Being around Fiona was like being around the mom I never had. She just had such a calming presence. It was like, when I was around her, I knew that everything was going to be okay. Somehow, I trusted that no matter what situation I was facing, she would always have the answers.
They might not be perfect answers, but she’d have answers.
Fiona was nothing if not fair, and she’d proven time and time again that she’d do anything to help the people who were important to her.
“I’m glad you get the chance to learn from her,” I told Jade.
“Me too. And I’m sorry you didn’t get into any of her classes.”
“It’s okay,” I shrugged.
“Not really, but that’s part of the academy. They choose our schedules.” Jade looked at me sympathetically, and even though I didn’t really want her pity, I appreciated the fact that she really seemed to understand how I was feeling.
“It’s part of why this school is so great,” I admitted. “But it can also be disappointing not to have more flexibility in what we study.”
“I know.” Jade looked over at all of the homework that was spread over her desk. “Can you believe I have to do all of this?” She sighed. “How am I going to get any of this done? If it was up to me, I would have taken like, half of this load.” She shook her head.
“Caffeine time?” I asked helpfully.
“No way,” she shook her head. “Even though I want it, I can’t bring myself to start drinking coffee. It’s such a bad habit.”
“You aren’t wrong, but you gotta do what you gotta do.”
“What I need to do is just buckle down.”
“You do that,” I said. I jumped off my bed and grabbed my robes. I slipped into them, wrapping them tightly around me. I didn’t really need my wand, but I brought it with me. At this point, having a wand isn’t any sort of status symbol, but it does feel right, and good, and important.
“Where are you going?”
“Fiona’s. I just want to catch up a little. Besides, I’m guessing you could use some peace and quiet without any distractions.” I didn’t want to boss her around, but it wasn’t exactly a secret that trying to study when you’d rather be chatting or gossiping was an impossible situation. If I left for a little while, Jade would be able to pour herself into her homework.
“I bet she’s still in her office,” Jade said helpfully. “We had a bunch of papers due this week.” Jade shuddered and I forced a smile.
“You’ve got this, Jade.”
Writing wasn’t exactly easy for either one of us, but hey, we did what we had to do, and what we had to do was write paper after paper on the history of shifters and why they were important. We had to write about potions and experiments and all sorts of other important stuff, but mostly, most of all, we had to figure out how we could make magic work for us.
We had to learn how we could use it to our full advantage.
“Thanks,” Jade said. She turned back to her desk and I slipped outside into the hallway. I took a second to collect my bearings, and then I headed to the castle. I didn’t take the secret tunnels. They should really be called the not-so-secret tunnels since everyone knew where they were. Instead, I walked right out of the dorms and across to the castle.
It was such a huge building that it should have been even more intimidating than it was. Somehow, though, I wasn’t scared of the big stone walls or the towers and turrets. This place just sort of felt comfortable to me now.
Honestly, it sort of felt like…
Well, like home.
And I knew that was cheesy and goofy and weird, but it did.
It felt like coming home.
Being at Shifter Falls was an incredible experience. The thing I liked most was getting to meet so many wonderful people who all had different ideas of what it meant to be magical. It was crazy to me that a place like this existed and I had never even had a glimpse of an idea. I’d never known. Not until I actually started coming to my classes.
There were other schools, too. There were schools for fairies and elves and hybrids. There were schools for anyone who had a magical ability. That was an incredible thing, really. It was amazing that this entire world existed and that I got to be a part of it.
Maybe I should think about being a teacher after graduation.
There weren’t a lot of magical career paths that I thought fit my personality. I wasn’t exactly super powerful when it came to magic. I couldn’t cast unbreakable spells. My shifting abilities existed, but they were limited. The only thing I really had going for me, in my opinion, was the fact that I was generally pretty patient with people.
Would I make a good teacher?
I made a mental note to talk to Fiona about it. Maybe that was a career path I should pursue. I was supposed to decide soon because in our third year at the academy, we were going to have to do more specialized training. If I wanted to be a teacher, I’d have to take certain classes. If my goal was to go into shifter safety or shifter research or magical potions and herb creation, then my schedule would be even more different.
I got lost in thought, which was a terrible habit, and I almost didn’t see Mr. Harper coming around a corner as I walked down one of the hallways.
“Oh, sorry,” I said, narrowly avoiding bumping into him. He was leaving the downstairs hallways – the not-so-secret ones. The ones I had chosen not to take to come to the big castle. “I didn’t see you there.”
Mr. Harper flushed furiously. He shook his head, and I got the distinct impression that he wasn’t happy I had seen him there. What was this guy’s problem? He was seriously always walking around and lurking around the school, and he’d been strange when I’d tried to ask him about his former life.
“Oh,” he said. “Um, hi. Yes. Well…”
He looked at me, as though I was supposed to say something.
Um, was I supposed to say something? That didn’t exactly seem like my job. He was the teacher, after all. I peered past him to the closed door that led downstairs.
