by D. R. Perry
"He wants to see you."
"Really?" I raised my eyebrow, skeptical.
At least it's not about the dance. Blaine's engaged.
"Yeah, really."
"I've got to do something first, though."
"Okay if I tag along?"
"Sure."
I stood up and carried the trays to the dishwashing window, then headed toward Lena with a confused Cosmo in tow. I sat across from her. Cosmo hovered by my elbow.
"Hi there." I let the corners of my mouth turn up but not too much. I didn't want to spook her.
"Hi." She blinked. Her opossum put her paws on the edge of the table and gave me an appraising look. "What is it?"
"I heard Tempe Fairbanks was giving you grief. How can I help?"
"There's nothing you can do since she's my roommate." Lena hung her head. "Why?"
"Because you shouldn't be bullied. You don't deserve that."
"Maybe I do. My element’s poison. Clementine was poisoned."
"There's no way you did it."
"Are you sure?" She held the book up, partially obscuring her face. "Because I'm not. Every day she says I did it. That I'm the only person they didn't look at, and it's still unsolved, so it can only be me. Maybe she's right."
"Gaslighting," Cosmo chimed in.
"What?" I blinked.
"Gaslighting. My cousin Tony taught me all about it." He sat beside Lena and put his hand on the table, where she could see it. "The worst kinds of people do gaslighting. They mess with your head, so you don't know what's true."
The opossum sat up in Lena's lap. She leaned over the table, sniffed Cosmo's hand, then looked up at her magus and squeaked. Her fur glowed a faint purple.
"Yeah, Edie," she spoke to her familiar. "You were right."
"Should I have a chat with your roommate?" I asked.
"No." Behind the book, Lena shook her head. "I want out of that room."
"I’ll work on that." I cleared my throat. "Also, I'm going stag to the December Dance in a group. You're welcome to join us."
"Really?"
"Yeah. My friends Lee and Izzy will be there. What do you think?"
"Okay."
"Awesome. We’ll meet on the third floor by the stairs five minutes before it starts."
We said goodbye, and Cosmo and I left Lena to finish her dinner.
"You're that sure the headmaster will move her room?" he asked.
"Oh, yeah. I'll talk to Hal about it as soon as I've seen Blaine."
"Right, you're friends with his kid." Cosmo nodded. "Makes sense."
"Lead on, then."
Blaine was in the library, which was on extended hours for extramurals. Mrs. Ashford sat behind the desk, looking sleepy. That didn't stop her from giving me a friendly wave as Cosmo brought me to the back corner.
"Mr. Harcourt, you wanted to see me?"
"Yeah." He nodded. "It's about your friend Dorian Spanos."
"What about him?"
"Has he been acting unusual lately?"
"Are you trying to send him back to the Academy? Because if so, I'm leaving."
"No, never." Blaine put his hand over his mouth. "It's a horrible place. Kim still has nightmares about it."
"Okay. I'll do what I can, but he's not my best friend or anything."
"Well, that's sort of the problem."
I blinked.
"He's had trouble with that. Trusting people, I mean."
"Persuading me to buddy up with him won’t help."
"It's not about friendship. He overheard something and kept quiet, largely because he doesn't know who to trust here."
"Why you?"
"Kim and I promised to help Dorian and his nephew Cosmo."
"Nephew!" I winced. "Oops."
"Yeah, it's a long and complicated story involving the Under."
"Okay." I nodded. "So, what's this thing Dorian heard?"
"It was about the poor familiar who got poisoned."
"You're telling me because my grandma examined the victim?"
"No. The people he overheard mentioned you."
Lovely.
I must have stayed silent too long for Blaine Harcourt's comfort since he resumed dropping bombs on me.
"Apparently, this duo, or perhaps an entire group, wants to remove all non-magi from campus, which I personally object to. They're willing to kill familiars over it, but first, they want to get rid of all the extramagi."
"All?" I blinked. "There are only two of us."
"The way Dorian put it, there's at least one more—someone with sealed records and influence here. Do you know who it is?"
"No."
"Perhaps Hal Hawkins?"
"Definitely not. He's got a medical condition, pernicious magiglobular anemia. That’s the opposite of being an extramagus."
"Hmm." Blaine pulled out a phone that shouldn't have worked in here. Somehow, an app called LORA still functioned. He had a chat window open in seconds through it, with a series of fast replies after he entered what I'd just said. "Lynn says that means his mother's a dhampyr."
"Whoa." I shook my head. "That phone shouldn't work here."
"Yeah, I run with some real geniuses, and this app securely answers a ton of questions. Stuff we've been puzzled about for years."
"Does it have anything to do with why my uncle hasn't been sentenced yet?"
"Your uncle?" He raised an eyebrow.
"You didn't know?" I took a deep breath. "My mom's Richard Hopewell's little sister."
"Had no idea, but it makes sense, magically speaking." He nodded. "Listen, if it's okay with you, I'll tell Dorian to tell you his whole story."
"Go ahead." I nodded. "My grandma won't discuss Clementine, but my friends are trying to stop whoever did it from attacking again."
