by K L Rymer
The Humphreys are dangerous. The noble look is just a façade. They are a family of serial magic users, and they know exactly what they’re doing.
I glance at Angelina a few feet away, and I see the hard set of her jaws. I bet she’s remembering that night too, and how betrayed she’d felt.
I guess that’s something we both have in common then.
“Now, all students spread out. And remember it’s best not to think of the weapon that you would like the most, but what your magic wants. Sure, everyone wants a sword, but you must let it come naturally. The weapon represents your soul after all.”
Oh, so let the weapon choose you. Right, got it.
The class spreads out, and we all wait for further instruction.
“First, close your eyes and envision yourself holding your magic as if it’s a ball.”
We all do as he instructs, and ever the nosey girl I am I glance around. I just like to see what kinds of faces people make.
Zahara is completely zen. Felicity looks as sweet as a porcelain doll. Damien’s face is frozen into his permanent snarl, and Nora is deadly serious. Thomas looks as if he’s constipated (it takes a lot to hold back one’s inner wolf), and Jack is scary and pokerfaced.
Angelina has a wicked smirk on her evil mug, and I dread to think of what weapon her soul forms (like she needs one anyway with those fangs).
I follow suit and close my eyes, envisioning the red ball in my hands. Soon I can feel its heat as I focus all of my energy into it.
“Now, change the shape of the ball and see what your subconscious forms.”
Aw, it’s like being back at preschool when they give you Play-Doh, and let your imagination run wild. The doctors were a little concerned about my mental state though when I formed the shape of a decapitated man. While other three-year-olds were making giraffes and elephants, I was dreaming up ways to kill a guy.
I do as Mr. Tanaka says and feed my magic. All around I hear gasps. Others already have their weapons, but I hold on. It takes me longer since I’m still a little rusty.
“I... I did it!”
The latest squeal belongs to my dear Felicity, and I’m so tempted to open my eyes and see what weapon her sweet soul could possibly dream up, but I can’t mess this up. I need to practice so I can beat Mattie. I mean He Who Must Not be Named...
“Nice...” Damien croons, and I’m guessing he already has his weapon if he’s opened his eyes.
“Not as good as mine though.” That was Zahara. Felicity gives an oooh in response, and I grit my teeth.
Nora gasps and Thomas releases the world’s heaviest sigh (that did look like a big shit he was holding in), and then I hear Jack give a proud clench of his knuckles.
“Well, well, look who’s joined you...”
Angelina. That bitch... Judging by her smug tone, she’s got a good weapon.
“Why am I not surprised?” Zahara scoffs at the vamp, and I can feel their intense stare-off.
Now I’m all that’s left. Well, of House Mendacious. There are probably other students in other houses who are still trying to forge weapons.
Yet it feels as if every pair of eyes are on me. So I’m guessing I am the last in class.
Well, this sucks.
Angelina snorts and Zahara threatens to wipe the smug look off her face. It only adds to my pressure and now I start squeezing my magic out. If I’m not careful though something other than magic may come out. So best not get too carried away...
“Don’t rush. Let it take its time.”
The last voice belonged to Ken Tanaka, and my palms sweat. Great. Now the hottie thinks I’m a failure.
Another half-hour passes, and soon it turns into a full hour. The instructor tells me to stop.
Defeated, I open my eyes at last. Felicity holds a pink slingshot as Zahara wields a navy blue longbow. Damien has a black pitchfork (no surprises there), and Nora clutches a green, snake-shaped dagger. Thomas has a golden dog-toothed dirk, and Jack’s knuckles have hardened into solid brass. I’ve never seen what color his essence forms, but the brass is the color of his hair and eyes.
Lo and behold, Angelina brandishes a sapphire shotgun, a crazy gleam in her blue eyes. I knew the psycho would get the most fucked up kind of weapon.
She offers me a sly smirk. I stole her boyfriend last year, so of course she’s going to lap up every moment of my failure.
