“There is no antidote to that,” Dad added with a scowl.
“I don’t need an antidote,” I reminded him with an innocent smile. “And I needed breakfast.”
“Okay, come on,” Mom announced, clapping her hands. “We need to get Rune to her entrance exams.”
“Fine,” Dad grumbled.
“She’s going to do great,” Pops said begrudgingly.
“Wouldn’t kill her to make some friends, though,” Tibby muttered under his breath.
“Why would I need a friend when I have you as a brother?” I hip-bumped him with a maniacal laugh.
“Rune, I’m serious,” he urged, his dull green eyes narrowing at me. “You deserve a friend.”
“I’ve been texting Pandora every now and then,” I pointed out my blooming friendship with the soul eater representative on the Supernatural Council. “She’s awesome.”
“Maybe friends who aren’t quite as deadly as she is?” he suggested weakly.
Mom and I cackled as the five of us entered Mom’s office upstairs. Tibby had beenveryvocal about his fear of the soul eater. I personally thought she was a fucking badass. Plus, she had five mates who also held spots on the council for their demon sub-species. They blew the term ‘power couple’ out of the water.
I paused at the threshold of Mom’s modernly decorated office. It was the same marble-esque theme that the Supernatural Council Headquarters was bathed in. “Wait, I thought we were going to Apex Elite Academy for the exam?”
“We are.” Mom smirked, gesturing to a large foggy white crystal platform on the floor in the corner. I senseda lotof magical energy within it.
It made my fangs seep venom, and I licked it away with a hum. “What’s that?”
“It’s a teleportation device that we’re about to roll out to all of the council members for beta testing,” Mom explained, running a hand through her short green hair. “It was created by our magical and technological specialists.”
“With help from current agents-in-training from the House of Innovation and the House of Arcane,” Dad added cheekily, and I knew he was proud of his students as the headmaster.
With luck, he’ll be my headmaster soon.
“How does it work? What is it made of?” I asked in awe of just how much power was vibrating within it.
“It’s a teleportation crystal from the Air Kingdom in the fae realm. Rowan’s brother-mate is an ice fae and was able to get his hands on an entire grove of them. They’re abundant in the Air Kingdom,” she explained. “Fae can use their connection to the crystals to help them learn to phase, but our magic differs from fae magic, so we had to use some technological advancements to be able to do the same thing. Though, it’s not really phasing. For us, it’s teleporting. It’s called a wayfaer quartz. It grows inside twilight-blooming trees in the Air Kingdom, fed by moonlight and wind. It’s gifted, traded, or stolen from the fae. In our case, gifted but also has been traded now that we are trying to roll the teleportation crystal pads out to the public soon. We have tweaked these crystals a lot with magical essence. Drecken Grimsworn actually worked with Thorn on this to get this invention to work. It only used to work at dusk, dawn, or under a full moon. Somehow, they were able to make it recharge with sunlight and moonlight. The only time the crystal doesn’t work is during a new moon.”
A squeal tore out of me as I grabbed Tibby’s arm. “Oh my Fates! We canteleportnow? How have we never heard of this before?”
Tibby smirked smugly. “Third and fourth years have been using them for six months already as students. It goes from the houses to the academy. I knew about it, but I’ve never used it myself.”
“You said Thorn and Drecken built this together?” I gaped at it, ignoring my brother’s smugness. “That’s incredible.”
“Drecken did most of it,” Dad admitted.
“Thorn provided the crystal and fae knowledge of it,” Pops added. “But Drecken ran with it.”
“Drecken’s incredibly smart,” I murmured, inspecting the wayfaer portal.
“He’s a genius, but he’s rather eccentric,” Pops said.
Mom blew out a breath of air. “You mean weird?”
“Yes,” Dad agreed with a low chuckle. “But we’ve finally convinced him to teach at the academy for four full years because of you.”
“That cost me a full vial of my venom, you know,” Mom grumbled, crossing her arms. “He wouldn’t agree without the ability to study and attempt to recreate my venom.”
Dad pouted but nodded. “Thanks, love.”
