"Damn it, not again," I muttered, with an eye roll.

As a part of Coven Training for Witches, we were all assigned an animal companion. It just so happened that my animal, a cunning fox named Ember, was more interested in pulling a disappearing act than training.

Instead of following my peers to Cauldrons and Concoctions 101, I'm off chasing my fox into the woods, and let me tell you, it's getting old. It started as every now and again, but lately, Ember is wandering off more and more often.

Except I could tell that something was slightly different with this journey. Ember was running much faster than she usually does, and I was struggling to keep up with her. She was going much deeper into the woods and taking twists and turns she never had before.

"Ember! Damn it, Ember, stop!" I frustratedly called out, although it was at that moment we crossed a clearing.

We stopped as abruptly as we started, and I looked around in an attempt to figure out what the hell was going on. I looked at Ember expectantly but immediately felt stupid. What was a fox going to tell me? I would just have to piece it together myself.

Except the more I looked around, the more concerned I became. I recognized the carvings in the trees and some of the stone structures nearby. They featured in every single lesson since I was a child - lessons of caution and danger.

"Ember, this looks like..." I trailed off. A voice that sent chills down my spine finished my sentence for me.

"Ramona's?" A cold voice drawled.

I whipped around and reach for the sword at my waist on instinct only to see my fox morph into the adult witch the voice belonged to. Ramona was the greatest evil known to my generation of witches, and she had been parading around as my fox?

It was a great plan, I realized begrudgingly. She successfully lured me out here and heard Circe knows how many of the secrets from Coven training. What the hell was I supposed to do now?