So I'd keep them. My foster parents weren't super well off and a lot of my clothing had come from thrift stores. Plus, the boots they'd given me made me feet feel like they were walking on clouds.
I'd seen Mannix several times. We did have a class together, but I'd been doing a great job of pretending he was invisible. He tried to talk to me several times during the first week, but I'd refused all opportunities to converse with him.
My heart felt a little bruised over it, but I was strong enough to realize a kiss was not a commitment. I was the kind of girl who picked her own flowers, so I certainly didn't need a boy to realize my self-worth.
Still, though, he was super hot and I wouldn't have minded sharing some more kisses with him.
I just didn't want it to be at the expense of my freedom.
I was sitting in Herbology class again. Professor Bouton de Rose was officially my favorite professor, and, not to brag or anything, but I was holding the highest average in class. The third day of class he slipped me a white sage plant along with a bag of sand and a grow light. I'd set it all up as soon as I got back to my room and so far the little sage was happy and hopefully putting out good vibes in my dormitory.
Today we were talking about poisons. I had nothing against them, but I was a little apprehensive about handling them. Plant poisons were serious business and you could die just by handling one if you weren't careful. The professor paired me up with Brittney of all people. I would have rather stabbed myself in the eye, but he didn't want to hear my protests.
So here I was with the sullen cheerleader sitting beside me about to handle Datura. The professor droned on and on about safety and by the end of it I was almost looking forward to getting it over with just to get him to stop talking.
Brittney didn't say much to me and hadn't since the cockroach incident. It was fine by me. At least I wasn't actively being bullied.
"Now, class, put your gloves on and pick up your samples." The professor, who'd told us all to call him Professor Rose after all of us showed poor aptitude for the French pronunciation, snapped his gloves on as well and put on a pair of oversized goggles.
I put mine on and stifled a laugh as Brittney did the same. Her lips quirked up when she saw me and for once I didn't see hatred in her eyes.
"On your desk is a formulation sheet showing you how to brew first a poison, then a medicine. Working together and using the items located in the cabinets behind you, I want you to first create the medicine." He looked around the room. "Everyone understand? The medicine first."
We nodded and I reached over to pick up the instructions. None of it seemed particularly challenging so I went over to the cabinet and gathered the necessary supplies. I passed by a table where a kid had a handful of Foxglove and another who was handling Nightshade. Shuddering, I gave them both a wide berth.
Brittney was poking at the plant material when I walked back with my hands full. To her credit, she took some of the items and helped me set them all down.
"Do you want to mix or pour?" I asked, adjusting my goggles which were starting to make my face sweat.
"Pour," she said.
I shrugged and started to arrange items in the order we'd need them. "Activated charcoal seems to be the main thing here." I looked up at Brittney. "Do you know what Datura can help with?" I did, but I was curious to see how much knowledge she had.
The cheerleader shrugged. "Toothache and parasite stuff, I think."
Good enough for me. "I wonder why we're making a medicine with this stuff."
"Don't care," Brittney quipped. "I can only assume they want to teach us both sides."
I handed the measuring spoons to her and wiped out a beaker. "Have at it," I said. I grabbed a glass stirrer and stirred the mixture as Brittney began to pour in the ingredients.
Just as she poured the charcoal in, the mixture turned a bright purple, flared with light once, and fell silent. "Cool," I murmured.
Professor Rose wandered by our table just then. He leaned down and peered at the mixture. "Hmm. It looks okay, but I wonder if you used enough charcoal."
Brittney frowned but didn't respond.
"Alright class, next we're going to handle the poison aspects of your plants. Each of you has an instruction sheet. Make sure you keep your gloves on. No one is going to ingest anything, so don't worry about that, but we still need to watch this stuff in action. Turn on the tablet next to the sheet and press play on the video that pops up."
Ours was a video about Datura poisoning in all its forms. I watched in horror as the camera followed around a poor guy who was well into the throes of a hallucination after ingesting some of the plant leaves.
Brittney, on the other hand, was enraptured by what she was watching. "Cool. I wonder if that works like weed."