"We won’t be in town much longer." He reached into his pocket, pulled out a card with a phone number on it, and handed it to me. “If you or your friends discover anything, would you mind keeping us informed? I think the connections between Newport and Salem are deeper than we imagined.”
"When I’m off campus." I took the card. "I don’t have a LORA.
“Right.” He nodded. “Take your time, and thanks for meeting with me."
I left, baffled for the rest of the evening by how I could possibly be of any help to a dragon shifter chasing a Ph.D. I wouldn’t figure that out until next year.
Worthy Lives
The story continues with book six, Worthy Lives, coming soon to Amazon and Kindle Unlimited
Glossary
People
Changeling- A mortal child of either one or two faerie parents. Most changelings choose a monarch sometime in their twenties, although some do it earlier than they have to.
Dampyr- The mortal offspring of two vampires. They aren’t as rare as many suspect, although because their blood is exceptionally sustaining to vampires, they keep their status secret. Dampyr sometimes have magic or psychic powers that work unreliably.
Faerie- A term used to describe either a changeling who has tithed to a monarch and spent a year and a day in the Under or the pure creatures such as Gnomes and Pixies who were created by the king and queen.
Ghost- A dead person with unfinished business becomes a ghost. If a mortal makes a contract before death, that gives them unfinished business and lets them linger. When ghosts finish their business, they move on, but no one knows where they go from here.
Magus- A mortal who can use magic. Magic comes from energy in the world. Most magi can only use one type of magic. However, a rare few can do more than one kind. Those are called extramagi.
Merfolk- People who can live on land with legs or in the sea with fins and tails. They only emerged from the ocean after the Big Reveal and are still extremely rare outside of harbor towns.
Psychic- A mortal with psychic power. Psychic ability comes from a person's own body and mind.
Vampire- An unliving person who drinks blood to survive and enhance their abilities. Only regular mortals, p
sychics, and magi can get turned into vampires. Shifters, changelings, and faeries won't turn, and most of those won't survive an attempt.
Shifter- A mortal who can take an animal’s shape. Shifters have one form, with coloring similar to what they have while human. They usually have an enhanced sense while human-shaped, which goes along with their animal. For example, an owl shifter might have keen eyesight and a wolf shifter, a great sense of smell.
Shifter Varieties
Dragon- The only shifters who can see both magic and psychic abilities, though only while shifted. The most powerful ones can partially shapeshift. Dragons are immortal and reproduce infrequently. There are so few of them since the Reveal that they've started taking other magical shifters as mates.
Kelpie- A magical shifter who gets their abilities from an enchanted faerie pelt that bonds with their soul. The Kelpie pelts were created by the Goblin King, so they have Unseelie energy and restrictions. A Kelpie's animal form is a horse. Families pass the pelts down through generations, and part of each ancestor lives on to help their descendants. The ancestors can get distracting, however.
Selkie- A magical shifter who gets their abilities from an enchanted faerie pelt that bonds with their soul. The Selkie pelts were created by the Sidhe queen, so they have Seelie energy and restrictions. A Selkie's animal form is a seal or sometimes a sea otter. They can use water magic as long as they wear the pelt. Families pass the pelts down through the generations, and part of each ancestor lives on to help their descendants. The ancestors can get distracting, however.
Tanuki- A magical shifter with enhanced speed and the ability to see all types of magic while shifted. They are also the only creatures who can manipulate luck, causing it to turn from good to bad or the other way around. They stop aging if they own a charm infused with luck from humans. Very few of those charms exist, having been either used up during the Reveal or locked away.
Powers
Air magic- The power to conjure, control, and banish wind or air.
Earth magic- The power to conjure, control, and banish earth, sand, or rock.
Empathy- A psychic power to sense and influence emotions in other people.
Fire magic- The power to conjure, control, and banish flames.
Ice magic- The power to conjure, control, and banish ice.
Lightning magic- The power to conjure, control, and banish lightning.
Poison magic- The power to conjure, control, and banish poison. Each magus has a slightly different type of toxin they produce. Some are even antidotes to others.
Precognitive- A psychic power to foretell future events.
Spectral magic- the power to conjure, control, and banish light.
Spectral Affinity- A trait some spectral magi have that makes them charismatic and believable.
Summoner- A psychic power that lets the user make contracts with pure faeries, letting the summoner call them in times of need. Each creature has an anchor, some item symbolizing the bond. Mastery of summoning takes decades of study, which is why the most powerful are either vampires or past middle age.
Seelie- The Sidhe queen's court. The Seelie way is about following the letter of the law, even when it's hard or cruel. They have a hard time reconciling faerie rules with the new mortal laws since the Big Reveal.
Solar Magic- The power to conjure, control, or banish sunlight. Some of the most powerful practitioners can find hidden objects or discover long-kept secrets.
Solar Affinity- A trait some solar magi have that makes them beacons for coincidence.
Space magic- The power to move the self or objects instantly across distances. Some can even move other people.
Space Affinity- This space power comes with an ability to locate people or things important to the magus.
Telekinesis- A psychic power that moves objects.
Telepathy- A psychic power to read minds.
