Academy Halls of the Vanished

1. Prologue

If someone had told Ivy last year she’d be trudging through the forest to complete a blood protection spell, she’d have thought it was yet another joke at her expense.

Being fourteen and the only kid in school with non-magical parents sucked.

But when Briar Mayclair, Averston School’s newest social butterfly, moved to the gloomy small town in August, Ivy went from being bullied to the halls being parted like the Red Sea as they walked to class together.

Normally, when a new kid moved in, they would be subject to teasing and harassment for the first few months.

Not Briar. She had half the grade clamoring to be her friend within a month.

Something about her was…magnetic. It was the only word Ivy could think of to describe her.

When Briar laid eyes on Ivy being shoved against a locker, she stepped in, and they backed off.

When Ivy later asked how, Briar smiled with a hint of sinister playfulness.

“When you know everyone’s secrets,” she had said. “You hold the power. Never forget that, alright?”

She kept it in the back of her mind ever since. Though she wasn’t sure how she would use it to her advantage. Dead leaves crunched beneath Ivy’s feet, and she wrapped her coat tightly around her body as the icy wind swerved through bare trees. “How much further?”

“Not far,” Briar called over her shoulder, her long blonde curls swishing over her jacket. “The clearing is just ahead.”

They carried on for a few more minutes until Ivy spotted a small clearing where the full moon shone at its brightest. The barren oaks cast jagged shadows on the ground, creating an illusion of it crumbling beneath them.

As they broke through the treeline, there was a small circle of stones covered with moss at the center.

A shiver ran down her spine, likely from the chilly November air. “And you found this place…how, exactly?” It wasn’t exactly a quick walk behind Briar’s house like she had described it earlier.

Briar dropped her backpack to the ground and kneeled to rummage through it.

“I told you, I was walking after school one day and stumbled across it.” She pulled out a folded piece of paper and held it to her chest with a grin before standing.

“According to legend, these stone circles were where our magic entered this world, which makes this the perfect spot for our ritual.”

Briar stepped closer to the circle and glanced back at Ivy. The moon made her amber-brown eyes shine brightly against her pale skin. But Ivy stood in place, chewing her bottom lip.

“Ritual? I thought you said it was a spell? Something you found in a book an—”

“Yes, in a book I found in the library,” Briar said, roaming over the page in her hand. “Ms. Cuttle probably wouldn’t have let me borrow it, so I copied the spell in my notebook.”

“Are you sure we should do something like this?” She knew she was being a coward, and she didn’t want to disappoint Briar, especially since she was Ivy’s only friend. Something gnawed at the back of her mind. Don’t do this. “Blood magic isn’t known to be safe, even for adults. It’s late. Maybe w—”

Briar scoffed. “What? Afraid your parents will come running after you and drag you back home?”

Ivy’s chest sank, and she stared at the ground. Her grimy sneakers became further coated in dirt as she dug them into the leaves.

Crunchy steps made their way toward her, and Briar’s hand came to her shoulder, squeezing gently. “All I meant is… you’re safe with me. I’ll ride my bike over with you to your house after we’re done. Don’t you trust me?”

Ivy’s focus returned to Briar’s face. “Of course I do.” The words spilled out quickly, in fear that a simple concern would send her away. She couldn’t go back to being alone. Her brows creased. “If I’m safe with you, why do we need to do this, anyway?”

“You remember when I said I had enemies at my old school?” Briar asked.

Ivy nodded. She remembered being baffled by the fact because she couldn’t imagine anyone hating someone who'd been that kind to her.

“And before I came along, you had enemies.”

Ivy shrugged. “I don’t know if I would call them enemies, exactly. They’d beat me up and call me names, but I—”

Briar cocked a brow as she tilted her head to the side. “And you don’t think they would take the chance to do something worse if nobody knew?”

Now she knew the goose bumps pricking her skin weren’t from the air. The fear of something worse always lingered in the back of her head like a sick nightmare she couldn’t shake.

“Exactly,” Briar said determinedly, her round jaw clenching as she took a step back toward the circle. “This spell is supposed to tie us together. Forever. It would be like we’re sisters. Even if we get separated, we’ll know we’re safe.”

Ivy’s lips twitched. She had a family, but not in the way others did.

Without their magic, her parents were rapidly becoming shells of themselves.

Her grandmothers moved in to help take care of her and her parents, but they were getting older and sometimes needed care, too.

And there was nobody else. No siblings. No extended family members out in the world.

Having a sister—albeit by a strange blood ritual—wouldn’t be so bad.

Plus, the likelihood of it being real was low.

It probably came from some joke book. She knew the library well, including some of the adult sections, too.

She doubted Ms. Cuttle would let a book of real blood rituals slip into the wrong hands.

With a deep breath, she took a step forward and stood at the edge of the circle with Briar. “Alright, let’s do this.”