by Lucia Ashta
I didn’t think its headmaster, the erudite pygmy owl, Sir Lancelot, purposefully kept things from parents. I suspected it had to do with the last three terms at the academy having been a shit show, and he had his hands—uh, wings—fully occupied doing damage control.
When I’d asked him not to inform my parents of my accident last semester, he hadn’t wanted to conceal my injuries from them—they’d been severe. Finally, however, he’d relented, and it probably had much to do with my mother’s personality. As part of the board of the Shifter Alliance herself, Sir Lancelot must have had some interaction with her, and once you met my mom, you didn’t easily forget her. It was better for everyone that she never found out my entire left leg had been crushed from the thigh down. I would’ve never left her side again if she had.
Now that the rebel shifters and their cronies who’d invaded the school’s supposedly impenetrable defenses were either dead or subdued, the academy was bound to somewhat be the safe learning environment it was touted to be. The Magical Creatures Academy would never be fully safe; it couldn’t be—the academy was a melting pot of magic and powerful young adults with untrained abilities. On good days, it seemed like a cesspool of hormones, jealous girls with chips on their shoulders, and vampires with something to prove.
Tilting my head back, I let the water slide over me, running across the necklace that hung low between my breasts. I hadn’t taken it off since my summer fling left it behind when he returned to the fae’s Golden Forest, where I’d never see him again. It was forbidden to travel to the land of the fae without an express invitation and one of them as a guide. Jabar and I had said our farewells; we’d known the summer was all we’d share from the start.
Pressing my hand to the triangular, violet crystal, I sensed the energy that pulsed within it. As usual, I couldn’t tell if it was me or if the crystal actually possessed magic. But I figured Jabar wouldn’t have left it behind if it were worth anything.
Now it was mine, and I loved it already. It glowed continually, but so faintly that not even Mom had noticed it hanging beneath my shirts. It was as if it only revealed its secret to me.
With the prospect of seeing my friends, I started to soap up, trying to hurry. When my thoughts drifted toward Ky, the alluring mountain lion shifter who was like a walking advertisement for sex, I decided instead to take my time.
Ky had been giving me a bit of the runaround. This semester, I intended to make him mine.
2
I drove the sleek rental car I picked up at the airport through the quiet streets of Sedona and took a sharp turn into the small parking lot that served the trailhead to Thunder Mountain. The lot was usually all but empty. When parents dropped off their kids, they exchanged hasty goodbyes and left before drawing attention to the fact that they were depositing people with bags in the middle of a lot that didn’t seem to lead anywhere.
Today the lot was hopping. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I groaned. “They’re still at this?”
I parked the car as far away as I could from the multiple stands set up on the other side of the lot, removed the small bag I’d packed from the backseat, double checked that I hadn’t forgotten anything, then locked the car and left the keys inside. Mom would arrange for someone to return it to the rental agency. With her obsessive attention to detail, Mom was good at getting things done, especially since my parents possessed the wealth to smooth over most situations.
After taking in the wares the merchants were selling from afar, I tucked my head down and strode purposefully toward the trail that led to the base of Thunder Mountain. I didn’t even make it five steps before a woman in a long, tie-dyed dress and no evidence of a bra beneath it rushed to my side, intercepting me and cutting off my escape.
“Aloha and blessings,” she announced in an airy voice that I suspected was supposed to make her sound like a spiritual guru but only made me wonder whether I could outrun her in her Birkenstocks.
“Hi. I’m in a hurry here.”
“Ah.” She nodded sagely, her super long dirty-blond hair swishing beneath her ass. “Isn’t that just the way of our times? Always rushing here and there, never really experiencing the blessings of life that surround us at all times … when we learn to see them.”
What I was seeing was that she’d slowly swept across my path so that now she fully blocked it. By necessity, I drew to a stop and scowled at the woman, who didn’t seem to be more than a few years older than I was.
She held up a bright lavender t-shirt in front of her chest. “I believe in the Angel of Hope” was emblazoned across it. The font and screen-printing jobs were mediocre at best, but that wasn’t what had me doing a hard mental eye roll.
“If you believe in the Angel of Hope,” the woman was saying, “good fortune will come your way.”
“Let me guess,” I said, “the best way to draw this good fortune to me is to buy and then wear one of your t-shirts…”
She smiled and it was radiant; I had to give her that. Like she actually believed the crock of shit she was selling. “What better way to tell the universe you believe and that you’re ready to receive the blessings it always wants to send your way? The great universe waits until we’re ready to accept what we deserve, and we deserve every gift and ease it can come up with. The universe is unlimited imagination, infinite creation.”
Pulling back just enough to give me a good once over, but not enough to open up a route of escape, she shook her head at me, the shoulder-length beaded earrings in each ear undulating with her movements. “I get feelings about people, it’s one of my gifts, and I’m getting the feeling you could use some blessings in your life right about now. It’s been hard for you lately, hasn’t it?” Her eyes drooped in deep sympathy. “You’ve had, hmm, I’m going to say … you’ve had some serious health issues in the last few months. Am I right?”
