“Hey wait, guys. Before we go back, what if we all shift? Let’s live a little. Take a little risk.” People were nodding. My dragon purred at the idea. I bit my lip. What if we were spotted? I looked around at the empty lot and the tall warehouse buildings on either side of us. Who would be around to see us?
“Yeah, let’s do it.” I said. Drew grinned.
There were flashes of light as we all began to shift. I stretched my arms back and slipped into my dragon’s skin. When I opened my eyes, everyone else had shifted too. I purred with delight. Nowhere else on earth were there so many mythical creatures in one place. I saw Kylee’s chimera and Penelope’s pegasus. Finally, my eyes settled on Drew’s gryphon. He was an impressive specimen of a lion with an eagle’s head and wings. The dark copper feathers were streaked with blonde. He saw me looking at him and flapped his wings.
The splendor of shifting wore off fast. There wasn’t much we could do in an abandoned city lot. After a few minutes we each changed back into humans. I was the last to come back. Letting go of my dragon was always difficult. Once we were all human again, we laughed. The thrill of the forbidden surged through me. The sound of clicking caught my attention. My heart dropped.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” a whispered voice said. “First the buildings, now this? Are you getting this on camera?”
“Humans,” someone hissed. I turned around to see two women in uniforms standing at the edge of the lot. They both had their phones out, pointed toward us.
“Oh no.” We’d been caught. The women saw us looking at them and started backing up slowly.
“Oh no you don’t,” Penelope said. She threw her hand out and red tendrils of magic raced for the girls. They tried to run, but the magic wrapped around their feet and brought them down.
“What are you doing?” I yelled. I started to race toward the girls, but Drew grabbed my arm and pulled me back. “Let me go!”
“Sophie, wait. We can handle this. We’ve handled it before.” I stopped. Drew kept his hand on my arm.
“What do you mean you’ve handled it before?”
“This is not the first time we’ve snuck out. A couple of humans caught us shifting over in Central Park last year.” There had been no reported human run-ins last year. That meant no one had found out. I relaxed a little. “How did you do it?”
“Oh, just a bit of memory magic,” Penelope said. A red ball of magic was already gathering at her fingertips.
“You can make them forget they saw us?” Penelope shrugged.
“More or less. Memory magic is a little finicky. I just make them forget everything. It’s easier that way.”
“What?!” I yelled. The girls were struggling. One of them tried to yell, but Penelope snapped her fingers and the tendrils of red magic wrapped around the girls’ mouths.
“Sophie, hush. Someone will hear you,” Drew snapped. His hold on my arm tightened.
“You guys can’t be serious. You can’t just make them forget everything. All their memories? They won’t know who they are or where they came from or anything.”
Drew shrugged. “So what?” I looked at all the animages around me. They each wore the same apathetic expression Drew had on his face. I shook my arm, but Drew didn’t let go.
“I’m not going to let you do this,” I said. “There’s got to be a better way.”
“What do you think Upholders do when they deal with the humans who have spotted a faerie or seen magic? They just wipe their memories. No harm, no foul,” Penelope said. I couldn’t believe this.
“Penelope, just let them go. We’ll take their phones and make them promise not to tell anyone. Besides, without proof do you think anyone will believe them? No one has to get hurt, no one has to lose their memories.”
Penelope laughed. The sound was dry and grated on my ears.
“Do you really think we’re going to let them go? And risk getting into trouble? Even you would get into trouble if someone knew we’d exposed ourselves, princess.” The wildness of my anger welled up inside my chest. The girls’ distress was singing in my head. They were scared. I wasn’t going to let this happen. I tried to jerk away from Drew again. He pulled both my arms behind my back. He was strong.
“Sophie be sensible. Why do you care, anyway? They’re just humans.” I felt like I had never met this person before. The sweet, gentle Drew that had just kissed me had been replaced by a cold and unfeeling immortal. I wasn’t going to turn into that.
