The Curse (H. Academy Series #1)

“Oh, wonderful.” Leon pressed his lips together and faced me, eyes telling me something between ’I should have predicted this’ and ’seriously?’.

“Jade, what are they doing here?” Thar used his teacher voice, but his gaze faltered passing over my face, and I realised he wasn’t even able to look at me after last night.

“Morta and Amma are with me.” I tried to catch his gaze and hold it, just to let him know I wasn’t going to let it go. “And Leon weaselled in somehow.”

Leon raised his eyebrow.

Thar came down the stairs, “I told you to meet me in the training room. Not your entire study group.”

“Oh, we’re hardly studying.” Morta mumbled.

“Professor Adara.” Leon shifted the weight to his other leg. “I don’t think we’re supposed to leave you alone with Jade.”

My eyes went wide and cut through Leon.

“Don’t be inappropriate.” Thar murmured, headed for the door, and unlocked it.

“I don’t think I’m the inappropriate one.” Leon continued, even though I grabbed his forearm and dug my nails into his skin.

Thar stopped moving, his back turned to us.

Leon snickered, “Calling students in the middle of the night, secret meetings in the training room...”

I kicked his shin with the front of my boot.

“Ouch!” Leon hissed. “I’m not gonna tell anyone. But, you know, I think I’m gonna pass PAPS this semester.”

My eyes widened. Thar slowly turned around.

“What’s PAPS?” Amma whispered.

“Practical Application of Protection Spells.” Morta recited.

“Are you trying to extort a grade?” Thar’s gaze darkened, and I stepped between them almost on impulse, knowing Thar could kick Leon’s ass in a heartbeat.

Leon laughed, unbothered, “Kidding, big boy. I wouldn’t let my selfishness ruin Jade’s future.”

“Leon.” I hissed, pulling him away from Thar. “You’re one step away from being blasted to the other end of the school.”

His cold gaze looked amused, “And you’re one step away from being blasted out of this school.”

My heart squeezed in my chest. I glanced at Thar; anger disappeared from his eyes, but something troubled remained. He knew Leon was right in a way. If we crossed the line, I would be ruined.

“We’re not going to have to take the exams in the winter semester while the school is under attack though, right?” Amma asked.

No one said anything.

“They’ll make us take the exams?!”

“Jade, get them out of here, please.” Thar pinched the bridge of his nose.

I faced the crowd, “Wait for me in our dorm.”

The three of them buried their feet into the ground. Amma crossed her hands on her chest, still clutching her notebook against it, Morta put her hand on her hip and raised her eyebrow, and Leon tapped his foot against the floor.

I turned back to Thar, “I don’t think they’ll leave.”

Thar took in a sharp breath, which was his only display of utter annoyance.

“I suppose you’re going to tell them anyway, right?”

“Exactly.”

“Okay, come in.” Thar opened the door to the training room.

He turned on the lights and immediately walked to the table area of the training room; a small path of parquet between the grey mats. Papers, books, candles, and herbs were scattered all over the wooden table.

“Oh, cool.” Leon moved past me and hopped over to the bench press.

Amma looked around nervously, “Is he going to make us work out?”

“I don’t work out as a rule.” Morta murmured. “I love myself too much to exercise.”

My eyes were on Thar. He looked like he had no intentions of engaging in our stupid chit-chat. He grabbed a couple of papers off the table, then clutched them in his hand, almost like he just needed to hold onto something.

“I called the Headmaster.”

Amma and Morta faced him fully. Leon continued lifting weights.

Thar glanced up, “I couldn’t reach him.”

My stomach tightened.

The three of us moved closer to Thar. Leon remained the only one unbothered, still preoccupied with his weights. I tried not to roll my eyes at him, remembering we were in a serious situation.

I looked away from him, only to find Amma’s azure eyes searching for approval on my face, but I wanted to let Thar tell us more before we revealed our secrets, so I shook my head as lightly as possible.

But Thar caught it.

“Jade.” He said my name slowly. “Is there a reason why I wasn’t able to contact the Headmaster?”

“Did you try really hard, though?” Amma jumped in. “Because you should have tried really hard.”

Thar’s eyes stayed locked on me and I noticed him chewing his cheek before he answered.

“I called in an emergency.” He said. “They should always respond to an emergency.”

I swallowed the sudden pain in my throat, looked at Amma and Morta, and nodded.

Amma took in a deep breath, but her voice was quiet, “They haven’t approved anything on Witchipedia for a month.”

Thar’s eyebrows furrowed, “Excuse me?”

“The Headmasters.” Morta cut in. “They have to approve the shit that goes to Witchipedia, but they didn’t. We figured it out because we made a frog and Amma wanted to upload the process in the name of scientific discovery.”

“A familiar.” I corrected. “The frog is a familiar.”

“His name is Dominic.” Amma jumped in. “And he’s super useful. He protected us from the evil spirit-”

“Amma.” Morta and I grunted at the same time.

“Sorry. No spirits. Definitely no summoning.”

Thar’s frown deepened, a hint of urgency appearing behind his eyes.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, “The point is that we don’t know where the Headmasters are.”

