The Ravens (The Ravens #1) - Kass Morgan Page 0,38

Vivi forced herself to nod.

“Summon that feeling again.”

Vivi shut her eyes, trying not to care if she looked ridiculous. She reached for the memory of the sparkler once more. She thought about the way her fingertips had tingled. The same way they had when she’d touched the tarot card last night.

It felt like a static shock or that time she’d accidentally touched the low-level electrified fence around the pond by their house in Oregon. It made her scalp tickle. The itch crawled down the back of her neck, ran along her arms and down her spine, like millions of goose bumps all at once.

“Now focus it,” Scarlett said. It sounded as though her voice came from somewhere far, far away. “Think about what you want to see happen. Believe that it will happen.”

Vivi felt something vibrate in her chest, and when she began to speak, her voice sounded rich and powerful. “I call to the Queen of Earth. Show us your power over death and rebirth.” The pot trembled slightly and Vivi gripped it tighter. She could almost sense a faint pulse, like a heartbeat, and an image flashed through her mind—a quivering seed with delicate roots unfurling.

Vivi opened her eyes. Her hands felt shaky, her energy drained, as if she’d just run a long, hard sprint. But in front of her was a tiny sapling, no taller than her pinkie finger, with a single green leaf on top. A plant she’d grown through magic.

* * *

Vivi was on such a high after their lesson that it took her hours to stop beaming. Even Scarlett’s chilly attitude toward her couldn’t dampen her spirits. It was one thing to be told you were a witch. It was quite another to perform real magic. Her already goofy grin widened as she tried to imagine what else she could do with her powers. Could she create gourmet dishes without ever learning how to cook? Transform her dorm room into the height of luxury? Turn her roommate invisible?

But now, as she sat with the other girls in the science library at three a.m., she felt her buzz beginning to fade. For the second part of their training session, Scarlett had sent them off to study spell books that had been enchanted to look like dull, dog-eared organic chemistry textbooks to non-witches. “You have twenty-four hours to memorize every spell in this grimoire,” Scarlett had said. “Tomorrow night, same time, meet me back here for your next test.”

Unlike the rest of the historic campus, the science library was a modern, soulless, fourteen-story rectangle. Each floor was painted according to the pH scale. They were at a table on the first floor, the only students in sight. No one else had to pull an all-nighter during the first week of school. Even the librarian had gone home.

“It’s humanly impossible to memorize this in one night,” Reagan said as she shut her book with frustration.

“It’s much more fun than real organic chemistry, trust me,” Bailey said, staring at her grimoire in awe. She pointed at a spell printed in gold ink above a trio of gem-toned tarot cards that reminded Vivi of an illuminated medieval manuscript. “This is a spell to silence the voice of your enemy. Can you imagine?”

“I wonder if I can use it on my roommate,” Reagan said as she leaned over for a better look. “She calls her boyfriend in Texas every night and spends hours recounting the banal details of her pointless life.”

“That’s a little mean, isn’t it?” Sonali said.

Reagan fixed her with a glare. “She tells him everything she ate that day. Literally everything, like ‘I went to the dining hall and had cereal with half a banana, and then for lunch I went to that bagel place but they were out of cinnamon raisin, so I—’”

“Oh God, make it stop,” Sonali cut in as she rubbed her temples. “You’re right. That’s insufferable.”

“I don’t even know what language this is,” Ariana said groggily as she frowned at her grimoire. “Is it ancient Greek?”

“I think so,” Sonali said, leaning in for a closer look. Unlike the others, she’d seemed to grow more wired as the night went on, muttering to herself as she pored over the spells. “My mom was a Raven but she never said anything about memorizing an entire spell book overnight. Maybe she blocked it from her memory?”

“Or maybe she didn’t want to scare you away from pledging?” Bailey said as she closed her eyes and rolled her shoulders