I would explain to her later.

“If it doesn’t work again next time, you’ll erase my memories, and I’ll be free. Did I understand that correctly?”

I looked at Amanda, then at Amara. The mayor of Blairville nodded in hesitation.

“Good. That’s settled then,” I said hurriedly and was about to pass Amanda through the doorway when she made a quick arm motion and I flew back through the air to the couch.

Stunned, I looked up at her.

Had she seriously just let me fly? Controlled me?

“You should teach your daughter some manners.” Amanda looked at Mum with amusement. “And maybe teach her the rules of the game, too, so she knows where the ball is in our court.” She looked at the slim silver watch on her equally slim wrist. “If you’ll excuse me.”

She looked at me again and shook her head as if she’d seen a ghost. Then she disappeared as frantically as she had come.

“Free.”

Julie was the first to say something which I was definitely not used to from her.

“Excuse me?” I asked.

“You said earlier in Moenia that you would be free after we erased your memories.”

I looked dumbly ahead at her, and she stared out the passenger window.

“You don’t know how much truth there is to that.”

Julie sounded thoughtful, almost melancholy.

I had a month to convince this cult. Of course, that also meant another month in this town, although it wasn’t even certain I’d be able to convince Mum at all. She just had to say yes if she had meant what she had said in the car last night.

“Don’t be silly, Julie. Forgetting is painful, and lots of things can go wrong.”

The usually talkative Grace was focused on the roadway ahead of us, where the oncoming rush hour traffic was stalling. We were on our way to campus.

What did she mean by going wrong?

Julie looked over at her seriously, as if Grace had just said something she didn’t want me to know. As she did, her now elfin platinum blonde waves, pinned up with a silver pin, slipped over her shoulders.

“Wait a minute... Painful?”

Grace scratched her shoulder.

“Yeah, but don’t worry, if it was that bad, I wouldn’t be allowed to do it on you.”

I widened my eyes in shock.

“Don’t worry, Novice,” Grace laughed nervously. “You’ll be fine, and we may even have discovered your gift by then.”

“Novice? And why would they allow you to do that to me? I thought Amara was your head witch.”

And anyway, where did she get the idea, I had a gift?

Grace looked at Julie with a grin before starting up again and crossing the crowded downtown intersection.

“Amara is our Domini.”

Grace assumed I understood Latin.

“Now, in my language, please?”

“Domini means master,” Julie kindly explained. “Every Quatura Circle has a ranking system. Newcomers are called Novices. When they start lessons, they become apprentices, in other words Discipulus. When you have learned enough, you rise to Servus and serve the Circle in more complex ceremonies. If you are very talented, you can also progress to Oraculi, meaning teacher. And above this level there are only the Councils, which act as opposition to the Circle and control the Domini, the highest rank.”

I blinked, overwhelmed

“Julie... That was absolutely not necessary.”

“She should know how our system works.”

“And all of that means?” I asked, trying to process how that cult worked.

“It means nothing except that you must obey Amara absolutely, just like the rest of us. And we’re not witches; we’re Elementals.”

Great.

“But I’m not one of you, Grace. Why doesn’t anyone here believe me?”

“You’re just a Novice, and what works for others doesn’t necessarily work for a Novice. Julie was a late bloomer, too.”

I wasn’t one of those. I was Bayla Adams, who just got another headache and would have preferred to sleep for a few more hours.

It had been surprisingly cozy at the witches’ until a dark-haired girl, about ten years old, had woken me up and sent me out to join Julie and Grace in the driveway.

Mum had left right after the argument with Amanda and had just left me behind on the condition that I got to campus on time and called her this afternoon.

Thankfully, my anger had subsided somewhat in the newly blossomed hope. Somewhat...

For the rest of the ride, Grace tried to explain something about crystals and memory magic to me, but my body won the battle against my consciousness and pulled me back into peaceful sleep.

Chapter 40

Larissa

Oliver Bexley was hot, even if all he did was talk about this storm like it was the end of the world.

Short golden-blond hair, dark green eyes and the hell of a biceps that was worth showing off, even if he hid it under a pastel green shirt and wore his tie far too neatly. He seemed to be the only one in the family, apart from Penny, who didn’t use implants and therefore looked like a normal person. A hot normal person.

I had made myself comfortable on the couch of the student accommodation in black sweatpants and my Vanderwood hoodie, together with a chicken salad and my laptop, in order to edit a few photos during my upcoming free seminar period. And I preferred it when the TV was on in the background, even if Oliver was more than distracting.