Kane's Fate (Magic Battle Academy) Chapter 1

“Have a good night, Phil!” I waved to my boss, who offered a disinterested tip of his bald head, before I let the door slam shut behind me.

Phil didn’t care that I was leaving more than an hour late or that I’d only stayed to finish a report he needed in the morning. As long as I didn’t hit overtime, I was basically just another one of his worker bees, no different from Vivian who spent half her day painting her nails or Robby who couldn’t tell an acquisition from a requisition and still made the same salary as I did.

They had all left at five on the dot with claims of appointments to keep, while I’d stayed the extra hour and a half to finish the report and never even got a thank you.

Just another shit day at the accounting office.

I loosened the royal blue tie around my neck and gripped my briefcase full of useless papers just as the faded red city bus rolled past me. I glanced down the block to see the bus stop bench was empty, and my shoulders slumped with annoyance.

Walking home would be faster than waiting thirty minutes for the bus’s next round.

I took a few steps in the direction of my house, and then the first raindrops plopped onto my head.

“Of course,” I sighed.

If I was a charmer like the rest of my family, I could zap myself home, or I could at least poof an umbrella into my hand. They were all able to access their magic with ease, but here I was about to turn twenty-two, almost a year past the normal activation age, with not a single spark of magic at my fingertips.

My parents had activated by twenty, and they’d sailed through the academy together, gotten married, and had a couple kids. The regular magical American dream couple. Even my dumbass older brother hit his activation by twenty-one, and now he worked for the Regimen. He had a knack for performing memory spells, and the Regimen was responsible for keeping the magical world hidden from the human world, so rewriting memories was a useful skill.

Outside of being in the Regimen, Kolton was a jerk. He was four years older than me, and he’d always made sure I knew I wasn’t as important as he was. Even before he’d activated, he bullied me endlessly about my lack of girlfriends, athletic ability, and anything else he thought was lame. He was the stereotypical quarterback of the high school football team, and we were nothing alike.

I wasn’t a genius by any means, but I was good at math and liked numbers. I also did well in school, well, the academic side of school. I wasn’t great at contact snorts, but I could run pretty fast, and it was my racing skill that had gotten me into a collegiate cross-country team with a scholarship to Colorado Mountain College. After three years, I still couldn’t decide on a major, and eventually, my advisor told me I needed to pick something or my scholarship would run out before I even finished a degree.

The problem was I had no idea what I wanted to do.

All those childhood dreams of what I wanted to be when I grew up revolved around magic. As a charmer, I could do tons of jobs in the magical community, though I planned to be as far from the Regimen as possible, but until my power activated, I couldn’t even apply. I was stuck in the human world, and I didn’t know what I’d do with that life.

But yeah. I was pretty good at math.

So, I dropped out of CMC and looked for a job. I’d taken plenty of accounting and business classes, but no one in Denver was willing to give me a second look without a degree. Instead, the first person to offer me a job was Phil, an old high school buddy of my dad’s.

And just like that, I was back home in Durango working a human job without a single inkling of my magical power.

If nothing happened by my birthday this weekend, I’d be the first Inanis in my family in four or five generations. No one was alive to tell me about the last ancestor who never activated, but I’d read about my great-great-great-ish-uncle in the family journals. He was nearly twenty-five when he gave up on activation and ran away from the family to avoid both shame and a memory rewrite, and no one had ever heard from him again.

I didn’t plan on the great escape if I didn’t activate, but if the rumors were true, I wouldn’t remember what I’d missed out on anyway. If the Regimen caught wind of an Inanis, they’d send one of their charmers to rewrite any magical knowledge from his memory, and he’d go on living a normal human life.

A shiver raced down my spine at the thought of my memories being rewritten, but my mom had assured me they were only rumors. Kolton, however, never said a word during those conversations, and I wasn’t sure if it was more of his douche behavior or an attempt to keep from lying to our mom.

Either way, I didn’t want to risk it.

I had to activate.

Somehow.

My mind raced with spells and incantations I’d heard my parents and brother whisper when they thought I wasn’t listening, and I tried to chant them under my breath as I hurried through the rain toward Third Street. My parents lived just a couple blocks east of the busy road, and I started counting steps as I got closer to a little bakery on the corner.

“Stop!” a woman pleaded. “Please, no!”

I furrowed my brow as I slowed my pace and looked around me for the source of the voice.

“Shut up,” a second voice growled.

