Magic.
I swallowed hard, but before I could lose my mind, Ilia linked her arm through mine, dragging me along. I couldn’t do anything to dislodge her either, not with my hands bound. “Come on, the Academy is just over here,” she said, her voice lit with excitement. “You’ll see it soon enough.” She winked at me. “And it was sorcerer designed, if you really want to know.”
I snorted, and a small bud of anticipation pushed through my shock. It was clear Ilia was happy to be back here, and I wanted to see it for myself.
“How long have you been tracking me?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Five years, give or take.”
I swallowed, one date standing out for me. “Since the night my mom died?”
Ilia’s face fell. “That night your grief triggered some of your supernatural powers. You sent a blast of energy into the world. It was from then we had you on our radar as an unknown, powerful supe. But you disappeared again so quickly. We remained on the case, tracking you whenever you sent out a flare. Recently, your energy has gotten stronger, which helped me narrow the search.”
I remembered the night my mother died so clearly. She’d been fighting with the current dirtbag pimp-slash-drug-dealer-slash-boyfriend. He’d hit her just a little too hard, smashing her head through the glass coffee table. I walked through the door thirty minutes later to find him wrapping her body in a sheet. My screams had drawn his attention, and he’d immediately come after me. Somehow, though, with strength I shouldn’t have possessed, I shoved him so hard he’d hit the side of our trailer and got knocked out cold.
Maybe that was the surge in power? There had been thisheatburning in my stomach, but it had disappeared so quickly I’d written it off as mere adrenaline.
“Are there others like me out there?” I asked softly. “Supes living with humans?”
Part of me was screaming not to play her game, but it all felt real to me. It made sense. In whatever fucked-up way. Plus, she had a goblin and a magical portal to back her up.
She nodded. “Yes, there are a lot more than you’d probably think. But you were different … to me, anyway. Even when my supervisor moved on, I couldn’t.”
“Why?” I asked, confused.
Ilia shrugged. “I couldn’t let you go that easily. For some reason, I was worried about you being in the world alone. I turned up at your mom’s just after she passed, and … I felt a connection. I have no family left either. My mother died giving birth, and my father is dude unknown.”
I could see it cost her something to admit that, and it made me like her a little more. “You found a place at the Academy? A home?” I asked, trying not to let hope filter into my heart.
Hope was a killer. Any time I’d ever let myself hope for something more, the disappointment when it didn’t work out crushed me. Eventually you learned to stop hoping.
And accept your shitty reality.
“The best kind,” she said. “Follow the rules, stay out of trouble, and I think you’ll find your place there too. If you choose to stay.”
I didn’t want to call her a liar, but somehow I doubted I’d have a choice. Not when the princeps had magically bound my hands just to get me here.
“Are you still in school?” I asked.
Ilia shook her head. “Technically, no. I’m twenty-seven, and I graduated from basic classes last year. I’m still in some specialised classes, even though I’ve been working in my field as a tracker for a few years.”
“What classes?”
“Attack magic, weapons, advanced spell work.” She shrugged, like that wasn’t a huge fucking deal.Attack magic!“My training in these areas will continue for many more years. You start your basic Academy classes at twenty-one, so you’re going to fit right in.”
We were still plowing through the field of snow. Mossie was slightly in front, clearing a small path for us. I was just about to ask how far away the school was when a slight shimmer in the air caught my eye. “It’s a protective shield,” the goblin said, looking back. “It deters humans and protects those inside from exposure. Only supernaturals can enter.”
He stepped through first, and I didn’t hesitate to follow, wanting to see this world. I closed my eyes as I went to cross, and just as I stepped forward I wondered if I might get rejected. This was the first test of their belief that I was a supernatural.
There was a slight ripple of air around my body as I crossed the threshold, and I was stunned to actually make it through. No rejection...
Lifting my head, I let out a gasp. “Whoa…” I breathed.
Supernatural Academy spanned as far as I could see. Four huge towers, all slightly different in structure and design, were spaced around the edges of large buildings. The main Academy walls were made of brick and stone, and everything was ancient, in both look and design, like this school had been standing here for thousands of years.
As we stepped closer, I saw there was a wide body of water completely surrounding it like a moat. I also started to make out more details in the stonework. There was a crest with M V F S in it, iron twisting around the edges, pushing it out from the wall. As I stumbled forward, desperate to be closer to this new world I’d found myself in, I kept noticing new details.
More initials carved into stones near the front bridge; ivy and rose trellises along the outer walls; huge stained-glass windows scattered across the stonework.
