Page 24 of Poison

“Yes, Miss,” I reply, turning my attention back to the spell.

“Any particular reason why you went for protection?” she asks.

“It may have something to do with your Academy being full of arseholes,” Kevin spits behind me.

“Who said that?” her eyes widen as he laughs. “Who else is in my classroom?”

“I don’t know what you’re on about, Miss,” I say to try and deter her from doing something to find out who spoke. I watch, horrified, as Kevin leans forward over the top of my head to get in the teacher’s face. His mouth opens, all his teeth gleaming brilliant white.

My heart is pounding in my chest at how much trouble I could be in. Like, how the fuck would I explain something nobody else can see eating a damn teacher?!

“Kevin!”I scream at him in my mind, trying to get him to back the fuck off. I know he can hear me because I see his scales twitching under his head.“Do not eat my fucking teacher!”I yell at him.

His mouth opens wider, and my panic is really starting to set in now! Oh my god, he wouldn’t? He blows a breath as hard as he can, and I watch-wide eyed as the teacher stumbles backwards two steps, her arms flaying around her like a windmill before she hits the floor with a thud.

Kevin silently laughs his arse off as I meet the eyes of the horrified red-faced teacher who is staring at me.

“What did you do?!”

“Nothing,” I shoot back, and I can see the anger in her eyes as the class laughs at her expense. She rushes to her feet, eyes on me as she runs her hands down the length of her top to try and smooth out the creases. “It wasn’t me!”

“I highly doubt that you had nothing to do with this, Miss Draken, now tell me how you managed that when you apparently have no magical abilities.”

“I had nothing to do with it, Miss, as you say, I am here to see if I can find my abilities but nothing has shown itself yet,” I say, making sure my tone doesn’t give away that I know who is responsible for what just happened. “Maybe someone is doing magic outside and it affected you here?”

“Highly unlikely, I will be keeping a closer eye on you throughout the year.”

She turns her back on me, and the other students are silent as I try to get my mind focused enough to finish my charm off.

“You won’t know it’s worked until someone tries to do something to you again, right?”

“Will you shut up!”I shout at him in my head, my eyes meeting his, and I hope I’m getting my point across of how mad I am with him at the moment. Like, what that hell is he playing at?“I’m already having a bad time here; I don’t need everyone thinking I’m a psycho who talks to herself too.”

“That ship’s sailed, P,”he says with a laugh,“Do you really want me to show myself to them? A basilisk hasn’t been seen for over five hundred years. Can you imagine what they would do to me? Your aunt and the clan have seen me, but I know for a fact she swore them to secrecy, I think she would rather keep me hidden from everyone else to try and use me for something.”

My eyes widen as guilt punches me in the gut. I never thought of that, but then it makes me wonder why my aunt never really made a fuss about it. Because if anyone was going to kick up a stink about a Basilisk it would one hundred percent be her. She always said she would get rid of him, but what if she didn’t mean kill him but take him somewhere and use him.

I don’t say anything as I finish putting my charm together, following the steps and trying to make my intention clear as I try to infuse with it. I fall forward, the contents of the table flying off and covering the guy in front of me. He starts coughing like mad as the powder swirls around him.

“Oh my god!” I say as I stand up to help him. He spins to me, and my hand flies to my mouth when I see he’s covered in a vibrant green light that pulses. I watch in both shock and horror as he disappears, his clothes dropping to the floor in a heap.

“Miss!” I shout as I look over my desk, trying to work out what is happening, thankfully she comes rushing over. Her eyes filled with accusation as I point to the pile of clothes. She gasps.

“I thought you were making a protection charm?” she demands.

“I was, somehow I was bumped and everything flew off the desk and covered him,” I blurt, the panic clawing at my insides. “I don’t know what’s happened, I was following it step by step.” I rush through the words, grabbing the book which is the only thing left on the table and I show her the charm I was working on.

“Yes, that is a protection charm,” she says confused. “It doesn’t make sense, he’s disappeared.”

No shit, Sherlock, is on the tip of my tongue but I manage to bite the words back and keep them lodged in my throat.

A squeak sounds from somewhere. The noise amplified because the whole room is that silent you could hear a pin drop, then it happens again.

“Erm, Miss?” one of the students says. “The clothes are moving.”

I lean over further and I see the blazer moving side to side, like something is trying to find its way out. What the…? The teacher and I lean closer to try and get a better look, and the clothes move more profusely, before a small furry head pops out of a gap. I almost fall back in surprise, if Kevin wasn’t behind me—I would have.

“P, is that a ferret?”he asks, his tone shaking just a touch, which is a sign he’s trying his hardest to hold back his laughter.

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