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“Ms. Mitchell!” Professor Veselyshouted, as if that was going to make a difference. What did he not understand about me not being in control here?
Magnolia took one look at the crazed leopard bearing down on her, let out a shriek and darted behind Elliot’s leg, a stupid place to hide if you asked me.
Elliot saw us coming, though, reared up and let loose a wave of fire. It wasn’t low enough to even singe our fur, but it certainly caught our attention.
Miki-Leopard jerked to a halt and I had one moment of sheer relief that she was finally coming to her senses when she hissed and roared again, this time spouting flames of her own.
Elliot-Dragon stumbled back, startled, tripped over his own feet and landed on his rump.
Luckily for Magnolia, she’d moved outfrom under him when he’d distracted us, so wasn’t in the danger zone when he fell.
The strangest thing about all of this was that Miki-Leopard seemed greatly satisfied with the outcome.
We’d fought fire with fire, though I had no idea how, and had startled the giant dragon, making him fall down. This, to Miki-Leopard, meant thatwehad won.
To ensure he got the point, she snarled one last time,Bad-Dragon. Then, projecting an air of superiority and radiating smugness, she turned her back on Elliot, twitched her tail at him and sauntered away.
This time, she didn’t take us to Jasmine and Kasi, but rather to a tree not too far away, that sheproceeded to climb. She settled on a sturdy limb, where she started to groom herself, surreptitiously watching the class, and more specifically, Elliot, from a distance.
Jasmine and Kasi both made their way over to the base of the tree, where they leaned against its trunk and watched the class with us.
I wasn’t sure how much time had already passed, or how much of class was left, but Professor Vesely continued teaching, every once in a while shooting stern glances our way. At one point, he raised his voice to practically a shout, just to ensure that we heard his message. “Luckily,Elliot is ashifterbecause I guarantee if a certain leopard had attacked arealdragon, the safety of every student here might have been forfeit.”
Though I was entirely annoyed at Miki-Leopard for picking fights with dragons, I still rolled my eyes internally. Unfortunately, mentally rolling my eyes didn’t have the same satisfaction as physically rolling them would have, but our leopard eyes wouldn’t cooperate.
If Professor Vesely was making some lame attempt at peer pressure, he was going to be disappointed in the results, for the only people whose opinions I cared about were right here with me, standing at the base of my tree.
I was still going to do my best to make peace with my leopard, of course, and to somehow calm her down so that she wasn’t such a raging lunatic all the time.
Miki-Leopard let out an emphatic chuff, blowing air throughher nose in a dramatic snort. As time passed and she lost interest in what was happening during class, she closed her eyes and eventually went to sleep, in the process, shoving me back into my human form.
This was how I ended up falling out of the tree completely naked.
Shifters aren’t supposed to be bothered by nudity, but the thing is, I was a witch my entire life. Sure, I had a dad who shifted into a leopard, but we lived in a witch community because of my mom’s work, not with the other leopards in his den.
This meant I wasn’t really used to being around a lot of shifters.
And I definitely wasn’t used to sudden, unexpected nudity in public.
Trust me. It was horrifying.
That asshole Taggart got a good look,as did our professor and a lot of other students who happened to glance over when I inadvertently shrieked on account of falling out of the damn tree.
The only thing that saved me was Jasmine’s quick thinking since Miki-leopard was still sound asleep.
Jasmine managed to belt out a quick magical melody that slowed my fall and ensured I only gained some bruises and not broken limbs.
Unfortunately, she didn’t think to sing me some clothes while she was at it, so when I scrambled to my feet, I was entirely naked.
Just when I needed her the most, my leopard went to sleep on me.
Damnit.
Kasi didn’t let me down, though, and strangely enough, neitherdid Elliot.
The problem with Kasi’s solution, though, was that it involved shadows. She released them quickly, forming a wall between me and the rest of the class, but the sight of those shadows sent me stumbling back into the past.
“My sweet little leopard,” a voice from my nightmares crooned in my head. “Your fire calls to me. Let me have it now. So tasty.”
