Summoned By Magic by Lexie Scott

Chapter 21

Even from this distance, I could see the fire in his eyes and practically feel the hate emanating off of him.

I waited until he was closer before responding. “Niall? What’s going on?”

He never took his attention off me. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I’m not some dog that’s willing to chase you around.”

“What’s your problem?” Theo stepped in front of me but not blocking me entirely from Niall’s wrath.

“She is,” he ground out. “Headmaster Goldstein called me to his office this morning and reprimanded me for her teachers’ concern. They don’t think she’ll be able to reach the level to keep up with the rest of us, and somehow that’s my responsibility.”

I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I,” he growled. “Apparently Mrs. Brooks’ asking me to tutor you in Water means I’m also somehow accountable for the rest of your studies.”

“But I’m also studying with Hannah, Daniel, and Malik. I just spent two hours with Mrs. Hedging this morning. I’ve been reading my textbooks and the previous years’ every night for three hours. What more can I do?”

His jaw clenched, and I worried he was going to break a molar. “I don’t know.”

Theo turned to me. “Maybe the teachers just need to see for themselves how much effort you’re putting in.”

My shoulders slumped. “How? It’s the first week. We haven’t had any exams yet. So far it’s just been lectures and a few random assignments.”

Theo turned to Niall, who finally pulled his eyes off me to look at him for the first time. “What did the headmaster say? What does he want you to do?”

Niall rolled his eyes. “He’d probably like for you to not waste your time with horses when you could be studying.”

We’d been here for less than an hour. Was I not allowed a break?

“I didn’t ask what you thought, Kelly. What did Goldstein say?” Theo crossed his arms over his wide chest.

Niall gave him a once over before turning toward me. “You have this weekend to prepare for a placement test in each class. If you don’t pass at the level where year-four students should be, then they’ll change your schedule. You’ll be put in classes better suited to your current . . .” he sneered, “state.”

Current state? Like I was less than? Not up to par?

“She has to learn three years’ worth of material in two days?” Theo gasped.

“Or accept that she needs to start from the beginning like she should have,” Niall answered him without taking his eyes off me.

“But I don’t want to move down to the year one classes.” I had friends in my current ones. I was doing all I could to progress as quickly as possible. They couldn’t seriously expect me to learn everything I needed to in a week. I was supposed to have the whole term.

“Then I suggest you leave this field and get to the library.” Niall’s disgust was clear. He didn’t want to be out here. This seemed to be beneath him.

“Let’s go.” Theo offered me his hand like he was going to join me in this marathon cram session.

“What are you planning on helping with?” Niall cocked his head.

“I might not have the same affinity, but I can help with all the other subjects and the basics of witchcraft.”

Niall made a sound between a scoff and a snort. “You’re not exactly at the top of the year, Bridges. I doubt there’s much you could help with.”

Theo cracked his knuckles. I thought he was getting ready to fight him, but as he worked his jaw, it looked more like a soothing gesture. “I’m not an idiot. I can help.”

“Fine.” Niall turned without another word and started back toward the barn. Theo and I hurried to follow him, and he took my hand about halfway across.

I smiled up at him. “You really don’t have to come. I’m sure you have better things to do with your weekend.”

The tension left him, and he squeezed my hand. “I can’t think of anything more important.”

My heart soared. I might have swooned if we weren’t in such a rush to follow Niall. He was a man on a mission, and I didn't want to make him angrier than I already had. Somehow, without even speaking to him, I’d become his enemy. It wasn’t my fault Mr. Haddon, Mrs. Brooks, and the headmaster had all told him to help me. I hadn’t asked him for anything. That didn’t matter to him.

I couldn’t blame him for hating or resenting me. If some random student showed up at my old high school with zero understanding of my world and people kept pushing them on me to help, I’d be annoyed. But I wouldn’t take it out on that innocent person. It wasn’t their fault they didn’t know, or that their family had kept the truth of who they were from them for seventeen years.

Eyes followed us as we hurried along the path toward the library. If people weren’t already talking about me, they would be soon.

That was why it didn’t surprise me when Hannah, Daniel, Malik, and Carter showed up ten minutes after Niall claimed a table deep in the library as far away from everyone else as possible. Not that many other students were in here. It was a warm, sunny summer day, and none of us had much homework yet.

Well, besides me.

“What are you guys doing here?” Niall deadpanned.

Hannah stood with her hands on her hips. “We’re here to help.”

The guys nodded behind her, and I couldn’t help but smile at them. My new friends showed up for me.

Theo waved his phone in the air, “I called in backup before we even left the barn.”

I smiled at him, grateful he had the foresight to let Hannah know. I wasn’t sure how much we could get through with Niall glaring at me.

“Yeah, we’re not letting Saige drop down to year one,” Daniel said.

Niall sat with his eyes closed and rested his elbows on the desk while rubbing his temples. “I don’t need your help.”

“We’ll take all the help we can get,” Theo said at the same time, and everyone chose to ignore Niall even as he lifted his head and glared at each of them like he was casting spells in his head to torture them.

“Good.” Hannah sat across from me, next to Niall, as if she was immune to his threatening gaze. “I stopped and spoke with Mrs. Sheridan. I had a feeling she was going to be the toughest to convince.”

All the guys flinched at the same time.

“Is she really that bad?” I hadn’t exactly gotten the best vibes from her, and Mrs. Hedgings did say my science teacher didn’t think I’d cut it. Still why did everyone else dislike her?

“She can be really, really . . .” Malik trailed off like he couldn’t come up with an appropriate word.

“Tough?” Hannah offered.

“Insane?” Daniel suggested.

“Sadistic,” Carter shivered.

Yikes. None of those were qualities I wanted in someone who held my future in their hands.

“All of the above,” Malik said. “She gives out punishments using her set of tarot cards.”

