The Witching Hour | ✎

nine

a/n: you guys work quick — and when you do, so do i hehe ! chapter nine, as promised. 

nine

🔮— 🔮

She didn't tell Neema, or Holden. Callie knew it made her a coward, but she didn't want to face their questions — or their worry, on that end.

Is it selfish of me?

Both Luce and Jesse had made attempts to get Callie to contact her friends, if only to ventilate some of the dark that had crept inside her since her visit to Level 2 — a spot of dark that seemed intent on burrowing beneath her skin. Belinda never mentioned that feeling, the sense that something otherworldly and plain wrong had come back to the human world with you, festering like a disease in your head.

Callie tilted her head to the side, glancing at the buildings flashing past outside the car window. Jesse hadn't let her get to the Academy on her own the following day, choosing to bundle her carefully into their car — an older, red model — before driving off. She hadn't wanted to stay home — hadn't wanted to sit in her room, eyes stuck on where she knew she'd drawn that chalk circle.

No, better to get my mind off it. Think of something else — like Adahy's disgusting group project.

It felt so far away, now. So ... disconnected, from the dull throb of pain in her arm, from the very real memory of Bilemoth which replayed itself in her head.

"What time do you finish school today, Cal?"

Callie shut down her destructive train of thought, forcing her eyes to rest on Jesse's side-profile. His jaw was tense, tone wary — a tangible worry clouded his features, made worse by his nervous glances his daughter's way.

"Four, I think."

Swallowing a hard lump past her dry throat, Callie focused on shoving the dark thoughts out of her head, knew it was in her best interest to return to the normal she cherished.

"We have Professor Adahy's class last. He's assigned that group project — and it might run over."

Jesse slowed the car as they rolled through the open, iron gates of the Academy grounds. Nodding slightly, he maneuvered the vehicle around a pair of students leading a bike.

"I'll pick you up today. If you want to, of course," Jesse added, swiftly, with a brief glance Callie's way.

Callie smiled, felt that smile push out some of the dark that clung to her.

"I'd like that," She replied. Jesse smiled, too, slowing the car further.

The brick behemoth that was Stoneport Academy towered before them, edged by skeletal trees which had started dropping their leaves. The car rolled to a complete stop, Callie thanking her father before slowly climbing out of the car, wary of her arm.

Jesse put the car in reverse, but remained unmoving until his daughter had passed through the massive front doors into the Academy.

🔮— 🔮

Callie lasted until the third period before she had to dig through her bag for a painkiller, the ache in her arm turning sharp as the hours whizzed by. Luce had done a splendid job of healing it, using all of the spells on mending and healing in his spellbook, but it didn't mean it wouldn't hurt in the process.

She was almost ... glad, that it hurt. It was a reminder of why she'd made that promise in the first place, and even though she'd broken it, it had been for a good cause. That dark piece of the Dark Realm that had come with her, that clung to her mind ...