Page 26

I waited until after midnight and prayed everyone was asleep.

I had a small bag on my back, and I was in my own clothes.

Sure as sheet I wasn’t leaving this place wearing a uniform or a frucking fanny pack.

Bandit snorted and let out a little grumble in his sleep.

He was curled up tight on my pillow, and I tucked my blanket around him.

He was better off here. Maybe he’d find a kid to connect with once I was gone.

Slipping out of the main door to our dorm, I looked up and down the shadowed hallway. No Nikita. Most likely she was asleep by now, but even if she wasn’t, she wouldn’t come looking for me. She’d all but sent me on this mission, as eager to be rid of me as I was of her.

The halls of the school felt ... weird late at night. As if the echoes of everyone who’d walked there for all the years of its existence still lay embedded in the stone. A shiver rolled over me and I shimmied my shoulders, trying to ignore the distinct sensation that I was being watched.

A tug on the cuff of my jeans had me spinning around and biting back a squeal.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Bandit squinted up at me and yawned. “And why would you think you’re going without me?”

Heart hammering, I bent and ran a hand over his head. “Right, sorry about that. Come on then, we need to get Opie.”

He ran ahead of me, silent on his paws. “I’ll get her. Where do you want us to meet you?”

“The kitchen.” I was willing to bet there would be some leftovers of the pecan chocolate muffins that were more than worth taking with us. If we were really lucky, there’d be a few jammy dodgers – jam-filled cookies – left too.

In the kitchen I found everything I was hoping for, along with some scones, and peanut-butter-filled truffles.

I stuffed all the goodies into some containers I found, then used my nicking notions shrinking spell, pinching my fingers over them all, and packed them into my bag.

I also snagged a large sterling silver spoon, whispering an apology to Mrs. Wickersham under my breath.

“Harlow?” Opie’s sleepy voice turned me around. “What’s going on? Is this raccoon actually talking, or am I having a dream?”

I held my hand out to her and pulled her into a hug, ignoring the twinge in my ribs as relief flooded through me. I’d hardly seen her since we’d gotten here, and I hadn’t let myself think about how scared I was for her while we were apart.

I kissed the top of her head. “Yes, Bandit talks, but it’s our secret, okay?”

She blinked. “Okay . . .”

“Not freaking out about a talking raccoon?”

She shot me a sleepy smile. “We are living in a magical school, Lo-lo, you think anything surprises me? But you didn’t tell me what we’re doing.”

I tugged on her hand. “Come on, we’re going on a bit of an adventure.”

“What kind of an adventure?”

“We have to find a wishing well,” I said softly as I led her through the kitchens and out the back door. I paused, stepped back into the kitchen and looked at the lintel above the door. A bottle had been laid sideways, hidden from most eyes.

Red wine.

I reached up and grabbed it, shrunk it down and stuffed it into my bag along with my other goodies. Best I could do when I had no idea what kind of offering the wishing well would accept. The fancy spoon and the wine sure beat the nickels I used to throw into wishing wells back in the day ...

“A wishing well? Is that for real?” Opie asked quietly as we stepped out into the night. The air was crisp, with just a hint of the oncoming autumn weather.

“I guess we’ll find out,” I flashed her a grin. “What would you wish for?”

“Nothing.” She grinned up at me. “I have everything I ever wanted now that I’m here. I didn’t do so hot at spellcasting today, but the teacher, Doyen Eryn, was super nice. I really feel like it’s going to be so great, Lo-lo.”

Fruuuuck.

My stomach flipped at the thought of how sad she’d be when I took her away.

But sometimes you had to be the heavy and make the hard choices when you had someone relying on you.

Nocta was coming ... even sooner than I’d ever expected.

As it stood, we had zero chance of defeating him.

How could I protect Opie when I couldn’t even throw a proper rune?

And even if we did survive Nocta, it was only a matter of time before Opie realized that one of these things was not like the other.

She didn’t belong at Neverthorn, or any other magic school.

The pain of that truth would only be more intense the longer it went on – when she realized she was being fooled.

I’d tell her when we got away from here. I’d be gentle, explain to her that ... that she had no magic. But not until we got settled somewhere far away, somewhere safe.

I tightened my hold on her hand, giving her another gentle squeeze. “Right. Well, I’m hoping to find the wishing well anyway.”

Opie nodded. “Okay, sure.”

