Magic unchained a supern.., p.9
Magic Unchained: A Supernatural Academy Romance, page 9
“Why?” He sounded genuinely curious.
“Because if I accidentally use it to its full extent, like I did today, other people might find out about it. My parents don’t want that.”
Nico frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why wouldn’t they want people to know how powerful you are? Having a gift like that is a good thing.”
Samara grit her teeth, willing herself to calm down so Philip’s ghost wouldn’t appear. She was almost a hundred percent positive that the figure—or creature or whatever it was—was directly linked to her emotions. If she got stressed out, it appeared to torment her, like an anxiety attack but somehow even worse.
“They’re worried I’ll get hurt.”
“But if you show the world that you’re so powerful, no one would dare to attack you—”
“Well that didn’t work for my brother!” She turned to glare at Nico, chest rising and falling too quickly. “He was powerful too and he still ended up dead!” Nico stiffened. “It’s better to let people think you’re weak so they’ll leave you alone. Power attracts those who want to steal it. My parents know that better than anyone.”
“Oh.” For the first time, Nico started shifting awkwardly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
Samara felt her teeth continue to grind and she turned away, twisting the bracelet around and around her wrist in an attempt to calm herself. It would be better to not say anything. She’d already said enough.
“But,” Nico continued, putting his foot in his mouth. “If that’s the case, I can understand why your parents want to bring you home. Maybe we should tell them the truth about what happened. If you’re here, you’ll be vulnerable, even with me by your side. This isn’t—”
“I am not going back to that prison!” she shouted. She turned back to face him, face heated red now, then froze when she saw movement in the rafters above her head. The smart thing to do would be to not look, but she did anyway and cringed when she saw Philip up there, hanging from a noose. His face was unnaturally purple and bloated, yet his eyes were still able to move, and they were completely focused on her.
A tear slipped down her cheek. “All I want is a normal life,” she hissed, both at Nico and the corpse. “I never asked to be a princess or a powerful witch or the remaining daughter of parents who lost their son. I don’t want to carry the burden of Philip’s death on my shoulders. It wasn’t my fault.”
Nico studied her sympathetically, then glanced over his head to see what she was looking at. “Samara—”
“This school was my one chance to live a normal life, away from all the guards and the constant check-ins and the tutors and the fact that only my fire dragons could keep me company.” All her emotions, the things she’d been holding back for weeks, finally came tumbling out. “I didn’t ask for much! I just wanted a few friends and to feel like a normal woman for once! Instead, no one will even talk to me and the only person who does is someone who is obligated to.”
Nico stayed silent this time, letting her vent even though she was insulting him.
Tears were flowing down her cheeks again, so she turned back to the window. The squirrel was gone.
“Now I won’t even get the chance to make things right,” she whispered. “All because some selfish murderers either want my power for themselves or don’t want me to have them. Sometimes I wish the power would just go away completely.”
She jumped when someone sat down next to her. Her gut reaction was that it was Philip, so she deflated when she realized it was Nico instead. He was perched on the edge of the windowsill, his back to the window, like he was keeping an eye on Philip for her.
“I’m sorry this happened to you,” he told her softly, looking away. “You’re right. You don’t deserve it.”
Her energy drained, she tried to wipe away her tears with the back of her hand.
“Sometimes we just get dealt a bad hand,” he continued quietly, his voice raw with emotion. “I can’t exactly say that I understand how you feel but… I know how it feels to lose someone close to me.”
Was he finally opening up?
“Who did you lose?” she prodded, wanting to dwell on something besides her own misery. She wanted to listen to someone else talk. She’d focused on her own torture for so many years. It would be nice to get a break from that.
“I think you know that my current mother isn’t really my mother,” Nico said, looking up at the ceiling but seeing nothing. “My real mother was a human and my father was a fae, though from what I vaguely remember of my childhood, he wasn’t around. He might not even know I exist.”
Samara’s heart ached for him. She couldn’t imagine living without her parents, strict and paranoid or not.
“Then my mother died when I was very young. The doctors never told me what killed her so I assume it was some kind of disease. I still—” She heard his throat close up slightly. He was close to crying and had to take a moment to recover. “I can’t remember her face clearly,” he finished quietly. “So while I completely understand why you’re so frustrated with your parents and I acknowledge that what has happened to you, and continued to happen, is awful, I would ask that you not take it out on them or yourself. Your parents love you. I can tell.”
She reached out to touch him, wanting to comfort him in some way, but then she held herself back. They weren’t close enough for that. This was one of the first real talks they’d had as friends. It wasn’t the right time to comfort him like that.
“I’m sorry,” she said, mirroring his earlier tone and inflections. “And you’re right. Even if—” She hated the thought of it but… “Even if I have to go back there, I’ll always know they’re trying their best to protect me. Sometimes it’s easy to forget how much pain they’re in too and that it’s not just me.”
He smiled slightly, letting a slight chuckle escape. Her heart leapt at the sight of it.
“Let’s not talk like you’re leaving just yet,” he said, determination covering up his previous sadness. “I don’t know who or what is trying to attack you, but I’ll try to protect you. I want to find this person and I know you do too.”
