Dnai flapped to a new branch. “Our group was like that, too. All different, but we became good friends.”
Cameron grinned. “So I’m the bad boy in this movie, right?”
“I suppose.” Philip smiled sheepishly. “I’m the nerd. Adrien’s the jock, obviously.”
Raine laughed. “Who am I then?”
Cameron smirked. “The princess.”
Sara, Philip, and Dnai all laughed.
“How am I the princess? I don’t come from some distinguished line of witches like Josephine.” Raine put her hands on her hips and challenged them with her best defiant face.
“Because you’re a good girl whom the teachers and library gnomes all love?” The shifter’s smirk only grew wider. “Nothing will be a perfect match.”
Sara eyed Philip warningly. “If you say I’m the weird girl, I’ll tie you up in vines.”
He grinned but wisely remained silent.
Dnai fluttered to the ground. “It sounds like it fits my circle a little tighter in some ways.” She cocked her head cheekily. “I think I’m the weird girl.”
Philip raised a hand placatingly. “It’s like Cameron said. Not everything will be a perfect fit. The point is that it reminded me of how we came together and made each other better. To be honest, I wasn’t always the best guy when school started.” His shoulders slumped. “I made a lot of mistakes, and I would have understood if you guys didn’t want to hang out with me anymore after some of the stunts I pulled.”
Cameron clapped him on the shoulder. “We all made mistakes.” His gaze flicked to Raine. “Even when they involved running off without getting the help a person needed.”
Raine’s cheeks heated. She opened her mouth but closed it when two humanoid shadows passed in the distance and pointed her wand that way. “I saw something. It might be mirror cats, but it might be something else.”
“If I had any idea what a mirror cat scent smells like, I’d track them, but we should at least investigate.” He shifted and gestured with his muzzle.
The students crept forward and followed her direction, their wands at the ready, except for Dnai who held a hand up. They all summoned shields, and Raine layered one over Cameron.
She took long, deep breaths to steady her sudden thrill of excitement as they walked through the trees toward the where she had seen the shadows. They finally reached a few huge trunks where two dark humanoid shadows stood. One had the outline of wings on its back.
“Okay, that’s weird,” Philip muttered. He raised his palm. “Uh, we mean you no harm?”
“Remember,” Raine murmured. “Whatever happens, we can’t hurt them.”
“I’m more worried about them hurting us.”
Sara’s hand drifted toward a belt pouch filled with seeds and berries.
A third shadow drifted in from the side. All three shapes twisted and rippled. Three large, bright white cats replaced them, razor-sharp teeth in their wide mouths. The red-eyed felines snarled and crept forward.
Cameron stood in front of Raine and growled. The creatures paused but crouched, ready to pounce.
Raine fought to slow her thudding heart. “Definitely mirror cats.” She backed away slowly. “They aren’t intelligent, right?”
Dnai shuffled quietly in retreat without moving her eyes from the animals. “Nope. Darn. If I fly now, it’ll probably spook them.”
Sara fished a handful of seeds and berries out of her pouch. “Are they stronger than normal big cats?”
The Arpak shook her head. “They’re strong and they can claw you and bite you, but they aren’t any tougher than a jaguar or something like that. The shadow illusions are the tricky part. That’s how they corner prey.”
“Cameron, shift into human form,” Raine murmured.
He turned and cocked his head.
“Please. It’ll be hard for you not to hurt them as a wolf.”
He transformed and scowled unhappily. The mirror cats retreated hastily with another snarl.
“I don’t know if that helped or not, but we have to consider our safety, too.” The shifter frowned.
Raine shook her head. “We’ll be fine. They can’t shred through shields, right?” Uncertainty crept into her voice as she looked at Dnai.
The other girl shrugged. “Not that I know of, but it’s not like I’ve fought one. They do have a really good sense of smell, though. That’s what Professor Tarelli said. Their big thing is misdirection.”
Sara narrowed her eyes and several seeds and berries held between her fingers had begun to grow. “I’ll tie them up so we can run. If there’s no professor here, we shouldn’t keep this confrontation up.”
Cameron nodded. “I think that’s a wise plan.”
“Okay, on five, four, three, two, one.” She flung her tiny missiles.
Dnai vaulted upward as the others turned to run.
The mirror cats growled and charged. Vines erupted from where the seeds and the berries had popped and released a thick pink mist. The felines bounded forward but soon lay entangled in a thick mass of vines, their hides half-dyed pink.
The students rushed through the trees in the direction of the shore where they’d tied their boat up. They’d barely managed a few yards before another humanoid shadow stepped out of the trees and transformed into a mirror cat.
Raine fired a restraint spell within a second. A thick rope appeared and twirled to wind around the feline. It snarled and growled as its claws ripped into the rope, but the delay gave Sara enough time to bind it with her vines.
The survey team ran on and Dnai circled a few times overhead to keep pace with them. Low-hanging branches whipped at their faces, but their shields protected them from scratches.
Raine’s heart galloped in her chest. She glanced constantly over her shoulder for signs of pursuit.
Sara was the first to slow from a sprint to a mere jog, followed by Philip. Raine and Cameron slowed, and Dnai landed.
