Chapter 1

Strands of hair fell loosely in front of her face, the brutal wind fiercer than the pouring rain. Her heart beat louder than the thunder.

With one, single clap, the world could end.

With one, single clap, she wished it would.

Plenty of things can end the world. War, famine, global warming, a nuclear bomb, asteroid, the sun exploding. So many things can finish the world as we know it. She could summon that deadly, world-ending thunderous clap. She could shatter the world to pieces and make it look like an accident. Because plenty of things can end the world, but what no one tells you is that everyone else’s world can keep going even when yours has been obliterated.

She wasn’t sure if she could taste the rain or taste her tears. But nothing so small could matter so much any more. Not when bigger things were more important, like the name of her best friend on a headstone, her body buried underneath it. The words on the gravestone stared back at her, almost mocking her: ‘you couldn’t save her?’ it mocked. And maybe she was going out of her mind, but the gravestone was right.

A whirlwind of power at her fingertips dormant at the only time she needed it. The only time she wanted it.

“Amelia,” a voice interrupted her grief. “Let’s get you home, they want to talk to you.”

“Why me?” She asked, her voice raw with emotion.

The girl wrapped her hand in Amelia’s, her warmth vaguely easing Amelia’s frozen bones. Amelia finally turned from the gravestone to meet the eyes of the girl she was desperately trying not to fall in love with. A storm of grey met warm brown eyes. Quinn smiled at her softly, squeezing her hand.

Behind them, waiting, was Headmistress Oaklynn and two investigators, protecting themselves from the downpour with jet black umbrella’s. Amelia looked from Quinn over to the stone faced adults, her heart pounding.

Quinn squeezed her hand again, the metal of a ring cold against Amelia’s sweaty fingers. “Because you were the last one to see her alive.”

Walking away from her friend went against every promise she had ever made to her. It went against every instinct in her body. But she forced herself to take those steps like she forced away the tears still threatening to pour down her cheeks.

The one thing keeping her grounded was Quinn’s hand in hers. Without it, she felt for sure her heart would fall out of her chest. She would have turned around and sat on the soggy ground and cried and wept and screamed until she lost her voice. Yet, she somehow walked away with only one last glimpse at the words of that headstone.

Victoria Grey Heartly.

13th April 2001 – 21st November 2019.

In a world of angels, be a witch.