Page 1 of The Banshee and the Warlock

Chapter 1

Anja

There's a knock on my bedroom door, and a moment later, it opens to reveal my flatmate Nati. "You ready, Anja?"

I nod and grab my bag from where it's hanging over the back of my desk chair. "As ready as I can be for a new term."

She snorts. "Not feeling refreshed after the holidays?" Movement on her head catches the light as one of the snakes there moves around, and she lets out a sigh. "Not now, Frank."

He hisses in response, making me smile.

"This is why you shouldn't have living hair," she says as she steps back to let me leave my room and lock it behind me.

"Aren't you used to it?" I ask curiously. Despite having known her since the start of the university year when we both arrived at Rosewood Academy, she hasn't talked much about her gorgon nature, and I know better than to pry. But now she's brought it up, I'm kind of interested in finding out more.

"Aren't you used to your hair?" she responds.

I reach up and touch the neat plait thrown over my shoulder. Not really. I don't say as much out loud, it'll come with a lot of questions that I don't want to answer.

"I've never asked if the colour is natural," she says.

I shake my head. "Mum makes me a potion to dye it."

"Can't you do that yourself?"

I grimace. "I've never learned how, I think she's hoping I will this term."

"Potions?" she guesses.

"Yeah, it's my first class." Something I'm both unreasonably nervous and kind of excited for. Maybe I'm about to discover that I'm a witch like my parents after all. I find it unlikely, but I know Mum is hopeful after I got accepted into Rosewood Academy despite having shown no magical ability at any point in the past.

Nati checks her watch and grimaces. "Class starts in ten minutes. And it takes seven to get from here to the Potions room. You're going to be late."

"I don't even know where it is," I admit. "I didn't go into that wing of the castle last term."

"Well, you're in luck, I pass it on the way to Divination." She gestures for us to turn to the left.

"You know you're the best, right?"

"Of course." She smiles at me in the confident, easy way that Nati always has.

"How do you know everything about this place?" I ask.

"I looked at my campus map before I went to bed last night because I knew I'd need to get to a new classroom," she responds without skipping a beat. "You should try it."

I roll my eyes, but don't argue back, partly because she's right, I should have done that, I was just too nervous about taking Potions in the first place and worrying about what Mum's going to think if I don't

"Your mum must be a talented witch," Nati says.

"What makes you say that?"

"It's hard to make purple natural." She gestures to my plait.

"Oh, right. I guess I never really thought about it. It's the only colour that doesn't wash me out. I mean, more than this." I gesture at my face.

Nati snorts. "Yeah, sorry, you're still washed out. Are you sure your parents are witches?"

"I'm adopted," I remind her. "And no, they don't look like they've just died." I've never fully understood why my skin is as pale as it is, but I've gotten used to it over the years.