Aurora Witch (Paranormal Hunter Academy Book 2)

by Rae Hendricks

  I look down at my hands, wondering exactly what they are capable of. What I am capable of now. It’s strange, but I worry more about it now than before. I mean, a snake bite didn’t kill me. Fire didn’t kill me. Hellfire injured me, but I still didn’t die or have any permanent damage, that couldn’t be repaired with my own magic.

  So, what can I do to another person?

  “Food’s here!” I hear Jake call through the door.

  “Go ahead. I’ll be out after I clean up. Save some for me?”

  She nods and goes out, leaving me alone to my thoughts and to see if my clothes were in fact repaired.

  Looking in my luggage, no, my clothes were not saved, but three new outfits are in there, the tags still on them. I guess Eva went shopping for me in between tests.

  Luckily, the clothes are just my style, and I pull on a long sleeve purple tee and a black skirt with eyelet hooks for decoration all over the waist. A pair of ripped stockings calls to me, so I add those too before running a brush through my hair.

  I look at myself in the mirror, on the back of the door, and think for a moment. I might try out my magic for fixing the unevenness of my cut from the burnt off tendrils that happened months ago, but instead, I nod, deciding I like it. It’s … different.

  Just as my hand is on the door knob so I can go and join the others, my cell phone rings.

  Thinking it would be Kagan, I pick it up without looking. I’m shocked by the voice on the other end. It is not Kagan’s! It’s a voice I am not ready to hear.

  “Hello, Riley.”

  “Adriel?”

  Chapter Five

  I don’t know what’s more strange - the fact that there is an angel calling me on the phone, the day I get out of the Magistrate's custody or that the same day I find out I failed the academy, that Adriel sees fit to call my cell phone. Something he has never done before.

  I’ve never even provided him with my number. Not that an angel couldn’t get it. I don’t really know how it works up there in the sky, if they are always watching, but it can’t be rocket science to figure out a mortal’s phone number.

  "Look, I know we haven’t talked since you found out what I did, but this has to be beyond the differences between us. Kagan has already informed his father and me, that you failed the academy due to the ... mistaken identity."

  Really? That’s what he is calling it?

  Not to mention the fact it was no mistake at all. He meant for me to be known as a Blood Witch even though I wasn’t one. I need to stop pining over him and giving him credit for anything, when none is due.

  He was always going to lead to my downfall, no matter what the Magistrate found out or didn’t.

  "Mistaken identity?"

  "I am trying to help you, would you just let me for once?"

  I can hear the frustration in his tone, and for the first time, his anger frightens me.

  Maybe it’s because now I know just what an angel can endure and how strong they can be. He could easily use that same power to hurt me as much as he could to help me. Depending on how you look at it, he has already hurt me more than once.

  "How can you possibly help me?"

  "I am going to make sure you get back to the academy, but there is a requirement they’re giving me. Not even Kagan could convince them, without this detail."

  I have a feeling I know what it is, and my breath goes heavy over the line. I hate that he can hear this, that he can know what he does to me even now. He doesn’t deserve this kind of reaction from me.

  He deserves to be ignored.

  "Let me guess, it has to do with you being around me again."

  "I know what I said." It isn’t an answer, but it’s all I have to hear to know I am right. "But they leave me no choice if I am going to have done this for a reason. I have to come back and make sure you learn to control the angel blood and your powers, the way that they want. They want to use you as their one woman army. You’re the most powerful witch they have now."

  "So, I am worth my weight in gold?" I say sarcastically, wanting more than ever to fade into the background and be a nobody again. But I should have known my lineage would never allow that.

  My parents were special, and special people tend to breed more special people.

  But being special is more of a burden than those on the outside, looking in, can imagine.

  "I can’t say you’re more than an asset to most of them, and I won’t say what you are to me. We've already been down that road."

  I go silent, not wanting to even acknowledge what he means by that. "So, you just called me it Bisacciao let me know you'll be my personal babysitter if I come back to the academy."

  "It’s not an if. You know they want you there for a reason - to become their weapon. And that’s fine because then you get to live. And, no, I won’t be anywhere near as kind as a babysitter. I'll be your teacher. They are allowing four more days with family. I will see you when you get back."

  He hangs up, but a chill rushes up and down my nerve endings at the idea of him being my teacher. "Get a grip, Riley," I say to myself as I try to be composed to go and give my family the news.

  It’s bittersweet, really. I am glad that I get to go back and have a purpose again, be with Jake and Kagan and Dru again. Leaving my uncle behind once more, to wonder what is going to happen to me next, is hard. I am sure he still has nightmares about my parents.

  "Well, look who decided to join us finally," Jake says with an amused grin. Glad to see he is back to being able to joke around. I take a seat next to him as the meal is being passed around family style. I can’t think of the last time we were all at the table like this, together.

  My uncle and I had always been close, and of course Vivi loved her dad. We didn’t really have the whole family unit thing going, and we only ate together when there was a special event. Not that this wasn't, but it feels more intimate to me than anything in the past.

  It doesn’t hurt that Jake is here as if he has just become one of us.

