Junior Witch Read online

  He waved his finely clawed hands. “No need to apologize. Sometimes I forget how little Regulars know about our world. The majority of fae you see,” he gestured toward the dancing crowd, “are stuck here. Anama and I haven’t seen our mother for over ten years. She’s back home, and we… are here,” he said here as if he were referring to a dump like the one Trey and I had shared. “It’s hardest on my sister. She was so close to Mother, the apple of her eye.”

  Sinasre lowered his face, averting his eyes. His deep voice quivered, making him sound younger and vulnerable. A knot formed in my throat.

  “What do you mean you’re stuck here?” I asked.

  “All of us cannot return home. We don’t have access to any of the portals to go back to our fae lands,” he answered.

  “What? Why not?”

  “You must know about that, at least,” he said, sounding surprised.

  Did I? I remembered Tempest telling me about how the Academy had stolen all the portals, blocking their access to non-wizards. Was it possible the school was responsible for keeping these fae from going back to their homes?

  No. This couldn’t be true, and if it was, there had to be a good reason behind it.

  Trust no one. The warning echoed inside my head.

  “Why don’t we talk about you instead, Char-lie?” His enchanting eyes traced over my face in a way that felt almost like a caress. More of those damn tingles broke out along my skin. My body was responding in ways my heart wasn’t going along with. The whole “don’t like a boy” thing was failing miserably, so I redoubled my efforts.

  “Me?” I asked. “There’s nothing very interesting about me.”

  “Hmm,” he said, his cat eyes watching my face intently for its reaction.

  He paused, then added, “That’s not what Rowan said.”

  Chapter Five

  FALL SEMESTER

  EARLY SEPTEMBER

  Sinasre’s words echoed in my head as Disha, Bridget, and I walked back through the forest, headed toward our dorm.

  That’s not what Rowan said.

  My shocked expression had drawn an impish smile from him, his words apparently having their desired effect—an effect akin to a bucket of ice sliding down my back.

  Stunned, I’d blinked at him for a few seconds before opening my mouth to ask how in the world he knew Rowan and what exactly had they talked about, but just as I was about to, Anama darted between us, grabbed Sinasre’s hand and dragged him into the throng of writhing bodies.

  The look she gave me as she glanced over her shoulder was pure ice. That girl wanted nothing to do with me and wanted to make sure Sinasre didn’t either.

  I waited nearly forty-five minutes with my eyes on the crowd of dancers, gnawing on my lip and stewing, but he never came back out.

  I sat there wondering what kind of game he was playing? I knew fae were supposed to be aloof and haughty and tended to lean toward tricking humans and getting us to do their bidding, but was that just a stereotype? I tried hard not to be prejudiced about non-wizard creatures. And fae were no different, were they? But what if tricking me had been Sinasre’s only goal?

  With this chilling realization, I had stared around the clearing, wondering what in the hell we were doing there. Sure, we were powerful witches, but did we have any idea what we were dealing with?

  Then I’d glanced at my watch and gasped. It had read midnight, and I’d yet to check on the gnomes.

  Irmagard and Bonnie would have every right to kill me.

  Grabbing Disha and Bridget, I’d hauled us all out of there just in time to stop Disha from making questionable choices with the white-haired fae. She’d tangled herself around him, one arm slung over his neck, the other playing with his snow-white hair. Her half-lidded eyes and parted lips told me nothing good would come out of the next few seconds if I didn’t do something, so I’d untangled her and dragged her through the crowd right after finding Bridget.

  Now, nearly to the storage shed turned gnome sanctuary—they had needed a place to stay and this was where Irmagard had accommodated them—Disha still seemed starry-eyed and far away. What the hell?

  The trees had swallowed up the big, bright moon and the sticky air. An owl hooted and the grassy lawn shivered in a stiff breeze that cut across the northern reaches of campus. Thank god familiar buildings were now in view. I could stop worrying something would snatch us and drag us back into that sinister forest.

  “Gaelin,” Disha murmured, glancing behind us forlornly.

