Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
Obviously, the reason I’d confronted Taggart was his lack of respect for my boundaries and the concept of consent. The reason I’d tossed him, though, was because he’d scared my leopard and because throwing him was definitely better than the alternative, which was to give my magic free rein.
Unfortunately, I’d also been stupid enough to extend our dispute over my body and respect into a wider, territorial one. I’d claimed not only my body, but also the table itself as my territory, which apparently had significant meaning in shifter circles.
To make things worse, I’d reinforced my claim by tossing Taggart out of “my” territory.
Turns out it’s bad form for shifters to get into territorial disputes over minor pieces of property.
We’re supposed to hold those disputes for the properties that matter.
Like pack lands or dens or community gardens, places like that.
Not a cafeteria table in an Academy that isn’t even on shifter lands.
Worse, by claiming the table as my territory, I’d set myself up for territorial disputes. I had to be able to defend my territory from all other shifters, or risk losing it in a territorial battle.
Who knew?
Luckily, the professors all knew and intervened before the various shifters in the cafeteria who overheard my declaration managed to challenge me.
Headmistress Blackthorn arrived in a rush, shouting that all territory at the Academy belonged to the Blackthorns and no one else, demanded my presence in her office and swept out again.
Jasmine offered to accompany me, but I shook my head and walked to the offices alone, a feeling of doom accompanying every step.
I was left to cool my heels in the outer office, waiting for Headmistress Blackthorn to agree to see me. While I waited, I tried to coax my leopard into coming out of hiding, but she was even hiding from me.
By the time Mrs. Caldwell, Blackthorn’s assistant, finally indicated the Headmistress was ready for me, I was shaking with rage.
Somehow, every time I thought about Taggart and how he’d leaned into me, touched me, sniffed me, terrorized my leopard, I got angrier, especially since he’d been fine.
He’d stood, dusted himself off and smirked at me when Professor Blackthorn laid down the law.
To rub salt in the wound, he was still getting to enjoy his lunch, no one taking him to task over his behavior, but I was in the office, where I’d apparently have to defend mine.
The sheer unfairness of it all made my leopard stir, and for a moment, I thought she might come out of hiding, but then she was gone again.
“All right, dear.” Mrs. Caldwell stood and walked around her desk. “She’s ready for you now. Don’t look so worried. Just explain what happened and you’ll be fine.” With a kind smile, Mrs. Caldwell led me to Blackthorn’s door.
She immediately ruined her message, though, because the moment she knocked and was bid to enter, it became clear that Mrs. Caldwell was slightly terrified of her boss.
This was evident in the way her hand shook as she opened the door and the tentative way she cleared her throat before saying my name. “Ms. Mitchell to see you, ma’am.”
“Well, send her in. ”
Mrs. Caldwell gave me an encouraging nod and closed the door behind me when I stepped into Blackthorn’s office.
As it turned out, Mrs. Caldwell’s advice to just explain what had happened wasn’t helpful at all since Headmistress Blackthorn didn’t feel my explanation was adequate. She didn’t care what provocation Taggart had given me because my job was to control myself while at Blackthorn Academy.
In addition, she was of the opinion that I should have known the consequences of what she called my ‘attempted territorial grab’ since my dad was a full-blooded shifter.
Her attitude made me want to set my flames free and burn her office to ash around her.
These were the impulses that had made my parents fear me. Though I never started any fires, despite the terrifying nightmares that plagued me, I think they could see the fury and the temptation to do so raging inside me.
It was this temptation to set my fires free that made it difficult to argue with Headmistress Blackthorn. Articulating my thoughts while also holding tight to my magic was difficult at best.
I did, however, manage to grit through my teeth that my leopard was basically a newborn and I had zero experience with her. “I’m a witch, Headmistress Blackthorn, not a shifter!”
Unbelievably, she told me that was no excuse. “You will learn to control your leopard here at Blackthorn Academy, Ms. Mitchell. But whether you are in control or not, there will be no more attacking and throwing students, and no more claiming of territory or fighting over it. None of this territory belongs to you or your leopard or any other student at the Academy. I’ve already made that clear to the rest of the student body. There will be no territorial disputes at Blackthorn. Are we clear on this?”
“Yes, ma’am.” I wanted to protest that it wasn’t so much about the damn table as it was about my body, but I was so pissed, I was afraid I’d lose my grip on my fire and that would be a disaster.
“Excellent. Moving on, then. I have your class schedule here and it appears to be lacking a critical course. Why have you not signed up for Inner Beast Management before now? You’re in your third year at Blackthorn and you haven’t taken this course even once. Your classmates are worlds ahead of you in their studies.”
Seriously? What did she not get about my leopard being a newborn?
“I didn’t have an inner beast when we signed up for classes,” I said with what I considered to be remarkable patience, especially since my leopard was continuously growling softly in my head, distracting me from our conversation.
“You’re the daughter of a shifter. You should have signed up for this course your first year.”
“Why would I sign up for a class about controlling my inner beast when I didn’t have one?” I demanded, distracted by the fact that my leopard was stirring and prowling closer to the surface. She growled softly in my head and sent me a picture of our lunch.
I almost toppled out of the chair because this was the first time she’d ever reached out to me to communicate. My dad had told me that leopards typically did so by sending images, but we weren’t sure my leopard would even try since she was so feral and unfriendly.
“Well, you certainly have one now,” Headmistress Blackthorn said, “which means you probably had one back then as well, so this was very short-sighted of you. If you had signed up, you’d be in a much better position right now, far more prepared to deal with your rather angry leopard.”
Damnit.
