Page 26 of Hollow

Clara shakes her head, pressing her lips together until they go white. “No. She liked it here. And she was a good witch too. Very powerful. Put on fantastic shows for us. Really believed in the students.”

I cross my arms, intrigued. “So what happened?”

She looks a bit nervous. Perhaps I’m pressing too hard. “She…she had a bit of a breakdown. Mentally. Hysteria, they said. One day, she just snapped and said some things about the school that just wasn’t true. She was acting all paranoid, and then…”

“Then?” I prod.

“She was found in the lake. Dead. Everyone said it was suicide.”

I was not expecting that. “I’m sorry,” I say quickly, feeling bad for asking so much. I should have read the signs. “I didn’t know.”

“No one knew it was coming,” she says softly, looking down at her hands. “Until her episodes, she was always so happy. Everyone loved her.”

“Sounds like I have some big shoes to fill,” I admit, rubbing the tense spot at the back of my neck.

“She was kind, and you seem kind too,” she says with a placating smile. “I’m sure you’ll do just fine.”

I try not to laugh at that. I’ve been called many things by my students, but kind hasn’t been one of them.

“Anyway, I better get going,” she says, stepping away from the table. “It was nice having this chat. I’ll see you later.”

“Of course,” I say. But as she turns her back to me, I call out softly, “Clara?”

She pauses to look at me, a fretful look on her face, like an animal close to escaping. “Yes?”

I walk over to her, lowering my voice. “You say that she was saying things about the school that were untrue. What sorts of things?”

A dark look comes across her face, her body tensing. “I don’t really remember. None of it made much sense.” She looks around her, eyes darting as if someone else is listening in.

“Can you give me an example? I’m just curious,” I add, smiling at her as if that will help her lower her defenses.

“Just strange things like the school was a trap. That’s it, really—the school was a trap, and we were all just flies in a web. She sounded out of her mind, to be honest with you.”

“Sounds like it,” I say carefully. “Thank you very much, Clara.”

She just gives me a quick nod and hurries along her way before I can ask her anything else.

I wonder what else I can find out about Vivienne Henry.

Chapter 10

Kat

“Looks like it’s going to rain,” Paul says, his focus out the library’s ornate windows and not on our textbook at hand. We only have an hour to study up on the Major Arcana before our test with Professor Crane, and we’ve barely quizzed each other on the card’s meanings.

I glance up just in time to hear thunder rumble and see a mass of dark clouds above the row of maples outside, their quivering orange leaves a blazing contrast to the gloom. “It better not,” I say. “I have to ride back home later.”

Paul gives me a quizzical look. He’s the boy who lent me the pencil and paper on my first day of class. That was two weeks ago, and it already feels like a different time.

“You ride to school?” he asks incredulously. He looks down at my dress, which is maroon and high-necked and better suited for the institute. “I would have thought you’d be carted around in your own private coach.”

“Nope. We have a buggy, and I suppose we’ll have to pull it out once the weather really turns sour, but I ride here. Astride too, none of that sidesaddle business.” I kick out the layers of my dress, showing how voluminous it is. The fashion these days tends to be leaning toward a more narrow silhouette, but I never feel as connected to Snowdrop when I ride sidesaddle. I don’t care how unladylike it is that I ride astride. That’s for women in the cities to worry about.

“All alone in those woods,” he comments with a shake of his head, flipping a page in the textbook over and scanning the words.

“Actually, I have an escort,” I tell him. “A neighbor’s kid.”

“Then the kid has to ride all the way back alone in the woods.”