The Banshee's Fated Warlock

Chapter 1

Anja

There's a knock on my bedroom door, and a moment later, it opens to reveal my flatmate Nati. "You ready, Anja?"

I nod and grab my bag from where it's hanging over the back of my desk chair. "As ready as I can be for a new term."

She snorts. "Not feeling refreshed after the holidays?" Movement on her head catches the light as one of the snakes there moves around, and she lets out a sigh. "Not now, Frank."

He hisses in response, making me smile.

"This is why you shouldn't have living hair," she says as she steps back to let me leave my room and lock it behind me.

"Aren't you used to it?" I ask curiously. Despite having known her since the start of the university year when we both arrived at Rosewood Academy, she hasn't talked much about her gorgon nature, and I know better than to pry. But now she's brought it up, I'm kind of interested in finding out more.

"Aren't you used to your hair?" she responds.

I reach up and touch the neat plait thrown over my shoulder. Not really. I don't say as much out loud, it'll come with a lot of questions that I don't want to answer.

"I've never asked if the colour is natural," she says.

I shake my head. "Mum makes me a potion to dye it."

"Can't you do that yourself?"

I grimace. "I've never learned how, I think she's hoping I will this term."

"Potions?" she guesses.

"Yeah, it's my first class." Something I'm both unreasonably nervous and kind of excited for.

Maybe I'm about to discover that I'm a witch like my parents after all.

I find it unlikely, but I know Mum is hopeful after I got accepted into Rosewood Academy despite having shown no magical ability at any point in the past.

Nati checks her watch and grimaces. "Class starts in ten minutes. And it takes seven to get from here to the Potions room. You're going to be late."

"I don't even know where it is," I admit. "I didn't go into that wing of the castle last term."

"Well, you're in luck, I pass it on the way to Divination." She gestures for us to turn to the left.

"You know you're the best, right?"

"Of course." She smiles at me in the confident, easy way that Nati always has.

"How do you know everything about this place?" I ask.

"I looked at my campus map before I went to bed last night because I knew I'd need to get to a new classroom," she responds without skipping a beat. "You should try it."

I roll my eyes, but don't argue back, partly because she's right, I should have done that, I was just too nervous about taking Potions in the first place and worrying about what Mum's going to think if I don't

"Your mum must be a talented witch," Nati says.

"What makes you say that?"

"It's hard to make purple natural." She gestures to my plait.

"Oh, right. I guess I never really thought about it. It's the only colour that doesn't wash me out. I mean, more than this." I gesture at my face.

Nati snorts. "Yeah, sorry, you're still washed out. Are you sure your parents are witches?"

"I'm adopted," I remind her. "And no, they don't look like they've just died." I've never fully understood why my skin is as pale as it is, but I've gotten used to it over the years.

"So, why purple?" she asks as we weave our way through the other students heading to their classes.

"It's my favourite colour," I respond. "You've never asked me any of this before."

"I don't try to start conversations about people's hair," she responds. "Even here. People have a lot of questions about the snakes."

"That's fair. Your hair is..." I trail off, not too sure where I'm going with the statement, and realising that our friendship is probably still a little too new for me to risk insulting her. Besides, I like Nati, I don't want to insult her.

"You can say it." There's a resigned note in her voice.

"It's pretty. I like how the scales reflect light," I respond honestly.

"That's a new one," Nati responds, but I can see the pleased surprise in her eyes. "So, what's your actual hair like? I don't think I've ever seen the roots."

"It's silvery-white."

"Because you're secretly a crone in disguise?" She leads me down a corridor that looks vaguely familiar.

I snort. "And that's the reason I dye it. Being called a crone is one of the nicer things people have said to me."

She lets out an amused laugh. "It's hardly even noteworthy here."

"I know. And maybe in a couple of years, I won't care about walking around with it being natural."

"I look forward to seeing that." She gives me a genuine smile that makes me think she's telling the truth.

Being at Rosewood is one of the first times in my life that I've truly felt like I could be the true me, and yet I'm held back by the fact that I don't know what I am, I've never known, and how can I embrace myself if I don't know something so fundamental?

"This is you," Nati says, gesturing toward the door.

"Thanks for showing me the way."

"What are flatmates for?"

I laugh. "Well next time you need showing somewhere in the academy that I know and you don't, I'll return the favour. Have fun in Divination."

"I'm going to try," she responds, waving as she heads further down the corridor, towards where I assume her lecture is. I'm not actually sure what happens in Divination, not having taken it myself.

I turn my attention to the door in front of me and take a deep breath and try to shed the weight of my mum's expectations, though I'm not sure if that's going to be possible.

I'm just going to have to hope that I don't make too much of a fool of myself with all the things I don't know about brewing potions.