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CHAPTER1
Eleanor
Nervous?Who would be nervous? Excited? Yes. That is the proper word for what I was feeling. Surely, I had no reason to be nervous on my first day. Especially because I would be a week early. Sometimes having my family name worked in my favor. As one in a long line of Easternwind witches who had attended the Blackthorn Academy, I practically grew up there. Well, in my mind, I practically grew up there. My grandmother on my father’s side and aunts all told tales of their adventures. I could not wait to begin mine!
Which is exactly how I ended up here a week earlier than I was supposed to. I had been a bit too anxious and found myself on a transport with a handful of senior faculty and a few administrative staff members. I knew this because they greeted one another and asked questions. I experienced a few raised brows, a couple smiles, and a handful of hellos.
I remained quiet for the majority of the trip, butIknewtheyknew I was not one of them. I grew up in thehumanslashmortalslashwhatever they wanted to call it these days“realm” with visits to my father’s family in the parallel paranormal universe filled with magic, fantastical creatures and beings, and… everything I ever wanted.
My life was split between being overtly typical in one realm (the magic one) and exceptionally interesting in another (the moral one). I obviously chose my path to my father’s delight and my mother’s dismay. I may have been a very basic witch with limited knowledge, but the academy faculty and staff must have seen something on my application that made them say yes. I cast my gaze downward and sighed. They may have seen my last name and thought they were getting someone a bit more exceptional in this realm.
In the human realm, my magic, what limited skills I had such as moving things, making things, growing plants faster, etc. worked well. Since arriving here, the only thing I knew for sure that worked was the bag my Grandmother Eaternwind had given me for school. It could hold a small apartment worth of things, but I had only put my necessities as my father had already shipped my trunks. The main difference so far was this trip had been the first I had ever taken that actually felt like magic was on my side.
One very human trip to Ireland and a special ferry ride would transport me and the rest of the passengers to our destination. My father’s family was located in parallel New York, New York so we always used the spelled airplane that would take a magical path that landed in theotherNew York. It was not called New York and it was still nowhere near the academy I longed to be a part of. This was my first trip beyond the East coast of the United States in either universe so my anxiety level probably made my aura visible to anyone who cared to see it.
“You’re a bit early, Miss Easternwind,'' a female voice said as the sun began to descend below the horizon. The colors were mesmerizing and I had to consciously pull my attention from them as the mystical haze of the colorful yet somehow plain fog began to appear.
“I don’t like to be late.” It sounded lame to my own ears, but it was true. I hated to be late for anything and when counting on the mortal realm for accurate travel, well, I really dreaded it. However, this trip had been exceptionally easy. The slight creak of the ferry combined with the gentle motion made by the gentle waves was making me feel a bit sleepy.
She nodded. “Well, good thing I’m arriving today then.” She smiled. “I have your room assignment. I don’t know if you will count yourself lucky or not, but you will only have one roommate, Miss Maxine Mayhem.”
“Mayhem?” I could feel my eyes widen at the last name. Okay, my last name is Easternwind which was because of the compass location my father’s family had settled in and the fashion boutiques they established in both realms which made them a household name to wealthy patrons and centuries of fortune. What would cause someone to be named Mayhem?
The woman who I still didn’t have a name for said after a giggle, “She will be delightful. Don’t judge a name by its connotation, right?”
I cleared my throat and shook my head. Then, as I felt the heat creep across my cheeks, I asked, “And your name is?”
She looked beyond me and said, “You can see the shore.”
I turned to look and saw nothing but the dense fog. When I turned back to get her name, she was gone. I looked at the older merman settling into that spot and asked, “Did you see where she went?”
His brow went up. His pale-blue skin did nothing to hide his expression of amusement as he asked, “Who?”
Right. I smiled and shook my head. “I.” I cleared my throat and looked back toward the direction she indicated and immediately forgot my concern as she was right. I could see the shore. “We’re almost there!”
He chuckled and said, “Yes. First year?”
I nodded.
“I remember my first year.” He smiled and looked toward the shore. “Did you know that Blackthorn Academy was one the Blackthorn family castle. In 1666, they it became an institution for higher learning. If you flew over the top, it would look like a pentacle.”
I listened to him reminisce with awe.
“When I was younger, they just installed the plumbing!” He laughed. “So glad they installed the plumbing. It’s quite a hospitable facility now. Everything you need. I live there full-time now. Blackthorn felt like home when I first stepped onto the grounds. After years of fighting it, I came back to teach and… well, it has been my home ever since.”
“Wow.” I looked at him and he smiled. Pleased with my reaction, maybe?
He nodded. “I also arrived early my first year.”
My lungs seized at the thought. Then he nodded toward the destination and I forgot all about that frightful thought. I was too excited to finally see it. Any part of it. I maintained my barely-leashed composure as much as I could. I knew we were a ways from the school still but who cares? I was here. Almost on the island that would solidify my place in this realm when I graduated with a degree in the defensive arts and worked anywhere but in retail!
The rest of the trip was filled with recognizable landmarks from stories I’d been told. I was the only one exhibiting the barely contained awe of everything around me, though the mysterious professor seemed to find joy in that.
I was positive that what seemed like endless flights of stairs to the freshmen female dorms would finally take care of what magical grandmother liked to call my ‘extra.’ Coming from a family of fashionistas on both sides of the universe, my aunts sometimes spent time in the mortal realm and worked at the shop where they could create other designs, had made me aware of how to dress to impress but it never impressed the women in my family that I ‘took after my mother’ who ‘must have taken after someone on her family’s side.’
I often wondered if that full figure is why such a man as my father would have married a non magical woman over a magical one. He always joked that she was magic, just not the kind his parents approved of. I’d never met anyone from my mother’s side of the family. She said when she met my father, it was clear that she loved him and that was all that mattered. They were apparently very strict and did not approve of him regardless of his wealth and stature in the human realm. My mother was definitely human. There were only a few times I found her doing anything strange like sitting in the garden for hours, but she loved the plants and flowers, so one of the first things I had my magical grandmother teach me was to make those bloom.
These thoughts helped me get to the top of the stairs. Then I had the long stretch of hallway because the room I was assigned with just one roommate was at the very end. Like, the door was looking at me like it should have been a broom closet and that’s why I was placed there.
