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Holyhell. My heart pounds a wild beat in my chest and the adrenaline and shock coursing through my veins has my frozen body practically vibrating. Hiseyes, they’re...rainbow. A writhing mass of pale colours, with a soft glow emanating from them. My tongue flicks over my bottom lip and I have to suppress a pleased sound when his colourful eyes follow the movement.
Despite my protest, I’m really lucky he was here, or else I might be pancaked under a tree right now. Come to think of it, why is he here? The guy from runes class—whose name I really need to find out—stands with me wrapped in his arms, his firm chest pressed tight to my side as I hold his unique gaze.
I snuck out here to see if I was able to replicate what I did to the assehole from earlier today, but unfortunately it wasn’t the same. Instead of gaining power from the experience, my mind and body are exhausted. The thoughts of magic draw my attention back to what I just witnessed. That act of heroism was not a B-level monster’s powers as his contributions in rune class would suggest. Neither are the waves of power currently radiating from his chest. I swallow hard, a harsh breath falling from my parted lips. It’s as though his magic is trying to draw out mine and I have to consciously strain against the call.
Our eye contact breaks and the strange sensation falls away, but the questions it caused linger at the back of my mind. Could he be an A-class? Or possibly an O- class? The second thought has a full body shiver rolling through me for some reason. I bite my lip hard to suppress my rising lust and carefully break away from his hold, putting a few much needed feet between us so I can think clearly.
As if the lack of physical contact between us brings him back to his senses, he growls, and like a rubber band snapping, his powers disappear—eyes and everything returning to normal—like the magic was never there. I stop a whimper from escaping my throat at the absence, and my brows furrow.What the heck is going on right now?
I puff out a breath and rock back on my heels, awkwardness slithering down my back. “Well… Thanks. I'm gonna go. Yeah…uh, bye.”
I’m not sure what I was expecting his response to be at my hasty retreat, but it wasn’t for him to mutter something too low for me to decipher then stalk off into the trees.Well okay then.
Huffing out another breath, I walk back to my dorm in a haze, lost in my head while I mentally rehash the whirlwind that the night turned into. When I get to my door the hair on my nape prickles and I peer back down the hall. I could have sworn that I felt eyes on me. My eyes linger on a shadowed corner when I swear I see a faint outline of someone, but it disappears after I squint. When I don’t spot anything else unusual I shake my head and slip into my room, making sure to slide the dead bolt across behind me though.
Chapter Twelve — Corin
MylungsseizewhenNessa’s eyes lock in on the dark corner I’m standing in, and for a split second doubts cloud my mind and I think my magic has slipped—that she can see me. But after a moment she turns away shaking her head, and my body unclenches. I need my cloaking magic too much at the moment to have it faltering. Once she’s out of sight I let my head fall forwards, gripping the back of my neck with one hand. My fascination with this female is getting out of hand, but it’s as though I can’t help it. Her magic sings to mine like a fucking siren’s song does to a bad soul and if I weren’t mistaken I’d say that she were an O-class, but that’s not possible.Shouldn’t be possible. If there were any known O-class supernaturals on campus I would have been informed by my employers. They’re extremely rare and their powers are known to be extremely dangerous if not cultured correctly.
Rolling my shoulders, I resign myself to another restless three hours of sleep before I have to get up at an ungodly hour to stalk one of the newer men on staff. My jaw twitches when it occurs to me that my occupation might be rubbing off on how I act in my everyday life just a little bit. I swallow roughly,no, I was just making sure Nessa got back to her dorm safe. No stalking involved whatsoever,nope.
Chapter Thirteen — Dylan
Ican’thelpbutnotice that there is something different about Nessa today. It has nothing to do with her appearance, but more like it’s a vibe she’s throwing off? I blink repeatedly, trying to redirect my focus so I can actually do the job I’m supposed to for the next hour and a half.
For the start of the session I’ve had her focusing on finding her magic core, grabbing ahold of it, then releasing it and repeating the exercise again. The activity is mostly so I have time to get my head together. She hasn’t looked at me once like she’s interested since our first lesson, and has barely peered in my direction today. My brows furrow as I scan her form, trying to puzzle out what’s different. Her fingers tap a fast beat against her thigh and her face is scrunched up as she concentrates with her eyes closed.
She’s come a long way since our first session and is keeping up in most of her magic lessons so far. She knows the theory side of things insanely well, so it’s only putting it into practice that we have to work on. After I returned her bag we had a lengthy talk about the magic she’d gained access to and we decided to start with the basics for a few lessons as learning how to contain, centre and call upon your magic are the building blocks you need to know before using it. If you don’t, then you are putting yourself and others at risk, not to mention your magic will be completely unreliable and likely volatile. Well that and the basics along with whatever she’s working on in class so she doesn’t fall behind. I return my focus to Nessa, using my magic to sense hers, and feel how she’s doing.
