Spell Starter by Elsie Chapman

Author:Elsie Chapman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Once I cross into Tea, I focus on getting myself together. It’s hard to concentrate, the feel of Oliver’s lips still pressed into mine. It’s hard not to want to think of that.

But I can’t.

By the time I’m a block away from the teahouse, the rain has finally started. I’m also back to limping, that low-fever feeling once again with me. It’s getting difficult to remember what it’s like not to hurt at all.

The fight is twelve hours away.

It isn’t like Saint Willow to just let last night’s loss go.

So where is Jihen?

When I see Wu Teas from across the street, I know he’s already come and gone.

The just-painted storefront window of the teahouse is smashed. Thin gray daylight reflects off the sidewalk in front, gone brilliant with its carpet of glass shards. A half dozen people are standing around, craning to see into the shop. Just off to the side, a cop is interviewing some bystanders, witnesses to what happened. The words robbery and vandalism float over. Masked men.

Terror fills me as I rush over, panic like a sharp knife scoring my entire body. My parents were at the shop for the entire morning—they would have been here. They would never leave it unattended. They don’t know how.

This is my punishment for losing last night’s fight—I did this to my parents.

I get closer and stand in front of the gaping window. I take in the knocked-over dining tables, the tipped-over shelves. There’s merchandise littered all over the new floor: piles of loose leaves, dented tins, smashed cups. Tea smells blanket the air—toasty, grasslike, all shades of green. I know that scent better than anything. But right now I can’t find any comfort in it at all.

The till is missing from where it always sits on the front counter.

Inside the shop, another cop is talking to my parents. I’m so relieved to see them I nearly stumble. It hurts to take in their stunned faces, their visible fear. The carefree feeling from just days ago has completely disappeared.

Saint Willow hasn’t left her fingerprints on Wu Teas this time, but outright holes in the shapes of punches.

This is a message. Another sign of her displeasure. It might be exactly what Nima meant about keeping Saint Willow preoccupied. But it’s way too risky doing it this way, putting my parents and the teahouse in danger again and again.

I’ll have to keep the gang leader busy by keeping her happy. And only happy. Until Nima is ready.

“Hello, Aza.”

A familiar voice interrupts my thoughts. I pause to place it, because it doesn’t belong anywhere near here.

I glance up, rain dripping into my eyes.

Embry. In one of his classy suits, with a cop’s silver armband tied around his sleeve. It’s nearly as shiny as the broken glass at our feet.

“Hello,” I say stupidly, slowly tugging down my rain-dampened mask. It’s almost surreal how he’s right here, seemingly to bring more trouble into my life, as if I didn’t have quite enough already. I haven’t seen him since the end of the annual tournament last month.

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