  I gave her arm a tug as I trucked her toward campus and away from temptation. “Not Gaelin, Drew. Remember Drew? Your boyfriend? Your beloved?”

  “Hmm?” she mumbled, staring up at the cloudless sky. “Who’s Drew?”

  “Oh, shit,” Bridget stopped on the path and whirled on Disha. “What did you drink?”

  “Drink?” Disha tossed her head back, swaying slightly, her pupils large and quivering.

  We weren’t at the party long enough for Disha to get drunk, were we? Unless there was some sort of fairy drink I didn’t know existed, which was entirely possible since there was still a lot about this world I was ignorant of.

  Thank goodness Bridget was well-versed. She stared like an optometrist into Disha’s brown eyes for a few seconds, nodded and then began weaving her hands and chanting. Soon, I recognized a clarity spell similar to the one I’d learned to ward off vampire enthrallment. Had Disha been enthralled without me noticing? Dammit, I needed to take better care of her.

  Blowing on the palm of her hand as if pushing the spell into Disha’s face, Bridget finished her chant. Disha staggered back, bumping into me and nearly toppling to the ground. I grabbed her arms, steadying her until her legs regained their strength.

  Disha pressed a hand to her temple. “What... happened?”

  Bridget put her fists on her hips like a disappointed mother. “You should know better than to drink or eat anything the folk give you! Without that clarity spell, you’d probably be unable to enjoy human food ever again.”

  “No blueberry muffins?” Disha asked, confused.

  “They’d taste like ash in your mouth. Or, you’d have wandered back into that clearing and never found your way home.”

  Disha’s head bowed. “But, he seemed so nice. We were just dancing. Then he handed me his cup...”

  Bridget shook her head. “Some folk are nice and some want to enslave you. It’s better not to trust any of them.”

  Her last words tangled with earlier thoughts. Could I believe Sinasre’s claim? Maybe he’d heard about Rowan and me, and was taunting me. Maybe he’d met Rowan and, together, the two of them were devising a way to drive me insane.

  I didn’t want to think Rowan would be actively working against me, but then, he’d joined the very group of subversives we’d hated and had been fighting against for two years just because Tempest told him he could have his precious magic back. Was Rowan still with them? Did that mean Sinasre worked with them, too?

  I opened my mouth to voice some of these concerns and get the girls’ take on it, but as I was about to, a small creature darted across our path. About two feet tall, the humanoid potato with legs ran by, a naked butt flashing at us in the moonlight.

  “Oh my god,” I said, putting my hand to my mouth. “The gnomes are loose!”

  Without another word, we sprinted to the storage shed. When we got there, the doors were flung open, the padlock Irmagard had installed to “ensure their safety at night” broken open.

  Irmagard had converted the unused space into living quarters for her gnomes, giving them toddler bunk beds, little chairs, rugs, lamps, and other niceties. She’d even procured a small pot-bellied stove for cooking and pantry shelves with their favorite treats.

  When I’d seen it earlier in the day as our counselor explained my duties, it had been neat and tidy. Now, it looked like wild dogs had run amok inside.

  The beds were kicked sideways. One appeared to have been chopped up, its remains smoldering inside the open
stove belly, which belched acrid, black smoke into the room. The pantry shelves were bare except for a few cans of sardines.

  Even gnomes had limits when it came to canned fish snacks apparently.

  But the worst part of it was that there were no gnomes in sight.

  Oh, shit. I was in so much trouble.

  “What do we do?” Bridget said, grabbing a handful of her red hair in dismay as Disha cast an extinguishing spell to put out the fire. Smoke blanketed the room and rolled toward us. We backed out, batting to clear the air.

  I stared at the mess in disbelief. “This is my fault. I need to find them. Bonnie and Irmagard put me in charge. If I don’t find the little bastards... Gah! I should never have gone to that stupid party.”

  Disha put her hand on my arm. “Hey, it’s okay. No worries, Charlie Bucket. We got this. Bridget, work on righting the mess the buggers made. Char and I will track down the little potato snatchers.” She clapped her hands and rubbed them vigorously. “Char, you know a good locator spell?”

