“Hey, friend,” Wendy said, her voice high and chipper as she plopped down beside me with a plate of hashbrowns, eggs, and sausage.
“Good morning,” I said through a yawn. For the hundredth time, I wondered why Balthazar demanded we eat at six o’clock in the morning. Would it kill him to let us sleep until eight every now and then?
“Do you want to practice sleight of hand later? We can walk the grounds while we do. It’s supposed to be a little warmer than yesterday,” Wendy said, then shoved a piece of buttered toast into her mouth.
Sleight of hand was a magical trick so rudimentary and common that even non-magical humans had developed a way to mimic the style for party games and street cons. Unlike their quicktricks and hidden objects, witches and sorcerersactuallycaused the items to vanish and reappear at will through specific hand motions and magical manipulation of reality. I didn’t know if I should be flattered that one of the top students in class wanted to practice with me, or ashamed that she thought I might need help on such a basic magical principle.
“Sure,” I said at last, scooping up some oatmeal. “I’d love to.”
Wendy’s face lit up, and her smile was more than enough for me to decide I’d made the right choice. We were sort of in the same boat. She had very few—if any—friends at the academy, both because of her age and because her uncle was the founder and head instructor. I didn’t either, but that was mostly because of how isolated I felt as the only shifter in the school and how late I got my magical gifts compared to everyone else. Most everyone was nice to me, but that didn’t stop me from feeling out of place. Imposter syndrome was what it was, and I didn’t really know how to fix that.
Over the next several days, Wendy and I spent a lot of time together, walking the grounds and quizzing each other on magical terms and skills, practicing those skills, and talking about magical history. At times, the conversations went sideways, and we’d complain about the teachers and subjects we didn’t care about, and how irritating we both found Virgil to be.
“What’s your wolf look like?” Wendy said on the fourth day as I sat on a tree branch of an oak tree. She’d begged me to climb trees, and I hadn’t had the heart to say no, even though it was frigid outside. Yule, the winter solstice, and the New Year were fast approaching. December in Chicago wasnothinglike it was back home in Arkansas.
Shrugging, I readjusted my mop of curly brown hair, unclipping and reclipping the claw clip to keep it off my shoulders, then coiled my scarf tighter around my neck.
“She looks like a wolf,” I said.
Wendy, hanging from a branch like a monkey, gave me a stern look, then rolled her eyes. “Well,duh, but what does shelook like? Color and size and stuff?”
Chuckling at my own stupid joke, I said, “Auburn on most of her body, but her neck and belly are brown and tawny.” Then, with only a small hint of pride, I added, “She’s actually pretty big for a female wolf, too.”
“Show me,” Wendy said as she heaved herself upright.
“Excuse me?” I said, blinking at her.
“Show me your wolf. I wanna see it. I’ve never seen anyone transform before.”
Not an entirely unacceptable request.Everyone knew I was a shifter, though in the time I’d been here, I’d yet to have a reason to show anyone else my abilities. The only times I had shifted was during the full moon, when I’d sneak out into the wilderness surrounding the mansion academy and run through the forest.
“Okay fine,” I said. “Ready?”
Wendy froze, her eyes going wide. “Wait…for real? You’re gonna do it?”
“Did you think I’d say no?” I asked, lifting an eyebrow.
She shrugged helplessly. “Maybe.”
“I thought we were best friends,” I said with mock hurt.
The smile that crossed her lips was radiant, and I was again reminded how young she was, and that no one here was anywhere near her age. It made me feel good that I was able to give her alittlecompanionship, even if I was twice her age.
“Show me!” Wendy said, waving her hand at the ground.
I winked at her, and fell forward off the branch I’d been sitting on. The look of surprise and horror on her face was priceless, an open-mouthed gape as I swung forward and fell through the air. At the last second, I closed my eyes and allowed the wolf deep within me to surge forward, giving over control of my body to the magical beastly presence inside me. My skin vanished, replaced by fur and muscle. My feet and hands transformed into paws. When I landed gracefully beneath the tree, I was fully shifted. The warmth of my fur immediately pushed aside any cold I’d been feeling moments before.
“Holycrap! That was cool,” Wendy cried, clapping her hands.
I’d have been lying if I didn’t feel at least alittlepride at her reaction.
“You’re amazing,” she said and the awe and excitement in her voice was nearly enough to bring me to tears. Probablywouldhave if I’d been in my human form.
“We should probably head back soon,” she said as she climbed down from the tree. “The next class starts in an hour.”
I shifted back, shivering at the full-body tingle I always experienced when I returned to my human form.
“Yeah. Let’s go,” I said. “Don’t want to be late.”
