Page 14 of Venomous Lies (Greywood Conservatory for the Arcane #2)

Isla

WEDNESDAY

T he Singing Bones had been closing when Z, Wells, and I rushed there yesterday, but Maude agreed to stay open a few extra minutes once we explained what we wanted.

In fact, her dark green and brown eyes had filled with storms when I breezed through the academy explanation.

The air felt almost electric, the hair on my arms standing up on end, until it suddenly stopped.

I swore I even saw flashes of lightning in her eyes before she turned away and walked further into the store.

She ignored the selection of books that were laid out on the floor, telling us to wait for a moment as she slipped into the back room. Maude came back carefully holding three old leather-bound books. Each of them looked old, worn, but when she opened them, they were full of untouched paper.

One was a dark brown leather with gold leaves along the spine and edges, its worn yellow pages feeling too thin beneath my fingertips. I shook my head, my instincts telling me this wasn’t the right book for me.

The second was dark blue, the cover decorated with what looked like a sun and moon design. These pages were white, thick, but almost too heavy when I tried turning them.

“No, definitely not the right one for you either,” the fae murmured as she took it back.

Maude paused before offering the last book. An odd look came upon her face as she gently laid it down in front of me.

This one was a rich red, the color so deep that it almost appeared black, with a gold snake depicted on the front. The aged pages felt crisp under my fingers, and as soon as I touched it, I knew.

Cassius did too, though he remained silent, both of us mindful that Maude could overhear us.

“This one… It feels like mine. How much ? —?”

She had held up a finger, stopping me from asking anything. My cheeks heated at my almost misstep.

“These books were never for sale, witch. I am merely their keeper until the ones they are meant for come to collect them. No fae deal or gift is part of this, just me doing my duty by passing on each book to its rightful creator. It is yours now. Be careful what you make of it.”

Her words felt heavy, reminding me of the powerful presence in the greenhouse when I discovered it. I opened my mouth to say more, but she whisked us out, saying to come again during business hours.

“Isla?”

I shook my head to clear away the cobwebs.

It had been a long day of classes, especially without my laptop thanks to Thatcher’s ban.

Whatever he had done to cut off the internet and communication rendered all technology unusable before the week’s end—a wonderful detail that I’d found out when I got to politics this morning.

I could access my old notes but not write anything new.

Guess I do need to copy all my notes into notebooks before classes tomorrow .

“Sorry. It was a long as fuck day,” I told Zhara ruefully as I fell back on the couch in our lounge. “At least I have the rest of the day to recover… and copy notes over, I guess.”

“Isn’t Wells coming over later to help you with your grimoire?”

“Yeah, he said he’d come by before his divination class. He didn’t give me a specific time though.” I picked at my hair and sighed in annoyance. “What I really need to do is dye my hair. I think my moms packed up a few boxes… I’ll have to check.”

“Aren’t there potions for that?” Zhara asked curiously as she flopped down on the couch next to me.

“Probably.” I shrugged, then rolled my head to face her. “But I’ve always used regular human hair dye. Don’t have to worry about it wearing off early like magickal ones.”

“I could help you. Girl time!”

I’d barely had any alone time with Z, and considering how things were going lately, we definitely needed some girl time. I need to catch up and figure out what exactly is going on between her and Aizel.

“Have you ever dyed hair before?” I side-eyed my friend with an incredulous look.

“No, but how hard can it be?”

Famous last words.

About an hour later, Zhara was cursing out the two bottles of dye on the sink, my hair, and the smell of the dye itself. My lips twitched as I tried to keep from laughing, but from the glare I got through the mirror, she saw me.

“I tried to warn you that it’s a strong smell!”

“Not good enough.” She sniffed and promptly started to gag. “This is horrible .”

A knock sounded in the distance soon followed by Wells and Aizel calling out our names. Before I could figure out if Echo was with them, Zhara yelled back for someone to take over before she lost it.

I burst out laughing, and that’s how Aizel and Wells found us in my bathroom. Zhara was pulling off the gloves, and my entire head, along with parts of my forehead, was covered in hair dye.

“What in the world is going on here?” Aizel looked between us in confusion.

“Coloring my hair,” I managed to reply between bouts of laughter. “At least now I just let it sit then wash it out later.”

“You can’t pay me enough to help you do that again.” Z sneezed as she brushed past the guys to leave the room.

“Love you too, Z!” I shouted after her. “I bet I could bribe her into helping me again, but I’m sure she’s going to need some fresh air. The chemicals do really stink.”

Aizel chuckled and shook his head before leaving to go check on Z. We didn’t really get a chance to talk after she started mixing the dye, but hopefully we can get some one-on-one time soon.

“Is this going to bother you?” I asked Wells as I gestured at my mess of hair. “I’ve got a cap to put on top of it so it doesn’t get everywhere, but it has to sit on here for a while before I can wash it off.”

“Nope,” Wells replied easily. “You handle that and whatever else. Just bring your grimoire out when you’re ready, and we can go over the basics of setting it up.”

Sometimes it was obvious that Wells had siblings. His easy, go-with-the-flow personality was definitely one of those clues. Oh, I was sure there was an end to that laidback part of himself, but, unlike me, he appeared to have a long fuse.

