Page 5 of Spirit Witch

The elemental witches and wizards were the real cream of the crop at Westwood, and the undeclareds like me and Mabe were basically social pariahs.Not that Mabe was a real undeclared.More like incognito.Far as I understood, she was a true blood witch.A half-vampire, half-witch phenomenon with amazing powers and abilities.

The preternatural world was not particularly kind to hybrids, and vampire-witch offspring were actually forbidden.Her parents shared a tragic love story, and Mabe was the result.Unfortunately, she had not been aware of her family tree until recently.Kinda like me.Maybe that was why I felt so connected to her.

Anyway, turned out Helga Armstrong was her maternal aunt, and she was very much aware of Mabe’s parentage and the need for secrecy.Hence, the whole undeclareds training Stolbright had going on.Her classes sucked, but I was selfish enough to be glad not to have to do it alone.Mabe had struggled with her hunger for so long, thank goodness Fin came along when he did.The Enforcer scared the crap out of me, but he worshipped my roommate so that made him aces in my book.

“See ya later, okay?Enjoy your tea.”Mabe said the last bit with that same terrible accent, but I knew she was joking.

She waited for my nod before heading to her next class and I gave it, waving her off with a grin.I paused for a moment and closed my eyes, just trying to reset my brain.I did that sometimes when that pain in my chest got too big to ignore.Just closed my eyes, pushed it down, and tried to focus on the now, not the past that I could not remember, never mind change.

But closing my eyes just then was a big mistake.When I opened them again, a fade was blocking my path.His clothing suggested he’d been gone a century or more, and his hollowed eyes glowed eerily, dripping a bright, lime green colored slime I’d recently learned was ectoplasm.

Not that I told anyone what I saw.That was one secret I would keep to my grave.Anyway, I must have stared a moment too long because the fade caught on.He started howling and screeching unintelligibly, waving his arms around in front of my face.

That happened sometimes.The older the ghost, the less interaction with the living, equaled what I calledthe forgetting.It was like basic functions simply eroded over time, such as language and speech.

I did my best to ignore the screaming fade, tiptoeing over the ectoplasmic drippings he left on the stone hallway floors.I’d come to learn the hallways were not as carefully warded as the rooms, hence all the hurrying.I practically ran to Armstrong’s office, eyes wide and breathing heavily as I slid to a stop in front of her secretary’s desk.

“Can I help you?”she asked in a distinctly nasal voice.

“I have a meeting,” I gasped, still trying to catch my breath.

“Ah, yes, Miss Morrigan, I see you have an appointment.Just one moment, please, while I alert Headmistress Armstrong to your presence.”

I resisted the urge to scream at her to hurry up.After all, it wasn’t like she could see or hear the unintelligible roar of the fade who was now spitting green slime every time he opened his jowls.Maybe I should’ve considered myself lucky I couldn’t smell the stuff.

Past experiences had taught meeau de ectoplasmwas not my favorite scent.In fact, it was downright gross.The fade is still hovering near, howling at me, his face and non-corporeal body morphing into something other than humanoid in his rage.

I could tell it was rage from the emotions slamming into me, one after the other.I winced as the fade spewed whatever he was saying at me with venom.I could not even begin to describe the will it took for me to not look at him again.It was rude and went against my most basic codes of conduct.After all, having manners was important.But ignoring fades was the only way to get them to stop.

Fuck.

How long is the headmistress going to make me wait?

The doors to the headmistress’ inner sanctum finally opened, and I raced through them, closing them firmly behind me.Another thing I’d learned in my year at Westwood was that Armstrong’s office was the most heavily warded against attack, spiritual, magical, physical, and other.

“Tough day?”she asked, and I whipped around, plastering a smile on my face.

“I’m fine.It’s fine,” I blurted, snatching my usual seat across from her.

Headmistress Armstrong gazed at me for a full ten seconds before inclining her head to the tea service she’d already prepped on the small table.I poured a cup and doctored it with lavender infused honey and a dollop of fresh cream before I lifted it to my nose and breathed in the delightful fragrance.

“How are your classes?”she began, and I settled in to go over my schedule as usual, but Armstrong interrupted me before I could utter a single word.

“Actually, I really want to know if you were doing okay with the testing for undeclared students.”

“Oh, um, it’s going fine.I mean, we are down to only about forty of us now,” I murmured.

“Leanna is not giving you a hard time, then?”

“Not particularly, no.But she still hasn’t warmed up to Mabe,” I told her.

It wasn’t like I could come out and say I thought Stolbright was a power hungry psycho, and her tests were pointless.Helga Armstrong was headmistress of Westwood Academy and the leader of the Council of Covens, but for all her power, she could not remove the blonde witch from her current position.

Leanna Stolbright was the kind of woman who truly boggled the mind.She was my first introduction to the magical world, but Armstrong was the one who’d come up with the story I was to use once I’d arrived.

“Something on your mind?”Armstrong asked and I could feel her stare as heavy as hands weighing down on me.

“It’s just that not everyone has a coven.Period.Why drag it out and badger everyone to death?It’s humiliating, like going to school when I lived with normals without my underwear or something,” I muttered.

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