That one was obviously a man, and I heard the woman gasp and begin to cry. I was close to the alley behind the bakery, and I heard the sound of something being torn as I came around the corner and froze.

A man crouched over a woman as she trembled on the dirty ground in fear while tears rolled down her cheeks. Her dirty blonde hair was plastered to her forehead from the rain that still pelted her red face, but I recognized her as one of the employees at the bakery. Her blouse had been ripped open to reveal her bra and stomach, and her assailant held a large knife to her throat as he shoved her skirt higher up her thighs. His back was to me, and my heart pounded in my chest as I took in the scene.

The bastard’s intentions were clear, and I thought about my phone tucked deep into my pocket to protect it from the rain. If I slipped back a few steps, I could get under the awning of a janky pawn shop and call the police without the man ever seeing me.

Then the woman saw me.

Her red-rimmed eyes stared past her attacker and into mine, and I could almost hear her begging me to help her. The fear of a thousand deaths swam beneath her sapphire irises, and something in me snapped.

It felt like a metal chain broke to release the fury and rage I’d held inside me for years, and a roar escaped my lips that even I didn’t expect.

“What the hell?” The would-be rapist jumped to his feet and turned around to face me. “Get the fuck out of here, kid. It ain’t your business.”

“No,” I snarled.

What was happening to me?

My puny chest heaved with deep, gasping breaths as I tried to rein in the fiery anger that coursed through my veins. I imagined the attacker on the ground in a pool of his own blood as I towered over his lifeless body, and I shook my head to clear the thought.

I wasn’t a charmer, and I had no power to stop this guy.

What was I thinking?

But my feet stayed rooted to the ground while my fists were clenched at my sides, and another low growl rumbled in my chest as the woman’s assailant looked at me and chuckled.

“Just get out of here,” he said as he brandished the knife and turned back to his victim. “I have work to do.”

His weapon was about the size of a letter opener, but I could see the blade was sharp enough to cut plenty more than paper. My brain screamed at me to run from this alley and call the cops, yet something else I didn’t recognize told me I had nothing to fear from this human.

“No, please!” the woman shrieked and put her arms up to protect herself.

Before I knew it, I was charging at the armed man.

The woman screamed and rolled out of the way as I collided with the criminal, and we tumbled into a pile of trash as a searing pain ripped through my abdomen.

I reached down and shuddered when I pressed against a hole in my skin.

“Shitttt…” My vision swam as I looked down at the blood that dripped from my fingers, and I thought I was a goner.

Then I blinked, and everything was clear, like the sun had broken through the clouds, and the world around me ground to a halt.

I saw the rainwater mingle with the blood on my hand, and I could hear the squealing of tires on the wet pavement as cars continued to pass the alley without a second glance. I smelled the week-old pastries that had cushioned my fall and the cheap condoms in the would-be rapist’s front jeans pocket.

Then my hand started to change.

My fingers grew longer, and razor-sharp claws erupted from their tips as a thick layer of white hair with streaks of black rippled up my hands to my thickening forearms. Even my chest broadened and tightened, and muscles I’d never felt before flexed and pulsed like they each had their own heart. My entire body was simultaneously on fire and being doused in an ice bath, and I could have sworn ants were crawling across my gums and teeth because they fucking burned like acid.

“Watch out!” the woman suddenly screamed, and my pain took a back seat as something… else inside me reared its head and snapped the world back into focus.

I sensed the movement before I saw him, and I rolled off the trash bags just as his blade plunged through layers of plastic and rotten food. I was fast, but I’d never been that fast before.

“How the fuck--” the man grunted before he turned around and gasped.

His round eyes traveled up my body, and I realized I was now towering several feet over him. I could also smell the rank fear as it seeped through his pores, and his mouth was a yawning black hole as he gaped up at me.

I spared myself half a glance from my peripherals, and I saw my newly large body had ripped through my cheap suit to reveal more black and white fur sprouting along my thighs and chest.

An ember of confusion flared in the back of my mind, but any questions were completely drowned out as only one thought rang through my head.

Kill.

A roar exploded from my mouth, and the sound shook the very alley walls like an earthquake. The pathetic waste of space in front of me whimpered as he clutched his puny letter opener in a shaking fist, and he stumbled half a step back.

Then I barreled toward him, and I was on him before he even had time to piss himself.

My claws ripped through the man’s raggedy t-shirt like it was made of toilet paper, and blood sprayed from his wounds instantly. Rage pulsed through me with every thunderous beat of my heart, and I tore and shredded at his chest and neck until slivers of his skin slapped the wet cement and his eyes rolled back in his head.

