Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Dafni
“You were recruited just in time!” the instructor, who’d proudly introduced herself as Arcana, exclaimed, clapping her hands as she stood in front of the eleven of us “recruited” witches.
She sat on a metal rusted desk in the front of the classroom.
With bricked walls, dirt floors, and no windows, this was unlike any classroom I’d ever imagined being in.
We all sat on benches without desks in front of us.
There were no books, no pencils or papers, but there were posters on the wall.
Some depicted proper body form to have when using your magic.
Others had warnings not to practice magic on others.
An Untrained Witch is a Dangerous Witch was printed with red ink on the bottom of one.
This morning, the other witches at the Academy seemed to group up with the witches of their own magic, heading toward separate classrooms along the long hallway outside the dome where we ate meals and slept in our dorms. The eleven of us new witches were rounded up, regardless of our magic, brought into an empty classroom, and given Arcana to teach us.
She was the only one who seemed excited to be here.
“We don’t have much time—only weeks before the first evaluations. My lovely earth witches will be competing first for the chance to be chosen by young Gideon!” Arcana clapped again, looking at our faces.
Brooke, an earth witch, trembled next to me, her eyes on her lap. “I’m going to throw up,” she whispered.
I took her hand and squeezed it just as she had squeezed mine in the truck.
“We’ve got a few weeks to figure everything out,” I whispered back.
“I’m sure you’ve seen him around…” Arcana wiggled her eyebrows at the group. “He’s so young and handsome.”
She looked like every other witch down here. Her nose had grown, its tip now a bulb, and her skin was mottled by growths and bumps.
“I have only a few weeks to get you ladies into fighting shape! We will work hard. We will harness your powers. Who knows, maybe one of you newcomers could win Gideon!” Her eyes twinkled at the prospect. “Let’s start with all of you showing me what you know.”
Arcana grabbed hold of the witch nearest her and pulled her up in front of the class.
The girl shook standing in front of everyone.
“What kind of magic are you?” she asked.
I strained to hear her response.
The witch spoke so quietly I couldn’t hear anything before Arcana shouted, “Me too!” clapping her hands.
“Oh, I have just the thing.” She walked around the desk, opening and closing drawers until she found what she was looking for.
Bringing the small clay pot around the desk, she held it up to show the witch its contents before setting the pot down on the desk. “Let’s see some earth magic!”
Brooke squeezed my hand tightly. I knew as an earth magic, she was watching this closely.
Now that everyone in the room knew earth witches would be the first to compete, the tension between us witches was palpable.
It felt real. We weren’t just the new group of human-born witches, we were being pitted against each other—forced to work against each other to win the affection of some supposedly handsome male witch.
The witch at the front of the room peered down into the pot, extending her index and middle fingers toward what was inside. I held my breath as the pot wobbled back and forth for a moment before the witch lowered both her hands to her thighs, bending over to catch her breath.
Arcana leaned over the top of the desk looking into the pot. The smile that had been plastered on her face since we’d arrived dropped.
“Oh, dear. I thought you’d at least sprout something small, maybe something with leaves.” Arcana picked up the pot, shaking the contents. “You’ve separated the pebbles from the soil. I guess that’s something…”
The witch who’d just performed looked as if she were about to burst into tears.
“Sit, sit!” Arcana ordered.
The witch ran back to her seat, her hands covering her face.
Arcana scanned the room. “Let’s get an air magic up here.”
All the air magic witches immediately looked to their laps, giving themselves away. Arcana grabbed hold of a witch and pulled her from the bench to the front of the classroom.
I immediately recognized her, her ringlets—Petunia. She stood next to Arcana, her knees straight and her arms at her side. She gazed above the heads of the other witches, staring at the wall in the back of the room. Her ringlets vibrated—she was shaking.
“What should we have you do…what should you do…” Arcana looked around the room.
“Aha!” She walked around the desk, opening and closing drawers once again before she pulled out a single white taper candle in one hand and a book of matches in the other.
She put the middle of the candle between her teeth, before she used both hands to strike a match against the box.
Once the candle was lit, she shook the match flame out and dropped both the smoking match and box onto the dirt floor.
Arcana took the lit candle from her lips and turned it upright, the tip of the flame pointed toward the ceiling.
