Oh Hex No

“You set my dress on fire!”

“We’re working with elements. You were supposed to use water to put the fire out. That is the entire point of the lesson.”

Serena rolled her eyes and waited with her arms folded as Meldry put out the tiny fire singing her sweater dress. Serena didn’t know why she was stuck sharing three of her five classes with Meldry; it was grossly unfair.

“Now block the fire,” Serena said, not even trying to mask her irritation. “So we can switch and get out of here. Some of us have other places to be.”

Meldry scoffed. “Where could you possibly have to go? Back to your room and your dusty books, since they’re the only actual friends you have?”

“You might want to visit your books more often, Meldry,” Serena replied sweetly. “Then maybe you’d actually know how to cast a spell.”

Meldry scowled, then shrieked as Serena hurled another fireball at her. Meldry fumbled her wand and managed to douse the fireball with an arc of water before it singed off her blonde eyebrows.

“Now let me put out a fire so we can go.” Serena tapped her foot impatiently.

“I’ll give you fire all right,” Meldry muttered, attempting to launch a wall of flame instead of a fireball. Serena conjured a foamy wave of water to douse it, drenching Meldry in the process.

“Miss Breckerton, Miss Bellwood,” Professor Chamberlain said
warningly. “Please complete the assignment without destroying the room.”

Both girls muttered an apology, though they still glared at each other. Meldry did the fire spell again, keeping it smaller this time. A delicate stream of water flowed from Serena’s wand and met the fire midair, creating a hiss of steam as the fire was put out. Professor Chamberlain nodded.

“Good. You’re both dismissed.”

Meldry stalked off with her nose in the air, though the effect was ruined by the fact that she was still sipping wet from Serena’s miniature tsunami. Serena had thought they might be friends when they first enrolled at Mondhaven as kids, but Meldry had decided that Serena was her enemy when she wouldn’t let Meldry copy her homework and the girl had held a grudge all these years. Serena had quickly given up on making any real friends while she was attending school, but told herself that was fine because she wanted to be diligent in her studies anyway.

Relieved that class was over, Serena gathered her bag and hurried back to her dorm, collecting the things she’d bought at creepy Markus’s shop. She blushed a little when she spotted Erik’s jacket draped on her bed. Montague had taken over possession of it while she was in class, snoozing contentedly.

“I’ll…give it back to him later,” Serena mumbled, blushing harder. No one outside of her family had ever done something so casually nice before and it had made her stomach feel a little fluttery when Erik put the jacket around her. She set her books from today on her desk and filled her bag with the potion ingredients, then headed out to Erik’s.

He was actually already there today, opening the door when she knocked.

“Oh, good. I don’t have to pay the exorbitant tax Bea places on visitors today,” she said and he laughed, which made her stomach do that swoopy thing again. She cleared her throat and stepped inside, emptying out her overstuffed bag.

“What potion do you want to start with?” she asked. “Sleeping draught? Or there’s one that helps you stay awake for a full forty-eight hours. There’s also one that lets you spit fire after you drink it. It tastes like cinnamon, but you won’t be able to taste much of anything else for about three days.”

“You’ve tried it?” Erik asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Of course.”

“Are there any potions in there to keep nosy little kids and frilly witches from breaking into my apartment?” he asked mildly and she stuck her tongue out at him.

“Can I try the fire spitting one?”

The nosy little kid in question was peeking into the apartment, her eyes wide through the crack in the door. Erik rolled his eyes and Serena smothered a laugh.

“Bea, stop spying,” Erik sighed.

“But I’m bored,” she whined, dragging out the word so that it sounded like it had about a dozen extra O’s.

“Tell you what, on your birthday you can spit fire,” Serena said. “For now, how’d you like to try a potion that makes you levitate inside a bubble?”

Bea flung the door open all the way and nodded excitedly. She watched almost without blinking as Serena showed Erik how to make the potion. She had brought along a pretty pewter cauldron, which she had shrunk to make it easier to transport. Now she made it full size and they filled it with ingredients and traced runes in the air above it. When it was done, the potion was a pale lavender color.

“We should take this outside,” Serena said, filling three vials with the potion. They went outside and Bea seemed so excited Serena thought she might levitate even without magic. She took a sip of the potion, looking pleasantly surprised that it didn’t taste bad, then finished off the tiny vial Serena had given her. She hiccuped and then let out a squeak of delight when a bubble roughly the same color as the potion enveloped her.

Serena handed one of the other vials to Erik, keeping one for herself and clinking it against his like she was making a toast.

“Bottoms up,” she said, downing the potion. It was bubbly and effervescent and tasted a little bit like marshmallows. She lifted off the ground cushioned in her own bubble, and Erik bobbed up next to her. Bea was somersaulting her bubble through the air.

“This is amazing!” she exclaimed.

“Wait till you see the best part,” Serena said slyly. She swerved her bubble into Erik’s, making him bounce against the side with a startled yelp. Bea giggled and bounced her bubble against Erik’s too.

