Entrance Exam

by Ivy Hearne

  “Mina,” I asked her as we crossed the sidewalk into the dorm that would soon be mine. “Headmaster Finnegan said that there were creatures going to school here. Things like vampires and werewolves. How many nonhumans are there? I mean, how people who aren’t like you or me?”

  Mina glanced back at me, her eyes wide. “Oh, I thought you knew.”

  “Knew what?”

  “Sweetie, I’m not human at all. I’m fae.”

  “Fae?” I shook my head, trying to remember the word. “You mean, like a fairy?”

  This time, when her laugh like bells rang out, it suddenly made sense to me she was fae. No wonder she had evoked a sense of constant movement. If I squinted my eyes, I could almost see wings fluttering behind her.

  “Like a fairy, yes,” she said. “As far as how many nonhumans attend? It’s really nothing we talk about. The people here know—or are learning—how to recognize all the various species. And anyone out there? They don’t need to know.”

  I stared around at all the groups of students again, looking at them with new eyes. How many of the people standing around in those groups weren’t human at all? How many were shifters? Fae? How many...

  “Wait,” I said. “How can vampires attend at all? Wouldn’t they have to take night classes?

  “There are ways around that.” Mina pulled open the dorm doors. “Spells that allow them to move in daylight and such.”

  I had so much to learn.

  I didn’t know how I was going to manage it all.

  And I’d thought geometry was hard.

  Mina’s glance was sympathetic. “Come on. Let’s finish your basic orientation. You’ll catch up. I promise.”

  My dorm room was empty, though.

  “Well, Hifflefart,” Mina half-cursed. “I’d hoped you’d get to meet your new roommate, Erin Haydu.” She sighed. “Well, at least you can see your room.”

  She gestured around the space.

  It looked like I expected a regular dorm room to look. Two beds separated by a small space between them. Two desks situated to either side of a doorway leading into a closet. A shared bathroom and shower room at the end of the hallway. The windows looked out across part of the campus and framed the mountains in the background.

  My roommate had claimed the bed closest to the windows. I didn’t blame her. I would have, too, if I’d had a room to myself.

  On her side of the room, the walls were covered with Hunters’ Academy memorabilia, including posters of celebrities and singers and musicians that I didn’t recognize. Looking closer, I saw that at least two of the posters were of couples standing back to back, holding up weapons in defensive poses.

  Famous hunting pairs, maybe?

  The rest of them might be perfectly normal teenage idols, for all I knew. I’d spent the last four years in a migraine-induced haze.

  “That’ll be your bed, of course.” Mina pointed to the one against the wall with the door. “The school supplies linens and blankets. Of course, you can bring your own as well. I know headmaster Finnegan likes to tell students they can bring only two suitcases. You don’t have to pay any attention to that. None of the rest of us have. Just be sure you can lug it all yourself.”

  After we locked up, Mina gave me the key to my room, and I tucked it in my pocket.

  Before we left the building, we knocked on another door in the dorm, but no one answered. “I guess Souji is not in his room, either.” Mina frowned. “I guess you can meet him next week. I’d hoped to give you a chance to get to know your hunting partner a little today, but...” She shook her head. “I guess Monday is soon enough.”

  The rest of the campus tour was a bit of a blur. I was glad to be at the end of it when Mina gave me a folder stuffed full of information, including a campus map.

  “The admissions team will come to your house tonight after your parents get home from work,” Mina told me as we made our way back toward the upper-level dorm and the gateway back to what I had considered the “real world” only a few hours ago.

  But that world was already beginning to feel like a dream.

  No. A nightmare. One from which I am about to awaken.

  “You’ll need to clear out anything you want to take with you from your locker at your current school,” Mina continued. “This is probably the last time you’ll set foot on that campus.”

  I let out an inner cheer. And then we stepped back through to the nurse’s office in what I had already mentally dubbed my old school.

  “I’ll be at your house at 6 a.m. Monday to bring you through.” She gave me a quick hug. “I’m glad you’re joining us.” And then she moved back through the gateway. The view to the Hunters’ Academy disappeared as she waved goodbye.

  I stood clutching my folder of information, then headed out to the hallway to clean out my locker.

  I wasn’t going to be sorry to leave here.

  THAT NIGHT, I JITTERED around the house waiting for the admissions team—whatever that meant—to arrive at my house and convince my parents to let me go to a posh private school.

  As it turned out, though, it wasn’t that complicated.

  When the doorbell rang, I raced to answer it. Two adults in mostly normal clothes—except the Hunters’ Academy logo on their button-down white shirts—stood outside, a tall, pale, thin male towering over a gorgeous black woman about the same size as Mina. This time, I knew to look for the buzzing haze around her figure, the almost-wings I could see behind her.

  Yep. She was Fae, too.

  “Kacela DeLuca?” she asked.

  “Yes, ma’am. Are you here to see my parents?”

  “We are.” Her smile was sweet. “I’m Mandy. This is Lane, my partner.”

  I led them inside, excitement causing me to buzz almost as much as Mandy did. “Mom! Dad! Someone to see you!” I shouted.

