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“What is the most important role of a witch or warlock in a hunting team?” Landon asks, his gaze sweeping over the class for a volunteer.
Harper’s hand immediately shoots up in the air and she nearly leaps out of her seat, clearly determined to make up for earlier. I huff out a breath of amusement as I notice another hand shoot up at the same time, belonging to none other than her seat stealer.
“Yes,” Landon says, pausing as he gestures to the male student at the front.
“My name’s Jakob, sir,” the man—Jakob—says, a triumphant gleam in his green eyes. He shifts in his seat causing the sunlight streaming in through the windows beside him to light up his flame-red hair. “A witch’s or warlock’s role in a hunting team is the entrapment spells to catch the monster.”
Harper lets out a huff of annoyance as her hand thuds back on the table, and her eyes narrow to slits on Jakob. I swear, if looks could kill he would already be six-feet under with Harper dancing on his grave. But to my surprise, he doesn’t even balk at the death glare, and instead, continues ignoring her, his full attention devoted to Landon.
“Exactly,” Landon exclaims, a genuine smile curling on his lips. An answering one stretches across my lips, enticed by the excitement he seems to have for his teaching. “We’ll be starting off by testing your levels of power and sorting you into pairs based on that so we have equal power levels learning from each other. Then we’ll get into the specific entrapment spells and how to best use them while facing off against a monster.”
I glance over at Harper, my chest tightening with dread as I silently hope we’ll be placed together. We’d always been together in university, so it was easier to hide the true strength of my powers from everyone else, but with the academy being the most elite students around the country, I can’t be sure that it will remain the same. To my chagrin she doesn’t meet my gaze, her glare still focused on Jakob beside her. I almost reach out to draw her attention back to the front when the marker begins writing on the board again.
“There’s also another aspect of our duty in monster hunting that isn’t widely known,” Landon says, immediately capturing my attention. “Once the monster is weakened by the team, we need to open up a portal and transport them back to their realm.”
Silence settles over the class at this revelation. Throughout all the classes I’ve taken and stories my family has told, no one has ever mentioned another realm. Even my own brother kept the secret until now.
“We try to keep the information to ourselves to avoid the animosity and fear that would accompany it,” Landon explains. “Only hunters and the leaders of packs and covens are privy to that information.”
I glance down at my page, reading back over the notes I’ve taken so far and notice the magic has underlined the word “realm” causing it to stick out from the rest of the text. I read it over again, my brows furrowing as I search for the memory tucked away, when it hits me. Last night, the dream or whatever it was with Damon, he mentioned a dream realm. Had my powers somehow unknowingly formed a link to this dream realm last night without me trying? And is this realm where we send monsters the same one I either visited or imagined last night?
I suck in a deep breath and steel myself for what I’m about to do. With all these questions muddling my thoughts, I know I won’t be able to focus until I learn more about this realm. Landon might want to keep skipping over me, but I’m still a student and I’m Aria Hart, dammit. I’m not timid or shy, I’m powerful, brutal, and vicious, and I won’t cow down and risk my future because of a man.
I raise my hand in the air confidently, my brow cocked in a challenging look as I lock eyes with Landon. His throat bobs as he notices my hand raised, his words cutting off abruptly as he finally lets his tawny eyes land on me. They seem to soften a fraction, regret brimming in them for a moment before he gathers himself.
“Yes,” he gestures to me, his posture going rigid as if he’s holding himself back from saying more. I slam the door down on my emotions, willing my voice to come out strong and clear with everyone’s attention now glued to us.
“Aria,” I say simply, uncaring of the dark seductive way my name rolls off my tongue. His eyes seem to darken slightly as he shoves a hand into his pocket. “I was wondering if you could tell us more about the realm we send monsters to. Is there just one, and how did they get here in the first place?”
I trail one of my stiletto nails over the paper in front of me and Landon’s eyes shift at the movement as though he can’t help but be entranced by it. The fog clouding his mind must lift slightly since he clears his throat, his gaze snapping back up to mine.
“That’s an excellent question, Aria,” he says with a grin curling on his lips as he focuses back on the class. A contagious excitement sparks in his eyes while he launches into the explanation. “Another reason we keep the information secret deals with the origin of monsters in our realm. After the humans discovered our existence they scoured the towns, searching for anyone with any supernatural powers. This of course led to the creation of Endcliffe.”
I sit up straighter in my seat, my intrigue growing at this part of my coven’s history.
“However, in their search for us, they came across a grimoire and played with magic they had no right to access,” Landon explains. My pen scribbles furiously, taking down every word that leaves his delectable lips. “They used this to unlock a portal to the monster realm, hoping they would help to defeat us, but the opposite happened. The monsters began turning on the humans, shredding them to pieces until our ancestors stepped in.”
Shocked gasps sound around the room at the new revelation. My lips quirk to the side as I piece together the information I have so far. But that still doesn’t explain how after so many years we still have monsters lurking out beyond the town’s borders.
“The humans did irreparable damage to the fabric of the realm and no one has been able to close the rift yet. That’s why our ancestors formed the academy and closed our borders to the humans and monsters to keep us safe while doing our best to clean up the mess the humans left.”
My mind drifts back to the stories I always heard from my grandmother about how our coven saved so many others by forming Endcliffe and putting up the barrier around the town. How could she tell that story with so much missing from the truth? Sure the humans did it to themselves, and if we’d stayed amongst them countless people would’ve died, but despite the missions the hunters go on to keep the monsters under control, how many people have died because we’ve kept ourselves locked away here?
“This just shows how important our entrapment spells are, since without them the monsters would be able to get back into our world through the rift.”
So in other words, we’re trying to eliminate the monsters from our world one at a time in hopes to keep their population under control. I’m honestly not sure how I feel about that, but there really doesn’t seem to be another way if the rift won’t close.
“Regarding the realms, there are more than just our own and the one where we send the monsters back to, but it’s been forbidden by the elders to access any others after what the humans unleashed,” Landon says, his posture much more relaxed than it had been before. He gives me a genuine smile before continuing on with the lesson, apparently forgetting his insistence on skipping over me before.
I swallow thickly at that last piece of information, unable to even smile back as my stomach twists with dread. Had I truly visited another realm in my sleep last night? And if I had, would the elders be able to sense it somehow?
I glance to the closed door, nervous energy now thrumming through my body like electricity, as I picture one of the elders’ guards bursting through the door and carting me away. I need to do some more research on these portals and my powers so I can make sure it doesn’t happen again. My heart pangs as Damon’s fiery eyes flicker in my memory. I push it aside, along with the echo of pleasure that erupted from every nerve ending as his shadows stroked along my skin, and the ecstasy that washed over me while his lips devoured mine, kissing me like he needed me more than air to breathe.
Heat blooms down my neck, my skin flaming at just the memory of what he could do to me. Realization crashes back down on me a moment later and I focus my tired mind back on the pen scribbling frantically in front of me, transcribing every word I’d missed while lost in my thoughts.
Someone’s gaze is on me to the right. My chest tightens as I turn to the asshole sitting next to me, his cobalt eyes glued to me with an assessing stare.
Scolding myself silently for letting my emotions get the best of me, I force my walls back up, hiding my thoughts behind that steel barrier as I bare my teeth at Denver.
