With bated breath, I reached for the doorknob, half expecting another mess to greet me.

  Instead, it opened easily, no other spells or hexes to be seen.

  The entire classroom turned to stare at me. I half expected the room to be wrecked, but it looked like they had broken out into groups and were working on their hexes.

  John's confidence in their abilities came back to me.

  “You're back?” Pepper jumped up from her seat and rushed toward me.

  “We thought you abandoned us,” Jack said, his voice edged with dissatisfaction.

  “Abandon you? Of course not,” I said with a smile as I put a hand on Pepper's head, patting it gently. “I still need to get revenge on the person who used a curse of rejection on the door. Then there’s the food dye explosion. Plus a few other hexes that got me good.”

  Pepper's face twisted in confusion and she looked back at her brother. His shrug reassured me that at least these two weren't involved in the prank.

  “Tomorrow is a very important day for this class. What have you prepared for the presentation?”

  There was one group of three that raised their hands.

  “I'll take a look,” I said, nodding to the group.

  I gazed at Pepper. “Do you and your brother have anything to show me?”

  “We do,” she said, excitement strumming through her body.

  “Can you have it ready for me when I stop by?”

  “What gives you the right to judge us?” Dobbs called from his place at the back of the classroom, disdain in every line of his body.

  His question dampened the mood of the others. Sowing the seeds of doubt seemed to be the only thing this brat was good at. That and annoying the hell out of me.

  “That's a fair question.” I nodded to Pepper and then made my way to the front of the classroom. My bag dropped on the lab table and I took out my stacks of hexes. Luckily, I'd had some time in the hospital bed to sort them out. It made this part so much more satisfying.

  It also gave me a place to vent my frustration and disappointment with John. I slapped a hex on the table, injecting the slightest bit of my magic into it, to trigger the spell. A huge plume of black smoke rose from it, transforming slowly into a huge snake with glowing red eyes. The class responded with slightly different levels of interest. Some outright ignored it. That's fine. I would get them hooked, soon.

  “There are five main types of hexes. This is the one used most often to scam mortals. See how this is slightly see-through? This is a Hex of Illusion. Often used by mortal illusionists with some pull in the witch-world. You see them often during international celebrations, special anniversary events, and on the strip in Vegas.”

  “Are they also used in movies?” Jack asked.

  “The ones you see in movies are different. Take out your phones and take a picture.”

  Only a few did so. “Take a look. What do you see?”

  “There's nothing there.” One of the kids from the trio group spoke up. Pepper and Jack both moved up and looked at the image.

  “That's right. This is an ocular hex. It only affects the eyes. All hexes will affect at least one of your senses. Some can even affect your cognitive abilities, but those have been outlawed since that time the Macarena became a global sensation.”

  The class, collectively, looked at me in confusion. “It's a long story. Across the globe, every person who heard the song broke out in a ritualistic dance that people became obsessed with. This dance craze was definitely the work of sinister hex forces.

  The ocular hex is simple and easy to create. It's also extremely easy to destroy.” I swiped my finger through the hex mark, and it dissolved instantly. The next one is also an illusion hex, but it involves all of your senses. This is called a doppelganger.”

  I slapped the hex mark on the table and infused my magic into it, feeling the drain immediately. Having this restriction on me was going to make things super tough. A giant griffon formed in front of us. Solid, realistic. Feathers gleamed as though standing in the sun. Beak razor sharp and claws digging into the desk, gouging the wood.

  “This is a griffon. See how solid it looks? If you touch its wing, you could even feel the texture of its feathers. This is called a doppelganger hex. In order to cast it, you have to have seen the creature or person, memorizing every feature, and also make an ink from parts of their body.”

  “Like blood?”

  “That's one option, but blood hexes aren't powerful enough to maintain this level of illusion. I had to use a griffon's feather, some saliva, and a few hairs from its tail to make the ink in this hex work. The paper is also important. So is the tool you use to write it.” I had no interest in telling them that the ink was written using a quill made from a griffon tail feather. Or how long it took me to even learn how to write with one of those things.

  “How did you get its saliva?” Pepper asked with her hand raised.

  “Are we going to just ignore the fact that she expects us to believe that griffons are real?” Dobbs was asking all the annoying questions.

  Pepper responded before I could. “They are. They stop by our pepper farm, all the time. Gran gives them habaneros regularly.”

  “She's right. Habaneros are their weaknesses. I learned how to make candied habaneros so I could get close to them.”

  “How did you get saliva?” Pepper asked again.

  “Well, here's a secret you might not know. They also like to chew on basketballs. They usually poke a hole in them with their talons, and then run their beaks over the ball until it becomes a shredded mess.”

  “So you took the saliva from the ball?”

  “Yeah. If you want to do this, you have to learn how to gather ingredients yourself. And in some cases, make your own hexpapers.”

  “My family sells every ingredient you need,” Dobbs sneered at us. “Why would I make these things myself when I could buy them, instead?”

  “Says the guy who didn't believe griffons were real,” Jack said as he leaned back in his chair.

  “What about human doppelgangers?” Another kid asked.