  "Sorry, I got a call, and I also wanted to be out of those borrowed clothes," I tell them, my eyes meeting Jake’s meaningfully. There are still some things I need to speak to my bestie about, alone.

  "Was the call important?" my uncle asks, and I can see the worry behind his expression. I meet his eyes, my plate finally full of the chicken and all the fixings he got for us.

  "Yes, actually, there has been some deal made for me to come back the academy in four days. That’s how long I get with you, and then the angel from the Magistrate will be meeting me on campus to start teaching me how to control the magic I have."

  I say it as nonchalantly as possible, licking some mashed potatoes off my spoon as if it’s ice cream. It’s at least as soft as that.

  "So, you are going back. That was fast. Are you sure you don’t just want to stay with us? We can figure this out. I do work for them. I can talk to Reyes."

  "No!" I cover my mouth, realizing I yelled that, causing everyone to stare. The thing is, I know talking to Reyes will only make it worse. He is the one that worries me. There is something not right in the way he looks at me and tests me. He was the one member who was around when my father was my age, before he got killed.

  I don’t want to put my uncle in the position to lose his job, either. "What I mean is, I am sure. Even though I am not a Blood Witch, it is important that I use what I have been given, to make sure things like this don’t happen anymore. I’ve been given a job to do even if it’s in the future and requires a lot of hard work on my part."

  My uncle smiles at me proudly. "You remind me so much of your parents sometimes. You have your mother's heart and your father's reckless pursuit of justice. It was just a thought. I miss having you here, and you know I worry. But you are doing what you should be doing. Just because it happened by accident doesn’t mean it isn’t an honor."

  I don’t like that his words are so pleasant, in a stiff sort of way, like rehearsed; rather than the man who raised me. He had always be
en emotional, convicted, passionate.

  "I miss a lot of things."

  We go silent other than a little small talk as we have our meal. Jinx is rubbing himself against everyone under the table, in hopes of getting fed large scraps of the meal.

  "Vivi," I ask that night as she turns in early and I settle in for some best friend time, "promise me you'll take care of him." I nod to my uncle who is already asleep.

  "He'll be fine. I promise. He just needs time to believe you won’t die on him."

  "You aren’t going to die on me, are you?" Jake asks seriously after Vivi goes to bed.

  "Ha! The only person that can really hurt me now is myself." It’s meant to be comforting, but a little bile sneaks up on me, after I say it.

  Maybe it isn’t the Magistrate I am meant to be afraid of.

  ***

  “Things are going to be different now, aren’t they?” Jake asks when it’s announced we are only half an hour out from our destination, at the Salt Lake station.

  We’d had several offers to drive us up, but it was better this way; a cleaner break and easier on our family. They could keep their normal routine even with us shipping off to school, yet again.

  I look at Jake and know what he means. I am going back to an uncertain future as a student, so close to the end of the year. My whole schedule will have to be rearranged, plus the training with Adriel. I don't know if I am going to have time for my best friend, much less to eat and sleep.

  “No, but nothing’s going to change the fact that you’re part of my family now.” I wink at him teasingly, and he just rolls his eyes. I have been begging for info about Vivi from him this whole time, but he just keeps telling me it's too awkward for him to talk to me about my cousin, especially with it being so new.

  I can be patient; I know he’ll spill the beans eventually.

  He changes the subject instead. “Have you even read that packet they sent for you?” He looks down at the stapled papers in my lap, that must have taken a whole tree to create. I have been nervously fraying the edges of it since we got it delivered to the hotel room door last night.

  It’s from the school staff and the Magistrate – something they collaborated on for the terms of my returning to the academy.

  “I am just afraid what it says.”

  “You should be more afraid of getting kicked out again if you don't read it.”

  I know he’s right, so I dive right into it, trying to translate this hoity-toity gobbledygook into plain English; to know what it is they expect of me. I am a little taken aback by it, but I shouldn’t be. It makes sense in every way. It still doesn’t make me feel good about my chances for staying after the end of the year.

  I know they won’t bring me back again if I flunk this time.

  “So, what does it say?” Jake probes.

  I swallow the dry lump in my throat.

  “It’s my new schedule and some guidelines about me being able to stay at the academy. Basically, I have to catch up on an entire year of lost learning, in this last two months of school. My classes are a mess. They are expecting me to take exit exams on some of the courses 6 weeks from now. I must prove, I learned enough to scrape by for the next year, or they can’t keep me. And there’s this whole list of things I am not supposed to do on campus, since I have angel blood – things they think could endanger other students.”

  I don't even bother going through that since most of it sounds like logic.

  “Looks like they are being really harsh on you, even though it wasn’t your fault you were wrongly identified as something else.”

  “I agree, but there’s no choice if I want to stay. And I need to stay.”

  I look down at my schedule once more before handing it over to Jake so he could see my issue.