Philip peered nervously into the forest. “I think we lost them for now.”
“We could have taken them.” Cameron seemed disgruntled. “It’s not like we were hunting them. It would have been self-defense.”
“Well, we didn’t get hurt and we didn’t hurt them.” Raine shrugged. “I think that’s a win. Let’s get back to camp. The professors can figure out how they want to handle it.” She found it difficult to look away from the trees, though, and while her heart slowed, it still beat harder than normal. The encounter had been way too close.
Chapter Fourteen
Professor Tarelli seemed fully attentive as she stared at Raine with her wide yellow eyes. “Interesting, Sophia. Very interesting.”
“That’s Raine, Professor.”
“It’s not raining.”
“No, my name.” She sighed.
The students had beat a retreat to their boat and returned to camp, where they waited at the firepit. No one else was present, and it was a couple of hours before Professors Tarelli and Powell both arrived at the same time. Neither had escorted a group of students that afternoon.
“Oh, yes, of course.” The professor shook her head. “I’ll get it eventually. Keep reminding me.”
Professor Powell rubbed his chin. He looked at Raine and her group. “None of you seem the worse for wear.”
She gestured to Sara. “She disabled the mirror cats, and we ran.”
“Good!” Professor Tarelli shouted and immediately frowned. “I’m sorry,” she said more quietly. “I’m pleased you didn’t panic and harm the creatures. They are very rare, even on Oriceran. With your capabilities, you could easily have killed them, and I appreciate your restraint despite the difficult and challenging situation.”
Cameron stepped forward and pointed at the boat. “Okay, so we were able to disable them and run, but that doesn’t change the fact there are hungry mirror cats in that area. I understand that we don’t want to kill anything on the island, but we can’t always retreat.”
“True,” Professor Powell said. “
And no one expects you to do something like that either.”
“Meaning what?” The shifter folded his arms over his chest and his frustration all but radiated off him. “I don’t have fancy restraining magic, but I won’t stand by and let some animal tear Raine—tear anyone apart.” His nostrils flared.
“Calm down, Cameron.” The professor pointed his wand at the forest. “The point is that we don’t send you into the forest at random. You check particular areas, and we record data related to this systematic search. Now we know that the area you checked today has mirror cats. They maintain a limited range.” He glanced at Professor Tarelli. “Correct?”
She nodded once.
“So we’ll only need to be careful around that general area,” he continued, “and we’ll make sure any groups working there—or near there—have a professor with them. If necessary, we’ll put the cats to sleep while we do our work for a given day. The important thing is that you didn’t panic. Not that I’d expect you to.” He smiled at the students from his school. “You’ve all had to deal with far more danger to your lives than I did by your age. You’re more seasoned than some junior PDA agents at this point, I suspect.” He turned and nodded to Dnai. “And considering some of the creatures I’ve heard you and your friends have handled, I’m hardly surprised you didn’t panic.”
The Arpak girl grinned. “It helps when you can fly, even if it’s hard for me to get above the canopy when we explore the interior of the island.”
Professor Tarelli extended her hand. “Please give me your scrolls. I need to transfer the information you found. We’ll leave that area alone for a few days. It’ll allow the mirror cats some chance to relax. We don’t want them to think we’re aggressively invading their territory.”
The students retrieved their scrolls and handed them to her. She hurried off toward her cabin, mumbling under her breath about data accuracy.
Professor Powell smiled. “We’re still waiting for everyone else. Stick close to the camp, but there’s nothing else you need to do for the moment.”
Cameron grabbed Raine’s hand. “Come with me.”
She blinked and looked over her shoulder at Sara, who simply shrugged as he led her away from the firepit and cabins and toward the mazeball court. She tugged her hand away gently and followed him, confused.
He stopped a few yards from the court, turned to face her, and folded his arms. “Aren’t you angry at all?”
“Angry?” She shook her head. “Why would I be angry?”
“I don’t know. I just…” He gritted his teeth. “It’s one thing when we’re in danger because we’ve been dragged into some sort of weird adventure against a tutorial faerie who has come to life or crazed assassins or chaos witches. But this is supposed to be a school trip, and they act like it’s unimportant that we got attacked.”
“No one was hurt.” Raine pulled her wand off her belt and held it up. “And the truth is, I don’t think we were really in danger. This is why they wanted juniors, Cameron. We know how to handle ourselves. Even if we weren’t the FBI Trouble Squad, we’d know the kinds of spells we need to protect ourselves without killing anything.”
Cameron averted his gaze. “You do.”
“Yes, we do.”
The shifter shook his head. “No, you do. I don’t know.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s…” He dragged in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “No one ever treats me differently. You—and all of them, really—were nice to me from the beginning, but it’s times like this when I remember that I’m not like you all. I can’t do magic. The only way I can defend you is by shifting and shredding a mirror cat before it hurts you, and I don’t—” His hands curled into fists. “I don’t like thinking that’s all I’m good for.”
She slipped her wand onto her belt and wrapped her arms around him. “Don’t ever think like that. Just because you can’t cast restraining spells doesn’t mean anything.” She smiled with gentle reassurance. “You’ve been off since we got here, though. Is that what it is? I don’t understand it. It’s not like the Orono students have anything against you because you’re a shifter.”
