Magic Academy (A Fantasy New Adult Romance) (4 page)

She took in another breath.

“When I was a kid, I used to make
up friends. And that’s really embarrassing to admit to, so I
almost hope I made you up too.”

He screwed up his lips in one corner,
looking across at her with a perplexed expression. “That is an
odd thing to say,” he remarked, standing up and peering about
her reclusive forest glade. She noticed then he wore not only the
robe she’d given him, but a set of tall boots that went to his
knees, and were capped with metal at the toes. It made him look all
the more like some foreign prince out of a storybook.

“If I didn’t make you up,
then I actually summoned you. And it doesn’t even matter
because now it just makes me feel crazy to think about.”

She’d put her hair back in
pigtails, and brushed her bangs so they lay flat along her forehead,
swept to the side. The sun filtered down through the trees and played
against her peach-toned skin.

Pivoting upon one heel, a thumb hooked
in his fancy belt, he gave her a curious smile. “Why do you
fear it? What is done, is done. And you still live to tell the tale.”
He shrugged his shoulders and moved back to her, dropping to one
knee, his robe parting as he reached out and touched her wrist with a
gentle, warm hand. “My lovely young summoner, you have grander
things to worry about than the past.”

“Right. Such as the future.”
She sighed and her shoulders slumped even as her body warmed to his
strange touch. She didn’t know whether to scream and run or
roll around in triumph, but she didn’t feel much like
celebrating.

She’d done something so great,
yet she knew he was right. No one would give her this accomplishment.

No one would let her do anything but go
to work as a grounds keeper.

“Do not look so sad,” he
said softly, lifting his free hand and delicately brushing her bangs
back just a bit, his fingertip grazing her forehead just momentarily.
“While I was inside you,” those words felt so significant
with how he said them, “I felt your apprehension. Your fear.
Not the details, no,” he remarked, looking upon her with a mix
of warmth and happiness, “but what drew me most was your
ambition.”

Her button nose crinkled slightly as
she looked away. “That sounds weird when you say it like that.
Those things are private. Those feelings.”

He laughed delicately, “I could
not read your thoughts,” he said gently. “I felt them, as
I can feel them now.” That notion made her worry, though he
continued, clarifying. “I can read your emotions through your
expressions, sweet dear. They are as plain as day to me.”

She wasn’t to call him her slave.
He told her to see him as an equal, but it was tearing her in two
directions. She wanted to revel in her power, at her success, but she
was unable to with him… lurking. Being a part of her. She
hadn’t understood what she was agreeing to.

And at the same time, the sense of
being… with someone. Of having someone that cared, close at
hand, was so nice. It was something she’d longed for since she
was a child.

She swallowed. “Then what am I
feeling now?”

The wry smirk he gave her might’ve
been construed as something less wholesome, but for some reason it
only felt playful to her as she gazed on that smooth, blemish free
face of his. “You are conflicted,” he said, and he rose
up from his knee and retreated back a couple of steps, twirling in
such a casual way that caused his robes to lift and spin, showing a
glimpse of his bare knee and thigh. “You need to impress the
masters of your world, no?” he asked with one brow cocked high.

“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t
have summoned a demon from some hellish place into our world,”
she agreed with some sarcasm.

“And time is of the essence,”
he added as a statement rather than questioning.

Casually he began to move his fingers
in the air, meticulous little gestures like she’d seen wizards
sometimes do, though his seemed so much more fluid than theirs. His
whole body, with every movement, had a fluid sort of grace to it that
was captivating to watch. “Only by showing them powers you were
denied the knowledge of, do you stand a chance to rise above your
station, hmm?” Conjured from the air before him, she watched
wisps of light begin to form, like crackling fire.

“And something that they couldn’t
chastise me for stealing a book containing it,” she added on,
remembering what he had said last night. She was captivated by his
motions and she felt that lingering power in the air come alive.

The billowy sleeve of his robe flowed
back as the air churned, and she watched as the tendrils of flame
took shape before him. He was silent, but she saw as strands of his
glossy black hair whipped about his face. It took some force of will
to accomplish on his part, but before her eyes the visage of a fiery
fox took shape.

