Dangerous Magic

17. Secrets

In movies, there's something sacred and special about sleepovers. All the best bonding happens in the middle of the night when the characters share their deepest secrets and go on crazy scavenger hunts to prove themselves to the popular girls.

I'd never been to one before, so I couldn't speak to the accuracy of that trope.

Which was why I was torn when Emily suggested a study session and sleepover. Much as I wanted to experience that right of passage, I didn't need the temptation of secret-spilling.

But maybe real life wouldn't be so much like the movies.

"It's no big deal. My roommate has been staying with her girlfriend a few doors down so I'm all by myself anyway." Emily looked up at me and must have seen the conflict on my face. She added quickly, "But no pressure if you don't want to!"

Oh boy, did I want to. I didn't have it in me to tell her no.

"Count me in," I told her, maybe too enthusiastically. I would never be able to convince myself that it was a good idea but I might never get another opportunity. "I'm not all that comfortable in my own room anyway."

What with someone breaking in two nights in a row and all. I hadn't meant to admit that out loud though.

Emily definitely heard the comment. Her eyes opened wide with worry. "Why not? Are you in 201? It's not haunted, I swear. That's just a rumor to scare the new girls."

I laughed. "Not 201. I'm on the first floor. It just doesn't feel like home." I paused, looking for a more plausible explanation. "Transfering here has been a weird transition, but I've been the new kid a lot. You'd think I would get used to it."

Lies are better when they are made up of truths.

"That's what I'm here for, Ro," Emily beamed at me, bumping my shoulder with hers. "I got your back."

I smiled back, hoping that she couldn't tell how her words broke my heart.

+

"Every magischola around the country has an Omega Club--sorry, Society," Emily rolled her eyes as she said the word, "Club members usually end up in the upper echelon of society. The presidents of several major companies, founders and owners of many of the labs in the country, and POTUS."

"The President? How are you allowed to tell me all this?" Omega seemed like much more than a club for magischola students.

Emily sat cross-legged on her unmade bed and I had turned her standard-issue desk chair around to face her. One side of the room looked more or less pristine, while the other had been hit by some sort of teenage-girl-cyclone. I didn't know if Emily's roommate preferred her girlfriend's room or needed an escape from the mess. Could be both.

"That binding spell Ms. Williams put on us? It stops you from telling anybody about Omega until you're inducted. Because I'm already in the club, I have a different spell. If you don't make it into the club, they'll take all memory of this conversation from you. And from me, honestly." As if that made me feel any better. Emily hastily added, "But don't worry about that, you're definitely getting in."

I needed to change the subject.

"What was your test like?"

A smile lit her face and Emily leaned forward on her knees to tell the story. "Because I'm a psionic they wanted to pair me with a similar mage but there weren't any other Illusionists in our Omega. I'm the only one to ever make it into the BPM chapter. That's going to be important later.

"Now, the goal of the test is to prove that you are strong enough or cunning enough or creative enough, that you'll add something to the group. As an Illusionist, I already knew I had magic that made me member material. Maria told me that the test was just a formality, that they just wanted to see what I could do."