When I finally get out and dry off, I notice a slip of paper is sitting on the floor just in front of the door. Someone must have slipped it in through the bottom.
I don’t try to send a message to anyone now or even see if I have heard back as I look at the writing on the paper. I don’t need them following me to my possible expulsion and even execution if Reyes and the other see fit.
I wouldn’t put it past Kagan to try and get his father on my side, but one member of the Magistrate won’t help, and I don’t want to leave Kagan’s reputation in tatters when I leave this Earth.
So, I just accept this for what it is and drop the piece of paper on my bed with only one sentence typed on it plus the school’s letterhead.
Riley Graywood’s presence is requested in the headmaster’s office.
Chapter 16
I have brushed though my matted hair and dried it, putting on a clean, crisp uniform. I want to show as much respect to the headmaster as I can after what happened out there.
I keep my eyes straight ahead as I walk to my fate. I wouldn’t even know if Jake or Kagan passed me in the halls because I have tuned it all out. I am afraid of hearing the whispers about me behind my back. There is no secret now that there is something off about me, so those that didn’t know before or weren’t sure can be now, and that is why I am convinced I can’t be allowed to stay.
It would ruin the school’s reputation for a lot of parents if they found out Paranormal Hunter Academy was training a living, breathing Blood Witch. And an inquiry could lead to a witch hunt, no pun intended. That could hurt Jake. But maybe he could get away with his family out of the country before things get bad.
These are the messed up thoughts I have before I stop dead in front of the door to the headmaster’s office. I have never even gotten within three feet of the headmaster before. He is more of a figurehead than someone who is actually walking through and seeing what we are doing. He makes the rules and the hard decisions, he is the host of any event, but you don’t see him unless you have done something extremally good or equally as appalling. I am quite sure where on that scale I land.
I hurt someone, actually hurt someone. I can’t even look at myself the same way now, and I don’t want to think about having to explain this to my uncle after out tentative cease fire over the break. He would be so disappointed. And I can’t see him like that all over again.
He won’t know if he doesn’t have to, not while I am alive, anyway. And anything after that doesn’t matter much.
I get up the courage to knock on the door, and it flies open before I make contact. One of these magical doors is going to give me a heart attack one day. Might be a better way to go than getting executed by the Magistrate in front of an audience of high society witches, including my own family.
I walk in with my eyes on my feet. I must appear humble, apologetic, lowly. My acting skills are what is going to save me today, and that is such a joke because I am a terrible pretender. It’s the reason Kagan knew instantly I had feelings fur Adriel.
And I can’t believe I am thinking about him at a time like this...
"So, it seems like our little Blood Witch has gotten herself into trouble. Does that have anything to do with the new hairstyle?"
The voice I hear is unmistakably not the headmaster’s because my body responds before I can even get a glimpse of his face. And maybe it should stay that way. Being drawn in only to be let down is the worst kind of pain I have experienced thus far in my life. It is like the death of my own soul.
My heart is making my inner voice sound like Shakespeare, and it is hella annoying.
"Are you going to show up every time I come to the headmaster's office?" I ask him, avoiding him at all costs. I move myself to the far side of the room and cross my arms over my chest in the most closed off stance I can get in this small space. I can still feel it, though, the thrumming. It is like it gets stronger between us every time we meet. The first time I felt it was when we touched, but now I can feel it from across the room.
"I will if you make it a habit because you want to see me." I find a way to glare at him without focusing on him, and all I get back is that melodic laugh. The laugh that feels like wedding bells and Christmas gifts, and all the good things I have ever felt in life.
Angels are equipped with unreasonable advantages, especially against women, and the thought instantly reminds me if what he said in the library the last time I saw him. That demons and angels were the same thing just flipped a certain way. I don’t like to think of that because everything to witches had always been taught as black and white. The Magistrate and the angels are on the side of good, fighting for righteousness, and the demons are bad, fighting for chaos and control. There is no in between for them, and witches are meant to take sides. Ideally, the side of the angels. It was the whole reason everything worked the way it did now.
Centuries of the angels trying to fight to protect the earth and those on it and the witches being favored for their resistance against the demons and their choice to fight for the angels. Their only wrongdoing was making familiars, something to worship and serve them as if they were on the same level as the angels. It was seen as blasphemy, and rules were put into place. The Magistrate simply stepped up to enforce the rules.
Every political system needed these things. Order was the safest and best thing.
But that one statement flips everything on its head in a way I can’t just let go of.
"What am I going to do with you?" The voice is far too close, and I look up and gasp, seeing that he has crossed the room without my noticing. "Here I am, trying to keep you alive, and you go and get in a nasty fight with another witch. This doesn’t look very good for us or for you, you know?"
He is scolding me like a child, but his eyes are roaming my body. I lick my dry lips, trying not to think of all the ways he could punish me. Angels didn’t do those things. I am not even sure if angels date, fall in love, or get married, even to their own kind. The closest I have ever heard is the story of the Nephilim, and they were punished severely for what they did. But that was because of their lustful desires and the way they used their powers against those poor, unsuspecting, mortal women.
