The entrance is right before me, but I hesitate and then turn back around and take the familiar path to the library. Hata actually loves me all the more because I bested her kelpie, and she’s dropped hints that I should try again, not seeming to care that I would get into a lot of trouble if I did.
The sphinx smiles at me when I enter, and I almost let a tear escape. It’s so nice to see a friendly face. She pauses from using her paws to stack books.
“Mirella, skipping class to study some?”
“You know me.” I shrug. “Always wanting to learn.”
“What’s the topic today?”
“Gargoyles.” I hesitate and then add, “Are there any who like fire?”
“Gargoyles are usually cold, being stone and all. The sun doesn’t really touch them. Now… I suppose if one were to be a chimera of a kind, a hybrid… If one parent a gargoyle, of course, and the other something related to fire… say a salamander or a dragon, then, yes, I suppose some gargoyles would have the capability of producing fire.”
“Salamanders lay their eggs in the water because of their reptilian nature, right?”
“Very good. Yes, they do.”
“Hmm… Demons have fire.”
“Most do, yes, but demons do not lay eggs. I assume we are talking about a gargoyle who laid an egg since you specifically mentioned salamander eggs?”
I nod, feeling a little sheepish but also grateful that the sphinx is so perceptive. At least someone in authority here likes me.
“Yes, there are others with fire, but to have been an egg, I do think a dragon might be the best bet, either a dragon creature or a dragon shifter.”
“Do gargoyles themselves, you know, a mom gargoyle and a dad gargoyle, would they have an egg?”
“Would you want to give live birth to a stone baby?” the sphinx asks dryly.
I shudder. “No thank you.”
“Precisely. If you are looking to learn more about gargoyles and hybrid creatures, go to the second room, far bookcases along the wall, second shelf from the bottom.”
“Thank you!”
I follow her directions and lug an armful of books to the nearest table. I devour them and a few more in the span of hours and come to one conclusion. It’s a very good thing that we didn’t stick around and try to take on the gargoyle dragon by ourselves. We can’t possibly be strong enough to take her on just the two of us. No, we would need a team, just like the teams that will be formed for the ball that’s coming up in a few days.
Unfortunately, though, it sounds like none other than Valentina Collins, the witch of all witches, will be the first year’s queen. I really hope not. She’ll make sure I’m not picked, but if I can somehow get onto the team, maybe I can convince them to take a slight detour from our chosen target to take on this gargoyle dragon.
A chilling thought comes to me. What if the gargoyle hasn’t realized the stone baby inside is dead? What if she’s been setting fires without that provocation? What will she do once she realizes? Torch the entire place? Take it out on the kids? Is she possessive of the kids because she was going to be a mother? Will she kidnap some of the orphans?
My mind churns over the possibilities, each more frightening than the previous one. No matter what happens, I will do everything in my power to keep the orphanage safe for those I’ve left behind.
The next day, I don’t want to get out of bed, exhausted to the point of being ready to sleep for another eight hours yet, but Calli won’t stop shouting.
“Are you serious? You can’t be serious. Is this for real?”
“What is she going on about?” I mumble.
No one answers, and I crack my eyes open. I’m alone.
With a sigh, I drag myself out of bed and go into the hallway. Calli practically runs me over.
“You did it!” she cries.
“Calli,” I whine. “I’m not awake yet. Wait. Why aren’t you in class?”
“It’s Saturday, silly, and you did it!”
“Yeah, you said. Did what exactly?”
“You’re on a team for the ball!” She’s practically singing.
My eyes widen, and my jaw drops. "I'm on the first-year team? How did that happen? I thought—"
“Valentina is the first year’s queen.”
“Then how—”
"You aren't on the first-year team."
“Wait. Who picked me?”
"You're on the third-year team!"
Darius. It must be because of him, but I’m shaking my head.
“I’m suspended. I don’t see how the mentors and masters will allow me to be on the team.”
Calli’s too busy typing away on her phone, and then she shoves the screen in my face. I have to take it away from her so I can hold it at a level so I can actually read it.
And there’s Darius, listed as king. I thought Malak’s a second year, but he’s on the team too. The queen is Miyako, a female I never met before. Vothos, Lucent, Nea, and Riran make up the rest of the team, and I don’t know any of them either.
“I thought the teams are supposed to be only from that year,” I say, still baffled.
“Typically, but exceptions can be made. Clearly.” Calli squeals. “Aren’t you excited? This is killer!”
“Yeah,” I mumble, “killer.”
“Why aren’t you excited?” She peers at me curiously. “Hold up. You’re suspended? Since when?”
“Long story.” I keep staring at my name on her screen. It looks official, like everything is set in stone, but I can almost see an asterisk by my name.
Set in stone. The gargoyle dragon. My stomach twists. Will Darius be willing to listen to me? Will he be such a stickler for the rules that he won’t consider going after the gargoyle dragon?
“I have to go,” I say.
Calli grips my arm. “You might want to change first.”
“Whoops.”
Calli’s playful laughter follows me back to the bedroom. In no time at all, I’m changed and out the door. My phone’s buzzing. Darius is calling. He never calls, only texts.
“Hello?”
“Come to the front lawn.”
And he hangs up.
“Could’ve just texted that,” I mutter.
I head to the front lawn. Several students are there, clustered in three groups. The three teams.
Off to the side are so many mentors and masters I can't count them all. I don't recognize most of them.
“Line up,” a male barks. His face looks almost scaly. He’s as tall, muscular, and powerful as any of the others here, but there’s something absolutely foreboding and domineering about him.
