Page 35 of Wings of Ashes
“You do not have to tell me anything you do not wish to. But, this bewitchment seems to be harming you; otherwise, the potion would not have caused you any physical sensation.”
Harming her? Nix pursed her lips and replied slowly, “It is just a visage enchantment spell. I… Well, I am adopted and not one of the cygni by birth, but I was raised in their community.”
She explained, “To lessen some of the, um, negative attention I received over my different appearance, my adoptive parents paid for a potion to be concocted for me to appear like a cygnus shifter. To help me fit in and make friends more easily.”
Professor Bowen’s frown lines deepened. “You have been taking this potion for a long time?”
“Over ten years.”
Professor Bowen reeled back from her, shock coating his features. “Tenyears?”
“Yes.”
“If you are not a cygnus, may I ask…what winged shifter are you?”
A question Nix did not have an answer for. “I don’t actually know. My parents died when I was young, and I do not have that many memories from childhood before being adopted. I swear, I am a winged shifter, though. I don’t want to be kicked out of the academy—”
“Do not worry about that. I will not tell anyone about this.” Professor Bowen rubbed a palm over his chin. “Would you be able to bring me a sample of the illusion potion you have been taking? I would like to make sure it contains no maladies.”
“They wouldn’t give me something that could hurt me,” Nix told him.
“Yes. Right. Just to be sure. Maybe the developer of the potion forgot an ingredient; I would just like to check it.”
“Okay. I, uh, I will ask for a dose today.”
“You do not keep it yourself?” Professor Bowen asked.
“No, my sister, er, friend keeps vials of it in her dorm room. She has a minifridge to store it, and my room only has one outlet.”
He frowned again. “Oneoutlet?”
“The nicest dorms are given to those with the most powerful abilities, sir. My abilities are…lacking.”
Professor Bowen’s jaw clenched at that.
“Bowen,” a low, gravelly male voice called from the doorway as Nix’s heart-wrenchingly gorgeous gargoyle history teacher, Professor Thierry, strode inside the classroom. “You dismissed class early?”
The silvery sheen over Professor Thierry’s skin shone as he abruptly paused his steps when he saw Nix.
Professor Thierry’s chrome-gray eyes narrowed onto her in suspicion, and he pushed his glasses higher on the bridge of his nose. “I hope I was not interrupting any kind of inappropriate request for extra credit.”
Nix sucked in a breath. He just implied she was trying to seduce Professor Bowen for a better grade. After she had helped rub his back when Professor Thierry had his painful episode in class the other day.
Nix snapped, “Why is this school full of assuming assholes?”
Professor Thierry’s slate-colored eyebrows rose well above the frames of his glasses. Maybe other students tried to seduce him because he was alluringly handsome, but to imply she wanted to seduce Professor Bowen—who, no offense to him, was an old man—was rude as hell.
Professor Bowen nodded at Nix’s words and told Thierry, “That was very asshole-like of you.”
Nix gasped out a surprised laugh at her potion professor’s agreement.
“Yes, well, you are alone with her, the rest of the class gone.”
“And yet you implied the young woman at a physical disadvantage would be the nefarious one,” Nix said.
Thierry blinked those beautiful silver eyes at her. She liked it when her words surprised him.Know-it-all jerk.
“Your elixir is in its usual spot on my shelf, Étienne,” Professor Bowen told him. “As always. Feel free to grab it.”
