“Kenji, I need you.”My familiar could help me channel if I got into trouble.
“Sorry, kind of busy right now. Please leave a message after the tone, and I’ll get back to you later…beep…”
“I swear to the goddess, Kenji, if I die, I will haunt your ass from beyond the veil!”
Nothing but silence filled the ether between me and my loyal familiar.
“I know you’ve been told not to venture into the forest, but the headmaster has temporarily lifted the restrictions to allow this exercise to go ahead. Mage magic will drop each of you at a different location within a marked zone. Your task is to track down your fellow studentsand steal their flags by whatever means necessary. At the end of the exercise, the charms will transport you all back to this field.”
He handed out a bunch of crystals attached to lanyards, along with colored flags. I shoved my flag inside my bra, deciding I would have a legitimate reason to set someone on fire if they tried touching my boob.
I forced a smile as Kai clutched my hand and Glynda went into a meltdown.
“It’ll be fine,” I reassured her. “Find a hiding place and wait for the lesson to end. Doing circuits for the next seven days won’t be too bad. Besides, once Maverick comes back, he’ll let us off.”
Glynda didnotlook convinced.
“There is no hiding from a shifter!”
“Um, climb a tree?” I was reasonably sure wolves couldn’t climb trees.
“Do I look like I’m an expert at climbing trees?!”
Sadly, I didn’t get the chance to reply as my best friend vanished in a puff of lilac smoke, closely followed by Kai.
The last thing I saw before I, too, vanished was Alaric’s worried face.
The mage charm dropped me into a bog. I cursed under my breath as I hauled myself out of the sucking mud. The only silver lining was being plastered in mud might shield my scent from asshole shifters.
How had this day gone so badly wrong?
I wanted to whine and pout, but there was no time to feel sorry for myself. Maverick’s mom was sick, and I needed to stay alive so I could comfort him when he returned to campus.
Besides, I was a strong, independent witch who had successfully obliterated one demon and an ugly old sea hag.
“I radiate love and positivity,” I said out loud before a bird pooped on my head, adding to the mud facial I’d already acquired. Nope, today was not going well.
Rasmus reached out down the bond, but we were too far away from the campus to talk. Since the last thing I needed was for him to crash the game and out himself, I forced my negative emotions down.
Managing a few wolf shifters and a demented witch was well within my wheelhouse.
“You’ve got this,” I muttered. All I needed to do was stay clear of the shifters and Demelza and not die.
How hard could it be?
Twenty minutes of slogging through stinking mud had me questioning my life choices. The trees in this part of the forest were so thick I could barely see a path, let alone figure out where I was in relation to the campus.
An occasional shriek filtered through the dense foliage, but I saw no other creatures. Even the bird that had so kindly pooped on me was long gone.
The sky above turned darker as the temperature dropped. Thank the goddess for the flag keeping my left boob warm. It was the only thing standing between me and hypothermia.
Snowflakes drifted down.
A wolf howled.
I trudged on.
Time passed, and my mood plummeted further. Was my bear okay? Had my incubus returned yet?
