Wicked | Ambrose Spellman and Nicholas Scratch [2]

11 | accusations

eleven
accusations.

"THE FIRST CHALLENGE tests the depth of knowledge for our three candidates," Faustus announces the next day at the Church of Night. He stands on the middle of a makeshift stage, while Nicholas, Selene, and Sabrina stand around him behind their own podiums. The rest of the coven watches anxiously as the challenge begins. "Questions are drawn from the Corpus Arcanum, the shared body of infernal knowledge that unifies our faith and our craft. Men first."

Selene rolls her eyes, knowing that her own father would actually prefer for Nick to win. "Nicholas, in sacred geometry, what configuration represents the perfection of our Lord Satan's design for his people?"

"Easy," Nick shrugs, knowing the answer immediately. "The pentagram."

"That is correct. Point to Nicholas," Faustus grins proudly before turning to Sabrina. "Miss Spellman, what are the first five books of the Lesser Key of Solomon?"

"Not even I know that," Zelda remarks from the audience, and Selene has to bite down on her tongue to keep from laughing.

"The first five books of the Lesser Key of Solomon are..." Sabrina trails off, racking her mind for the right answer. And then Selene hears three voices that she knows all too well say them—the Weird Sister's. She's cheating, Selene thinks, knowing she's the only one that can hear them since she's the only one in the room that's part banshee. Her hearing is better than everybody else's, but it also means she can hear the voices of the dead. "The Ars Goetia. The Ars Theurgia-Goetia. The Ars Paulina. The Ars Almadel and the Ars Notoria."

"And Selene, can you tell me the princes and the sub-princes of hell?" her father asks, and she smirks at him.

"The four princes of hell are Lucifer, Leviathan, Satan, and Belial," the redhead flicks her hair over her shoulder, having learned them when she was younger. "And the eight sub-princes are Astaroth, Maggot, Asmodee, Oriens, Paimon, Ariton, Amaymon, and Beelzebub."

She studies her father to see if he reacts to her mention of Beelzebub, but he doesn't even bat an eye. So he's either become a pathological liar overnight or he's actually not behind the attack.

They go for a couple more rounds, which consist of Faustus giving Nick the ridiculously easy questions and the girls the hard questions. But all three know the answers, so at the end of the challenge, the trio is tied.

But due to that, Faustus forces Selene, Sabrina, Zelda, Nicholas, and Prudence to come to his office at the academy once the challenge is over.

"I don't understand," Sabrina shakes her head, pretending to be confused. "Now I'm in trouble for being a good student?"

"Your performance in the competition, not ten minutes after confessing you were woefully ill-prepared is suspect, to say the least, and punishable by lashing if proven to be-" Faustus states, making his daughter scoff protectively.

"Dad, your accusations are just that. Accusations," Selene points out, sitting back in her chair to make a point. "You're not touching Sabrina unless you have proof she cheated."

She knows Sabrina did, but that doesn't mean she's gonna let her father whip her best friend.

"So you're accusing me of cheating, and threatening to whip me, Father Blackwood?" Sabrina raises an eyebrow, clearly not pleased. "This is exactly why I plan to do away with these sexist, antiquated traditions when I'm High Priestess of the Church of Night."

At this, all three Blackwood's heads snap up in Sabrina's direction. Prudence, because she didn't think Sabrina had the balls to do such a thing. Selene, because she didn't think that being High Priestess was something Sabrina would want. And Faustus, because he thinks the coven would fail under a Spellman. But Sabrina has just as much of a claim as Selene does, because her father was High Priest before he died.

"High Prie-" Faustus echoes, unable to process that Sabrina would even think about taking Selene on. And that's exactly what they'd be doing if they both wanted to be High Priestess. "You listen to me. Witches can ascend to a multitude of coveted fellowships of the Church of Night. But the role of High Priest has been held by a warlock since the first stones were laid."

"That's funny since you raised me to inherit everything," Selene remarks, playing with her hair gently. "Including the role of High Priest. And the odds of a girl taking after you are much higher than a boy doing it. After all, there's me, Prudence, Quinn, Louna, and now Sabrina. The only boy that has a right to take after you is Judas, and he won't come of age for a long time."

"True," Sabrina nods before turning to her Aunt Zelda. "And my Aunt Zelda may not want to admit it now, but she raised me to believe I could be anything I wanted, including High Priestess."

"We are talking about the office of Top Boy," Zelda clarifies, desperate to change the conversation. "Not High Priest right now. And surely the next competition will weed out any transgression, real or assumed."

"Indeed. And I will personally seal the desecrated church to ensure that at tomorrow's Boil and Bubble challenge, no external forces are being marshaled to help an underprepared witch."

"Or warlock," Selene adds, glancing at Nick out of the corner of her eyes.

"You're all dismissed."

Selene jumps up and leaves before her father can say anything to her, but Nick catches up to her in the hallway, wrapping his arms around her waist. "You're hot when you're angry."

UNEDITED