Her Kind of Magic: An Academy of Demon Hunters and Angels Romance (Academy of the Supernatural Book 1)

by May Dawson

  “Nah,” he said. “You mastering your magic matters more than anything else.”

  “Why?” Was it because he wanted revenge?

  “Because next time, you might blow yourself up too,” he told me as he tossed the bracelets onto my jacket.

  “Great,” I said. “Thanks. That really gets me in the right headspace for this.”

  “We can begin by trying to summon your magic the easy way,” he told me. “It probably won’t work though.”

  “I think what I admire most about you is your optimism,” I said.

  But he was right. We spent an hour working through different ways to summon my magic, and nothing worked.

  “All right, we’ve got to try something else,” he said. He didn’t sound excited about it, and I eyed him warily.

  “What?” I asked finally.

  “We’re going to fight,” he said bleakly. “I can use my magic to heal us both afterward if one of us gets hurt.”

  He seemed unenthused by the idea, but I felt a spark of eagerness. I had a lot of aggression to burn off after the past few days.

  “That sounds super fun, but I don’t want to hurt you. Black belt, remember?”

  His lips twisted in a smirk. “I don’t give a fuck, remember?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Fine.”

  “Hit me.”

  “If you insist.”

  When I started for him, I expected him to block my first blow. He kept a defensive posture, watching me like he was getting a feel for how I attack, as I feinted. I threw a punch expecting him to successfully block it, then used the chance to slip in past his defenses and slam my knee into his thigh.

  As he took a jerky step back, his hands still raised defensively, a smile curved his lips. “So you’re not all talk.”

  “Are you?” I demanded. “You can feel good about hitting me now. I got in the first hit.”

  “Eh, I’d feel better if you punched me.”

  “Well, I love to make people happy.” I deadpanned.

  The two of us closed in on each other more intently.

  Nix was a good opponent. We were pretty evenly matched.

  “This seems like a fair fight,” I said when we broke apart. “I hate a fair fight.”

  The words reminded me of Liam, like touching a live wire. The room and Nix’s presence fell away. My mouth went dry and my throat felt ragged, just like when I was screaming for Liam.

  All of a sudden, I was flat on the mat, staring up at the ceiling. Right, Nix. I’d lost my focus.

  His weight dropped on top of me as he suddenly straddled me. His hands caught my wrists and pressed them down into the mat as his ass settled into my abs like he was making himself comfortable. I tried to rock out from beneath his weight, but he was hard to throw.

  “You should’ve gone for that third black belt, huh?” he said.

  “You’re a dick,” I said.

  “Come on.” He rolled forward, pressing his arm against my throat. The movement brought us almost nose-to-nose. “Throw me off, Deidra. You can do it.”

  I stared up into those cool blue eyes framed by dark lashes as I shifted my weight subtly beneath him, feeling for a way to throw him. For the first time, I noticed the white scar almost hidden by his dark hair.

  “How’d you get the scar?” I asked.

  The hard bar of his forearm pressed deeper into my throat, just hard enough to remind me he could choke me out if I didn’t get him off me. “I think I’m the one asking questions right now. Let’s pick up where we left off yesterday. What happened right before your magic exploded?”

  “My uncle died,” I said. “So I guess I was having some feelings about that.”

  “Anger? Grief?”

  The last person who loved me is dead.

  Selfishness. I couldn’t believe that was the thought that kept going through my head. Not that Liam was gone, but what Liam meant to me. How he felt about me. I couldn’t tell Nix that though. It made me sound like a horrible person.

  “Fear,” I said. That was true, too. “The last monster was going to kill me if I didn’t kill it first.”

  “So we just need to get you into fear,” he said.

  He pressed his arm into my throat until my vision faded around the edges.

  I slid my hand up against his arm until I could tap his shoulder.

  “Didn’t work,” he said, frustrated, as he got to his feet. He held his hand out to me, and I let him help me to my feet.

  He could hurt me, but it didn’t matter.

