second after doing it, I realized it was probably not the smartest move I’d ever made and high-tailed it out of there before Tennyson Wilde got his senses back enough to snap my spine like a twig.
Chapter 4
Things didn’t get any worse but they didn’t get better either. The bullying kept on, but it wasn’t as if the students of Amaris were particularly creative in their methods. It was the same thing every day, a bit of shunning, a bit of incidental violence, a few spitballs. It got so I could set my watch by it. I'd left my blazer in the locker room and when I went back for it, it was gone, so I looked online for a new one but the cheap eBay ones I’d found weren’t available and everything else was so far out of my price range I’d be BFF with Astor before I could afford one. It was freezing out but I went to classes without my blazer and did the best I could. It was no big deal.
Worse than all that was what Tennyson Wilde had said. After the anger faded and I thought about what had happened, it really freaked me out. The person who that magic belonged to was not messing around. They were strong and they were angry. Plus, they’d gotten access to the Golden House and I’d seen the high level security they had going on there. If they could get into the Golden House undetected, they could go into anywhere in this world. Tennyson Wilde said that the energy in that ball of light was their power. They’d managed to break into the Golden House without their main power, and now they had it back. They could strike at any moment. It was scary stuff.
I had no proof they had a problem with me in particular. It was just coincidence I’d been at ground zero when the spell struck last time. They’d been after Tennyson Wilde, I was sure of it. Hopefully, if something else happened, it would be Tennyson Wilde-specific. They could steal his voice. Or turn him into a donkey. Or give him boils. Man, maybe I should’ve stolen the orb. I was fairly sure it didn’t work like that but still. I could’ve thrown it at his head and that would’ve been awesome.
It wasn’t fun, waiting around for the next spell to hit, but it kind of seemed unreal too, as if everything that had happened before, with the truth spell, had been a bad dream. If it hadn’t been for the werewolves constantly reminding me that all that stuff existed, I probably could’ve convinced myself quite happily that it didn’t. It wasn’t real in the same way that the bullying was real, wasn’t such an imminent threat. And it wasn’t as if I could do anything about it, anyway. I tried not to think about it more than I had to. It was Tennyson Wilde’s problem, not mine. Still, the thought kept sneaking into my mind when I dropped my guard, thoughts about what might happen next, what the spell would be, if we’d be able to stop it this time.
Clouds gathered in the sky like a warning of things to come, gray and murky and ominous. It was hard to stay positive when even the weather looked as if it was done with the world. I shivered my way up to the school the next morning, wondering if I’d find a spell cast over everyone. Maybe a spell to stop them being jerks, that would be dandy.
Hannah had already been gone when I’d woken up, but I thought that was probably for the best. If the bullies weren’t intending to let up, it was no good for her to be seen with me. I was surprised they hadn’t already begun targeting her as a way to get to me.
When I entered the dining hall for breakfast, everyone seemed intrigued by something they were reading on their laptops, their tablets and phones, but at my arrival they all looked up. There was silence for a moment and then the muttering broke out. I sighed. What now? Some new blog post? Another top ten ranking by Tennyson Wilde? At least if he publicly disliked me again, the bullying would be for a legitimate reason. Whatever it was, I didn’t care. I didn’t have to read it, and everyone already hated me