“Ten thousand points to Liam O’Breen for breaking whatever spell Lola cast on the rest of you that turned you into complete idiots with no sense of self preservation. Now, back to my lesson.”
Well, that happened. With the spell broken and Lola gone for the rest of the day, classes were so much better. People actually gave a shit about their education. They decided to table the conversation that Lola had done something to them for later and figure out the potion that would give them a magical boost.
Before Liam broke the enchantment, most of them were sloppy with their potions and it wouldn’t shock me if a lot of them were failing the class. None of us were here because we took an aptitude test. We were here because of a birthmark. Iwas never sure how much of the exploding and sludge potions was Lola or just them not being very smart.
It was Lola the whole time. Professor Thornheart said this was the most complicated potion he’d assigned us all year andeveryonemade it perfectly, even Lena who once fell asleep right in the middle of stirring and made some kind of stink bomb.
Before Professor Thornheart sent us on our way with vials of potion to take later, he did address the class.
“I don’t knowhowyou were all enchanted this long. It would have been pointless to tell any of you that you were until any of us knew how it was done and how to break it. Your classmate had a magical outburst because Lola tried to assault him and broke whatever spell you were under.
“In an effort of transparency, I couldn’t tell you how any of you were spelled in the first place. It can’t be potion because no one can dose this many people for this long without getting caught and Lola didn’t work in the kitchen to have access to your food. Do any of you have any ideas so we can avoid this happening again?”
“I do,” Lena said, yawning. “We all went to the tavern after the trials and then Lola said she didn’t feel safe there. She said she’s backpacked all over the world and paid her way by bartending. She said if we went to her dorm room, she could mix us drinks fancier than the tavern and she promised it would be more fun. I think most of us just intended to do her dorm instead of the tavern until she felt safer and the people who hurt her were punished. But then we kept going back every night and personally, I would have rather been at the tavern. Music speaks to me and I love it live. But I kept going to her dorm room.”
“Ah, yes. That would explain how all of you were dosed. It was probably in one of the bottles before you got there. It goes without saying don’t do that anymore. You all need to befocusing on your schoolwork and your own bonds rather than a Queen Bee.”
“Why did she do this to us?”
“I don’t know, but to be on the safe side, if you want to drink, do it in the tavern. Work on figuring out who you were because that’s going to help you figure out magicks that are specific to you. It’ll help you fight back with everything going on. Now, get to Professor Adamastus’s class because he’s your best bet at defending yourself until you’re awake.”
Well, that answered one question. Hemlock must have been some kind of potions master and Lola remembered her recipes. She pretended to be miserable at potions to throw any heat off her if it came out people were being drugged. But she messed up by underestimating my connection with Liam because I got there in time to stop her.
Now that Icould,we needed to start talking to these people. I still didn’t know why they were doing any of this. It couldn’t be old feuds because the people that banished Apep weren’t here anymore. Only a few of their reincarnations were. It wasn’t revenge against the fairies for trapping them in Fairy, either, because they weren’t just targeting fairies.
They also might help us figure out who Apep was. When Lola stormed out of potions, no one went after her. The entire class seemed pretty disgusted by what she did to Liam and what she said after.
We needed to find out who else was in her dorm room when she was having these parties.
It seemed like with the enchantment broken, my classmates were alotmore tolerable. I still wasn’t convinced they hadn’t huffed glue and killed a bunch of brain cells because they hadn’t proven to me they weren’t complete morons yet. But they were at least acting like they were at university now.
Lola was still walking around with her head up like she hadn’t lost all her minions. She was a total dick to Professor Kane and was still blowing up potions, even though everyone knew damned well she wasn’t bad at it.
The only class she was trying really hard at was Arcane Magic. I had time to watch her because all of the healing stuff Professor Gefn was teaching didn’t apply to me as an original.I was learning a lot more about that from Darian and her girlfriend, who I actually liked. I was even starting to sense my bat.
I didn’t know why Lola was obsessed with healing. She was an original with destructive powers, so I doubted she could do it. And if Apep was awake, wouldn’t he already know how to heal? She was acting like Apep didn’t know, either. If Apep was already here and older, they would have already taken this class and learned healing from Professor Gefn.
We were giving the former minions time to deal with Lola’s violation before we approached them, but we weren’t giving themtoomuch time. Sage said the red aura around the blue-haired witch disappeared as soon as Mazen appointed himself her bodyguard and Morgana made sure she was always surrounded by witches. It kept jumping witches and Morgana and Mazen had to keep adjusting, but it felt like we were doingsomething.
Everyone else was on research duty and trying to figure out a delicate way to approach our classmates and I had my lessons with Darian and Cleo. I liked both of them. They treated me like any other person here. Darian had a really dry sense of humor I could appreciate and Cleo was brilliant with electronics. Darian was helping me get in tune with my bat and Cleo was directing me towards the dark corners of the supernatural web.
“So, it’s this conundrum because most bats are social creatures and vampires usually aren’t except for their nest. It’s a balance. You can give the bat what they crave with your nest, which you already have. Tell me what you’re doing when you feel him?”
“Well, I didn’t know why because I didn’t even know her name, but as soon as I heard Sage say she had diabetes, I hacked into her glucose monitor to check on her. I keep checking it so I can have food ready before her blood sugar gets too low. That’snot really like me at all. Especially since when she brought it up, she seemed like she had a handle on it.”
“Uh, that’s sweet but does Liam know you’re doing that? Because he’s so obsessed with that girl that I keep expecting him to show up for kitchen duty with her name tattooed on his forehead. It’s a bat thing and you’re taking care of her health, but he’s kind of deranged and might not see it like that.”
“I haven’t told any of them, but I think he’d get it.”
“So, when you feel your bat, you need to give in to that feeling. I get it. It’s scary and unknown and you’re a serious control freak. You’re different from Khalid. When he shifted for the first time, he just had to get used to being on all fours. You’re going to fly. If you want all the perks of being a bat shifter, you’re going to have to let him out.”
“How do you…not be a control freak?” I asked.
Because I already knew I was. I leaned into it. It was how I stayed sane in the stupid aristocratic life I was born into. I couldn’t control my family or the arse kissers around me, but the things I could, I gripped onto with an iron fist. I didn’t really know how to do anything else because I’d convinced myself something terrible would happen if I ever let go.
“I’m a control freak,” Cleo said. “You don’t have to stop. You just have to stop fighting your bat. It’samazingwhen you let go to your animal. If you’re ever in a situation you don’t want to be in, you can just explode into a bat and fly the fuck off. It’s not just a quick getaway. It’s a pretty big statement.”
That did sound rather nice. I only hung out with people I liked here, but I could think of a few people I wouldn’t mind flying away from. Especially if I ever went back home and had to deal with my brothers again.
