Page 15 of Spark of Sorcery

“I know what you did.” I squeeze. “You don’t touch her. Ever again. If you do …”

“And how did you know? Because some silly girl told you?” She laughs, although the shadows around her neck make the sound strangled. “I don’t know what she did tell you, but it isn’t true.”

Her own shadows snake from her fingers and sidle up against mine, stroking and caressing them. It makes me jolt. It makes me sick to the stomach. I can’t stand this woman anywhere near me. I can’t stand to touch her. I can’t stand to be touched by her. And yet I’d do it to destroy her, to keep Briony safe.

As soon as her name enters my mind, I know my mistake.

“Little Briony Storm.” Her eyes dance with amusement and triumph radiates across her face as she reads my thoughts. “A confused girl. Her head full of all kinds of delusions. It’s not unusual, Fox. It was bound to happen eventually. It happens to us all.” She licks her lips again. “At some point, there’s always a student who develops an unhealthy interest, an infatuation, a crush. Why, even Cornelius had some love-sick boy follow him around like a lost puppy one year.”

“That’s not what this is.”

“Poor Fox, you don’t think it’s real do you?”

“She doesn’t even notice me.”

“And yet, she’s come running to you with tales of me,” she hisses with a sudden savageness.

“Where the hell else was she meant to go when one of her teachers attacked her?”

“Attacked her?” She scoffs. “Their imaginations are so young and so highly sexualised – they can’t help but run wild. I’m sure that’s all this is, Fox. This girl has probably never had a man show her any interest before and then you come along – forceful, strong … commanding – and her little imagination can’t control itself. She wants to make you the hero of some strange, twisted fairytale – and well, of course, I’d be a prime candidate for the wicked witch.”

She curls her tongue behind her teeth and smiles wickedly.

“You are a fucking witch!” I spit the words in her face, my magic prickling violently against her skin.

It simply makes her shiver, a little moan escaping her throat.

“It’s been so long since we did this last, Fox. Remember how good it used to be? Your magic curled around mine, mine around yours. Remember how good it felt? How good I made you feel?”

I tighten my grip on her neck and then slam her back against the desk, the wood cracks behind her, and she slides down to the floor. This time there’s nothing sexual about her groan.

“Stay away from her. Stay away from me. Otherwise I will kill you.”

“This is all for nothing. You can’t have her, Fox. The Princes have already claimed her.”

“It makes nodifference.”

“Although, heaven knows why! There’s nothing special about her, Fox. I’d know if there were. She’s just a nothing girl from the shitholes of Slate.”

“Same place I’m from, you forget, Veronica.”

I fire electricity straight into her body, leaving her to writhe on the floor. Just like she did to Briony.

When I stop, her hair stands on end around her head and her lipstick and eyeliner is smudged across her face.

“Maybe I thought you were different,” she screeches. “Maybe I thought there was something special about you.”

“You were wrong.” I step closer to her, bending down so my face is right up close to hers. Her breath smells of sweet tobacco, my stomach turning over again. “I’m warning you!”

Chapter Seven

Briony

I head straight for my hiding place when I return that evening, unwrapping the stone and examining its surface, trying to decide if the fissures have grown any bigger. I don’t think they have, but by the time I wake in the morning and check the stone again, I’m sure the long crack down its length has grown half an inch or so.

What can it mean? Why the hell would a stone like this crack? It wasn’t dropped or thrown. No one has struck it with a weapon or with magic. No, it’s cracked all by itself.

I think back to last night and my almost-confession with Professor Tudor. I’ve no doubt he’d be able to identify this stone and why it has cracked. Should I have shown him?