Why had he been down there?
What had he gone wandering down in the hallways for?
Those were the hallways that students used to go from the dorms to the castle. As far as I knew, none of the adults ever really wandered down there. I looked up sharply at Mr. Harper, but he seemed agitated, almost irritated, that I knew he’d been downstairs.
“Where are you off to?” I asked. I tried to sound casual, but I think my voice came off as kind of rough, almost predatory, because he shook his head. His entire body tensed, as though he was preparing for me to slap him or hit him. Strange.
“Nowhere important. Have a good night.” His words were short and clipped. Abrupt. He wasn’t exactly friendly on the best of days, but this felt extreme, even for him.
He turned and walked, exiting the castle. He took off toward the dormitories, but if that was where he was going, why hadn’t he just stayed in the tunnels? Did that mean he hadn’t come from the dorms? Was he doing something else in the basement?
I stared at the doorway to the downstairs hallways and dorm entrances, and I wondered what Mr. Harper could have been doing down there. The door was closed now, and there was no way I’d ever get answers, but I still stared and silently hoped something would come to me.
Why did I have the feeling he was up to no good?
Had he been one of the people who was wandering around in the unmarked rooms downstairs?
And why did I suddenly feel like he was hiding something important?
Chapter 7
Eventually, I stopped worrying about Mr. Harper and decided to worry about myself. I turned and started walking toward the offices. I still struggled to find my way around the castle sometimes, but for the most part, I’d learned where everything was. The teachers didn’t have one central location for their offices. Instead, their spaces were sprinkled throughout the castle.
Fiona’s office was located in a second-floor turret that spiraled up. The space was beautiful.
Her office had stone walls that were covered with tapestries and ribbons and pictures. The floors were covered with pillows and lots of soft things to sit on. I’d only been there a few times, but it always felt really similar to her home back in Growl Valley.
When I finally reached Fiona’s office, I knocked on the door and waited patiently. It took every ounce of self-control not to barge right in, though. I wanted to see my friend.
“Come in,” she called out in her sing-song voice. I walked inside and my jaw dropped. Fiona only laughed. “So you like the new look?”
“It’s…wow.”
The space had been beautiful before, but now it was entirely different. The stone walls were the same, but the floor cushions were gone and the paintings had been altered. In fact, her office had an entirely new theme.
She decorated it to look like her old living room, back in our old town. We’d lived together for awhile, so I remembered exactly what her living room was supposed to look like. How had she managed to model her office so perfectly after it?
Okay, the office was round while the living room had been square, but that was really the only difference. Everything looked exactly the same. It even smelled the same. I closed my eyes and sniffed the space.
Chocolate chip cookies?
Had she been baking?
“Thank you,” she said simply. “It took a lot of planning.”
“But…how?” I asked. “You got every detail right.”
Even magic shouldn’t have been able to replicate something quite so wonderfully. Fiona was powerful, I knew, but this was something I never could have dreamed up.
“My husband and I planned that house together,” Fiona said. “We knew exactly how we wanted every detail. I couldn’t forget a single detail of it.”
“You got everything right: the furniture, the paintings.” I walked over and looked at one of the wall paintings she’d hung. It was even slightly tilted, just the way her old one had been. I’d tried many times to get that painting to hang right-side up, but it had never agreed. It was cute that this one matched that.
“Thank you, love,” Fiona smiled. She came over to me and hugged me, and then it was my turn to grin. Fiona really was a kind, motherly person. She was fiercely loyal and she’d do anything to protect the people she cared about.
Most importantly, I could trust her, and I could be honest with her about everything. Fiona didn’t judge. She just helped.
“I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you more,” she said.
I believed her, too. I totally and absolutely believed that Fiona had missed having me around. She was the perfect roommate and the most wonderful landlady I’d ever had. We’d spent a lot of time hanging out together and getting to know one another.
I mean, I’d never known that she was a shifter, but that didn’t matter too much, right?
“What brings you in today?” She asked. She went and sat down on her sofa. Every detail matched her old living room. There wasn’t even a desk in the office. She was grading papers at her coffee table.
“I guess I just wanted to visit you,” I said. It sounded sort of dumb now that I said it out loud. I mean, I could have just stopped by during normal business hours, but at least Fiona didn’t seem to mind.
“I’m glad that you did, Charlie. I’ve missed our talks.”
“Me too.”
“I’m guessing you’ve been busy this semester,” she said carefully.
“Very busy,” I admitted.
“Second year is tough,” she said thoughtfully. “If I remember correctly, though, by year three, you’ll have everything mastered. It’ll feel like finding an old, comfortable glove and slipping it on at that point.”
I wasn’t sure if that was true, but I really, really hoped it was. I wanted next year to be simple and wonderful and relaxing. I didn’t want it to be hard. I had enough drama in my life between Kenneth and Jade to last me a lifetime.