When it became clear she wasn’t going to let me move on before she finished her spiel, I shrugged, as if a crushed leg that had been severe enough to very nearly kill me wasn’t a big deal. “Maybe.”
“See! I knew it.” She clapped her hands, startling me and setting to tinkling the many bracelets that overlapped on both her wrists. “You like my bracelets, do you?” she asked before I could pretend I hadn’t been staring. “They’re made with beads of all my power crystals. Everything that will help my etheric body best align with my highest good. Here I have amethyst, apophyllite, blue lace agate, and Herkimer diamond. Those are for the upper chakras. And then this one has carnelian, garnet, and smoky quartz for the lower chakras.”
She pushed aside the first two of at least a dozen. “This one has citrine and clear quartz, because you know quartz crystal can be programmed any which way you want. It’s amazing for supporting manifestation. You just program in your intentions and the crystals send energy to them while you go on about your day. Pretty amazing, right?”
She draped the t-shirt over one arm and pinched yet another bracelet between two fingers. “These are mandala beads—”
“Yeah, well, that’s all fascinating and whatnot, but I really have to be going. I’m in a hurry.”
“To go where?” Her head spun as she inspected our surroundings, taking in the red rocks, red dirt, cactuses, and juniper trees—and not much else. “Are you going on a hike?” She scanned my outfit. I was wearing a low-cut tank top, a short mini skirt, my favorite knee-high Minnie Mouse socks, and black Doc Martens. I had a small duffle on one shoulder, my favorite Betty Boop backpack on the other.
“You don’t look like you’re going for a hike,” she said.
I sure didn’t. Of course I couldn’t tell her where I was really going and send her along her merry way to gaze adoringly at her crystals or whatever she did when she wasn’t hounding potential customers.
“I’m going to go, ah, sit with the great mountains.” Or whatever it was kooky New-Agers said. “Spend some time with myself, get to know my spirit.” I nodded sagely, trying to lend credence to what I was saying sinc
e I didn’t know the lingo.
She stared at me for a few beats, long enough for me to think I’d messed up, until she finally nodded, like she understood exactly what I meant. “I see that you’re already energy aware, which means the universe will favor you soon. It could only help to broadcast your intentions more clearly. I have t-shirts that say you believe in the Angel of Hidden Blessings too. Those are my favorites, only because the Angel of Hidden Blessings is so gorgeous.”
As if she’d said something she shouldn’t have, she started backpedaling. “Not that the Angel of Hope wasn’t beautiful in her own way too, but the Angel of Hidden Blessings was…”
When she trailed off after making it clear she’d been the one to spot—and mistake—my friends Rina and Leo for angels, I couldn’t quite help myself. I mean, I could’ve, but where’s the fun in that? I had to get away from her, and she was proving she was as skilled at trapping people in conversations against their will as my mom.
“The Angel of Hidden Blessings was hot as blazing hell, right?”
Startled from her memories, she stared at me, mouth hanging open, eyes wide. “How … how’d you know that? I was the only one here when they graced me with an angelic appearance.” She paused for a few moments until realization sparked. “Oh! You know he was hot because all angels are beautiful. It’s their angelic spirits that shine through to their physical bodies, making them fulfill our ideals of the perfect man.” She smiled widely, revealing slightly crooked front teeth, apparently satisfied with her explanation.
I smirked, taking a step back from her, and hitched my backpack higher on my shoulder. “Did the Angel of Hidden Blessings have shoulder-length silver hair, silver eyes, and big white, feathery wings?”
Her mouth gaped open. She didn’t even blink as her jaw waggled a few times.
“Was he tall and built with a body made for naughty times?”
Her lips rounded in affronted shock. “I’d never … no, his body wasn’t like that. I’d never think that of an angel.” But she sure as hell had. Pink intensified across her already bright cheeks, hot from the summer temperatures. “I … he’s an angel! You shouldn’t think of him that way.”
I probably shouldn’t, but only because Leo was Rina’s man, through and through. Still, I’d never claimed to be anything but a hot-blooded woman, and the prince of the fae was a tasty specimen of man.
“I bet you remember him and his firm ass far better than you do the female angel,” I suggested, no longer in as much of a hurry to get away from her now that I was having fun.
“That’s not so,” she retorted. “The Angel of Hope was a girl, and she had long brown hair.”
I chuckled. “Her hair is a bright blond.”
“Of course, that’s what I meant. And she had … long legs and arms.”
“Long legs and arms?” I quirked a brow at her.
“Yeah, and she also had a nice face.”
“A nice face…” I deadpanned.
“That’s right.” Her smile was tremulous, but she still gave it her all, though I could no longer tell if she was trying to convince me or herself that she hadn’t been too busy checking out Leo to focus on the second supposed angel he’d been carrying in his arms. I hadn’t been there, but Rina had relayed the story of her arrival with Leo to the trailhead in sufficient detail.
The devilish side of me wanted to keep screwing with her, but she looked conflicted enough to take the fun out of messing with her.
“I’m going to go now,” I announced.
Reeling herself in from wherever she’d gone to reflect, she pinned her eyes on me; they sparkled with sudden desperation. “So you saw the angels too? They also chose you?”