  “Those are almost impossible to get right. The hexxer casting the spell would have to know that individual inside and out to get it right. That's the fatal weakness of this hex type. Do you want to see what I mean?”

  I walked up to the front of the table and held my forearm up. “Up,” I said, as though it was an animal I'd tamed. The griffon gingerly grasped my arm and lifted itself. A few giggles erupted in class since this giant griffon looked like his talons swallowed my arm. “The claws don't bite into my skin or leave any indentation whatsoever. You can come close and look. What do you see?”

  “His stomach has no texture,” said Pepper.

  “That's right. Everything about him is an illusion. His claws didn’t cause damage to the desk, and I never saw his stomach so I can't recreate it. There's another aspect as well. Would you extend your wing for us?” I asked the illusion as though it wasn't moving according to my whim in the first place.

  It spread its wing. “Touch the feathers.”

  Pepper hesitated and then reached out. I wanted to tease her, so I let the illusion draw back slightly.”

  The girl cried out in shock and then laughed, reaching out to touch it.

  “Oh wow.” Her fingers traced over a bright plume.

  “Feels neat, right? Now touch its chest.”

  The griffon puffed out its chest and she didn't hesitate this time. The smile died on her lips almost instantly, though. “It feels weird.”

  “That's because I have never touched the body of a griffon or the body of a lion, so I'm not sure what it's supposed to feel like. Some can fill in the gaps, but I'm a literal-minded illusionist. I can only recreate what I have seen, felt, heard, or tasted.”

  “Tasted?”

  “Yeah. We'll get to that in a bit. Anyone else want to touch him?”

  The kids scrambled up, even Dobbs.

  “Can they eat and interact with the world like regular people or animals?”

  “Flap your wings,” I said and the griffon suddenly reared back on its hind legs, letting its wings spread wide. The wings rushed forward and a few of the kids covered their faces.

  But nothing happened.

  “This is a basic illusion. If we want to make it more realistic, we have to use additional hexes. Like an elemental hex. This wind one, for instance.” I placed a hexmark on the chest of the griffon. With a whispered activation spell, the letters glowed and then dissipated, disintegrating the paper.

  “Flap your wings again, but do it gently.”

  This time they felt the wind.

  “You can combine hexes in a seemingly infinite combination. But you have to be very careful. The wrong combination can be deadly. This isn't a joke. If he used his wings at full strength, none of you would be able to stand in front of me. And if I added fire to the spell list.” I took another hex and put it on his chest. It went up in smoke instantly and was absorbed into the illusion.

  “Turn that way.” I pointed to the wall. “Flap your wings.”

  He did so and this time, fire and wind erupted from his wings, gushing out in a giant fireball.

  The kids screamed in excitement, and I grinned. “Cool, right? But if you do something like that and cause havoc, you lose your magic forever. Hexxers are automatically targeted, so craft your combo hexes carefully.”

  “Can you make an illusion from your imagination?”

  “That's an excellent question. Imagination is tricky. Your mind is constantly altering what it sees. And some people are incapable of seeing images in their mind, at all.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. Those individuals have a much harder time with ocular and doppelganger illusion hexes, but their strengths usually lie in other sensory hexes. Like the ones we're going to do for our presentation tomorrow.”

  I gestured to Pepper and Jack and one of the kids from the trio group. “You three. I have a list of ingredients and tools I need you to get from the food pantry.” The Academy keeps every pantry stocked with time-stasis food items–items that can't go bad or age as they're frozen in time and temperature.

  “Your projects tomorrow need to show your talents and the presentation needs to wow the judges.”

  “Don't listen to her. My dad already said it didn't matter how we do tomorrow.”

  “Well, I guess that's true. If you do poorly, it won't matter because this entire program will end and you can go home.”

  “What?”

  “No!”

  The small class collectively looked horrified. Well, eight of the nine, anyway. Dobbs wouldn't believe me no matter what I said. And that was fine by me.

  “I need this program. This is the only way we can use these types of inks and ingredients,” Pepper said as she brought back a cart with vanilla extract, sugar, peanut butter, heavy cream, and whole milk. Jack brought mixing bowls and whisks. The other kid brought serving dishes.

  “Don't worry. Everything will be fine. We're going to do well. You've got to trust me.”

  “You should trust her. Her simple ice cream recipe is delicious,” John called from the back of the classroom, making everyone turn to stare.

  “Sorry, I'm late. That took longer than expected. What are we working on?”

  HIs gaze locked onto mine, seemingly apologetic. But I wasn't ready to deal with it at this moment. “Why don't you show him your current projects, while I finish setting all this up.”

  Pepper and Jack both hesitated next to me, but I could see their excitement as their body language moved toward him.

  “Go ahead. You don't get this kind of chance very often. This experiment takes some prep time.”

  The kids dashed off and I turned my back to him. Focusing only on what needed to be done. I listened to his voice as he calmly and patiently spoke with each kid. All nine, even Dobbs, were respectful and polite.

  Whatever. It's not like I needed them to respect me or anything. I needed to get through the next twenty-four hours so I could go back home or look for a new one, and forget all this ever happened.

