Paranormal Academy Book 1: Magic 101

by Jody Morse

  As I stepped up to the dragon, its eyes fell on mine and it cocked its head at me.

  Then, taking me completely by surprise, the baby dragon climbed out of Brandon’s arms and jumped onto my shoulder.

  It climbed up onto my chest and, laying its head right in between my boobs, stared up at me with an almost adoring look in its eyes. I held the dragon in place so it wouldn’t fall.

  I wasn’t going to lie. It was incredibly cute. Not as cute as a puppy, but it was definitely cute in that magical lizard sort of way. I just hoped that it didn’t choose to sneeze again and catch my hair on fire or something.

  “Wow,” Brett commented. “He really likes you.”

  “I’ve never seen Spike act this way towards anyone before. Do you know what this means, Juliana?” Brandon asked.

  “What?” I asked with raised eyebrows.

  “I think Spike is your familiar.”

  “W-what? My familiar is a… dragon?” I hadn’t been in this world for very long. I had only been here just long enough to know that paranormal beings actually had familiars. But I had assumed that our familiars were usually black cats, like Draia’s Max, or maybe owls like in Harry Potter. Was it actually possible that my familiar could be a baby dragon?

  “I don’t know how much you know about familiars, but remember that we don’t get to pick our familiars. Our familiars choose us.” Brandon glanced down at the dragon who I was cuddling in my arms. “And Spike here seems to be incredibly taken by you.”

  “How would that even work?” I asked. “I can’t just have a pet dragon living in my dorm room. Not if he’s going to grow to be one-thousand pounds, like you said.”

  “He would also be a huge fire hazard risk. There’s no way I’m sharing a dorm room with that,” Draia said, shaking her head.

  “There’s somewhere else we can keep him, but first, I want to make sure that I’m actually right about this,” Brandon explained. “Would you be able to meet me after school a few times this week? I want to see him interact some more with you.”

  “Yeah, that’s fine,” I replied with a nod.

  As I stared down at the baby dragon in my arms, I noticed he had fallen asleep with his head pressed against my chest. As he snored softly, I couldn’t help but smile.

  A new school. A new life. A new… pet dragon?

  ***

  “I’m just saying, it’s not even fair,” Ambur complained as we stood in line at the buffet during our lunch period. “Both of your familiars have already found you, but then you have me, the future paranormal veterinarian, and mine hasn’t found me yet.”

  “You can have Max if you want him,” Draia replied with a shrug as she loaded her plate up with some salad. “That cat can be a real pain in the ass sometimes.”

  “I love cats and even I think Max can be a pain in the ass sometimes,” Ambur agreed as she grabbed a turkey sandwich. “I hope that once I find my familiar, it turns out to be a really cool one—like Juliana’s dragon.”

  “Do all paranormal beings have familiars?” I questioned, realizing that I didn’t actually know the answer. I had assumed that it was just something witches had, but Ambur was a fairy and thought she would get a familiar.

  “Only the magical ones,” Draia replied. “Witches, fairies, and…” She glanced around to make sure no one was listening before whispering, “warlocks.”

  “Are we not allowed to say that word?” I asked with raised eyebrows as I placed a cheeseburger and some French fries on my tray.

  “No, they just don’t like being talked about,” she explained.

  “Well, they can go cut their tongues on some mermaid fins,” Ambur commented. “Sorry, but all of these paranormal beings need to start being friendlier.”

  As if on cue, I spotted Everly Carmichael out of the corner of my eye. It took me a second to realize that she was headed straight for me—and she looked pissed.

  “New Girl,” she said through gritted teeth.

  I met her eyes. “Actually, my name is Juliana.”

  “I’m well aware of your name. Everyone around here knows your name. How could they not? You are a Montgomery, after all,” she replied with an eye roll.

  It was going to take a while to get used to my last name actually meaning something in this world.

  “I heard you were talking to Brett in Magical Animals and Creatures today,” Everly went on.

  “Wow, word really travels fast around here, doesn’t it?” I said, only half-jokingly. In reality, I almost couldn’t believe that it had already gotten back to her. It hadn’t even been an hour since the class.

  She didn’t look the least bit amused by my answer. “Brett is my boyfriend, meaning he’s off-limits to anyone else on this campus… including you.”

  “Okay, first of all, he is the one who talked to me,” I informed her as I grabbed a bottle of water from the line. “Second of all, you have nothing to worry about. I have no interest in Brett.”

  “Yeah, right,” she replied.

  “I really don’t,” I insisted. Sure, he was hot and everything, but I didn’t even know the guy.

  “Everyone here knows that you, especially, have every reason to be interested in Brett,” Everly replied, “but you’ll leave him the hell alone if you know what’s best for you. I mean it.” Her icy gray eyes were full of warning.

  Then, turning on her heel, she walked away from me, leaving me completely confused.

  I glanced over at Ambur and Draia, who were both staring at me.

  “Do you guys understand what she meant? Why would I ‘especially’ have a reason to be interested in Brett?”

  “Because he comes from the second most powerful line of werewolves in the world. If the two of you got together…” Ambur trailed off.

