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Her eyes flare wide and she tips her head back in exasperation, letting out a huff. “You are impossible,” she growls before leaping off the platform we’re on. I laugh, but take a moment to check our surroundings before jumping down and note that all of her guys and Lexi are making their way towards us through the crowd. There are also two supes trailing after Lexi. I’m guessing they’re her mates. Otherwise there don’t appear to be any threats.
Refocusing on Nessa I lean over the edge of the platform to where she’s striding across the campus, then cup my hands around my mouth. “Thank you, giggles. I take that as a compliment.”
She flips me the bird over her shoulder and I shake my head, about to jump off the platform when it disappears from underneath me as the minx holds up a hand and wiggles her fingers. Cursing, my wings uncurl to spread wide, catching me. When my feet touch the ground, I tuck them away again and giggles, literal giggles, have my head snapping up. Nessa is watching me, standing beside Corin as I get myself together.Brat.
I shake my head, surprised at my ability to be so lighthearted and playful with Nessa when I know there is a good chance that I’ve been caught out, but I just can’t seem to help it when I’m around Nessa. It’s like she’s a blue flame that eclipses everything around her and makes me forget all my worries so all I can focus on is her.
Dylan and Oscar join them, the latter ribbing her playfully. I can’t help but notice as I move towards them that Nessa and her entourage of men seem to be considerably less confused about what just went down than I am. It eases some of my worry to see that they aren’t freaking out so I know that they aren’t afraid for Nessa’s fate, which oddly has something in my chest relaxing.
Lexi reaches them and launches at Nessa to wrap her in a bear hug, which she returns while we watch on. I slow down in my approach to give them the illusion of privacy as they whisper betweens themselves. After a minute or so they break apart and Lexi moves back to her mates who hung back, keeping several feet between Nessa and the guys. Deeming it safe, I resume my approach to Nessa’s group again.
When I reach them, they turn towards the office, with me in step beside them, and Lexi stopped to speak with her mates. Their discussion seems a little heated and they move even farther back from our little rag-tag group so I avert my eyes.
“So, sweetheart, how do you feel now that you are free of Aurora’s magic?” Oscar inquires. My eyes jump to Nessa, her reaction after touching the barrier making more sense—sort of—her releasing a whole other person's magic into an object would cause a sort of high, like she experienced.
She groans and rubs at her eyes. “Tired, but alright.” Her attention slides to me and she drops back slightly so she’s walking next to me instead of me trailing after them. “Although, I’m pretty sure I went a little loopy for a bit afterwards.”
I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling and tilt my head to the side, quirking an eyebrow. “Are you telling me that you don’t remember, giggles?”
She answers while simultaneously flipping me the bird. “Yes, well, mostly.” I stare at her in silence and she grumbles under her breath. “Fine, it’s a little hazy. I remember the butterflies though.”
I nod and grin. “Yes, she went a little loopy,” I confirm. “Imagine a very bubbly, drunk Nessa, then add in like a few drops of clumsiness and you’ve got her post-giving-magic-to-the-barrier.”
Oscar cackles, rubbing his hands together like a gleeful kid. Corin throws Nessa a crinkle-eyed smile over his shoulder, also keeping the lightheartedness, while Dylan watches her curiously. I’m wondering about his odd reaction when he talks to himself in a low voice, clearly lost in thought. “Hmm, I wonder why she reacted like that? The exhaustion makes sense but not the high.” He continues to process it but his words are too quiet for me to hear. I only catch them in the first place because he’s closest to me. Not knowing him well enough to add in my thought-process on the ordeal, I pretend I didn’t hear him and let him come to his own conclusions.
As we step into the Academy, almost at the office, a thought occurs to me. “What did it feel like to be portalled to the campus grounds?”
Corin turns to look at me as we come to a stop at the entrance to the office, eyebrows drawn low. “It didn’t feel like a normal portal. In fact, I didn’t even realise we’d been portalled until I was on the field and actually saw the portals. It felt more like magic had latched onto me, and before I had a chance to react, I was appearing on campus surrounded by a ton of people,” he explains with a shrug.
