Familiar Magic (Druid Enforcer Academy Book 1)

by C. S. Churton

  She cut across my attempt at cordiality with a withering stare.

  “What the hell do you think you’re playing at, inviting him here?”

  “Him, who?” Zara said.

  “I wasn’t talking to you.” Paisley turned her glare on Zara, then back to me, but Zara wasn’t having any of that. She got to her feet and squared up to Paisley, which was only going to end one way.

  “No, you were talking to my friend – and talking to her like shit. So, you can either tell me who pissed in your cornflakes this morning, or you can get lost.”

  “Zara, it’s okay. Honestly.”

  I got up, too, because if things got physical, I’d have to dive between the pair pretty quick. A punch from a shifter – even a Bitten hybrid – was no joke. I turned to her.

  “Maybe you should make an effort to get your rage under control,” I said, eyeing her meaningfully. She shot a panicked glance at Zara and Kyle, and deflated, like someone had let the air out of her.

  “Guys, can you give us a moment?” I said. Zara eyed Paisley doubtfully.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. I’ll catch up to you in a bit.”

  She still didn’t look convinced, but the two of them took a stroll. I waited until they were out of earshot.

  “Uh, why don’t you sit?” I suggested. I figured it was harder to fight sitting down. I wasn’t joking about the punch. I was hoping to spend at least one day without having to visit the healer.

  We both sat, and Paisley stared at the ground between her feet.

  “How do you know about the rage?”

  “I’ve been working with the circle. They told me.”

  “Why?” She looked me up and down in a way that definitely wasn’t flattering.

  “They sent me to talk to him. To Raphael. They wanted me to question him about how to break it.”

  “Did he tell you?”

  I tongued a molar, stalling. “Maybe? He said some stuff, but… I don’t know if anything will come of it. I’m sorry.”

  She exhaled heavily and kicked at the dirt under her feet.

  “It’s horrible. I’m angry all the time, I don’t even know why half the time. I didn’t even know what it was at first. I thought it was just part of being a shifter. Then I spoke to Underwood, and realised it wasn’t, and I figured I was just a freak, like everyone at Dragondale said.”

  “Paisley, you’re not a freak, you’re a–”

  “Halfbreed.” She spat the word like it was poison.

  “Hybrid,” I corrected her gently. “And there’s nothing wrong with that.”

  “Everything is wrong with that. And bringing Leo here, that just makes it worse. Are you trying to rub my nose in it? Or did you just want to remind everyone about what I am? Because it’s not like they’ve forgotten.”

  “You know I would never want that.” Because it didn’t matter how sorry for myself I was feeling, Paisley went through hell over the last two years, and I would never do anything to add to that. Still, I could see why she might think otherwise. I softened my voice. “I needed Leo’s help, that’s all.”

  “With Stormclaw. Because he re-injured his leg.”

  The one he’d damaged after Paisley doped him last year, trying to get back in with Felicity. I didn’t imagine the guilt that fluttered across her face. She might be a rage-infected shifter, but she was still a druid, too. She cared about animals. It was part of who we were. Well, most of us, anyway.

  “He’s going to be okay,” I promised her, and myself.

  “You could have asked me for help. You didn’t need to bring him here.”

  “Because you’ve been so approachable over the last few months.” I rolled my eyes and gave her a no-hard-feelings smile, but the tension didn’t leave her shoulders.

  “It’s not just because of what he is, is it?” I guessed. “That’s not your only problem with Leo.”

  “If the enforcers hadn’t been hunting him, they might have found out what Kelsey was doing. They could have stopped her before she did this to me.”

  She yanked up her sleeve, revealing the mass of scars on her arm. I winced. Shifter bites didn’t heal, not fully. Not ever. But it wasn’t the scarring she cared about.

  “Being bitten is the worst thing that ever happened to me. It ruined my life. And it didn’t have to happen.”

