Good to know. “Is this something all supes”—the word felt foreign on my tongue—“can do?”
“No,” Ilia said, with a shake of her head. “Only a few of the demi-fey have that ability. And maybe some very powerful sorcerers, but you won’t have to worry about them. It’s rare.”
Right. Of course. Just demi-fey and powerful sorcerers.
What in the actual fuck of all fucks was happening to me?
“Just up ahead is the step-through sent by the Academy,” Ilia said. “Are you going to scream again?” She watched me closely.
I shrugged. “I don’t even have a clue what a step-through is, so, yeah, probably.”
Mossie grinned, and its distinct creepiness distracted me again. There was nothing calming about the goblin, that was for sure. We turned a corner and ducked under some dense bushes, and Ilia stopped before a … swirling portal. There was no other way to describe it.
“Uh, I’m not touching that,” I said, shuffling back. Which was dangerous when your hands were bound. If I tripped, I couldn’t break my fall.
Ilia followed my movements, staying close to me. “You have no choice. It would take us days to get to the Academy otherwise, and we’d have to fly on a plane with humans because I don’t have the private one here. I’m sure you don’t want your hands bound for days.”
“I hate you,” I groused at her, injecting as much anger as I could into the words.
She almost looked hurt then. “I’m just doing my job! Everyone has a part to play in this world, and for me it’s making sure supes are not stuck in the human world without training.”
I almost felt bad, but the truth was she’d still bound my hands with her hocus-pocus bullshit and was now attempting to kidnap me. So she could just suck up my anger. Resigning myself to the fact that I was still at the stage of “do anything to get these stupid things off my wrists,” I reluctantly stepped closer to the swirlingstep-through.
Mossie was waiting patiently. “I’ll show you,” he said, and he took two steps forward, disappearing into the swirl. I looked around the back of the bushes, but he had not walked straight through.
It had taken him somewhere.
I gasped, choking on my own panic as I tried to backpedal again.
Ilia stepped in right behind me, stopping my backward trajectory. “It doesn’t hurt,” she groaned, sounding exasperated. “You’re going to be fine.”
Easy for her to say, she was clearly used to this world. A world I wasn’t sure I actually believed could be true. If I didn’t have a tiny green goblin as evidence and bound hands I needed freed, I’d be screaming and running.
But a part of me wanted to stay.
To find out answers to the many burning questions I had.
And the deepest, darkest truth of it all was … what did I really have to lose? Another year of waitressing and hiding from the world? Fuck, maybe this was the change I’d been hoping for.
Or … maybe I was about to be murdered and used in some sort of witchy cult ritual.
Either way, my life was definitely going in a different direction.
Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward, closing my eyes as I crossed through the step-through.
3
Iopened my eyes to find myself in a winter wonderland. It was white fields of snow, trees dusted with fresh powder, and not a sliver of civilization in sight.
“Nice school,” I said sarcastically when Ilia joined me. “Architecturally designed, I see.”
Mossie snorted from nearby and I spun to find the goblin leaning against a snow-covered tree. “You’ll need that humor to keep yourself afloat in this new world,” he told me, still chuckling.
“Where are we now?” I asked. “Still in America?”
He shook his head. “Nope. Europe. The Academy is hidden in Switzerland. Been here for a very long time.”
I coughed.Whoa.My first trip overseas, and I hadn’t even stepped foot on a plane. What in the…
