Shadow Phantoms - H.P. Mallory Page 0,34

was hanging open like he was imitating a fish.

Before I could answer, Stone dropped his shoulder bag onto the chair by the center platform’s blackboard and turned to face our side of the room.

“Welcome to Charms and Divinations,” Stone said. “My name is Stone Draper, and I will be your instructor for the remainder of the semester.”

“Oh my fucking god,” I said in a whisper.

“What?” Jupiter asked. “Emma?”

I focused on Stone, unable to look at anything else. I felt absurdly stupid at thinking he was my classmate. And a little miffed he’d played along with the whole thing. Why had he played along?

“I am happy to be here with all of you today,” he continued. “And you are all truly lucky to be here, at this academy, as well.”

“Oh my god,” Ellenora whispered to Trixie. “He is the hottest professor I’ve ever seen in my life!”

“Right?” Allegra chimed in.

Kevin tittered to himself. He leaned over Jupiter so he could whisper to us both out of the corner of his mouth. “I am going to have so much fun watching these bitches believe they actually have a shot with him.” Jupiter laughed as Kevin sat back in his chair.

Stone scanned the classroom thoughtfully. His eyes locked on mine for half a second. A knowing smile lit his face. “Salem is a great well of magic as you’re probably already aware, owing to all the witchcraft that’s taken place here across the years. Possibly one of the most potent wells in the world.”

“What happened to Professor Tarkington?” I asked, as I turned to face Jupiter.

But before she could answer, Stone started talking again. “Now, I know this transition is going to have a slight learning curve as you get used to me and I get used to all of you. So just bear with me, please. First things first, I want to make sure we’re staying on track with your curriculum. Thus, if you’d all please turn to page four-hundred and twenty in your textbooks…”

His low voice was rich and warm, even from a distance.

He turned around to face the double-sided chalk board in the room’s circular center platform. The chalkboard’s other side was enchanted to mirror everything that appeared on Stone’s side. There were only a few students over there, scattered sparsely with nothing on their desks. Those students could read what he wrote and hear what he said, but they couldn’t see his lips move as he talked, or watch the strong, lean lines of his body move as he paced in front of the board… I suddenly felt sorry for them.

“Are you okay?” Jupiter’s brow furrowed in concern and her brow piercings clinked together. “You look like you’re about to barf or something.”

“What happened to Tarkington?” I mumbled quickly.

Jupiter glanced at me again, somewhat perplexed. “Didn’t you get the message?” she asked. “It was in everyone’s post box this morning.”

“No.”

“Tarkington went into early retirement, so they sent in a new guy,” Kevin answered. Then he turned to face Stone again. “Only I had no idea the new guy would be straight from the pages of sexiest man alive.”

“Right,” Jupiter said then she shrugged and looked back to the front of the class. The light glinted off Stone’s brown hair, giving the appearance of a majestic, gold-tinted waterfall.

Stop thinking about your professor like he’s some sort of sex god! I commanded myself. Instead of staring at him, I focused on the empty spot of chalkboard to his left.

That’s better, I thought. Just keep staring at the chalkboard.

I turned to page four hundred and twenty, wayyy later than everyone else had, and read the chapter title: Cartography and Weather Manipulation.

“Seeing as we’ve only just met, it seems fitting we should start off by discussing the weather,” Stone said, trying to make a joke that earned him a few snickers. “In your textbooks, you’ll find the instructions for a spell that will allow you to remotely control the weather of any place in the world—provided, you have a map.”

Stone snapped his fingers. Old, parchment maps appeared on our desks. We noisily unfurled them. Stone spoke over the cacophony.

“Today’s assignment: summon a tornado over a plot of uninhabited land,” he projected. “You all learned how to manipulate wind in the last unit, so today will be something like a review. Only the wind you’re manipulating will be the mirror image of an actual tornado that appears in real life wherever you place it on the map. I’ll be walking around the room in