Page 34 of Mud

It was fascinating, all of it. First years had classes together, studying the very basics of chromatic magic, anchors and magical creatures. From the second year, students were divided into different schools depending on their color, which was always determined by the parents. Never had it happened for two people of the same color to conceive a child of a different color. Magic was inherited, and it had always been like that as far as we knew.

The third and senior year was for perfecting everything already taught in year two, and I was well within schedule if the program was anything to go by. Except here the classes were so much more spacious and colorful and full of objects and maps and everything we didn’t have at ourfancy private tutoring back home. And their anchor supply was incredible. We couldn’t really use our own yet, but with the help of a teacher and a specifically designed anchor we could learn how to use magic as if we had our own.

They had a small woods somewhere behind the building, prohibited for students, but they kept most of the magical animals there like a private zoo. They would actually bring in those animals in Preternatural Beasts and Cryptozoology classes for us to study.

Not to mention the magic-proof cabin in the Spells and Sorcery class, which was one of the few classes that every kind of Iridian student used, where one could practice magic safely without hurting themselves or others in the classroom. And in Pre-Geography, the main wall of the classroom had a detailed drawing of what the world used to look like a millennia ago, how the lands and the seas had shifted, what creatures had lived where, and even what the weather was like back in those days, complete with an approximate number of Iridians who lived in every part of the globe.

They even covered the smaller disciplines in the last semester, though all of these were elective subjects, and I was about ready to sign up to half:Animal Language, Cloud Making, Light Manipulation, Destiny Weaving,which, according to the program, was basically reading stars and altering them to manifest your will into the world. TheDrama Clubfocused on illusions.Art Classhad actual living statues and self-playing music during lessons, and one of its branches wasAura Class,where you learned to capture a person’s aura either by painting or photography.

Fascinating, all of it, and I couldn’t even get enough.They went way beyond the basics here, and I couldn’t wait to see what I’d learn in the next six months.

But having walked for the better part of the day, I lay down on the bed with the painting in my hands and I stared at it for a long time. The girls were right—it was definitely what they called the third tower, even though the entire building was made out of four parts that were connected together, and none of them was an actual tower.

My dorm was in the fourth, but my window looked out at the other side and I couldn’t see the third from here. Didn’t matter, though—I’d been looking at it the whole day while I was out, but I never once saw a sign of Taland anywhere nor did I get another message.

My eyes drifted shut slowly while it was still daylight outside. I thought about everything I’d seen, the classes that started tomorrow, and the way his smile made my heart jump just a little. I thought about how disappointed I was that I hadn’t seen him in two days and tried not to be embarrassed that I’d been searching for him the whole day—because I had to keep an eye on him, learn his schedule, his every move. Not because I wanted to see him. Absolutely not.

I must have fallen asleep without realizing it because a tapping sound on the window woke me up what could have been only seconds later.

The window was on the wall over my head, just slightly to the right. My eyes opened and I tried to see as much as I could without moving, thinking maybe it was rain, but it wasn’t.

Instead, it was a raven standing right outside the window, tapping its big beak to the glass.

I sat up with a jolt, heart in my throat, and the painting fell on the floor, the sound of it scaring me evenmore. Dragging myself away from the window, I blinked and blinked, hoping it was only my imagination, but it wasn’t. The raven was right there, black and beautiful and scary as hell—and it had something hanging around its neck.

A note. A piece of paper as big as my index finger tied around its neck with leather.

One word was written on it, in bold black letters:NOW.

That’s all it said—now.

The raven spread its wings and flew away, disappearing from my sight completely within a second.

I went to the window, heart still galloping, and I pulled it open. It was still early—the sun hadn’t begun to set yet.

A smile tugged at my lips.Now, the raven said.

Taland wanted to have our date now.

Again, don’t ask me how I knew; I just felt it in my bones that it was him. And ten minutes later, I was outside the building and into the backyard. The weather was nice for mid-March, the air on the warmer side. Curfew was at ten p.m., so I had plenty of time before I needed to get back.

I looked up at the third tower, a mess of nerves, but I couldn’t see Taland anywhere. The lampposts around the benches went on at the same time when the sky began to darken, and other students were coming and going around me, minding their business, but no sign of him.

That’s why I decided to enter the building and see what I could find.

The third tower was mostly classrooms, plus a few chambers for the second-years as well. My hands were shaking as I made for the main stairway in the middle of the ground floor, and it was freaking ridiculous that I was so nervous.

Ridiculous, though it did make sense. I’d only ever kissed a guy once in freshman year—-Tobias who’d stayedwith us for four months in tutoring before his parents moved to Switzerland to run the European IDD. We’d been sort-of friends until then, and the night his parents threw a goodbye party at their house, we attended with Madeline. He asked me if I wanted to see his room, and I said yes. We kissed for about fifteen minutes before one of the guards knocked on the door—Poppy had noticed I was gone. She also had noticed Tobias was gone, and she’d been half jealous and half concerned. So, she’d gone to Madeline about it and asked her to send the guards to find me.

It was okay, though. I had my kiss—my first-ever kiss, and that night I was convinced that I’d meet someone else I’d want to kiss before freshman year was over, but I didn’t. They were all stuck up, arrogant man-boys, those kids I was forced to spend time with.

I never kissed anybody again.

And now I felt like my stomach might come right out of my mouth as I climbed those stairs because I wanted to kiss Taland so badly I was imagining it in detail in my head. That fantasy was making my palms sweat, and now I wondered if I should have worn something else. I had a dress on, dark red and made of cotton, so it wasn’t too much. I had a thin jacket with me, too, just in case it got chilly, but I didn’t think I was going to need it. I was on fire, my blood rushing, my cheeks flushed—I should have put on some foundation, not just mascara and lipgloss!

Damn.

Maybe I should just go back and hide in my room. Maybe I shouldn’t have come here at all—it’s late, anyway. Maybe he isn’t as beautiful as I remember, and he doesn’t smile the way my memories insist that he did.

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