Chanting the words, she called upon the forest to bring her a familiar. Please be something powerful, she had gone to all this trouble. A dragon. A griffin. A pegasus. Not a toad. Anything but a toad. The way they licked their eyeballs with their tongues freaked her out.
The ritual demanded her blood. She stared at the hungry circle, the forest threatening to swallow her if she didn’t heed its needs. It was far more than forbidden to use blood magic; it was sacrilege. Even the thought of blood made her sick. But her fucks were flying away faster than the island’s migrating geese.
So she gave it. She dragged the knife over her wrist, wincing, as sharp pain shot up her arm—because using your palm was stupid; she needed that hand—almost letting out a whimper. But she would be damned if she let the goddess have any doubt that she was strong enough for this, that she deserved this.
The pungent scent of magic suffocated her nostrils as the circle ate her blood up hungrily, the symbols of the old language now glowing brighter than they ever had.
The last thing she saw before it went dark was the bloodred moon.
A deep voice slithered through her mind.
“Witch.”
One
Avery
The night before the ritual...
Avery’s motheralways said it was her who should have been eaten in the womb. That the twin Avery ate would have been a more successful student. Today, Avery was inclined to believe her because she was about to be expelled.
The watered-down whiskey tingled as it met her lips, leaving a fiery trail of cinnamon sliding over her throat and settling warm in her chest. Drinking wasn’t the healthiest of coping mechanisms, but for now, it would do.
As the warmth of the alcohol spread through her limbs, her dorm room became a little hazier. The dark wood of the furniture blended with the sunset, and the crackle of the fireplace was the only sound apart from the maddened rise and fall of Maya’s breathing across from her. The valedictorian sprawled out on Avery’s bed, her usually pristine uniform loose and in crumples. She had one sock on and one off; she had given up on propriety three drinks ago. Even her bra lay lonely on thechair after she flung it away mid-rant, declaring it was as useless as the men in the reality TV show they were watching.
“Boooo,” Maya slurred, throwing chocolate almonds at the flickering projector. She’d paused it because she had become so angry that her favorite couple had just broken up. “He couldn’t resist putting his dick in a new arrival for twenty-four hours after he had publicly declared that he loved the girl?”
Avery caught the almond midair and popped it into her mouth. “Men.”
The human TV show was inane enough to leave you clinging to waning brain cells at the end of it. But it was a pleasant distraction from the reality she found herself in.
Thunder rolled outside the window, flickering the projector on and off; the electricity at the university was at the weather’s mercy. You would think, as witches, they could solve that problem, but no, instead they spent their energy on more useless things, like watching reality TV. It was kind of addictive, though.
“Gimme some more of that,” Maya said, stirring. She made a half-hearted grab toward the bottle in Avery’s hand.
Avery held it straight up out of her reach, with a surprisingly quick motion for a tipsy person. “No, no more for you. I don’t want to clean up your vomit off my floor again.”
“That was one time!”
“Was it, though?” Avery raised a pointed eyebrow at her because it was definitely more than once. The piece of bleached wood stood out like a sore thumb from their celebration a year ago. One that she now knew was entirely premature.
“Fiiiine.” Maya flopped back against the pillows, staring at the ceiling. “I should probably stop drinking now, anyway. Two days isn’t enough time to sober up for class.”
The very thing Avery had been drinking to forget slapped her in the face like a flaccid cock. Two days to summon a familiar or probably be expelled. It was literally the only requirementfor their final year. She was going to kiss her magical education goodbye.
Maya’s face crumpled as soon as she said it, a hand flying to her mouth. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
“It’s fine,” Avery said, waving her off. “It’s something you should be proud of. You worked your ass off.”
“Yeahhh, but so did you.” Maya shook her head in disbelief. “I can’t believe Julian fucking Ainsworth got a familiar before you. The man is as dumb as a doorknob.”
Avery let out a bitter laugh, taking another swig from the bottle. A delightful burn coated her throat.
Maya propped herself up on one elbow, her dark braided hair falling messily over her face. “You were, like, at least five points ahead of him in the final theory test.”
Maya attempted to brush a piece of hair away and failed miserably. “He and his new familiar can go. Fuck. Themselves,” she said, punctuating each word by poking her finger through a circle she’d made with her other hand.
It was hilarious seeing Maya like this. She was usually so reserved and determined not to say a bad thing about anyone, but drunk Maya had opinions. Loud ones.
