I stared back at her, sweat trickling down my ribs. There had been no way to finish the story of my vision in a way that made sense without mentioning the wolf, but I had kept my promise to Rhea by leaving out the part where the male wolf spoke to me. It had been hard, though. I was no longer entirely sure that Rhea deserved my allegiance. What proof did I have that she was actually my mother’s childhood best friend? None. Perhaps my family’s magic had given me the vision as a warning not to trust talking animals.
“Shifter?” I repeated the word slowly. “What is that?”
Instead of answering me, Castle scrambled to her feet, rattling the whole platform. She locked both hands behind her head and started pacing in a tight circle. Clutching the railing behind my head, I hoisted myself up, nearly colliding with one of her out-stretched elbows.
“What?” I demanded. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” Castle muttered, shaking her head. “That’s very—”
“No!” I let out an exasperated sigh. “What does that word mean? What is a shifter?”
She froze, then dropped her hands to the opposite railing, keeping her back to me. “Oh. Right. Secrets.” She turned around, and though her eyes were rolling, they were also full of something… deeply sad. “Listen, Eggplant, this place… this whole magic thing…” she wiggled her fingers in the air, “it’s not all fun and games.”
“Clearly,” I snapped, folding my arms and raising my eyebrows. “Now tell me. What is a shifter?”
“Hey, watch the tone.” She pointed a finger at me. “I’m still a professor.”
I plastered on a fake polite smile. “Yes, ma’am.”
She made a face. “Ugh. Never mind. Ma’am is my mom. Just keep the tone if that’s my only other option.”
My smile lifted into something more genuine. “Please tell me? I wasn’t raised in this, remember? I don’t know all the lingo.”
Castle’s mouth twisted, and her eyes darted around the heights of the room. “If she’s listening—”
“Who?” I asked, following her gaze around the ceiling.
“Singh,” she hissed.
“Why would the Chancellor be listening in on a first-year Divination class for students with no talent in the subject?”
“Why would she be listening in on any class?” Castle shot back in a low growl. “But she does. All the time.”
“Well then, the cat’s already out of the bag, huh? So you might as well go ahead and explain what you mean.”
She blew out a stream of air, then jerked her head at the seats below us. “Come on. Let’s sit.”
“That bad?” I asked, grabbing my cloak and trailing after her with both hands carefully on the rails as she jogged down the steps hands-free.
Back on solid footing, she shucked her leather jacket and tossed it over one of the folding chairs on the front row. She used one of her brass-fastened boots to stomp the next seat open, spinning and dropping down into it before the chair could fold back up. In the same fluid movement, she crossed an ankle over her knee and threw one arm along the back of the seat next to her. She nodded for me to take the chair at the end of the row.
Clutching my cloak to my chest, I sank down without any flourish, unfolding the chair with my butt in the usual mundane fashion, grateful for the two empty spaces between us. I could only dream of moving through the world with as much ease and confidence as Castle exuded, and this unexpected envy had me suddenly flustered, like a schoolgirl with a crush.
As soon as that word popped into my head, my whole body stiffened in horror. Not that there would be anything wrong with that—well, she was a professor, so there would be something wrong with that—but the last thing I needed after the public scene Braden and Dasharath had made over me was a rumor that I was also pining for a female member of the faculty when it wasn’t even true. I just really wanted to be able to feel as at home as she clearly did in her own clothes and skin.
“I like your boots,” I blurted out, then immediately winced.
“Thanks.” She smirked, wiggling the one propped on her knee. “I hate your cloak.”
“Thanks,” I echoed without thinking, leading quickly to a second, harder wince. “I mean—hey!”
She grunted a laugh. “Sorry. Conscientious objector.”
“I get it,” I said, resting the cloak on my knees. “There doesn’t seem to be a lot of room here for—”
“Free thought?” She wrinkled her nose. “You don’t know the half of it yet.”
I met her dark gaze. “Enlighten me.”
She opened her mouth, and then paused to narrow her eyes before continuing. “You know a little more than you’re letting on though, don’t you?”
