Hex Hall (21 page)

I grabbed the handle tighter and gave a startled yelp as the night air rushed over me. And then I was in the sky.

I'd assumed the broom would rush off and that I'd be hanging on for dear life, but instead it sort of glided, and I caught my breath, not out of fear but out of a feeling of sheer exhilaration. The air was cold but soft around me, and as I folowed Alice back to the school, I gathered the courage to look down at the trees below me.

Alice had extinguished the orb, so al I could realy make out were dark blobs, but I didn't care. I was flying--actualy honest-to-God
flying
.

The stars overhead felt close enough to touch, and my heart felt like it was floating free in my chest. In the distance I could see the green glow of the bubble around Hecate, and I hoped we would never get there, that I could just go on feeling this light, this free, forever.

Too soon, we touched down just in front of the porch. My cheeks felt chapped and my hands were numb, but I was smiling like a lunatic.

"That," I pronounced, "was the most awesome thing ever.

Why don't al witches do that?"

Alice laughed as she dismounted. "I suppose it's thought of as a cliche."

"Wel, screw that noise," I said. "When I'm head of the Council, that's going to be the only way to travel."

Alice laughed again. "Glad to hear it."

As we watched, the bubble around Hecate began to dim.

"Guess that means I should go in," I said. "So, same time, same place tomorrow?"

Alice nodded and then reached into the pocket of her dress and puled out a smal pouch. "Take this with you."

The bag was soft in my hand, and I could feel its contents shifting. "What is this?"

"Dirt from my grave. Should you ever need extra power for a spel, just pour a little on your hands and that should do it."

"Okay. Um, thanks." It would be nice to have a little extra magic mojo, but inside, al I could think was, Grave dirt? Gross.

"And, Sophia," Alice added as I turned to go.

"Yeah?"

She walked up to me and took my shoulders, puling my head down to her mouth. For a second I thought she was going to kiss me on the cheek or something, but then she whispered, "Be careful. The Eye sees you, even here."

I jerked back, my heart pounding and my mouth dry, but before I could reply, Alice gave a sad smile and faded away.

"S
o," I breathlessly asked Archer a week later, "have you picked out the perfect shade of pink for your tux yet?"

We were in Defense, and I was only winded because I'd just delivered a blow that had sent Archer to the mat for the fifth time that day. My lack of oxygen had nothing to do with how good he looked in his tight T-shirt. I couldn't believe I'd knocked him down so many times. Either he was getting worse, or I was getting a lot better. I mean, I was never going to be on
American Gladiators
, but I wasn't half bad.
And
I'd been out al night.

My necklace bumped against my chest as I leaned down to offer Archer a hand. Alice's charm had worked like a . . . wel, you get it. I'd only gotten about two hours of sleep for the first three nights, and yet I'd woken up feeling fine. The first morning I'd lived in fear that Mrs. Casnoff was going to pul me into her office and ask if I knew anything about a sleeping spel someone had put on the school, but when that hadn't happened, I'd started to relax a little.

Now I didn't even bother to sleep. I'd just lie there in the dark, feeling as antsy as a kid on Christmas Eve until I saw the soft green glow spil through my windows. Then I'd rush outside, jump onto my broom, and soar through the night sky until I got to the cemetery.

I knew what I was doing was dangerous and maybe a little stupid. But when I rode through the sky or did spels so powerful I'd never dreamed they existed, it was hard to remember that.

Archer grinned as I helped him to his feet.

"No, seriously," I said. "Elodie was saying earlier that you two were going to match. So what shade is it? 'Tickled Pink'?

'Rambling Rose,' maybe? Ooh, ooh, I know! 'Virgin's Blush'!"

The Al Halow's Eve Bal was just a week away, and it seemed like that was al anyone was talking about. Even in Byron's class our assignment had been to compose a sonnet about the outfit we were going to wear. I stil had no idea what I was wearing. Ms.

