Magic Academy (A Fantasy New Adult Romance) (3 page)

Slowly, he lifted his head and rested
his chin upon his arms to gaze back at her. The fire had ebbed from
his ruby eyes somewhat. “Like what? I sacrificed my mighty form
so that I might be more pleasing and less disconcerting to you. It
was no easy feat. Nor a small sacrifice. I am weaker like this,”
he explained calmly. “Though it is the only way I could hope to
converse with you.”

“You can’t change back when
you feel like it?” That actually surprised her, and though she
was smart enough to know he was trying to manipulate her, it didn’t
occur to her that he would outright lie. Though she’d always
been someone craving power and knowledge, she was always open and
honest with others as much as she could be.

Except when it threatened her quest for
things greater than herself.

“It is not so simple,” he
said with a sigh of exasperation. He stood, though, and approached
her with slow, languid motions. “Shall I teach you then? Do we
have a deal or no? If you only care to expose me to your elvish
wizards then spare me the trouble and banish me now. They will only
punish you for stealing a tome of dark secrets, and do terrible
things to me before expunging me from this plane of existence. Such
an outcome would be tedious and painful for us both.”

“They wouldn’t,” she
gasped, but somehow she knew it was more likely than them praising
her for her cunning. For her success. Her eyes began to fill with
tears and she knew she was in far over her head.

Her lower lip trembled as she begged
herself not to cry in front of the gorgeous demon, but she couldn’t
help as the first tear escaped and ran down her peachy cheek.

“I would prefer to stay in your
world,” he said, and he reached out, touching her arms with his
hands, “with you.” He was so tender, so careful as he
leaned in and spoke to her softly. “I said I will teach you a
spell. A secret. And all I ask in return is that you keep me hidden.”

“Why would you possibly prefer it
here? You said I took you away from your home.” It was hard to
speak while holding in the sobs, but she managed and swallowed the
lump in her throat.

He slowly slid his hands along her arms
towards her back, gradually embracing her. “My realm is cruel
and harsh,” he said softly. “Great suffering abounds. But
here?” he said, leaning in so that his cheek hovered near to
hers. “There is softness and opportunity for things unheard of
in my plane of existence.”

What was he doing to her?

She gasped, and for a moment wondered
if he had her under a spell of some kind. She felt her body soften to
his and she wanted nothing more than his embrace. His affection.

She didn’t want him to go either,
and she knew it wasn’t magic. It was loneliness. Longing.

“Okay.”

It wasn’t passionate, but he held
her tenderly, his arms squeezing her only lightly as their cheeks
touched. “Open your heart to me,” he murmured into her
ear. “Do not hide behind your defenses.” The light tickle
of his smooth voice on her ear was so tantalizing. “I will slip
inside you,” he said, his voice as rich as caramel, as soft as
satin. “And you will hide me within your heart from the gaze of
those who would seek to do us harm.”

She didn’t know what it meant,
but it sounded so sexual.

Strangely, however, it felt…
welcomed. She wanted him to long for her. For so many years she’d
thought of herself as someone unlovable, but he was being so
affectionate. He felt so warm.

It was her isolation, her neediness
that made her nod against his cheek, her soft skin brushing against
his.

His lips touched just beneath her ear
only tentatively, “Thank you,” he said, and his warm body
pressed to hers as he squeezed her form. It was such a careful,
loving embrace, and it shifted and felt so bizarre. So different.

Was this what it was like to feel for
someone? To have them touch at you physically and emotionally?

Though as he held her, the intensity of
it grew. Without him moving, she could feel something strange, as if
he was bleeding over into her very body. Tendrils of his
existence—his soul?—trying to find its way inside of her.
Not her body so much as her own soul: that hidden, inner beacon of
light.

Where hers was pure and wholesome,
however, she could feel his was dark and… different. It wasn’t
like hers. But it wanted in. It wanted to mingle with her essence.
That much was pure and true. She felt it.

A tear streamed down her face and her
hands clenched.

