Dangerous Magic

9. Stay That Way Forever

The reason I had picked the Beatrice Potts Magischola was for the world-famous underground arena. There were wards in the walls, on the floors, in the windows, but the arena was built to take a hit from unpracticed mages.

The perfect place for a null in disguise.

I'd spent months comparing the magischolas along the east coast. It had to check all my boxes:

be close enough that I could escape back to our home near Bear Mountain in New Yorkhave a library worth studyingand be far enough away from a town or city where I might, if provoked, lose control and hurt a whole lot of people

Beatrice Potts fit the bill. My presentation to Mom had been chock full of the counterpoint to every argument I thought my mother would throw at me but, in the end, she agreed without any hesitation.

That's how I knew she hadn't given up on finding my dad.

The major point in my presentation for Why I Need To Go Undercover was the underground arena.

There's no better place to practice magic than underneath a place that is virtually magic-proof. I theorized that any errant magic would not be able to escape the arena itself. Therefore, everyone outside would be relatively safe.

My mission had two goals: to find out any information I could that might help me figure out what happened to Dad and to learn as much as I could about controlling the magic.

I'd gotten pretty good at soaking it up and siphoning it back out. Actually using magic was a different story altogether. It wasn't even in the same book.

Making friends--and enemies--was not part of the plan. Neither was joining a secret after-school club.

But as a seventeen-year-old whose last friend had up with no explanation and left when I was eight, I had a hard time turning down the opportunity.

Can you blame me?

"You know this isn't how we typically do things," Ms. Williams said, looking sternly at Emily. She wore her leather boots again, and a cropped leather jacket to complete the look. The heels hadn't slowed her down at all. I wondered what Joseph and Orville thought about her today.

Emily nodded. "I have a good feeling about Rochelle." She smiled at me and my heart sank.

"In that case, you know the consequences should she fail. We'll hold her trial next week; you have until then to prepare her and yourself." A ribbon appeared in Ms. Williams's hand. The maroon fabric stood out against the blandness of the room and the black of her outfit. "Until then, I need your hands. Both of you."

Wordlessly, we held out our hands. Mine was palm up; Emily held hers so that her palm faced away from me. Ms. Williams took Emily's right hand and my left, corrected mine so that it mirrored Emily's, and wrapped the ribbon loosely around both of our palms.

Magic gathered around Ms. Williams as she prepared to cast her spell. I could feel it surrounding her, a halo of invisible power lining her whole form. My null-ness wanted it. I imagined adding an extra seal to the bottle in my mind to keep my intrinsic magic from stealing hers. Her magic leaked into her voice, making her words powerful and binding.

"Emily Newsome, you hereby declare responsibility for Rochelle Blakely as your charge and initiate into the Omega Society. You will pass the test together or fail together."

Together? No--I couldn't do that to Emily. The loose ribbon around my hand tightened as I struggled against it.

No going back now.

"You will not speak of Omega to anyone except each other until such time as the test has been passed, or until the memory of the society has been wiped from your mind. Go and prepare."