Wicked Omen (The Royals: Warlock Court Book 1), page 8
“Well, then you’re in luck because you have me.” He bumped me with his hip then bent down low to start pulling things out from under the table. “Just go to the sink over there and fill up three pitchers of water to put in the cauldron. We need to bring it to a boil before we can add ingredients.”
“Right, okay, no problem.” I didn’t want to carry pitchers back and forth, but I would do whatever it took to start this class off. I was new to the world, but everything about it fascinated me.
I turned to go do what Leo said when he called after me. “Okay, Miss Thang.”
“What?” I spun back around.
He motioned to the cauldron. “See for yourself.”
When I looked over the edge of the pot, the water was already in there. Steam drifted up as it simmered a steady bubble. Oh crap. “Did I do that?”
A wide smile spread across his face. “I don’t see any other creators standing around here doing it, do you?”
Two students at the workstation next to us gave low, snide snickers. When I glanced at them, I was struck how similar they were in looks. They were nearly the same height, with the boy only being an inch or two taller than the girl. They each had brown hair with reddish undertones, small slop-like noses, and half-moon-shaped brown eyes. They were equally pale, with freckles sprinkled over their noses. The only difference I could see from here was the girl had that basic bitch lob haircut and he had his hair cut tight to his head.
She leaned her elbows on the desk in front of her. “Actually, I do see two other creators in this classroom.”
Leo pursed his lips. “I meant one with serious power, Kitty. Little parlor tricks are child’s play compared to a Lockwood.”
I shook my head. “Oh, I’m not that—”
“I’m Kitty Kalarook and this is my brother Kyle.” She walked over to me and extended her hand.
I shook it. “Astrid.”
She narrowed her eyes at Leo. “You should really think about who you spend your time with around here, Astrid. We wouldn’t want your reputation tarnished on your first day.”
Leo pushed his glasses farther up his nose with his middle finger. “No, we really wouldn’t. So, Astrid, if you’d like to learn how to manifest flowers and tiny little pieces of magic, I suggest you hang out with them. Just keep in mind that your bitch meter will always have to be on.”
Kyle rolled his eyes. “We all know who the bitchy one is here and it’s not Kitty.”
Kitty ran her hand through her hair as she cackled. “Exactly.”
“Aww, Kyle, I swear ever since I kicked you out of my bed Kitty has been beating you with the stupid stick.” When Kyle opened his mouth to reply, Leo held his hand up, silencing him. “Like I said last year, don’t bring moron this way.”
Kyle turned back to his cauldron, but Kitty wasn’t quite ready to give in yet. “Anyways, Astrid, since there’s only a couple of us, we should stick together. We are after all the unicorns of the warlock world.”
A burst of laughter came from Leo. “Did you really just call yourself a unicorn?” He glanced from Kyle to Kitty and back again. “I see delusions run in the family.”
“Please, like your opinion matters to anyone here. No one gives a shit about you or anything you have to say. Not even the family who abandoned you here.”
Leo pressed his lips into a hard line, and I could tell by the narrow set of his eyes she’d struck a nerve. If anyone knew about being abandoned by family, it was me. Hell, Tilly and I created our own family.
Kitty pushed her bottom lip out in a fake pout. “Oh, did I hurt your widdle feelings?”
Leo placed a bunch of vials on the table in front of him. “Ignore the peanut gallery, Astrid. She’s not worth the air she breaths.”
“Whatever.” Kitty rolled her eyes. “There’s a party tonight out by the cove. Portal opens at ten. Don’t be late, Astrid.” She turned away from me and moved back to stand on the opposite side of the table across from Kyle. Though I couldn’t hear what they were saying, I could tell by the way they glanced at me and whispered I was the topic of conversation.
Leo handed me a small glass cup with light blue powder filled up to the rim. “Just put a pinch of this in.”
