Chapter 10
A TRUE FRIEND
I didn’t have much of an appetite after murdering my first and only real friend at Fortune Academy, but Olivia was in the mood to celebrate.
We’d been handed our welcome packets we would have gotten at orientation had we not been duds, as well as new schedules.
Mine was an indefinite repeat of the Awakening Arena, once per day, with mandatory meetings with a counselor of my choice.
They probably expected me to talk with Miss Williams, but it would give me a good excuse to go see Kaito later.
Still, I wished that I’d been Awakened too as something normal like a Dark Mage. I had a feeling when my powers finally came to light they wouldn’t have neat classes lined up to walk me through my development.
“Don’t look so depressed!” Olivia chimed, looping her arm with mine and dragging me down the street towards the cafeteria that better resembled a gothic castle than a place where the campus came to eat lunch. “I finally know what I am!”
“But how did it happen?” I asked, still dazed by the whole experience. “I mean, didn’t it hurt?”
She shrugged, her bony shoulder bumping into mine. “Well, yeah, it hurt a lot.” She stuck a finger in my uniform hole where her bolt had pierced me. “Bet that hurt, too.”
It wasn’t even comparable. The magic of the arena had healed both of us, but she’d still fucking died. I never felt more like a monster than I did right then.
“Hey,” Olivia said, her voice softening as she tugged me to a halt, “don’t look so guilty, okay?
” Her eyes still held that mystical purple glow as if she’d been suppressing her magic all her life and there was so much it was just shining out of her with the force of a miniature sun.
She smiled, that joy in her beaming unlike anything I’d seen before.
“I am more than thrilled. You have no idea what I’ve been going through.
..” She chuckled. “Well, I guess you do. I’m sorry.
Here I am wanting to celebrate and you still don’t know what you are. ”
I waved away her concern. “That’s not a big deal.
I’m sure I’ll figure it out soon enough.
” Of course the big question was eating at me, but a part of me was relieved, too.
Whatever I was couldn’t be good. I doubted I was anything this school had ever seen or else Dante wouldn’t have gone through so much trouble to track me down.
Hendrik wouldn’t have had a vision of me that had set all of this in motion.
No, maybe it was a good thing I didn’t know what I was yet.
I’d find out soon enough and then my life would change forever.
“Are you hungry?” she asked. As much as she wanted to celebrate, I thought it was sweet that Olivia was more concerned about my emotional well-being. “We could go back to the dorms if you prefer. I have some snacks.”
“No, that’s okay.” I tugged her towards the cafeteria again and my stomach released a growl that had us both giggling. “The dorms are too far away for my stomach to handle, I’m pretty sure.”
We ventured inside with our arms interlocked and it felt good, almost like this was a real university and I was finding a place where I could belong. Olivia didn’t know how much she grounded me and we’d only just met. It felt good to have a friend.
The roar of the cafeteria hit us hard when we stepped inside. The voices echoed off of the unforgiving onyx, reminding me of the Dark Mage dormitories, and I glanced up at the rows of looming statues. “This place is creepy,” I said loud enough for Olivia to hear me over the din.
She chuckled and took a big whiff. “But it smells delicious!”
She was right. Stations of every kind of food imaginable lined the walls and mouth-watering scents drifted over the crowd, making my stomach pinch with hunger. It felt like I hadn’t eaten in forever.
We bypassed a station clearly intended for shifters with raw meat served both bloody or cooked on a spit.
A funnel drew most of the smoke through an escape vent, but enough of the aroma from the cooking meat made me want to pause.
One of the shifters from Logan’s pack glared at me, so I tugged Olivia to keep walking.
Similar glares followed at each station.
Golden fruit at the Demi counter came paired with a snub from Trevor who was eating fish whole.
Then the dark magic counter which had black apples looked as if they might let us join now that Olivia’s powers had emerged, but the second we got close a group of Dark Mages barreled into us and sent me reeling to the floor.
Olivia helped me up. “Do I have something on my face?” I asked. “What gives? Why won’t they let us get food?”
I was starting to get pissed off.
Olivia cast a nervous glance around the room and her nostrils flared. “It’s hard to tell over the food… but I think… I smell a spell.” She looked at a station tucked at the end of the line. “Let’s just eat at the dud counter. I’ve been eating there all week and it’s fine.”
I wanted to protest, but now that I paused to focus, Olivia was right. That hum in my chest had grown and it seemed to resonate with everyone around us.
