Lock and Key (Nocturne Academy 1)

Her description didn’t begin to cover the reality of the situation but I could certainly see the prudence of what Griffin was saying. Plus it felt kind of strange to be hovering in mid-air over the vast, seemingly bottomless pit where the Hallowed Glade had been only a few minutes before.

“Over and down,” I said, squeezing out another drop of blood. Thank goodness my thumb hadn’t stopped bleeding yet!

Griffin and I drifted gently through the air, like we were a kite being flown by a careful child, and settled on the ground, just outside the ring of rose-thorn vines.

We landed right beside Winifred Rattcliff, who was still frozen to the spot and giving me a murderous glare. Two of her witches and her daughter Nancy had come to try and help her and they were doing various spells and saying words of power which seemed to have no effect.

“You bitch!” Nancy snarled, turning on me as I took a step towards them. “Let my mother go! How dare you be-spell her?”

She charged towards me, lifting a hand to slap me but I wasn’t having any more of that.

“Freeze!” I snapped, glaring at her.

Nancy froze in mid-air, her arm still upraised as a surprised look came over her face. The other witches who had been trying to help Winifred Rattcliff—as well as the two Weird Sisters who always hung around with Nancy—cast nervous glances at each other and began backing away.

I probably would have let them go but Griffin murmured in my ear, “Stop them, Megan. You need to know who your enemies are.”

I could see his point—after all, I didn’t know any of these witches, except for Nancy and the Weird Sisters.

“Freeze—all of you,” I said and they all stopped in their tracks, looks of guilt and hate and shame stamped on their faces.

“Do you know these women?” I asked Griffin, frowning.

“No.” He shook his head. “But I’m sure your coven-mate will.”

Which reminded me that Avery and Emma and Kaitlyn were still tied to trees at the edge of what was now a giant sink-hole.

Feeling ashamed of myself, I ran to free Avery while Griffin turned to help Emma.

“Thanks, Princess,” Avery said and gave me a shaky hug when I got him loose. “I’m so glad you’re okay! I thought that evil bitch had your number for sure. I never expected to see you come out of that awful body bag alive!”

“Well, it takes more than a little evil plotting to bring down a Latimer, right?” I said lightly.

Looking over at Griffin, I saw that he had finished untying Emma and she was rubbing her wrists and thanking him—a bit shyly I thought.

My mind went immediately to Kaitlyn but when I ran to help her, she was already loose from her tree and Ari Reyes was there, wearing nothing but a pair of ragged shorts.

Kaitlyn was peering at the big Drake uncertainly from behind the curtain of her long black hair and he was just standing there, his tall, muscular body tensed with uncertainty, as though he wasn’t sure what to do or say next.

“Uh, hi,” I said, feeling like I was interrupting something, though I wasn’t sure what exactly.

“Hi, Megan. Wow—that was some show!” Kaitlyn said, giving a shaky laugh as I came up to her. She was talking to me but still looking at Ari, I saw.

“It certainly was,” a new voice said.

We all turned and saw Headmistress Nightworthy striding over the grass, still wearing her stiletto heels.

How she managed not to trip on all the debris that had been shaken loose by the earthquake (lovequake?) Griffin and I had caused, I had no idea but she walked smoothly and purposefully and there was a gleam in her blue eyes that made me feel incredibly nervous.

I had a sudden feeling that we all had a lot of explaining to do.

78

“Now then,” Headmistress Nightworthy said, frowning at all of us, but mostly me and Griffin, who had come to stand beside me and hold my hand in his. “What is the meaning of this? I felt ripples of magic all the way in my study at the Academy! And what has happened to the Windermere Coven’s Hallowed Glade? Also,” she added, taking a moment to shoot a stern look at Ari Reyes, “I knew I saw a Drake flying in the sky a moment ago, Mr. Reyes, and since you are here, I can only assume it was yours.”

“Headmistress—” he began but she cut him off with a curt gesture.

“No excuses. For now, I want to know what happened here. And I’m sure others are going to want to know the same thing.”

I looked at Griffin and he looked at me—clearly neither one of us knew where to begin. But thank goodness for Avery because he stepped up and began to explain everything.