Chapter 4- Paranoid

  Jax

  It's Thursday. Which means meeting day.

  Every Thursday since I was fourteen and able to sufficiently report information I would head out of my foster family's house to the Demilunes, a cabin deep in the woods that's only accessible one way and by one person. Me.

  The cold air is sharp with winter and stings my lungs as I breathe. It feels good. Reminds me that I'm alive. And free. For the time being, that is.

  I step onto the snowy ground outside the house, my feet making a soft, muffled sound. The sun is barely starting to rise as I head North to the cabin. When I get to the start of the trees, I step in and am immediately shrouded by darkness. I've been doing this for so long that I could find the cabin with my eyes closed. Although I don't try. Running into something out here would not be ideal. Not with hunters around.

  Once I get to a great pine that's taller than the tallest school building at Dempsey (even taller than the tree Neo became yesterday), I prick my finger and jab it against the trunk. Blood magic. Powerful stuff. And while they don't like it when I use magic, it's the only way to keep all of...this, a secret.

  The tree shudders and bows, splitting slightly in the middle to reveal a door. I don't know how it works but it's super cool.

  Once I enter, I immediately sense something's wrong. There's no movement. No life. Like the whole spot is dead. I pull the dagger from my boot and tread carefully down the hall to the meeting room in the back.

  At the entrance, I see it. A hunter, dead, his throat slit and his blood pooling around him on the floor, right underneath the chair he had been sitting in. I look around cautiously as I press forward. I don't know how the hunters get in and out of this pce. Perhaps it's the same way I do. Or maybe they have their own entrance near their main base.

  When I get to the figure lying on the ground, I carefully pull back the hood. White, empty eyes meet mine. Gedrick. The usual hunter I reported to. I drop the hood, cursing and standing back up.

  I look around, looking for...a sign, something, anything to expin what the hell has happened.

  That's when I see it. A neat envelope sitting in the center of the oak table. I reach for it hesitantly. The paper looks older than some of the manuscripts written at the school. Carved in elegant bck (at least I think it's bck...) ink is my name. My full name.

  Jaxith Liam Bellvederus Miles

  I don't know where the Bellvederus has come from. No one I know has ever called me that. No one.

  I set the dagger down on the table and carefully slit the top of the envelope open.

  Neo

  It's Thursday. Which means Jax won't be here all day.

  You would think I'd be more excited than a greyhound, having all this peace. And not having to face him after the whole nudity incident yesterday.

  But I'm not. I'm just anxious and peeved. I mean seriously though , what if he's up to something? He's evil. He could definitely be up to something.

  Back in our second year, when this all started, I tried to use all the magic I knew to find him every Thursday that year. But I never caught up with him. Never found him. And after the near death experience in our third year, I just gave up. I decided it wasn't worth all the extra sleep I could have been getting.

  That doesn't mean it didn't bother me though.

  I try to go about the day as least paranoid as I can. I write notes in all my csses. I even manage to successfully change one part of my body into a griffin and the other part into a pixie. Creatural separation has always been a struggle and today Professor Meeks, she's a gnome who teaches independent advanced studies for those of us with extra gifts, was so pleased that she didn't make me practice turning into a nymph, thank Morrigan.

  After csses, Rosa and I grab gatorades and chips and head to the common room. We go there a lot in the winter and especially on the days we don't want to go straight home. The fires are always roaring and the ceiling is so high you can't even see the top! Plus the armchairs are so rge that even a talos can sit in one.

  We start the afternoon by working on homework. First, an essay for Magical Creature History. Then we practice basic healing spells. Most elven creatures (elves, pixies, fairies, nymphs, psychics, centaurs, and merpeople) can use healing magic. So while most of our schedules are drastically different to cater to our specific creature powers, sometimes lots of us get lumped into the same csses. I turn into a faerie for this one...although I'm not quite successful. I'm missing a wing. Rosa ughs. My changes don't usually go smoothly on a good day. Add Jax and distractions and paranoia into the mix and we're lucky I'm a faerie instead of a damn werewolf. Should've known I woulda used all my successful changing earlier.

  "You have to hold your hands like this," Rosa corrects me, turning my hand to the left. "And then you move them like water while you're saying what you want to heal."

