“That sounds amazing,” Glynda said, looking envious. “My mom is super ambitious. She bragged for weeks when I got accepted to Starfall.”
“Wait…what? Was there an exam or something?”
“Yeah. Why? Didn’t you take it?”
“Um, no? I got picked up in a market after causing a, um, fire, and then wham, here I was! Some mage teleported me here.”
Glynda stared at me. “Seriously? A mage abducted you and sent you here?”
“Yup. Never even got the chance to say goodbye,” I replied glumly. Poor Willow. I hoped Adam hadn’t punished her when it was all my fault. Without me pestering her to death, she would never have agreed to take me to the market.
“That’s awful! I’ve never heard of that happening before.”
“Maybe I’m special,” I winked, deciding it was pointless moaning. I was here with no way to leave, so I may as well make the most of the opportunity.
Starfall wasn’t so bad, even if I had to deal with bullies like Demelza and Alaric.
They might think they had the upper hand – Okay, so they almost certainly did until I learned how to wield my magic better – but I wasn’t totally defenseless.
And besides, I’d made a friend. I bit into the cheese roll I’d brought with me from the food hall. Stars, the cheese here tasted good. Much nicer than the goat’s cheese I made back at the compound.
“I should probably go now,” Glynda said after a moment. “I expect you have stuff you want to do.”
“Nope! I have nothing, remember?” I waved around the room. “Not even a book to read.” Which honestly sucked.
Glynda’s face brightened. “Oh, that’s easily remedied! Let me give you a tour of the library!”
9
Raven
I’d looked after the compound’s livestock since I was old enough to walk. Every morning, without fail, I rolled out of bed to feed the chickens, horses, and goats. A quick glance around the gymnasium where we assembled for my first PT class told me I wasn’t the weakest magical in the room. Some, like Demelza and her friends, looked like they’d never lifted a sack of grain in their lives.
Others, like Alar-dick and his friend, who’d shot me a cheeky grin when we walked in, probably worked out on the regular.
But fitness wasn’t the only factor at play here, as Glynda had warned me ten minutes earlier. All the students in this academy had more control over their magic than I did, which gave them a significant advantage. I suspected most were more powerful than me too, despite what the headmaster thought.
A mix of students stood around chatting while we waited for the coach to appear. I recognized a few witches and mages, but the rest were strangers. Some looked like shifters; they seemed to be bigger than average, with more muscles. But others were a mystery to me.
One guy’s blue-tinted skin shimmered in the light, and his companion seemed suspiciously hairy and squat-looking, with short legs and a barrel chest.
“A merman and a troll,” Glynda whispered under the breath. “They come from the islands.”
Oh, the mysterious islands. The place Demelza referred to with such derision. I resolved to make friends with the island magicals. They could be my tribe. We outsiders needed to stick together in this cutthroat school. Demelza might have a superiority complex, but I’d bet my last sprig of sage that she’d lose a swimming competition with a merman. That dude had powerful shoulders. And possibly fins. Did mermen have fins? It seemed like something I needed to know.
Was there even a swimming pool here?
I resolved to add these questions to my list of things to ask Glynda.
“I wonder who’s taking over for Coach Woods,” a mage to my left murmured to his friend.
“No idea, but it’s shit what happened to him.”
“Yeah. Imagine being torn apart by a feral wolf. Jeez, that must have been painful. I heard it took the healers hours to sew his limbs back on.”
The second mage retched loudly. “Shut the fuck up, Horace. I just ate my fucking breakfast!”
Eww, that sounded…painful. But as I was about to question Glynda about it, a door at the back of the room opened and a mountain of a man walked in wearing nothing but a pair of blue shorts and somesneakers.