  “I know. I’m s–”

  “Don’t you dare apologise to me,” she snarled, leaping to her feet. “I’ve had enough of apologies, and do you know what they’re worth? Not a damned thing. My life is ruined, and all anyone can say is sorry. Well, you know what, Lyssa? I don’t want your apologies. I want my life back.”

  She turned and stalked away, leaving me open-mouthed on my makeshift bench. But I didn’t sit there for long. Because not only did I know what had happened to me, I knew how.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “I know I’m right. You’ve got to believe me.”

  I leaned my hands on the top of the desk and stared at Elias seated behind it.

  “If you’re right – and I’m not saying you are – I don’t know what you want me to do about it.”

  “I am right,” I said. “Let me go back, and I’ll prove it.”

  “How?”

  Yeah, that was a really good question. I had absolutely no idea.

  “I’ll find a way.”

  “I’m sorry. That’s not going to cut it. If you’re right – and I’m still not saying you are–” He raised a hand and I clamped my mouth shut again. “Then it means he was able to do something that should have been impossible.”

  I slumped into the seat behind me.

  “We’re talking about Raphael,” I said. “There’s no such thing as impossible.”

  Although it did beg one question, if I was right, and if he had done this to me – and I was almost certain I was and he had – how the hell had he managed to use magic when he was in a warded cell, with his magic supposedly bound?

  “He was bound, right?” I asked.

  “I’m not authorised to answer that question.”

  “Shit. That means he wasn’t, doesn’t it?”

  “It means I can’t answer that question. But I do have one of my own. What makes you so sure it was Raphael?”

  “It was something he said in my last visit. I told him I was nothing like him. And he said that the part of him within me grew with every passing moment.”

  “Those were his exact words?”

  I ran it through my head again and nodded.

  “Yeah.”

  Elias scribbled something down on the notepad in front of him. I craned my neck to see his words, but I couldn’t from this angle.

  “If you’re right–”

  I clenched my jaw. If he said those damned words one more time… He saw my expression and reworded.

  “If he has managed to cast magic from inside a warded spell, then it’s much too dangerous for you to go back there. You see that, of course?”

  “No, I don’t. It’s more dangerous to stay away.”

  “I don’t agree. If – if – he could cast this spell on you, then there’s no telling what else he could have done.”

  “And you think this spell is going to stop where it is? He said it himself. It’s growing. It’s going to keep growing. I’m never going to bond a familiar with this inside me.”

  Elias shook his head and took on a pained expression.

  “There’s more at stake here than your career, Lyssa.”

  “Yes, there is. This is taking over everything I am, and I would rather risk facing whatever he can do to me than sit back and give up without even fighting.”

  And, abruptly, I understood everything Paisley had gone through since she’d been bitten. I closed my eyes. I should have done better for her. Because I’d been living with this for nine weeks, and there was a chance I could stop it. She’d had two years, and it was going to be that way for the rest of her life. I snapped my eyes open again.

  “Have you he
ard back from the circle? About the rage curse?”

  “You know I can’t answer that question.”

  “Can’t,” I said, “or won’t?”

  “Both. There are rules, and like it or not, we’re both bound by them.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest, then relented with a nod. Acting like a kid wasn’t going to change his mind. Besides, if I convinced him to let me see Raphael, I could probably wheedle the truth out of Cody.

  “What do the rules say about me not being able to fight back against something that’s eating away at me?”

  “They say you need to make some attempt at respecting your boundaries.”

  “Just as well I don’t put much stock in rules, then.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Interesting thing for a trainee enforcer to say.”

  “Uh, I meant, um…”

  “Go on, get out of here. I have some calls to make. Go back to your lectures – I assume you’re planning on attending some – and I’ll let you know when I have news.”

  “Wait, that’s it? I need to see Raphael.”

  “That’s not my decision to make.”

  “But you’ll ask, right? Make them see it’s the best thing? Elias, I need this out of me.”

  “Go,” he repeated, and held my eye until I ducked my head. I wasn’t going to get anything more out of him. Not today, at least. And he was right – I probably should make an appearance in my lectures before the instructors forgot who I was. No such hope of Xavier forgetting, of course.