Everyone scrambles to listen to him, and I'm the one that is last into position since the third years are the farthest away from the point where I entered the front lawn. I'm the shortest on our team. One of the guys has to be a giant, a female a minotaur, but I can't tell by just looking at them what the others are. Actually, on second glance, the female next to Darius, so possibly the queen, has features that subtly remind me of a fox, so maybe she's a kitsune.
The scaly man walks a few steps in line with the first-year team. His hands are behind his back, and he seems to be appraising each member.
“What’s going on?” I murmur, grateful that Malak is standing next to me.
“The teams were all picked, but he has final approval.”
“Who is he?”
Malak gapes at me before staring straight ahead again. Belatedly, I realize everyone has their hands behind their back, looking forward, almost like statues. Swiftly, I fall into position as the scaly man appraises the second year team.
“That’s only Jaidos, the master of masters and the head of the academy. You’ve never met him before?”
I shake my head.
“I thought he had to interview all potential students.”
“Who would want to come here after having to have a chat with him?” I murmur. “What is he?”
“A dragon shifter. One of the most powerful ever. I heard he was born in his dragon form.”
My eyes bulge, but I can’t ask anything more. Jaidos is approaching. So far, he hasn’t said anything, but his gaze lingers on Malak and then stops entirely when he looks at me.
“A first year,” he says, his voice booming as if we’re in a tight, crammed, enclosed space.
“Yes, sir,” Darius says.
“A witch.”
“With arcane—”
“I can smell her magic,” Jaidos snaps.
I bristle, hating that they’re talking about me as if I’m not even here.
"A second year on the third-year team has happened before, but a first year…" Jaidos glances behind him at the other instructors. "And she has been on probation already and is currently suspended."
“Recent evidence has shown that the suspension may have been premature,” Mentor Magnus says.
I can’t help gaping at him. He’s involved with all of this? He knows what Valentina did?
Beside him, Mentor Le Rogue nods. “Another student tampered with Mirella’s potion.”
Jaidos sneers, his upper lip curling back. “And she did not realize? How disgraceful.”
He has a point.
“Do you have anything to say for yourself?” he barks at me.
“No, sir,” I say, not knowing if he’ll appreciate the term, worrying I should’ve said Master instead. “I should’ve realized. My ignorance ruined my project as much as the tampered potion.”
“And do you know the guilty party?”
I hesitate and decide not to answer. After all, the guilty party is on another team.
"Just because her suspension should be lifted doesn't mean necessarily that she should be allowed on the third-year team. What says her mentors, her master?"
“She is not the strongest first year. She is not the toughest. She is, however, the most determined and the most dedicated,” Master Vanhylde says.
“She does not merely wish to ride and fly,” Mentor Sinte Maza says in his slow drawl. “She gets to know and befriend the creature first, something most first years ignore.”
Mentor Blase flares his translucent nostrils. “She does well enough, I suppose. Asks too many questions, though.”
Mentor Magnus laughs. “Questions all the time, yes! But that shows a willingness to learn, to not accept things as they appear to be but as they are.”
“So much so that she could not tell her potion which she had worked on for a fortnight had been tampered with.” Jaidos is not impressed.
A few other mentors who I have never seen before comment about how irregular this is, how clearly inexperienced I am, how I could very well prove to be a liability since the third-year team is to go after the most dangerous of the three evil paranormal creatures.
Finally, Mentor Le Rogue steps forward. "If I may, Mirella entered this school at a severe disadvantage. She recognized this, and instead of folding, she made it her mission to study harder than everyone, to train harder, to do all she could. She may think I do not realize her full potential, but she is her mother's daughter. Between her mother and father, together, they had mastered the ten disciplines of magic. Her father only had two, but her mother had nine. Although they do not share the same ones, Mirella has the potential to master nine as well, although for some of them, she has a long road ahead of her."
Um… I’m glad the mentor realizes this, but I’m not sure I want everyone on campus to realize this. I don’t want a target on my back, and if I fail, if I can’t master some of them…
But I’m so glad to know this about my parents. All ten disciplines of magic between them! Which two did Dad have? Which one in addition to arcane?
“That much potential power might actually prove to be detrimental,” another mentor says.
Jaidos eyes Darius. “You are tutoring her in the arcane arts, are you not?”
“I am.”
“And you wish for her to be on the team.”
“I do.”
“Then she is under your guidance. If anything should happen, then you and she both will be expelled.”
I swallow hard and lean forward to look at Darius. He’s not looking at me but the headmaster.
Darius, you don’t have to risk this, risk everything, for me.
Do you think you can handle this?
Yes.
“Very well,” Darius says aloud. “I agree.”
“I—”
Don’t. He’ll expel us both on the spot if you dare to defy his offer.
But—
Mirella, I am king. You need to listen to me.
You’re an arrogant, bossy king, you know that?
“I agree too,” I amend what I planned on saying.
"Very well. First years, your team will go after…"
I zone out, thinking about the gargoyle dragon, worrying about my friends, feeling like I’m going to explode. I should’ve checked my phone before coming here. I don’t know if Valerie is all right or not, if she stayed out of the room, if the gargoyle dragon came back…
"Third-year team," Jaidos says sharply, and I wince, feeling as if that's a slight geared toward me, and toward Malak to a lesser degree. "Your paranormal creature to hunt is Lapis Draca, a stone dragon gargoyle."
I gape at him, and my gaze shifts to Mentor Le Rogue and the coy little smirk twisting her lips.
Can she see the future? Did she know this would come to pass? Did she engineer for the third years to go up against the one evil paranormal creature I most wanted to go after?
Mentor Le Rogue, I am so sorry for every bad thought I had against you.
Crap. I hope she didn’t catch that thought, but I’m so happy right now. We can do this. We can hunt this Lapis Draca down. We can save the orphanage, and all will be right in the world again.