Battle of the Hexes Read online

  “I won’t go into the specific details of what happened to her, but I will say this. Because of what she went through, I have absolutely no tolerance for bullies. Anyone caught bullying another student in my classroom from this point forward will be expelled from my classes and sent to Ms. Primrose to be dealt with. Is that clear?”

  Another round of “Yes, Sorceress Delacroix” went around the room.

  Feeling a hard lump in the back of her throat, Jax couldn’t bring herself to look at Sorceress Delacroix again. She was too embarrassed that all of this had happened because of her. She spun around and pretended to look through the supply cabinets longer than necessary, just so no one would see the tears that now streamed down her face.

  Chapter 2

  A warm September breeze rustled the leaves of the scarlet oak tree in the Paranormal Institute’s courtyard. I was sitting alone at our usual lunch table, nibbling on French fries and waiting for the rest of my friends to make an appearance. Though my last class had gotten out early, the quad was already full of witches and the outdoor seating area buzzed with the usual barrage of female chatter. Sipping my caramel macchiato, I looked out across the lunch area, shooting an impatient glance over to the Winston Hall dormitory doors. There was nothing I hated worse than sitting alone at a lunch table. If I was going to be forced to sit alone at lunch, I’d much rather do it in the library stacks, where no one had to witness my solitude. I mean, I always appreciated a little me time—just not in front of the whole school.

  I slumped forward, resting my chin in the palm of my hand, and casually watched all the little cliques of girls. By now, I knew most of the new class of girls by first name, at least, and almost all of the second-year witches by first and last, and I was fairly certain they all knew mine. The Paranormal Institute for Witches in Aspen Falls, Pennsylvania, wasn’t that big of a witch college, after all. In fact, I’d call it medium-sized at best.

  When I’d first been sent away to witch college the year before, I’d been upset to have been forced into such a small school. I’d wanted to go to college somewhere where my professors would have no idea if I was seated in class dutifully taking notes or passed out cold in my dorm room, sleeping off the night before. But now that I’d made it through an entire year, I had to admit that I appreciated the specialized education I was getting, the good friends I’d made, and the fact that the town felt more like home to me than Dubbsburg, Illinois, ever had.

  As I continued to scan the courtyard for lack of someone to chat with, I accidentally threw a glance over my shoulder and someone caught my eye. Someone who didn’t belong amongst the chatty gaggle of witches.

  Across the courtyard, near the break in the low retaining wall that enclosed the quad and led to the wizard school’s side of campus, a hunky cowboy wizard rested his hip against a tree. He leaned casually with his cowboy boots crossed at the ankles, his arms folded over his chest, and his cowboy hat tilted at just the perfect angle for me to see his smiling face.

  Houston Brooks.

  My ex.

  My heart raced a little. It had been just over a month since I’d last spoken to him and over a week since I’d last seen him in passing. That time I’d only seen him for a split second—we’d passed each other on the way to class. He’d given me a tilt of his hat, and I’d forced a tight smile.

  That was all it had taken, and I hadn’t slept a wink that night.

  Since then, I’d gone out of my way to avoid him—taking paths less traveled to get to classes and avoiding events I knew he’d be at.

  Now, from my slightly obscured seat in the quad, I looked him up and down. He looked good, as he always did. His jeans fit snugly around his rugged, well-built body. He had the sleeves of his plaid shirt unbuttoned and rolled up to his elbows, exposing the warmth of his summer’s tan, and standing there in the shade with his hat tilted backwards, I could clearly see his hazel eyes. They crinkled in the corners and shone when he smiled. He was immersed in conversation with someone and seemed to be enjoying it. My eyes slid over to look at the person across from him—the one getting all of his attention.

  Her name was Shelby. She was a first-year. That was the extent of my knowledge about her. I didn’t have her in any of my classes, and I’d only seen her a handful of times before. She was a rather small girl with a square face and pronounced dimples, long stick-straight dirty-blond hair and brown eyes. The way she smiled at him made her look a little too thirsty for my taste. Like a tick on a dog, she hung on to every word that Hugh said and they laughed easily together.

