Page 41 of Echoes of the Banshee

I nod slowly.

“What’s he doing?”

“Someone’s been killing nightblinds. They’ve been asking Vero to check the blood for clues.”

“This isn’t the first time?”

“No, the rest of the class knows to skip these days.” I pull my eyes away from the body and look at him.

“Why didn’t you?”

“I knew you’d be here, and I don’t really have anywhere else to be.”

I gape at him. That was such a Lazlo answer. He gives me a half smile, a dimple flashing.

I look towards the body. “Will it be bloody?”

“Yes.”

“Can we leave?”

“Yes.” He grabs my hand and leads me outside. I’m still frozen. I tighten my hold on Mavrik’s hand.

He sits me down on a patch of grass somewhere outside. I don’t remember getting here. I take a few deep breaths, head between my knees, trying to settle myself. Mavrik sits beside me and rubs my back.

“So fire and blood. Good thing witches aren’t anything like the movies or you’d be an awful witch.”

I snort. Then start laughing and can’t stop.

“What?”

“I am an awful witch,” I laugh. “By all definitions.”

“You?” he teases. “I can barely cast. Only thing I'm halfway decent at is scrying.”

That sets me off again. “I can’t heal!”

“Me either,” he laughs.

After a few minutes of us trading our ineptitudes, I finally stop the hysterical laughter.

“Thank you.”

“For?”

“Being as bad of a witch as me.” I elbow his ribs and he grimaces like I mortally wounded him. I stand and offer him a hand up, his shadows curl around my arm the second he takes it.

“That’s still so weird,” he comments. We must’ve been sitting in the grass longer than I thought because most of the classes have let out for the day.

“Hey shadow boy!” A girl calls out and Mavrik turns as a witch hurls a potion in his direction. His shield comes up, blocking the both of us as we stare at the potion now bubbling on the sidewalk.

“Fucking freak.”

The group of girls cackle as the smell hits us, it was a skunk potion.

“Girls? I think you dropped this.” I blast wind in their direction too hard. The girls are hit with potion and flying glass from the passageway.

“Oops!” I call as they scream. I look at Mavrik, whose face is lit up. I smirk. “What?”