A Handful of Hexes Read online

  “Out of my way,” Vega said.

  “You can’t go in. Miss Lawrence said so.” Greenie’s voice quivered, and her eyes were wide with terror.

  I didn’t blame her.

  “It’s okay,” I said. “I’m here.”

  Greenie’s face brightened with relief.

  Vega shoved a broom at me. “This is my extra broom. I figured your blackmailer would be more likely to agree to the terms of the contract if she saw what she wanted.”

  “Blackmailer?” Greenie asked. “What are you talking about?”

  “Nothing,” I said.

  That was where Vega had gone? To get me a broom? The wood of the broom was black and sleek, with plenty of bristles at the end, and a few bends in the handle that probably made it more ergonomic.

  “Really? Thank you!” I’d never known Vega to be so generous.

  “If you want to give this one to her, I’ll sell it to you for two hundred dollars. You don’t have to pay me until the next paycheck.”

  I didn’t know if that was a good price, but I figured Vega was doing me two favors now, not just one. I didn’t want to push my luck by haggling with her over the price.

  “Okay,” I said.

  Her smile turned sinister. “Let’s do this.”

  I nodded to Greenie who stepped aside. Vega pushed the door open, hard enough to make it whack loudly against the wall. Imani and Hailey both leapt back. Greenie tried to follow us in, but Vega pushed her out.

  Vega pointed a long finger at Imani. “You, leave.”

  Imani did so.

  Hailey stared at the object of her desire, hope melting the harsh scowl on her face. “You already have a broom for me?”

  Vega smiled a little too sweetly, like a lion about to eat a gazelle. “The big game is this weekend, isn’t it? How will you play air pelota tomorrow without a broom?”

  Hailey reached out for it.

  Vega yanked it from my hands and held it farther away from Hailey. “Not until after you make the oath.”

  Hailey bit her lip. “I’m not going to get a detention or anything for this? You aren’t going to punish me for blackmailing a teacher? And you won’t tell, ahem, Mr. Thatch?”

  Vega made no attempt to disguise the cunning in her eyes. “If you wish, I can make it a term in the oath that from this point on, I won’t say anything to anyone about this incident.”

  This satisfied Hailey, but it didn’t satisfy me.

  I had heard her. From this point on she wouldn’t say anything. I wondered what trick Vega had up her sleeve. Maybe she’d already told Thatch. She might have done more than retrieve the broom when I hadn’t been with her.

  Even though I knew she was up to something, I didn’t have a choice.

  Vega instructed us to hold hands and face each other. She incanted a long spell in another language. Maybe it was Old English or German. I didn’t speak either. The air between us crackled gold and then blue. The air smelled like old mushrooms and starlight. My mouth tasted off, metallic and tart.

  “Repeat after me,” Vega said. “I, Hailey Achilles, promise to forever stay silent about the secrets I overheard today as I was eavesdropping on Miss Lawrence and Imani Washington. I will tell no one about this oath I’ve made or imply to others why I made it.”

  Hailey repeated Vega’s oath, leaving out a few words along the way. Vega made her repeat it again, this time verbatim.

  Vega continued, “This oath binds me to my word and prevents me from breaking my word. If I should ever try to break this oath, my entire body will break out in boils. The pain of these will be crippling and leave me ugly and disfigured. Do you understand the price of breaking this vow?”

  Hailey nodded and repeated after her.

  Vega turned to me. “In exchange for this student’s silence I, Clarissa Lawrence, give Hailey Achilles this broom as payment. I will not tell the other teachers and administrators that she blackmailed me, nor punish this student for making this bargain.”

  I repeated the vow. Vega made us repeat a few other promises before adding the clause she had suggested before; she wouldn’t tell anyone about Hailey blackmailing me.

  The entirety of the spell took less than five minutes. I handed over the broom. Hailey hugged it to her chest. “Thank you, Miss Lawrence. This is so awesome. I’m going to win in the game! You can come see me play air pelota, you know, if you aren’t doing anything else tomorrow night.”

  Teenagers never ceased to amaze me.