  We're practicing on a pair of birds with a broken wing a piece. They've been magicked to only move again if we correctly heal their wings.

  Rosa goes first and it takes her a couple tries (she's got to learn to enunciate better) but eventually her little hoppy bird is up and tweeting.

  I furrow my eyes, rexing my green hands into the water motion she had just done.

  "Heal this bird's wing," I say, clearly, pushing magic into my words. I see the air around the bird shimmer and then suddenly, it's up, tweeting at me just like Rosa's bird was tweeting at her.

  "You did it!" She squeals, hugging my arm. I grin.

  Changing into creatures might be a challenge but actually using their powers usually goes smoothly. Usually. Magic is weird like that. As long as you speak your words clearly and exactly what you want to happen (along with the right hand gesture and creature power) then you can pretty much make anything happen. At least, that's been my experience.

  At that moment, Rivers comes over, giving Rosa a tentative smile, a question in her murky eyes. Rosa's eyes widen and she looks back at me hesitantly. I wave my hand.

  "Go. I'll see you for dinner. Here tonight?"

  She nods and squeals again and her and Rivers...disappear who knows where.

  I sigh in relief. At least now I can try to change back into my normal form without Rosa giving me advice the whole time. I close my eyes and try to focus on changing, on melting back into my skin. Once, when I was first learning how to do this, the headmistress expined it to me like the feeling of wiping your face with a clean cloth. You just, clear out what you were and put in pce what you want to be. The headmistress' a shapeshifter (she can turn into a bunch of different animals) so I guess she thought that idea would work for me. But it doesn't.

  I prefer to think about it like I'm melting. Like the skin I'm in just falls away with this warm feeling that spreads through my stomach as a new skin repces the old one.

  I think about that now. Hard. And in a moment, I feel that burning sensation. Once it's faded to a light buzz, I open my eyes, staring in a mirror I always keep on me. Normal again. Except my hair is still green. I try shaking it out to see if that helps but nothing. Oh well. It could definitely be worse than green hair.

  I'm packing up my bag, thinking I can take a quick nap in one of these chairs before dinner when I feel a light tap on my shoulder. I turn around, suspicion immediately filling my throat, but it's just a pretty (a very pretty) Elf girl. She's tall and lean and has the bckest hair I've ever seen. Bcker than the sky. Like a never ending bck hole. And her eyes, they twinkle silver like the stars. Her ears are slightly tapered to a point, sticking through her straight onyx hair. And her skin is so fair, so pale, and so clean. She smiles gingerly at me and I close my mouth abruptly.

  Stop gawking, I think, feeling the blood rush to my cheeks in embarrassment.

  "Hi," she says and her voice rings like bells or crystal, it's so high and pure.

  "Hi," I say back, returning her smile.

  "My name's Arinell. We're in the same year here. But I've just transferred from a school in Engnd."

  "Arinell," I say dumbly. Why do pretty girls turn my brain cells off?

  She smiles again. "You can call me Ari."

  "Ari," I parrot. What. An. Idiot. Come on, Neo, can't you be smoother than this? "Ari, I'm Neo. It's nice to meet you," I try again.

  "I've heard a lot about you. They say you can be anything? Can do anything?"

  I flinch a little at her words, thinking again about yesterday. Of course they know about me all the way in freaking Engnd. "Um, yeah, I s'pose. I'm still working out the kinks, though."

  She smiles and I feel my heart hammering. Do girls always have pretty smiles like that? And why is she even talking to me? Did she just come to get a glimpse at the notorious freak chameleon?

  "Like green hair?"

  I grin at her sheepishly, reaching a hand to my head. Well, she doesn't seem rude.

  "Yeah. Exactly."

  "Ari!" Another elven girl calls from the entryway. She gnces towards the door.

  "Well it was nice to meet you, Neo. Maybe we can chat more sometime?"

  I nod meekly, heart fluttering. Anything she wanted she could have. Pretty girls had that effect on me. It was like they were pulling at my very being. She smiled again and then turned and gracefully ran to her friends.

  "Wooing more women, I see," Rosa accuses me. I jump at her unexpected return.

  I give her a half smile and shrug, slinging my bag over my shoulder. "I can't help it if all the dies come chasing me."

  She ughs and rolls her eyes, hooking one arm through mine.

  "Oh come on, Romeo."