“I don’t think I’m dramatic enough, actually, given the way they have treated me.”
Maya sighed, rolling her shoulders back. “Fine, no swim team for you. At least swim with me in the morning again. I miss my training buddy.”
“I don’t swim anymore, Maya, you know that.”
She still did, just not with a team; now she only swam for herself. It still felt like the only safe place, the one thing that was hers, that she could control when her life was spiraling.
But maybe, just maybe, things were starting to look up.
Five
Felix
He woke in a haze.A haze of delicious scents of cinnamon and wood fire invaded his senses. His eyes flew open—too bright, fuck, way too bright—before his cat vision adjusted.
Looking around, he realized he was in some sort of university dorm room.
Thatlittlewitch.
His fur bristled along his back, his muscles coiling and tensing to strike. She had brought him here. Wherever here was. Rain pattered outside the window, hitting the pane in a peaceful rhythm. But nothing about this was fucking peaceful. The gray sun was high, the room drenched in light despite the curtains. Given the angle of it, it had to be sometime in the afternoon. Was it the same day? How long had he been out?
He studied the room. The dorm screamed wealth from every corner, the furniture embellished with golden features standing out against the dark woods. The desk was lavish, its craftsmanship the finest one could own. Witches always seemed to live lavishly due to all the money the human government paid them. His body dragged as he stood on the bed, his paws sinkinginto the plush mattress. That was his first red flag; whoever slept on such a soft mattress was, in his opinion, a psychopath.
A fireplace crackled and startled him. No one was here.
But that witchhadbeen here. Her scent was over everything. Which should be obvious given that this was likely her dorm room. Still, it grated on him that the witch had somehow brought him here. How his unconscious body had flopped in her arms. It sent shivers down his spine at being carried like somepet.
Above the fireplace was a coat of arms on a banner. He stilled.
CAERWYN UNIVERSITY.
Caerwyn University was somewhere in the Celtic Sea. There was absolutely no way this witch had dragged him hundreds of miles from London. It was impossible. What the fuck had she done? Maybe it was just decoration, and they were somehow still in London? To his knowledge, a witch wouldn’t be able to pull something off like this. What did they want with him? And why in all fuck was he in a dorm room instead of a prison?
Panic clawed at his bones. He needed to call Ciro. He needed his other form. His muscles were primed to shift, but nothing happened.
He tried again. And again.Fuck.It was because he used his monster form; it always locked him to his cat form for a while. For now, it would have to do.
The bed dipped as he jumped to the desk, landing light on his feet. Her desk was messy, strewn with textbooks and leather-bound grimoires with titles such asSummoning a Familiar 101andHealing for Dummy Witches. Nothing that screamedI kidnap shifters for fun.On the desk lay a phone and a laptop. Why had she left her phone behind?
He pawed her phone, careful at first to sense if it was a trap. But no—just a phone. The screen lit up with a picture of hersmiling brightly with another witch. He needed to get to Maps to figure out where the fuck he was. He swiped up, but instead of it opening the passcode, it opened the camera and took photos of his black fur and mismatched eyes at an extremely unflattering angle.
Curse having no opposable thumbs.
His tail lashed behind him as he tried again. The same thing happened.
He took in a deep breath for strength, as he was so close to losing his shit it wasn’t even funny.
On the third try, it worked, and the passcode screen came up. With one extended toe bean, he pawed in the most obvious one he could think of: 0000.
It unlocked.No fucking way.
What kind of criminal mastermind had that for a passcode? Was this amateur hour? Unless this all really was some elaborate joke, none of this made any sense.
He opened the phone and clicked carefully on the Maps. The blue dot indicating his location came up. And lo and fucking behold, he was on Caerwyn Island. His mind stalled in disbelief for a second. You couldn’t just walk onto Caerwyn, let alone pull an unconscious shifter through its wards. The kind of magic required to do that was far above his pay grade.
How the fuck had a student witch managed this?
Stacks of spare notebooks and what looked like a journal lay in the top drawer. He itched to flip through it, to learn the secrets of this witch, privacy morals be damned. He would call Ciro in a moment. First, he needed to find a weapon that wasn’t his own weak self. His monster had drained him.
