Fur 'n' Fang Academy: The Complete Series: A Shifter Academy Adventure

by C. S. Churton

  I was inclined to agree. Nothing about the idea of being ‘removed’ particularly appealed to me.

  “Besides,” I said, skirting round the suggestion, “Leo’s more likely to slip up than Underwood. And we can keep a closer watch on him. Underwood’s only here for an hour or two a day.”

  “Exactly,” Mei said. “He’s not here for long. Easier to keep track of him the whole time he’s here.”

  “Drop it!”

  We both turned to stare at Cam. He clenched his jaw, and his fork almost bent in half inside his fist. He took a deep breath and let it out again, then prised his hand back open.

  “Uh, maybe we should talk about this later,” I said, casting a glance around the rest of the room. His outburst had attracted the attention of every student in the hall. After a moment, they started chattering in hushed whispers.

  “Anyway,” I continued, “we’ve got more important things to worry about.”

  “More important than–” Cam broke off and glanced at a pair of girls who were still looking our way. He lowered his voice and continued. “Than what happened last night happening again?”

  “Yes. We’ve made zero progress on our case, and if we don’t crack it soon, Madison is going to make us all look stupid in front of the entire year.”

  Cam rolled his eyes and bent his fork back into shape before using it to spear a sausage.

  “Actually,” Mei said, with a sly smile, “I think she’s right. Maybe we need to spend more time with the fourth member of our team until we have a presentable defence.”

  “I think he’s made it pretty clear he doesn’t want to be around us right now – probably feeling guilty after his little pet tried to make puppy chow out of me and Cam last night.”

  “Yes, but I wasn’t there last night,” she said, rising to her feet. “So he has no reason to avoid me.”

  “Just… be careful, okay?”

  “I’ve seen him fight. He’s the one who needs to be careful.” She grabbed her last slice of toast and made for the door. I watched her go with a shake of my head.

  “Do you think we should go after her?”

  “I think we should finish our date from last night,” Cam said, leaning towards me.

  “And I think,” I said, pressing a finger over his lips, “that you should get your mind out of the gutter. I’m going to see Shaun before he comes looking for me.”

  “Shaun?”

  “He’s bound to have heard I blew off my session with Underwood by now. And he’s going to want to know about the– About our adventure last night. Besides, don’t you want to know if they caught it?”

  “If they hadn’t,” Cam said, “I doubt they’d be letting anyone into the grounds right now.”

  That was a good point, and I felt much happier about Mei being off by herself now that he’d made it. Still, I couldn’t avoid Shaun forever. Might as well get it out of the way and enjoy the rest of my weekend.

  “Don’t suppose you want to come with me?” I asked hopefully.

  “Tae the ends of the earth, lass.”

  The pair of us took our plates back to the kitchen, then headed up to Shaun’s office. It might be a weekend, but so far as I could tell, the guy worked twenty-four seven, and when I tapped on his door, his sombre voice invited me to enter.

  “Ah, Jade, Cam, good to see you both,” he said, rising from behind his desk as we stepped inside and shut the door behind us. “You’ve saved me a job coming to find you.”

  “What happened with the chimera?” I asked, skipping the niceties and grabbing a chair. Cam took the one next to me. Shaun glanced over at the door, and then settled back into his seat.

  “We were able to trap it without anyone else getting hurt. Well done for raising the alarm, and I gather you both did an excellent job of protecting yourselves.”

  “Nae,” Cam said. “Twas Jade. I’d have been scran if it wasnae for her.”

  “Sure. Too bad my magic almost killed you.”

  Shaun’s eyes widened a fraction, and he shot a look at Cam.

  “He knows,” I said. “About the magic, the rage spell, the lessons, all of it.”

  “Jade…”

  “Well, it was kinda hard to hide it,” I said, trying not to sound defensive and failing miserably. “It’s not like I was shouting it from the rooftop. If I hadn’t used my magic, the chimera would have killed us. Unless you’d rather I let myself be killed than expose my powers?”