  I slung my bag over one shoulder and ducked out into the hallway. I had Combat Magic this morning, and Killian was bound to single me out for being late. Not much chance of him forgetting who I was either, more’s the pity. I considered ducking the lesson, but frankly I needed the practice, and it wasn’t the sort of thing I could practise on my own.

  “Ah, Zeke.” Killian fixed his eyes on me the moment I stepped through the door. “I thought perhaps you’d been eaten by a werewolf.”

  Paisley stiffened, and I forced myself not to stare at her.

  “Sorry, Killian,” I said, maybe a little more blasé than was wise. “Elias needed to see me.”

  “About your plummeting grades, I’m sure,” Killian said. I opened my mouth, but regained control of my senses in time to snap it shut before I could say anything to get myself chucked out – proving I was capable of exercising self-control. Sometimes.

  “Put your bag down. Since you’re late, you’re the target.”

  I groaned under my breath and tossed my bag at the back of the room. Maybe I should have skipped, after all. Considering there were ninety of us in this class, and we’d only been doing actual combat magic for a few weeks, I was pretty sure I was getting more than my fair share of being the target.

  “I’m sure it won’t be a problem for you,” Killian continued, as I opened the cupboard next to the pile of bags and took out one of the crystals. “After all, your records document you can shield.”

  One time. I’d done it one time, and I had no idea how, much less any idea how to do it again. I grabbed the body harness from the cupboard and pulled it on, then secured the crystal in the pouch sitting over the middle of my chest. The crystal would protect me from the worst of the magic thrown my way – I wouldn’t be getting burned up, which was something – but I wasn’t supposed to get hit in the first place. And I wasn’t a fan of encouraging the other students to throw magic at me. It wasn’t like some of them needed all that much encouragement as it was.

  Zara and Kyle shot me sympathetic glances – they knew where I’d been – but there wasn’t much they could do to help. And, well, as much as I wasn’t a fan of this, one day people might be throwing magic at me for real – and I wanted to nail the whole not-being-killed thing before then.

  “Right, first team, into the centre of the hall. Everyone else, to the edges. Take notes on technique.”

  A group of eight guys got up, and swaggering in their centre, of course, was Xavier. He curved his lips into a nasty smile, and he circled one hand above the other, conjuring a fireball. Flanking him, the rest of his team conjured fire and air balls of their own, and one of them pulled water from a nearby bucket. Great. The crystal would stop it damaging me, but it wouldn’t stop me getting soaked, and my hair being utterly ruined for the rest of the day.

  Killian muttered a spell, and an energy field sprung up, completely encircling us and protecting anyone outside its barrier from being hit by a stray fireball or spell. The attackers were all wearing crystals in harnesses, too, as a precaution. Safety first – I’d seen how quickly magic could bounce from a defensive spell.

  “Five minutes on the clock, please,” Killian said. I turned to gape at him. Five minutes? Was he trying to kill me? “Begin.”

  Shit. I darted to my right and two fireballs hammered into the spot I’d been on a second before. These guys weren’t pulling their punches, and I couldn’t fight back. Killian’s idea of a good workout. Defensive magic only.

  Another fireball flew at my face and I ducked, throwing up my hands. Air blasted from my palms, flinging the fireball off its path. It smashed into the shield and fizzled out. I didn’t stick around to celebrate, instead zigzagging around the energy cage, trying to look everywhere at once. There was no way I could keep this up for five minutes. I was fit, but I wasn’t that fit, and sooner or later I was going to make a mistake.

  It turned out ‘sooner’ was right.

  The ball of water pounded into my back as I ran, spraying cold liquid right through my clothing. The crystal stunted the impact, so that it was no worse than being given a shove in the back – albeit a very cold, very wet shove in the back. Water sprayed everywhere. The water element extended a hand to gather it back up, but Xavier pushed his hand back down. He was planning something, and I didn’t think it was a surprise party.

