by Martha Carr
With a wry chuckle, she nodded and returned the gesture before passing the building toward the central field. There was still an hour left before they’d all head out here for dinner. At least she had good food to look forward to. Plus Fred and the other kitchen pixies to remind her of it.
The other kids ran around in the field, shouting to each other or standing around in small groups to talk about their first day of real classes. Maybe even about Amanda’s slip-up, despite how much she hoped that wasn’t true.
“Where did you slink off to?”
Amanda froze, then slowly turned to see Summer standing there, scratching an itch on her calf with the toe of her opposite sneaker. The new girl was smiling at her.
Probably ’cause she thinks she can use it against me.
“Nowhere,” Amanda muttered and kept walking.
“Hey, that’s cool. I get it. Just trying to get away from all this crazy and take a breath, right?” Summer chuckled and strolled after her. “Honestly, it’s a good thing you left when you did. That kid Tommy would not shut up about your eyes—”
“So you thought it was a good idea to tell me about it?”
“What? No, I’m only saying.” Summer jogged to catch up with her. “Calsgrave finally told him that if he didn’t stop, she’d make him go blind for a week and still mark it against his grade when he couldn’t see for any of his classes.”
“She did?”
“Oh, yeah. You know, for a witch who tries so hard to sell the whole ‘feel your magic’ bullshit, she’s kinda scary.”
Amanda snorted, and the corner of her mouth lifted in a tiny smile. “I think she’s trying to figure out how to teach a bunch of kids who have no idea what she’s talking about.”
“Ha. Yeah, I bet she meditates and does a bunch of yoga and stupid crap like that in her apartment. Or whatever they give the teachers here to live in. You think their building’s like the dorms?”
“No clue.”
“I bet they have suites. Figures. Like they don’t think we need any more than a tiny room and a tiny bed—”
Amanda turned quickly around to face the other girl and raised her eyebrows. “Was there something you wanted to say to me?”
Summer blinked, her blue-gray eyes wide. “What?”
“I mean, you spent all day acting like you have no idea who I am. Or actually, more like you think I have the plague or something. Why are you trying so hard to be nice all of a sudden?”
Quickly pressing her lips together, Summer swallowed. Her hands slid into the front pockets of her long jean shorts, then she smirked at the shifter girl and shrugged. “I don’t know. What you did with the lightbulbs was pretty cool.”
“Not when I was trying to turn a red paper green. I don’t wanna keep talking about it.” Amanda took off again toward the central field teeming with students who had an hour to kill before dinner.
“Hey, hold on. I wasn’t done.” Summer darted after her and fell in line with Amanda’s relatively fast pace. “You’re a shifter, aren’t you?”
Amanda stopped again and glanced around. Nobody seemed remotely interested in their conversation. I can’t believe she’s trying to talk about this right now. Or ever. She turned slowly toward Summer and frowned. “What makes you think that?”
“Oh, come on. You growled at that Tommy kid, and your eyes flashed silver. You couldn’t even chill out enough to feel your magic, and you did the best on the obstacle course this morning. Hell, you probably would’ve finished it if you hadn’t slipped off. Still pretty impressive. Not to mention the fact that nobody here knows what you are.”
“Wait, you’ve been asking about me?”
Summer tossed her black bangs out of her eyes and scanned the crowded field. “Not exactly. I hear things. I think it’s awesome, though. Never met a shifter before—”
“Hey, maybe keep it down.” Amanda glanced around them again. “Did you ever think maybe there’s a reason nobody knows?”
“Of course there’s a reason.” The other girl laughed. “So…come on.”
“What?”
“Tell me. Why are you making it such a secret?”
Amanda shook her head. “I’m not—”
“Honestly, you might be the only good thing about this school. It wasn’t a rule, but there weren’t any shifters at the School of Necessary Magic when I was there. Like, at all. So how’d you get them to take you here, huh?”
