I was surprised when the door opened. Honestly, I thought it would have taken longer to convince Claire to let us in—or at least take as long as it had for me to convince the headmistress to let her enroll into Imperium. I’d spent almost an hour pointing out every reason Claire should be at the university, and the headmistress had repeatedly turned me down, replying that a shifter who revealed herself to an obvious drunk was not a liable threat to shifters as a whole.
Until I told her the girl’s name. Claire Pratten. Abruptly, the headmistress was ready to offer her a scholarship, and it left me wondering what the headmistress knew that I didn’t. Who was this girl that the mere mention of her name made Magda Herensy change her mind?
Claire stood in the open doorway. For the first time, I got a good look at her. The first thing that struck me were her eyes. They were a beautiful shade of blue that reminded me of the sky I loved so much. If I stared at them for very long, I would easily get lost in them. Hair so dark it was nearly black swirled around her shoulders in a silky wave. She stood in a defensive position, arms over her chest, eyes narrowed in suspicion.
She may have opened the door, but that didn’t mean she trusted us…at least not yet.
I did not expect her to stand to the side and nod. “Come on in.”
I followed the headmistress into the living room and sat down beside her on the couch, hoping we looked harmless enough. Claire leaned on the edge of a chair, not fully committing to sitting down with us.
Easier to run away if you’re already standing, I thought as I watched the headmistress hand Claire the pamphlet that explained about the school.
The human version, I noticed. The one explaining the benefits of enrolling in the state’s leading school. It stated the statistics of students who moved on to become something greater. It also told of the school offering not only college courses, but high school courses to gifted students who chose to get an early start in higher education. All the hum-drum, plain facts. Nothing more. It even showed a picture of the front of the school, but it didn’t give the reason why the main building was curved like a shield as if to protect those in the dorms behind it.
There wasn’t a shifter’s version of that pamphlet—nothing that told of the school’s true purpose. Nothing that hinted at the skeleton crew of teachers who taught during the summer for the students who were less than normal—and more than human.
A small line furrowed between Claire’s brows as she read it. No doubt she was wondering what Imperium had to do with her.
“I don’t understand,” she said, proving me right.
“That isn’t the shifter’s version,” I replied without thinking.
She looked up at me, her eyes narrowing into suspicious slits. “Pardon me?”
“What Logan means is that Imperium University is a school for those who are gifted—those who have the ability to vertō, or shift,” the headmistress explained. “We help those who have difficulties blending into human society. All it takes is a single shifter to reveal us to the human race, and it could spell disaster for us all. We have discovered over the years that those who do not have magic do not understand it. And humans have a flawless record of destroying what they do not understand.” The headmistress’s voice took on a hard note on her last words.
Some of the suspicion melted from Claire’s eyes, but not enough. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. There is no such thing as a shapeshifter.”
“That, my dear, is where you are wrong. I believe you are kitsune, one who turns into a fox. But there are many types of shapeshifters.” The headmistress turned to me. “Logan, please demonstrate.”
The living room was hardly big enough for my dragon, so I chose to half shift instead, letting scales cover my upper body to give her a good idea of what I could become. My skull widened and my facial bones realigned as my eyes slanted and my teeth grew to points. Now a dragon from the neck up, I let out a long, easy breath, sending out a small flame that heated the air around us.
Claire’s eyes grew large. She stared at me for a moment before turning her attention to the headmistress. “Are you something scaly, too?”
The headmistress laughed. It was the first time I’d actually heard her do such a thing, and it caught me off guard. As I shifted back, my flame danced around a candle on the coffee table before us, scorching the top and lighting the wick at the same time.
The headmistress stood and walked over to the far side of the living room where there was a large empty space. She closed the blinds on the window and turned around. The air crackled with magic as the small woman disappeared, leaving a large mythological creature in her place.
“You’re a…” Claire broke off, words completely escaping her.
“Griffin,” I finished as she stared openmouthed at the creature whose body was that of a lion and whose head, wings, and front talons belonged to an eagle. Claire’s hands tightened on the pamphlet, knuckles going white.
The headmistress’s tail twitched, narrowly missing the chair sitting by the far wall. We were lucky the room wasn’t any smaller, or we would have had to risk going outside to demonstrate our abilities, which would have proved interesting since the shields wouldn’t have been there to protect us so close to the house.
Claire was still silent, her gaze locked on the griffin. As if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred, the headmistress shifted back and came to sit beside me again. There was complete silence for a moment, then Claire began fiddling with the pamphlet.
“I won’t be able to come. I don’t have any money for tuition.” The excuse sounded lame, even to me. She was searching for an excuse to get rid of us.
“I am here to offer you a full scholarship,” the headmistress replied easily. “Should you decide to come to Imperium, everything you need will be provided. I have already spoken with your social worker and cleared it with the state, so the choice is yours.”
“Oh.” Claire seemed at a loss for words. Then a question appeared in her eyes. “How did you know I was a shifter, much less a fox?”
“We have our ways,” the headmistress replied, then paused, before adding, “I believe a certain witch may have alerted us to your existence. You have a friend in the coven.”
Understanding dawned and Claire smiled as she whispered, “Hadley.” Then the smile disappeared and she went completely still for a long moment.
I wanted to snap, “So are you coming or not?” but the headmistress spoke first.
“We will leave you to think it over. Sleep on it. If you choose to come, there will be a taxi here in the morning at eight o’clock to bring you to the school.”
Not the words I would have chosen, I thought irritably as we stood to leave. If she had seen what I had the night before when Claire’s foster dad had grabbed her, she would have been more insistent on getting an answer right now.
“Thank you,” Claire replied in a soft voice as she walked us to the door. “I will think about it.”
And just like that, the door closed quickly behind us and we were outside, while Claire was still inside. Irritated, I blew out a long puff of smoke.
“For one who has been at Imperium so long, you should have better control,” the headmistress informed me as we walked across the street to the alley. “You should think with your head, not that of a dragon. It would be a shame for you to come so far and fail now.”
I flinched, knowing all too well the implications of what she was saying. There was one thing the headmistress hadn’t told Claire. While Imperium was dedicated to saving shifters, occasionally there would be one who could not be saved. To fail would be that person’s end, for the safety of the majority would always overrule the needs of the few.
I nodded. “Yes, ma’am.” I wouldn’t fail, but the part of me that was my dragon still wanted to stay there—to watch after Claire. “If it is all right, I’d like to watch for a bit, in case she comes out looking for us.” The headmistress stopped mid-step, and stared at me. “In case she has more questions she needs answered,” I added hastily.
She looked as if she was ready to tell me no. “Very well. But stay hidden until it is obvious that she is looking for you.” She grabbed my arm and I felt the bite of a talon, proof her griffin was just below the surface.
Look who should have better control, I thought.
“But you do not interfere, no matter what happens, when her foster family comes home. It is her choice to make, and she will make it on her own. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” I resisted the urge to flex my hand as she turned loose.
“Be back when the star lights.” With that, she shifted. Her griffin form launched into the sky, disappearing within mere seconds.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted movement. A guy was walking up the sidewalk to the house. He looked like a younger version of the man who had strangled Claire the night before. Without knocking, he turned the knob and walked in.
Star be damned, I thought. I’ll be back when I’m ready to come back. And if Claire needs help, I’ll be here to give it to her.