“Oh, so that’s how it is,” Erik said with mock indignation. He bounced Bea back and she laughed wildly as her bubble bounced off a tree. The bubbles absorbed the brunt of the collisions, so it was like they were cocooned by a bunch of fluffy pillows. Erik slammed into Serena’s bubble and then the three of them were having an all out bubble battle, pinging into each other and bouncing off the ground and the wall of the building. This went on for about an hour, until the bubbles began to drift toward the ground as the potion faded.

The bubbles touched the ground and gently popped, leaving the three of them standing there looking disheveled. Bea pushed her red curls out of her face and grinned so hard her face must have hurt.

“This was the best day ever!” she shouted, bouncing on her toes. It had gotten a bit late, so they ushered Bea home just before her mom got back. Bea went bounding into the apartment to tell her all about her “best day ever.”

“Sorry, she can be a little bit of a handful,” Erik said when they went back inside his apartment. Serena laughed.

“No, she’s great. We didn’t get much potion work done today, but it was fun. We’ll get into it more when I come back. Go through the book I gave you and see if there’s any particular potion you want to try.”

“You really don’t have to dedicate all your free time to teaching me,” Erik remarked. “If you have better things to do, it’s okay. I’m sure you do.”

“Oh. Not really. Just studying.” Serena shrugged. “I don’t have much of a social life.”

“Really? But you’re so…bubbly.”

She smirked. “I’m just really into my studies,” she said. She wasn’t going to get into how she had no friends to share a social life with; he didn’t need to hear her pampered princess problems.

“My mom and grandpa were really happy when I tested so high for magical ability,” she said instead. “My dad…we lost him the year before I tested. And it was really hard on my mom and I. She was so excited at how well I did in the tests, and I guess I just want to keep making them proud, you know? So I work hard to be at the top of my class. And you’d be at the top too, if they’d let you. So I’m going to keep helping you till you don’t need me anymore.”

He gave her a lopsided and dimpled smile and she quickly looked down, feeling her face get warm again.

“You don’t have to walk me home every night,” she said, changing the subject.

“Yes, actually, I do. My mom would have my hide if I didn’t.”

“Your mom isn’t here,” she pointed out.

“It doesn’t matter. The point still stands.”

Serena didn’t push the issue anymore, because in truth she kind of liked having his company on her walk back to the school. She shyly bid him good night and hurried to her dorm.

She was woken early in the morning by a bustle of commotion and she made her way down to the lobby of the dorm building to find out what was going on.

“There was an attack,” one of the girls told her.

“On campus?” Serena furrowed her brow but the girl shook her head.

“No, but they cancelled classes for today. It was one of the professors; Professor Hannigan. No one is telling us the details yet but she was attacked on her way home and people think she might be dead. Oona’s brother is a medic and she was visiting him at the hospital. She saw a glimpse of them rushing Hannigan into a room. She said it looked like she’d been mauled by a wild animal.”

Serena grimaced. Both because this seemed like a grim topic for gossip, but it also sent a chill skittering down her spine. She went back to her room on the top floor and dug around in her desk drawer for some bits of jewelry. She spent the next few hours working until she felt pretty confident in what she’d made, but then she realized she needed to get to Erik’s.

She was a little flushed and out of breath from hurrying there so fast and Erik asked if she was okay.

“Sorry I’m a little late,” she said. “I was making something. For you, and for Bea.” She looked up at him. “Did you bear that a professor was attacked?”

“Yeah. They even gave me most of the day off.”

“Well, I made you this.” Serena pulled out a small silver pendant that looked like a small antlered deer head. She’d strung it onto a piece of cord. “I put a protection charm on it,” she explained. “I don’t know if it would actually be strong enough to fend off that thing we saw, but it’s something at least.”

He looked surprised and it took him a moment to accept the amulet.

“You think the thing we saw is behind the attack?” he asked.

“I think it’s a hell of a coincidence that we see that thing, which was clearly conjured in a place where lots of people died. Locations like that aren’t used for good spells. And then the Black Sapphire gets stolen, and now this?” She shook her head. “Maybe I’m overreacting but it gives me a bad feeling. That thing we saw was dangerous. And if it is still lurking around this neighborhood…you and Bea live here. The school has lots of wards but this place doesn’t. In fact I’m going to give this bracelet to Bea right now.”

She went across the hall and knocked. Bea looked happy to see her, and was intrigued by the bracelet of multicolored beads when Serena handed it to her.

“It’s a special gift,” Serena said. “It helps keep bad things away. So keep it on, okay?”

“It’s so pretty,” Bea said, spinning it around on her wrist. Serena also gave her some candy to keep her occupied and then went back to Erik’s. She smoothed out her rumpled cardigan and sat down at the table, switching her focus to magic lessons.

“Maybe we can figure out how to put some wards on the apartment building soon,” she mused. “But for today, potions. So, did you find any you wanted to try?”