  Shaun held up a hand, and I paused for breath.

  “I understand your reasons.” He turned to Cam. “And I trust we can rely on your discretion, for Jade’s benefit?”

  Cam nodded.

  “Good. Then we’ll say no more about it. But try not to let the entire academy find out.”

  “Dean knows, too,” I said. Best get all the bad out of the way at once, right? “He saw me.”

  Shaun closed his eyes for a second and nodded.

  “Of course. Anyone else?”

  “Uh… Mei?”

  “You do understand the concept of a secret?” Shaun said, rubbing his temples. But he wasn’t doing that impossible-to-meet-his-eye thing, so I figured I wasn’t really in that much trouble.

  “Yer didnae expect Jade to handle this all by herself?” Cam said, frowning at Shaun like he was out of line for even asking me to keep it quiet. Shaun shook his head.

  “In truth, I’m surprised she managed to keep it quiet this long.”

  “Uh, I’m sitting right here. I can hear you, you know.”

  “Impressive,” Shaun said, “considering you don’t seem to have heard anything else I’ve said to you this year.”

  Ouch. I opened my mouth, but he cut me off before I could speak.

  “Professor Underwood paid me a visit last night. He was unhappy that he’d had a wasted journey out here.”

  Oops. I didn’t point out that my lesson might not have been his only reason for coming, because Mei was right – we needed evidence before we brought it up. And she was right about the other thing, too. I wasn’t going to get that evidence by avoiding Underwood.

  “I’m sorry. I’d like to apologise to him, too, and ask him about some stuff that happened with my powers last night. Do you think he’d see me?”

  “Dragondale is having their first itealta match this morning. I gather Professor Underwood isn’t a fan. I’ll see if he can spare you some time.”

  “Itealta?” I asked.

  “A sport,” Cam said. “Like basketball – except they do it riding on hippogryffs.”

  I blinked a couple of times, waiting to see if that sentence would arrange itself into something less ridiculous. Nope, nothing doing.

  “Well, that explains a lot about druids,” I said, shaking my head. “They’re obviously all insane.”

  That reminded me of something else Leo had said last night.

  “Shaun?” I said. “What’s Braeseth Academy?”

  He stiffened, then forced the tension from his shoulders, and arranged his lips into an unconvincing smile.

  “What do you know about Braeseth?”

  “Nothing. I just heard someone mentioning it.”

  “There are three types of magic – I assume you recall this from classes?”

  “Sure. Shifters, druids, and unclassifieds – witches and stuff.”

  “Correct. Braeseth is the academy of unclassified magic.”

  “Is it true they’ve closed it down?”

  Shaun looked startled at my question, and then resigned.

  “For someone who doesn’t listen all that well, you have a habit of hearing things you shouldn’t.”

  “Uh… thanks?”

  “Yes, it was closed at the start of the year. They’re having some problems with the academy itself.”

  “What, like renovations?”

  “I’m not sure you need to know that,” Shaun said. There was obviously more to the story, but he didn’t give me a chance to press it. “I’m going to send a message to Professor Underwood. And
while we wait for him, you can tell me everything that happened last night.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Underwood didn’t kill me, which the way things were going, I took as a win. He did crank up the intensity of my lessons, and honestly I hadn’t thought that was even possible – he said the weak, nauseous feeling I got was because I over-taxed my magic, and the best way to deal with it was to build up my stamina. Which basically meant working me to the point of exhaustion every night. Not once did he slip up and say anything about Draeven, or Fur ‘n’ Fang, or how the chimera had wound up here. But then, I hadn’t expected him to.

  The weeks slipped past in a blur of exhaustion. I had, we learned, almost zero aptitude for any sort of spellcraft – which was a shame because I’d have loved to have glamoured an extra couple of inches onto my height – but my elemental control seemed to grow by the day. It was never quite enough to satisfy Underwood, though.

  “Focus, Jade,” he snapped at me one evening when I was struggling to master what he assured me was a very basic spell. I was supposed to be making a piece of wood move from the desk in front of me into my hand. I swear, it never looked this hard when Harry Potter did it. Maybe I needed a wand. I sagged back in my seat.

