Chapter Ten

I woke up on Monday morning with a sense of lethargy that couldn't seem to go away. Our classes were all moved back one period because we all got an extra class taught by the principal herself on the first period. Amy was no more a morning person than I was, and she grouched along the way to class. I hadn't told her about my late-night questioning yesterday. My own mind was still busy, reeling in the murder, the questioning, and...that other thing I didn't want to think about.

We all gathered at the lunch hall for the class because it was the biggest hall to hold everyone. Dee was the most enthusiastic about the class. It was so out of character for her to be enthusiastic, but I guessed if she could be enthusiastic about anything, it made sense that it was about having an extra class. "Isn't this great?" she kept gushing. "We finally have the same class together! And Edgerton is teaching us! I bet this is about some kind of extra protection!"

I nodded along absently. It had occurred to me this morning that if the Council was questioning a student, then it meant they really suspected whoever spell-drugged the principal and murdered Mr. Hollister was someone inside the school.

Principal Edgerton came in five minutes late, looked at our sleepy faces and barked, "Today!" After the students jumped in their chairs, she said again, "Today, we are going to learn a protection spell."

"I knew it!" Dee whispered.

"This spell works very simply to alert anyone linked to it when the person spelled is facing a real danger to their life."

Dee raised her hand.

"Wait until I'm done, Miss Thornton," the principal said. "Since this protection spell works more as an alarm bell than a true defense, I want every student to find at least five people to link themselves to. Find someone reachable that you trust. A guardian or a parent would be too far to link to, so try to keep your links here. If you couldn't find enough people, report immediately and a teacher would find you a link or be your link."

Dee raised her hand again, but the principal gestured to a senior guy on the front instead. "Yes, Mr. Kowalski?"

"Ma'am, what if we're already dead by the time our links registered the alert?"

"Oh, I forgot to mention that the links would also be able to provide you additional magic force, when you were really faced by a great danger. Now, this is how you perform the protection spell. Join your blood with the blood of the person you want to link with direct your raw magic linearly into the mixture. Younger students will be assisted by the teachers. No one will leave this hall until they are linked with five people."

Murmured echoed in the hall and everyone started moving from table to table to find their usual buddies. Amy whispered, "So are we doing this blood oath thing together or what?"

"It's not blood oath," Dee denied. "Blood oath involves an actual oath. This is just a mediocre spell to bind people by their magic temporarily." She looked disappointed. "I thought we were going to do an actual protection spell. This is just so...anticlimactic."

Amy shrugged. "Well, I don't care as long as I got an extra nap faster. Do we cut ourselves on the palm or what?"

"I think a pinprick will do," I said, taking a pin from my blazer.

"What about tetanus?" Amy asked, suddenly worried.

"We're witches," Dee said. "We don't even get flu. Stop being so paranoid." She took my pin and stabbed her middle finger, and then took Amy's finger and stabbed it, ignoring her loud exclamation. I watched as they directed their raw magic into the blood. A small flicker of light was all it looked like, but Amy and Dee staggered back as if they were hit by a car.

"You guys okay?" I asked.

Amy nodded. "Awesome, actually. Your turn." Amy wiped the pin on a napkin and pricked my thumb, and then hers on her own. I felt Amy's raw magic when I directed my own into it. The moment we joined, I felt like I was electrocuted with high-voltage electricity. Stumbling back, I saw that Amy had the same reaction. She rubbed her finger. "Not so strong, Riley."

I guessed I inserted too much raw magic. I hadn't been paying attention on the amount. "Sorry."

I repeated the same thing with Dee, and then we went separate ways to find other people to link with. Dee linked with a girl from our swimming class and I saw Amy linking with the senior guy who had interrupted the principal earlier, who was actually her ex.

Feeling the disadvantages of being an outcast, I walked up to the front where the principal was still standing. "Will you link with me, Principal Edgerton?"

