"Raven, what is taking you so long?"
My grandmother's voice got me picking up the mirror in a rush. Seeing my father frozen hurts me in a way I'm not ready for, so I lock my eyes on the ground while sprinting past him.
"Sorry," I apologize with a grimace. "I was just shocked to see Lucy."
Surprise flickers in my grandmother's eyes. "He let you call him Lucy?"
I nod, and she smiles, satisfied with my answer.
"Why don't you head inside the portal, dear? I will be right with you as soon as I'm finished here."
"Okay..." I walk for the portal but stop myself from entering. "I wish you didn't have to take away his memories."
"It's for his safety."
"I know..." I mumble.
My grandmother seems troubled, and I notice color draining from her face as she glances at my father. "Removing memories from someone you love is never easy, and if you aren't careful, those memories will come rushing towards you."
My heart squeezes inside my chest, yet I press on without turning back. Then, quickly, I enter the portal and gasp when I turn into what reminds me of pixie dust.
I look down at my hand, blinking multiple times. I'm being shredded from existence, turning into minor pieces. First, my hands turn to dust, and then I'm sucked into a vortex.
I expect to travel through a tunnel or space; instead, I'm directly thrown into the other dimension. I scream as I fall headfirst onto soft fabric. Thankfully, I land without a scratch.
"Ouch! That hurt!" I curse, daring to open my eyes.
The trees of the forest have been replaced with banners, and I seem to be in a room with the ceiling so far away from me it's as if I've been teleported into a realm for giants.
Luckily, I fell headfirst into something soft, and a gasp gets stuck in my throat when I push up on my arms—I'm lying on top of a guy!
He smells delicious, like some addicting shower gel. Honestly, I want to keep sniffing him, touch him everywhere, but I realize that would be freaky. Not to mention what perverted people do.
"Oh!" I talk, cheeks burning with embarrassment. "I'm sorry-..."
I forget what I was about to say mid-sentence. The guy grunts in response and lifts his head to glare at me, but I'm too busy staring down at what I'm touching.
Dear lord!
The angry guy is half-naked, wearing nothing more than a pair of black sweatpants over his sweaty, glistening skin!
He must have been working out before I hit him like a comet. Taut muscles covered by sweat contract under the palms of my hands, and I sit up, mortified about where I was touching mere moments ago.
"Did you try to kill me just now?" The guy is mumbling. "I swear you can't even workout at this school before weird shit happens... Now girls are falling from the sky..."
I'm too shocked to focus on his words. I've never touched a guy's naked skin before, and now I've felt up a carved eight-pack rippling with brawn without permission!
Wait!
Oh-my-god!
I'm a pervert!
My heart pounds—thought with all the adrenaline and nerves racing through me, it feels more like I'm taking direct punches to my chest.
"Where the fuck did you come from?" The guy is massaging his temples as if suffering from a headache.
"Uh..." My brain has chosen the best time to go on vacation.
The guy sits up, and I notice his hair is darker than black, longer and combed up, and his eyes are this rich shade of honeycomb—he is gorgeous.
He takes me in for a few seconds, entirely unphased. "Who are you?"
"I'm -... Uh..."
The hot guy with the killer abs looks at me like I've grown two heads.
There is a burst of sudden laughter inside my head. 'You're a real smooth talker.' Lucy sounds like he is having the time of his life. 'I can't believe how easy you lost your cool. Do men always have this effect on you?'
I glare down at my hands. "Shut up, Lucy!"
"And who are you talking to?" The hot guy sounds confused, and I lift my chin to look at him, gasping at him when he picks up Lucy's mirror.
Shock settles into his features as he looks at who must be Lucy, and then he drops the mirror—I catch it in the last second.
"Hey!" I glare at the guy, angry at him but relieved that I saved Lucy at the last minute. "Be careful; this thing is ancient!"
The guy stares at me. "Why do you keep a demon locked up inside a mirror? They are dangerous! What if it escapes?"
I roll my eyes. "Lucy can't escape without me speaking the words to release him; he is harmless right now."
"Harmless?" The guy snorts, and then his eyes widen with what looks like a sudden realization. "Wait a minute..." His gaze roams all over me. "Pale skin, raven hair, and a demon as a pet—you must be the principal's granddaughter!"
