Shadow Phantoms - H.P. Mallory Page 0,6

spell. Just one. Simple. Rudi-fucking-mentary.

You can do this.

“Here and there, one and the same, to where I go, from whence I came. Spirits above, spirits below, take me now where I need to go.”

I swung the door open. A strong wind pulled me through the doorway with the force of an industrial vacuum. For a moment, everything was pitch black.

Then the heavy door slammed shut behind me.

I blinked. When I opened my eyes, I found myself standing in a stuffy closet—not that there’s any other kind of closet, I guess. Chalk particles hung in the air and tickled my lungs. I spun around toward the tall, narrow door. It led to the hallway just outside my morning lecture.

Perfect.

I hurried down the hallway, reached my classroom and threw open the door. Then I sped into the back of the classroom without bothering to check if the coast was clear.

The lecture hall was huge. The linoleum floor was tiered, each tier with a row of desks. The room was shaped like a shallow, upside down cake. I spotted Jupiter and Kevin sitting against the back wall. I slid into the empty seat beside Jupiter. Quiet as a church mouse.

They hadn’t noticed me. Thank God.

Allegra, Ellenora, and Trixie sat in the next row down. When I bent down to get my books out of my bag, my chair squeaked slightly. Allegra flipped her hair, cherry red, out of her eyes and turned back to glare at me.

“Look who it is,” Ellenora whispered to Allegra. “I guess when your father’s on the school board, you get to make your own schedule. That’s just neat, isn’t it?”

Dammit. I guess they had noticed me. They being the three bitches of Elmington—Ellenora, Allegra and Trixie—all who were determined to make my life here miserable. Thank God for Jupiter and Kevin.

Allegra snickered. She wound her narrow finger in her stringy blond hair and nodded. Ellenora was brilliant, and nothing you could say would convince Allegra otherwise.

“Totally,” Allegra said.

Trixie leaned toward Ellenora and glanced back at me—tardy to the party and trying really hard to think of something awful and funny to say to me.

Kevin looked up. His immaculate auburn eyebrows lifted nearly to the top of his tall forehead. Jupiter swept her short, purple hair out of her pale face, her dark brows knitting in concern.

“Don’t you three hens have anything else to cluck about?” Jupiter asked, glaring at each of them in turn.

But they didn’t take their eyes off me.

“I wish my daddy could buy my way into school,” Trixie said. “I don’t feel like waking up at 6 a.m. anymore either.”

They laughed. Really made a show of it, too. Building a wall between us with bricks made out of rolling eyes and fake giggles.

“Just ignore them,” Jupiter whispered.

“Assholes,” Kevin chimed. Never started his own conversations, Kevin; always with the chiming. “They’re just jealous you don’t have to wake up an hour early to look like a total goddess.”

“Thanks,” I said, face flat. But I hardly looked like a goddess. Unless said goddess was Medusa.

“No, seriously,” Jupiter said as she looked at my hair. “Your volume is literally giving me life right now.”

“Jupe, I’m fine. I cannot express to you how little I care what any of them thinks of me.” And that was mostly true. As a rule, I was a friendly person who liked getting along with people.

“Well, it’s not fun to hear that stuff.”

“Fucking up your hand on a dresser isn’t fun either, but that doesn’t mean I want to set my dresser on fire.”

“That’s very specific,” said Jupiter.

“Me and the dresser had a disagreement.”

“That did not involve fire?” Jupiter asked, eyebrow drawn. “Or did involve fire?”

“That did not involve fire.”

Jupiter grinned. “Is that where you were? Throwing hands with your dresser?”

I looked at Jupiter. She’d cut and dyed her hair over break, but her small, pretty face and giant brown doe eyes were the same snowy picture I remembered. Jupiter’s rainbow bob had transformed into a galactic purple pixie cut. Glitter for days, from her scalp to the choppy ends. She could’ve been carved out of the night sky.

“I texted you a few minutes ago,” she went on with a shrug. “I thought maybe you just decided not to come back.”

It’s not like I hadn’t considered pissing off into the wilderness before the quarter started. “Yeah, my dad would murder me,” I said. “I just missed my alarm and overslept. Had to use the vial you gave me to get here when I