Hybrid Academy: Year One

L.C. Mortimer

Published by L.C. Mortimer, 2019.

This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

HYBRID ACADEMY: YEAR ONE

First edition. July 28, 2019.

Copyright © 2019 L.C. Mortimer.

Written by L.C. Mortimer.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Also by L.C. Mortimer

Swords of Darkness

Just Another Day in the Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 1

Just Another Day in the Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 2

The Lost Fallen

Outbreak: A Zombie Novel

Just Another Day in the Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 3

Just Another Day in the Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 4

Just Another Day in the Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 5

Just Another Day in the Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 6

Hybrid Academy: Year One

Hybrid Academy

Year One

L.C. Mortimer

Story copyright by L.C. Mortimer

Cover design by Melody Simmons//www.ebookindiecovers.com

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 14

Epilogue

YEAR TWO

Author

Just Another Day in the Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 1

*

“And I'll never be alone.” -The Dresden Dolls, Coin Operated Boy.

“I dare you to move like today never happened.” -Switchfoot, Dare You To Move.

For Mémère:

To lost shoes in muddy fields,

To bread baskets at dinner theaters,

To old records played much too loud,

And to you.

I love you.

Fans of Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Supernatural – get ready to dive into a world where magic is powerful, clever witches rule the world, and vampires lurk in the darkness.

It was an otherwise normal Tuesday when I found out that I’m not alone in the universe.

At 2:05, my grandmother vanished, taken by vampires I didn’t know existed.

At 3:30, my aunt showed up to explain how the world really operates.

By 5:00, I was on my way to Hybrid Academy: a school for people like me.

At 7:30, I was walking into my dorm for the first time and discovered that Hybrid Academy isn’t so unlike high school. There are the popular witches, the dreamy warlocks, the shy magicians, and yes, even the shifters.

Hi.

I’m Max.

And this is my story.

Prologue

My life is divided into two parts: before and after.

The time in the middle, the time that overlaps, is a wave of loss and pain I struggle to think about. Good memories are interspersed with tears and blackness. These are the things I want to forget. These are the things I want to wish away. It wasn’t always like this, the pain. Now things are different.

I broke.

Cracked.

Changed.

The world around me crashed and burned, taking me with it. The world almost destroyed everything I care about. It attacked me, wrapping around me like a blanket of pain and terror I never thought I’d be free from.

But I won’t stay broken.

I have something to live for now.

I have a mission.

A quest.

I have the Academy.

Chapter 1

I ran up the steps to the little log cabin where I lived with my Grandmother. I stopped outside the door to catch my breath. Resting my hands on my knees, I took a few deep breaths. My heart was pounding, racing, and I silently begged it to stop. It needed to slow down. It needed to chill out, to be honest. Overreacting never turned out well for anyone, least of all me.

I smelled sweaty and I was tired: both signs that I left work much later than I should have. I didn’t want her to give me a hard time about it. Mémère had enough to worry about. She didn’t need to be concerned that my boss still wasn’t letting me leave on time or that my customers were constantly giving me a hard time.

That’s the price I paid to work at a café in Brooksville.

Nobody liked me because I was poor, and an orphan, and I couldn’t do magic.

All of those elements combined to make me one of the most disliked people in town. Despite trying to have a charming personality and showing kindness to the people around me, I somehow still managed to catch the eye of every magic-user within shouting distance, and not in a good way.

I glanced down at my work clothes. My once-white blouse was now splattered with coffee, no thanks to Justine and Alfred for their “assistance” at work. My jeans fared just as poorly. They had a few new stains, a new tear, and smelled slightly questionable. I sighed. Mémère was definitely going to notice something was wrong.

I hated to make her worry.

I hated to make her sad.

She worked so hard to raise me, to take care of me, that the idea of letting her down again filled me with stress and anxiety. I wished for the millionth time that I could use magic. I wished that I had a wand, that I knew spells, that I had powers. I wished that I could whisper a few carefully practiced words and somehow whip up an appearance she could be proud of.

But I couldn’t.

I stared at the front door of our home for a long minute. My breathing finally began to stabilize and I finally began to feel like everything was going to be okay. Maybe it would. Maybe everything would be fine. One bad day at work wouldn’t kill me.

A hundred bad days at work wouldn’t kill me.

Besides, I owed Mémèreeverything. Without her, I wouldn’t exist. I would have died when my parents did. I would have been killed or lost or starved. No one else in this place was about to take in a little orphan kid who couldn’t do spells. Nobody. Yet my grandmother was ready.

My grandmother was brave.

I reached for the door and pressed my hand against it, but I didn’t turn the knob. Not yet. I needed a few more minutes to be alone with my thoughts, to focus on the fact that today had been the worst day yet. Today seemed different somehow. Part of me thought that after awhile, things at work would get easier. I thought that they’d improve and that I would finally begin to connect with people who understood me.

I was so wrong.

I’m not understood now, just like I wasn’t understood before.

A tear slid down my cheek and I brushed it away. I look around wildly, like someone could see me, even though I was completely alone.

Entirely, utterly alone.

I didn’t have a friend in the world and while that certainly wasn’t Mémère’s fault, it was something I couldn’t bring up to her. She didn’t need to know that her love wasn’t enough. She didn’t need to know that I craved friends. If she thought I was lonely, she’d probably push for us to spend more time together, and while I loved her dearly, what I wanted wasn’t something she could offer.

“I know you’re out there,” I heard her voice through the door. “Come on in, love. I won’t bite.”

I gulped.

Yeah, my grandmother definitely knew something was up. Oh well. Time to face my fears. Time to own up to my decisions. She didn’t want me working in town, anyway, but I had convinced her that I needed to. The reality was that I knew she didn’t have a lot of money and I felt bad for not contributing to our family. The café didn’t bring in a lot of money, but I was finished with school and wasn’t really doing anything else with my time.

There weren’t a lot of job prospects in Brookville, but the café was something. It enabled me to make some money, spend time socializing, and get to know people who lived near me. It meant I could be around other people, for once. It meant I could explore the world, if only just a little.

The front door opened before I could turn the knob, and there stood my grandmother: tall, lean, and silvery.

Fierce.

My grandma was fierce.

Everything about her screamed strong. She was taller than me, which was sometimes hard for me to grasp since at 5’7”, I wasn’t a tiny girl.Although she was getting older, she still had strong muscles that were clearly defined. Whether it was from being a witch or from years of exercise and hard work, I wasn’t sure. I just knew that my grandma wasn’t the type of person anyone messed with.

Not if they knew what was good for them.

“You’re late,” she said simply, but she glared when she did. Her eyes narrowed a little: not too much. She didn’t quite look mad. It was more like, a cautious sort of look, as though she was waiting for me to say something first. I knew exactly what she wanted from me. She wanted me to admit that working in the shop was a bad choice and that I was ready to stay home with her.

After all, even if I couldn’t use magic, I could still learn about it, and my grandmother loved it when I studied.

“Not by much,” I responded, but I knew instantly it was the wrong thing to say. My grandmother didn’t yell at me or raise her voice. She never had. We didn’t have that kind of relationship. Besides, disappointment was so much worse than yelling, anyway. If I wanted to trick Gram, I should have acted stupid. I should have pretended like I didn’t know just how late it was. Then I could have pretended that I was lollygagging or chatting with someone and just completely lost track of the time.

My answer let her know that I knew I was late, and that there was a reason for it.

“What happened?” She said gently. Her eyes softened when she looked at me. Mr. Boo, my familiar, came out of the cabin and rubbed against my legs. I reached down and picked up the fat, black-and-white cat and held him in my arms for a minute. Somehow, Boo always managed to calm my racing heart when I felt stressed. I might not do magic, but Grams had given him to me when I turned 13 just the same.

“Every witch should have a familiar,” she had told me that day. Boo had been a full-grown cat already. No one knew exactly how old he was or where he’d come from, but Gram had chosen him and he turned out to be just as special as she thought he would.

“It’s nothing, Mémère,” I told her. “I just got caught up at work.”

“Did you get busy at work, Maxine, or did someone make you stay late out of spite?” She didn’t ask it in an accusing way, but I knew what she was thinking. Mémère didn’t like me working for my boss. She didn’t understand why I wanted to work or why I thought it was important that I have a job of some sort.

Any sort.

In her mind, my time would be better spent helping out on the property, working in the yard, or memorizing spells from the big, heavy book she kept on the kitchen table. The pages were worn with years of use, but Grams told me every day how important those spells were. By the time I was a teenager, I had a good chunk of the book memorized.

Not that I’d ever use them.

The little cabin we lived in was surrounded by a wide yard and then trees for as far as the eye could see. Our driveway itself was almost a mile long. That’s how hidden away we were. Unless someone was looking for us specifically, they’d never find us. We didn’t even get mail at the house. Everything went to a post office box in town that one of us would check on a weekly basis.

Mémère and I were isolated, and she worried about me.

“You know Tony likes to have me stay late sometimes,” I finally said. It wasn’t a lie, but it was sort of a half-truth. I didn’t know if Tonyactually liked having me stay or if he just liked having me miserable. Did I get paid for staying late? Yeah. Of course. This wasn’t some sort of illegal café. That said, it was still a nightmare working late after I’d already been on my feet for an eight-hour shift.

My grandmother sighed and shook her head.

“This man is no good for you,” she said.

“He’s not my man,” I pointed out. I didn’t date. Mémère knew that. A lot of things kept me from relationships and one of the biggest reasons was that I didn’t want to date a magic user. It wasn’t my thing. I couldn’t use magic. I had never been able to get even the simplest spell to work. My grandmother did her best to train me in the ways of her people, but somehow, I’d just never managed to pick things up.

If it bothered her, she was kind enough not to tell me.

Still, I didn’t want to date someone who could use magic. Part of it was a safety thing. Self-preservation was important and I didn’t want to be in a relationship with someone who might do a love spell on me. I just hated the idea of not knowing what was going on.

I hated the idea that someone might take advantage of me.

“He’s still cruel,” Mémère said. She shook her head. She was disappointed. In me? In the situation? I wasn’t sure, but I nodded in agreement and moved past her and into the house. I dropped my bag on the living room sofa and walked into the attached kitchen. The book with Mémère’s spells, as always, was spread out in the center of the table. Gram had been working on spells this afternoon. Herbs and pots and potions and bottles were on every flat surface in the room.

“What were you working on?” I asked her, but she only shook her head gently. Grams never liked to talk about the spells she was doing. I didn’t really understand why it had to be a secret. She wanted me to trust her, but there were so many things she wouldn’t reveal to me.

“Are you hungry?” Mémère asked, and I knew there was to be no discussion on what she was trying to do with her spellbook. It didn’t make sense to me. Sometimes it seemed like she had just as many secrets as Mom and Dad.

But they died a long time ago.

I didn’t want to think about them.

“I ate at work,” I lied. She looked at me carefully. Was she trying to see if I was lying? I totally was, but this time, there was no way for her to tell. Not unless she used some sort of truth serum on me. I wouldn’t put it past her, but this wasn’t something I was ready to talk about today. Not with Grams.

“If you change your mind...” Her voice trailed off and I nodded.

“Don’t worry. I’m 19, Grams. I’m old enough to make myself something to eat.”

I kissed her softly on the cheek and turned to the little staircase that led upstairs. Our home was very cozy, but it was also very small. The second floor of the cabin had only two little bedrooms and a tiny bathroom with a sink, a toilet, and a shower. I went up the stairs and sat at the very top for a minute. I listened to see if I could figure out what Gram was up to.

I heard her bustling around in the kitchen for awhile, touching things and whispering, but she was so quiet that I couldn’t make out the words. When Boo came up the narrow staircase and rubbed against my legs, I reached for him and pet him softly. Instantly, he started to purr.

“At least I have you,” I whispered, and I pulled him into my lap. I held Boo for a long time. Then I stood up and carried him into my bedroom and shut the door behind me. I locked the door. It didn’t matter. If Gram needed to come in, she could cast a spell and be in my space in like, two seconds.

But the lock made me feel like I was tucking myself away from everything: my boss, my job, my lack of friends. I used it because it gave me a little bit of security I wouldn’t otherwise have. I laid on my bed and looked at the ceiling.

“What am I going to do, Boo?”

He purred and plopped his fat body onto my tummy. I pet him as I looked up at the white popcorn finish on the ceiling.I imagined that I was back home – at my real home – with my mom and dad. They’d been gone for years. Sometimes it felt like forever. I missed them still.

People always said that life got better. They said things like “time heals all wounds” and “one day, it won’t hurt so bad,” but that wasn’t true, was it? Things still hurt. I still missed the way my mom sang songs while she cooked spaghetti and the way my dad laughed as he danced in the kitchen with her. I missed the way they read me bedtime stories and how they used to count the stars with me. I missed everything about them.

Mémère was a wonderful person. She was kind and brave and I was so incredibly lucky to have her, but...

But she wasn’t my mom.

And sometimes I just wanted my mom.

Finally, I got up and started getting ready for bed. I went into the bathroom and brushed my teeth and my hair. Then I came back, brushed Boo, and picked out my outfit for the next day. I double checked my work schedule and figured out what time I needed to get up in order to make it in for my shift. Then I closed my eyes.

I tried to fall asleep, but I laid in bed thinking for what seemed like hours.

I heard a crash, and Mémère let out a string of swear words. She would be working late into the night, I guessed, and I had no idea what she was doing down there.

What was so important that she couldn’t tell me about it?

And why did I have the feeling it wasn’t anything good?

Chapter 2

By the time Tuesday rolled around, I was tired from a weekend of cleaning dishes, making frappes, and dealing with customers who didn’t know when to quit. When the end of my shift came and went, I found Tony and told him I was going to head home for the day. He glanced at the clock and then at his watch. Why look at both times? They’re the same.

“Hmm, I’m sorry, Maxine, but I’m really going to need you to stay.”

“It’s Max, actually,” I told him for the millionth time. “And I was supposed to leave at one. It’s almost two. I told my grandmother I’d be back.” By the time I got home, it would be pushing three. This was a little ridiculous.

“Grandmother?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. Okay, so apparently I’d never mentioned her before. I didn’t often disclose personal information about myself with people, especially not people from work. Not that anyone ever asked about my personal life. The thing about coworkers is that they always tend to be wrapped up in their own stuff. They don’t really have time to care about what anyone else is going through.

“Yeah,” I said. “I was supposed to be back when my shift ended at one.”

“Afraid Grandma’s going to have to wait,” he said, pointing to the front of the café where a line of customers had suddenly appeared. I looked around at the other baristas who were supposed to be working. We were supposed to be a team. If we operated like a group of people who cared about each other and trusted each other, this wouldn’t be a problem.

And that’s when it hit me.

We weren’t a team.

We never had been.

Tony didn’t like me and I didn’t know why, but Grams had been telling me for ages that I needed to stand up for myself and face him like the brave warrior woman I am inside.

I didn’t.

Hadn’t.

Maybe it was this misguided idea that we could use the money or the idea that standing down would somehow be embarrassing or the wrong choice, I don’t know, but I was tired. I was tired of feeling lonely and tired of feeling like nothing else mattered and most of all, I was tired of Tony being a jerk to me just because I didn’t have powers.

“I already told you I wouldn’t be able to stay late today, Tony.” I’d reminded him at the start of my shift. Already I was going to be late. Again. I wasn’t about to make it later.

“Maxine,” Tony said pointedly. “The line is almost to the door. Clear it and then you can go.”

I looked at the door and suddenly, I realized what he was doing.

He was forcing me to stay by giving me an arbitrary goal that was unreachable.

It was a Tuesday afternoon. It was right after lunch, which meant that local business professionals were going to be scheduling coffee dates and meetings right here. People were going to come in for afternoon snacks. They were going to want drinks to go with their snacks.

And the line was never, ever going to end. It would continue for hours until there was another rush, and then it would just keep going. Tony was the type of person who needed control in everything he did. Every interaction was designed to make sure that he came out on top. Right now, he wanted me to stay. I didn’t want to. More importantly, I didn’t think that I needed to.

I turned back to Tony and I realized I had a choice to make.

I could do what he asked. I could stay. I could listen like a good, obedient girl, and I could start making drinks until the line finally cleared.

Or I could be a badass.

I could be brave.

I could stand up for myself for what could have possibly been the very first time – I’m not sure.

When I framed the choice correctly, it seemed like a no-brainer. I didn’t want to waste my life being the type of person people just walked all over. Nobody wanted that. Not really. Believing in something and actually standing up for it, though, were two very different things. The reality was that the time was now or never. If I didn’t stand up to Tony today, I wasn’t ever going to.

Is that something I could live with?

The decision hit me hard in the gut. I realized what I needed to do, and how I needed to do it, and I closed my eyes and wished for the strength I needed to push through. Tony was going to be angry if I stood up to him, but I’d be mad at myself if I didn’t.

“I’m sorry,” I said, standing up straighter. “I have to leave now.”

I turned and started to grab my purse. That wasn’t so bad, was it? Only, it wasn’t that simple. Things never were. A hand gripped my arm painfully hard. I turned around, surprised. Tony had grabbed me and was gripping me tightly. He was standing, towering over me, and it took all of my energy not to cower and whimper at the invasion of my personal space. Suddenly, he seemed really huge, and I felt very small.

“If you walk out that door,” he said. “Don’t bother coming back.”

“You can’t fire me for leaving on time,” I told him.

“I can do whatever I want,” he sneered. “My father owns this place. Don’t think he won’t back me. You’re nothing against me.”

In that moment, something shifted inside of me. I realized this had always been about power. It had nothing to do with wanting to run a good café or caring about his customers. Nope. Tony cared about one thing and one thing only: his bottom line. He wanted to make money and impress his dad. He didn’t care who he hurt in the process.

Well, my days of letting him give me a hard time were over.

“Get lost, Tony,” I carefully plucked his fingers from my arm. I took a deep breath and then I looked up at him. I couldn’t tell whether he was more shocked or mad at my response to him, but I didn’t plan to stick around and find out. I turned and left, walking swiftly toward the door. I passed the line of customers and I heard a couple of them murmuring to themselves, but I didn’t care.

“Hey, where’s she going?” I heard Maggie ask Tony, but the door was already closing behind me, and I didn’t stop to see what he was going to say. I was sure he’d find some sort of excuse for being the way he was. He’d probably say that I was an unreliable employee or that I just didn’t respect my customers enough.

No matter.

It was no matter at all.

I walked swiftly down the road and turned around a corner. As soon as the café was out of sight, I allowed myself to relax for a few minutes. Just a few minutes. I needed to breathe and clear my head. The world around me was so hectic, so crazy, that for a minute, I just wanted to think about everything that had happened.

I’d done it.

I had stood up for myself.

Everything was going to be okay because I’d finally been brave. Oh, Gram was going to be so damn proud of me! In the face of adversary, I’d looked Tony in the eyes and I’d told him to shove it. Wow. What a great feeling. I felt strong and, for the first time in my life, I really had felt powerful.

Even without magic.

I was standing in front of a little magic shop, thinking about what had just happened, when I heard the door open. A tiny woman came out and looked me up and down.

“Can I help you, honey?” She asked, not unkindly.

“I’m okay,” I shook my head. “Sorry. I just needed to stop for a moment.”

“You’re welcome to stay as long as you like, darling,” she said, smiling with understanding.

Her kindness surprised me. Perhaps it shouldn’t have, but as the resident non-magical person in the town, I was used to being treated weirdly or poorly or ignored altogether. Having someone acknowledge me and give me space was...nice.

It was nice.

Maybe Grams really was right all along. Maybe all it took was a little bit of self-assurance and a little bit of belief. Maybe when she urged me to stand up for myself, it wasn’t just because she thought that I needed a push. Maybe it was because she knew that when I believed in myself, I’d be different. Maybe she knew that people would respect me a little bit more.

I glanced at the clocktower at the end of the road. It was big and gloomy-looking: the type of thing you’d see in a horror movie. The original magic users of the town had insisted on having it placed in the very center of the town to ensure they could always coordinate magic spells at the same time. Well, I wasn’t using it for spells, but I did see that I was running late and I was going to be in trouble if I didn’t hurry.

What good would losing my job be if I still had to explain myself to Mémère? My grandmother was a patient woman, but everyone had their limits. I knew that if I didn’t hurry home, that if I didn’t get to her promptly, then quitting my job would have been for nothing, and I couldn’t have that.

I turned and hurried down the road. My feet hit the pavement loudly. The sound seemed to echo despite the fact that no one else was paying any attention to me. The roads had cars and pedestrians and a couple of cyclists, but everyone was focused on themselves.

Everyone was too busy, too wrapped up in their own lives, to notice a little human girl like me.

I headed toward the edge of town. That’s where I could start making my way to the cabin where I lived with the only person who had ever looked out for me. When I reached the end of the street, I looked back over the little town.

It really was picturesque.

I had spent so much time here playing, learning, studying. I had basically grown up here.After my parents passed away, this town became my home. Still, I so often felt like a stranger in this place. It was unsettling. I knew the townspeople and they knew me, but there had always been a distance. There had always been a sort of unspoken understanding that I wasn’t one of them, that I would never be one of them.

Today was different, though.

Today was the day that everything changed.

Today was the first day of the rest of my life, I told myself. Today meant that tomorrow, things were going to be different.I wasn’t sure exactly what was going to happen next, but I knew that I had taken the first step today at work.

That’s how everything started, after all.

With a step.

The first one was always the scariest. I knew that. Everyone knew that. If you could do it, though, if you could take that first dangerous step, then all of the other steps would seem easy in comparison.

I had taken the first step today.

I had stood up to Tony.

I had been brave. I had been strong. I had been everything my grandmother had been urging me to be, but I knew that my journey wasn’t over yet.Thisreally was only the beginning.Soon I would have to make a lot of decisions that I wasn’t quite ready to make. The reality was that Iwas 19 and I really couldn’t do magic. I needed to figure out what I was going to do with my life, and it wouldn’t be sitting around looking at my grandmother’s special magic book. No, what I really needed was some sort of job, something that I could do where I felt like I was making a difference in the universe.

I hadn’t found that in the coffee shop.

I hadn’t found what I was looking for.

I learned an important skill while I was there. I learned many skills. Some of those were more useful than others, but now I needed to take those skills, those talents I had honed, and find a way to put them to use in another way, in a better way.

The edge of town came and went, followed by a road that led in one direction. On the opposite side of the road was a small path almost completely hidden away by trees. That’s the path I took. It was guarded, closed off, and it would lead me toward the place where I lived with Grams.

As I walked, I let my thoughts, my feelings, and my emotions run free. I let them consume me for just a little bit. I thought about so many different things. I thought about my parents and how much I missed them. I thought about how proud they would be if they could see me today, if they could see what I did back at the café. I thought about my grandmother and how lucky I really was to have her in my life, but most of all I thought of how strong and courageous I felt when I had stood up to Tony.

I think I hesitated for so long because I thought something bad would happen to me if I rocked the boat. Maybe I thought that I would let people down. Maybe I thought standing up for myself was some sort of failure, but it wasn’t. None of it was. Standing up for myself,speaking boldly, being brave:these things made me feel so many new emotions that I didn’t even know I had.

Now I had to figure out what to do with them.

I walked down the path to my house. It wasn’t a far walk. I’d made it a million times before. The path crossed a couple of roads and then ended on a narrow street. I followed the street for awhile before turning onto another path. This one was the last little trail I’d take to reach my home.Although I knew the way very well, I took my time getting home. I probably should have ran, but it was hot, and I was tired, and...well, I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to say to my grandmother.

I couldn’t exactly walk in and say, “Surprise! I quit my job! Oh, just kidding. Actually, I was totally fired for disobeying my boss.”

That wasn’t really the best way to launch into an explanation, now was it?

But I could do something else. I could find a way to explain what had happened, but frame it in a positive light. Honestly, it did feel pretty positive, and part of me suspected that Grams would be thrilled. As she had said just the other day, Tony wasn’t any good for me. He was a bully, and nobody liked bullies.

I rounded a corner and saw our home standing in the bright afternoon sunshine. It really had become a place where I was comfortable, where I was at ease. My grandmother had done everything in her power to transform this place from an ordinary cabin in the woods to something truly special: a home. She didn’t have to take me in all those years ago. She didn’t have to raise me or love me, but she did. She’d sacrificed more than I would ever understand, and she’d done it all for me. I smiled as I walked up to the house, ready to tell her what I’d done. Damn, she was going to be so proud.

But then I reached the yard, and I stopped.

I listened.

Something felt...wrong.

Something was wrong.