“Drew, let me go now, before you get hurt.” He actually laughed. My dragon growled inside me.
“Sophie, do you really think you can beat me? I’m the strongest there is. You’ve been trying to beat me in class all year and you haven’t yet.” The ball of magic in Penelope’s hands was glowing brighter. She would be done gaining power soon. I looked down at one of the humans. She was staring right at me; her eyes wide with fear.
Heat rushed through my body. My skin glowed with barely contained flames. Drew cursed and let go of one my arms. I tried to run toward Penelope, but he was still hanging on. I twisted and threw a punch that connected with his chin. He let go of me with a yell. With a leap, I was on Penelope, pushing her to the ground. We landed on the hard concrete with a thud, the magic in her hands and around the girls disappeared.
“Run!” I yelled at them. They didn’t need any more encouragement. They scrambled to their feet and took off around the corner.
“Go after them!” Drew yelled. Some of the animages made to do just that. I threw my hand up and a wall of fire appeared, blocking anyone from leaving the lot. I got up off the ground and stood with my back to the flames. If they were going to go after the humans, they had to get through me first.
The students fanned out in a half circle around me. I let flames gather in the palms of my hands. I didn’t want to shift, didn’t want to think about the damage my dragon could do, but I would if it meant protecting the humans. Drew was at the center of the other students.
“Sophie, come on. You’re being ridiculous.” The dark shadow of a bruise bloomed on his chin where I’d hit him. “We have to go after the humans, who knows what they’ll do now.”
“You’re not going to hurt them,” I said. The students advanced. I saw flares of other magics popping up. This was it. Me against them.
“Everyone stop this instant!” Charles Vickers emerged from the shadows beside the fence. The students tried to scatter. Orange magic blocked their paths. When it was clear no one would be escaping, I waved my hand and doused my flames.
“Sophie shifted and humans saw her, Professor Vickers.” Drew’s words were like a knife in my heart. “She tried to hurt the humans, but we stopped her. She said she’d burn the whole city down if she had to.”
“Shut up, Drew.” I had never heard a professor talk to a student like that before. “I was here for the whole thing. Everyone, follow me.”
Chapter Fifteen
Professor Vickers led us around to the front of Animage Academy. The eyes of my classmates bored into my back, but I didn’t dare turn around. I felt colder with each step toward the building. The professor marched us all straight into the conference room where I used to have lessons with Dad. We were all silent as we sat down.
“If any of you leaves this room or so much as whispers, I will personally see to it you are expelled and given over to the Upholders to face their justice.” He left. No one tried to test him. The only noise that broke the silence was the sound of the wind outside.
I faced the window and refused to look at my classmates. My anger at their nastiness hadn’t faded. It warred with the dread that filled me at being the reason we were in trouble. Professor Vickers returned every few minutes to escort another student out of the room. As I looked on, night turned into morning. The corsage of flowers around my arm wilted until the petals began to fall to the floor. There were just two of us left. I didn’t have to turn around and see him to know it was Drew. I could hear him and smell him. He sighed, and it brought back the memories of the night
. The smell of sweat. The feel of his lips against mine. It didn’t seem like any of that was real anymore. I rubbed the spot on my arm he had grabbed me. I could already see the bruise spreading across it. How could I have been so stupid?
Soon he was gone, too. They were going to take me back last. My father’s words about my responsibility to the supernatural community came flooding back to me. Was I going to be expelled? It would serve me right. I tried to breathe evenly, but it was no use. Anxiety crept into my brain and took over. I wanted to get this over with. Professor Vickers appeared at the door again. I didn’t wait for him to call my name. I followed him straight to the headmistress’s office.
Just before he opened the door, he paused and turned to look at me for the first time.
“Sophie, no matter what happens in there, you did the right thing tonight.” He patted me on the shoulder and ushered me in.