  “This is a waste of time,” I said, staring up at the ceiling. Someone needed to do something about the cobwebs up there. “We both know I can’t do it.”

  “We don’t know anything, not for certain. Yours is a unique situation.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know. Curse transmitted magic, never happened before.” I stopped just short of rolling my eyes, even though I was still staring up at the ceiling. “What if the rage curse only carried traces of Kelsey’s elemental magic, not all this other fancy stuff?”

  “Your elemental powers are just one manifestation of your magic. Shifting is another. There is no reason to believe you are not capable of spellcrafting, if you apply yourself. And if you’re not able to demonstrate control of your powers, the Druidic Grand Council will be well within their rights to insist you attend Dragondale and learn to master your magic.”

  “They wouldn’t! They couldn’t!” I spluttered, then I folded my arms over my chest. “I’m protected by pack law.”

  “Oh, you have a pack, then?” Underwood said, raising an eyebrow. I dropped my gaze.

  “No. But… Draeven would never allow it!” That was clutching at straws, even for me.

  “Alpha Draeven has far more pressing concerns than the fate of one Bitten girl.”

  My attention sharpened, and I chose my words carefully.

  “Do you mean the other Bittens, Professor?”

  I tried to make my face as innocent as possible, but innocence had never really come naturally to me.

  “What do you know about that?”

  “Other than being one, and that two of them escaped last year?” I shook my head. “Nothing, Professor. Should I?”

  Underwood leaned back against the desk and exhaled heavily, then seemed to reach a decision.

  “The enforcers haven’t yet caught the other two. Now, Jade, the one thing shifters hate is uncertainty. Alpha Draeven’s failure to resolve the situation, amongst other things, has severely undermined his position.”

  I searched his face closely, looking for any sign of glee or anticipation, but all I learned was if Underwood ever got bored of teaching, he’d have a bright career in Vegas. I’d seen professional poker players with more expressive faces.

  “What happens if he doesn’t fix it?”

  Nothing. Not even a flicker.

  “The packs will turn on him. At best, he’ll be exiled, at worst, killed. The resulting instability and power struggle would likely cost many lives.”

  I hesitated. Why would he want that? Why would anyone? And then I realised. It would cost many shifter lives. As a hybrid and an outcast, maybe that didn’t seem so bad to him. Hell, right after I’d been bitten, it wouldn’t have seemed so bad to me – and I hadn’t dealt with a lifetime of prejudice.

  “Something on your mind, Jade?” he said. I shook my head.

  “No, Professor.”

  “Good. Then perhaps we might return to your lesson?”

  I sighed and turned my attention back to the stick. Probably best to let the subject drop before he decided I was getting a little too interested. After all the shit I went through last year, it’d be a real shame if I got killed by the magic professor most people didn’t even know I was working with.

  After a few more failed attempts, I twisted round to Underwood again.

  “Can’t we do something more interesting? Playing fetch isn’t my idea of a good time.”

  “What did you have in mind?”

  He hadn’t shot me down – figuratively or literally – which I figured was a promising start. I perked up.

  “How about portals? That’d be pretty cool.”

  I’d been dead jealous of Shaun the first time I’d seen him create a portal from thin air, and I hadn’t become any less interested in learning how to make them myself since.

  “Out of the question.”

  “Why not? You can make them, right?”

  “Conjure, yes. And because portals require diligence, discipline and dedication – at least two of which you lack.”

  I rolled my eyes and went back to the stick. At least he only thought I was a screwup on two of those.

  “If I move this stick, can we do portals?”

  “If you move that stick, I will consider teaching you the fundamentals of portalling.”

  “Cool.” I grinned and fixed my eyes on the stick, raising one hand. All I had to do was move it, and I’d get a shot at learning portals. Just move it. I sucked in a breath, and pictured the stick coming to me. Then I narrowed my eyes and reached inside myself for the ever-present rage that lived in the pit of my stomach. “Tàlaidh fiodh!”