“Okay, you’re doing great. Take a break then we’ll start actually drawing out your powers.” Nessa’s body jolts like my voice is a gunshot rather than the just-above-a-whisper it actually was. My eyes follow her movements as she leans down to grab a bottle of water, drawing patterns through the condensation after taking a few sips. Is she…nervous?
Rather than settle me, the realisation has a chill crawling down my spine. I roll my lower lip into my mouth, biting at it as I consider what I possibly could have done to result in such a reaction. Our interactions have been rather limited so far, and she didn’t witness my odd interaction with Oscar, so I’m unsure as to why she’d be nervous around me.
As though sensing my unease, Nessa’s eyes meet mine and hold. A million thoughts seem to pass behind her eyes as she stares at me, but she settles with a quiet, “Thank you for doing this.”
My head cocks to the side as I struggle to process her words, then blink when what she’s referring to hits me.The tutoring. My throat goes dry and I break eye contact with a short cough, not sure how to answer that. The familiar panic of being on the spot swarms me and my heart flutters in my ears. I focus on a faint freckle that sits near the tip of Nessa’s nose,1, 2, 3…I mentally count to ten. It’s a technique I’ve used for years now to ground myself, and thankfully my breathing settles as my head clears.
I inwardly cringe at the almost anxiety attack, and forge on, launching into the correct way for Nessa to draw out her magic. I’m praying she didn’t notice my freakout, but by the gentle side-eye she’s throwing at me, she did.
Moving on, we get up so we’re standing a safe distance from the desk. Studying the position Nessa’s in as she aims at a practice dummy along the far wall of the room, I notice her stance is off, so I slide my fingers around her wrists to correct it and a burst of electricity ripples from her hands. I flinch, but my powers inhibit the energy from actually hurting me. Visible bolts of blue electricity dance up my forearms causing gentle spasms to tug at the muscles beneath my skin. Oddly enough, the urge to pull away never hits me—besides the instinctual flinch. Instead, I latch onto Nessa’s wrists properly. My gasp echoing hers at the sudden show of power.Christ. How the hell has she flown under the radar until now? This is some O-class magic, which is beyond rare. Even more so for a female monster, as the majority of known O-class monsters are male.
My gut clenches and I instinctively tug her closer as the severity of her power rank slams into me.If anyone finds out about this, she’ll have an entire army after her.
A low worried sound falls from my parted lips when Nessa brings one of her hands—which is still intertwined with mine—to brace against my chest. She becomes my soul focus as her liquid gold eyes flick to mine then down to my lips. Energy that wasn’t there before crackles to life between us and I tense, heat curling in my gut.
I’m not sure how we got to this moment, but I open my mouth to speak, only to get interrupted when the door flies open. My head whips toward the entry point and I take a protective step in front of Nessa, before registering that it’s just Oscar. My body stays stiff even as my mental state relaxes. A new sensation crawls up my back, and the irrational urge to apologise for having a moment with Nessa arises. I step back, avoiding Oscar's eyes and instead allowing my gaze to flicker between Nessa and him. He doesn’t seem annoyed as he returns my examination. But as I take in his appearance my brain returns to high alert. He’s completely dishevelled, his shirt’s askew, hair standing on end as though he’s ran his fingers through it repeatedly and a haunted quality shadows his usually bubbly expression.
“What’s up?” Nessa asks, her voice low and concerned, breaking the awkward silence and shattering the lingering tension in the room. She takes a small step forward, sensing the trolls disquiet as well.
I let out a breath through my teeth when Oscar’s face goes carefully neutral. “A student is dead.”
I blink, my head tilting forwards as I struggle to compute his words.What?
Chapter Fourteen — Oscar
DylanandNessa’sexpressionswould be comical if it weren’t for the sombre reason behind them. I run a hand through my ruffled hair, gnawing on my lip as the last hour’s events run through my head.
A scream sounded to my left and my head jerked towardsthe piercing noise. Adrenaline tingled in my limbs as I scanned the area, only to freeze when my eyes caught on the reason the girl was screaming. What at first glance appeared to be a lump on the ground is a body—or what’s left of one. I swallowed past the sudden chalkiness of my throat and despite knowing I shouldn’t go any closer, like a slow motion car crash, I couldn’t seem to stop myself. I didn’t draw to a halt until the tips of my boots were millimetres from the dark pool of blood that surrounds what could only be described as carnage. Pale skin and torn clothing mixed with dark swathes of blood and mangled body parts, and when my eyes landed on what used to be their face I had to press a hand to my mouth to keep from gagging.
