Page 16 of Spelling Disaster

The woman in the driver’s seat, the one who doesn’t move to help me stow my suitcase, is a stranger wearing Mom’s face. She keeps her gaze on the road and her hands stiff on the wheel. She’s allowed to take me to the academy.

She’s allowed to say goodbye.

Anything other than those two simple things are against the coven’s rules for this situation. Except those things aren’t simple?

I tap my foot on the floorboard, up and down, leg bobbing with uncontrollable movement. I want to point out the beautiful day and the clear blue sky overhead. I want to talk to Mom about the leaves changing and what kinds of trees have the best color this year.

I want to ask her if she’s sure I’m the one who was supposed to ascend to Cleric or if a mistake might have been made somewhere along the way?

I say none of those things and a glance at myself in the rearview mirror shows me paler than usual. Tight lipped and tense while the miles tick down.

I’ve got a lump in my throat the size of Texas and about as much excitement as facing a week alone in the Sahara with no food or water.

The drive takes hours, during which Mom doesn’t slow the car from a steady pace. Out of town, out of the next one, until we’re so far outside of my comfort zone I recognize nothing.

The hills roll slightly here, and clumps of trees break up the landscape. It’s what people in fiction callpastoral. It’s lovely to finally see but I wish Remi was here to tease me, or Mom would put one of her Hindi songs on blast and make us scream the words with her.

We finally arrive at Andora Academy, noticeable only by the thick iron gates stretching along the hills and through the trees.

Mom parks the car just outside of the looming fence and silently walks with me to the front gates.

The intricate iron design on the metal catches my attention. Especially when the gates open on their own and give me a glimpse into a wide courtyard of endless green grass.

Towering trees mark the landscape of the campus as well, thicker and more gnarled than anything we’d seen on our drive. Their leaves are a perpetual green against the golden tones of the outside world and through the gate, through the trees, I catch a glimpse of stone roofs.

Throat dry, eyes drier, I stop at the gate and turn to face Mom for what I hope isn’t the last time.

Do I thank her for the drive? Am I allowed to say anything at all or is it better if I keep a stiff upper lip and walk off without looking back to her?

I have no clue how to operate or what’s expected of me.

Dropped into a strange world.

We square off from each other, too tense, both waiting for the other to bend or break.

“Make the most of your time here, Yas,” Mom says in a low voice. “This is a good school. You’ll learn a lot.”

“Is that what they told you to tell me?” I mutter.

She ducks and a lock of hair falls free from her bun. Even without the library to helm, she’s wearing her hair the same way. Only now it’s messy, frizzy, and there are dark circles underneath her eyes.

“Andora Academy is the premier magical academy in this area. If you’d been anyone else, you would have come here with the others in your class,” she continues.

“Good to know.” She’s going to make me cry again, just when I thought I’d be okay.

“Your family will try to fix this,” she replies. “Whatever it is.”

She’s not supposed to talk to me like this, but I guess this can fall under the header ofgoodbye.

Unsure what to say, I nod along with her words. I’ll do whatever it takes to make it count while I’m here but the longer we stand, the more my nerves grow heavy and start to fray. A weight presses down on every part of my body and turns me to lead. This isn’t right.

This isn’t how things are supposed to go.

And how can I be sure the Horned God won’t find me here?

I only felt a strange pulse of energy once during my stay at the coven house. Once, in the dead of night after my tears stopped and I lay on my back listening to the hush of my breathing.

The moonlight sifted through the high window of the chamber and although there was nothing to block the view, I saw a flicker. A shadow darker than the night itself and gone as quickly as it appeared.

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