I hadn’t realized how far we’d strayed from the mansion, and we only managed to get to the classroom three minutes before the start of class.
“Cutting it close, aren’t you, Paolo?”
“Would you shutup, Virgil,” a voice came from behind him.
He turned to look at who’d spoken. Brooke, a woman a year younger than me, stared back at him, a challenge in her eyes.
“Did anyone askyouanything, Brooke?” Virgil sneered as he adjusted his wire-rimmed spectacles. His, unlike mine, were necessary because he was blind as a bat without them.
“No,” Brooke said, flipping her long, blonde hair behind her shoulder. “But you just never seem toshut up. It’s annoying as hell.”
Virgil leaned over her desk. “Well, perhaps if you all studied more, you’d be able to answer all the questions as quickly as I do. Honestly, it would be nice to hear someone else’s voice for once.”
From across the room, a paper bird flapped over, squalling out an ear-piercing cry and smacking into the side of Virgil’s head, nearly causing him to topple from his chair.
“Youass!” Virgil snarled, turning to glare in the opposite direction.
Douglas Finnegan sat back in his chair, looking completely nonchalant as the paper bird landed on his hand.
“What’s wrong, Virg?” Douglas said with a smirk. “I thought you liked playing with magic?”
Virgil leveled a finger at the hulking nineteen-year-old. “Locomotion spells are only supposed to be used in the practice hall.”
Douglas rolled his eyes and put a hand to his chest. “Oh myword,” he moaned in a high-pitched falsetto. “Whatever shall I do?” He put the back of his hand to his forehead like a damsel in the throes of panic.
“You know what?” Virgil said, “You can?—”
“Can what?” Balthazar said as he strolled into the room, his teaching robes fluttering behind him.
Virgil’s face went crimson. “Uh…nothing, sir. We were just discussing our next lesson.”
Balthazar raised an eyebrow and glanced around the room at each of us in turn. If I had to guess, he knew exactly what had been going on.
With the disturbance handled, Balthazar started the lesson—a long-winded lecture on the origins of the magical fields found within certain stones and rocks. It actually sounded more like a science discussion, and I quickly grew bored.
Just as I started to doze off, a hand tugged at the sleeve of my robe. I flinched, blinking away sleep.
It was Wendy. She’d leaned over so far her right butt cheek was hanging off her chair.
“Veronica,” she hissed.
At the sound of her voice, Balthazar turned around from the dry-erase board he’d been drawing magical runes on with a red marker.
“Gwendolyn?” he asked sternly. “Did you want to ask something?”
Wendy scooted back onto her seat and clasped her hands together as she smiled serenely up at him. She’d used another glamour spell the night before to change her hair from dreadlocks to a bright pink mohawk.
“Nope,” she said. “All good.”
Balthazar sent her a glare before turning back to the board. The marker slid effortlessly across the white plastic board on its own, drawing more runes of its own volition as he strolled to the farthest end of the classroom, continuing to talk. The other students scratched notes on their paper with pens and pencils. Of course, Virgil had enchanted his pen to write for him. I wasn’t sure if he was hoping Balthazar would see so he could suck up, or if he was simply showing off. What I did know was that I needed to focus. My grades weren’t bad, but living life in the C realm was much more stressful than bringing in Bs and As. I buckled down, trying to focus on what he was saying as well as copying down the runes.
“The rune known asAnsuzis one that is most commonly aligned with the precept of truth. This is a good rune to incorporate into things like prophesying the future or even truth serums. What you must be aware of is?—”
“Veronica?” Wendy whispered again, so softly I could barely hear her.
“Pay attention, Wendy,” I muttered, keeping my eyes on Balthazar.
“Do you want to come to my room tonight? I thought we could have dinner there and play a board game or something until curfew?”