What was it?

I looked around, but there was no one here. It was just me, the driveway, and the cabin. Boo was nowhere to be seen, which wasn’t unusual, but everything else seemed the same as it always was.

So why did I suddenly get the feeling that there was a problem?

Why did I suddenly feel like my skin was itching?

Why did I suddenly feel like my entire world was about to shatter?

I took a step toward the cabin, aware that something was wrong, but I still didn’t know what. I’d never had a feeling like this before. I wasn’t a witch, after all, not really. I didn’t get feelings the way my grandmother did. I didn’t get strange sensations or inklings. That wasn’t me. That had never been me. Somehow, though, I knew that something bad was about to happen.

Then it hit me.

The air.

There was something wrong with the air.

There was nothing visually out of sight, but that didn’t make any sense because the air distinctly smelled like danger, which is a stupid thought. Nobody could smell danger. Danger wasn’t something you could scent or touch or see. It was just something that you felt. Yet despite knowing how dumb it was to think that I could smell a feeling, I was a very aware of the fact that danger had a very distinct smell. It was so tangible I could practically touch it.

What was happening to me?

I’d never smelled anything like this before.

I’d always thought I was very aware of the emotions of people around me, but I’d never specifically smelled an emotion before.

So why was this happening now?

I stared at the cabin where I lived with my grandmother, trying to pinpoint exactly what the issue was. What was wrong? What had happened while I was at work? Why was I suddenly afraid to approach the cabin? We had lived there together for so long. I’d never felt any sort of nervousness before, so why now?

What was different about today?

I took a deep breath.

“You can do this,” I said out loud to myself. “You’ve got this.” Sometimes a personal pep-talk was all anyone needed to get the courage they craved. Verbal affirmation, my grandmother always told me, was essential to personal growth. I’d made it a habit to encourage myself when I could, and I did so as I walked toward the house.

My movements toward the cabin were slow, cautious. Each footstep washeavy. Every step took my full, concentrated effort. The birds weren’t chirping the way they normally were. I couldn’t hear rustling in the grass or the trees nearby. The woods seemed to be completely silent, which was more than unusual.

It was impossible.

What was going on?

I reached the porch after what felt like an eternity. That’s when I noticed the front door. I gasped, raising my hands to my lips because now it was obvious what the problem was. The door was open. No, it was slightly ajar, as though it had unintentionally been forgotten or ignored. It hadn’t been left open on purpose. Of course not. Grams was absolutely meticulous in her planning and in her daily activities. She never left anything open. Not when someone could just wander up to the house. Not when anyone could just come on in.

It’s not that Grams was paranoid.

Well, actually it was.

Ever since my Mom and Dad died, Grams had been different.

Cautious.

Worried.

I’d never really questioned her too much, but now I wonder if I should have. She’d always been worried about something, but I never really knew what it was. I pressed her sometimes, here and there, but never too much. She was just such a private person and I always brushed things off as her needing personal space. Now a sinking feeling settles in the pit of my stomach as I realize there was so much more to our lives than I could have possibly known. I didn’t push harder, didn’t find out what her secrets were, and now something terrible had happened.

What had we been hiding from?

What had we been running from?

To be honest, I had been so wrapped up in getting my job, not being a total loser, and trying to make friends – which I had failed miserably at – that I’d brushed off many of the warning signs that something was seriously, unabashedly wrong.

For starters, Grams and I didn’t use our real names. Not really. She had a silly “pretend” magic name that she asked me to call her when we were in public. I wasn’t even supposed to let people know she was my grandmother. I always just said I lived with a roommate. Grams was eerily private and liked to stay to herself, but she’d always been a bit of a loner.

Had something else been going on?

What was happening now?

I fought the urge to call for her by either her real or fake names. Instead, I hurried up the porch as silently as possible and I reached for the door. I heard a hiss before my hand even touched the wood. Then Boo was in my arms: soft and warm.

“Mr. Boo,” I whispered, looking at him. “What’s wrong, baby?” I pet him softly, rubbing his head. He didn’t purr. His entire body was tense, and I realized that something really was the matter.

Holding him tightly in my arms, I pushed the door open and walked inside.

Then I dropped Boo.

He squealed and ran back outside, but I couldn’t look away.

It’s human nature to be drawn to things that are awful. It’s the reason you never look away when you’re driving, and you see a car wreck.It’s the reason you can’t quite turn your head when two people get in a fight in public. Now, it was the reason I kept staring at my living room even though I was devastated at what I saw.

The entire house was destroyed.

Chaos filled the place and I wondered exactly what had happened here and who had done it. Potions were spilled and glass was shattered. Pages were ripped out of books and strewn everywhere. There were candles and herbs tossed on the table and dropped on the floor.

And my grandmother wasn’t there.

I opened my mouth, but I didn’t scream. Couldn’t. Maybe I should have, but I didn’t. Instead, I took a deep breath, and then I called out, “Grandmother?”

I never called her Grandmother.

I always used my special name for her. I always, always called her Mémère. It was what my mom had always said, and even though Mom had been gone for years, I couldn’t break the habit of calling my grandmother the lovely French name for grandma.

The house was silent.

There was nothing.

It was destroyed.

Whoever had done this had been searching for something, or maybe someone. They had torn apart the life we had so carefully crafted together. They had destroyed everything. Worst of all, they had taken my grandmother, and I had no way of finding out where they went. I had no way of knowing exactly where they had taken her or, more importantly, why they had taken her.

I wanted to fall onto the floor and cry, but I couldn’t.

I wouldn’t.

Instead, I swallowed hard and looked around.

I had spent so much time in this place. This was the place where I had recovered after Mom and Dad died. This was where I learned I’d never be a proper witch. This was where I met Boo. This was where I discovered myself.

Now the cabin was trashed: utterly destroyed.

One thing was for sure: I couldn’t stay here.

A plan.

I needed to make a plan.

First, I looked for the magic book. It was important to Mémère. It was the most important thing she owned. When she wasn’t working on a spell or using it to find important information, she kept it hidden and locked away. I was pretty sure I was the only person who knew where she kept it, too. I scoured the living room until I found a tiny wooden chest. It was small: only about four inches long, and it fit in the palm of my hand. I grabbed it and set it on the table. Then I stared at it.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to open the chest. I’d tried hundreds, if not thousands, of times. It had never worked. Nothing had ever happened. I picked the chest back up and shook it softly. It made a soft sound and I breathed a sigh of relief. The book was in there. They hadn’t found it. It was safe.

Just another sign that Grams was paranoid, I suppose, but she always shrunk the book and kept it locked in this chest. There was no key to unlock the treasure chest: only a spell. The words were carefully etched on my heart, but I knew that there was no way I’d be able to open it to get the book. Not on my own, anyway.

I had to find help, but perhaps more importantly, I had to get out of here. I couldn’t stay. Whoever had come for my grandmother was an evil person.

Or persons.

Or magic users.

I shivered in disgust and fear. They would come back when they realized she couldn’t help them without the book. They would come find the book, and then they would try to hurt her. I might have been isolated, but I’d read books and watched movies. I knew exactly what happened when someone wouldn’t cooperate, and Gram? She’d be a hostile hostage if I ever saw one.

These people wouldn’t let it lie. No matter who they were, no matter what they were after, they would need her to cooperate. So they would come for me. As tough as Grams was, I knew she wouldn’t let them hurt me. She would do whatever they wanted if it meant protecting me.

I couldn’t let it get to that point.

I ran up the stairs to my room and gasped when I saw the space. Like the first floor, it was completely trashed. My bed was unmade and covered with toys and books and clothes I hadn’t seen in years. The dresser was knocked over and my closet was totally torn apart.

And it smelled.

Everything reeked.

This time, I wasn’t smelling danger.

I was smelling anger.

“So now I’m scenting emotions in empty spaces, huh?” I shook my head. The day couldn’t get any weirder.

I grabbed the little leather bag that hung on my closet door. Dumping out its contents onto the bed, I replaced them with a few important items. I was all about leaving in a hurry, but I also was going to be smart about this.

First, I wrapped the little treasure chest in a baby blanket my mother had made for me. I tucked that into the bag. I followed it with a picture of my parents and my grandmother. Then I placed in Boo’s favorite toy: a little stuffed wolf. I’d be damned if I was going to leave here without my cat. Boo was all I had left now.

I scurried over to my grandmother’s bedroom. Like the rest of the house, it was totally trashed. I tried to ignore the different emotions that I was definitely smelling in the room. Instead, I reached for the back of my grandmother’s dresser. Somehow, whoever came for her hadn’t discovered her secret envelope of cash and ID cards. It wasn’t going to be enough to get me very far, but it would buy me a bus ticket out of here. Then I could try to figure out who had taken my Grams. Without opening the envelope, I shoved it into my bag and headed downstairs.

Boo was sitting by the door, as though he knew what was going to happen.

I took a deep breath.

“Come on, Mr. Boo,” I scooped him into my arms. Boo had always been there for me and now I was going to be there for him. I didn’t know what was going to happen next, but I was going to protect him. I was going to keep him safe. I was going to make sure that no matter where we went or what we encountered, we were going to be fine.

We could do this.

I glanced at the clock. 3:30. If I hurried, I could get to the bus station before the last buses left for the afternoon. I could go somewhere. Anywhere. I could collect my thoughts and make a plan and I could find answers. I could figure out who did this. I could stop them.

How?

Well, that was a question for the bus.

I took a deep breath and pushed open the door. I stepped onto the front porch and turned around to pull the door closed. Even though I wouldn’t be coming back to this place, I couldn’t stand to leave the door ajar. It would bother Gram and somehow, doing this made me feel like I was honoring her in some weird way.

When I turned back around, I screamed.

“Oh, shut up,” the witch standing on the porch said.

The voice...it was familiar.

My eyes shot to her face: sweet, round, innocent. I knew this person. I’d seen her before. Oh, it had been years, and we were both older now, but it was definitely her. Her eyes flashed with anger and fear and a lot of different emotions I couldn’t identify, but I could smell them.  It was definitely her.

“Aunt Erin?” I asked, my eyes going wide. And then I instantly started crying and threw myself into her arms. Oh, Aunt Erin was here. She was going to fix things. She could make them all better. Aunt Erin was my dad’s kid sister. We’d spent so much time together before my parents died, but after they passed away and Grams took me to live in the cabin, I never got to talk to Erin.

I missed her often and wanted to reach out to her, but Grams always forbid it.

“If anyone finds us,” she used to say, but then her voice would just trail off. I never knew what would happen if the wrong person found us. I only knew that it would be bad, and that it scared my grandmother, and so I stayed quiet. I stayed away from the only aunt I’d ever known. Now, part of me wished I had ignored my grandmother and contacted Erin, anyway.

“Oh, Aunt Erin,” I whispered. She hesitated, ever the awkward one, but then my aunt slowly wrapped her arms around me and held me tightly. Boo squeaked and jumped down, sprinting away. “Sorry, Kitty,” I said. I hadn’t intended to squish him between us, but sometimes bad stuff happens when you don’t mean for it to.

“Maxine,” my aunt whispered, and I didn’t even correct her when it came to my name because I was just too damn happy that she was there. She’d come for me. I didn’t know how she’d managed to find me after all of this time, or on a day like today, but she’d found me.

I looked up at my aunt, but before I could say anything, she cocked her head and her eyes narrowed.

“What did you do?”

Chapter 3

“W-W-What?” I asked, shocked and appalled. Did my aunt think I had anything to do with this? “I just got here,” I told her. “And Grandma is missing. We have to do something!”

Erin shook her head sadly.

“Honey, I don’t want to be the one to tell you this, but Grandma isn’t coming back, okay? She’s not missing. She’s dead.” Erin spoke with assuredness and bluntness, but she was wrong.

She was totally, completely wrong.

My grandmother couldn’t be dead. We were supposed to have dinner together tonight. We were supposed to cook. We were going to talk and spend time together and maybe even play a board game. Today was supposed to be normal. It wasn’t supposed to be horrible.

Dread filled my stomach as I looked at my aunt. Suddenly, she seemed ominous. She was definitely a witch. There was no mistaking it. Her short blonde hair was almost white and her eyes shone like diamonds. When she smiled, it could melt a man’s heart. It could melt a woman’s. It could melt anyone’s.

That was her power, her strength.

My aunt was the type of person who could convince anyone to believe her, to trust her, but right now, I didn’t.

“She’s not dead,” I said. I wanted to ask my aunt a million questions about today. Why had she shown up here, at my house? Why was she looking for me? Why did she think Grandma was dead? Why had she stayed away for so long?

“I’m sorry, but she is.” Erin’s voice was firm.

No.

No.

No.

Just no.

There was no way that it was true. I shook my head, but my aunt nodded sadly. I heard the words she was saying, but they didn’t make any sense to me. Dead? But the house was ransacked. Someone took her. It was obvious. There was no way someone could have done anything more than just a gentle kidnapping. Not to her. Not to my grandmother. Not to the one person who was always there for me.

I dropped to the porch and shook my head. It was impossible. There hadn’t been any blood. Besides, I would have felt it. Would I have smelled it? I don’t know. I certainly would have known, though. I had known something was wrong when I first reached the cabin. I had sensed it, smelled it. I had understood that I wasn’t walking home, I was walking into danger.

“This can’t be happening,” I said.

“I’m sorry,” Erin said. “I know this doesn’t make a lot of sense. I’ll explain once we’re gone, but for right now, you need to know that time is of the essence.”

It sounded like something out of a dumb book.

Not that books were dumb.

But this sort of thing didn’t happen in real life and it certainly didn’t happen to a girl like me.

I was ordinary: through and through.

That’s why people in town didn’t like me and it’s why I struggled to make friends. I was utterly and ridiculously ordinary. I wasn’t the kind of person who got swept up in magical activities or terrific experiences. I certainly didn’t get involved in murders or kidnappings. Those things didn’t happen to people like me.

Even as I protested, though, there was an itch at the back of my heart that urged me to question why I was so sure.

Why was I so certain that she was okay?

The reality was that there was a lot I didn’t know about my own Grandmother. Mémère was a wonderful person, but she held her secrets close to her heart. She spent hours upon hours working on spells and magic. She was always writing things in her magic book and she was constantly reading and researching. Our tiny home was a haven for people who loved to read. We had plenty of stories in the cabin.

But Mémère never told me why my parents had died.

She never told me what she was working on.

And she never explained why so much of our lives had been a secret.

I looked up at my aunt. She was watching me carefully. Her eyes flashed another color. Green. It happened so quickly that I figured I had probably just imagined it. Eyes couldn’t change color, no matter how much magic you did.

“Maxine,” my aunt said. “We need to go. Do you have a familiar we need to bring? I didn’t see an owl.”

No, she wouldn’t, would she?

Because I hadn’t wanted an owl.

Mr. Boo had been the familiar that Mémère chose for me. He had been perfect. He’d been friendly and kind and special to me.

“I have a cat,” I whispered. He’d run off when I went to hug Erin. She probably didn’t realize that he was more than an ordinary pet to me. He was my familiar. He was my strength.

“Good. Get him.” Erin looked around. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

She was correct about that, at least.

None of this felt right.

My entire world was ending. My hands shook and my breath felt strained. It was hard to breathe: almost impossible. I hadn’t felt this scared since Elizabeth Margot didn’t invite me to her sweet sixteen. Everyone else in town got to go except for me. I was weird, and strange, and unwanted, and I had struggled to breathe when I realized that I really was just as weird as everyone said I was.

Suddenly, everything seemed to swirl around me and I felt like I was going to faint. Boo seemed to sense this and came barreling towards me. He leapt up and landed on my chest. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him close. I found comfort in Boo I couldn’t explain. He was more than a cat to me.

He really was a friend.

“Mr. Boo,” I whispered. Somehow, he always managed to calm me down. I wasn’t quite sure how he always did it, but Boo was incredible. Boo was the best cat anyone could ever wish for. Gram certainly knew what she was doing when she chose him as my familiar. He was with me all of the time when we were both at home. Sometimes Boo had a bit of his own life and would wander away. He always came back though.

When we were both at the cabin, he didn’t follow me to work, but sometimes, I would sneak him out in my backpack. We’d go to town together: an unstoppable duo. I shouldn’t have taken him away from the house, perhaps, but I didn’t think there was any harm.

That had been a long time ago.

“Max, we need to go,” Erin looked around, her eyes roaming. “They might come back and it’s not safe for you here anymore.” She seemed wildly uncomfortable in front of the cabin. We weren’t out in the open. Not by any means. Security was very important to Gram, so she chose a place that was clearly isolated and surrounded by trees and brush and acres and acres of forest.

Whatever my aunt was afraid of wasn’t going to be a problem.

Not out here.

No one knew where this place was. No one could trace it. The cabin was an impenetrable castle for us, or at least, it had been, once upon a time. It had been a safe space where we could relax together and Gram could practice her magic and spells.

Then again, my grandmother hadn’t been prepared for something to find her.

Or us.

So maybe things were worse than I thought.

“I don’t want to go with you,” I whispered. I wanted to go hunt for my grandmother. I wanted to go find her. Something told me that Erin knew more than she was letting on. Why else would she be so certain that my grandmother was dead? Wouldn’t there be some sort of sign? Maybe there would be a note or a blood drop or something. There wasn’t. There was nothing.

It didn’t make sense.

If someone had been searching for something at the cabin, wouldn’t they have found a way to communicate that to me? Maybe they were going to hold my grandmother ransom until I gave them the information or the money they wanted. I didn’t want to go with Erin. I wanted to hunt, to search for the people responsible for this.

If I had some time, I could figure it out.

I could talk to people, conduct interviews. I could do some research. I could find out exactly what Mémère had been working on. I could find out and I could solve the mystery of her disappearance. More importantly, I could get her back.

I had to get her back.

“You have to come with me,” Erin said sadly.

“I’m an adult,” I said, standing up straight. “And I have rights.”

Erin looked at me and a gentle smile played on her lips. Her bleached blonde hair made her look ageless, to be honest. I wonder if that’s what she was going for when she chose her current style. She was wearing her witching robes, for some reason, which made me think that she traveled here magically.

How did she find us after all of this time?

And how did she find us today?

“You do have rights,” Erin agreed. “But I’m a witch,” she said, and she snapped her fingers.

Then everything went black.

Chapter 4

When I woke up, the world was spinning.

I wasn’t in front of the cabin anymore. In fact, I wasn’t really sure where I was at all. Everything was jolting around and the ground beneath me was bumpy. I felt jostled. Moved. Then I realized I wasn’t on the ground anymore. I was on some sort of vehicle. I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. I felt sick and hungry and sad all at the same time. How long had I been asleep for? Hours? Days?

Then I heard a voice.

“Good, you’re awake.”

Ah, yes.

Erin.

Everything came rushing back in one wondrously painful memory and I grimaced. She made me faint and then she brought me...on a train? Is that where I am? A train?

“Yes, it’s a train,” she said. Apparently, I spoke out loud.

“Where are we going?” I asked. Not that she would tell me. Erin had a lot of stuff up her sleeves, apparently. First, Mémère had been kidnapped. Then I had. There was no doubt in my mind that Erin had definitely kidnapped me. I didn’t think she felt like she had. She probably thought she was doing me a favor, but I wanted to search, to hunt, to be productive.

I did not want to sit in a little train suite with a witch, especially one I really didn’t know all that well. It had been years since I’d seen Erin. I’d grown up a lot since then. I wasn’t the same little kid who loved to play dolls and make believe. I was grown up now. I was an adult.

“We’ll get to that in a minute. First things first: are you thirsty?” Erin actually looked a little concerned. Was she worried about my well-being? Or was she just glad she didn’t have to go find me something to drink?

“My cat,” I managed to whisper, realizing I didn’t know where Boo was.

“Is fine,” she said, pointing at the bench beside me. Sure enough, Boo was awake and seemed to be irritated, but he was with me. That was something. I didn’t know what I would have done if I had woken up in a strange place without my grandmother or my familiar.

I had come to depend on both of them so much.

I really relied on them.

I glanced at Boo. He seemed to be a little ruffled, but okay. His eyes searched mine. Was he confused? Scared? Lonely? The thought of my little kitty being afraid for me while I was sleeping hurt my soul. I reached for Boo and pet his head softly.

“Everything is going to be okay,” I told him. I didn’t know if that was true. Things were completely different than they had been when I first woke up that morning. I thought the biggest obstacle I was going to face was dealing with my asshole of a boss. I didn’t think I was going to see my long-lost aunt or lose my grandmother. Not all in the same day. It was a lot to handle.

I looked around the little train car. It was like something out of a movie. There were two opposing benches with racks overhead. I suppose luggage was supposed to go there, but I didn’t have any. Well, aside from my bag.

My bag!

I looked around and realized the bag was still with me. Good. I had strapped it over my shoulder, so it stayed in place even after I fainted. Because there was a zipper on the bag, I knew that all of my important things would still be safely inside: my baby blanket, my picture, my grandmother’s book. Everything was there. Everything I needed to make a fresh start was there.

I wasn’t sure what Erin wanted with me, but I’d find out before planning my next move. Who knew? Maybe she would drop me off somewhere and I’d have to sneak away the moment she turned her back. Maybe she would take me on an adventure. Maybe she would reveal some deep, dark family secrets that could help me on my quest for vengeance.

I didn’t know.

What I did know was that it hadn’t been very long at all since I lost my grandmother and the world didn’t feel right without her.

“Thank you for making sure my cat came with me,” I managed to say to my aunt. I tried to remember my manners as much as possible. Facing my aunt seemed strange. It was uncomfortable, but I didn’t really know why. She was my dad’s kid sister, so I spent a lot of time with her when I was little. She always came over to the house for dinner. Then she and my dad would go hunting or jogging together and Mom and I would hang out and practice spells. Even then, I couldn’t do spells, but my mom never seemed to care.

She never seemed to think there was something broken inside of me.

“I know he’s important to you,” Erin said gently.

I nodded because I didn’t have anything else to say. I pet Boo and pretended like I was back at the house, like everything was normal.

Erin noticed. She wasn’t about to let that fly.

“We need to talk,” she said. “About what happened,” she added, as though I didn’t know.

“I told you what happened,” I said. Why did I feel like she was accusing me of something?

“How did they find your grandmother?” Erin asked. “She had been incredibly careful up to this point. She followed her own rules. Even I couldn’t find her. She never told anyone your last name or she used a fake one. Hell, I wouldn’t be shocked if she used a fake first name.”

“She did,” I confirmed, and Erin smiled.

“She always was a clever woman.” Her smile faded then. “What can you tell me about the past few days? Something happened and I want to know what. I want to know who.”

“What do you mean? Wasn’t this just...a random kidnapping?”

“It was not random and it was not a kidnapping.” Erin sighed. “I know you don’t want to hear this and you probably won’t believe it, but it wasn’t a kidnapping, Max. Your grandma was killed. I’m going to find out why.”

“You?”

“Yes, me,” Erin nodded and leaned back. “I’m the head of a coven now, Max. Things are different now than when you were a kid.” Finally, she acknowledged that I wasn’t a kid anymore. “I’m very powerful, but even I wasn’t able to locate your grandmother until today. I couldn’t find her until she called me.”

“She called you?” We didn’t have a telephone at the house. How did she manage that?

“She realized she was in danger and she did a spell to contact me,” my aunt explained. “It revealed her location to me, but it still took me a long time to find her. She didn’t have time to take out all of the wards before she was...before it happened.”

“So you didn’t find our place until after I got there,” I said.

“If I hadn’t seen you go into the cabin, I probably wouldn’t have ever located it,” Erin said. “It was very well hidden. It was well protected.”

“Fat lot of good that did,” I grumble. Gram had been careful. Erin was right. So what went wrong?

“Do you have any idea who might have wanted to hurt her?” Erin asked me.

“What is this, a detective movie?” I glared at her. “No, Erin. I don’t know. Trust me, if I did know, I certainly wouldn’t be sitting on this damn train with you.”

Erin’s eyes twinkled just a little bit and she smiled. “I don’t think you would have had much of a choice, honey. I think we both know just how good I am at what I do.”

“I don’t know who wanted to hurt her,” I repeated with a sigh.

“Then how did they find her?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean,” Erin scratched her nose. “Did she recently make a new friend? Did she invite anyone over? Did she tell anyone she was your grandmother?”

Then it hit me.

My grandmother didn’t.

But I did.

Suddenly, I remembered the words I’d said to Tony less than an hour before it happened. I’d been so careful for such a long time, but then today I was in a rush. Today I wanted to leave the café and I’d blurted out information that should never have been shared.

