I feel bad for Avery because I can tell how much his dad’s avoidance hurts him, but he’s way too fiercely independent to let it make him pretend to be something he’s not.
Kaitlyn, the fourth original member of our Coven, used to be human like me. But she just recently got back from the Sky Lands—the Drake world—where she underwent an amazing magical transformation. First she went from human to a Made-Vampire and then from that to the only female Drake who can actually turn into a dragon, which all the Drake males can do but none of the females.
She was standing in line beside me, her long, black hair pulled back to show the gorgeous bronze scales where her scars had been before her transformation. I remembered when, not that long ago, Kaitlyn hid behind her hair and tried to make herself small and unobtrusive. Now she stood straight with her chin up and her mismatched eyes—gold and turquoise—looked you full in the face when she spoke to you. I was so happy for her—her transformation and the love of her fated mate had brought her a joy and peace of mind she hadn’t had since a house fire had killed her parents years before.
Mr. Seahorse—the little pet chimeling Kaitlyn had brought with her from the Sky Lands—was perched on her shoulder making soft sounds like someone ringing a doorbell. He looked a little like a seahorse—hence the name—with an S shaped body and a rounded little belly. But he also had big, golden wings, tiny bird-like legs and teeny little arms which he always kept curled into his body. Kaitlyn claimed he didn’t even use them when he was hunting, so I wasn’t sure what they were for, but they looked cute.
Standing beside Kaitlyn was her fated mate and one of the newest members of our Coven—the Drake, Ari Reyes. He was destined to be the Alpha or king of the Sky Lands when his father gave up the throne and Kaitlyn would be their queen.
Behind Ari was his cousin, Santiago—Saint for short. I don’t know if I would class him as a Coven-member or not. He was what the Drakes called a “Blood Drake” which was supposed to be very bad luck. His Drake was wild and untamable—in fact, several people had died trying to tame it—which meant that the rest of the Drakes refused to let him sleep in their dorm in the West Tower.
Saint had inky black hair and eyes and an intense way about him that was slightly disturbing. I don’t want to be mean, but I could kind of understand where the rest of the Drakes were coming from when they claimed to fear him too much to let him sleep in their dorm. He had ended up in the boy’s section of the Norm Dorm instead, which he shared with Avery. Despite the fact that Avery was gay and most Drakes were extremely homophobic, he and Saint seemed to be getting along surprisingly well so far.
The last member of our little group was Jalli—short for Jallisa—who was Ari’s little sister. She was fourteen with long dark hair and eyes and friendly as a puppy—an absolute sweetheart we had all fallen in love with from the minute Kaitlyn brought her back to study at Nocturne Academy with us. She had a club foot but she was scheduled for surgery soon to correct it. In the meantime, she hopped around with complete unconcern for how anyone looked at her and chattered away in her friendly little bird-like voice to anyone who would listen.
And last there’s me—the only one in our Coven with absolutely nothing magical about her at all. I don’t breathe fire or drink blood or do magic spells or even come from a magical land of flying monsters, like little Jalli. I’m just plain old Emma Plunket of Frostproof, Florida—as boring and forgettable as they come.
But don’t get me wrong—despite the fact that I couldn’t help being just a tiny bit envious of my Coven-mates’ magical abilities, I still felt incredibly lucky to have them. They were the best friends I’d ever had—would ever have, I was sure—and I couldn’t make it through Nocturne Academy without them.
“Different how?” Avery said, turning around to frown at me.
“Huh?” Lost in my own thoughts, I had forgotten my original question.
“You asked us if we had noticed anything different about Bran O’Connor,” Megan reminded me.
“He’s the new Norm boy, right?” Kaitlyn asked. “I think I’ve seen him in study hall before.” She shrugged. “He seems nice enough.”
“He is in my wrestling class,” Ari volunteered unexpectedly. “He is…surprisingly strong.” He frowned. “Much more than you would expect, considering his size and stature.”
“Why are you interested in him, Emma?” Griffin asked. “Has he caught your fancy?” This, of course, was his cool, Nocturne way of teasing me.
“No. No, of course not,” I denied hastily, feeling my cheeks get hot with a blush.
“If you have no interest, why are your cheeks becoming red?” Saint asked, sounding honestly curious. “If you truly weren’t interested in him, I don’t believe you would have such a physical reaction.”
“Saint, let her alone!” Jalli elbowed him in the ribs, which was certainly something I wouldn’t have dared to do to the dark, brooding Drake. “It’s Emma’s own business if she has a crush on the new boy.”
“I do not have a crush on him!” I exclaimed—loudly enough that several people outside our group glanced at us.
To my mortification, I saw that two of the people staring happened to be Morganna Starchild and Elian Darkwing. Elian raised slim, elegant black eyebrows in surprise and Morganna giggled and whispered something in his ear that caused one corner of his mouth to turn up in a cool, disdainful smile.
Oh God! I turned my head away, trying to pretend I didn’t notice them staring and laughing at me. Why did it seem like Morganna was always around whenever something embarrassing or awful happened?
“Take it easy, Emmers,” Avery said, using his pet name for me. “We’re not trying to hook the two of you up. We just wanted to know why you were interested in Bran O’Connor—that’s all.”
“I am not interested in him. There’s just something different about him. I don’t know,” I muttered, still embarrassed. “I can’t explain it or put my finger on it, it’s just a feeling I get.”
“He’s a Norm, right?” Megan asked, using the word for a plain human who comes from a human family with no magical background.
“Right.” I nodded. “But he stays with his family in town instead of sleeping at the Academy. That’s why he’s not in the Norm Dorm with us.”
Actually, I could have stayed with my mom and commuted as well. But I liked living in the Norm Dorm with my Coven-mates and besides, our tiny apartment back home always reeked of cigarette smoke, since my mom has a four or five pack a day habit. Even the damp dungeon air of our underground dorm was better than living in a haze of smelly smoke.
“Well, if he’s a Norm, maybe we ought to invite him to sit with us at mealtimes,” Kaitlyn said. “That would be a nice thing to do. It’s hard when you feel like you don’t fit in,” she added in a low voice. “I know all about that.”
“We know you do, Katydid,” Avery said gently, smiling at her. Avery is sweet and protective with all us girls in the Coven. He’s like the big brother I never had but always kind of wanted.
“I think Kaitlyn is right—we should invite Bran O’Connor to sit with us,” Megan said decisively. “After all, if you guys hadn’t invited me to sit with you when I first came to Nocturne, I don’t know what I would have done. Probably slit my wrists the first time Nasty Nancy and the Weird Sisters came after me.”