So trusting. Because she had no reason to believe that I would betray that trust.

Gritting my teeth, I lifted my right hand, fingers flicking through a rune I liked to call ‘Finders Keepers.’ I scrunched my fingers up so the tips all touched my palm, flicked them all out at once, made a fist, and then a half circle with my pinky.

All while thinking of the wishing well. That was what I wanted to find. That was what I needed to find.

The magic flared into something else. Just the faintest of glimmers, iridescent wings, gossamer, almost like a tiny –

“Is it a butterfly?” she whispered.

I smiled, thinking of my mom. “Yes.”

“Cool. Can you show me that rune?”

I cleared my aching throat. “Third-year access only,” I lied.

“Nuts. Okay.”

I hung onto her as we followed the butterfly away from the main part of the school, toward the western edge where the thorn forest grew, towering over us. The butterfly flitted to the edge of the forest and waited, then wove its way into the tangled mess.

I scrunched up my nose and flicked another rune at the thorn bush. The rune fizzled out before it hit.

Awesome, it was spelled with something to deflect runes.

Guess I was going to have to do this the human way and bushwhack. I pulled my knife from my backpack and unshrunk it. My blade made quick work of the brambles, and thanks to all the gods, the well wasn’t that far within the forest.

“Wow, is that it?” Opie breathed. I held onto her, literally holding her back as she tried to lurch forward.

“I think that’s it, but don’t get any closer. I’ll take a look at it first.” I made sure she stayed well away from the rim.

“This is so awesome. Phoebe is going to freak when I tell her about this!” Opie said gleefully. “Can we show her tomorrow?”

I didn’t answer her as I made my way carefully around the well.

Bandit on the other hand waddled right up along with me. “What’s the plan?”

I crouched and put a hand to the light-colored stones – creams and light grays – that had been mudded together with a gritty white paste.

Three feet high, the well didn’t have an arch over it, nor were there any runes or markings indicating that this was indeed a wishing well.

But I had no doubt. I could feel the magic humming under my fingertips.

This was our way out.

I pulled my bag around to the front of my body and dug around until I found the spoon and wine I’d nabbed from the kitchens. “Maybe both?”

Bandit nodded. “Seems reasonable. Better the offer, the better the odds.”

I stood and held the two items over the well and dropped them in. There was no clunk of them hitting hard ground, no plop of them hitting water.

I leaned over the edge of the well, the wish on my lips. I’d thought endlessly about the precise way to word it.

“Ohhhh ... great well-dweller,” I called, “please grant my wish that the three of us were transport–”

Water shot up around me, wrapped around my upper body like a fist and yanked me into the well.

Opie screamed, Bandit screamed, and I fought to cling to the edge, desperately clawing at the stone.

“Bandit, get her out of here!” I yelled as my fingers slid. The water rushed around me, even though I was clinging to the edge of the well. I struggled to breathe. Opie couldn’t save me, and I didn’t want her to see me die.

As the water enveloped me, I knew the truth of it. This had all been a trap, one that Nikita had set so expertly that I hadn’t even picked up on it. I knew she wanted to get rid of me, but I hadn’t realized just having me gone from Neverthorn forever wasn’t enough for her.

She wanted me dead.

It shouldn’t have surprised me. She wasn’t the first person to try to kill me. Hell, she wasn’t even the only doyen here to try. I had been so easily led. Somehow, my desire to leave had overridden my common sense.

Those thoughts faded to black. The water was so heavy on me, it yanked me down. I wove one last desperate rune, the one for breathing underwater.

I gulped as I went down, the water like air, the darkness around me absolute.

“Well, well, what do we have here?”

The voice was silky and smooth, curling around me. I floated in the darkness, trying to orient myself. There was no way to know what was up or down, but I could sense the belly of the well was impossibly vast. Far bigger than the entrance aboveground.

“I’m Harlow Daygon of Brooklyn,” I managed, surprised that my voice didn’t just come out in a series of bubbles.

An impossibly fiery cauldron came into view beneath me. But before I could panic about that, a large, shadowed form swam over it. Every muscle in my body tightened. I squinted into the darkness and gasped as the figure drifted closer.

Tail fin and all, I knew a mermaid when I saw one.

“You aren’t dead yet. Interesting.” She slowed to a stop in front of me. “But you will be.”

I tried to swim, tried to move, but the water held me firmly in place.