  “What?” I pressed. “What would happen if we got together?”

  “You’d be a power couple,” Draia explained. “You’d basically be like the Beyoncé and Jay-Z of the werewolf world.”

  I frowned. Everly was jumping to some major conclusions. For starters, she was just assuming that I even wanted to be a part of a power couple. I wasn’t going to lie. The idea sounded completely intimidating. The last thing I wanted was for people to give us a couple name, like Bruliana or Jett or something. I also had no idea what being a part of a werewolf power couple would even really mean.

  But that wasn’t the only assumption she was even making when it came to me, Brett, and this whole power couple thing.

  The truth was we didn’t even know if I was a werewolf at all.

  Chapter 7

  Once lunch was over, Draia and I headed to our Elemental Magic class. I wasn’t sure why, but there was something about this class that piqued my interest the most. It just sounded really cool. I’d always been oddly intrigued by the elements.

  The classroom reminded me of an auditorium at a human high school. There was a stage with a curtain and seats for us to sit in.

  “So, Professor Tate is new this semester,” Draia informed me. “I have no idea what he even looks like, but everyone was talking about him in my first period class. I guess he’s really hot.”

  As if on cue, a tall guy with dark brown hair that he wore a little long on top and shorts on the sides walked into the room. He was wearing a gray suit and tie. He looked young—maybe twenty at the most—but I knew that paranormal beings aged better than humans.

  “Definitely hot,” she whispered.

  “Um, yeah,” I agreed, unable to take my eyes off of him. I wasn’t sure if I had ever seen a guy as attractive as he was in real life before. Well, except for Brett. And Kaden.

  Clearly, there were lots of hot guys at this school. It was going to take some getting used to.

  As the professor came to stand in front of us, he sat on the ledge of the stage and glanced out at us. “Welcome to Elemental Magic. My name is Professor Tate, and I will be your instructor for this course. We have a mixture of students in this classroom, ranging from first year to fourth year. Some of you
are new to the basics of magic, while some of you are a bit more advanced—or so I’m told. This is my first semester as a professor here, as I’m sure many of you already know. I am a witch with an affinity for all four elements. I am able to control all of the elements, and some of you will be able to do the same once you have finished this class. It’s worth noting that, while some magic practitioners are able to control the elements naturally, others must learn it. Some, however, struggle with this area of magic—and that’s okay. Even if you walk away from this class without being able to control the elements, it’s important to have an understanding of how other magic practitioners are able to do it. This is for your own protection.”

  At that moment, the door to the classroom opened and the sound of shoes clacking against the floor echoed through the room.

  “Sorry I’m late,” a familiar voice said, and I froze.

  I glanced over my shoulder to find Everly Carmichael walking down the rows of seats, towards the front of the classroom.

  Crap. She was in my class. The last thing I wanted was to have to deal with Everly at all, let alone on a daily basis. And of all the classes she could have been in, it just had to be the one I had been most excited about. To say that she was raining on my parade would have been an understatement.

  “May I have your name?” Professor Tate asked her.

  “Everly Carmichael.”

  “Ms. Carmichael, I realize it’s the first day and that I am a new professor, but there’s one thing all of you here should know.” His gold eyes darted across the room at us. “Lateness is one quality I do not tolerate from my students. You have all been given a special opportunity to attend Paranormal Academy. It’s a chance that not every paranormal being in this world is given, but all of you have been accepted or hand-selected to be educated at the Academy. Most of you have been chosen due to your bloodlines.”

  Wow. This was the first time anyone had told me that we had been specially chosen to attend the Academy. I hadn’t realized that this wasn’t an opportunity every paranormal being was given. I didn’t realize that I was special or more privileged than other paranormal beings out there.

  “I want you to think about the great and powerful magic users in your family, both the ancestors who attended this institution before you and the ones who didn’t,” Professor Tate continued. “The ancestors who casted some of the most powerful spells of all time. The ancestors who defeated some of the biggest villains our world has ever known. The ancestors who have done other incredible and remarkable things. The ancestors who have been lost in courageous battles and wars between paranormal races. How would they feel if they knew that you showed up late on the first day of your Elemental Magic class?” He glanced around the room again. “Any time you make a decision here at the Academy, please remember that it is not only reflective of yourself but of your family’s bloodline as well. How do you want your bloodline to be represented? Please keep that in mind going forward.”

  I glanced over at Everly, who had taken a seat further in the row in front of me, about eight seats down from where I was sitting. I would have thought she would be embarrassed that he was giving this speech about lateness on account of her, but she actually looked more annoyed than anything else.

  “Anyway, back to Elemental Magic,” Professor Tate went on. “First, I should give you a fair warning. It’s important to exercise a great deal of caution with this form of magic. You see, there’s something that you might not realize about the material we’re about to explore in this classroom. Although there’s no doubt that controlling the elements can be rather intriguing to many practitioners of magic, the truth is that it’s not something that should ever be taken lightly. Controlling the elements comes with a great deal of risk. If you cause a fire or start a hurricane, someone is bound to get hurt in the crossfire. Someone may even die in the storm.”