  I slipped on my hex gloves and started carving marks into the bowls, whisks, and spoons, using a simple etching tool. For movement hexes on inanimate objects, I didn't need much spell power. My etching tool was already tempered with the four elements plus a little anti-gravity thrown into the mix.

  “Why peanut butter?” John spoke next to my ear, jerking me out of my focus. I held a hand to my chest and forced my heart to slow down.

  “I'm allergic to it, but they're not. And it's an easy ingredient to use for this.”

  “Are you making an eggless ice cream?”

  “Yeah.” I tried to get my pounding heart under control, but he was standing way too close. And I have to admit, I was a little charmed by the way he spoke with the kids, wishing I had that kind of encouragement when I was younger.

  “You're good with them.”

  “I doubt it. I'm just trying to be the teacher I wanted when I was a kid.”

  His echo of my thoughts silenced me.

  “Any of the projects look promising?”

  He shrugged. “With more time, maybe. You're our only hope.”

  I waved my hand in front of his face. “I'm not the witch you're looking for.”

  “You are.” He caught my hand in his and brought my palm to his lips. “I'm sorry for not explaining myself. I promise I'll make it up to you when I explain everything.”

  “Oooh,” one of the students called out. “Are you dating?”

  “No,” I said as I jerked my hand back to my side, rubbing it on my jeans. Mostly because the skin tingled where he'd touched it with his lips.

  “What's next?” John asked, clearing his throat.

  I smiled. “Next, I teach them what happens when they mess with me.” My grin widened and John's gaze locked onto my lips.

  “You definitely know how to hold a grudge.”

  “You would know,” I whispered as I turned to face my nine students.

  “I am going to teach you how to make ice cream using simple hexes. It'll save you time, energy, and even your power bill.” I coughed gently. “Something you won't have to worry about until you're older.”

  “Who wants to be the first volunteer?”

  The Pepper Jack twins raised their hands. “You two come on up. Anyone else?”

  I saw the rest of the class look toward Dobbs before settling back to watch a show.

  “No one else? I guess these guys will get all the ice cream, then.”

  The moment I said that more hands shot up. By the time it was done, even Dobbs grudgingly raised his hand. “Excellent. Let's get started.”

  11

  Veronica

  “We're going to make a super simple peanut butter ice cream. First, we're going to add our ingredients to your bowls. Peanut butter and sugar first.”

  I watched them slowly work through it, peanut butter getting stuck on the spoons. “Lightly trigger the heat element on your spoons. Just slightly. If you do too much–”

  “Ahh!” One of the kids panicked as his peanut butter turned into instant char. I took it from him before it could get worse and handed him a new one. Thankfully, I had the kids pick up extras.

  “It's okay. That comes with practice. I'll do it for you this time.” I picked up a glob of peanut butter and put it over the bowl. Then I ignited the fire hex on the spoon, careful to keep the power slight. The peanut butter turned a bit melty and slid off the spoon into the bowl. “You do it once, turn it off, then do it again. These spoons are designed to return to their natural state quickly, so there is virtually no cool down period.”

  “Want to try it again?” I asked him, but he shook his head. “No worries. I'll finish this for you as an example.”

  “Let me do that,” John said as he swiped the spoon and the jar from my hands.

  “I have spell gloves,” I said, but he ignored me and continued putting peanut butter in the bowl.

  “How much peanut butter do we use?”

  “All of the peanut butter in the jar. Then add 1 1/3 cup of sugar. Don't heat the spoon for this or you'll end up with burned sugar and that won't be pretty.”

  Most of them dumped the sugar in quickly. “Now mix. This is a hand mixer. Super easy to use.” I stepped forward to show them, but John was already there.

  The students laughed at his enthusiasm. “Someone’s in a hurry for peanut butter ice cream,” I said with a smile. I hated to admit it, but it was kinda nice to see someone care this much.

  “Now, watch as he triggers the momentum hex on the mixer. Don't worry, everyone will have trouble at first. It will be tough to get the timing right.” I eyed John and he smirked, letting his hex control go slightly out of whack. “See, everyone has trouble.”

  “This is great! I didn't know you could use hexes for stuff like this!” Pepper called out as her hand mixer set into an easy perpetual motion. Some had a little more trouble, Jack especially.

  “This is dumb. Why can't we just use a stand mixer?”

  “Because you're going to do this as your opening act for the event tomorrow. If we show them how simple and easy this is to do, we will draw their curiosity and make them interested in hexing as a way of life. This is called a kinetic hex. Also known as a motion hex. It's a very complicated hex in most forms, but simplified movements are easy. A stand mixer will usually move around in a circular motion to fully mix, but you don't want to do that.”

  A couple had already tried, and it ended in disaster.

  “I appreciate your enthusiasm but wait for the steps, so we don't have to get more materials ready.” John was already at their sides with new mixers since theirs went flying. “A kinetic hex has one motion, only. So, you have to move the bowl yourself. John?” I held out my hand and he stepped up, showing them how to move the bowl around during mixing. The hand mixer remained in place, floating there in the air, while he moved the bowl around.

 

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