“I already told you I’m here because I want to be—”
“Yeah, yeah. You wanna be a bounty hunter when you graduate. Blah, blah, blah.” Summer pointed at her. “Oh, I know. You’re the poster child for this place, aren’t you?”
It took a second for that last bit to sink in, and Amanda’s frown only deepened. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Come on, Amber. It’s Amber, right?”
“Amanda.”
“Whoops. Amanda. Listen. Everyone knows shifters aren’t magical. Not the way the rest of us are, at least. So this school is gonna groom you and stick you under the spotlight as the shifter who went through the first four years of this place. Start bringing in all the attention and probably more money, right? ’Cause a lot of your kind tends to fall off the side of the road into the gutter, know what I mean?”
“Still no.”
“You know, like crime and gangs and all that. Unless they have a pack and—whoa. Do you have a pack?”
Amanda drew a deep breath and held the other girl’s gaze. “No. I really don’t wanna talk about this.”
“Yeah, sure. We can pick it back up later when no one’s around.”
“No, I mean, like, ever. Okay?” Her cheeks grew hot again, but she forced herself not to look away from Summer’s eyes. “Please don’t tell anyone else.”
The new girl snorted and looked out over the crowd of students again. “Please. I’m not a snitch.”
That’s probably as close to a promise as I’ll ever get out of her.
Amanda readjusted her backpack's straps and looked for Grace or Jackson or even Alex. Maybe if one of them saw her, they’d come over here and help her out a little. Summer was suddenly becoming way too much. However, she couldn’t find any of them.
“Hey, question for ya.” Summer slapped Amanda’s arm with the back of a hand.
“Okay…”
“You know where they keep the potions and ingredients or whatever for alchemy?”
Amanda looked up at the girl and narrowed her eyes. “Yeah.”
“Wanna help me get in there later?”
“What?”
“You know, to get my hands on a few things.” Summer grinned. “That Light Elf teacher isn’t gonna let us touch the good stuff probably ’til we’re seniors, which should be only two years away for me if these dumbasses hadn’t held me back a year. Stupid, right?”
“I mean, we all took the same test—”
The girl scoffed. “Tests don’t tell anybody anything. I’m not waiting around for years to use the stuff they have locked away, not being used. So how about it?”
Amanda’s frown deepened. “No. Sorry.”
“Aw, come on, shifter girl. Don’t tell me you haven’t broken a few rules since you got here.” Summer leaned toward her and lowered her voice. “I heard it’s bad for shifters to go a long time without, you know, shifting. You have to get out sometime, right?”
Crap. Why does she have to put all the pieces together now?
Stepping away from the new girl, Amanda shook her head. “I’m not breaking rules like that.”
Summer laughed. “Like what?”
“Like…breaking into a storage room for stuff we aren’t supposed to touch.”
“Look, they have so much stuff in there, they won’t even notice a few things missing. What’s the big deal?”
“Isn’t that why you got kicked out of your last school? And sent here?”
As she rolled her eyes, Summer’s smile faded a little. “They’re all way too uptight out there.
It wasn’t a big deal.”
“Maybe not for you. I really don’t wanna get kicked out of this school. So whatever you do, I guess you’ll have to do it on your own.”
“Huh.” The new girl blinked and ran her tongue over her top teeth with a squeaking, sucking sound. “Wow. You know, I’m a little disappointed, shifter girl.”
“Don’t call me—”
“I thought you were badass.” Summer wrinkled her nose and shrugged. “Guess I was wrong. You’re just another goody-two-shoes at another stupid school full of sheep. Except you got a wolf in you.”
She smacked the back of her hand against Amanda’s shoulder much harder this time and stormed off into the center field.
Wherever she went next, Amanda didn’t see. She was too busy being stunned into confusion.
What the heck is her deal? I lose it and almost shift, and she wants to be partners in crime? What I get for trying to be nice to the new girl.
“Hey, Amanda!” Grace’s shout and wave from the crowd caught her attention. “Get over here.”
