It definitely was unfair, but she was so funny.
I knew about the pranks planned for the day, of course. Lily made sure I knew. She valued my opinion on her cruelty. So I knew about the tripping, the gum, the pushing, and the slime bomb. I also knew what was planned for all of Alyssa's classes. Lily was nothing if not organized, and when she decided to come down on someone, most would do well to run for cover.
But I had the feeling that Alyssa Carde wouldn't be cowed by Lily's initial attack.
My fair and fairly brutal lady always started small. If Alyssa hadn't caved by the middle of first quarter, she would pull out the big guns.
Magic.
The Whitmoor magic was dangerous. Few witch families rivaled theirs for power; the Carsons, certainly, which was the root of Lily and Geneva's rivalry. But after that... maybe the Pillar family, who'd founded the school. But they weren't really witches, so they didn't count.
Would Alyssa be able to last long enough for Lily to whip up something truly nasty? I had no idea. She was only human, after all.
"You shouldn't encourage her."
I glanced over at Hattie Marshal, another slave trapped in the web of the witch families. She was Geneva's pawn and, like me, hated her mistress.
"Don't know what you mean," I drawled, shoving my hands in my pockets.
From the corner of my eye, I saw her fiddling with her plethora of keychains. If it had anything to do with gambling - dice, playing card symbols, poker chips - it jingled on the chain attached to Hattie's wallet. She twiddled it like most people twiddled their thumbs: only when she was bored, or incredibly nervous.
"She's an innocent, Jack. You shouldn't encourage her to pit herself against Lily."
"Oh, so I should just let Geneva snap her up?"
Hattie flushed. A top-hat-wearing skeleton jangled on her chain.
"That's not what I meant. Lily's going to destroy her if you let the new girl keep on throwing herself against what Lily's throwing back at her."
"Go to class, Hattie," I told her, ignoring the prickle of unease between my shoulder blades. Geneva's flunky shot me a hateful look, hot with disgust, and stormed off towards her first period while I tried to ignore what she'd said.
Lily's going to destroy her....
Yeah, she certainly was. Alyssa couldn't stand up to Lily forever. And the moment she tripped, stumbled, missed a trick - Lily would be there to take her down completely.
And I couldn't have done anything about it if I'd wanted to.