It looks like Myrddin’s favorite pupil isn’t cut out for magic after all. I’m just grateful that no one knows I’m his daughter yet. That would make things a hell of a lot worse.
There’s no way I’m going to beat Matthew. Forget censoring his name; I can’t run away from my problems. He had formed whips with his magic last year. Had that been natural or forced? I will never know now until the next time we meet.
As if I’m going to beat him. I can’t even form a weapon in a one-hour time slot.
Next, a gentle hand touches my shoulder, and I flinch, peering up into the onyx eyes of Mr. Tanaka.
“It’s all right. You will get there...”
Warmth spreads through my body and I smile, full of hope once again. I don’t know what the instructor did with his hand, but it worked. Now I feel as if I can do anything. Even wake a whole horde of dragons.
Mr. Tanaka removes his hand from my shoulder and addresses the class next. “Now you all have your weapons.”
Well, everyone except for me.
The instructor’s face turns serious. “However, I must warn you. Any misuse of these new weapons will result in immediate expulsion. You are allowed to practice here in your free time, but even if you so much as summon your weapon in the halls, you will face consequences. This is powerful magic you have awoken today.”
I guess I’m fine then. I don’t even have a weapon.
Mr. Tanaka dismisses the class, and everyone puts their magical weapons away and leaves. Felicity runs up to my side and hugs me. “It’s okay, Bryn. You’ll get it. I promise.”
I sigh. “Thank you.”
“Yeah, don’t sweat it, Bryn Bryn,” Damien chimes in, ruffling my hair. It’s not like I expected a hug from him, but come on; he’s messing up my mane.
“What they just said.” Zahara steps up now and makes an even worse mess of my hair, and I roll my eyes. Seriously, what’s with the touching of my head?
Jack, Nora, and Thomas come to stand by my side, but then Angelina passes us, producing a wicked laugh. “Well, what do you expect from one who was raised by humans?”
Zahara goes to respond, but to my surprise, Thomas beats her to it. “Hey, I was raised by a human myself, and I got it just fine.”
We all stare at him in shock. His eyes are glowing, his muscles bulging, and damn... Thomas is hot when he’s angry.
His mother is a human after all who raised him in the outskirts of London. Despite his upbringing, he’s still clueless about the human world. He was home-schooled as far as I know, and like me, Thomas is actually twenty. Not two-hundred or so like the others. He has never met his shifter father, so he knew very little of the shifter world until he came to the academy.
I guess he took Angie’s insult way too personally.
The vampire locks eyes with the shifter, blue against gold, and I wonder who would win in a showdown. I’d have said Angelina last year, but Thomas’s bulging muscles have me thinking otherwise now.
Finally, the vampire Barbie saunters off to the changing rooms. A few guys check out her ass in that tight black suit, but none of my Mendacious men succumb.
They hate her guts as much as I do.
Zahara speaks at last. “Well, that was intense. Come on. Next period is free. We can help you practice a little more.”
She takes my arm as Fel takes the other, and they march me out of the stadium.
Chapter 3.
Weeks pass, and I still don’t have a weapon.
By now the rest of my classmates are practicing their weapons on each other. Felicity will sling her shots at Damien, shooting little poo
fs of pink magic, and Damien will dodge each one with his pitchfork. I notice he only uses his weapon around her in a defensive manner, but with the others he’ll go straight in for the kill, screaming and snarling a battle cry.
Maybe he’s afraid of hurting her, I don’t know, but he’s certainly softer around her. It’s like the pixie has tamed his inner beast. (Well, unless they’re having sex. He’s all animal then.)
Me, on the other hand... I’m still trying to find my weapon. Mr. Tanaka and the headmaster have assured me multiple times, “It will come,” and I’m starting to get sick of the mantra. It’s not that I don’t appreciate their sentiments, but it’s been three weeks now.
Instead, the instructor will have me watch the others for pointers, and Myrddin agreed, too, that that was what was best for now. That means I have to stand on the sidelines as the others get better and better.