“I’m…” Cameron growled his frustration. “Sometimes, I wonder if a shifter’s the best boyfriend for a witch.”
Raine snorted. “That’s not how love and relationships work. I love you for who you are. I don’t push you aside because you’re a shifter. I fell in love with everything about you as a person. Being a shifter is part of who you are, so since I love you, that means I love that part of you.”
“You’ve never thought about being with someone else?” She stared into his eyes, which flashed yellow. “Someone with actual magic?”
She shook her head firmly. “Why would I need someone else when I have you?” She pressed her forehead against his. “What is this really about? Where is it coming from? You can’t be that upset because you couldn’t restrain those mirror cats.”
“I see the way Asher keeps looking at you,” he muttered.
Raine sighed and pulled away. “And I’ve already made it a hundred percent clear to him that I already have a boyfriend. He hasn’t bothered me about it since. You don’t need to be jealous. I don’t love Asher. I love you.” She glanced over her shoulder to ensure that the professors were out of sight before she gave him a soft kiss. “Okay?”
“Okay,” he grumbled and blushed. “It’s hard to be a wolf shifter. I’m territorial about everything, and I can’t help it. You’re one of the best things to ever happen to me, and I keep thinking I’ll lose you—if not to the job, then to someone else.”
“Not if I can help it.” She smiled and slid her arm around him. “Professor Powell said there wasn’t anything we needed to do. We might as well take a little walk up the beach. There are far fewer rocks on it since they built the mazeball court.”
He chuckled. “Okay, let’s go.”
Chapter Fifteen
Sara waved her arms as she jumped down to the first level of platforms. “I’m open. I’m open.”
Today’s match featured Sara, Josephine, and Kelly versus Heidi, Asher, and Adrien. No one had really kept particular track of wins versus losses, and since there were no permanent teams, there wasn’t much reason to. As competitive as some of the students could be, the point of the game was basically fun, nothing more.
Josephine hurled the ball against a nearby raised wall. It struck and bounced to another wall she had conjured a few minutes prior and then another, like a game of 3D pinball. The kitsune caught it with a grin and raced around the spinning pole Heidi had summoned earlier in the match.
She had taken several steps before a stone wall raised in front of her. A quick upward glance confirmed that Adrien stood one level above, his hands out and his eyes narrowed.
Sara didn’t try to vault over the obstacle or move around. Instead, she decided it was time for the application of conventional sports tactics. She clutched the ball with both hands and leapt up to arc it through the air in a comfortable jump shot. The topspin of the handled ball brought it down quickly, and it struck the edge of the basket and bounced a few times before it fell inside.
“Woo!” She raised her arms in victory. “We take the lead, four to three.” She waved at Adrien. “Fear my jump shot.” Her smile wavered when he simply stared at her. “Or did we want to make it the rule that you have to dunk?”
The elf shrugged. “We can talk about that after the match. Let’s see how it plays out first. It’s harder for most of the players to do that because they have to hold their wands with one hand, so it might be unfair for people like us who don’t need wands.”
Josephine looked at her white wand, her expression neutral. “Not all challenges have to be easily balanced. I don’t mind either call.”
Asher grinned. “I can see it both ways.”
Cameron, who watched the match along with several others from outside the court, nodded. “If we can take more shots like that and you don’t block the top, it mi
ght end up a very short game. Just saying.”
Raine nodded. “I like the idea of having to go to the basket to score.”
“Oh, well.” Adrien jumped a few platforms down to recover the ball. “By the time the summer is over, I’m sure we’ll have worked out equitable and reasonable rules. If not, there’s always Louper. Now, it’s time to—” His eyes widened, and he stiffened instinctively.
Every student felt the pulse of magic. They understood what it meant, even if it had been days since the last earthquake. The mazeball players dropped into the outer net at the first tremor.
The ground shook violently. Trees swayed in the distance, and the stone columns groaned with the motion of the earth.
Raine and other spectators stood hastily and raced away from the court. The players pushed through the gaps in the outer net and sprinted down the beach after their friends.
Although they had all felt several earthquakes on the island, this time, the shifting earth flung Raine off her feet. Cameron scooped her up and continued to run. Sara and the other players bolted ahead of them.
A cacophony of flutters, growls, and squawks issued from the forest. Hundreds of birds burst from the trees into the sky.
Cameron stumbled but righted himself, Raine still in his arms. Loud crashes from the forest signaled that a few trees had lost their struggle against the seismic activity and toppled to their final end.
The tremor finally stopped and everyone looked around slowly to ensure that nothing had fallen on anyone.
Cameron set Raine down gently. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “I’m fine. But that one was a lot stronger than any of the others we’ve felt on the island.”
Adrien turned and studied the court intently. “I have to say I’m rather impressed. I see a few cracks here and there, but it survived a major earthquake. I have to congratulate the professors on their workmanship.”
Sara shook her head. “But I’m not so sure I want to depend on it holding up in the middle of another earthquake.”
Untouchable Witch: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure (School of Necessary Magic Raine Campbell Book 7) Page 9