I think it was his eyes that did it. His eyes were full of a sense of wisdom, while that crooked smile made him seem like a child who wanted to play.
I didn’t want to like it, didn’t want to like anything about this place, but there was no denying I did in fact, like him. Just a bit. A tiny, tiny bit. His smile felt warm and inviting, and with all this new information that had just been thrown at me, warm and inviting were certainly adjectives I needed.
“Wait… are you telling me… is she mortal-raised?” he asked in a hushed tone, glancing with wide eyes from me to Elsa.
His tone made me bristle in annoyance, and I stood to my full height, though I wasn’t sure how I was being insulted. But an insult was an insult.
“Mister Winchester,” the headmistress chastised, as though she had not used the same terminology to describe me only moments ago. “Behave. We treat all new students with respect no matter their backgrounds.”
“Yes, ma’am, I’m sorry.” It took some effort this time, but he smiled at me again.
I no longer found him as cute, and wondered how much more it would tarnish my reputation if I wiped that smirk off his face. “You should be sorry,” I mumbled instead, only making his smirk worse and Elsa scowl at me this time. “What? He started it.”
“Be that as it may,” she said severely, “we treat each other with respect here, Everest.” She turned to Jared as she added, sounding quite annoyed that she was going to have to be the one to deal with me, “Her uncle thought it would be fun and clever to just drop her off and let her figure it all out for herself.”
“That’s harsh,” he said, and his face softened. He cleared his throat as his cheeks reddened and he rubbed the back of his neck, having the decency to look ashamed. “Listen, I am sorry about our first introduction.”
“Yeah, no it’s fine… I guess, though I’m sorry. I’m still not sure I actually understand what all of this,” I said, waving my arms around her office, “is. Or you or anything.”
“Well, let’s start simple. My name’s Jared,” he said and held out his hand for mine.
I hesitated, but accepted it. “Everest.”
“Very nice to meet you, Everest. I’m a student ambassador here. So, from your reaction earlier I’m going to go on the assumption that you’re a witch.”
I chuckled, but then stopped immediately when Elsa’s eyes narrowed slightly at me.
“Wait… I’m… No, I can’t be,” I whispered.
“You are in fact a witch,” Elsa said, apparently knowing more about me than I did. “On your mother’s side obviously. And her younger brother attends our sister school.”
She told the last bit to Jared, who nodded knowingly.
“So, your brother doesn’t have powers, huh?” Jared asked me.
My head spun as the handle on the situation I thought I was getting control of slipped right out of my hands again. “Neither do I, and I think I would remember if my mom was a witch.”
“Yes, dear, you do,” Elsa corrected me sharply. “And your mother was a very important student here, very promising witch. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here. Your uncle tested each of you, though I’m not sure how. He says only you inherited your mother’s abilities. That’s why there are two separate schools. One for those who are mystically gifted, while the other is for students from magical families who lack those gifts.”
Jared reached for my bag as I was still playing catch up with the fact that Mom was a witch, and apparently so was I. A
bsently, I reached up to the necklace I still wore around my neck as he said, “Come on, I’ll show you around. I might be able to fill you in a little bit, too.”
“Yeah, sure, why not,” I agreed quietly.
I told myself this couldn’t be real, that it was a joke they played on the new students, but neither started laughing or pointing to some hidden camera.
“Jared, do be cautious with her, would you?” Elsa handed Jared a slip of paper. “This is a lot to take in.”
“Of course.” He led the way out of the office.
Elsa sat back down at her desk and began sorting through paperwork, leaving me to fend for myself with a shapeshifting dragon.
I followed him back out into the hallway toward the elevator.
“This is all real?” I whispered once we were out of the stuffy office. “Everything?”
“Yeah, it’s all real,” he replied, also in a whisper. “It’s not so bad, right? You could’ve found out you’re something worse.”
“Worse than a witch?” I swallowed hard, shaking my head. “Not so sure about that.”
“There are many things that are worse than being a witch,” he muttered, and the smile disappeared from his face.
I sensed some deep-seated hatred in him towards whatever he referred to, but then the elevator doors opened, and he held out his arm, letting me step on first.
He followed with my bags and after he pressed the button for the main floor, the smile returned to his face, but it wasn’t as cheerful as before.
“Well I think this is bad enough,” I said to break the awkward silence. “I’m still pinching myself to make sure this isn’t all some weird dream, and I’m already locked up in a loony bin.”
“So, you really had no idea until today that dragons and witches existed?” he asked me as we boarded the elevator. “I can’t believe you didn’t at least notice you were a witch.”
“Yeah.” I felt myself shaking as my new reality closed in around me. “Me too.”
I was a witch, and my logical brain rebelled against the notion of magic existing… or that the young man next to me was a dragon.
I stepped back from a bit, and he caught the movement, giving me a curious stare.
“Sorry, I just ah… I’m a little nervous is all… being around a dragon.”
He winked as he leaned in closer and my breath suddenly caught in my throat from the intensity in his eyes and the tiny bit of smoke that trailed out of his nose.