  He glanced around at us, a stone-cold serious look on his face. “Any time you consider causing a storm, sparking a fire, or controlling the elements in any way, you must first weigh the pros and cons. Is it worth the dangers involved? Sometimes, like all things in life, it’s worth the risk.” At that moment, his eyes locked on mine. “It’s up to us to use our best judgment on how far we’re willing to go.”

  It felt like his eyes lingered on mine for a moment too long—so long, in fact, that Everly glanced over in my direction.

  “Now, we’re going to do a demonstration. I’m going to pick one random student from my list to be my assistant for this.”

  He glanced down at a clipboard and then read, “Juliana Montgomery, please come on the stage with me.”

  Ugh. Of freaking course, he had picked me. That was about the type of luck I was having in this class. First being stuck having a class with Everly and now having all eyes on me when half of the students at Paranormal Academy had already been talking about me.

  Shooting Draia a helpless glance, I rose to my feet and then headed to the front of the classroom. I climbed the stairs that led to the stage Professor Tate was standing on.

  As soon as I set foot on the stage, I felt an odd sense of energy take over me. It took me a moment to realize that the energy was coming from the professor.

  What was going on? Why did I suddenly feel so… strange?

  His gold eyes locked on mine. I may have only been imagining it, but I was pretty sure that he had noticed it, too.

  He held my gaze for a moment longer. Then, he finally cleared his throat. “Okay, Juliana. I am going to create a ball of fire,” he explained. “What I want you to do is try to manipulate it.”

  “How?” I asked as he held out a hand and a ball of fire formed just above his palm. I had never manipulated fire before. This was what I was here to learn, not something I already knew how to do.

  “It’s not as hard as it may seem.” His golden eyes locked on mine. “Think about what you want to happen to it. Use all of your energy and focus—really focus on it. Think about what you want to happen.”

  I frowned. I doubted that I would be able to do anything to change the fire ball. After all, I still wasn’t even sure if I could even do magic. My only sign that I was a magic user at all was the fact that I had a familiar, and even that wasn’t guaranteed. The dragon might have just liked me.

  But instead of expressing my concern to him, my eyes fell on the fire ball, and I did as he told me. I focused and tried to direct my energy at it.

  Rise, I commanded in my mind, narrowing my eyes at the ball of fire.

  Nothing happened.

  Get bigger. Grow, I thought.

  Still, nothing happened. The ball of fire remained completely unchanged.

  “Looks like New Girl isn’t that good at this,” I heard Everly whisper to someone with a laugh.

  Anger flooded my veins. I didn’t look at her, instead maintaining my focus on the fire ball—and then watched, in shock, as it began to grow. Its size doubled into a bigger ball at first, but then suddenly, it was no longer a ball.

  It was now a flame… a really freaking huge flame.

  At first, I wasn’t entirely convinced that it was even because of me that it had risen, but then it began to spark. It sparked only slightly at first, but then there were multiple sparks that began to shoot out in a steady stream, right in the direction of Everly. Some of the sparks hit the floor of the stage, and then flames began to climb from those, too. They quickly spread to the curtain, eating their way up the red velvet material.

  I began to panic. The stage was on fire, and I knew that it was my own anger that had caused it.

  At that moment, it began to rain over the stage, and the fire was put out.

  Professor Tate said, “That was quite a manipulation of the fire ball. I didn’t realize you were going to attempt to burn down the entire stage.”

  “Sorry,” I apologized as I glanced over at him. “I didn’t mean to.”

  “You set the stage on fire without even trying?” Professor Tate’s eyes were wide as he stared back at me.r />
  I nodded.

  “Interesting,” he murmured. His golden eyes lingered on mine for a moment. “Please return to your seat.”

  As I turned away from him, I made it a point not to even look in Everly’s direction. I wasn’t sure if she realized that those sparks had been caused by my anger at her or not, but if she did, the last thing I wanted was to deal with her wrath a second time today.

  I sat down next to Draia, who whispered, “That was awesome!”

  I tried to force a smile. The truth was that I didn’t think what I had done was awesome. In fact, I thought it was absolutely terrifying to know that I could cause something like that to happen so quickly. That fire had really escalated, and I didn’t think I would have been able to stop it from happening even if I had tried.

  Professor Tate began to discuss the science behind why our magical energy allows us to manipulate the elements, but I found myself unable to focus on what he was saying.

  I honestly couldn’t believe what had just happened. It was all the proof I needed to know that I could actually use magic—that, somewhere, within my blood, there really was magic. I wasn’t sure if this meant I was a witch or what it meant, for that matter. All I knew was that it meant something. Somewhere, deep inside of me, there really was something paranormal.

  As the class was reaching its end, Professor Tate said, “Now, everyone, please don’t go catching your dorm rooms on fire. As many of you are already aware, it is against the rules at Paranormal Academy to use your magic with cruel intentions against another student. Doing so can lead to suspension or, in some cases, even expulsion. So, please, don’t try to catch any dorm rooms—or anything else—on fire. What we learn in this classroom is to be practiced only in this classroom or in the outside world.” He paused for a moment and said, “You all may leave, except for Juliana. May I have a word with you in private?”