His demeanor had completely changed from fun and playful to serious and studious. I didn’t like it. I pinched the sandy material and dropped it into the cauldron. The steam turned a bright blue and the smell of blueberries filled my nose. I hated blueberries. I turned my face away. “So are you going to the party tonight?”
He shook his head. “Nah.”
“Why not?”
He pointed to another powder that was bright red. “Mugwart, you’ll need three pinches. You should smell it first. That way you’ll learn the difference between ingredients. A lot of this stuff can get mixed up.”
I held it up to my nose and inhaled the pungent smell that reminded me of paprika. I grabbed three pinches and each time I threw them in the steam turned a different color. First purple, then plum, then finally blood red. “Come on, Leo, you can’t let them get to you. We should go.”
Not that I was a party girl, but I wasn’t a fan of the popular crowd leaving everyone else out.
He sighed. “You sure you want to go with me?”
Professor Charles smacked her hand down on a desk on the other side of the classroom. “No! No! How hard can this be? You have all the ingredients and specific directions.” The boy she yelled at shrank away from her as she turned to the rest of the class. “You should be halfway through your work. I’ll be placing a white rat on each of your tables. That is the rat you’ll have to make disappear. With this particular potion, it should disappear and reappear ten seconds later.”
Little white rats appeared on every table. Not a single one was in a cage. I reached out and rubbed my finger over its head. “Yeah, of course I want to go with you.” Why wouldn’t I want to hang out with him? “It’ll be fun.”
He handed me another glass of brown crumples. I held it to my nose. “Bacon?”
“Pig hooves ground up.”
I gagged and handed it back to him. “Next time warn me before I shove my nose in it.”
He dumped the contents of the cup into the cauldron and suddenly the smell of breakfast filled our area. I was never going to eat bacon again. He chuckled. “Fine, I’ll warn you next time.”
“Excellent.” I dumped the last two glasses of powder into the cauldron. Leo held his hand out. “Astrid, no!”
The steam flashed all different colors one right after the other. “Oh shit.”
“I’ll be coming around in just a moment to mark off your experiments as complete. A mistake will result in a failing grade.” She was standing over another student when she called out to the class and hadn’t turned to face the catastrophe I’d just caused.
“I don’t know what I was thinking.” I waved my hand over the cauldron. All the other students had a steady flow of bright red steam and mine was glittering freaking pink. “Maybe it won’t be so bad.”
I grabbed up a ladle and scooped some of the contents out. I blew across it to make sure it wasn’t too hot.
Leo shook his head. “I wouldn’t.”
“What else can I do? Maybe it’ll work. I can’t fail on my first day.” I dumped it over the rat, drenching it completely.
“Ohhhh, giirrllll.” Leo shook his head and laughed.
The rat changed from white to red, to orange, to yellow, to green, to blue. “Oh no!”
“I’m coming around now,” Professor Charles called.
My hands fluttered nervously over the rat and my heart pounded in my chest. Everyone else was laughing as their rats disappeared and reappeared with each drop they put on it and I made a freaking disco rat. “Leo, help.”
I glanced over my shoulder and Professor Charles was on her way to our table while looking down at her clipboard. Leo grabbed up his backpack, unzipped it, and shoved the rat inside a second before the professor stood next to me. She looked from me to Leo and back again. “Where is your vermin?”
“Disappeared.” Leo shrugged, playing it so cool.
“Is that so?” She gave me a sour look.
I didn’t know what else to say, so I nodded, playing along with what he said. Was I holding my breath? Yes, definitely holding my breath.
“You do understand the rat is supposed to reappear in ten seconds? So where is it?” She held her clipboard higher, with the pen at the ready to fail me horribly.
I cleared my throat. “I, um, I got a little heavy-handed with the potion.”
“Drenched the poor thing completely.” Leo glanced around. “I suppose it’ll show up at some point.”
Rat, rat, rat . . . think rat. Come on, you can do this. Nothing, not a single furry little creature appeared. My magic didn’t even respond. We are going to have a serious pep talk later.