Thar looked at each one of us. Something told me he had no idea how to approach this or what to do. Compared to him, we were all idiots, but he was also extremely young. He’s just become a teacher, and now he was supposed to engage in a conspiracy a bunch of freshmen came up with. The worst of all – it seemed like the freshmen might be right.

“Want my opinion?” Leon dropped the weights and, before we managed to voice our protests, added, “They’re dead.”

“Oh, shut up, Leon.” Morta grunted.

I frowned, “What the hell are you talking about? You’ve been here for, like, two minutes, and you already have profound insights?”

Leon chuckled and wiped his hands on his jeans, “You should have brought me in sooner.”

“Leon.” Thar’s voice turned low and gruff. “I know you think you’re very important, but I can still get you kicked out of this school before you manage to blink.”

Leon walked to the table, grinning, “You think I’m kidding?”

“You’re literally smiling.” I raised my eyebrow.

He took a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket-

“No.” I shook my head.

“Don’t even try.” Thar murmured.

“Ugh, fine.” Leon put the pack back. “Anyway, it’s why your shields are shitty. The Headmasters are dead.”

Confusion ruled the room for a few seconds. Then, Thar lost it.

He was in front of Leon in a heartbeat, “Listen to me very carefully. If you truly believe I can’t find something incriminating on you, feel free to continue fucking around.”

Leon took a step back slowly, smile dropping and his demeanour turning serious.

“How about you listen to me before you judge?” He asked. “The protection around the school is shitty, right?”

Thar stepped right back into his teacher mode, “It needed to be reinforced with black magic. I’ve never had to do that before.”

“It’s because the protective shields are tied to the Headmasters.” Leon nodded.

Amma glanced between Morta and me, but I simply shrugged.

Thar didn’t look too convinced, but he was too smart to kick Leon out of the room right now.

“How would you even know that?” He asked.

Leon sat on the wooden stool and crossed his legs, “Last year, I tried to break the protection.”

“Oh, my Goddess.” Morta grunted. “Why?”

“Call it scientific curiosity.”

“Like you’re ever scientifically curious.” I rolled my eyes.

“What? I get really motivated when I’m high.”

My eyes widened, “You’re the least reliable person I’ve ever met.”

“Anyway, I screwed something up.” Leon continued. “The protection field appeared black and foggy in front of me, physical in every sense of the word, and since I was high on mushrooms, I thought I’d just opened the door to the netherworld or something.”

I couldn’t believe my ears.

“You’re gonna die someday, Leon, and it’s gonna be stupid and reckless.” Morta murmured.

He shrugged, unbothered, “Panicking, I went to see Lange, but the Headmaster’s men stopped me and brought me straight to the Headmaster. I thought, okay, they’re gonna kick me out of the school, I fucked up. Instead, they wanted me to keep quiet.”

Thar sat in the chair opposite of Leon and leaned against his elbows, “Continue, please.”

The shift in his demeanour worried me. He obviously had no idea about this, and I believed he had all the answers in the universe.

“They said they were testing out new shields.” Leon spoke. “Stronger, more reliable. Nothing bad, they said, but it was still in beta phase, and I wasn’t allowed to tell Lange or any other teacher.”

When I glanced at Thar, wanting to assess his reaction, and saw his head drop in his hands, I felt lost. A defence mechanism kicked in, and I desperately wanted Leon to be lying.

“And you just didn’t tell anyone?” Morta asked. “You didn’t find it at all suspicious?”

Leon let out a laugh, “It became pretty suspicious once the Headmaster offered a passing grade in all of my classes. Well, except Demonology. Darth doesn’t fuck around.”

Thar lifted his head, his voice hoarse, “No one told me anything about your grades.”

“Of course not.” Leon shrugged. “They just gave me the answers. But, don’t worry, Black Magic is the only class I was actually interested in. I wasn’t gonna study Potions, though.”

I gritted my teeth, “You’re repulsive.”

Leon pouted, “I thought that’s what you liked about me.”

I grimaced, but ignored him and looked the other way. Thar stared straight ahead, his jaw tight, his fists clenched on the table. He breathed deeply then, and released the stress from his hands. I was proud of his control. I would have already snapped Leon’s neck.

Thar spoke, “Alright, let’s assume you’re telling the truth for a second. So, the Headmaster created his own special protection around the school. Why would something breaching that protection mean that the Headmaster is dead?”

“Ah.” Leon leaned against the backrest and put his hands behind his head. “I don’t enjoy being bribed.”

Morta chuckled, “You don’t enjoy it, but you’ll allow it, right?”

“Precisely.” Leon continued. “I decided to find out why they went to such lengths just to keep me quiet. So, I dug through the upper echelons of our society. I partied and mingled with the elite.”

“Good for you.” I sighed. “Just get to the point.”

Leon’s smile was too smug for my liking, “Those pesky elites, nothing’s ever enough for them. They’re experimenting, you know? With a different kind of magic.”

Fear curled inside my gut. I glanced at my companions, hoping to find the same emotion on their faces, hoping they understood the gravitas of this situation. Amma stood half-hidden behind Morta. Thar’s face was pale.

“What kind of magic?”

“The kind that’s tied to a person.” Leon said. “I think they found a way to create black magic out of nothing.”