Headmistress Adiana sat behind her large desk. She was so rigid a strong puff of wind would shatter her. I didn’t want to go in any further, but my traitorous feet moved me across the floor until I was in front of her desk. She didn’t speak. The silence pressed in on me from all sides.
“Sophie.” Her first word was like a gunshot, cutting through the tension between us. I kept my gaze stuck to the floor. “Do you remember anything at all about the humans? Where they worked? Did they have name tags?” I shook my head.
“No one else knew anything either.” She let out a long sigh. “You of all the students here should know how irresponsibly you acted tonight. We’ve tried to give you and your friends plenty of leeway. I, of all people, know how hard the life of an immortal animage can be. You’ve ruined it. You should all be expelled.” I cringed.
“However, that’s not going to happen. The fact of the matter is, the supernatural community needs you. We need you and we need your immortal classmates as well. As you’ve learned from your father, it takes a great deal of power to keep the supernatural community hidden. These days, when the supernatural world is on the brink of upheaval as it is, we need that protection more than ever.
“But just because you do not face the consequences one of your other peers might, doesn’t mean you’ll get away unscathed. Because of the stunt you and your friends have pulled, no one will be allowed to shift outside of class. No magic is to be performed outside of class. There will be no more skipping class. All students will have to be in their dorms by 7 p.m. each evening. On the night of the full moon, the werewolves will be restricted to the gym.
“Make no mistake, all the students will know who is responsible for these new conditions. Sophie, listen carefully to me when I say if you break any of these rules the rest of the school year, you will be expelled. Go. I have to call Chief Winston and let him know there are two female humans out there who have knowledge of the supernatural community.”
Headmistress Adiana’s prediction didn’t take long to prove true. When I left my dorm a week after the incident, a crowd was gathered in front of Waterstone. Everyone scattered when I walked outside. I turned to see someone had magicked a mural across the front of the building.
A dragon slayer stood triumphant over the body of a gray dragon. The slayer held its head high in the air. In the corner was an emblem of a bear track and a crown. The crowd gathered behind me again as I stared. I had been enduring the silent treatment and ridicule all week, and I’d thought it couldn’t get any worse. How wrong I was. The dragon’s eyes were closed, and its tongue was hanging out of its mouth.
What surprised me the most was the fact that I didn’t feel anything as I stared at the mural. No anger, no fear, no sadness. I was just numb. Someone behind me started snickering.
“Stop. Move along. There’s nothing to see here.” Hudson ushered people away. He saw me looking and walked over.
“Sophie, I’m sorry. This isn’t right.” It was the first time he’d spoken to me since the ball.
“Like you care.” I pulled up the hood of my jacket and headed toward class.
“Sophie, wait!” I didn’t look back.
The day wasn’t done with me yet. As I was walking to class, a familiar face was walking down the pathway toward me. It was the first time I’d laid eyes on him in months.
“Dad. What are you doing here?” This couldn’t be good.
“Headmistress Adiana needed someone to fill in and teach the Advanced Magical Studies class since the former teacher was injured during the last experiment. I took her up on the offer since you’re still refusing to come and study with me. I was trying to give you space but since you clearly can’t be unsupervised, class is no longer an option.”
Students were stopping to watch and listen to our conversation. I dropped my head and pulled my hood over my face.
“You will report to my office every Tuesday and Friday at 5 p.m. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
I was still thinking about the mural in shifting class. I kept my hood up and studied the grass. People had acted like I was invisible all week, so now I was just trying to be. It didn’t matter. I still felt the stares and heard the laughter. Hudson was almost late to class. He was out of breath and his sleeves were rolled up. Black ink stained the sleeve of his shirt. When he glanced my way, I trained my eyes back to the grass. He didn’t try to talk to me.
Due to the new restrictions we all had to take turns shifting and were only allowed in our animal form for five minutes each. I waited until it was my turn to shift. I kept my hood up until I was in the middle of the field. The wind blew through my hair as I tried to empty my mind of the whirlwind events of the morning. I leaned my head back to look at the sky and opened my arms to welcome the shift. Nothing happened.
