“Not with you. With Miss Madizza. The Vessel who fed from her indicated she was distressed beyond what he deemed normal for a first Reaping,” I explained, dropping my pen and leaning back in my chair. Della swallowed, her eyes pinching closed. “As Headmaster, it’s my duty to make sure he didn’t do anything that crossed any lines. If he frightened her—”
“No. No, I don’t think it was the Vessel at all,” she said, sitting up straighter. I watched indecision war on her face, watched her debate whether or not she should tell me what she knew. “She asked me not to say anything, but Willow was distressed when she saw the cuffs, even more so when she realized she would be blindfolded.”
“Did you explain the process to her? Surely if she’d understood…” I trailed off, letting my words hang unspoken.
“I did. She knew what was going to happen. I don’t think there’s anything anyone could have done to calm her, Headmaster,” she said, glancing off to the side. She sank her teeth into her bottom lip. “I’ve never seen anyone so afraid.”
Everything in me stilled. By the time I’d reached her, her fear had coated the room. It had left a distinctive chill in the room, as if Willow had tried to summon the grave to swallow her whole. Such things were impossible, but that didn’t stop me from pausing before I’d entered the room.
The distinctive taste of magic in the air had been unmistakable, but there’d been very little plant life for Willow to summon to her aid.
“Willow Madizza?” I asked, feigning ignorance to get her to tell me more.
“I know. She’s always fearless. Seeing her like that…” She trailed off, turning back to face me slowly. “I think something happened to her. Something horrible.”
The pen snapped in my hand, and Della’s eyes widened as ink spilled onto the pages atop my desk. “See what you can find out for me.”
“I… What?” she asked, her mouth dropping open in shock. “Surely you can’t be asking me to spy on my friend and report back to you? If something did happen, her trauma should be hers to share.”
“The students of this school are my responsibility, Miss Tethys. If there is something I need to know about to make special accommodations for future Reapings with Miss Madizza, then I’d like to be informed, and I do not think I can trust her to be honest,” I said, standing from my desk. I moved toward the door, watching as she hurried to gather her pack of books and sling it over her shoulder to follow.
“You know she doesn’t like the dark, and she doesn’t like being restrained. Isn’t that enough?” she asked, reaching out to touch a hand to my forearm. “Please. Let her keep her secrets.” The fact that she’d dared to touch me spoke to her desperation to help Willow, and I realized it wasn’t just my skin the witchling had worked her way beneath.
She’d found a friend, a true one from the looks of it, when I’d thought such things would be impossible at Hollow’s Grove.
I shrugged off her touch, making my way back to my desk and nodding in dismissal.
“There can be no secrets in Crystal Hollow.”
27
WILLOW
I crooked my finger twice, summoning Iban forward. He shook his head from side to side, a youthful, disbelieving smile reminding me of just how young he was.
How young we were, and the Choice he’d been forced to make before he was old enough to understand the implications of it.
“Do you ever regret it?” I asked, dodging backward as he lunged for me. His hands wrapped around air, finding the spot where I’d stood only a moment before completely empty. Slamming the side of my arm down on his back, I used his momentum against him.
My push made him spiral, his arms flailing a little as he fought for his balance, and he spun to look at me. All around the grounds in front of the school, other students did the same. Witches paired off with witches, Vessels observing primarily but interacting when they thought they would be well received.
“Sometimes,” he said, shrugging his shoulders as if it didn’t matter.
I supposed in a way it didn’t, given that nothing anyone did could ever change it. I hoped he at least found what he was looking for one day, but the fact that he’d chosen the ability to bear children over having magic when Susannah intended to allow them all to die anyway…
I sighed, spinning and aiming a kick directly for his face as he rushed me. He stopped just in time, my leg raised in the air so that the sole of my sneaker was only inches from his nose. He grinned, touching the bare skin of my ankle where it peeked out from beneath the black leggings I’d donned for the day.