I am no mortal woman, not anymore.
"What do you want to do with me?" I finally say, breaking the curse of quiet between us. I don’t realize until the words are out how it sounds. What I had meant was what punishment I was going to get - if I was going to have to leave the academy or not. But it sounds much more like an answer something feral deep down inside of me wants to know.
He places one hand behind my head against the wall, partially trapping me in. He closes his eyes as he drags a strand of my hair under his nose, and the simple gesture makes a heated desire form in my belly like I have never known. "I don’t think your boyfriend the tutor would like it if I answered that question," he says with a wry grin.
"He knows," I blurt out, wishing I could take it back. I am practically throwing myself at him now. I might as well be exactly what Katy says I am.
"He knows what?" The voice is almost angry, not fitting for the conversation we were having.
My reply comes out in a stammer now. "I-I mean Kagan knows that there are feelings between us."
"Feelings, between us?" he questions on his breath, and I can’t read if this is a good or bad reaction. "You mean to say that you..."
He trails off, and I look away in complete embarrassment. I could have been reading this all wrong. in fact, I likely have. He could be having fun toying with me, or it might be he is attracted but nothing more. I am just another beautiful girl he has encountered, and the lust will pass as soon as there is another to take my place.
Adriel’s finger forces my chin over so that I have to look at him again, and I think I might die inside what I see in his eyes. There is nothing truly there other than that blue that captivates me, chaining me to the spot without handcuffs, but the emotion is so clear. I am seeing everything that I can be, every
thing that we can be. How we can take on the world together, and it is almost painful because it is just as clearly a reality that can't be. No one on either side of the fight would allow it to go that far.
Just when I think I can’t take anymore, his lips crush against mine.
Adriel’s kiss is so different from Kagan’s, I could never compare them. My body goes from icy to hot and back again in seconds, and it’s like all my nerve endings are trying to reach out and wrap themselves around the angel. His lips are hard, demanding, telling mine exactly what to do. He is in charge of this kiss, and I am just a slave to it as his tongue slides into my mouth, forcing out a raw sound of pleasure form my throat.
Adriel growls like a lion as both of his hands are behind me, and he is now pinning me against the wall with his hard body. My every fiber sings with that thrumming that makes me feel I can’t exist without it.
"This is wrong." He pulls away, and I actually think I can see fear in an angel’s eyes. I never thought an angel would have anything to fear, especially from little old me. "This is not how this was supposed to play out. It’s one thing for me to look at you and see it, but you see it too. You feel it, and I can’t take it back. For your sake, I wish I could take it back."
My heart shatters into a million pieces, and they all have his name written on it. But it also tells me something I couldn’t possibly have accounted for.
Adriel loves me.
That is what he is scared of. He is sacred of being what he is and me what I am, us falling in love. He thought I didn’t feel anything, that it was just him. Though, I don’t know how I could have been any more obvious.
"It's too late," I tell him as he takes his seat back at the headmaster’s desk, looking as if he has been drained of his life force.
"Maybe not. You should know that the Magistrate is watching you. We have asked that all discipline related to you be passed down by us and us alone. That is why I am here."
"Am I getting expelled?" I ask him in a tiny voice.
"No." He shakes his head over and over. "I would never be the one to pass down your death sentence. I just can’t, even if they had to kill me too. And I wish you didn’t know that, but I can’t lie to you."
"So, what’s going to happen then?"
"An in school suspension. They will put you with other students they don’t believe can handle being with the general population yet. Control your emotions, and it will pass."
"What about us?" I almost don’t want to know the answer.
"There is no us. I will stay away from you long enough for you to let me go. Can you promise me that you will?"
I purse my lips, holding back a flood of tears. I don’t want to walk out of here with blood running down my face. But I don’t know how much longer I can keep it from happening. "No, I cannot and will not promise that."
"Then, you may have just signed both our death warrants."
I can’t take it anymore, so I take it as a dismissal. I am sure some staff member will get to me and tell me where to report for classes tomorrow. Right now, I just need to get back to my room. I want to go and call my uncle or my cousin and talk about anything normal. Nothing that has to do with spells, demons, angels, or the Paranormal Hunter Academy.
As soon as I turn the corner of my hall where my room is, I can feel the tears coming. I almost don’t see Jake and Kagan straight ahead through the sheet of blood.
"Don’t, don’t look at me!" I scream, going into my room and running to the bathroom, shutting the door on them and locking it. I can hear them coming into my room, knocking on the bathroom door for me to come out, but I don’t. I don’t know if I can ever face them again.
Chapter 17
Less than three days into my suspension, I am ready to rip my fingernails off just to have something to do.
Half my day consists of some weird combination of detention and witch’s yoga, trying to teach us how to control ourselves and treat others with kindness. The other half is taken up by doing work out of huge textbooks that make me sneeze every time I open them. My normal classes are kept up that way, but it is tedious just reading and writing answers to questions. I even looked ahead and saw that tomorrow I will have to write an essay. I can’t believe I am a witch at a top magic school and I still have to write an essay.
