Page 36 of Lost and Bound

Professor Cane’s team rallies nearby, and I get distracted from the threats in front of me by the soft, subtle hint of falling rain that they bring. I glance up, expecting to see storm clouds, but the sky is clear. It’s then I realize it’s because of Professor Cane’s team member who has stopped in front of me.

He stands casually, not acting like someone in the middle of a physical battle. His hoodie is still up, his blond hair spilling from the top and overaccentuating the blue of his eyes. I’ve only ever seen that shade of blue in the middle of a flame, so seeing it on a man all but confirms how different humans and others are.

His mouth moves, but I’ve plugged my ears to deflect the shrieking. The noise is like no other. It worms through my brain, making it difficult to do anything else but try to escape it. Then he touches my shoulder, and the noise cuts out. My stomach drops, and I swear I see the faintest purple dust particles floating in the air around me.

“What did you do?” I ask, but he doesn’t acknowledge my question. He’s already turned and is walking in the same casual, nonchalant way over to the crowd of celestials, including Seraphina, holding hands and huddling close to each other.

I watch, unsure of what he’s going to do, but from where I’m standing, it looks like he’s going to join them. His hand moves, like he’s skimming a rock over a lake, and one of the girls breaks formation.

She cuts off singing and whacks her chest, gaping like a fish struggling to breathe. I swear there’s a shadow of the same light purple that draws tight around her and squeezes.

Though I mostly follow along with what’s happening with the students, I’ve also got my own issues going on. I switch from following him and his purple mist to having fine golden-colored threads—thin and glittering like the web of a golden orb spider—blur my vision. The threads dance across the scene I’m watching, but they’re not the only thing physically happening.

I mean, I’m mostly sure it’s physical, but it’s hard to describe the sensation. It’s like something inside me is rattling its cage, trying to break free.

The magikal who touched my shoulder did something, but I don’t know what. Perhaps he spelled me like the first lesson I had with Magikster Ballin when he stole my voice, yet even now, a neon purple haze colors what I’m seeing.

I try hard to make everything return to normal. First blinking as fast as I can and rubbing my eyes, next I squeeze them shut, then pop them open, but nothing works. And it’s the same with the gold webs; they’re still there no matter what I do.

Not one being on this field notices. Instead, everyone is involved in an all-out assault.

Between the faint gold lines and the purple haze messing up my vision, I manage to catch snippets of the fight as it surrounds me on all sides. I catch sight of a huge black wolf fighting off a pack of smaller wolves, his maw catching them if they’re slow, throwing them like balls into a group of students in red T-shirts who are facing off with Professor Cane’s other friend.

Like the ice-haired magikal who is still fighting, this man is unworldly in his looks and presence. His movements are nearly the opposite of the animalistic way the shifters fight—they’re sharper, more precise—but he, like his friend, also looks unchallenged by the situation. He’s tall like his counterpart, and they share similar postures that scream to others in warning of their strength and confidence. They don’t swagger; they dominate.

It doesn’t feel like much time has passed until all the groups are subdued or racing off the field. Mostly it’s the animals running, while the others are tapping out; some through collapse, lying on their backs, their faces red, and others simply standing around, avoiding talking and making eye contact.

I’m the only one standing in almost the same place as before Professor Cane changed the rules. For some reason, he disappeared when everything was going down; perhaps he had enough faith in his friends to teach the lesson.

Just as I’m trying to figure out if he did actually leave, he’s walking out from the tree line with a group of students, all of them dressing and talking. My eyes nearly bug out of my head when I put it together, as it should have been ridiculously obvious. I blame the gold threads for messing up my vision, as for why I missed everyone shifting. It’s now obvious that the shifters and Professor Cane did mid fight.

Holy shit, was he the massive black wolf?

He steps back onto the field without any shoes, and it doesn’t even look like he’s broken a sweat. “I think we covered everything. You all need to spend the rest of the day working through your sequences. Just because we’ve finished here doesn’t mean we’re done. In an actual situation, you don’t get a break. This goes on until there’s only one winner. I don’t care if you train individually or as a group. Next time we’re together, I expect to see obvious improvements. Your attacks were sloppy, defenses were abysmal, and none of you got anywhere near our Nom.”

For some reason, seeing the professor half undressed scrambles my brain. His words float in one ear and out the other. Nothing sticks, and I keep staring at the fact that Professor Cane doesn’t have shoes on. Even more shocking, all I can focus on is how much more attractive he is with bare feet.

Someone clears their throat, and I snap out of my daydream and back into the real world just in time to see half the class rolling their eyes but not moving an inch. The other half all turn to look at the person. Unsurprisingly, it’s Seraphina.

“Is there something you wanted to add, Seraphina?” Professor Cane asks, his voice getting a growly edge to it.

She focuses on the ground, looking deep in concentration. You can see she’s not, she’s simply angling herself so he can’t see when she hides her mouth and stage-whispers, “Bet now.”

Seraphina grins right at me as she hides her words behind a fake cough. Around us, people catch on to her bitchy taunt, but since they’re not the target, they all grin or laugh. Sickeningly, she radiates under the attention, pulling her shoulders back and standing taller. She even bats her eyelashes innocently at him, pausing as if she’s weighing whether to say anything at all. Except, of course, she was always going to. “I think my team and I should get additional credit for nearly taking the Nom out in the first attack, sir. If she were your Kleis…”

“Our Kleis wouldn’t have been at risk,” he bites back defensively. His voice rumbling low in warning. “Emrys shut you down and ended your weak threat without the Nom being injured. I watched, and Em didn’t even try. Unlike you. Go practice your heralding because if that was your best, I’m more worried than ever we’re going to lose the war. Dismissed.”

I guess the guy with the platinum hair is Emrys, not that anyone introduced us. He goes to walk off, but twists around to me, the same nonchalant look on his face. “You might want to work on your shields. You would have been the first death if this were real.”

Although I hear what he says, I’m distracted by the fact that there’s an actual war happening. These beings suck. Orion said training is part of the schedule in case there is war, but no one had mentioned an actual war is taking place right now. But then again, I’m not surprised that I literally know nothing about it or anything here. Since Master Maddern first walked me to the dorm, I’ve been left to fend for myself. Everything I have discovered so far has been on my own. Sure, Orion has been there helping where he can, but at the same time, he’s trying to survive too.

Noms really are at the bottom of the supernatural world. I actually think, as a society, the supes have more respect for humans. At least they view them as worthy adversaries. All their training proves and reconfirms that we’re nothing but fodder in their world.

The field clears of students while I mentally work through everything, realizing again how trapped I am at Thales. I’m not human enough for the human world and not other enough for this one.

“And you desperately need to shore up your defenses. It’s lucky Emrys was close by. And luckier he wasn’t injured saving you, or we’d have issues. Do better.”

I jump a mile when Professor Cane snaps at me. He’s lucky I didn’t pop my fist into his face, because I’d been so caught up in Emrys’ words, I hadn’t noticed him until he was right behind me. I never let my defenses down like that. Except, apparently, when it comes to the Professor.