It was orange with the embers of fire,
but it was unmistakable. It’s large, triangular ears perked,
and when Varuj at last finished, the flames died down, and the
creature before her looked like a beautiful rainbow of lights, taken
on animal form.

Her lips parted, and she was rendered
speechless. The young woman was blown away by the sight and wasn’t
certain what to make of it. He made it seem so easy. So graceful.

“How?”

“The how is the hardest part,”
he said, brushing back his hair and fixing it after his display.
Though as he smiled, the prismatic fox sniffed at the air, then
bounded over to her, its large tail swishing in the air as it buried
its nose into her lap. “I will teach you the how, but it will
take the rest of the day.”

For the first time since she’d
met him, she found it hard to focus on his words, for the beautiful
familiar before her licked at her hands, its tongue warm, but
pleasant.

Her eyes watered, and she cursed
herself for being so easily moved to tears. She tried so hard to hide
it, that sensitive, needy part of her, but it was so much harder
around him. She was exposed to him, and even the fox reminded her of
that memory he’d dredged up the night before.

As if in response, the fox lifted its
paws up onto her lap and it licked at her face, as if chasing away
the tears with its smooth, warming tongue.

Varuj moved back to her side, sitting
upon the log as he leaned in close and pet the creatures head. “He
is your familiar now,” he remarked. “I created him, which
is not how it is usually done, but he is linked to your soul. A
mirror of your essence in magical form. And shall not leave you lest
you wish it so.” He smiled warmly at the fox first, then her.
“My gift to you.”

Her entire body trembled as she held
back the crashing waves of affection, rubbing behind the fox’s
ear. “How can I trust you? Aren’t you… linked to
me as well?”

He pondered her question a while then
said, “No. Not as you think.” He turned his ruby-eyed
gaze towards her. “I am tethered to you on this plane of
existence. Like…” he searched his head for some metaphor
appropriate for their cross-dimensional understanding, “like an
anchor tying a boat to the seabed.” He nodded, satisfied with
his effort.

She crossed her legs, her hand still
petting at her new familiar. “And, what? … This is all
in thanks for me bringing you here?”

Varuj’s hand brushed hers as they
both toyed with the chromatic fox, the creature eagerly licking at
her face and making soft little yipping noises that sounded so happy.
“It is my thanks for your agreeing to my terms,” he said
softly. “It is not often one of my kind can meet a mortal who
will entreat with us fairly.”

“Maybe I’m just stupider
than most mortals, then.” She looked at him sidelong, trying to
read his expression but seeing that gorgeous visage just made her
more distracted and uncertain. She’d seen him for what he was.
A monstrous demon.

She cursed him for looking so
attractive.

“No,” he said, sounding so
sincere. “You are clever beyond your years. That much is true,”
and she could detect none of his deception, none of his charm put to
work in that compliment beyond what he exuded naturally.

“Now I will teach you to command
and use your familiar,” he said to her, his eyes moving back to
the fox with a smile. “He may be more than a mere pet if you
know the proper incantations and methods. He may be a fierce ally. A
cunning tool.”

She pet the fox again, staring at him
curiously. “And I’m allowed to call him a tool, even with
his cunning?”

She wished he didn’t choose to
look as he did. Her barriers were being chipped away and she had to
keep reminding herself of what he was.

It was so easy to forget.

“Do not confuse he and I,”
said Varuj to her softly. “You summoned me. You did not create
me,” he explained. “I existed, thought, lived a life of
my own, long before you tore me from my place across the gap between
dimensions to aid you. Him?” he looked to the fox. “He
did not exist as separate from you. Not even for a second. He is made
up of the aether, crafted from the blueprints of your soul.” He
shrugged his shoulders casually. “You may call him what you
wish. It would be no more insulting than saying your toe is an
instrument unto you.”

She nodded, putting her hands on either
side of the log. “Where will he stay?”