She grinned back, her tears dried up.
“As for that.” He nodded at her bracelet. “If we’re desperate, you might need to take it off again, though try to only do it as a last resort. You already have a target on your back. We don’t need to add any more.”
“Right.” She continued to smile, then finally looked up at the ceiling again.
Philip was gone.
16
Despite the headmistress assuring Samara at their last meeting that she would try to prevent what happened with the suits from getting around, when Samara went into her first class and sat down two seats away from the vampire woman with glasses, she felt more eyes drifting toward her than usual. They were studying her and whispering to each other. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what had them so riled up.
Uncomfortable with this level of attention, Samara turned toward Nico, who was seated at her left with one hand resting comfortably on his knife’s hilt. He raised an eyebrow at her but didn’t say anything else, his eyes too busy flickering to other parts of the room, searching for anyone suspicious.
The teacher didn’t show up right away. Five minutes into their class, he was still missing, so Samara was considering running to the bathroom when the vampire lady suddenly moved to the seat right next to her, doing so without asking permission. Samara’s eyes widened as she watched the pretty woman move her books over too.
“Hello, little witch,” the woman said, speaking condescendingly even though she didn’t look much older than Samara. Again, that was fairly normal for vampires and fae alike. “It seems you’ve been causing quite a stir.”
Samara realized this was the perfect opportunity to figure out what the public knew and what had been kept under wraps. “What have you heard?”
The woman shrugged, like it was no concern of hers, though her presence proved otherwise. “That you were attacked by a group of walking suits of armor, who tried to kill you through an explosion.”
Samara nodded, relieved that Rosalina’s promise had been kept.
“How ever did you survive the explosion?” the vampire continued, glancing at Nico. “Did he shield you with this body? It’s rare for fae to be so… protective, especially at their own expense.”
Nico glanced at her, clearly overhearing, then turned away. “You’re one to talk.”
Samara felt the air grow electric between the two. A fae and a vampire rarely got along, at least at the get-go. Now she, the human, a witch, was trapped between them.
“What’s your name?” Samara asked, trying to force the woman’s dark eyes away from Nico before the two tried to insult each other further. “I’m Samara.”
“Constance,” she said, adding a humph at the end to emphasize that Samara should have known that already. “My father owns a lot of Italy.”
Samara’s mind immediately conjured up an image of her parents being vampire mafia bosses. It was comical in her head. “Like the—uh—the maf—”
“Yes, the mafia,” she said with a sigh, shocking Samara with her honesty. “To be honest, I was expecting to turn more heads while I was here thanks to that, but ever since I’ve arrived, you’ve stolen the show. I’m eternally grateful.”
“Oh.” What an odd thing to be grateful for.
“And now that things have gotten even more exciting, I think it’s time I stuck closer to you.”
“How kind of you to—”
“That way people will be so focused on you and all the little things happening in your life that I will just fade into the background.”
Scratch that. This woman wasn’t kind at all. Samara heard Nico scoff beside her and stifled a laugh of her own. Not only was Nico becoming more comfortable around Samara but she’d managed to make a new “friend” too. Today was just full of surprises.
“Why are people after you anyway? Is this just something specific to witches?” Constance asked. “Or perhaps just witch heirs? I do recall hearing some of the other heirs dealing with their issues but I didn’t care enough to pry.”
“What have you heard?” Samara perked up as she realized she could ask the other heirs—Aamina, Rhona, and David—about what they’d experienced. If this person had a vendetta against witch heirs specifically, she might be able to find some clues as to who was hunting them.
“Oh, not much. Just that they’re pressuring the university to up security and place more security cameras. A lot of good that does. Do they seriously think a magic user wouldn’t learn how to evade cameras? That’s the most basic thing—” Constance continued ranting about how foolish everyone was. Meanwhile, Samara started planning a meet up with some of the other heirs, or at least the girls. Perhaps they knew something she didn’t and had a reason for their paranoia.
Once her classes were over—one of which consisted of asking that shy shifter boy for an eraser and seeing him disappear into his chair to escape her—she headed to the garden she knew had the most water.
“Rhona’s a water witch, so she’s most likely going to be here,” Samara informed Nico as they approached the garden. It was right up against the wall and had a waterfall traveling over it, which led into a koi pond. “Water witches usually live next to the ocean so I assume she’s going to get as close to the waterfall as possible.”
Nico stayed silent, not questioning that part. “Then why don’t you stay near fire? Like next to a volcano or something?”
Samara stopped in her tracks and gave Nico an “Are you kidding me?” look.
“Look, I appreciate you being comfortable enough to speak your mind but seriously? A volcano?”
He shrugged, a smirk beginning to show itself again. “It could be cool.”
“And uninhabitable.” She leaned away, muttering an extra thing under her breath. “And uncle Troy died while trying to do that so our family made a rule to never live next to volcanos again.”
“Wait.” Nico leaned closer, full-on smirking now. “So someone actually did do it?”
Samara blinked rapidly, trying to think of an excuse. Then, she spotted the girl she was looking for, Rhona, sitting next to the koi pond right where she’d expected her. “Oh, look! There’s Rhona. I’d better go talk to her before she leaves.”
