I had no idea how we got to Liam’s room. We could have walked to the other end of the country for all I knew. The blue dots were everywhere and sometimes they also had red ones to keep them company.
Whatever was in that witch’s brew, it was terrible stuff. Or maybe not. My nose felt great, all the pain was gone and my head no longer thumped at the temples.
Liam lowered me down onto his bed—I assumed it was his—and then everything went black as I closed my eyes. I delved into the black darkness of unconsciousness.
I had no idea how long I was out for. When I opened my eyes again, it was as if I’d only slept for a minute. Surely it had to be longer than that.
Liam was sitting at his desk. He smiled when he saw that I was awake. “Good afternoon.”
I tried to sit up but my head pounded so I remained on the pillow for a bit longer. “What’s the time?”
“Almost four.”
“In the afternoon?”
“Yes, in the afternoon. How are you feeling?”
Good question. My brain was still very foggy so I had to think about everything just that little bit longer than normal. “My head hurts.”
“I’m sure it does. You’re going to have a lot of bruises for a few days.”
I groaned. I was going to have to walk around with a giant bruise right in the middle of my face. “You don’t have a potion to make that go away?”
“Not yet. Maybe next year I’ll learn that,” he joked. How was he so upbeat? Blah.
“Thank you for looking after me.”
“Don’t mention it.”
I really looked around for the first time. His room was almost exactly the same as my former one in the girls’ dormitories. Two beds, two desks, two bookcases, and two closets.
“I thought you would be living with your dad,” I said. It was a surprise to see him slumming it like the rest of us. I had pictured him in a luxury penthouse apartment.
“I think our relationship works better when we’re not under the same roof,” he replied. “I’m a student here, just like everyone else.”
Except he did have a direct line to the principal. He could tell him about the threatening note whenever he felt like it.
I wasn’t brave or lucid enough to bring the note up yet. That would have to wait for a later conversation when I had the energy to lie about being non-magical. I might not be a roach but I still didn’t have any powers. That still made me ineligible to study at Shadow Academy.
“The healer didn’t happen to have a few aspirins, did she?” I asked instead. Pain killers, that was what I needed. Maybe without the constant pounding in my head I would be able to think better.
“She didn’t. I can go ask her for something, if you’d like?” He said it with a twinkle in his eye and a smile playing on his lips.
“No, goddess no. I don’t want any more of her magical potions,” I insisted. One was enough to last me a life time. Unless I was on the verge of dying, I wasn’t going to return to the healer for anything.
He got up and started sorting through his closet. “I think I might have some aspirin in here somewhere. Ah, here it is.”
He held up the human medication and poured me a glass of water from the faucet. At least I knew what to expect from those tablets.
I managed to sit up so I could swallow the pills and leaned against the wall. Liam’s room looked so ordinary compared to all the images I had in mind for his home. He didn’t have any posters up or any decorations. What he did have was a little inside plant garden next to his kitchenette sink.
“You’re a green thumb?” I asked as I pointed toward the garden.
“I like to think so,” he replied. “They help cheer up the room.”
“What’s your roommate like?” The other half of the room was equally as boring. If there weren’t books and clothes on the other side, I would have thought Liam might live alone.
“He’s a shapeshifter. Need I say more?”
Yeah, he kind of did. “Does he try to trick you or something? I’ve known a few like that.”
“He’s constantly changing his appearance. Sometimes he stands in front of the mirror for two hours just to get every hair on his head perfect. Then he’ll come back looking like someone completely different. I never have any clue who I’m actually talking to. It could be several people I actually live with.”
“That’s got to be annoying.” I sympathized with him. If there was one faction I wouldn’t trust it was the shapeshifters. They were all about appearances and what they could get for themselves. That wasn’t me throwing them shade, it was hard, cold facts.
“Terribly annoying,” Liam said with a sigh.
“You could ask for a transfer,” I pointed out. Sure, I was denied one but then I didn’t have a very important father on staff at the academy.
Liam shook his head. “My dear old dad would find a way to forbid it. He thinks these challenges build character. I think he just likes me to suffer. It was probably his idea to make me live with Ryan.”
I didn’t know what to say to that so I changed the subject instead. “It must be kind of cool being a shifter. Imagine being anyone you could think of? One day you could just turn into a dog and play in the park all day.”
A sly smile spread over his lips. “I’ve had days where I would like to do that. Quit being a grown up and just take a day out. That would be nice.”
My fingertips brushed down my nose and caused pain to pound in my head again. “I would shift a better nose. Maybe a smaller one so it wouldn’t hit the ground so hard when I fell over.”
“I wouldn’t do that. I think your nose is perfect the way it is.”
Our eyes locked together as he finished his compliment. My blood thumped through my heart just that little bit faster. There was something about Liam that I couldn’t resist. As hard as I tried, we still seemed to find each other when I was dodging him.
