Chapter 21 Raven
Raven
After I’d read the same paragraph ten times, absorbing nothing useful, I threw the book on lesser demons down. Alar-dick was supposed to have been here thirty minutes ago, but it was becoming increasingly clear he had no intentions of becoming my magic mentor.
As the Mage Council leader’s son, there wasn’t much anyone could do or say to force him. One thinly veiled threat from his father and even the most powerful witch would back down.
I sighed. It was time to call it quits and leave.
I had almost completed my assignment on demons, so I planned to go back to my room and sleep.
Tomorrow was Saturday, which meant we had no classes.
Glynda had suggested we binge-watch a supernatural series humans loved, which seemed like a fantastic idea to me.
Just as I stood to leave, a familiar face appeared.
“Leaving so soon?” Alaric smirked before stumbling to a halt next to my table.
His hair was a mess, and he reeked of shifter moonshine and cheap perfume.
Not that his disheveled appearance detracted from his sex appeal.
Even drunk as a shifter at a full-moon party, the mage had it going on.
Arrogant pig.
Oh, wait. Pigs were sweet creatures. Affectionate and intelligent. Qualities this mage lacked.
“I was leaving, yes. Figured you weren’t coming.”
“I came,” he drawled. “That’s why I was late.
” The subtext of his words sank in, and I blushed.
Stars above, what a disgusting male. I felt sorry for any poor witch invited into his bed.
Still, my disgust at his nasty insinuation didn’t stop me from admiring the way his shirt molded his cut chest muscles.
Ugh. Why did someone so nasty have to be so pretty? What a pity his personality didn’t match the packaging.
He dropped into a chair and man-spread, giving me ample opportunity to admire the significant bulge in his pants. Not that I fell into such a trap. As a strong, independent witch with boundaries, I had willpower in spades.
“So, I hear you’re having trouble controlling your magic.” He chuckled. “Caused quite a stir in the dining hall.”
Something about the mocking tone of his voice made me look up. My magic spiked and flared in my veins, drawn to him like always, but I ignored it.
“Were you there?” Of course he was. No doubt he took great pleasure in my embarrassing reaction to a stupid prank.
“No, but there are videos online.” I didn’t have access to social media, but my magical hiccup seemed like the stuff people would record and post to WitchTok.
“Look them up on your phone.” His grin widened when I gritted my teeth.
He knew I didn’t have a phone, which was something else Maverick went nuts about when he walked me back to my dorm early yesterday morning.
I wasn’t sure why it mattered, but since I had no money, there was nothing I could do to change the situation.
“Oh yes, you don’t have one.”
My patience snapped. “Look, if you have nothing useful to say and don’t want to help me, then please go away.” I grabbed my pile of books and went to leave, but a hand caught my wrist.
The tether between us tightened and hummed with magical power. Sparks burst into life in the air like a crazy firework display. I panicked at the thought of all these amazing books bursting into flames and yanked my wrist away. Almost immediately, the sparks vanished.
“What the actual fuck?” Alaric choked out, looking almost as shocked as I felt.
“And that’s why I need help,” I whispered, close to tears. If the stupid mage refused to help me, I’d have to help myself.
This library contained a vast number of books. Surely one of them would have information that might help me.
“Yeah, you do,” Alaric agreed, a lot more sober than he had been five minutes earlier. He raked his fingers through his hair and sighed. “Sit down and let’s see where you’re at.”
An hour later I was ready to punch Alaric in the face. He’d forced me outside into a courtyard at the back of the library, to “make sure you don’t destroy all the irreplaceable books”.
After taking a seat on a stone bench, he’d barked instructions at me and made me feel like a useless lump of clay.
“No! Concentrate, dammit!” he yelled as my magic set fire to a potted rose bush. The poor thing burned brightly for a few seconds and then collapsed inward into a pile of ash.
“I’m trying! But you’re not helping!”
He muttered something rude and then stood. Rain had begun to fall a few minutes earlier, but he seemed oblivious. Not that I was complaining. A downpour might stop me from burning the place down.
“Focus, Raven. Where can you feel your magic? Mine sits in the pit of my stomach, like a small shiny ball. When I call on it, that ball expands and spreads outward.”
I chewed my lip while thinking hard.
“In my chest?”
Alaric rolled his eyes. “You don’t sound sure about that.”
“I’m not!” I huffed. “It feels like it’s everywhere all at once. Not in one place.”
“Then focus on where it feels strongest.”
