Academy of Blood and Magic

30🖤

Three Months Later. . .

"And the winners of this year's competition is. . ." Dean Morganson paused as she read the winner's name as the other competitors waited with our breaths held.

After what seemed like an eternity - probably to add suspense - Dean Morganson finally read the name of the sheet of paper. "First place, Tristan Anderson."

The audience erupted in applause. Tristan hopped on the stage, a huge grin on his face. He was never going to stop talking about this. He was going to talk about this until we all died of old age.

Despite the animosity between us, I applauded him along with everyone else. He looked over at me and shot me a smug look, which I returned with a smile much to his surprise. I didn't care about his childish antics anymore. He could win all he wanted to. All I cared about was that I and my loved ones were safe, and because of that, I was the true winner.

"Second place. . . Lyric Kain."

The audience applauded again and I could hear the screams of excitement from Eve to the stage. My friends, family, Brandon, and Brandon's family had all come to watch me in this competition. Isaac was in the audience as well. He gave me a grin and a thumbs-up as I walked across the stage to receive my trophy. I smiled big for everyone to see, proud of myself. If it had been three months ago, I would've been upset by winning second place, telling myself that I was just the first loser, but I'd worked hard despite everything that had happened and I was still proud of myself. I had nothing to be ashamed of at all. Despite everything that had happened to me these past several months, the fact that I managed to maintain a perfect 4.0 GPA in my class, graduate from here, and still be able to compete in this competition at all, much less win second place, was extremely impressive. Despite having a rough time here, I was glad I came to this school and continued to thrive here.

As I stood next to Tristan, he leaned in close and whispered in my ear, "How does it feel to be the first loser?"

I smiled at him and whispered, "Pretty great. And I'm not a loser by any means."

He blinked in surprise, clearly expecting me to get angry and make a snappy comeback. He opened his mouth to reply but Dean Morganson announced the third-place winner, a girl named Rachel Brewer.

As the second-place winner, I received a check for three thousand dollars for college and a recommendation letter for any Coven I wanted to join. I wasn't sure which Coven I wanted to join, or if I even wanted to join a Coven at all, but I would still keep it whenever I made up my mind and made a decision.

After our names were announced, we moved to the huge gym where celebrations took place. There was ice cream, cake, punch, cookies, a DJ booth, a dance floor for everyone to relax and have fun after a tense semester.

I danced with Brandon, Jo, and my friends for two hours, feeling light and giddy. To my surprise, several classmates came by to congratulate me. Even after all of us coming back to in-person school and having Brandon's name cleared, everyone still acted weird around me.

But the biggest surprise of all came when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned and stiffened when I saw Janice standing there. Brandon tensed beside me and fixed her with a glare that would send most people running.

"What do you want?" he growled at her, his fangs peeking out from his mouth. I placed a warning hand on his arm, not wanting a fight or argument on today of all days.

She flinched. "I wanted to apologize to Lyric. I'm sorry about the way I acted at the hospital that day."

I opened my mouth to respond, but she quickly walked off before I could get a word out.

Brandon and I stared after her, shocked. "That was surprising," we said in unison as we watched her walk back to Isaac and his family.

I locked eyes with Isaac. He smiled and waved over at us and we waved back. Thankfully, Brandon and Isaac were cool with each other, cool meaning they didn't want to rip each other's heads off anymore. They weren't friends by any means, but they were at least cordial, which was all I was going to get out of them.

I looked over at my friends and smiled. Eve and Jesse were a solid couple now, and Emily, fortunately, managed to find a new love and move on from her crush on Jesse. All of my friends were here and happy and healthy.

Daniel had to move back home but was visiting frequently. He was able to get to know Brandon more since Brandon came over to my house constantly and was forming a strong bond.

So, in short, life was pretty good.

Back at my house, everyone gathered at my house after the party at the gym and the party continued from there.

We celebrated until midnight and my friends and Brandon's family had to go home. After saying goodbye, Brandon and I walked upstairs to my room for some alone time.

We spent a while making out - hey, we're adults, we can do what we want - and laid next to each other on my bed, holding each other.

I was still traumatized seeing that stake driven into his chest and often had nightmares. There were times that I didn't want him to go back to his house, to tell him to stay here with me. There was a part of me that was scared that I'd never see him again if he left. It was something I had to work on.

Brandon and I attended weekly therapy sessions to cope with our trauma. Both of us had mental scars that would take a long time to fade, scars that would perhaps never fade. It was something we'd have to work through and we'd work through it together.

Shelbee also attended therapy sessions with the same counselor Brandon and I saw. We'd passed by her a few times on our way in and she'd quickly walk past, looking as though she'd seen a ghost whenever she'd lock eyes on us so we never tried to talk to her. We left her alone, which was best. I was trying my best to move past the whole ordeal but still harbored a lot of anger towards her for reporting Brandon.

Yes, I know she lost her boyfriend and was devastated and wasn't thinking straight when she did it, but I still couldn't push that anger down, because I felt like if it weren't for her, then Brandon wouldn't have gone to jail in the first place.

"I'm so proud of you," Brandon said and pulled me closer to him. "You did amazing."

I smiled and snuggled my face into my chest. Ever since he drank from me, we'd grown even closer. We had a deeper connection than ever before and the love I felt grew tenfold. (I don't mean to get so mushy, but I was so happy and content I couldn't help it.)

Brandon propped himself up on his elbow and looked down at me, a twinkle in his eyes.

"There's a question I want to ask you," he said.

I nodded.

"A question I've been wanting to ask for a very long time."

My heart started pounding heavily in my chest as he pulled out a small box from his jean pocket.

He opened the box and I gasped at what I saw.

"Are you kidding me?" I gasped as a smile blossomed across my face. "Marry you? You know the answer to that!"