Page 3 of Spirit Witch

There it was.Laid out for me in black and white.Going with her was an easy choice after that speech.I did not want to die.I had no family.Nowhere I belonged.So, I took Stolbright up on her offer and I came to Westwood Academy.

“Pack what you need,”she’d told me later that same afternoon.

That was even easier than deciding to go with the strange woman.I didn’t have much.Just whatever was with me in the hospital since I’d apparently blown everything else up.She got me some things.Clothes and toiletries, enough to fill a small weekender bag.

When I asked about my life, Stolbright told me she’d already alerted the restaurant where I waitressed that I would no longer be returning.

I remember thinking I was probably a lousy waitress, seeing how clumsy I was with the fainting and all.I guessed I had to pay bills though, and my tuition.I’d had a community college photo id on me, but it was easy enough to withdraw with an email.Stolbright also assured me she’d paid my landlady all back rent, and gave up the room I’d been renting, even though I didn’t remember that, then we were off.

Yeah, it was crazy.I should have asked more questions, but I was at a serious disadvantage.

So, my past was a bit of a blur.

So what?

I knew my name was Enid Morrigan and, ever since waking up in the hospital, I knew I could see dead people.Believing the stranger when she told me I was a witch was easier than condemning myself to an asylum, if they even had those anymore.Of course, I kept that little tidbit to myself.But it remained the major reason I believed Stolbright.

Being a witch with actual magical powers sounded a fuck ton better than being crazy.

Who wouldn’t jump on that?

I had no memories.No family.And a constant ache in the center of my chest, like something was missing.And yet, here I was, a year later, and still there was no place I really belonged.That hole in my chest was still there, and despite having made friends with my roommates, inside I felt alone.

Without a coven, a witch was a solo act.It gutted me to be this close to what I craved and still not achieve it.No coven meant any chance for future success was severely limited.It meant no support, no sense of community, and no guidance.

I could almost hear Mr.Gangemi from the corner store where I grew up near Central Avenue in Newark after I’d saved all week to buy a newWolf Towncomic just to find out prices went up again.

“Them’s the breaks, kid.”

I don’t know why I remembered Mr.Gangemi and the little potato croquettes he kept under a warming lamp and sold two for three bucks every day when I couldn’t recall other things, like who my parents were or how they died.I knew I was raised in foster care and some of the families were all right.

Of course, my circumstances being what they were, I left the second the state granted my suit for emancipation at the tender age of sixteen.Stolbright had managed to get her hands on some court paperwork to show me.But it couldn’t manifest memories that just weren’t there.According to those documents, after proving I could provide myself with a roof over my head, food, and the means to get to and from school, the judge saw no reason to deny my request.

Along with those papers was a thick psychiatric evaluation file.Boy, was it big.Like, bible big.But once I stopped telling my foster families and teachers about all the stuff I could see, they stopped sending me to shrinks.It seemed I had learned young that all I had to do to was fake normal.Keep my visions to myself.It was a rule I had not broken since I came to Westwood.

Even after being a student and dorming in room 563W with five of the best people I knew and their mates for more than a year now, I had not told a soul about the things I saw.

Not even Headmistress Armstrong, who insisted on having monthly meetings with me inside her office.I didn’t mind.She was always friendly and offered me tea and crumpets every time I went.

I never had a crumpet before that, and the tea was delicious.It tasted sweet and floral and sometimes I found myself craving a cup for days leading up to our meetings.Our discussions were never very deep or intense, just a check in like I used to have with guidance counselors in my foggy past.

Aside from Headmistress Armstrong, I hadn’t made any deep connections with any of the staff.And I was pretty sure Stolbright hated me.

“Morrigan, are you planning to join us?”Stolbright snapped, her blonde hair pulled back in a severe bun.

I was still standing by the door, the only one left who hadn’t taken a seat in the Assembly Hall.Thank goodness Mabe came in a few seconds later.She was usually late, but my roomie was also sporting a healthy glow almost constantly these days.That’s what happened when you were fed a steady diet of love, and in her case, blood.

Mabe used to siphon magic to feed her needs from unsuspecting witches and wizards when her hunger grew too strong to control.But with Fin in her life, everything was different now.True mates had a way of completing each other in more ways than I had ever suspected even existed.

From a girl who’d been raised on fairy tale retellings and comic book romances, I could not believe the love lives of my roommates.Those five ladies were simply phenomenal.

Rio was a water witch with blue hair and was mated to Magnus, a kraken shifter and sentinel here at Westwood.Maia’s blonde hair turned a silvery platinum color as she grew more efficient with her air magic.Her mate was Enok Zell, a mage and former professor’s assistant.He now worked in the library here at the academy.

Tana was a fire witch, and yes, she was as feisty as her red hair suggested.Her mate was Brandon, a hybrid Druid dragon shifter and also a sentinel at the academy.Mabe had paired up with Fin, an Enforcer who was her fated mate and the only source of blood she needed.

Our resident earth witch, and all around loveable gal, was Jade.She and her mate, a healer named Arlo Glenn, were just inseparable these days.Truth was, all their mates had pretty much moved in with us inside the duplex that was dorm room 563W.

I was the only one flying solo, and well, that seemed to be a permanent situation for me.I was Enid Morrigan, former normal with a messed up memory, witch with no coven affiliation, no mate, and no future, for all intents and purposes.

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