Page 4 of Unicorn Shifter Academy
Like, seriously. I had to keep my windows closed or birds would come in. Little bunnies like to build nests in my pillows, and anything furry could be found attempting to break into my backpack when I’d been in high school.
Graduation had been amusing when a pair of pigeons had attempted to nest in my hair.
It was a problem, and it was exactly why my mother thought I surely had some sort of shifter or witch abilities in my blood.
I knew the truth, though. Humans were a dying breed and animals sensed my normalcy and sought me out.
I was special because I was actuallynotspecial.
“Put your hand here,” Professor Payne, the dwarf growled at me and I glanced down to find the bearded male barely up to my chest. He held a flat stone aloft and stared at me until I complied.
Professor Olivia gave me another comforting smile, which might have actually been comforting had her eyes not been completely black.
It made her look rather terrifying.
“Try not to move, sweetie,” she said and, to my relief, closed her eyes as she began the awakening spell.
“Oh, fuck,” I groaned as I doubled over. My stomach rolled and retaliated, but I kept my hand on the stone the dwarf presented to me.
“Don’t remove your hand,” he snapped. “This is a stone from the awakening arena and has been doused with the blood of a thousand deaths. They died so you didn’t have to!”
Apparently hearing I was touching a sacrificial stone with a thousand deaths’ worth of blood was not what I needed to hear right then.
My stomach heaved and my worst nightmare came true.
I puked.
Well, sort of.
I released a massive burb, except it came out in the form of rainbow bubbles.
The release seemed to help my headache, at least.
It came up until the bubbles were everywhere and the auditorium broke down in laughter.
“She’s a fairy!” one voice suggested.
“No, she’s a dud!” another voice shouted.
I agreed with the latter, although at the moment I was too busy expelling bubbles onto the stage.
“Bonny Magic L’Estselle!” my mother shouted, storming onto the stage and gripping me by the arm until I was certain she’d leave a hand-shaped bruise. And, yes, my middle name was magic. Wishful thinking on my mother’s part. “What in the gods' names do you think you’re doing?”
Puking my rainbow guts out?I thought, but I could only hiccup one more massive bubble that popped all over her face, leaving rainbow glitter shimmering over her cheeks.
She blinked at me a few times, then drew out a handkerchief from her purse to wipe herself off.
“Do you have any idea what’s going on with my daughter?” my mother asked the dwarf. She looked at the Dark Mage when he didn’t answer, but she was still chanting and had both hands placed on the book.
Which seemed to be the source of the bubbles coming out of my stomach.
“Stop—hic!—chanting!” I begged her.
She stopped mid-chant, then opened her eyes for the first time and her dark orbs went wide in surprise.
“Well, that’s new,” she said.
No shit.