Choosing to ignore Summer’s hot-and-cold vibes, she smiled at the witch and headed through the crowd toward her, Jackson, and Alex. They wouldn’t bombard her with personal questions now after six weeks of knowing she didn’t want to talk about her past that was still way too fresh. At least these friends still looked happy to see her. Even if they were pretending.
Chapter Eleven
That night after Lights Out—the only thing for which there wasn’t an obligatory alarm blaring across the entire campus, in case a few teenagers decided to go to bed before 10:00 p.m.—Amanda lay in her bed and stared at the ceiling again.
This time, she listened intently to the sound of the other girls in the dorm slowly settling in for the night. Their first few weeks here had been a little more lax with the rules. They could still talk and hang out with each other in the dorm after Lights Out but weren’t allowed to leave the building. As they’d gotten closer to the first week of classes, the Academy’s staff had started to crack down on “offenders” who left their rooms after 10:00 p.m.—although it didn’t come without a warning beforehand. Those who’d been caught had been sent to the kitchens the next day to help wash dishes after meals or to Mr. LeFor’s office at the back of the main building.
She’d heard that punishment was worse; Mr. LeFor liked to use his unwilling “assistants” as test subjects for whatever new gadget he was working on. Mandy Kaylek said he’d tested some kind of anti-gravity sphere on her, and she’d stumbled around the campus with her balance all out of whack for a week afterward.
Amanda figured the teachers had set up some kind of noise sensors as their so-called security system although she hadn’t been able to find any proof. It didn’t matter. She could be deathly quiet if she wanted to be, and she was every time she snuck out of her dorm room to go for a run after everyone else had fallen asleep.
Or maybe they know it’s me and haven’t bothered to dish out punishment.
Still, that wouldn’t explain the small hole she’d found in the electrically charged wards around the dorm building. It was way in the back on the first floor, on the opposite end of the building from the front doors. Not exactly conveniently located in front of the back door beside the closet of cleaning supplies, but Amanda had quickly discovered how to get through it. It only took a little premeditating and finesse. Which, when she was a wolf, she fortunately still had enough to get the job done.
It seemed to take forever for the other girls to settle down into a chorus of steady breathing, heavy snores, and the occasional flopping over on a mattress. She gave it an extra half hour to be sure, then glanced at her alarm clock—11:14 p.m.
Plenty of time to slip out for a quick snack. That apple and banana didn’t do anything.
In the silence, she double-checked that her room key was safely stuffed into the front pocket of her shorts, then headed across her room and opened her door. No one in the hallway, either. Not even Summer.
Good. She’d wake up the whole floor trying to ask me about being a shifter.
Amanda pulled her door shut behind her with the barest whisper and almost inaudible click, then headed barefoot down the hall toward the closest staircase. She’d figured out that if she pulled up on the handle when opening that door, the hinges didn’t squeak. Then she headed down the enclosed stairwell for two flights until she reached the first floor.
All the lights were off except for the large overhead bulb in the middle of the common room, which dimmed on a timer but didn’t have an actual switch. After a quick scan of the empty area, she turned toward the back of the building and headed for the narrow metal door with “Exit” painted on it in thick white letters.
Finding the hole in the building’s security ward had been an honest mistake during her third night at the Academy and her first attempt at shifting while no one else was awake to see it. The faint smell of a lit match grew stronger the closer she came to the wards, which were invisible until someone stepped into them and got zapped hard enough to discourage a second attempt. It stung, the buzzing aftereffects lasting for almost an hour, but no, it wasn’t hard enough to knock someone out until noon the next day, like she’d told Summer.
She doesn’t need to know. Especially if she’s trying to sneak out and break into the alchemy supplies.
Amanda sniffed at the air beside the back door, and her shifter senses zeroed in on the place where the sulfuric stink of the wards gave way to the salty, slightly sweet nighttime air of the swamp. That was how she’d found the hole, and that was how she tested them every time she stepped out for one of her mini escapes.
