Page 28 of Phoenix Academy: Madness

I open my mouth to answer, then abruptly closed it. What happened is that my biological father found my family, killed my mother in front of me, drained my blood until I died, left my body on a funeral pyre, and took my little sister's body deep into the woods to perform a ritual that stole her spirit and quite possibly doomed her to wander the spirit realm forever, never to move on to the afterlife.

What happened is that I came back from the dead full of rage, madness, and a blue flame that wants to extinguish everything in its path. I killed a man by driving him to delusional insanity. I hunted down the Heretic and failed to get my sister back. Magic spilled out of me and went completely wild.

"The three of them were in the woods in animal form shortly after I woke up as... this." I gesture vaguely to my blue hair. "I couldn't control my magic. I was... angry about something."

"Headmaster Towers briefed me," he says, and I have to bite my lower lip to keep from saying something about howthatmakes me feel. "So you were grieving. Seeking revenge."

"Yes," I grind out. "I don't see what that has to do with anything."

"Keep telling me the story." I hate how neutral and calm his voice is, even as my pulse rises just thinking about the Heretic and my dead little sister. "What happened next? How is it that these three shifters found you?"

"I don't really know. I just... my magic was out of control, like I said. It was making all the birds and rabbits and just, everything, every animal was going crazy. Then I felt these three predators. And..."

I trail off, because the more I look at the memory, the more I acknowledge the truth of it. "I called to them. With my witch powers, and with whatever this new feral magic is. I... I wanted them on my side. I think maybe..." I have to look at the twins suddenly, and then at David, still in wolf form. I have to admit the truth to the three of them. "I think maybe I turned them into my familiars."

Chapter 14

Reggie shouts, "What the fuck?"

"I don't even know what that means," Xavier admits.

David, meanwhile, growls low in his throat. I frown in his direction, wishing he would turn back into a human again—his angry stares are easier to deal with than this whole feral wolf thing.

Moments after the thought passes through my head, he shifts back into human form. It's not nearly as instantaneous or graceful as when the twins shift back and forth, or even Petra's shift this morning. His bones creak and his muscles stretch. A low whine leaves his lips. Everything about him constricts or expands. Moments later he's a young man again, curled up with his hands on the floor in front of him, sides heaving, clearly in pain.

And completely fucking naked.

I don't manage to yank my eyes away in time. Despite my best efforts, I get a full view ofeverything.It's seared into my retinas.

Skin glistening with sweat. Heaving abdominal muscles. A sharp V that leads down his abdomen towards pubic hair just above his...

I throw my hands over my eyes before I can start to drool like some kind of slack-jawed idiot.

"What do you mean, we're yourfamiliars?" David demands, as I try to force down the heat suffusing my cheeks. "I didn't agree to that."

"It was an accident," I blurt out, peeking at him from between my fingers. "I didn't do it on purpose. And I wasn't even sure it's what I'd done until just now."

Xavier pulls off his sweatshirt and passes it over to David, which only makes me blush further, because underneath the panther shifter is wearing a tight tank top that shows off his chest and arm muscles. David puts the sweatshirt on, but it only comes to the top of his thighs, forcing him to jerk down its hem to approach some kind of modesty.

He has alargecock. The kind that's difficult to stuff up underneath the bottom of a sweatshirt. And that's with it soft—at least mostly. Hard, it must be a thing of wonder.

A whole four course meal.

"Well." Mage Auerbach surveys the chaos with a distant eye. "This should be interesting. What does it mean, exactly, when a witch summons a familiar? I've heard of the process, but not the details."

"It..." I pause, hesitating to answer his question. Would my mother have approved of me telling a mage witch secrets? Then again, my mother is dead. The thought brings with it a sharp, terrible grief that makes my heart ache. "Summoning familiars bonds an animal's spirit to a witch's magic. It strengthens her connection to the spirit realm."

"And the animal?" David demands, looking angry despite the fact that he's half-dressed, his hair mussed, and wearing a borrowed sweatshirt that barely covers his dick. "What happens to the animals turned into the familiar?"

"It's not like we were ever able to ask them," I snap. "They were animals. They didn't exactly speak English."

Xavier says, in a low voice, "Please, Ari. We need to know."

His voice pulls at me, even though I want to resist. I realize that he deserves answers. "The bond is for life. It protects the familiars from magic, especially feral magic, as well as attacks from enemy witches. But in exchange... in exchange, the familiar's thoughts can be influenced, and they can't harm the witch." Hurriedly, I add, "But that's for animals. I have no idea how it works on shifters. It shouldn't have evenhappened,shouldn't be possible at all."

"But it did happen," Reggie says, "so what now? Are we your sex slaves or something?"

The bawdy joke lands poorly. Xavier groans. "I can't believe I'm related to you."

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