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blazed with white fire.

Chapter 5
    T he white flames writhing around the sword died as I flung it aside. I dropped to my knees beside the felled teacher, shaking her shoulder. “Headmistress? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it!”
    She didn’t move.
    I was so very, very expelled. And I hadn’t even finished unpacking yet.
    “Raffi?” Faith’s voice drifted down from an upper-floor window. “What’s going on?”
    “Nothing!” I yelped, huddling over the Headmistress in an attempt to hide the evidence. Thankfully, Faith didn’t inquire further. I could only hope that she took a really long time to print out those maps.
    “I saw a streak of fire!” Krystal’s low, excited voice sounded shockingly close. The beam of her flashlight swept over me, searching. “Was that you? What did—”
    Krystal fell abruptly silent as the light hit the Headmistress’s slack face. The teacher’s eyes were rolled right up, showing only the whites.
    She didn’t seem to be breathing.
    “You killed the Headmistress!” Most students would have said that with at least some pleasure, however guilty, but Krystal sounded entirely horrified. Her voice shot up an octave. “You killed the Headmistress!”
    “I didn’t mean to!” Okay, so some things—expensive electronics, kitchen utensils, dormitories—did have a habit of unexpectedly going up in smoke around me, but a sword? “It was an accident!”
    Krystal took a deep breath. “Well, there’s only one thing to do,” she said firmly, sounding like a Girl with a Plan. I looked at her hopefully. “You’ll have to bring her back.”
    Aaand so much for that. “Do what? How?”
    “How should I know? However you normally bring people back from the dead!” Krystal flung up her hands in exasperation, glaring at me. “You’re the angel!”
    I stared at her, mouth hanging open. “And you,” I said at last, “are insane.”
    Krystal froze. “Oh my God,” she whispered. “You have no idea what you are, do you?” Letting go of my sleeve, she fumbled for her pentagram charm. “Raf, I know this is going to seem bizarre, but you have to believe me. See, I made this to summon a guardian angel— Rafael Angelos —because we needed help fighting the demons, and—”
    “And I am leaving .”
    “No! As your summoner, I forbid you!” Now it was Krystal’s turn to hang on to me. She was surprisingly strong for her height. “You at least have to heal the Headmistress!”
    “What do you expect me to do? Lay hands on her,” I said, wiggling my fingers over the Headmistress in demonstration, “and yell ‘Arise!’—”
    The Headmistress coughed and sat up.
    I fell over backward.
    “Mr. Angelos,” the Headmistress said, blinking at me and sounding vaguely puzzled. “What are you doing down there?” She glanced around, her frown deepening. “What am I doing down here?”
    “Headmistress?” Krystal shot me a triumphant I-told-you-so look. Then she did a strange double take, alarm flashing across her face. She pointed her flashlight directly at my head while offering her other hand to the Headmistress. “Are you feeling okay?”
    “Certainly, Miss Moon,” the Headmistress snapped, ignoring the assistance as she got to her feet. She brushed irritably at the dirt on her clothes. “I simply encountered a small obstacle on my way back to my house.” She glared at me as if I was personally responsible for this. Admittedly, I was, but she didn’t know that. “What are you two doing out of your dormitories after curfew?”
    “Uh . . .” My mind had gone blank. “We were, um . . .”
    Behind the Headmistress’s back, Krystal was making urgent throat-cutting motions. I fell silent, but she kept doing the cut-it-out gesture, for no apparent reason. I could really have done without the way she was spotlighting me with the flashlight.
    The Headmistress waited for a moment as if expecting further excuses, but as I was already in the hole up to my neck, it seemed like a