  I smiled at my friend. Man, I was lucky to have her and Bridget.

  In a few minutes, we ran over our repertoire of locator spells and picked the best one. I did the finger motions, drew power from my cuffs and held out my palm as a wispy green light flared out of it. The spell was a little bit like the game Hot-and-Cold I used to play with my mother. The light flared brighter if you were hot on the trail, dimmer if you were cold.

  Following the glow as it brightened and dimmed, Disha and I started out across the moonlit lawn. The campus was quiet because of the late hour, which worked to our advantage. Any noise or movement should indicate gnome trickery.

  I stared across the manicured lawns and glanced at the brick buildings dotting the horizon. Would they go inside a building? Gnomes were woodland creatures, so my vote was on trees, shrubs and other natural hiding places.

  “Did the party help take your mind off Rowan at all?” Disha asked as she scanned the school buildings and surrounding shrubbery with me. We were near the back of the Humanities Building now and a few windows still glowed with light, helping to illuminate our search.

  “Funny you should mention Rowan,” I said. “Sinasre acted like he had met him.”

  “What?” she exclaimed, her eyebrows shooting into her bangs.

  I put a finger to my lips to shush her. “He gave me the impression he had spoken to Rowan. That Rowan had told him things about me.”

  “What things?” Disha said.

  “I don’t know. I never got to ask him. Anama came and pulled him away.”

  As we advanced toward a flower garden, the light burned brighter and Disha lifted a stone in our path as if a gnome could’ve been buried underneath. Was she still dazzled by that fae spell?

  She set the rock down, sighing. “You know, I get the impression that Lancer and Anama don’t like Supers.”

  “They probably don’t like that term.”

  “Sorry, I mean witches. They don’t like witches,” she corrected.

  I nodded, tilting the light toward another grouping of shrubs. It dimmed. No gnome here. “The one who drugged you—Gaelin—probably doesn’t like witches, either.”

  “Or he likes them too much,” Disha said wryly. “But say you’re right... why are they even here then?”

  “They probably want to get home. Did you know that when the Academy locked up all the portals, it trapped the fae who were in the human realm, leaving them no way to get back?”

  Disha stopped in her tracks and scanned my face. “Is that true?”

  I shrugged. “That’s what Sinasre said, in so many words.”

  “Yeah, and he also told you he’d spoken to Rowan.” She rolled her eyes as if she didn’t believe a word of it.

  I sighed. “It isn’t the first time that someone’s told me the Academy gobbled up all the portals and left others out in the cold.”

  Disha grabbed my arm. “What are you saying? That we’re the bad guys?” She touched her thumb to her chest as she stared hard into my face.

  “No, of course not,” I said, not even sure myself.

  Did I believe the Academy was using their power to hurt people? How could they when they’d been the driving force in helping non-wizards to gain their rights back? Still, being the gatekeepers with so much power could lead to abuses. I just didn’t know what to believe. And now, with Dean McIntosh gone, I had no one to ask. Irmagard was just too… preoccupied. And, Bonnie, no way was I stepping foot in her office unless I absolutely had to.

  I swung around a large willow, and my locator light flashed bright green.

  Waving at Disha, we skittered to a stop as we spotted our prey. A tiny gnome—this one only a foot and a half in height—was digging a hole in the ground. He’d gotten pretty far, enough to wedge himself in with some supplies he’d likely stolen from the shed.

  He jumped into the hole and was about to cover himself up when Disha hit him with an entrapment incantation.

  His little, dirt-covered body rose into the air as he flailed pudgy arms and legs. “Put me down. Put me down!” he shouted, struggling against the spell.

  At first, I thought he was just angry at being restrained, but then I saw the fear in his small black eyes.

  “Hey, hey. It’s okay. We aren’t going to hurt you. We’re just going to bring you back where it’s safe.” I held my hands out reassuringly.