  As they came into the living room, Dad went to speak to them as Mom pulled me aside. “You’re not supposed to let those religious people inside,” she hissed.

  “No. They’re here about me. It’s a good thing, Mom.”

  She shot me an alarmed look and hurried over to join Dad, who was flipping through a brochure. “I don’t understand,” he said. “Darlene, they say they’re here to offer a scholarship for Kacie to go to a private school in Switzerland.”

  Switzerland?

  “One of our representatives came to the high school today to speak to Kacela,” Lane cut in smoothly. “She’s eager to attend.”

  “I really am,” I said.

  Lane handed Mom a brochure.

  “But your headaches,” Mom began.

  That’s when the admissions team interjected their magic.

  Mandy waved her fingers in a complicated pattern and said a phrase I didn’t understand.

  “Pardon me?” My mother leaned in toward her.

  Lane repeated the gesture and the phrase.

  My parents both blinked, casting their eyes, now slightly dazed, back down at the brochures they held.

  “This curriculum looks great,” Dad finally said.

  “And look at this campus. It’s beautiful,” Mom added.

  I froze. No one had told me my parents would be put under a spell.

  “And everything is covered?” Dad asked.

  “Everything. We have a number of scholarship students like Kacie.” Mandy’s voice was soothing and calm.

  I couldn’t decide if I wanted to intervene—especially since I knew my parents would never let me go, otherwise.

  “When would she start?” Mom asked. “Next semester?”

  “We’ll send someone to pick her up Monday morning. Her flight will leave that day.” Lane’s tone was almost hypnotic.

  “Could I speak to you for a moment?” I tugged Mandy away from the discussion. “What are you doing to them?”

  She patted my shoulder. “It’s just a small convincing spell. It’s a little like hypnosis.”

  “That doesn’t seem fair to them.”

  “The benefit of conv
incing spells is that, like hypnosis, it can never cause people to do things they wouldn’t do otherwise. Your parents want you to be happy. This just helps them come to the conclusion that this is a good way to make that happen.” She glanced over at my parents, who were both frowning down at the brochures. “It would help if you told them this is what you want. Otherwise, the spell still might not work.”

  I inhaled deeply. Okay. Fine. It was what I wanted. Telling them that wouldn’t hurt.

  I marched back over to them. “Mom, Dad, I really want to go. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance. And it goes through the first two years of college, so that will be paid, too.”

  Their expressions cleared.

  “If it’s really what you want, baby,” Mom said.

  “And if you’re absolutely sure,” Dad added.

  “It is. And I am.” My heart beat so fast as I waited for their answers that I could practically hear it.

  Lane glanced over at me, his eyes widening and his nostrils flaring.

  Apparently, he could hear it, too.

  Maybe he’s a vampire?

  The thought didn’t slow down my heart-rate any—but it did distract me from my parents’ decision-making for a minute.

  “What do we need to do?” Dad finally asked.

  I let out an involuntary whoop, and everyone around me grinned. The haze cleared from my parents’ faces, and Mom offered to bring in drinks for everyone as they filled out the paperwork for me to attend my new school.

  Chapter 5

  The weekend both dragged and went by too fast. Mom took me on a whirlwind shopping trip for appropriate winter clothes, even though I told her the school would provide all the uniforms I needed. But I think she needed to feel like she was doing something—especially since the paperwork they’d signed off on included an agreement that I would spend the first winter break on campus in order to catch up, since I was starting late and had some remedial work to do.

  Both my parents helped me pack, and in the end, I was waiting by the door with two wheeled suitcases, an overnight case, a computer bag, and a purse. I could just barely stack it all up and drag it along behind me using both hands.

  And I hadn’t had a single migraine since Mina had touched my forehead that Friday.

  It was like I’d been given a whole new life, free of the pain and anxiety of the debilitating migraines.

  I introduced Mina to my parents when she arrived as the recruiter who’d visited me on Friday—and then we left, piling everything I was taking into a car with the Hunters’ Academy logo on the side.

  Mina drove us across town, back to my old school, and let us in with a wave of her hand over the lock.

  I really needed to learn some of these magic tricks.

  And soon enough, we were through the door in the nurse’s office and headed to my dorm room.

  This time, my roommate Erin was there. She was a year older and a head taller than me, curvy and gorgeous, with big blue eyes and blonde hair past her shoulders.

  “Good morning,” she said brightly. “I’ve been waiting to meet you. I’m sorry I missed you Friday—my hunting partner and I were out studying when you came by Friday.” She gestured toward the closet. “Laundry sent over all your uniforms this weekend. You can get ready for class in there.”

  “Since this is her second year here, Erin’s going to help get you settled in,” Mina said brightly, “so I’ll leave you two to it.” She gave me another hug. “Good luck, Kacie.”

  And then she was gone, and I was left to change into my uniform and figure out how to get along in a completely new school.

  I don’t know what I expected when I learned I was going to the Hunters’ Academy. A fancy wizarding school, I guess?

  That’s not what I got, of course.

  I mean, there were elements of it. The buildings were old, for one thing. Ancient. And apparently, I was going to learn some magic while I was there.