“I won’t bite,” he promised. “But you’ll have to get used to dragons. There are more than just me you’ll be seeing, and you can’t pass out every time. What will the other students think?”
I blinked a few times as he leaned back, giving me my space again. I took a deep breath and shoved my hair back out of my face, trying to get a grip. I’d dealt with crazy all my life. This was merely just another form of crazy. I could do this. I could totally, completely do this.
“Okay, I’m sorry. A lot has happened in the past forty-eight hours. Finding out that dragons are more than just the stuff of legends is just the tip of the iceberg,” I muttered, but smiled as I said it, working at accepting these new truths.
“Well, as your student ambassador, my job is to make your transition here easier—not harder,” he said, and then gently placed his hand on my shoulder.
I was strangely comforted by the action, and at the same time, my heart pounded so loud in my chest, I would’ve sworn he could hear it, too. From the way his lips lifted in a smirk, he probably could.
Despite him scaring the crap out of me with that dragon stunt, Jared was very handsome, and I’d be an idiot not to admire his good looks.
I blushed and looked away as he lowered his hand.
“So… you’re a dragon… just a dragon, right? There’s nothing else weird about you.”
His brow arched at that, and I could’ve kicked myself.
“Weird?”
“Not weird, I mean just… not normal, or...” I rambled on when his other brow joined the first, “just not what I’m used to. Wow, I’m just going to stop talking now.”
He stared at me for a full ten seconds before he chuckled warmly, and I relaxed, slightly.
“I’m a hybrid, actually,” he said.
I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from making any sort of distressed noise.
“My father’s a dragon. Mom’s a witch. So, I’m a warlock dragon... although, I don’t really have any of my mother’s powers… so,
I guess you really wouldn’t call me a warlock.”
The elevator doors opened, and we exited onto the main floor.
“Right got it, witches and dragons are real, and dragons are technically shapeshifters, and there are things called hybrids. People,” I said quickly, and he laughed again. For some reason, I joined him this time and held my hands to my head. “Gah! I’m never going to get this right, and I’m going to tick the wrong person off.”
“You get a little leeway, you are mortal-raised.”
“Meaning… I wasn’t raised around all of this,” I said, spreading my arms wide. “Right?”
“Right. And just as a heads up, there are several different clans of dragons, so we’re not all the same. I’m from the Hollow Well clan, one of the largest and more influential.”
“I’ve heard that name,” I said, happy something sounded familiar to me amongst all the other craziness. “My uncle told me some story about the Hollow Well clan going to war with… what was it… Shadow dragons? Shadow something, another clan.”
The same hatred I saw in the elevator passed over Jared’s face again.
“Shadowguard,” he snarled slightly, but he shook it off.
It was enough for me to know he really did not like that clan.
“I’m guessing there’s none of those around here?”
“No, and for good reason.”
I waited for more of an explanation as we walked down the hall, but he kept his lips sealed on that matter, and I let it go, for now.
“You really are pretty clueless if you didn’t know about all that. Your uncle did you wrong, simply dropping you into all this. Just… be careful what you say and who you talk to your first few days, until you get a feel for this world.”
“I did go to high school,” I said, but he shook his head.
“This is worse. Consider this, you’ve been thrown into a tank of sharks that may or may not eat you… except most of us are dragons and know how to use magic.”
I was ready to walk out those front doors, not sure this was worth the chaos that was about to be my life. The last thing I wanted to do was tiptoe around this new school, afraid to open my mouth.
“I guess he’s a sink-or-swim kind of parental figure. What is the sister school’s name?”
“Galen’s School. Technically, the full name is Galen’s School of Thought. You have a little brother who is going to start there on Monday?”
“Mason,” I said, as I bobbed my head. “I guess he doesn’t have any powers. Not sure how my uncle tested us. Maybe my Mom told him? I can’t believe she never mentioned any of this.”
She was too busy drinking herself into oblivion every night to mention it, I guessed. Too busy to tell her only daughter that she was a witch and that dragons were real.
I was so lost in thought, I hadn’t even realized Jared stopped walking until he set my bags down loudly and grabbed my arm.
“Oh, sorry,” I mumbled when I noticed I’d started to leave him behind.
“No problem. I expect you to be a bit lost in thought.” Jared stopped us in the middle of the lobby at the large building’s main entrance. He held up the paper Elsa had given him before leaving the office. “This is your class schedule,” he explained to me as he glanced over it. “Let’s see… since we’re already here, I can show you where your classes will be in this building. Looks like you’ll only be in here on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Math, English, Latin, Introduction to Spells, and Artifacts 101 are all in this building. Your other classes are on Tuesday and Thursdays, and they’ve got you spread all over campus.”
“Great,” I mused, as he pointed down the hall to the right. “That’s just great.”
“We’ll leave your stuff here for a few minutes and take the tour. Don’t worry, it’s all safe.”
I trusted him, sort of, and followed him down the right corridor. It looked like any other old brick and stone building that had stood for at least a hundred years.
Paintings hung on the wall of past teachers, headmasters, and headmistresses, as well as other students and scenes from what I assumed were the history of these dragons and witches. Inwardly I groaned, still not believing this was all real.