The principal? I thought my grandmother was an ordinary Herbologist teacher, someone who specialized in herbology. She loves nature and always kept strange fungi at home.
As if having read my private thoughts, Lucy clears his throat. 'Your grandmother needs to have a chat with you. Also, since you just saved my life, I owe to tell you that this guy right here stinks like a dog—he must be a werewolf.'
"I'm Raven Archibald," I tell him stoutly. "Margaret Broomer is my grandmother."
"So then I was right?" He smirks, and my heart does this somersault.
"I didn't know she was the principal," I admit. "Regardless, it's a pleasure to meet you." I reach out my hand for him to shake. "Who are you?"
He stares down at my hand with smoldering eyes and then lifts himself from the floor, brushing off his knees.
"I'm Blake Christian, and I don't shake hands with nerds that can't control their powers—I don't want to blow up like your school."
Lucy growls. 'It seems he knows about you already.'
I can tell Blake had meant to hurt me, humiliate me to the point of submission. But I'm not a coward.
I stand up and challenge his cruel smile with one of my own; this seems to confuse him.
"Oh, so you've heard about me already?" I nod my head without waiting for his answer. "Not bad, but you're mistaken about something."
"And what is that?"
There is a burning fire within me. "I wouldn't blow you up if you became my friend, Blake." I tap his chest with a smug smile, and what I'm hoping are treacherous eyes. "But I wouldn't hesitate to burn my enemy down to the ground, so think twice about making me your victim, okay?"
Blake's jaw drops to the ground, and I snort at his calculating eyes, seeing me in a new light—my work here is done.
"Think about it, Blake." I turn around to leave Blake alone, satisfied by his reaction. "It would be a shame to blow up such a pretty little head."
Inside my skull, Lucy is laughing, whistling loudly. 'Watch out—the dog got a boner now!'
As I walk up a set of stairs with blue banners hanging down from the ceiling, I have no way of knowing if this is the way to my room. My grandmother still hasn't popped up, and I think something important she needed to care for came up. I don't mind. I enjoy wandering around on my own, but this part of the school building is entirely different from where I bumped into Blake. They decorated this section everything in blue or white. I round a corner, almost bumping into a blonde girl that easily could be mistaken for an angel. The girl is gorgeous until she sneers at me, her eyes looking me up and down. "Watch where you are going!" She shouts in the most dramatic way possible. "And what are you wearing? If you are a student, you need to wear the color of your house. Aren't you sorted yet?" "Sorted?" I ask. Two other girls are glaring at me from behind the blonde girl, clearly her little minions. They all wear the same blue cheerleading clothes,
I follow my grandmother through a herd of whispering students. Then, finally, they let us pass by, backing away from our path. But that doesn't help calm down my nerves—everyone is gossiping about me already, wondering what my house will end up being. A girl flicks her long hair. "They must sort her into the house of fire, considering her powers." That's right. It will probably be the house of fire for me. A guy shakes his head at the girl. "No way! That would be too obvious—her house will be the water one!" Ugh. Please don't say that! The last thing I want is to become buddy-buddies with Daisy! "Well, it definitely can't be earth." A girl I don't know scowls at me before whispering to her friends. "She doesn't look like someone who values dedication." Ouch. Although true, that comment stung. "Raven!" My grandmother calls for me. She has stopped walking and is now standing before a mirror, holding up her hand as if meaning I sh
The journey to my room wasn't as eventful as I hoped it to be. Make no mistake. Hayden was kind and spoke the entire time, pointing at doors and telling what was behind them, classrooms and toilets and et cetera. Hayden was more than charming, but once we stood outside my door and he was politely telling me goodbye, I was too nervous. He patiently waited, silent, as if expecting me to thank him for showing me to my room, and I kind of ended up slamming my door into his face. Fuck me. Asking Hayden out isn't a possibility now! I flop down onto my new bed in defeat, arms, and legs akimbo."I'm such an idiot!" My grandmother has already summoned my stuff into my new room. I don't look to check if she forgot something. I'm too caught in self-pity. The mirror is shining next to my hand, and I lift myself to stare at Lucy. He appears to be sitting in a chair and dangling grapes into his waiting mouth—it seems there are different rooms in
