Wedding Hells (Schooled in Magic Book 8) by Christopher Nuttall Page B

said, as Alassa hid the knife in the locker and closed it firmly. “I’d be tempted too.”
    Emily laughed, despite herself. They’d been told stories about examination board supervisors who’d vanished one day and been discovered, a year later, in the frog pond, but they’d also been warned that attempting to hex the supervisors was a guaranteed fail. They were powerful and experienced magicians, after all. Getting caught trying to... convince them to give someone a pass would be embarrassing.
    “Come on, Emily,” Lady Barb called. Most of the girls had already passed through the other door, leaving Emily and her friends alone. “Use a glamor to hide yourself if you wish.”
    Emily nodded and undressed slowly, before pulling the robe on. It adjusted itself automatically, as she’d expected, but it was far too tight around her body. She’d never worn anything so revealing, even though everything below her neck was covered by black fabric. Caleb would probably like to see her in it, the treacherous part of her mind noted, as she hastily cast a glamor over herself. She had never dared let him do anything more than hug and kiss her.
    “I need to keep this with me,” she said, holding up the snake-bracelet. “It’ll revert to its normal form soon, without me.”
    “Keep it,” Lady Barb said, after a moment. Emily allowed herself a moment of relief as she returned the bracelet to her wrist. “Are you carrying anything else?”
    “Only my hairpins,” Imaiqah said. She took one of them from her hair and held it up, allowing her hair to drop down to her shoulders. “Should I dump them?”
    “Yes,” Lady Barb said. She took them from Imaiqah and dropped them into a box, which she marked with Imaiqah’s name. “Anything else?”
    Emily shook her head. Lady Barb gave her a sharp look, then motioned her up the corridor and into the dorm. She felt spells crawling over her as she walked through the corridor, probing at her body to make sure she wasn’t hiding something. It was paranoid, she had to admit, but she knew why. Whitehall’s reputation rested on its exam results. They couldn’t afford to allow anyone to cheat, even though it would catch up with the cheater sooner rather than later.
    A dark-skinned young woman in a black robe counted them into the dorm, then closed the door and motioned them towards the beds. Emily frowned in dismay as she realized she’d be sharing a room with forty girls, but there was clearly no point in arguing. Besides, no one would dare pick a fight on the night before the exams. She sat down on the bed, picked up an envelope with her name written on the front and opened it carefully, pulling out her timetable. It was as bad as she had feared.
    Imaiqah waved to the supervisor. “Where are the boys?”
    “They have their own dorm,” the supervisor said, curtly. “You won’t be seeing them until after the exams.”
    Good , Emily thought. She didn’t want any of them, even Caleb, to see her in such a revealing outfit. The glamor might not work perfectly. There won’t be any distractions for either of us .
    “Charms first,” Alassa said, reading the timetable. “That’s not a surprise; Healing tomorrow...I’d have expected that later, really.”
    “Some of the students will be taking a second Healing exam,” Imaiqah commented. “The ones who want to become Healers have to prove they can handle it.”
    “It isn’t listed here,” Emily mused. She ran her eye down the list, mentally ticking off the exams she’d prepared for. The second Healing exam had probably been left off, as there was no way she could become a Healer. “We have Alchemy on Day Three. And here...”
    She frowned, then waved to the supervisor. “I’ve got Military Magic listed here,” she said, puzzled. “I didn’t apply for it.”
    “One moment,” the supervisor said, checking her record book. “Sergeant Miles put your name down for it. You’re only doing the theoretical section, it would