"If I had to guess, I'd say it's more like LSD."
Her gaze shot to mine. "And what do you know about LSD?"
"Enough. We did a long block on illegal drugs in health class back home." It was fascinating, but also disturbing to read about. Marijuana was on the least harmful scale, but it still altered your nervous system. For that reason alone, I'd never participated even though I had plenty of opportunities. I always wanted to be in control. I'd been tempted but I'd never done it.
"So, hey," Brittney began. "We're all going down to the Howler dorm later if you wanted to come."
I paused what I was doing. Had I heard her right? "Really?" I asked, the dubious note in my voice obvious.
Brittney laughed. "Yes, seriously. I know we got off on the wrong foot, but I'd say you got us back." She paused. "Wouldn't you?"
If I said yes, I would be admitting I'd been responsible for that illusion when I shouldn't have known an illusion like that at all. If I said no, we both knew I would be lying. But I trusted this girl about as far as I could throw her. "Thanks for inviting me, but probably not." This might be social suicide, but I couldn't risk anyone finding out about me. Mannix was still on thin ice and I was waiting for that to blow up in my face.
"Come on, Harmony. We just want to get to know you better. I swear!" She held up her gloved hands in a gesture of surrender. I couldn't hear any malice in her voice, but then again I didn't have my powers turned up. I was extremely careful when I was in class or around any of the students.
I eyed her profile. Her nose was perfect and her skin was like glass. What would it be like to be her? I wondered. I had pink, unruly hair, and a complexion as white as milk. Maybe no harm would come out of it. "I'll think about it," I said.
A smile broke out on her face. "Awesome! I'll tell the other girls. Hand me your cell." I got my phone out and handed it over. She punched her number in and called her phone from mine. "Tell me if you decide to and I'll have someone from the Howlers come out and escort you in."
I still couldn't keep up with all the names for the dorms here. Shifters were the Howlers, including wolves and coyotes, and I thought I heard the Screechers were the cat shifters. It was a lot to remember and I wasn't doing a very good job of it.
The video stopped and Professor Rose told us to bag up our Datura. When we'd done so, I had a moment where I thought it didn't look like we'd given everything back, but when I glanced over at Brittney, she seemed unconcerned about it. I eyed our bags and shrugged it off. Neither one of us had any use for Datura, so I must just be imagining things.
Class ended a few minutes after that, and after we carefully disposed of our gloves, I headed out into the hall. Honey was my only true friend right now, and I wasn't even sure how true it was. She was bound to me through a secret. I wasn't sure if we could ever have a real friendship because of it. And yet ... in spite of her movie star looks and her slight materialism, she seemed to have a good heart. She also wasn't scared of my magic and that was saying something. When I mentioned that fact later, she snorted and said most shifters weren't scared of illusions. Their lives were lived by the ebb and flow of the moon, and they shifted into clawed and fanged wild animals. Their own lives were scary eno
ugh.
It made me laugh at the time, but it also made me sad. I typed out a quick text to Honey about going to the shifter dorm later.
She responded almost immediately.
Brittney? Hmm. Be careful there.
Yes, I typed, so come with me if I decide to go.
I was invited, but I got a bottle of pearlescent pink nail polish and I feel like eating too much popcorn and doing my nails.
This is unsatisfactory. Also, who are you? This doesn't sound like the Honey I know.
Honey is tired. She's been kept up by a rather rowdy coyote shifter the last three nights in a row.
Um. Eww, I typed. Then, please, please, please.
It sounds like you're going.
Maybe.
I could almost hear her sigh. Fine. Text me when you head out and I'll meet you there.
Yay!
I put my phone away, a goofy smile riding on my face.
15
Brittney and Honey were both waiting for me at the entrance to the shifter dorm. Honey had a weird look on her face when I walked up, but she wiped it away and smiled at me.
"Damn! Looking good, LeCharme," she said as she took my hand and spun me around. "Nice duds." She wiggled her eyebrows at me, telling me she knew where they came from and that she wasn't judging me. Mannix's parents might be trying to butter me up, but they did have good taste in clothing.