East was in charge of teaching us the transformation spel that would create our dresses and tuxes. Just yesterday she'd given us each a dummy dressed in something that looked like a pilowcase with armholes. I didn't know why we couldn't just transform clothes we already owned, but I figured it was just another one of Hecate's dumb rules.

The shapeshifters and faeries had to get their own clothes, which meant that boxes had been arriving nonstop for the past few days.

And then there was Jenna. I'd offered to make her a dress, but she'd looked at me like I was completely stupid and said there was no way she was going to that "idiotic dance."

We'd been working on the spel every day in Ms. East's class, but so far everything I'd attempted had come out a little too poufy. Ms. East said that was just because I was too excited, but I didn't realy buy that. There was nothing al that exciting about the bal for me. I wasn't "giving myself" to anyone.

"Shut up," Archer said good-naturedly, lifting his arms over his head to stretch. "For your information, only my bow tie wil be pink, and I plan on
rocking
it, thank you very much."

I tried to smile back, but I was trying not to stare at the ribbon of skin that was showing beneath his T-shirt as he bent over.

As usual, my mouth went a little dry and my breathing sped up, and that weird, almost sad feeling settled in my stomach.

I never thought I'd be glad to hear the Vandy's braying voice, but when she shouted, "Al right! That's it for today!" I could have kissed her.

Wel, on second thought, no. Maybe a firm handshake.

"Holy hel weasel," I muttered an hour later.

I was staring at my latest attempt at a bal gown. At least this one had avoided a serious case of the poufies, but it was also a noxious shade of yelow-green usualy found in baby's diapers or around nuclear disasters.

"Wel, Miss Mercer. That's . . . an improvement, I suppose," Ms. East said. Her lips were pursed so tightly, it was a wonder any words had come out at al.

"Right," Jenna said. She was sitting on a desk next to me.

She spent most of the class reading those mangas she liked so much.

"You're getting better," she said encouragingly, but she frowned as she took in my latest creation.

"Yeah, at least this one didn't knock over three desks,"

Elodie sneered from beside me.

Her dress, of course, was gorgeous.

I'd assumed the bal was like the monster version of prom, and that the dresses would be similar to anything you'd see in a regular high school. Yeah, not so much. The dresses most of the girls were working on looked like something out of a fairy tale.

But Elodie's dress was easily the prettiest in the class. High-waisted with delicate cap sleeves and frothy skirts, it looked like something you'd wear if you were in a Jane Austen book. I'd teased Archer about it being pink, but even I had to admit that the shade of pink was realy lovely. Nowhere near "Electric Raspberry," it was more the pale pink that you sometimes find inside shels. It seemed to glow like a pearl, and Elodie was going to be devastatingly beautiful in it.

Damn it.

Frustrated, I turned back to my own dress. I put my hands on either side of the dummy's waist and thought,
Beautiful dress,
beautiful dress, something blue
, as hard as I could. It was so annoying to know that I could now make something as big as a chair appear out of thin air, but I couldn't seem to make a dress that wasn't completely heinous. Okay, so the chair I'd conjured up last night was toddler-size, but stil.

I felt the material shift and slip under my hands.
Please
, I thought, my eyes squeezed shut.

Then I heard Elodie and Anna burst out laughing.

Crap.

I opened my eyes to stare at a bright blue tule monstrosity with a skirt that would hit me at mid thigh. I'd look like the realy slutty bride of Cookie Monster.

I muttered a realy bad word under my breath, which earned me an evil look from Ms. East, but surprisingly, no punishment. I guess she couldn't realy blame me after she looked at the dress.

"Wow, Sophie, that's realy something." Elodie sauntered over to me, one hand on her hip. "I think you have a real future in fashion design."

"Ha-ha," I muttered, which, as far as comebacks go, is about as cool as saying, "So there."

"I can't believe I actualy invited you to join my coven," she said, turning those bright green eyes on me.