“Sophie, what’s the hold up?” Professor Atkins walked to meet me in the field.
“I—I don’t know.”
“Then let’s go.” I stilled my breath and looked inside. I couldn’t find my dragon.
“Sophie, what’s going on?”
My eyes stung. “I don’t know. My dragon. She isn’t there.”
He handed me a handkerchief, and I dabbed at my eyes. I stood so the professor hid me from the rest of the class.
“Sometimes when people are feeling down, it can take a while to shift. It’s hard to find your animal when your mind and body aren’t focused. How about you just go inside and meditate, huh?”
As I moved through the class, Hudson opened his mouth to say something. I turned away.
Chapter Sixteen
“And that’s how the protection spell keeps supernatural communities—like this school—hidden from humans. Even if a supernatural wanted to bring a human here, they wouldn’t be able to get through the barrier. To be safe, the barrier for this school extends almost half a mile in all directions. A human could wander right up to the front door and not realize there is more than meets the eye. Sophie? Sophie?” The pleasant rumbling of Dad’s voice had put me to sleep. I started awake when my head fell off my hand.
“Sophie, you have to pay attention to this.”
“Dad, I’m sorry. I’m trying. Really.” The April breeze carried the sounds of students enjoying the warm weather in through the open window. I sighed.
“Maybe I’m working it too hard, would you like to go outside and hang out with your friends?” I laughed. He thought I was sighing because I was bored. I recognized he was making an effort to be nice, so I held back the biting remark that almost sprang from my mouth.
“No, I’m okay. Thank you.”
“Maybe we should go outside, you can try shifting again.” I shook my head. My dragon was still AWOL.
“Sophie, I don’t want to alarm you, but the longer you go without shifting, the more your magic will falter.” I trained my eyes on the ceiling to blink away the tears. “My dragon doesn’t want to come out. Even she hates me.”
“Sophie, no one hates you.”
“Everyone hates me, Dad.”
“Your mother is worried about you, dear.”
“Do
n’t call me dear. Tell her I’m fine.”
“You’re falling behind in your classes.” I kept looking out the window.
“You’re losing weight.” I grunted and crossed my arms.
“Yeah well that happens when all you eat is microwavable mac and cheese.”
“Then why won’t you go to the cafeteria?”
“I told you, Dad, everyone hates me.”
“Don’t you think you’re being dramatic?” I wasn’t going to dignify that with a response. If he didn’t believe me, nothing I could say would change his mind.
“You know what, Dad. You were right, can we call it a day, please? I really need to write a history essay.”
“Go ahead.” He opened his arms for a hug. I shook my head and left his office. Some of the tension between us had melted over the last couple of months, but I still hadn’t forgiven him for his role in Willa hating me.
Days came and went in a haze. I was just running through the motions. When I opened my locker before defense class the next day, hundreds of flyers with the dragon slayer picture fell out and scattered. Someone behind me laughed. I whirled around, but all the girls in the locker room with me had their backs turned toward me.
When I entered defense class, I knew something was up. Instead of preparing to spar, all the students were lined up in a semi-circle. In the middle was Drew. It wasn’t hard to know who they were waiting for. A frantic look around the room told me Professor Sarah was nowhere in sight. For a fraction of a second I considered running. I was far enough away that none of them would be able to grab me before I made it somewhere with a teacher.
The thought disgusted me. Had I really fallen so far that I would back down from a fight? Maybe I didn’t have a dragon to rely on, but I was still Sophie. And Sophie stood up for herself. I squared my shoulders in the hope looking the part would give me the confidence I didn’t have.
“What do you want?” I hated myself for the fact that Drew’s smile still made my belly do flip flops. But instead of charming, his smile now looked devious to me. Before I got all the way into the room, he tossed me a wooden practice sword.
Dragons and Destiny (Animage Academy Book 1) Page 17