My grandmother will be expecting me.

He hadn’t known until today that I had a grandmother. He hadn’t known I lived with anyone aside from an anonymous and older person.

Could that really have been it?

Could my grandmother really be missing because of my carelessness?

The realization hit my guts like a ton of bricks. Instantly, I felt queasy and sick. My grandmother was gone. It quite possibly could have been entirely my fault. If I had just been more careful: more cautious. If I hadn’t been in such a hurry to stand up for myself, then maybe this could have been avoided.

Erin noticed my silence and latched onto it. She leaned forward excitedly.

“What is it? Max, tell me.”

I didn’t want to tell her. I didn’t want to share this with her. I wanted to keep this secret all to myself because it was a horrible one. Part of me thought that if I just didn’t say it out loud that everything would be okay.

But there was no recovering from this.

There was no going back.

The only way to go was forward.

As if sensing my hesitation and my anxiety, Boo placed a paw on my lap. I looked down to see his big eyes blinking at me. Oh, Boo. Somehow, he always knew exactly when I needed a push. He always knew when I needed someone to believe in me.

I took a deep breath and nodded. I could do this. I could be honest. Maybe it wouldn’t backfire horribly. Maybe my aunt would be merciful and understanding. Maybe she wouldn’t blame me for what happened.

Maybe.

But I wasn’t holding my breath.

“Today at work,” I started.

“At work?” She raised an eyebrow. “You work? Why?”

As if holding down a job was the strangest and most unusual thing anyone could ever do. I realized then that Mom and Dad hadn’t really ever...worked. They’d used their magic for good and they’d used their magic to get money. How? I wasn’t really sure. Maybe they were secretly incredible jewel thieves. I didn’t know.

“To get money,” I told her. I spoke slowly, as if explaining this to a child. “So I can have a real life.”

“What do you need money for?” My aunt still seemed confused.

“Money is how you buy things, Aunt Erin,” I sighed. Did she really not know what money was?

“Silly girl,” she shook her head. “Why don’t you use your inheritance?”

“My what?”

Now it was her turn to look at me like I was stupid.

“Your inheritance. You didn’t really think your parents left you with nothing, did you?”

“Well, I suppose I...”

“No, you didn’t think,” she shook her head and leaned back in her seat. “That’s the problem with your generation, you know. You’re much too rash for your own good.”

“My generation?” I felt personal offended. Was she really attacking my entire generation? For no reason?

She waved her hand as though I was being a petulant child.

“Go on,” she said.

“What are you talking about?” I pressed. I wasn’t done yet. What inheritance was she speaking of? As far as I knew, my parents had died penniless. My grandmother had never mentioned an inheritance and we certainly hadn’t lived as though I had one. I’d worn hand-me-downs and thrift shop clothing for years in an effort to save money and minimize our expenses.

Now I was finding out there was an inheritance?

“Of course, your parents didn’t leave you penniless,” she said, shaking her head. “I mean, I also didn’t know where you were, so it’s not as though I could fly over on my broom and inform you,” she winked playfully.

“Why wouldn’t my grandmother have told me?” I asked quietly. “We could have used the money.”

“I’m sure she had her reasons,” Aunt Erin said, her eyes suddenly gentle. She lowered her voice. “Max, she was in hiding for a long time. Years. Longer than anyone really should be. I’m guessing – and this is just a guess – that she thought using your inheritance money would draw attention to the two of you, and that seems to be one thing she didn’t want you to do.”

I shook my head and pulled Boo closer to myself. Wow. Just when you think you have everything all figured out, your grandmother vanishes and you find out you secretly have money. Who knew?

“So you work at a café,” Aunt Erin pushed me back to my story.

“Worked,” I said. “Past tense.”

“But you worked there today.”

“And then I quit. Well, I kind of got fired. It’s all very complicated.”

“Why don’t you start from the beginning?” Aunt Erin said carefully. “That might help.”

“My boss is a jerk,” I said. “He was constantly keeping me late at work and making me work overtime. Grandma didn’t like it, but I was worried about money and worried about saying no to him, so I did it. I did whatever he wanted.”

“But not today?”

“Not today,” I agreed.

“What was different about today?” She asked, but she said it in a way that made me think she already knew the answer.

“Today...today I was just tired of it,” I told her. “I’d had enough. I was tired of getting home late and tired of my grandmother worrying about me. I just wanted to get off work when I was supposed to.”

I didn’t say that I was tired of feeling useless.

I was tired of feeling powerless.

My aunt didn’t need to know that much about me.

Today, something inside of me changed. Today was the day I realized I was tired of being a doormat. I was tired of being pushed around. I was tired...of so many things. I was just tired.

My aunt regarded me thoughtfully. Then she surprised me by asking another question.

“Maxine, when did your parents leave?”

“Max,” I corrected her, finally. “And I don’t know. Ten years ago, I guess. Give or take.”

She shook her head and a soft smile covered her lips.

“Max, your parents left exactly ten years ago today. Exactly.”

“What?” That was strange. I didn’t even realize precisely how long it had been since they passed away. Their death was a tragic accident. It was something like out of a fairy tale story book. They had been there, and then they were gone. We were a family, and then we weren’t. I had been lucky that my grandmother was still living at home when they died. Mom and Dad had passed away while they were out of town. They had been killed while conducting research for a book they had been writing. At least, that’s what they told me at the time. I never really believed that it was the whole story. My grandma had been babysitting me when it happened.

My aunt nodded and looked expectantly at me.

“Max, don’t you think it’s a little strange that your grandmother was killed on the anniversary of the day your parents went away?”

I gulped and looked away. I looked out of the window at the trees rushing by. None of this made sense. What was my aunt trying to tell me?

“Yes,” I finally answered. “It’s pretty weird.”

“Your parents warded you, Max,” she finally said. “Your mom was a witch.”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “They both were.”

My aunt tilted her head and then shook it slightly.

“No, just your mom.”

“What are you talking about? Grandma said my parents were magical.”

“Yeah, they were magical, but there’s more to magical beings than just being a witch. Didn’t your grandmother teach you about shifters and vampires and demons and angels?” Aunt Erin looked concerned.

“Uh, none of those things are real,” I said, but my voice came out tiny and squeaky.

They weren’t...real.

Were they?

I closed my eyes because so much of what was happening felt impossible. This couldn’t be possible. None of it could be. Yet even as the thoughts floated through my mind, I knew that they were. I knew that this...whatever was happening...this was insane.

“Max, think about it.” Erin’s voice was firm, but gentle.

“You’re going to have to explain this to me,” I said. “And please, for the love of dragons, use small words so I don’t miss anything.” I shook my head. “No offense, but if you’re about to tell me that vampires are real, I might need you to pinch me. This is crazy.”

“They’re real,” she said. “So are fairies and demons and angels. All of it. It’s real. I’m a little surprised your grandmother never filled you in. She taught you magic, didn’t she?”

“She tried, but...I’ve never...”

I had never been able to do magic.

Never.

It just wasn’t my gift.

“You’ve never been able to do it,” my aunt filled in the blanks. “That’s to be expected. Usually, when a child is a hybrid, they have a dominant trait. Yours is your ability to shift.”

“My what?”

“Your dad wasn’t a witch, Max. He was a shifter. A wolf shifter, to be precise.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means your dad could change from being a human. He could shift into being a wolf. He was both wolf and human. He was a shifter.”

“And you think I’m a shifter, too?”

“I know it.”

Aunt Erin seemed totally certain that I was a shifter like my dad, but I wasn’t so sure. I mean, it was crazy, really. All of it was crazy.

“So you’re saying that I can’t do magic because I can actually turn into a wolf?” I shook my head. “Shouldn’t I have known about this? Wouldn’t I have accidentally turned into a wolf by now? You know, if I could.”

My aunt frowned. “It does seem strange that you haven’t shifted, but you never know. That ability sometimes presents itself later. Usually, shifters are able to change into their animal forms sometime around the start of puberty.”

I glared at her. “I’m well past the age of puberty, Aunt Erin. I’m 19!”

“I know,” she said, stroking her chin. “It’s a bit strange, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out. If not, the Academy will help you with it.”

“Um...what?”

“That’s where we’re going. Max, someone was after your grandmother. They might come after you, too. The safest place for you is to be with your own kind. You’ll be hidden in plain sight, sort of.”

“That’s ridiculous. I don’t want to hide. I want to go find her.”

“She’s dead, Max. You need to accept it. I know this is going to be hard. It’s going to be hard for both of us. She was a wonderful woman, and I’m sad that I hadn’t seen her in so long.”

“Why today?” I whispered, shaking my head. “You said they warded me. What does that even mean?”

“Before your parents left on their trip, they cast a special spell to protect you. They always put spells on you to keep you safe, Max, but this time was different. They knew something was wrong. They suspected that they might not come back for a long time or even at all, so they cast a blood spell.”

“A blood spell?”

She nodded.

“It was supposed to keep you safe and hidden away for as long as they needed you to be.”

“With a maximum protection period of ten years, was that right?” I asked drily.

She nodded again and considered me.

“You said that you mentioned to your boss you had a grandmother.”

“I did.”

“It’s possible that he was able to follow your scent back to your grandmother. With your ward gone, he could have tracked your genetic scent to her. Did you go straight home after you talked with him?”

I thought about it for a moment.

“No,” I shook my head. “I walked around feeling sorry for myself first.”

And that had gotten her killed.

It had destroyed her.

“It’s possible that your boss worked for one of the vampires who hunted people like your mom and dad. He might even be a vampire himself.”

“It was daytime, though. Aren’t the stories...” I felt stupid even asking. “Aren’t the stories about vampires real? Can they go out in the sunlight?”

She shook her head. “Not usually, but like anything else, magic can be used to manipulate vampires, too.”

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning there are potions and spells designed to give them some time in the sunlight.”

“Of course there is.”

“Max, this is important. Your grandmother was working on something. Do you know what?”

I shook my head. “No. She kept it from me. She kept all of that from me.”

Erin sighed. “Your mom and dad,” she looked around and lowered her voice. “They were conducting research for something important, something I can’t talk with you about. Not just yet. But I believe that your grandmother continued that research. I warned her not to, but she’s a sneaky woman, and she kept you away from me for all of these years in order to keep you safe.”

“To keep me safe from you?”

“Max, I’m not a full-shifter like your dad. We were only half-siblings,” she smiled gently. “I’m a hybrid like you: half witch, half shifter. Your grandmother knew that if we were together, I’d want to train you and teach you. I’d want you to go to the Academy, like I did.”

“Well, I guess you’re getting your witch,” I smiled at the play on words, but Erin didn’t seem impressed.

“This isn’t a joke, Max.”

“I know. None of it is. And it’s all my fault, which is worse. I don’t even want to be here, Erin. I want to go find my grandmother.”

“You’re not a prisoner, Max.”

“No? So you’re telling me that if I go to open that door,” I jerked my head toward the tiny door of our suite. “It’ll just open? You didn’t cast a locking spell on it?”

“Well,” Erin at least had the decency to blush. “A girl’s got to be careful, right?”

“What’s going to happen at this place? The Academy?”

“You’re going to be trained.”

“I’ve already been trained to be a witch.”

“Now you’re going to be trained to be a hybrid,” my aunt said. “You’ll learn how to shift, hopefully, and how to use your shifting abilities with your magical powers.”

“I can’t use magic.”

“Yes, that’s still a little baffling,” Erin’s brow furrowed. “But who knows? Maybe once you’re able to shift, you’ll unlock your magical abilities, too. We can only hope.”

“And what about you? Are you going to stay with me?”

“No. My time at the Academy is over. It’s a three-year program. I went when I turned 18 and stayed until I had completed my classes. Then I became an apprentice to a witch and now...well, the rest is history.”

“So I’m going to be all alone.”

The thought made me more uncomfortable than it should have. I was a little embarrassed to admit that I’d never been away from my family. I’d never spent a night away from Grandma. I’d never...I’d never done any of that. Now I didn’t have a choice. At 19, I was old enough to be independent, but I’d never been alone a day in my life.

I felt Erin’s hand on my knee and looked up.

“Hey,” her eyes were gentle. “It’s going to be totally fine,” she said. “I was new there once, too. You’ll be a first year, so everyone is going to be new.”

“It’s long past the start of a normal school year,” I pointed out. It was September. Not just September, but the end of September. I hadn’t been out of high school so long that I’d forgotten what that meant.

It meant that even the “new” kids would have settled into a routine.

Even the first year students would have their cliques, their groups of friends, their buddies.

They would all know everyone else.

Except for me.

I wouldn’t.

I wouldn’t know any of them.

Why did that terrify me so much? It made me nervous. Dread tossed and turned inside of me, choosing to settle in my stomach. I felt nauseous. Sick. It wasn’t just because of my grandmother, either.

There was more to this day than I could have ever imagined.

When I woke up, the biggest thing I worried about was whether I’d actually have the guts to face Tony.

Now there was a chance that Tony was a vampire.

He might have captured my grandmother.

He might have eaten her alive.

And now my long-lost aunt was here to tell me all about her powerful witchiness and to banish me to a school I didn’t want to go to.

The train went around a curve and my aunt looked out the window, smiling.

“Oh, good,” she said. “We’re here.”

The train lurched to a stop and my heart sank.

This was it, then.

There was no going back.

Welcome to my new reality, I guess.

I stood up reluctantly and looked out the window.

It was going to be a long year.

Chapter 5

Hybrid Academy was nestled in the foothills of the Dragon Mountains. The train didn’t stop directly at the school. Instead, Aunt Erin and I had to take a taxi from the train station to the grounds of the school. I wasn’t exactly happy about my future, but I also knew better than to argue with an all-powerful witch. Hey, unless and until I got my powers, I wasn’t about to cause any trouble for myself or anyone else.

I’d managed to do enough of that on my own. I didn’t need anyone’s help to be a screw-up: a failure.

I stared out the window of the taxi like my life depended on it because as far as I knew, it did. I was about to be thrust into an Academy for people like me. For hybrids. I was about to go to a school where everyone around me had two different powers. Most of them were shifters and witches, according to Erin. Some were demons and witches. Some were demons and shifters. I was about to be thrust into a school where magic ruled.

More importantly, I was about to go to a school where everyone knew how to use their powers.

I didn’t.

I’d instantly be at a disadvantage and I wasn’t sure what to do about that. It’s not like I could look this up online to figure out exactly how to shift into my animal form. I mean, I could try, but I don’t think it would do me much good. Mémère was the smartest woman I knew and she hadn’t been able to teach me magic. Would she really have been able to teach me to shift? And if she couldn’t, why would someone else at this school be able to teach me?

“Are you sure this is the right choice?” I asked Erin as we stepped out of the taxi. I didn’t have anything with me except for my leather bag and my cat. Boo perched on my shoulder, which was wildly uncomfortable, but I wasn’t about to complain. I’d lost enough for one day. I didn’t need to lose the trust of my best friend, either.

“What do you mean?” Erin turned to me. “Of course it’s the right choice. Hybrid Academy is the safest place for you right now. Besides, they’ll teach you to shift, and we need you shifting.”

“Why?” I asked, raising an eyebrow, but Erin pretended like she couldn’t hear me. Instead, she started marching toward the front of the school, which looked like it was some sort of old castle.

The school grounds were large and beautiful. With the sun setting, the school looked like something out of a movie. There were trees everywhere. I imagined that in the springtime, students would spread out blankets and study under the trees. It was already getting too chilly for that. It was only September, but something told me it was going to be an early winter.

A long winter.

“Look, Erin, I can’t afford this place,” I said, following her. “I know you said I have an inheritance, but I don’t even know how to access that,” I started. “And even if I did, I’m sure it’s not enough to cover this.”

Erin stopped and turned to me. She seemed a little impatient, but I figured that was just exhaustion from everything she’d been dealing with that day. After all, finding your long-lost niece couldn’t have been easy.

Something told me that Erin had been looking for me for a long time.

“I don’t have access to anything your parents left you. Apparently you don’t, either. I’m guessing your darling grandmother either burned through whatever was left or she invested it somewhere. I don’t know. Either way, it doesn’t matter anymore because you’re here and I’m here and we’re going to hide you away where you’ll be safe.”

“Hide me away?”

I didn’t want to be hidden away, dammit. How much clearer could I be?

But Erin had powers I couldn’t begin to understand.

And she had been gone for a long time.

I wanted to believe that Erin was a good witch, but what if she wasn’t? Was she the type of witch who would cast a spell on me if I didn’t do what she wanted? Was she going to hurt me if I tried to escape this plan she had for my life? I didn’t like that idea very much at all. I didn’t like any of this.

Erin spun on her heels and glared at me.

“Yes, Max. I’m going to hide you away, okay? I lost my brother. I lost my sister-in-law. I lost everything. Everything, Max. And I’m not about to lose you, too, okay? So, if sticking you in this shifter school is going to keep you safe while I can figure things out is what it takes, then I’m going to do it, okay?”

The scent of her emotions overwhelmed me and for a second, I thought I was going to be sick because I could smell it all: fear, anger, resentment, loss. She really had been through hell, hadn’t she? Erin was a strong woman, but she’d been dealing with this all on her own. It was a lot to handle, even for a witch.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I guess...I guess I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

She sighed and ran a hand through her short hair.

“Look, I know this isn’t going to be easy, okay? It’s weird for me, too. But...you’ll be here for the school year and then you can spend the summers with me.”

“I’m not a kid anymore,” I reminded her. This wasn’t going to be like some sort of boarding school romantic comedy situation where I looked forward to swimming lessons and a summer camping trip. This was my life. This was my entire future at stake.

“None of the students are kids,” she said. “Think of this more like a college and less like a high school.”

“So I’m not going to have to take Bullying 101?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Okay,” she laughed. “So maybe it’s a little bit like high school. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

I looked up at the building that loomed over me.

“How much does tuition cost at this place?”

“Let me worry about that,” Erin said, biting her bottom lip. “Okay? I’ve worked out a deal with the principal.”

“Headmaster? Shouldn’t this place have a headmaster?”

She laughed, and the sound of her laughter helped me to calm down a little bit and feel a lot less tense. Maybe this place wouldn’t be so bad, after all.

“If you want to go classic, it’s headmistress, but yes. Alicia Gregory has been in charge of the school since I was a student.”

“That couldn’t have been too long ago,” I commented. I didn’t think my aunt was all that much older than me.

“Ten years,” she said. “I graduated the year your parents were lost.”

That must have sucked, I realized. She had been away at school when Mom and Dad disappeared. Their deaths had been a tragic loss and no one really knew exactly what happened to them, only that they died. As Dad’s kid sister, I knew she looked up to him.

How had she dealt with that loss?

Well, apparently she’d dealt with it by becoming an all-powerful hybrid witch.

Go Erin.

She turned and kept walking toward the building, obviously expecting me to follow her. That was fine. I could do that. I trotted along after my aunt. I let my eyes roam as we moved. The building loomed over us. It was intimidating, to say the least. I figured it must have been heavily warded. How else had it stayed in business for so long? If vampires and monsters lurking in the darkness really were after hybrids and shifters and magic users like our family, how else could a place like this have been left to stand?

It seemed like the secret to survival was staying hidden and lurking in the shadows.

It wasn’t until I splurged my secrets that Grandma and I were in trouble.

It wasn’t until I stepped out of the darkness that anyone had been able to find me.

Was that the secret here?

Hybrid Academy was a school for the elite and the unusual. That’s what Erin had said. She spent quite a bit of time on the train discussing her experiences at the school and it seemed like most of them – most of them – had been positive. Still, there was no guarantee I’d have the same experience. Maybe I’d get into my dorm room and just hate it. Maybe I’d despise the place. Maybe I’d feel like I was lost or being thrown to the wolves.

I wasn’t sure.

What I did know was that whatever happened, I was going to be okay.

I was a resilient person. My grandmother raised me that way. She always told me that no matter what obstacle I faced, I would be okay. I’d be able to manage it because I was strong. On a day like today, I needed strong. I needed brave.

Erin and I approached the front of the school. Two large, heavy doors were shrouded with mystery. I could practically feel the magic wafting off the place. This was it. This was the first day of the rest of my life. Whether I wanted this or not, I was going to be spending the next three years here.

At least, until I could figure out how to escape from my aunt’s watchful eye and search for my grandmother.

There was no doubt in my mind that Erin had friends and spells in place to look after me. One misstep and I was certain she’d be informed. I didn’t think she’d do something extreme like lock me up, but if I didn’t listen to her, there would be consequences. I wasn’t sure what those would look like or what they would entail, but something told me I wouldn’t like them.

Besides, the reality was that maybe there were worse things than hanging out at a school for freaks. The reality was that maybe this really would be good for me.I could meet some people who were like me. I could connect with some other young adults who understood exactly what it was like to be strange and unusual. Maybe I wouldn’t feel so alone if I could find people who understood me. Maybe they would be able to use their powers to help me find my grandmother.

I stared at the front doors of the school. This was it. This was the moment. Everything was going to change as soon as I walked through those two doors. Was I really ready for all of that? I didn’t have a choice. Erin whispered a spell I couldn’t hear, and the two doors opened at the same time.

“Woah,” I commented, impressed. “When do I get to learn how to do that?”

“At orientation,” she smiled. “Which is,” she glanced at her pocket watch. “Happening now. Come quickly.”

We hurried through the immense hallway. I hardly even had a chance to look around at the huge space. There were statues and paintings lining the hallway, along with this huge rug. It was gold and blue. I had a feeling that the gold thread was actually gold, but I wasn’t sure why I thought that. Maybe it was just that Hybrid Academy was so beautiful or that the space was just so different from anything I’d ever seen before.

Everything I managed to glimpse seemed incredibly and undeniably wonderful.

My aunt led me down a side hallway, through a large ballroom, and then through an attached banquet hall. There were a few students loitering around, but no one seemed to even spare us a passing glance. That was strange, I thought. Shouldn’t they have been interested in the weird new kid?

Maybe it was good that they didn’t notice.

Maybe I’d be able to blend right in.

Boo was unusually silent as we moved. He hopped from my shoulder to my arms as we scurried through the school. We weren’t quite running, but my aunt kept a grueling pace. I tried to match it, but it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. She was swift and I was slow.

And not human, apparently.

Once I learned how to shift – if I learned how to shift – maybe I’d be faster.

Finally, we arrived at a door. It stood out from the rest of the space. It was purple, for one thing, and it had a soft glow. It was pulsing, almost like it was a heartbeat. This was the center of the school. I could feel it, somehow. I just had this understanding that everything behind there was different. Once I went through that door, there would be no going back. Everything would change for me whether I wanted it to or not.

“This is it,” she said. “This is where it all begins.”

“What happens when I go through that door?” I asked her. “What’s behind the door?”

“Orientation,” she said simply, repeating herself, and she pushed the door open.

A glow wrapped around me, pulling me in. Boo squealed and tried to run away, but I held him tightly as my aunt and I walked into the room. Once the door closed behind us, the glow calmed down and I was able to see everything around me. Okay, so maybe the room wasn’t magic. Maybe the people inside the room were.

Two adult females stood at a large, oversized desk. They regarded my aunt for a moment. The younger of the women moved over to my aunt. She didn’t exactly run, nor did she walk quickly. She sort-of glided across the room.

“Erin,” the woman said. “It’s so good to see you,” she whispered.

“And you, too, Melanie.” Erin pressed her hand to the woman’s cheek and smiled softly. “It’s been far too long.”

“When Alicia told me you were coming back, I couldn’t believe it,” Melanie said. She smiled, but her voice wasn’t warm. Then she turned to me. “This must be your niece.”

“This is Maxine, yes.”

“Maxine,” the woman said. “I’m Melanie Wilson. I teach Spells and Potions here at the Academy.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said. I stuck out my hand awkwardly. I was still trying to hold Boo and he was doing everything in his power to run away. Melanie looked at my hand and then at my aunt.

“She doesn’t know how to greet witches?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Apparently not,” Erin frowned. “Didn’t your grandmother talk with you about how to properly introduce yourself in formal settings?”

“Uh, no?” Somehow, my answer came out as a question.

Erin shook her head and a thin blush crept over her cheeks. She was embarrassed. Damn. I embarrassed my aunt. The thought shouldn’t have bothered me, but it totally did. I didn’t want to let her down. I wanted her to be proud of me.

“I’m very sorry,” I turned to Melanie. “If you would be so kind as to instruct me, I will do my best to learn.”