Clearly avoiding Liam wasn’t working. We had nearly all the same classes together. We both lived at the academy. We were going to run into each other several times a day. I needed to clear things between us.
“I’m sorry I ran the other day,” I said quietly. Perhaps if I said it low enough, he would just accept my apology and move on.
He started fiddling with some books on the desk and avoided my gaze. “I get it, you aren’t that into me. I heard the message loud and clear.”
“It’s not like that, I promise.”
“Eden, I kissed you and you ran away. Ran. Away.” He gestured with his hand as he articulated the words. “There’s only one reason why someone reacts like that.”
I shook my head and caused more pain. All I could do was wince for a few seconds while it passed. The moments of silence were insufferable.
Then I could explain myself. “I’m trying to take school really seriously, especially because it’s the first year and all. I know if I allow myself to fall for you, I wouldn’t be able to fully concentrate on anything else.”
He still wasn’t meeting my eyes. “I get that, but I also get the feeling that’s not really it either.”
Maybe he was referring to the note. I didn’t understand what else he could mean. I thought I was explaining myself well but clearly I wasn’t. I didn’t have enough brain cells awake to fully process it all.
“I do really like you,” I said feebly. There wasn’t really anything else I could say to convince him. In a way, I was telling the truth. I did like him but I had to focus on school stuff because if I didn’t, I could be exposed and then hauled away by the Black Cloaks.
Liam finally looked up. “I saw that note in your belongings when they fell on the floor.”
“Oh.” It was all I could summon. I needed to be so much more awake to have such a minefield of a conversation.
“I know you’re not a roach,” he said. That got my attention pretty quickly.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Your aura is clear. You don’t have the black flecks I told you about.”
“How do you know?” Only seers could see auras. Liam was a warlock and therefore completely unable to view anyone’s telltale colors.
“You would have been discovered by now.” He said it so simply that it made me relax. He didn’t know anything mystical about me, he just had faith in the system. He knew the Black Cloaks would have found me by now.
That was something I could actually deal with. “Yeah, but I wish whoever wrote that note would believe that. They seem to think I need to be hauled away.”
“How long ago did you receive it?”
“A few days ago. They haven’t left any more for me to find. As far as I know, they could report me at any time.”
“Before the lockdown?”
“Yes.”
He shrugged, like maybe the note wasn’t a big deal after all. “They must know they were wrong by now. You would have been caught.”
“Yeah, maybe.” But I wasn’t nearly as confident as Liam was. Nobody else knew about the connection to auras. Someone at the academy still thought I was a roach and was prepared to rat me out. With ten thousand dollars bounty on the heads of all roaches, I was surprised they hadn’t done it already.
Another thing occurred to me. “You won’t tell anybody about the note, will you?”
“You ask me to keep a lot of secrets for you.”
Boy, if only he really knew all the secrets I had hidden away. Maybe his mind would explode. “This will be the last one. I promise.”
“I’ll keep as many as you have, Eden Musgrave.”
We shared a smile before he insisted I lie back down again and rest some more. He brought me food when I needed it and helped me back to Cress’s room when I was ready.
I didn’t explain why I couldn’t return to my own room. Instead, I made up yet another lie and said I needed to get something from Cress.
When he finally left me, I missed him. It was so stupid of me to get attached to the warlock. It was exactly the opposite of what I needed but there was something about him that reeled me in.
Yes, he was gorgeous but it had to be something beyond sheer attraction. Something within me identified and spoke to something within him.
Or maybe I was just overthinking it.
Whatever it was, I was certain I needed to stop thinking about him.
Liam could be my downfall.
Chapter 5
The weeks at Shadow Academy started passing quickly. I continued to completely bluff my way through classes and remain under the radar for any of the professors and students.
The bruise on my nose lasted way longer than I wished it did. Everyone stared at it when I passed them in the hallways.
No more roaches were found and the school wasn’t placed under any further lockdowns. It seemed things were stabilizing into a normal pattern.
Every day I reminded myself that I could become complacent. There was still the issue of not being able to do magic that would soon get me caught. Every day just brought me closer to that moment.
Toward the end of another week, I was actually looking forward to the weekend. I could spend some more time studying in the library and trying to track down something that might help rid me of the curse.
I was still sleeping on Cress’s floor and still avoiding Liam. Some things were harder to do than others. Cress’s roommate just accepted me as part of the furniture now. While Liam avoided looking at me in the hallways.
Things had been so smooth that I didn’t think twice about an assembly on the Great Lawn after the final alarm sounded for the day. Attendance was compulsory.
I stood with the rest of the thousand-odd students and waited for Principal Dunlop to commence speaking. His vice principal was standing on his right and his receptionist on the left.
“Thank you for coming,” the principal started. Every time I looked at him all I could see was his resemblance to Liam. He was just an older version, but not nearly as good looking.
He cleared his throat a few times before continuing. He was building up to something and leaving us in anticipation. “I am sure I don’t need to remind you all that exams will be with us shortly.”
