THREE: THE NOVEMBER INCIDENT
DECEMBER 27
KATE DIAMOND
IT WAS SUNDAY MORNING AND the sky was still cloudy from the snowfall before. It would probably snow again. Inside a palace so large it would put Neuschwanstein to shame, Princess Katarina Diamond sat at the desk in her bedroom. She was busy setting up her planner for the new semester and while doing so, spoke with her roommate, Wren Rorrick, on the phone.
Wren was telling Kate about her new home in sunny South Florida—a long ways away from the World of Magic and the Academy. After the November Incident, Wren and the rest of the Rorrick family relocated to the Mortal World. They weren't the only ones to leave. Many families were terrified after the Incident and left for somewhere safer. Others stayed but lived in fear.
"Did your parents say you could come back for New Year's?" Kate asked when Wren finished gushing about her new home, though she had trouble believing that any place could be better than the World of Magic—especially Florida.
"I asked," Wren said from the other line, and she was whispering like she wasn't supposed to be on the phone. "But my parents were pretty clear. If someone like Reagan can do what she did, the World of Magic isn't safe anymore."
Kate nodded mindlessly and continued flipping through her planner. Somewhere during the month of October, between notes about a test on common jinxes, was a scribbled note from Liam Heart (who sat in the desk beside Kate's during their Enchantments class). Liam wrote something about their teacher, Mr. Westville, and his Italian accent which was just a little toostrong and Kate drew a smiley face beside it.
"The hearing is today, isn't it?" Wren asked when she didn't get a reply from Kate.
Suddenly, Kate lifted her head up and her hand stopped. She didn't remember telling Wren anything about the hearing but WoMWeekly (a popular tabloid that extended to its television show, WoMLive and online app WoMOnline) had been covering everything about the Incident since it happened.
"Y-Yeah," Kate finally managed to spit out. "It is."
She blinked back down to her planner in an attempt to distract herself and her eyes traced over the lines of Liam's doodle of a werewolf—probably because on the day he'd drawn it, there was supposed to be a full moon later that night.
"Any word yet?" was Wren's follow-up question.
Kate shook her head despite the fact that Wren couldn't see it and she twirled the diamond studs around in her ears.
"Nothing yet. The Council got here a few hours ago and they haven't left the Conference Hall since. Not even for a break."
"Well I hope they find the right people guilty," said Wren, conveniently using the term people instead of person. She didn't have to say it for Kate to know. She believed Reagan wasn't the only one responsible for the Incident—she believed Kate's twin sister, Wil, was too. A guilty verdict for Wil meant not only that she'd be expelled from the Academy but she could also be Banished to the Shadow Lands.
"Two people were killed. Someone needs to be punished."
Kate opted to give Wren the opportunity to think about what she was saying—or rather, who she was saying it to—but Wren didn't say anything more. Mindlessly, Kate ran her fingers over the lines of her planner—she was meticulous about marking down assignments. Each ridge and bump in the page mirrored the impression of her pen and she could nearly read the pages without even looking.
Memorize exotic blooms and foliage for Botany quiz
Research paper on Lamian Centaurs (additional books in library)
Wren coughed to break the awkward silence and Kate glanced back at her phone again. There was a muffled conversation in the background on Wren's end, which she began to speak over.
"My parents want me to get off the phone," she said quickly. "They think Inter-Realm calls could draw attention which would mean this whole move was for nothing."
"Oh," Kate sighed, disappointed.
Two weeks ago, Wren told Kate she was leaving and the next day, she was gone. They'd tried staying in contact since but the Inter-Realm distance was getting more and more difficult.
"I'm sorry, Kate," Wren apologized. "I'll call you again if I can. Have a good New Year and a good semester."
Kate hardly got the chance to mutter "you too"before the line went dead and Wren's voice was replaced with a dial tone. Frustrated, Kate watched her phone screen fade to black and then she leaned against the back of her chair. She groaned and her ocean blue eyes found a pyramid of meticulously stacked Matt & Natduffle bags by the door. She found it odd that she was so eager to return to the Academy but the more she thought about it, the less strange it seemed. Being home in the palace was a constant reminder of what happened. The aftermath lingered around like a plague. It was impossible to spend a minute there without something reminding her about the Incident.
That's what people were calling it. Because what else do you call a day when two teenagers were tragically murdered in front of an entire school? Technically, the criminal mastermind behind it all was Reagan Grave—fellow senior and Wil's old roommate—but it was Wil who broke into the Headmistress's Office and stole an old grimoire for her. Wil said she didn't know what Reagan was planning, only that she wanted the spell book. She knew the spells in the book were forbidden at the Academy but she never imagined it would lead to what it did. In the grimoire was a spell to weaken the Veil (a magical field which kept the Three Realms separate) and Reagan intended to use it for reasons she refused to share prior to her Banishment. The spell required a sacrifice of magic, resulting in the deaths of Mariella Bradley and Daniel Rogers. Just after Mare and Danny were killed, Dr. Evan Karamazov (everyone's favorite teacher at the Academy and the twins' godfather) showed up to stop Reagan before she could finish her spell. She was Banished to the Shadow Lands before sunrise.
A month later, people in the Realm were still struggling to move on. Prince Leo, Kate's older brother, was taking the loss especially hard. Not that anyone had trouble understanding why. One of the victims, nineteen-year-old Mariella Bradley, was his girlfriend of many years. Everyone expected them to marry soon enough. She was only at the Academy that day to see him (he was helping out Dr. K) and since her death, Leo moped around the palace and rarely left his office. He said he was busy with work (as heir to their father's throne, Leo took on much more responsibility than either of his sisters) but Kate had a feeling he was trying to avoid Wil.
Since the Incident, Kate's parents had changed as well. Her father was hardly ever seen outside of the palace's Conference Hall and her mother distracted herself with her duties as the Academy's headmistress. They became icier versions of themselves—not that they were ever very warm and fuzzy people—and Kate couldn't remember the last time she'd seen her mother doing something other than drinking tea and stress-rubbing her temples.
The palace was isolating—more than ever before—and the only way to escape that isolation was to return to school. But she knew it wouldn't be the same. When the Academy doors opened again for the spring, things were going to be drastically different. Dozens of students had transferred and those who stayed, did so cautiously. People were afraid and they had every reason to be. The World of Magic hadn't faced anything like the Incident in years and though Reagan had been stopped before her spell was complete, people worried she'd already done enough damage. Kate's father, King Walter Diamond, took a trip to the Veil with Dr. K (his closest friend who was the head of the Academy's zoology department and an expert in all things magical). After inspecting it, they assured the public that the Veil was intact and they were safe. People wanted to believe them but fear was a powerful thing.
Suddenly, Kate's phone vibrated with a new text message and she glanced down, half-expecting it to be from Wren.
WIL: New Message (1)
Heart racing, Kate swiped her thumb across the screen and then punched in her passcode (5198, hers and Wil's birthday). The screen unlocked to a log of Kate and Wil's limited text conversation and at the very bottom was the new message.
In that gray bubble was a single word that would dictate not only the next six months at the Academy but everything else that would follow. A single word that would be dissected by the media and shift conversations of thousands in the Realm. One word.
WIL: Innocent.