A Spell for Shadows: Rosewilde Academy of Magical Arts Read online

  “So the whole thing is super easy,” Serena said as we approached the big double doors into the foyer. “You just like, introduce yourself, give them the nickel tour of the grounds, and let them know there’s a party afterward. Um, but only if they seem cool with it. We get some real weirdos from fringe families… they rarely make good party companions. Here we go…”

  We pushed through the doors, and she walked me to a little alcove where a few other students milled about, waiting for their mentors. I frowned. “You… found me in the bathroom. Are we supposed to wait here or can I just find them when it’s time?”

  “Oh… yeah,” Serena murmured. “Yeah I actually tried to get out of that. The Academy just kind of shoved us together anyway. But that’s me, I’m a rebel. You’re… you know. You.”

  I glowered at her. Serena was one of those friends who always seemed like they might not like you very much one moment, and then make you feel like you’re the coolest person in the world the next. Except, most of that feeling was because you felt cool for knowing her. The enigma that was Serena Venturo.

  “Hope you get a good one,” she said as she stepped away and shooed me into the alcove, lowering her voice to a breathy sort of mock-shout, as if she were sending me off on a boat. “Best of luck, try not to get them killed or, you know, let the new headmaster rope them into a plot to destroy the world. Learn from my mistakes!”

  I folded my arms and bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing at her. She didn’t deserve the satisfaction. When she was finally through the doors, I smiled at the other nominees for mentor in the alcove. Some of them smiled back, a few waved halfheartedly. None of them looked like they wanted to be here.

  Or, no… that’s not what that look was. Instead of the distant, thousand-yard stare of peers who would rather be preparing for the pre-term party, a lot of the eyes in the alcove were focused specifically on me. And not in a good way.

  I shifted a little and combed my hair behind my ear.

  “You’re Amelia Cresswin,” one of the students said, a guy I’d had Thaumaturgy with last year, maybe.

  I gave a nervous half-laugh and shrugged. “Yeah. That’s me. The dumb one from a normal family. Er… not normal I mean but like—”

  “Did you really almost summon an Outsider last year?” another student asked. She looked younger than me, but they were all sophomores. Still, she had a round, dimpled face and black hair that made her look almost like a doll.

  My mouth dried up. The security team that had pulled us out of Sinclaire’s secret dungeon had said they would keep the incident quiet. I should have known better than to think that anything could stay a secret at Rosewilde. Spying on one another was the magic academy equivalent of foosball. I tried to say something clever and funny but nothing came immediately to mind, and then it had been long enough that anything I did try and say would just be awkward, so instead I just folded my arms and leaned against the wall and stared at her. Very good, I thought about my choice, just be super dark and mysterious and they’ll all just come up with their own interpretations. Smooth.

  “Did no one tell you how super dangerous that is?” the first student asked, the guy who’d called me out.

  I sighed and dropped my clearly unimpressive display of mystery. “Look, it didn’t happen like you probably heard, okay? It wasn’t… I didn’t do it on purpose. Or by accident. I mean—it was Sinclaire’s idea, okay?”

  “And you went along with it?” the girl asked.

  “What?” I rolled my eyes. “No, I don’t mean he proposed something, I mean I didn’t know what he was trying to get me to do until… I didn’t know that’s what he wanted. He tricked me, and then held my friend hostage so that I would—”

  “So you did know,” the guy insisted.

  Fuck. I started to open my mouth to lay into him.

  “Amelia Cresswin?”

  Saved by the faculty. There was a change of pace. I whirled quickly and marched out of the alcove to meet a smartly dressed woman, hair almost the same color red as mine, but way taller than me and maybe middle-aged standing beside a new student. Statuesque now was a word that I had a clear frame of reference for. I hadn’t seen her before, but she was obviously faculty of some kind. She had that kind of radiating confidence and self-assuredness, like wherever she was she definitely belonged there and fuck you for even wondering if she did.

  I had an instant girl crush and wanted to grow up to be her one day. “Uh, that’s me.”