I was afraid she would refuse, seeing that I wasn't winning any Student of the Year awards, but she said, "Of course, dear." We repeated the same procedure I had done with Dee and Amy earlier. After we were done, I went looking for other people. Maybe my swimming coach, Ms. Greene. I couldn't find her, though. Maybe three was enough. There was no way the principal could tell how many we had linked with, right?

"Riley."

It was Carter. He had been standing far at the back earlier, guarding. But now he offered his hand to me. After what he said last night, I wasn't sure I could look at his face without turning red, so I just looked at his hand. "Are we even allowed to link with mages?"

"Well, I'm going to be here until the danger is over—so, yeah."

I pricked his finger without looking at him and touched the tip with my index finger. He pressed in and directed his magic into the blood. When our magic met, it felt strangely intimate. I pulled back and muttered my thanks, then moved back into the crowd to look for Amy and Dee. They were still talking to the people they had linked with.

Four should be enough, then. Sullen, I took my bag and went out of the hall. I'd always told myself I was fine with being alone and having few friends. I'd also told myself I didn't care when people gave me the title Queen Bitch. But just now, looking at everyone, I realized how much I wanted to just fit in. Ever since I heard the girls in the bathroom slut-shaming me, I had begun to wonder if maybe I did care about what everyone thought, after all.

"Williams."

I froze for a short beat, and then turned, fixing my expression into a lazy look. "Isla."

Luke walked closer. I had this strange feeling in my chest, like there were tiny horses running there. "You haven't got five," he said.

So he came to mock me. That was fine. That meant we were back to frenemies—which was much better than the awkward thing we'd had these past few days. Still, Carter's words last night came back to me. I've seen the way you look at him. "I did, actually."

"Amy, Deidre, Principal Edgerton, Reston. Who's the fifth?"

I scrambled my head to find a name. "Ms. Greene."

"Nice try. She's taken a leave to Mexico after what happened with Mr. Hollister."

Well, I tried. "So I got four. It's none of your—wh—what are you doing?"

Before I was even done speaking, Luke had sliced his left thumb with a pocket knife and taken my hand to do the same to mine. His grip was stronger than what I thought a swimmer was capable of. He laced my fingers with his even though all we needed was the thumb, and then he joined my magic with his, eyes still locked with mine.

You will only hurt yourself.

I swallowed hard and flinched as the electrocution feeling hit me. Luke tore his gaze away and released my hand. "You are welcome," he said.

I remembered clearly the first time I saw Lucas Island in Asphodel Academy. It was before freshmen year began. The few last days of summer break. Even then, I had spent a lot of time in the principal's office. My only friend at the time was Dee, whom I sometimes talked to in class. I never had any friends on holidays. The only person I could talk to was Principal Edgerton, who was always at school.

But looking for the principal just to talk seemed so pathetic. So I always found a reason to get into trouble and end up landing there. Pulling pranks on the dorm receptionists, stealing food from the kitchen, doodling on library books, etcetera. I often prided myself for my creativity. That particular day, I had decided to pull the prank on the principal herself. I was going to turn her hair green. Neon green. So I snuck into her office and hid under her desk—I had grown taller over the summer and my fourteen-year-old body didn't fit under it as well as I was when I was twelve, but I managed.

When I heard the doorknob turning, I had jumped out from the desk and snapped my fingers, screaming, "What is hair? Hair you have! Color be you, green is true!" I had read that spell from a prank book in the library a few years ago and used it to change my hair color constantly. Back then, it hadn't mattered to me how lame it sounded as long as it got the job done.

Unfortunately, I did the job on the wrong person. Principal Edgerton looked at me with a horrified expression. Her hair was still dull gray without a strand of green. It was the boy standing beside her who had received the end of my spell. Even his eyebrows were neon green. Of course, he didn't realize this until the principal yelled at me for using magic irresponsibly. After I changed back the boy's hair color, I asked her, just to irritate her further, "Are you sure you don't want me to take care of those gray strands? You might look younger if I do."

