Page 4 of Spirit Witch

How did someone like me even get here?

I wondered about that myself and often.My story wasn’t a fairytale.I woke up in a hospital bed with the steely eyes of Leanna Stolbright glaring at me.She told me I was a witch who needed to control her magic or die.She brought me to Westwood, showed me a world I never dreamed existed, and left me there to find my purpose.

That wasn’t the worst of it.Magic was dying and somehow my friends were all wrapped up in it.I didn’t know how to help, but I wanted to.

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way, kid.”

Another of Mr.Gangemi’s sayings.Gosh, I wish I could remember his face as clearly as I remembered his voice.His gritty Italian American accent seemed tempered by a smile I could no longer remember, but he was kind to me.That much I knew.

Just like one of those epic fantasy series that ripped the heart right out of my chest when I binge watched them on whatever streaming network Enok rigged for us in the dorm, winter was coming to Westwood Academy—you know what,scratch that—winter was here.

The walls were closing in on all witches and wizards, as magic was no longer the renewable resource it once was.I had no idea how to help, and I was no closer to finding my own niche.But I was resolved to stand by my friends in this quest they were hell-bent on.I didn’t know how much help I could possibly be, but I had to try.

What did I have to lose?

CHAPTER2

“I hate that blonde torturer,”Mabe grunted as we left the Assembly Hall G.

She was always so delightfully blunt.I envied her that.For some reason, I felt compelled to be respectful to my elders, even when they were undeserving.I tucked my hair behind my ears and slowed my pace to match hers.

I was always speeding down the halls, trying to get from one class to another without running intothem.The fades.The ghosts who haunted me were here, too.It seemed my curse had followed me to Westwood Academy.Though I admit it was not as bad as it could be.

That was just another perk of attending Westwood, there were enchantments all over the place to keep it protected.Those wards were mostly successful in blocking disembodied spirits.But the dead were everywhere.Shadows of their former selves, but able to move among the living.

Ignoring the fades was secondhand to me now.If I paid one spirit even a moment’s attention, the rest would all crowd down on me.It happened before, and I was comatose for a full week.

Keeping this secret totally sucked, but what else could I do?

I didn’t want to freak my friends out or burden them when they had so much going on.

No, that just wouldn’t be cool.I needed to bear this burden myself.But even the thought sent that familiar ache squeezing inside my chest.It was like I was missing something.Some vital part of myself that had once upon a time helped me deal with all this.But that couldn’t be right.I had my file, the one Stolbright had given me, and there was no mention of family or loved ones.So, why I felt like there was someone who maybe helped me carry this load, I had no freaking idea.Maybe it was just wishful thinking.

“Enid, are you listening to me?”

“Sorry.Mabe.Um, I have a headache.What did you say?”I asked, trying to shake off the strange feeling I had.

“Wanna go to the infirmary?Arlo is there—”

“No.I’ll be fine.I have to go see Headmistress Armstrong now, anyway.”

“Wait, another tea party?What is with her and wanting to fill you up with old lady juice?”Mabe questioned, one black eyebrow perfectly arched.

“Old lady juice?”

“Yeah, tea.It’s like the fuel for old biddies everywhere.”

“Jade makes us tea all the time,” I pointed out, ignoring the fact that Mabe also drank blood in order to survive.

“Yeah, but her tea is cool.She uses fresh herbs and things she grew.I can’t imagineAuntie Helgadoing all that,” she muttered, using the worst British accent I’d ever heard when she called Armstrong by her first name and the new familial title, we all only just discovered applied to her as far as Mabe was concerned.

“You’re a nut, Mabe.But I still love you,” I said, shaking with laughter as she continued to pretend to sip tea with her pinkie out as we walked together.

I really did care about her.Out of all the witches in our dorm room, I think I shared the deepest connection with Mabe.I even admired her punk rock, bad girl look.She wasn’t classically pretty like Maia or Rio, but she had a powerful aura about her, and I found it almost impossible to look away.Mabe was the coolest girl I knew.Truthfully, all of my roommates were like these superhero witches.I was the weirdo who didn’t really belong.But when she called my meetings with the headmistress atea party, it kind of rankled.

“She’s just checking on me to see if I am still having issues fitting in,” I mumbled, not really wanting to get into it with her.

“Yeah, well, you can tell my dear Auntie Helga that Stolbright is a fucking monster and needs to be fired.Seriously, why is that woman even around students?She hates all of us, especially the elementals,” Mabe said, and she was not wrong.

---