Page 18 of Phoenix Academy: Madness

And realize, all at once, that the madness is gone.

They took it away.

The trio of mad shifters I met in the woods were never my enemies. Not really.

Somehow, they're linked to whatever made me different—a Blue Phoenix, as the headmaster says, a woman with blue flames and bluer madness at her fingertips.

When I was out of control, they answered the call of my heart, and somehow they've taken the magic into them without harm.

It should comfort me, but I've never been more afraid in my life.

Because I know what happens when you rely on other people to help you through the tough stuff: death, despair, and in the end, heartbreak.

I can't actually have a connection with the trio. I must be imagining it. Pulling back my naturalistic senses, I shake off the strange feeling of belonging I get just standing next to the shifters, and pull my hand off Xavier's head.

"Thanks," I mutter, as the roars and squawks coming from within the shifter dorm rooms die down. "I don't know what was going on there."

The feral wolf shifts into David, and he glares at me with pale piercing eyes. "I do. You were trying to cause chaos so you could get out of here undetected and renege on your deal with the headmaster. You don't even care how many shifters you kill with your powers, do you, witch?"

Chapter 9

I bristle.There's something about the way David says the wordwitchthat has my shoulders going up to my ears in defensive anger. I can feel the pulse of blue madness leaking from my fingertips, and it's all I can do to breathe deep, meditate, and let it go before everything goes to shit a second time.

"You're mistaken. It was all an accident. I don't..." I have to swallow a significant amount of pride to admit, "I don't have control of my powers just yet. They're a littlenew.And there's the fact that I just lost..."

Pausing, I stare at David. The two panthers shift back into their human forms as well; Xavier is watching me neutrally, while Reggie has a more amused expression on his face.

I haven't told any of them about my mother and sister, I realize with a start of dismay. I haven't even said it aloud, really, except to that dude who I... who Ikilledwith my powers, even though it was inadvertent.

Something about saying the words feels heavy, impossible, and absolutely necessary. But it'll make it more real the moment I tell someone what happened. My gut churns with misery just at the thought of the pity and horror on their faces.

"Let's not argue," Xavier says mildly. For some reason this shuts David up; frustrated, he sighs and tears his angry gaze away from my face. "We were actually on our way over here to escort you to the admissions office. Headmaster Towers needs to go over everything with you, and she thought a friendly face or three would be helpful."

Reggie quips, "Emphasis on thefriendly,David." To me he says, "That's not really a concept he understands, since he was raised by wolves in the wilds of Arkansas. They didn't even teach him how to chew hisfood."

I snort with amusement, even though it's not that funny. There's something about Reggie that takes all the tension out of the air. In a way, he's the complete opposite of David, who seems incapable of doing anything butaddingtension and aggression to a situation. I can tell already that I'll want to wring his neck every time we interact, and fervently hope that I don't have any of the same classes as him. Somehow I don't think we'll both survive the experience of being in a closed room together.

"The city I was raised in at least didn't have trash on the street like New York does," David mutters, narrowing his eyes in Reggie's direction. "I've seen your house in Queens. It smells like piss."

Xavier softly responds, "Hey."

David shoots him a guilty look. "I didn't mean... well, I guess it's both your house. Sorry."

My eyebrows jump to the top of my forehead. I didn't think it was possible for David to sound contrite at all. Apparently he favors one of the twins over the other.

"Let's just get this over with," Reggie says. "After today, hopefully we'll be done babysitting the new girl. No offense, new girl—you're hot, but I don't like getting up early."

I decide not to respond to that. I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about the newly formed connection I sensed between myself and the three of them. I take a moment to excuse myself and get dressed before facing the headmaster, leaving them loitering in the hallway outside.

As I brush my fingers through strange, newly blue hair, and watch the blue fade from my eyes and turn them brown again, I try to figure out what's going on with me.

Blue Phoenix.

I know the legends, at least as far as us witches tell them. During the burnings, in Salem and other cities across the globe, many women fell to the fervor of the hateful.

Some rose from the ashes. Some burned with a new, different flame. They drove men to their knees and infected them with insanity. After their revenge missions were finished, they disappeared, never to be heard from again.

To us, they were avenging angels. Legends and myths. I always thought that once their mission was completed, they moved on peacefully to the afterlife.

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