Chapter 15 Avery
AVERY
Ididn’t know what it was about the Blackwell brothers that made me enjoy riling them up. They both had a stick up their respective tight asses, but it affected them in different ways.
Heath’s brand of domineering boss-hole was familiar to me.
He was an Alpha wolf and the most dominant shifter in his quad, like my dad, Rand.
He expected to be obeyed when he gave orders and was used to being worshiped by lesser shifters (which was pretty much all of them) and females alike.
He probably cared about only three things—his quad, his family, and order.
Maybe the prestige of becoming a top Guardian recruit was in there too.
I was an unpredictable thing fucking up his world, and it was scrambling his brain.
Aiden’s dominance was sneakier than his brother’s, but that was the feline way.
Alpha wolves were in your face, daring you to fuck with them, staring you down and ripping your throat out when you did.
A powerful feline pounced when you least expected it and would gut you without remorse.
Aiden wanted obedience, too, but because he was Professor Aiden Blackwell.
He wanted it because he was older, smarter, and one of the most respected names on campus, not because he stared you down, showed his teeth, and demanded it.
He probably didn’t know what to do with me, the student whose first words to him had been to tell him that he was wrong.
All this sexual tension didn’t help, either, but maybe that was just on my end.
Aiden’s hazel eyes had returned to factory settings behind those slutty glasses. No more enthralling turquoise glow around his irises, which meant he’d packed the beast away for the night.
I was enjoying cataloging the differences between the brothers.
For example, both Heath and Aiden had hazel eyes, but Aiden’s were a chocolate brown around the pupils that faded into that vibrant green at the edges of the irises, while Heath had burnished gold starbursts around his pupils that bled into a lighter brown shot through with thin striations of forest green.
My beast chuffed and licked a paw at the thought.
“By all means,” I told him with a tight smile. “Let’s get started. I’ve had a long day.”
He arched a perfect chocolate brow. “So I heard.”
I just bet he had. “Just so you know, I’m not new to rune work. I haven’t had any formal magical training, but my dads know their stuff, and they love to teach.”
“I see.” He leaned back in his chair again, studying me.
His dress shirt was dark gray today, unbuttoned just enough to tease a peek at the tip-top of a defined chest, right below the collarbone.
His shoulders were wide—not quite the breadth of Heath’s or Wyatt’s, but close.
Biceps and pectorals both strained under the fabric of his shirt, but in a way that said his clothes had been perfectly tailored to his strong body, not the way many huge muscly shifter men stuffed themselves into clothes like sausages into a casing.
His scent lingered in the air, woodsy and masculine and a little bit like the rain.
“Tell me why we use runes, then,” he said, waving a hand.
“For spellwork,” I replied easily. “Each rune has a unique meaning, and putting them together creates the recipe for whatever spell you’re trying to accomplish.”
He nodded, a smile pulling at the corner of his lush lips. “Correct. A shifter with this affinity is adept at creating, assembling, and casting a spell, using the act of carving or drawing the runes to channel the lunar magic and energy needed to create it.”
“And the more permanent the writing or carving, the longer the magic will last,” I added.
I reached behind my chair and unsheathed one of my blades, and then I held it out to him, parallel to my chest. The soft yellow light of his desk lamp illuminated the runes carved into the steel.
“Hand engraved with a rotary tool because using modern methods like lasers or electro-chemical means to engrave doesn’t channel the magic properly.
The engraving is done with the initial Moon blessing, and then we recharge under each Full Moon by tracing the runes with a simpler tool. I just use a drypoint needle.”
He eyed the runes on my blade with covetous interest. “So it’s true. You have a real Moon-blessed weapon.”
“Of course I do.” I slid the sword back in its sheath, and he suddenly looked like a kid whose toy had been taken away. “Can’t kill a wraith without one.”
“Who does the Moon blessing?” he asked. “That’s advanced rune work that’s usually left to experts. I’ve tried it, but I’d much rather trust my saber to the Guardians’ specialists when the time comes.”
So he and Heath were both saber users. They were probably the primary blade wielders in the quad, while Wyatt and Elijah would do most of their fighting in beast form.
It’s what I would do with that mix, anyway.
“I do it,” I replied. His jaw slackened, and I enjoyed it immensely.
“My dad Kaito’s rune affinity is pretty strong.
He taught me, and I started blessing my own blades every Full Moon a couple of years ago.
” I shrugged. “So far it’s worked fine? I guess I haven’t had a chance to slice the head off a Giant wraith since I started doing my own blessings, but the Rippers I’ve decapitated have stayed dead. ”
I couldn’t claim success for Ian’s blade, which he’d used to kill the Giant that shredded my leg and was the reason I was sitting here today. That had been Kai’s work.
Aiden stared at me for a beat, and then he huffed a laugh. “Next Full Moon, you can show me what you’ve got. We’ll bless my saber. The guys will be so jealous.”
I shrugged again, casually, like the idea of impressing Aiden and by extension the rest of his quad by doing something they couldn’t was not extremely appealing to me. “Sure. Then we can go beyond the school’s wards at the New Moon together and see if it worked,” I added, winking.
His face lost all mirth. “Absolutely not. I know you’re skilled, and I know you’ve managed to stay alive after all these years of wraith vigilantism despite the odds, but you’re here now.
