by Martha Carr
“Yes, Miss Alby?”
“If that third theory were true, hypothetically, and magic did choose each of us to restore some kind of balance… What happens when everything’s finally balanced again?”
The professor uttered a high-pitched chuckle. “I teach History of Magic, Miss Alby. Not prophecy.”
A few of the other students snickered and shifted in their seats, which only made their professor smile.
Raven smiled in response and tried again. “What I’m trying to ask is if there’s any possibility of magic coming back into the world for everyone. Like it used to be.”
The classroom fell completely silent. Bixby’s lens-magnified eyes flicked a hasty gaze around the room and her mouth opened and closed as she searched for the words. After a few moments, with a small laugh, she shook her head. “Miss Alby, you have a vivid imagination and a commendable eagerness to dive deeper into so many different topics. Unfortunately, I can’t answer that question for you so please take it to someone else.”
The young mage frowned and leaned back in her chair. Dismissed just like that?
Bixby clapped her hands several times and raised her chin to gaze at the few dozen faces tilted toward her in focus. “Now, to drill my original point home, I want each of you to draw up a summary of a normal day for you in your own lives. This must include one day during the week while you’re here at school and one day from week’s end. In each, you will detail what an average day would look like if you did not have the use of magic to assist you in whatever it is you use magic for. Hopefully, I won’t see very many of these assignments returned with massive gaps of time changed because you’ve already grown accustomed to frivolous casting.”
The woman tilted her head forward over the podium, and when no one laughed or really reacted at all, she sighed. “You’ll spend the rest of this class on the assignment, starting now, and if you don’t finish today, I expect you all to have completed this by the start of our first class next week. I highly recommend not procrastinating.”
She gestured toward the table beside her with the rolled-up scrolls of parchment paper, and each student moved sluggishly from their desks to retrieve one.
Henry slid out of his chair as Raven passed him and stepped into line behind her. He leaned forward to whisper, “It looks like you ruffled someone’s curly feathers.”
Raven glanced at their professor, who was busy reading something spread out on her podium, and shrugged. “It was an honest question.”
“I know that but I don’t think Bixby understands the difference between questioning the unknown and questioning her.”
The young witch turned to frown at him over her shoulder. “If she’s gonna teach a class of mages to expand their minds but won’t even consider answering an innocent question, what’s the point?”
“Hmm.” He stroked his hairless chin and squinted at their History of Magic professor before he grinned broadly. “Maybe she’s too attached to that little platform. It makes her two feet taller in seconds. Like magic.”
She snorted, which made him hiss out a laugh, and Bixby looked up from her reading to fix them both with narrowed eyes above a stern, unamused smile. “Maybe we should save the height jokes for after class, huh, Derks?”
Henry clamped his lips together and shook his head with another shrug.
“Perfect.” Raven rolled her eyes playfully and when they reached the table of parchment paper, she took two scrolls and handed one to her best friend. “Since you’re not talking, I guess you’ll have more time to focus on finishing this super-fun assignment before class is out.”
His eyes widened when he took the scroll from her, and she fought back a laugh as she turned to return to her seat. “Wait a minute, Alby,” he protested. “No one said anything about not talking at all. I don’t think I’d survive that.”
Chapter Four
Once Professor Bixby’s class was over, the students stood and exited in record time to hurry to their next class, especially Raven.
“Woah, wait up,” Henry called, ducked beneath the strap of his shoulder bag, and half-jogged to catch up with her. Murphy pushed through the other kids into the hall too and joined them outside. “Who lit a fire under you? And you can’t use Leander as a default for everything. I definitely would’ve noticed a dragon in class with us.”
Raven gave him an exasperated glance but a small laugh escaped her anyway. “Maybe you didn’t notice, but Bixby stared daggers at me for the entire rest of the class. My skin kept tingling, and every time I looked up, bam. Giant bug eyes stared at me.” She raised both hands to her eyes in an imitation of their professor’s humorously thick lenses.
