Shawna paled and sputtered, as the voices around them rose, questions being shouted at her.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Shawna protested.
Melody knew she had to get her dig in, before the general populace found out that she had no protections left.
“Why don’t you ask Carla? She’s in the sick bay being healed from the spell you put on her, which was wrong by the way. She nearly clawed her hand off, and she was convinced it was going to be the end of the world if she removed the bracelet. She was suffering, Shawna, all because you hate me. What a great person you are, willing to torture others just to get your way.”
Melody turned and pushed through the crowd, while they turned on Shawna. It wasn’t safe to turn around to watch it happen, and she really didn’t want to see what they did. They wouldn’t kill her, but anything else, the bitchy witch had brought upon herself.
“It’s not wise to poke the bear,” Trent warned her. “She’s going to win them over again, and she’ll come at you even harder.”
She straightened her shoulders as she walked through the door ahead of them. “Let them try,” Melody told them.
Trent chuckled. “You know, I think your sessions with Mrs H are doing you more good than learning how to deal with the bonds.”
“What do you mean?” She’d been meeting with Mrs Hardinger three times a week since arriving at the academy. Many of those sessions had been with the provost there as well. They hadn’t resumed since the attack, but Melody presumed that they would recommence that afternoon.
“She’s rubbing off on you, don’t you think, Nick?”
Nick turned his golden gaze to her, and Melody shivered at the intensity of it.
“Yes. When you arrived, you would have never spoken up like that. Defend yourself, yes, but you’re not just getting stronger in your magic. Your soul is free, Melody. Your spirit. You are becoming more.”
“Good morning class. Please take your seats, we’ve got a lot to get through today,” Professor Simmonds said.
Melody went to take her customary corner seat, only to find it occupied. In fact, witches had scattered around the room so that the only place where there were three seats together was in the center.
That didn’t bode well.
Reluctantly, Melody took a chair, holding it firmly when someone tried to whisk it from underneath her. There was a snicker from somewhere behind. She might have gained a moment of revenge on Shawna, but she was willing to bet the bitter witch had been behind the delay in the corridor just to create this kind of situation. One where she was a sitting target in the room.
“I don’t know what your other teachers do,” Professor Simmonds said firmly. “But unsanctioned magic is not welcome in my lecture room. I will not tolerate any disobedience.”
A hex pinged against Melody’s ward.
“Miss. Carter,” he said, angrily. “Given that I had just finished warning you all of this, that was very stupid indeed. Please leave and do not return. You have just earned yourself a fail. You may attempt the class again next year.”
The witch in question sputtered, but remained seated. “You can’t do that. You can’t deny me my education, my coven has paid good money to send me here. You can’t arbitrarily throw me out of a class.”
Professor Simmonds raised a hand, and the witch floated into the air with it, her books and materials falling from her desk when she bumped it. Abruptly, her belongings went flying out the room and into the corridor.
“That is where you are mistaken. If you had bothered to read the contract you signed when you applied to the academy, you would remember that in the classroom, the teacher’s judgement is final. You would also remember that students performing unsanctioned magic in a classroom could be expelled from the subject and face a failed grade.”
His angry gaze swept across the room. “Let this be a lesson to all of you. Your childish games will not be tolerated here. This is serious magic for serious witches. If you cannot control your impulses, then you have no place being here.”
He flicked his hand and the squawking student zipped out the door, although, to Melody’s relief, she was deposited gently on the ground with her belongings, her bag flying through the air to hit her firmly in the chest. Then the door slammed in her face.
On the one hand, Melody was elated. It meant she could focus in this class at least, one that she truly needed to protect herself against exactly this kind of behaviour. On the other hand, she knew that despite having done nothing to earn it, she now had the enmity of everyone in the class. They would see this as her fault.
Chin up, rise above it, Nick’s voice said in her head.
Melody gave the slightest of nods and fixed her attention on the professor. If she was going to survive this year, then she was going to need every bit of help she could get.
By the time she had finished her classes for the day, and they had returned to the cottage after dinner, they were all exhausted. It was only when Nick looked around the living area and hovered over the couch that Melody realised her problem. They were short of a bed. His tall frame meant that the couch was out, so they needed to find another option. She knew there was no way he would go back to sleeping in the unbonded shifter dormitory.
Trent came to her rescue, before she could really begin to panic. “He can bunk with Asher, and I’ll go back to my spot,” Trent said, setting it up by the fireplace again.
“Thanks, Trent,” Nick said, happily. “I’ll head over to admin in the morning and see about getting us a bigger cottage.”
Melody looked between the two of them. “Trent, you’re not sleeping on
