Page 17 of Baneful Magick

Thankfully, she had put the lid on the tea, so I didn’t have to worry as I weaved through the crowds until I saw one of the incubi sitting at a table alone.

“Where did Zhara go?” I asked as I hurried over and put my stuff down on the table.

“Bathroom.” Echo smiled at me and stood up. “You okay to hold down the table solo?”

“Yeah, go for it. I’ll be fine.”

He headed off as I sat down, and I totally understood the urgency. I was so damn ready to eat, my stomach loudly rumbling. Just as I was about to tear into my muffin, someone jostled me from behind, knocking my muffin onto the floor.

“You’re at my table,” a cool voice snarked.

I looked up to find a Barbie bitch standing by the table, her brown eyes glaring down at me. She was flanked by two besties, their annoyed looks matching their leader’s perfectly. They were all witches, and I figured they weren’t upperclassmen since they appeared to be the same age as me.

“I didn’t realize you needed assigned seats at this stage in life,” I deadpanned, not moving from my seat.

My jaw clenched when she slowly stepped on my muffin, smashing it into the floor and making a huge mess.What the fuck is this girl’s problem?

“Get. Up.”

“Look, I don’t know what your problem is, but I didn’t do shit to you. I’m also not getting up from the table I sat at first.”

Barbie’s eyes narrowed, anger making her cheeks flush, and she brushed white-blonde hair out of her face.

“You have no idea who I am,” she hissed. “You’ll be sorry.”

“Look, Draco, I can pick my own friends, and you coming out fully bitchy this morning isn’t putting you on that list. I have better things to do than stay angry with you.”

“Says the girl who’s trying so damn hard. Did you use every bit of makeup in your bag?”

“If I’m too much, you’re just too fucking basic,” I told her calmly. Aizel and Echo walked up to the table at the same time, their eyes trained on us.

“Is there a problem here?” Aizel asked sweetly, though his gaze was heated with anger. Echo, on the other hand, didn’t even try to appear nice. He glared at the witches, earning huffs from all three before they walked off. The twins might have drawn the queen bee’s attention momentarily, but I didn’t miss how she shot me a nasty look before she disappeared into the crowd.

“Are you okay?” Echo asked, claiming the seat beside me.

“Yeah.” I sighed. “My muffin is gone now, though.”

“Here.” Zhara came up out of nowhere and popped another muffin down in front of me. This one was orange-cranberry, but I wasn’t about to complain. “They were out of blueberry. I saw you guys headed over to intervene, so I thought I’d stay behind to get you another muffin.”

“Who was she?” Aizel asked, sitting down across from me. Zhara sat next to him.

“My first enemy, I guess,” I hazarded before taking a big bite of my new muffin. “It wouldn’t be an interesting year without one.”

A sudden burst of wind knocked the pastry from my hand, along with delivering a whispered ‘You’ll regret this, bitch’ that had the hair on the back of my neck standing on end. Looking around, I saw Barbie shoot me a smug smile.

She had no idea the enemy she was making by targeting me, but I was happy to oblige her. After all, I was always eager to find new test subjects for my poisons.

Chapter 7

Isla

SUNDAY

We ate our breakfast then found our way to Weiss Hall. We had enough time not to worry, but none of us were willing to find out what happened if you were locked out of the welcome meeting. Given how they’d handled everything so far, Greywood would probably just make students guess at their schedule and figure it out themselves.

Other students must have had the same thought as us because the lecture hall was already pretty full.

Nerves hit me as more and more people filled the room. Just how many people were in our class? The campus had looked small, but from the amount of people filing into the room, way more students were invited here than I thought.

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