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“What’s a gutter witch?” I asked Anya quietly, although I had a pretty good idea from context that it wasn’t anything good.
“It’s not a real thing,” she said firmly. “Just a stupid name some of the legacies have for those of us whose parents didn’t attend a magical academy.”
“How nice,” I said. “Is Cori going to be okay?”
As a fellow target of the mean-girl contingent of Primrose Academy, I felt for her. At least I didn’t have to put up with it for much longer.
“Of course,” Anya said. “She’ll just cry it out in the storage room next to the library like she always does. She doesn’t believe me, but I keep telling her that even though she’s struggling more now, she’s going to be more powerful than anyone else in class later. It’s totally worth it.”
I nodded, but inwardly wasn’t so sure that Cori wanted to be all that powerful. She was such a kind and caring soul. The power to use weather as a weapon didn’t seem to suit her. She was more the type that would use her magic to keep it from raining on someone’s picnic.
A few minutes later, Eve returned with a leather-bound volume in her hand. She marched over to Esme and paged through it as she stood before her.
Even from across the circle, I could feel the power of the thing. The only book in the library I’d handled that had that kind of force was the one with the raven inscribed on its cover. And that was only when I actually touched it. This book must be in a whole different league if I was picking up on it from so far away.
“What is that?” I asked Anya.
“It must be a book from the vault, or she wouldn’t have gone for it herself,” Anya said. “The more powerful healing tomes are kept in the tree.”
“Lucky, Esme,” I thought out loud.
“Uh, I guess so,” Anya said. “It probably would have been luckier not to get hit by a falling statue.”
We all watched silently as Eve read from the book. A soft light seemed to glow from its pages.
She leaned over Esme, one palm upraised, murmuring softly. The glow moved from the book into the instructor’s hand and then slid in a glimmering beam to caress Esme’s forearm.
Esme gasped and closed her eyes.
A moment later it was over. Eve unwrapped the makeshift bandage, revealing perfect skin beneath.
“Perfect,” she said, straightening and heading back toward the school. “Class dismissed.”
“You’re just as pretty as ever, Esme,” Dozie assured her friend.
“If we could make what’s inside her that pretty, we’d be in business,” Eve muttered as she walked past Anya and me, just loud enough for us to hear.
Anya hid her smile behind her hand.
“Oh, Eve, wait,” I called out. “Please.”
She turned to me. “What is it?”
“I have, um, a private question,” I said. “Can we talk for a minute?”
“Sure,” she said.
Anya gave me a look as if she were offering to stay.
I shook my head. There was no need for her to be here. And Eve was probably more likely to help if it was just the two of us.
