Page 3 of Hexmate

My blood turned to ice as his words sank in. If I didn’t impress him, he was going to kill me.

“Have fun at school,” he said, casually waving as he walked away. “And don’t darken my doorstep again until you are worth my time.”

I stood there trembling as Damien disappeared into the shadows. The grand hall suddenly felt oppressive, closing in around me. My mind raced, trying to process everything that had just happened. Witches, magic, trials... it was too much. Nothing was familiar and the world I’d known only a moment ago seemed lost forever. How was I ever going to get back?

Suddenly, the air shimmered, and a portal materialized before me. Through it, I could see a sprawling Gothic campus under a stormy sky. Widdershins Academy, I presumed.

“Step through,” Damien’s voice echoed through the room, although he was nowhere to be seen. “Or face judgement now.”

With a sigh and no other choice, I did as I was told and stepped through. The portal snapped shut behind me, leaving me standing on damp grass. Rain pelted my face as I took in my surroundings. I found myself standing in a circle of stones with apathway leading toward campus. In front of me was a wrought-iron gate that swung open. Above it, in curling black iron, it read ‘Widdershins Academy est. 1724’.

Tears rolled down my cheeks as I hugged my arms around my torso. What the fuck was going to happen to me now?

Chapter 2

Caden

TWO YEARS LATER

“Magic has become all too rare these days,” the professor said, slowly walking around the room with her hands clasped behind her back. “Widdershins Academy has only twenty-four active students in its magic program for all four years. Our sister college in Oregon has only nineteen.” She took a long pause, staring around the room at each and every one of us. “That means, in the United States, there are less than fifty witches your age. By the time you graduate, there will be even less.”

“It’s no small secret that magic is dangerous,” she continued, pacing once more. “Fatality rates among young witches are exceedingly high. If not due to silly accidents, then due to a lack of proper training.” She stopped in front of me, staring down with an intensity that made me shudder. “If you don’t learn to control the power, it will destroy, consume, and eradicate you from existence.”

“The other problem is thinning of magical blood. Now I know it’s unpopular to say, but the thinning of magical blood is leading to its erasure from the paranormal community. Witches whomate with other creatures or humans take the risk of destroying their magical lineage completely.”

I raised my hand and she turned toward me. I didn’t wait for her to give me permission. “But isn’t it also true that witches and magical creatures have produced offspring that are far more powerful than either parent?”

Her expression darkened, but her cold smile stayed in place. “That is true. However, their power is chaotic and unreliable. Unlikeus,” she said pointedly, gesturing to the class. “Our power has a scientific precision that can be duplicated over and over again. A witch and a dryad may produce a child that can grow an entire forest overnight, but be unable to levitate a simple coin with any efficiency.Precisionis what we want, not chaos.”

“But that kind of chaos leads to discovery!” I shot back. “That’s how we found our magic to begin with–”

“If you’ll excuse me, Mr. Cromwell,” she said, no small amount of venom in her voice. “I’d like to continue with my lecture for this session.”

“But you’re leaving out important facts–”

She clapped her hands once, the sound like thunder echoing through the room, enhanced by the magic swirling between her fingertips. “You will be silent or you will leave my classroom. And if I’m not mistaken, Mr. Cromwell, your father wouldn’t react well to you being dropped from the magic program that he paid so handsomely for you to join, despite your obvious lack of… talent.”

Giggles erupted around me, and I felt the burn of embarrassment wash over me. Even after two years of being called weak and pathetic in this new world, it still got to me. And the worst part was, they weren’t wrong. I was pathetic and weak. It was my claim to fame and the reason everyone at Widdershins avoided me like the plague.

Sinking down in my chair, I tried to make myself as small as possible. I didn’t hear much else the professor said as the lecture carried on. Speaking out in class wasn’t something I did often, anyway. But whatever had possessed me to question the professor’s lecture… that had to stop. For witches like me that had very little power, lying low was the smartest thing I could do.

As the class finally ended, I hurried to gather my books, desperate to escape the stifling atmosphere of the lecture hall. Just as I was about to slip out the door, a hand gripped my shoulder, stopping me in my tracks.

“Mr. Cromwell, a word,” Professor Blackwood’s icy voice sent a chill down my spine.

I turned reluctantly, meeting her steely gaze. “Yes, Professor?”

She leaned in close, her voice barely above a whisper. “Your... opinions are not welcome in my classroom. You’d do well to remember your place here.”

“But-” I started to protest, but she cut me off with a sharp gesture.

“Your father may have bought your way in, but that doesn’t mean you belong. Prove yourself useful, or you may find your stay at Widdershins cut short.”

With that, she turned on her heel and strode away, leaving me trembling in her wake. I stumbled out into the hallway, my mind reeling. As I made my way across the campus, the whispers and stares of my fellow students followed me like a cloud of shame.

I found myself at the edge of the forest that bordered the academy grounds. The ancient trees loomed overhead, their gnarled branches reaching out like crooked fingers. I hesitated for a moment, knowing I shouldn’t venture in alone. But the forest called to me, offering solace from the cruel whispers and judgmental stares.

With a deep breath, I stepped onto the mossy path and through the magic barrier surrounding the school. The barrier was invisible to humans and if one touched it, they would suddenly forget why they were in the woods and turn around to head back home. That’s why the school, nestled in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains, had never been found. My only way back in was my enchanted student ID hanging around my neck.

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