  The wood lunged through the air and slapped into my palm. I turned my grin to Underwood. “When do we start?”

  “When you prove that wasn’t a fluke. Again.”

  *

  Underwood wasn’t satisfied until I’d managed to pull off the spell another dozen times, by which time it was all I could do to keep from spilling my guts all over the floor. I left the dungeon feeling even more drained than the night I’d fought the chimera, which I hadn’t even thought was physically possible. Apparently, portals required stamina, and I didn’t have it. But he had agreed that he would teach me portals as soon as I was strong enough, and that was motivation enough for me to stick at it – and stick at it, I did. Being able to go anywhere in the world, in the blink of an eye? That was worth spending a few weeks as a living zombie.

  “Jade?”

  “Huh? Sorry, did you say something?”

  Shaun looked vaguely exasperated. We were halfway through our weekly session, and I was having a hard time focusing on anything he was saying.

  “Another tough lesson with Professor Underwood?”

  I nodded. That was the understatement of the year. This evening’s session with Underwood had been particularly brutal – but if I kept it up, he thought I might be ready to start learning portals after the Christmas break, which was only two weeks away.

  “I’m concerned you might be taking on too much,” Shaun said. “Instructor Howell tells me you’re spending several hours in the library each evening.”

  “Wait, now I’m in trouble for studying?”

  “You’re not in trouble. I’m just worried that you’re pushing yourself too hard. You’re still very new to this life.”

  “It’s just this trial.”

  “The one for Lewis’s lesson?”

  “Yeah. I can’t lose. Not to Madison.”

  He pressed his lips together and I could tell he was trying not to smile. Like this was a laughing matter. I was on the brink of being humiliated in front of the entire year – because, despite all those hours spent in the library, I still didn’t have anything that even resembled a case.

  “Are you prosecuting or defend
ing?”

  “Defending. Or, I’m supposed to be – if I had anything to say in his defence.”

  “That’s the whole point,” Shaun said. “There is no defence you can mount – the judgement always comes down in favour of the prosecution.”

  “What?” My jaw popped open. “It’s rigged? That’s not fair!”

  “It’s not rigged, as such,” Shaun said. “But we were trying those cases when I studied here, and I’ve never seen one return a not guilty verdict. And that’s not really the point. You’re deliberately pitted against insurmountable odds.”

  “That’s still not fair. This counts towards my end-of-year grade.”

  “I thought you didn’t care about your grades, because you didn’t want anything to do with the shifter world?” he said, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. I folded my arms across my chest and tried not to pout.

  “Doesn’t mean I want to fail. Or let Madison beat me.”

  “You won’t. You’re not being graded on the verdict, you’re being graded on how well you argue the case. If you manage to convince Lewis to hand down a custodial sentence, not the death penalty or permanent exile, that would be enough to earn you top marks. As for the other thing, don’t you think it’s time you two got over your juvenile rivalry?”

  “Try telling her that. She thinks she’s so much better than everyone else, just because she’s the daughter of an alpha.”

  Shaun didn’t say anything, and he didn’t have to. In their world, she was better than the rest of us because of her father’s status. And I was worse, because I had no status at all. No pack. And there wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it.

  “Have you made plans for the Christmas break?” Shaun asked, his voice just a little too upbeat.

  “I’m going to stay with Cam’s pack.” Cam’s pack, not mine, and they never would be. But at least they didn’t treat me like a total outcast. That was something, I supposed.

  “Scotland, in winter.” An amused smile played across his lips. “That should be… bracing.”

  I hadn’t considered that. Good job one of the perks of being a shifter was that I wasn’t particularly susceptible to hypothermia at anything outside arctic temperatures. Still, maybe I should have lured Cam to my uncle’s farm instead. I mean, I was supposed to be fixing the place up in return for staying there. Not that I’d spent a single night there since getting bitten. The place was probably in a worse state than when I arrived. I was going to have to go back sooner or later. But all things considered, I’d rather brave the Scottish winter.