“Wow,” Melanie said. She smiled and nodded. “I’m impressed. Most new students wouldn’t be quite so bold.”

“Well, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do,” I said.

“Unfortunately, the semester is already well under way and we don’t have all the time in the world.” The other woman in the room spoke. We all turned and looked at her. Tall, lean, and silvery: Alicia Gregory was every bit as fierce as my aunt had implied.

Her long purple robes matched the room. Was I going to have to wear robes? I realized that all three of the other women were wearing these formal robes. They almost resembled prom dresses. That’s how long and full they were.

“Headmistress,” Erin said, nodding her head. It was almost a bow. Melanie made the same gesture, so I followed suit. Even Boo bowed his head. Alicia gave her own nod of approval.

“Why don’t you have a seat?” Alicia said. “And we can talk about the expectations for you here at Hybrid.”

“Actually,” Erin glanced at her pocket watch again. “I believe that’s my cue to leave.” She turned to me. “I have coven business to attend to and I’ve already spent far too much time away from my girls. You’ll be safe here, Max. Everything is going to be okay. Just keep your head down. I’ll come visit you in a month.”

“A month?” I asked. It would be that long before I was able to see my aunt again? That seemed like a lifetime. That was a lifetime.

In a month, everything could change.

Hell, in a few hours, everything could change.

I wasn’t ready for it.

I wasn’t ready for any of this.

But before I could argue or complain, my aunt opened the door and walked away, closing it carefully behind her.

“Why didn’t she just snap her fingers and disappear?” I asked quietly. I wasn’t speaking to anyone in particular, but Melanie answered.

“Because there are wards in place to prevent unauthorized use of magic,” she said. “The school protects its own, and even if it didn’t, we wouldn’t permit vanesco on school grounds. It would cause way too many complications. Can you imagine if a student just didn’t feel like taking a test so they used that spell? Or if they got into a fight and just disappeared instead of facing the consequences?” Melanie shivered like someone not being punished was the worst thing she could think of in the world.

Weird.

“Have a seat,” Alicia repeated her request, and Boo and I scurried into the two chairs in front of her desk.

Melanie remained standing.

“So your aunt tells me you’re a hybrid,” Alicia said. “Can you shift?”

“Uh, no. I actually only found out about the whole being-a-hybrid thing about an hour ago.”

“No one told you before? What about your parents?”

“They are super dead,” I said, looking away and staring at the wall. Really? If Erin was going to drop me off, the least she could have done was tell them my tragic backstory. I didn’t really want to spend a lot of time repeating it.

“So you’re an orphan,” Melanie said.

Ah, there it was.

The word I’d been trying to avoid forever.

The word I hated more than anything else in the world.

Orphan.

I’d never felt like an orphan because I always had my grandmother with me. “Orphan” had seemed like the kind of word that applied to other people and not to me. “Orphan” had seemed like something designed to describe people who didn’t have any hope or any future or anyone to love them.

I had never been an orphan.

Not really.

Not until now.

I managed to nod and she seemed to take the hint that I didn’t want to talk about it. I looked up and Alicia Gregory was glaring at Melanie.

“I believe what Miss Wilson was trying to say,” she snapped. “Is that we’re sorry for your loss, Maxine. You’ll fit in fine here. Since you’re not able to use your powers yet, you’ll take remedial classes this semester until you master the art of shifting to your alternate form. Do you know what you are?”

“No.”

“Well then, it’ll be fun to find out, now won’t it?”

“I suppose,” I hadn’t really thought about it as being fun.

Alicia’s eyes softened as she looked at me.

“I know this is going to be difficult,” she said. “You’re in a hard place, my dear. No one wants to start a new life, especially when they didn’t plan for it to happen, but you’re going to be just fine.”

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“Your schedule,” Alicia said, snapping her fingers. A scroll appeared in front of me. It was floating. I reached for it and opened it. Lovely and glittery handwriting filled it. Apparently, my entire life was about to be scheduled for me. Everything from breakfast to bedtime was completely and entirely planned. At first glance, I only saw a few spaces where I would even have a little bit of free time.

“As you can see,” Melanie pointed out. “There’s not a lot of free time. That’s on purpose. We want you to get the most out of your time at the Academy, so you’ll basically be working and studying from sun up to sun down.”

“Okay,” I said. I wasn’t afraid of hard work.

“Your books will be delivered to your dormitory room,” Alicia Gregory said. “Along with your uniforms.” She glanced at my tiny leather bag. “Did you bring anything else with you?”

“This is it,” I said. She exchanged glances with Melanie before continuing. “You’ll wear uniforms while attending classes, but I’ll arrange to have some additional clothing brought to your dorm room. You won’t want to sleep in your witching robes.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I appreciate that.”

“Amenities, such as toothbrushes and shampoo, have already been placed in your room. You’ll want for nothing while you’re here,” Melanie said. “You’ll also find a place for your familiar, along with food he can enjoy at his leisure.” She looked knowingly at Boo with a soft smile.

Somehow, they had managed to plan everything I might need. They’d even planned a space for Boo to live with me. How nice was that? They had covered every one of my potential needs, but their thoughtfulness didn’t do a thing to stop the aching in my heart. Anytime I stopped to think for too long, I just started considering my grandmother and everything that had happened that day. It still felt very dreamlike. The reality hadn’t sunk in yet that she was gone: possibly forever.

It would soon.

Soon I would wake up from my nightmare and realize that it was real, that all of it was real, and that I was nothing more than an insignificant blob in the universe, but for now, I needed to focus. I needed to find a way to make it through school, and I needed to find a way to locate my grandmother. If I could do that, then everything would be okay. If I could just think hard enough, maybe I’d be able to determine where she’d gone and what had happened to her.

“Did you have any other questions for us?” Asked Alicia.

“Yes,” I said, looking up at her. “I have one question.”

Before I could ask it, Melanie looked at her own pocket watch. What was it with witches and pocket watches? Seriously. I’d never seen so many in one place in my entire life. Now it was all I seemed to look at.

“I’m afraid I must flee,” she said. “I have a class to teach. Maxine, it was a pleasure. I’m certain that Headmistress Gregory would be happy to answer any other questions you may have. ”

Then she left.

I was all alone with the headmistress.

She raised an eyebrow as she looked at me. When she stared at me, I felt very small, very weak, and very alone.

“What’s your question, child?” She said gently.

I swallowed hard.

“Uh, so what’s the proper way to greet a witch?”

Chapter 6

When my orientation was finished, Headmistress Gregory summoned a student to take me to the dormitories. There were two large dorms: one for boys and one for girls. Well, to be more accurate, there was one for men and one for women. None of us were kids. Everyone who attended the Academy was between the ages of 18 and 25. Most students were exactly the same age as me, which made me feel a lot more comfortable and relaxed than if I’d been with adults of varying ages. Somehow, making mistakes in front of your peers seemed much less terrifying than making mistakes in front of someone twenty years older than you.

Kiera Crowley introduced herself to me, and then led me out of Headmistress Gregory’s office and down the hallway. She walked quickly with a steady pace, like she was comfortable. She’d been here long enough to know her way around, which was wonderful. It was still a newish semester, so maybe that meant there was hope for me, too. After a few weeks or a few months, maybe I’d manage to feel as confident as Kiera did just walking around campus.

“The dorms are in their own buildings,” she explained as we walked. Boo had calmed down and was no longer trying eagerly to escape, so the walk was much easier than it had been previously. Trying to carry a cat who wanted to run away was never simple or easy. Boo was a good cat, but he made me work for his love.

We left the main castle through a backdoor. This one was locked, too. Kiera whispered kaimen and the doors swung open. I wondered if I’d be able to get the doors to open, too, or if I’d be stuck waiting for someone else to come along and help me navigate the school grounds. I’d already heard so many different spells uttered that I wondered if I’d ever manage to even remember them, much less use them. Magic was a tricky thing.

I didn’t like feeling helpless, but something told me that life at Hybrid Academy was going to be very different than what I was used to. Not only was I going to have to get used to answering to more people than just my grandmother, but I’d have to learn how to follow the rules, how to memorize the spells, and how to work my tail off even if my magical abilities never managed to present themselves.

That was a disappointing thought, so I pushed it away. I couldn’t focus on the fact that I couldn’t do magic. Instead, I needed to keep a clear head. If it was possible for me to learn magic, this is the place where it would happen. This is where everything would come together. All it was going to take was time. Then I could use my new skills to conquer the world, or at least to conquer the mystery of where Grandma was.

Kiera and I walked quietly along a little path to the first dormitory. It was nice to have a few minutes to look around the campus a little more closely. There weren’t many students out. I imagined that was because they were eating or studying. Maybe some of them were still in classes. There were a few people sitting on blankets under trees and sprawled out with books, though. It was all very idyllic. I saw one witch waving a wand at a tree. She was saying words I couldn’t quite hear, but she seemed to be having a great time with it.

As we approached the building, I looked up. The first dormitory was tall and built completely of brick. The exterior was multiple shades of brown and red and it had a very retro sort of look to it. It was the type of thing you’d see on a postcard. It was the kind of picture you’d see in a college pamphlet that was advertising, Hey! Come to our school!

“That one is where the guys stay,” Kiera pointed out. “They mostly keep to themselves, but they sometimes cause a ruckus. The teachers’ dormitories are next to theirs.”

“The teachers don’t share a dormitory with the students?” That was a little surprising to me, but I wasn’t sure why. I guess I figured that male students and male teachers would all stay in the same place. Maybe teachers needed their down time after work just as much as the next person, though.

“Nope,” Kiera shook her head with a grin. “We get at least a little bit of teacher-free time, but don’t let that fool you. There are still monitors in each dorm who make sure we follow the rules.” She rolled her eyes like it was the silliest thing she’d ever heard, and I couldn’t help but smile. Kiera didn’t strike me as the type of person who got into much trouble. She seemed serious, and I imagined that she was a kind girl who worked hard when it came to classes.

“Who are the monitors?” I asked her, curious. Were they other students? Teachers? Random people who had been hired to keep everyone in line? More importantly, were these people who would report my behavior and my actions to my aunt? Now that I’d had a chance to see a little bit of the campus, I was actually starting to see how spending time at Hybrid Academy might not be all bad.

“Former students, mostly,” she shrugged. “They patrol at night to make sure everyone is in their bedroom when they’re supposed to be. They’re mostly harmless, but sometimes they’re assholes.”

My eyes widened at the harsh language. It seemed a little blunt, but maybe I was being overly sensitive.

“Sorry,” she shrugged. “It’s true, though, so watch your back.” I nodded at Kiera, but didn’t say anything. I’d learned long ago that watching your back was the key to surviving just about anything. The problem with relationships was that people had a tendency to betray one another, so even if you thought you could trust someone or that they’d play it cool, the reality was that people tended to migrate towards the best deals. In the case of dorm monitors, they probably cared far more about advancing their careers and impressing the headmistress than they did about keeping it chill with a bunch of students.

We followed the path around the back of the boys’ dormitory to the building where the female students stayed. It was close to both the boys’ dormitory and the teachers’ building and was designed in much the same way. The brick exterior was lovely and beautiful to look at. Again, I had the overwhelming urge to snap a photo. This building was a little different than the others, though. Somehow, it seemed even bigger. It was certainly prettier. Large sunflowers surrounded it. Like Headmistress Gregory’s door, the doors to the dormitory were purple.

Kiera and I walked up to the door and looked at it. She wasn’t even phased by the door itself, Instead, she simply waved her hand and whispered a spell quickly, but confidently.

“Doaoakeru.”

The doors opened and we went inside. The first floor lobby had lots of board games, tables for studying, and couches and chairs to sit on. There were even some aerial silks and a few witches were trying them out. Briefly mesmerized, I looked up at the silks. Two witches hung upside down, spinning in circles.

“Pretty, huh?” Kiera said. “Even witches have to exercise.”

“It’s amazing,” I agreed. I’d never seen anything quite like it before.

We walked through the room and toward a large staircase that led up. Headmistress Gregory had told me I would be on the top floor. The first two floors were used for free time and activities. There were rooms with books, games, movies, and supplies for spells. There was plenty of space for homework. Then the top three floors were bedrooms. I was on the fifth floor.

No elevator.

My legs were going to fall off.

“So, how long have you been a student here?”

“A month and a half,” Kiera told me. She glanced over at me. Her dark hair bounced as we walked. It was shoulder-length in tight little ringlets that must have been horrible to try to manage. She pulled the look off perfectly.

“Really? You seem so confident, like you really understand how everything works.” I didn’t want to confide in Kiera just yet and tell her exactly how scared I was of screwing this whole thing up, but somehow, I thought she knew. The new kids always stand out, don’t they?

Kiera shot me a sideways smile.

“Don’t worry, Maxine. You’ll be totally fine. I know it’s a lot to take in, but once you’ve been here for awhile, things are much simpler than they seem.”

“What do you mean?” We passed groups of students studying or hanging out, but no one paid us much attention. That did a lot to calm my nerves. Things would have been much worse if people had been staring at me. Besides, since everyone’s attention was already occupied, I had a chance to sneak glances at the cliques we passed.

“I mean,” she stopped and turned around. Then she jerked her head toward the different groups in the lobby. “There are the gothic witches, the ones who are really into classical looks and traditional magic. Those are the witches who grew up with old magic. They’re rich. They’re also pretentious. That group,” she nodded toward a circle of punk-looking girls. “Is the shifter group. They’re part magic, part animal. Some of them are also demons or angels, but the key element in all of them are shifters. That might be your group,” she looked at me. “If you like to be wild and break the rules.”

“Not particularly,” I mumbled. I was way too used to staying under the radar. I didn’t want to stand out. Not in a negative way. Certainly not in a way that would bring my aunt back to fetch me. I hadn’t forgotten what was important to me or why I was here. I needed to learn where I came from, but I also needed to learn the skills I might need to find my grandmother.

The people who had taken her – and I was still certain she had been taken –wouldn’t go down without a fight. If I wanted to find her, to save her, then I needed to do everything in my power to prepare for whatever battle I would have to fight.

“There are also the fairies,” Kiera nodded toward a group of beautiful princess-looking women. They were all tall, slender, and absolutely stunning. They were sitting in a circle and putting makeup on one another. Not that they needed it. Those girls would look perfect even after fighting in a battle. There was no doubt about it.

“What group do you fit into?” I asked my new friend. There were still other groups she hadn’t named or pointed out. Some of them I recognized from my own high school days. Others...

Not so much.

Although Gram had homeschooled me my entire life, I hadn’t exactly been sheltered from the way things worked. Everywhere I went as a teenager, whether it be the park or the store, there had been groups and cliques designed to let me know that I didn’t fit in.

No matter how hard I tried, I would never fit in.

Gram had kept me sheltered for a long time. She had done her best to protect me and to isolate me from trouble. In some ways, I understood why she did it. In other ways, I realized just how far behind I was going to be when it came to understanding the world of shifters.

“What group do I fit into?” Kiera repeated my question, mulling it over. Then she smiled. “Easy. None of them. Come on.”

We went upstairs. One flight, then another, and another. By the time we arrived at my room, I was panting and sweaty. Kiera looked exactly the same.

“How did you do that?” I asked.

“Do what?”

“Manage to look like we didn’t just have the workout of a century.”

She chuckled and shook her head. “Lots of practice. I’m over there,” she pointed down the hallway. “Room 510F.”

“F?”

“It stands for fairy.”

“You’re a...”

Without a word, her wings started to shimmer and sparkle behind her. Kiera smiled at my shocked expression. I’d never seen something quite so beautiful or lovely before. Hell, I’d never seen anything like it before.

“You’re a fairy.”

“And a witch,” she said. “Best of both worlds, I suppose. Might have been nicer to be a shifter, but you know, we can’t win ‘em all. Come on, then.”

We approached my door. I knew that I wouldn’t have a roommate. Most of the students did, but since I was enrolling so late, I had just a single room to myself. I glanced at the spell written on my scroll, the one that let me know how to get into my room for the first time.

“Here goes nothing,” I muttered. Boo meowed by my feet, reminding me that he believed in me. It was a good thing because I wasn’t so sure I believed in myself. Coming to Hybrid Academy was quite the adventure, to be sure, but I didn’t know what I was going to do if I couldn’t even get into my own bedroom.

I took a deep breath and focused my energy on the door. It was just one lock. I could do that, right? Anyone could open a lock. Just one little lock. That’s all this one. One lock and then I’d be in my room. I’d be able to try on my new pajamas and look at my textbooks and try to remember what it was like being a student.

“Tatalafaitotoa,” I muttered.

Nothing happened.

I blushed.

Kiera looked at me and back at the door.

“Hmm, try again,” she said. “Maybe it didn’t hear you correctly.”

Another deep breath.

I didn’t want my new friend to know that I’d never successfully done a magic spell in my life. I’d never been able to do anything. I could levitate objects, I couldn’t create fog, I couldn’t cook dinner. I couldn’t do anything regardless of how small or simple it was.

But I needed this.

I needed this win.

“Tatalafaitotoa,” I said the words again. This time, I was careful to say the words carefully and clearly. Still, nothing happened. Boo meowed, and I knew he felt sorry for me. Damn. I could smell my cat’s pity. My cat. My cat pitied me.

That was just unacceptable.

I tried to think about how Gram would handle it if she was here. What would she do when she was faced with an obstacle she couldn’t overcome?

First, she’d tell me to believe in myself. Yeah, yeah. That was so much easier said than done.

Next, she’d tell me to focus all of my energy. I needed to clear my head. She’d told me that many times. I needed to clear my head and totally center on saying the spell.

The thing about magic, she had warned me, is that it would take everything you had to give it, so if you gave it everything, you needed to be sure.

You needed to be certain.

Then she would tell me to do it.

To go for it.

To pour everything into the whispered words that were designed long ago to make the world a more wonderful place.

A deep breath.

I closed my eyes and held out my hand toward the knob.

I focused on the doorknob, on twisting it in my mind. I focused on the way the doorknob smelled, on how it worked, on how it was going to turn and open for me.

Then I tried one more time.

“Tatalafaitotoa.”

The door swung open.

Boo hissed and ran into the room as fast as a little mouse would. I just stared at my hand and then at the door. I’d done it. I’d actually done it. I’d done magic.

I looked at Kiera and back at the door. Then I looked at my hand.

I’d never been able to do a single thing before, but this time...

I’d actually managed to make my bedroom door open.

I’d unlocked it all on my own.

Kiera laughed and patted me on the shoulder.

“First time, huh?” She chuckled.

“That obvious?” I asked, still staring at my hand.

“You did a great job, Maxine,” she said. “Can I call you Max, by the way? Maxine is just...well, to be honest, it’s kind of dull.”

“Max is perfect,” I said with a smile.

“Well, Max, great job. You did it. Now all you have to do is that same thing over and over again for the next three years and you’ll be perfectly fine at Hybrid Academy.” She laughed again and went into my room. I followed her close behind.

Awe filled my heart and contentment soaked my soul. I had actually managed to do it. After years of practice, of training, of trying my best, I’d finally managed to do something incredible.

I just wished my grandmother had been there to see it.

She would have been so darn proud of me.

But I pushed those feelings aside as I looked at my new bedroom. It was definitely a standard-issued bedroom. Everything was very economical and plain. It was pretty boring, to be honest. I suppose I thought that a school for witches, wizards, shifters, demons, and angels would be a little more creative in its décor offerings, but I was presented with a plain bed, a dresser, a desk, and a tiny kitchen counter. There was a mini-fridge, a sink, and as promised, a space for Boo. He had a little bed with a nearby food dish and water bowl.

There was even a little closet.

In the center of the space, the floor was covered with a colorful rug. It was the only bright thing in there. It was shades of purple and blue. I looked at Kiera and she smiled.

“This is just for you,” she said. “The colors represent your abilities. Blue for shifting. Purple for magic.”

“It’s pretty,” I said. “What color is your rug?”

“Purple and gold,” she told me.

I went to the closet and opened the door. As promised, there were uniforms hanging neatly in a row. A few pairs of shoes were on the bottom of the closet floor. I had a feeling they’d fit me perfectly without me ever even telling anyone my shoe size.

On the desk sat several textbooks, notebooks, and ink pens.

There was no wand, though.

“No wand?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Nah,” Kiera shook her head. “You have to earn that one.”

“Do you have one?”

“Yeah,” she fished it out of her robes and showed me. “It’s gold. Took me almost a month to get it, but I did it. I doubt it’ll take you as long as it took me.” She winked. “I was kind of lazy with turning in my homework, to be honest.”

“It’s pretty,” I told her. It was, too. I’d only ever seen a few wands before, but they always amazed me. I had always wanted to touch my grandmother’s wand, to run my fingers over the intricately carved wood. She had always forbit it, though. A wand was a very personal thing, she’d warned me. Judging by the way Kiera looked at hers, I’d say Grandma had been right.

“Thanks,” Kiera put the wand away. “So I guess that’s it. I’m right down the hall if you need anything or if you get bored, you know.”

“It’s almost lights out,” I pointed out. I had already memorized the strict schedule. Kiera smiled and shrugged.

“Well, those are mostly guidelines,” she said. “And besides, what the teachers don’t know, won’t hurt them, right?” She turned to leave, but then hurried back and surprised me with a hug. When she pulled back, she smiled at me. “Everything’s going to be fine, Max. You’re going to be just fine.”

Then she was gone.

And I was alone in my room.

Boo jumped on the bed and I turned to pat him on the head. I sat down next to him and stared at the tiny space.

“Well, Mr. Boo. This is it. The next three years of our lives are going to be spent right here.”

He mewed, but something told me he was just as unhappy about this as I was.

Chapter 7

My first day of classes was rough.

I got lost three times, fell down a flight of stairs, and embarrassed myself horribly by not knowing who the first witch to come up with fireproof robes was. These were things that should have come easy for me, but they didn’t.

The second day of classes was just as bad.

The third day was awful.

But then it was the weekend, and there were no classes, and I got some time to myself.

I woke up on Saturday morning and stretched, enjoying the way the sunlight seemed to cover my entire room. There were blackout curtains in the room and Kiera had taught me a spell for keeping out the sun so I could sleep better, but I didn’t bother with any of that. Part of it was because when I tried to cast the sunlight-dampening spell, nothing happened. The other part was that I hated the idea of blocking out the sun. To me, the sunlight was wonderful. I kept the curtains pushed back so that when I woke up, I could revel in the soft warmth of the sun’s rays.

I’d spent most of my life holed up in a little cabin with my grandma. My time had been spent hiding from the sun and worrying about other people finding me. Not having to hide in this place really was wonderful. It brought me a sort of calm, a sort of peace, that I’d never felt before. Even if someone managed to find me here, what were they going to do? I was surrounded by witches and mages and shifters. There were fairies and demons and Kiera had even mentioned that there was a gargoyle.

Yeah, I was pretty sure nothing was going to get in and hurt me.

In the three days I’d been at the school, there had been no word from Grandmother.

Not a sound from Aunt Erin.

Nothing from Tony or anyone back home.

It was infuriatingly frustrating, really. I had hoped that Erin would have at least sent me a message. Apparently, she was sticking with her “one month of no contact” thing. I didn’t like it, but I couldn’t do very much about it. Erin was my aunt, but she was also a witch. I didn’t know where she lived, where she stayed, or what her social media usernames were. This meant that I was alone with my thoughts and my grandmother’s spell book. I could try to find answers by myself, but that’s all I could really do: try.

Maybe Erin was right, and Tony really was a vampire. Maybe he worked for one. I wasn’t sure. I tried not to think about it too much because my new life here at Hybrid Academy was a lot to deal with all on its own. There were so many different things to learn: where the secret passageways were, what the fastest routes to my classes were, and which social group I fit in.

Surprisingly enough, it was “loner.”

Just like Kiera.

She’d introduced me to a few of her friends: Raven, Addison, and Heath. They were all hybrids, too, although their powers differed in strength. Together, the five of us ate lunch each day. It had been the one reprieve I’d felt from classes and the only time I’d felt less alone.

I didn’t tell them about my grandmother.

I didn’t tell anyone.

I just kept hoping and thinking and praying that somehow I’d be able to find her.

After laying in bed for most of the morning, I finally got up and fed Boo. Then I took a shower and got dressed for the day. I brushed my long hair and pulled it back in a low ponytail before brushing my teeth and applying some chap stick. I definitely didn’t look as pretty or put-together as the other witches, but that was okay.

I didn’t have to be perfect.

I just had to be myself.

At least, that’s what I kept telling myself.

