by Jody Morse
“It seems that you don’t have an affinity for water, after all. Such a shame.” Her tone didn’t sound like she actually believed it was a shame. It sounded like she was actually happy—amused, even—that I couldn’t control water.
I tried not to let it get to me, but I couldn’t help it. I could feel my own anger taking over, gripping at my chest.
And that’s when it happened.
The ocean’s waves became more frantic. They grew higher and louder, as they crashed against the shore… and it began to rain down all around us. It started out as a light sprinkle at first, but soon turned into a full-on downpour.
My heart pounded against my chest as the realization hit me.
I had just controlled water.
Chapter 21
“So, you have an affinity for all of the elements,” Draia said as we sat in the Dining Hall.
“I don’t know. So far, just fire and water.”
“Just fire and water? You make it sound like no big deal.” Ambur stared at me in astonishment. “Do you have any idea how rare affinities for the elements are?”
“No, actually, I didn’t know they were rare.”
“Well, they are.”
“And, generally, if you’re able to control two elements, you’re able to control all four,” Draia explained. “So, I’d be willing to bet that you can control earth and air, too.”
“I guess we’ll see. Professor Ryan wants to keep working on my affinity for water for now.” I hoped that Avery would be back sooner, rather than later. I wanted him to be the one who worked with me on this.
Plus, that wasn’t to mention the fact that I was sort of dying to spend time on a private beach with him. Or with Kaden. Or with Brett…
Ugh. I wasn’t going to lie. Having so many crushes was sort of draining. I would have loved to only want one guy. Three was pretty complicated. Not that I could even have two of them. So, that really meant that I should have focused all of my attention on Kaden, the only one who was actually available.
“Something else happened today, too,” I informed my roommates.
“Oh?” Draia asked. “Do share.”
“Yeah. You better not be holding some juicy gossip out on us,” Ambur added.
“I got asked to the Halloween Dance,” I informed them.
“By who?” Ambur asked.
“Wait, let me guess. Was it Brett Summers?” Draia asked.
I eyed her curiously. “Really? That’s your first guess? Do I need to remind you of why that’s not happening?” I pointed my chin a few tables away, where Brett and Everly were eating dinner together. She was talking his ear off. His dark eyes met mine, and I quickly glanced away.
Draia glanced over at me. “He’s staring at you. I’m pretty sure that boy wants to take you to the dance.”
“Yeah, well, sometimes what we want and what we can have are two different things,” I muttered under my breath.
“Wait, so you want Brett?” Ambur asked with raised eyebrows.
“We’re getting off topic,” I replied, dodging the question, mostly because I didn’t know the answer. “Kaden asked me to the dance.”
“Are you going with him?” Draia asked.
I nodded. “Yes.”
“This is so exciting! Your first paranormal date,” Ambur said excitedly.
“We need to go dress shopping,” Draia added.
“I figured we would just make our dresses,” Ambur replied with a frown. “Though shopping would be a good reason to get off campus for the day.”
“Exactly. I think we should go shopping—even if it’s only window shopping,” Draia replied. “How about Saturday?” She turned to me. “That’s when everyone goes into town.”
“Saturday works for me,” I replied with a shrug.
“Your first paranormal shopping trip!” Ambur squealed.
“Is it any different than a human shopping trip?” I questioned.
“Not really. Just that the shops are owned by paranormal beings,” Draia explained. “There are also paranormal themes to most of the shops. I figured we would hit the Poisoned Apple Boutique. It once belonged to Snow White’s stepmother.”
“Snow White was… real?” I stared back at her incredulously, even though I wasn’t sure why it was so unbelievable to me. Vampires were real. Werewolves were real. Dragons were real. Why was it such a crazy concept that characters from fairytales could be real?
“Of course they’re real,” she replied with a nod.
“But there’s almost always more to the story than what the movies show,” Ambur added.
“Where’s Gavin?” I asked, realizing for the first time that he wasn’t sitting with us tonight—and he always ate with us. I hoped that something hadn’t happened between the two of them.
“Who knows,” Ambur replied with a shrug.
“Are you guys… okay?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah. We’re fine. I just literally don’t know where he is. The fairy guys had some special assignment with one of our professors. A field trip, basically.”
“Oh.” I paused. “I didn’t know we took field trips here.”
“They happen sometimes.” At that moment, the bell rang, indicating that dinner was over. We rose to our feet and dropped off our cafeteria trays.
I glanced over at Brett, who was still talking to Everly. Well, more like Everly was talking to him. I was pretty sure that he was only pretending to pay attention to her.
“Oh, he has to walk you back to your dorm now, doesn’t he?” Draia questioned.
“Yup. Unfortunately.”
“I don’t see why he needs to walk you when we’re going there, too,” Ambur commented.
“Rules are rules.” I sighed. “You guys go on ahead. I’ll wait for him to walk with me.
“Good luck with her.” Ambur eyed Everly.
“Thanks. I have a feeling I’m going to need all the luck I can get,” I muttered.
Once all of the other students filtered out of the cafeteria, Brett and Everly finally began to make their way towards me.
