Page 9 of Hex Appeal

As she left his office, Ceries realized she absolutely had to stop thinking about how incredibly attractive he was when arguing about magical education.

Her hair, turning the exact shade of cherry bombs and midnight kisses, suggested this would be easier said than done.

Chapter 3

Afew weeks into thesemester, Ceries had almost convinced herself that her embarrassing first day was behind her.Almost.The magical rumor mill had mercifully found new fodder when Professor Vector's calculator had started sending him love notes during class.

She hitched her bag higher on her shoulder as she left the school, mentally reviewing her lesson on reversible hexes.After three straight classes of teenagers attempting to make objects temporarily invisible, she was ready for a long bath and possibly a drink stronger than tea.

"Escaping before the paperwork finds you?"

She turned to find Malachai locking up the main entrance.Even after a full day of what had to be administrative chaos—judging by the singed memo that kept flying around the building screaming about budget reports—his tie remained perfectly straight.She'd started measuring the stress of his day by how much that tie loosened.Today had apparently been a mere five-out-of-ten on the administrative nightmare scale.

And he was still unfairly attractive, damn him.

"Just finished convincing Naomi Bitterbridge that making her homework invisible wasn't a valid excuse for not turning it in," she said."You're leaving early for once.Did someone cast a compulsion charm?"

"Trying to set a better example."His slight smile made her heart perform gymnastics that would've scored a perfect ten at the Magical Olympics."Though I did bring half my office home with me."He gestured to his briefcase, which was making ominous groaning sounds under the weight of whatever paperwork hell he'd stuffed inside.

They fell into step together, but instead of turning toward the parking lot, Ceries found herself drawn toward the practice field where the school's field hockey team was engaged in what appeared to be controlled chaos with sticks.

"Sometimes I miss this," he said as they watched a lanky student narrowly avoid decapitation by a wildly swung hockey stick."The simplicity of just teaching, before all the administrative responsibilities."

"What made you switch to the dark side?"She settled on the bottom row of bleachers, pleasantly surprised when he sat beside her."Power?The thrill of approving bathroom pass requests?The sexy principal aesthetic?"

She immediately regretted that last bit as her hair betrayed her with a flash of appreciative pink.But his laugh—a real one, not the polite chuckle he used at faculty meetings—was worth the momentary embarrassment.

"Honestly?I thought I could do more good affecting policy than just teaching one class at a time."He took off his tie and stuffed it in his jacket pocket, a surprisingly casual gesture that made him look years younger."Though some days I wonder if I was more effective in the classroom than drowning in incident reports about singing textbooks."

"I bet you were terrifying," she teased."All perfectly organized lesson plans and color-coded homework assignments.Did you give gold stars shaped like tiny administrative memos?"

"Says the woman who keeps emergency lesson plans in her car, categorized by potential magical disaster scenarios."

"How did you—" She caught his amused look."Right.Principal.You probably know everything about your teachers, including which ones hide chocolate in their desk drawers."

"Second drawer from the bottom, behind the reference books.You prefer dark chocolate with sea salt."He raised an eyebrow at her surprised expression."Diana has an extensive intelligence network."

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