by Lan Chan
“Name?” she asked when we got to her. “Sophie Mwansa.” She stamped the back of Sophie’s hand. For a second the black ink glowed and turned deep pink. Then it disappeared. A shudder seemed to run along Sophie’s spine. Then it was my turn.
“Alessia Hastings.” Was it just me or did something flicker in the woman’s eyes? Whatever it was, she was just as efficient at branding me with her stamp. I watched as the black ink swirled. It tingled up my arm and caused my heart to kick in my chest. The ink on my hand turned blue until it disappeared.
Sophie motioned for me to keep going. She pushed open the door and we almost ran into the back of the other students who were already in there. Following their lead, we shuffled from the entry hall into the walled courtyard beyond. There weren’t as many students as I expected. Maybe forty in total.
They milled about in small groups, their faces ashen. I could just imagine that mine was the same. Last night’s strange dream and then the abrupt wake-up combined to make me anxious. Sophie and I found a quiet corner near the row of white rose bushes.
“Hey!” Sophia exclaimed. “Rosehips!” She plucked one of the red hips. “I could so use these. Help me pick them.”
I suspected she was redirecting nervous energy into the wrong place, but we had nothing better to do. “There shouldn’t be rosehips on the bushes in summer,” I said.
Sophie laughed. “It also shouldn’t be this cool in the middle of Australia. Thank you, supernatural climate control.”
“You’re from Africa. You should be used to this.”
“And yet I’ve been softened by Academy life.” She threw a hip at me. I was going to retaliate but a voice boomed overhead. It was Jacqueline.
“Students,” she said. She didn’t have a megaphone or anything, but we could hear her clearly even from this far away. “Your attention, please.” The dispersed crowd drew in.
We stayed around the edge. I had to stand on tippy-toes to get a glimpse of her. Today’s pant suit was gunmetal grey. She had a golden circlet around her forehead. It looked very much like a crown.
“Welcome to your first semester as seniors of Bloodlines Academy. I know that most of you have had the pleasure of hearing about our placement trials. Let me warn you that this is no trivial test. One day soon you will be depended upon to lead the future of our races. To stand guard against the forces of the Hell dimension. To protect those whose world we now share.” She held up her hand to forestall the applause. “With that in mind, I want to remind you all that the results from today’s trials will inform the classes, remedial or otherwise, that you will be enrolled in for the rest of the year. I wish you the very best of luck.”
This time, there was applause. Jacqueline allowed it to go on for a second before she nodded her head and silence fell once more.
“Now that you are all seniors, your end-of-semester examinations will also be tryouts for the Unity Games. In the senior campus, you will be divided up into Houses. Throughout the year, you will work together to earn points for your house.” A murmur of excitement bubbled through the crowd. Sophie pinched my rib, but I shrugged. I had no idea what the Unity Games were. “I will now turn you over to the current House Captains who will pick you for their Houses.”
I was going to get a bruise from all of Sophie’s pinching. When I turned to look at her, though, her lips were flattened into a thin line. I didn’t know what had gotten her so reserved until five figures walked out from a gate to the side of the courtyard. I had to suppress a groan at the dark blond head that I saw between other students’ shoulders. It figured that he would be the head of a House. Even Max’s presence amongst the House Captains couldn’t get the look of utter despair off Sophie’s face.
“What’s wrong?”
She shook her head and clutched on to my hand. “Students,” another booming voice called out. It belonged to one of the Nephilim boys who I’d seen in the cafeteria last night. One of Michael’s bloodline. His stature made him tower above the rest of the crowd even though he wasn’t standing on a stage. All five of the House Captains were huge. Aside from the Nephilim boy, Kai, and Max, the other Captains appeared to be a Fae boy with ash blond hair and a vampire girl with the straightest black hair I’d ever seen.
“Get into groups based on your magical speciality,” the other Nephilim said.
I saw then what had gotten Sophie to turn mute. All around us, students tripped over themselves to do as the Nephilim commanded. Some of them literally ran into me in their haste to comply. A shoulder connected with the side of my head.
“Hey!”
The girl who’d basically tackled me rolled her eyes as she sashayed away. I remembered her from last night. Or at least I remembered her golden wings. She was one of Brigid’s minions.
“Hello,” a nasally voice said. I turned to my right to find a skinny boy in glasses inching towards us.
“Uh, hi.”
“Are you human?”
Never had I ever thought that would be a question I’d be asked. “Yes, we are,” Sophie said, her composure returning. “I’m a kitchen witch. Lex is a hedge witch. What are you?”
“I’m a light wizard,” the boy said. “My name is Fred.” He pushed the bridge of his glasses up. “Can I stand with you guys?”
“You certainly can!” Sophie swept her arm out to twine with his. I had the distinct feeling that she was one of those collectors of unfortunate souls. By the time everyone was more or less huddled in their magical designations, there were seven groups. Ours was by far the smallest.
“How are there no other humans?” I asked Sophie.
