Page 61 of Malcroix Bones Academy

I smiled, and patted my friend on the back.

“We’ll get rid of her,” I sympathized. “If the academy won’t do it, we’ll cast so many uglifying, itching, and incontinence spells on her, she’ll run away on her own.”

“Promise?” Miranda asked, still pouting.

I solemnly drew my finger twice over my chest. “Cross my heart.”

“I would liketo welcome all of our first year students,” the middle-aged witch at the podium intoned, her squashy, potato-shaped nose twitching as she tilted it higher in the air. “We are very pleased to have you with us… despite the Academy having a well-earned reputation for being tough on first-years.”

Her eyes scanned through faces, as if looking for individual Magicals she wanted to make that point with personally.

“Do not expect to see all of your classmates next year,” she intoned gravely. “Generally, one in three of your fellow studentswill not return after the summer break. The friends you make over the next few years may change as a result…”

I glanced at Draken, who raised his eyebrows with mock menace in return.

“Quite the cheerful message for the first night,” Jolie muttered.

“I bet she’s fun at parties,” Miranda muttered back.

“…We very deliberately separate the serious from the unserious at this school,” the headmaster droned on. “I do not apologize for that fact. You are meant to be the future of the Magical world, and of Magique itself. Those of you who succeed will not be ordinary Magicals. Therefore, it is perfectly natural not everyone will be up to the task. It is our job to determine who is, and who isn’t.”

I heard murmurs from other tables, and glanced around.

I couldn’t help noticing that Caelum Bones looked bored.

Elysia Warrington looked nervous, and I couldn’t help remembering that the other witch hadn’t done very well in our summer course, although she’d obviously done well enough to make it here. I might’ve even felt sympathy for her, if she’d been anyone else.

The headmaster’s words made me slightly nervous, too.

Almost like he’d heard me, Draken scoffed.

“Wipe that look off your face, Shadow,” he said, loud enough that a few people glanced over. “You’re not fooling anyone, Miss ‘Highest Score on the Magical Potential Test in One Hundred Years’…”

I felt my face burn, but only smiled and flipped him the bird.

Luckily, the gesture translated. I heard a number of people laugh, including Draken.

When my gaze drifted back by the table nearest to ours, I saw Caelum Bones glaring at Draken like he wanted to rip off his head and play football with it.

Gods. What was hisproblem?

Headmaster Darica Voltaire cleared her throat to quiet the room.

The murmurs petered off.

I looked back to the podium, along with just about everyone else.

The Headmaster’s iron-gray, flyaway hair picked up the light from peach-colored lanterns that hung behind the faculty tables. Three of those tables took up most of that end of the room. The podium stood behind the furthest one, on a rise so that everyone in the room could see her, including the other professors.

Everything about the headmaster looked shriveled, including her bony hands. Her thin lips pursed as she stared down at all of us. She wore black robes, and a large silver chain adorned with the Malcroix Cross. It looked more like an Iron Cross on her, with four, thick femurs making up the arms, and six finger bones in a ring.

A large, amber-colored stone dominated the very center.

“Being here is a privilege, and a responsibility,” she intoned. “I know you will do your very best to live up to it… and to honor our shared bloodline.”

Was it my imagination, or had Voltaire looked atmewhen she said that part?

No, I realized, when the witch at the podium continued to stare at me. It hadn’t been my imagination. I felt my jaw harden when a few others around the room noticed and glanced at me, too. A couple of those faces smirked.