“She doesn’t look like she’s going to leave anytime soon,” Nico said, still smirking, but he didn’t protest as Samara rushed forward. He followed behind like an obedient dog, albeit a snarky one at the moment. Opening up about his past seemed to have flicked a switch on his personality that had remained dormant until now—and Samara liked it, though this wasn’t the time.
“Rhona!” she called out. While her and the other heirs weren’t really buddies or anything, they still knew each other by name from all the council meetings and witch family get togethers they’d been forced to attend.
Rhona looked up, her hair and clothes completely soaked, then her face lit up with a cheery smile. “Samara! Hey!”
Samara ignored the fact that Rhona was all wet and walked right up to her, relieved that the young woman looked perfectly safe and normal. “Hey. I’m surprised to see you here—alone, that is. I thought all of us had bodyguards by this point, especially after the attack on your life a few weeks ago.”
“Oh, my bodyguards?” The smile never left Rhona’s face, even while she spoke. She reminded Samara of a child. “They’re here. They’re just hidden. Mom likes to hire shifters, since they’re great at blending in.” She subtly pointed to her left, where Samara realized a man was currently blending in with a tree nearby. Then Rhona pointed down at the pond. This shifter took a bit longer to notice, but after a few seconds, Samara realized there was a man just sitting in the water, blending in with the lily pads and fish.
“Wow,” Samara said, being genuine. “That’s… impressive.”
“And there’s lots more. I’m just not allowed to show them all to you, since that would defeat the purpose,” Rhona said, then gestured for Samara to sit down. “So, what’s up? I haven’t seen you in a long time.”
“Didn’t we see each other six weeks ago?”
“I know! Super long, right?”
Samara smiled. Maybe for Rhona. “Since you asked what’s up, I guess I had a few questions for you.”
“Hit me!” Rhona wasn’t one to shy away from conversations. In fact, they seemed to energize her.
“Well, to start—” Samara tried to think of a way to start this line of questioning in a more subtle way, then gave up and spoke bluntly. “Have you heard about what happened to me yesterday?”
“About the suits exploding in front of you? Yup. Sounds super cool and super scary!” Rhona’s eyes went wide as saucers. “I had something similar happen last week. What a coincidence.”
Perfect. This was exactly what Samara was hoping to learn about. “What happened to you?”
“Well, I was out with one of my friends at a coffee shop—it was one of those places where you could play with cats but there were also little fishbowls there too and I cared more about the fish because, as you know, I’m a water witch, and I was thinking about buying some treats for the cat—”
“Can you skip to the part where you got attacked?” Samara asked. While she liked Rhona’s sweet personality, the girl had a habit of going off on tangents about things that didn’t matter.
“Right. So, I was in the café with my friend, when one of the cats suddenly got really big and tried to attack me. Luckily, one of my bodyguards was a mage, so he turned into a cat too and they battled each other.”
“That’s… interesting.” Compared to that, Samara’s encounter with those super slow suits of armor sounded unexciting.
“But that was before I came here. What happened last week, which is the thing you asked me about and I probably should have brought up first, was that one of the statues came to life and attacked me. It was one of those… cat… snake… cow things—”
“A chimera,” Nico said, his face stoic but eyes lit up in amusement. He seemed to be enjoying this girl’s odd company just as much as Samara was.
“Right, a chimera. So, it attacked me and I was like, pretty confused, so I ran away and two of my shifters managed to stop it but I twisted my ankle while I was running and fell so—”
“Did you ever figure out who it was that brought the statue to life?”
Rhona squinted at the sky, thinking, then shrugged. “Nope. My bodyguards broke the statue and they couldn’t get any evidence on who might have brought it to life.”
Well, that was disappointing. So they were back to square one. “Does your family have any enemies that you think might have done it?”
More humming and hawing from the girl eventually led to her saying, “Not really. My great aunt, Aunt Stacy—she’s the one who makes really good apple-cherry pies. I think you met her before. She’s mentioned wanting to kill me before but I don’t think she’s actually planning on doing it.”
Samara glanced at Nico who had his back turned to them now, probably to hide his silent laughter.
“Anyone else?” Samara prodded.
“No, not really. I’m not really the type of person to make a lot of enemies. It makes attending events kind of awkward, especially family reunions.”
“I see.” So, still nothing. “Well, thanks for the chat, Rhona. I appreciated it.”
“Of course! If you ever want to talk, come back again. I’m glad your family let you out. My parents always warned me not to talk to you before because of, you know, what happened to Philip. So I avoided you. But now that you’re allowed to talk again, we can be friends!”
Samara’s chest warmed and she smiled. “Thanks, Rhona. I’d like that.” She was about to walk away when Rhona spoke one more time.
“Oh, Samara, if you are ever attacked again by some statues or giant lion things, make sure to let me know so I can join in!”
“Sure, Rhona. I’ll be sure to let you know.”
“Thanks!”
As Samara and Nico walked away, leaving Rhona to her koi fish and invisible bodyguards, Nico finally let a laugh escape.
