I hoped she would ignore me, but she waved her arms on sight.
“Morning, Claire. What’s the matter?” I asked when I approached her.
“Lunch?”
I looked around. “In the gymnasium?”
A boy beside her turned around. The same dark-skinned one from last night where I completely failed to notice his most prominent feature: Brown, cat-like eyes.
“Claire,” he said, “is part of the team.” Chewing on grapes, the corners of his mouth wobbled.
“Be nice, bad panther,” she said and scrubbed his head while feeding him.
She seemed to be popular, and I couldn’t distinguish if it was because of her money, her power or because she was a caring person. I knew I liked her as much as I feared her.
“Claire!” Another voice appeared behind me.
I turned around to find a slender boy in a jersey, pouring water over his dark brown hair. He ran up to her and shook his head above her chest, wetting her.
Claire screamed out loud and punched his chest with fists. But he clawed his hands into the bench, overpowering her and I pulled him back by the shoulder with all my strength.
When he fell to the floor, they all went quiet.
“What’s your problem, freak?” he shouted at me, and my organs twisted inside.
Claire let herself fall on his lap and clamped his head while he jolted.
Ultimately, he broke away from her and yelled at my face again. “Get the fuck away from her!”
Vomit shot up my throat and I ran away. His voice echoed in my ears and deprived me of orientation. The campus swirled before my eyes as I bumped into the doorframe of the infirmary. My legs collapsed, and I threw up.
He must’ve been a Siren. Even though I believed their existence was an old pirate tale, the effect of his voice was undeniable.
I’d let Claire’s potion slide, thought love-poison would harm nobody, but now I saw why magic became unpopular.
7. Offering
“She’s awake now,” Myrn’s muffled chatter whizzed in my ears and Claire pulled back the white curtain.
“I’m fine,” I whispered.
“Only because it is not allowed to kill on campus,” she said and sat down, holding my hand.
“Is he…?”
Claire nodded. “A Siren with a bad temper.” She apologised to me in his name, but I would not accept it. “Kress is overprotective,” she said. “They all are.”
With heavy footsteps, Tonio stomped into the infirmary. His face and neck were burning red. “Curly,” he demanded her attention, “are you out of your mind?”
She folded her hands into fists, her face flared up and I could see how tears collected themselves on her lids. “I’m not sick. I can watch out for myself,” she screamed.
“Do you, though?” he screamed back. “Why does Kress distract me from my patients?”
“It’s all a big misunderstanding,” I whispered in between.
“Yesterday she was your best friend, and today she’s the freak?” The tears of his sister did not stop him from shouting. “Give me a reason to not take you home this instant!”
Claire wiped her eyes while Tonio furiously stared at her for a moment. Then, he noticed the stains on my dress and wrinkled his eyebrows.
“I’ve got library duty in an hour,” she said, “unless you can convince Cassius to find a replacement.” With a confident tone, she won their feud.
“Whatever,” he said and waved her away from the bed. He lifted the blanket and hovered his hand over my stomach. “I’ve never seen him use it for anything, apart from flirting. I bet he didn’t mean it.”
“That doesn’t excuse it,” I said.
“No, you’re right. I’ll talk to him.”
“You better,” Claire ground her teeth to which Tonio scoffed at her and walked away.
“I’ve got patients. Get Bryon to walk you home after duty.” He turned his head around and commanded Claire to leave me alone.
In the distance, the door fell shut, and she plunged herself beside me instead.
“We didn’t have courses today, where were you hurrying to?”
“The market, I needed some things,” I answered and turned under my blanket while snuggling myself in. I was in no condition to climb the stairs to my room.
“Things like…?” She didn’t let go of me.
“Wine,” I mumbled and thought about ways to sidetrack her. “Also, chalk, for drawing.”
“You can take the chalk from any classroom, and for wine, you could’ve asked me.” And become a suspicious leech, I finished her sentence in my head.
When I didn’t respond to her, she sighed and laid down behind me, brushing through my hair. “Don’t be afraid to be my friend.”
I snuffled into the covers, suppressing my quaky chin. Someone wanted me as a friend. But how could she not, as I misled her from the start? The potion had made me lie to her liking. I’d brought her home out of fear of her stance and chose my words carefully around her. When she called me a Mage, I hadn’t hesitated to nod, even when she called us nasty. All my trickery had confirmed the stigma of Witches. There would be no easy way out of this mess.
Chewing on my lip, I remembered the way she giggled about everything I said, and how she clapped her hands in excitement. She could make me feel relevant by choosing dresses for me, feeding me and brewing tea. I was not afraid to be her friend.
“You should be afraid of being mine,” I said.
We remained silent for a moment before she hugged me tightly. The more she welcomed me, the more I was ashamed of myself.
“Don’t do this,” I whispered, at which she enclosed me tighter.
“I’ve seen it,” she said, “you… at the stake.”
My heart fibrillated, but I tried to stay quiet.
“It’s hard to tell apart. What’s real, I mean, and what’s a dream. They say, I’m sick and it’s a symptom. I believe I am, but see, I’m not stupid.” She pressed her face into my hair. “This time, it was clear. It slipped, from you to me, when you brushed my skin. A flash
