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Magic sweeps out around us with just a thought, a tiny sprinkle of gold glitter-like magic hovering in front of me for a moment before it bursts, dissipating into the air like a cloud of smoke. My stomach twists at the comparison, reminding me of exactly what I need to tell them.
“We can speak freely now,” I explain, unwilling to speak these words into existence until I at least had some form of protection from Glenda’s countless spies.
“What happened in class, Aria?” Harper asks again, infusing some steel into her tone to show me she’s not going to back down. “You looked like you’d seen a ghost when that last monster came on the screen.”
“More like something I’d really been hoping was a figment of my imagination,” I murmur, taking a deep breath as I meet their looks of confusion.
I start back on that first night and the dream I had, explaining every detail that happened, much to Carter’s chagrin. The darkness, Damon, the swirls of smoke, and the mention of the dream realm—all of it.
“It all ended just in time for my alarm to go off,” I say, refusing to look too hard at their expressions just yet. “It seemed so real, but I convinced myself it had to be a dream.”
Next I explain my first suspicions when Landon mentioned different realms, and tell them about how I snuck off to the library that afternoon before my meeting with the headmistress.
“I haven’t had the heart to look at it yet though,” I admit. I splay my fingers and silently summon the book to rest atop it.
The heavy weight presses against my skin, reminding me of the last time I held it, right before Denver snuck up on me. Nope, I’m definitely leaving that part out.
I lower it to the bed and continue. “I tried to keep my mind off the—Damon,” I stumble over the word monster, unable to call him that, not when the picture I’d seen of his kind and what he’d done to me were so drastically different. “Thinking if I can control that, I can keep myself from going there again. But after what we learned in class today, I’m not sure that’s an option.”
“Dammit, Aria,” Carter grunts in frustration. He scrubs a hand back through his hair, clearly needing a moment to let all that information sink in.
“You can’t keep stuff like this from us,” Harper says, her gaze softer than I’ve been expecting. “We’re your second and third, and we have to know everything so we can make sure to have your back.”
“I guess I should tell you something else,” I breathe, hating to pile onto the shitstorm I just dumped at their feet. “I left out a part of my meeting with Professor Pierce. The stone of reckoning showed him my power level too. He knows.”
Carter curses under his breath and Harper leaps up from her seat to pace around the small room.
“He knows how much power you have?” she asks, pausing as a crease forms between her brows, her mind already trying to formulate a plan.
“Yes he knows,” I sigh in exasperation, not wanting to make a bigger deal of this than it needs to be. “He warned me that my power could become unstable, and I’m going to need ways to siphon it off.”
“Is he going to say anything?” Carter demands, pushing up from his spot on the couch as though he might just scour the school for the professor and put an end to the problem here and now.
“He isn’t going to say anything, and he erased any record of it,” I assure him. “He wanted to tell the elders so they could help, but I made sure to tell him about what the consequences would be if he did.”
“Uh yeah, Glenda would flay him alive,” Harper scoffs, her hands planted on her hips as her gaze flicks between me and the door. “Maybe I should—”
“No,” I interrupt, standing to usher them both back to their seats. “Now sit back down. I don’t need the two of you threatening the guy when he’s trying to help me.”
“Aria,” Carter grumbles in warning, but he relents and flops back on the couch. Harper however, takes a seat on the bed, refusing to be near Carter again.
“Stop,” I cut him off, not wanting to hear an echo of all the thoughts that have already flitted through my mind. “He already knows the consequences if he says anything, and he’s working to help me siphon off more of my magic in our lessons. Besides I just have a feeling—call it intuition—but I feel like we can trust him.”
“I don’t think you’re seeing things clearly here, Aria,” Carter says evenly, his narrowed gaze scanning and assessing me. “Are you sure your judgment isn’t being clouded?”
“What the hell are you trying to get at, Carter?” I hiss, my fingers curling into fists at my side as I hold myself back from throttling my brother.
“It means that I remember what happened on the first day—how you were staring at him across the cafeteria,” Carter snaps, not cowed in the least by the cutting glare I narrow on him. “Are you sure you aren’t letting your attraction for the guy get in the way of your common sense?”
“Are you serious?” I grind out, staring back at my brother like I hardly know him. That he would think I would put my own safety, and the future of our coven, at risk because I find a guy attractive. “I have never and will never let some guy cloud my judgment. You should know that.”
Carter takes a deep breath, taking a moment to compose himself before he nods. “Yeah, I do. Sorry, Sis.”
“It’s okay,” I say, rolling my shoulders to ease some of the tension away. “We just can’t be at each other’s throats like this.”
“I agree,” Harper says, resting her hands in her lap. I expect her to be giving Carter a haughty glare but there’s nothing but sincerity in her gaze. “We can’t be fighting with each other when we need to keep our focus on our enemies, like Denver Prince.”
Denver. I immediately think I’ve been caught, before her words register completely. Guilt pools in my stomach, weighing it down like a ton of bricks. I wish I could tell them what’s going on there too, but they wouldn’t understand—hell I’m not even sure I understand. Plus there really isn’t anything to tell, not at least until I can talk to him and figure out what he meant the other day in class.
