68
Lucy
When Dagon left, Riley started looking through her tablet. “Honestly, he’s such a big help. Let’s start with the easy stuff first.”
Riley walked me through signing up for the GED courses for my human education through a local university.
“After you take the placement exam, the supernatural side of the university will generate a course of study for you, and you’ll be taking your classes on campus.”
I shuffled my feet and nodded. “Will it be okay? I’ve been out of school so long.”
She smiled. “You won’t be the only one attending at the time. We could arrange for you all to meet if you’d like?”
I nodded. “I’d like that… It’s just… I’m a little nervous.”
Her eyes softened. “Whatever will make you most comfortable.”
“I think it would be okay if I knew at least a few people.”
She took note. “I’ll get it organized. Anything else before I take you to the testing room?”
I shook my head and stood. She stood and walked with me. I heard her telling me not to be nervous, but I couldn’t help it. My stomach churned. My hands were shaking. The woman inside the room was older, probably old enough to be a grandmother, with a stern expression. She didn’t smile.
“Lie on the bench and try not to move.”
The door closed behind me, and I shuffled over to the bench. Lay across it and tried not to fidget, but I was nervous. My heart was pounding. Light washed over me. Blue light, then red, then white. I felt my body getting heavier, then my eyes closed, and I was dropped into a room I couldn’t remember.
There were toys on the floor beside me. My heart leaped as I picked one up. It was a little block with letters and numbers on every side. The orphanage never had toys, so this had to be from when I was with my family, whomever they were.
The door opened, and a voice spoke to me. It was muffled like I was in deep water, but as the person came to me and lifted me into their arms, I felt everything in my body relax. I let them rock me and fell asleep to the soothing humming drifting through the air.
When I woke up on the bench inside the analysts’ room, I blinked a few times. The old woman leaned over me. Her eyes were narrowed as she searched my face.
“What did you see?” She asked.
“How… did you know I saw anything?”
She cocked an eyebrow. “Answer my question, and I will answer yours.”
I licked my lips. My eyes started to sting. I couldn’t explain why I felt like I should be crying, but the tears slipped down my cheeks.
“There were toys,” I said. “And someone picked me up and rocked me to sleep.”
Her gaze drifted over me before she spoke. “The readings indicated that you went into a trance. I kept you under for as long as possible.”
“Wh-Why?”
“Interrupting trances can be dangerous for beings with magic,” she said, and her eyes narrowed. “Especially… people like you.”
I blinked at her. “What does that mean?”
“We’ll get to that. Can you sit up?”
I frowned and tried to sit up, but my body felt heavy. She hummed and walked away.
“Wha-What’s wrong with me? I was fine before.”
“You went into a trance. It takes a lot of energy, especially when you aren’t trained.” She sighed. “Not that I should be surprised based on what I’ve been told about your case.”
She came back to me with a glowing vial in her hand. “Drink this and lie down until it kicks in. You’re going to want to head home and cancel any plans you’ve got for the rest of the day. The potion will only keep you up for two hours at most.”
“Okay,” I said and drank it. It tasted a bit sweet. “Am I going to be okay?”
She glanced at me. “That remains to be seen in the long run. I’ve got some questions to ask you before I let you go.”
I lay back and looked at her as she sat beside me. Her hands glowed as she leaned over me. She placed a hand on my forehead.
“How often have you been having trances?” She asked. “They’d feel like memories or dreams that feel too real.”
I shivered as I started to get cold. “I’m not sure… For a while, I guess. A couple of months?”
“Before or after you were sold to that auction?”
“A-After.”
She hummed again and pulled her hand back.
“I see that you took an anti-pregnancy potion and a few calming potions. I’m going to prescribe some magical maintenance potions until I can analyze this restraint on you. They won’t interfere with the anti-pregnancy potion, so no need to worry.”
“What are the new potions supposed to do?”
“Manage the restraint. It’s powerful, and they’re draining you… Would explain how you’ve been able to hide in the human world for so long.” She chuckled. “Honestly, whoever put them on you meant for you not to be found. It was pure happenstance that you were thrown back into the supernatural world.”
She shook her head and glided by on her stool.
“Why… would someone put a restraint on me?”
“Protection.”
“How can you know that?” I asked.
She rolled back and showed me the board. It looked like a human body with a neat circle around the chest. There were other circles, but the circle on the chest pulsed blue. The other large circle on the head was also blue.
“You might eventually be able to see this, or at least read it if they sign off on training, but circles are binds, bonds, or restraints. The placement tells you how long it’s been there. The color shows magical signature relations. The person who placed the bind on you did so with good intentions and was likely related to you.”
“Like… my parents?”
“Or a sibling,” she said. “Naturally, beings with magic tend to trust people whom we are related to by blood. The magic in their blood resonates with ours and makes it easier to use enchantments on each other. That can be a bad thing, but it’s more often used for healing or, in your case, protective enchantments.”
My lips twitched. “What could they have been…”
My voice trailed off as I thought about what Yvonne told me about what had happened around the time I was taken to the orphanage.
“I keep hearing about a war that happened in the werewolf world?” I said. “Could you tell me anything about it? Would this restraint happen to be related to that?”
“Definitely based on the timing and your age,” she said, looking at her tablet. “The faith system of the werewolf world collapsed, as we warned them for years that it would.”
She rolled her eyes. “Ancient history that no one really likes to get into, but honestly, it doesn’t even matter. After that, there was in-fighting. People were killed. They fought for power, and now there are three packs of blood-thirsty, highly temperamental crazy people instead of one.”
She glided away on her stool, murmuring to herself. “I’m putting in a research request on your behalf. Do you want the good or the bad news first?”
I swallowed. “T-The bad news, I guess.”
“If that restraint remains on you, you might not make it to your twenty-fifth birthday.”
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