  History of Magical Species Room 411 7:00

  Light Magic I&II Room 107 8:00

  Psychic Magic Room 432 9:00

  Demonic Defense I Basement 10:30

  Lunch Cafeteria 12:30

  Celestial Studies Room 810 14:00

  Hunter Athletics Field 3 15:00

  Angelic Magic Field 4 16:00

  “Ouch,” he says, and I glare at him. That’s more than just ouch. This means I will be physically exhausted every single day, have no extra time for study or relaxation; not to mention emotionally drained, if my last class is with who I think it will be with.

  “I don't know if I can do this,” I admit to him, wondering if it’s too late to turn back and call the whole thing off. Maybe they will let me live out my life in peace. But then I remember what my uncle had said about the angel blood and how it will soon start to hurt me, even kill me, if I don't get a handle on this. I can’t do that to him.

  The train pulls into the station, and I go through the motions, trying not to think about what happens next.

  This is one of those times when I need to take it minute by minute lest life overwhelms me, and I crash and burn before I even get started.

  Once on campus, I am only mildly annoyed that Kagan isn’t here to greet me. Nether is Adriel, but I shouldn’t care. Instead, Jake and I go straight up to our rooms and promise to meet up again that night after unpacking – after I find my boyfriend and make sure he still wants the title, now that he knows I will be spending every school day, with Adriel.

  I hadn’t noticed, but once I looked down at my welcome packet again – not that it's very welcoming. I see that I am no longer in the same room I was in before I left. Instead, I am at the end of the hall.

  When I get there and open the door, I see that this corner dorm is bigger than all the others and a guaranteed single.

  I don't know if I am being lured into a false sense of security or if they are sucking up to me, because they know I could do a lot to help them, when time comes for me to graduate.

  I have no reason to complain, though, as the bed looks incredibly comfortable. I could easily have Jake or Kagan staying with me in here and not forcing them to sleep on the floor or cramped up next to me with no room to breathe.

  As much as I enjoyed my time in Kagan’s bed it was really too small for us together.

  I look down at my phone with disappointment that there has been no message from Kagan since yesterday. Then it was just telling me he is glad I am coming back and he can’t wait to see me.

  If it is true, then why haven’t I seen him yet?

  With nothing else to do, I get up and walk out the door, exploring campus while everyone else is still in class.

  It’s strange to think classes began already, without Jake and me. We both had good reasons for not being here, but I can’t help but think it puts me at even more of a disadvantage, than I was already, walking into new classes so close to the end of the year.

  I pull my hoodie around me as I walk the grounds, seeing that the clouds up above us are threatening snow. It’s not a surprise, though it will probably be one of the last frostings of the season before the mild and short spring leads straight into a long, hot summer.

  As I pass around the west side of the academy, I can hear voices – males from the sounds of it. At first, I believe it's just faculty members in a scuffle, but then I hear my name and stop dead, peaking around the corner to see that Kagan and Adriel are both there.

  No wonder Kagan hasn’t said a word to me yet, he’s too busy fighting with Adriel, probably realizing how doomed we are with the angel accosting me daily. He is probably regretting helping me right about now.

  I shouldn’t listen in, but I do, unable to help myself.

  “I just don't understand why you have to be so involved with this. I know I need your help with her. I am not denying that, but why is it so urgent that she has to spend more time with you than with me. Especially after what you did. You should have seen her when she found out!”

  My hand goes over my chest as I feel pain for Kagan, as he fights for me. I don’t deserve him, especially with my heart sectioned off for two other people.

  “I am sure it ran her right into y
our arms, which you should be happy for. It’s not like it's easy for me to be around her, but it's the only way now. I have to protect us both by looking like I am all in. I have to make sure she gets through this. I don't know how she hasn’t had a reaction already.”

  Adriel’s voice is bitter and grating as he cuts into Kagan, and I suck in a breath. Kagan does not need to be reminded of the danger I am in.

  “You’re the one that did this. I don't know why you pretend like you care when you basically poisoned her for some agenda you have yet to reveal to even her. It’s the only reason she ran to me – because I’m not selfish. I don't force her into things and hurt her and lie to her.”

  He’s absolutely right, so why then does my heart quicken as I look at them again and see Adriel in all his glory, his head down in melancholy.

  I want him to be sad, but not for the reason I should. I want him to be sad about losing me.

  This is so wrong.

  “I know that, and I hate myself for it. But I am new to the Magistrate, and as a young archangel, kept under lock and key until then, I have known little about the process. I didn’t know how much to give her. And if I had to do it over again, I would put the burden on someone else, even if I believed they would fail, because I love her.”

  My heart skips a beat, and I think I might throw up as Kagan says, “Well, I love her too. So, we have to find a way to get over this for her.”

  “I don't see how.”

  It would be Adriel that can’t cooperate.

  “Be cordial. Do what we have to do to save her. It’s that simple.” I hear Kagan’s feet crunching in the frosty grass and know I need to move before I am seen.

  I take off running the way I came, leaning against the back of a tree so he doesn’t notice me.

  Once he passes, my eyes dart over to where I had been standing, and a thought occurs to me.

  Should I go after Kagan, should I text him and try to meet up, or should I choose none of the above and go see the one person I know better than to be alone with ever again?