Dylan and Oscar murmur that their experience was the same then Corin knocks on the office door. A voice from inside calls for us to enter, but I’m distracted by a sudden flutter of wings. My magic instinctively rises to defend us from a threat, but Nessa grabs my arm. “Foster, don’t. It’s just Unicorn.” I relax and step back as her familiar flies into sight. She chirps her greeting before landing gracefully on Nessa’s shoulder. She then proceeds to chirp and growl to her as if she’s actually speaking. Huh, how strange.
After a moment, Nessa coos at her. “Aw, I’m alright. No need to worry.” Then those golden eyes flick to us. “She was locked inside my dorm by magic, probably so she wouldn’t freak out over new management.”
My eyebrows climb my forehead. “You can understand her?”
Nessa cocks her head, lips pursed thoughtfully as she stares at the familiar on her shoulder. “Not exactly, and not all the time. Sometimes it’s like I just look at her and suddenly I just know.” She shrugs, shaking her head when we all just stare at her. “I know, it doesn’t make much sense…” she says, trailing off.
I give her a small smile, shrugging too. “Most magic doesn’t make sense.”
Nessa’s phone pings with a message, and she tugs it out of her pocket, eyebrows furrowing as she reads it before tapping out a reply. “We can head in, Lexi said something’s come up with her mates so she’s going to be here in ten minutes instead.”
Corin nods and pushes the office door open. When we enter, the chair behind the administration desk is empty and the new headmaster is standing in the doorway of her office. Aurora is back to the size of the average supernatural now, and it’s almost odd seeing her look so normal after how she was outside. Her form—just like it was outside—is clearly not fully corporeal, but it also isn’t quite ghost-like either. She’s smiling, one that appears to be genuine, eyes fixed on Nessa and I have to resist the urge to drop my eyes.She has so much power.Nothing like our previous headmaster who felt no different than any other supernatural and carried a distinctly weasley aura about him.
Headmaster Aurora, completely sheds her serious persona and launches forward to wrap Nessa in a hug, careful of Unicorn who is perched on her shoulder. I suck in a surprised breath as Nessa jolts, hands frozen at her sides for a moment before she moves to rest her hands on the Headmasters back. Immediately my head is swirling with questions.Why is she hugging Nessa? What the hell is going on? How can she touch her, she’s a ghost, or at least I thought she was—now I’m not so sure.The urge to pepper everyone with questions hits me hard but I hold back, observing instead.
After a few seconds and a few awkward pats on the back from Nessa, the Headmaster pulls back, a smile on her face. Unicorn offers the woman some happy chitters and practically bounces in excitement on Nessa’s shoulder as she greets the new Headmaster. Aurora laughs and offers her some mumbled baby talk and a chin scratch. “Thank you so much. For freeing me and restoring me, and in turn the Academy’s magic to full power,” she says, her focus returning to Nessa. It’s then that I notice something. Their… their eyes are the same. The shape is similar and the colour is almost the exact same as Nessa’s when she’s using her magic.
Although I’m still pretty sure the Headmaster is a ghost, it means she must be extremely powerful to have colour, rather than just being a grey-ish white colour that most ghosts are—clothes and all. She still appears to be semi translucent though, but even with that, her red eyes are startlingly similar to Nessa’s. It has me noting the other similarities in their faces and my eyes flit to Dylan who I’ve found to be the most observant one in their group, to see if he’s noticed it too. He’s looking between the two with his eyebrows drawn down.
It’s definitely odd and it doesn’t help that when I looked into Nessa’s background I couldn’t find out much about her. Like literally almost nothing. Her parents have done an amazing job at protecting her privacy.
I zone back into the conversation when the Headmaster turns to Dylan, Corin, and Oscar in turn, offering them thanks before landing on me.
Nessa
“And thank you all as well. I know how you’ve stuck by Nessa’s side through all the crazy.”
I snort quietly and bite my lip to hide my smile as Aurora thanks the guys. I mean, she isn’t wrong, I have certainly dragged them into some crazy and dangerous situations, but I can’t help but laugh at their expressions right now. I swear Corin looks constipated, while Dylan is flushing slightly, nodding his acceptance of the thanks, and Oscar is outright grinning. The personality differences are astonishing. My eyes snag on Foster who is hanging back slightly, head cocked in thought as his eyes flit between the guys before landing on me. He catches me watching him and gives me a look I can’t exactly decipher before Aurora’s full attention lands on him.Oooh, this should be good.