  Vega placed a hand on my shoulder in an off-puttingly familiar way. “We’ll be at the game tomorrow, won’t we, Clarissa?”

  “Um, I hadn’t planned to go.”

  Vega shot me a look full of venom. “You are now. We want to cheer the team and wave to Hailey from where we sit in the stands.”

  The evil meter in my head was ringing in alarm.

  Hailey smiled uneasily. “Um, really?”

  Vega snorted. “You’re a real fucktard, aren’t you?”

  I cleared my throat. “Is that language really necessary? Hailey is a student.” It was hard enough trying to get Hailey not to swear in my class.

  Vega pointed a red lacquered nail at Hailey. “If you’re so stupid to blackmail a teacher without thinking there’s going to be a consequence, you have another think coming. You’re lucky I’m your teacher, and I’m not Fae. If I was, I would have tricked you into becoming my slave—or worse yet—I’d get you to agree to hand over your soul. You’re going to need to be a lot smarter if you want to survive in the real world after you graduate from high school. Let this be a lesson to you.” She cackled ominously.

  I didn’t know where Vega was headed with this, but I suspected it was about to go downhill for Hailey. I was glad Vega and I were on the same side, and she wasn’t using her wicked ways against me for once.

  Coach Kutchi burst through the door, out of breath. Her face was mottled red, and her short spiky hair was windswept like she’d flown there. “What’s this about you blackmailing a teacher?”

  Hailey’s eyes went wide. “No! It’s not like that!” She glared at me. “You told on me?”

  I shook my head.

  Vega chuckled. Perhaps her errand earlier hadn’t only been to retrieve the broom. She must have known she would be asked not to repeat what she knew as part of the oath, so she had told before agreeing.

  She was clever. Wicked.

  Coach Kutchi placed her meaty fists on her hips. “What is it like?”

  Hailey bit her lip. I wasn’t saying a word.

  “Go on, tell her,” Vega said. “You’ll only break out in a case of painful and debilitating boils. Nurse Hilda will probably be able to get it to clear up eventually, though you might be scarred for life. And the cure might be as bad as the illness. She’s sure to make you ingest cow dung and bat balls.”

  “I’m benching you for the entire month!” Coach Kutchi grabbed the broom from Hailey’s hands and broke it over her knee.

  Hailey was far from my favorite student, and I certainly didn’t appreciate her eavesdropping or blackmailing me, but I didn’t enjoy watching her cry. She dropped to her knees, picked up the broken broom, and hugged it to her chest as she sobbed.

  I felt bad for her. All this because her family couldn’t afford to buy her a new broom.

  “See you at tomorrow’s game.” Vega waved over her shoulder at Hailey.

  There was no way I was going to that game with Vega.

  My roomie laced her arm through mine, tugging me out of the bathroom. “By the way, you still owe me two hundred dollars.”

  Oh boy. I could hardly wait until it was time for my first magic lessons with my mentor. I could only hope it wouldn’t be as tough as Hailey’s lesson.

  CHAPTER SIX

  This Ain’t Quidditch

  On Saturday morning, I snuck Alouette Loraline’s diary out from under my bed. Keeping it wrapped in the invisibility hoodie, I carried it to my classroom and lo
cked myself inside. At my desk, I smoothed my hand over the cover. I had never touched anything my biological mother had touched. How had Derrick gotten it?

  The other possibility was that he hadn’t. Someone wanted me to think this was from Derrick, and that meant it was some kind of trap. Even so, there was no denying this had been Loraline’s. I wanted to know who she was—who I was.

  The moment I opened the book, squiggles of light danced across the page, revealing symbols and writing I couldn’t read before they disappeared. Some kind of magic was at work, but I didn’t know what. I wanted to read it and reveal my mother’s secrets—all the things about my magic and why people wanted to use me for it—that Thatch wouldn’t tell me, but I didn’t know how to crack the code.

  Vega could probably do it. She could do just about any kind of magic. But if she saw my biological mother’s name, she would probably tell Thatch I had the book. Or if this was the book that had been stolen from Jeb’s office, she might tell him. I had to get on Vega’s good side, to give her a reason to help me. I was going to have to go to that game with her.

