I ignored Sera and went back to my lessons. Monday would be the first day of the new year at the academy. Even with Sera yelling like a crazy person, I couldn't stifle my excitement. I always looked forward to the opening ceremony. Abernathy presented me with an orb, which allowed me to see which house the new students belonged in. Sometimes I wondered whether I should use the orb on myself to discover which house I belonged to, but I was too chicken. In A Study on Charms, I would teach the class how to select an object suitable for a magical charm. It was a serious process choosing and preparing a charm before it was altered with magic. Charms worked best when paired with the person's magic, and that's why we had the opening ceremony. A student with fairy ancestry would have better luck creating emotional charms, like love, while a witch with troll magic would excel at offensive or defensive charms. Witches with elven magic could produce amazing luck charms. Of course, my st

Curfew was eight o'clock during the school year. Students didn't have to be in bed, but they did have to be on their floor. With vampires and other predatory supernaturals roaming the land of Sharra and the castle, it was a precaution most students adhered to. As I made my way back up to Snow's floor, I thought about what Mizrabel said. She dared me to go after her. Why? Who was I to her? The words shook me, though. No doubt about it. I needed to discuss what happened with Snow. The worker vampire known as Dina opened the door leading to Snow's floor. "Thank you," I said, my thoughts still on Sera and Mizrabel, and I shook my head. Something about Sera wasn't quite right, but I didn't know why I felt that way. I would keep an eye on her. Snow closed one of the doors, standing in the hall. "Hey," I called, waving.She put a finger to her lips. "Hey," she said in a whisper. That's when I remembered Jasmine. Snow and I had a lot to talk about. "I was just on my way to find yo

After breakfast, opening ceremonies for the academy took place in the grand ballroom. Since the academy only officially existed for a few years, there were fifty-five students in varying classes. All of them came from the human realm, and they all possessed at least one of the seven magics. Two students could change into werewolves, and one was a werecat. There were three vampires and a plethora of witches. There were also several varieties of other magical creatures, including a half-troll, and a few half-elves. A rag-tag group, to be sure, but still, it was a start. Coco, Professor Pops, and Snow went out of their way to find great teachers. There was a teacher from each of the seven magics as well as others, like me, for a total of fifteen instructors. Some were only part-time, including Professor Pops, Snow, and Heathcliff, while the rest of us taught permanently. The other adults were already on stage, and I hurried to make my way up. The grand ballroom was decorated to g

For the next forty-five minutes, we prepared the new students' schedules and adjusted some of the upper-level kids' classes. It would be a great year, I decided, making my way over to my homeroom class. As I went, memories of my dream of the man and my visit with Quilla kept me distracted. My so-called fairy godmother seemed almost too crazy to be real. At the door to my class, I put all of that aside. Taking a deep breath, I plastered a smile on my face, went in, walked past the desks, and to the front of the class. Students talked excitedly, and I soaked in their enthusiasm.We were on the second floor. In our first year using the castle as the academy, I spruced each room according to my mood. In this room, I turned the walls into magical movie screens. On them, moments in supernatural history played out. The one now was Titan's Battle - a war between the elves and the trolls over a mountain used to study, experiment on, and explore supernatural creatures. On the back wall

Sure, he'd been alive a long time and seemed to know everything about the supernatural, but perhaps I should've talked to Abernathy, the dragon, instead.Professor Pops took his reading glasses from his sweater pocket and put them on the end of his nose. He began going over some papers on his desk. The longer I sat, the worse I felt. And I wasn't sure I had a reason. I never once saw Pops be anything but kind and beyond helpful. Sure he was a human turned Hunter, turned kind of human again - No, that was wrong. He was and always would be a vampire. Nothing could change that fact. Plus, I didn't think he wanted to change. I shifted in my seat. Pops looked at me over the top of his glasses. "Cindy? You said you needed to talk to me. Was that true, or are you hiding from someone?"I snorted and cleared my throat. "Have you heard of a land called Polonias?" I blurted.He pulled off his glasses and set them on the desk, then clasped his hands together. "Perhaps. Where is this Polon