Hidden Sanctum (1)

“Ow! Stomp down on my heel one more time, and I’m seriously going to have to break your ankle.”

“Maybe if you weren’t hogging the entire glow of the lamp up there, Miss Vanders, the rest of us could see where we were going.”

Clara tried to stifle her laugh as she followed a bickering Maxwell and Holly across campus in the dark. It was almost eleven, and Blaire was pitch-black and silent, except for the hoot of an owl. An orange gibbous moon was low in the sky, cloaked by a veil of fog. Between the three of them, they’d only been able to come up with one gas lamp, so only Holly had a clear view of the path of the shady pocket redwoods. For the other two, the grounds—which had seemed so lush and well-tended in the daylight—were now booby-trapped with fallen bristlecones, thick-rooted ferns, and the backs of Holly’s feet.

When Holly had asked her to do some extraordinary moon spells, Clara had gotten a sinking feeling in her stomach. Alex had just dropped her off in her chamber room. And