Averting my eyes, I shrugged and fidgeted with the clasp of my cloak in my lap.
“Hmm.” She stroked her chin thoughtfully. “If you don’t know what a shifter is, then why did seeing a wolf make you believe your mother was intentionally murdered?”
“Just a feeling,” I mumbled, cheeks flushing with heat.
“Uh-huh.” She drummed her fingers on the back of the nearest chair. “Okay, Eggplant, welcome to Shifters 101. First things first: there are two kinds of magic. Or, at least, we decided there were two kinds a thousand years ago or something because at the end of the day we’re all just humans who love to divide ourselves up for completely arbitrary reasons.”
“Okay?” I said slowly, inwardly sighing with relief that she’d admitted we were fully human.
“Way back whenever, we decided there was sun magic—that’s you and me.” She gestured between us. “And we decided there was moon magic—that’s them. Shifters.”
“Moon magic?” I narrowed my eyes, then widened them as it clicked. “Are you talking about werewolves?!”
Castle shrugged and made a sorta gesture with her hand. “Werewolves aren’t real, but those legends were inspired by shifters—people who can change their shape at will. Usually into wolves, but some turn into mountain lions or bears. Here, that is.” She laughed darkly. “Go overseas and all bets are off. You never know what you’ll find.”
As fascinating as that sounded, I was most interested in the wolves and bears and mountain lions, because those were the same three animals that Professor Phorm had blamed his scars on when he’d caught me trying to peek into the Transmogrification Department earlier that afternoon.
My mind whirled, sliding more pieces of the puzzle into place. Professor Yates said that Phorm was doing research that only Chancellor Singh knew the nature of. Lucas Billings had been Phorm’s assistant, but now he was dead and Phorm’s favorite pet, Rhea, was running free. And even though Braden thought it was silly, I still believed there was a reasonable chance that the wolf was in possession of the file Lucas had stolen from Professor Phorm. The one that got him murdered.
A dark thought crossed my mind—did witches ever die of natural causes?—but I pushed it to the back of my head so I could focus on the matter at hand. Earlier, I’d made the assumption that Phorm must be turning people into animals, but if Rhea was one of these shifters, then maybe I’d gotten that wrong. Maybe Phorm was just keeping animals from turning back into people.
“—been trying to wipe each other out ever since.”
“I’m sorry, what?” I said, shaking myself back to the conversation at hand. “Back up.”
“Seriously?” Castle tilted her head back and rolled her eyes. “Ugh. Okay. You know what?” She pulled out a gold pocket watch and flicked its case open. “It’s getting late. Cliff notes time.” She stuffed the watch back into her breeches’ pocket. “The gist is each group decided their brand of magic was better than the other, and voila! Endless war.”
“Oh,” I said softly. A heavy weight settled in my chest, dragging the memory of a dream down from my brain.
Standing on the edge of the cliff. Three wolves. Three witches. All of them after me. A woman telling me to jump…
“That’s an incredibly chill response,” Castle muse
d. “Did you hear me that time?”
I nodded, swallowing the rising emotions. Had the voice belonged to my mother? Was she calling out to me from the magic? Trying to warn me?
Squeezing my eyes shut, I sent out a silent plea for a little more specificity. Who’s right? Who am I supposed to trust?
“Here’s the thing, though,” Castle said, jolting me from my spiral. “There are rules of engagement. Civilians are off-limits. So, for a shifter to go after her like that…”
My brow furrowed. “What? My mom was some sort of magical soldier?”
“They’re called Martials. And maybe. Or…” She trailed off, inclining her head.
“Or what?” I demanded, sitting straight up.
“Or it was personal.”
The male wolf’s words echoed in my head once more.
“I’m sorry, Kim. You knew the rules.”
And then the other wolf’s voice came back to me. Rhea’s.
“We can’t be seen together, Meena. It wouldn’t be safe for either of us.”
“You said there are rules,” I whispered, my mouth too dry for volume. “Rules of war. But… are there others? For, like, personal interactions between witches and shifters?”