  Saturday afternoon, I sat with Vega on one of the hard benches of the stadium, miserable despite being bundled up in a wool coat. Vega’s invisible umbrella spell kept raindrops off us, and her warming spell kept one side of my body toasty. She elbowed me when I snuggled too close trying to absorb her warmth.

  Hailey turned around on the bench below with other players to gaze up at us, the spark gone from her fiery-orange eyes. Her dark hair dripped, and her shoulders hunched with defeat. Vega waved at her and smiled. Hailey quickly turned away. I felt bad for her.

  “This doesn’t feel right, gloating like this,” I said.

  “Quit your whining. The least you could do is enjoy the game.”

  Air pelota was a lot like badminton but on brooms with balls of energy. The rackets looked like dreamcatchers and had supposedly been used since the times of the Greeks. A crescent-shaped basket attached to the broom was used to catch the balls of energy after they rebounded off the wall. I watched in fascination as the ball changed from a sphere made of ice to one of fire that burned through a player’s basket. It wasn’t Quidditch, but it was magical and kept my interest longer than any Morty sport ever had.

  Vega clapped and cheered. “Luke Heller couldn’t control the elemental magic on that one. His opponent got him good.”

  As far as I could tell, players were encouraged to mess with the ball to make it harder for their opponent to catch. Luke Heller kept using his wind affinity to speed the ball up before his opponent could catch it. Jenny Peterson used her fire affinity to turn the ball to fire. As they battled to transform the ball, it turned to steam and dissipated.

  I glanced at Hailey again. She sat apart from the other athletes on the bench. I didn’t relish staying for the sake of torturing her, but it might help me bond with Vega. I still hadn’t figured out how to approach Vega to help me with my biological mother’s journal. Maybe performing deeds of friendship would soften her.

  I stood. “I’m going to get something from the concession stand. Do you want anything?”

  “The only think I want is an Old Fashioned.”

  I didn’t know what that was, but I figured I would find out. I made my way to the concession stand, wishing I’d asked for Vega to use her invisible umbrella charm over me. The line was long, but at least the space was sheltered. The air smelled like greasy fried food. After ten minutes, I made it to the front of the stand. One of my students, Chase Othello, ran the booth with a boy with a goatee that I’d seen in the school but didn’t have in my classes. Chase hid her purple hair under a hair net.

  Her face brightened when she saw me. “Miss Lawrence, I didn’t know you liked sports!”

  “I’m trying something new.” I scanned the menu. “I don’t see an Old Fashioned on here.”

  Chase crinkled up her nose. “We don’t serve alcohol.”

  My cheeks flushed with heat. “That’s a drink?”

  She eyed me like she didn’t believe my ignorance. I felt like the naughty student, and she was the teacher. Why would Vega ask me to get her alcohol from a student-run stand that didn’t sell it? Was she trying to embarrass me and make me hate her even more?

  “Any recommendations?” I asked. “Or is it all as good as school food?”

  She laughed at that. “It’s a step up. I’d recommend the Scottish pie or bacon baguette.”

  I placed an order for one of each and two sarsaparillas. When I brought the food to Vega, I asked her which meal she wanted, trying to be generous, gracious, and a good friend.

  She turned her nose up at both. “Do you know how many calories are in each of those?”

  “Don’t know. Don’t care. Do you want a sarsaparilla?”

  “Is it diet?”

  I considered lying, but friendships were not built on deceit. Seeing she didn’t want anything, I would have to eat it all myself.

  “So, what did Thatch promise you in order to get you to babysit me?” I asked between mouthfuls of my bacon baguette. It wasn’t real bacon, more like Canadian bacon, but still pretty tasty.

  “Nothing,” she said quickly.

  Obviously, she didn’t want me to know, which made me even more curious.

  “Is it something illegal?” I asked.

  She rolled her eyes. “Please. As if I would be that stupid.” She paused. “Thatch would never agree to anything like that. There’s no point in asking for him to bring me the heart of a human child or the horn of a unicorn.”

