Most of them seemed really cool, and two particular girls, Heidi and Holly, reminded me so much of Eva and me that I ended up giving them a tour of the whole academy.
I was preparing for my first class and reminding myself to introduce Eva to the girls, when someone knocked on my dormitory door.
“You ready?” Alex asked as I opened the door.
Mascara wand in hand, I glanced at the clock as I returned to the bathroom. “But we still have twenty minutes.”
His cheeks pinked. “It’s a new class for us. New professor, too. We wouldn’t want to be late.”
I arched an eyebrow. “No, we wouldn’t want the healing golden boy to be late for his first Intermediate Healing course.” I laughed at Alex’s sheepish expression. He was so excited to finally be in a class focused purely on healing that he’d been talking about it for weeks. “It’s okay, babe. Even if you don’t show up to half the classes, I’m sure Professor Medulla will still think you’re the best thing since sliced bread. Remind me, how manyotherstudents has he recommended that Tiberius Thorn take them on as interns?”
Alex barged into the room, wrapped his arms around my waist, and lifted me up for a kiss. “Yeah, yeah,” he said when we broke apart. “You’ve made your point. We don’t have to rush.” His hands slid to my hips, and he pressed himself against me.
I waved the mascara wand in front of his face. “Oh no. We don’t have to rush, but we definitely don’t have time forthat.” I pointed at my face. “That is, unless you want your girlfriend showing up to class with half her face done, and wearing a telling flush.”
Alex gave me a roguish smile. “I don’t mind.”
I whacked him on the shoulder. “Well, I do! Sit down while I finish my makeup.”
He obliged, and I went back to applying mascara. When I finished, I peeked out of the bathroom to find him playing with my totem, which I’d left on the bed with my other accessories.
The piece was lighting up at his touch, just as it normally did when our totems were next to each other.
“I wish I knew why they did that,” I said.
Alex nodded. “Me too. I’m tempted to ask during our totem workshop, but I know neither of us feel comfortable with that yet.”
“Not yet,” I agreed. “Hopefully, once we learn a little more, we can share. Don’t worry, babe. There are numerous totem workshops on the schedule.”
“Whatisn’ton the schedule?”
He had a point. We’d received a notice of our full course load yesterday, and boy was it a doozy.
Every day, the Grind students had seven one-hour class sessions, three of which were advanced level magic courses. In addition to regular classes, we had to spend a minimum of six hours in the Physical Conditioning room every week, and attend workshops every other weekend. Eventually, we’d squeeze in specialty tutoring too. Those sessions would be erratic, as they’d depend on our mentors’ schedules.
And then there were our three required Grind missions. They were like our initiate trials on steroids and could last up to four days.
There was a reason they called the second year at Spellcasters the Grind, after all. It could wear a person down. While I was excited for it to start, I knew that balancing all that—hell, getting through it alive—would take a crapload of skill. And way more sleepless nights than I wanted to consider.
I sighed and slipped my totem over my head. The moonstone in the center lit up when it touched my skin and cycled through the colors of the rainbow before resuming its regular appearance.
“All ready,” I said, grabbing a thin sweater to wear over my t-shirt.
It was July, but the academy was an old, massive, mostly stone building, which meant it was always drafty. Some areas, like the basement where Battle Magic took place, were downright cold. This Californian didn’t appreciate freezing her hiney off, so I carried a sweater everywhere.
“Great.” Alex glanced at the clock and, seeing that we still had ten minutes, smiled. “We’ll be sure to get good seats.”
While I’d met Professor Medulla, I’d never seen his healing sanctuary. He’d taught us a bartending workshop in a stark, unused classroom, and I’d expected much the same of the sanctuary. So when I stepped inside it for the first time, the ambiance took me by surprise.
Dozens of amber bottles filled with elixirs lined the walls. Massive bundles of dried herbs and flowers hung from the ceilings. Crystals of all sizes and colors charged on the windowsill. And metal devices, none of which looked reassuring, rested on tables around the room. It even smelled different from most of our other classes, like a meadow, with faint undertones of rubbing alcohol.
“Wow,” I exhaled, taking everything in.
“It’s something, isn’t it?” Alex’s eyes shone with excitement as he pulled me to the front of the class.
Surprisingly, Hunter and Eva were already there.
“Hey, early birds,” I said as we claimed a table next to them. “What got you two here so quick?”
