Page 21 of Phoenix Academy: Madness

The one thing we have in common.

That, and coming back from the dead.

"You'll be safe here," Headmaster Towers says. "We've upgraded our security significantly in the past few months, and it was already very tight. He shouldn't be able to find you."

"Thank you."

"I'm very sorry for your loss." I look down at the carpet, hands on the cooling mug of my coffee, very aware of the fact that I'm in a room of strangers. I don't evenlikethe shifter trio, except maybe Xavier, and yet here they are to witness my grief-stricken expression. "Whatever you need, take it. Extra time on tests, grief counseling, half days of classes. You can't be expected to get up and running right away. In fact, if you want to take the first few weeks off—"

"Actually." Petra clears her throat and pushes up off the wall, approaching the headmaster's desk. "I don't think that will be advisable. At all."

"Oh?" Headmaster Towers raises her eyebrows at her former student. "And why is that?"

"Because she's so dangerous that she almost took out her entire dorm, and I still don't even know why." Petra glances over at me, an apologetic grimace on her face. "She needs training, stat. From that mage you found. And maybe Yohan too, so she can learn to control her powers. Because whatever it is that makes a Blue Phoenix tick, it doesn't just turn men mad. It turnsshiftersferal, too."

"It's true," I admit, cheeks heating. "I can't control my powers. I nearly lost control completely this morning. And the last time... the last time I used them on humans, one of them died. Maybe the other one too."

"It didn't effect me." This time it's Xavier who speaks up. "Or Reggie. We could feel it, but neither one of us feltmad.Just... curious. At least until she tried to shoot us. I don't know about David, though."

I feel it: a prickle between my shoulder blades. Awareness of a predator at my back. What is it, I wonder, that I feel between me and the trio of shifters? When I tap briefly into my naturalistic senses, I can feel the four shifters in the room, but only three of them loom large in my awareness. It's like we're connected in some way, and I can't say that I like it at all.

David finally says, "The blue magic made me feel like my wolf was a part of me, instead of something to fight. It was... different. I didn't like it."

"Interesting." A pensive expression crosses the headmaster's face. "I wonder if something about the Black bloodline changes how the magic effects the three of you. That blood courses through all your veins equally."

I frown; David doesn't strike me as someone related to the twins, in temperamentorappearance. They have completely different animal forms, too, while shifter families tend to share a form or at least a type of animal. I wonder if they're distant cousins somehow. But it's not a question I get to ask, because the headmaster speaks up again.

"I have an idea. Since the three of you found Ari, and her powers seem to effect you differently, let's put you in her class with Mage Auerbach. He needs more than one pupil, after all, and I'm sure there's something he can teach you. I'll have your schedules changed so there's room." She doesn't even wait for them to reply; I hear a little grumbling and sighing from behind me, but it's nothing compared to how I feel about having a class with amagefor a teacher. "He can study the ways in which magic interacts with the Black bloodline. In fact, he just got in this morning and is excited about his new schedule, so go straight there from here."

Petra clears her throat and adds, "After breakfast."

"Oh, right. After breakfast, of course." The headmaster waves a dismissive hand in the air, staring at her computer as she clicks around, no doubt changing the trio's schedule like it's nothing. "I think that's it. Unless you have any questions, Ari? We do still need to scry your blood for more information on your lifespan, but I thought that was something Mage Auerbach would like to do, as I don't have the equipment for a Blue Phoenix on hand."

Here's my chance. "Actually, about that. Do I... have to have a class with a mage?" I'm aware of the headmaster's own heritage, so I try to sound polite as I add, "After all, their magic is so...differentfrom witch magic."

"Yes yes, I'm well aware. But the theories and models of control are quite similar. And if your magic has changed, it might very well be closer to the type of power mages channel, especially now that you can control the element of fire."

"But..." I trail off, squirming in my seat, altogether too aware of who I'm sitting across from. It's no small feat to be a member of one of the old families of mages who can control fire.

Headmaster Towers flicks her eyes towards me and frowns. "What is it?"

I swallow. Spin my mug around in my hands. And finally spit it out.

"An Auerbach mage killed my grandmother."

Chapter 11

"And my aunt,"I add, because I might as well get it out of the way now. "A great aunt, technically. I didn't know either of them because they died before I was born. The Auerbachs... witches don't like them for a reason. They're murderers."

"No Auerbach mage has ever murdered anyone, especially an innocent woman." Now I have the headmaster's full attention. "Are you sure you have the facts right?"

"He may not have killed them with his bare hands, but hedidcut off their connection to magic. It's an Auerbach tradition, and I'm sure you know that."

"I'm aware. But it's not murder."

Irritation rises in me, swift and hot, and I can feel the feral magic leak into the air. The coffee in my mug turns from a pale creamy color to a strange, unnatural blue. Words spill out of me, clipped with anger.

"It is, though. As soon as he did that, cutting them off from the spirit world and dooming them to an afterlife without their families, he might as well have killed them himself. They both hung themselves." There's a stillness in the air at my words. "My mother told me the story, and I know she wasn't lying. It was one of the last cutting ceremonies they performed, maybethelast ceremony. And it's the reason why I grew up without a coven of my own. Witch covens are families, you know. An Auerbach destroyed mine."

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