This was Hendrik’s doing.
I wasn’t going to get this resolved by fighting off a bunch of spelled people. I’d face the Dark Mage bastard later. For now, I needed to get my energy reserves up, which meant food. “Yeah, okay,” I relented.
The dud counter wasn’t half-bad. It was the same kind of comfort food Jess and I would indulge in sometimes when we were in a hurry. I picked out an oversized slice of pepperoni pizza and Olivia got a grilled cheese sandwich.
Finding a place to sit was almost as much fun as finding a counter that would serve us.
The cafeteria was so crowded and the long mahogany tables boasted cliques that had no intention of sharing a spot with us.
My gaze raked over piles of shifters, Dark Mages, and a bunch of girls with perfected resting bitch faces which I assumed were Melinda’s crew.
We finally opted for a small lopsided table in the corner next to a trash bin. I slammed my tray down and glared at the rest of the room as if I could set the entire cafeteria on fire. “This is total bullshit,” I complained, then sat down and folded my pizza in half and shoved it into my face.
What can I say. I was hungry.
Olivia chuckled and elegantly took her seat.
She took one half of the sliced sandwich and pinched it between her fingers before nibbling on the end.
“So, who did you piss off?” she asked, her deepening dark eyes gleaming with excitement.
“It’s got to be a Dark Mage. Make some enemies at the dorms already? I bet I can take her on.”
I took another gigantic bite of my pizza, leaving half of it remaining. I set it down and wiped my mouth with a napkin. “Him, not her,” I corrected around my mouthful. “Hendrik.”
Olivia had been taking a sip of her water when I’d said that and she choked on it. “Hendrik?” she gasped, setting the bottle down and gripping the weak plastic until it threatened to crumple and its insides overflow all over the table.
I scratched at the invisible runes on my arms. If only Kaito hadn’t bound my powers maybe none of this would be happening, but if he hadn’t.
.. no telling what orientation or the Awakening Arena might have revealed.
“I might have pissed Hendrik off at orientation,” I said with a shrug.
“One of the wolf shifters is courting me and Hendrik didn’t like the idea of his ally being stuck with me.
Apparently wolves mate for life, or some shit. ”
Olivia leaned in, clearly captivated by the whole thing. “Which wolf shifter? The only one I’d imagine that Hendrik would care about would be the pack leader, but no way he’d be courting anyone, much less one of us duds.” She grimaced. “Well, no offense. You know what I mean.”
I scratched harder at my arm even though it was starting to burn. “Leader?” I couldn’t see Logan leading anyone out of a paper bag. “What’s the wolf pack leader’s name?” I ventured.
She pointed over my shoulder. “He’s actually right there.”
I turned to find Logan staring straight at me.
He was his usual primal, gorgeous self. At least he wasn’t naked, but he still wore his blazer and tie over his bare chest followed by his loose-fitting pants that had my eyes roaming along the guiding lines of muscle.
He pattered towards us, not wearing any shoes.
“You have some nerve showing your face,” he growled.
I gave the last of my pizza a wistful look before getting out of my chair to face the wolf. “Excuse me?” I countered. “Since when do you talk to me like that? I thought you were courting me.”
Olivia gave a gasp, but I ignored her.
Logan was in a mood, apparently, because he shoved me against the wall and slammed both fists on either side of my face. Even though the cafeteria was packed, an immediate hush descended on our small corner.
Something in Logan’s eyes wasn’t right. Rage burned in him that didn’t make sense and every muscle in his body quivered as if he was resisting a shift.
His mouth parted, taking in my scent as his nostrils flared.
His eyes flashed up to meet mine. “You’ve been fucking the hunter,” he snarled.
“I was courting you until I found out you were just like the rest. A fucking slut.”
I shoved him—hard. Every ounce of my supernatural strength sent him flailing away from me and I was glad I had something to work with. This dud wasn’t a total loser.
“You know I’m not sleeping with Dante,” I said, keeping my voice calm as I lowered it so only he could hear me. “Remember? You were in my room all night. Nobody else was there.”
He blinked a few times as if he was confused, then shook his head. “No,” he snapped. “Hendrik told me the truth.”
A noise of frustration escaped me. “Logan, seriously. I’m not sleeping with him, and even if I was, it’s not really any of your business anyway. I didn’t ask you to court me!”