Page 24 of The Holy Academy of Witches

The pages were whisper thin, and… I turned several more pages… blank, “How am I supposed to use this thing?” I whispered in frustration.

“Have you forgotten how to use magic again?” A familiar voice came from the other side of the table, making me startle. Perfect, one of the people I was hoping to avoid while my argument with Melody was still fresh in my mind. Meeting her piercing green gaze, I saw only quiet calculation as she looked at the book in my hands.

I let just a sliver of my magic enter the directory, wary of any traps after the incident outside the dining hall. The book ate it greedily. Gradually, inky blurs appeared on each page. Still illegible.

“Focus,” her voice was by my ear now. Her eyes on the stains.

I returned to the pages that taunted me with the escape I’d been dying for, until a moment ago. Adeline’s rapt attention on the book was unnerving, this felt important, much more important than learning how to use the Library. Letting go of the idea of escape… and vampire smut, I focused on the issues I’d been so greedily trying to escape.

The visions which consumed me were becoming more frequent, never far from my mind, I felt unsettled. Answers, I needed… answers.Show me what I need to know.

The ink wriggled, forming the title of a book, something called theMagnus Liber.

I glanced up at Adeline. Her eyes had gone round with something… wonder? Disbelief? Awe? She was too hard to read, where was Theo when I needed him?

“Grab the book and follow me,” Adeline whispered before walking toward the nearest maze of shelves.

“Easier said than done,” I grunted, as I heaved the thing back into my arms.

Adeline was waiting in a shadowy alcove, her black hair and uniform seamlessly blending with the darkness. Maybe that’s why she kept her skirt so long? She glanced around ensuring we were alone before pulling on a leather book. It clicked softly before causing a section of the wall to sink inward and roll to the side. How many secret bookshelves were there?

“Don’t talk till I say,” Adeline commanded softly. She’d conjured a ball of pure light into her palm. It swirled gracefully, casting everything in a soft white glow. As we walked down the tunnel, I saw rotting wood in sconces. The tunnels weren’t very wide, the cobbled path a death trap for me as we descended a set of narrow stairs. We continued to twist and turn until I had no idea where in the Academy we were.

Adeline eventually slowed, her free hand miming silence as she approached a sconce. Dismissing the orb, she laid her hand on the wall sending magic into the room beyond, if I had to guess, though her casting was subtle. Nodding her head, she twisted the sconce until it made the same quiet click and another section of wall retreated to show our newest studying space.

The East Music Room was named for the large stained-glass Gothic window that faced the eastern horizon. The room was alight with colour except where the black grand piano stood. Sucking all colour into itself, it was as intimidating as the girl who played it. Though I had noticed the day before that she looked at home there, her mask’s edges had softened into a calm assuredness when she stroked the keys, still silent but certain.

The angelic chords of a madrigal choir gilded the dappled colours that transformed our usual studying space into something more. Adeline activated the music room’s silencing charm with a flick of her wrist as the wall closed soundlessly behind us. She moved casually into the room, and I wondered how often she took these passages, and what other secrets lurked in the corners of her mind.

Thirteen

Adeline

“Put the directory on the piano,” I said, gesturing, “no! Not the music stand, you’ll break it!” Honestly, was she completely incompetent… Give me strength, “yes that’s it, on the side.” I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“Hey, I didn’t ask to get dragged halfway around the Academy, hauling this monster!” She pointed at the book, its embossed cover glittering in the light streaming across the room, “So, are you gonna tell me what the deal is with that book or the Magn-” I darted across the room.

With a hand clasped over her mouth, I warned her, “we don’t say its name. Not out loud, not ever. Do you understand?” She slowly nodded her agreement, despite her obvious confusion.

I loosened my hand, my palm moist from her breath. Grabbing a travel sized bottle of hand sanitiser, I disinfected my hand as I assessed her, “The directory… you’ve never seen it before?”

“No, I just thought about how I needed one to find…” She trailed off looking embarrassed.Hmm, curious.

“Find what?”

“Nothing.” She blushed furiously. When I continued to stare, she sighed with exasperation, “I wanted a romance novel okay? And I was like ‘omg what if they don’t have those here?’ What with this school being so fancy, and all. ‘If only there was a directory or something’ and boom… It just flew off the shelf at me,” She rambled.

“Omg?”

“Uh, yeah it means…”

“I know what it means, I’ve just never heard anyone say the expression out loud,” I shuddered. “Regardless of your poor choice in vocabulary, I somehow managed to follow what you were saying. That being said, I gather you weren’t still thinking of a romance novel when you activated the book?”

“Well no. You were standing there being more intense than usual and I was like, ‘well I guess I should ask for something important instead’… So I did.”

“What specifically did you ask for, Saffron?”

“Answers.” She replied.

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