Henry snorted. The other girl chuckled and adjusted the strap of her knapsack over her shoulder. “I don’t think she likes being asked questions she doesn’t know the answers to.”
“See?” He knocked the back of his hand playfully against Murphy’s shoulders. “That’s exactly what I said.”
“I don’t think she likes being questioned at all,” Raven muttered. “And now, I’ve started to think she doesn’t like being questioned by me specifically.”
“Well, can you blame her?”
Henry looked at Murphy and snickered.
Raven shook her head. “Kind of. Unless I’ve missed some kind of inside joke between you two.”
“Think about it, Alby.” He slung his arm around his best friend’s shoulders as they headed down the halls of the main building. “Since the beginning of our rich and illustrious careers at Fowler Academy, every time you raise something in Bixby’s class, it ends up coming true.”
“What? That’s not true at all.”
“Really? Okay, allow us to lay it out for you. Raven Alby asked about the Swarm ever returning. Bam. The Swarm returned, and you got to fight them.”
Murphy pressed her lips together and tried not to laugh as she adopted Henry’s sage expression and added to the argument. “Raven Alby asked about the raiders being a real threat to the kingdom. Bam. Raiders scrambled over the great wall, and you got to fight them too.”
Raven gaped at them for a moment before she laughed in disbelief and rolled her eyes. “Well, I’ll tell you right now I’m not about to pick a fight with magic. And it’s not like I can tell the future or anything. I’m only thinking about the possibilities.”
“Exactly.” Henry pulled his arm back and patted her shoulder. “All the possibilities Professor Bixby never even considered. Or doesn’t want to.”
Murphy watched her cat familiar Fritz dart away from a few second-years who ran down the stone hall and yelled at each other on their way to their next class. “She probably thinks you have it in for her at this point.”
“I don’t!” They all laughed. “That’s not even my intention. It’s genuine curiosity.”
“She doesn’t know that. I guess you gotta be super careful from here on out, huh? Whatever Alby says in History of Magic will end up in the Future of Magic. Hey!” He nudged her with his shoulder. “Maybe you should teach that class.”
“Gimme a break.”
The trio of friends skirted a group of third-year girls who conjured fire in intricate animal shapes and made them fight each other in the middle of the next corridor. Murphy grimaced disapprovingly and shook her head. “The only reason they get away with doing that inside is because they’re third years. It makes me really glad most of these buildings are stone.”
Raven peered over her shoulder at the third-year witches, who all laughed as a flaming green alligator bit into a butterfly of blue flames twice its size. “They’d better stay away from the stables.”
“Please. With only one puff of fire from Leander, they’ll realize how useless their fancy little tricks really are.”
“With one puff of fire from Leander, Derks, they won’t be laughing anymore at all.”
That made the young wizard pause in surprise and his eyes widened as he replayed that image through his mind.
She laughed and Murphy joined h
er, and the redheaded mage slapped a hand on Henry’s shoulder. “That was only partially a joke. Leander would never breathe fire on other students.”
He gulped. “What’s the partially serious part?”
As they stepped out of the main building and into the courtyard outside the front of the school, she scrunched her nose with a little grimace. “I didn’t exactly tell you guys everything about fighting raiders in Azerad.”
They stopped at the edge of the courtyard, and Murphy scooped Fritz into her arms when he uttered a distressed mewl at her feet. “Did that actually happen? Dragon fire at actual people?”
Raven nodded. “Actual people, yeah, but they were raiders taking hostages. He did what he thought was best and I don’t disagree with him, necessarily. It was only…intense.”
Henry’s mouth had dropped open. “What was that like?”
“Uh…fast and hot and then a big pile of ash.” She shrugged and waited for her friends to say something. “Oh, come on, guys. It was to save the kingdom, remember? Both of you could’ve ended up killing those raiders you fought—” She lowered her voice and glanced around the courtyard. “The ones you fought literally right here, wasn’t it?”