This couldn’t be right. He was
going to do something wrong, he was going to betray her.

Yet it didn’t feel wrong. Not
really. There was some piece of him that felt so… so like her.
So similar to her own soul.

She wanted to scream but she bit it
back, tugging her lower lip into her mouth.

The walls within her came down, and
with a bizarre awareness, she realized he was no longer there. Not
physically.

He no longer held her in his arms, for
he no longer existed in a physical sense before her at all. Though at
the same time, she felt his presence more than ever, for he lingered
within her.

Like when she cast that summoning, the
tingle of power tickled her skin, and warmed her blood. Though it
grew gentle with time as he settled into her being.

His voice travelled to her from within
her own being, not needing words anymore.
You are not alone
,
he said.

She swiped at her eyes as if trying to
be strong and hide her tears at his words. He was speaking to the
deepest and most hidden part of her and she felt so… exposed.
It was horrible and wonderful all at once.

Yet she missed his physical presence,
and that confused and disgusted her. She shouldn’t feel so
attracted to him, to a demon that had such a terrifying presence.

Still, she missed the feeling of his
hands around her.

Instead she got the feeling of warmth
that enveloped her very soul. An unnatural heat that filled her in
ways she thought impossible. Like moments of her father’s love
unrestrained, but more intimate.

When the time comes, you will let me
out and I will teach you
, he said, his voice – which was
not a voice at all, but a thought in her mind – so rich and
soothing.

There was no need, but she nodded as
she looked towards the window. It felt like so much time had passed,
but the sun was only beginning to rise, and it cast long shadows on
the campus. She had a secret, so large and all encompassing, but she
went to clean up the remains of the spell casting.

It was strange how routine it was, and
how new it felt, all at once. It was almost as if she were doing it
with an old friend, someone who cared deeply about her.

Firia had slept deep the whole morning
through. For once in a very long time it was her father that woke her
up with a knock on her door. “Honey?” came his deep
voice. “Are you okay?”

For years now, she’d awoken
before him, began the day with preparing breakfast before heading off
to her classes. Though her classes had all but ended, it wasn’t
that which had interfered with her normal routine.

“Y-yeah dad,” she said
groggily, face down upon the bed, her blankets twisted about her
form. “I’ll be right out.”

She could hear her father shuffle off,
wearily starting his day after another long night of work. Though her
mind lingered on other things.

Her whole night was filled with vivid
dreams. Curious events of her past, sometimes traumatic, often
mundane. She saw herself at her desk in school, shoved to the back
with the other humans. Instead of feeling so alone and ignored,
however, she felt comforted by a presence. Someone always off to the
corner of her vision, but whom she was no less aware of.

She saw herself at her mother’s
funeral, when her father couldn’t bring himself to comfort her.
It was one of her worst memories, facing that tragedy alone, so
young. Just reflecting on it was enough to make her eyes water,
though in the dream she was not alone.

Thick, strong arms wrapped about her,
pulled her to a warm chest and cradled her against her misery.

Then there were moments of joy. The
lonely moments of happiness, like when she was in the forest and
watched two foxes fight over her cloth-wrapped lunch, thinking it
prey, only for their struggle to cause the contents to spill out into
the stream below, where one desperate fox – then the next –
dove in after it, only to come out with a half of her sandwich each,
looking like scrawny rats.

She’d laughed then, though at the
time it was tinged with mournful loneliness. In her dream, the
laughter was shared by that presence, and it no longer held the
sting.

For so long she’d pushed all
those things aside, hidden under the layers of protection. Even happy
memories had been tinged with melancholy and she’d kept herself
focused on the future. The bright, wonderful future where people
wouldn’t treat her like a mousy reject.

They’d know she was someone worth
paying attention to.

Yet the past had no such occurrences,
and she swiped at the tears she knew were begging to come out. It
almost felt like it had all been a dream. Not just the unpleasant
drudging up of painful memories, but the demon.

