Alexis stormed from the room, cheeks wet with tears of anger and frustration as she pushed through the crowd of students who appeared uncaring of the death of their classmate. At that moment, she was disgusted with each and every one of them and didn’t care if they knew it.

A hand grabbed her arm and she spun, hands clenching into fists as she readied for a fight. Beryl released her hold and stepped back, holding her hands in the air. The other students brushed past the two girls, curious glances and smirks worn openly.

“You okay?”

“What do you fucking think?” Alexis shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket, as much to keep them from shaking as anything. “Someone just died!”

Someone snickered and Alexis’s head snapped around, glaring at the offending girl who ducked her head and hurried away. The silver-haired, Poppy and her companion stopped a short way further along the hall, watching her openly.

“I’m getting out of here, right bloody now!” Alexis said. “Weird, that I can deal with, but that girl… I mean, what the hell even was that?”

Beryl scanned the milling crowd, well aware that those other students were hanging around for the drama rather than moving on to their next class. She bobbed her head to the side and walked a half-dozen paces away from the other students. Alexis watched her for a moment before shaking her head and following.

“It was an exam,” Beryl said before her friend could speak. She kept her voice low, casting dark looks at any student who made a move to edge closer to hear. “I told you already, magic is dangerous and the Academy is here to teach us how to survive using it. Not everyone will graduate.”

“How the hell can you be okay with this?”

“Grow up!” Beryl’s eyes gleamed as she clenched her jaw. “You’ve literally just witnessed what happens when magic goes wrong! What do you think would have happened if she had tried that spell in the middle of a block of flats? What if there was no magic circle that created a barrier it couldn’t pass? How many people would die?”

Alexis blanched at the idea and her eyes squeezed close as she brushed away the tears that had gathered there.

“The fact you wanted to help says a lot about you,” Beryl said, expression softening. “But she knew what would happen when she stepped into the circle. You think she just woke up this morning and decided that it was time to try that spell?”

Alexis pressed her lips together as her brows drew down in a frown. She gave a curt shake of her head in reply.

“I knew her.” Beryl paused and swallowed hard. “We weren’t exactly friends, but I knew her. She’s spent two years working on that spell, preparing it and marking out every Goddess damned symbol a thousand times. Even with all that, she knew it might go wrong.”

The other students were hanging back, most at least making an attempt to pretend they weren’t trying to listen in. Alexis sniffed and used her sleeve to wipe her nose.

“I’m still leaving,” she declared. “I thought this place would give me some answers or the ability to help other street kids. I didn’t sign up for this.”

Beryl sucked on her teeth and rolled her eyes. She liked her new roommate but she was starting to understand the problems she was going to face.

“Do you think you have a choice?” she asked. “What exactly do you think you’re going to do, just walk out the gates and hop on a bus?”

“You’re saying I can’t leave?”

“Of course, you can!” she snapped. “You need to really listen here now. You’ve just seen what happens when magic goes wrong, do you really think they will let you walk out of here knowing about magic but not able to control it properly?”

Alexis folded her arms and hung her head, considering just what her friend was trying so very hard to tell her. The Academy was all about protecting magic and the wider community of witches which would come before any individual witch.

It was a bitter pill to swallow and the memory of what she had just witnessed horrified her and was burned into her mind, but she could well imagine what would have happened should there have been other people around.

The world was a much more dangerous place than it had been just a few days before and it was one that she knew she wouldn’t survive long without the knowledge she could gain at the Academy.

“Fine,” she said, voice small and full of pain and misery. “I’ll stay, but how do I avoid that happening to me? I’m years behind the rest of you and I doubt they will expect me to stay for the next five years to learn.”

“It will be fine,” Beryl reassured her. “You don’t need to learn everything, just enough to get through your final exams. Once you’ve done that, you can come and go as you please and access the library any time you want.”

“An actual monster just killed that poor girl, and you think it will be fine?”

“She chose to try a summoning spell because that was where she wanted to focus her skills. Your final exam will probably be something vastly different.” She paused, forcing a smile. “Besides, you’ve a year or two yet before you even have to worry about that. They won’t actually let you try unless they think you have a chance of passing.”

Alexis wasn’t quite as sure about that as Beryl was, but she didn’t want to argue. She felt wrung out, the adrenaline that had rushed through her had faded, leaving her empty and exhausted both emotionally and physically.

She glanced over at the thinning crowd of students who had apparently begun to grow bored with the lack of histrionics and started to wander away. The silver-haired girl and her friend remained, watching her like a predator would its dinner.

“I saw her cast a spell,” Alexis said, turning back to Beryl. “Just before the other girl began hers.”

Beryl’s smile faded as she shook her head, loose strands of red hair falling across her face which she brushed aside with annoyance.

“Poppy and Asher,” she said. “They’re Coven-Bitches of the worst kind, but even they wouldn’t mess with someone’s exam.”

“I know what I saw!”

“Yeah, I don’t doubt you,” Beryl said, tone placating. “But you were mistaken. Anyone caught doing something like that would be expelled. Poppy’s next in line for a place in her Coven and there’s no way she will mess that up.”

Alexis grimaced but didn’t push it, not right then, it wasn’t the time. She was too wound up, too emotionally numb and way too tired. She looked over at the two coven witches, gaze narrowing as her expression hardened.

Poppy grinned, eyes glimmering with amusement at the other girl’s expression and scrutiny. Asher leaned in close and said something that Alexis couldn’t hear, but caused a peal of laughter to escape from Poppy as she threw her back in amusement.

The two of them turned their backs to her and linked arms as they walked away. Alexis watched them go for a long moment before she looked back at her friend.

“I don’t like it here.”

“Yeah, I know. I remember feeling the same way once.” There was a sadness to her as she tried to remember just how long ago that feeling had been. “It gets better.”

“It does?”

“Yeah, we have languages next. Professor Adams, he’s funny and he knows so much about everything! You’ll like him.”

“What do I know about languages?” Alexis muttered. “I failed French.”

“Look, you don’t need to learn everything about the languages they teach here,” Beryl chided softly. “You need to understand enough to be able to pronounce the words and to know how to translate the older texts properly. It can be done with the correct dictionaries, but you need to understand how to do it right.”

Her shoulders slumped as she looked at the door to the room they had left. “If you make a mistake, it can be dangerous.”

“Great.” Alexis grimaced and sucked in a deep breath. That was all she needed to hear. It seemed that the longer she was at the Academy the more she learned about why she should have never come. “Let’s go and get it over with then.”