His mouth still hanging open, Henry looked at the roof of the main building and the highest tower at Fowler Academy that housed Headmaster Flynn’s office at the top. “Yeah. Almost exactly right here.”
“Hey, I don’t have anything against bashing a few raiders,” Murphy added.
“More like bashing in raider skulls with that ax. Am I right?” He raised his hand toward her for a high five.
“And mean skills with a slingshot.” Murphy smacked her hands against his with a little smirk.
Raven smiled at her friends until they turned toward her again. “So you’re not totally horrified that Leander burned a few raiders to dust?” It’s probably a good idea not to mention the ones I killed with arrows too. For now.
Henry leaned forward and raised an eyebrow. “How many is a few?” Murphy smacked his arm and he bounced away from her with a snicker. “Okay, okay. Sorry.”
“We’re not horrified,” the girl added.
“Of course not. Yeah, the idea of being burned alive in two seconds flat by the hottest heat straight from a dragon’s mouth is horrifying. But like you said, Alby, he did what he had to do. And you got those hostages out of there—oh. Hey. It’s a story of a dragon saving a damsel in distress. That’s a new one.”
The girls both stared at him, and Raven folded her arms. “Dragon and his mage, Derks. You can’t really leave the mage out of this one.”
“Oh, my bad.” He raised his arms and spread them in a dramatic gesture as he stared into the distance. “The story of a dragon and his mage who’s also a dragon rider and training to be a war mage saving the damsel in distress. Yeah. That’s so much better. Rolls right off the tongue.”
Chuckling, she rolled her eyes and moved around the main building toward the smaller stone building beside it for their Transformation class with Professor Gilliam. “I think you should cross traveling bard mage off your list of possible professions and stick to the slingshot work.”
“I second that,” Murphy added with a little snort.
“Did you hear that, Maxwell?” Henry glanced at his toad familiar’s head where it poked out of the top of his shoulder bag. “They’re fans of the slingshot. At least we have their support for something. That’s all I ever—”
“Hey, Raven.”
She stopped short as Daniel Smith appeared from around the back of the main building. Murphy stopped behind her, and Henry couldn’t slow in time to avoid grazing the back of the brown-haired witch’s ankle with his boot.
“Ow.”
“Sorry, Murph. Unexpected pileup.”
“Hi, Daniel.” Raven smiled at the second-year student and raised her eyebrows. We’re gonna be seriously late if he doesn’t get right to the point.
Daniel propped his hand against the stone wall beside them, his other shoved loosely into his pants pocket. “How you doin’?”
“Yeesh. I’ll see you in there, Alby.” Henry stepped around Murphy and jerked his chin at Daniel in a wordless greeting before he strode into the other building.
Murphy pointed after him and shrugged. “I’m gonna…”
“Yeah, okay.” Raven gave her friend a quick smile and nodded. I wouldn’t wanna stick around for this either if I were them. Not that this is a bad thing. She looked at Daniel again and sighed. “I’m doing okay. Trying to get to class, actually.”
“Cool, cool.” He pressed his lips together and leaned back as he dragged one shoe lazily from side to side across the cobblestone like he had all the time in the world. “I wondered what you’re doing for the next few days. You know, no classes and everything.”
Despite not wanting to be singled out by Gilliam’s disapproval stare, Raven grinned at Daniel and cared less and less about how much of her time he took up. “Oh, you know. Training, training, flying around on a dragon, more training. Sleep and food somewhere in there. The usual.”
He chuckled and stepped closer. “It sounds like fun.”
“Most of the time, yeah. What about you?” She fought down a grimace once the question popped out. Great. I gave him an open invitation to keep going.
“Not much, really. I thought I might stop by at some point to see you. You know, to hang out. That’s it.”
