By the time the end of the year rolled around, I was ready for a long, relaxing summer. I’d spent months trying to find out how to use magic, how to shift, and how to deal with the bullying at Hybrid Academy. Finally, I did. I found out exactly who was trying to hurt the people around them, and somehow, with the help of a few friends, I’d managed to find more than just the villain.
I had found myself.
I realized that I was more than just a girl, more than just a shifter, more than just a lone wolf.
I discovered that I was brave.
I discovered that I could do anything I set my mind to if I was willing to work hard, believe in myself, and ask for help when I needed it. With the support of my friends, I was able to solve the mystery that plagued the students at my new school, and I was able to overcome the obstacles that Melanie’s betrayal as a teacher had meant for me.
More importantly? I found out that the next chapter in my life was going to be a whole lot easier with great friends by my side.
As I packed up my bags and prepared to leave for the summer, I wondered what would happen when I returned in the fall. Would there be another mystery to solve? Would someone try to find me?
Would I ever be able to use magic well?
I didn’t know where my grandmother was. I still believed that she was alive. No one had been able to convince me that she was lost. At least now I knew that Aunt Erin and I would be spending the summer trying to decode my grandmother’s spell book. We would take the next steps in finding out what she had been working on when she disappeared. At least that would give us a clue. It would help point us in the right direction so we could find her.
Now I knew the truth.
And I wouldn’t stop until I found her.
When my bags were finally packed, I headed downstairs to set everything by the front door. My magic still wasn’t good enough for me to just make my bags move themselves, so I had to do things the old-fashioned way. Even worse? I’d have to make two trips.
I lugged everything down the stairs and to the front door. Everyone else was doing the same. Well, the first-year students were. A couple of them could make their luggage fly, but the majority of us were doing everything by hand. We gave each other understanding smiles.
Kiera had left the day before: picked up by her family. As promised, they had been boisterous and loud and wonderful and completely proud of her. It was a wonderful thing to see. They’d whisked her off with promises to bring her for visits in the summer, so at least I wouldn’t be totally on my own until the fall. I’d get to see Kiera at least a few times. Who knew? Maybe having a fairy’s perspective on my grandmother’s spell book would be helpful.
I dropped my bags by the door and peered outside. Erin wasn’t there yet, so I had a few minutes to get the rest of my stuff. Besides, I needed to get Boo. He’d been asleep on my bed when I left and I hadn’t had the heart to move him. Now I’d have to wake him up, strip the bed, and pack my blankets, too.
I glanced at the oversized clock in the lobby. I didn’t have much time. Scurrying up the stairs, I pressed down my hair with my hands. It was already frizzing up. Summer had only officially begun and already my hair was a wild, untamable mess. Gross. If this kept up, I’d never get a boyfriend.
Great.
By the time I reached my dorm room again, I was panting and sweating. I paused, catching my breath, and then I pushed the door open.
Only the bedroom wasn’t empty anymore.
There was a tall, shirtless dude in the center of the room.
His back was to me and I screamed.
No, scratch that: I shrieked.
“Who the heavens are you?” I yelled, fumbling for my wand. A spell. I could cast a spell on him and force him to tell me who he was and where my cat was. Boo was no longer on the bed, mysteriously missing, and there was no way I was about to let the crazy stranger guy steal my cat. Nuh-uh. Not today. No thank you.
There was something familiar about his broad shoulders, but I couldn’t quite pinpoint where I recognized them from. It didn’t matter. I wanted my cat back. I managed to pull out my wand and hold it in front of me. I only shook a little as I held it forward like a weapon.
“Give me my cat back,” I said. I hated the way my voice shook. “And I won’t hurt you.”
I wouldn’t.
Not much, anyway.
Boo was everything to me. Everything.
The man held his hands up and turned around. He didn’t speak until his front was to me.
“Henry?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
What the hell was Henry doing in my room?
And where was Boo?
“Max,” he said carefully. “I can explain.”
And that’s when it hit me full-force.
“You’re my cat,” I whispered.
Henry nodded, looking embarrassed.
“Yeah,” he said finally. “I’m your cat.”
Suddenly, it all made sense. Boo had come to live at my home when I was 13. If Henry had been 13, too, then of course he would have gone home to see his family. He’d always been gone for weeks or even months at a time before coming back to me and my grandmother. He was a shifter, not a familiar, and he’d been living with me since we were kids. That’s how he’d ended up at Hybrid Academy. He wasn’t a new student; he’d come with me. Being a shifter explained how he’d been able to blend in so well.
More importantly, that explained why Henry’s hair almost perfectly matched my cat’s.
I stared at him, unsure of my next move.
A year of studying had prepared me to use magic and to shift, but it hadn’t prepared me to deal with something as big as this.
I had two choices now. I could freak out and banish him. I could send him away and make him promise never to come near me again. Or I could accept the fact that someone I considered a friend also happened to be my familiar. The reality was that I had always considered Mr. Boo to be a good friend. He’d been with me for years and he knew all of my secrets.
