Page 33 of Darkened Wings
She nodded and walked around the desk and out with me. She walked toward the dining hall, but I stood there, shocked.
My father spent a lot of time in the library. Interesting.
Even more intriguing was yet another faculty member who was secretly encouraging me.
Maybe this place wasn’t so bad after all. I just had to find my niche.
I made my way to the dining hall, and Astra and I talked about everything over our delicious grilled three-cheese sandwiches with roasted tomato and basil soup. I tucked some of the grilled cheese into my pocket to give to Gloomy as a little treat.
Astra chattered on about some upcoming school activity, but I had my mind and my eyes on other things.
I’d been here so many times but kept my eyes on Astra and my food, trying to be invisible.
Today was the first time I noticed Callum here. He was in the opposite corner from us, sunglasses on his face, his food already eaten. His arms folded arms rested on the table. Damn it all, that boy knew how to lean. He was probably born leaning.
“Hello? Are you even listening to me?”
I cleared my throat and nodded. “Yeah. Of course. Ghost Gala?”
Her eyebrows bunched like she was surprised I had heard her. “Yeah. So, are you going? Are we going?”
I shrugged. “I guess so. Sounds like fun. But I have nothing to wear.”
Astra cringed. “Me, either. We’ll think of something.”
I was thinking about something all right. But he had nothing to do with ghosts or galas or dancing or dresses.
Callum had all my attention.
Too bad he was out of reach, and I had to focus on studying to have any shot of getting out of here unscathed.
And this guy, so mysterious and protective of himself…he would certainly break my heart in two.
Chapter Nineteen
The first Raven Defense class was more of a raven lecture on defense instead of what I expected. But we spent the second session watching a demonstration outside, in the very clearing in the forest where I’d watched Raddix and the other classmates take flight.
However, this class, we were supposed to fight each other.
One girl raised her hand and asked how this was supposed to help us. The rest of the class laughed, but the professor did not.
“Let me explain. I didn’t think I had to but, alas, here we are. First of all, you will probably never fight in your raven form. I can think of a few unique instances where a crow or maybe another raven will attack you in the sky, but those are few and far between. There are more sinister reasons for you having to learn to defend yourself in human form. One: You may not have time to shift before an attack occurs. Second, I’ve seen instances where ravens’ shock and adrenaline stop them from being able to shift on the fly. Get it…fly. Anyway… Third. There are things called witches. We know this from history. If you’ve had a curse put on you or maybe a no-shifting spell, then you would still have to defend yourself without wings or the freedom to simply fly away from the conflict. Fourth, it’s not something I talk about often, but a shifter who has been bled out by a vampire usually cannot shift. So there are just a few reasons why you need to learn to defend yourself without the comfort of your wings or the cover of the clouds.”
The entire class fell silent.
I knew about the witches, but vampires…hadn’t even thought of that past the vampire romance novels I’d read in my early teen years.
My stomach flipped just imagining a vampire sucking on my neck to the point where I couldn’t shift.
Then again, if I did shift, he would probably pluck my feathers as a prize.
Forget all the raven classes. This girl needed a class on all the other supernatural beings in the world and how in the hell I was supposed to spot one and protect myself from one. I might’ve been surrounded by witches and vampires all my life and had no clue, just like the humans had no clue that shifters lived among them, right under their very noses.
Where was the R class for that?
I shuddered while the teacher went on. “Everyone needs to pair up and, if you are more experienced in this kind of thing, please show your partner. If you are both inexperienced, raise your hand after you are paired up.”
Someone walked up behind me. It was Callum. I would know that incoming-storm scent anywhere. He leaned forward and whispered, his lips barely grazing the rim of my ear in the process. “I’m experienced, Gwen. You’re with me.”