  Deep down, I knew I could trust Nix.

  I wasn’t scared when I was with him.

  Chapter Twenty

  Nix

  “You’ve got to stop going easy on her,” Cade told me.

  “That’s easy for you to say.”

  “Why would it be easy for me to say?” Cade started, then cut himself off. “Listen, who do we appreciate most? The people who trained us the hardest. It prepared us. Right? Dixon, McCloud…”

  “I still hate those assholes,” I said. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Cade sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

  “We’ve tried twice,” I pointed out. “I wouldn’t exactly call it a failure yet.”

  “It’s not like I care,” Cade said, which was a lie; Cade always cared. “I’m just worried for your sake, if she’s a dud.”

  “She’s not a dud. Why do you have to pretend so hard to be an asshole?”

  “I’m not pretending,” Cade reminded me wryly, as if I didn’t know him better than that.

  “We can go a little harder to bring on the fear response,” I admitted, even though I hated to think about it. I had told her I could heal us both after, but then I’d pulled back. I hadn’t hit her in the face, even the one time her attention slipped. Everyone panics, just a little, if you hit them in the face. I should’ve thrown the punch. But I hadn’t been able to. I’d thrown her to the mats instead.

  “The point of training is to keep her alive. It doesn’t matter if she hates it now.”

  “I know,” I said. “but like I said, easy for you to say. You’re not the one volunteering to hit the pretty orphan in the face.”

  “Pretty?”

  “Yeah, pretty.” I looked at him like he was stupid. I knew him better than to buy his lie. “I’m an instructor, and I’ll always honor that, but yeah, I noticed that the badass, brave girl we’re trying to help also has a gorgeous face. So tell me the fucking truth. You haven’t noticed?”

  “I guess,” he said.

  “You guess.” I nodded. Sure. Play that game, Cade.

  “Doesn’t matter,” he reminded me.

  “Of course it doesn’t matter.” Then I played a card just to see how he would take it. “Anyway, I think Tristan likes her. And she likes him.”

  “She’s been here a day.” Cade said flatly. “No one knows anyone to like them or not.”

  “Life is short,” I said. “Hunters move fast.”

  His jaw tightened. Yep, Cade hated that.

  He had a thing for the girl too, even though he’d never admit it.

  “Whatever,” Cade said. “You care about her so much, make sure you get her magic working.”

  “I will,” I said.

  The wounded look in her luminous, emerald green eyes when she looked up at me, when I was pushing her into her worst memories, haunted my thoughts.

  But that didn’t matter.

  The witch was hunting her. If I let her down, if she didn’t master her magic, her blood would be on my hands. She and I were two of a kind. She needed revenge just like I did. She had magic, sheer, dangerous power, just like I did; our witch’s curse might be our salvation.

  And she was tough, just like I was, no matter what horrors dogged her.

  Next time, I’d take the punch.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Deidra

  All Tuesday morning, I tried to focus on my classes, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Liam’s funeral t
hat afternoon. I’d never been to a Hunter’s funeral, although Liam had told me about them. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do, and although it should’ve been the last thing on my mind, anxiety wormed through my stomach.

  I glanced over at Tristan, who leaned back in his seat, his face thoughtful as he listened to our teachers. I’d never seen him take any notes, but he didn’t seem to miss a thing. If it hadn’t been for Julia getting kicked out of class, I might’ve passed him a note, but I wasn’t going to push my luck. I wasn’t the dean’s god-daughter.

  When classes were over, though, and everyone else was streaming out, he reached out and tugged gently on the end of my long ponytail. “Something on your mind, Trouble?”

  I had a funny feeling he knew the answer to that. I flicked my ponytail out of his grip. “You’ve been to a Hunter’s funeral before, right?”

  For a second, a strange look passed over his face, his lips parting slightly. Then it was gone, so quickly that I wondered if I’d seen it.

  “Yeah,” he said. “Unfortunately. Are you worried about Liam’s?”

