Shadowborn Academy_ Year One (Dark Fae Academy #1) - G. Bailey Page 0,13
I collect the rest of your year for the welcoming assembly.”
I nod once and carefully watch as Mr Greyhorn disappears into a puff of purple smoke. Damn, I forgot to ask him about the tattoo and what the hell it’s supposed to do.
And why it hurt so much.
“Cheating is a sin, you know?” Mr Vincent leisurely comments and I turn to see him leaning a shoulder on the wall, his arms crossed over his chest as he looks me up and down.
“So is murder. Clearly I like to sin, so why don’t you shut up and not push your luck?” I retort, expecting him to be shocked, but instead he just laughs. He straightens and walks right up to me, close enough that I can smell his aftershave. It invades my senses, the strong scent of leather mixed with something floral, and I hate that I’m not repulsed by it.
The boy’s eyes glisten, and he curves the edge of his lips. “I would love to see you try, Miss Charles.”
I pull my lips into a similar scathing smile. “Step any closer and you will.”
“Like this?” He leans down, bringing his face just inches from my own. His warm breath tickles my flushed cheeks. “My name is Jonah Vincent and you best stay out of my way, shadow raven, or you’ll regret it. Understood? Alrighty then.”
After delivering such a vague little threat, he returns to his spot by the wall and tilts his gaze away from me. I frown at his comment. Only two people in this world, and the mortal world, know about my preferred shift, and those are Sage and Pitch. How in the name of Selena does this boy know anything about me? One thing is for sure, I don’t want anything to do with him.
If Jonah Vincent values his life, he’ll stay away from me too.
I don’t like people who throw useless threats around, and if he’s not careful, I just might let my demons out to play for a while.
The second I see Sage, I have to hold in the urge to run to her, especially when I see she is covered head-to-toe in dirt. She looks like she’s just been dragged through a bush with twigs and leaves embedded in her hair. Thankfully, the other fifteen or so students gathering outside the assembly hall seem to be in a similar state. Mr Greyhorn walks past me just before Sage gets to my side, her worried eyes saying everything.
“How did you get here so quick?” she hisses in a whisper.
I wait to answer until a few more students step in front of us, gathering around the doors.
“A wisp,” I say, and she pouts.
“Lucky you. I was dragged here by trees most of the way,” she grumbles, just before the doors open, and I try not to laugh at Sage’s pissed off expression.
Travel by trees, that’s certainly new.
And painful.
There must be an easier way to travel around here. Mr Greyhorn clearly translocated earlier when he fetched the others. While I do know how to shapeshift, I don’t know how to disappear into thin air just yet. I’ve never needed to until now. Maybe Pitch can teach me, or Ambrose.
Not even Pitch knows about him.
He’ll probably just say Ambrose is a figment of my imagination. But he’s not.
Ambrose only ever appears in my dreams.
He first came to me when I was twelve and planned to do something stupid—something that involved jumping off a cliff to escape my demons. The most breathtaking white owl with sapphire eyes convinced me to keep fighting. Ever since then, Ambrose has guided me in my dreams, appearing in different animal forms that are always white. I bet he’ll know how to translocate. He’s already taught me so much. The best thing I’ve learned from him is how to wake the dead. Necromancy is the darkest form of magic, and not many can successfully do it without it ending in a disaster. I may only be able to resurrect animals but at least it’s a start.
It’s also how I became friends with my crows.
I found Wren dead in a hunting trap some years ago, and later that night, Ambrose helped me resurrect him. Ever since then, Wren, Crowe, and Rook have never strayed far from my side, always guarding me from a distance. I wonder if they managed to get into the academy somehow?
Leaning over, I pick two twigs out of Sage’s hair and she smiles thankfully at me.