Whether it was true or not was yet to be discovered. Maybe I’d make it through the year only to find that actually, do you have to have a certain level of perfection to make it as a shifter witch at Hybrid Academy. Maybe I’d find that perfection was overrated. Only time would tell.

There was a knock on my door and Boo practically leapt over to it. He pawed at the wooden door, trying to scratch it open, I guess. Peculiar. Actually, Boo had been behaving very strangely since we arrived at the school, which made me a little uneasy. He’d always been very predictable as a familiar. I’d never had a hard time figuring out what he wanted or what would make him happy. Now, though, he seemed constantly frustrated and irritable. It was getting a little tiresome, to be honest.

“Calm down, Mr. Kitty,” I moved quietly to the door and paused for a second. I almost asked Who is it? But that felt a little strange and awkward. Besides, did it really matter who was there? I was definitely going to open the door no matter who it was, and I didn’t have many friends at the Academy yet. I wasn’t about to be socially awkward around the ones I did have.

I took a deep breath. No one had ever visited me before. Ever. Not before this week. Now, I had one more new thing to deal with. Growing up in the cabin, I’d been an eternal outsider: doomed to live a life of solitude and loneliness, but now? Now I had a chance at something new.

I didn’t want to screw it up.

Oh, I was scared, but I was determined to do things right. If I could wing this, if I could make this work, then I might have a shot at finding out who took my Grandma. If I couldn’t figure out how to fit in at the school or how to do magic or how to shift, well, I’d still be looking for my grandmother, but I’d be doing it without as much hope as I’d otherwise have. Erin seemed to think the Academy was exactly what I needed, and after just a few days, I was beginning to see why. Everyone here had the same goal. Everyone wanted to learn. Everyone wanted to be something more.

I looked at the door and took one last breath. It was time to stop overthinking and start doing. I pulled open the door and Kiera pushed her way inside my room.

“What took so long?” She asked. “I was out there for like, a minute.”

“Sorry,” I said. “I was-”

Kiera held up her hand. “Don’t,” she said. “I don’t want to know what took so long.” She shook her head, obviously afraid of what my answer was going to be. “What are you going to do today? Are you going to the chess tournament?”

The tournament had been the talk of the school all week. No one in my classes had even noticed me, really, because they’d all been completely caught up in the upcoming tournament. It was a big deal to the school and an even bigger deal to the warlocks in particular. Apparently, warlocks were really, really good at chess.And apparently, playing chess was one of the only things to do at Hybrid Academy on the weekend.

“Uh, I wasn’t planning on it,” I started. “I have a lot of homework, and-”

“Oh, don’t be lame,” Kiera waved her hand, interrupting me. “Your homework will still be there when you get back. Come on. Let’s go. We can still make it.”

Before I could say anything else, she grabbed my hand and pulled me from my room. I managed to close the door before we scurried down the hallway side-by-side. It was a bad idea, I knew. Grams had always told me that ignoring schoolwork was a slippery slope and a sure way to fail, but life was short, right? Maybe it was time to lighten up and have a little fun. Maybe this was exactly the reprieve I needed to clear my mind and just be a normal student.

“What’s the tournament like?” I asked. “Who will be there?”

“Everyone,” she said, confirming my fears. So, I’d be in a huge crowd, no one would know me, and I’d be the only one struggling with my magical spells. I had managed to get pretty damn good at unlocking my doors, but the rest of my magical abilities seemed to be floating in slowly. Eventually, I was certain I’d be able to do more than just walk into my room, but who knew how long that would take?

It had been 19 years before I’d been able to do even a simple spell. I hope it wouldn’t take another 19 years for me to learn my next one. The reality was that I kind of liked being able to open doors with the right words. It made me feel powerful in a way I never had before.

“Are you sure it’s...that sounds like a lot of people...” I said slowly, but Kiera just laughed.

“Come on, brave girl. Don’t chicken out on me now.”

“I’m not chickening out.”

“Sounds like you’re trying to,” she said pointedly. I sighed. She definitely had me there. Kiera was nothing if not observant. Maybe that came from being a fairy or perhaps it was something she’d learned at Hybrid. Either way, I wasn’t going to be able to sneak anything by her.

We made it to the main building and found our seats just as the tournament was beginning. We sat side-by-side in the back of the bleachers. The two warlocks who were going to play first made their way to the center of the auditorium. I guess we were in a school auditorium. It looked more like an arena. It was huge. In fact, it seemed almost too big to actually fit inside the school. I pointed this out to Kiera and she nodded as though it was totally obvious as to why.

“Yeah, yeah,” she waved her hand. “They did a spell. Made the room bigger inside.”

“Who did a spell?”

“The headmistress. She’s pretty incredible, you know. Used to lead a coven.”

And now she led a school.

How interesting.

Miss Wilson stood in front of the noisy and excitable crowd. Everyone was freaking out and cheering for their favorite player. The boy on the left was one I didn’t recognize. He wore green and purple robes. Green, I had learned, was the color demon students wore. The other player was in my potions class. He was a first year shifter. His robes matched mine: purple and blue. So, today’s match was against a demon and a shifter. Who would win? I hadn’t been part of the school long enough to know who I was rooting for, but a little part of me, deep inside, wanted to see the shifter win.

“Students,” she said. “It’s time for the games to begin. You all know the rules.”

The crowd mumbled and yelled and spoke all at the same time. The sound was deafening, but I didn’t cover my ears. Kiera chuckled. A boy slid into the space next to me. He didn’t have robes on: just normal clothes. I glanced over at him and he smiled at me. Something about him was familiar. Maybe we had a class together. Unable to place where I knew him from, I turned back to the scene in front of me.

Miss Wilson was explaining the rules of the game. Everyone seemed to understand these but me, so I was grateful she took the time to explain how the entire process was going to work. The game was like normal chess, but with a magical twist. Spells could be cast every third turn and they affected the other participant, but enchantments could only last a single round. This meant you could cast something silly or weird on the other person, but the enchantment either had to wear off quickly or you had to end it after the person’s turn. It seemed like a recipe for disaster. The entire crowd was going crazy and the games hadn’t even started yet.

“Last year, someone turned their opponent into a frog,” Kiera whispered hastily, gripping my hand.

“That’s nuts,” the boy next to me said, obviously eavesdropping on the conversation. Somehow, it didn’t bother or offend me nearly as much as it should have. Strange.

Kiera leaned over in front of me and nodded at the guy beside me.

“It was horrible,” she said. “He couldn’t move his pieces and he got completely agitated and turned around, so when it was his turn, he couldn’t do anything except make frog noises.”

“Ribbet?” I asked.

“Ribbet,” she confirmed.

“Ouch,” I said. “But I thought you weren’t here last year.” How did she know about all of this?

“I wasn’t,” Kiera said. “It was a legend. Besides, there’s a video.”

“Really?”

“Of course,” she said. “You don’t think something like that would go unrecorded, do you?”

I guess even at a place like Hybrid, people had contraband phones on them. One of the conditions of attending school was that we wouldn’t use modern tech for harmful purposes. The headmistress had requested that students not have cell phones on campus property or any sort of recording device. Most of the witches and warlocks here craved their privacy. Maybe we weren’t all running from something, but we definitely all wanted to be left alone as much as possible.

“First round,” Miss Wilson said, gesturing to the boy I didn’t know. “We have Jeremiah Happenstance.” The crowd cheered, obviously excited, and I turned to Kiera.

“Is that his real name?”

“Yeah. Unfortunate, right?”

“It sounds fake.”

“It’s definitely fake,” the boy next to me said. “Nobody has a name like that.”

“Jeremiah will be competing against Raymond Dash.”

Again, the crowd cheered. I knew Raymond. His name sounded slightly less fictional. He was in my class and he was not exactly a nice person. Maybe I needed to give him a second chance. Maybe I had judged him too hastily. But still, he gave off a certain vibe that made me wildly uncomfortable. I couldn’t exactly pinpoint what it was.

The wizards bowed to one another and then the crowd sat down. It was quieter than I thought it would have been. Apparently, wizarding students took their matches pretty seriously. It was easy to tell which people in the crowd were fans of Jeremiah and which students were fans of Raymond. Everyone had signs and little flags they were waving. Students were casting spells that shot flames of their player’s colors up into the air above them.

“Are you going to do that?” I asked Kiera, gesturing to some of the colorful flames, but she shook her head.

“Above my level,” she shrugged. “Maybe next year.”

One particularly pretty group of witches waved their wands in unison and created an intertwined and swirling cloud of blue and purple. If I wasn’t going crazy, the concoction even smelled good.

How weird was that?

I’d never seen anything like it. Curiosity threatened to overwhelm me. How different would my life have been if I’d been exposed to magic like this long ago? Would I have been able to cast spells sooner? My grandmother had done her best to try to train me, so why hadn’t it worked? Why had it taken her loss and me traveling to Hybrid Academy to be able to perform any type of magic?

And why did I feel like I was missing a big, huge puzzle piece that was right in front of my face?

The match began.

Jeremiah made his move first. He considered what he would do for a moment, and the crowd sat silently in anticipation. Then Jeremiah cast a spell that made Raymond’s arms squeak like a puppy’s chew toy.

“Unfortunate,” the boy next to me commented. “That’ll be distracting.”

“What are the specific rules for the spells?” I asked Kiera. I had zoned off a little bit while Miss Wilson was explaining. I’d been too caught up in everything around me. It was all so crazy and new.

It was all totally unexpected.

“They can’t cause permanent damage,” Kiera said.

“Or pain,” the boy next to me said. “Well, not physical pain. Emotional trauma is another thing altogether.” I thought of Kiera’s comments about the year before. I wondered if there were any long-term grudges held there.

“Have you seen one of these before?” I asked him. “A chess match like this?”

“Nope,” he said with a cocky grin. His eyes flashed another color – yellow, maybe? – and I wondered what kind of shifter he was. He was obviously some type of animal, like me, but it didn’t seem polite to ask.

Instead, I asked, “What’s your name?”

“Henry.”

“I’m Max.”

“Pleasure.”

“Ahem,” Keira coughed loudly.

“This is Kiera.”

“Hi Kiera.”

“Hi Henry.”

“Now that we’re all acquainted,” I mumbled, turning back to the game, and I couldn’t believe what I had missed. Raymond’s turn had come and gone and now Jeremiah had taken his second shot. It had been a harsh one, too. Raymond was a piglet: an honest-to-goodness little piglet. He was running around screeching. I figured Miss Wilson, as the monitor, would try to get him to calm down long enough to move back to the game, but she just stood there watching, observing. Strange.

“Bloody hell,” mumbled Kiera. “They’re never going to get him calmed down. Raymond hates pigs.”

I looked at Jeremiah, who was leaning back in his seat comfortably. His arms were behind his head and he looked around the room with a cocky grin. Smug. He looked smug. Instantly, I hated him for embarrassing Raymond and making him uncomfortable. I might not be close friends with Raymond, and I might not even particularly like him myself, but no one deserved that. Nobody deserved to have their fears exploited that way.

Having a little fun with spells was one thing, but purposely hurting another person and transforming them into something they hated? That just seemed cruel. What a bully. The crowd seemed very conflicted. Half of the students were cheering and yelling. The other half just seemed disgusted at the low blow. Apparently, Raymond’s distaste for pigs wasn’t a particularly well-known fact around the school, but a few people knew he didn’t like the animals. He ran around squealing, circling the chess board. Miss Wilson seemed to find something very interesting about staring at her wand. Jeremiah just smiled at his handiwork. He turned and looked at the crowd. Then he had the audacity to wink.

Yeah, this was a Grade-A jerk who had nothing better to do than mess with people for no good reason. I understood that it was all just a game, but it didn’t look like Raymond was having a particularly good time. What was the point of watching a sporting match if it was less fun and more cruelty?

“Come on,” I said, standing up. “I’ve seen enough.”

Kiera shrugged but got up and followed me. To my surprise, Henry did, too. The three of us made our way out of the auditorium and into the quiet hallways of Hybrid Academy. Once we were away from the crowd, I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes for just a second. I couldn’t get over the smug look that had covered Jeremiah’s face. Maybe Hybrid Academy really was just like the horror stories I’d heard about high school. There were the bullies and there were the nerds. Then there were people in-between. I guess I’d dared to hope that Hybrid would be a little different.

“That was something,” Kiera said, leaning against the wall beside me. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked over at me, waiting to see what I’d say. The problem was that I wasn’t quite ready to verbalize my feelings. I’d dealt with a lot of emotional changes during the week. I wasn’t ready to self-analyze my feelings or talk about my own reactions to the situation. The reality was that the chess match had nothing to do with me, but it felt personal. It reminded me terribly of all the times that Troy had picked on me at work and how no one had ever stood up for me. I wasn’t sure if I should have stood up for Raymond or not. He had agreed to the match, after all, but it left me feeling gross and bad. I was relieved we’d all walked out of the match.

“Maybe it’s time for them to try another game,” I said finally, and Kiera smiled.

“You aren’t wrong, but chess is a fairly new thing around here. It’ll take everyone some time to get the kinks worked out of the game. They’ll see how well the current rules work and then they’ll revise them as needed. It’s what the teachers here do. They love to mix and match and adjust and change things as necessary. It’s one of the reasons the school is so successful.”

“I heard they tried checkers a few years ago,” Henry said helpfully. “So, chess definitely wasn’t their first choice when it came to games.”

“And before that, they used to play magical poker. Every game has its own problems,” Kiera explained. “Nothing is perfect when it comes to this sort of thing.”

“What sort of thing?”

“Magic users in large groups,” Henry scoffed. He didn’t seem like he was a fan, but he was here, wasn’t he? Why would he come to the school if he didn’t like the idea of large groups of magic users? Or perhaps he was just being dramatic. Maybe I wasn’t the only one whose emotions were running high after watching Raymond.

I turned to him. “What are your abilities?” I asked him. “I noticed you aren’t wearing robes.”

He looked down and feigned surprise. Clutching his chest and then his stomach he asked, “What? Really? I’m not!?” He looked up and his mouth formed an “o” shape. “Whatever will I do?”

Kiera burst out laughing, but I frowned.

“Hey, that’s not funny,” I protested lightly, but Kiera just smiled.

“It’s a little funny,” she said.

“Not really,” I grumbled, feeling like the odd one out.

Again.

“Hey,” Henry said, reaching for me. His eyes searched mine. “I was just messing with you.”

“I know,” I said. “Sorry.”

I didn’t know why I was always so sensitive about stuff like that. Maybe I was just tired. Maybe it had just been too much excitement for one girl for one day. Who knew?

“Let’s go,” I said, looking around. “What else is there to do on a Saturday?” We all needed to get out of the castle, at least for a little while. I was ready to clear my head and stop feeling worried or stressed. I was pretty sure everyone else was, too. Surely there were other places to go on the Hybrid Academy campus that didn’t involve watching people bully one another.

“We could go on a walk?” Kiera phrased her suggestion like a question. “There are lots of different places to go. There’s a forbidden forest, a haunted hill, and oh, there’s even a supernatural stream.”

“You had me at forbidden forest,” I told her with a grin.

“Let’s go.”

Chapter 8

By the time we were finished exploring the stream, the hill, and the forest, it was almost time for dinner. Since we had to eat at the school, none of us wanted to miss the meal. It was going to be a long time until breakfast the next day and I didn’t have any snacks in my room. Not yet, anyway. I was planning on making a trip to the school store at some point during the weekend, but I hadn’t gotten around to it yet. There had simply been other things occupying my time and keeping me busy. Snacks had been put on the back burner, which was unfortunate. Exploring had been a lot of fun and none of us really wanted to come back. It was just that after an entire day of fun, we were all hungry.

When we arrived back at the school, the tournament was just ending. Rows of students streamed out of the auditorium. Most everyone was in their human forms, but I was caught off-guard when I noticed a couple of lions roaming the halls with the students. They were very big and very beautiful, but I was intimidated. Is that what I would look like in my own shifter form? Would people feel a sense of intimidation when they looked at me?

“Don’t worry about them,” Kiera said. “They’re harmless.”

“Uh-huh,” I said, but I swallowed hard.

Harmless?

Lions?

Seemed impossible.

I wasn’t any sort of expert on shifters, but just looking at their sheer size made me think that they weren’t safe. Not really. Not at all. How much of a shifter was really under the person’s control? How much was ruled by instinct? My grandmother had talked about shifters in passing, but never seriously. I tried to think about the things she had told me about them, but every time I tried to grasp at a memory, it seemed to dissipate. Would a shifter go crazy if they came across some prey, for example? Would they be overcome with hunger if a rabbit ran across their path?

More importantly, what would it take for one of those lions to actually come after me?

“Seriously,” Kiera said, sensing my agitation. “It’s going to be fine. They aren’t interested in you, anyway.” She pointed to a group of fairies who were walking with their wings out. The fairies were bright and glittery. They seemed to practically glow. She was right, too. The lions were completely enamored with the fairies. They didn’t seem to be concerned with me at all.

It was a relief.

Perhaps it shouldn’t have been.

Grams always taught me that the danger you see is better than the danger you don’t. Having a lion view me as pretty would be better than having something else see me as prey, something I didn’t see at all. Troy, for example. He’d caught me off guard.

We went into the cafeteria and lined up to get our dinner. As we waited in line, we listened to everyone chatting about the competition. Apparently, Jeremiah had completed slaughtered Raymond. After getting turned into a pig, Raymond has essentially forgotten how to play. He’d lost the competition and wouldn’t be joining anyone at dinner. In fact, Miss Wilson had taken him to the infirmary so he could be sedated. Apparently, being turned into a piglet didn’t agree with him. He’d been completely inconsolable.

I didn’t blame him.

What had happened to Raymond in his past to make him afraid of pigs? Did it even matter? Part of me thought that what really mattered was students showing one another respect. I kind of thought that certain spells should be totally off the table. Things that were going to cause your opponent emotional harm? Those probably shouldn’t be part of the sporting competition. How had Jeremiah known about Raymond’s fear, anyway?

Maybe Jeremiah had simply done a good job of researching his opponents.

That begged the question, though: what would people at the school find out about me?

I wasn’t interested in blasting my past. No, there was nothing particularly extreme about it. Well, aside from the fact that my parents had disappeared ten years ago or that my grandmother was now gone, too. Losing my parents had been hard, but I’d had my grandmother to take care of me. Now I didn’t have anyone. I was alone, and it was an overwhelming and heavy feeling.

The entire cafeteria was buzzing with whispers, and Kiera shook her head.

“Terrible,” she said. “Just terrible.”

“What is?”

“The blatant bullying,” she said. “I had heard Hybrid Academy was better than the other schools, you know, but this is ridiculous. I wish I knew a silencing spell. I’d make everyone shut up.”

“You could run the anti-rumor brigade,” Henry said with a soft smile.

“No kidding,” Kiera agreed. “It’s just a matter of respect. It’s not cool to make fun of someone or talk about the fact that he was scared. I guarantee you that every single person here is afraid of something. Whether they’re willing to admit it or not is another thing.”

When we reached the food, Kiera snapped her fingers. A tray popped up from the pile and landed in her hands. Henry followed suit. I’d seen the other students trying this but hadn’t been able to get it the last few days. Instead, I’d simply been picking up my tray like a normal human, unwilling to humiliate myself further by standing and trying repeatedly while the line backed up.

“Go on,” Henry said. “You can do it.” He placed a hand on my shoulder. I looked over in surprise. He was touching me. Well, I certainly hadn’t expected that from a stranger. Then again, Henry didn’t feel like a stranger. He felt more like an old friend. I felt comfortable around him. I’d never felt that way around anyone before. It was a little unnerving, but I didn’t really have time to dwell on it.

I looked at the trays and snapped my fingers.

Snap.

Snap.

Snap.

“Hey, come on, we’re waiting,” a voice called from behind us. It was true that I was stalling the line. With a sigh, I tried one more time, but nothing happened. I finally grabbed a tray and started choosing the foods that I wanted. Henry stayed beside me but didn’t say anything.

He reached for a turkey sandwich and I chose a rice cup with shredded turkey. We each grabbed milk. Kiera was already heading over to a table by the time we got our drinks.

“Do I know you?” A cafeteria elf named Emerald looked at Henry with wide, blinking eyes. Her pointy ears extended far past her hair, which was a light shade of blue. I’d never seen anyone so lovely before I came to Hybrid Academy. She was only part elf. I knew because we’d chatted a few days before. She was part elf, part angel, and she didn’t fit in anywhere. At least, that’s what she told me. Maybe she’d been trying to help me feel less alone. I wasn’t sure.

“I’m, uh, I’m new here,” Henry shrugged.

“Ah, that explains it.” Emerald looked past Henry to me and raised an eyebrow. “Lots of newbies these days, huh? Well, then, move along.” She motioned for us to keep going and we quickly went over to where Kiera was sitting. She’d secured a small, round table for us. The three of us ate quickly, but quietly as we looked at the chaos enfolding around us.

Things really were crazy. They were certainly louder than usual. Despite the fact that the students at Hybrid were adults, everyone seemed to fall back into their high school roles. Popular fae girls strutted by with their wings spread. A group of tigers growled as they made their way across the room. There was even a herd of handsome warlocks making loud jokes in the center of the room as they eyed the rest of the students.

It was like everything I’d read about in books, but never thought I’d see in real life.

I took a bite of my food and looked at everything happening around me, trying to make sense of it all. This was what I’d been missing. There was an entire world here I never knew anything about.

What else didn’t I know?

Something had been bugging me. It was something my aunt had said. She’d talked about my parents like they’d known they wouldn’t come back from their last journey. They had warded me, she’d said. Not only had they warded me, but they’d done so with one of the most powerful wards possible. I knew that it took blood magic to do something that strong.

I knew it took everything.

What had they been doing on their trip?

What had they been looking for?

Why had they been so suspicious?

And if they’d really been so worried, then why did they even leave me?

Their spell had lasted ten years from the day they left. Ten years. They’d warded me, certain that I would be safe under the protective spell they’d painstakingly cast. Had they hoped they would come back? Certainly they’d hoped it, right? It’s just that whatever they were chasing, whatever they were working on, that was the most important thing. What had been worth giving their lives for?

Gram knew. She had to know. Why else would she have worked so hard to protect me? She’d been careful, particular. She’d been cautious. Then, with one wrongly placed word on just the wrong day, I’d managed to undo all of her hard work. It was my fault she was gone. Whatever happened to her was on me. There was no one I could blame except for myself. There was no one I could hold accountable. I’d messed up and it had cost me everything.

Fingers snapped in front of my face, followed by a bolt of something blue, like a thin wisp of color designed to catch my attention. I turned to see both Kiera and Henry staring at me.

“What?” I asked, reaching for my milk.

“You really are in your own little world, aren’t you?” Kiera looked amused.

Henry looked worried.

Why was he worried?

About me?

“I’m fine,” I said. He looked at me like he knew that was a lie, but that was stupid. Henry didn’t even know me. He didn’t know anything about me. “Where did you say you were from?” I asked him, pointedly sipping my milk. Kiera turned her attention to Henry, who obviously wasn’t happy about being put on the spot.

“I’m from Honey Cove.”

“Really?” That wasn’t far from where my grandmother and I had lived together. In fact, I’d been there a few times when we needed groceries or supplies we couldn’t get close by. The trips to Honey Cove had been few and far between, but the town was near enough, and it had always held a sort of magic I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It had been a lovely little town. There was a popcorn factory and a toy shop that held everything a kid could dream of: dolls and blocks and trains. There had been magician play kits and stuffed familiars and anything else a magical child could ever want.

“Yep. Born and raised,” he said with a shrug. “It’s a nice enough place, I suppose.”

“You don’t sound like that big of a fan,” Kiera pointed out.

“When you grow up in a place, it can be difficult to have an unbiased opinion,” Henry said. “It’s a nice little town, but I was also happy to leave. I like traveling and going new places. I like meeting new people.”

“It’s definitely hard to do that in a small town,” I said.

“That’s one of the cool things about Hybrid,” Kiera said. “There are plenty of people to meet. Plenty of people to look at,” she added, nodding toward a group of shifters. Now there were two lions wrestling and a couple of rabbits perched on nearby tables. The tiny shifters were watching the shenanigans with interest and awe.

Turning back to Henry and Kiera, I looked at my two new friends. Unlike me, they both looked magical. Everything about me was plain, but my friends were not. They were anything but. Henry had bright eyes and jet black hair with a streak of white in it. It looked fake or dyed, but something told me it wasn’t. There were a lot of unbelievable creatures at the school. There were a lot of magical creatures at the school. Kiera had dark hair that she wore in many different ways. She always seemed to shimmer, if only just a little. I knew now that was from being a fairy, but sometimes I was just the slightest bit jealous. She didn’t have to wear makeup or anything. She never woke up looking tired or with bags under her eyes. She was perfect.

