RUNE’S RIDING BOOTS CRUNCHED the stone path cutting through the university’s campus, where she was meeting Verity and Alex. The blustery wind eddied the dirt into the air and swirled the hem of her riding cape.
The pink granite face of Summer Hall greeted Rune, its studded wooden doors shut tight. Hoisting her satchel higher on her shoulder, Rune pulled open both doors and stepped inside. Purple wallpaper greeted her, patterned with giant dahlias, and the green tiles clicked beneath her boots. There were four dormitories on the university’s campus. Summer Hall was known for its pastel colors and botanical patterns.
If the moment you walk in you’re accosted by flowers on all sides, you’ve found the right place, Verity told her the first time she ever gave Rune directions.
She smiled at the girl at the front desk, who waved her past, used to Rune’s frequent visits. The walls changed to blue irises, then yellow sunflowers as Rune turned down halls, making her way to Verity’s room.
She knocked on the small door, and when it swung in, Verity looked out, squinting. Her dark brown curls were flat on one side, and her spectacles were missing.
She looked like she’d just woken up.
“Sorry I’m early,” said Rune.
Verity blinked. “I completely forgot about our meeting.”
“Oh! Do you want to reschedule?”
Verity shook her head. “No, no. Come in. Just … step over the mess.”
Rune followed her friend into the tiny, closet-sized dorm room, shutting the door behind her. Clothes lay in heaps across the few feet of floor between the wall and the bed. Piles of books leaned against the walls and glass jars crammed the shelves. Some jars held living things within them—insects, small rodents—while others held dead things preserved in liquid.
Rune spotted Henry, the mimic spider, in the biggest jar. Already snacking on some winged thing he’d caught in his web.
Verity shoved the scattered clothes into one pile, making room for Rune on the floor.
“I’m sorry for last night,” she said, kicking aside a stocking.
“Oh? What for?” Shrugging off her satchel, Rune pulled out a spell book.
“When I saw Gideon in your bedroom, I overreacted.” Verity sat on her small bed, staring straight ahead at the white roses on her wallpaper. “I remembered the Blood Guard soldiers coming for my sisters, and I guess I panicked.”
Verity rarely spoke about her mother’s betrayal of her two eldest daughters—witches, both. All three de Wilde sisters had been extremely close.
With the heavy tome still in her arms, Rune sat down next to Verity and reached for her hand, which was ice-cold. Rune rubbed it between her warm ones. It was always so drafty in this room.
“What happened to your sisters was horrible,” said Rune. “I’m sorry for scaring you.”
Verity shook her head. “I just don’t want anything bad to happen to you. You’re the closest thing I have to family now.”
Throwing her arm around Verity, Rune pulled her close, trying to comfort and warm her simultaneously, noticing how bony her shoulders were getting. Wasn’t Verity’s scholarship supposed to include meals along with boarding?
“You’re the closest thing I have to family, too,” said Rune, leaning her head against Verity’s. “You and Alex.”
Verity nodded to the spell book sitting on Rune’s lap. “Do you need help with a spell?”
Rune opened the book and turned to the spells she’d been practicing: Picklock and Deadbolt.
Across the page were two symbols, each one an inversion of the other.
“They’re Minora spells, so I should be able to cast them using the blood you gave me, right? But when I try, it’s like wading through sludge, and nothing happens.”
Verity took the book and pulled it onto her lap. “These are more complicated Minoras. You probably need fresher blood. Can you show me?”
Nodding, Rune reached into the inner pocket of her riding cape and pulled out a glass vial, half-full of blood.
Verity waited, pulling her legs onto the mattress and crossing them beneath her. While Verity was not a witch herself, her sisters had always let her sit in on their spell castings. Verity had gleaned far more from her sisters than Rune had ever gleaned from Nan. So when Rune had trouble with a spell, Verity was the person she came to.
After pushing up her sleeves, Rune rose from the bed and approached the door to Verity’s room. Verity was an expert at cleaning blood from any surface, so Rune didn’t hesitate. After locking it manually, she pulled the cork stopper out of the glass vial, dabbed her index finger in the blood, lifted her hand, and began drawing the symbol for Picklock on the wood of the door: three interconnected lines—two straight, one curved.
Casting spells was like playing a musical instrument, or cooking a delicious meal. The more you studied and practiced your craft, the more skilled you became. Or that’s how it was supposed to work under normal circumstances.
Because Rune used old blood, her spells were weaker than if she had a fresh source. Fresh blood, and a lot of it, was required for more powerful spells.
Making things more difficult was being restricted to the small amount of blood from each monthly bleeding, limiting the number of spells she could cast, as well as the type.
Mirages, for example, were illusions. They tampered with people’s perceptions. Mirages were Rune’s spells of choice because they were less complicated and required less blood.
Minoras, on the other hand, did things to change the material world—like locking and unlocking a door—and were more challenging. A Minora required the fresh blood of the witch casting it. Using Verity’s borrowed blood was a way to cheat, because blood from someone else always boosted the power of a spell. But it only worked so well, and only some of the time.
It was like trying to cook a mouthwatering feast when the only ingredients on hand were some withered root vegetables, stale bread, and smelly fish. You could cook the food, but it would be neither mouthwatering nor a feast.
Rune dabbed more blood onto the pad of her finger and continued drawing the symbol. As she dragged the mark across the door, the taste of salt bloomed in her mouth and a familiar roar echoed in her ears. Like the roar of the sea.
For Rune, casting spells always felt like swallowing the ocean. Like she was standing in the surf as the tide came in, only it was coming in faster and more forcefully than was natural, and it took all her strength to keep her feet planted and not get thrust over.
Rune shut her eyes as the magic swelled and her body trembled from the effort. The sea roared louder, its brackish taste stinging her throat.
She clenched her teeth and kept drawing, forcing more of the bloody symbol onto the door in front of her. Pain throbbed in her temples as that invisible wave started to crash. Rune felt its weight descending. She braced herself, trying to finish the mark as it came tumbling down on her. Her hand shook harder. She gripped her wrist, trying to steady it. There was only one line left to draw …
“Rune,” Verity said. Her voice sounded muffled. Far away.
I can do it. It’s almost done.
“Rune, stop. You going to—”
The next time the wave swelled, Rune lost her footing. The spell crashed down and her legs buckled. Rune collapsed beneath it, drowning in that thunderous roar.
SIXTEEN
RUNE
SOMEONE WAS SHAKING HER.
“Rune!”
Her head throbbed. In fact, her whole body throbbed, pain reverberating outward from one intense point at the back of her skull. Ughhhh.
“Alex … can you help me sit her up?”
Rune forced her eyes open. The room blurred and swayed above her. She saw a smudge of gold overhead, heard Alex murmur something to Verity, and closed her eyes again.
From the hard surface beneath her back, she knew she was on the floor.
“What happened?” she whispered.
Alex scooped her into his arms and set her on Verity’s bed.