Page 23 of Phoenix Academy: Madness

"Sorry," I mutter, turning away as David paces to a corner of the room. "I didn't mean to use my magic, it just kind of got... intense there for a second."

"Everything better?" The headmaster snaps her fingers, and a little red flame floats above her palm. "Because like I said, I'd really rather not burn my office to the ground."

"I think it's okay." Checking each of the shifters' eyes, I note, "No more glowing blue irises."

"Good. David, you can shift back now."

Xavier clears his throat. "He's having some... trouble."

"Ah." The headmaster sighs. "Take him to Heidi so she can sort him out. I'll have your new schedules sent to her offices, along with breakfast. Fetch me if it takes more than twenty minutes to fix it."

"Got it."

The twins get to their feet and escort a still-wolf-shaped David out of the office and into the hallway. I watch them with curious eyes, wondering what's going on. Most shifters are capable of going back and forth between their forms at will, especially by the time they're our age. But for some reason something is different with David's wolf spirit. It's like a separate part of him, instead of half of the same whole.

I can't dwell on it, though. I have my own worries to deal with, and my own out-of-control powers to figure out. "I'm sorry that happened." Glancing down at my no-longer-blue coffee, I add, "I guess I'm still dealing with some things. This is all so new."

And I don't have Mom here to help me anymore. Or Lizzy to banter with and protect. I even miss the wilds of the woods. There are trees and garden paths inside the campus walls, but it's still an enclosed area. Stuck inside four walls is no place for a witch.

Headmaster Towers studies me. "I'll get a replacement in as soon as I can, like I said, but in the meantime I'd like for you to meet Gregory to at least learn some basics. Is that going to be alright, you think?"

I can't seem to keep myself from cracking a joke. "As long as it's not in a tiny room with an elephant shifter, I think it'll be okay." Clearing my throat, I awkwardly add, "Though for some reason my powers seem to affect Xavier, Reggie, and David... differently. They're still affected, but not the way Petra was."

"The whole thing felt strange," Petra chimes in. "It's like my wolf side was pulled out of me, and the human side subsided completely. I couldn'tstopmyself from shifting. I wasn't me anymore. I'm surprised that the twins managed to resist it at all."

"Interesting. Gregory will want to hear all about this." The headmaster eyes me. "Just try to remember that he's not the mage who hurt your family. There are dozens of Auerbachs out there in the world, after all. Not all of them are the same."

He's still a mage. But I plaster on my best can-do smile and try to remind myself that this new teacher may be the only person who can help me get my powers under control.

"I'll try to keep an open mind."

And if he turns out to be an asshole, maybe I'll "accidentally" make him die choking on his own dick.

Chapter 12

I was supposedto meet the mage in a classroom in the Great House, but after the fiasco in the headmaster's office she decides to move my class to a back building that's apparently normally used fordemon summoning,of all things, and is warded to keep magic from leaking out of it. Petra leads me there, with a stop at the dining hall along the way to snag some pastries. I beg off eating too much—I'm not a breakfast person, or a heavy eater in general.

"You sure you don't want at least some bacon or something?" She eyes me as she nibbles on the edge of a croissant. "Most phoenix have fast metabolisms. Especially the rare ones. Or maybe that's just one in particular I'm thinking about who eats her body weight daily in food."

"I'm good. Witches are... picky about what we eat." I don't tell her that I can sense the remnants of animal spirits in meat. The pigs in the bacon were especially dark and distressed, since it was factory farmed. "I normally hunt what I eat. Or grow it myself. Is there... a place around here I could do that?"

"Only if you like eating squirrel meat and wild carrots. Although I think Yohan has a garden somewhere. Maybe if the two of you band together you can convince Towers to let you have backyard chickens. He's been begging for a space to put a coop for ages."

"Itisa big campus," I point out as we hike up a hill towards the back wall. "There's room here to expand. Maybe an herb garden. My sister..."

I trail off, heart aching, aware of the fact that if I talk about her for too long my emotions could surge out of control again and affect Petra with my feral magic. I still can't quite comprehend a world without her in it. There wasn't even a funeral.

Maybe tonight I can get some wildflowers and incense together and say a prayer to the spirits who are hopefully guiding my sister's wayward spirit into the afterlife even now. If I'd managed to get her body back from the Heretic I would've been able to lay her to rest myself. As it is, I have to hope there are enough benevolent ghosts wandering between this realm and the next to escort her safely.

"I'm sorry you lost her," Petra says. "We lost a few students here last year, too. One of the teachers passed away even—Yohan's sister Victoria. So we know a thing or two about grief." Hastily she adds, "Though I'm sure it's even harder when you lose a sisteranda mother."

"Yeah." I want to change the topic before grief overwhelms me. "So, are you from a long line of shifters? Most are."

"My family has been around for ages. But it wasn't until we moved to the Americas that we got involved with phoenix families and politics. Everyone in the past three generations has gone to the academy." Proudly, she tells me, "I'm a Shield to a Black Phoenix."

I chew my bottom lip. "Those are phoenix born from... Grims?"

"Yes! You know a lot for someone new to the life. I don't think we have your bloodline down as phoenix-derived, though."

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