Page 48 of The Holy Academy of Witches

Whispering, she levitated a series of old scrolls out of the space. I took a step forward to get a closer look.

“These scrolls do not touch your bare skin.” She said tossing me a pair of cotton gloves identical to the ones she was pulling on. I pulled them on with a nod, the soft white fabric tight against my slightly larger hands till I fed them a bit of my magic. Wiggling my fingers at Adeline she snarked, “proud of yourself are you?”

“A bit.”

“Just don’t get careless.” I didn’t think she was talking about the gloves.

“I won’t.” I said giddily, wondering if this was as friendly of a conversation as I thought it was. ”

She rolled her eyes at my enthusiasm before continuing, “My mother is a master at chess, did you know that? Just because you won a piece doesn’t mean you won the game.”

I stayed quiet, watching as she finished unrolling a map of the Academy and its grounds. Unfortunately for us both, there were no large X’s to mark the spot, although it was littered with small symbols.

“Where’s the Key?” I asked, looking around the parchment.

“It was ripped off. But most are self explanatory. These are roads, these are wells, and-“

“Mourning people wear Shroud’s right?”

“Morning people?”

I pointed to a small cross on the map, “A cemetery. ‘Shadows play,’ ‘shrouds,’ this could be where we need to go on the next full moon.”

“I don’t think it’s a cemetery, but it could be a shrine of some sort. We can investigate it further beforehand to be sure.” She wrote something down before looking through the map again, scratching her wrist absent-mindedly.

“You okay?” I asked, her habit sparking one of my own.

“Yes, yes fine.” She said smoothing her skirt.

I pushed down the answering tide of anxiety, snagging a journal that caught my eye before summoning some of the chocolate I had stashed in my room, ?“The chocolate does not touch that journal either Saffron or I will have your hide.”

“Myhide or Saffron’s?” I snarked, floating bits of chocolate around my head. She intercepted half, calling them over to hover in a neat pile next to her lap. “We’ll dedicate an hour to the campus’ history today, but I’ll need to see your progress on the summoning rituals before we’re done here.”

“Yeah yeah, I brought the right salts and candles this time.” I said, rolling my eyes before settling in for the long night.

“Good work on the riddle Sage.” She said without looking up from her book. I smiled to myself. One point to me.

* * *

Laying in the yellowing stalks of grass in the clearing I had claimed as my own, I felt a knock at the wards. I sat up dizzy from the assault of visions I’d just endured.

“Who is it?” I called in a sing-song voice.

“What do you mean who is it?” Theo’s voice echoed through the meadow.

“How did you find me?” I asked, walking to the boundary.

“New spell.” He held out an old leather bound book, its embossed letters faded and chipped. Holding the book at an angle it read,The Magical Signature and it’s Mysteries.

“What? So you can track my signature?”

“Any signature that’s mixed with mine. So basically just yours and to a lesser extent Ma and Pa’s.”

“That’s handy.” I said, flipping through the pages.

“It is, but what I think you’ll like best are the spells for twins. Apparently that’s the mystery part of the name.”

“Why? What’s so mysterious about it?”

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