I should have been embarrassed that he and Henry were the same person, but I wasn’t.
If anything, it was kind of a relief.
I could trust Henry, I realized. I could totally and inexplicably trust him. He wasn’t going to betray me the way Miss Wilson had. He wasn’t going to do anything that would hurt me or damage me.
But I also knew that my aunt wasn’t so chill that she’d let me bring a boy home for the summer. I heard her voice in the hallway. She’d arrived.
“Quick,” I said, motioning to him. “Back in your cat form. Don’t tell anyone.”
A look of surprise covered Henry’s face. Yeah, he’d definitely expected me to go with Option 1. Still, he shifted quickly, making it look easy, and then he leapt up until my arms with a meow just as Erin walked in.
“Ready, love?” She asked, striding into the bedroom.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I said. I took one last look around the room.
I’d spent so much time here and grown so much. It was strange to be saying goodbye today, but all good things had to end sometime. Besides, I had a fantastic summer to look forward to. I was going to find my grandmother, no matter what it cost. If Mémère only taught me one thing, it’s that there’s nothing quite like a good fight, and I had a feeling that the next one was going to be absolutely unforgettable.
Hang on, Grams.
I’m coming.
Hybrid Academy
Year Two
L.C. Mortimer
Story copyright by L.C. Mortimer
Cover design by Melody Simmons//www.ebookindiecovers.com
*
“And I'll be everything that I want to be.” –Superchic[k], One Girl Revolution
For Grandma Bobbi:
To surprise road trips,
To adventures in Canada,
To summers at the cabin,
And to you.
I love you.
Fans of Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Sup
ernatural – get ready to dive into a world where magic is powerful, clever witches rule the world, and vampires lurk in the darkness.
Mystery. Magic. Murder?
My new roommate at Hybrid Academy is a little bit strange.
She's never around.
She's always leaving weird potions and books out.
She's a neat-freak who can't stand the fact that my familiar is an actual, real-life cat.
Oh, and there's a chance that she's the one causing trouble at Hybrid Academy.
There's only one way to find out.
Hi, I'm Max: shapeshifting wolf and wannabe witch.
This is my story.
Prologue
Maddison sat in a chair in the center of the dark room and closed her eyes. It had been weeks, months. Hell, it had been nearly a year, she thought. When she’d last seen her granddaughter, it had been September. The monsters had kept Maddison locked away for ages. It felt like years of her life had been sucked away, if only from sitting around being bored and worried.
Helpless.
She’d thought for certain the vampires would have killed her or eaten her by now, but they hadn’t. They’d been biding their time, according to the vamps who came in to feed her, but Maddison knew better. They hadn’t simply been waiting around, trying to figure out where Maxine was or what Maddison knew about her daughter’s disappearance.
No, the vampires had a different endeavor.
They’d been looking for the book.
If her granddaughter was clever, which Maddison knew she was, she would have hidden the spell book somewhere. Either that, or she would have taken it. In the moments before the vampires swarmed her cabin last year, Maddison had sent out a desperate call to the witch coven and asked for help. She knew Erin would come, but had she gotten there in time? Erin was wild and brazen, but she was loyal to a fault. When she received the distress call, she would have reacted. Maddison knew that much. Although they hadn’t spoken in years, she’d kept quiet tabs on the little witch girl who had grown into a strong coven leader.
Yeah, it was safe to say that Maxine was in good hands.
As long as Erin got to her before the monsters did.
Maddison shivered as she thought about the troubles that could have befallen her granddaughter, Maxine. Max had been only 19 when Maddison was taken away from the home that they shared. She would turn 20 soon. Any day. Every so often, Maddison would find a way to get the guards to tell her what day it was, but those slips where they’d give her information were few and far between. Most of the time, she had to guess.
Most of the time, she didn’t really know how much time had passed.
All she knew was that they’d found her.
After ten years of hiding, they’d managed to find her.
Worst of all, they’d found her just after she’d discovered the truth about what happened to her daughter. Cara and her husband, Falcon, had been explorers, adventurers. At least, that’s what they had tried to get people to believe. What they’d really been were treasure seekers, and they’d managed to find something truly incredible: something that could change the world.
Something that, once freed, would change the way magic worked forever.
Maddison worried. What would happen if the potion fell into the wrong hands? It hadn’t happened yet, she knew. If it had, the world would be very different than it was. No, whoever knew about the potion was getting closer, but they didn’t know everything they needed in order to find it.
The potion, once discovered by the vampires, would change the world.
It would change everything.
Maddison shivered as she thought about what she had learned. Her daughter should have told her, warned her. She knew Cara and Falcon kept their secrets. She knew they were private. They loved hunting treasure together and they loved research. They were always looking for new things, always trying to make the world a better place, but this? This was too big even for them.
