Page 79 of The Holy Academy of Witches

“Yeees?” I called, my voice a dark whisper, safe in the knowledge that the door was locked and they wouldn’t just barge in.

“Your little friend is here!” Dorcas called through the closed door. “Even though it’s like the crack of Dawn!” She said loudly. Itwasearly.

“Tell her to come here.”

“She is here, just open the door. No one cares that you’re not presentable.” I looked down at myself, crossed legged in a pentagram of salt on the floor, palm cut open and bleeding into a ritual bowl and dark magic symbols drawn on my chest and face in my own blood… bit of an understatement.

“Go away, Dorcas.” I called. She huffed and walked off, her bedroom door could be heard slamming on the other side of the dorm. “Sage?”

“Umm, yes?”

I closed my eyes, this really wasn’t ideal. Time was running out, the spell would wear off soon.

“What can I do for you?”

“Oh! Well, you… why am I talking to a door?”

I sighed, blowing out the nearest candle. The rest of the candles followed suit and my room plunged into darkness.

“Hang on.” I muttered, loud enough for Sage to hear.

I grabbed a towel from the end of my bed and wrapped it round my hand as I walked to the window. Throwing the curtains back, the room filled with early morning light. The blood in the ritual bowl hissed in protest. I walked into my bathroom and washed away the blood runes. Throwing a silk dressing gown around myself, I walked back into my room and quickly dispersed the pentagram and floated the candles back onto their shelves. I whispered a healing charm over my hand as I tidied, making quick work of manually moving the objects and magically transporting the rest.

I looked around the room, it would have to do. Opening the door, Sage startled at my appearance.

“Come in.” I said, walking back into my room. I rushed over to my bed and closed my laptop before she could see what was on the screen and sat, turning to face her. “What’s up?”

“Your… your nose is bleeding.”

Dammit. “Oh!” I touched a finger to my nostril and yep, blood. “Sorry…” I grabbed a tissue from my dressing table and held it to my nose. “Go ahead!”

Sage looked at me warily, “Umm…”

“It’s fine! I’m fine!” I snapped. Sage flinched. “Sorry…” I rubbed my temples. Magic burned through my blood, the residual effects of the dark magic simmered under the surface, making me even more irritable than usual.

“You sent me a message yesterday about needing to ask me something and then I realised we never spoke about it after class…”

“Oh! Of course… yes, I had an idea for our tutoring tonight which is a little different, if you’re interested?”

“Different how?”

“Different location… but it’s important to the task… you’ll see why. What do you say?”

“Well I’m definitely intrigued… sure, okay! Should I meet you in the music room or?”

“I’ll send you the address and time if that’s OK? I need to double check something first.”

“Oh okay, sure sure!” Sage replied, her eyes wandered around my room. I dabbed at my nose to ensure it had stopped bleeding before disposing of the tissue.

“Great! Well… I’ll see you then?”

“Yep, sounds good.” She lingered a moment before realising I was trying to tactically kick her out. “Oh, yep! Sure, see you later!” She skipped from the room and I closed my eyes.

Opening my eyes, I checked my phone to see a message from Teddy already.

Teddy:It’s supposed to snow today! Wtf is that about?! x

Adeline:Good morning to you too! Xx

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