There was so much I didn’t know about the world, about magic. I didn’t know how I was going to make it through school, how I was going to learn about my powers. And I didn’t know who I could trust and who I couldn’t.

It seemed strange that Henry had showed up at Hybrid Academy around the same time as me. It seemed even weirder that he was born close to where I lived. Should I be worried about him? I didn’t think he was some sort of evil vampire plant sent to make my life miserable, but Erin had told me to watch myself. I looked at him carefully. I wanted to ask him what kind of creature he was, but I didn’t want to seem rude. More importantly, I didn’t want to seem like I cared what he was.

I didn’t discriminate against people based on what they looked like or what their magical abilities were. That wasn’t my style. I knew that sometimes, judgment still happened even at a place like Hybrid Academy. I could feel the eyes on me as I walked through the halls. Maybe it was because I was new.

Maybe it was because my magic abilities totally sucked.

“So, Kiera, what brought you to Hybrid Academy?” Henry asked.

“My whole family has gone through the program.”

“Really?”

“Yep. Two older sisters, two older brothers, and four of my cousins. I’m the last one to make it through. Well, until my nieces and nephews are old enough to attend.”

“When’s that going to be?” Henry asked.

“A long time. They’re all babies right now.” She stopped talking suddenly and her eyes narrowed. Henry and I both turned to see what had her attention.

A demon shifter walked by with a group of friends. They were all chatteringloudly and obviously talking about the fairies they disliked. The strange thing about popular kids is that there were multiple popular groups and they all sort of seemed to hate each other.

“Can you believe it?” One of the girls said. She mimicked someone flapping their wings. “Look at me. Look at me! I’m a pretty butterfly.” She rolled her eyes. “Ridiculous.” The other demons agreed that the fairies were a terrible bunch, teasing and laughing as they walked by.

“Patricia Patterson,” Kiera said with a glare. She kept her voice low, but there was an edge to it.

Patricia kept pretending to be a fairy and while Kiera obviously wanted to ignore it, I wasn’t going to let that one slide. Being popular didn’t give her a free pass to make fun of my friend. Not today. Not after everything that had already happened. It was bad enough that the entire school looked the other way when Jeremiah bullied Raymond. I wasn’t going to let Patricia harass Kiera when I could easily stop it. I looked at Henry, who gave me a slight nod, letting me know that he would back my play.

Kiera closed her eyes when Patricia started squawking again. She was trying to pretend that this wasn’t happening, that it wasn’t affecting her, but I also knew that Kiera had a gentle spirit. I’d only been friends with her for a few days, but it was already obvious that she was a kind person. This type of mockery wasn’t something she was going to be able to let go. It was going to affect her deeply, and probably for a long period of time.

“Hey!” I stood up and looked at Patricia. She stopped, obviously surprised to have someone she didn’t know speaking to her.

“Uh, do I know you?” She asked.

Patricia looked like your typical popular girl. She had long, straight hair and her makeup was caked on much too heavily. Not that there was anything wrong with makeup. I wasn’t about to body shame a member of the sisterhood, but Patricia had insulted my friend.

Worse, she’d done it on purpose.

Kiera’s face looked fallen. I hadn’t waited my entire life to make friends only to stand aside when the most popular girl around decided to give them hell.

“You should,” I said. “And I think you owe my friend an apology.”

Patricia flipped her hair back and laughed haughtily.

“Forget it, loser,” she said. “Kiera doesn’t have friends. Kiera is a nobody.” She spat the words out. Then Patricia shook her head at Kiera. “Stupid little fairy.”

Patricia turned to walk away again and this time, I stormed over to her and tapped her on the shoulder. By this point, the entire cafeteria was looking at us. The tigers, the lions, the magic users: they’d all turned to stare.

“Hey!” I said. “It’s not nice to make fun of people.”

This time, all of Patricia’s friends laughed.

“Not nice?” One of them said. “What are you, a preschooler?”

Patricia’s eyes narrowed. “What’s your name? Alex?”

“Max.”

“Well, Alex,” she purposely mispronounced my name. “Let me give you a little clue about how things work at Hybrid. I get that you’re new, but nobody gives a damn. You’ve aligned yourself with a fairy, so you’re going to be treated like one.” She looked me up and down. “Do you even have any powers? I don’t see a wand.”

I clenched my fists. She was a bully, through-and-through. I didn’t have time for bullies.

“Leave my friend alone and we won’t have trouble,” I said. “But don’t you dare talk about her again. Don’t talk about any of them again.”

Patricia opened her mouth to say something, and I lost all control. I slapped her. Hard. Right in the face. The sound echoed throughout the entire room and she gasped, reaching for her cheek in shock. She couldn’t seem to believe that I’d actually done it. Hell, I couldn’t believe that I’d actually done it.

But I had.

I’d been strong.

I’d been brave.

I’d slapped that smug smile right off her face.

And oh, it felt really, really good.

For about two seconds.

Then Patricia and all of her friends pulled out their wands, pointed them at me, and in unison shouted, “Cangshu!”

I didn’t block their spell.

I couldn’t.

My magic abilities were nonexistent and besides, I didn’t have a wand. My wards were gone. All I had was...well, nothing.

Instantly, I felt sick to my stomach. I didn’t guard myself against their attack and it hit me full-force. I heard shouting and arguing breaking out above me, but suddenly, everything felt very, very far away. I fell through the air for what seemed like an eternity.

When I hit the floor, I looked up. No one even noticed me. Everyone was too busy shouting spells at each other. The world felt big. Really big.

Then gentle hands scooped me up and I realized Henry was holding me up.

“Dude,” he whispered, looking at me. He held me tightly in his hands and carried me out of the cafeteria. I wasn’t sure how he managed to do it, but he got me safely into the hallway before opening up his hands and looking at me closely. “Are you okay?” He whispered. “Max, you’re a...you’re a hamster.”

Chapter 9

After a few potions from the school infirmary and a visit from a physician who promised not to call my aunt, I returned to my dorm room with Kiera and Henry in tow. Kiera was sporting a black eye and the scent of a stinkifying spell still lingered around her, but she was otherwise in one piece. Henry had escaped attack simply by guarding me and getting me out of harm’s way.

Who knew being a hamster would be so exciting?

“You okay?” He said when we stopped outside of Kiera’s door. She nodded.

“Yeah, I mean, I’ve been better, but wow. Max. That was nuts.”

“Yeah, sorry about the trouble,” I winced when I looked at her eye. Maybe I should have left things alone. At least then I wouldn’t have called so much attention to my friend, but Kiera shook her head.

“Are you kidding?” She laughed. “That was the best thing that’s ever happened to me! I thought that after high school, I’d never have to deal with girls like Patricia again, but I was wrong.” She shook her head. “It’s crazy that the troublemakers never really go away, isn’t it?”

Sadly, I nodded. I had to agree with her even though I didn’t want to.

That’s what Patricia was.

A troublemaker.

She was mean and cruel and for no good reason at all. It’s not like Kiera was this evil monster who had made Patricia’s life unnecessarily hard or difficult. No, Kiera was simply a girl that Patricia didn’t like and in Patricia’s eyes, that made her worthy of being hated. It was trite, and in some ways, it made me feel sorry for Patricia. She had to put other people down to feel better about herself, which was ridiculous because she was a demon. She was one of the strongest creatures at the school, but she still had to be aggressive.

“Thanks for standing up for me,” she said. Kiera wrapped her arms around me in a surprise hug and I tenderly hugged her back.

“Uh, anytime,” I said awkwardly. What was I supposed to do? I tried to figure out where to put my hands and how to move my body, but I just managed to make the hug even more awkward and uncomfortable for both of us.

Henry laughed and Kiera chuckled.

“Never been hugged before?”

“Um, only by my grandmother, I guess,” I said.

And she was old and frail.

Hugs with her were...gentle.

Different.

Not like hugging a friend.

I liked it though: having a friend. It was a rather unusual feeling for me. I had known that I wanted friends, but I guess I didn’t realize just how incredible it would really be.

Now I did.

“All right, well, stay cool,” Kiera said. “And thanks again.” She went into the dorm room and closed the door behind her. Henry turned to me and offered me his arm.

“Shall we?” He said, gesturing.

I laughed and took his arm. Together we skipped down the hall to my room and stopped in front of the door.

“You know,” I said. “I don’t even think we’re supposed to let boys in here.”

“Don’t you worry about that,” he said nonchalantly. He didn’t seem the least bit worried. I’d only known Henry a few hours, but that’s how he was.

Unworried.

Calm.

Relaxed.

He was completely casual in the way he carried himself. He was comfortable and confident. I realized that I still didn’t know exactly what his powers were, but maybe he was a little shy about it, too.

“I had fun today,” I told him.

“Yeah,” he grinned, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Me too. See you tomorrow?”

“Okay,” I said.

He waved and left without hugging me. I felt a little tug on my heart because there had been a part of me that kind of hoped he would offer one. Not that I needed a boyfriend. I didn’t. I totally didn’t.

But if I was going to get one, I hoped it would be with someone like Henry.

Someone who was kind and understanding.

Someone who didn’t make me feel completely awkward or useless.

I went into my room and shut the door. I had mastered the art of opening it. Somehow, doing that little bit of magic seemed much more manageable after a couple of days of practicing. It was a relief, really. I didn’t want to be the only witch in the school who couldn’t perform simple tasks, but it was more than that. Being able to open my door meant that maybe, if I tried hard, I might be able to manage other tasks.

Like performing different spells.

And shifting.

I’d seen one of the tigers shift just that morning. It had been the coolest thing I’d ever seen, and it was also the first time I felt such a deep longing to be able to summon my inner-wolf.

After Erin left me at Hybrid Academy, I actually tried to shift.

I did my best.

I really did.

I went into my room, closed the door, shut my eyes, and just tried.

But nothing happened.

I tried to remember my parents. Had I ever seen my father shift? I hadn’t. I was certain of that. I hadn’t known he was a shifter. I had no idea, and that bothered me more than it should have. Most parents have secrets: things they hide away and hope their children never discover.

My parents? They had more than most.

Apparently.

I hadn’t known any of that until my grandmother vanished.

“Think animal thoughts,” I muttered to myself. I closed my eyes again and tried. I relaxed my entire body and just breathed in and out. Somewhere at the edge of my consciousness, I thought I could feel it. There was something there. It felt like there was something trying to get my attention.

The wolf.

It was my wolf.

I knew that’s what my inner-animal was. She lurked, just out of reach: like waking up from a dream you loved and not quite being able to remember what it was about. I wanted to reach out to her and call her to myself. I tried, over and over, but nothing happened.

Frustrated, I threw my hands down and got up, pacing. My agitation levels were through the roof. I needed my familiar. Somehow, Boo always had a calming effect on me. He was the best pet anyone could ever wish for. My grandmother had chosen well when she’d found him for me.

I checked under my bed for Boo, but he wasn’t there. He wasn’t in the closet, either. Did I forget to close the windows? I went over to them and one was ajar, but not wide enough that he’d be able to get out of.

He definitely wasn’t in my room, though.

“Boo?” I whispered, looking around. Had I actually lost my cat? Perfect. Just perfect. After a long, hellish day, much of which was spent being a hamster, the one creature I wanted to see was the one I couldn’t seem to locate. That wasn’t unusual for Boo, though. He often left for periods at a time. At first, I’d thought he didn’t like living with Grams and me, but after awhile, I became used to the way that he seemed to come and go. He came to live with us when I was 13, but during that time, he’d disappear for days or weeks at a time. He always came back to me, though.

I just hoped he’d come back this time, too.

Chapter 10

My days at Hybrid Academy flew by. As I became more comfortable being surrounded by magic all the time, life at the school became simpler. I took special care to avoid Patricia and Jeremy as much as possible. Raymond was out of class for over a week, but eventually, he seemed to calm down and return to the world of the magical. Once he started coming to class, things seemed to return to normal very quickly. No one spoke of the great pig incident aside from both Jeremy and Patricia. They seemed to think it was funny to make oinking sounds whenever Raymond walked by. As far as I could tell, he ignored them, but that only served to make things worse.

I was sitting in Potions for Ordinary Use about a month after the chess tournament. Kiera wasn’t in the class with me. Neither was Henry. In fact, I wasn’t really sure what either of their schedules were. I had enrolled so late that I’d just been stuck in any classes that had openings. Unfortunately for me, that meant my schedule was beyond strange. Fortunately for me, it meant the teachers had very low expectations of me. They were willing to let me get away with much more than they did other students and were endlessly patient when I had questions about things that had been covered before I arrived.

That particular day was rainy and cold. The entire class was grumbling because there were tests due the next week. Soon there would be some sort of autumn break. It wasn’t quite a holiday break, but it meant nearly a week without classes, during which students could travel or do what they liked.

“I know everyone is anxious to be on break,” Mr. Brax, our instructor, said. “But before I can release you for the day, we need to finish discussing the value of ordinary potions in our everyday lives. Let’s finish our review and then,” he glanced at his pocket watch. “I can aim to have you out of here, oh, about ten minutes early.”

It had been weeks and I still didn’t know why everyone was so hell bent on using pocket watches all of the time. Modern technology existed. It just seemed like witches didn’t much care for it.

“Who can tell me what the most important potion is to have on hand in one’s home?” Mr. Brax asked from the front of the class.

Tanaya, a werebear shifter, raised her hand.

“Tanaya?”

“Venoila potion,” she said.

“And why venoila potion?” Asked Mr. Brax.

“Because you can use it for a variety of ailments,” she said. Tanaya gave the most textbook perfect answer I’d ever heard. “The healing properties of the venoila plant make it an ideal choice for cuts, bruises, and scrapes. You can even use it as an ointment on minor kitchen burns.”

“Who wastes time cooking when you can use a spell?” One of the guys at the back of the class asked. Everyone laughed, but Mr. Brax shook his head.

“Actually, Anthony raises an interesting question. Any ideas on why it’s still important to learn basic skills, such as cooking?” He looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

“Uh, because if you can’t perform spells for some reason, you should still know how to do things,” I answered.

“That’s absolutely right,” said Mr. Brax. “Maxine is the perfect example of this, as are many first year students who haven’t yet earned their wands. They’ve demonstrated an interest in magic, perhaps even an excitement and willingness to learn, but they can’t quite grasp the methods used that bring forth the magic from within.”

A few students turned to look at me and I slunk down in my chair.

I didn’t want to be the weirdo today.

“If something happens,” Mr. Brax said. “And you become unable to use magic, you’ll still need to be able to do things without it. Survival skills never go out of style,” he smiled. “So things like learning to fight, to punch, to kick: these are all vital when it comes to surviving in the non-magical world.”

“How many of us actually go into the non-magical world, though?” A girl asked. “I mean, seriously. Most of us grew up in magical homes, came to the Academy, and then plan to go into magical work.”

“You might be surprised, Miss Kensington, just how many o f your classmates share neither your same history nor your same future, so before you begin making assumptions, it might be best to observe the world around you now.”

Mr. Brax continued speaking, but the words seemed to fade away as I thought about his comments. He was right. Most of us came from different backgrounds and we had different futures. That was what made us stand apart. That was how we were different. It mattered far less whether someone was a fairy or an angel or a demon. Those were just quarter notes in the sheet music of our lives. The real song was how we’d use the things we learned here, during this time, to shape the world around us.

Eventually, the class ended and everyone left. I grabbed my books and notes and headed out into the hallway. I had an hour to myself before my next class, so I decided to go back to my dorm room. When I approached the room, I prepared to unlock the door. I’d gotten quite adept at locking and unlocking doors in the school. It was quite the skill to have.

In fact, it made me ridiculously happy that I could, without any difficulty, completely control my ability to enter different spaces. Of course, unlocking a door meant knowing the right spell to open it. Still, being able to simply whisper a secret code and have a door swing open was quite exciting.

Only today, I didn’t have to unlock my door because it was already open when I got back to my room. Strange. I was certain I’d locked it, but then again, I was always certain about these things. Maybe I’d made a mistake somehow. Perhaps I’d only thought I’d locked it. I stepped aside as a group of girls walked by, talking and laughing. Once they were out of sight, I moved forward, closer to my door.

Who was inside?

Deciding that it didn’t really matter, that someone was probably playing a prank on me, I pushed the door open to find Erin leaning against the wall. She looked comfortable and at ease. She was so self-assured that it was crazy to me.

“Hey, kid,” she said.

“Erin?”

I rushed forward and wrapped my arms around her. Damn. It was so good to see her. I couldn’t quite believe she’d come back.

“Happy to see me?” She asked with a chuckle. She hugged me back, though, tightly squeezing me.

“I kind of thought you’d forgotten about me.”

“Max,” she said slowly.

“I know, it’s dumb,” I said. “But...” I didn’t finish my sentence. I didn’t say, “But everyone else I’ve ever loved is gone,” which is what I wanted to say. That’s what I felt. Erin seemed to know, though, because she hugged me again for a long time and when she released me, she motioned for me to have a seat.

“Crisp?” She offered, holding out a bag.

“Crisp? Are you British now?” I took one, though, eating it happily. The food at Hybrid Academy was good, but there was nothing quite like a good, old-fashioned snack. I was a sucker for things that were bad for me, unfortunately, and Erin knew it.

“Not British, but I have been traveling.”

“Where have you been to?”

“A lot of places,” she said. “I’ve been looking for answers.”

“And have you found any?”

She nodded slowly, and I set the crisp down. Suddenly, I was on high alert. What had she found? What hadn’t she told me? What did I need to know about this place?

“You found the people who took grandmother?”

“I found Troy,” she said. “He was definitely a vampire, as I suspected.”

“How did you find him?”

Erin rolled her eyes.

“He came back to your grandmother’s home. After I dropped you off here, I took a detour back to the house. Sure enough, there were five vampires there just hanging out. If I had to guess, I’d say they were waiting for you.”

“Where is he now?” I asked, but Erin gave me a pointed look.

Oh.

I gulped.

Remind me not to mess with Aunt Erin.

“What happened?” I finally asked her. “Did you find out where they took grandmother?”

“Your grandmother is dead, love,” Erin said softly. “I’m sorry. I know I said it before, but the vamps only confirmed it. As to why they were looking for your grandmother, well, I’m not entirely sure. It seems your grandmother was the holder of a number of different magical items. Some of them were more...valuable than others.”

Valuable?

I had never told Erin that I took the spell book from my grandmother’s house. Somehow, that seemed like a secret for me and my grandmother. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Erin, but that I didn’t trust anyone. Besides, Erin had dropped me off at Hybrid Academy without a word of warning. If she knew about the book, I half-suspected that she would take it and find a way to solve the mystery of my grandmother’s disappearance without me.

Maybe it was selfish, but I wasn’t about to let that happen.

“Honey, I know you can’t use magic,” Erin said.

“Well, actually,” I was about to tell her that I could use magic now. I’d had weeks to think about why coming to Hybrid Academy meant I could suddenly use my powers. What was it about the school that had somehow opened up my ability to do minor spells?

Then I’d realized that I’d been warded for ten years. My parents had ensured that no magic user could find me. What if that also meant I couldn’t use magic at all? What if the warding spell meant magic couldn’t find me?

Since coming to Hybrid Academy, I’d gotten more and more comfortable with the idea of using magic. I’d been able to unlock doors and I could even levitate a few items. I still hadn’t shifted, but I’d gotten closer than I ever had before.

“Actually?” Erin’s eyes narrowed for just a second, but then her face stilled. What the hell? It almost seemed like she was angry at the idea of me being able to use magic at all. Why would that be?

Erin wanted to help me, didn’t she?

Didn’t she want me to find my grandmother?

Only, she didn’t. Erin didn’t want that at all. She had hidden me away at a school I knew nothing about. She had placed me under the watchful eye of two people – Headmistress Gregory and Miss Wilson – she was friends with. She’d stayed away for weeks during her “investigation.” How did I know she was even investigating anything?

Maybe she was just biding her time?

“Actually, I was just going to say, that I think I’ve finally come to terms with my inability to use magic,” I said finally, not ready to reveal to her that I could use it. There was something a little bit...off...about Aunt Erin, and it made me uncomfortable. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

She eyed me suspiciously, but finally seemed to calm down a little bit.

“Well, I’m glad you’re a little more comfortable with being here,” she said finally. “My time here was quite wonderful.”

“Did you have a roommate when you were here?” I asked.

“I did,” she told me.

Somehow, I already knew who it was.

“Miss Wilson,” she said. “The two of us were basically inseparable.”

“And now?” I asked. “Are you still good friends?”

“We’re not as close as we were,” Erin said, and for the first time, she sounded almost...regretful. She quickly composed herself. “In any case,” Erin continued. “I need to find out what the vampires were looking for.”

“At grandmother’s house?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have any leads?” I asked carefully. What would she say? There was no way Erin could know I had the book. Now that I was feeling suspicious and uncomfortable around her, things were starting to seem a little clearer. After weeks of not being warded, my shifter senses were stronger than they’d ever been before, and I noticed something I hadn’t the last time I’d been around my aunt.

She was anxious.

Nervous.

Her heartbeat was racing very, very quickly.

How much of what my aunt told me had been true?

And how much of it had been a way to find out what I knew about my grandmother’s work?

It seemed strange that the day my wards were off would be the same day that someone would attack my grandmother and kidnap her. It seemed weird that my aunt would magically show up on the same day. She’d led me to believe that my grandmother had somehow summoned her for help, but what if that wasn’t what happened at all?

What if, in my story, my own aunt was the villain?

Chapter 11

Our holiday break arrived, but my aunt didn’t come to see me. She sent word that she was busy with her coven and that she was still trying to find the secret objects the vampires were after. She hadn’t found out where the book was, or even that it was what they’d been looking for. Unlike my aunt, I did know where the book was, and I spent my time a little differently. Instead of trying to hunt down the people who had taken my grandmother, I tried to find out what exactly they had been after.

I’d tried unsuccessfully to open the chest several times. Somehow, it never seemed to work.

My grandmother had made sure that I memorized the incantation to unlock the chest. We’d practiced it over and over again. I’d never actually managed to do it myself, but somehow, that didn’t seem to matter. She was certain that it was important. There was something in her book, something she’d been working on. It was supposed to be a secret, but I knew.

After one particularly rough morning of trying over and over again, I decided to give up and go eat lunch. I stopped by Kiera’s door and knocked. She opened up right away. Her hair was mussed and her wings were out. She looked half-asleep. Her familiar, a bright-eyed owl, perched on her shoulder. It seemed as though Kiera was making the most of holiday break. She wasn’t about to spend it on studying.

Nope.

Kiera was all about catching up on her beauty sleep.

“Ten seconds,” she said, and closed the door again. I laughed as I heard her murmuring spells and tossing potions around. She emerged, grinning and happy.

“Damn,” I said. She looked like a totally different person.

“It’s amazing what you can do in ten seconds,” she said, laughing.

“When you know the right spells, anything is possible,” I agreed. We headed out of the dorms and over to the cafeteria. Lunch was starting in just a few minutes and we were both totally famished. Kiera was leaving the next day to go visit her family, so it would be our last meal together until she got back.

“Have you seen Henry around?” I asked.

“Nope,” Kiera shook her head. “Not since yesterday.”

“Wonder what he’s doing for break.” I hadn’t had a chance to ask him.

“Did somebody say break?” A familiar voice said. I turned to see Henry running up behind us.

“Where’d you come from?” I looked behind him. “We were just talking about you.”

“I overslept,” he smiled, grinning. I tried not to think about how happy that grin made me feel.

Stop it, Max, I told myself. I wasn’t at Hybrid to meet boys. I was only here to learn how to use my powers. And I had. I’d been doing a great job of it, too. I’d been studying, working hard, and spending all of my free time practicing my spells. I was quickly becoming one of the better students in my Magical Wishes class and I was definitely at the top of my Herbs and Other Mysteries class.

But Henry wasn’t in those classes.

He wasn’t anywhere near them.

So I had a chance to stay focused without worrying about whether or not a certain guy liked me. I could concentrate wholly on perfectly the way I spoke and on truly understanding the rhythm of the spells. That was more important than anyone could possibly understand. Once you got the beat of the spell down, you could make it happy.

Spells were magical, but they were also music.

