Changeling (Sorcery and Society Book 1)(51)

I chanted louder, holding the pendant absolutely still, even as the muscles in my arms burned. Phillip hummed along, and I could feel a warm energy flowing down my skin from my shoulder, where he perched, as if he was adding some of his own magic to mine. This felt different than floating the vase or some glamour. This felt… grounded, like Phillip’s weight on my shoulder, Ivy and Alicia standing behind me would keep me from failing. Ivy was muttering the correct Latin pronunciations under her breath, adjusting my words without my even realizing it. Alicia simply stared at the pendant intently, as if it owed her money.

With the second verse finished, the pendant started to circle ever so slightly, swinging wider and wider until the chain was practically parallel to the floor. I started the third verse and the pendant stopped mid-circle and pointed toward the dormitory wing. Towards the stairs. Right at Callista.

I smiled brightly and felt the dragonfly wings thrum on my palms, sending a wave of warm energy through Wit. I drew my blade through the air like a conductor, leaving a bright swirling symbol that translated to “FIND.” I threw up my arm, pointing the blade at Callista – which I enjoyed, a little more than I should have. Callista’s blue eyes went wide, and she dropped to the floor with a squawk, just as I yelled, “LIBRIS.”

For a second, nothing happened. The atrium stood absolutely still and silent. And I wondered if I’d just made an even bigger spectacle of myself in front of the entire student body, dragging poor Alicia and Ivy down with me.

And then I heard the flapping of what sounded like wings.

The book appeared, flying through the doorway, behind Callista, flapping its covers like wings. It looped around the atrium a few times, buzzing close to a few girls – nearly smacking Rosemarie in the head before fluttering into my free hand and shutting its covers. Phillip cawed triumphantly, landing on the cover.

I grinned broadly, a golden glimmer spreading under Phillip’s feet, as if it was telling me it was glad to see me. I glanced up at Callista, who was sprawled on the floor, an expression of shock on her face. I smiled, sweet as arsenic and cream, and swept my eyes over the assembled girls. I clutched the book to my chest and slid Wit up my sleeve.

The girls parted as Alicia, Ivy and myself made our way up the stairs. I paused at the landing, and Callista scrambled back into a distinctly unladylike crouch.

“You should stay out of my room from now on, Callista,” I told her. She glowered at me, rising to her feet.

Phillip wrapped both feet around my free index finger, and I lifted him up to eye level. “You are the best bird familiar a girl could ask for.”

He chirped and took a little bobbing bow.

Alicia giggled as we sped toward my room. “I’m so glad that worked.”

“Yes, otherwise, it would have been terribly awkward,” Ivy said.

“How are you feeling, Alicia? That wasn’t too taxing for you, was it?”

Alicia shook her head. “Oh, no, Miss Morton was right. I could feel your magic reaching out for mine, but the spell hardly required anything of me.”

Then Alicia’s eyes rolled up into her head and she dropped to the floor in a heap of fluffy green skirts.

Ivy and I both shouted and dropped to our knees. I propped Alicia’s head against my knees as Ivy checked her pulse and waved a lace fan over her face.

“Should we call for Headmistress Lockwood?” Ivy asked.

“Yes!” I frantically searched the hallway, but found no one to call for help. “How is this the one time we find ourselves in an empty hallway?”

“Because if I did this in a crowded hallway, your response wouldn’t be nearly this funny.”

We looked down to find Alicia grinning up at us, her usually pale cheeks flushed pink with glee. “You should have seen the looks on your faces.”

“Oh, you!” Ivy stood and flung the fan at Alicia. She ducked and the fan bounced off of the wall behind her.

“You are horrible,” I told her as she cackled.

She shrugged her thin shoulders. “One must find ways to entertain herself.”





12





Mirror, Mirror





The streets of Lightbourne looked somehow brighter and more colorful as the carriage rattled down the cobblestones. I was going home. I might be able to sneak around the spells somehow to see my family. At the very least, I would be able to relax within the walls of Raven’s Rest, where my secrets were known.

Now, as my carriage rattled toward Raven’s Rest, I read through Alicia’s ancestor’s journal for more mentions of the Grimstelles. I thought of the stained glass in the library and the strange blobby bird that looked as if it had been removed from the glass. What if it hadn’t been removed? What if it hadn’t been meant to appear at all? The school had been built centuries after the Grimstelles were weeded out from Guardian society. What if some girl, some leftover Grimstelle had tried to add her family crest to the ceiling to recapture some glory for her house? Maybe she’d done it badly or a teacher caught her and undid her work. I found myself feeling sorry for that girl, the last in her line, trying to claim her place in a world that no longer wanted her.

Still, I couldn’t blame the Guardians for not wanting the Grimstelles at their tea parties. The very idea of raising the dead, making them dance like puppets on strings, made me shiver. And an army of them marching through the streets of Lightbourne? The stuff of childhood nightmares. And beneath those upsetting images, an undercurrent of thought gnawed at Miss Morton’s assurances that the Grimstelles were long-extinct. Necromancy sounded uncomfortably close to Mr. Crenshaw’s talent for mental manipulation he’d tried to use on me at the social.