While I eat, Calli leaves the room to make a few phone calls. I try to listen, but the vampire can talk super fast when she wants to, and I can’t make out what she’s saying. Does that mean she’s talking to another vampire? But vampires don’t have magic, not in the same sense as witches. At least, I don’t think they do. Honestly, my head is still swimming from everything I learned, and that has only proven to amplify how much I still don’t know.
I take another bite of the coal burner’s dish. I love everything potatoes. The roast beef and cranberry sauce is sweet and perfect, but I’m not a fan of the pork knuckle. I eat what I like and then stare at the leftovers. My upbringing means I’m used to clearing my plate and still being a little hungry, so it’s not like me to waste food, but I also don’t want to eat for the sake of eating…
Calli comes back into the room. “Done eating?”
“Yes,” I say hesitantly.
“Don’t worry about not eating everything. We have plenty of horses and other animals that will love to eat the rest.”
A sudden gust of wind blows by, and the tray is gone, and now Calli stands beside me.
“That’s insane.”
Calli beams. There are perks to all of the different kinds of creatures."
“What’s a perk to being a troll?” I blurt out, thinking about the one I saw earlier.
“They’re incredibly strong, and their skin is like stone. They can take a pounding and never back down. They’re resilient in both body and mind. A lot of magic can’t work on them.”
“Oh, wow. Ah… sirens.”
“Well, their silver tongue of course. They can win first prize in all of the karaoke contests. A few that aren’t hunters go into the human music industry, and they are crazy successful and rich.”
“Unicorns?”
“Come on,” Calli says. “Unicorns are just pure amazing.”
I laugh. “What about—”
“Are you the girl I’m supposed to help?” a dry voice asks from the doorway.
I jerk, startled, but Calli just grins.
“Valentina Collins, this is the witch I told you about. Mirella. Mirella, this is Valentina.”
Valentina—which, by the way, strikes me more as a vampire name than a witch’s—is just like most everyone else here, amazingly beautiful. She brushes back her long, blond almost white hair. The curls are amazing, her volume to die for. Her black lipstick coats her full lips, and she narrows her green eyes at me as she appraises me and clearly finds me lacking. Her form is thin but curvy.
“Can we have the room?” Valentina asks.
“Of course.”
In the blink of an eye, Calli’s gone, leaving me alone with the witch.
“So, I take it you’re a little bit behind on your studies already.”
I wince at Valentina’s judgmental tone. “I know it’s just the first day of the semester, but, yeah, I would like some help. I mean, I’m not even sure which types of magic I have. I think… I think I might have more than one, but I don’t know. I’m not even sure how to use what I do know I have.”
Valentina blinks a few times. “You don’t even know which types… How can that be?”
“It’s not as if I had training or anything.”
“But you should know… How is that possible? I mean, didn’t your mom or dad teach you anything?”
I stiffen. “That’s a little hard when they’re dead,” I say stiffly.
Her black lips twist into an “O” shape.
“And they died well before I would have been able to have been taught anything let alone magic.” I’m breathing heavily, and I glance away, hating that I’m showing this witch how much pain I’m in.
“Well, at least one of your parents had to have been a witch for you to be one.” Valentina side-eyes me, watching me carefully. “For you to be here, you must have caught the attention of someone through your magic. What have you done before coming to the academy?”
“I’ve only really been able to do magic accidentally,” I mutter.
“Do what?” Valentina presses.
She’s a real witch of a witch. I’m not sure I like her, but I do need her help.
“I’ve lifted a few things with my mind, held people down…”
The witch says nothing. The silence grows uncomfortable, and I have to fill it.
“I might’ve once… I’m not sure, but I think I…”
“What, Mirella?” she asks. It would be impossible for her to sound more bored.
I lower my head. I don’t want to confess about the fish and maybe having a talent for necromancy, so I mention something else that happened.
“I… I might have picked a lock.”
“Picked a lock,” she repeats dryly. “Oh, that’s impressive.”
“Not really a lock,” I murmur. “More of a bank vault.”
“A bank vault? You robbed a bank?” Her eyes widen in disbelief.
“No! Of course not! I just… One of the workers at the orphanage, her brother was a banker, and the orphans needed something to do because we were going stir crazy, so the brother suggested a tour. A bunch of the orphans wanted him to open the vault, but he wouldn’t open the door, and I didn’t see why we couldn’t have a peek inside, and… yes, I opened it, but I did not take any money! I’m not a thief!”
“That is interesting,” Valentina murmurs, “but then again, it goes along with moving objects with your mind. You just unlocked and unhinged whatever locks were in place for the vault. Still… that might be something we can try to replicate.”
She stands and heads toward the door.
I stand too. “Sure, I can try to pick the lock,” I say.
“Not this lock.” Valentina winks at me and motions for me to follow her.
We leave the cottage and head over to the stable. It’s locked up, which I find rather odd. No one is around. The entire area is deserted. Most of the students have to be either eating dinner or in their cottages.
“You can try to open this,” Valentina says causally.
“I don’t know. Why is it locked?”
“Oh.” She waves her hand airily. “One night eons ago, the horse got out and caused a bit of a ruckus, but you don’t have to worry about that. I’ll be standing right here. As soon as you unlock it, I can lock it right back up again.”