I hated that she had a point. But how was I to know? They didn’t tell me I had to take the class, so I didn’t.
My leopard sent another picture of our lunch, this time with a sense of urgency attached.
I guess she was hungry, which made sense as we hadn’t gotten to finish our lunch, on account of this trip to the headmistress’ office.
“Well, it’s too late now, so we’re just going to have to make the best of it,” the Headmistress continued. “I’m adding this class to your schedule, but not the year one class. Even though that’s probably what you deserve, it’s not what you need. You’ll be with the other year three students, which means they’ll be quite advanced compared to you, so I’m also assigning you a tutor.”
Seriously? This was all that idiot wolf, Taggart’s fault.
“Elliot Markham is taking this class with the fourth years, for the fourth time, but not because he needs it. The truth is, he didn’t need it his first year. He’s been in perfect control of his dragon from the moment he walked through our Academy doors.”
“Dragon?” I burst out. What was it with dragons in my life lately?
“Is that a problem?” The look on her face clearly expressed that saying yes would only irritate her.
I shook my head. “No, Headmistress.”
“Excellent. I will let Elliot know to expect you in the library Monday and Wednesday afternoons at sixteen hundred hours, starting tomorrow.”
I wanted to protest that I already had a full schedule, which meant that adding a class plus two tutoring sessions was cruel and unusual punishment, but I held my tongue. No sense in irritating her. With my luck, she’d make it three tutoring sessions.
By the time I got back to the cafeteria, new schedule in hand, the remains of my lunch were long gone, as were the students I’d been eating with. The second part would be a bonus, except I felt bad for ditching Jasmine. She’d been left behind to deal with the aftermath of my outburst.
I went exploring in the kitchens and helped myself to snacks from the pantry while I fixed a towering sandwich from leftovers in the fridge.
That was one of the nice things about the Academy. No matter what time of day or night, food was always available for the hungry.
Or in my case, for the newborn leopard who was now jumping up and down in excitement over our impromptu meal. This was the first time I sensed excitement and happiness from her. Up to now, it was always either fear or anger.
It suddenly occurred to me that she’d been in fight or flight mode her entire lifetime. I’d called her a newborn in Headmistress Blackthorn’s office, but not once had I actually treated her that way.
While eating my sandwich standing up in the kitchen, I contemplated how I might bridge the gap between the two of us and help my leopard feel safe. I then went to find Jasmine, who as it turned out, was waiting for me in my room.
Apparently Jahrdran and Kasi were still going at it.
“I saved your lunch,” Jasmine greeted me the minute I arrived. “You got here just in time too because I’ve been eyeing your pie. Another five minutes and it might have been gone.”
“Hands off my pie, woman.” I might have told her to go ahead and eat it, except the minute she heard the word pie, my leopard began bouncing around in my head, radiating joy. It couldn’t possibly be this easy, but I was going to take what I could get.
So I sat down to eat dessert and told Jasmine all about my meeting with Blackthorn and the mandated tutoring sessions.
“That sucks,” Jasmine concluded.
I nodded glumly. “I tried to convince her to let me drop Dragon Riding 101?—”
“What? But we’re taking that one together!”
”—but she wouldn’t let me. She said it’d be good practice for me, learning to control my leopard while around other predators.”
“Well, thank goodness! I can’t believe you tried to ditch me.”
“You know I never wanted to take that class in the first place.”
“Whatever.” Jasmine rolled her eyes. “You’ll end up thanking me later, you know.”
I didn’t say what I was thinking, that the likelihood of that was practically zero. Or less than zero. Probably less than since I wasn’t exactly enthused about learning how to ride a dragon. Unfortunately, back in the spring when we were signing up for classes, Jasmine had insisted that this particular one would be epically fun.
Even then, I’d known she was full of shit.
“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” I said now, glaring at her. “I’ve had enough danger at the Academy to last me a lifetime.”
“Oh, please. This is an educational institution. How dangerous could it possibly be?”
“Seriously?” I exclaimed. “This educational institution comes with its own warnings when you enroll, or did you not read the fine print? Not to mention the moat and the forest filled with dangerous creatures. And let’s not forget the class itself, which is all about riding dragons !”
“Yes, but think of the eye candy we’ll get to enjoy every single class period. ”
“You’re not talking about Vorzak again, are you?” Jasmine was obsessed with the gorgon, who wasn’t in a single one of our classes last year, which meant we rarely saw him, which was wonderful as far as I was concerned, considering how terrifying I found him and his snakes to be. They were always growing and twitching and twining and staring at you, even when he was looking in the opposite direction.
Not a man I would ever consider dating.
Jasmine, on the other hand, was completely enamored. She also refused to do anything about it, like walk up and introduce herself, which made the whole situation ridiculous.
“Of course not,” Jasmine exclaimed. “But wouldn’t it be amazing if he was in our class too?”
I swear if this were the 1800s, I’d have the vapors at just the thought of having to deal with both dragons and snakes in one class. “No,” I said firmly.
“Oh, come on, Mikaela.”
“Just no. You know how I feel about snakes.”
Jasmine snickered.
“So if you weren’t talking about Vorzak, who’s the eye candy, then?”
“Professor Vesely, of course!”
I gave her a blank look.
“Professor HDB?”
I snickered. “Oh, him . I guess I never knew his real name.” We’d taken to calling the most good-looking instructor on campus Professor Hot, Dark and Broody our first year at the Academy. By spring of that year, we’d shortened it to HDB.
She laughed. “Well, he teaches Dragon Riding, so if nothing else, the scenery will be pretty.”