Chapter 2

“Isn’t that Brianna Winters?” One girl questioned the student beside her.

“Isn’t she dead?” Another guy yapped, and his words caused me to cringe.

She was dead. I thought. She is dead.

My good sense was fighting frantically with what I saw before me, but in the end, it was my eyes that won the battle. How could I possibly believe she was dead when she was standing right beside Celestria? Not to mention the fact that our Grand Priestess had looked like she might have a heart attack the moment she saw her.

“Students of Winterwood,” Celestria tried once more to gather the crowd’s attention, “Please welcome the members of our High Witch Council, Grand Priestess Livina Atwell, Grand Priest Atticus Squire, Grand Priestess Fredrika Lovegood, Grand High Priest Augustus Maxwell, and his daughter Adreanna Maxwell!”

She reeled off the names pointing at each council member in turn from the fair-haired Livina to the fiery-haired beauty, and my mind began to spin.

Is she seriously trying to tell me that’s not Bri?

“Please give them all a round of applause!” Celestria boomed, and she began the round, clapping her own hands energetically.

Still looking confused, the crowd was slow to take up the round of applause, and I found myself totally stone still, unable to move a muscle until Celestria turned to gesture the council members into the building.

“Wait a minute!” I hissed under my breath as I took the steps two at a time to grab hold of Bri’s wrist just as she was about to follow the last of the members inside.

“Excuse me!” She gasped, snatching her hand away. She looked at me as though I was something on the bottom of her shoe.

“New girl, don’t you recognise me?” I chuckled as I brought myself up to my full height, squaring my shoulders.

She examined me for a moment, looking half intrigued before brushing me off with an upturned nose.

“You’re cute, but not that cute.” She shrugged. “Maybe if we were the last two people on earth.”

“Bri, stop playing games with me. It’s been a hellish week,” I growled as I grabbed hold of her by the shoulders.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” she demanded as she tried and failed to release herself from my grip.

“Bri, I don’t like it when people play games with me.” I glared down at her, and when our eyes met, I suddenly realised that hers had changed colour. They were no longer the familiar grey-blue eyes of the girl I was always dying to kiss.

Instead, they were a deep, dark sapphire blue, almost black. And the more she glared at me, the darker they became.

“I don’t know who you think I am, but you have me mixed up with someone else,” she snarled at me.

Bri’s eyes have changed colour before, I reminded myself, perhaps she just needs a reminder.

With all the passion that fired up inside of me the moment I laid eyes on her, I leaned down and kissed her with almost bruising force.

Her lips were warm and tender beneath my own, and for a moment, I felt as though she was relaxing against me.

Then, suddenly she was gone from my arms, and my ears began to ring as she planted her palm with shocking force against my cheek.

Bri

My mind was still reeling at eleven o’clock on Sunday night when Keeya and Luci snuck down the hall to join us in our bedroom. I was glad that I could rely on my roommate, Zoe, to get a discreet message to them because I was way too shaken to come up with a plan on my own. After all that had happened over the last few weeks and being told by my tutor that I had to leave the Winterwood Academy, I was definitely far from the top of my game.

“Do you have to go?’ Luci asked even as she grabbed me and pulled me into a great big bear hug that left me spinning all over again. I had no idea how such a petite girl could house so much strength. “We only just got you back.”

After waking from being dead, I had to agree with her, but my last conversation with my tutor told me everything I needed to know. The Winterwood Academy wasn’t the safest place in the world, what with our psycho Grand Priestess, and that was before I’d learned I was quite possibly some freaky magical twin or, as Merrin called it, a Gemini twin.

“Trust me, it’s better this way,” Zoe called over her shoulder even as she zipped up the bag, she’d been helping me to pack with what little was left of my stuff. The Winterwood Book, my mobile and charger, and a couple of pieces of clothing that Zoe had borrowed without asking. Under normal circumstances, I might have been pissed at that, but the fact that they’d been in her closet and not mine when they’d come to take my stuff away was a relief.

Zoe and I glanced at each other because we’d both agreed it was best to keep most of our conversation with Merrin to ourselves. The last thing we wanted was to worry our friends even more than they already were.

“There’s enough gossip going around with my lookalike without people figuring out that I’m not dead,” I pointed out as I placed my hand on Luci’s shoulder, “But I have a feeling I haven’t seen the last of this place.”

That instinctual gut feeling I always seemed to get was back again as soon as I said it. I was pretty sure that it didn’t matter how far away from the academy I got. My troubles were still going to follow me. Whether I wanted to believe it or not, a Goddess had marked me, and from the way, everyone was reacting, I was pretty sure that meant she’d chosen me for something.