“What? How?” That didn’t make any sense.

“You don’t want to know,” Theo mumbled next to me.

“She gave detention to Will Sharpe last year, and he got the moon card. She cast an illusion that made him live his deepest fears for two straight hours. When it was over, he couldn’t move or speak for three days.” Daniel shook his head as if he was still trying to comprehend what happened.

“During our second year, Sara Bowls got the empress card, and Ms. Sheridan locked her in a coffin until she passed out from screaming.” Carter stared down at the table.

“How is that allowed? Why doesn’t anyone stop her? Does the headmaster know?” I couldn’t believe the administration would tolerate this.

“He believes each teacher has the right to run their class as they see fit. That includes grading, discipline, and teaching methods. As long as no student is seriously injured, he doesn't intervene.”

Holy shit. This place was deranged.

“Will you all shut up so we can focus?” Niall snapped, and everyone fell silent. “Hannah, what did you find out?”

Hannah swallowed, shrinking in on herself a bit. “She said the test will be a general overview. Nothing too specific, rather a tool to gauge Saige’s knowledge.”

“How do you know she’s telling the truth? She could be lying to trick Saige into failing.” Malik leaned back in his chair.

“Because I’m one of the few that she doesn’t despise. I’m a good student and haven’t ever caused trouble,” Hannah countered.

“Fine, if that’s all we have to go on, then let’s make a list of the key points Saige needs to know and work through them,” Niall muttered under his breath, and a stack of books and a black notebook and pen appeared before him.

“What the hell! How did you do that?” Malik was on the edge of his seat, leaning toward the new arrivals.

Niall rolled his eyes, and Hannah replied. “It’s a pocket spell. It’s like carrying around a huge backpack only it’s invisible.”

My eyes narrowed. “Do you feel it?”

She shook her head. “No, it’s not really with you. It’s more of a Space ability.” She turned to face Niall. “So how do you know how to do it?”

Niall ignored her, opening the notebook and uncapping his pen. “We’ll go through her schedule starting with history.”

The others offered topics they thought would be most relevant and soon the page was full. My hands drifted to my hair, automatically sectioning off a small chunk and braiding as the tension thickened in the room.

“Next, Math.” Niall’s hand hovered over the paper, but this time Hannah was the only one to add anything, and it was only a few lines. “Science.”

This one was longer than the history list, and the weight that had settled on my shoulders when Niall first explained why he hunted me down felt heavier and heavier. How could I possibly learn all of this in less than two days? I couldn’t skip classes on Monday. There was no way I could pull this off. Maybe I should pick one or two subjects to dig into. That way I could stay at a year four for those. That was better than going to year one for everything because I failed everything.

“I’ll work on Water, but I don’t know how to help with Earth,” Niall admitted.

“Do you know anyone in your class?” Hannah asked.

I shrugged. “We spent the week testing to find out what our specialties are. I spent each class reading the textbook.”

“So, it will just be the general Earth powers then. That shouldn’t be too hard to cover,” Hannah said to Niall.

He nodded and flipped back to the first page. “Let’s get started.”

Theo took over. “You know some of the main historical points already. I told you about the vampire’s portion.”

“We need to tell you about the other supernaturals. The lowers,” Hannah shifted. “We can start with the brownies. I told you they do the housekeeping. They lived in the area where the treaty was signed. They were loyal to the non-supes, but after the council was established, they convinced the brownies to start working for the supes. The council allowed them to live with their families, instead of having to stay with the non-supes. They also agreed to pay them well which had never happened. They were basically slaves before, and through the council, they gained their freedom. There are some rules though. They’re generally super happy and prefer to work without being seen, so you probably won’t run into them. But if you do, you must never call them by anything but their given name. If you meet one named Matthew, for example, you can’t call him Matt. You also can’t ever thank them or give them gifts. It’s highly offensive to them, and if one gets mad enough, it can turn into a boggart.”

“And you do not want to mess with one of those,” Theo warned.

I looked around for something to write all this down. Niall whispered again, and another black notebook and pen appeared.

“Thanks.” I tried to offer him a smile, but he didn’t look up from his paper.

I quickly wrote down the key points of what she said.

“Then there are the trolls,” Daniel started. “They’re malicious, hideous creatures, but they made the best guards and warriors. The family that guards the school has been here for generations. They live in underground caves near the back boundary of the property. You’ll likely never see them, but if you do, just be respectful.”

I nodded. “No rules like the brownies?”

They all shook their heads. That one was easy enough.

“Some of our teachers are daemons, so you need to know about them.” Theo took over. “They aren’t the same as demons. They’re spirit guides, kind of like guardian angels. They’re immortal and cannot be created or destroyed.”

“Those that are here volunteered to be assigned here for a few hundred years,” Hannah explained.

A few hundred years? They were that old? My human––non-supe––brain couldn’t really comprehend what that meant. “Are any of my teachers?”

“Yes, history and literature are both taught by daemons,” Niall answered.

Ms. Martin, the tiny pixie-looking woman? Huh. I expected them to be something . . . else. Grander. Angelic.

“Demons also exist, but the academy is protected,” Theo began. “They’re creatures of hell, are innately evil, and have endured long periods of torture and pain. They lure their victims in by changing their appearance and voice to match that of a loved one then trap them and feed on the life force of both non-supes and supes.”

I gasped. That was horrific. “How do they get to earth?”

“That’s a part of history we haven't covered yet,” Hannah answered. “It has something to do with a great war several millennia ago.”

“Focus,” Niall scolded. “You know about the treaty, lower species, vampires, and witches. Right?”

Hannah leaned over and read through the list they wrote. “Oh, we should cover shifters.”

I sat up with a jolt, then stretched to play off my sudden interest. Was this my chance to ask about my dad’s side without raising suspicions?