Page 153 of Malcroix Bones Academy

I recognized the road now, too.

I stared up at the familiar gate, which I’d looked at every day as I walked to and from the bus stop on my way to my human school. The house beyond was completely dark. I heard an owl in a nearby tree, and the distant sound of the cab as it reached the end of the road, but otherwise, it was deathly still. When the car sounds faded, I heard nothing at all.

“Move,” Ankha growled.

I only stood there until the older witch’s fingers dug into the flesh of my arm. Ankha began dragging me, stiff-legged to the gate, as my mind whirled, looking for a way out.

Archie was inside.

I stared up at the silent, ramshackle Victorian.

I had to go with her. I had to, even if I strongly suspected my aunt didn’t intend for me to leave the house alive.

34

Dark Ritual

Imanaged to spit out one word as I stared at my aunt’s back, even though I already knew the answer, the important parts of it, at least.

“Why?” I gasped.

My arm wrapped tightly around my belly. I watched Ankha wave a hand at the gates, and the gates screeched, opening in a shower of red sparks. The sound wouldn’t bother anyone. We’d had no real neighbors the entire time I’d lived there.

Ankha caught my arm, and yanked me through the opening. She began dragging me up the driveway towards the house.

“Aunt?”

“Keep your mouth shut, or I’ll remove it,” she hissed.

Even drugged, I hadn’t expected a real answer. I couldn’t help trying to wrap my mind around everything, anyway.

Ankha had done this. My mother’s sister.

Had she killed my parents, too? Her own sister? She must have, mustn’t she?

I’d known, always known, that Ankha despised Arcturus and me. She’d never hidden that fact from us, never tried to hide it. Yet I’d somehow never believed she actually wanted usdead.She’d always seemed more indifferent to our existence than actively murderous.

But if she killed her own sister?

My chest burned painfully at the thought.

Why had she waited so long for me and Archie? Why not simply kill us when we were children? Why all the song and dance to get me tested and into Magique?

I fought to make it all make sense, but couldn’t.

My mind had cleared enough to know how futile making a run for the mirror would be, at least without a real opening. To get to her mirror, I’d need to fight free of Ankha’s magic. I’d need to make it to that part of the garden without her stopping me. I’d need some way to break the lock, assuming that was even possible. I’d need time.

And then there was my brother.

“Archie?” I managed. “Arcturus. Is he all right?”

Ankha yanked on me harder.

I got slammed with the magic behind the pull, and stumbled. I nearly fell into one of the garden’s odd statues of fauns, but my aunt’s firm grip kept me mostly upright. I focused all my attention on the gold-white sun over my head.

Whatever I ended up doing, I’d need my magic. I needed that working again, well enough to knock her out, or at least slow her down.

“Archie,” I repeated thickly. “Where’s Arcturus?”