“Make no mistake, all the students will know who is responsible for these new conditions. Sophie, listen carefully to me when I say if you break any of these rules the rest of the school year, you will be expelled. Go. I have to call Chief Winston and let him know there are two female humans out there who have knowledge of the supernatural community.”
Headmistress Adiana’s prediction didn’t take long to prove true. When I left my dorm a week after the incident, a crowd was gathered in front of Waterstone. Everyone scattered when I walked outside. I turned to see someone had magicked a mural across the front of the building.
A dragon slayer stood triumphant over the body of a gray dragon. The slayer held its head high in the air. In the corner was an emblem of a bear track and a crown. The crowd gathered behind me again as I stared. I had been enduring the silent treatment and ridicule all week, and I’d thought it couldn’t get any worse. How wrong I was. The dragon’s eyes were closed, and its tongue was hanging out of its mouth.
What surprised me the most was the fact that I didn’t feel anything as I stared at the mural. No anger, no fear, no sadness. I was just numb. Someone behind me started snickering.
“Stop. Move along. There’s nothing to see here.” Hudson ushered people away. He saw me looking and walked over.
“Sophie, I’m sorry. This isn’t right.” It was the first time he’d spoken to me since the ball.
“Like you care.” I pulled up the hood of my jacket and headed toward class.
“Sophie, wait!” I didn’t look back.
The day wasn’t done with me yet. As I was walking to class, a familiar face was walking down the pathway toward me. It was the first time I’d laid eyes on him in months.
“Dad. What are you doing here?” This couldn’t be good.
“Headmistress Adiana needed someone to fill in and teach the Advanced Magical Studies class since the former teacher was injured during the last experiment. I took her up on the offer since you’re still refusing to come and study with me. I was trying to give you space but since you clearly can’t be unsupervised, class is no longer an option.”
Students were stopping to watch and listen to our conversation. I dropped my head and pulled my hood over my face.
“You will report to my office every Tuesday and Friday at 5 p.m. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
I was still thinking about the mural in shifting class. I kept my hood up and studied the grass. People had acted like I was invisible all week, so now I was just trying to be. It didn’t matter. I still felt the stares and heard the laughter. Hudson was almost late to class. He was out of breath and his sleeves were rolled up. Black ink stained the sleeve of his shirt. When he glanced my way, I trained my eyes back to the grass. He didn’t try to talk to me.
Due to the new restrictions we all had to take turns shifting and were only allowed in our animal form for five minutes each. I waited until it was my turn to shift. I kept my hood up until I was in the middle of the field. The wind blew through my hair as I tried to empty my mind of the whirlwind events of the morning. I leaned my head back to look at the sky and opened my arms to welcome the shift. Nothing happened.
“Sophie, what’s the hold up?” Professor Atkins walked to meet me in the field.
“I—I don’t know.”
“Then let’s go.” I stilled my breath and looked inside. I couldn’t find my dragon.
“Sophie, what’s going on?”
My eyes stung. “I don’t know. My dragon. She isn’t there.”
He handed me a handkerchief, and I dabbed at my eyes. I stood so the professor hid me from the rest of the class.
“Sometimes when people are feeling down, it can take a while to shift. It’s hard to find your animal when your mind and body aren’t focused. How about you just go inside and meditate, huh?”
As I moved through the class, Hudson opened his mouth to say something. I turned away.
Chapter Sixteen
“And that’s how the protection spell keeps supernatural communities—like this school—hidden from humans. Even if a supernatural wanted to bring a human here, they wouldn’t be able to get through the barrier. To be safe, the barrier for this school extends almost half a mile in all directions. A human could wander right up to the front door and not realize there is more than meets the eye. Sophie? Sophie?” The pleasant rumbling of Dad’s voice had put me to sleep. I started awake when my head fell off my hand.
“Sophie, you have to pay attention to this.”
“Dad, I’m sorry. I’m trying. Really.” The April breeze carried the sounds of students enjoying the warm weather in through the open window. I sighed.
“Maybe I’m working it too hard, would you like to go outside and hang out with your friends?” I laughed. He thought I was sighing because I was bored. I recognized he was making an effort to be nice, so I held back the biting remark that almost sprang from my mouth.
“No, I’m okay. Thank you.”
“Maybe we should go outside, you can try shifting again.” I shook my head. My dragon was still AWOL.
“Sophie, I don’t want to alarm you, but the longer you go without shifting, the more your magic will falter.” I trained my eyes on the ceiling to blink away the tears. “My dragon doesn’t want to come out. Even she hates me.”
“Sophie, no one hates you.”
“Everyone hates me, Dad.”
“Your mother is worried about you, dear.”
“Don’t call me dear. Tell her I’m fine.”
“You’re falling behind in your classes.” I kept looking out the window.
“You’re losing weight.” I grunted and crossed