  Just seeing the two of them all friendly like, made my mouth go dry. I forced down another swallow of my macchiato, my eyes unintentionally squinting behind my dark-rimmed glasses.

  “If you stare long enough, maybe he’ll do a trick.” A tray slammed down on the table in front of me.

  Flinching, I swiveled my head to see a tall dark-haired woman staring down at me, a sly grin on her face. “Jeez, Alba! You scared the crap outta me.”

  Alba Sanchez, my roommate and one of my best friends, climbed onto the bench across from me. “Yeah? Whose fault is that? Maybe if you weren’t gawking like some lovesick teenager, you woulda seen me coming.”

  I rolled my eyes. My adrenaline was pumping now. “I wasn’t gawking like some lovesick teenager.”

  “Yeah? So you’re sayin’ it doesn’t bother you that the cowboy’s talkin’ to another chick?” She slid down the bench to grab a salt shaker.

  I frowned at her. “He’s not talking to another chick, Alba. He’s just—talking to her.”

  Alba’s hand with the salt shaker froze in midair. She curled her lip at me. “And what did I say?”

  “You said he was talking to her,” I said. “As if they were talking. They’re not talking. They’re just having a conversation.”

  “You sleep on a bed of confusion last night, Red?”

  “I’m not confused. I’m just trying to explain. Talking implies they’re like—dating or something. I’m sure she just stopped to ask him which way a building was or something. She’s new, you know? She probably doesn’t have many friends. Hugh’s just being nice.”

  “Sure he is,” chuffed Alba, rolling her eyes. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, Red.”

  As I continued to gawk at Hugh and Shelby’s oddly long conversation, Alba nodded her head towards the girls’ dorm. “I wonder what she’s laughing at?”

  I glanced up to see one of our roommates, Holly Rockwell, walking towards us with her lunch tray propped up on one arm. She held her cell phone in her other hand, and as she walked with her head down, she giggled to herself.

  “Not a clue,” I said curtly before turning my attention back to Hugh and Shelby. “You don’t seriously think he’s talking to her, do you?”

  Alba rolled her eyes and looked up at Holly as she nearly crashed into the corner of our table. “Earth to Cosmo.”

  Holly glanced over at Alba and me, and immediately her face sobered up, like she hadn’t just been giggling all the way to our table. “Oh. Hey, girls.”

  “What was so funny over there?” asked Alba.

  Holly shifted slightly and looked down at her phone before shoving it into the bag hanging from her shoulder. “Oh. Nothing. How’d your mornings go?”

  “Boring as usual,” said Alba, picking at her lunch.

  Holly slid in beside me and I elbowed her, leaning backwards so I could point. “Hey, Holl, Hugh’s over there talking to Shelby…”

  “I thought you said they weren’t talking?” cut in Alba.

  I shot her a venomous look.

  Chuckling, she threw both hands up in defeat and then went back to her lunch.

  Holly followed my line of sight and shrugged. “Oh. Yeah. I heard about that. You’d think he could be a little more discreet.”

  My eyes widened. With my interest now thoroughly piqued, I turned into Holly. “Heard about what, exactly?”

  “They’re talking.”

  “See?” chimed in Alba, ge
sturing towards Holly. “What’d I say?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Well, obviously they’re talking,” I said, glancing up at them again. The two of them were still deeply involved in a conversation. Those sure are detailed directions he’s giving. I frowned as I fingered the long red side braid I’d pulled over my shoulder. “But they’re not like dating or anything, right?”

  Holly unwrapped her silverware and laid her napkin over her lap. “I haven’t heard if they’ve gone on like an actual date. But I have heard they’re talking.”

  I was just about to dig more into this new well of information when Jax came rushing over to our table and plopped down next to Alba. Her pink hair looked damp and stringy, the witch hat she always wore was floppier than usual, and the collar of her blouse had green splotches on it. “Oh my gosh, girls. You’ll never believe the morning I’ve had.”

  I leaned into Holly again. “So explain what you mean by you heard they’re talking. I mean, who told you that?”

  “Mercy!” cried Jax. “Are you listening? I had a horrible morning.”

