Ilia dashed up then, barely out of breath. Her dark skin was rosy, her lips red, her hair healthy and bouncy. If I didn’t like her so much, I’d have to hate her on principle.
“Got one!” she all but shouted, holding it out to me.
My eyes widened at the satchel. It looked expensive and designer, made from dark brown leather, with two thick buckles on either side holding it together.
“Hope you don’t mind that it’s been lightly used,” she said. “This was mine for a few months in my last year of school.”
A short burst of laughter left me. “Are you actually kidding me right now? I’ve never owned anything this beautiful before. I can’t even tell you used it.” I slipped my books and pens inside, buckled it closed, and hooked the strap across my body. It was perfectly weighted, and I could barely even tell it was there.
Ilia shrugged. “I have a shopping problem. This is just one of many bags I own. I won’t even notice it’s gone.”
Our worlds could not be more different, but apparently it didn’t matter when it came to friendship. We’d found our common ground somewhere.
A tinkling sound drifted through the air, and I remembered it from yesterday.
“That’s the school bell around here,” Ilia said, as students got to their feet around us. “It still sounds even when we’re on vacation, just so we know roughly what time it is.”
My skin tingled as the tune finished its light melody, and I shivered.
“There’s magic in the music,” Larissa explained, noticing me rubbing at my arms. “Not that you have to be supe to know that. Music moves everyone in different ways, and it’s a magic even humans can access.”
Truth.
We fell in behind the largest group of students, and while we walked to the assembly room, I spent my time examining them closely, trying to guess which race they were.
Vampires—even Larissa—had this preternatural way of moving. Too quickly, too gracefully, very predatory. I picked a few out in the crowd and was excited when I spotted some pointed fangs on one. Evidence that I’d actually guessed right.
Fey, again, were reasonably obvious. They looked perfect. Like … nothing had ever ruffled them and they didn’t wake up with bed hair and bad breath—supermodels with a full makeup and filter job on them.
Shifters and magic users were a little more difficult. I guessed at a few, because I felt like shifters would be more … animalistic. But, after seeing Asher, that wasn’t necessarily correct. He’d had all that feral energy in his gaze.
I’d figure it out though.
I continued to follow my friends, not paying the slightest attention to where we were going. We ended up in a huge brick building—as big as any concert stadium. It had fancy padded chairs that went on for miles; students were filling them at a rapid rate.
“How many students go here?” I asked.
Ilia blinked, her face going blank. “Uh, I have no idea.” She shot Larissa a look. “Daddy princeps ever fill you in?”
Larissa shook her head, a small smile quirking her lips. “Dad, or one of the teachers, tell us at the assembly every year. You haven’t listened once, have you?”
Ilia didn’t even look remotely contrite. “Your dad is awesome and I consider him a friend as well as an employer, but … yeah, I usually miss the first assembly.” She waved her hands around. “It’s such a clusterfuck of supes in here, and I need my space.”
Her independence was one of her coolest traits. Made her seem extra badass to me, because part of me had always been looking for my place in this world. Larissa led us down the middle aisle—there were at least four other aisles splitting the rows of chairs—and Ilia groaned when we ended up near the front. “Could you be any more of a princeps’s-daughter-cliché?”
Larissa stuck her tongue out but didn’t seem offended. “Best seats are up front, Ilia, you know that.”
Ilia shook her head like homegirl was crazy but didn’t argue again. We filed across the front and took three seats together.
The noise increased as more students arrived. “Is it normal for the races to mix together?” I whispered to Larissa, who was on my right.
She gave a little half shrug. “Yes and no. In the real world we’re pretty segregated, but Dad tries to change that up here. Yes, we are often with our own races for specialty classes, but for the most part we mix. This Academy is well known for fostering supernatural unity.”
Princeps Jones was fast becoming my favorite principal ever. The schools I’d gone to before had been a dreary existence for student and teacher. That was not the vibe here at all.
A few minutes later, the vampire himself walked out onto a raised platform in front of us. He wasn’t alone; a dozen or more other supernaturals followed him. Most of them looked a little older than the students, but also … not. There was a sense of maturity about them, but their faces remained young and unlined.
“Good morning,” Princeps Jones started, his voice naturally projecting across the huge room. “Or, good evening for some of you night dwellers.”
