She rolled her eyes. “Inspirational.”
“I try.”
She pushed the arched door open, its handles creaking with the effort. She held the door open for him, as she should, as shifters were far superior to witches, despite the fucking collar that jingled an entirely different song.
The grand hall was layered with rows of wooden benches fitted with desks made of the same bark. Stained glass windows threw light around the room, drenching it in red. It was fitting for the witches, as bloodshed seemed to be their answer for everything. Witch lights hummed and hovered above them. Small familiars lay about in the classroom, the sound of jingling collars grating on his ears. At least the big ones weren’t here.
There was chatter among the students, but slowly, all the sounds in the room died, and all eyes focused on them. The witch put her head down, avoiding eye contact with the snickering or bewildered students. There were at least a hundred of them in the hall, their small familiars hovering around. The big ones were tethered outside. Thank God, because he didn’t feel like becoming dragon chow today. A ferret he could take in a fight in his cat form, but dragons could barbecue him in one roar. A strange urge overtook Felix. He was levelheaded—mostly—but the way they looked at her made a coil tighten in his chest, one that threatened to snap if any one of them made a move against her.Fucking bond.He shouldn’t care what they said about her; actually, he should relish in their whispers and insults. Buthewanted to be the one to insult her, to make her mad. None of these cockwombles could ever come up with an insult worthy of the little witch.
They ascended the aisle until they reached the back. She took a seat next to a friendly-looking classmate whose crow gave Felix a wary look that made him want to spit on it. But he wasn’t a llama, and likely couldn’t get away with it, so he held back.
Perhaps I will spit on her.The thought brought hundreds of images flashing through his mind of the little witch on her knees.No. No. Absolutely fucking not.Only if she asked.No, Felix, still not then.
His heart jumped as the girl squealed, giving Felix the fright of his nine lives, but it was enough to release him from the shackles of his impure thoughts.
“Oh, my goddess! You summoned a familiar!” she said in an annoyingly high-pitched voice. Felix had the urge to send out a shadow and smother her. “When? How?”
“Yesterday,” the little witch said. “Yep, turns out I was just saying one of the words wrong the whole time.” It almost looked painful for the lie to flow from her tongue.
“Those old language words are such a pain, aren’t they?” the witch said awkwardly. “Can I?” she asked. Felix tensed as the friend reached out slowly toward him.
“No!” The witch’s response came fast. The other witch jerked her hand back, confusion flashing across her face. “Sorry, I mean, he’s still adjusting. He doesn’t like strangers,” she said in a panic.
Felix proved her point by hissing, showing a flash of white fangs. It wasn’t an act. He would bite; he had done it before, and he would do it again. He loved the taste of witch’s blood on his tongue. Probably too much.I want to taste hers again.
NO.
Nope.
The friend’s crow squawked in alarm, flapping its wings and sending a gust of air over them.
“Oh. Right. Of course.” The friend settled back in her seat, still smiling, but the warmth had dimmed slightly.
More students filtered in, and with them came the stares. Some curious, some disbelieving, some outright hostile. Realistically, they should be happy that their peer had succeeded. Perhaps for some reason, they thought she was a threat, or they resented her when they’d written her off already. Humans and witches were far too predictable, but he asked her anyway.
“Why are they staring at you, little witch?”
She didn’t reply, but her mouth set into a hard line to indicate she was listening. It occurred to him she probably didn’t know how to speak down the bond. He hadn’t known it was something he could do either with a witch; usually, it was something reserved for shifters within the same den, but for some reason, it had worked in the same way with her. Unfortunately, he would have to teach her. A wrongness bled within him. He shouldn’t be teaching a witch anything to do with shifters. Mind speak was reserved for families within dens, for mates, but in this case, it seemed necessary.
“If you want to speak to me, imagine you are speaking to me in your mind,”he explained to her like he would a child shifter back at his den.
She pondered what he said for a moment.“Can you hear me?”
He shivered as the bond hummed at the connection, enjoying her angelic voice sliding over his mind.It’s just the bond;it means nothing.
To distract himself—or to hear her voice again—he teased her,“How did you imagine me in your mind? A cat? Human? Naked purrhaps?”
A blush rose to the tip of her cheeks; she was so deliciously fun to tease. He watched as pink spread down her slender neck, fangs pulsating with the need to bite her. Mark her.
“I imagined you as a ghost after I’d murdered you,”she sent back.
Any sort of heat that remained was thoroughly doused in ice water.
“Rude.”Felix licked his paw, his tongue running over the fur—a habit he’d picked up when he was trying not to let his rage overtake his rational mind.
“They are staring because we used to be friends until they shunned me for being familiarless and now they probably don’t know what to do. They thought I would have been expelled,”she said bitterly.
“That’s awful.”Felix faked sincerity, but it was enough to earn a sparkle of hope from the little witch’s eyes as he looked at her.“Every witch is a waste of space. They shouldn’t have made you feel so special.”