“Ready for your big, exciting holiday break?” I asked him as we entered the cafeteria and got in line. Kiera snapped her fingers ahead of me. Her tray hopped into her hands.

“Not at all,” Henry said. “You?” He smiled at me. He distracted me.

Stop it, Max, I repeated to myself.

I looked at the trays ahead of me. My stomach did a little somersault because he was standing so close to me. Despite my inner bragging about being able to do some spells, I still hadn’t quite mastered figuring out how to get a tray into my hand.

“Oh, look, it’s the losers,” a shrill voice said. Patricia walked by with her group of buddies. They were already causing trouble and lunch had only just started.

One of the cafeteria elves sighed.

“Someone really needs to put that girl in her place,” the elf muttered, shaking her head.

Apparently, turning me into a hamster hadn’t quite gotten the anger or frustration out of Patricia’s system. She was still just as cranky, just as fussy, and just as rude as she’d been all term. I look at the trays beside me, snapped my finger, and caught the tray that jumped into my hand.

“Woah,” Henry said. “Nice catch.”

I didn’t have time to care, though, and I certainly didn’t have time to be nervous. That’s because the second the tray was in my hand, I turned toward Patricia, who was walking by. She gave Kiera a nasty look and mouthed, “butterfly.” Kiera’s face fell once again, but this time, I was ready for Patricia.

“Hey,” I called out. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”

It was a stupid thing to say.

It was a stupid, immature, babyish thing to say.

But man, did that piss Patricia off. She whirled around and shoved her tray into the hands of her BFF, Clementine Clay.

“What did you say?” She growled, marching toward me.

“I said,” I stood up taller, facing her with a snarl. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size? Kiera has never been anything but nice to you. Didn’t she help you with your Chemistry and Cauldron homework last month? Didn’t she go out of her way to make sure you didn’t fail Magical Monsters? What about Dragon Training and Monster Hunting? If I remember correctly, she’s the one who asked the professor to give you an extension on your paper.”

“Dude,” Clementine whispered. “You were going to fail Magical Monsters? That class was so easy.”

“Shut. Up.” Patricia hissed, glaring at her friend. She turned back to me. “You don’t know what you’re walking into, Alex.”

“My name is Max,” I said. “If you can’t get it right, I can spell it out for you.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” She sneered.

“Spelling?” Wait, what? “Lots of people like spelling, Patricia.” Our insulting had gotten a little out of control. We had taken it a bit too far. Now it wasn’t even making sense.

“You know what I don’t like? You.” She stepped closer. “You think you can come in here and just cause trouble. You’re causing a ruckus and I don’t like it.”

“No,” I shook my head. “You don’t like anyone challenging the status quo. Look around you, Patricia. Look at the people you see. Literally every single one of us wants the same thing: to succeed. We all want to learn. We’re all here because we want to know magic. We want to change the world.”

“Not me,” she said. “I don’t care about the world.”

“Well, you should at least care about the people around you, Patricia. You should at least care about Clementine, and Jeremy, and Raymond, and all of the other magic users you meet at this school because one day, some of them are going to be stronger than you and one day, you might need their help. Think about that.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” she said softly. For a brief second, I thought Patricia looked almost remorseful. For just a moment, I thought she was going to change her ways. Could it really be that simple? Could using your words and your heart actually be enough to change the world? Maybe Patricia’s problem wasn’t that she was mean, but that she was misunderstood. We were all just doing our best here. Life at Hybrid was kind of fantastic, but that doesn’t mean it was simple or easy.

“I’m not wrong,” I told her. “We can make the world a better place, Patricia. It doesn’t have to be like this.” She looked down and I realized that she was crying, tearing up. That was it. Apparently, my grandmother was right. Apparently, words really do hold more power than we’re willing to give them credit for.

But then Patricia looked up and I realize that she wasn’t crying at all.

She was laughing.

“Oh, you stupid girl,” she shook her head, pulled out her wand, and yelled the hamster-morphing spell I had come to dread so much. I still didn’t have a wand. I still couldn’t utter a counter-spell. I was, however, holding my magically-protected lunch tray, and I lifted it up before her spell could hit me in the stomach. Patricia’s spell bounced off of the tray and hits her own belly full-force.

She dropped to the ground: a hamster.

Clementine squealed and Jeremy looked like he was going to be sick, which was strange for a guy who had no problem turning Raymond Dash into a pig. Raymond looked slightly satisfied as he grinned and shook his head. Then he moved off toward a table, whistling a little tune as he did.

A few teachers rushed over and to see what I had done. Miss Wilson looked from Patricia to me and back again. She shook her head in disappointment, but I wasn’t the one who uttered the spell. All I did was block it. Mr. Brax seemed to think the entire situation was amusing. A few other teachers murmured comments that I couldn’t quite hear.

And then the room went silent.

At Hybrid Academy, that’s never really a good thing.

Alicia Gregory marched into the room: dominating, strong, collected. She made her way through the crowd and over to the center of the drama. She stood before me and Hamster Patricia, staring.

“What happened here, Maxine?” She asked sharply. I swallowed hard. This woman knew my aunt. Whether my aunt could be trusted or not was yet to be discovered. Maybe I was overreacting and my aunt finding me on that terrible day really was just a coincidence. Maybe it really was just a fluke that she happened to walk into my life on that day.

But like it or not, I had no option but to be honest with the headmistress. Everyone saw what happened. If I tried to lie, I would instantly be sold out. Nobody likes to be a snitch, but I guessed there were at least a handful of people here who would be more than happy to be honest with Alicia Gregory, including the cafeteria elves. Come to think of it, was that...snickering? I looked over and saw two of them smiling and giving me thumbs-up signs.

So apparently, not everyone was a fan of Patricia.

Good to know.

I turned back to the headmistress. She was waiting patiently, but even patient people have a limit as to how long they’ll let something like this go.

“Patricia was making fun of the fairies,” I said finally.

“She’s always doing that,” one of the fairies hollered from the crowd.

“Yeah!” Said another.

Headmistress Gregory held up her hands and motioned for the fairies to calm themselves down. She was waiting for me to tell her my story, my version. I assumed that later, she’d have Hamster Patty turned back into a real girl and get the other side of the tale. No doubt, that story would be littered with falsehoods and made-up stories about what a terrible villain I was. In Patricia’s story, I’d probably be the bad guy, the bully. In her story, I’d be the aggressor. This was my only real chance to give my side of things. I wasn’t about to waste it.

“I called her out on it.”

“Max has called her out before!”

“Yeah, that’s when Patricia turned her into a hamster the last time!”

“I told her she didn’t need to pick on the fairies,” I told the headmistress.

“Is that right?” The headmistress raised an eyebrow.

“Yes.”

“And why did you tell her that? You’re a shifter, aren’t you? What business do you have with fairies?”

“No business at all,” I said. “Except that we all go here. We’re all students here. We share a common goal.”

“And what goal is that?” The headmistress seems genuinely interested in what I have to say. In fact, everyone gathered around me was paying very close attention.

“We all want to use magic as well as possible,” I finally said. “We all want to be our best selves. We can’t do that when we’re tearing each other down.”

“Interesting,” she said. Then she looked down at the hamster and rolled her eyes. Alicia Gregory bent down, scooped the hamster into her hands, and looked at it. “You really did deserve this, you know,” she grumbled. She shook her head and looked at me. Then she crooked a finger.

I looked around and then pointed to myself.

“Me?” I said. “You want me to come with you? Why?” I blurted out.

Was I seriously going to be in trouble? I thought I’d explained myself clearly. I hadn’t cast a spell. I certainly shouldn’t have been the one punished, but Headmistress Gregory just smiled.

“Maxine, my darling, I’m appreciative of what you did here today. You solved a problem with words and not violence. The only violence that happened today was not because of you. You managed to resolve a situation that, to be quite honest, has been festering for some time now.”

“So why am I in trouble?” I whispered quietly.

The headmistress laughed.

“You’re not in trouble,” she said. “But I do think you have earned yourself a wand. Let’s go get it, shall we?”

Chapter 12

The wand was a hundred different shades of purple and maybe three different shades of blue. Together, the colors wound around it in a beautiful haze of wonderful rainbows. I could stare at it for hours, but I was afraid it would damage my eyes somehow. Instead, I tried not to look at it unless I was going to use it.

I’d had it for nearly a month. A month and I’d been able to do every spell I’d tried.

Except for two.

I still hadn’t gotten the treasure chest open, and I still hadn’t been able to shift.

Both were things I kept trying on a daily basis. I wasn’t sure why I couldn’t shift. Even my professors seemed stumped. I didn’t want to think there was something wrong with me or that being warded for such a long time had somehow hurt me, but it was hard not to let my mind go there.

Had being protected by magic for 10 years impacted my own ability to do magic?

Sometimes when I closed my eyes, I could see it: my wolf. Each time I tried, I felt closer and closer, but trying was exhausting. I couldn’t try more than once or twice each hour or I’d end up completely exhausted. Kiera explained that magical fatigue was a thing and it was one of the reasons there weren’t more powerful witches and warlocks in the world. Even the best and bravest could become tired. They could grow weary. They could feel exhaustion creeping over them like a shadow.

Each day, I went to classes, practiced magic with my peers, and worked to perfect the rhythm of my words. Each spell sounded lovely, beautiful. With practice, I knew I’d be able to shift eventually. I no longer doubted myself. Standing up to Patricia had changed me somehow. It was while talking to her that I had realized no one here could really hurt me. I wasn’t running from anything anymore. I was running toward something.

Logically, I should still have been afraid. I should have felt scared and worried. The vampires who claimed my grandmother were likely still roaming. At least, some of them were. Aunt Erin had told me she’d taken care of the ones who came back to the house, but that didn’t mean anything. There were others. There were more vampires who could be connected, who could be part of the plot to take my grandmother.

Those vampires may not have come back to the house.

They might be otherwise occupied trying to get information from my grandmother.

I hated not knowing what happened to her or where she is, but I fought my frustration by focusing on the one thing I could do: finding answers. That meant working over the spell as much as possible. It meant practicing again and again and again until I would finally be able to open the chest and read the book.

Closing my eyes, I waved my wand and whispered the words I knew so well.

They were more than just words.

They were a promise.

I whispered the words from my heart, from my soul. I pulled from the very depths of my heart and I tried with everything I had to open the chest.

I waved the wand.

I whispered.

I hoped. 

I chanted.

Nothing.

I sat down at my desk and stared at the treasure chest in front of me. Boo hopped up on the desk and looked at me curiously.

“You’re back today, are you?” I asked, looking at him sideways. He’d been gone for nearly a week this last time. “I’m beginning to think you have a secret family somewhere. Do you have another witch you spend time with?” I didn’t like the idea, but I wasn’t about to get jealous over a cat.

Instead, I turned away and looked at the treasure chest.

Stared at it.

Thought at it.

“Okay,” I said. “I can do this.”

There had to be a way.

If there wasn’t, my grandmother never would have forced me to learn the chant. She never would have urged me to remember the secret words. We had practiced them over and over again until I could say them flawlessly. If they weren’t for me to utter, then why would she give them to me?

I closed my eyes again.

I can do this.

I focused on breathing in and out, in and out. Boo rubbed against my arm, calming me, and I reached for him. He climbed into my lap and I hugged him close. I didn’t try waving the wand this time. I didn’t force myself to try to speak. Instead, I squeezed my eyes shut and I thought of Mémère. I thought of the woman who had saved me. I thought of the grandmother who had given up everything to protect me.

And then I sang.

A word to the wise

A whisper to the North

A key for secrets lost

A mystery the box may hold

But never will it burst.

This time, something felt different. I could feel the words deep in my heart. I could sense them. I could play with them. This time, when I said the words, I said them with my very being.

I meant them.

There was no way to explain how it felt except that when I opened my eyes, something was happening. Boo pressed his body against me, scared, and I held him tightly. Together, we watched as a blue mist covered the chest and this time, I heard the distinct sound of the box unlocking.

“I did it,” I whispered.

“No,” said a voice from behind me. “We did it.”

I turned around, dropping Boo in the process. He mewed and started to run away, but the woman shot a spell at him from her wand and he hit the floor.

“Miss Wilson?” I asked, shocked. “What are you doing here? What did you do to my cat?”

She rolled her eyes. “You and that stupid cat,” she said. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was trying to protect you.”

“What?” I gasped, not understanding. “What are you talking about? Why are you here?” I looked over at Boo. He was lying on his side, totally passed out. Luckily, it looked like he was still breathing.

That didn’t explain why Miss Wilson was in my room.

Why had she come in?

And why now?

“You’ve been messing with that box for weeks,” she said. “I knew it must have been something important. It was only a matter of time before you finally figured it out and were able to open it.”

“How did you know that?” I hadn’t told anyone about the box. No one. Not even Kiera.

Miss Wilson motioned toward the corner of my room. I looked up at the ceiling and sure enough, in one of the nooks was a small blue dot.

“What’s that?”

“A carefully placed spell,” she said. “Only the strongest of witches can make them. You should have warded your room, child.”

So what, she’d just been spying on me for weeks? Months?

“What? Why? When did you do that?” It definitely hadn’t been there when I’d moved in, but I hadn’t noticed it since. For all I knew, she could have placed it there weeks ago or even months ago.

“Oh, before your aunt’s little visit,” Miss Wilson used air quotes when she said visit, as if my visit with Erin had been something terrible. “It was easy to see what a distraction she was for you, so it seemed prudent to time my spell with her arriving.”

It hit me.

When my aunt visited about a month after I arrived, I’d come back to my room to find it unlocked. It had seemed strange to me that my aunt would have known the password to my room, but maybe she hadn’t known it at all. Maybe Miss Wilson had come into the room before my aunt arrived and had made herself at home.

Maybe she’d left the door unlocked so I’d suspect Erin of being out to get me.

“What is it that you want?” I finally asked her. She definitely wasn’t getting the book from me. That much was for sure. She had already hurt my cat. Chances were that she’d hurt my friends before, too. I had always wondered why Miss Wilson seemed to turn a blind eye to bullying in the school. Now I knew that she herself was a bully.

Was that why she was no longer friends with Erin?

What had she done to my aunt?

And why was she here now?

“The book,” she said. Her voice was crisp, cruel. I thought of the way she had ignored what was happening at the chess tournament months ago. She hadn’t seemed to care that Raymond was being tortured. She hadn’t been bothered at all by the low blows dealt by Jeremiah.

Then again, maybe that had something to do with her robes.

Green and purple.

She was a demon, like Jeremiah was. Had Miss Wilson been the one who told Jeremiah what Raymond was afraid of? Had she set up the entire chess tournament so that a fellow demon would win?

Super lame.

I growled, narrowing my eyes at her.

“Silly girl,” she said, waving her hand. “I know you can’t shift.”

“I might not be able to shift, but there’s no way I’m giving you the book,” I said. The problem was, there was no way for me to quickly shrink and lock the book. Not now. She had obviously heard me whisper the incantation, anyway. Even if I managed to get the treasure chest closed and the book shoved back inside, there was a chance that she would just repeat the incantation herself. I wasn’t sure if she’d be able to use it. Grams had always been uncomfortable around demons, so she may have incorporated some sort of weird binding codes in the spell that prohibited certain magic users from unlocking the chest.

Still, the reality was looking pretty grim for me.

Melanie was in my room. She’d knocked out my cat, discovered my secret book of spells, and apparently, she also hated my family.

Was there anything else she wanted to throw on me today?

Any other obstacles she wanted to toss my way?

Suddenly, my heart sank. I heard footsteps outside of my door and then it was pushed open.

“Hey, Max, I know you said you already finished your homework for Friday,” Kiera said as she walked in. When she saw Melanie Wilson standing in my room, she stopped and frowned. “Sorry, I didn’t realize you two were having a meeting.” Kiera looked from Melanie to me and then to my desk. Then, she noticed Boo on the ground.

She gasped.

Melanie’s eyes narrowed toward Kiera, who suddenly seemed to realize that this wasn’t just a friendly meeting. This wasn’t a meeting by choice, anyway. This had all been arranged by the evil spells instructor who seemed to secretly have it out for me. There was one thing I’d learned about Melanie during my time as a student at Hybrid Academy, and that’s that she always reacted really quickly. She was the kind of person who would set off a spell and ask questions about it later. She was a little short-tempered and a lot hot-headed.

So when she lifted her wand toward Kiera, I knew she wasn’t about to dial it down a notch.

Something inside of me...shifted.

Something inside of me changed.

When I saw my friend in danger, I knew that there was no other way to get through this.

I had to shift.

I had to win this fight.

In my life, I’d made plenty of mistakes, but today wasn’t going to be a mistake. Today was going to be a day when everything finally made sense.

Today was going to be a day when I saved the world.

I threw myself toward Melanie and as I leapt at her, I felt my human body slip away. It disappeared, floating off the way someone might shed a cloak or a jacket. The animal inside of me came out then, and I felt every new part of me fall into place. My skin was replaced with thick, dark fur. My hands disappeared and in their place, I had paws.

Claws.

Melanie seemed to notice what was happening, but it was too late. I leapt, jumping at her, and pushed her to the ground. She squealed as she hit the floor and opened her mouth to scream out a spell, but I was too fast. I put one paw over her mouth, muffling her words.

I looked at Kiera, who was screaming for help. She stopped and looked at me.

“You did it,” she whispered. “You totally, completely, actually did it.”

I looked down at Melanie and realized that yeah, I’d finally done it. It had taken me months and I’d almost had to lose my friend in order to convince my body to start working in the way that I wanted, but I’d done it. I’d changed into something else, something great.

I’d shifted into a wolf for the very first time.

A sense of pride overwhelmed me. Was this what people felt when they won a sports game after weeks of practicing hard? Is this how it felt to sit down and play at a piano recital? I felt like the whole world was watching me constantly, but this time, everything really did pay off.

This time, I had saved my friend.

I kept my paw securely on Melanie’s mouth. I had her pinned tightly to the ground. I was so big that she wasn’t wiggling or moving. My wolf body was much too heavy for that. Besides, I wasn’t about to let her get away now. There was not going to be a chance for her to wiggle or speak or curse me. Kiera approached the two of us. She petted my back briefly as she knelt down beside us.

“You are a terrible person,” she said to Miss Wilson. “You tricked the school.” She shook her head and let her wings out. They spread wide and beautiful. Then Kiera reached out and touched the glittery dust that coated them. She lowered her hand and held it over Melanie. My paw was still in place, but she motioned for me to move. Melanie’s eyes grew wide and she shook her head. I moved my paw just as Kiera sprinkled the fairy dust onto Melanie’s mouth and nose.

Instantly, Melanie fell into a deep slumber.

Kiera turned to me.

“Okay,” she whispered. “You can shift back now.”

Only, I didn’t know how to.

Everything that happened had been so exciting and wonderful and unexpected. I’d finally made it into my wolf form. I’d finally gotten the life I wanted out of everything, but now I was...stuck. That totally wasn’t fair.

I closed my eyes and tried to think, tried to imagine myself as a girl, but when I opened my eyes, Kiera was still there and I was still an animal.

Well, darn.

Chapter 14

––––––––

By the time Alicia Gregory had come to the room and sent for my aunt, I had grown weary of being in my wolf form. I’d felt powerful and strong, of course, but I also kind of wanted to stretch and feel my own skin again. Being a shifter wasn’t going to be as simple as I thought it was going to be, apparently.

Apparently, it was going to be very, very difficult.

Aunt Erin hurried into the room after what seemed like an eternity. It had probably only been a few hours. Melanie was already gone: taken away by the campus authorities. Headmistress Gregory had assured us that Miss Wilson would be property dealt with. She wasn’t too happy to find that one of her teachers had been causing mischief.

Erin looked from Alicia to Boo to Kiera to me. Her eyes passed carefully over the book on the desk, but she didn’t mention it. I didn’t miss the way her eyes dilated slightly when she saw it.

So she knew what it was, apparently.

She wisely didn’t say anything about it in front of the others.

“Max,” she said, squatting in front of me. “I came as soon as I could. What happened?” Obviously, I couldn’t speak, but Alicia Gregory filled her in.

“Apparently, our Miss Wilson has had it in for your niece for some time now,” she said.

“Was she involved in Max’s grandmother’s kidnapping?”

She didn’t say murder.

That offered me a little bit of relief.

She didn’t say murder.

“As far as we can tell, she wasn’t involved in that,” the headmistress said. “It seems as though her involvement in Max’s life began only once Max was a student.”

“It makes sense, I suppose,” Erin sighed and ran her hands through her hair. “She probably wanted to get back at me for how our friendship ran amuck all those years ago.”

“What did happen between you?” Kiera asked curiously. I was glad because I wanted to know, too, but I couldn’t ask. I opened my mouth and tried to speak again, but a low growl came out instead of real words.

Come on, mouth.

Come on.

“What always happens?” Erin asked gently. “I started dating. Our friendship faded away. She wanted more and more of my attention, but, well,” Erin shrugged. “I wanted other things, too. I was sorry when she stopped wanting to get together and do spells and work on potions together. Despite dating, I’d always tried to make time for her, but,” Erin shook her head sadly. “It was what it was. Sometimes people drift apart when they start to grow up. It’s natural.”

“That doesn’t make it easy,” Kiera put her hand on Erin’s shoulder.

“No,” Erin shook her head. “It doesn’t.”

“Max is a good person,” Kiera said. “She didn’t deserve to be attacked, but it’s not your fault. You know that, don’t you?” She seemed concerned that Erin would blame herself, which was interesting. I felt a twinge of guilt at ever suspecting that my aunt didn’t have my back, but then I pushed that feeling away. There was no room for regret here. Not today.

“I know,” Erin said, but there was something in her voice that made me not believe her.

She did blame herself.

For what?

She was the reason I came to Hybrid Academy in the first place, but she couldn’t have known what would happen once I arrived. It definitely wasn’t her fault that Melanie had chosen to release her aggression on me. That was nobody’s fault, least of all Erin’s.

The thing about life choices is that there are always consequences. Sometimes we just can’t possibly predict was those consequences are going to be. Going to a new school should have been the perfect way to better myself while Erin tried to find out what happened to Grandma. It was supposed to be the safe house to reside in while I tried to learn magic, but as it turned out, it was also the perfect catalyst for someone my aunt knew years ago to get some sort of petty revenge.

Only Melanie’s plan had failed.

She hadn’t gotten revenge, hadn’t taken the most important thing to me, and hadn’t destroyed my friends.

“Okay, Max,” Erin said. Her voice brought me back to the present. I turned toward her, looking at her. “Are you ready?”

I looked at my aunt in that moment. She really did remind me so much of my father. She was strong and kind and passionate. She was beautiful and she was gentle. There was something about her that made her stand out from all the other witches I knew.

There was something magical about Erin.

I nodded, slowly.

Erin sat down in front of me. She was directly on the floor with her legs crossed. In this moment, she looked less like a powerful coven leader and more like the aunt I remembered from my childhood. The Erin from long ago was playful and sweet. In this moment, I liked to think she came back to me a little bit.

“Close your eyes.”

I did as she asked. Then I felt Erin’s hands on my neck. I tried to relax my body, but I could feel everyone’s eyes on me. It didn’t make me nervous, but I couldn’t quite relax.

Erin seemed to be able to tell.

“Okay,” she whispered, petting me. “Don’t worry about them.” A pause. “Kiera, Alicia, would you mind giving us a minute?”

“Of course,” Kiera said.

“Take all the time that you need,” Alicia added.

The two women left the room and closed the door behind them. Now it was just my aunt, my familiar, and me. Now it was time to prove that I wasn’t a broken shifter. I really could change back.

“Breathe,” my aunt advised me, so I tried to.

I focused on taking deep breaths in and out, in and out. I breathed rhythmically. My aunt pet me gently and as she did, she sang to me. She chose magical lullabyes I remembered from my childhood. She sang me songs I hadn’t heard in many, many years.

She sang to me until I felt every part of my body truly relax.

And then she spoke.

“Imagine you’re in a field, Max. You’re running through a field of wildflowers. You’re chasing something – a butterfly – but you can’t quite catch it.”

My aunt’s imagery sprang to life in my mind and I honed in on the butterfly in my imagination, focusing all of my energy on it.

“You run and run,” my aunt said. “But then you realize it’s late and you need to go home. The time to play has ended. It’s time to go home,” she spoke softly.

Nodding, I imagined myself turning and leaving the field. I moved back through the wildflowers, walking carefully, striding. My entire body moved with purpose and determination as I made my way back to the cabin I shared with my grandmother. That was the home I imagined. That was the home I thought of.

