by Megan Linski
It was driving me crazy. I was sure I’d go mad with the want. I didn’t know what having a mate would feel like before, but now that she was close, everything was different. My entire life, my whole existence— it all centered around her.
For the first time, I knew exactly what my Da had been talking about.
The thing was, I was sure I’d seen her among the students— felt her somehow. I’d made eye contact with her, that was for certain, but there was so much going on and so many new people coming into the school it was hard to tell who she was. There were so many new scents and auras resonating throughout the area. I couldn’t tell which one belonged to her.
I knew I had to seek her through the wolven freshman girls. But I had a busy semester ahead of me. I was taking a mess of tough classes, not to mention I had my duties as a vigilante, and preparing for the King’s Contest ahead. I didn’t know how I’d find time to locate my mate.
But finding her was the most important task of all. I needed her for the Contest, but more than that, I needed her.
I wracked my brain, trying to remember her face, but there were so many faces that were brand new. I hoped to the Seven Gods that she’d show herself during class today and that my search would be over. I’d lose my mind in the meantime.
I couldn’t keep my mind on breakfast. I barely ate. It felt like my entire body had been consumed by a vicious fever, and the cure wouldn’t come until she was by my side.
It was wholly unbearable.
Around eleven a.m., I headed to the forest outside the school for my first class. It was taught by Lord Lucien— Monster Hunting 101. It was a freshman class, but I’d retaken it on account that I’d failed it my first year, and the year after that. I already knew how to hunt monsters from birth, so I considered the class a useless recap of the basics, and never bothered to go to class.
Still, it was a requirement for graduation, so it’d be in my favor to not to blow it off. I still felt like I needed a bigger reason to actually show up.
When I turned the corner to see a gathering of freshmen around a large oak tree near the school greenhouses, I got my reason.
I saw her red hair first. It was long and flowing down her back, and it rippled in the sunlight, casting off a golden glow. I was staring at her back— she was tall and thin, with legs that went on for miles but a round ass that Arcanea women were famous for.
When she turned around, my breath caught. Her eyes were green as emeralds. Her skin was so pale it nearly glistened, and she had pink lips that were barely open in a slight gasp. As she brought her hand up to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear, I noticed a black paw print on her palm. A wolven, like me.
It felt like she was the only thing that mattered. The only thing that made sense in a world that didn’t make much sense to begin with.
I found her. My mate. What a stroke of luck!
She caught my gaze. I realized that I’d seen her in the entrance hall yesterday as I was showing off my magic to Chastity. Why hadn’t I realized it then? I was so stupid.
She noticed I was staring. Her eyes glanced down and chewed on her lip nervously. A jolt of fear went through me as I realized that sorceresses could reject their mates. This first meeting was everything. If I came off as an ass, I could lose her… and I’d never be the same.
When you met your mate, you didn’t just barge in and declare it to them. You had to win over their heart first. You had to court them, to avoid messing up the mating process. And that’s exactly what I intended to do.
I had to play it cool. I strode toward her with my hands in my pockets. “You look a little lost.”
Why was that the first thing out of my mouth? Her cheeks turned pink, and she said, “Kind of. It’s my first class here. I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll get along fine.” I bumped her shoulder against mine. “If you don’t, they’ll just feed you to the dragons.”
She paled. I nudged her— gods, even barely touching her felt incredible. I laughed. “I’m kidding,” I said. “You’ll be fine. Lord Lucien doesn’t leave those in his class behind.”
She still seemed worried. “Aren’t you Prince Ethan?” she asked.
So she already knew who I was. I wasn’t surprised. “That’s me. Though I prefer not to be called Your Majesty while at school. It’s rather annoying.”
“So what should I call you?” she asked.
“My friend Stefan calls me Prince of the Assholes,” I said. “Though you can call me Ethan.”
She laughed. It was a light, tinkling sound, like the music of the fairies. “I’m Emma.”
Emma. What a pretty name. My mother had a favorite novel of the same name.
I didn’t get to say much more, because Lord Lucien decided to show up at that very moment. He was in his wolven form, and pulling a cart that was full of bronze weapons. When the cart was before the class, he pulled off the harness using his teeth and transformed back into human form.
Emma’s mouth dropped open when she saw Lucien change, but she looked around and quickly snapped it shut. She realized she was the only one here shocked by his transformation.
Something was different about her… she had an accent that wasn’t from here. American, maybe? How much did she know about the Arcanea, exactly?
Lord Lucien’s eyes sought out Emma’s, and he smiled kindly at her. She seemed to relax under his friendly gaze.
“First things first,” Lucien announced. “This will not be an easy course for most of you. Weak-minded Arcanea do not survive the battlefield. There is no such thing as fighting fair when battling a monster. You will be expected to play dirty, and keep up with the most brutal of creatures if you wish to preserve your life.”
Lucien took a long sabre off the cart and demonstrated, swooping the sword in long movements. “A warrior must be tough and disciplined. They must stay calm in the most chaotic of situations. And they must be convinced that they will win any battle.”
Lucien threw his cloak over the cart. “Pick a weapon and follow me. We’ll start with drills.”
