Just Like Fire | J. Saltzman - Legacies [2]

N I N E T E E N

Stella checks her watch for the third time in three minutes as she reaches her new room. With a push against the sticky door, her jaw drops as a snarl erupts from her throat. "What the hell?" She exclaims, stomping over to her bed.

Alyssa detaches herself from Jed with a smirk. Jed, to his credit, stumbles back a bit at the fire in Stella's eyes while Alyssa sits up. "Are you blind?" She asks. "I spelled the knob to 'do not disturb.'"

Stella clenches her jaw. "I needed my Chemistry of Magic textbook." She snatches it off of the floor. "And, more importantly, why are you on my bed?"

"I thought it'd be nice if it saw some action."

Smoothing out his shirt, Jed scrambles out the door. "Sorry, Stella."

Curling her fingers into fists, Stella snaps, "I'm crashing at Hope's."

Alyssa grins and watches Stella stomp away. "Have fun being all alone!" She calls after the witch.

Stella growls under her breath as a shiver runs down her spine. Shaking it off, she makes her way to Dr. Saltzman's office. "Sorry, I'm late," she says as she closes the door behind her. "Dealing with Alyssa Chang at eight in the morning is a real prize, Saltzman. Thanks for the roomie."

He rolls his eyes as Josie springs to her feet. The brunette bites her bottom lip as Alaric says, "It was the only room available, Stella. Unless you plan on rooming with someone else—"

"I'm staying with Hope tonight," Stella replies, dropping her bag onto the nearby chair. "I'll even sleep on the goddamned roof. I will not sleep in that bed until someone sanitizes it from Alyssa and Jed's little make-out session this morning."

"Ugh, gross," Lizzie groans. She scrunches her face up and shivers. "Alyssa and Jed? Who knew she liked dog?"

Stella narrows her eyes. "My father, mother, and brother are all werewolves."

"But Jed's a chihuahua."

Alaric holds his hand out. "Can we get to the spell? One more to try."

Reluctantly, Stella shrugs, slowly moving towards Alaric's desk where the dark hourglass stands, cracks spanning the glass. "One last spell," she mutters as Lizzie picks it up. Stella wraps her hands around the metal frame and closes her eyes.

When she opens them again, the darkness inside has turned white. Only a second later, the darkness returns, this time cracking the glass more. "That's enough." Alaric takes the hourglass out of their hands. "We're trying to stop it from exploding, not speed up the process. We have tried twelve different spells. This is not a problem that magic can fix."

"Well, it's better than your solution of covering it in concrete and dropping it in the ocean," Lizzie replies, crossing her arms.

Josie sighs and runs a hand through her hair as she drops into the chair. "Maybe I deserve the black magic to just boomerang back to me. We can find a way to isolate it to just me—"

"Cut yourself some slack," Stella says. "You made a mistake. One I'm sure I would have made too."

"Wait," Lizzie looks up at all of them with a small smile. "What if we try Dad's idea but better? Instead of the discount lava lamp in the ocean, we drop it in a place where magic can't escape. The prison world."

"Absolutely not," Alaric says.

"No, this is perfect!" Lizzie almost shakes in excitement. "There's a celestial event tonight—a meteor shower. And that's what we need to make the ascendant work, right?"

Josie nods along. "Yeah, that and Bennett blood."

Alaric shakes his head. "I said no! I will figure this out." His phone begins to buzz, prompting him to sigh. "I will be right back. Don't do anything while I'm gone." As he stomps away, all three girls flinch when the door slams shut behind him.