Angelina thrives off my misery. She takes it as an opportunity to show off just how much better she is than me, always meeting my eyes with a smirk whenever she beats someone in battle.
And she wins every single time.
Well, until Mr. Tanaka pairs her up with Zahara, and it turns out that the Unseelie can shoot an arrow far quicker than the vampire can shoot a bullet.
Right now the class watches as Damien and Felicity circle one another. The pixie holds up her slingshot, ready to shoot a pink puffball. Damien smiles devilishly, his eyes aglow as he brandishes his black pitchfork.
They do this for about five minutes, and I can’t help but wonder if they are like this in the bedroom. Right now the whole school is getting sick of their gooey flirting. Macson whispers to Darius and they both laugh, and he’s lucky Damien doesn’t hear whatever he just said.
He’d be a dead fae.
I don’t even know why Mr. Tanaka pairs these two up. It’s obvious Damien will just let her win anyway, the big old softie that he is.
“What’s taking so long, Tinkerbell?” he taunts, licking his lips. His eyes glow a little redder.
Felicity keeps her slingshot in position, unperturbed, but I can tell she’s aroused by the lip licking.
He chuckles. “Come on... sling a shot at me.”
She smirks. “Oh, you’d love that wouldn’t you, Devil Boy.”
I raise a brow. Devil Boy?
He sniggers once again, and then they do another circle.
“Oh, will one of you just do something already!” Zahara shouts, and to my disbelief, Angelina agrees with her.
“Yeah, seriously, it’s getting old. Just impale her with that pitchfork, Devil Boy, so we can all go for lunch.”
Damien growls and turns his attention on Angelina, and now his eyes glow for a very different reason. “Careful now, Ambrose... Unless you want me to skewer you instead...”
“That’s enough now, students,” Mr. Tanaka warns, giving the demon a sharp eye.
I catch swift movements from the corner of my eye, and now I watch in horror as the cute pixie slings one of her pink puffballs, hitting the demon square in the chest.
He grunts, collapsing to the ground.
We all gasp.
Felicity widens her big anime eyes and runs straight to his side, kicking up sand. “Damien! Are you all right?”
The demon doubles over, looking as if he’s in serious pain. I peer up at Mr. Tanaka’s calm expression then release an exasperated sigh.
It’s just another one of their stupid love antics.
Felicity whimpers now. “Damien... please... say something...”
Her soft wind chime voice rings throughout the stadium, and Jessika, Row, and Laura put their hands on their hearts, getting all choked up by the show. Zahara just bites her nails. She’s seen it a hundred times already.
“F-Felicity...” Damien croaks, peering up through a pair of red slits.
The pixie leans in closer, giving him her utmost attention. “Yes, Damien?”
He smirks, and his eyes flash. “I love you.”
Now that got Zahara’s attention. She almost chokes on a piece of nail and looks around at me, thunderstruck.
Woah, Damien just said the L-word right in front of the class. That’s a pretty massive step.
Suddenly, something dark stirs inside of me, bubbling up within the pits of my stomach, and I bite my cheek.
Jealousy. Damien and Felicity got together when Mattie and I did. But look how far they’ve come now, while we went up in flames.
Felicity gasps, throwing her hand over her mouth. Her ocean-blue eyes fill with tears. Jessika, Row, and Laura all go awwww.
“Oh, Damien... I... I love you too.”
She leans down for a kiss, but then the demon sneers and taps her gently in the chest with his pitchfork, and the moment’s over. “I win.”
Her mood changes instantly. She’s sweet and doe-eyed one moment, and then she’s moody and pouty the next, and now she stands, storming off.
Confused, Damien rises, using his pitchfork to guide him to his feet. “Wait... Felicity.”
She doesn’t answer.
No one says a thing, all too afraid. Macson presses his mouth into a tight line, holding back a snort, but he wouldn’t dare laugh out loud in front of Damien—not if he doesn’t want his magical spear shoved up his ass.
Damien scratches the back of his head, looking around at Mr. Tanaka.