Then I threw my head back and released another roar as his body crumpled to the ground in front of me, and the desire to tear his flesh from his bones was nearly all-consuming. I wasn’t even winded from the slaughter I’d just delivered, and I soon realized the man looked almost exactly like the image I’d had in my head a few minutes ago. The pool of blood was even larger than I’d pictured, and it seeped into the trash that surrounded his corpse.

“Oh, my God,” his former victim breathed from behind me. “What are you?”

Her voice brought me back to myself and seemed to douse the fire in my veins, and I took a deep breath as the red faded from my vision.

“What?” I asked and turned to look at her.

The woman took in a sharp breath as she climbed to her feet and tried to wrap her shredded blouse around her exposed torso, and her eyes were wide in her pale face.

“I-I won’t say anything,” she promised. “T-Thank you.”

Before I could reply, she sprinted out of the alley and into the stormy evening without a second glance, and I started to follow her when my attention was caught by a rain puddle at my feet.

Now, I could see why the woman looked terrified.

My face was a combination of man and monster, and it wasn’t just my arms and legs that were covered in white fur. My typically dark blonde hair was stark white, and jet-black streaks rounded the edges of a sharp jawline that hardly looked like me. Even though my eyes were normally brown, they looked pale blue in the water, and the tip of my nose was a pale pink. I traced a clawed finger along my face as I stared at my altered reflection, and I opened my mouth to see fangs as thick as my thumb protruding from my gums.

Holy shit.

A white tiger.

I was a white tiger.

Then I watched the claws shrink back into my fingers, and the fur slowly faded into my skin. I closed my eyes as the adrenaline seemed to drain from my body until I stood in the cold rain with no more fur to hold back the shivers.

I opened my eyes and looked down, and a smile crept across my face as I realized I hadn’t lost the muscle and height I’d gained during my sudden transformation. I wasn’t the wiry, average-sized Kane anymore.

But I wasn’t sure what I was, either.

I sure hadn’t activated as a charmer, and that was the only thing I’d expected to be. Just like everyone else in my family.

Then I noticed my new buff form was still splattered in blood, and the rest of my situation seeped into my brain as I glanced over at the bloody, shredded man in the alley.

I had to get the hell out of here.

I started to turn and run, but I stopped when I realized there was obviously proof I’d been here. My blood was all over the man’s knife, and it was still in his clenched fist.

Shit, my stab wound.

I pressed the hole in my abs, which were now a rock-hard six-pack, and was surprised to find it had stopped bleeding and barely even hurt.

Another question for later.

Since my injury was no longer a problem, I squatted down and grabbed a napkin from one of the trash bags. Then I used it to tug the knife out of the dead man’s grip before I wiped my blood off the blade and shoved the knife and napkin into my pocket. I wasn’t sure where I’d dump them just yet, but I didn’t think it would be a good idea to leave either one behind. Lastly, I grabbed my soggy briefcase from its landing spot next to a dumpster, double-checked my ripped slacks for my phone and wallet, and sprinted out onto the sidewalk.

Then I hauled ass.

But as soon as I crossed Third, I slowed my pace. It would draw even more suspicion for me to be running through the neighborhood in my torn, bloody clothes.

Thankfully, the streets were mainly empty and dark due to the rain and evening gloom, so I cut through the alley behind the first row of houses and concentrated on my newly activated magic, even if I didn’t know what the hell it was.

I wanted to be the white tiger again.

I wanted that power again.

Nothing.

“Fuck,” I muttered as I exhaled.

I knew there were other types of magical beings besides charmers, but until I activated, I didn’t learn much about them since it would make a memory rewrite easier if there weren’t many memories to cover up.

It seemed I wouldn’t have to worry about that anymore, but I still had to figure out what I was. As far as I knew, an individual’s magical category was genetic, so there was no reason I wouldn’t be a charmer, just like my parents.

So, why wasn’t I?

I stopped in the growing shadows of back fences and closed my eyes, and then I let the raindrops slide down my skin as I imagined it covered in the thick white fur.

Still nothing.

I growled in frustration as I continued toward my parents’ house. Did I have to be in a life-or-death situation to do it? If that was the case, I’d trade whatever this was for charmer magic.

