Her face fell. If he weren’t in his cat form right now, he would be grinning ear to ear. She was so easy to rile up. Despite the slightly dire circumstances, it was the most fun he had had in a while. The back of his mind warned him that it was becomingtoofun, and Felix was an addict of fun. It was the only way to relieve stress from his job. He dabbled in many addictions, and he should be afraid of the little witch becoming one of them.
The professor who had suggested to collar him—and was now inscribed on his kill list—cleared his throat as his dark crimson robes swept behind him. His phoenix familiar flew in after him, finding a perch next to the lectern as he approached.
“Welcome to your final year!” His voice carried across the space. There was something about him, apart from just being a witch, that had Felix’s teeth setting on edge. He continued, “You stand here today because the goddess has found you worthy.Because you proved yourself capable of the bond that separates witch from mortal.”
The little witch sank down in her seat, crossing her hands over her chest.
“This year, you will train in all three houses.” He left the lectern, putting his hands behind his back. “You will be tested.” He stopped, looking right at the space where she was. “And should you fail, you will not graduate. You will not join your peers.” He held out his arm, beckoning forth the massive phoenix. “Caerwyn has no room for weakness, not anymore.”
Felix didn’t care for the way the professor looked at the witch, his nostrils flaring as if he were a dragon, claws digging into the wood of the desk he sat on.
“When you graduate, you will be placed in a house you are best suited to, and you may be deployed to a human territory or in service to the university.”
For the rest of the class, the professor set out the witches’ fourth-year schedule. Their days were to be split up into physical training, healing, and history, which, Felix thought, was likely where their witch propaganda would be smushed into their little pea brains. It was what caused all the problems in his territory. Their ego was always the death of them.
The little witch was starting to nod off. Her palm held up her head as her lush lips parted.
“Are you dreaming about me, witch?”
It jolted her awake. “Shut up!” she said aloud to him. The whole room turned to look at her. She sank into her seat even lower, the blush once again creeping across her freckled face.
Oops.
Twelve
Avery
After her mortifyingoutburst in class, Avery wanted to hide in her dorm and recover from the morning. Bed was always the answer.
But no, Felix demanded, very rudely she might add, that she take him to see the book she had used to summon him, and to see whether there was an undo to her unfortunate doing of summoning the rude familiar.
They walked through the arched doors of the library. She relaxed, and Felix looked at her inquisitively. The walls of books upon books gave way to the grand vaulted ceilings that had become her second home, to study, yes, but also to hide, because there weren’t any problems a library of books couldn’t solve. Avery knew that if anyone ever used the line, “I want to build you a library,” she would instantly fall in love. They kept walking until they came across the dusty corner where she had found the forbidden book.
Before her eyes, the little black cat in front of her gave way to a towering shifter, his ears flattening against his head as he stretched his annoyingly defined biceps above his head, thecollar nowhere in sight. It took everything in her not to say,“Biggggg stretch.”
She tried to look away, she really did. But her eyes were as glued to him as a horse straight from the factory. Swirling tattoos disappeared under his black shirt, one that gripped the planes of his muscles far too well. It was almost distracting enough to forget the fact that he had shifted in front of her, in a public place.
“What are you doing?” Avery hissed under her breath.
“It’s fine, witch, I can hear anyone coming from a mile away.”
It most definitely was not fine. What if they got caught? Her hindbrain told her it didn’t matter because he was just so lovely to look at. Stupid prehistoric brain.
“Why can’t you just stay a cat?” she pressed.
He gave the same look as a pissed-off cat. “Try shoving yourself in a tiny glass box all day and see how you feel. It becomes uncomfortable after a while.”
She huffed and crossed her arms. “Fine. Just promise me you’ll shift back as soon as you hear someone coming.”
He held out his pinky to her. Hesitantly, she took it with her own. In a split second, he yanked on it until their faces were mere inches apart, enough that she could feel his hot breath fanning her face and her heart rattling around like a cracked-out bird in a cage.
“Pinky swear,” he said in a fake-cute voice before letting her go abruptly enough that she stumbled back into her chair, her ass hitting the wood harder than she would have liked.
Oh, so he can touch her whenever he wants, but she wasn’t allowed to touch him.Bastard cat.
“Why did you put it back in the library?”he said, changing the subject, while Avery’s heart was still lodged in her throat.
“What?”
