Bella was with her mate, of course, so she usually didn’t show up for breakfast. And Anya had a special lesson before class this morning. Nina and Lark were nowhere to be seen. I suspected they had eaten early and headed to the library. They had both worked hard to translate the page that had been ripped from the book Bella had “borrowed” from the library. And now they were trying to track down the sources of all the components for the spell outlined on the page.
The original page was in the hands of the Order of the Broken Blade now, after a run in with a nasty warlock that I’d rather not think about. Fortunately, Nina’s note-taking spell had provided us with a copy of our own. And once we figured out the most likely locations of the rare spell ingredients, Bella could relay them to Luke, and the Brotherhood of Guardians could do their best to keep them out of the hands of the warlocks.
The last thing we needed was a group of fanatics trying to bring back the Raven King for their own dark purposes. Anya didn’t think such a thing was even possible, and I was inclined to agree. But just the fact that the Order was working so hard to make it happen was reason enough to try to stop them.
Which meant that everyone had been busy lately, and today, it meant that meant I had to sit with Kendall and her friends for breakfast. I stifled a sigh.
Kendall was a little snobby and a lot aggressive, but she was part of our Bellwether house, and seemed to like me, even though she pushed me around sometimes.
She was easy to deal with on her own, but when she was around her legacy friends, she could be a downright bully. I didn’t like the effect Esme and Dozie had on someone I called my friend.
I briefly considered taking my breakfast outside instead of joining her.
“Cori,” Kendall yelled to me, ruining my thoughts of a private breakfast on the lawn. “Come here and tell these guys what you told me last night.”
“What do you mean?” I asked stupidly.
“That thing you said about the tower,” she said, grabbing my tray and placing it on the table in front of the seat next to hers.
I surrendered and sat down. “It was nothing,” I said, looking down at my toast.
“Did you really see the ghost?” Esme asked, placing her own toast down primly and leaning forward with interest.
“What ghost?” I asked, unable to resist.
“Actually, there are two ghosts,” Dozie said in a bored way. Though in fairness, Dozie said almost everything in a bored way.
“Don’t mess with me,” I said, rolling my eyes and taking a bite of buttered rye. For being so far off the beaten path, Primrose Academy sure did have some fresh bread. I wondered idly if there was some kind of magic involved. There seemed to be some kind of magic involved in just about everything here.
“We’re not kidding, Cori,” Esme said. “We would never kid about the ghosts.”
“It wasn’t a ghost,” I said, taking a sip of coffee and grimacing at the bitterness. Whatever magic they were using to keep the bread fresh, it must have been all used up by the time they got around to the coffee.
“What exactly did you see?” Kendall asked.
“There are claw marks on the door,” I told her. “Other than that, I didn’t actually see anything. But I heard roars. And when I got up there, something flung itself against the door. Something big.”
“That’s the ghost alright,” Esme said, nodding wisely to herself.
“Sounds like the man,” Dozie said. “He flings himself against the door to get to his lost love.”
“The lost love is the other ghost?” I asked, unable to help myself. The business of flinging himself against the door to get to his love actually seemed accurate. The noises had been filled with just that kind of anguish.
“She was a student, and now she wanders the staircases of the school, looking for him,” Esme said, her eyes wide. “But because the tower is off limits to students, she never finds him.”
My face must have given away the fact that I was considering this scenario. After all, I was surrounded by witches, and my best friend’s boyfriend was practically a werewolf. Was believing in ghosts really that much of a stretch?
“Ha,” Kendall barked. “She believed it. You really had her going there, Esme.”
“Jesus, Kendall,” Dozie said moodily. “You weren’t supposed to give it away like that. We could have played with her all year.”
Esme giggled and wiped her mouth daintily. “You really are very gullible, Cori,” she said.
“That was fun,” I said sarcastically. “Well, I’ve got to get moving. Glad you could entertain yourselves at my expense.”
“Get over yourself, Cori,” Dozie said. “It was just a joke.”
I turned to Kendall, but she didn’t meet my eye.
Her shame didn’t matter though, if it didn’t change her behavior. It was clear that being one of the legacies was more important to her than being a friend to me.
I dumped my uneaten breakfast into the trash and headed to the auditorium for morning meeting.
I was surprised to find Headmistress Hart was there already, pacing the floor. Most mornings she swept in after everyone was seated and shouted out a few words of admonishment or encouragement before leaving the school secretary, Miss Twillbottom to very slowly read off the day’s announcements.
More students were filing in now. Anya headed my way, and we sat together in the front row.
“Why is she so freaked out?” Anya whispered without even saying hello.
“No idea,” I said. “But I’m guessing it’s not good.”
By now the auditorium was full. Thankfully, Anya had put her books in the seat next to hers to reserve it, so there was still a seat when Bella dashed in just as the lights were dimming. She spotted us right away and moved to join us.
“Women of Primrose Academy,” Headmistress Hart said