She yelled at me some more again until she was tired of yelling. And then she said. "You should make a better example for your new friend here, Miss Williams." She gestured at the boy, whose hair was now dark, almost black. It was especially stark against the light green of his eyes. He looked my age, but he mustn't have grown over the summer like I had because he was a few inches shorter than me. He had this look that reminded me of myself when I first came here: wide-eyed but wary, calculating but lonely. It was easy to read all that from his face because I still saw the same thing in the mirror every morning. "This is Lucas Island. He is a new student here and I expect you to not turn his hair green again, Miss Williams."

Of course, now everything was different. Lucas had suddenly grown so tall over the next summer. He stole the awards in all the championships I should have won. It had always been like that for us: competing to prove who was better, trying to prove our worth to the world. Except that now everyone liked him and he was far from being lonely, while I was still the girl only few people could stand.

But when I saw Amy and Dee again later at dinner, I knew I already got it good. Having two friends who actually knew you and whom you never have to prove yourself to was better than having everyone saying hi to you in the hallways but at the cost of you doing something cool and worthy in their eyes.

"Why are you smiling to yourself?" Amy asked, biting off her apple. "I know I said you should smile more, but this is just creepy."

"Shut up," I said, still smiling.

"Hey, by the way there was a package for you when I went back to the dorm just now." She shuffled in her bag and took out a box. "I don't know what's on it but I took it with me because I was in hurry."

An envelope was attached to the box. There was a golden wax seal on the opening.

"Isn't that the Ellison seal?" Dee leaned in for a closer look. "Yeah, definitely Ellison seal."

My uncle and his lordly dramatic flairs. I opened the envelope and took out the piece of paper. It was a letter—a short note, really:

Dear niece,

This is a replacement for your phone. If I hear your name mentioned in any murder investigation again, I will nullify the contract you signed and send you to Elysium before you can say my name.

Lord Albert Ellison.

Without a doubt, I opened the box and found a new brand phone inside it. While I scrolled through the contacts, trying confirming my suspicions that he had put his hotline number there—he didn't—Amy was freaking out about the letter. "What murder investigation?" she demanded. "What aren't you telling me? Are the Council suspecting you for murdering Mr. Hollister out of revenge?"

I groaned. "Why is that the first thought that comes to your mind?"

"Riley is a witness for Edgerton," Dee told her. "And Edgerton's memory gap is connected to Mr. Hollister's death."

Amy shot me a betrayed look. "You told her but not me?"

"I know from my uncle," Dee defended me. "Anyway, I looked up sacrifice spells."

"What's that?"

"The spell that killed Mr. Hollister."

"Oh." Amy grumbled, "I don't want to hear any more murder talk. I want to know why Lucas Island keeps looking at our table. How do I look, Riley?"

"You look perfect and beautiful and it's no wonder he has finally fallen madly in love with you," I told her dryly.

"Guys," Dee interjected. "This is important. Do you know what sacrifice spells are used for?"

"To sacrifice?"

Dee let out a frustrated breath. "I mean, what kind of magic. It's black magic. That's why Mr. Hollister's body was so horrible when we found it. That's why whoever did this would kill again."

"Please don't say they're trying to raise the dead," Amy begged, hiding her face behind her apple. "I don't want to have any nightmares tonight."

"I didn't say anything about zombies, Amy. A sacrifice is used to amplify the power of a warlock or a witch in order to prolong their life. It should be done only on a Friday night in tenth month of the year, before the witching hour. But what I mean about killing again is not the next sacrifices." Dee leaned in and lowered her voice. "It's the fact that this person uses black magic. There is only one known person still alive in the history who has been known for his ruthless capability in wielding black magic. And by doing this in a place for everyone to discover, it's like he is announcing his comeback."

"Who is it?" Amy asked in a small voice.

"He was the reason the Council replaced the monarchy system. No one believed he was actually dead even though the Council claimed that the original royal family members had all passed away. There are rumors about his sightings every few decades or so, but a sacrifice spell like this hadn't been heard for almost a century. Still, there was no one else who could have done this. It must be him.

Crown Prince Lasaeva. The Dark Prince."