"Hey girl," Brittney said, snapping a piece of bubble gum in her mouth. She wore a short denim skirt with a white tank top and a pair of wedge heels. Just looking at her made me chilly. Shifters didn't experience extreme body temperatures like regular human magicians did so they could wear whatever they wanted whenever they wanted it with no real issues.
I looked cute, or so I thought, but I'd also dressed warm. All the stone in this school made the common areas cold as hell. I wore a pair of buttery soft, light skinny jeans and an off the shoulder cream-colored sweater. I'd paired that with a pair of brown leather ankle boots. My hair was down today to cover up my tattoos, the cotton candy pink starting to fade into my natural blonde. I'd have to fix that soon enough.
Honey always looked adorable. She erred on the warm side, too, in a pair of skinny jeans and a black wrap sweater. Her only concession to the temperature resistance of her dual nature was a pair of jeweled sandals. It didn't even look weird on her.
"Ready?" Brittney asked.
I nodded, nervousness turning my stomach into knots. "Sure."
Honey took my arm and let Brittney walk through first. "Something is up with this, Harmony. She's being awfully nice." We started to walk inside. "Normally this wouldn't be suspicious, but Brittney is never nice."
I squeezed her arm. "This is why you're with me, right?"
Her lips twisted and the look of concern didn't fade from her face. "Right," she agreed.
There were probably twenty kids milling around. Most of them were shifters, but I saw Trixie across the room. She waved at me and headed through the crowd to come over and talk.
"You look adorable!" She rolled her eyes as she looked around. "I normally don't come out to stuff like this, but they practically hog-tied me. Plus, we're all on the prom committee and anything we can do to encourage more participation makes us look good with the administrators."
Honey snorted. "I'm the main person and the only reason I'm here is to keep Harmony here out of trouble."
Trixie grunted her assent. "Brittney is being awfully nice, isn't she?"
"It's pretty sad that someone being nice raises a lot of suspicion," I said, watching as the bubbly cheerleader headed off to talk to a gaggle of too pretty girls.
"We're all delinquents here, Harmony," Trixie said, her expression turning inward. "Most of us aren't harmful, more annoying than anything. But there are people here who've done a lot worse things than vandalism or nuisance magic."
She didn't say what she'd done and I didn't ask. It seemed rude. "What did Brittney do?" I asked, my gaze lingering on her.
"That's so rude," Honey said but laughed. "Honestly? None of us know. People usually don't go around talking about their transgressions because most people aren't proud of them. It's the ones who do you should be scared of." She pointed out a particularly tall guy. His face was pushed in like he'd been punched one too many times, and his eyes were small and beady. "Take that guy. He was steal magician's familiars and using them in magical experiments."
I inhaled a shocked gasp. Familiars bound themselves to only one magician. I didn't have one, but I knew the loss of one could cripple a magician. "That's horrible," I whispered.
Trixie nodded. "Only a few of us have familiars now," she added. She swallowed hard and looked away.
"I'm sorry, Trixie," I said. "I had no idea."
She blinked at me. "Oh, it wasn't me," she said and offered a wobbly smile. "Shifters can't have familiars."
There was something off in her tone. I knew shifters couldn't have a familiar because they weren't magicians but ... Trixie's eyes looked haunted. Like maybe there was a lot she wasn't telling me.
"Anyway," Honey said, but she gripped and squeezed Trixie's arm, "we stay away from people like him. If he's willing to do that, no one can really know what else he'll do, right?"
"Right," I agreed. "Stay away from the giant, scary guy."
The common area of the shifter dorm was done up in a lot of leather seating and dark hardwood furniture. A keg sat in the middle of the living area and was currently occupied by several students who looked far too young to drink.
"No one gets busted at these parties?" I wondered aloud.
Trixie snorted. "They don't care if it's past five o'clock. They get to leave and we're stuck in here." The bitterness in her voice was obvious.
