Supernatural Academy: Year One (Supernatural Academy #1)(40)

For now we knew that Faerie was a world that was dying, or at least not easily livable for supernaturals, which was why most of us made our life here on Earth, living with humans, managing our laws and people, monitoring supernatural criminals in the prisons that were scattered around the world.

Prisons that came about as a way to keep our secret amongst humans. Our biggest law, apparently, was do not reveal yourself to the humans. I was already reading ahead in the information packet I’d gotten, and that, along with my Race Morphology textbook, was going to be a future bedtime story.

My last class was Herbalism, in the forest section. After the water world, it was my favorite part of the Academy. It had such a mood about it. Magic gave this school an ocean and a rainforest. It was almost like I got to travel across the world without ever leaving the one spot.

“Okay, I need you to find and correctly identify the ten plants on your worksheet,” said Fleecia, the fey who taught Herbalism. Like most of the fey, she was leggy, with golden-blond hair and very bright cerulean-colored eyes. “Once you’ve located and correctly identified them, then we can move on to their magical properties.”

“Come on,” Larissa said. “I know the best places to find these herbs.”

We hurried away from the main group, venturing deeper into this dark forest. “So you took this class last year?” I asked as we pushed through the thick foliage. It was so nice to have her in a class with me.

She shook her head. “No, it wasn’t offered to first years then. One of the new changes this year. It’s actually a relatively new class anyway, so this is the first year for a lot of these students.”

I pointed out a herb on our list, and she made notes on the form.

“So how did Water Magic go last night?” she asked, while I sketched the herb—wolfsbane: a shifter attractant.

“Uh….” I hadn’t told either of them what happened, but I was pretty sure I’d burst if I didn’t share it. In hushed whispers, I detailed my little water incident and the future secret classes with Asher.

During my story we managed to find three more of the herbs, including cliffston, which when turned into an oil would put a supe into a deep sleep for a few hours. I could already tell that we were going to learn so much about herbal weapons and healing tinctures; supes were dumbasses for not taking this class.

Larissa shook her head, leaves tumbling from her blond locks. “So you’re telling me that on your first day of school you managed to catch the attention of the most eligible bachelor of this entire Academy. I mean, girls would sell their family for some one-on-one time with him.”

I snorted, still not sure how I felt about it. “Why is he even a teacher? He’s a student, right?”

Larissa nodded. “There’s no one better with water magic than him, so Dad pretty much had no choice but to beg him to teach the class. Our Water Magic students last year were outstanding, and that was all thanks to Asher.”

No wonder he had everything he wanted in this school. Sounded like Princeps Jones needed Asher more than Asher needed him.





Friday morning arrived and Larissa got a message to me that Louis was delayed and wouldn’t be by until after lunch tomorrow. I was disappointed, but shit happened, so I focused on the two classes I had. They passed quickly, and while my brain was tired from the information overload, I still loved this new life and everything I was learning. The expected freak out never came, because it was just all so fascinating. Not to mention I’d never been this happy and content before.

Later that afternoon, when I was changing out of my uniform, Ilia sighed. “Are you sure you should be alone with him?” She was sprawled back across my bed. “I mean, how could any sane woman not jump him?”

I’d confessed everything to her as well, and it was nice that Ilia and Larissa were aware of my weirdness and didn’t care. No one thought I was a secret mermaid or anything. Apparently they were ugly mean hags, and there was no way I could be descended from that.

“Blocked powers can manifest in weird ways,” Ilia told me. “Yours have always burst out strongly, only to disappear to almost nothing. The water thing could be fey energy, or a magic user skill. We still have no idea who your real parents are or your race mix.”

I paused, standing in just my bra and panties. “Yeah, what’s with that? I mean, shouldn’t they know about interspecies adoptions and shit?”

No one knew how my “mother” managed to get her cracked-out hands on me. There was so much they didn’t know, and it was fucking frustrating.

Ilia shrugged, her red curls bouncing around as she reached up to drag a pillow under her head. “There’s literally not a paper trail or fucking breadcrumb left behind in regard to your adoption. Whoever organized it did a very good job covering it up.”

Of course they did.

Crossing to my drawers, I dug around in my pathetic underwear section and pulled out my old bikini. Asher had said to wear a swimsuit and this was all I had, a ten-buck pair that I’d grabbed from a Walmart.

I wasn’t shy about my body, and Ilia wasn’t paying attention to me, so I shimmied out of my underwear and into the bikini. I threw on a pair of black leggings and a white shirt over the top and slipped my feet into my flip-flops. The weather outside was freezing, with snow forecast, but the beach area was perpetually summer.