We walked around the main building, and he showed me where to find each of my classes.
I peered into the rooms, impressed to see more stadium seating than rows of desks. The windows in the classrooms refracted rainbows of light from the stained-glass images instead of plain glass. I wanted to see them up close, but when I tried a door, I found it locked. Guessed I’d just have to wait.
“So,” I said as we circled around the main floor and found our way back to the lobby. At least this building wasn’t too crazy, and I had high hopes I’d be able to find my way around without getting lost. “How many classes do I have on Tuesdays and Thursdays?” I asked.
“Six,” he said, consulting the schedule again.
“So, eleven classes total?” I questioned. “That’s more than I thought I would have. Are they all really necessary?”
“Well, one of these only lasts for a few weeks. Lessons for Mortal-Raised,” he said. “It’ll help you get caught up on years of history you’ve missed out on, as well as getting you acquainted with how things are done in our world.”
“Done in your world? That sounds a bit intense.”
He shrugged. “I know this is weird for you to take in, but you have to understand, you’re coming into a world where everything is done differently. We have our own… society I guess you would call it,” he explained. “There’s just some etiquette type stuff you should probably know, and understanding how we work as far as families and clans might not be a bad thing. You grew up without magic, and there’s a lot to learn, thanks to lacking that education in your upbringing.”
I scowled at him for a second, but he was right, I knew it. Not that it made any of this any easier.
Mortal-raised still sounded like an insult to me, and he acted like it was one, too.
Every time he said it, the tension between us grew as if he wanted nothing to do with me, or didn’t want to be seen with me.
“Right, yeah, not such a bad idea,” I finally agreed.
“No school tomorrow, a holiday, so you’ll need to know your Tuesday—Thursday schedule first,” he continued, as if we hadn’t just had another weird moment in the lobby. “Let’s get going so that I can show you around. On Tuesday and Thursday, your classes go: Mortal History, Science, Mystical World History, Combat, Advanced Spellcasting, and you get to end your day with Lessons for Mortal-Raised. Your schedule is a bit jam-packed, but you’ll have to try to catch up since you were mortal-raised. They don’t cut anyone slack, no matter what type of life you were born into.”
“Mortal-raised. Sounds like I have a disease or something,” I mumbled, wrapping my arms around me as if to ward off any more insults that might be coming my way.
It was bad enough everyone back in our apartment and my school knew my mom was a drunk. But now I was going to be judged because I hadn’t known I was a witch?
Jared stepped closer and leaned in as he whispered, “I’m not going to lie, there are some students here who won’t like you being here.”
“What, why not?”
“Just trust me. A lot of the clans and witches are from old families, very old family, who believe in tradition, sanctity of the arts, blood purity, all that kind of crap,” he muttered looking suddenly uncomfortable. “A lot of them don’t believe that someone whose parents left them out of our society for so long should be so warmly welcomed.”
“So, everyone’s going to hate me on principle? Well, that just makes this whole ordeal worth it,” I snapped. “Never been hated before just for being me.”
I glanced at the doors again and thought of the long drive, imagining how much trouble I’d get in if I bolted, right now. I had no idea where I was going to go, but anywhere had to be better than here, right?
I remembered how to get to Edgar’s place. I could take of
f for there and hideout for a while. That house was big enough, he’d never even realize I was there.
And then what?
I blinked, and a pair of blue eyes came to mind.
Slade.
I wanted to see him again, be free to just run off without anyone seeming to care where I was.
“Everest?”
“Huh?”
Jared was staring at me worriedly.
I smiled. “Sorry, I’m good, promise.”
“Give yourself a few days to get adjusted. After that, I’m sure you’ll feel right at home.”
I smiled, but doubted his words. How was I going to feel at home amongst people who loathed everything about me?
As I inwardly sulked, he took me around to several buildings on campus, showing me where to find each of these crazy classes, before we left the class buildings behind and marched across campus towards the dorms.
I worried he was going to get tired of helping me lug my stuff around, but it didn’t seem to bother him at all. I wondered absently if he could carry more because technically he was a dragon, but then we were at the new building and the question disappeared from my mind.
The dorms were housed in a five-story stone building with several balconies jutting off to the sides, arched doorways and windows, and it was long, stretching on for quite a way in both directions.
It was surrounded by beautiful red and white roses with weeping willows at the corners. I craned my neck and spotted gargoyles along the roofline, just as large, if not bigger, than the ones I saw on Elsa’s balcony.
“Welcome to your new home,” he said as we entered, and I was immediately met by loud music soon as we were through the main doors.
There were high school students running up and down the halls, laughing and joking around with one another as they enjoyed their weekend. Some were shouting and making last minute plans with one another for their day off. The place was definitely lively, and despite where I actually was, it was nice to see so many people my age smiling and having fun. It gave me hope that maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as I imagined.
The main lobby we entered was the most rambunctious, and I could just barely hear Jared explaining to me that the girls’ dorms were on the right and guys were to the left.
Mortal Raised (Ever Witch Book 1) Page 10
