Cand Chronicles

8: Ember

8: Ember

When I woke up the next morning and the. Magic was definitely something stirring within me and it was unnerving. Like after bathing, I accidentally manifested breakfast in the hall on my way to the dining hall. Seraph was thrilled when the plate of food appeared before us, but my stomach dropped as I realized what it meant.

Magic. I was thinking about breakfast, looking forward to eating, and it just came to me. I did't feel anything different, no warmth flooding through my veins, no source of anything different. That scared me.

Cautiously, I took the plate from Seraph, ignoring her cries and walking towards the dining hall.

"Who's plate did I steal?" I asked the room, holding up the plate. Seraph sniffled, her hands full of a piece of bread that she tore apart. It was the peace offering that I'd given her to stop crying and have her follow me.

Every pair of eyes in the room looked at me. I was relieved that there were only a few members of the coven, and a boy which I'd never seen. Probably someone's mate.

The boy raised his hand, "I wondered if Jade stole it. Apparently I owe her an apology."

I walked over to him and placed his plate down, "Seraph stole your bread and a bit of ham before I could stop her. I'll get you more if you'd like."

The boy shook his head of white hair, "Nah, it's okay. Jade will probably steal it—" he cut himself off when his plate vanished once again. Then he sighed, silver eyes looking at the ceiling for a second before he stood up.

He had wings, so fine and silvery that they were easily missed. But his wings were large, and took up a lot of room even folded against his back.

I tried not to gawk at him as he went to the buffet counter and snagged another plate, turning towards me to explain, "Jade always steals my first plate when she's on a mission. While it's annoying, I kind of like knowing she's alive."

"Oh," I said, trying to gather my thoughts. I wondered how fragile those wings were, but none of the Witches or Ryken seemed to be careful around them.

In fact, Ryken came up behind the boy and clapped him on the shoulder, "You're back, Will! I thought for sure Jade killed you this time."

The fairy laughed, "No. As much as Jade likes to hate me, she hasn't killed me. I got called home for a moment. My brother had a little bit of a snag with one of the other Courts. I had to smooth it all out."

"The brother who likes to drink or the one that hates my kind?" Ryken prodded.

"The one who hates werewolves."

I looked at Ryken in surprise. He was a werewolf? The ones from nightmares—the half man half wolf— or the one who shifts into a regular wolf?

The boys didn't notice me as they shoveled food onto their respective plates.

"What did your brother do?" Ryken nudged.

The boy, Will, just shook his head, "He got a couple she-wolves riled up. And of course most of them were mated already. But he never listens when a lady says no. Honestly, I hope to introduce him to Jade one day so he can piss her off and she can rip him to pieces. I'd like to watch."

"Jade probably would rip out his wings and leave him."

"That's what Cress and most of the rest of the coven would do. With how angry Jade is all the time, I think it might actually be a relief for her to take her anger out on someone."

"Maybe so, but you never know. One think I learned from Cress being my mate is that Witches change their minds as much as the seasons change here."