I swallowed hard. I really, really didn’t want to deal with her right now. I could only imagine what she was probably going to say to me, and honestly?
I wasn’t sure if I would be able to keep my cool with her. I hadn’t asked for Brett to be my security guard. I didn’t want a security guard at all—Brett or anyone else. If she was going to give me shit over it, I was going to give it back to her.
“Come on, Montgomery,” Everly said.
“Y-you’re walking with us?” I asked, trying to suppress an eye roll.
“We’re both headed to the same place, aren’t we? I mean, you do live next door,” she replied matter-of-factly.
It sort of unnerved me that we did live so close to each other. It made me want to doublecheck that the door to our dorm room was locked tonight.
Brett shot me a glance that told me he had listened to that thought—and that he thought I was being ridiculous.
Well, he was wrong. Sure, it may have been a little paranoid, but there was a chance that his girlfriend may have killed Ashleigh. That wasn’t something to take lightly.
I didn’t make notice of his facial expression, knowing that he had probably listened to that thought about Ashleigh, too. I was sure he wouldn’t agree. If he did, there was no way he would have been dating the girl.
As we headed out of the Dining Hall, I glanced up at the sky. It seemed darker out tonight. I eyed the sky, hoping there were no raven shifters flying around. Just the thought of them made goosebumps erupt on my arms.
“So, I made my Halloween Dance dress today,” Everly was saying to Brett as they walked a couple of feet ahead of me. “It’s aqua. I figured I would let you know, since you’ll need to coordinate.”
“You know I hate blue,” he replied.
“I know, but I happen to like it. It complements my eye color.” She glanced over her shoulder at me. “Are you going to the Halloween Dance?”
I just blinked. Was she act
ually… being nice to me?
“Yes, I am.”
“Oh. Figures.” She rolled her eyes. “I figured we would have an easy night, but it looks like you’re going to have to be guarding her.”
“We don’t know that,” I insisted. “I’ll know my paranormal race by then, and he might not have to be my security guard anymore.”
“They don’t know your paranormal race?” she questioned.
Shit. Avery’s warning for me to not tell anyone about this potential weakness of mine sprung to my mind. Though, truthfully, I had just figured that Brett had already told her that we were waiting for my DNA results. It was sort of shocking that he hadn’t.
“No.”
“Huh. That’s… interesting.” She opened the door to the House of Mage. “If they don’t know what you are, then how did they place you into this House?”
“Headmaster Crane believes I’m most likely to be a magic user,” I explained.
“I would have thought for sure he’d have pegged you for a wolf. You are a Montgomery, after all. Those powerful werewolf genes should be running strong through your veins.”
“Actually, I come from several powerful bloodlines,” I corrected.
“Of course you do.” Her lips twisted into a sarcastic smile that I didn’t quite understand, and she turned away from me, heading up the steps to the second floor of the tower.
I didn’t look at Brett as I climbed the stairs after her.
I just wanted to be back to my room ASAP. The sooner we got to the second floor and I got away from her, the better.
I had never really hated anyone before, but Everly was pretty easy to hate.
I hoped that I wouldn’t have to walk back with them every night, but I had a feeling that was how this was going to go. Everly wasn’t going to make life easier for me. Of that I was certain.
When we reached the second floor, I breathed a slight sigh of relief. I hadn’t been at the Academy for very long, but I had never been more relieved that my day was over.
As we walked down the hallway that led to the dorm rooms, Brett said, “Well, I guess I’ll be coming here for you in the morning.”
“Oh. Yeah.” And for Everly, I thought to myself.
“Goodnight, Juliana,” he said.
“Goodnight.” I glanced from him to Everly, who gave me an obviously forced smile. Then I watched as she grabbed Brett’s tie, and pulled him closer to her.
Pinning him up against the wall, she began to make out with him, right in front of me.
I tried to suppress an eye roll, but it was beyond my control. I rolled my eyes so hard that I was afraid of going blind.
I knew she was doing it intentionally. It wasn’t like she didn’t have a right to make out with him. He was her boyfriend, after all. But I was ninety-nine percent certain she was doing it right in front of my dorm room, with me standing there, just because she was trying to make me jealous.
Well, girl had gotten her wish.
Jealousy soared through me.
I quickly opened the door to my dorm room, figuring that I needed to get the hell away from the two of them before I ended up lighting the whole building on fire or causing a flood to wash Everly away.
Chapter 22
The following afternoon, I met Brandon and Spike at a stable near the school.
Spike was just as attached to me as he had been the first time we’d met—maybe even more so, this time.
“Yeah, I think it’s definitely safe to say that he’s your familiar,” Brandon said within minutes of the dragon leaping into my arms and cuddling up against my chest. “I’ve introduced him to classroom upon classroom of students. He shies away from almost everyone, except for you.”
“Wow.” I stared down at the baby dragon and smiled. “This is so cool. I didn’t even know familiars existed before I came here, and the fact that mine is a dragon…”
“It is cool,” Brandon agreed. “But it also comes with a great deal of responsibility. Having a dragon as your familiar won’t always be easy, Juliana. You need to figure out a place to keep him. During your time at the Academy, you can keep him here at this stable and visit whenever you’d like. But dragons live for hundreds of years. You’ll need to figure out somewhere to keep him and, ultimately, a way to spend enough time with him. When we spend too much time away from our familiars, we both tend to suffer.”
