back a few times.
Sonali let out a snort. “Hardly. It was, like, the number-one topic of conversation. She made it pretty clear that if I didn’t get a bid, she’d disown me.”
“This is a waste of time, trust me,” Reagan said, then yawned. She stretched her arms over her head, causing her crop top to rise up even higher. “My mom and aunts are all brilliant witches, and I don’t think they ever memorized any spells. Once you learn how to harness your magic, you don’t ever have to look at a book again.”
“What was it like, growing up with witches?” Bailey asked, suddenly alert again.
Reagan shrugged. “I never knew anything else.”
Just then, Vivi’s phone buzzed, startling her. No one called her, ever. Especially not in the middle of the night. But when she saw the name on the screen, she snatched her phone and hurried toward a bank of chairs on the other side of the room.
“Mom?” she whispered as she rushed away from the table and turned into the dark hallway. “Is everything okay?”
“Honey, I just got your voicemails.” There was a crackling sound on the other end of the line that sounded like waves. “Sorry I couldn’t call sooner. I’ve been trying this new immersive meditation technique that—”
“Mom,” Vivi cut in. “Why didn’t you tell me I’m a witch?”
There was a long pause.
“Mom, are you still there?” She stepped closer to a window, hoping for a better cell signal. This side of the library faced a thick cluster of trees and a small quad edged with administrative buildings.
“I did tell you, Vivi. You just weren’t ready to hear it.”
You’re special, Vivi. You’re full of magic. Daphne had spent Vivi’s whole childhood repeating phrases like that. Vivi just hadn’t known it was real. “Does that mean you’re also a witch?”
“I have some . . . heightened abilities, but my powers are nothing like yours, darling.”
“Why would you keep all this a secret from me?” Vivi snapped, suddenly shaking with frustration. “There’s an entire sorority here full of witches and I might not make the cut because I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”
Daphne was silent for so long that Vivi wondered if she’d hung up. “Mom? Are you there?”
“Vivian, listen to me: There are many ways to be a witch. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking there is only one path forward.”
“Their path is looking a whole lot better than your path.” Vivi knew that would hurt her but right now, she was too angry to care. “These girls are incredible. They’re going to run the world one day. I think some of them already are.”
There was another long pause. “You need to be really careful, Vivi. You don’t know what power does to people. I’ve seen it. You can’t trust any of those so-called sorority witches.”
Vivi felt a surge of anger burn its way through her foggy exhaustion. “At least they took the time to tell me I was a witch. Right now, it seems like they’re the ones looking out for me.” Furious, she ended the call.
The Ravens weren’t the problem. Daphne was, just like she’d always been.
Vivi was about to rejoin the other pledges when something screeched outside the window. Startled, she wheeled around and craned her head for a closer look but saw nothing except for the shadowy outline of tree branches.
A few seconds later, the screeching noise came again, but there was still no sign of movement among the branches. “What the hell?” Vivi muttered. She was starting to inch forward when something slammed against the glass with a gruesome thwack. Vivi leaped back, heart pounding. She realized with a start that it was a moth, the largest she’d ever seen. It was banging furiously against the glass, so hard the pane rattled. Its wings were light brown, and there was a white shape in the middle.
A shape that looked exactly like a grinning skull.
Vivi gasped and dropped her phone, which skidded across the smooth floor. Before she could reach for it, the dim ceiling lights flickered and went out, shrouding the hallway in darkness.
“Shit.” With a groan, Vivi crouched down and began to feel her way along the floor, praying that the next thing her fingers brushed against would be her phone. “Sonali?” she called. “Ariana? Are you guys in there?” Perhaps the other girls had been still for too long and the sensors had turned the lights off. Except that the large windows were also dark; the lights on