He headed into the trees. Students ran to the cart to get the best weapons. Emma hung back in hesitation. By the time we got to the cart, there were only a few options left, though Emma seemed overwhelmed by it all.
“There are so many weapons here. I don’t even know what to pick,” Emma said, looking confused at all the different options before her.
“Well, if you’re a beginner, I suggest you don’t pick a spear or a mace.” I rifled through the weapons until I found something sturdier— a karabela. It was a long, curved blade, a thin sabre that was usually used by sorceresses riding their Companions into battle.
I handed it to her, and her arm instantly dropped. The blade sank into the earth. “It’s so heavy,” she said. “My arm’s gonna kill by the time we’re done.”
“Well, yeah, it’s not going to be light.” I smiled at her. “You can handle it.”
She still looked doubtful as we followed the rest of the class to the woods. Lucien led us to a large, flat area and ordered us to spread out. I picked a spot with Emma in the back.
“I thought we’d be studying theory or something, not how to handle swords on the first freaking day,” Emma whispered, flustered as Lucien began to bark instructions.
“It’s sink or swim at Arcanea University,” I told her. “Don’t doubt yourself. You’re stronger than you think.”
“Yeah, right.” Her tone was bland. Lucien started swinging his weapon, demanding that we follow his movements and keep up with them. As he instructed, he yelled at us to keep a wide stance, to stand tall, to be light on our feet and keep our balance all at once.
This was so boring to me. I knew all this. My time was preoccupied with watching Emma.
She was sweating with the effort to keep up. Her first few times swinging the sword, she lost control and fell over.
“You’re going to hurt yourself,” I told her. I ignored Lucien and corrected her stanc
e, my hands burning at the touch of her skin. “You don’t need to put so much force into it. Precision and remaining in control is more important than butchering your opponent. What if you swing too hard and you can’t pull your sword out? Then you’ll be left without a weapon. Practice a bunch of light strikes in quick succession, instead of one big blow.”
“Am I really going to have to kill things while I’m here?” Emma huffed. She struggled to catch her breath.
My expression was utterly serious as I said, “You won’t want to. But someday, you’ll have to.”
She seemed bewildered. I didn’t get why.
Well, I had a good motivator to come to class, at least. Emma was woefully behind on learning weapon play. She’d need more than just Lucien to teach her. I’d have to be here to help her keep up with the rest of the class. The rest of them probably had a blade in their hands the moment they could walk.
“You want to stagger your opponent!” Lucien called over the crowd. “Get them off their feet, and knock them off balance! Imagine your strikes as a star pattern, where you slash your weapon downward or upward diagonally to cause the most damage. Strike vertically from top to bottom to cause devastating hits. Only parry a blow as a last line of defense! When dealing with monsters, always use offense as your first choice, and limit their opportunity to have more time to kill you!”
“They should’ve given us a textbook or something,” Emma panted. I chuckled.
“Textbooks aren’t very good out in the field. Unless you want to bludgeon your enemy to death,” I said.
“Well, it’d be nice if someone gave me the rundown,” she gasped. She swung her sword, and it was a totally sloppy strike. “I pretty much learned about this world last week.”
Wait. She knew nothing? Was she really that far behind?
“What do you mean? You didn’t know about the Arcanea?” My heartbeat picked up.
“My mom kept this world from me. She ran away from the Arcanea when I was born, and never told me about any of it,” she explained to me. “So excuse me for struggling to keep up.”
I couldn’t believe this. She didn’t know anything? She was an outsider and she was here, learning how to be an Arcanea?
A whiff of her scent passed me by. It was delicious— the smell of freshly fallen snow, a clean smell like ice, and something soft, like mittens. I caught a warm, sweet scent— similar to amber, or chocolate. Her scent drove me mad with want and desire.
But underneath that heavenly scent was something else. It was an intense smell, something heavy. A different combination of chemicals and hormones. The human nose couldn’t detect it, but a Companion could.
She was sick. Something chronic. I couldn’t tell what it was— it was unique. I’d never smelled anything like it before. All I could derive was that it was permanent, and it was serious enough that it had changed her life forever.
A cold wave of devastation flowed through me. How could my mate be sick? I didn’t want her to suffer. This couldn’t be real. It wasn’t happening. And yet, it was. My mate was a girl who didn’t know anything about the Arcanea, a mate who was going to struggle to keep up not only because she was behind, but because her body would challenge her in every way it could.
I felt like crying for her, but that would only freak her out. Gods, my emotions were overwhelming right now. People had told me how the bonding experience was intense and hard to endure, but I’d never believed them. I held it in as best I could and tried to focus on her movements again.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Emma had caught my stricken expression. Did she even know?
I wiped the heartbreak off my face and said, “Nothing. Just… don’t thrust like that. The stab is weak. Your hand is too loose. You’ll never break through flesh in that way.”
She smiled weakly. “I’ve never been told my thrusts are weak before.”
The joke broke through some of the sadness, and I laughed lowly. “Bet you haven’t.”