  I darted from my spot and immediately realised my mistake. My feet slipped on the wet floor and I went down hard, slamming myself into the ground. Laughter echoed around the room, not just from the opposing team. I gritted my teeth and planted a hand on the ground to push myself back up, and a stabbing pain shot through my wrist. I yanked it back and cradled it against my chest.

  Wait. Something wasn’t right. I groped the harness, then glanced down at it. My eyes flicked across the empty pouch, and then to the floor, where the crystal lay, several feet away, abandoned.

  Shit.

  Xavier pulled back his arm, fireball primed, and threw it. I scrambled for the crystal but slipped on the wet floor and went down again. The fireball thudded into my leg and pain exploded through me. I screamed as it burned across my calf, leaving a trail of blackened flesh in its wake. I frantically slapped my hands down on the seared remains of my trousers, trying desperately to put out the flames before they could do any more damage. My leg was ablaze with agony and I couldn’t tell if the fire was out or still burning me. The energy shield surrounding us dropped and Killian strode over.

  “Someone alert Healer Deverell to expect a casualty,” he said, staring down at me with disdain. “Next time, Zeke, make sure you secure the crystal properly. There’s no room in my class for sloppiness.”

  *

  I spent the next couple of days healing up in Krakenvale’s medical wing, which was just a barrel of laughs. Seriously, I’d been here a little over three months, and I was already on my third visit – and Xavier had been responsible for two of them. It was getting ridiculous. I was going to have to do something about him soon, because I was sure that none of my ‘accidents’ had happened by accident. And sure, thanks to Deverell’s skill, none of them would leave a mark, but that didn’t mean they hurt any less in the first place. And that was without addressing the issue of my wounded ego, which wasn’t so easily fixed. I mean, sure, I’d wanted to shake my reputation as a coward, but not by replacing it with one as a klutz.

  Several people stopped by to visit me, but Elias wasn’t one of them. Not that I’d really believed he’d come by and give me t
he answer I wanted, but I’d hoped. Still, it wasn’t really a surprise. What was a surprise was Paisley showing her face long enough to bring me a slice of cake. She’d dumped it on the table next to my bed, whirled on her heel and stalked away without a word. I guess we were a little short on olive branches round here. But a werewolf giving food, that was much the same thing. Maybe her good will towards me would last, maybe it wouldn’t. Either way, the cake was delicious.

  Eventually, Deverell agreed I was well enough to leave, and three days of being stuck in a bed with nothing better to do – other than studying, and that hadn’t really appealed – had been enough for me to come up with a plan to persuade Elias to see things from my point of view.

  A plan that lasted less than half an hour after my discharge – when I turned up to his office to find him gone, and Iain in his place.

  “Ah, Lyssa. Elias said you’d probably stop by.”

  He set a pile of paperwork aside – unlike Elias, it seemed like he’d actually been filling some of it in.

  “Uh, yeah. Where is he?”

  I looked around as if I expected him to leap out from behind one of the stacks of files, then realised how ridiculous that was and fixed my eyes back on Iain.

  “He’s away. We expect him back sometime tomorrow.”

  “Oh.” It hadn’t occurred to me that Elias might ever actually leave this place, but I supposed even the head instructor was entitled to some downtime. Unless… “Where is he?”

  Iain pressed his lips together and shook his head, but he looked more amused than annoyed.

  “You’re really not good at boundaries, are you?”

  I shrugged. “Hey, I’ve got a swirling black mass of doom inside me. I’m a little off my game.”

  Iain perched on the edge of the desk.

  “No doubt. How are you coping?”

  “Well, I’d be a lot better if the circle would let me drag the cure out of Raphael. Is that where Elias is – talking to the circle?”

  “You’re not good at subtle, either. Why don’t you take a seat?”

  “O…kay?” It came out more like a question, but I stepped further into the room and sat on the edge of the nearest seat. I’d just spent three days in a bed; I really didn’t feel like sitting.