“Most of our abilities have been lost over the centuries. Also, the ones who do have abilities often end up in –” She bit her lip instead of finishing. I already knew what she was going to say. They ended up in hospitals like Nanna. “I’m just lucky that my parents are part of an established coven. They try to reach out to others, but you’d be surprised at the amount of people who would rather owe money to the tax department than find out there is magic in the world.”
My anxiety skyrocketed like Sophie’s when the House Captains chose members from each group. The high mages were chosen first. Then the Fae, shifters, and vampires were strategically chosen based on their speciality or the animals they shifted into. It turned out Max was a lion shifter. I thought it very fitting. Something about him just screamed predator. By the time we were down to the dwarves and goblins, I was starting to sweat through my T-shirt.
Those who had been chosen went to stand behind their House Captains. It meant there were more people on that side of the courtyard than there were on our side. With numbers being the way they were, the first two Captains to choose, the Fae and Vamp, were smug because they didn’t have to take one of us low-magic users.
And then there were only three of us waiting to be chosen. Almost fifty sets of eyes were watching us, but I caught Kai’s gaze. It killed me that I had to drop mine, but the last thing I needed right now was to show emotion. No way did I want him to see that he unsettled me.
The other Nephilim looked over us. Sophie continued to squeeze my hand. “You,” the Nephilim said, pointing to Fred. “What kind of magic user are you?”
Fred was literally shaking in his sneakers. He pushed he glasses up again. “Light magic.”
The Nephilim conferred with some of his higher-ranking teammates. “Diamond House will take you.”
Fred’s shoulders all but heaved as he raced to join his team who clapped. And then there were two. I looked at Sophie. She was visibly trembling. Her nails dug into my palm. But I knew before Max even opened his mouth that he would choose her over me. Kai must have felt the same because as Max went to speak, Kai clamped him on the shoulder and pulled him back.
They engaged in a hushed, heated conversation. There was a lot of gesturing on Max’s part. Kai remained stoic, but his scarred brow twitched menacingly. We couldn’t hear any of what they were saying, but their expressions left nothing to the imagination. Then s
omething in the air popped. A rainbow of colour erupted around Kai and Max. Kai practically shouted, “...insufferable. You take her!”
Everyone became graveyard quiet. Sophie let out a sob beside me. Kai’s eyes flashed murder at one of the Fae from Ruby House. The Fae paled and tried to step back amongst his house. A lick of emerald fire blazed around Kai’s palms. I could feel the heat of it on my skin. Or maybe that was the blush that was turning me into a tomato.
Undeterred by what had just happened, Max spoke. “Sapphire House chooses the kitchen witch,” he said. Sophie wouldn’t move. She clung on to me even though I tried to push her forward.
“Come with me,” she said out of the side of her mouth.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’ll be fine.”
I had to get behind her and push her a few steps to get her to start walking. Even then she continued to throw glances back at me. When she reached him, Max pressed him thumb to her forehead as he’d done to every other new member of his house. Bright light flared from their connection. She spoke urgently to him, and I could tell from the shake of his head that she was trying to get him to take me too.
Still brooding, Kai beckoned me forward. Every cell in my body locked. I wanted so badly to turn on my heel and walk away. “Obsidian House chooses you, Alessia Hastings.”
There were more than a few snickers and smirks from the other houses. Gold Wings was laughing outright even though Kai had chosen her too. I wondered how long it would take for her to realise I might have been chosen last but that it still meant I was in Kai’s house. Brigid would have a coronary. That tiny bit of victory was what propelled me forward.
I flinched when Kai reached out and touched me on my forehead. A humming sensation filtered from the spot where we made contact and skirted over my skin all the way down to my toes. I sucked in a breath, my eyes snapping up to look into his. The frown on his face and the way he ripped his hand away told me that wasn’t supposed to happen.
A gong sounded nearby. It cut the tension in my body and I took a step back. Sophie came for me once more.
“Time to get this over with,” she said. And then we were walking through the courtyard and into another great hall.
12
They split us into two groups as we entered the hall. Sophie and I were assigned to desks with the rest of our group. The room we entered was set up like any other school examination room. There were already papers on the desk that were turned over so we couldn’t see. Sophie sat to the left of me. A vampire boy was on my right. When we were all seated, a small brunette teacher tapped a quill against the front desk.
“Students,” she said. “You have ninety minutes to complete the examination.” She glanced at the strange looking analogue clock. “You may begin.”
The room turned into a big rustle of paper. When I wrote my name on the dotted line on the top right, the spot where I’d been stamped by the teacher at the door flared. I had a feeling that cheating was going to be a lot harder here than in any other school I’d been to previously.
That was a shame because after a quick scan of the questions on the front page, I realised that I was way out of my depth. No wonder Sophie hadn’t bothered trying to help me cram last night. There was no way I would have retained all of the information they were after in this examination. The first question was about the history of the supernatural existence in this dimension. The second was about vampiric lore. The third was about high mages and had some words in it that I couldn’t read. I knew I was in trouble when I flipped to the second page and it was a running sheet of spells for which I had to produce ingredients.
I cleared my throat. Sophie glanced over and threw me a sympathetic look. Then her eyes floated back to her own exam paper.