It was a potion that could give the user the ability to shift into any animal it wanted.
Worst of all, the user didn’t have to be a shifter in order to use it.
The potion meant that anyone, regardless of species, rage, or magical abilities, could learn to be a shifter.
It meant that the world of war, the world of shifting, and the world of magic was about to change.
Once this magic fell into the wrong hands, it would be unleashed. It would be free in the world. There would be no bringing it back, no leashing it. There would be no way to stop what happened next. Everything she loved would be destroyed. People could shift into animals in order to win arguments, to start fights, or to take the things they wanted. There would be no reprieve.
Maddison didn’t want that to happen.
Shifters, as the world stood, were a careful bunch. They were cautious and guarded because they had to be. The world didn’t owe them any favors and they knew it. Shifters were careful with their secrets, but more than that, they looked after one another.
This potion had the power to end the world of shifters as it existed.
Cara and Falcon had been searching for the potion when they disappeared all those years ago. She’d presumed they were dead, but since she’d come to live with the vampires, she wondered whether there was another explanation. Maybe there was more to the story than what she thought.
For one thing, she’d never really felt a sense of completeness about Cara’s death. Wasn’t she supposed to feel some sort of closure? If someone died, you felt it. You just knew in your heart. You could sense the fact that they were gone.
But she had never gotten that.
No, the more time she spent in the lair of vampires, the more Maddison believed that something had gone terribly wrong on Cara’s expedition that had nothing to do with vampires and nothing to do with death. Cara and Falcon were both powerful. Falcon was a shifter and Cara had been a witch. Their daughter, Maxine, was both. If Falcon’s little sister, Erin, had gotten to Maxine in time, she likely would have tucked her away at Hybrid Academy for safekeeping. Maddison was counting on it. Hybrid Academy was quiet, safe, and most of all, it would keep Maxine occupied so she couldn’t get into trouble.
That thought gave Maddison much more satisfaction than it should have.
Perhaps she shouldn’t have hidden the fact that Max was a shifter from her granddaughter. She’d been trying to protect her, but after the kidnapping, Maddison had had plenty of time to think about her life choices and her actions. She’d had plenty of time to consider exactly how her ability to do magic had impacted those around her.
And she’d begun to think that perhaps she had done her granddaughter a disservice.
She hoped beyond all hope that Maxine was still alive, that she was okay. Maddison was almost certain that she was. Why else was she still alive? The vampires knew that Maddison’s magic book contained all of the information they needed to discover the truth about Cara’s research. If they found it, they would need her to help them understand what it said. They would need Maddison to not only work the magic that unlocked the book itself, but they would need her to be able to interpret the notes she had painstakingly taken about the discoveries she’d made over the last decade.
She was still alive, which meant the vampires hadn’t found the collection of spells and magic.
So where was the book?
They had searched the house. She’d heard them talking about it many times. The vampires had loosened their tongues in the time Maddison had been staying with them. They’d grown comfortable with her: a little old lady. That was good. That was all part of her plan. She might be old, but she was still sprightly. More importantly, she was a witch. They knew it. That’s why, most of the time, they kept her carefully locked up.
They put her in a room where her magic just didn’t seem to work. It was most likely warded against magic. That would make the most sense. Anytime she tried to whisper a spell, it just died on her lips. If she tried to use her hands to bring fi
re or magic to her palms, it would just sort-of fizzle out. It was frustrating, but Maddison had made it this long.
She wasn’t about to let go of her powers now.
She wasn’t about to give up.
She heard voices and sat very still in the rocking chair in the center of the bedroom. It was a tiny space that was very dimly lit. It was nearly too dark to sew, but one of the vampire ladies had taken pity on Maddison and brought her a table lamp and some sewing supplies. She’d made the vampire a miniature quilt as a gift and although Maddison would never consider them friends, she knew she’d made a good impression.
That was important.
When it was time for Maddison to escape, she was going to need all of the help she could get, even if that just meant one vampire didn’t try to attack her. That was all that she needed. Escape was so close she could taste it. She could scent it.
“Soon,” she whispered quietly.
Now, she carefully stared at the fabric in front of her and held her needle as though she was sewing.
She wasn’t sewing.
She was listening, biding her time.
They walked past the hallway. She was in a mansion now. She knew that. There were no windows because they’d all been boarded up long ago. Vampires weren’t exactly fond of the sunlight. Maddison had spent every night since she’d gotten here trying to pry open the heavy boards that covered her window, but without her magic, her arthritic fingers couldn’t quite handle it. The wood was too dense and too thick to bread off. She’d tried that, too, in the hopes that she could fashion some sort of stake.
The vampires had moved her to this place only about a month ago. Before that, she’d spent months in some sort of dungeon. They’d questioned her over and over, but they’d never tortured her. She knew it was because she was old. She knew they were afraid that if they scared her too much, if they hurt her, that they’d never get their hands on the book.
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