Spell Fire (26 page)

"Me, too."

"I needed to talk to someone my age, someone who had been there. I'm sure Sophia's disappearance was like a death to you."

"It was. Still is." I picked at the envelope flap. "I'm sorry you couldn't find me. I went to Athenian Academy to escape everyone. It never occurred to me I could help anyone."

"Maybe back then you couldn't. Maybe that's why I couldn't find you."

"Word. Hang on a sec." I retrieved my handbag from the office and pulled out my cell phone. "You might need help with the whole voodoo spell book problem. Give me your number."

"I don't have a cell phone, so you can't text me."

Standing beside the table, I shifted from one foot to the other. "Do you have a landline?"

Evie gave me her number and I punched it into my contact list. Then I tore off the envelope flap and wrote down my cell number and handed it to her.

"Thanks." She slipped it into the voodoo book as though it were a bookmark.

I stared at the package. "Mac is an alientologist. I can't imagine why he gave me a present."

"Open it!" Evie said.

I tore open the envelope and tipped the contents onto the table. Out slid an oversized paperback book. The words Advance Reader Copy angled across the upper left corner. A sticky note attached to the front said, "Thanks for a memorable solstice. Hope you enjoy my latest book. Mac."

A business card had been paper-clipped to the title page, where I discovered Mac's familiar handwriting. "For Ainslie Avalon-Bennett. See you at Columbia! Sean Mackenzie, PhD."

My legs liquefied. I slid the business card from the paper clip and gaped at Professor Mackenzie's telephone number and Columbia University email address. "All this time…"

Evie leaned forward. "What?"

The alarm on my phone chimed. "Shoot. My parents are here." On a hunch, I flipped over the card. On the back, Mac had written, "Email me when you apply. You can use me as a reference."

I almost bounced out of my stilettos. I slid Mac's business card and Jett's present into the zippered compartment of my purse. "I gotta go. Oh!" I pushed a pen and the envelope toward Evie. "Give me your email address."

Evie's expression brightened. She hurriedly wrote the information in neat, artistic letters, then handed it back to me.

"Thanks!" I slid Mac's book into the envelope. "Happy holidays!"

"Happy holidays!"

I rushed back onto the sales floor, feeling as though I had just gained a sister and a ticket to college. A quick glance around the store confirmed Aunt Terra and Uncle Esmun were busy helping customers. Had they known Mac's true identity? Since I was running late, I decided to wait and tell them my good news on Christmas morning.

Thor and my parents waited by the front door, ambushed by Betty and Arthur.

"There she is, dear." Betty patted Arthur's arm.

He tipped his fedora to my parents, then took my arm and ushered me aside. "I know you need to dash off," Betty apologized to Thor, Mom, and Dad. "We'll just keep her a moment."

"What's up?" I asked when Betty joined us.

"It has taken us a bit to recover from the big event." Arthur's voice trembled.

"But we saw something distressing in the crystal ball the other night, and we thought we should tell you," Betty added.

I hugged the enveloped to my chest. "Was it something about me?"

"Not exactly, dear."

Arthur stepped forward. "We were given a message. We think it was meant for someone your age. Maybe Jett. I don't know."

"What did you see?" I prodded.

Betty glanced up at Arthur. "A girl with long, dark hair. She stared at us through the flames and said, 'Find me.'"

The room whirled. I teetered in my shoes. I felt Thor's gaze wrap around me like a lifeline. "Did she say anything else? Give you a name?"

Betty and Arthur exchanged a puzzled look. "No," Arthur said. "Just those two words."

"Was there anything unusual about her appearance?"

"The image was pretty small," Arthur confessed.

"There was one thing." Betty made a fluttering motion near her neck. My heart skittered. "Maybe it was a blemish in the crystal. But she appeared to have a large scar or skin discoloration on her throat."

"I remember now," Arthur said. "A vertical scar."

I staggered backward.

Thor rushed to my side and cupped my elbow. "Ainslie? You okay?"

His voice sounded like wind rushing between mountaintops.
My vision shifted, growing keener. Invisible wings tugged between my shoulders.

Sophia is alive.

The End

About the Author

Ariella Moon
writes about magic, friendship, secrets, and love in Spell Check, Spell Struck, and Spell Fire, the first three books in The Teen Wytche Saga from Astraea Press. After a childhood spent searching for a magical wardrobe that would transport her to Narnia, Ariella grew up to become an author and shaman. Extreme math anxiety, and taller students who mistook her for a leaning post, marred Ariella’s teen years. De-spite these horrors, she graduated summa cum laude from the University of California at Davis. She now lives a nearly normal life with her extraordinary daughter, shamelessly spoiled dog, and an enormous dragon.

Also from Astraea Press

Chapter One

Please don’t let him be here today. Please don’t let him be here today
.

He was there.

Of course he was there; he was always there. Trey didn’t miss class. For a few seconds Scout debated on backing herself right out the door and skipping class, but Kylin shoved past her, nearly knocking Scout into the wall. Scout gritted her teeth but bit back a reply. Getting in a fight with Trey’s girlfriend right before her first class of the day? Not a great way to start her morning.

It was zoology, and it would have been her favorite period if she didn’t have the privilege of sharing it with Trey
and
Kylin. Scout pushed her light brown waves over her shoulder, straightened her spine and stalked in, choosing a seat as far away from her ex-boyfriend as she could.

It wasn’t that she minded Kylin. The problem was that Kylin minded Scout. It made things a tad awkward when they shared a class. Happily, Scout and Trey were both content to pretend the other didn’t exist, so she didn’t have to deal with him much.

