100% That Witch - Celia Kyle Page 0,34

stares boring into her from every corner of the room. Where they had once carried admiration, she dreaded to see what awaited now. As if there was any question.

In spite of herself, her eyes flitted lightly around the room, never landing anywhere long enough to settle into full contact. But it was enough to see everything. The thing that made a bad situation even worse.

Pity.

Reaching out again, she scooped up her mug with both hands to keep from spilling it and raised it to her lips.

Just like her heart, it was cold.

Thirteen

The angled light of the sun glared into Tiffany’s eyes like a personal insult. Her big, dark sunglasses were not helping in the slightest. Nature itself seemed to be trying to drive her back to bed.

She sighed as she plodded up the path toward the main campus building. The situation with school was something she had some control over, and she was determined to put in her best effort. It would have been all too easy to spend another day in bed, but slipping further behind in classes would only make her feel worse.

Saturday night was mostly a blur. The last thing she remembered clearly was fleeing the coffee shop like one of her magic rabbits. All day Sunday had been spent burrowed under the covers, crying a muffled, “Go away,” at anyone who dared knock on her door. The sun peeking past her sunglasses right now was clearly trying to add salt to the wound.

She headed into the halls, her long black skirt swishing against her slender calves. Today she was dressed in black. She’d tried to add a bit of color once, and just look how that had gone. Fuck color. She clutched her books to her chest just so she had something to hang on to. It was weird to feel empty and cold, yet stuck in a tempest at the same time.

Tiffany kept the tightest hold on her magic that she possibly could, yet clouds of pink kept appearing at her temples. Occasionally, tiny, pale canaries would emerge from it and sing to her as they fluttered around her head. As she reached the doorway to her classroom, a bunch of white and red rose petals shimmered around her and fell in a sweet scent toward the carpet. She sighed again, keeping her head down.

As she settled at her desk, a tiny pink mouse appeared, reaching for her pencils. He tugged one out of her folder, and held it up to her, his expression sweet and cute. There were Disney characters who would envy the innocence of that wide-eyed, openly adoring look.

Tiffany took the pencil without even looking at the mouse. He scurried over her wrist, trying to get her to smile. She just opened her book and set up to take notes.

When she glanced up at the professor, he was in a dark, blurry cloud. Dammit, she still had her sunglasses on. She winced at the light when she ripped them off. It wasn’t all that bright, but for someone who had hibernated in darkness for the last thirty-some hours, it was definitely unsettling.

Even more unsettling was how hushed the classroom was as the professor droned on about... whatever. Fat lot of good it did to come to class when she couldn’t manage to focus. Maybe some of it would sink in anyway.

Her mind drifted back to the only thing it seemed capable of thinking about.

Rhys. Her eyes burned, and a sword turned in her chest. She had been so sure he was going to propose! She squinched her eyes shut as hard as she could to banish the tears. When she reopened them, the mouse was gone and a tiny black rabbit sat in its place. His head cocked slightly to the side as he bent an ear toward her. At least he was dressed appropriately for once.

His appearance reminded her of how delighted Nero seemed whenever she manifested bunnies around him. With a brief flash of dismay, she remembered she had a tutoring session with him later. A groan caught in her throat before it escaped, thankfully. This was not the day for activities that weren’t absolutely required. All she wanted to do was go back to Hollow House the moment her classes were over and crawl back under the covers.

Opening a texting app on her laptop so the professor wouldn’t know what she was up to, she brought up the text thread she had going with Nero so she could cancel.

Knock