  “I’m aware,” she mused, and gestured to the girl beside her. “This is Sadie Chapman. She’s your mentee this year. Serena Venturo spoke very highly of you. I think the two of you will be a good match.”

  Sadie did not seem to think so. Maybe it was my drab, wear-them-around-the-house jeans that I wore to school because I didn’t want to risk losing a pair of my good jeans to the ether tomorrow morning, or maybe it was the fact that I wasn’t stunning and six-foot-five inches tall and an amazon like the delivering faculty goddess, or maybe she was just a bitch. Whatever it was, she looked me over and I swear that she feigned a cough to act like she was covering up her rolling eyes. She was petite, like a vicious little sprite, with curly blonde hair and stupidly beautiful green eyes that pulled off a dismissive eye-roll really well.

  “Great,” I said. “Sadie. Nice to meet you, I’m Amelia.”

  “Obviously, I heard the headmistress,” Sadie said.

  I swallowed what I was going to say next as I looked up at the woman I wanted to be one day. “Uh… oh. I didn’t know they’d… I’m so sorry, Headmistress, I—”

  She held a hand out. “It’s perfectly alright, Miss Cresswin. It was a late notice appointment after the… events… of last year. I’m Pepper Hayes. It’s a pleasure to meet all the students, but I’ve heard a lot about you in particular. Sadie couldn’t be in better care.”

  We shook a brief, professional, I-see-my-students-as-adults kind of shake, before she smiled at both of us and turned to clip-clop away in those stylish but practical half-heels that made her calves look like she could kick over trains.

  I couldn’t tell if that mollified Sadie at all, but it certainly raised the hairs on the back of my neck. I couldn’t tell exactly whether it was because of my insta-girl-crush… or because I wondered just what exactly she’d heard and why she might think any of it was a good thing.

  As she walked away, I couldn’t decide if I trusted her or not. Sinclaire had to have friends out there, right? Would they try the same thing again? Or was I just being paranoid? Maybe it really was all over.

  To be fair, my track record with headmasters, or headmistresses, or just… executive faculty in general at this school was pretty bumpy. I think anyone would be a little on guard.

  Sadie was not remotely excited to be my mentee, that much was at least plain and out in the open. She gave a long, disinterested sigh, and looked around the foyer. “Aren’t you supposed to give me a tour or something?”

  I narrowed my eyes at her, and then at the gaggle of mentors looking on from the alcove. I looked Sadie over with as much of the scrutiny she had pointed at me pointed right back at her, before I delivered what I thought was a suitable introduction, given the circumstances. “Did they tell you I almost destroyed the world last year?”

  Sadie blinked, and must have caught the faces of the other mentors because she shook her head slowly, with fresh caution in her expression.

  “Well I did,” I said, and turned on a heel to lead her on the tour. “Welcome to Rosewilde. Try to keep up, and save your questions for the end.”

  Amelia

  “So then she says, ‘Funny, I didn’t think they let anyone into Rosewilde that didn’t at least pass their primaries’. Can you believe that?” I slumped onto Serena’s bed, where we’d congregated to get ready for the pre-term party at the Cabin as soon as I was able to scrape Sadie off at her own dorm room. I hadn’t spent much time in my own, but it looked pretty much like all of them. Certainly cleaner than last year’s, when
I roomed with Hunter. If I had a roommate this year, I didn’t know yet. Whoever it was, wasn’t there when I dropped by.

  “She’s one of those,” Serena groaned as she carefully adjusted the illusion of makeup on her face. She’d offered to make me over with magic, but I had declined. There was no telling what I would end up looking like and I didn’t think I could pull of Serena’s style.

  “One of who?” I asked.

  Serena made a final adjustment and then turned to me. “You know in Harry Potter there’s wizard and Muggles and some wizards don’t like Muggles?”

  I snorted. “Um… yeah, I guess. I didn’t really read all books.”

  “So you’re the one,” she murmured. But she shrugged her perfect shoulders and went on. “Anyway, some magician families are old. Like, really old. The Chapmans are one of them. It’s pretty rare for a family to mint a new magician if there wasn’t magic there to begin with. Some people think that pedigree is worth something, and they think those of us that didn’t get a full primary education are beneath them. Like we’ll never amount to anything because we didn’t ‘pay our dues’ or some shit like that.”