  “Jax. You’re late for lunch and we’re in the middle of a conversation.”

  “That can wait,” she said breathlessly. “This is a big deal.”

  “No, it can’t wait. Yours can wait.”

  Jax stared hard at me. “I blew up a potion in potions class, Mercy.” Her hands exploded in the air and her blue eyes bulged crazily. “Blew up! Like literally! I put a hole in the ceiling.”

  “Oooh. Ouch.” Alba winced.

  “Yeah. And I had to stay after class so Sorceress Delacroix could tell me that I need more practice. Like, duh, I need more practice. I mean, thank you, Captain Obvious.” Jax waggled her head as she cracked open her carton of chocolate milk.

  “Wow. Shorty. I’ve never seen you this worked up before.”

  Shaking her head wildly, Jax looked like she might lose it at any moment. “I’ve been working with Ms. Primrose every day after school. I’m making improvements. I know my magic’s there. It’s just slow in coming, and it’s embarrassing.”

  “Jax, you tell us this every day,” I said, sighing. I leaned forward again to look at Holly. “Now explain to me. Are they like talking privately? Like does he text her?”

  Frowning at me, Jax looked confused. “Who’s talking privately?”

  “Hugh and Shelby,” said Holly. “And, yeah, I think so.”

  “Hello? Is no one listening to what I’m saying? I’m literally going to flunk out of the second year of my first year if I don’t get this figured out. Like what kind of witch flunks out of first year twice?”

  Holly shrugged uncomfortably. “The bad kind of witch?”

  “Exactly!” Jax cried.

  “Look, you’re not gonna flunk out again, Shorty. Okay? Relax,” assured Alba. She looked at me then. “You didn’t think he’d stay single forever, did you, Red?”

  With my stomach doing some kind of a nervous dance, I looked across the quad at Hugh and Shelby again. She really did seem to be flirting with him. Some little green man with demon horns who had been buried deep inside of me reared his head, and suddenly I wanted to flick a finger at her and send her reeling into another dimension.

  “We literally just broke up. I didn’t expect him to move on quite so fast.”

  “It’s been a month, Mercy,” said Holly, reaching into her bag to pull her cell phone back out of it. “How long did you expect him to wait? Hugh’s a good-looking guy. And he’s super sweet. You had a really good thing.”

  I felt myself grimace. I knew I did. And I’d flubbed it up because I was a moron. “Yeah,” I said quietly, my head bobbing. “I did.”

  “Good. Now that you’ve got that figured out, can we talk about me?” asked Jax. “Because on top of everything else, CC Briggs and Pepper Calloway got majorly chewed out because of me. They hated me before, but now they’re really gonna hate me.”

  I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t in the mood to talk about Jax’s inability to do magic or her problems not fitting into the first-year class. I was so preoccupied with my own thoughts that I barely noticed Holly smiling to herself as she started texting again.

  “Shorty, let’s talk about this tonight. I think I’m gonna try and get a ten-minute nap in before the assembly. I’m shot,” said Alba, stretching her arms out behind her and letting out an enormous yawn.

  With her thumbs flying across her phone’s small keyboard, Holly rolled her eyes. “Like any of us are surprised you’re tired? You were up all night. We all heard you.”

  Alba’s yawn disappeared and her arms snapped down by her side as she leaned into Holly. The apples of her cheeks grew pink. “What?”

  Holly looked up from her phone and looked at me and Jax. “Right, girls? I know I heard her. There’s no way you guys didn’t.”

  Jax looked down at the table uncomfortably. She didn’t want to say anything more to embarrass Alba.

  Holly looked at me. “You heard them, right, Mercy? I mean, you do share a bedroom wall with her.”

  I lifted a shoulder reluctantly but then nodded. “You were pretty loud.”

  “I don’t have any idea what you’re talkin’ about,” said Alba, shaking her head.

  Holly leaned forward. “Oh, come on. You and Tony were screaming at each other all night.” She nodded glumly as Alba recoiled. “Look. I mean, if my long-distance husband suddenly quit his job without discussion and moved across state lines to move in with me without so much as a word of warning, I might feel the same way. I’m not holding it against you or anything, but the rest of us are trying to get our beauty rest, so if you guys could take it down a few notches, we’d all appreciate it.”

