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...
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"So, MagiCorp finally showed up."
The vision within Jonathan Marlot's orb was partially obscured by the smoke billowing from his pipe.
"Yes," Soraya leaned closer into the fiery blue, red and green soul floating above the palm of her hands. "Did you fuse with Norma?"
Cackles filled the space between them. "Oh, I most certainly did."
Soraya's eyelid twitched.
"Norma Whispers is an alias with fake PhD credentials. This woman's real name is Josephine Macklin, a bounty hunter bent on kidnapping the Shadelkin twins. She would have too if we hadn't acted when we did."
Soraya exhaled, her insides queasy. "Is she... still alive...?"
"Of course. Josephine's trapped within me, making all sorts of plea bargains and empty promises in the hopes that I'll let her go," Jon took off his glove to show Soraya the Earth Magic tattoo on his skin. "This woman has murdered countless Etherians in all sorts of horrific ways. Don't feel bad for her, she's not sorry at all."
"So, you're going to pretend to be Norma during my therapy sessions, right?"
"Yup."
"And, we're meeting up at The Dancing Dragon on Astros at fifteen o'clock, right?"
"Correct."
"Alright, I'll see you then," Soraya whispered into the orb. "Have a good night, sir."
"You too, kid."
* * *
The Dancing Dragon was a two-story beach house with the perfect ocean view on Matumi's shore. A quarter mile of white sand stretched out before it, acting as a buffer between the shop and the Valtic Ocean. A wooden sign hung from the building, depicting a dragon made of smoke rising from a tea cup.
"This looks quaint," Soraya commented as she and her friends approached the building.
Rhys gently squeezed her fingers with his own. "It does," he agreed, glancing over his shoulder.
One of Magicorp's men had been following the group around Matumi, hovering just a few feet away at all times. He was a tall, muscular man with dark brown eyes, hair and tanned skin. He wore russet colored pants, black shoes, and a white collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.
Soraya held the front door of the tea shop open for her friends, making sure all of them safely entered before going inside herself. She refused to make eye contact with the spy, but knowing he was watching them from the sidewalk they had just crossed over unsettled her.
Ever since MagiCorp's employees had arrived at Darkwood Academy, their talent scouts had roamed freely about the campus in addition to creating a schedule for culling through students, starting in alphabetical order.
