Page 72 of Phoenix Academy: Mayhem

The guys are in the living room when I open up the door, using my key card on the lock. Xavier and David are engaged in a round of hot potato using a red foam ball—whoever drops the ball first loses. Reggie is sprawled out on the sofa, playing some kind of sports-related game on the console I got from one of the upperclassmen by trading a little rune work.

It turns out that mage magic is kind of all the rage around here. All I have to do is use one of the runes in Auerbach's book and I'm basically flush with cash. The game console took nothing more than using a snow rune to make a guy's date night with his boyfriend special. They kissed under mistletoe as cold flakes drifted down on them, reenacting the Christmas when they fell in love.

Of course afterwards their entire dorm room was soaked in melted snow water, but that's not my problem to clean up.

"Hey." David notices me first, and gives me a nod of recognition as he throws the ball back to Xavier. "How'd combat training go?"

"Well enough. Until I broke the world's most powerful magical artifact." I hold up my bare wrist. "No more seven immortals to save and protect us."

That gets everyone's attention. Xavier drops the ball, and Reggie pauses the game. I explain briefly what happened, including the non-answers from Auerbach.

"Maybe it's a good thing," Reggie says. We all shoots him confused looks, and he just shrugs. "Being special was starting to get a little old. I mean we never know what's next—we hike to the top of the Alps to track down the most powerful Grim in existence, or the mages start a war, or... some other terrible thing. I just want to pass my classes and graduate so Mom doesn't look at me and sigh in exasperation."

Xavier tells his twin, "She's always going to do that. But... I kind of get where you're coming from. It would be nice not to be the main characters of an epic journey. Especially since classes start back up again for us tomorrow."

Oh, classes. I've been looking forward to the normalcy of a regular schedule, but I have to admit that I'm not sure what to expect. After everything we've been through, it feels like playacting to go back to Hand-to-Hand Combat and pretend as if I haven't killed multiple people, or fought demons in Hell itself. Maybe it'll feel good to be thrown to the mat by Laura McKinley and work out my aching muscles in the heat of Yohan's metal-lined classroom. Or maybe I'll just feel like an out-of-place fraud.

"If we're going to be normal," I tell the guys, "we should start with a normal broke college student date. Like bagged popcorn and a streaming movie on the sofa."

David laughs and shoots me a charming grin. "Normal? Don't kid yourself, Ari. No normal college girl has blue hair and three boyfriends."

I meet his grin with one of my own. "True enough. But we can always play pretend."

As we settle down on the sofa together, my legs thrown over Reggie's lap, David's hands playing with my hair, and Xavier methodically giving us a rundown of all the good movies we haven't seen, I feel something like contentment inside.

I'm almost ready to leave my past behind me and turn the page to the next chapter of my life.

There's just one more thing I have to clear up before I do.

* * *

The guys are all snoozing heavily as I slip off the sofa and pull my shoes on. If there's anything I've learned about shifters since coming to the academy, it's that the redefine the words "food coma" thoroughly in their image. No one has ever slept deeper than them, except maybe the dead.

Of course, I have no doubt that they'd wake if there were a real danger. And I'd lay odds they're aware that I'm slipping out. It's just that they know when I need my alone time—and are well aware that if they want to protect me from my own wandering feet, they need to follow at a distance.

As I leave our dorms and walk out into the newborn night, I wrap my arms around myself to banish the New England chill. The sky stretches high above me, deepening to a dark blue, a few brightly-burning stars glowing in its half-darkness. It'll be hours before the full scattering of stars reveal themselves, but even now there's beauty above me.

I can sense the veil as I walk into the woods on the western side of campus. While Headmaster Towers has unveiled plans to build more dorms and expand the classrooms, anticipating a surge in enrollment as magic pushes its boundaries now that I've changed things, she's committed to keeping a portion of the wild woods untouched. They give the campus a feeling of boundless energy—and make it easier to forget the high walls that stretch around the acreage to keep us safe from enemies.

There's a buzzing of wards the closer I get to the walls. This is Mage Auerbach's influence, no doubt. Between the demonic hordes and various battles fought here last year, he's done everything he can to make sure nothing Grim or dark can make its way to the ground. The only exception is the outdoor combat field, where Dani's harmless demons can be summoned. Everywhere else there's a stifling sense that nothing will get through.

Not even the spirits of the dead.

I can't say that I blame Auerbach for his thoroughness. It was a spirit—or at least, a demon disguised as one—that caused me to nearly destroy the entire campus by opening the door to Hell. He's done all he can with his magic to keep such incidents at bay.

But I can't stay behind these walls forever. I need to escape them to say my farewells. To make my peace.

Whatever peace looks like.

I'm not sure I can even imagine it.

As I step up to the high brick walls of the campus grounds, though, I can smell it. There's a wild, sharp scent to the air just outside the magical wards. My feral magic promises that if I climb this wall and make my way to the other side, it'll be boundless and free, destructive and creative at the same time.

Closing my eyes, I reach out with my naturalistic senses and feel for all around me. There's a creeping vine on the nearby trees; try as the gardeners might, they can't get rid of every invasive species. This one grows feet a day.

It only takes a little bit of nudging to encourage the vines to grow towards the wall. To surge at it and upwards, stretching over the top and making a ladder of sorts for curious hands.

When I open my eyes, escape is in front of me.

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