“Thanks,” I said. Then I decided to change the subject because really, I wanted to know how she was doing. “How do you like teaching again?” I asked. “You were retired for a long time before you came back.”
I wondered if it was hard getting back into the swing of things. I’d never exactly retired, but doing anything after a break seemed to be tricky. It didn’t really matter who you were. Anyone could have trouble with new adjustments.
“It’s been quite lovely, actually,” she said. “Better than I anticipated.” She smiled thoughtfully, as though she was reliving happy memories. She used to work here with her husband, so I wondered if that had an effect on her mood. Maybe it helped her feel close to Petey.
“Really?”
“Really,” she laughed. “You needn’t look so surprised, Charlie. I may be old in body, but my mind is still sharp. That’s the blessing of the shifter.”
I blushed.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to imply that you weren’t up for it. It’s just that change isn’t easy.”
“No, it’s not.”
“I feel like I know that better than most people,” I offered.
“You do indeed. Tell me, Charlie, how is year two treating you?”
Fiona was the only reason I’d made it to Shifter Falls Academy. It was tempting to lie and to tell her that everything was perfect. After all, it kind of was, and it was as perfect as it could get without some sort of magic potion that brought back the past.
“It’s good,” I started to say. Fiona wasn’t about to be fooled, though.
“But?”
“It’s pretty close to perfect,” I explained.
“Charlie, I’ve known you for a long time,” she said. “You don’t have to beat around the bush with me. What’s bothering you?”
I wiggled around on her couch, trying to make myself comfortable. How was I going to phrase this? I needed a way to express how I was feeling without sounding completely stupid or childish or insane.
In the end, I decided that blurting it out would have to do.
“I want to know where I came from,” I said. The words came out all in a rush, and for a minute, I worried that she couldn’t understand what I had said. My words had been all mashed together. I’d said it too quickly.
“You mean, where you were born?” She asked carefully, considering.
“That’s part of it, but I also want to know who my parents were,” I told her. This time, I spoke more clearly. I took a deep breath, embarrassed. I really was asking her for help. I was trying to figure out what my choices were for moving forward with my life and for finding out whether there had been a shifter family who had lost a child.
Was there any chance that had happened to me?
I didn’t know if I was an orphan.
I didn’t know if my parents had died in a tragic potion making accident.
I definitely didn’t know if they had simply misplaced me.
Had a witch stolen me away?
Had I been kidnapped?
The idea that my parents were still alive was absolutely ridiculous, but sometimes, I still thought about it. Every once in awhile, I let myself pretend that they were still alive, and that they were missing me, but I knew that kind of thinking could only hurt me, so I tried not to let my mind wander too much.
“I see,” Fiona picked up her teacup and took a long sip. She seemed neither surprised nor bothered by this admission, and that grated just a little. Why didn’t she care that I was a lonely little orphan without a family?
Why didn’t she care that I didn’t even know where I’d come from?
“How long has this been bothering you, Charlie?”
“Forever,” I admitted.
“But it’s been worse lately?”
“Yes.”
“Why do you think that is?”
I didn’t really think of Fiona as a therapist, but she was asking me some serious questions. Hell, maybe I did need some sort of therapy. I definitely had a laundry list of issues.
Sti
ll, I was there, and I was going to make the most of it.
“Honestly?”
“I wouldn’t accept anything else.”
“I think it’s because now I know about the shifter thing.”
“The shifter thing?” She raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “Is that how you think of it, love?”
“Well, sort of.”
“That’s the first problem. This isn’t a ‘shifter thing,’” she said carefully. “This is who you are, Charlie. You’re a shifter. You’re a woman. You’re both. Your human side is just as much a part of you as your cat side. They aren’t divisible. You aren’t half a girl and half a cat. You’re two wholes wrapped into one.”
“When you put it like that, it sounds practically magical.”
“It is,” she said.
I wanted to know more about that magical belief. When she explained that I was one magical being – not a cat girl – it made me feel better. It made me believe that maybe, just maybe, I was going to be able to find a way to live with the fact that I’d never truly have answers.
“And there are some things you should know, Charlie,” she said. “Being a shifter isn’t easy. Living without a family isn’t, either, but you can make your own family. As you grow up, you’ll find that family really is who you choose.”
Before I could respond, something else drew our complete attention. The door to her office burst open, and Sebastian Wild walked in without knocking or even looking up from the book he was reading. He flipped a page and walked effortlessly into the office, stepping over items that were sprawled on the floor: a ball of yarn, a little puppy toy. He did this so easily that it made me wonder how many times he’d been in this exact office since Fiona’s remodel. He certainly seemed comfortable enough with the layout that he didn’t need to look where he was going.
“Fiona, I was reading, and it seems as though the items lost during the robbery should still be located on campus somewhere.” He shook his head and flipped a page again. “There’s no chance they could have been removed. Something would have sent off the enchantments that surround the school. We definitely would have figured it out sooner. They must still be located here somewhere.”
Shifter Falls Academy: Year Two Page 5