I'm having trouble sleeping the first night in my new bed. So many times, I wake up drenched in a cold sweat. I'm seventeen, and I've heard it's normal to dream about your mate before you turn eighteen, but my dreams aren't romantic in the slightest. All the events of today: my father getting his memories erased, by bump into Blake, finding out my grandmother might hide the truth about my mother's death, and then get sorted into the air house—got my mind spinning in circles. I close my eyes again, determined to fall back asleep, and almost immediately, I'm pulled back into dreamland. This dream is calmer and less chaotic—I'm sitting on top of my bed with the moonlight coming in through an open window. The scene is beautiful, but something is odd. I have the vision of everything happening around me, but my emotions aren't my own; it's like I'm sharing them with someone else. Is this a vision of the future? Something rustles, and I turn
Lucy is muttering things inside my head while I sit outside the café in the botanical garden. It's beautiful outside, perfect weather for a stroll, yet the demon is angry that I brought him along to my date. 'Why did you need me here?' Lucy asks, clearly beyond irritated. His tail is swapping from side to side, reminding me of a cat. "Because-..." I stop talking and circle my spoon around in my coffee, grimacing at the people staring at me. They must think I'm insane for speaking to a mirror. "Because I just feel at ease having you around, and I can't explain it, but I lose the ability to think around Hayden." Lucy laughs. 'Haven't you figured it out yet?' "Figured out what?" Lucy smirks from his side of the mirror. 'Hayden is a vampire—they are masters of the mind; he has been using his tricks on you from the first moment you laid eyes on him.' I roll my eyes. "You think the worst of everyone..." 'Ask him.' "Sorry, the
Countless coffee cups are scattered over our table, and Hayden is talking animatedly about how he offended a werewolf girl he dated by buying her a necklace in silver. Long story short—she slapped him, which seems to be a regular occurrence at Magic Academy. Hayden appears to be a bit of a casanova with his charming abilities."You really shouldn't date people before finding your mate Hayden; your mate isn't going to end up wanting you," Hayley states and sighs at her brother, who is still laughing from the werewolf story."What's the fun in staying single? I turned eighteen ages ago, and I have yet to find my mate—flirting is essential to survive."Hayley looks like she might want to slap her brother for the second time today. Her jaw is resting in the palm of her hand, and her eyes casually flicker to mine."What about you, Raven? Are you excited about your eighteenth birthday?" She asks.I put down my coffee, and a nervous smile touc
Hayley is leaning her cheek against her knuckles while watching Lucy eat the cookie she gave him. "I'm jealous," Hayley says. "I wish I had a familiar as cute as Lucy." "He is not a familiar." I correct her and look down at the demon. Lucy reminds me of a tiny bat—his wings are clad in leather, darker than the night, and his eyes are red and glowing, but Hayley seems to find him adorable. She won't stop feeding him her cookies. "These cookies are delicious!" Lucy is munching on a cookie more significant than his entire body. He holds it pressed to his chest, I stifle a laugh when I catch his feet sticking out on either side of it. Hayley smiles wider at the compliment. "I baked them myself." "Really?" Lucy looks impressed. Dark hair with hints of blue flows around his head, and his pale skin looks flawless; if he were older, the ladies would fall for his appearance. Hayden rolls his eyes. "Don't take credits for what I gave you
I stare down at the dead body for what feels like decades. Someone is screaming, and Hayden taps me on the shoulder, nodding at Lucy with darkened eyes."Your grandmother will probably arrive shortly. You should tell Lucy to hide in your room or something—she won't be happy he isn't inside his mirror."My eyes flick over to Lucy, who smiles at me from under my hair. "Call me when I'm needed.""I will."Lucy spreads his bat-like wings and takes off, leaving me together with Hayden and Hayley."Where is your grandmother?" Hayley whispers through her clenched teeth. "This is getting out of hand..."I nod, silently agreeing with her.People have formed a crowd around the dead person, and someone has pulled out their iPhone and is posing with the body—making me grimace and wish them dead. How disrespectful can a person be?It's one guy belonging to the fire students, probably a werewolf. He is sitting down on his knees a