I hesitate and shake my head.
“Why not?” she demands. “Too afraid you’ll fail?”
“I just think I can try a simpler lock first.”
“Do you want to catch up to the rest of the class? Or do you want to play around with baby magic? If you want to learn what you can do, do something about it. Try.”
I step around her and examine the lock. It appears ordinary enough, but…
“Is it magically locked?”
“How should I know?” she huffs.
“What magic can you do anyhow?”
“We aren’t here to talk about me.”
I stare her down.
She rolls her eyes. “Elemental. Mostly water. I’m trying to learn how to use water to heal.”
I gape at her. “Water can do that?”
“Our bodies are mostly water after all. Yes, water can have healing properties.”
“Oh, wow.” I grimace. Picking locks and moving objects with my mind seems so boring in comparison.
Then again, if I can learn how to throw a spear with my mind, that would be pretty amazing.
“Mirella, are you going to try or not? I thought you wanted help, but I don’t appreciate having my time wasted. I can be off, doing a hundred different things right now.”
“I’m sorry.” I inhale through my nose and exhale through my mouth. “I can do this.”
I keep my eyes open and reach for the lock without actually touching it. When I opened the bank vault, I think I fed on the emotions of the other kids. They all wanted to see inside so badly, so I wanted them to see.
Now, there's just Valentina and me, and she wants this opened. Maybe if I try to do this for her…
I can feel the lock, sense it, and I somehow realize there is a magical component to it. Inside my mind, I can almost see through the lock to its inner mechanism while still seeing the lock itself. Talk about freaky.
With mental fingers, I can unhinge each portion of the lock, but that magical hold keeps it shut regardless. How can I get that out of the way? I can’t really see the magic, just sense it.
Maybe if the magic can be diverted away or misplaced for a moment before snapped back… but where?
With my vision still in that awkward state where I can see objects and yet through them to their insides, I spy the hinge of the stable door. Perfect!
I somehow wrap the magic I can sense in my own magic and shift it away until it’s adhered to the door hinge. I’m not really sure how I’m doing any of this, but the lock should fall open now.
And it does, literally. The lock falls to the ground.
Valentina goes to grab it. I’m blinking away like crazy, trying to get my vision to return to normal. All of a sudden, even though the stable has been quiet this whole time, loud neighs shatter the silence.
What in the world? It’s not as if the horses should be able to tell that the lock is undone.
Valentina picks up the lock, but it’s too late. The door swings open, and horses spill out. We have to race around to reclaim them and shove them back inside. It’s not easy, and I never realized how smelly horses can be and their loads? Huge, disgusting piles of manure that I refuse to clean up. But eventually, we shove them all back inside, not worrying about leading them to stalls. I slam the door shut and wait for Valentina to lock it up.
Only she’s gone.
Standing beside me is a tall man with long white hair. His face looks ageless, but I can’t really see much of his features because he’s glowing. Between that and the wings, he has to be an angel.
“Ah… Hi?” I ask, feeling like I’ve committed some kind of calamity. “I can explain—”
“You are Mirella.”
I wince at his booming voice. “Yes,” I say unnecessarily.
“You unlocked the stable lock.”
“Yes.”
“And released the horses.”
“I didn’t mean to, and they’re all back inside, and—”
“Your intentions matter not, only your actions. Did you think the lock was put there merely to be used as practice?”
“N-No, of course not. I just… It wasn’t even my idea,” I grumble, kicking a rock. The rock flies into the air and lands on a nearby pile of horse feces.
“You will clean the yard,” he says.
If that’s all, I guess it’s not too bad.
“Of course,” I say, wondering if there’s some way I can magically blot out the smell.
“And you are hereby on probation.”
“Probation?”
The angel narrows his eyes at me. At least, I think he does. The brightness makes it so hard to see his face clearly. “You can now only use magic during classes or with supervision.”
I gape at him. “Seriously?”
“Do I look serious?” he rumbles. “Yes. I am serious. Do not think you can attempt to use magic without our knowledge, Mirella. If you fail to follow the terms of your probation for its duration, you will be expelled.”
My jaw drops. “Expelled? But all of this was an accident!”
“You could not have accidentally unlocked that lock.”
“How long will the probation last?” I ask desperately, figuring a day wouldn't be so bad. Even a few days I could handle. Much more than that, though, would be detrimental to my learning. He can't possibly want that.
“A fortnight.”
“A…”
He sighs. “Two weeks.”
“Two weeks?” I screech.
“Do you want me to make it three?”
I shake my head. He flies away, leaving me to clean up this mess. I glance over my shoulder. The stable is locked. When did he do that?
Man, today had been full of ups and downs, but tonight has been the pits. As I shovel the fifteenth pile of manure—how had they had time to go so much?—I can’t help but wonder where exactly Valentina had gone off to. As much as I appreciated her help for guiding the horses back into the stable, she hadn’t gotten in trouble any. Granted, I had been the one to use magic to pick the lock, but it had been her idea.
Still, I could’ve said no, could’ve refused.
Could’ve failed.
Despite myself, I smile. I can only do magic during classes and under supervision? Well, I better get myself a supervisor then. Anyone other than Valentina.