After he walked out, I grabbed a wash rag and used some soap and water to get dye off my face, or at least some of it. I cleaned off what I could then grabbed an old shower cap to cover my hair. A bit of smoke appeared in the mirror, revealing Cas watching me with a small smirk on his face.

I arched an eyebrow at him. ‘Yes?’

‘Nothing.’ He gave me a real smile, though only for a second before he stared at the open doorway. ‘Wells is waiting for you.’

‘We still haven’t had our conversation,’ I reminded him, stubbornly not moving.

‘We will, beastie. I’m not going anywhere.’

‘I’m holding you to that, Cas.’

He bowed as he disappeared, and I rolled my eyes at his extraness.

Walking into my room, I grabbed the leather-bound book and my bag so we could get to work on my grimoire.

Wells was sitting on the floor in front of the couch, books spread out everywhere along with pens, paper, and a huge brown book that was laying open. The topmost pages were filled with scribbles, notes, and what looked like sketches.

He looked up as I approached and gave me a wide smile as he told me to sit down wherever I wanted.

Fluffy brown hair was, as usual, in complete disarray while his dark-washed jeans and henley somehow looked nicely put together—at least it looked really good compared to the oversized t-shirt and biker shorts that I wore whenever coloring my hair.

There was just no getting the dye out of clothes once they were stained… unless Wells knew of a spell that could work? Given my limited scope of magick, I’d never bothered to?—

“Isla? ”

“Sorry.” I shook my head before letting out a small chuckle. “My brain is wandering a ton today.”

Taking him up on the offer, I settled down beside him, resting my book on my lap. It still felt so unreal to have one in my hands, and I hated the thought of being parted from it. Some part of me that I didn’t realize was missing felt present now.

“We can just start with the basics, so you can take what works for you and leave the rest.” Wells focused on me intently.

“Every witch’s grimoire is different and unique to them.

What’s in my book and what’s in yours might be similar at times, but everything will be suited to you and how your magick works. ”

I nodded in understanding, remembering hearing this at the academy when others started putting their books together the first year.

“Personally, I didn’t start mine until my first year at academy, but my sisters, for example, started putting theirs together as children. Spells, drawings, things they found while exploring— it was all relevant for them. Anything you want, from anywhere, can be added to your book.”

“Question.” I started to chew my bottom lip before releasing a deep breath.

“I didn’t start my grimoire as a kid because my moms aren’t witches, so they don’t know anything about creating them.

Then my academy said I didn’t have enough power or aptitude to create a book because I could only do plant-based magick and some mental shields.

I can’t use magick to clean things up, hide things, or travel like you’ve done?—”

“Then that’s what you’ll put in there—plant-based magick.”

My mouth opened and closed a few times, but nothing came out.

He said it so plainly, like it was the simplest thing in the world.

The teachers and kids at the academy had thought I was stupid, ‘too inept to need to create my own book because my powers were so singularly focused.’ That was exactly how one of my teachers worded it, disdain dripping from every word.

Now here was Wells, just saying to focus on that one ability like it was the easiest thing in the world.

“Isla? Are you?—?”

“Hair dye must have gotten in my eyes,” I said, rapidly blinking as I looked at anything but him.

“Wouldn’t hair dye hurt a lot more?” he asked. The hint of laughter in his voice made me give up on avoiding him in favor of glaring at him instead.

“Wells Hawthorne, you’re on thin ice.”

Bursting into laughter, he held up his hands in surrender which just made me join him.

It was nice. This was something I really needed, hang-out time with Z and Wells, too. Nothing related to mates popping up or attacks on campus, just time with friends.

“Maybe your herbology professor can help you with expanding whatever you put in the grimoire,” Wells suggested after we managed to get ourselves under control.

“Oh, that’s a good idea!” As I said that, Wells looked down at his watch and sighed, the exaggerated sound full of annoyance. “What’s wrong?”

“I need to get going and head to divination. I forgot we had to start a big project today, so they wanted us to arrive earlier than normal.” He started gathering his things. “Did you need any notebooks for copying notes? I remember you said you had just been using your laptop for classes?—”

“Oh, actually, if you have extras…”

“Here.” He pushed all the notebooks he had brought in my direction. “Use whatever you need. You can just give me back what you don’t use.”

My eyebrows rose in surprise as my eyes darted from the stack to my friend. It was his turn to avoid my gaze as he grabbed his bag and headed for the door.

“Did you get these just for me?” I teased, trying to lighten the mood.

Wells froze, his fingers on the doorknob.

“What if I did?” he asked without turning around. Before I could respond, he cleared his throat and shook his head. “What are friends for? I’ll see you later.”

I blinked as he rushed out of the suite, then stared down at everything he had brought me.

It wasn’t just a stack of notebooks.

Sorting through everything, I realized he had included packs of pens. Each one was pre-labeled with the names of my classes, and I swallowed hard as I realized just how much work he had put into this. When I opened the notebooks, I saw scrawls of notes.

Oh shit! How long has this hair dye been in?!

I ran to my bathroom, distracting myself with rinsing out the hair dye. If I washed it an extra time or two, trying to keep my mind busy, well… That was my prerogative.

‘You can’t run from everything forever, beastie.’ Cas’ voice echoed in my mind.

‘No, but I learned from the best, so I can run for a bit longer.’

‘Not from this .’