Tithe- The process of pledging to either the queen or king, making a changeling choose to be either Seelie or Unseelie.
Umbral magic- The power to conjure, control, and banish shadows and veil or camouflage objects or people.
Umbral Affinity- A trait some umbral magi have that makes them difficult to remember without psychic ability, faerie magic, or a shifter pack bond.
Undeath magic- The power to conjure, control, and banish unliving energy.
Unseelie- The Goblin king's court. The Unseelies bend the rules and often navigate mortal society more easily than their Seelie counterparts.
Water magic- The power to conjure, banish, and control water.
Wood magic- The power to conjure, banish, and control wood. It takes extreme power to influencing a living plant.
Creatures
Basilisk- A venomous serpent that also has poison magic.
Dragonet- A tiny dragon-like creature, always associated with one or more element which powers their breath attacks later in life. They have scales but are warm-blooded like birds. Most don’t get much bigger than a small cat.
Familiar- A magical or mythical creature who makes a bond with a magus.
Gryphon- A chimera which has the head of a bird and hindquarters of a predatory mammal. They come in several combinations of base species, and habitat influences their choice in magi to bond with.
Karkus- A crab that can change its shape. They’re said to be the offspring of the crab that pinched Hercules as he battled the Hydra.
Lightning Bird- A familiar from South Africa with an affinity for lightning. Its beak can jump-start a car.
Mercat- A shapeshifting feline with fur for land and scales in the water. They can live in lakes, rivers, or in the sea as well as on land. They must never completely dry out, or they will die.
Moon Hare- A magical rabbit that gets power from its particular moon phase. They commonly bond with umbral magi.
Pharaoh’s Rat- These natural predators of dragon shifters are the size of ferrets and resemble a mongoose with more fur. They have an affinity for space magic and can use it on occasion.
Pigeon- Not as mundane as most think, some pigeons have an uncanny sense of direction due to their affinity for air magic.
Pricus- An aquatic goat said to be descended from Capricorn. They can warp time even better than Gnomes.
Pure Faeries- Creatures who spring to life from magical sources in the Under. They are genderless, and their type and ability depend on place of origin. They're associated with only one court, although they will work together to defeat a common enemy.
Sand Cat- A feline that lives in the desert, able to go for weeks without water. Earth magic lets them do this.
Sha- A magical desert dog from Egypt. Sha are the size of mundane toy breeds with short hair and small pointy ears. They could pass for mundane except for their blue tongues. They are attracted to anything undead.
Sphinx- A magic cat with an affinity for fire. The reason they’re hairless is that they’re resistant to flames.
Strix- A venomous owl with an affinity for poison. Female striges have rounded tufts on their heads, while males have pointed ones.
Sumxu- A lop-eared cat found only in northern China. They are masters of camouflage and have an affinity for several kinds of magic.
Places
The Academy—Something between a community college and a military academy for extrahumans, the Academy is geared toward helping extrahumans who don't play well with mortals get ready to join a blended society. It's got divisions for learners of all ages, though they are housed separately.
Cherry Blossom School- A dojo geared toward teaching extrahumans self-restraint, meditation, and how to temper their enhanced physical abilities with more mundane skills. It's been around for close to a hundred years, run by the Ichiro family. Mundane classes used to be offered as a front but now are a separate division.
Ellicot City Magitechnic- A prep school for magi and psychics specializing in magipsychic technology. It’s located outside Baltimore.
Gallows Hill School- Traditionally for sh
ifters, this prep school in Salem recently opened its doors to changelings and other extrahumans not categorized as magi or psychics.
Hawthorn Academy- A preparatory school for magi in Salem. Its campus is in the space between the mortal realm and the Under, giving it unrivaled privacy. They specialize in teaching familiar magic.
Providence Paranormal College- A school founded just one year after Brown University and located right in its shadow. Providence Paranormal used to admit only magi and psychics, but it's been accepting all types of extrahumans ever since Henrietta Thurston became headmistress. There has been trouble since then for students and faculty, leading people to believe dissenters are sabotaging the school.
Trout Academy- A prestigious preparatory school for changelings with magic, recently open to magi and magical shifters. Its campus is located in South County and has been operating in some form or another since Rhode Island Colony was founded.
The Under- The faerie realm. It's been divided into two parts ever since the Sidhe Queen and the Goblin king split up thousands of years ago. Mortals don't age in the Under, but it's a dangerous place for them to be. Getting lost means never being seen again, and it's easy to get indebted to something nasty while trying to get through or out of the Under.
Wolf Messing Prep- An institute for psychics to learn to control their skills before heading to college.
Events
The Big Reveal- The term used for the 1990s, when the world discovered magic was real and extrahumans existed. The decade was marked with fear as everyone adjusted to the changes. Since the 21st Century, law and technology work for both humans and extrahumans.
Boston Internment- A reaction by Boston government officials to the disappearance and suspected trafficking in extrahumans, especially shifters. All registered extrahumans in Boston lived on barges for close to a month under guard by the Boston Police. The traffickers got their hands on some magical gadgets, rendering the protection useless. Few survived.
Thank you!
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