42. Chapter 41 #2
Nausea bubbled in Ivy’s throat. She couldn’t imagine who would do something like that. The reflection grinned sinisterly as she glared at Rhea.
“And who saw the rituals you were hiding?”
Rhea glanced at Ivy before turning back to the mirror. “It was Briar.”
Ivy’s breath hitched, and she swore her heart stopped for a beat, and she shifted out of Ezra’s hold. “What?”
“She started the rumor that I killed animals for evil spells,” Rhea choked out.
“I wasn’t! All I wanted was to bring my dog back after he’d been hit by a car.
It didn’t even work. She said it would be our secret.
She even made me believe we were friends.
At least until I wouldn’t do her a favor.
That was when she turned on me. She coined the nickname, and by the time she moved, it had spread through the entire town. ”
“That can’t be true,” Ivy whispered.
“The nickname lingered. It clung to you like cigarette smoke. And fate was crueler to you when you came to Arcania. Right, devil witch?”
“Don’t,” Rhea growled.
The reflection rolled its eyes before continuing. “They assigned Briar as your roommate. And what’s worse? She didn’t recognize you.”
“Yes,” Rhea said through gritted teeth. “I was a stranger to Briar. Not only did I have to face her again, but I had to live with her.”
“And it was too much to bear, wasn’t it?”
Rhea nodded slowly.
“What did you do about it?”
She clenched her sweatshirt in her hands. “I…I didn’t know it would go so far.”
Ivy’s chest ached painfully enough that she bent over. She likely would’ve collapsed if it wasn’t for Ezra’s arms wrapping back around her. “Didn’t know what would go so far?”
“I only wanted to scare her,” Rhea muttered, the bite in her voice gone as her head hung low.
“Every day, for years, when I left my home, I’d be afraid someone would threaten me over that stupid rumor.
Even after she moved away, I was harassed and stalked.
My car was vandalized with animal blood, and when I got rid of it, they did it to my parents’ house.
They sold it last year when I left for Arcania.
They couldn’t take it anymore. When I saw she was my roommate, I wanted her to feel a fraction of what I felt. ”
“And?” Ivy asked. She had to know the truth, even if she didn’t want to hear it.
“At first, I thought if I waited a couple of months or dropped hints Briar would remember me. But she didn’t.
I heard talk that the Illusionists were still meeting secretly on campus, despite their club having been banned decades ago.
I sought them out and asked for their help.
And they agreed without question. I should’ve guessed it was a mistake. ”
Ivy scoffed. “You guess? Briar could be dead because of what you di—”
“I’m not the only one to blame here!” Rhea cried out and glared at them over her shoulder. “Briar thought she was better than everyone. She believed she was untouchable. She acted like she was immune to danger since she knew everyone’s business. But that shit comes back around, eventually.”
“That doesn’t mean she deserves this!”
“I never said she does,” Rhea said, her voice sharp. “I regret going to the Illusionists. Clearly, they have bigger plans. Plans we don’t fully understand. Hell, it’s why I helped hide her for almost a year so my fucking conscience could relax a bit.”
The reflection cleared its throat. “Yet you enlisted the help of a secret society that was deemed so dangerous it was forced to disband? They wanted more from you, didn’t they?”
“Yes.” Rhea lowered herself to the floor, tucking her legs close to her chest.
The room was silent. Her reflection raised its brow as if it were waiting for her to elaborate.
“Well?” Ezra asked.
“About this time last year, Briar had grown paranoid. She wasn’t sleeping.
She was constantly lashing out at everyone.
It seemed like my plan had worked, maybe a little too well.
Then they made her disappear last year after an exam.
But she escaped somehow and made it back to me.
She was raving about how they were going to kill her, and she asked me to help her cover her tracks or something.
And I…lost it. I told her who I was, and that I was the one who contacted the Illusionists who have been playing tricks on her. ”
Rhea paused, sliding a hand through her hair.
“She laughed. Actually laughed. She remembered who I was after a month of living together, but thought I’d let what she’d done go, and under different circumstances, she would’ve commended what I did.
I assumed she was lying, as she always did.
Then someone started beating down our door.
