Page 2 of These Unhallowed Halls
One-Chapters Close As Swiftly As The Wind
Temps
“Lizzie!”Ithrewdownthe sweater I was folding to put in my suitcase, frustration making my temples throb.“Did you take my necklace again?!I told you a million times that I hate it when—”
But right as I spun around to storm out of the room, I crashed right into her.Lizzie stood just in front of me, laughing as I corrected myself and holding up the necklace.It dangled from her fingers, and I immediately pulled back, trying to ignore the heat that flared through my cheeks.
Three years.Three damn years, and I still react like this around her.
Wearing that classic smirk of hers, the corner of her full, dusty pink lips lifting as if to mock me and my suffering, Lizzie tossed her long braid over her shoulder and sauntered over toward the mirror, taking my necklace with her.
“Why don’t I just keep it right here?”She opened the clasp and put it on, letting the little blue gemstone land right at her cleavage, which she brushed the tips of her fingers over gently.“It’ll be safe and cozy, and if you want it so badly…”
Turning around to face me, Lizzie locked her deep hazel stare on me, and I could feel my chest tightening, not allowing me to take in the oxygen I so desperately needed.My heart was way too loud in my ears, and that pulsing feeling in my core needed to back the hell off.
You’re twenty-two, Temperance Montgomery.You are an adult.Shake it off.
But then Lizzie was crossing the room to stand in front of me, the light-colored floorboard creaking under her soft steps.She got right up in my business, hardly a centimeter separating us, and I could smell the musky perfume she always wore, moss and cypress, blood and warm fur, with a subtle tinge of gunsmoke and sweet resin.
Something I only knew because I’d gone to the website where she bought the stuff and looked it up.
“...it’ll be right here waiting for you.”
“I…I…” My tongue was clumsy and too thick.I couldn’t move, forcing myself to keep my eyes off the blue gem and the soft home where it now resided.
“Yeah, Temps?You what?”Lizzie’s teasing voice did too many things to me, and I shook my head, stepping backward—nearly tumbling over the bed—and turning around to face my almost completely packed suitcase and backpack.
“We need to get moving.If we miss registration today, it’ll be a pain in the ass tomorrow.”
Lizzie scoffed, a sound I knew too well, and I looked up at the mirror on my side of the room, the one that reflected hers, and watched her spin around, rolling her eyes as she went back to her own suitcase, which was nowhere near packed.
“It’s not like Night Grove is going anywhere.We’ll be fine.It’s like a fifteen-minute drive.”In the mirror, I watched as she haphazardly stuffed things into her suitcase.The majority of our belongings, the ones we’d actually need for classes and such, had already been brought over to the dorms because Mr.Chamberlain insisted on helping out.“And you know for a fact that I’m only doing this because of what it is.A school for wi—”
“Lizzie, don’t.”I cast a glance out toward the hallway.I didn’t hear my mom or Mr.Chamberlain, but I knew they were just downstairs, ready to see us off, since Lizzie wouldn’t let her father drive us.
“Ugh, they’re not listening, Temps.Chill.”In a flurry of fabric, Lizzie stuffed her things into the suitcase, not being careful in the slightest, and then faced me again.“But if it’ll keep you from having an aneurysm, fine.A ‘post-graduate’ school like this?Yeah, sign me up.”
“Thank you.I’ll…” I looked at my suitcase—the black fabric worn and aged just like the deep purple bedspread it was resting on—and then looped the buckle through my new backpack, the first one I’d bought for myself since high school.“...get my stuff downstairs and then we can go.And I feel like I should mention that Night Grove recruited us.It’s not like we applied to go, so—”
“Exactly.Theywant us.Two hot step-sissies who have a little of that old black magic in their blood.If only my mom were here.”
I wanted to point out that she was being less than conscientious again, but Lizzie had mentioned her mother, something she didn’t do often, and it felt like a dick move to yell at her when she was clearly using humor to play off the lingering grief.She’d lost her mother a lot longer ago than I’d lost my dad, but one thing we’d both been able to agree on was that the wrong parent died.
Which, ouch, horrible thing to think, yes, but not any less accurate.
I wasn’t like Mr.Chamberlain was a bad person.Lizzie’s dad, who was, yes,technicallymy stepfather, was nice enough, but he was distracted.He worked long hours at the hospital, and he’d never been especially touchy-feely, according to Lizzie.That made things a lot worse when her mother had died back when she was young.He was that kind of man who just didn’t see things if they weren’t directly essential to his daily life.Brilliant but clueless.
Which was the opposite of how things had been with my dad when he was still alive.Mom was better then.After his passing, we both sort of drifted, but Mom never got back on track.Hell, she fell into a deep hole of weird new religious stuff, and where she’d been rather laid back about all that when my dad was still alive—even going so far as to encourage him to reconnect with his native roots since he was adopted and didn’t know much about them—now, she’d just…changed.
I didn’t feel like I could talk to her about this witch business with the school or our own heritage, for that matter.Apparently, we came from a long line of witches and spellcasters, even some medicine women on my father’s side, per the Night Grove Academy recruiter.I’d hated that the man had known more about my family than I did and dug right into research mode.
A skill I was well-known for.
Sure enough, way back in the first records I could find from Europe, there was a mention of a woman who’d fled persecution, landing in Rockford, Massachusetts, when it was first being settled.Funnily enough, her name had also been Temperance.
I felt connected to her even though that was ridiculous, but hell, she was my family.The recruiter for the school had said that the faculty had been keeping an eye on our line for a while now, expecting magic to show up.I’d been the first in generations, and when I’d noticed that I could work some easy spell found online, I’d thought I’d gone nuts.
Until, that was, Lizze confessed to being able to do the same.