Maybe the transformation was a spell I’d unwittingly cast in the moment? I didn’t really know anything about how charms felt when one cast them, so it could be possible. At least that’s what I’d tell myself until I talked to my parents. My dad worked for MMDS, the Magical Mail Delivery Service, and my mom was a journalist with the Radar, the magical world’s newspaper. Surely, one of them would know if a charmer had ever activated by accidentally doing a spell.

One insistent argument kept tugging at me, though.

I’d tried for over a year to activate with a spell, and I hadn’t even felt the slightest tingle of power I’d experienced when I turned into the white tiger. So, how could I do it by accident?

Also, I’d just killed a guy.

Should probably worry about that.

Granted, he wasn’t exactly an innocent citizen, but I’d still torn him up without a second thought. I’d experienced the instinct of a predator as I stalked and slaughtered him where he stood, and yet, I felt no guilt. It seemed as natural as hunting for my next meal, which I’d also never done.

What the hell was going on?

Questions with no answers swirled around my head, and I tried fruitlessly to cast the spell again as I weaved from alley to alley.

Then I decided to skip past the neighborhood and head to the Animas River that ran along the west side of town. I could throw the knife and napkin into it and make sure they were never seen again. I picked up speed as I got closer to the river, and I sped from shadow to shadow between buildings until I reached the bank. Finally, I tossed the weapon and bloody napkin into the water with a sigh of relief.

Once I was sure the evidence was long gone, I turned around and headed back into the neighborhood while the sun continued to fall lower in the sky. By the time I reached our street, I still had no answers and more questions, but a sudden thought popped into my head that made me smile.

At least I’d kept this supersized body, so Kolton wouldn’t be able to beat me up every time he popped back in.

By the time I made it to the house, I was drenched in sweat and rain, and I decided against tracking mud, water, or blood through my mom’s newly renovated mudroom. Instead, I jogged through the side gate into the backyard and pulled off my sopping loafers and demolished suit behind the privacy fence. I took my wet phone and wallet from the pockets, and I tossed the useless clothes into the garbage can next to the deck. Then I set my briefcase on the deck to dry out and froze when I heard a familiar click.

“Who the hell are you?” my father demanded in a low voice.

I looked up to see his finger on the trigger of his pistol, and he’d just clicked off the safety.

“Dad, it’s me,” I said as I held my hands up in surrender.

“Kane?” His jaw dropped open in surprise, and he hastily tucked his gun into his waistband. “What… happened to you?”

My father’s dark brown eyes looked me up and down as he took in my much larger muscles and six-inch growth spurt, which were blatantly apparent when all I still wore were boxers.

“I was hoping you could tell me,” I said with a sheepish smile. “Can I come in now? It’s kind of raining out here.”

“Shit, yeah, come on,” he muttered and motioned me up the stairs, and then he opened the back door for us to walk through. “Your mother is going to lose her mind.”

“Why would I--” my mom started, and then she dropped the bowl she held in her hands when she saw me. “Oh, my God.”

The bowl landed on the rug, tumbled end over end, and dumped her vanilla ice cream onto the fluffy white shag beneath her. On any other day, my mom would have rushed to the kitchen for cleaning supplies.

But today, she just stared at me with a gaping mouth and wide green eyes.

“Hey, Mom,” I said and offered a slight wave. “I think I activated.”

“B-But you grew,” she gasped as she took a step closer and gently touched my cheek. “We never grew. Neither did Kolton.”

“Yeah, uh, I don’t think that’s the only thing different about me,” I murmured and looked down at my bare feet.

“You’re hurt!” She flipped into motherly mode and examined my stab wound.

The rain had washed away my blood, and all that remained was the narrow light-purple scar that looked much worse than it felt.

“I’m fine, Mom,” I said as I swore I thought I saw the scar start to shrink. “I barely even feel it now. That’s not what I was--”

“We need to get you to the office,” she cut me off and grabbed my arm. “I have a healing potion that will take care of it. Don’t you worry.”

“Mom, I’m not worried,” I insisted and glanced at my dad for support. “Can I at least put on some clothes first?”

He shrugged and shook his head, and I narrowed my eyes as my mom pulled me down the hallway to their office. While she often typed up news stories and blurbs in this room, it mostly served as a magical catch-all. Dark wood cabinets were filled with vials, jars, and various other containers of magical fluid, and a large number of spell books filled the open shelves. Her laptop sat open on the desk next to a notebook filled with her quick hand scribbles, and an empty mug had left a ring on the top of the page.

“I know it’s here,” Mom muttered as she pulled open doors and ran her fingers along the labeled bottles. “Ha! Got it!”

