Chapter Four - New Students
CHAPTER FOUR
New Students
MY FIRST DAY —going to be filled with entitled brats thinking they could get by because their parents paid high tuition or would give donations to help their grade. That wouldn’t work with me. While teaching wasn’t exactly my dream job, I wasn’t going to let even more self-inflated egos pass and go into the real world, thinking they could buy their way out of everything.
I headed toward my morning class, full of first-years. The first day was the most important in setting expectations. I was good at teaching, but that wasn’t the real reason I was here. I wasn’t going to let entitled students get away with wasting my time either .
As I got closer to the door, my magic flared, causing a feather-light sensation through my entire being, instantly making me alert. I’d never felt anything like it, like my magic was calling to the surface on its own. It was as if there were a looming threat it wanted me to be alert for, just on the other side of this door.
Fuck.
It hit me harder than a wall of bricks, halting my steps shortly after entering the room. It didn’t matter how prepared I was. Nothing could have ever made me ready for how this first day was going to go. It took the breath from my lungs. It took nearly every ounce of willpower I had to push that down and to instantly collect myself before scanning over the seated class.
My suspicions were correct.
Fate threw me a curveball. An unfortunate curveball that would only distract from my goals, be a weakness I wasn’t allowed to have in this life.
My mate.
This was the moment I found my mate. A first-year, sitting in this class.
Didn’t matter.
From the very beginning, I always knew the track I set my life on didn’t have room for anyone else, at least not seriously.
Of course she was fucking beautiful, making this even more difficult. Every part of her appeared better than I could have imagined my mate would look like. Truthfully, I never put any thought into it before. Since my parents’ deaths, my life has been entirely consumed with finding out the truth of what happened that night.
There was no deception about what this truly was. This was a curse. The bond would lessen with space away. I would reject it, dampening it down until either of us left this academy and it eventually broke completely. That would be the best for both of us.
Until then, I’d be aware of her presence constantly while the universe tried to push us together. I’d feel all the strong feelings she projected, and depending on her magic and her openness, hear the thoughts she projected to me as well. That couldn’t happen. It only made my very careful plans at this academy all the more difficult.
Looks like there’s a change in my lesson plan today.
Ignoring constant giggling and hushed whispers that were bound to happen from business mogul-turned-professor, I flicked air magic. The chalk scrawled my name on the board while I set my things down to prepare for a very interesting new lesson.
The board behind me displayed “Nickolas Ares.”
“That’s Mr. Ares,” I announced to the class. They could address me as most would have already known from when I so famously inherited half the academy, along with the neighboring town, at the age of twelve.
“As you know, there are six elements of magic.” The chalk continued across the board while I addressed the class .
In my penmanship, it read:
Water
Air
Earth
Fire
Light
Shadow
“There is also mental manipulation in the forms of illusions, confusion, mind reading performed by dark magic—and even the mate bond,” I ground out the last part. “Today you’ll learn mind blocking.”
A mouse-like squeak sounded from the back of the room. It took most of my willpower not to react in pure confusion that an adult had made that sound. I reluctantly lifted my gaze to where my mate sat, only to be greeted with the presence of the other well-known person attending the school this year sitting beside her.
“We’re first-years, that’s a third-year subject,” Blythe commented. I knew Blythe and her family well, it was no surprise she’d be upset I wasn’t sticking to the traditional lesson plan that her family likely prepared her for.
“Yes, Ms. Valentine. I will be deviating from the last professor’s lesson plan. If you have issues with my teaching, please take it up with the Chancellor. Do not interrupt my class again by questioning the subjects I choose to teach.”
My mate’s head shot to Blythe Valentine. I avoided letting my gaze linger a moment longer when I felt her glare brand into me from my tone with Blythe. Good .
A brunette student seated in front of my mate, who hadn’t been able to stop her atrocious giggling, commented, “I’m happy about learning mind blocking. If I find my mate early, I wouldn’t want them knowing my every thought and feeling.”
I doubted they wanted that either.
Ms. Valentine coughed at the idea.
The blonde directly in front of Ms. Valentine leaned back with anger and said, “Well, it’s not like you will. Just because your family is wealthy doesn’t mean you have the magic for it.”
I dragged a hand down my face as the shrill voice of the first girl added, “I paid for an elite aura reading. I was told I would find my mate in third-year.”
Now, this was what I was actually expecting when walking into this class.
I snapped, “You two, names?”
“Christina Clement.” The blonde flipped her long hair and bit her lip at me suggestively, earning a bored stare back.
The brunette followed with, “Ruby Sterling.” She spoke with enough attitude, like I was somehow supposed to already know who she was. This school was just one big elite social circle, and I was already tired of it.