A few of the students groaned. Nobody wanted to be reminded of the tests. Especially me. There was no way I would be able to pass without magic. They would either throw me out of school, report me as a roach, or make me repeat the year.
He went on. “Exams are vital in order to assess your ability and what kind of role you will play in the supernatural community upon graduation. I urge you all to take them as seriously as your life.”
That didn’t sound ominous at all.
“This year we have been requested by the supernatural council to allow a member of the senior council to supervise the exams.”
I was pretty certain that meant I was screwed. I might have been able to pretend I was really inept at magic for my professors, but it would be far more difficult to fool a senior member of the council. They knew how to look straight through acts to see the truth.
Just when I thought I might have been able to survive, another problem jumped up to slap me in the face. Things had been too good, I should have expected something like this.
I caught a glimpse of Liam in the crowd only to see him looking back at me. Our eyes caught one another for a moment before I looked away. It was definitely the right decision to stay away from him. In the future, when I would be hauled away by the Black Cloaks after my first exam, it was better I didn’t have to be dragged past him so my heart could be ripped out too.
“Thank you for your attention. Back to business as usual,” Principal Dunlop finished. He had been speaking while I was silently freaking out so I didn’t catch anything else he might have said.
Hopefully none of it was important.
I didn’t want to go back to Cress’s dorm where she would pepper me with dozens of questions about avoiding detection in the exams. I didn’t have any answers for her, nor the energy to pretend everything was going to be okay.
Instead, I went straight to the library. It was always quiet at night and I could funnel my restlessness into research.
I had scoured dozens of ancient books while I searched for something I could use to rid myself of the curse. Everything I’d seen so far just kept looping back to one thing—you couldn’t remove a curse unless you were the one that placed it.
It was highly unlikely the coven who cursed my grandmother would willingly remove it. They felt pretty strongly about it once and I doubted time would have mellowed them any.
So I grabbed yet another book and curled up in the armchair. The answer I needed had to be there somewhere, I just needed to find it.
And soon, apparently. Before exam time would have been good.
It was so quiet in the room that I quickly became engrossed in the book. One thing I enjoyed about the research was the fact that it made me forget about other things. I could concentrate on the words and not have to think about anything else.
I was learning so much about witchcraft. Not just the spells and easy things but the more in depth and complicated nuances of the magic. I doubted my parents even knew half of what I was reading about.
There was an interesting case back in the fifteenth century of a woman that was so ill she couldn’t get out of bed. The doctor had given up hope and told her husband to make her comfortable in her last few hours on earth.
The husband refused to accept that he would lose her. He sought out the help of a woman rumored to be a witch and begged her for assistance. As it turned out, the rumors were true.
The witch was able to coax the illness out of her and whisper to her damaged body to heal again. Slowly, over many weeks, she started to return back to health. It was only one of two cases where it had been performed and documented over the centuries.
I couldn’t imagine having that kind of power. All the great things that could be done with it. Being able to heal was only for the very experienced practitioners and even then only a few could.
If there
was that kind of power within a witch, surely there was some way to lift a little curse. It gave me a tiny spark of hope when not much else did.
I looked at the clock and saw it was almost midnight. I felt like calling my mother and telling her about the story I’d just read but I couldn’t. Dad’s voice telling me not to phone anymore still rung in my ears. I missed them both so much.
Going back to Cress’s room seemed too tiring. It was far easier to close my eyes in the armchair and let sleep whisk me away.
So I let it.
I was awake again pretty early. The large windows of the library let in copious amounts of sunlight as dawn settled into the day.
Taking advantage of the deserted bathrooms, I quickly showered and grabbed a few things from my stash in Cress’s room. The first item on my agenda for the day was giving Rosa her homework.
I walked up to room 396 on the third floor and bent down to slip the sheets of homework under the door. Rosa was learning about how to tell visions from just flights of imagination. I was learning a great deal about seers—all of which was useless information to me.
Just as I turned to leave, the door whisked open. Rosa was staring me down with the sheets of paper in her hands. “I hope this one is better than the last trash you had me hand in.”
I tried to recall the topic of the last homework assignment. History, perhaps? “What was wrong with it?”
“I got a B.”
“That’s good.”
She huffed as her face started to glow red. “Good? You call a B good? I call it a mark on my excellent straight A’s.”
“Perhaps you should do your own homework then. I’m not a seer, and I’m not in the second year. You’re lucky I got you a B!”
“No, you’re not a seer. You aren’t anything,” she hissed. Her face was so close to mine I could smell her breath. It had a toothpaste tang to it. “I should turn you in right now and be done with it.”
I really hated that Rosa had something to blackmail me with. It was the reason why I was doing her stupid homework to begin with.
But I wasn’t really a roach and the Black Cloaks wouldn’t think I was one by looking at my aura alone. Perhaps I didn’t need to be in that situation any longer.
Magic Bound (Shadow Academy Book 2) Page 3