Page 43 of Laid Bare

“I completely understand. Granted, I’m not sure Headmaster Stonewell will, given her bodyguards turned the academy upside down looking for her, thinking she was kidnapped and being hurt…”he trails off, giving me a moment to understand the full picture.

Fuck. It didn’t even occur to me that they may have thought that.

Just how bad are things at the academy for her? Hopefully, Luka and I can get her to open up and let us know exactly what is happening when we aren’t around. Maybe I’ll need to petition Jasper for permanent residency in her dorm until she can graduate. Luka too. She’ll flourish more with her mates around than without us.

“I’ll make sure going forward that they are aware of her movements.” A loud snore comes from the couch as I walk through, heading into the kitchen. “Luka and I are both with her now, and we plan to stay the entire weekend. We won’t be leaving her side, so you can give them a couple days off, and they can resume bright and early Monday morning.”

“Is that when she’s planning to come back, before classes that morning?”

“We’ll be back in the academy Sunday night, but we’ll be staying with her in her dorm until she goes down for breakfast.”

“Okay. I’ll let them know. Please be mindful in the future that this doesn’t happen again.”

“I will. Thank you for understanding.” And he really is. Understanding, I mean. If it was that pompous fuck, Dirk, he’d have dragged her into the council building and put her to death immediately.

“No problem. Have a good weekend.”My phone beeps in my ear, indicating he cut the call before I could say goodbye.

Well, that’s one disaster averted. Now I need to figure out something to feed my mate before her stomach eats her from the inside out.

I can do this.

I totally can. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.

The tome my birth father left me in that room sits on my lap, still hiding all the curiomancer secrets behind its closed cover.

Axel hums and busies himself in the kitchen making dinner, while Luka is sprawled out on the couch next to Aero, running his fingers through his white mane while his gaze remains fixed on the television.

Neither one of them has asked questions or begged to sneak a peek at what lies within. They both know what it is. Luka read the letter after I came back clutching the book like my life depended on it. He didn’t ask like I expected him to, a silent understanding passing between us.

I appreciated it more than he knew.

Now, here I am, trying to psych myself up to actually crack open the book. Aero huffs in his sleep, almost like he’s telling me I’m being ridiculous. And he’d be right. I am being ridiculous. I have books in my dorm that I haven’t even cracked open yet, but I doubt they even scratch the surface of what’s contained in this one.

Enough, Bailey,I tell myself.Just freaking do it. Stop being a pussy.

I don’t even know why I’m so damn scared. This is what I wanted. To learn everything I can about my kind. And this book has it all. Everything I need to know and information no one else has. It’s not like there’s anyone at the academy that can teach me so in-depthly.

With that thought in mind, I take the first step and lift the cover, opening it to the first page. Blank. I chuckle under my breath, shaking my head. Of course, it’s blank. Flipping to the next, there’s a table of contents, and skimming over every subject, most of them are foreign to me.

A familiar word stands out amongst the rest—Transmutation—and I flip there immediately. It’s bound to have answers as to how Aero came to be outside my body, instead of me turning into him myself.

But gah, how embarrassing would that have been, changing into a male shifter. I grimace. I’d never live down that humiliation.

First glance at the page has me seeing Transmutation in bold words at the top. Then there’s several symbols below it. All looking like the transmutation rune I have on my thigh, but there are slight variations to each one. What the differences are between them, I have no damn clue.

Flipping to the next page, there’s a table diagram, each rune drawn at the top and a list beneath it. My finger skims across the designs, finding the one that matches mine. As I look at the words below, I realize it’s a listing of every animal the bearer of the rune can change into—or at least change into one of them.

Wolf, bear, rabbit, snake—ewww—and the list goes on. All pretty normal, as far as I’m concerned. But there’s one animal I don’t see. A Pegasus. So, what the fuck. Now I’m even more confused.

My eyes dart over to Aero, only to startle, finding him looking back at me. There’s something in his pink gaze that tells me to keep looking. That I’m not even close to being right. How can that be right, though? Not only is he not on the list, but as I keep on reading on the next page, I find that I’m completely wrong.

Transmutation - the action of changing or the state of being changed into another form.

Shifting into your animal or animals as some have, it’s a painful process of your limbs contorting and your bones breaking, only to rearrange themselves into your new form.

Over the course of our history, there have been curiomancers with only one animal counterpart. While others, like your mom and I, have many. There has never been a curio who has every single one listed under their respective rune, but you never know. You could be the first. Either way, we’ll be proud of you.

“Dammit,” I huff, slamming the book closed.

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