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Also by YD La Mar
MONSTER SHORT STORIES
Sinful Attraction
The Sky Below
Maeonia
ANTHOLOGIES
Monsters in Love: Monstrous Ever After
The Red Key Club
A WOODEN HEART
CASSIE ALEXANDER
A Transformation Trilogy Side Story
“Shayla’s coming back,”Xelrim said, in his typically phlegmatic fashion at breakfast.
I’d just come in from working the fields I attempted to practice my magic in, and my head perked up and swiveled towards him of its own accord like an attentive dog, my body understanding what he was saying before my mind had had a chance to catch up with it.
“Go down to the road and meet her—there’ll be a carriage dropping her off shortly, and she’ll need help with her things,” he went on, ignoring me otherwise like he often did, which was good, because I was standing there, stricken. “And if you let her disturb your studies, I will twist your very head off of your shoulders,” he threatened.
“I—I wouldn’t dream of it,” I stammered.
I hadn’t seen Shayla since she’d run away from our home four years ago, without so much as a note or a goodbye. The girl I’d learned to read beside, that I’d played tag with, who I’d grown up with after I’d entered Xelrim’s mentorship—who’d celebrated my accomplishments and understood my limitations—she’d just disappeared when we were fifteen, and she’d taken my heart with her.
“Well?” Xelrim prompted, without looking up. “Go!”
“Yes, sir!” I said, practically running out of the room, all thoughts of my own breakfast forgotten.
The only thingthat stopped me from running all the way down to the road was the thought of the sight I’d be if I did. It was several miles away, and I hardly wanted Shayla’s first impression of me to be hot and sweaty. It was bad enough that my hands were covered in dirt—but the road was the opposite direction of the river, so I didn’t have a way to wash them. I dusted them off on my breeches furiously...which probably didn’t help those either.
All in all, this would’ve gone better for me had I time to prepare, but I guess her springing back into my life made sense, seeing as that was exactly how she’d left it.
I...just...
I stuttered to a stop in a field, trying to make sense of it all.
I’d been so hurt when she’d went away. At first, I was angry, but then all I could think was that I must’ve done something wrong. If I had, though, I hadn’t ever figured out what it was, which meant that I might do it again. And I didn’t know what I’d do if she came back into my life and disappeared a second time.
I swallowed, swaying, trying to contain my emotions. As a mage, I was intimately accustomed to failure. Every day I went into the fields surrounding Xelrim’s home and tried my magics out, urging plants to grow, one blade of grass, one leaf, one strawberry at a time, with few successes.
That could be allowed to stand. Yes, it was humiliating—especially since some ancient friend of Xelrim’s had once sniffed me like a loaf of fresh bread and deemed me “great”—but it was familiar. I had the entire rest of my life to figure magic out, as mages could seemingly live forever.
But it felt like if I didn’t do the right thing when I saw Shayla next, she might step back into the carriage and vanish, and there was no way I could stomach that.