“So, what you’re telling me is that it would have been easy to have a cat for a familiar,” I said.
“Absolutely. Dragons also come with the risk of damage. He’ll be able to cause fires. While that may be useful at times, it can also pose a real challenge.” Brandon’s eyes met mine. “I hear that you have an affinity for fire. What an odd coincidence.”
I had never really thought about it before. I had an affinity for fire and a dragon for a familiar. What were the odds?
“I also have an affinity for water,” I informed him. “So, I might be able to put out any fires he starts.”
“That will certainly work to your advantage,” he agreed. “However, there’s also the risk of him starting fires when you’re not around. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to spend every minute of your day with him. If someone figures out where you’re keeping him, it might cause him to get scared or defensive. But we’ll try to figure out a way to work out all the kinks. I will make sure that by the time you leave here, you’re as prepared as ever to take care of Spike.”
“Thanks,” I told him with a smile.
At that moment, the dragon I was holding in my arms let out a loud belching sound. I giggled and smiled down at him.
I almost couldn’t believe that this was my life. I was going to an Academy for the world’s most elite paranormal beings. I had a dragon for a familiar. I could create fires and make it rain. We were about to find out my paranormal race. And I actually had a date to the Halloween Dance. Aside from having Brett and now Everly following me around everywhere and having to do one-on-one instructions with Professor Ryan until Avery returned, everything seemed… well, perfect. Or the closest thing to perfect, anyway.
What could possibly go wrong?
Everything, a voice at the back of my mind whispered to me.
***
By the time Saturday afternoon had rolled around, I was seriously hyped about going dress shopping with Ambur and Draia. Not only was I excited about the shopping part, but I also couldn’t wait to get off of the campus and away from this school.
The only thing I hadn’t thought about was money. How was I going to afford to buy a dress when I didn’t have any money?
“The stores let you open a line of credit,” Draia explained to me.
“But I don’t have credit or money,” I insisted.
“It doesn’t matter. They know they’ll have literally hundreds of years to get the money back from us.”
“Oh.” I breathed a slight sigh of relief. At least I would be able to get a dress.
“We’re going to have so much fun. It’s your first taste of freedom in days,” Ambur pointed out.
Freedom. I couldn’t wait. I had somehow managed to convince Brett to let me go into town without him following me, since we were going as a group and there were plenty of paranormal beings in the town we would be shopping in. It seemed super unlikely that anything would try to attack me there.
“Also, we haven’t told you yet, but there’s a bar,” Ambur went on.
“But we’re not twenty-one,” I replied with a frown.
“There’s no drinking age in the paranormal world,” Draia explained with a grin.
“Oh!”
“We gettin’ drunk today,” Ambur said, shaking her booty.
“I’m excited,” I replied. Shopping and drinking—legally drinking. It was going to be a great day. I just knew it.
***
When the buses dropped us off into town, all I could do was take it in. It was one of the most incredible things I had ever seen before.
The stores lined the streets, whi
ch were covered with colorful autumn leaves. Each of the stores had a paranormal theme. There was the Witch’s Cauldron, which sold spell books, broomsticks, potions, and just about anything a witch could possibly need. There was Bites & Co., which sold dental devices to vampires and other paranormal beings that wanted to keep their fangs hidden. There was the Lime and the Coconut, which sold coconut bras to mermaids. There was a little snack stand called Not Your Grandma’s Frog Legs, which I definitely didn’t have any plans to check out, in case they were, in fact, frog legs.
Ambur and Draia led the way to the Poisoned Apple. It was strange, to say the least, to see my roommates wearing real clothes instead of their uniforms—almost as strange as it was to not be wearing my uniform myself.
Ambur was wearing a short black skirt, a hot pink and black striped top, and black and white Converse sneakers. Draia was wearing a pair of dark wash skinny jeans, a red crop top, and red high heels that I probably wouldn’t have been able to walk more than a few feet in without breaking my neck. I wore a pair of jeans and a plain white t-shirt.
As we stepped into the store, the door jangled and I glanced around at the crimson wallpaper. It felt like we had, literally, just stepped inside an apple.
“No one’s here yet,” Draia commented. “This is good. It means we have first dibs.”
Ambur began looking through the dresses at the front of the store, just as a woman with short dark hair came over to us.
“Hello, ladies. May I help you with anything?” The woman asked. She was wearing a nametag that read Rowena.
“We’re just looking for Halloween Dance dresses,” Ambur explained. “Do you have anything black?”
“There’s a whole rack in the back of the store filled with black and navy-blue dresses. I’m sure you’ll find something that will look great on you.” Rowena’s dark eyes fell on mine. “I’ve never seen you here before, have I?”
“No.” I shook my head.
“And yet, you look very… familiar.” She studied my face.
“I don’t know why. I’ve definitely never been here before. I’m a new student,” I explained.
“Hmm.” Rowena stared at me for a moment longer before saying, “If you ladies need help with anything, I’ll be in the back.”