I guess it’s punishment, though, and a lot less problematic than our magical prison system or death.
The one thing I am allowed to have at least during breaks, is my phone, and that is how I have been getting updates from Jake on Katy.
I didn’t talk to anyone the night of the incident, but when Jake found me missing in classes the next day, he had asked around to get an idea for what had happened. There were plenty of rumors, but Katy’s friend, Jessica, had given him close to the truth, so he trusted her to tell him how Katy was doing.
The thing about magic is, it can kill, and it can also save someone. Katy was easily treated in the infirmary with her burns, but she has a permanent scar, or so Jessica says. She has been ‘emotionally recovering’ in her room since then and doesn’t know when she will want to go back to class though she has been promised a whole new schedule absent of moi. That’s fine by me, I am good if I never see her again. I do wish I hadn’t hurt her, no one deserves that, but I also don’t want to be harassed like that every single day anymore. I would almost rather stay in suspension than do that.
As I eat the bland sandwich and apple I was brought for lunch today courtesy of the teacher’s assistant who is much less hot than Kagan, I pull out my phone to see if I have any new messages.
Don’t you think you’ve avoided me long enough?
I delete Kagan’s message and say nothing, I don’t even know what to say to him. I am embarrassed for how I behaved when he and Jake were only trying to check on me and see what was going on. I am also dreading seeing him because even though he told me he wasn’t going to make a big deal out of Adriel and I, I think he would if he knew how quickly it escalated in the headmaster’s office when I was supposed to be taking a punishment. Now, my punishment is to wonder if I will ever see Adriel again.
Maybe I don’t deserve a boyfriend if I can’t do one simple thing I am asked. Why couldn’t I let it go? It’s the same thing that got me into trouble with that demon. But now that I know Adriel loves me, I am stubbornly digging my heels in. He can’t stay away forever, can he?
And again has technically given me permission to be with both of them. I never saw myself being with more than one guy at once, but now I don’t see a way around it.
I don’t know where that leaves me and Kagan or how he feels about what he saw that night. It has to be a shock watching blood come out of your girlfriend’s eyes even if you half expect it.
Stop avoiding Kagan.
I roll my eyes and try not to laugh out loud. The kids in this room are legit scary. They would do what I did in a heartbeat, only most of them wouldn’t be doing it by accident and wouldn’t be sorry. I kind of feel like I am not the worst thing at this school now.
Why does he have you sending messages for him now?
He’s not. I am saying this for your own good. Whatever happened, it doesn’t matter. That boy is crazy about you.
Shouldn’t you be worried about your own dating life?
Jake doesn’t respond to that one right away, and I take the time to finish eating, choking down the mediocre ham on this pitiful excuse for a lunch. I hope that in a few days my good behavior will allow me to go get my own lunch. Then, at least I can eat real food. I could easily go for a pizza right now.
Yours is much more interesting. No guy or girl seems to notice me.
Don’t be all down on yourself, the right one will. Keep our eyes peeled.
I look at the time and see that I am going to have to get back to studying and answering dumb questions about things I already know. So, I put my trash in the can at the front of the room and stack the tray with the others for the assistant to take back to the cafeteria. It would be so much b
etter if he was allowed to sue magic to clean it all up, but that is another rule in this room.
No magic allowed.
Those about to go back into general populace get to have a class outside at the end of the day where they practice, but most of those in here with me are under such tight supervision that they aren’t allowed to be in a dorm room by themselves. They all have upperclassmen as roommates and teachers or others that lead them to and from their room after class is done. That is at least something I don’t have. So, admittedly, I got off pretty easy on this one. Just as slap on the wrist.
“Class, please resume your positions,” the elderly teacher, Mrs. Rinne, tells us all in her sing-songy voice. She reminds me a bit of a kindergarten teacher and not at all like a professor at an academy for witches, but I guess they hired her for this particular job for a reason. She is powerful and has an endless amount of chill – no temper. That comes with an advantage in this line of work, and it’s something I should take note of if I am going to make it through another two and half years here.
I go back to my assigned seat across from two vampires that I have never seen until coming into this room. There is a good chance they have always been in here. Apparently, vampires are only allowed into the academy after a trial period in suspension to see if they would be a good fit. It is something I should have had to do as well, and it makes me wonder if it wasn’t done so it would keep the fact that I am a Blood Witch under wraps or because of my family name. I think this whole privileged thing may be for real, and it makes me a little angry that Katy might be right about something after all.
It makes me wonder what else she is right about.
I begin the tedious job of taking notes out of this textbook about all the animals that live in our gardens around the school. Some of what we read we get to choose, and I find this one to be the most interesting thing available by far. It isn’t like they are offering up Demonology textbooks down here in the basement, which is where suspension is held. Go figure.
Blood Witch (Paranormal Hunter Academy Book 1) Page 11