“Right,” I said. “And did you happen to already forget what I said about interrupting my class? Next time, you can sit in detention with Professor Miriam for the rest of the month.”
They groaned. I knew I hit my mark, knowing most students here were informed of the professors they would have had. Even I hated detentions with the long, detailed stories told by the ancient witch teaching Realm History.
The class continued with me teaching them how to fortify their minds. It would be completely useless to most of them. Whoever wouldn’t be in the magic force battling against dark spells and potions, be on the council, or get a mate bond would most likely never need it. I only needed my mate, whose name I didn’t have at the moment, to be able to control her thoughts so this mate bond would remain hidden, and I could work on the real reason I came to this academy without this distraction. My own walls should have been enough to prevent her from catching onto it, but her learning to keep her thoughts from me would help things.
I had no real idea if the lesson was working. With all of the faces the new students were making, it appeared like they were attempting to do something. I decided to try some illusions for the fun of it, something these students wouldn’t learn until the end of fourth-year in Magical Combat.
A shrill screech rang out when Clement saw sticky frogs hopping off her pristine hair that only her and I could see. She stood and the class stared—my illusion dissipated.
My eyes narrowed on her. “You’ll have to work harder on your blocking, Ms. Clement.”
I didn’t dare let my magic brush up with my mate and risk tipping her off of the bond, having to trust she was working on it. After long minutes that seemed to drag, I reminded them to keep practicing out of class, and we moved onto elemental magic .
A slight hand movement, barely a thought, and all the candles along one wall and on the shelves ignited. The flames danced up to the ceiling as I intended. Then they were out, like it never happened. It got a room full of “oohs” and “ahhs” from the new students who had barely tapped into their power.
“Take out the candles from under your desk. Demonstrate basic fire magic. Will it to light your single candle. Expand and reduce the flame with complete control. Use air magic to put it out. Use this as a chance to demonstrate to me both your skill and level of control, not letting the fire leave your desk.”
Some students struggled with fire magic, only learning to barely bring certain elements to their fingertips in the past few years. With this demonstration, few managed to create a spark. Others clearly had tutoring and advanced classes before coming here. Most would have had some extra training before this year, even the ones whose parents bought their way in with otherwise sub-par grades.
“Easy,” muttered Ruby Sterling, as she managed to get the flame to spin in circles above her candle.
I can’t do this. This was a mistake.
My mind whirled and my entire body stiffened. The voice rang through my head, a voice I’d never heard before. Her. I didn’t know how I knew, but I did. It drew my attention behind the two cackling over being able to do Basic Magic, to the woman I had been trying to avoid.
My mouth parted just a fraction. Her presence brushed against my mind. A consuming force, a shout, a plea, an aloneness that called out, not knowing that she was calling out to me. I wanted to reach out to it. I almost let myself feel it, let it wash over me. Only for a moment did I revel in a glimpse of what the universe gave me before my own walls came slamming down, never to accept it. That would never happen.
The candle sat unlit in front of her, no smoke, not even an ember going. Beside her, Ms. Valentine had a small flame that she battled with air. She mumbled something to my mate.
I can’t. Her voice sounded again in my head.
I couldn’t stop myself from staring. While her face hadn’t changed from the pure angered concentration, the voice in her head was screaming in unmistakable and overwhelming panic.
At some point, she tied her black hair back into some sort of messy, half-up bun. Her dark brows creased, and her rosy bottom lip pulled into her mouth as if she wanted to light the whole building on fire but couldn’t create a single flame. I eyed her for a moment, trying to make sense of this.
What if she was as powerful as me and hiding it completely, hiding her flames so I wouldn’t catch on to it? If she did sense the bond and was ignoring it with ease and didn’t want me to find it just as I was hiding it from her? A deep chuckle left me at the thought. She wouldn’t have been placed into Basic Magic.
She looked at me in horror with light blue eyes when I laughed. The whole class looked alarmed, as I wasn’t talking.
I ignored the bewildered stares, looking out at the constant downpour that seemed to never stop in this part of the Realm. I sipped my coffee before glaring back at them.
She was supposed to be my mate, and her magic was so unrefined that she didn’t even seem to have an inkling with us standing in the same room. It wasn’t surprising for even people my age to not know who their mate was right away, but the universe picked her for me to be my perfect match, yet she had almost no handle on her magic at all. It was laughable. That was the universe fucking with me again.
It was for the best, really. Having a young student crying through the halls because she got denied her mate bond would only draw unwanted attention and be more of a complication for the real reason I came here.