She walked past the two rows of benches to the back of the room, meeting Petunia’s stare.
Raising the candle up above her head, high into the air, she directed Petunia to blow out the flame.
Petunia slowly raised her arm, pointing two fingers at the candle.
Her arm moved up and down as the nerves she was feeling traveled down her arm, interfering with her aim.
The witches on the benches ducked down to avoid getting hit by her air magic.
Brooke and I bent down together, holding hands, keeping an eye on Petunia.
She closed one of her eyes and used her free hand to steady her arm.
I felt the curls on the top of my head move as the wind from Petunia’s fingers traveled toward the flame.
Arcana’s entire hand moved backward as the flame went out. A smile instantly lit up her face. “Very good! Very good! We have something to work with!” She made her way back to the front of the room, patting Petunia on her back in congratulations.
At first, Petunia simply stared up behind us, where the lit candle had been. Then the shock on her face slowly morphed into something sharper, darker. Her shoulders straightened, and a small smirk appeared on her face.
“What’s your name?” Arcana asked.
“Petunia Fox,” she said loudly, this time looking at the witches on the benches in their eyes instead of staring at the back of the room.
“Good. I look forward to working with you, Petunia,” Arcana said.
Petunia walked back to her seat, still smirking, with her chin tilted up in the air.
“Now we need a water magic…” Arcana clicked her tongue as she looked around the room. If there was any time I’d wished I didn’t have red hair, it was now. It made me stick out. “You, there—with the red hair.”
Of course.
I stood and walked to the front of the room, tucking my hands into the pockets of my sweater so no one could see how my fingers fidgeted.
“Name?” Arcana asked.
“Dafni Sarr—” I paused for a moment. Get it right, Dafni. “Sarrenti.”
“Water magic?” she asked.
I nodded.
“I’m just so good at my job!” Arcana exclaimed as she once again went around the desk and dug through the drawers. Her lack of preparedness showed otherwise, but I kept my mouth sealed shut. Right now, I needed to lie low. Learn.
“Yes!” She pulled a clear glass from one of the drawers and walked over to the wall, her hand running along the brick until she found a spot where a brick had fallen.
Pressing her fingers into the dirt, she raised the glass to the wall, smiling as she pulled moisture, in the form of water, into the glass.
When the glass was half full, she returned to the desk setting the glass on top.
“Freeze it,” she directed, pointing toward the glass of water.
I looked at the glass. This was easy. I’d been freezing liquids under the tutelage of my grandmother for years.
She’d had me freeze water and then milk daily until I’d mastered the skill.
I was apprehensive, not because I couldn’t do it, but because I didn’t know how much of my powers I should show, both to the other witches and to Arcana, who would surely report back to the other instructors.
I looked out into the crowd. Brooke locked eyes with me, nodding in encouragement.
Petunia’s ringlets moved, and I turned to find her tilting her head with her beady eyes staring at me and a smirk on her face that I could tell wasn’t meant for encouragement.
What was it with her? She’d been weird since we’d arrived. Weren’t we all suffering together? I knew the Academy wanted us to compete for Gideon, but I didn’t think there’d already be rivalries among us.
Girls—women—witches needed to stick together.
Petunia had been the only one to succeed so far. Part of me wanted to hold back, stay in the shadows. If I didn’t make a splash, no one would consider who I was—my lineage. The other part of me wanted to best her, to show her what power I had, wipe that smug smile off her face.
I focused on the glass sitting atop the desk. My magic tingled down my arm and flowed to the tips of my fingers. I pointed my index and middle fingers at the glass, using my control of my magic to freeze the water just enough before I pulled back.
Immediately after, I tucked my fingers back into my pocket, rubbing my fingertips against the fabric, begging the magic that wanted to exit to retreat.
Arcana walked over, rubbing the pads of her fingers against the smooth outside of the glass. “No frost…” she murmured. “Incredible.”
I looked back out at my classmates to see Brooke smiling at me, while Petunia, I couldn’t help but notice, appeared to be seething.
Looking back at the glass, I began questioning myself. Had I done too much? Should I have frozen the water, made it expand so much that the glass shattered?
Arcana started clapping.