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Kat took a deep breath when Miss Kenel knocked on the door of the headmistress’s office. Her knees shaking, she leaned against the wall across from the door, not sure she would be able to stay steady enough to walk inside.
At the sound of the firm voice of Headmistress Krauss, Miss Kenel turned to look at the girls sternly. “Stay here and don’t move. I’ll come get you when we’re ready.”
Staring at the huge, imposing door, the silence in the hall was almost deafening. “What are you doing!” Kat whispered loudly, when Angie crept to the door.
“Shh!” Angie threw up a hand to warn her best friend to be quiet and then stuck her ear to the door. After a few seconds, she sighed then walked over to slouch down beside Layla, who was sitting on the floor with her legs stretched out in front of her. “I was trying to hear what they were saying, but these infernal doors are solid wood.”
“They have silencing spells on them.” Layla shrugged, staring at the door in front of them as if she could will it to open somehow.
“You could have told me that.” Angie rolled her eyes, still not liking this witch. She seemed off to her somehow, and no one liked her.
Layla started to reply with a smart comment when the door creaked open. The girls scrambled to their feet then hesitated, almost afraid to find out what waited for them on the other side.
“Well, come on with you then!” Miss Kenel admonished, though Kat swore she caught a glimpse of worry in the older woman’s eyes.
Taking a deep breath, Kat reached out for Angie’s hand, clasped it tightly, then stepped over the threshold of the office to meet the sister she never knew she had.
Kat took one look at her sister and gasped, unsure of what to say or do.
“She looks just like you,” Layla whispered, unable to stop her eyes from traveling back and forth between the two sisters.
“Yes, they do look a lot alike but not enough that we can’t pass it off as a coincidence,” Krauss said, stepping out of the shadows where she had been watching the girl’s interaction.
“What do you mean ‘pass us off’?” Kat wanted to say something to the girl sitting so calmly on the couch but didn’t know what to say.
Lara stood, pacing the room as she tried to explain what was going on. “We can’t let anyone know that we’re sisters. No one can know that I’m back from the dead.”
“Why?” Angie asked, folding her arms across her chest and waiting for an answer. “We’re tired of the riddles and the secrets. Kat deserves to know what’s going on here and someone needs to tell her.”
Rosalie Kenel spoke for the first time since the girls had entered the room. “There is a great evil coming to Willow Woods. An evil that started many years ago and culminated in the Great War, almost destroying the Harvest and White Moon Covens. Ten years ago, it started up again.”
“What does that have to do with my sister? With my family? With us?” Kat started pacing along with the girl that was her sister, frustrated and needing to know more.
Rosalie sighed, running her hands across the tight bun of her hair. “You are powerful witches. All of you in your own right.” She gestured toward all four of the girls in the room. “Your sister—”
Krauss held up a hand to stop the young teacher from going on. “That is Lara’s story to tell Kat and the others when she’s ready to tell.”
“But...” Kat glanced over at Lara for answers that didn’t come.
“Not now,” Krauss interjected when Lara would have spoken. “Right now, the important thing is to help Lara blend in with the student body so that no one knows who she is or where she came from.” After turning to her desk and riffling through the papers there, Krauss found a permission slip and waved a hand to fill it out magically. “From now on, you will be known as Hope O’Mallory. You’re from our Irish sisters, and your family has deep ties to the Harvest Moon Coven. You are a freshman, just like Kat and Angie. Miss Kenel, please see to making the room big enough for the three to share.”
“Hope O’Mallory? Are you people insane? We can’t just hide the fact that she’s here. My parents have to be told. She needs to be checked out by a doctor!” Kat brushed her long hair out of her face roughly. “She just come back from the dead for God’s sake, and you want to hide it? To put her in danger all over again? I’m not—”
“Enough!” Krauss’s voice bellowed above the chaos that ensued when everyone started clamoring all at once. “That is exactly what you are going to do. You are still a student of this academy, and I am still your headmistress. Now, Hope, here is your schedule. You are once again a Sirenti. Now go, all of you. Be in classes on time in the morning, just as if nothing has happened.”
Rosalie ushered the girls to the door before they had a chance to complain. “Shh, the time will come when you will learn everything,” she whispered, meeting Lara’s eyes over the other girls’ heads.
A look passed between them that Kat didn’t understand. She let it go but couldn’t wait to get Lara alone.
***
“I WANT TO KNOW HOW she’s going to make our room big enough for the three of us,” Angie whispered as they walked along the rambling corridors of the old school. It was late, and the school was silent, except for the ghostly sentries that stood guard. Every now and then one of them would brush past the five of them as they walked.
“This is new,” Layla said, looking around at the wisps that haunted the halls.
“They were brought back to protect us,” Lara said, her eyes following the ghostly lights. “The wisps roamed these halls on a nightly basis during the incident ten years ago. They are here to protect the school and the students from the evil outside the gates.”
“But can they protect us from the evil that’s already made its way inside?” Angie muttered, watching Lara warily. She just couldn’t trust someone that had been brought back from the dead, and if what she had read in the book was right, Lara was a Mornai, a raiser of the dead. They were cold, calculating, and had nothing but the interest of the Blood Moon Coven at heart. The book! Angie suddenly sprinted ahead of the others.
“Whoa, where’s the fire!” Kat asked, grabbing Angie’s arm to stop her.
Angie pulled away. “I have something to do. I’ll meet ya’ll in the room.”
Kat looked confused but let her go.
Angie made it to the room well ahead of the others. She needed to hide the book. There was no way that she was going to let Lara get her claws into it. Rana had told her not to trust anyone last time she had met with her in the woods. Lara couldn’t be trusted. The others are coming, she thought, hearing them in the hall outside. She quickly pushed the book under her mattress. She would have to hide it later.