Chaston on me. Holly was one thing, but two girls in a six-month period?"
She shook her head. "Somebody's gonna go down for that, and you can bet it's gonna be me."
"Why?" I repeated. Jenna was the only person at Hecate I considered a friend. Well, maybe Archer and I were friends now, but there was still that whole possiblybeing-in-love-with-him-maybe-a-little thing, and that pushed him out of the friend zone. If Jenna left, I'd be at the mercy of Elodie and
Anna.
No way.
"You don't know that they're gonna kick you out. Chaston may remember what happened to her. Just wait and talk to Mrs. Casnoff, okay?
Maybe by tomorrow everyone will have calmed down some."
Her derisive snort told me exactly how likely she found that scenario.
After a moment she began putting her clothes back in the closet. I stood up and helped her.
"So how was cellar duty tonight?"
"Cellar-ific."
"And your stupendously futile crush on Archer Cross?"
"Still stupendous. Still futile."
She nodded as she hung up one of her many Hecate blazers. "Good to know."
We worked in companionable silence.
"What did you mean about Elodie and her coven trying to raise a demon?"
"That's what Holly told me they were working on," she said as she closed the closet. "Mrs. Casnoff was really pimping the whole L'Occhio di
Dio will kill us all thing she's so big on, and their coven freaked out. Holly said they thought if they raised a demon, it would give them more power and they'd be safer should stuff go down."
"Did they do it?"
She shook her head. "I don't know."
The lights blinked out, plunging us into darkness. I heard a few startled shrieks from down the hall, but then Mrs. Casnoff's voice boomed, "Lights out is mandatory tonight. Go to bed, children."
Jenna sighed. "You gotta love Hex Hall."
Bumping into furniture and whispering bad words, we made our way to our respective beds.
I flopped down on mine with a low groan. I hadn't realized how exhausted I was until I felt my cool soft pillow under my head. So I was nearly asleep when I heard Jenna whisper, "Thank you."
"For what?" I mumbled.
"Being my friend."
"Wow," I replied. "That's like, the lamest thing anyone's ever said to me."
She gave a cry of mock outrage, and a second later one of her many pillows landed on my face.
"I was trying to be nice," she insisted, but I could hear the laughter in her voice.
"Well, don't," I retorted. "I like my friends mean and hateful."
"Will do," she replied, and a few minutes later we were both asleep.
I awoke to Jenna's screaming and the smell of smoke.
Confused, I sat up. Morning sunlight was streaming into the room and onto Jenna's bed. It took me a minute to realize that that's where the smoke was coming from.
Jenna's bed. Jenna.
She was frantically trying to stand up, but she was tangled in her sheets, and panic was making her clumsy.
My feet barely touched the floor as I leaped from my bed and tossed my comforter over her. As I did, I caught sight of her hand. The normally pale skin was bright red, and it was bubbling up in places.
Without thinking, I pushed her into her closet.
Once she was in, I grabbed one of her sheets and shoved it against the crack underneath the door. Jenna was crying, but she wasn't making that high-pitched sound of pain anymore.
"What happened?" I shouted through the wood.
"My bloodstone," she sobbed. "It's gone!"
I ran to her bed and crouched to peer under it.
Maybe it just fell off, I told myself. Maybe the clasp broke, or it got caught on her pillow.
I wanted it to be one of those things.
I pulled everything off the bed, even shoved the mattress off the box springs, but Jenna's bloodstone wasn't anywhere.
Rage surged inside of me.
"Wait here," I yelled to Jenna.
"Oh, like I'm going anywhere!" she replied when I was already halfway out the door.
There were a few girls in the hall. I recognized one, Laura Harris, from Magical Evolution. Her eyes went wide when she saw me.
I ran to Elodie's room and pounded on the door.