Castle leaned back in her chair, stretching out her legs and inhaling deeply. “Only one.”
I twisted toward her, and I knew that the urgency on my face was probably giving far too much away, but I didn’t care. I had trusted her this far. Why stop now?
“And?” I breathed. “What is it?”
Castle squeezed her jaw until the indented skin around her fingers turned stark white. Finally, she dropped her hand, revealing a ruefully twisted mouth. “It’s… don’t, Meena. The rule is just… don’t.”
I sucked in a breath as though I’d been struck. Planting my elbows on my knees, I dropped my head into my hands. Don’t was pretty vague as far as rules went, but I was pretty sure it included don’t swear a blood oath to a mortal enemy.
Castle touched my arm. “What did he say to you?”
My head flew up, eyes wide. “What? Who?”
“The shifter,” she replied, locking her eyes on mine, letting me know there was no getting out of this line of questioning. I tried anyway.
“Wolves can’t talk…”
She snorted. “Shifters communicate telepathically with each other.”
I reeled back. “I’m not a shifter!”
“Shh!” Castle hissed. “Keep your voice down, Eggplant!”
“Well, I’m not,” I whispered harshly. “I think I would know, if that’s what you’re implying.”
“Of course you’re not a shifter.” She let out an exasperated laugh. “You’re a witch. You can’t be both. You’d go crazy.”
“Okay then.” I breathed out the tension, smoothing my cloak over my lap. “Then I couldn’t have heard the wolf talk.”
Castle cocked her head and pursed her lips. “You could if you were Kim Young-Mi’s daughter.”
“Wh-what?” I stammered, twisting my fingers into my cloak like a security blanket. “How—?”
“Um, what classroom are you in?” Castle gestured in the air. “I got this job for a reason, you know?”
I stared at her, mouth slightly ajar. “But you weren’t looking…” I flitted my eyes toward the massive telescope. “You couldn’t possibly have seen…”
She gave me an absolutely withering look. “Scry Baby isn’t the only way to divine things, Eggplant. Plus, ninety percent of the whole thing is just having impeccable intuition. There had to be some reason why you believed the wolf was acting with malicious intent. Which meant he must have clued you in. And if you can talk to shifters, then you must be Kim Young-Mi’s daughter.”
Chapter 3
I burst through Castillo Observatory’s main doors at a dead run, carrying my cloak in a wrinkled bundle under one arm while my loosely slung backpack banged against my opposite side. A cool breeze whisked the hair out of my eyes as I thundered down the steps, jumping the last few so my feet hit the sidewalk with an echoing slap. A sharp pain shot up the back of my left calf, and I paused just long enough to redistribute the weight of my bag across my whole back.
“Meena!” Leia’s voice chirped like a little night bird. “Wait up!”
Suppressing the groan I wanted to release over being detained, I turned toward the sound of her quick, dainty footsteps. She grabbed me by the elbows as soon as she reached me, peering deeply into my eyes as though they were some sort of health information display screen. “Are you okay? What happened up there?”
“Listen,” I wheezed, lungs burning, “can we talk later? I’m supposed to meet Brade—”
Leia’s brow flattened. “Of course you are.”
I blinked. Every breath felt like sucking in a plume of fire, and the pain made it difficult to read my friend’s face clearly. “Are you mad?”
Her lips thinned. “Why would I be mad that I waited out here for an hour to make sure you were okay only to be told that you can’t talk because one of your boyfriends is waiting?”
I squeezed my eyes shut. I did not have time for this kind of contrived drama right now. “Leia, I’m sorry. I really appreciate your concern. I had a bad experience, but I’m fine. And…” I lowered my voice so I could throw her a friendship bone, “I learned some stuff. About everything. And right now, I need to follow a lead.”
Leia’s eyes widened, shooting spears of guilt into my heart. No one had been as good to me as her since I arrived here. She deserved real answers, not these vague blow-offs, but if I tried to explain anything, she would only ask more questions, and then before I knew it, the night would have slipped away. I had to get to Braden’s room before he gave up on me.