I did as he suggested. When I pinned it down, my magic seemed strongest in my upper chest, tucked under my breastbone. I tapped the amulet resting beneath my wet shirt, which sat right over it.
The mage’s eyes drifted to the same space, lingering on my breasts. The heat between us kicked up a notch, blurring my focus once again.
In a flash, he moved behind me, his arms around my waist. His magical energy anchored me to the floor.
“Can you feel it, Raven?” One hand curled around my hip while the other covered the hand that rested between my breasts. A subtle shift of his hips provoked a small gasp.
“I… can feel it.”
He exhaled against my ear. “Good girl.”
My whole body melted. Heat flooded my veins as my magic burned bright. The tug in my chest yanked so hard I almost screamed. Alaric shoved me forward, causing me to stumble to my knees in shock. When I whirled around to cuss him out, he’d gone.
I was still muttering obscenities when the storm raging over the campus finally abated. With it being a full moon, the shifters had planned a party in the woods, but they canceled it when some poor, unfortunate wolf got struck by lightning as he shifted.
He’d live, but I heard the scar on his butt was pretty impressive.
Now that the rain had finally slowed down, I planned to sneak out and search for the orange trumpet flowers I needed to make a potion guaranteed to keep Alar-dick chained to his toilet for a week.
Honestly, the mage deserved something a lot worse, but I wasn’t willing to risk a life sentence in a magical penitentiary. Murder in the first degree meant being thrown into solitary with no access to one’s magic or any chance of parole.
Some campaigners argued this was inhumane and worse than a death sentence because blocking a magical’s power indefinitely usually caused the person to go insane.
The lights were off in the common room when I crept downstairs.
Anyone in the mood to party had gone to the shifter dorm, where a rager was in full swing.
Glynda had invited me to a movie marathon in her room, but I’d said no.
I wasn’t in the mood for socializing. Because she was a nice witch, she hadn’t pressed me for a reason, which I was grateful for.
I jogged over the lawn, sticking to the shadows around the gymnasium.
Hopefully, this little expedition wouldn’t take too long.
My bear would be angry if he thought I’d ventured into the forest alone.
I had debated asking him to come with me, but it seemed unfair to expect him to act as my personal bodyguard at this late hour.
Magic wards protected the boundary of the forest surrounding the academy. Humans couldn’t cross them, and as far as I knew, there were no dangerous creatures roaming around. Not unless you included drunk shifters.
But with the storm only just dying away, I didn’t expect to meet any of those.
They were all too busy drinking and having sex back in their dorms. At least I assumed so.
I’d seen Demelza and her friends heading that way earlier, all of them wearing dresses so scant they may as well not have bothered.
Given she viewed other species as inferior, it made me wonder why she was so willing to party with the shifters. But I guessed getting dicked down while having access to unlimited quantities of shifter moonshine helped.
The ground squelched under my feet when I finally reached the trees. Water dripped down my neck, and I shivered in the chill night air. I tucked the small canvas herb bag I’d borrowed from the garden store and trudged on, letting the light from the full moon high above the trees guide me.
A wolf howling in the distance sent a shudder down my spine. Crossing paths with a wild wolf was not on my bingo card, and I prayed if there was a pack living in this forest, they didn’t come near the campus.
I carried on walking, following the paths as they snaked around trees. Orange trumpet flowers typically grew in rotten wood, so I kept my eyes peeled for a fallen tree trunk. It took an hour, but eventually I came across a small clump of flowers, their petals open skyward.
Just as I’d finished plucking enough leaves to brew several potions, the sound of excited wolves howling and yipping in the distance made me jump.
Ugh. The shifters must have left the dorm to run under a full moon.
I prayed we wouldn’t cross paths. The full moon made shifters overly aggressive and horny, a terrible combination, and given the unpredictable nature of my magic, I might end up in trouble.
Maybe I should have asked Maverick to come with me. Oh well, it was too late now.
I carefully hooked my bag over my chest and set off back toward campus. The howls grew closer, and from the crashing sounds, they were chasing each other or some poor, unfortunate prey animal.
Stars above, I hoped they hadn’t caught my scent. The thought of being hunted put some extra pep in my step. I sped up into a slow jog, eager to get out of the forest but aware that running in such wet conditions would end up with me face-planting a bog.
Lights in the distance told me the campus wasn’t too far away, and I exhaled in relief before a sudden volley of howls and barks to my left made me jump in shock. I tripped over a fallen branch as a small white fox shot out of a bush, yipping in panic.
It leaped into my arms, trembling in terror, just as three enormous wolves crashed through the trees and skidded to a halt.