I guess someone forgot to make sure they sealed it all the way. Or they got lazy.
She quietly opened the supply closet beside the back door and took out the small tin pail that was always right there inside the doorway.
Or they wanted to leave an open escape route for me because they knew I’d need to get out. Yeah, right. No special treatment for the shifter. Not after the way Calsgrave pushed me today.
Shaking that thought out of her mind, Amanda concentrated on opening the back door. The opening in the wards wasn’t large—not quite a foot wide—but it was enough to open the back door without triggering a massive magical jolt to her system. The tin pail fit neatly between the door and the frame to keep it propped open for her.
When she had everything in place, she stepped back and drew a deep breath.
Definitely need to get out.
She shifted. Her whole body tingled—all the way to the tips of her dark-brown hair that she felt only for an instant before short gray hair covered her head instead.
Stepping quickly out of her clothes, the small gray wolf sniffed one more time at the wards, then gathered the articles into her mouth and positioned herself directly in front of the foot-wide opening in the door. Her skin tingled again when she leapt gracefully over the pail and landed outside in the grass, raising her hackles and making her shake herself.
A hole in the wards doesn’t mean I can’t still feel something.
She took another quick sniff in the air but only caught the tangy, half-briny scent of the swamp water, the last traces of two rabbits that had darted across the field, and the faint odor of cigar smoke mixed with strawberry rhubarb pie. That would be the pixies.
Amanda dumped her clothes onto the ground and shifted back into her human form, then quickly tugged them on beneath the overhanging rooftop of the dorm building. She’d gotten this part down to a science too—getting dressed again after shifting back. It grew easier every time, but she wished she didn’t have to risk being spotted butt-naked in the grass behind the building.
If I could cast any actual spells, that wouldn’t be a problem with an illusion. Except for maybe the draft.
After one more glance around the open grass studded with oak trees behind the dorm, she headed northwest to take the long way around the building toward the kitchens. She stopped only once to glance around again when h
er stomach let out a furious growl that seemed way too loud in the silence, even with all the nighttime sounds of the swamp to mask it.
Nobody can hear your stomach through concrete walls, dummy. Keep moving.
Still, she stuck close to the buildings and the slightly darker shadows of the trees dotting the campus, despite the moon being only a waxing sliver in the late-August sky. The smell of cigar smoke and pie grew stronger as she darted across the outdoor cafeteria and headed for the back door of the kitchens—or really the only entrance.
Her knuckles rapped against the metal to the beat of “Shave and a Haircut,” which had been her first joke with Fred. He’d responded to her very first tentative knock in the middle of the night with that little rhythm from the inside of the door, and now it was how the kitchen pixies knew Amanda Coulier was standing outside, waiting for them to let her in.
The door opened slowly, and a puff of cigar smoke wafted right into her face. Choking back a cough, she waved the smoke away and blinked. “Wow.”
“Well, look who it is.” Fred chuckled and held the door open with one hand as he lifted a plastic cup to his mouth with the other. Ice clinked together as he took a long sip and looked Amanda over.
So the first day of class makes them wanna drink too, huh?
Amanda wrinkled her nose and swatted one more time at the receding smoke. “How’s the whiskey?”
Fred choked down his drink, then barked out a laugh. “How do you know what I’m drinking?” He pulled his cup away to frown at it. “You see through walls too?”
“Shifter nose, remember?”
“Nothing gets past you, does it? Still showing up to a professional kitchen barefoot, I see.”
She shrugged. “I’m quieter without shoes. Plus, they’re a little harder to carry when I don’t, you know…have hands.”
“Ha!”
“You gonna stand there all night, man, or can we at least finish this hand first?” A skinny pixie with a shock of neon-orange hair sat at the high, stainless-steel prepping table in the center of the kitchen, one shoe hooked under the rung of the stool beneath him and his other foot propped up on a second stool. A shimmer of sparkling orange light rose around him like a full-body halo.