Even in this visualization exercise, it was always about my grandmother.

Everything came back to Mémère.

Always.

“Go home, Max,” my aunt said. “It’s time to go home. Playtime is over. Everything is fine. Everyone is safe. Just go home.”

Something came over me as she spoke and my body adjusted, changing from shifter and back to human. Instead of being a wolf, I was now a girl. Instead of being certain that I’d never be able to accomplish shifting, I was overcome with the realization that all it took was some training and practice.

I looked down at myself: totally human.

I looked like a real girl again.

Erin caught my eye and smiled. She reached for a blanket and wrapped it around me, offering me warmth, comfort, and a little bit of modesty.

“You did it,” she said. “You really did it.”

“All thanks to you,” I said.

“Nah,” Erin shook her head. “This was all you, sweetie. You could have done it without me. I just gave you a little push.”

I looked toward my desk and saw that the book was still there. Erin followed my gaze. Her eyes narrowed slightly.

“Your grandmother’s spell book,” she said. It wasn’t a question.

“Yes.”

“That’s what Melanie wanted.”

“I think she just wanted it because I obviously thought it was important,” I told my aunt. “She didn’t know what it was.”

“And you do,” Erin said.

“I think it’s going to help us find my grandmother,” I said. “Erin, I think she’s alive. I can feel it. I know it. That book is going to help us find the way, but you have to let me help.”

She looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

“No keeping me locked away,” I told her. “I want to keep training here, but I also need to know that I’ll be able to help search for Mémère when the time is right.”

Erin considered what I was saying. For a moment, I thought she was going to tell me to shove it, but then she smiled.

“You got it, Max.”

Relief filled my heart in a rush, overwhelming me. This was it. This was really it. We were going to find out where Mémère was. We were going to find who took her. We were going to accomplish everything we set out to and, most importantly, I was going to be able to do it in both shifter and human forms.

Finding her would take time.

It would be hard, exhausting.

But we could do it because now, things were different.

Now we had each other.

And I had my wolf.

––––––––

Epilogue

It was over.

The hard part was finished.

Somehow, I’d managed to survive almost an entire year at Hybrid Academy. It hadn’t been easy. Not by a long shot. It had been worth it, though. I’d built friendships and I’d learned magic and I’d discovered my ability to shift. I’d changed so much as a person. I’d grown. I’d learned that life could be a little more complicated than it seemed on the surface.

By the time the end of the year rolled around, I was ready for a long, relaxing summer. I’d spent months trying to find out how to use magic, how to shift, and how to deal with the bullying at Hybrid Academy. Finally, I did. I found out exactly who was trying to hurt the people around them, and somehow, with the help of a few friends, I’d managed to find more than just the villain.

I had found myself.

I realized that I was more than just a girl, more than just a shifter, more than just a lone wolf.

I discovered that I was brave.

I discovered that I could do anything I set my mind to if I was willing to work hard, believe in myself, and ask for help when I needed it. With the support of my friends, I was able to solve the mystery that plagued the students at my new school, and I was able to overcome the obstacles that Melanie’s betrayal as a teacher had meant for me.

More importantly? I found out that the next chapter in my life was going to be a whole lot easier with great friends by my side.

As I packed up my bags and prepared to leave for the summer, I wondered what would happen when I returned in the fall. Would there be another mystery to solve? Would someone try to find me?

Would I ever be able to use magic well?

I didn’t know where my grandmother was. I still believed that she was alive. No one had been able to convince me that she was lost. At least now I knew that Aunt Erin and I would be spending the summer trying to decode my grandmother’s spell book. We would take the next steps in finding out what she had been working on when she disappeared. At least that would give us a clue. It would help point us in the right direction so we could find her.

Now I knew the truth.

And I wouldn’t stop until I found her.

When my bags were finally packed, I headed downstairs to set everything by the front door. My magic still wasn’t good enough for me to just make my bags move themselves, so I had to do things the old-fashioned way. Even worse? I’d have to make two trips.

I lugged everything down the stairs and to the front door. Everyone else was doing the same. Well, the first-year students were. A couple of them could make their luggage fly, but the majority of us were doing everything by hand. We gave each other understanding smiles.

Kiera had left the day before: picked up by her family. As promised, they had been boisterous and loud and wonderful and completely proud of her. It was a wonderful thing to see. They’d whisked her off with promises to bring her for visits in the summer, so at least I wouldn’t be totally on my own until the fall. I’d get to see Kiera at least a few times. Who knew? Maybe having a fairy’s perspective on my grandmother’s spell book would be helpful.

I dropped my bags by the door and peered outside. Erin wasn’t there yet, so I had a few minutes to get the rest of my stuff. Besides, I needed to get Boo. He’d been asleep on my bed when I left and I hadn’t had the heart to move him. Now I’d have to wake him up, strip the bed, and pack my blankets, too.

I glanced at the oversized clock in the lobby. I didn’t have much time. Scurrying up the stairs, I pressed down my hair with my hands. It was already frizzing up. Summer had only officially begun and already my hair was a wild, untamable mess. Gross. If this kept up, I’d never get a boyfriend.

Great.

By the time I reached my dorm room again, I was panting and sweating. I paused, catching my breath, and then I pushed the door open.

Only the bedroom wasn’t empty anymore.

There was a tall, shirtless dude in the center of the room.

His back was to me and I screamed.

No, scratch that: I shrieked.

“Who the heavens are you?” I yelled, fumbling for my wand. A spell. I could cast a spell on him and force him to tell me who he was and where my cat was. Boo was no longer on the bed, mysteriously missing, and there was no way I was about to let the crazy stranger guy steal my cat. Nuh-uh. Not today. No thank you.

There was something familiar about his broad shoulders, but I couldn’t quite pinpoint where I recognized them from. It didn’t matter. I wanted my cat back. I managed to pull out my wand and hold it in front of me. I only shook a little as I held it forward like a weapon.

“Give me my cat back,” I said. I hated the way my voice shook. “And I won’t hurt you.”

I wouldn’t.

Not much, anyway.

Boo was everything to me. Everything.

The man held his hands up and turned around. He didn’t speak until his front was to me.

“Henry?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

What the hell was Henry doing in my room?

And where was Boo?

“Max,” he said carefully. “I can explain.”

And that’s when it hit me full-force.

“You’re my cat,” I whispered.

Henry nodded, looking embarrassed.

“Yeah,” he said finally. “I’m your cat.”

Suddenly, it all made sense. Boo had come to live at my home when I was 13. If Henry had been 13, too, then of course he would have gone home to see his family. He’d always been gone for weeks or even months at a time before coming back to me and my grandmother. He was a shifter, not a familiar, and he’d been living with me since we were kids. That’s how he’d ended up at Hybrid Academy. He wasn’t a new student; he’d come with me. Being a shifter explained how he’d been able to blend in so well.

More importantly, that explained why Henry’s hair almost perfectly matched my cat’s.

I stared at him, unsure of my next move.

A year of studying had prepared me to use magic and to shift, but it hadn’t prepared me to deal with something as big as this.

I had two choices now. I could freak out and banish him. I could send him away and make him promise never to come near me again. Or I could accept the fact that someone I considered a friend also happened to be my familiar. The reality was that I had always considered Mr. Boo to be a good friend. He’d been with me for years and he knew all of my secrets.

I should have been embarrassed that he and Henry were the same person, but I wasn’t.

If anything, it was kind of a relief.

I could trust Henry, I realized. I could totally and inexplicably trust him. He wasn’t going to betray me the way Miss Wilson had. He wasn’t going to do anything that would hurt me or damage me.

But I also knew that my aunt wasn’t so chill that she’d let me bring a boy home for the summer. I heard her voice in the hallway. She’d arrived.

“Quick,” I said, motioning to him. “Back in your cat form. Don’t tell anyone.”

A look of surprise covered Henry’s face. Yeah, he’d definitely expected me to go with Option 1. Still, he shifted quickly, making it look easy, and then he leapt up until my arms with a meow just as Erin walked in.

“Ready, love?” She asked, striding into the bedroom.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I said. I took one last look around the room.

I’d spent so much time here and grown so much. It was strange to be saying goodbye today, but all good things had to end sometime. Besides, I had a fantastic summer to look forward to. I was going to find my grandmother, no matter what it cost. If Mémère only taught me one thing, it’s that there’s nothing quite like a good fight, and I had a feeling that the next one was going to be absolutely unforgettable.

Hang on, Grams.

I’m coming.

––––––––

The Saga Continues in Hybrid Academy: Year Two.

Sign up here for news and updates!

YEAR TWO

Hybrid Academy: Year Two is now available for pre-order. Order your copy now to find out what happens to Max next!

Author

L.C. Mortimer loves books almost as much as she loves coffee. When she's not on a caffeine-induced writing spree, she can be found pole dancing, traveling, or playing with her pet hamster, Neko. Mortimer loves reading, playing video games, and spending time with her husband and kids. Please make sure to join her mailing list here.

Just Another Day in the Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 1

Hey reader! Are you a fan of zombie novels? Adventures? Stories that make you wonder how well you’d fare in the apocalypse? Check out the first chapter of Just Another Day in the Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 1. This is an episodic serial story that takes place over nine books and follows a group of friends through their apocalyptic adventures and misadventures. Check it out!

Chapter 1

Alice opened her eyes.

She immediately regretted her decision.

Heat swept over her body. The sun was blaring, and if she had to guess, she was probably burnt. Badly.

Then again, maybe not.

She sat up and looked around, shocked to see billows of smoke surrounding the building.

Fuck.

Was it on fire?

Had she really slept that long?

“Get up,” she shook Mark, who had fallen asleep next to her, and tried to wake him up. “Something’s wrong,” she insisted.

“Yeah,” he grumbled, rolling over. “You’re waking me up before noon.”

Something wasn’t right. She stood and walked to the ledge of the apartment building. They had slept on the roof last night after the party. It was just a normal party: nothing crazy, so what was with the sky being so weird? The city wasn’t any louder than usual, but the smoke? That was too close to them for her to be comfortable with.

Alice looked out over the city and her heart dropped. She was on the roof of a 12-story building overlooking the city of Holbrook, and from what she could see, the world was in chaos. There were cars parked in the middle of the road, people walking and running, suitcases everywhere. Dropped purses lined the street, along with trash and food.

What the hell was going on?

It must be some sort of national emergency or natural disaster, but what could it be? She couldn’t see where the fire was. There had to be a fire. There was so much smoke that surely, there was a fire. She just couldn’t see it yet.

“Something is wrong,” she repeated, but her voice must have sounded more urgent because this time, Mark opened his eyes and sat up.

“What is it?”

“I think there’s a fire. I can’t see it.”

The two of them moved over to the edge of the roof and peered down into the city.

“What the hell?” Mark muttered. “Was there an earthquake or something?”

“An earthquake that caused a fire? I don’t think so.”

They watched as a car crashed into a fire hydrant and water burst out, spilling onto the road.

“What happened to the fire department?” Mark asked, echoing Alice’s thoughts.

“Better question: what happened to everyone?” They stared at the madness. Helplessness filled Alice’s heart as she was stuck watching the insanity from their position on the roof. She tried to fight the growing panic in her chest, but soon she had to admit there was a problem, a serious one, and not one they’d be able to solve while they stood around on the roof.

“We need to go,” she said.

“Go where?” A groggy voice said from behind them, and they turned to see Kyle. Alice exchanged knowing glances with Mark. They had both forgotten Kyle was there.

“Something’s wrong,” Alice said, walking back to him. She took his hand and yanked him to his feet. Kyle was a scrawny kid, maybe about 150 pounds soaking wet, and gangly. He reminded Alice of someone’s little brother.

Maybe everyone’s little brother.

Kyle lived down the hall from Alice and Mark and he worked as some sort of computer repair guy. Alice wasn’t really sure. The only thing she knew about Kyle is that he was awful at drinking games and she had beat him every round last night.

“What is it? Like a drill or something?” Kyle rubbed his eyes and moved to the edge of the roof where Mark was still standing. He peered over and immediately jumped back. “Zombies!” He said.

“Don’t be stupid,” Mark told him, but Kyle was certain.

“We always knew it was going to happen,” Kyle said. “You jocks didn’t believe us, but we knew. We always knew.” He shook his head back and forth, as if trying to convince himself of the reality, then turned to Alice. “We need to get out of here.”

“I don’t want to overreact,” Alice said hesitantly, but to her surprise, Mark agreed with Kyle.

“I know you’re nervous that we’re going to think you’re a worry wart,” he said, not unkindly. “But this is serious, Al. Even if it’s not zombies,” he rolled his eyes. “It’s something. And I don’t think we should wait around to see what happens next.”

Alice looked once more down at the city, as if staring would make everything change, make everything go back to normal, but she knew as she looked over Holbrook that nothing would be the same again.

Amid the smoke, amid the flames, amid the cars honking and blaring, she suddenly saw something that made her gag, then vomit over the edge of the roof.

“Al, you okay? Al, what is it?” Mark was at her side, rubbing her back. She couldn’t stop puking, so she pointed, down into the crowd.

She knew the second Mark saw the Infected eating a person he’d pulled from a car because Mark stopped touching her and said, “Let’s go. Let’s go now.”

Somehow, Alice managed to stop throwing up long enough to move her feet. She grabbed her cell phone and slipped her flip-flops on before they headed downstairs.

“Pack a bag,” Mark said. “Only essential items. Grab what you need, especially food, if you have it. Meet in the hall in ten.”

“Got it,” Kyle said, and scurried down the stairs to the top floor of the apartment building. “Watch out, guys. Power’s out,” he called back up.

Alice looked at Mark and back down the stairs. Was she ready to descend into the darkness? She wasn’t sure. This was so not how she had planned to spend her weekend. Had she wanted to drink? Yes. Had she wanted to party? A little. But zombies? Not so much.

If they even were zombies, that is, because in reality, who really knew? Kyle was just a geek with an overactive imagination. What did he even know about chaos in the world? Maybe there really had been an earthquake or a tornado or something completely natural that could be conquered with a bit of time, patience, and help from the National Guard. Maybe there was a perfectly logical explanation for what she thought she’d seen looking down on the town.

There had to be.

“Alice,” Mark nudged her. “Come on. It’s going to be fine, okay? I promise.”

She nodded. She could do this. She stepped carefully down the stairs, clutching the rail with one hand and holding her phone up as a light in the other. This floor was supposed to be used for storage, so it was abandoned and quiet. People rarely wandered up to the 12th floor unless they wanted to put their coats away for the winter.

Alice got off the stairs and saw Kyle waiting patiently nearby. Mark followed her quickly down the stairs, then they went together down to the 11th floor where their apartments were.

“I’ll meet you back here in five,” Kyle said, popping into his apartment.

“Ditto,” Mark said. He turned to Alice. “You going to be okay?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I’m fine.”

She went to her apartment and fished her keys from her pocket, then unlocked the door. It was weird to see it so dark in the daytime and her hand automatically flicked the lights on.

Nothing.

“Come on, Alice,” she said out loud. “You can do this.” Her voice sounded strange in the darkness: forced, almost. She felt like she was doing something she wasn’t supposed to be, like she was being sneaky somehow. She knew it was stupid, that she was being silly, but she couldn’t quite knock the notion out of her head.

Alice quickly crossed her tiny living room and opened the blinds to let some light into the room. Unfortunately, the natural light streaming in picked up on all the dust she had floating around her apartment. Gross. She really needed to be better at cleaning, but she was always so busy at work that she just didn’t put that much effort in at home. Now it showed.

Alice kicked off her flip-flops. Then she grabbed her backpack from the kitchen counter and emptied out her library books. She had been planning on reading this weekend for work in preparation for a case they had coming up at the legal office where she worked, but that obviously wasn’t going to happen.

Even if this was just a misunderstanding, as she hoped it was, or some sort of weird natural disaster, Alice wouldn’t be going to work this week. A feeling of dread settled in the pit of her stomach as she wondered what the hell had happened last night.

Was she that drunk that she didn’t hear anything?

Granted, she didn’t usually drink. Not much, anyway. She’d been a lightweight in college and even now as a recent graduate, she tended to stick with soda over beer.

But last night had been about relaxing, unwinding. It had been a long week and her boss had been awful and she just wanted some time to herself.

Was that really so bad?

She opened her fridge and pulled out a couple of water bottles. Alice shoved them in her backpack, along with a jar of nuts and a bag of beef jerky. In her bedroom, she grabbed a clean set of clothes and looked longingly toward her bathroom. She wanted a shower. She felt gross. Maybe there was time for one.

Just as she was debating whether or not to take a quick rinse, her door flew open and Mark and Kyle bolted in.

“We have to go,” Mark said. “Now.”

“Okay,” Alice said, starting toward them. She stopped and turned, taking one last look at her apartment. Was she forgetting anything? She had packed so quickly. Maybe she was forgetting something.

“No, like now,” Kyle grabbed her hand and yanked her into the hall. Mark grabbed her backpack and a pair of shoes. He closed the door behind them and shoved the shoes at Alice.

“Wanna tell me what’s going on?” She asked, slipping her feet into them, trying her best not to fall over and embarrass herself.

Kyle and Mark exchanged looks, but Alice rolled her eyes.

“Not the time to play coy, boys,” she said.

“It’s zombies,” Kyle said. “I know it. And they’re already in the building, and we need to get out.”

“Do you own a gun?” Mark asked, and Alice shook her head. She’d never seen the need for one. Her father had been quite the gun nut, but her? She just wanted to make a name for herself. She didn’t get all caught up in politics and gun rights or anything like that. It had never interested her, so she hadn’t taken the time to buy a gun.

Now she felt like an idiot.

“No,” she admitted.

“Kyle’s got one. I have this,” Mark held up a bat she hadn’t noticed. “But we need to go. Now. You stay behind us. Don’t let anything bite you or, you know, bleed on you.”

It all felt surreal. There was no way this could be happening, yet as the men led her to the stairwell, she realized that it definitely, absolutely, was happening.

“We’ll go to your car,” Kyle whispered. “If we get separated, meet up there and we’ll all go together, okay?”

“Got it.”

Mark opened the door to the stairwell that separated the stairs from the hallway. It was empty. They quickly darted down the stairs. Alice didn’t have to ask how the guys knew there were zombies. She could hear the cries from each floor as they passed one after the other. They didn’t slow down, didn’t stop to help, didn’t try to peek to confirm their suspicions.

They’d all seen enough horror movies to know better.

And now, now Alice had to make it to the car. Her Hyundai wasn’t the world’s best vehicle, but it had been a gift to herself when she landed her job at Smith & McArthur. The legal firm was known for being highly selective in its employees, and she had celebrated by buying herself a new car.

She had taken out a loan, of course, which her parents thought was irresponsible, but she had been happy with her decision.

Until now.

Now she wished she had splurged even more on a Humvee.

Or a tank.

They passed each floor and the cries grew louder and more dramatic. She heard a few gunshots and realized some of her neighbors were fighting back. On the 5th floor, there was blood smeared across the window that led to the interior hallway.

On the 4th floor, she could see a snarling, angry person covered in blood. Was it Infected?

On the 3rd floor, the door was completely ripped off its hinges and the remnants of a battle were splayed across the stairs and railings.

“Be careful,” Kyle warned. “Don’t touch the blood.”

“I thought you could only turn if you got bitten by a zombie,” Alice said. Maybe her horror trivia was a bit rusty.

“We don’t know how it spreads,” Mark said calmly. “So just keep your hands to yourself and keep moving.” He gripped the bat in his hands and followed her down the stairs. The floor was slippery and once she grabbed the railing to steady herself, barely missing a bloody spot on the rail. Luckily, neither of the guys saw it.

She didn’t want them to go full-on zombie-movie mode where they murdered her just for getting blood on her. When they reached the first floor, they stopped and peeked through the clear window that led to the lobby.

Furniture was strewn about and there was a body in the center of the floor. Just one.

“Ken,” Alice whispered, but Mark clamped a hand over her mouth and pointed. There was an Infected in the corner. It was near the body, but no longer chomping on what used to be Ken. Covered in blood, the creature, or zombie, or whatever it should be called, was looking at Ken.

It wiped its mouth with the back of its hand, as if satisfied after a meal.

Then it looked up.

It looked straight toward them and immediately started charging the door.

“Parking lot!” Mark called, and they hurried through the door behind the stairs that led to the parking lot. They heard a loud thud as the creature threw its body at the door again and again. “Move!”

Alice focused on her car and yanked the keys from her pocket. The car was in the first row, luckily, and only about 20 feet from the door. She hurried and unlocked the driver’s side door, then hit the locks for the rest of the car. Mark and Kyle both piled in the backseat with their bags and weapons.

“Go!” Kyle said. “Let’s hit it, Alice.”

She started the engine and began to drive. She knew the main road by their apartment complex was trashed, so she took the back parking lot exit that led to a side road. Hopefully that one would be a little more clear.

Hopefully that one would offer some sort of escape.

Hopefully they weren’t all about to die.

***

Alice peeled out of the parking lot and cringed at the squeal of her tires. She had lived in Holbrook for all of a year, ever since she graduated from college, and she hated how expensive it was to live there. Everything cost money and even now, even with the world around her falling apart, all she could think about was how much it was going to cost to fix her tires if she messed them up.

Mark hollered directions from the backseat and Alice did her best to follow them. Her ex-military neighbor was smart and attentive. She probably should have let him drive, but somehow, Mark seemed comfortable in the back, looking out the windows. He was watching everything, she realized, taking it all in.

Mark had spent a year overseas. Maybe more. She knew it was at least a year. Afghanistan, maybe. Alice wasn’t really sure. What she did know was that Mark was ready for anything, even if he didn’t own his own gun. She could see the wheels in his mind turning, formulating some sort of plan.

What was going to happen to them?

She could see from the road that they hadn’t wasted any time leaving town. Bodies were piling up. On the side road she had taken, people were running around screaming, trying to load up their cars, and sitting on their roofs.

“That’s not going to help them,” Kyle commented. “They’ll get dehydrated and die anyway, or they’ll starve. That’s the worst place they could go.”

“They’re scared,” Alice said. “They don’t know what to do.”

“Rule number one of a crisis situation is ‘don’t panic,’” Mark told them. “They might not know what to do, but they’re definitely panicking. Kyle is right. You can’t go sit on the roof and hope the zombies will somehow decide to go away. They aren’t going away. This isn’t some fictional story with a happy ending.”

Alice turned down another road and slammed on the brakes immediately, but she wasn’t fast enough. She slammed into a stopped car ahead of her and groaned as her chest hit the seatbelt. She heard Mark and Kyle muttering curses from the back of the car, but then they both started yelling at her to get out of the car and run.

That was when she saw it.

Alice lifted her eyes and looked ahead at the horde approaching from ahead of her.

That’s what it was: a horde. There was no other word for it. Zombies upon zombies were walking down the road, making their way around cars and bodies, and they were all headed straight for the trio.

One word echoed in her head.

Run.

Get your copy of Just Another Day in the Zombie Apocalypse wherever eBooks are sold!

Don't miss out!

Click the button below and you can sign up to receive emails whenever L.C. Mortimer publishes a new book. There's no charge and no obligation.

https://books2read.com/r/B-A-XYLC-UVKAB

Connecting independent readers to independent writers.

Did you love Hybrid Academy: Year One? Then you should read Outbreak: A Zombie Novel by L.C. Mortimer!

Emily thought she could survive the apocalypse and save her sister from hordes of undead. She was wrong. By the time she found her sister, it was too late. All hope was shattered. Heartbroken and disillusioned, Emily returns home. There's just one problem: her haven is no longer empty. Someone has moved in.Neil was a leader long enough to know when to cut his losses. Surviving in the city was one major loss. He gathered his friends and hoofed it to the forest. He knew there would be abandoned farmhouses and plenty of land. The fewer inhabitants before the apocalypse struck, the fewer zombies to deal with after.The house they find is incredible. It's isolated, well stocked with food, and Neil even finds a few loaded guns. Soon it becomes obvious that the home isn't as empty as they originally thought, however. When the owner returns, she demands that Neil and his friends move out. She seems to have no problem with the idea of tossing them out on their asses, but there's a major problem.A storm is coming, and it carries with it a greater threat than just zombies.

Also by L.C. Mortimer

Swords of Darkness

Just Another Day in the Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 1

Just Another Day in the Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 2

The Lost Fallen

Outbreak: A Zombie Novel

Just Another Day in the Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 3

Just Another Day in the Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 4

Just Another Day in the Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 5

Just Another Day in the Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 6

Hybrid Academy: Year One