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I’m not human.
Maybe I’ve never been human. Maybe some alien deposited me into my crib as a baby. I’m like one of those cuckoo eggs, swapped at birth.
I turn and run. My feet pound the pavement when I reach the school car park. I don’t know where I’m going, but I need to get away from here.
Then I see a tall, broad guy lifting an arm as I pass him, waving at me and shouting, “Are you Kira Belvedere?”
I ignore him. I just want to run.
“Wait!” he calls. “I’m from Aura Academy. We’ve been looking for you.”
“Leave me alone!” I shout back.
A few moments later, I’m on the road, sprinting away from school as fast as I can. But this guy can’t take a hint, because he’s running after me, catching up quickly. I speed up, but so does he. While I’m starting to pant, he’s barely breaking a sweat.
When I trip, he grabs my elbow, preventing me from face-planting.
“Hey,” he says. “What’s with the Mo Farrah impression? Look, you can’t outrun me. I’ll only catch you up. It’s pointless.”
I yank my arm from his grasp. “Leave me alone.”
The guy tilts his head to one side. That’s when I notice he’s absolutely gorgeous. What I initially thought was ash-blond hair is actually dark, curly hair dyed blond at the tips.His smile is wide, revealing straight white teeth between full lips.
His brown eyes soften as he watches me take deep breaths and slowly calm down. “Kira, you have to face up to the fact that your future lies at the academy. You’re an aura. The Belvederes are necromancers. Didn’t you know that?”
Necromancers.
The word punches all the air out of my body.
“What?” I shake my head. “I… I don’t even go by the name Belvedere. That’s my mum’s name.”
He shrugs. “It doesn’t matter. You’re still from that line of necromancers. You need to come to Aura Academy and train as a Guardian with us. That’s your destiny.”
“Wait, what?” I say, trying to catch up.
He smiles, presumably at the shock on my face. “Well, I guess your parents didn’t give you a heads-up on that one. I’m Cooper, by the way. But my friends call me Coop, so I guess that’s what you can call me. The headmistress asked me to find you. She thought I’d be a friendlier face.”
I’m still trying to process. “I’m awhat?”
Cooper hooks an arm through mine. “Come on. Let’s go get some coffee.”
Three
“What wouldyou like to drink, Kira Belvedere?” Cooper asks. “It’s on me. Well, it’s on the academy, but whatever.” He stands between me and the counter, smiling.
Someone edges past me to get to the door, and I step sideways to let them leave. Full of anxiety and unable to keep still, I move into the queue and stare up at the menu then fold my arms and tap my foot, wanting to be anywhere but in the Starbucks queue.
“Kira?” Cooper prompts.
Finally, I turn to him, ready to try and make sense of it all. “Okay, let’s get one thing straight. My name is Kira Grant. I have never been Kira Belvedere. I live with my dad. His name is Grant.”
“That’s cool,” he says. “Sorry. In our world, children usually inherit their powers and their name from their mother’s side.”
“Well, at least that’s kind of feminist, I guess.” I move out of the path of a woman with a pushchair. “I’ll have a decaf mocha with chocolate sprinkles, please.”
“Good choice. What’s with the decaf?”
“I just knocked a boy off his feet with a football, Cooper. And I woke up puking blood. I’m pretty sure caffeine is the last thing I should be putting in my system right now.”