Lucien had stopped teaching the group now and was breaking off to give individual pointers to students. I turned toward Emma and gave her more instructions. “Use your environment to your advantage. Don’t let the sun hit you in the eyes— there, you see? You can’t attack if you’re blinded. Slashing is always better than stabbing, most of the time— only jab the blade forward if you’ve got an opening. You’re getting better.”
I turned to her and held up my sword. “Here. Try and attack me.” We’d get in trouble with Lucien if he caught us, as we weren’t supposed to start on sparring yet, but he looked pretty busy with a freshman boy who was handling his sword like a flopping fish.
“Attack you? With an actual sword? I’ll cut you open,” she objected. “We should do this with sticks or something first.”
I laughed. “You aren’t going to hurt me. Just try.”
She seemed wary about it, but shrugged. “Okay, you asked for it.”
Emma charged forward, sword over her head. I was easily able to kick her away and said, “Don’t raise your sword so high. It leaves you open to attack and defenseless. Being aggressive is always the better way, but there’s a smart way to do it.”
She came at me again. This time, I countered her strikes, and we fell into a rhythm. “Try to use body leverage against me. The key is to counter my attacks and be strategic about where you’re placing your blade. Don’t just bludgeon me with it.”
I was impressed that she was able to keep up, but judging by her athletic figure, she had to work out or play sports. That probably helped to keep the illness at bay. “Good!” I said as she was able to effectively feint away a hit. She was getting better.
“Why are we learning this? Are all Arcanea good for is monster hunting?” Emma questioned aloud as we broke apart. She needed a break.
“No,” I told her. “In fact, most of the Arcanea have other jobs. But every one of us needs to learn how to hunt monsters, to protect the country.”
“What do you mean?” She’d stabbed her sword into the ground and bent over her knees to take a breather.
I leaned back. “Malovia is one country, but our borders are very important,” I told her. “Around it are magical walls that the Marked have put in place to keep the monsters in. They’re strong, but if too many monsters attack the border walls, they become vulnerable. That’s why it becomes important to keep them contained, and slay them if they try to get over the border. We Arcanea are the only thing standing in the way of monsters escaping into the world and slaughtering millions of people.”
“Can’t the other magical races handle it?” Emma asked.
I laughed. “I wouldn’t trust them with it. We’re the best butchers. There are a few races who might try to make them pets.”
Her expression was thoughtful. “But where do all these monsters come from? Do they just pop out of the ground?”
“Kind of, actually,” I admitted. “Monsters come from a portal in Malovia— a passageway that leads to the underworld.”
“The underworld is real?” Her eyes widened. “But if that’s true… why don’t the Arcanea just seal it up, so no more monsters get through?”
I shook my head. “Many sorceresses have tried and failed. But you cannot seal off a portal that’s been made by a god, especially a dark god of black magic. No one has that kind of power.”
“Gods?” She raised an eyebrow.
I sighed, “Ah, onawilke, you’ve got a lot to learn.”
She gave me a resentful look. “I know I’m behind. I’m just trying to keep up.”
“Give it a few weeks. You’ve got Arcanea in your blood. Soon it’ll be second nature.” I squared her shoulders so we could spar again. She wrenched her sword out of the ground and raised it, but before we could practice once more, there was a scream on the other side of the practice area. We spun around to witness something slink down from the trees above.
A giant snake, forty feet in length, slithered around the training arena. It was dark green, with a black diamond patte
rn on its back and a rattler that it shook as it weaved around the trees. It’s fangs dripped purple venom, and its glittering eyes scanned the students as if choosing which one to have for a snack.
It was a meluza— a serpent-woman. Lucien quickly ushered students back against the trees, away from the monster. “Everyone stay calm! I have this handled!”
Lucien charged forward with his sword in hand. His arm moved so fast that it appeared to be a blur. I heard the clash of the sword against the snake’s fangs as the two struck together. The snake tried to strike out several times, but Lucien was too quick. He opened up several wounds on the snake’s middle and one on its head. The snake hadn’t yet put a single mark on him.
Many people didn’t look too afraid— if anything, they were impressed by how well Lucien was handling the snake. Emma, however, was terrified. She froze in place as she observed Lucien and the snake dance, her face shocked by the brutality of battle.
Then something unexpected happened, as it often did with monsters. The snake brought the tip of its tail lashing upward, and it knocked Lucien off his feet. The snake slithered away from Lucien as quickly as it could, to get away from the threat. It was looking for victims that were easier to kill.
The closest people to it were me and Emma.
I put myself in front of Emma as the snake rampaged closer. By instinct, I exploded out of my human form and into my wolven skin. I snarled, lifting my upper lip as the snake came closer.
The snake saw me in its way and tried to divert its path, but I charged. I ran toward it and sank my teeth into one of the wounds Lucien had caused, opening it up further. I ignored the tangy, awful taste of snake flesh. The snake hissed and whirled its head around to bite me, but I let go and rolled so it sank its own fangs into its body. The snake pulled out its fangs and curled up in pain. It was immune to its own venom, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t painful.
The meluza struck out several more times, but I was light on my feet. I managed to slide out of the way wherever the snake’s head went. Several times, it sank its fangs into the dirt instead of into me. The snake was becoming furious— the eyes shone with malice and hatred as I continued to outsmart its moves.