  But pretty much every class at Hunters’ Academy was Defense Against the Dark. No one issued points or demerits. There were no ghosts in the bathrooms. And there was no loveable headmaster to get you out of scrapes. No, our headmaster was loveable, but he was painfully direct about what happened if you got into scrapes in the first place.

  Screw up here, and you washed out. If you were lucky.

  Otherwise, you just died.

  I didn’t want to wash out or die.

  Neither did any of the other twelve students in my matriculating class.

  Monday morning, I met them all.

  I noted that there were thirteen of us total. I considered asking about that—wasn’t thirteen supposed to be an unlucky number? Did that make me unlucky? But I decided it could wait until I had gotten a little more used to talking in class. It had been a long time since I’d been around a group of fellow students without being terrified that I would collapse in front of them with a vomiting headache. I was so busy thinking all of this and being nervous about coming to the Hunters’ Academy at all, that I missed most of their names. But there were eight boys and five girls, all about my age.

  Erin had volunteered to walk with me to all my classes on the first day, so I could figure out where they all were. “It’s hard enough to get here for the first time,” she said. “But I’m guessing it’s even worse when you don’t have a whole group of people all looking for the classes at the same time.”

  I nodded, but I didn’t respond. I was too busy trying not to hyperventilate over the thought of starting a brand-new school. Especially when I wasn’t even sure I belonged here. Not if everyone around me really had secret powers.

  “Come on.” Erin tugged my elbow. “Your first class is psychic messaging. You ought to be really good at that.”

  And there went my last chance at not hyperventilating. “Wait! Wasn’t somebody supposed to take the block off of my mind? No one has actually done that.”

  “I’m guessing that’s a pretty delicate process. It might be something they need to work on over the next few weeks.” Erin frowned at me. “Okay. You ought to be really good at psychic messaging eventually.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh as I followed her down the concrete sidewalk that led from our dorm to one of the several tall buildings rising up against the backdrop of the snow-topped mountains.

  My first and last classes ended up being the only ones of the day where I had all my classmates in the same room. Erin led me in and said, “Meet your cohort.” I didn’t like the way that sounded. Like we were in a cult something. But anyway, I let that slide.

  Psychic messaging class was also where I met Matthew Gibbs. The psychics teacher, Mr. Jamison, was friendly and open, his smile genuinely welcoming. He was also shorter than I was by a good six inches, and I wasn’t tall. He was round, too. Not fat, just...circular. He had blondish-brown hair and a beard, and he looked kind of like a dwarf from a fantasy story—the kind that would carry an axe and end up taking care of Snow White.

  “Come on,” he said. “I’m going to team you up with Matthew Gibbs to practice your first messages. I know you still have a block, so don’t worry too much—just do your best.”

  The cheerful instructor was a complete contrast to the student he had partnered me with, who was as tall and thin and pale as Lane, the possible-vampire on the admissions team.

  As I slid into the seat next to Matthew, I said, “Aren’t we supposed to practice our various skills with our hunting partners?”

  Matthew snarled. “Don’t you know anything? In class, we do what the instructors tell us. Outside of class, we practice with our hunting partners.”

  I was startled by his response but didn’t say anything. I simply kept moving forward, following instructions as I could. Mr. Jamison had plenty of instructions to give, too. And I was okay right up to the point where, after thinking of a message, writing it down, and crafting it to say exactly what I wanted to, I was supposed to send my perfectly crafted statement to Matthew using only my mind. After several attempts, he stood up and drop
ped his notebook on the desk with a clatter.

  “Mr. J? I’m going to the bathroom.”

  Mr. Jamison waved him away with a nod.

  But I didn’t think he was going to the bathroom at all. He was irritated at having to work with me. And my suspicion was pretty borne out when he didn’t return until five minutes before it was time to leave class.

  The rest of the day alternated between actual classes—like Chemistry for Defense—and special sessions designed to help assess where I was in such topics as hand-to-hand combat. (I didn’t see the instructor’s evaluation, but I expected it said something like “Skills: NONE.”) I was also tested on magic and psychic ability and clairvoyance and some other magical skills—I don’t even know what. And then it was time for magics class.

  AND AS THE PERFECT ending to an already stressful school day, Ms. Gayle, my magics teacher, apparently hated me from the moment I stepped into the class. Maybe even before.

  Great. That makes two people who loathe me on sight. Not unlike my old school in Kansas.

  I handed her the form with my information on it—the one I was to take to all my instructors—and her lip actually curled up in a sneer as she read it. Taken aback by her antagonism, I found myself leaning away from her.

  “Well,” she said, “until we can actually test your psychic ability, you won’t be able to practice any magics.” She peered over her round glasses at me. With a disapproving sniff, she continued. “And I’ve been given to understand that you have an extension on your entrance exam.”

  It wasn’t a question, but I answered as if it were. “Yes, ma’am.

  She huffed a sigh, then turned her gaze toward the back of the room. “I see your hunting partner has arrived. The two of you make an appropriate pair, I suppose.”

  I followed her gaze to the open door, my own eyes widening when I realized what had just entered the classroom was a giant black panther. It strolled into the room as if it owned it, glancing around at the students—none of whom seem fazed by the sudden presence of a huge predator cat.