Mr. Zornes, the teacher, breezed into the room. He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, refusing to give in to the whole stuffy ‘teacher’ thing. “Morning, guys. Get comfortable, we’ve got tests to go over.”

Almost the entire class groaned. Scout didn’t groan because she was fairly confident she did well on the test. And if she had to guess, she’d say Trey didn’t groan either, but she refused to look at him to check. They were battling over the highest grade in the class and leaving everyone else way behind. Scout planned it that way — because when Mr. Zornes assigned partners for the science fair, he would assign the highest grade with the lowest. That was the way he’d always done it. Scout was making sure there wasn’t a snowball’s chance she’d get stuck with Trey. Never mind the fact she loved every second she was in the lead. Was she bitter about their breakup?

Not at all.

They’d broken up over a year ago. She didn’t care. She wasn’t still in love with him. She wasn’t still devastated over his complete and absolute crushing of her heart.

Not at all.

“Scout, not surprisingly, got the highest in the class with a 98%. Congratulations.” Mr. Zornes winked as he dropped the test on her desk, and she smiled. She had worked her tail off studying for that test. Mr. Zornes passed the rest of the tests out without comment; he wasn’t cruel, and he didn’t want to draw attention to someone who hadn’t done well.

“So.” Mr. Zornes leaned on the edge of his desk, scanning the room. “I’ll give you a minute to go over your tests, and then we’ll go through them together. That will leave us with just enough time to assign partners for the science fair.” The class buzzed as they went through their exams. Scout flipped through hers and found the two questions she’d missed. Mentally she shrugged because they were hard questions.

It was Mr. Zornes’ policy to go over every test and show them the correct answers. He believed they learned better that way. He might have been right, if anyone actually paid attention. Scout tuned out and popped back in when he got to the two she missed, taking notes so she could study for the final. She had to beat Trey on the final. It was still eight months away. She didn’t care.

“So, the bell’s gonna ring any minute. Let’s hurry and get you paired up. We’re doing things a little differently this time.” He grinned like he should be congratulated, but Scout’s heart started hammering in her chest. “In the past, I’ve always done pairs according to percentages — highest with lowest, hoping that the student with the higher grade could have an opportunity to help teach their peer. But it’s occurred to me that this isn’t the way things are happening.”

Scout saw where he was going before he got there.
No, no, no, no, no
, her mind begged. But he ignored her telepathic pleading.

“So this year, we’re going to pair you with the person closest to you in percentage.” Scout felt like someone had karate-chopped her in the throat. “Scout and Trey, you two are together on this one. Given how you are both excelling at this class, I’m excited to see what you will come up with.” Across the classroom, a book slammed to the laminate floor, the echo bouncing off the walls. There were approximately four seconds of frozen silence, and then as one the entire class turned to stare at Kylin. She glared at Scout like somehow this had been her nemesis’ diabolical plan all along.

“Kylin, please pick up your book.” Mr. Zornes sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose as if he had anticipated this. Kylin slowly reached down, doing as she was told, but her stormy eyes never left Scout’s face. Scout contented herself with staring back mildly, wondering if Kylin ever ate. The girl was stick-thin and angry. All the time. In Scout’s opinion, she just needed to eat more and her entire countenance would improve.

Mr. Zornes went through the rest of the class, pairing everyone up without further incident or tantrum. The bell rang and they all got up to leave. Scout waited patiently, hoping Trey and his starving girlfriend would go too, but Trey hung back. Scout frowned, glancing over her shoulder at him, which she never, ever allowed herself to do. His thick eyebrows and unruly black hair, the multiple bracelets-but-not-bracelets that boys wore, the thermal shirt hugging his broad shoulders — these things distracted her, made her forget she hated him ever so much.

When he didn’t appear to be in a hurry to leave, she sighed and turned back to her teacher. “Mr. Zornes, can I talk to you?” she asked, hesitating near her desk, her finger absently rubbing a broken heart scratched into the wood.

“Of course, Scout, what’s up?” Mr. Zornes leaned against his desk and gave her a friendly smile. He was her favorite teacher, not because he was young and cool, but because he was
nice,
and she was counting on that niceness now.

“Can I do the project on my own?” Scout heard a sharp breath behind her, but didn’t risk another glance at Trey.

“That is a fabulous idea. Trey and I can work together.” Kylin rushed to the front of the room, her platform heels clacking against the ugly green fake tile. Scout had forgotten she was even still there.

Mr. Zornes tipped his head, considering Scout and ignoring Kylin completely. “The reason I paired you two together is because you’re my two best students and I was excited to see what you could come up with together.”

Scout shook her head, chuckling, but viciously. “Nothing Trey and I work on together ever turns out well, Mr. Zornes.”

“Wait a sec.” Trey stalked past her, his big arms crossed against his chest. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means,” Scout said between gritted teeth, “that I would work better on my own.” She turned back to Mr. Zornes, forcing a smile. “I want to be a Zoologist. Doing well on this project would look really good on college applications.”

Mr. Zornes opened his mouth to respond, but Trey beat him to it. “And what, you think I’m going to ruin that? Having my help on the project would—”

“He doesn’t even want to be a scientist! He wants to be an architect!” Scout pointed a finger at him like she was accusing him of the worst of sins, because really, she was.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Trey sighed, turning toward her.

“Why are you fighting her on this? Just let Mr. Zornes pair you with someone else!” Kylin screeched like an owl, and Scout winced as her eardrums threatened to rupture. Trey said nothing, just continued to glare at Scout. Mr. Zornes finally cleared his throat. “Scout, I didn’t realize you two had… issues, but I think it would be really good practice for you to learn how to work with those you find difficult.” He gave her an encouraging smile. “Think of it as character building.”

“I am not difficult,” Trey muttered.