  “I don’t want to mess anything up,” I confessed.

  “You can’t mess anything up,” he said softly. He leaned across the aisle in the empty classroom, resting his hand on my knee. “It’s simple. It’ll just be a handful of people there, and all of them care about you.”

  The last person who loved me is dead.

  It would be great if that thought would stop threading its way through my brain, over and over, when I least expected it.

  He patted my leg, his hand a comforting weight. “Come on. Let’s get some lunch.”

  I nodded and stood. I was in the aisle as he threw the last of his books in his bag and rose, slipping the backpack over his shoulder. When he stood, it brought us too close together.

  “Will you be there?” I blurted out.

  Awkward. I should walk away, toward the front of the classroom, and give the man some space. In every conceivable way. I took a step back, crossing my arms.

  But he stepped forward, closing the distance between us. “I was planning to be there. As long as you want me.”

  “You’re a good tour guide,” I said lightly.

  His lips tilted in a small smile. “Yeah, I’m trying to be.”

  I stared up into those hazel eyes, at the way his kissable pink lips quirked at the corners when he smiled. His dimples only came out when he really grinned, and suddenly I wanted to make him smile.

  No matter how close we already were, I wished he’d reach across the small distance between us and kiss me. Something sparked in his gold-flecked eyes, and he seemed to study my lips with the same intensity I felt for him.

  But he shoved his hands into his pockets, his smile tightening into something different. He might’ve been uncomfortable. Or he might have been holding himself back from touching me. I felt my cheeks heat, embarrassed by the possibilities.

  “What are you two geeks doing?” Cade demanded from the doorway, his voice harsh.

  I took a quick step back, swiveling on my heel. The tense moment between Tristan and I was broken, but my cheeks just flushed hotter.

  “What’s with the name-calling?” I demanded. “I’m supposed to call you sir, and you’re just going to call me names?”

  “I haven’t actually heard that word pass your lips yet,” Cade said, although the chastisement seemed empty. He looked past me to Tristan, and when his lips pressed together, his handsome face looked almost pinched.

  Was it just my imagination, or was Cade jealous?

  Probably wishful thinking on my part. None of these three had seen me at my best. Far from it.

  “Come on. Malcolm wants Gretchen and Deidra and the other Hunters to join him for lunch afterward. We’re starting soon.”

  I felt a strange lump lodge in my chest. “Will you two come?”

  Cade seemed to hesitate, but he looked at me, and the tightness in his face eased. “Of course.”

  “I’m always happy to invite myself along to escape that dining hall,” Tristan said lightly.

  I smiled back, but I could feel how it didn’t reach my eyes. Tristan’s gaze studied me like he noticed, but he rested his hand on the small of my back and ushered me forward without comment. There was something so warm and affectionate about his touch that it made a little of my tension ebb away.

  When the three of us walked out of the academic building, Gretchen’s gray minivan was parked in front of the building. I grinned at the sight of it.

  “Nice ride,” Tristan said.

  “It probably doesn’t attract…any attention,” Cade said.

  “Nothing wrong with a mini-van,” Gretchen said, coming around the front bumper. Her long blond hair was pulled back tightly, and her black jeans and black leather jacket hugged her curves. “But this one probably goes faster than anything you drive. There’ve been a few modifications under the hood.”

  “Come here, kiddo,” she said, enveloping me in a tight hug and the scent of her perfume. Chanel No. 5. Liam used to come home smelling like her, and I’d never hesitated to point that out. I hugged her back tightly, resting my chin on the stiff leather of her jacket.

  She pulled away first, gripping my shoulders, and her brown eyes searched my face. “How are you doing here?”

  I had a funny feeling she’d smuggle me out of here if I wanted to go, and the thought made a smile come to my lips. “I’m doing okay. I think this is where I need to be for right now.”

  I could almost feel Cade’s surprise at that, even though he was still stopped behind us on the last step.