“Uh-huh.” She raised an eyebrow at him and very quickly realized how quiet the main courtyard had become now that all the other students were in their classes again. Doesn’t he have somewhere to be too? “Well, you’re free to stop by whenever you want. I do live here, so…”
“Yeah, I know.” Daniel chuckled and his blue eyes glinted over his dimpling cheeks. “I wanted to make sure it was cool with you first.”
“It’s cool with me.”
“Awesome.” He continued to stare at her and moved closer by the second.
Does he really think I don’t notice? Raven took a deep breath and stepped to the side to neatly avoid him. “I have to get to class, Daniel. Sorry. See you in the next couple of days, I guess. Or whenever.”
He turned to watch her power-walk toward the small building ahead and grinned. “I’m looking forward to it.”
She turned to give him a quick wave. “Okay!”
As she clutched the straps of her satchel to stop it swinging, she quickened her pace toward the front door of the building that hosted most of Professor Gilliam’s classes. He could’ve found me later to ask about that. This guy doesn’t give up.
Still, when she jerked the door open and slipped through the halls toward her next class, she couldn’t hold back a secret little smile.
Chapter Five
At the end of the school day, like every day, Raven hurried across the field to the stables and opened the gate of Leander’s enclosure. When she stuck her head inside, she found her massive red dragon familiar lying on his side in the tall grass and soaking up the sunshine. His scales glistened under the light and cast glittering, red-tinged reflections over the pen’s metal walls.
She grinned. “Guess what time it is.”
He grunted. “I don’t have to guess.”
“Okay, another figure of speech that’s now apparently only for humans.” With a soft laugh, she leaned against the side of the open gate and folded her arms. “I’m ready when you are.”
“I’m coming.” With a snort, he rolled onto his belly, rose gracefully to his feet, and shook his head, neck, body, and tail like a wet dog. She tried not to laugh as he scraped a rear claw across the grass a few times before he moved forward to join her out in the field.
Raven pushed the gate enough to leave it open a crack, dusted her hands off, and nodded. “More training. Get excited.”
Leander turned to face her and lowered his head. “This is my excited face, little girl.”
“Oh. Is that right?” She stroked her chin and tried to look like she was thinking way too hard. “I gues
s I really have to work on the subtle nuances between your excited face, your hungry face, your bored face, and your trying-not-to-make-a-face face. Don’t worry, I’ll get there eventually.”
The dragon’s glowing yellow eyes narrowed and he uttered a rumble of amusement.
Bella and Wesley approached them from the school’s main buildings on the other side of the field. The dark-haired mage smiled and jerked her chin at Raven, then stopped to lower her satchel onto the ground against the stable wall. “I’d like to say how great it is that the week’s over, but that doesn’t really apply to us, does it?”
Raven chuckled. “Not really. But I’d still take training every single day over sitting in a stuffy room trying not to ask all the questions that allegedly tell the future.”
As she turned toward her, Bella put her hands on her hips and tilted her head. “Bixby really got to you this morning, huh?”
“Not as much as I apparently got to her first.” She shrugged. “But it kinda rubbed me the wrong way, yeah.”
“Shrug it off. She’s stuck in the past—like, it’s literally her job. She doesn’t even want to look at what might happen anyway because it’s not written down in a collection of old volumes stored in a dusty library somewhere.”
Raven did shrug, shook her head, and allowed herself a small sigh.
“I didn’t mean literally, but okay.”
They both chuckled and looked up when Wesley uttered a little screech and wheeled overhead. The firedrake dipped toward Leander’s head but turned away at the last second to dart into another airborne circuit. The dragon raised his head and watched the much smaller familiar intently. When Wesley swooped toward him again, he stretched his neck and barely missed batting the firedrake out of the sky.
She stepped toward Bella and lowered her voice. “Don’t look now but I think we might have a case of two reptiles playing a game of tag over there. Or something.”
The girl slid a sidelong glance at their familiars and snorted. “I think your dragon has more patience than most people give him credit for.”