She whirled around with a tiny white pot in her hand and a triumphant smile on her face, and I sighed with resignation as she opened the pot and stuck her fingers inside. They returned to view with some sort of brown paste on them, and she smeared it across my stab wound scar as she recited a few words I didn’t understand.

“Thanks,” I said when she finished. “Now, can we talk about the other weird stuff?”

“You mean, besides the fact that you’re suddenly bigger than the doorways?” Dad chuckled and shook his head. “What could be weirder than that?”

“The fact that I turned into some white tiger thing.” I smirked and crossed my arms over my broad chest. “That’s weird, right?”

“You did what?” Mom gasped and set the little pot on her desk.

“I think you have our attention now,” my dad said, and the smile faded from his face. “Maybe you should start from the beginning.”

“Okay, I was walking home from work,” I explained. “I missed the bus because I stayed late, so-- okay, not relevant. Anyway, I saw this guy about to rape this lady, and I started to call the cops, but something in me just… knew I could handle it.”

“What do you mean ‘handle it?’” My mother narrowed her eyes on me.

I’d seen that look countless times growing up. She knew I was leaving out details, and there was no way I was going to be able to skip past the whole “shredding a guy” part.

“I knew I was stronger than he was,” I said as I ran my fingers through my hair and sighed. “I don’t know how to explain it. Anyway, I went to stop him from hurting her, and he stabbed me instead. Then my whole body went bonkers, I grew white fur and claws, and I slashed him up. I, uh, I’m pretty sure he’s dead. Like… super dead.”

Pretty sure was still pushing my mom’s patience for the full truth, and I pursed my lips as my parents glanced at each other and frowned.

“Did you clean up anything that showed you were there?” my dad asked in a stern voice. “Anything the human authorities could trace back to you?”

“Yeah, I tossed the guy’s knife, threw it in the river, and I made sure I had all my stuff,” I explained as I held up my soggy wallet and flooded iPhone. “I’ll probably need a new cell phone, though.”

“We can fix that.” Mom waved a dismissive hand at the phone. “But you’re certain no one human could trace his death back to you?”

“Well, I mean, the woman saw me,” I said with a frown. “But she said she wouldn’t tell anyone what she saw. She was freaking out.”

“I don’t blame her,” my dad muttered and rubbed his chin. “It’s not every day a human gets to see a shifter in action.”

“A shifter?” I repeated as I arched a curious eyebrow. “What does that mean?”

“Alright, son, you’re obviously activated, so we’re going to give you a little magic lesson,” he replied and turned to pluck a book from the shelf. “Normally, you’d learn all this at the academy, but we’re going to have to go a bit off script since… well, you’re different.”

He scooted the laptop to the side and laid the book out on the desk, but it wasn’t some floppy old book like I expected. It looked more like a school textbook. I wondered if it was something I’d see at the academy, but before I could ask, he flipped through a few pages and stopped.

On the left was a full-page print of a man with the head of a sparrow and wings sprouting from his back, and he stood next to a large tree and wore a proud smile on his birdy face as he posed for the picture. On the right, the word “Shifter” was typed in bold black lettering with several paragraphs below it.

“Charmer is just one of seven categories of activated magic,” Mom explained. “Typically, a child of two charmers would also be a charmer, like Kolton, but for some reason, you’re a shifter.”

“A shifter can take the form of another creature,” my dad added as he pointed to the picture. “This guy is only partially shifted, but a shifter can be his human form, animal form, or anywhere in between.”

“It all depends on the shifter’s strength,” my mom said. “When we were at the academy, it wasn’t until our third year that the shifters in our class could completely shift to their creature form. Shifters spend most of the first two years just trying to master specific aspects of their animal form, like flight or enhanced senses like vision, hearing, and smell.”

I stared at the picture of the bird-man and let my eyes drift over to the words on the other side until they blurred together.

A shifter.

So, it hadn’t been some accidental spell or charm I’d cast to activate my power. My power was to transform into this animal, so the thoughts I’d had about taking down my prey were part of my natural instincts as a white tiger.

Maybe.

“Kane?” My dad put a gentle hand on my shoulder and brought me out of my daze. “Are you okay?”

“It’s, ah, a lot to take in,” I said as I rubbed my face. “Can I go get dressed now?”

“Of course, honey,” Mom replied with a half-smile. “We’ll meet you in the living room with the book. I’m sure you have tons of questions.”

“Yeah,” I agreed as I turned and walked into the hallway.

