Unlike the rest of the historic campus, the science library was a modern, soulless, fourteen-story rectangle. Each floor was painted according to the pH scale. They were at a table on the first floor, the only students in sight. No one else had to pull an all-nighter during the first week of school. Even the librarian had gone home.
“It’s humanly impossible to memorize this in one night,” Reagan said as she shut her book with frustration.
“It’s much more fun than real organic chemistry, trust me,” Bailey said, staring at her grimoire in awe. She pointed at a spell printed in gold ink above a trio of gem-toned tarot cards that reminded Vivi of an illuminated medieval manuscript. “This is a spell to silence the voice of your enemy. Can you imagine?”
“I wonder if I can use it on my roommate,” Reagan said as she leaned over for a better look. “She calls her boyfriend in Texas every night and spends hours recounting the banal details of her pointless life.”
“That’s a little mean, isn’t it?” Sonali said.
Reagan fixed her with a glare. “She tells him everything she ate that day. Literally everything, like ‘I went to the dining hall and had cereal with half a banana, and then for lunch I went to that bagel place but they were out of cinnamon raisin, so I—’”
“Oh God, make it stop,” Sonali cut in as she rubbed her temples. “You’re right. That’s insufferable.”
“I don’t even know what language this is,” Ariana said groggily as she frowned at her grimoire. “Is it ancient Greek?”
“I think so,” Sonali said, leaning in for a closer look. Unlike the others, she’d seemed to grow more wired as the night went on, muttering to herself as she pored over the spells. “My mom was a Raven but she never said anything about memorizing an entire spell book overnight. Maybe she blocked it from her memory?”
“Or maybe she didn’t want to scare you away from pledging?” Bailey said as she closed her eyes and rolled her shoulders back a few times.
Sonali let out a snort. “Hardly. It was, like, the number-one topic of conversation. She made it pretty clear that if I didn’t get a bid, she’d disown me.”
“This is a waste of time, trust me,” Reagan said, then yawned. She stretched her arms over her head, causing her crop top to rise up even higher. “My mom and aunts are all brilliant witches, and I don’t think they ever memorized any spells. Once you learn how to harness your magic, you don’t ever have to look at a book again.”
“What was it like, growing up with witches?” Bailey asked, suddenly alert again.
Reagan shrugged. “I never knew anything else.”
Just then, Vivi’s phone buzzed, startling her. No one called her, ever. Especially not in the middle of the night. But when she saw the name on the screen, she snatched her phone and hurried toward a bank of chairs on the other side of the room.
“Mom?” she whispered as she rushed away from the table and turned into the dark hallway. “Is everything okay?”
“Honey, I just got your voicemails.” There was a crackling sound on the other end of the line that sounded like waves. “Sorry I couldn’t call sooner. I’ve been trying this new immersive meditation technique that—”
“Mom,” Vivi cut in. “Why didn’t you tell me I’m a witch?”
There was a long pause.
“Mom, are you still there?” She stepped closer to a window, hoping for a better cell signal. This side of the library faced a thick cluster of trees and a small quad edged with administrative buildings.
“I did tell you, Vivi. You just weren’t ready to hear it.”
You’re special, Vivi. You’re full of magic. Daphne had spent Vivi’s whole childhood repeating phrases like that. Vivi just hadn’t known it was real. “Does that mean you’re also a witch?”
“I have some . . . heightened abilities, but my powers are nothing like yours, darling.”
“Why would you keep all this a secret from me?” Vivi snapped, suddenly shaking with frustration. “There’s an entire sorority here full of witches and I might not make the cut because I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”
Daphne was silent for so long that Vivi wondered if she’d hung up. “Mom? Are you there?”
“Vivian, listen to me: There are many ways to be a witch. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking there is only one path forward.”
“Their path is looking a whole lot better than your path.” Vivi knew that would hurt her but right now, she was too angry to care. “These girls are incredible. They’re going to run the world one day. I think some of them already are.”
There was another long pause. “You need to be really careful, Vivi. You don’t know what power does to people. I’ve seen it. You can’t trust any of those so-called sorority witches.”
Vivi felt a surge of anger burn its way through her foggy exhaustion. “At least they took the time to tell me I was a witch. Right now, it seems like they’re the ones looking out for me.” Furious, she ended the call.
The Ravens weren’t the problem. Daphne was, just like she’d always been.
Vivi was about to rejoin the other pledges when something screeched outside the window. Startled, she wheeled around and craned her head for a closer look but saw nothing except for the shadowy outline of tree branches.
A few seconds later, the screeching noise came again, but there was still no sign of movement among the branches. “What the hell?” Vivi muttered. She was starting to inch forward when something slammed against the glass with a gruesome thwack. Vivi leaped back, heart pounding. She realized with a start that it was a moth, the largest she’d ever seen. It was banging furiously against the glass, so hard the pane rattled. Its wings were light brown, and there was a white shape in the middle.
A shape that looked exactly like a grinning skull.
Vivi gasped and dropped her phone, which skidded across the smooth floor. Before she could reach for it, the dim ceiling lights flickered and went out, shrouding the hallway in darkness.
“Shit.” With a groan, Vivi crouched down and began to feel her way along the floor, praying that the next thing her fingers brushed against would be her phone. “Sonali?” she called. “Ariana? Are you guys in there?” Perhaps the other girls had been still for too long and the sensors had turned the lights off. Except that the large windows were also dark; the lights on the quad had been extinguished, and the lights illuminating the bell tower were out too. An eerie feeling settled over Vivi as she waited for her eyes to adjust. But the dark was too heavy, too complete; it was like she was locked in an underground vault. “Ariana!” she cried.
A chair scraped in the distance. “Vivi?” Ariana called. “Where are you?”
“In the hallway. I . . . I don’t think we’re alone,” Vivi called back, her voice quivering. She remembered the girl who’d arrived at Kappa House the night before, the madness in her wide eyes. “I dropped my phone and can’t see anything.”
“Stay there. We’re coming!”
But before the pledges could reach her, the front door to the library banged open.
“Who’s there?” Vivi shouted, pressing her back against the wall. “What do you want?” She groped around wildly, trying to get her bearings. Then hands grabbed her shoulders roughly, and Vivi screamed at the top of her lungs.