CHAPTER 1

Audrey chided herself as the late afternoon sun beat down hard on her head as she rushed back and forth to finish her assigned duties. She should have taken a hat and worn something less warm than this blue long sleeve shirt and maybe dumped the corset. It made carrying out the duties her mother had given her all the more harder. To be fair, no duty assigned in the Lestoria clan was ever easy.

She spied the rest of her family having a picnic under the giant rose pavilion. They were having a celebratory gathering for her three younger cousins, Alanic, Roaslia and Augusto, because they had passed the test. She was left out because she had not passed hers. For the third time in a row. The beautiful scent and colour of the roses were obscured by the sight of all their faces. They looked so happy and proud especially her parents and that made her heart twinge with pain. Tonight, the ceremony and a party would be held for the three of them and the others that passed to make them full fledged members of the clan.

Audrey's parents did not want her around at the request of her Aunts, Minerva and Lucia. Both witches of grandeur and status. They said she would bring their own children bad luck. They did not even have the decency to wait until she left the room, they said it in her face and all her loving parents did was glare at their only child like this was all her fault.

It was not just because of the request of her aunts, Audrey's parents never intended for her to be there. They told her that earlier on and kept repeating it days after, even more so after the comment her deplorable aunts made. That was the reason her mother had given her more to do than usual and made it harder than usual. Rosalia caught her looking and smirked at her with those pearly white teeth of hers and started gracefully showing off her familiar, a small basket sized bird with brilliant ocean blue plumage and eyes as green as hers. The bird was probably just as spoiled and vain as her. Augusto and Alanic followed her eyes and started to put on their own show with their familiars. Audrey ground her teeth, looked away and ran past before they could do anything more or before any others saw her.

It was not fair! None of them were supposed to make the cut! Augusto and Alanic cheated high and low, Rosalia was no better, she barely passed and that was on a fluke! All three of them had failed last year just the same as her but they had failed all the other tests and only passed the conjuring. She, on the other hand, passed every test except for one. The conjuring.

It was a stage in the test that measured your strength based on mana. If the test judged your mana good enough, you would go on to receive your familiar. It was a part of her clan for thousands of years. She had grown to detest that part of the entire examination, that entire part of her own culture and analysis. That was the only part of the tests she could not pass, no matter how hard she tried. And in the Lestoria clan, a witch without mana was as good as useless even if they were good at anything else.

Audrey stopped to look at the scroll under her arm, not that she did not know what was next on the list, she had a very good memory. She just needed to stop for a bit and catch her breath. It was a list of her duties that day. Her next one was number twenty six on the list, the Theoloren greenhouse. The third largest greenhouse on clan grounds. They must have wanted her gone for longer. No surprise there. Damn this sun, why was it so hot today?

She rolled the scroll up and tucked it back under her arm. Her hand reached for the satchel at her hip. At least she had not forgotten it at home, thank gods. She reached in and took out her flask, unscrewed the cover and brought it to her lips. Immediately, the liquid reached her tongue and she spat it out. What the hell?! There was supposed to be water not triggle juice! She looked at the flask with surprise and disgust. What–Who? Her mind looked through everyone that had been to the house that morning, more specifically, her room.

Neither of her parents would stoop this low, now Audrey thought about it. Rosalia had approached her that morning in the hallway before she went to her room to prepare for the day, spewing her regular prissy nonsense, then Augusto came down from the stairs. Gods! Her room was not locked then! How did she not see that?! Those little bastards! She flung the flask away and went through her satchel. Thankfully, her flask was the only thing they had tampered with, and all her things were still intact.

She would have to check her room when she got back to the house. Who knew what other little surprises they had left behind for her. The taste was still in her mouth and she tried to stop mind from wondering where, who or what triggle juice was made from. Her stomach lurched. She had to make some water to get the taste out of her mouth. Fast.

She had all the ingredients in her purse except for one. Polygrond essence. There were some polygrond in the greenhouse. Audrey ran as fast as she could with the sun and the gods awful taste in her mouth that threatened to make her throw up everything in her stomach.

She passed several people on her dash, they were probably wondering why she was running around like a headless chicken. Audrey was sure that most of them were going to complain about it to her parents. A disappointing young witch not even fully fledged running around with absolutely no decorum whatsoever, that was the usual complaint.