As soon as I was out of the office, I could hear their hushed whispers. I wished I had my tiger hearing so I could pick up on what they were saying, but I couldn’t seem to get a grasp on my power just yet. Instead, I continued down the hall to my room and decided to take a hot shower.

I grabbed a clean t-shirt and sweats and scurried into the bathroom before they noticed me. Then I turned the water as hot as it could go and stepped into the steaming spray. The hot water rushed over my shoulders and made my skin prickle where the fur had erupted, and I could feel every pore welcome the warm liquid that gave me a deep clean.

As I scrubbed the grime and blood from my skin, the shower washed away the goop my mom had spread on my abs. The stab wound was hardly more than a pinprick already, and I ran my finger over the pink scarred skin as I remembered the white-hot pain of the blade penetrating my gut. I’d never felt anything like that before, and I hoped I’d never feel it again.

Unless it was the key to unlocking my ability to shift.

What a fucking cosmic slap in the face. I finally activate, and not only am I different from the rest of my family, but I also have to get hurt to use it?

Maybe I’d learn more at the academy.

My family and the other charmer families we knew had talked about the Meloria Academy since we were kids, but we weren’t allowed to know much until we activated and could go learn for ourselves. Hell, I wasn’t even sure where Meloria was.

I sighed as I stepped out of the shower and began to rub the towel over my sinewy arms, but then I heard a low booming voice from the living room.

Kolton.

He didn’t show up unannounced very often, and I got the sinking feeling it had something to do with my activation. Was he here to take me in for questioning?

I had no idea if it was normal to kill someone as soon as you activated, but it couldn’t be a good sign the Regimen already sent him to talk to me. Even though we were family, I knew his Regimen duties were a high priority, and I didn’t think he’d have any problem dragging me in for an interrogation.

I yanked on my clothes, rolled my shoulders back, and held my head high as I took a deep breath. I wasn’t his puny little brother anymore. I was a white tiger shifter who was now built like the next WWE World Champ, and he couldn’t push me around.

I twisted the knob on the bathroom door and marched down the hall into the living room, and a warm feeling of satisfaction bubbled in my chest as my big brother took in my appearance with wide brown eyes.

“Bro, you’re… huge,” he said with awe in his voice.

Kolton stood an inch shorter than me now, and his biceps had been the product of years in the gym, but they were still slightly smaller than mine. He’d styled his normally shaggy hair into a crew cut when he joined the Regimen, and now he ran his fingers over the short sprouts of dark blond hair with a grimace.

“Yep,” I replied and grinned.

“And your eyes,” he continued as he took a step closer to examine me. “They aren’t brown anymore. They’re this, like, icy blue. Cold as fuck. It’s trippy.”

“Guess it’s a shifter thing.” I shrugged, but I couldn’t wipe the goofy grin off my face.

I’d never impressed him before, and I’d soak in every second of his astonishment without a second thought.

“I think it’s actually a tiger thing,” Dad piped up as he pointed to the book. “It says in rare cases, your human form keeps some aspects of your creature form.”

“At least you didn’t keep the fur,” Kolton chuckled and shook his head. “Man, I couldn’t believe it when I got called out, but you’re lucky it was me that covered the guy in the alley.”

“Why?” I asked. “Doesn’t everyone in the Regimen just cover up magical stuff?”

“Not murder, dude,” he shot back as he crossed his arms over his chest. “You tore that guy to shreds. What did he do anyway?”

“He tried to rape someone,” I growled. “I didn’t just murder some random person in an alley. I stopped him from hurting her, and he stabbed me, so I activated and killed him. End of story.”

“And the girl?” my brother asked as he switched into Regimen officer mode.

“Took off,” I said. “She promised she wouldn’t tell anyone.”

“They always do,” he scoffed and rolled his eyes. “I’m going to need a description of her.”

“She works at the bakery,” I said. “Dirty blond hair, real nice. She always gives me an extra slice of cake when I go in late.”

“So, she knows who you are?” Kolton groaned as he rubbed his temples. “Shitttt… I have to find her now. What’s her real name?”

“Uh, Jessica?” I pursed my lips as I tried to picture her nametag. “Jennifer, maybe?”

“Beautiful girl at the bakery who always gives you extras, and you can’t remember her name?” My brother shook his head. “And that’s why you don’t have a girlfriend.”

“Not the time to harass your brother,” Mom cut in. “Go find this girl, do the memory rewrite, and come back here. It seems we’re all going to learn a bit more about shifters tonight.”