  “Like you?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” she sighed. “And you too, sort of. I mean, honestly, we both come at it a little differently. Your family actual did have magicians in it. They just, you know… died. Mine, well… it’s different in my family. We’ve got magicians from way back, and knew about the school and everything. Just no one expected one of us to turn up with the gift for it.”

  I perked up at that. “Wait, so your family does know about magic, but they aren’t magicians?”

  Serena pursed her lips. “Eh… it’s sort of a complicated situation. They could have sent me to primary, they knew I had an inkling. They just thought it might get channeled in a different direction.”

  “Oh.” I deflated a little bit. “Well, whatever. After this whole mentor, mentee thing I doubt I’ll have to have anything to do with her. Her whole attitude just irks me. I wanted to strangle her the whole time. ‘I don’t really need a tour, I visited my brother here when I was twelve.’ And, ‘I would ask if the kitchen servitors can take specialized dietary requests, but I suppose you wouldn’t know.’ Which, by the way, I didn’t know—why didn’t you tell me that?”

  She gave a dainty snort and tucked a vial of something into her bra. Wait, no—she wasn’t wearing a bra. Maybe a hidden pocket in her dress, then. “Who can keep track of all that stuff? You just write it down on a card and sign it and do this little spell and… you know what, I’ll just show you at dinner tonight, it’s easier. You ready to go?”

  I wasn’t sure that I was, actually. “Did Hunter say anything about it after I left? I mean, is he going or… is Nathan going to be there?”

  “You just cannot get enough dick, can you?” Serena asked, feigning amazement.

  I’m sure I turned tomato red. “It’s… not about that! Jesus, Serena… No, I mean, just, last year Hunter and I finally had kind of a moment, but now Nathan is back in the picture and incidentally might want to kill me or at least, you know, prevent me from doing something horrible and he and Hunter, and also my two… er… maybe-boyfriends—”

  Serena held up a hand. “Hang on.”

  “What?” I squeaked.

  She pulled her chair over, the back facing me, and straddled it with her arms rested on the back. Somehow, she did not show anything even though that dress barely came past her hips. How did she do that? Illusion, probably, but I hadn’t seen the spell. “Maybe-boyfriends?”

  I shrugged self consciously, tucking my head as I did. “We haven’t exactly sorted it out with diagrams and charts or anything,” I muttered. “Obviously, we’re something, but I haven’t brought it up, and they haven’t brought it up and did I mention the insane ex that spent a year in the Abyss because that really does complicate things.”

  “Sweet summer child,” she said, and held a hand out for me. I took it, expecting sympathy or something. I should have known better. It was Serena, after all. “What you have to do is fuck them real good in the ass, and then they’ll belong to you forever.”

  I dropped her hand. “Your jokes are supremely unhelpful.”

  “I never joke,” Serena said, deadpan. Or… maybe she wasn’t joking? “Look, if you want unsolicited advice…?”

  I waited. “Yeah? I do want unsolicited advice. Which now makes it solicited advice. Should I say something? I mean I don’t want to seem needy, and this magician sex-drugs-and-magic thing—do magicians even do commitment like that? Not that I think they’ve been with anyone else… except each other, I guess? But how do you even—”

  “Oh my god,” she groaned as she wiped a hand down her face. She flicked her fingers afterward, as if shooing away my insecurities. “I think for the first time in my life I might have something practical and useful, at the same time, to offer.”

  I clasped my hands like a good student. “I’m all ears. This should be interesting.”

  “Do you want to take the step, and cross the line, and be exclusive and call them your boyfriends and all that stupid shit? No offense.”

  I glowered. “Yes. I do want that.”

  “Okay,” she said, unsteadily. She took my hands again in hers and looked me dead in the eye. “Then… you should… put a finger—no, not that, I mean to say… cast a cockring spell—sorry, no. This is hard for me. Um… how about you just say to them these magic words. Ready?”

  I bit my tongue first. “Sure.”