“Seeing how you made the rat disappear, I will mark you with a B for partial completion. Next time, Ms. Lockwood, I suggest you follow the directions. They’re there for a reason.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I pressed my lips together.
With a glare, she stormed off to the next desk. I sagged with relief and Leo held his backpack up. When he opened the zipper, disco lights flashed from inside of it.
“I owe you big time.”
He shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.”
I had to help him out in some way. “Soooo about tonight?”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine, I’m in.”
The ominous sound of a grandfather clock echoed around the room and everyone grabbed up their bags. I reached for the cauldron, ready to go clean it out.
Leo waved me off. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Why not?”
Before he could answer, Professor Charles waved her hand and all the cauldrons vanished along with the messes on each of the tables. I looked at her with wide eyes.
Leo leaned in and whispered, “She’s a creator. The eldest one in Evermore. She’s probably the only one who can really teach you your powers.”
Kitty and Kyle shoved out in front of us. “Don’t bother. My father offered her a fortune to personally teach us. She’s not interested.”
As I walked out the door, I looked over my shoulder at where Professor Charles stared after me. I slammed into Leo’s back. “A little warning next time you pump the brakes, dude.” When I looked back at her, she’d already turned away from me.
“Not my fault there’s a traffic jam.”
Kitty and Kyle stood in the doorway frozen. I shoved Leo forward to push past them. I stumbled out into the middle of the hall and caught myself a moment before I slammed into Beckett.
Ugh, just the sight of his gorgeous ass annoyed me. He leaned up against the wall with one foot propped up. He looked so casual, so calm while he waited. When his eyes met mine, his lips pulled up in a smirk. “How was class?”
I hiked my backpack farther up on my shoulder. “It was fine.”
He ran his hands through his hair. “Good. I have your schedule right here.” He pulled it from his pocket and handed it over to me.
I snatched it from his grip and gave it a quick glance:
Mon, Wed, Fri: 9am – 11am: CPS (Curses, Potions and Spells)
11am-12pm: Summoning (Demons, creatures, and objects)
2pm-3pm: Dark Arts
3:30pm-7:00pm: Weapons Training
Tues, Thurs : 9am – 12pm: Manifestation
2pm-3pm: Warlock History
3:30-7:00pm: Dueling 101
I shoved it into my backpack. “You could’ve warned me before you just threw me in that class.”
He glanced down at the floor. “Yeah, sorry about that, I had some stuff to take care of.”
Kitty shoved her way next to me. “Beckett, hi.”
“Um, hi?” He looked up and down the hall like he was searching for a hint as to who she was.
“Kitty Kalarook, Lockwood House.” She pulled her bomber jacket higher up on her shoulder.
“Right.” He extended his hand out to her. “Nice to meet you.”
Her cheeks flamed bright red as she took his hand and shook it for a little too long. “We’re having a party at the cove tonight. If you and Astrid would like to come, you’re more than welcome.”
He pressed his full lips into a pout and shook his head. “No, I’m sorry. Astrid won’t be able to go either.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from screaming he wasn’t the boss of me. But apparently, he was the boss of everyone. Kitty bit her bottom lip and stepped in closer to him. She looked up at him, batting her eyelashes. “Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me.”
Before he could answer, she sauntered away from him to catch up to her brother. Everyone in this freaking school was starstruck by him. Girls practically threw themselves at his feet. I spun on my heels and looped my arm under Leo’s. “Come on, we’re going.”
Leo raised his eyebrows at me but fell into step. “Where exactly are we going?”
“Away from here.” I turned to my left and pushed the double doors open that’d lead back to the main school path.
“I like this plan.” He placed his hand over mine. “So I guess we’re not going to the party tonight.”
“Says who?”
“Well, you heard him. I mean, he is Beckett Dustwick.” Leo said this as if Beckett’s word was law.
“Ugh, why does everyone bow down to him? He’s arrogant, pushy, and bossy. And what the hell is with his name? When he introduced himself to me he called himself Beckett Dust. Not Dustwick.” I threw my arms up.