“So I hid her,” Rhea said, shrugging. “I used my magic to cloak her before the masked ones barged in. When they didn’t find her, they told me she had escaped, and I needed to bring her to them if she came back here. They couldn’t wait any longer than necessary.”
“They didn’t check for any cloaking spells?” Ivy asked.
“They did.” Rhea shrugged. “When you’ve spent half of your life protecting yourself from being beaten up, you figure out how to make it strong enough to bypass most attempts.”
“And why were they tired of waiting?” Maeve asked, her voice quiet and her gaze distant. Ivy studied her. Did she know the answer already? Or were there limits to her foresight?
Rhea sighed. “From what Briar told me, it was something to do with her blood, that she alone wouldn’t be enough for what they were after.
Of course, I learned nothing more about it.
It was another one of her secrets. After that night, I brought her to the cabin.
It was a place I’d found one day when I was exploring the woods, and I made it into a little refuge of mine.
It was the perfect place to hide her away from the world.
To pretend she’d vanished without a trace.
“They weren’t fooled. They kept tabs on me.
I could still get around their sensing spells, but I couldn’t be with Briar every second.
I trained her to cloak herself and the cabin and build enchantments for her to use while she slept.
They kept their distance for the rest of the year, probably thinking I’d slip up.
That all changed when you got here, Ivy. ”
“Why?” Ivy asked. “Did they know who I was?”
Rhea nodded. “They knew as soon as you got off the train. I’m assuming they’d dug deeper into Briar’s past beyond what I could tell them. When they noticed you snooping around campus, they pulled me aside and asked me to get close to you to report back to them on what you were doing.”
“What?” Ezra said, his voice raised as his hand wrapped tighter around Ivy, as if to protect her.
“I fed them false information!” Rhea shouted. “I haven’t told them a thing about what we’ve been doing or what we know.”
Tears welled in Ivy’s eyes again. She wasn’t sure what to believe. “So it was you stalking me? The library, around campus? Sending me all those letters signed by Briar?”
“I haven’t been stalking you, Ivy.” Rhea’s brows scrunched together as she shook her head. “Or sending any letters. It must be one of the Illusionists watching you.”
Ivy stumbled back, her mind racing through everything revealed tonight. The room spun around her, the mirrors with Rhea’s reflection spiraling through all their faces before she eventually tipped over. Before she could crash, Ezra and Maeve were there to catch her.
“Why do they want me?” Ivy asked quietly.
“I’m not sure exactly…” Rhea looked over at Maeve. “I’m guessing it has something to do with her vision.”
“You all have faced your true selves. You may now leave this place.”
As Rhea’s reflection faded, the door to the room clicked open, and the mirrors disappeared to reveal the same room as before.
On the floor next to Ivy’s foot was a blue envelope.
She didn’t understand how the magic Briar had cast for them to show up with each exam completed, or whatever the hell this was.
A part of her wanted to leave it. But the other part wanted to tear it open just to see what other secrets Briar was keeping from everyone. From her.
“I won’t give you to them, you have to believe me,” Rhea cried, pushing herself off the floor. But as she neared them, Ivy flinched, and she pulled back. “Please.”
“How can I trust you?” Ivy’s voice broke as the tears streamed down her face. “They only know about her—about me—because of you.”
“Briar trusted me. Isn’t that enough?” Rhea asked quietly, her black eyeliner smudging from her tears.
Ivy shook her head. “Not this time. I’m not even sure I know her like I thought I did. It…might be safer if you stay away from us for now.”
“I get it.” Rhea’s face crumpled, her chin wobbling as she fought back sobs. “I’ll try to keep them away from you. Despite all this, I still consider you my friend—all of you as my friends.”
Maeve reached for the letter, securing it in her jacket pocket before helping Ivy stand. “We still need to make our way out of here, and regardless of what any of us have done, we shouldn’t split up.”
Each of them silently left the room, but as soon as they stepped through the door, the stairwell transformed around them and a rushing force pulled them to the ground.
When Ivy opened her eyes, instead of the stone stairs and decrepit walls, there was dirt and trees.
And in the distance were the faint lights of the nearby campus buildings.
“What the hell?” Ezra asked.
Ivy searched behind her. There were no signs of the door. Then to the ground, but there was nothing there either. The magic had…ejected them, somehow. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter. It sent a clear message.
Do not come back.