What would happen if I flunked? Would they kick me out of the school? Surely not after they tried so hard to get me to stay. It was more likely that I would be stuck in a bunch of remedial classes. Or worse, what if they shipped me off to one of their communities and I had to spend the rest of my life doing something really mundane and boring?
Studying hadn’t been on my list of top priorities growing up, but school had been a safe haven of sorts. I was that kid who coasted through the middle and flew under the radar. It was a place where I was warm and dry and without some creep adults trying to take advantage of me. The learning part had been secondary. I didn’t really want that to be repeated here, but the more pages of the exam I turned, the bigger the stone in my stomach became.
I literally knew no answers. Even the ones on the properties of plants were on topics I had never covered. Nanna never asked me what herbs went together to make a brew that could soothe the burn of a demon blade.
I resisted the urge to obsess over the potential hazards of meeting someone who possessed a demon blade. Now just wasn’t the time. Having said that, without knowing a single one of the answers, I had nothing but time to kill. It didn’t help that all around me, other students were busy scratching away with their pens. The boy beside me was seriously flying through his exam. He turned page after page while I sat there sweating buckets.
At the halfway mark, I’d done nothing besides obsess over how much further along everyone else was. Without thinking, I had picked up the pen and was drawing concentric circles over the top of the page. That’s right, maybe if I scribbled all over the questions they would be distracted and wouldn’t see that I hadn’t written anything of substance. Of course then I freaked out about vandalising the exam paper. But as I continued to look down at the three concentric circles that were pretty equidistant for a freehand drawing, a sense of calm washed over me. Concentrating on the reassuring patterns, I allowed myself to become lost in the simple art of bringing life to all the circles Nanna had taught me over the years.
There was something so peaceful about knowing that you could start at one point and the circle would come back around to complete itself. To this day, I didn’t ever go to bed without drawing a circle around wherever it was that I slept. Call it superstitious. When you didn’t know where you’d be sleeping next, there was something kind of incredible about having a ritual. I poured those circles onto the pages and completed them with the symbols Nanna had taught me.
A bell went off just as I put the finishing touches on a particularly complex protection circle. “All right,” the professor said. “Pens down. Please turn your exams over, step away from the desk and leave the room please. The ushers in the hall will take you through to the practical portion of the exam.”
I slid my chair back and slowly walked out of the room. I should be freaking out, but I was strangely Zen. Until Sophie tapped me on the shoulder.
“Did you manage any of that?” she asked.
“Not even one question.” The usher in the hallway directed us through another set of doors. “What happens if I flunk?”
“No idea. You’ll be the first.”
“Really? No one in the history of the world has ever flunked this test?”
“I mean, there are people who have done pretty badly. But you know, they get jobs like the rest of us.”
“Doing what?”
The fact she pointedly shut her mouth was not a good sign. I had no more room for signs. The small crowd milled about five doors in a long corridor. The usher pointed to kids and showed them to a door. Once one kid went inside, a green globe above the door turned red. I chewed on my thumbnail. “This is very conveyer belt-like.”
I’d thought we would wait until the ones who had gone in came out again but twenty seconds later, the lights went green again and more kids were sent through the door.
“What the?”
“They’re portals,” Sophie said. “There are magically secure locations on the other side in case one of our examinations goes wrong. They bring in experts from all over the world to test us.”
“Is that meant to be reassuring?”
She stuck her tongue out at me as one of the ushers pointed to her. With her back straight, Sophie stepped through the doo
r he opened without turning back. I was slightly less enthusiastic when the usher flagged me to go next. Stepping through a doorway. How hard could that be, right? I wasn’t dreading what was on the other side of the doorway at all. The written part of the exam was a cinch.
I had no idea what would be on the other side of the doorway but nothing prepared me for stepping from the relative gloom of the hallway and into a garden. All around me pines, oaks and liquidambars towered. There was a clearing in the middle of the garden were a half-dozen rectangular raised beds had been constructed of thick wooden sleepers. Vegetables of every variety spilled from the beds and trailed up tepees. Sunlight befitting a summer’s day filtered through the canopy. This just couldn’t be right. Yet when I splayed my palm on the trunk of the closest tree, it was solid.
A head topped with silver hair popped up from the cobbled pathways between the raised beds. He was a man about Nanna’s age dressed in a forest-green set of coveralls. He dug in the dirt with a handheld trowel and dropped a seedling into the hole before covering the roots with compost.
Footsteps behind me alerted me to the presence of another person. “Welcome, Alessia.” The woman, or should I say Fae, who drew up beside me was smaller than the ones I’d seen previously. She was just a few inches taller than me with luminous green wings and hair of darkest wood brown. When she smiled at me, her eyes lit up in their very depths. I couldn’t help smiling back.
“I am Thalia,” she said. “Peter and I will be assessing your competency as a hedge witch.”
Hearing his name, Peter waved at us as we walked up alongside him. “I don’t know much,” I admitted. “I mean, I haven’t been formally trained.”
They glanced at each other and grinned. “I think that was very obvious based on the results of your written exam,” Peter laughed. “I’m not sure if the headmistress knows what to do about that. But anyway, we shall see if we can fare any better.”