No Good Witches | ONC √

Conspiracy

Of all the truly terrible things to occur today, the awkward silence that ensued after Rebecca flew off was, surprisingly, the worst.

Sofiane was pretending to inspect the postage stamp sized scrape on his forearm. Mallory fidgeted near the altar. Miss Kelly and Oskar signed to each other silently just beyond the portal that opened onto the street. I looked expectantly between the four of them, waiting for someone to say something, propose a plan or...or just explain to me what the fuck had just happened.

Because I just could not believe that it would really be up to me again to take charge. I didn't have it in me. Every choice that I had made up to this point had evidently been the wrong one.

But no. As the seconds stretched into minutes, it became increasingly clear that if I didn't say anything we would be standing here til the world ended.

I cleared my throat and everyone turned to look at me. The moment I had their attention, I realized that I had no idea what to say. I blinked. "So. That was weird."

Miss Kelly scoffed. "Weird? You brought a Shadow Vessel to my front door. I have half a mind to kill you."

Before I could say anything, Mallory was standing in front of me, a deadliness in her eyes. "I'd like to see you try, bitch." She was a small girl, but looking at her now, the way I felt her magic send slight tremors to the ground beneath our feet, saw the muscles tighten in her arms, I knew I wouldn't want to take her in a fight.

Wow. Okay...Protective Mallory.

There wasn't time to dwell on the thought though. I stepped out from behind her. "Wait, Shadow Vessel?"

"Oh my god. You don't know anything, do you?" Miss Kelly shook her head, her face scrunched up in disgust. "This isn't a game, little girl. Magic, spells, they aren't toys."

I looked away from her eyes. "I know that."

"Do you?" She took a step toward me. "You killed someone today. Because of your recklessness a woman is dead. And you came to me expecting a quick fix."

"I know." I had to speak around a lump steadily growing in my throat to say it.

Her hands moved faster, sharper, but Oskar's voice stayed level as he translated. "Life and death. That is magic. A real witch knows that there are consequences for her actions. You can't even see how out of your depth you are. You are over confident, ignorant, cocky, and because of your hubris you risked the lives of not just your teacher, but yourself, my people, your friends, your little brother—"

"I know!" The sound boomed off the concrete columns. I wiped a tear from my cheek. "I know. I'm a kid and the world is big and bad and I seriously fucked up today. Because I was too stupid to know better." I straightened, tightened my jaw and reigned in my voice. "But last I checked, Kelly, you do know better. And yet you sent three teenage girls with bad judgment off to steal an ancient, magical artifact. So. It sounds to me like the call is coming from inside the house."

She dropped her hands and looked me over. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she looked impressed. Oskar raised his eyebrows and hid a smile. They exchanged a glance and Oskar shrugged. She sighed and turned around, moving her hands once more. "Shadow Vessels. I've only seen two in person, including your friend, but they say before the Witch Laws they were pretty common."

Sofiane was smiling, big and wide and goofily at me from his place on the ground.

That little speech actually worked. I looked over at Mallory and saw her smiling at me, something shining in her eyes. "Okay, Landry." She whispered, bumping her shoulder into mine.