Jax’s face colors. “Not a word,” he says through gritted teeth.
“And Gillian.” Cleo smiles. “We meet again. Now where is Jocelyn?” Cleo asks and immediately people start to squirm. Helmut tries to squish himself behind a rock jutting out of the wall. “Jocey?” Madame’s voice goes up an octave. “Don’t be shy. You can’t get more detention in detention.”
There is a poof of purple smoke and Jocelyn materializes in the middle of the room. Dressed all in black from head to toe, she looks a lot like Harlow. “Good afternoon, Madame Cleo!” Jocelyn does a perfect curtsy. “Sorry I’m late. I was with my sister.”
Madame Cleo laughs, and her hair slowly turns from purple to turquoise. “I know when Harlow starts talking, it’s hard to get her to stop! Thank you both for the lovely coral arrangement for my birthday.”
“Of course!” Jocelyn says. “Harlow and I would never miss your special day. And I would never skip detention, especially when there are so many interesting people in here having such fascinating conversations.” She looks directly at me and Jax and grins.
Did she hear us talking about the gargoyles? How?
“It’s a pity you’re even here, Jocey, but since so many students saw you cast that spell on Maxine yesterday afternoon, I had no choice.”
I’d heard the news from Kayla this morning. At her evacuation station, Jocelyn got bored and cast a spell on Maxine that made her right ear as big as her head. She was in the infirmary recovering. I visited Maxine at lunch to check on her. “It’s okay,” she’d said when I asked what happened. “I’m used to Jocelyn picking on me.”
Well, I still don’t like it—and I don’t like Jocelyn either.
“It’s not true. I have no idea how that happened to Maxine.” Jocelyn shakes her head. “But like my sis, I take my lumps with dignity.”
“A proper lady!” Madame Cleo marvels. “Well then, shall we… Oh hi, class! When did you all get here?”
“Memory-loss spell,” Jax whispers. “Sometimes she forgets what she’s doing. Last week detention was only thirty minutes because she forgot what time we came in.”
“You were teaching the Fire Step, Madame Cleo,” Helmut says. Within seconds, his head snaps back. “Ouch! Who hit me?” I see Jocelyn smirk.
“The Fire Step! Yes, that’s right!” she says. The sound of a fast instrumental song floats through the room. Madame Cleo closes her eyes and sways back and forth. The fish around her do the same. “Done properly, the Fire Step can make all the difference between catching a prince and a prince’s footman. You don’t have many afternoons to master this dance. Royal Day is just days away.”
“Lucky us,” I mumble.
Jax looks amused. “What did the royals do to you? Steal your glass slipper?”
“Kind of.” Jax looks intrigued. “My dad’s a shoemaker, and the orders for the glass slippers he was making were handed over to Ella’s fairy godmother so she could conjure them up herself. That’s made a real dent in a family business that was barely making ends meet to begin with.” I sigh. “And yet my sister still idolizes those girls.”
“They took my father’s farm to build a summer castle for themselves,” Jax says. “I haven’t liked the royals since.”
“Typical.” I shake my head.
Cleo claps her hands and the sound echoes through the room. “Partner up!”
Jax holds out his hand. “Shall we?”
“I’m not a Fire Step kind of girl.” I stumble over my words. I’ve never danced with someone who isn’t my brother. And having your brothers dance on your feet doesn’t count.
“Gillian, darling,” Madame Cleo sings, but there is a hard tone to her voice. “Everyone must participate.”
My cheeks flush slightly. “Fine, but don’t step on my toes,” I tell Jax. “Do you even know how to—whoa.” Jax takes my hands and whirls me around the room. The whirling part I could do blindfolded, but the rest is a mystery.
“Just watch what I do,” he tells me as he double claps, then does a crisscross motion with his feet and changes direction all in a matter of seconds. He’s really good. When we get to the part in the dance where we switch partners, then switch back, Jax manages to take two, then return to me before I even do my first spin around.
“I didn’t realize you had use for the Fire Step on the farm,” I say over the music.
“There wasn’t,” Jax says. His violet eyes are practically purple in this light. “A lot of time in detention has made me an excellent dancer.”
“So I see.” I double clap, but on the wrong beat. Oops.