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Chapter One
Thea had started the new school year at the Wandless Academy with enthusiasm and a sense of purpose—but then things began to unravel with unnerving speed.
The first unpleasant surprise was her roommate. Thea actually did a double take when Magpie all but fell into their room, a large and apparently heavy backpack on her back and a smaller duffel bag in each hand.
"Hey!" she said, dumping the bags on the floor in an untidy heap. "Back at the salt mines, eh?"
Magpie's right ear had been pierced at least a dozen times along its edge, and it was lined with tiny silver rings, giving it the appearance of being sheathed in chain mail. From each earlobe dangled long earrings wrought from copper wire and some sparkly crystal.
But something else was different. Something far more disquieting.
"Your hair," Thea said, startled.
Magpie flicked back from her face a long braid that had been dyed an improbable shade of platinum blond. A purple bandanna sewn with sequins held back the rest of her hair, which had been hacked into uneven layers as though attacked by a straight-edge razor. A couple of rats'-tails, left long on purpose, were hanging from the back of her head.
"You like it?" Magpie said, craning her neck a little to catch a glimpse of herself in the dresser mirror. "I just got bored—I've worn my hair the same way since I was in the cradle. My cousin Clarice did it. She trained as a hairdresser before they kicked her out of beauty school for, I don't know, being too weird for the clients or something." She turned to give Thea an appraising look.
Thea covered her own hair with both hands. "Don't even think about it."
Magpie laughed. "You might actually, you know, like it."
"But you were so proud of your hair last year," Thea said plaintively.
"It's a change." Magpie shrugged. The platinum strand persisted in hanging over her face like some strange visiting-alien tentacle, and Thea couldn't quite tear her fascinated gaze from it.
"You usually travel lighter than that," she said, eyeing the pile of baggage on the floor.
"You wouldn't believe how much room makeup bags take up," Magpie said airily. She rooted around in the smaller of the duffels and came up with about seven different lipsticks, which she spilled on top of the dresser.
"Since when do you wear so much stuff on your face?" Thea asked with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. "And what on earth do you use this one for? It's black!"
Magpie shot her a coy look from under lashes spiked with mascara. "It's fun," she said. "You're welcome to try them, if you like. Even the black one."
She was still bubbly, full of her usual brand of charm and high spirits, but it was different, somehow. Magpie was focused on different things now, and Thea was finding it unexpectedly difficult to reconcile the new Magpie with the friend whom she had come to know and even depend on. This was not the same Magpie who would cuddle close a wild creature wrapped in a ratty blanket. It wasn't as though they had suddenly found each other to be complete strangers—they were still friends, on the surface—but there was something missing, something that Thea couldn't quite put a finger on until she woke abruptly one night from a choppy and unsettling dream, nearly two weeks after their return to the Academy.
"Shhh," Magpie whispered from the shadows, "it's just me. Go back to sleep.""What have you got now?" Thea said sleepily, propping herself up on one elbow."Got?" Magpie echoed, sounding surprised. "What have I got?"
"What sort of critter have you picked up now?" Thea asked. Then she caught her first real glimpse of Magpie, who was standing in a patch of moonlight that had slipped through the half-closed curtains. The dim light caught a hint of gelled glitter and dark eyeliner, and her mouth was a dark slash on her pale face. She was dressed in something tight and black, with the ensemble completed by a short flouncy skirt that barely came past the tops of her thighs; on her feet were a pair of lace-up sneakers with platform heels.
"No critters," Magpie said, even as Thea completed her astonished inspection."Where are you going?"
Magpie's sudden grin was a disconcerting flash of white teeth in the moonlit shadows; she looked like a cat suddenly yawning to bare its fangs. "I'm meeting Gary over by the pond," she said. "Be a sweetie, and if Mrs. Chen asks . . ."
"I'm not going to lie to Mrs. Chen!"
"You would have if I were out with a sick raccoon!"
"It's not the same thing at all!"
"Whatever," Magpie said, after a beat of awkward silence. "I gotta go, he'll be expecting me. I should be back in a couple of hours. Don't worry; I already know all the tricks of keeping myself out of harm's way."
"Wait a sec, I don't . . ." Thea called, but Magpie didn't wait for an answer. By the time Thea got to the door of their room, opening it a crack to peer into the corridor, Magpie was already gone.
They didn't share lunch the next day, with Magpie defecting to a new crowd of friends in the cafeteria who apparently found life a lot more amusing than Thea did. As Thea stood with her tray, Magpie did look up, but neither she nor any of her companions seemed inclined to invite Thea to join them. Feeling oddly hurt, Thea looked around and saw Ben sitting at one end of a long table, picking at his food without much enthusiasm. Across the table from him, Tess, her own half-finished lunch on the tray in front of her, had her nose buried firmly in a textbook. She was taking several college-level classes that year, and had been entirely wrapped up in the workload ever since they had all come back to school. Now that a rift had opened between Thea and Magpie, Thea was suddenly aware how little she had seen of her other friends since the beginning of the semester.
Excerpted from Cybermage by Alma Alexander All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
