Lock and Key (Nocturne Academy 1)

I wondered how much trouble I was going to be in.

43

“Miss Latimer, let me see you.”

Headmistress Nightworthy put one cool finger under my chin and raised my face to hers. She studied the place between my eyebrows with a critical air of someone trying to decipher markings written in a foreign language.

I submitted to her inspection without protest though my heart was pounding so hard I though it might break through my ribs and gallop away. Could she see the mark too? Could she tell it was Griffin’s?

At last she let me go and stepped back, nodding.

“There is, indeed, a mark of protection and possession on her forehead,” she confirmed.

“Of course there is—it’s plain as day! I don’t know why I didn’t see it before!” Winifred Rattcliff exclaimed. She rounded on the Headmistress.

“Are you now allowing the students to mark each other, Headmistress Nightworthy? What is next—Blood-Bonding?”

“Certainly not.” Headmistress Nightworthy frowned at me. “I am certain Miss Latimer has a good explanation for the fact that she has been marked by someone of the opposite sex.”

“I do,” I said quickly. “Sanchez threatened me. I was marked in order to keep him away—to keep me safe.”

“I see.” The Headmistress’s frown let up just a shade. “In the future, please come to me if you feel threatened by another student. We can handle such things in a much better way than allowing yourself to be marked as someone’s Katarra.”

I frowned. “What? I’m sorry—I haven’t heard that term.”

“Katarra means ‘cherished one,’” the Headmistress said severely. “And you should not have allowed yourself to be marked as such if you didn’t even know the name and implications that come with such an action!”

I thought of protesting that Griffin had marked me before I even knew what he was doing but again I sensed that excuses wouldn’t fly with Headmistress Nightworthy.

“Yes, Headmistress,” I said, nodding and bowing my head. “I’m very sorry. It won’t happen again.”

She made a sound very close to a snort.

“It certainly will not. You cannot wear the marks of two males at once—at least I have never heard of such a thing happening.”

“You’re missing the point,” Winifred Rattcliff interjected impatiently.

“Oh?” The Headmistress arched one perfectly shaped eyebrow at her. “And what is the point, Winifred?”

Nancy’s mother frowned angrily.

“As you and I both know, Headmistress, there are no warlocks registered at Nocturne Academy this term,” she said. “There is only one male witch and from what I understand he has no interest in marking females of any kind.”

I wondered how she knew so much about the Academy and its students. I could understand if she and Nancy were close and Nancy gave her tidbits of gossip from time to time but it almost seemed like she was studying everyone, finding out everything she could for some reason of her own.

“Which means?” the Headmistress said blandly, though I was pretty sure she knew where this was going. I knew I did and it wasn’t good.

“Which means that Megan Latimer has allowed herself to be marked by a male of a different class of Other than her own!” Winifred Rattcliff exclaimed triumphantly. “Which means she has broken the Edict and must be expelled!”

44

Expelled? I looked at Headmistress Nightworthy, wide-eyed. Was I really going to be expelled on my very first week? Was I going to be kicked out of Nocturne Academy and this whole new world that I had only just discovered?

“I don’t…I can’t…” I croaked, unable to make my throat work. “I don’t understand.”

“Understand this, Miss Latimer,” Winifred Rattcliff said, looking down her long nose at me in apparent satisfaction. “Breaking the Edict is cause for automatic expulsion. Not only from Nocturne Academy but from the entire magical world. You will not be accepted into any coven anywhere. Moreover, none of your friends here will ever be able to talk to you or associate with you again!”

I felt sick. Was I going to lose my coven when we had just found each other? The thought made my throat tight with misery and fear. I didn’t want to be alone again—I needed Emma and Avery and Kaitlyn—we belonged together! It was like we had been waiting to meet all our lives and now a cruel twist of fate was tearing us apart!

“But…” I began, but Winifred Rattcliff interrupted me, a cruel smile spread over her wide, rubbery lips.

“No buts, missy,” she declared. You’d best march right down to that ‘Norm Dorm’ of yours and pack your bags. You are not wanted here or anywhere in the magical world anymore. And that includes the Realm of the Fae and the Sky Lands of the Drakes as well as here on Earth!” she continued triumphantly and I got the sense that she felt she had won in some way—that I was a problem she had neatly disposed of and now wouldn’t have to worry about anymore.