  “Okay, so the words are,” she said, her voice low, conspiratorial as she leaned in, tipping the chair toward me, “I want us to be official and exclusive because I have mad feelings for you both and want to pursue a serious relationship.”

  I blinked. “Serena, I…” I squeezed her hands. “I’m just so shocked to hear something like that come out of your mouth.”

  She let my hands go and stood from the chair. “Yes, well. Bask in the experience that is my infinite wisdom while I get some mouthwash. I’m looking forward to a night of completely non-committed pussy worship and can’t go out with my breath smelling like good advice.”

  The Cabin was quieter from the outside this year. Lucas cocked his head, and peered through a revelation spell, nodding appreciatively. “Someone finally figured out how to phase the dampening spell over the whole spectrum. Wow.”

  Isaac was equally impressed. He glanced at Serena. “Who did it this year?”

  “I dunno, some nerd,” Serena answered. “Hunter coming? Or Nathan?”

  I caught the side-eye she gave me, like an invisible wink for asking on my behalf.

  Lucas and Isaac shared a brief, blank look before Isaac answered for them. “Hunter, maybe. Nathan may not be up for it after everything.”

  I smothered my disappointment. Hot, cold, hot, cold—maybe I would just never know where Hunter really stood. I could at least try to make sure that I knew where Lucas and Isaac did, or at any rate let them know where I stood. At this party full of horny, drunk magicians. Very special moment. Perfect for confessions of love or whatever it was.

  Serena went ahead of us, waving fingers and blowing kisses as she turned the dial to white and slipped in the front door. Lucas went to the dial next and looked back at us. “What are we feeling?”

  He said ‘we’ but looked at me directly. Did he want me to say ‘blue’? I shifted a little, nervous about answering wrong. Which was silly, I knew, but back at the house, it was just the three of us. What other temptations were there? Now that we were back at Rosewilde, where options ran rampant… who wanted to settle down with just one girl? There were girls, and guys, here at the Academy who could probably do things in bed I couldn’t imagine. “Uh… if you want to go blue, I’ll come.”

  Isaac snorted quietly, but dismissed it. “Sorry, sorry. I’m only twelve years old inside, apparently.”

  Lucas hadn’t turned the dial. “We don’t have to go wild,” he said. “Unless you like the view. I couldn’t exactly blame you.�
��

  I dipped my head. “I do like the view. But I mean, now that we’re back here, if you and Isaac want to… you know. I mean, I can have fun either way.”

  For a moment, Lucas looked like I’d slapped him. “Now that we’re back here?”

  “Amelia,” Isaac said, as Lucas approached us, “are you alright?”

  A small clump of magicians strolled past us, turned the dial to full violet—the open free-for-all, Caligula-esque magician orgy—and disappeared into the Cabin.

  If Serena were here with me, she’d be shoving me, and telling me not to be meek. And probably to offer to peg them both. Or, she’d repeat what she told me before. So I summoned up my inner Serena-like confidence. “I really don’t mind going to the blue party,” I told them. “Being there with you two would probably be more fun than getting lost there like I did last year. But, um… after this summer, and everything last year, I have started to wonder where we stand? Like, I kind of want to think of the three—ah, that is the two of you—as my… boyfriends. And I get that magician culture is a little different and I’m wrapping my head around that so it’s not like I’m asking you to—”

  Lucas pressed his lips to mine, breathing deep as his tongue slipped past my lips and found mine. Isaac’s hand traveled over my shoulder, down my back. After a dizzying minute getting drunk on Lucas’s mouth, he pulled away and urged me toward Isaac, who seemed to think it was some kind of competition the way his arms snaked around my waist and he pulled me tight to his chest as he devoured my lips and tongue with soft, pleased groans. I was pressed tight enough against him to feel how hard he got as he kissed me. When he did finally let me go, he and Lucas slipped an arm behind one another, and leaned their heads together so they rested temple to temple.

  That was a good answer, but not totally clear. Isaac clarified. “We can be exclusive, Amelia,” he said, smiling. “We weren’t sure if it was something we should bring up or not. After all, this whole world is new to you. It seemed selfish to want to limit your choices.”