Expelled from her old school for a crime she didn't commit, Ivy must gain the trust of the High Pack at Ridgeview Academy to stop her new home from going up in flames.
Season 2 of Witchfire
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───── Ivy ─────
The forested mountain range extended far and wide, seemingly endless in its green, rolling stretches and steep, grey inclines. In between the peaks the plant life grew thicker, healthier for all the rain that channeled down the slopes. The canopy sparkled like a trove of emeralds in the weak morning light, bejewelled by the recent downpour.
I took in the vista hungrily, lungs full to brimming with crisp air, wallowing in a feeling of stasis. It was as though, looking out over this ridge, I was experiencing a moment that transcended time - what else could explain the tightness in my chest, that felt so like my heart had seized, trapped between one second and the next?
I supposed my lack of fitness could. The air was pretty thin up here.
"The school was named after this view," Lawrence announced to the tour group, breaking my reverie. "Ridgeview Academy — pretty intuitive, huh? Not on the nose at all."
Louise, our second tour guide, laughed at that. The shrill sound grated on my nerves. I was still on edge after she'd pulled me aside at the PAC, demanding to know what I was doing here — only to go red in the face and stammer out an apology, for mistaking me for someone else.
Now she had the audacity to act like it had never happened; to lord over me, in this ridiculous school tour that was a thinly veiled attempt to suss out the competition. I wanted to shake her by the shoulders and see if her perfectly square teeth came out, like the dentures I suspected they were. Surely something about her stupidly perfect everything had to be fake!
"I think you mean the lookout post was named after the view," Louise corrected Lawrence, and I knew from the sudden lack of deep voices in the background that most of the boys in our tour group were paying her the utmost attention. "Our ancestors chose this location in colonial times because it was rumoured to be near a vampire stronghold. The height of the plateau helped our soldiers scout for enemy activity. It's also a great defensive location, because of the slope; attackers have to climb uphill, putting them at a disadvantage."
I scrunched my eyes shut, riding a wave of irritation. If I was at Swan Hill Academy, I could have commanded her silence — all of their silence. Their obedience would have been immediate, if I was still...
But I'm not, I was forced to remind myself. At the peak of my power, I'd been oblivious to its perks, but they were sorely apparent now.
So I forced myself to be civil and took part in their impromptu history lesson. "Did they ever find the stronghold?" I asked, stepping away from the precipice to rejoin the group. None of the others had dared to venture so close to the drop of the cliff. "The vampire one?"
"I'm not sure," Louise admitted, after a moment of quiet thinking. I hated that she even looked beautiful when she frowned, her perfectly tapered eyebrows bending with all the grace and synchronisation of ballet dancers. Her eyes were a little more grey than blue, lending them a smoky quality that even I found grudgingly alluring. "I think I must have zoned out in that history class, because I can't remember."
