With her father's memory failing and her mother gone, Soraya Thenayu enrolls in distant Darkwood Academy and immediately becomes enemies with the richest kid at school. Between hiding her father's gift of illegally harvested magic, befriending socia...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Soraya stared at the man before her. He was wearing the same cloak, hat, goggles, and glasses she had seen during their first conversation. She also noticed a lavender jacket over a faded yellow, collared shirt, but one feature in particular stuck out the most to her.
He's only slightly taller than me?
"I know what you're thinking," Jon's voice was like the sea, calm with an undercurrent of power. "You thought I'd be taller, didn't you?"
"Yes..."
Jon looked amused, his grin growing wider with each passing second. "When Mülock first mentioned you, I thought you'd be older," he looked her over with his hands tucked into his deep coat pockets. "What are you, ten?"
"I'm thirteen."
"You have the voice of a ten-year-old," he teased.
"Hey!" Soraya stomped her foot on the wooden boards beneath them.
Marlot smirked at her outburst. "I take it back... a nine-year-old."
Soraya pouted, folding her arms over her chest. "I promise I'm thirteen..."
Jon chuckled. "Okay, young lady, I suggest properly dressing like one."
The girl looked down. Because she was still using her telepathy spell, the vision in her left eye was pitch black, but through her right eye, she could see she was still in her pajamas.
"I'll be... right back..." her face turned red, like a bed of roses, while she held open the door leading into the dormitory. "Um, can you just wait on the roof for me?"
He raised a faded golden brow.
"I can join you there shortly. I don't want you to be seen by anyone else."
"Ah. Understood."
Before Soraya could slip behind the door, Yabo waltzed between Soraya's legs and meowed up at Jon.
"Hello there. What's your name?" Marlot murmured. He crouched down, holding out a gloved hand towards the pandacoon.
"That's Yabo, my pet," Soraya said, eyeing Jon warily. "Please, don't hurt him..."
Jon paused, sliding his red sunglasses down onto the tip of his nose, so his eyes were staring into Soraya's. They were sky blue, like hers, but mixed with red and green hues from the other souls he held trapped within himself.
"I only hunt for survival, and he's your family, not food."
Yabo rubbed his face into the man's fingers, chirping as he did.
"Your guardian loves you very much," Jon whispered to the pandacoon while stroking his furry back. "You both have a similar aura, very sweet and caring."
