In today’s excerpt from The Daring Witch, Brie and her friends are finally ready for the party at the Faerie Court. The new student, Willow, is surprised to find out that their glamorous mode of transportation is just a regular school bus. Read on to find out why these witches can’t fly wherever they want.

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Don’t You Guys Fly?

Erin let out a wolf whistle when she saw all of us. “You guys all look amazing,” she said with a grin. “You better watch out or the Fae might get jealous about you upstaging them.”

I laughed. There was no way we could look better than the Otherworldly people, but it was a nice compliment. “You look good, too. At least it’s not the same dress as last year.”

Erin smiled and looked down at her sundress, which she’d dressed up with a silky wrap and sequin clutch. “Thanks. I wasn’t sure if I felt like wearing this since I bought it on that shopping trip with Pam, but then I thought it would be nice to remember her tonight.”

Damian and I fell silent at the mention of the dead girl, who wouldn’t get to enjoy our last year of high school with us. Willow’s eyes darted back and forth between the three of us but didn’t ask who we meant. Maybe she already knew.

I cleared my throat. “Anyway, where is Tyler?” Damian’s roommate had been chased out of the dorm while the three of us got ready. “I thought he was meeting us here.”

“He says he left earlier,” Damian said with a dismissive wave of his phone. “We’d better hurry and get on the bus, because this is the last one.”

We climbed on and found two benches in the back. Without thinking, I ended up in the seat next to Willow. She curled up by the window, looking away from us. I scooted over to make sure she had her space and chatted with Damian and Erin across the aisle.

As the bus made its way up the windy mountain roads to the summit, Willow turned and asked suddenly, “Why are you taking the bus? Don’t you guys… fly?”

“Flying on a broom would mess up my hair,” Damian said, touching the side of his head with the long hair.

Erin laughed. “And we’re not allowed to fly off-campus until we get our broom license. Not all of us have it yet, so we ride the bus together.”

I winced at the reminder. It took a certification class before we could earn our license. Since I’d failed the first one last year, I was going to have to repeat it without my friends. It was the only class I hadn’t made up in summer school.

Willow frowned. “I see. I don’t think I’m taking broom flying, at least not this quarter. It doesn’t feel right.”

“What classes are you taking?” I asked, suddenly curious. Erin had mentioned that she was learning Earth magic, so maybe we’d end up in the same courses.

“I don’t remember,” Willow admitted. “My schedule is back in the room. I can show you later… actually, I need help finding my classrooms.”

I nodded. “Tomorrow, we’ll have the day off to recover from tonight’s party, so we can take a walk around campus.”

Willow smiled at me gratefully.