“Wait, what would have happened if you hadn’t been the one on this case?” I asked Kolton.

“You’d probably be halfway to Obcluda Island by now,” he said as he turned toward the door. “I’ll be back.”

Obcluda Island was a hardcore prison for magical people. No one outside the Regimen and government knew where it was, and I shuddered to think about being on my way there for what I’d done.

As the door closed behind him, my mother clicked her tongue and looked at me with a gentle smile.

“Don’t let him freak you out,” she said. “You’d have to go through a trial to get sent to the island. There’s no way the Concurem would convict you for defending someone, plus it was right after your first activation. That’s preposterous.”

“Yeah, I guess,” I muttered before I flopped onto the couch.

The soft cushions strained under my larger body, and I picked up the textbook to read more about the shifters. After about an hour of reading, we couldn’t find anything that said why the kid of two charmers would suddenly be a shifter, though there were a few mentions of alternating generations, and there wasn’t a single line about a white tiger as being a shifter’s creature form.

“Aha!” my dad suddenly gasped and pointed at the book. “I got it! You’re the mailman’s kid!”

“Oh, my God, Steven.” My mother rolled her eyes at his dad joke, but her lips curled in amusement. “You are the mailman.”

“Exactly,” he said with a wink.

They giggled together, and even I couldn’t help a smile as they continued to pore over the textbook amid their quiet jokes. When Kolton finally returned, he looked exhausted, but a satisfied smile was on his face.

“It’s handled,” my brother declared before he eased into the open recliner. “I rewrote Jerrica’s memory-- that’s her name, by the way-- and relocated our attempted rapist out to Perins Peak, where his wounds won’t look any different from other mountain lion attacks.”

“What a relief,” Mom said as she closed the book and looked back and forth between us. “Now, will there be any issues with Kane getting into Meloria?”

“Nah, boss doesn’t care that he got scum off the streets,” he replied with a shrug. “He should get his presentation soon.”

“Presentation?” I echoed and arched an eyebrow in confusion.

“You’ll see,” he laughed, and he wouldn’t say anything more, no matter how much I pressed him.

We ate frozen dinners and held an awkwardly avoidant conversation before I headed to bed for a night of little sleep. I couldn’t turn my brain off, and the sun came up while my eyes were still open. Even though I felt like I’d slept a total of thirty minutes, I was surprised to find a blue crystal-looking sphere sitting on my nightstand next to my phone. I hadn’t seen anyone come into my room, and it wasn’t like my parents to leave weird globes as gifts.

I sat up and grabbed the sphere, and it began to glow in my hand. The light surprised me, and I dropped the ball on my lap, but it continued to glow until a hologram illuminated the air in front of me. It was the face of a woman, and her bronze skin glowed as a brilliant smile revealed perfect white teeth.

“Congratulations, Mr. Turner,” the woman’s voice announced. “Your magical activation is complete, and you have been accepted into the Meloria Academy. You are scheduled to arrive by noon Monday. Again, congratulations.”

With that, the woman disappeared, and the sphere dissolved into a puff of blue smoke.

I guessed that was the presentation Kolton had mentioned.

I picked up my phone and scanned through the notifications before I had to get up for work. Social media bullshit, a text from my buddy Matt asking if I wanted to come game after work, and an email from Phil.

I clicked on the email and was surprised to see it was his response to an email I didn’t recall sending.

Kane,

Thank you for the update. I’m sorry to hear of your aunt’s passing, but your job may or may not be here when you return to Durango. Keep in touch.

Phil

And just like that, I was unemployed, though in typical Phil fashion, he didn’t want to close the door on someone who actually produced results. I thought I’d be upset about the loss of my job, but it felt more like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

I didn’t have to return to that dead zone of typing keys and Vivian’s popping bubble gum or any semblance of the boring human life I’d feared for the last year.

I was a shifter now.

I was magic, and I got to go to school with a bunch of other young people learning to control their magic.

“Hell yeah,” I whispered to myself as I climbed out of bed and made my way into the kitchen.

I spent the rest of the week reading the one textbook my parents would let me see so I could learn as much about shifters and charmers as possible. I even pulled out the laptop I’d barely touched since college and spent hours on Google sifting through webpage after webpage of information about the magical world.

Some of it had clearly been written by humans with no clue what really went on behind the curtain, but I found a decent amount of useful details that I mentally stored away in preparation for my time at Meloria.

