AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Squaring my shoulders, I touched my cuff again.
Stick to the plan,I thought, pausing to let my eyes adjust to the dim interior.
It was when I headed up the stairs that things became complicated. There were no directory signs pointing in the direction of the office. Instead, I found a seemingly endless number of hallways.
I was pretty sure I counted more hallways than rooms, and there were far more windows inside than I’d seen from the outside. Magic had definitely been involved in the building of Slaymore Academy.
I was no stranger to magic spaces—our own keep at the bottom of the ocean was heavily enchanted. But I needed to find the headmistress soon. I was still getting used to my human form, and my head was beginning to hurt from the thinness of the air.
Making my way down the hall, I peered cautiously into half a dozen rooms on the first floor before taking a creaking set of stairs up to the second. The stairwell walls were papered with a fading rose pattern that looked like it belonged in my great-grandma’s sitting room.
On the second floor, I found a perfectly polished grand piano, a full suit of armor, and a fading couch. Beneath the piano bench, there was a box with a large lock and aDO NOT OPENsign sitting on top of it.
Still, there was no headmistress to be found.
I made my way to the third floor. Gold-framed artwork lined both walls on either side of the hall. Whoever decorated the third floor must have really liked still-life paintings. It wasn’t until I reached the end of the hall that I found any signs of life at all.
The office door hadn’t been closed all the way, and squinting through the small gap, I spotted a desk at the window, a chair, and a furiously writing hand. I paused.
“Why are you lurking?” said an impatient, cracking voice from the chair.
“Headmistress Losia?” I hadn’t been invited into the room, so I stood frozen in the hall.
“Do I look like Headmistress Losia to you?” the voice snarled. The writing hand scrawled something and flicked a sheet of paper away.
I had no idea what the owner of the voice looked like, but the correct answer was obvious. “No.”
“Headmistress’s office is on the first floor, at the end of the left fork on the far side of the dining room. Remember to tap the St. George statue as you go by; otherwise, he won’t let you see it.”
I tried to memorize the tangled instructions in my head. “Thank you.”
“And for goodness’ sake, don’t forget your map next time.” The angry writer muttered something about careless students as I tiptoed away from the door.
Retracing my steps, I went back down to the first floor. Finding the correct hallway, I tapped the statue and discovered a dining room I’d missed the first time around.
“Thanks, George,” I muttered as I made my way across the room filled with empty wooden chairs and tables covered with light-blue tablecloths.
As I approached, the door at the end of the dining room opened. A relieved-appearing student scuttled out, clutching a pile of books and a sheet of paper that looked like it could be a map.
“The headmistress is so nice,” the girl gushed as she passed me. “She gave me the last single room. That’s aseriousrelief for a gorgon.”
“Last single room?” I asked as she hurried away. Did that mean I was going to have to share?
The door was ajar, but I still knocked before looking in. “Head-headmistress?”
A woman with a short gray bob sat at a wide ebony desk. She looked up and smiled brightly. Behind a pair of cat-eye glasses, her eyes were a unique color that flickered between orange and red.
“You must be Seta.” She stood, showing a perfectly pressed dark red suit that had been paired with a soft cream shirt.
I got a whiff of brimstone as I leaned over the desk to shake her extended hand. The headmistress’ skin felt dry just as Amadeus’s hand had, but hers was far scalier.
“We’ve been looking forward to your arrival.” Her smile was warm and genuine. “It’s not often Slaymore gets a new type of student these days, and we’ve made several special accommodations for your arrival. I believe you have the necessary paperwork?”
Nodding, I pulled the ambassadorial documents out of my pocket. Headmistress Losia flicked through them, dipping her chin in approval at each one.
“Wonderful! It all appears to be in order. Welcome to Slaymore.” She gestured for me to sit. “Now, on to the elephant in the room, so to speak.”
Pausing, she tilted her head as if listening for any eavesdroppers in the room outside. “Normally, I welcome students from a new… background… in my yearly welcome speech. But your case is a bit unique.”
