Page 91 of The Holy Academy of Witches

“I found this tale of an incubus… she eats the men who impregnate her on religious holidays… but it seems like more of a folktale than anything real.”

“I think that’s a Samhain myth.” I said, leaning over to peer at the page. Sage shuddered beside me, “What’s wrong?”

“Oh nothing.” She frowned. I closed the book she was pretending to read and looked at her. “- fine, it just made me think about something which happened on Samhain that I’d rather not remember.”

What happened on Samhain? I wracked my brain trying to think of everything that occurred but couldn’t come up with anything unpleasant, even the hangover hadn’t been too bad.

“Go on…”

She sighed, “Don’t do anything… ridiculous.”

“My response will be suitably appropriate to the level of response required for what you are about to tell me.”

She pinched the bridge of her nose as thoughIwas the frustrating one, “When I got back to my room Marsha and Silva…” she trailed off to a mumble.

“Marsha and Silva what?” I asked, my voice growing quiet.

Sage swallowed before repeating herself, more clearly this time, “Marsha and Silva attacked me.”

I stilled, anger flooding my body. “What do you mean by ‘attacked?’”

“They were waiting for me in the dorm after the Samhain celebrations, I was a little tipsy so I didn’t really realise what was happening as quickly as I should have… Silva cast a binding spell at my feet and Marsha…”

“And Marsha… what?” I was pushing away from the table at this point, already calculating in my mind where I would find Marsha at this time, and if there would be witnesses.

“Marsha punched me in the face. Then they stole my phone and left me paralysed on the floor.” She rushed out. My ears rang, magic pulsed through my bloodstream. My gift flared so violently and viscerally I could taste the bitterness in my mouth. I closed my eyes and breathed through my nose and out through my mouth in a way I had trained into myself since I was Sixteen.

“Adeline?”

“Give me a moment, please.” If I opened my eyes right now, she would not like what she saw. The darkness to her light. Although, as I thought of the flash of icy blue I glimpsed in her eyes after the explosion near the bar, maybe she would understand.

“Adeline if you doanything, they will make things a million times worse for me. I’m moving out of that dorm anyway, and I’ve got a new phone for now. It’s done. Leave it…please.”

“Fine.” It most definitely wasnotfine and I would definitelynotbe leaving it but she didn’t need to know the ins and outs of how I would destroy Marsha Nobler’s life.

“Can we be done? I have a headache and I just want to go to bed.”

I looked at her, the wariness and tired shadows around her eyes that I recognised well on my own. “Sure. I’m tired myself, and I want to go for a run before I go to bed.”

“Masochist.”

I smirked at her remark, which sparked her smile.

* * *

I was deep in the forest, the moonlight barely trickling through the thick trees. The deathly chill of winter was everywhere. I couldn’t remember running this far. In fact, I could have sworn I had gone back to the dorm. A familiar rattle creeped up my spine. The breath of someone clinging to life.

A weight pressed against my chest, my throat tightening. The breathing grew louder, closer.

I couldn’t scream.

Couldn’t call for help.

Couldn’t breathe.

I woke up with a gasp. My pyjamas drenched in sweat.

I sat upright in bed, one hand on my chest, easing the tightness that was no longer there but lingered in my subconscious. My hands trembled as I reached for my phone, to do what - I didn’t know. 3am… always 3am. My skin felt like it was crawling, the urge to run away overwhelming.

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