Chapter 29 Raven
Raven
Glynda shot me a curious look as I fidgeted in my chair. My thighs still burned from my bear’s attentions, and since he’d stolen my panties, I was bare beneath my skirt. Stars above, did that make me a slutty witch? Probably.
After the incubus blinked me away, I’d nearly vomited. Unfortunately, instead of taking me to my room, he’d brought me to the library, right at the back of the stacks where the dustiest and most obscure texts lived.
Before I could cuss him out, he’d planted a kiss on my lips and vanished, leaving me with an ache in my chest. Two minutes later, Glynda appeared with a pile of books in her arms. She’d dropped them when she saw me, sending both of us into a major coughing fit thanks to all the dust.
Deflecting her questions about how she’d missed my arrival, I joined her and two other witches for a study session before our next class. Not that I got anything done. Maverick had melted my brain.
“Miss Blackstone. Have you fallen asleep?”
I woke from a power nap to find Glynda furiously stabbing my leg with a pencil while Professor Oakman glared at me. Several witches nearby snickered.
“Um, sorry, no!”
“Then pay attention!” He grumbled to himself while moving books around on his desk.
“Today, we’re going to discuss witch’s familiars.
Most of you will not meet your familiars until your third year.
Some of you may have to wait even longer, and a small minority will never have one because fate decided not to bless you with this special gift. ”
“What’s yours, sir?” a witch with long red hair called out from the second row. No sooner had the words left her lips than a gorgeous tabby cat appeared from a door behind the professor. She hopped onto the professor’s desk and surveyed the class with disdain.
“Class, meet Angelica. She and I have been friends for several decades.” Oakman’s eyes narrowed as his gaze drifted over each of us.
“My use of the word friend is deliberate. Familiars are our friends. Not tools to make us more powerful, as some believe. The witch-familiar relationship is a partnership of equals. Familiars choose to bond with their witches, so abusing the relationship for selfish means is wrong.”
The cat butted her head against the professor’s hand, and he petted her with an affectionate smile.
“Angelica helps ground my magic, and when I run low, she can channel for me. In return, I protect her from predators and give her all the head scratches she wants.” He cooed at the cat, who purred loudly in return.
It was clear to all of us that the two had a close and loving relationship.
I wondered whether Kenji and I would ever achieve that.
Or why he’d chosen me, a weak elemental witch.
Stars above, it was a mystery.
“Now, who can tell me about the first witch familiar on record?” Several hands shot into the air, including Glynda’s.
The professor began a discussion about the various famous witch-familiar partnerships from the history texts, including Valentina Blake and the eagle who’d saved her life after she fell into a raging torrent of water.
I listened intently, hoping to learn something useful. When I’d asked Kenji the previous evening how our partnership was supposed to function, he’d ignored me and carried on eating the snack he’d stolen from the kitchen.
Maybe I could speak to the professor after class and seek his advice.
The class was almost over when someone asked if there was any possibility they’d meet their familiar sooner than year three. Glynda smirked at me but said nothing.
“It does sometimes happen, as was the case with Mabel Golightly, who met her falcon in year two at the academy, but don’t expect to meet your familiars until year three.”
“Raven’s met hers,” Demelza piped up from behind me.
Professor Oakman looked at me with surprise and suspicion.
“Is that true, Miss Blackstone?” I flushed red under the combined weight of every student in the class staring at me with a mixture of envy, jealousy, and disbelief.
“Umm…” Before I could expand, Kenji popped into view on my desk with a gold watch in his fist. I stared at the watch. Diamonds twinkled back at me. This was no ordinary watch. Even I could see that. He tossed the watch into my lap and turned to face the professor.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
“Extraordinary,” the professor gasped eventually.
Kenji puffed up his two tails and preened, clearly enjoying all the attention.
The cat sitting on Professor Stone’s desk hissed loudly, the fur along her spine spiked in territorial aggression.
Before I could stop him, Kenji barked with excitement and shot across the room, knocking books and phones flying as he scrambled over desks and chairs to reach the cat.
The professor yelled, but it was no use. My kitsune was way too caught up in the excitement of chasing a disgruntled cat. He nipped the feline’s tail as she swiped furiously at his nose, claws extended. A small bead of blood appeared on his muzzle, but that seemed to egg him on even more.
