Rich Kids Don't Die | Featured

Chapter Sixteen

APPROXIMATELY TWO WEEKS LATER, Maddie sat curled up in her desk during school, her fingers impatiently tapping on the worksheets that were only half complete. The inky words were blurred through the glossy sheen of her tears, and the harsh whispers dancing and twirling about her like mockingly gleeful midnight-crows made it difficult to think.

Lips puckered, she drew a faint breath of relief as the bell rang, and abruptly got up to cram her wrinkled books into her bag before the teacher could breathe out a word of protest. A wave of unimpressed mutters swept across the room, but she'd vanished faster than anyone could've comprehended.

Bursting through the classroom doors, she rushed to her locker. Her index finger flashed backwards and her locker door reluctantly flung open. This time, Maddie didn't bother to check if anyone had witnessed the alleged sorcery.

It had been a while since Lucian's trial, and his eventual persecution. He was currently being held in Spain by his extended family, who'd seemed to care more about morality than his parents had. They'd promised to keep him huddled away in their mansion as a supposed punishment, and had negotiated with the community authorities to let him go easy.

Technically, he hadn't been persecuted; rather, he'd been flown out to a land of more cherry-lipped girls he could attempt to seduce in the almost liquid sun. But what mattered to Maddie was that, finally, he was gone. His sandalwood scent no longer lingered amongst her scattered senses, and any inkling of fear she'd felt for him had diminished.

Her magic had been a part of that: over the weeks, she'd embraced the racing electricity that pulsated through her blood, and the cobalt glowing of her fingertips when she felt particularly inspired empowered her. Her magic was used to cast harmless but amusing inconveniences, like tipping over her teacher's water, or sparking the pouring of ink from Camille's pen during an exam.

Regardless, Lucian's absence had left her in a more crisp state of mind. Combined with her incessant desire to extend her magical abilities, it wasn't long before her powers had strengthened to something greater. Something that even Sonia could learn to appreciate.

Yet now, she lingered in the midst of a different sense of chaos; the preparation for the mission that was yet to come. Often, as the final day crept closer and closer, the real dangers of what she would soon experience only became more palpable. She saw them in the smallest of things: the twisted smile of her mother's warped into the grin of cackling witch, or the massive roar of the waves on the beach drawn into the rise of a twinkling beast.

Sonia called her fears stupidly enchanted.

"You're supposed to be calming my concerns, not fueling them. What in Zia do you have to be worried about? I'm the one who has to make sure none of you brats end up dead!"

"We're immortal, remember?" said Alex.

Sonia rolled her eyes. "Worse than dead, then! How's being chained to the ground for all of eternity?"

At the time, Maddie had passed Alex a look of severe annoyance and prayed to the gods that the quest wouldn't actually end up that way. After all, the elixir was the one thing that would, in theory, save Maddie's life. Not that she could die anyways, but...

"Maddie!"

With a slight jump, Maddie turned to the desperate voice that had just rung through the school halls. Alex was rushing towards her, his hair disheveled and his hands shoved in the pockets of his inky black jeans.

"What's taking you so long? Sonia's going to bewitch us if we're late!" he muttered, attempting to pat down his chocolate locks. Strands of his hair continued to bounce around his emerald eyes, and Maddie let out an irritated murmur before pointing her finger towards his head. The remnants of a magical glow in her veins strengthened once more, and his hair shot back with a small poof.