Hallie turns and heads back to the school, watching us over her shoulder. I know she’ll be listening until she’s too far away.
“And you,” my mother turns to Rae. “You should spend the rest of the evening with your pack.”
Rae nods. She looks at me with an unreadable expression, and then disappears into the night, shifting into her wolf form as she reaches the tree line of the clearing.
My heart drops. For the first time in several months, I feel cold.
MAGIC IS DANGEROUS, MAGGIE
Maggie
I wake up in my dorm room, alone. I feel like I have the worst hangover possible. My entire body aches and my head is fuzzy and weird. I immediately look to the window. With disappointment, I can see there’s still light outside. Hallie will be in her crypt.
Why were my mom and Professor Chan so upset that she gave me some of her blood? Without it, I don’t know if I would have made it. I could easily have been paralyzed by that fall, especially since I landed right on my broom.
“I’m fine, by the way,” a small voice squeaks from the pillow beside me. “In case you were wondering.”
“Yeah, you had me to cushion your fall.”
With no small effort, I reach over to give Pantalaimon a comforting pat. He bites my finger in a gesture of unconditional love. Foxes are like that.
“But, Pan…what happened? Why did we fall?”
“Witch bell,” he says.
“Whatbell?”
“A witch bell,” he rolls over and stretches, his tiny claws spreading out and then contracting. “Old magic. June had one in her cloak and she used it to sever your connection with your broomstick.”
I shake my head. This is allwaytoo much for me. One moment, I was flying through the sky, as free as I’ve ever been. The next, I can be grounded by the single ring of abell?
Out of nowhere, hot tears well up in my eyes. “Pan, I can’tdothis. This world is way too much for me. All I wanted was to go tocollege…now, I’m getting set on fire and falling thirty feet out of the sky during an exam?”
Before I can calm myself, I hear the old, rusty latch of the door opening. Rae comes in, wearing only an oversized sweatshirt. She looks at me with concern, but doesn’t come toward my bed. I quickly wipe my tears away, embarrassed.
“Hey,” I mutter. “Thanks for yesterday. For coming so quickly…”
“You should thank Hallie,” Rae says. Her voice is disconcertingly deadpan. “She was there first. Are you all right?”
“Um, yeah,” I sit up, wincing. “My mom did some healing magic on me, but I still feel sort of achy. I’m sorry about her last night.”
“It’s all right,” Rae says. She crosses to her side of the room. “I’m glad you’re ok. I just came back to get some clothes and books.”
“Oh…”
My heart sinks. Why is she acting like this? All I want is for her to come over here, get into bed with me, and wrap me in her arms.
She finds her usual pair of jeans and extricates her charms book from a crumpled blanket. As she turns to leave, a rush of anxiety overtakes me.
My voice quakes slightly. “Are we ok? What’s going on?”
She stops, her hand on the door latch.
“Maggie,” she whispers. “I don’t know. This is all way too much…”
“Don’t say that,” I reply, trying to swallow the lump that’s rising in my throat. “Why are you saying that?”
But even as the words leave my mouth, I know that a part of me feels the same way.
