides, it’s not like you’re ever going to see him again.”

  “That’s not true.” I stabbed my nails into my palms, but the heat emanating from them drowned out any pain I might have caused myself. “Thanksgiving…”

  Serenity threw her head back and laughed. “You didn’t fall for that old line, did you? Only students with proper magical families go home for the holidays. For the rest of you, there’s always some last-minute excuse why you need to stay. You think they want you powder kegs out in public?”

  I had an overwhelming urge to press my hands over my ears to drown out her taunts, but I was afraid the magic throbbing in my fingers would make my head explode.

  “So, yeah,” Serenity went on. “You’re an orphan. Get used to it.”

  With a primal scream, I threw my hands out in front of me, palms facing forward. Deep red tendrils of energy shot out, but instead of blasting Serenity off her feet like I expected, they rapidly twined themselves around, hiding her within a crackling, sparkling cocoon as she screamed like a banshee.

  The other three girls began shouting her name, but none cared enough to brave the circle of flames. As my ugly magic continued to envelop my nemesis, their cries tapered off, and soon I heard the clang of the dark metal door slamming shut.

  Oh, wonderful. They were going to get help and blame all of this on me, and how would I be able to prove my innocence after whatever it was exactly that I was doing to Serenity?

  I fought to lower my hands, but the magic wouldn’t be stopped. It flowed from my hands but was beyond my control. All I could do was stand and watch in horror as the magical cocoon thickened until I could no longer hear Serenity screaming.

  “She’s killed her!” a voice screamed, and I realized not all of the girls had fled the scene.

  “What do we do now?” a second one asked.

  At the same time, the magic flowing from my body began to slow, and then finally stopped. I stumbled backward, gaping at my blistered palms as white hot pain clouded my vision, but I could still see the glowing red energy surrounding Serenity. It pulsed with light, and over the crackle of the fire I could hear a rhythmic frequency rising and falling in time with that light.

  And then Serenity exploded.

  I screamed and threw my arms over my head as red sparks rained down around me. Serenity’s fire was instantly snuffed out, just like her life. Horror dropped me to my knees, grinding my burnt hands into the dirt as I vomited on the arena floor for the second day in a row.

  As the sparks settled, and the only light that remained was from the sconces I had lit, a barrage of hysterical curse words erupted from the other two girls, peppered with questions like, “How did…?” and “What the…?”

  Bracing myself for the worst, I slowly lifted my head.

  And came face to face with a wolf.

  The snow white animal crouched over Serenity’s singed cloak, tail tucked between its legs, ears plastered to its head, blue eyes rolling around inside their sockets, revealing the whites. I was pretty sure I caught a pungent whiff of canine urine.

  “Holy crap,” I breathed, clasping
one blistered hand over my mouth. “Serenity?”

  The wolf looked at me with wild eyes. I reached out a hand the way I would to any frightened animal, but this one let out a high-pitched shriek and bolted across the arena. The other girls looked down at me with a mixture of rage and shock and awe. Then, they turned and ran after the wolf, shouting, “Serenity! Wrong way!”

  “Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap,” I muttered, climbing to my feet. My teeth chattered with the force of my shaking. What had I done? How had I done it? “Not good, not good, not good.”

  I had to get out of there. Maybe off campus entirely. Because if it required a mad scientist and a top-secret research lab to turn witches into wolves, and I had just done it all by myself, I was probably about to be in a world of trouble.

  I had to leave. That was the only thing to do. I had to get back to Braden’s room, open the breach, rip off my ring, and step through. I never should have agreed to stay here in the first place.

  A mournful howl rose up from the far side of the arena, past the reach of my vision. I needed to go, and I needed to do it before Serenity came back this way. If those girls could herd her through the door, she would turn back into a person, and I didn’t need to be anywhere nearby when that happened. Taking a deep breath to quell the rapid vibrations of my body, I scanned the walls until I spotted the door.

  But just as I took a step in its direction, a shaft of blue-white light streamed down from above. First, I follow the beam to its source and found a perfect full moon suddenly suspended in the inky black sky. Gaping, I tracked the beam back to earth, where it glinted off something small and metal lying in the dirt next to Serenity’s cloak.

  The silver key.

  Chapter 8

  The key jabbed painfully into my thigh with every frantic, pounding step I took down the stairs. I had no idea why I’d stolen it, other than that a random moonbeam basically told me to. I didn’t intend to be here past the next five minutes, so it wasn’t like I would be sneaking into the Arena on my own before that. Maybe I just wanted some sort of souvenir since I wouldn’t be taking my rightfully earned wand or this constantly spying class ring with me.