Changeling (Sorcery and Society Book 1)(76)

“Oh, I wasn’t expecting you, yet. Very rude, you know, for a guest to turn up early, before the hostess has time to complete preparations.”

“What are you doing to them?” I asked, dread sinking in my belly.

“You are witnessing the birth of history, my dear. Thanks to you, I have the magic I need to begin my army,” Miss Morton preened. “Three girls from the most powerful families in Lightbourne, here to witness my triumph, to see their power slipping through their fingers before I send them to the great beyond. They’ll be the first to rise in my legion.”

“And that’s why you needed my magic? To turn Castwell’s students into Revenants?”

“Not all of them,” Miss Morton insisted. “Just the girls from the more prominent families, and the more annoying girls, on principal. Do you have any idea how devastated their parents will be to have their daughters’ Revenants shambling around on their lawn every night? They’ll be powerless, too busy mourning to stop me.”

I stepped carefully around the podium, toward the girls. Miss Morton hissed like an angry cat and sent three blades flying from her sleeve. I cringed, throwing up my arms, and the blades flew off course, dropping harmlessly over the edge of the stone wall. I dropped to the floor, exhausted by the magical efforts.

Who hid three blades in their sleeve? That was cheating.

“Shameful.” Miss Morton sighed, tapping each girl on the forehead. I hoped that meant that they were merely unconscious and not already dead. “Always cringing. Always so afraid. From what I’ve heard, the other Changelings were never so pathetic.”

“Wait, there are more?” I asked, pushing to my feet. “More like me?”

“Do you really think you’re the only one?” Miss Morton laughed. “Oh, my dear, children just like you are popping up all over. Like weeds. More and more are being born every year. You’re really not as special as you think you are, Mother Book aside.”

“What? Where are they? Why haven’t I ever heard of this?”

“It’s Coven Guild’s deep dark secret,” Miss Morton chuckled. “Only a few elite members of the Senate know. Not even your precious Mrs. Winter is aware, and she thinks she’s aware of everything. They don’t want to start a panic among the Guardians, so they’re keeping it hush-hush.”

“And how do you know?” I asked. I had to keep her talking, to give Ivy time to undo the limitations on Alicia’s magic and give them time to climb up here with me.

“Before I came here, I worked as a government archive clerk, one of the most boring jobs available to Coven Guild members, but the only position available to someone like me with no connections, no status. I handled the reports, archiving every panicked moment and discussion. I knew I simply had to come to the school. That eventually, they would be drawn to the school, some Guardian family would be so terrified of being caught fostering a Snipe witch under their roof, that they would send her here and try to pass her off as a Guardian. And then, I could cause all sorts of trouble. Undo major houses, destabilize the government. Your waking up the Mother Book was a lovely surprise, though. I’d spent years trying just to open the case and couldn’t get close to it. But, oh, you have expedited my plans faster than I could ever hope. It all just fell into my lap, proof that even the Fates have agreed upon my destiny.”

“These other children? Are they being kept somewhere?”

“No dear,” she told me, a mock note of false sadness in her voice. “Those children were murdered, taken from the families by the time they showed the hint of magic. I’ve never met a Changeling any older than eleven.” She tilted her head, smiling softly at me. “We’re so alike, you know, I felt that right away when I met you. You, a girl out of place in a world you don’t understand. My house, the great Grimstelles, reduced to nothing. I’m going to change it all, this sick world order that rewards laziness and mediocrity. No longer. I will send my armies into the Capitol. I will topple the very foundations of Guardian society, restore the balance. I will create a newer, better world. I would think that you, of all people, would understand my point of view.”

For just a moment, it sounded like music to my ears. No more manipulations, no more lies, no more “guidance” in how to run our lives. Our society was sick. Snipes were servants for no other reason than being born without magic. I wanted to see that change. I wanted to see Callista and Mr. Crenshaw, all of the high and mighty Guardians knocked down a peg or one hundred. I wanted them to know what it was like to work for their bread.

And then I thought of Alicia and Ivy and all of my classmates who would suffer in Miss Morton’s “Utopia.” And while the current system was unfair, I couldn’t punish my friends for being born with magic and wealth any more than I wanted my family to be punished for being born without it.

“But we won’t be free, will we?” I sighed. “The Snipes will be just as terrified and helpless as the Guild Guardians. We’ll have the dead at our doors, without magic to keep them out. Things need to change. I do want to change the world, but not like this. Not your way.”

From below, I felt Ivy and Alicia’s magic, nudging at my own, letting me know they were there. Alicia’s magic was strong, like a slap to the back of my head, reminding me how misguided this plan was. I realized I felt alive, refreshed and whole and ready for a fight. I stood, much to Miss Morton’s surprise and walked toward the book stand. She tried to stop me, but I flung my hand up, Wit singing out of my sleeve. The force of a shield rune threw her across the tower room and into a column.