  I felt bad for Alba. It had been a month since Tony had moved in with us. At first, they’d been like honeymooners, keeping us up late at night with a different kind of noise. But recently, things had begun to change. Tony was having far too much fun hanging out with Flynn and not trying very hard to find a job in Aspen Falls, and Alba was about at her wit’s end. But Alba, being Alba, she didn’t like to talk to us about that kind of personal stuff.

  With her face now crimson, Alba cleared her throat and looked up at me. “You happen to pick up an agenda for the assembly today, Red?”

  I couldn’t blame her for changing the subject. I’d do the same thing if I’d just been called out like that. I shoved a French fry in my mouth and nodded. “Oh, yeah.” I leaned sideways and slid a sheet of paper out of one of my books. “Here.”

  “Thanks.” Red-faced, she scanned the information about the internship assembly we were having that afternoon. “Finally.”

  “Right? I can’t wait. It means we’re that much closer to being out of this school,” I agreed, shooting another glance over my shoulder at Hugh and Shelby. I couldn’t wait to not have to bump into him anymore. It was just too painful.

  “You guys are so lucky,” said Jax. “You get to have internships and graduate. I’ll be stuck here all alone by myself next year. And probably the year after that and the year after that.”

  “Don’t worry, Jax, I’ll probably still be in town. I’ve got nowhere else to go,” I said. After all, my mom and brother both lived and owned a business in town, and Gran, my only other family member, lived in town too. I literally had nowhere else to go when I graduated.

  “And Sweets will probably stick around too,” said Holly, nodding assuredly. “You know she’s not going anywhere. Managing the bakery is like her dream come true.”

  “The only thing better would be if it were her bakery,” I agreed, nodding.

  “Well, Char and Vic ain’t gettin’ any younger,” said Alba. “You never know. It could be hers someday.”

  Polishing off the last bite of her hamburger, Alba stood up. “Well, I’m gonna go sit in the assembly hall and see if I can’t catch a few z’s before the floodgates open and everyone comes in. I’ll check you guys later.”

  “Save us a seat,” said Holly as she walked away.

  Seeing Hugh with S
helby had made my stomach feel funny, and now I didn’t feel like eating either. I shoved my tray away. Maybe I’d try and grab a nap with Alba. Before I left, I shot one last glance over at Hugh. He’d just tossed an arm over Shelby’s shoulder and pulled her in for an impromptu hug. She giggled, eating it up. Watching it made my heart hurt and my stomach feel even worse. When they parted, her face was flushed and excited as she waved goodbye.

  Hugh gave her a last little wave and had just hoisted his backpack over his shoulder and started to turn to walk away, when his eyes flickered up and for a brief moment, our gazes met.

  It was a long, uncomfortable moment, and I wasn’t sure what to do. Should I smile at him? Or frown and show him how uncomfortable his PDA had made me feel? But before I could figure it out, he reached up to pull his hat down over his eyes, spun on the heel of his boot, and then, just like that, he was gone.

  Chapter 3

  “Wow. There sure are a lot of people here.” Jax’s bright, wonder-filled eyes roamed the crowd streaming into the auditorium.

  My own eyes canvased the room as well. Though I was much less impressed by the turnout, she was right. This crowd was much larger than that of our usual assemblies. In addition to the Institute’s student body population of witches, there were also a ton of prominent local business owners, managers, and other important townspeople who’d been invited to discuss internship openings at their various places of employment.

  “Yeah, there are,” agreed Alba, her tone bouncier than usual. “It’s all good, though. I’m tired of sitting in a classroom all day.” Grinning like a Cheshire cat, she rubbed her hands together. “Bring on the internships.”

  Holly’s brow creased and she threw her head back in a show of dramatic despair. “Ugh, girls, I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do for my internship. I mean, I’m mostly only clairvoyant. What am I supposed to do with that for a career?”

  “I don’t know, but you do a fabulous job coloring hair,” Jax assured her and primped her freshly colored though now stringy pink hair as if to prove her point. “You could always do that.”