Institute of Magic (Dragon's Gift: The Druid #1)
Linsey Hall
1
The Edinburgh alley stank of dark magic and pee. Which made it perfect for one of the Academy’s obstacle courses. The Undercover Protectorate really liked to chuck its trainees into the deep end, after all.
For a magical mess like me, this was whoa deep.
I crouched lower in the alley as I waited for the race to start and searched the darkened street ahead. Rain pattered on the cobblestones that gleamed beneath the streetlamp. My competitors were hiding in other alleys, but we’d all begin as soon as the clock tolled midnight.
“How’s it going, Ana?” Bree’s voice whispered out of the comms charm around my neck.
“Oh, fab.” I grinned. “About to run into a death trap. My favorite way to spend a Friday night.”
“It’s the only way we spend Friday nights.”
“True.” If I wasn’t training to join the Protectorate, I was helping my sister Bree with one of her assignments. They were always deadly, of course. She’d finished the Academy in record time and had graduated to taking on investigative cases.
I, on the other hand, was taking my own sweet time.
Some might call me overly cautious. I called it smart.
The reality was that I had almost no magic. Which you kind of needed to get through a magical academy that fed into a prestigious institute dedicated to helping supernaturals in need.
I squinted into the street ahead, but nothing moved. No clues about what was to come but also no cars. Then the clock chimed midnight, the bells tolling through the city. My heart jumped.
“Gotta go, Bree,” I said. “Time to run.”
Literally. Whatever the Protectorate might throw at me on this course, I knew I’d be running for my life.
“I’ll be here,” Bree said.
I grinned and touched my fingertips to the charm, glad to have my sister at my side. Bree was a Valkyrie, with wings and everything. She hovered high above, keeping track of the contestants’ progress. She couldn’t help me, but she could update me a bit.
My heart thundered as I sprinted into the street. It was dead silent. I glanced left and right, spotting the three other trainees as they darted out from their alleys. We’d all take different routes through the city as we raced to capture the flags at the other side.
Last one loses; incompetent ones might die.
A deadly supernatural game of capture the flag.
As I raced across the street, a rumbling underfoot made my skin chill. A second later, the cobblestones dropped away as the ground beneath me disappeared. I leapt and barely landed on solid ground, then sprinted ahead. All around me, portions of the street dropped away.
A scream sounded from one of my competitors, but I didn’t look. I couldn’t. Not if I wanted to keep my eye on the ground and save myself from falling into the earth.
Yep. That was goal number one.
I might not have enough magic, but I had a lot of practice trying to stay alive.
I jumped from cobblestone to cobblestone as the street fell away around me. Sweat dripped down my back as I ran. Man, a bit of levitation magic would come in handy right now.
At the Academy, the more magic you had, the easier it was to pass. Not good news for me. My only magic was the ability to create an invisible shield to protect me from threats.
I made the last jump to the other side of the street and kept running, sprinting toward another alley. Like my competitors, I’d memorized the map of the city and had already chosen my route—I just had to hope there weren’t too many obstacles.
The Undercover Protectorate was an institute dedicated to helping supernaturals with problems that were so dangerous the magical government didn’t want to handle them. A lot of those folks lived here, in the Grassmarket, the supernatural district of Edinburgh. This area was hidden from humans by a spell called the Great Peace, and it was a haven for our kind.
In return for our help, the residents of the Grassmarket kindly loaned out their neighborhood for the Protectorate Academy’s training runs. They even helped with the obstacles.
Lucky me.
I ducked down an alley to the left. It was dark and narrow. Glowing green eyes peered out at me from a hole in the wall. I sprinted by, panting.
Please don’t jump on me, creature.
The little beast hissed, but didn’t lash out.
A cat?
I didn’t take the time to look closely.
“How’s it going?” Bree asked from my comms charm.
“Fab. Most fun ever.” I panted, darting right, down a wider street. Shops and restaurants lined both sides, but they were closed at this hour.
Light glowed from one up ahead. Shit.
I crossed to the opposite side of the street and raced down the sidewalk, hoping I was making good time. A shadow filled the lighted doorway of the shop up ahead.
Ah, crap.
The figure hurled something at me. A small flash of blue caught my eye.
Potion bomb!
Shit, who knew what was in that?
I flung out my arm, calling upon my magic to create a shield. It swelled inside me, bursting forth to create a barrier of white light.
The potion bomb smashed into the shield, shattering. The scent of dirty socks filled the air, a clear sign of magic meant to harm. Dark magic always smelled bad—just depended on what kind of bad.
I sprinted faster, nearing the figure in the door. It was an older woman, a grin stretching across her face. She threw another potion bomb—a green one this time.
Acid, if I had to bet.
I kept my shield in place, and the bomb smashed against it, reeking like week-old tuna fish. I gagged and scowled at her.
It was all I could do, since she was one of the residents who’d agreed to help with the course. I couldn’t exactly nail her with one of my favorite daggers.
Bad form and all that.
“How am I doing on time?” I asked Bree.
“Pretty good. Lavender looks like she’s in the lead, though.”
Damn.
I sprinted past the woman, who hurled one last potion bomb. It shattered against my shield, the scent of decaying flowers filling my nose.
A block later, I stumbled out into a courtyard. Six demons lingered there, lounging on benches around a fountain. Large oak trees dotted the space, their autumn leaves orange and bright. Moonlight gleamed on the demons’ large horns and the weapons hanging from their clothing.
Crap.
The real challenge.
Demons were the Protectorate’s most common magical foe. There were hundreds of species, all originating from the different underworlds, and they usually worked as mercenaries. Occasionally, the Protectorate hired them as part of the obstacle courses.
Bad news for me.
These guys would shoot to kill, no holds barred.
No one ever said making it through the Academy was easy.
A small demon with gleaming red eyes caught sight of me. He stood on spindly legs, pointing a long claw at me. “She’s here!”
His voice sounded like it filtered through gravel in his throat.
I drew a dagger from the ether, the magical substance that filled the air, invisible and soundless. They were my weapons of choice, and the magic that allowed me to store them in the ether had been expensive.
Worth it, though, for someone like me. When all you had was defensive magic in an offensive world, you had to get good with steel.
I hurled the dagger. It glinted in the moonlight as it spun end over end and then sank into a big green demon’s neck. Blood spurted and he fell, crashing onto his back.
His compatriots roared.
The little demon flung out his hands, sending a bolt of lightning toward me. Thunder cracked as the light nearly blinded me. I lunged behind a dumpster, skidding on some slimy stuff that reeked of garbage, then scrambled to my feet, peering around the edge of the dumpster.
The demons were advancing on me, five different species with five different types of magic. The red one looked like a fire demon, and the gray a smoke demon.
Damn.