Our ever calm, peaceful sensei excuses him. “You may go.”
Felicity totally walked out of his class, but he didn’t mind. The man understands when his students need a timeout.
The demon bows to him in Japanese fashion with his arms down and back straight, and then rushes off after the pixie.
At least one of them had the courtesy to bow.
We continue the class and pair up once again. Zahara gets paired with Macson while Nora and Thomas take up their stances and face each other.
Jack, however, doesn’t get paired up since everyone’s so scared of him. He nearly smashed Darius’s jaw the other week with his brass knuckles. He can harden other parts off his body too (sorry for the innuendo), turning his entire body into armor. He’s a force to be reckoned with.
In the end, his succubus comes to his aid, turning her nails into long, silver knives.
Nora’s merman and Thomas’s cat are paired together, and I see the fish boy has summoned a halo of blue light around his trident. He already had a weapon to begin with, so I guess he didn’t really need a new one.
Thomas’s cat, however, has purple ninja stars.
I go to sit on the bench, but then a tall blonde girl steps in front of me, and I peer up at Angelina’s five foot eleven frame. “What?”
She arches a sculptured brow. “Why are you in such a rush?”
I pull a face. “I don’t think I’ll benefit much from this class. As you’re already very aware, I don’t have a weapon.”
She shrugs. “No, but you can dodge and evade all the same, right? You’re not completely useless.”
“Huh?”
Her azure eyes flash, and she flips her gun around, aiming straight for my face.
The blast goes off, and time ceases to a halt. But then something strange happens. A burst of red ripples across my body, and now the bullet ricochets off my magic.
The class gasps, pointing in my direction, and now I stare down at a red shield. It’s not as tangible as a real shield as it seems to be made of a smoky substance, but I still gape like an idiot.
I... formed something. It may not be a weapon, but it’s a start.
And I have that bitch Angelina to thank for it.
The vampire smirks and hoists her gun over her shoulder, and I narrow my eyes. Had she been planning that all along?
Mr. Tanaka appears, a proud look on his handsome face, and my entire body melts. Nearly dying by the hands of a crazy vampire was worth it in the end. Now he regards me with something other than pity.
“Well done, Bryn. See? Just as the headmaster and I told you. All it took was time and patience.”
Actu
ally, it was Angelina Ambrose nearly blasting my head off. I guess I should thank her. Yet I remain tight-lipped.
The last thing I want is her rubbing it in my face, “Remember how I helped you?”
He turns to the vampire girl and smiles. “Bryn, I think you should practice with Angelina for the rest of this lesson. She obviously brings out your defensive side.”
No shit. She tried to kill me last year. If only I could have summoned a shield then.
Someone screams next, and we all look to the sound. Macson has a navy blue arrow embedded deep into his shoulder, and I wince. That’s got to hurt.
Zahara, meanwhile, looks as twisted as Angelina did when she fired her gun. In fact, she reaches her hand back for another arrow, and Mr. Tanaka goes over at once.
If Macson hadn’t been such a dick to my friend last year, I would have felt bad for him. But the sound of his pained screaming is actually kind of amusing, and I’m not the only one who seems to think so. A few others laugh at his plight, too.
He’s so dramatic.
I’m such a cold-hearted bitch.
Angelina scowls at Zahara before she focuses her attention back on me. Her eyes go down to my shield and she smirks. “Well, well, well...”
What’s her problem?
I follow her gaze, and my breath catches in my throat. There’s an engraving of a red dragon on my shield.
Suddenly, I wince, looking down at my arm.
My tattoo... It’s glowing.
My vision blackens at the edges, and the next thing I know, my nose is buried deep in sand.
Then darkness follows.
Chapter 4.
I awake to the sound of troubled voices, and then a fierce headache wracks my brain.
I hiss.
The voices stop, and then a small, white blur with blue eyes appears. “Bryn, you’re awake!”
“Ow!”
I’m in so much pain, I can’t take the high-pitched squeal, and I roll onto my side, covering my face with bedsheets.