  He struggled, not one bit reassured. “You need to let me go,” he said, his little legs pistoning. “It isn’t safe. They’re coming!”

  “Who is coming?” Disha asked, but the little gnome clammed up, still fighting the spell but no longer answering any questions.

  Disha’s eyes darted from the gnome to me. “What’s he talking about?”

  Shivering, I glanced around. There was one thing I remembered from the “Care and Feeding of Gnomes” packet that Bonnie had given me.

  “Gnomes can sense danger,” I told her. “That must’ve been why they broke out of the shed, why they ran off, why this little guy was trying to bury himself.”

  Disha stared at me as if she didn’t understand. Her brain still seemed a bit foggy from the fairy drink.

  I grabbed her arm to get her attention. “Disha, something bad is going to happen. We have to warn the deans.”

  Chapter Six

  FALL SEMESTER

  EARLY SEPTEMBER

  Disha and I hurried toward the Administration Building, leaving the gnome behind to bury himself. We could dig him up later. We had bigger fish to fry.

  It was unlikely we would find anyone in the offices at this hour, but it was the closest staff building, so it was worth a shot. If no one was there, then we would go to the staff housing area, which was northeast of campus, all the way to the edge, and was invisible to students. Yeah, good luck with that.

  I tried not to panic, knowing full well that one more incident like the dangerous ones we’d had in the past could get my beloved school shut down, leaving me out in the cold.

  When we got to the Administration Building, we tried the main door, but it was locked. We pounded on the glass and tried to peer inside, our hands cupped against the glare. There was no use trying unlocking spells. The wards were far too advanced and besides, there was only darkness inside. No one was burning the midnight oil.

  Turning toward staff housing, we ran down the steps, passing in front of the Enlightenment Fountain.

  We were cutting across the quad when we noticed a colorful flash inside the library across from us. For an instant, a few of the second-floor windows in the right corner had glowed with blue and red light, then everything had gone dark again. The first and third floors of the red-roof building had remained dark, as they were supposed to at this hour.

  Disha and I exchanged worried glances and skidded to a halt next to the stone statue of Athena, the Goddess of War, which stood at the very center of the quad.

  “Did I just imagine that?” Disha asked.

  “You’re still kind of high from whatever yo
u drank, but I saw it, too.”

  We waited, our attention laser-focused on the library windows, our breaths frozen in our chests.

  The windows flashed again.

  Disha and I nodded at each other to confirm we’d seen it again.

  “Probably just the librarians throwing a party,” I said, even as my cuffs grew warm in warning.

  “Let’s check it out!” Disha started toward the library.

  I grabbed her arm. “No, let’s keep going.” I pointed toward staff housing. “Dean Underwood and the others will know what to do.”

  “It might be too late by then, Char,” Disha protested. “C’mon!”

  I shook my head, even though my cuffs’ warning was intensifying by the second.

  “We need to stay out of trouble,” I said. I had made a promise to myself not to repeat the mistakes of the last two years and running into a suspicious-looking building in the middle of the night was exactly the kind of thing Old Charlie would do. I had to keep her reigned in.

  Disha scowled, waving a frantic hand toward the library. “And let a bunch of subversives do who knows what in the advanced section of the library?”

  “Who said anything about subversives?” I asked, as I went over a mental map of the library’s layout and realized Disha was right. That was where the advanced section was located. No one could go inside that area except the faculty and seniors with authorization from one of their professors.

  “Who said anything about subversives?” she repeated. “Duh, the gnomes did.”

  “No, they didn’t.”

  “Not explicitly, but who else could it be?”

  “Well, maybe—”

  Suddenly, three people burst out of the side door of the library and tore across the lawn.

  We were half a block away, but the streetlamps that surrounded the quad gave enough light to allow me to recognize two of them.

  I would never forget either one of them: Tempest and Smudge Face.

  Shit. I had to stop them.

  Adrenaline pumping into my veins and erasing any rational thought, I took off at a full clip, legs pumping, hands outstretched as I spoke a new spell I’d learned just for an occasion like this.