By the time Sunday afternoon rolled around, I had a duffle bag of clothes packed and ready to go. My parents still hadn’t told me where the school was, but I knew I’d be flying at least part of the way. We left for Denver right after dinner, and the six-hour drive was long with hardly any conversation.

When we reached the airport, I stopped at the security check-in as my parents slowed behind me.

“Once you land in San Francisco, a car will be waiting to take you the rest of the way,” my mom said as tears welled in her eyes. “You’ll love it there.”

“Mom, we can FaceTime every night,” I assured her and wrapped my arms around her small frame. “I’ll be fine. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she murmured against my chest. “Be careful.”

“And smart,” Dad added with a smile. “You’re good at both already.”

“Thanks,” I said as we shook hands.

Dad wasn’t much of a hugger, so that was all I’d get in the way of a goodbye from him, but I was used to it.

Then I was on the plane. It was about four in the morning, and I fell asleep within minutes of the launch. The plane ride was smooth and lulled me into a better sleep than I’d had all weekend, so when we landed in San Francisco, I was rested and ready to go, even though it had only been a four-hour flight.

I grabbed my duffle from the overhead cargo and traipsed out with the rest of the passengers until I was out in the early morning sunshine looking at a line of cars picking up my fellow airline travelers. I scanned the signs and finally found a short, jumpy man who held a board that said “Turner.”

I strode toward him and held up my hand in a half-wave.

“I’m Kane Turner,” I said. “Are you my ride?”

“Yes, let’s go,” he confirmed as he tossed the sign through the open window into the front seat and opened the back door for me.

I’d barely folded myself into the back seat of the plain silver sedan when the driver threw it into gear and began to roll forward.

“Whoa, man, I don’t even have the door shut,” I grunted and yanked the door toward me.

“Now, you do,” he said and peeled out of the pickup line.

We raced through traffic so fast I hoped I wouldn’t be part of a second murder this week, and before I knew it, we were driving over the Golden Gate Bridge. I snapped a few pictures on my phone before I missed my chance, and we continued on the highway past the Golden Gate Recreation Area. Tree-covered mountains towered over the road, and my unnamed driver zoomed on.

The road zigzagged through a couple more small towns until I saw a sign that said “Muir Beach.”

“Meloria is on a beach?” I asked.

“Linsville,” the driver scoffed. “Almost there.”

About thirty minutes and ten stomach heaves later, we pulled into a small coastal town. I could see the Pacific Ocean from the highway, and my driver continued his erratic driving until we reached what appeared to be a dead end. The side road ended abruptly in a pile of construction rubble. He slowed for the first time since we’d left the airport, and I looked around in confusion.

“Are we lost?” I asked with a frown.

“Nope,” he chuckled.

Then I realized he’d slowed down but hadn’t stopped, and he was headed straight for the pile of rocks ahead of us.

“Shit!” I gasped and closed my eyes to brace for the impact, but nothing happened.

I peeked through my eyelids to see the road had continued beyond the rubble, and we coasted down a narrow road toward a small campus. Trees soared above a smattering of brick buildings, and a line of cars was already parked near a huge football field. I narrowed my eyes on the field for a moment and realized it didn’t have any goalposts, but my attention soon returned to the cars.

A few people had begun to unload bags from the vehicles, and as soon as my driver parked at the back of the line, I opened the door to escape into the fresh, ocean air.

At least fifteen or twenty other young adults unpacked their belongings alongside me, but I didn’t recognize anyone, even though they seemed to know each other. Some of the heads turned my way with curiosity, but most of them returned to their conversations.

“Have a good time,” my driver called out as I pulled my duffle bag over my shoulder.

Then he squealed the tires and passed the line of parked cars.

I briefly wondered where my parents had found that guy, but I turned back to look at the Meloria Academy campus. I counted ten buildings in addition to the stadium and a large gazebo, and even though they’d all been there for a while, they’d clearly gotten some fresh upgrades.

The old brick was accompanied by fresh white and gray paint, the windows had been scrubbed clean, and an American flag and a blue flag I’d never seen before hung from the largest building in the center of the campus. Trees covered most of the grounds outside the collection of buildings, and the smell of the ocean was pungent on every gust of wind.

“Wow,” I breathed.

The other students appeared to be done unloading, and the group started to walk toward the center of the campus. I fell into step with the stragglers at the back, though I made sure not to get too close. I didn’t know a single person here, and I didn’t think walking shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers was a great way to make friends.

Then I felt a sudden shove at my back, and I started to plunge forward into the crowd of arriving students.