I groaned inwardly. Elodie's eyes were only that bright when she was about to deliver a huge smackdown. The last time I'd seen her like this was the night she'd caled Jenna a bloodsucking freak after they'd found Chaston.

"Here you are, the head of the Council's daughter, and you can't even make a
dress
. Pathetic."

"Look, Elodie, I don't want to fight. So just . . . just leave me alone and let me work on my dress, okay?"

But she wasn't remotely finished with me.

"Why do you even care about making a dress for the bal?

Who have you got to look pretty for? Archer?"

I fought very hard to keep cool, even as my hands tightened around the material in front of me.

Elodie leaned in closer, so I doubted anyone else heard it when she whispered, "You think I don't see the way you look at him?"

Keeping my eyes on the dummy, I said in the lowest, calmest voice possible, "Stop it, Elodie."

"I mean, your crush on him is just so sweet. And by sweet, of course I mean
tragic
," she continued. From the corner of my eye, I could see that almost everyone had stopped working and was watching us. Ms. East was pretending to ignore us, so I knew I was being thrown to the wolves on this one.

I took a deep breath and turned around to face Elodie, who was smirking at me in triumph.

"Oh, Elodie," I said in a voice that was so sweet it practicaly dripped syrup, "don't worry about me and Archer. After al, I'm not the one planning on having sex with him at the bal."

The class erupted into giggles, and Elodie did something I'd never seen her do: she turned bright red and actualy sputtered in her attempt to come up with a serious put-down.

Ms. East chose that moment to shout, "Miss Mercer! Miss Parris! Back to work!"

Smiling, I turned back to my dress. But the feeling of triumph was immediately deflated by the bright blue disaster in front of me.

"Does your magic feel off or anything?" Jenna asked softly.

"No, it feels the same as always. Water rushing up from my feet and al that."

"What?" Anna sneered, propping a hand on her hip. "
How
does your magic feel?"

"Uh . . . like something coming up from underneath me," I said, rushing to get the words out.

"That's not what magic feels like," Anna said.

I glanced around and saw that there were a few other witches staring at me in confusion.

"Magic comes from above," Anna continued. "It feels like something faling over you, like . . ."

"Snow," Elodie finished.

My face was hot when I turned back to my dummy. "I guess mine is just different, then."

I heard some whispers, but I ignored them.

"You'l get it," Jenna said, shooting Anna a dirty look.

"Oh, I know I'm gonna get better," I told her, running a hand over the tule bustle in the back of the dress. (A
bustle
? Screw you, magical powers.) "This is the dress I'm making for you."

"Oh, realy?" she asked, her smile widening.

"Yeah, we'l probably have to hem it, though. Don't want it dragging on the floor."

She playfuly smacked my arm with the back of her hand, and before I knew it, we were laughing.

I spent the rest of the class attempting to make the ugliest dresses possible, which was only funny to me and Jenna. I lost count of how many times Ms. East threatened to throw us out of class, and Elodie roled her eyes so much that Jenna finaly asked if she was having a seizure. This made us laugh so hard that Ms. East finaly did kick us out, and gave us both a seven-page essay to write on the history of clothing spels.

I didn't care. To have Jenna laughing again, I would have written a hundred pages.

"I don't know what changed," I told Alice later that night as we moved through the forest, picking mint for some spel that could slow time. "One minute she was the same sulky Jenna she's been for the past month, the next we were friends again."

Alice didn't say anything, so I said, "Isn't that great?"

"I suppose."

"You suppose?" I said, mocking her accent.

She straightened and glared at me. "It's just that I don't approve of your having a vampire for a bosom companion. It's beneath you."

I laughed. "Oh my God,
beneath
me? Come on."

Alice sighed as she shoved another bunch of leaves into the smal leather sack she'd conjured. "Your friends are your concern, Sophia. I'l try to respect that. Now tel me about this party you have coming up."