He gave a wry smile, “That is
what I shall teach you first.” He reached out and took hold of
her wrist, turning her hand palm-up and unfurling her fingers. “He
is linked to your soul. Not merely tethered as I am,” he
explained, though with his delicate touch upon her palm it was not as
easy to focus as it should have been. “A simple magical gesture
is enough to dismiss him, so do as I instruct…”

With gentle care he guided her through
the motion, the gentle swish of her hand in the air, from left to
right, the light wriggle of two fingers, then curling her hand into a
fist as a strong closure. “Memorize that. Then repeat.”

She was keen with magic and memorized
it instantly. How else could she have summoned him if she hadn’t
any skill or natural grace with it, after all?

Yet even though she followed through
with the motion with such diligence and interest, she couldn’t
stop focusing on him. On his touch, on the way he felt against her.
On what he truly was.

The sparkle in his ruby eyes caught it,
and he smiled. “Try once more,” he said, demonstrating
for her with that fluid grace.

It was enough, and she got it on that
try. The kaleidoscope of colours that was her fox-familiar, drained
into her palm then vanished into her flesh. Though truthfully,
similar to Varuj, she felt the thing settle against her very soul.
Unlike the dark monster, however, it felt quite… familiar.
Nothing was odd about it at all, it felt as if a piece of herself was
merely returned.

It took her breath away and she closed
her eyes, letting herself enjoy the sensation. When at last she
managed to open them again, she looked to him.

“Are you using me?”

His beautiful face did not falter in
the face of that question, though he retorted. “A curious
question for a woman who unquestionably is using me for her own
ends.” He arched a singular brow – the dark hairs so
perfectly sculpted – as if challenging her to deny it.

“I’ve never denied that,”
she argued. “But… I’m not a being of…
evil.”

“And I am?” he responded,
looking slightly insulted, though he brushed it off quickly. “Why
do you presume I am evil, hm? Because I am different? Because I come
from a realm that abides by different rules of order than yours does,
Firia?” The challenge was delivered smoothly, and he crossed
his legs, some of his bare, chocolatey dark thigh showing from
beneath his robes.

“Because you’re a heathen
and the first thing you did was start looming over me and touching
yourself?” she retorted. “I can feel it.” She
touched her chest, overtop of her heart. “In here. You’re
not like me.”

“Precisely,” he said, back
arched, shoulders out, that well-shaped chin of his pushed up in the
air. “I was born of another realm. Where the laws of the
universe were different. Do you expect otherwise any more than you
would expect a foreigner to eat the same food as you or dress
likewise?”

“I pretty much expect all
strangers not to touch themselves in front of me.”

“Where I come from it’s
simply a display of interest,” he stated, his eyes dipping down
over her form for just a moment. “We don’t hide such
things as your kind do. I ceased as per your wishes, however.”

“Interest?” She almost
laughed as she thought back to it. “You looked more like you
were just trying to scare me.”

He sighed a bit. “See how
pleasant you would be if you were ripped between realities from your
home without clothes or items by a powerful summoner. It puts you in
a rather sour mood, and leads to you feeling defensive. I got over
it,” then added, “with you.”

“You said you were glad to be rid
of that place,” she stated, trying to sound confident but the
blush of her cheeks gave her away. She looked aside, hiding her face
from him as she stared into the forest depths.

“I am,” he confessed,
“now.” He watched her quietly. “Were it some cruel
summoner who intended to only use, abuse and toss me back when done,
however, I would not have that sentiment. When I realized how pure of
heart you were, however?” He shrugged his shoulders. “I
thought I had found someone who might deal with me. And help me to
stay. As a free man one day.”

Her gaze fell to the forest floor and
her heart thudded loudly in her chest. She was sure he could hear it,
but then, she wasn’t entirely certain what he could sense
within her. What he experienced in kind.

Her tongue pressed from between her
lips and dabbed them thoughtfully. She’d let him in so quickly,
so eagerly, and she wondered what that said about her. What that said
about how lonely she was. How much she desired someone in her life,
even if he was a demon.