Honey pulled me by the hand. "Come on. I want to introduce you to some people."
I let her lead me over to a big group. There was a guy with a shock of white blond hair and the palest blue eyes I'd ever seen. I couldn't tell if he was a shifter or not. "Peter," Honey said. He stuck his hand out and I shook it, surprised at how chilly it was.
"Roger," Honey said and pointed to another guy with dark hair and facial hair for days. He didn't stick his hand out, but he did nod at me.
"Hey," I said and gave him an awkward wave. Several more introductions happened until I had so many names in my head I wouldn't be able to remember any of them.
We stood around chatting for a while until Brittney came over and handed me a drink. I held it up. "Is this alcoholic?" I asked, aware of how I sounded.
"No, nerd," she said with a sigh. "I figured you wouldn't be drinking tonight."
"Thanks," I said. "I think."
"Lighten up. It's just punch. Alcohol interferes with some shifter's metabolism. Not all of us, but there are some who prefer not to ingest anything with alcohol. If you're interested in beer, you can hit up the keg." Brittney watched as I tentatively sipped the punch. It was fruity with a slight sourness to it.
"Hibiscus," she explained. "The witches always put weird shit in the drinks. Don't worry. Totally natural and full of vitamin C. No one ever gets sick in the witches' dorm."
I shrugged and kept drinking. Overall, it was pretty good.
Brittney gave me a sharp smile. "Have fun tonight," she said and walked away.
I blinked at her and then looked down into my cup. I couldn't see anything wrong with it.
Honey stared after her and then looked at me. "You feeling okay?"
I shrugged. "Fine, but that was kind of weird, wasn't it?"
Trixie's gaze lingered on Brittney's back. "Very weird. I'll be right back." She left us standing there and headed over to the punch bowl. We watched as she chatted with a few girls wearing all black and red.
"Witches?" I questioned.
"Yup," Honey said. "Trixie is pretty close to a few of them."
She came back after a minute or two and shrugged. "Just fruit punch," she said. "That doesn't mean Brittney didn't do anything to your cup, though."
"Maybe she's just trying to rile me up," I said. I really did feel fine, but now I was feeling nervous.
"I wouldn't put anything past her," Honey said, "but if she did do something to your drink, I'll make sure she pays for it."
I waved my hand. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure it's fine." I looked down in my cup to see if there were any concealment charms on it, but I couldn't find a thing. After a second, I looked back up and gasped.
The golden-haired boy with the beautiful music was standing a few feet away looking right at me. A crimson blush burned on my cheeks.
"Who is that?" I whispered to Trixie.
"Who?" she asked, a quizzical look on her pretty face.
I didn't want to point. "Over there, standing by the fireplace."
"There's like ten people over there. Be more specific."
"The golden-haired boy. The one who looks like Apollo."
I didn't miss the look that passed between my friends.
"Like the god?" Honey questioned.
"Exactly like the god," I said. I put my cup down and drifted over to him.
The side of his lip curled as he realized I was coming over. He took a few steps toward me, but his face started to morph and change. One side of his handsome face melted like candle wax.
A horrified scream burst from me.
Trixie and Honey were right by my side in an instant. "Harmony?" Trixie asked, her voice urgent. "Are you okay?"
The golden hair boy disappeared in a shower of purple light. "Whoa," I whispered. My hands reached out to touch the sparkles of magic left behind.
Something was terribly wrong with me. "Honey?"
"I'm here." Her hand gripped my arm tightly. "I think we need to get you out of here."
Brittney chose that moment to walk up to us. "Did you enjoy your drink?" Her eyes glittered with malice.
"You bitch," Trixie whispered. Magic filled the air, the combination of anger and her magic made an acrid combination.
"Me?" Brittney laughed. "I wasn't the one using forbidden magic in class, was I?" She leaned closer. "I don't know what you are, but we don't want you here. This place is for people who fit into one class." Her lips pulled into a sneer, but her mouth was shifting around on her face. Massive teeth appeared and her eyes flashed chartreuse in front of me. My breath came out in frantic pants.
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