“What kind of lead?” Leia’s fingers dug into my bare arms. “Meena, you’re shaking! Can’t you just tell me—”
“No. I’m really sorry. I have to go.” I pushed my cloak into her arms. “Can you take this back to our room? It’s only weighing me down.”
Leia scowled as she scrambled to keep any of the rich purple fabric from so much as brushing the ground. “A witch shouldn’t be without her cloak,” she grumbled. “It’s not safe.”
“Safe?” I cocked my head. “What do you mean?”
She rolled her eyes. “They’re covered in basic wards, of course. To bounce minor spells off. That’s why it was so irresponsible of that child not to wear hers to her own class tonight! Madame Solari would have never—”
“She’s not a child,” I snapped. “She’s actually… really cool.” I kicked myself as soon as the words left my mouth. Not only did they sound idiotic in their own right, but revealing my admiration wasn’t going to help with Leia’s slight jealousy situation.
As if on cue, her scowl deepened into a fierce frown. “What did she say to you? Why did she make all of us leave?”
Leia’s fingers pinched at my skin, and I flapped my arms like a raven to dislodge her hands. Taking a step back, I grasped the straps of my backpack where they dug into my chest. “Because she needed to know what I saw in the telescope, and she didn’t want me to have to relive it in front of the whole class. I don’t know why you’re so mad at her. She’s really—”
“Cool?” Leia arched her brow. “So you’ve said.”
“Yeah, well…” I shrugged, scuffing one shoe on the pavement. “She is. I like her.”
“I wouldn’t get too attached,” Leia said with a tiny smile that didn’t match her dark tone. “The way she was running her mouth about the way things are done around here… She won’t last a month. Chancellor Singh hates—”
“Free thought?” I snorted.
Leia reared her head back as though she’d been slapped. “Oh, you’re still upset because she was weird about the Dash thing, aren’t you? I thought you resolved all that.”
“Dash and I talked, but that doesn’t mean— You know what? This is irrelevant. We can have whatever this is out tomorrow.”
I spun on my heel and started walking
away. The boys’ dorm, Merlin Hall, loomed just a few hundred yards in front of me, a three-story patchwork of lit and darkened windows. Even though we had already planned to open a breach tonight, Braden’s disheveled appearance at dinner had me worried that I would find him either sleeping or extremely un-sober.
Leia’s feet came pattering after me, and I picked up the pace. “Seriously, Leia, I’m in a hurry. I promise we’ll—”
A sound like the fluttering of a massive bat’s wings made me duck, but it was too late. A furry weight settled over my shoulders. A scream jumped out of my throat as I began twisting and thrashing, trying to buck the creature off my back.
“Meena! What are you doing?” Leia called out, her voice breaking with laughter. “It’s your own damn cloak!”
I froze, staring down at the deep purple fabric draped over my outstretched arms. Growling, I flung it into the appropriate position without threading my arms through the sleeves. With my lumpy bag trapped underneath it, I must have looked like a hunchbacked old… witch.
“Was that really necessary?” I asked, stomping away from Leia once again. Then I stopped and abruptly turned around. “Are you trying to stall me?”
Leia’s pale face flamed a bright enough red that I could see it under the light of the waning moon. “I’m trying to keep you from getting yourself killed, Meena. You and Braden sneaking off… nothing good has come from that yet.”
“You don’t even know what we’re doing,” I snapped, shaking my head and moving away from her again.
“Then tell me.” She caught my arm, and when I reluctantly met her eyes, they were pleading. “So I can at least rescue your dumb butt if necessary?”
“Fine,” I huffed, brushing hair out of my eyes. The breeze had picked up into a brisk wind. “I’m going to go see my dad.”
Leia’s mouth fell open. “Meena, are you insane? You can’t do that! Literally. That’s impossible.”
“Braden knows how,” I whispered. “It’s incredibly easy, actually. I’m just going to pop in, and ask a few questions, and come right back.”
“Are you?” she asked, eyes searching mine.
Broken Wand Academy Page 31
