Chapter 32

32

A ster turned around, a bored expression masking her anger, though her eyes showed the anger well enough. I really wanted to turn and run, but fear held me in place.

"What are you doing, Professor?" I asked, my voice much calmer than I felt. I would be proud of myself for that later.

"Haven't you figured it all out by now, Miss Baker?" A smirk formed on Aster's face and a chill ran down my spine as her attention focused on me.

Her words made little sense, but I kept my wand at my side. It was highly improper to raise your wand to anyone without reason, and I would wait until the last second. Hopefully, I wouldn't have a reason.

"It's a poison." I tracked her with my eyes, and she just laughed at me.

"Of course it is. The love potion didn't seem to do the trick for me, so I had to get more…creative." Her words sunk into me like icy blades, and I sucked in a breath.

I shook my head in disbelief, mostly because I wanted her words to mean something I didn't dare hope for. Aster crossed the room, rolling the vial between her fingers as she moved to the main supply closet.

"When I first saw you and Lawrence, I truly thought it was the love potion that brought the two of you up here. But when I saw that bottles and pouches from here were missing…" She tapped the handle of the closet, grinning at me. "I knew you two weren't innocently giving in to the potion's effects, especially when Ivy informed me you were seemingly unaffected by the potion."

"Ivy," I breathed, hanging on to the tiny thread of hope I knew better than to clutch.

Aster gave a blunt laugh. "Did you think your friend was actually smart enough to cast a love potion to an entire campus? Please." She continued to laugh as she opened the door to the closet, pulling her wand out of her belt. "She barely passed my class last semester. She could never do something that advanced without my help."

Fury boiled within me while fear simultaneously settled in my bones. I tightened my fingers around my wand, but I kept it at my side.

"You can put your wand on the workbench there. You won't be needing it, Miss Baker." Her words sent a chill through my body. I needed to leave, but I knew if I even took a step towards the door, she would act.

"How did you get Ivy involved?" I asked evenly, terrified of the answer.

"You know the answer to that too. And here I thought you were bright." Her laugh made me shake with anger and fear.

Because I did know. She used the most illegal of all magic to force Ivy into doing her will. Compulsion.

I wanted to cry. No, I wanted to weep, knowing my friend was under the compulsion of a witch stronger than her, unable to fight against it as she committed heinous acts against her peers. As my mind raced through all of my conversations with Ivy, I knew she must have been compelled to lie about it too, naturally. Or maybe fear was enough to keep her from telling me.

"Come, Miss Baker." Professor Aster waved me toward the closet casually, as though she was a friend trying to show me something. I shook my head, slowly raising my wand, though not pointing it at her. "Put your wand on the bench. I won't tell you again."

"You're going to use the poison." I didn't ask, I knew. And now, I finally raised my wand to point at her, feeling the threat in her words.

"Yes, I am, and you will not be leaving this room." Aster flicked her wand, shouting a disarming spell. But I'd taken defensive spell-casting, and I deflected it, sending one right back at her.

She advanced toward me, and I backed toward the door, casting spells at one another in a battle for the upper hand. I was particularly proficient in defensive spells, so I had no issue defending myself against her. Her spells got progressively harder to fight off as she used more and more powerful ones, ones that wouldn't just disarm and prevent me from casting any spells, but ones that would send me to the hospital.

I moved backward toward the door, knowing if I could get out of it and cast a locking spell, it would give me the time I needed to run away. If I could just get somewhere safe, I could potentially end all of this right here.

"If you would have heeded my warning, you wouldn't be in this situation right now," Aster growled, throwing another spell at me. I flinched and deflected it, my hand reaching behind me to grab the handle of the door. Before I could push down on the handle, she threw a spell I was too late reacting to, her wand pointed directly at the handle. I moved my hand just in time to prevent myself from being burned as the spell hit, boiling the metal.

Just as I tried to disarm her again, a disarming spell struck me, my wand flying across the room. With nothing to defend myself and no way out, I put my hands up. The last thing I wanted was to be hit with a spell meant to score my flesh.

"Get in the fucking closet." Aster pointed with her free hand to the supply closet, her wand still trained on me. I knew if I attempted anything, she wouldn't hesitate to throw another nasty spell at me. The crazed grin on her face told me as much.

With my hands still raised, I slowly trudged to the closet. I was going to be sick again, though this time, it was the fear twisting in my gut.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Robert needs to realize he's still in love with me." The look in her eyes was pure insanity. My hands shook, but I kept them in the air.

I backed into the closet, not taking my eyes off her. My breath was stuck in my throat as her wand pushed into my throat.

"You nosy prat. If only you would have stayed out of it." Aster shook her head in disappointment. "Now, the secret will have to die with you."

I lunged for the door, but she was faster. The spell hit me square in the chest, and I dropped.