  She nodded. “Okay. Well, you ever change your mind, you know where I live.”

  Malcolm came down the steps then, clapping Cade’s shoulder as he passed. He wore a suit, even though the rest of us were in Hunting leathers and denim. I’d never seen him without a suit.

  “You must be Gretchen,” he said, reaching his hand out to her. “I’m Malcolm.”

  “Thank you for inviting me,” she said.

  “From what Deidra said, Liam would have wanted you here,” he said.

  “I’d like to think so,” she said, her voice neutral. It was so different from the warmth with which she’d greeted me a minute before. But as we headed across campus toward one of the trails through the pines, her walk was slow and deliberate, far more sedate than I was used to from someone normally so full of energy. Maybe she’d summoned a moment of lightness for me, but Liam’s death weighed on her.

  It was hard to be so close to someone who was suffering like I was. I wished I could take away the pain she felt, but I was powerless when it came to my own.

  We emerged from the twisted, broken trees into an immense clearing. Liam’s body rested on the wooden bier, surrounded by wood for kindling. A handful of Hunters already stood around. After a second, I recognized them; Liam had introduced them as old friends, but he’d left off the part where they were Hunters.

  Beyond the ash-dusted circle, as if many bodies have been burned here, was a cemetery marked by simple wooden crosses and piles of stones. The sight of so many of them brought a lump to my throat.

  Malcolm took a torch from one of the Hunters. “Welcome.”

  As he spoke, I stood there woodenly, my throat suddenly too thick to speak. Gretchen rested her hand on my shoulder. Tristan stood beside me and Cade just behind. Their presence felt protective, although there was nothing here they could protect me from.

  Malcolm passed the torch to one of Liam’s friends, who told funny stories about Liam that made me smile until tears threatened to spill out onto my cheeks. Then he passed the torch to another friend, who talked about Liam saved his life when he was a kid who didn’t know anything about the supernatural yet.

  When the torch was passed to Gretchen, her fingers tightened on my shoulder. My stomach hardened as I tried to imagine what I could say about Liam without dissolving into tears.

  “I knew Liam for seventeen years, and I’m thankful for each of them,�
� she said. “When I met him, he was a cocky kid who grabbed life with both hands, whether he was Hunting, fighting, or…flirting. He was always a good man, the kind you wanted to have watching your back, but the change in him when Conner and Ellie passed was incredible.”

  Her gaze went to my face before she turned back out to the Hunters. “From that moment on, he was dedicated to raising Deidra. He loved Deidra more than he ever loved anyone else in this world.”

  Her words troubled me. More than anyone else? Was I the reason that Liam and Gretchen never settled down together, even though they’d obviously loved each other?

  “He was so proud of this girl,” she said, her voice thickening before she cleared her throat. “He wanted better for her than this life; we all know what it costs. But he also always believed she’d change the world, either as a Hunter or a civilian. He poured all his love and energy and everything he ever learned in this world into her, and when I look at her, I know he lives on in a way.”

  She passed the torch to me, and my fingers felt clumsy when I took it from her. I squeezed my fingers tightly around it, feeling the heat beating against my face from the fire. Before she released it, she said softly, “I know you will go on making him proud, even though he’s on the other side.”

  I jerked my head in a nod, and she let go of the torch. When I looked out at the faces around me, they were a blur. I swallowed, trying to find my voice to speak.

  Cade was suddenly right there beside me. His hand on my lower back guided me toward the bier, although my legs felt wobbly beneath me. “You were the one closest to him,” he said, leaning in to whisper in my ear. “You can light the fire. When you’re ready.”

  We were so near the bier that I could see Liam’s face clearly. He looked still and peaceful. His lashes rested above his high, faintly freckled cheekbones, and it made me flash back to my trembling fingers as I pressed his eyes closed.

  I wanted to tell him that I was sorry for not saving him when he needed me, but I knew he’d be impatient at those self-pitying words. He’d say I was taking on a burden that wasn’t mine to carry.