“To perform acts of kindness? Sure.”
She ran a skittish gaze across the multiple stands behind me, where she wasn’t the only one trying to bank on the unfortunate timing that delivered Rina and Leo coming through a portal right in front of this woman. She’d recruited fellow zealots, though I couldn’t decide whether her fanaticism aligned with the angels or with a ready source of income. They wouldn’t hang out in the parking lot like this if people didn’t buy from them.
“Offering t-shirts with uplifting messages is an act of kindness,” she defended, though I hadn’t outwardly accused her of anything.
I just smiled blandly. “Well, gotta go.”
“We’re doing good deeds here. The world needs to know about magic. It gives people hope. Magic is amazing.”
I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped me at her choice of wording. “I couldn’t agree more. Magic rocks my world.”
When I rounded her, clearly intending to move on, she shot a hand out, stilling me. “Wait. The others will want to meet you. If you’ve been chosen as I have, then you’re important to our cause.”
“You don’t need to tell them I’ve seen the angels too. The way they appeared to me was really different than how you saw them.”
Hope swept across her gaze, so I plowed onward. “It wasn’t the same with me, I promise. You can leave me out of it.”
She nibbled at her lip.
“Seriously, that’s what the angels would want, I know it with certainty. I feel the truth of it, right here.” I pressed my chest, working hard to keep a straight face. My fingers landed on the pendant tucked between my breasts and a pulse of magic swept across them before I yanked my hand away.
“If you’re sure…” she hedged.
“A thousand percent. ‘Kay. Later.”
Indecision clouded her features as she clutched the shirt she’d been trying to sell me, so I brushed past her quickly. Her debate with herself was far from over, and I’d had more than my quota of nutjobs lately, possibly starting with my mom, who never fully convinced me of her sanity.
“Wait!” she called before I could make it off the asphalt and onto the rough trail that led from it. “What’s your name? How can I find you?”
Picking up my pace, I pretended not to hear her and kept my head low, hurrying onto the dirt trail that would eventually lead me to a place this woman, despite her vivid imagination, would never guess. A hawk whistled its call overhead, its haunting tune sinking deep into my bones, while I rounded the base of the mountain, sensing for the entrance to the school that couldn’t be seen by anyone without magic.
Once certain that cuckoo Angel Lady wasn’t following, I slowed my speed walking and allowed myself to enjoy my surroundings. Sedona, with its towering mountains of terracotta red and brilliant blue skies, was undoubtedly majestic. But there was no place quite like the Magical Creatures Academy. Despite having heard tales of it my entire life, it had exceeded my expectations a hundred fold, and I couldn’t wait to enter its grounds once more.
When I finally found the unmarked entrance that led into the secret passageway through the mountain, I took in a deep breath of Sedona’s rich, clean air. Enthusiasm swept through my extremities in tingles as I took my first step toward the school for magical creatures…
And slammed my knee and forehead into a mountain that wasn’t supposed to be there for shifters like me.
3
I winced, bending over so I could rub my forehead and knee at the same time. “That fucking hurt.” My eyes watered for a few more seconds before the initial sting of impact started to abate. “What the hell is going on?”
I squinted my accusation at the rock in front of me, but it looked just as it always did: solid.
I’d been here several times before, and I was sure this was the entrance. It felt just like it, as if a magical shimmer marked its dimensions just beyond what the eye could make out. Roughly the size of a garage door, I couldn’t have missed it when attempting to walk through it. Still, maybe I had. It was possible that I’d attempted to enter a few feet beyond the opening.
Hitching my bags higher onto my shoulders, I made sure I had a really firm sense on the dimensions of the magical opening into the mountain and approached again—this time slower. I extended my hand in front of me and t
ried to push through.
The rock was as solid and unyielding as before.
“This makes no damn sense!” I muttered, accustomed to talking to myself when no one else was around—only children are cool like that. Slapping my open palm against the mountain, the result was the same as before. The entrance to the school wasn’t allowing me in.
Either that, or it wasn’t there anymore.
Given how drunk the Academy Spell, which governed all the magical functioning of the school, had been last term, it was entirely possible that the spell had moved the entrance and not bothered to tell anyone. After all the nuttiness of last term, I wouldn’t put anything past the spell.
Still, two of the greatest wizards in all magical history, Albacus and Mordecai, had come to the school to give the spell a tune-up. Given that they had founded the school in the first place, and established the spell to monitor its functioning, it seemed like by now they should have fixed its kinks.
Nibbling at my lip, I glared at the rock in front of me like it might submit to my will.
The only other option I could think of was unlikely. Only students approved by the Academy Spell could enter. There was no reason for the spell to expel me, was there?
No. As an enrolled student, a fourth year, I was as approved as it got. I hadn’t done anything worthy of expulsion. There had to be another explanation.
I could just wait until someone else came along. It was early afternoon of the day before classes. I wouldn’t be the only one who thought to arrive early. Plopping my bags to the ground next to me, I slid my back along the rock wall that was supposed to contain the entrance.