  I sipped at my soda, pretending my new mentor wasn’t the creepy kind of person who liked human hearts.

  Whatever Thatch had offered Vega, it wasn’t something forbidden, but it was still something she didn’t want me to know about. Considering the coffin under her bed wasn’t a secret, and she kept a guillotine in the corner—which was really handy for chopping papers—it was sometimes hard to know what was or wasn’t illegal in this world. Maybe it had something to do with electronics. They were considered weapons in this world. Still, I couldn’t imagine something sufficiently morbid he could have enticed her with.

  “Is it—?”

  “Close your mouth, midget. I’m watching the game.” She glowered at me. “No more questions. Haven’t you ever heard curiosity killed the cat?”

  That probably applied to every aspect of my life and the dangerous knowledge I desired to learn.

  “Sorry, I was just trying to bond,” I said.

  “No, you were trying to snoop. Do that again, and I’ll poke an eye out with my wand.” She lifted it from under her cloak and waved it under my nose.

  I would try again later.

  Maybe I wasn’t going to be able to make friends with Vega because she didn’t want a friend. Trying to get her to help me out of sheer kindness was probably out of the question. What could I use to entice Vega?

  I didn’t want to bargain with her to help me. I already owed her two hundred dollars. Then again, perhaps I didn’t need to bargain with Vega. I only had to trick her into helping me. Plan A, trick Vega. Plan B, in case she saw through my attempt and threatened to tell Thatch, I would offer to do whatever she had made Thatch do. Assuming it wasn’t magic. I just hoped it didn’t involve using Wiseman’s Oath on me. I would probably slip up and break out in boils and have to drink some kind of bat-poop elixir to get rid of it.

  On Sunday morning, when Vega came back from the shower, dressed in flapper casual and ready to start the day, I tried another tactic. “Thatch gave me some books to study. You’re supposed to be my tutor, right?”

  Vega dropped her towel and bathroom bag on the Art Nouveau carpet between her bed and the door. The white geometric designs on the black background formed a giant skull. She opened her wardrobe and selected a cloche flapper hat and placed it on her head. I hated how cute it looked on someone so villainous.

  Vega sauntered between my wardrobe and bed and admired herself in the full-length
mirror. “I suppose, but it’s not my fault if you don’t pass whatever tests he has you take at the end the year.”

  “A test?” He hadn’t said anything to me about a test. Maybe she was just saying that to goad me. The true test was whether Thatch would teach me about my affinity and my magic.

  I sat on the gray blankets of my hastily made bed. “I have a book that I need help with.”

  She sighed in exasperation. “Let’s see it.”

  I slid Loraline’s journal out of the bag, holding my breath, hoping she didn’t know what it was. I opened it and quickly turned past the title page. Letters and symbols made of a kaleidoscope of colors flared against the white of the paper momentarily before becoming invisible.

  Vega sat on her neatly made bed across from me. She crossed her long, shapely legs. “Why did Thatch give you a book written in magic ink?” She waved a hand over the page. The letters wavered and winked in and out of focus before darkening and settling.

  I still couldn’t read it. The letters were in another language. “I don’t know. It was in the stack. I just assumed he didn’t want students to read it.” I wasn’t able to meet her eyes as I said it.

  She snorted. I turned the book in her direction, so she could read it.

  She grabbed the book from me. I prayed she wasn’t going to flip to the beginning. I tried to breathe normally and naturally, to not give away my nervousness.

  Vega’s eyes skimmed the writing. “It’s written in a substitution cipher, a Caesar cipher. Is part of your education to learn codes?”

  “Probably.” This was perfect! Vega already knew the code and understood what it was. “Will you show me how it works?”

  “No.” She handed the book back to me. The writing remained visible at least.

  “Thatch expects you to tutor me,” I said.

  “True, but I don’t really care what he wants me to do.” Her eyes blazed with loathing. Whether it was for me or him, I couldn’t tell.

  “I thought you wanted your own room without me.”

  “I want to be rid of you, yes. There are other ways to do that.” Abruptly she stood.