“Well, there’s a lot you don’t know about him. But when he went to Evermore Academy to become a knight in the Witch Court, he dropped part of his name. I mean, he was epic in the trials and last month he helped free the witches and put Zinnia on the throne. Dude saved thousands from dying or worse. But I guess he didn’t want to be associated with the Dustwick name, because of, well, you know what happened.”
I was speechless. I had no idea he’d done any of that. “No, I don’t know what happened. Tell me.”
Leo opened his mouth to answer, when Beckett jogged up behind us. “Astrid! Hold up. I got your books for the classes you’re gonna take.” He held a hefty sack on his back. “Let me walk you back to the house.”
“I don’t need a babysitter.” Word vomit . . . it flew out of my mouth before I could stop it.
Awkward silence fell between us. Where he glared down at me and I had no choice but to glare back.
Leo cleared his throat and extended his hand out to Beckett. “Hi, I’m—”
“Leo Ravenwood.” Beckett took his hand and gave it a firm shake. “One of the best students at Warwick. Nice to finally meet you.”
Leo’s eyes bugged out of his head. “He knows who I am.”
Don’t fanboy on me now, Leo. I reached out and grabbed the sack of books from Beckett. Even though I had my own backpack to carry, I didn’t need him carrying the others. “I got this. Um, Leo, I’ll see you later, okay?”
“Yeah, okay.” His backpack squished around and he rested his hand over it. “I better get going.”
“Later, okay?” I hoped he was getting the hint. I wasn’t too keen on going to parties, but now that Beckett told everyone I wasn’t going, I was one hundred percent going to be there.
Beckett waited for Leo to leave before he took the sack of books back and shook his head. “You’re not going to that party.”
“Ugh.” I turned and started walking back toward the house. “Says who?”
“You have to get sorted tomorrow. You’ll need all the rest you can get.”
“I thought you said I should trust you and I wouldn’t have to go through that.” Again with the students stopping and staring at us. At this point I was going to have to get used to it. “Looks like there’s someone else around here who’s immune to your charms.”
He chuckled. “You think I’m charming?”
Yes. “No.”
“That’s what you just said.” He gave me a full-blown smile now and I had to look away. He was too good-looking for my own good. I decided then and there I would try not to look at him as much as possible.
I quickened my pace. “No, I said everyone else thinks you’re charming. I think you’re pushy.”
“Pushy or not, you’re still not going.”
“I’ve lived most of my life without a father. I don’t need one telling me what to do now. I’m here just like you wanted, aren’t I?”
He grabbed my arm and pulled me around to face him. “Astrid, there are too many things that could go wrong.”
My temper was rising. “I can control myself.”
The muscle in his jaw popped as he gritted his teeth. “I mean it. You are not going and that is the end of it.”
I plastered a smile on my face and shoved my anger down. “Fine, whatever you say.”
Buddy, you just guaranteed that I will be there.
Chapter 10
Astrid
I spun in a small circle in front of the mirror in my bedroom. I didn’t know what to wear, but I figured having a predominately black wardrobe had to help. I chose a short black dress that hugged my body and flared out at my hips. Silver hooks ran from the low neckline down to my hips. The lace sleeves clung to my arms but barely gave me any sort of warmth. I pulled on my ripped up black tights and heavy leather jacket. Kitty had said the party was at a cove and I suspected I was going to need some kind of sturdy shoe. I bent over and pulled my combat boots on.
I lined my eyes in thick black liner then let my hair down and quickly ran my fingers through it. I picked up my phone, knowing there would be a ton of messages from Tilly. There was way more than a ton with the last one ending in: I swear if you don’t text me back I will use all the resources the US government has to hunt down your ass! Where are you!?
I cringed as I started to hit the buttons. I hated lying to my bestie. First, she always knew when I was lying. Second, she always knew when I was lying.
