“The Council doesn’t want to cause panic, but I thought you should know. Coral didn’t answer her phone, and Tori—”
“Tori isn’t around anymore.” The words ripped from her throat. They shredded her chest and raised an invisible flush of shame along her skin. Lexie squeezed her empty hand into a tight fist.
“Oh. Do you know where she is?”
Lexie shook her head as she reached her building, even though she knew the Elemental couldn’t see her. Once she was safe behind the closed door, she started the climb. At least Tori wouldn’t have to face this new horror.
“Lexie?”
Anger twisted up from Lexie’s gut, but she forced her voice to remain neutral. “Don’t call this number again.”
She hung up before the other witch could protest.
On the fifth floor, Lexie walked down the hall and unlocked the deadbolt on her door. Inside her small, shared apartment, she let out a shaky breath and dropped her bag. The heavy textbooks thunked against the wood floor. Coral was in their kitchen-turned-Caster-workshop. She bent over a notebook, filling the page with symbols as a potion bubbled before her.
“Hey, Lex,” she said, brushing a thick curl behind her ear. Coral glanced up, and something in Lexie’s expression must have alarmed her, because she abandoned her notes. “What’s wrong?”
Lexie picked up a bundle of dried rosemary and twirled the plant between her fingers. The herb’s power hummed against her skin. It wanted to be shaped and combined and made into pure magic. There wasn’t time for that.
She focused her gaze on her roommate. “We have a problem.”
1
HIGH SCHOOL. THEY SAY it’s the best time of our lives. A time of exploration and endless possibilities. We can try out for any sport, dabble in any form of artistic expression. And by the time we walk across the graduation stage, we’re supposed to know exactly who we want to be.
They say a lot of things, but as I sit in my dead father’s car, parked at the back of the student lot for the first day of senior year, I can’t help but call bullshit.
Salem High isn’t a place to discover who you are. It’s a place to survive and move on. A place where the swing from celebrity to outcast is only one misstep away. Especially for a girl like me.
I cut the engine and check my hair in the visor mirror, brushing the bangs out of my eyes. Even though the local news never mentioned my name, it didn’t take long before everyone figured out that their top story—Recent Salem High graduate Benton Hall arrested on charges of attempted murder—was about me. The entire school probably saw the gruesome re-creations of Benton’s makeshift pyre, where he tied my ex-girlfriend Veronica and me to a stake and tried to burn us alive.
If any of my classmates managed to miss the news, and the social media fallout it created—which did mention my name—I’m sure they’ll find out the second they step onto school grounds.
Not that any of them will be able to guess why Benton did what he did.
The only people at school who know that Veronica and I are Elemental Witches—the only ones who know about the Witch Hunters trying to kill us—are the handful of covenmates who go here, my Blood Witch girlfriend, and my best friend.
A sharp knock raps against my window. I flinch, nearly stabbing myself in the eye as my hands jolt away from the mirror.
“Sorry, Hannah!” The muffled voice of said best friend penetrates the closed window, and its familiarity calms my pounding heart. “Are you coming in?”
“Just a sec, Gemma.” I grab my backpack from the passenger’s seat and force out a slow breath, counting to ten as I exhale. I can do this. I’m okay. When my ragged heartbeat has calmed to a more normal rhythm, I leave the safety of Dad’s car and lock the door behind me.
Gemma follows me toward the school, using her fluorescent pink cane to reduce some of the pressure on her leg. Veronica and I weren’t the only ones the Witch Hunters hurt this summer. Gemma was with me when Benton forced my car over a bridge. He didn’t know Gem was in the car, but the door crushed her leg anyway. My magic was the only thing that saved us from drowning, and there was nothing I could do to hide it from her. Gemma saw everything, leaving me no choice but to explain.
If the Council finds out what Gemma knows though . . .