Self-doubt still lingered in her
subconscious that she could do such a thing, and as she got ready for
the day, she wondered if she was simply going mad with loneliness.

As she pulled up her skirt, she felt
that slight tingle of a presence again, and when she arose to stand
up before her mirror she saw… him. His beautiful black hair,
so sleek and shiny in the morning sun, those ruby eyes alight with a
soft smile as he stood behind her.

He lifted his hands and put them upon
her shoulders as he kissed the back of her head. She felt it too! It
was real! Though when she spun around to see him… nothing. He
was gone. Nothing remained to hint it was ever real and more than a
delusion.

She went out into their kitchen to find
her father preparing a meal for them both. Her dad was a fairly tall
man, dark hair, tousled by sleep, with a thick, groomed beard. He
flashed her a warm smile as she approached, despite his own
weariness. “Up late reading again?” he asked.

“Yea,” she agreed as she
rubbed her eyes. “Kept having weird dreams.” She sat
down, rolling her shoulders and trying to work out a kink in her
neck. “How was work last night?”

Her father wasn’t as good a cook
as she was, but he gave it his full attention, which was something
she wasn’t always capable of with her thoughts so prone to
returning to her books and dreams. The fried dough he served up
looked appealing though, and was likely a sign that they were out of
other food again.

“I need to go pick up some food
today,” he said sheepishly. That had always been his task,
despite how she had more free time than him. She knew he thought it
allowed him to hide how tight their finances were, but it didn’t
work. She was well aware, despite his best efforts.

“Looks great,” she rebuffed
him, forcing a smile to her face. Her black hair was tousled from
sleep and she’d tried to fix it, but the vision of that…
demon had distracted her. She pushed some loose strands behind her
ear.

“I’m not feeling great
today. I could pick some things up until you get some time.”

“No, that’s okay,” he
said immediately, smiling to her as he set down the modest helping of
amber syrup between them. It wasn’t the fancy stuff the elvish
families used, but then, few humans could afford that. “I like
it,” he said, lying to himself as much as to her, she was sure,
“gives me time to think.”

She didn’t have classes to
attend. They had ended for all intents and purposes for the human
students. That is, she hoped, all of them but her. The weeks
following graduation were spent amongst the top tier students –
almost exclusively elvish – competing in displays to earn the
attention of the Academy’s professors, or independent wizards,
in the hopes of getting a billet at the school, or if not that, then
an apprenticeship with someone of some renown.

The human students mostly went on to
apprentice under their own mothers and fathers, carrying on their
family’s role from generation to generation. Her father was a
night time groundskeeper because his mother was one, and she because
both her parents were.

It was a less auspicious career than
Firia had hoped for, scrounging for meals and lying to herself about
her life. It was misery. She could see what her future would be just
looking into her father’s eyes. So often he tried to look away,
but she knew why.

He was just as lonely as she was.

“Alright, dad. If you’re
sure. I’m just going to rest for as long as I can today.”

He cut into his fried dough-cake and
smiled. “I’m sure sweetie. You make the most of this
time,” he urged her with a smile, though she knew the unspoken
undertone of that was:
Make the most of it, because after this,
you’re future is like mine.

It’s funny how being utterly
alone, being so far away from civilization in the heart of the forest
made her feel somehow less alone. It always had, but now it was even
more comforting. She sat on a fallen log, her eyes closed as she
breathed in the mossy scent of her surroundings.

Finding peace and silence was a big key
to her abilities, her success. Everyone else was so busy with so many
thoughts and worries that they never got anywhere. She took time to
do nothing so that she was focused when she did work.

When finally she exhaled and her blue
eyes fluttered open, she spoke to no one in particular.

“Are you real?”

His charmingly foreign voice came to
her so velvety: “As real as you.” She immediately traced
it back to him, sitting beside her on the log. She hadn’t
noticed how he’d done that; there was no warning as such. He
was just… there. Smiling at her handsomely. Still garbed in
that luxuriously exotic robe, coloured in burgundy, brown and gold.