You’re a Guardian trainee and a Proteus student, which means you stay behind the school wards after curfew the day before the New Moon through the day after.
The invasions up here, where the concentration of powerful shifters is highest, are not a joke.
It would be nothing like it is down in the city. ”
I rolled my eyes. “You and the powers that be didn’t even know there were wraiths in the city at all until I told you.”
“I mean it, Avery.”
“Okay, Aiden.”
He clenched his teeth in frustration, his eyes threatening to blaze again. I soaked up the little hit of adrenaline it gave me, like a junkie.
After blowing a harsh breath through his nose, he shoved back from his desk and stood up, spearing me with a look. “Get your shit. We’re going outside.”
“You want me to ward this flowerbed?” I asked Aiden dubiously.
“Why the tone?” he replied, his grin sharklike.
I almost squirmed. “This isn’t even intro work.
We’re jumping straight to wards, which, as I’m sure you know, is a specific subset of rune work that is the purview of security specialists.
Wards involve learning specialized runes, channeling a lot of power, and crafting the spell to fit the specific security need. ”
“Uh-huh.”
“Let’s go, Moon-blesser,” he said, still wearing that cocky grin. Weird. Maybe it was the fresh air? “A simple ward to repel animals from the flowerbed, and it only has to last as long as I need to check your work.”
We were in a courtyard off the Magical Education building.
I examined the small flowerbed in front of me, which contained a variety of night-blooming plants.
I spied evening primrose, gardenia, and angel’s trumpet, but Ian would’ve been able to identify a lot more.
Night-blooming plants absorbed the Moon’s magic better than any other kind of plant, and shifters like Ian, who had a secondary affinity for apothecary magic, could use them to create potions and elixirs, activated and strengthened by his ability to channel his own inherent lunar magic.
Night had fallen, and the first quarter Moon joined the lamps that lined the campus sidewalks softly illuminating our little corner of the courtyard. Aiden was sitting on a nearby bench, his long legs spread, elbows propped on his knees as he watched me closely.
“All right,” I said, crouching down next to the bed. I dug into my backpack and pulled out an old pen. “Here goes.”
I’d learned the gist of the wraith repellent wards Kai used around our house, and this would need to be something similar without packing near the punch.
Using my pen, I scratched the first rune into the dirt at the edge of the bed.
Almost all wards began with the rune for Protection, and then I decided to go with Disruption and Travel, ensuring Travel pointed away from the bed, urging any animal that approached to turn around and head the other direction.
I threw Stability in there, even though this ward wouldn’t last past the next wind gust strong enough to toss the dirt around.
Now to power them. I felt for the magic reservoir my shifter blood gifted me.
For those of us with a beast, it was often hard to distinguish the difference between that magical soul we shared a body with and the more fluid power we could learn to harness in other ways, but I could usually grab onto it within a minute or so.
On a night like tonight, it was like dipping my hand in the gentle current of a river.
Under a Full Moon, that river would be a torrent.
Clinging to the feeling, bolstered by the soft rays of the Moon, I let the power flow through my fingertips as I traced my runes, channeling magic into each to create the full ward spell.
“Good,” Aiden murmured. “This magic has a different sensation than the more potent part of us that houses the beast. Do you feel it?”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” I replied. Adding one last etching in the dirt, I finished the spell and released my hold on the flow of the river.
“Avery,” he growled.
“Would you like to come check my work?” I asked, blinking big doe eyes at him.
He prowled over and knelt next to me, the heat of him searing through layers of my jacket and sweater even though we weren’t touching.
He held a hand over the dirt, his long fingers splayed as he felt for the magical vibrations of the ward.
“Excellent work,” he told me, almost reluctantly.
“I might’ve gone with Resistance, but Disruption appears to have done the trick just as well. ”
“Thanks,” I said brightly. I capped my pen and slid it back into the front pouch of my bag. “So, since this is supposed to be Runes 101 tutoring, if you want to just give me an A and cancel for the rest of the semester, you can have two evenings a week back.”
Instead of an immediate reply, Aiden rolled gracefully to standing, and then he held out a hand. After shaking off the momentary surprise, I grasped his hand and let him pull me to my feet. Like his brother’s, his grip was firm, warm, and bossy.
He didn’t release me right away. He stood there, gripping me tightly, while he studied my face for yet another time tonight. “Nice try, Miss Baxter. You still have to put in the hours if you want the credit. Maybe after a few weeks, you’ll trust me with the knowledge of the nature of your beast.”
Unlikely, but if his jaguar wanted to goad my beast some more, he might get more than he bargained for.
“Does your knowledge of whether I have the ability to shift or what animal I may or may not be able to shift into have any bearing on your ability to grade my work?”
His eyes narrowed. I was daring him to admit he’d stomped right into questionable legal territory, and he knew it. “No.”
“Then stop asking,” I said, smiling with all my teeth.
His nostrils flared, and he leaned in closer to me, his hand still wrapped firmly around mine. “What are you hiding?” he rumbled, a low hoarse purr.
Nope. I extricated myself from his grip with a basic self-defense move. “Goodnight, Professor,” I purred right back at him.
Neon ignited once more around his irises, and he looked for all the world like he wanted to grab me again. I turned and stalked away before I decided to let him.