“Speaking of help…” Binx set her food down and leaned toward Greta. “I’ve been thinking. There’s someone else who might be able to help us.”
“Who?”
“I have this online friend. We met on one of the Witchworld discussion boards. It’s a long story, but it turns out he’s a cyber-witch, too. He might have some thoughts on how to track down whoever wrote those shadow messages.”
Greta blinked. “I don’t understand. Who is this guy?”
Binx lowered her voice, her eyes bright with excitement. “This is totally, hugely confidential, so you can’t tell anyone. I haven’t even told Ridley yet. I figured I should tell you first because you’re our leader or whatever, then the three of us could discuss. Anyway, so… ShadowKnight, that’s my friend, he belongs to this witch group called Libertas. They started a resistance movement so they can get rid of 6-129 and help protect witches’ rights.”
Greta took a sip of her kombucha tea and considered this.
“Don’t they sound epic? And awesome?” Binx rambled on. “I’ve actually been thinking about joining them. Things are getting so out of control with the Antima.”
“Um…” Greta hesitated. “Have you ever met this, uh, Shadowlight person in real life?”
“ShadowKnight. No, why?”
“Well, how do you know he’s not a fake or a fluffy bunny or crazy?”
Binx’s expression hardened. “Really? That’s your reaction to what I just said?”
“We have to be really, really careful about our identities. You know that.”
“OMG! You are such a hypocrite. So, it’s okay that you tell the newb recruit about our coven and share the shadow message with her and everything—without asking Ridley and me, thanks—but it’s not okay for me to do the same with my friend?”
“At least I’ve met Iris and talked to her in person. I can be sure she’s who she says she is,” Greta said defensively. “What if ShadowKnight is, like, Antima in disguise? What if there’s no such group as Libertas? Or what if there is, and they’re all Antima, posing as witches?”
Binx stood up abruptly, scattering potato chips everywhere. “You are so paranoid. Libertas doesn’t have a website or a social media presence, for safety reasons. Obviously. Besides, you don’t know him like I do.” She shook her head. “Why are you so closed-minded? And selfish? Don’t you want to do what’s right and what’s best for all the witches in the world and not just our stupid little coven?”
“Stupid? Since when is our coven stupid?”
“Guys!”
Ridley was hurrying across the courtyard toward them. “Why are you arguing?”
Greta touched her pendant and took a deep breath. “We’re not arguing. Everything’s fine!” she replied with a strained smile.
“Yeah, peachy,” Binx said sarcastically.
Greta glared at her.
Ridley cocked her head. “O-kay. I thought you said Iris Gooding was having lunch with us?”
“She is,” Greta confirmed.
“Then why is she having lunch with Div and Mira and Aysha? And Penelope?”
“What?” Greta burst out. “And who’s Penelope?”
“Penelope is… she’s a sophomore, too. She’s new here. She lives in my neighborhood,” Ridley explained, studying her red nails.
“She’s a beautuber,” Binx added. “She’s got over sixty-five thousand subscribers.”
Greta tried to wrap her mind around this information. Iris was having lunch with Div and her girls. Which meant that Div must have figured out about Iris being a witch. Which meant that Div might be trying to recruit Iris into her coven right this second.
And why was this Penelope girl in the mix? Was she a witch, too? (And what on earth was a beautuber?)
“Ugh. Where are they?” Greta asked Ridley.
“At their usual table in the cafeteria.”
Greta stuffed her lunch and sketchbook and pencils into her backpack. “Let’s go.”
16 THE COOL TABLE
If you wish to join another Coven, do it with care lest you create Enemies where once you had Friends.
(FROM THE GOOD BOOK OF MAGIC AND MENTALISM BY CALLIXTA CROWE)
Div found the Iris girl very annoying.
“This is so fun, having lunch with you guys!” Iris was saying in a high, excited voice as she rooted through her Batgirl lunch bag. “Back at my old school, I sometimes ate lunch with the chess club. They met every day at noon… five past noon, to be exact. I don’t actually know how to play chess.… Well, I do, kind of.… Like, I know the names of the pieces, pawns and rooks and bishops and knights and queens and kings… actually, there’s only one queen and one king, so singular queen and king, not plural queens and kings… but I’m not great at remembering which pieces are supposed to go where, and when, and how you capture the other person’s pieces, and what even is ‘castling’? And ‘en passant’? And the ‘Sicilian Defense’? It’s so complicated!” She paused, unwrapped a corn muffin, and took a big, crumbly bite. “Anyhoo, it’s nice to have people to hang out with at lunch. Versus, say, sitting alone in the corner of the cafetorium—isn’t that a weird word, cafetorium?—and pretend-texting. So, thank you for letting me sit at the cool table!”
Div cocked her head and regarded Iris. She knew she should try to respond with “charming”… after all, she was planning to ask Iris (and Penelope, too) to join their coven, pending confirmation that they were both witches, and she needed yeses from both of them. But still. She wasn’t sure she could stand five more seconds in this girl’s presence, let alone see her on a regular basis.
Fortunately, Mira stepped in; even though she could be quite nasty (especially in combination with Aysha, especially when the two of them were hexting Binx or pranking random students), she could also be naturally, genuinely sweet. (“Sweet” was a foreign language for Div.)
“Iris, I am so with you about the ‘complicated,’” Mira said, punctuating her point in the air with a piece of string cheese. “My dad’s been trying to teach me chess, and it seriously hurts my head. But I want to get better, so maybe you and I could play