“Kenji! Stop!” He half turned as the professor blasted him with water magic, sending him careering into a bookcase.
I stared in horror as my bedraggled, soggy kitsune lay motionless, his eyes closed. Tears burned my eyes. Oh my stars! Had the professor murdered my familiar? The magic sleeping in my veins surged forward, ready to exact vengeance. Shadows darkened outside, and the room turned from day to night.
Fire sprang to life in my palms, but when someone nearby yelped in fear, Kenji spoke in my mind.
“I hope you have air magic, witch, because I need a fucking blow-dry before my fur gets matted.”
Some of my panic faded. “Oh my goddess, are you hurt?”
“Only my pride.” He scrambled to his feet and shook vigorously, still searching for the cat.
“Class dismissed! Everyone out but you, Miss Blackstone.”
The other witches and mages filed out while casting curious glances at my familiar, who’d decided the cat was no longer worth chasing and was busy grooming himself.
As soon as the door closed on the last student, Professor Oakman turned to me with a huge grin.
“This is exciting, Miss Blackstone!”
His reaction was unexpected. “It is?”
“Yes! You’re the only student in the academy’s history to meet their familiar in their first year!”
“I told you I was special,” Kenji huffed, but I ignored him. It was only through the grace of the goddess I wasn’t in trouble because of his antics. “However,” Professor Oakman continued, “it’s clear you need some control over your familiar. He seems a rather willful creature.”
Kenji looked up and bared his teeth, emitting a low growl. The cat, which had been hiding behind a pile of books, peeked out and hissed.
“He’s just excited to be here,” I said, trying to defuse the situation. “We only met a few days ago, and I have no clue how this relationship works yet.”
“Honestly, it’s simple,” Kenji told me. “You make sure I am well fed with premium meats and snacks, provide a comfortable bed, and I occasionally help you if my schedule allows.”
I threw him a glare, fairly certain that wasn’t how the witch-familiar relationship worked.
“Yes, yes,” Professor Oakman muttered, still gazing at Kenji with stars in his eyes. “And such an unusual familiar too! Nobody’s seen a kitsune in decades.”
“Probably because the mages hunted us to near extinction,” Kenji hissed.
My heart stopped. “Hunted?”
“So I think a few private lessons would be helpful, Miss Blackstone,” Oakman was saying when I tuned back in. My fists clenched so hard I almost drew blood. How dare mages hunt my familiar and his family!
“Kenji says mages killed kitsunes, and that’s why they disappeared.” The professor blinked in surprise. Then he cleared his throat.
“That’s all in the past, Miss Blackstone. I can assure you nobody hunts kitsunes these days.” Kenji scoffed in my mind.
“Only because they can’t find us.”
“They better not or I’ll…” I clammed up because even though I was no threat to powerful mages, my bear was, but Professor Oakman didn’t know that.
“Please rest assured your kitsune is perfectly safe on campus.” I didn’t know whether I could trust the professor, but I needed his help with Kenji.
“I have a book on kitsunes in my personal library, which I think you’ll find useful.
” Kenji flopped down on my desk, still bedraggled, looking bored.
He pretended to snooze while keeping one eye on the cat in the hope she gave him an excuse to chase her again.
“Come to my office in the morning, and I’ll let you borrow it. If your familiar agrees, I’d like to study him. Unusual familiars are a pet project of mine.”
Kenji’s snarl told me exactly what he thought about that idea, but not wanting to upset the professor, I smiled brightly.
“Um, let me talk to Kenji and get back to you on that. But the book sounds interesting!”
“Wonderful. My office is on the second floor of the main building. I’ll be there from 8 a.m. tomorrow.” The professor waved me away and moved back to his desk. His cat threw one last glare in Kenji’s direction before disappearing through a small cat flap.
I waited until we’d left Professor Oakman’s classroom before I pulled the sparkling watch from my pocket. “Care to explain where this came from?” I asked Kenji.
Ignoring my question, he grabbed it with a claw and blinked away.
Goddess forgive me for wishing harm on my familiar, but stars above, he tried my patience. From what Professor Oakman had told me, the bond with a familiar was meant to be mutually supportive. So far, all Kenji had done was be a pain in my butt.
As I walked down the corridor toward the exit, a familiar mage strode toward me, lost in thought. With his long legs, he moved at a much faster pace than I did, and before I could move out of his way, we crashed into each other.