Page 3 of The Witch & the Wolf

“I suppose the same,” she said, which prompted Arlo to smirk.

He then asked Holly, “What is your magic power?”

“I can hear the whispers of the dead,” Holly said. “Which is a fancy way of saying I’m a medium.”

“A medium!” For the first time, Arlo showed actual interest, leaning forward, hands clasped together. The rest of the classroom had devolved into numerous conversations that buzzed in the background. “You work with spirits. Isn’t it similar to necromancy?”

“Nah,” she said, slightly surprised at the interest, though not exactly hating it. “Necromancy is more animating the dead, trapping souls – mine’s probably not quite as strong. I kind of wish I was a necromancer. What about you? What is your magic power?”

“Necromancy,” he said with a grin. “And how you described it isn’t quite how it is, but close enough.”

“What! For real?” Holly exclaimed. Someone who had a similar connection to spirits was in her class, someone who had the kind of magic she’d just confessed to wanting as well. “You’re not pulling my leg, are you?”

“Nope.” He grinned, but on him, it looked menacing. “It’s an innate power possessed by a small offshoot of the Sixclaw family.” But then his smile faded. “It’s not a popular offshoot as you might imagine.”

“Oh, my family isn’t popular either,” Holly offered. “I guess people don’t like those who work with the dead.”

“Yeah, that’s it, I suppose.” He glanced at the board and asked her the third question. “What question do you really want to ask me?” He scowled. “Really? That’s the question?”

Holly snorted, though a question did spring to mind. “How about… why are you here in your werewolf form? How is it possible?”

“I guess you don’t know a lot about werewolves,” he said, settling back in his chair and folding his arms. “I do it because I can.”

“No, I mean for real. I thought werewolves were savage.”

“Ah. You really don’t know.” He thought for a second before saying, “I take a type of pill. There’s one that suppresses transformation, but there’s another that allows it but helps you retain humanity. I had a bad reaction to the suppressant.

“It takes a lot of practice to learn to speak well when you’re in this form, though, so most werewolves prefer to stay in human form. I like being in werewolf form. I see no reason to hide it. When the moon is full, you can see us for who we are.”

She digested this information, nodding. She’d never known a pill existed that allowed werewolves to remain human while in werewolf form, but here he was, not attacking everyone in sight. “Thanks for telling me.” She wanted to ask him why he’d chosen Dreadmor over Archon but instead blurted, “I heard some of the students saying your family’s loaded. Is that true?”

“Sure.” He kept his arms folded.

“I guess you’ll be the one hosting all the parties then,” she said, and he chuckled.

“Oh no. No parties where I come from.” His yellow eyes locked on hers with slightly less contempt than before. “Have you ever spoken to the dead?”

A memory sprang to Holly’s mind. It flared – a bright warble of sound, of something cold, grasping, creeping through her spine. She forced a smile, pushing that memory away. “I have. I wouldn’t recommend it.”

Z’Hana’s exercise sounded like a crackpot idea, but it worked on the students as they opened up to one another. Eventually, the original pairs were divided, and the students got a chance to ask the same questions to new ears.

Holly was first paired with Lujan, who didn’t seem interested in asking anything more than what was on the board, but when she was paired with Chloe, the vibes were better.

“Yeah, my power – it has to do with prophecy and intuition,” Chloe said, one hand ruffling through her blonde hair to scratch an apparently itchy scalp. “I can sometimes glimpse an echo of the future, but it’s super unreliable. Intuition is probably my stronger power.”

“How does that even work?”

“It works on occasion,” she said, mirroring Holly’s smile. “But I suppose the best way it ever worked was a brief gut feeling I had not to get off the bus at my usual stop. It turned out there was someone victimizing women walking alone late at night. He got someone else, but it's not me.”

“Whoa. So – you just get this urge, this feeling, and you follow it?”

“Pretty much.” She asked Holly about her powers as well – and seemed fascinated by the concept of talking to the dead. Their conversation ended with Chloe inviting her to eat with her, and Holly felt a little less alone in the world. She glanced at Arlo now and then, wanting to see how people were interacting with him, but he appeared to keep himself at a cool distance. Honestly, she wanted to get to know him a little more, but something about his appearance seemed too intimidating. She wondered what he looked like in human form. Well, she’d probably find out in two days…

Chapter Two – Arlo

He ate alone. Having friends was preferable, but you didn’t get them with a snap of the fingers. People like him, like the Sixclaws, didn’t really make friends. They made acquaintances, connections. They gathered favors and distributed them as necessary. Everything was a calculation, a way to stay on top of the game and to make sure no one undermined or brought you down.

It honestly sucked being in that kind of atmosphere. Nothing felt genuine. You never knew if people liked you for you or the big name tacked onto the end of yours. Being here, at Dreadmor – already that life seemed foggy. Some strange illusion of a different time, a different place. The whole compound contributed to that feeling as well – wild magic interwoven with nature, creating a bizarre, fantastical place that was in this world and yet alien at the same time. Sometimes, he wanted to pinch himself, just to be sure he wasn’t dreaming.

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