CADDIE's POV:
"You're back!" The child version of Aleksander yelled.
I looked around the beautiful meadow, until I saw a little Alek standing beside the trees. There was something different about him. His toothy grin was replaced a small frown. The air seemed chillier than last time, I noted as I walked towards him. That was probably a result of the lack of clouds.
I continued to trudge on my legs grew weary, my eyes felt heavy. The closer I got to Alek the more tired I felt. I just wanted to rest my eyes, it was a dream after all, what was the harm in doing so?
My eyelids lowered, there were about to close when Alek screamed.
"Caddie help!" I struggled to keep my eyes open, looking past the haze of sleep I saw a dark mist appear from the forest and wrap around Alek's body.
"No!" I screamed.
Pushing my sheets off of my body, I jumped up and searched for Alek. Sweat ran down the side of my face as my heart palpitated in my chest. It was just a nightmare, I told myself. Just a silly nightmare. Golden rays of sunlight peaked through the dorm windows, awakening a new fear in me. Today was my first day of school at Nox Haven Academy, a school for supernatural creatures. Unfortunately, that meant yesterday was not a dream. Witches really existed and I was one of them.
Alix was still asleep and snoring louder than ever. Glancing around the rest of the room I found a freshly laundered school uniform lying on my bed. Confusion overtook me as I stated quizzically at the outfit. Yesterday, the outfit wasn't there . I released a low chuckle when I realized the uniform had appeared, magically. That was definitely going to take some getting used to, I thought as I grabbed the uniform and walked to the ensuite. The uniform was a black sweater with a silver crest and underneath I wore a red collared shirt and a short red and black plaid skirt. Surprisingly, I didn't hate the outfit.
In the reflection of the mirror, I saw a girl who vaguely looked like me, but not at the same time. If that makes any sense. My blond hair was in a loose braid, and my fair complexion was clear of any unwanted blemishes. I still had the same upturned nose and small mouth but it worked together. In the uniform, I looked like a tiny porcelain doll. Smiling to myself, I walked out of the bathroom and went to wake Alix up.
"Don't even think about it." She murmured sleepily, pulling the covers over her head.
Startled, I stepped away. "Don't even think about what?" I asked genuinely surprised.
"You were going to wake me up," Alix grumbled, she swatted my arm as if I was a pesky fly.
"How did you know that?" I asked, rubbing my sore arm.
She sighed and sat up. Her auburn hair was sticking out in different directions and she could barely keep her eyes open. "The same way I knew who you were yesterday. I'm a psychic. Some witches and warlocks have special gifts. Your family is known for being Empaths- and other things. Sometimes, it's genetic, and other times it's completely random."
"How does everyone know more about my family than I do?" I asked absently.
Alix shrugged, grabbed her uniform and walked over to the bathroom. "I don't have time to figure your life out for you, we need to leave soon or we'll miss breakfast."
I rolled my eyes. "And now you care about being on time."
She didn't answer.
As I finished tying the laces on my combat boots, Alix stepped out of the bathroom. She was the only person I knew that could make a school uniform look cool. Her red hair fell in spirals across her shoulders. The outfit showed off her curves, and her spiked heels made her look even taller.
"Wow." I gasped.
She began to blush but snapped out of it. All of her flattered emotions were tucked away into a mental box as she put in her tough chick act. Flipping her long red hair, she tapped her foot impatiently and inspected her manicure.
"Are we just going to stand around all day or what?" She said, aggravated.
Sighing at her ridiculous behavior, I marched over to the door and pulled it open. My eyes enlarged at the sight of the rushing stampede of teenage girls. Loud curses and frustrated cries echoed through the stone walls. Some girls were still slipping on their heels as they hurriedly exited their dorm room. Several of the girls had put their hands over their faces. A few minutes later, they looked like completely different people with magical makeup on their faces. In the uniform, I felt like I finally fitted in. This time, when everyone chatted excitedly, I wanted to join in.
Stepping into the stream of students, I fell into stride with two gossiping girls.
"Did you hear how they extended the choices on the menu?" One girl shrieked. She seemed like the kind of girl who could talk your ear off.
"Yes, my roommate just told me. There are a lot of new perks this year." The other girl replied.
"Why are they changing things?" I interjected.
"You don't know?" The hyper girl gasped, and smacked a hand over her open mouth.
"Know what?" I felt very confused.
The other girl materialized by my side. "This year the lost council heir will be attending Nox Haven."
I pretended to act like I knew what they were talking about. But in reality, I had as much knowledge of council heirs as an English teacher had of quantum physics.
"I'm Irene and this is Mava," The girl introduced. Irene had curly brown hair and hazel eyes, she had a long face and even longer legs. Mava was the complete opposite. She had short black hair and a bird-like frame.
"So what do you know about the council heirs?" I asked Mava.
She snorted. "I know of them, but no one really knows them. Since they're the future council members, they're kept in hiding until their parents think they're ready to be exposed to the world. There are six of them. The head minister's granddaughter Kimone Sky, Ryder Lowell -the alpha warrior's son, Mira Croft-The Warrior Beta's daughter, Maddox Honor-the Mind Manipulator's son, The Heart-Curator's son, Aleksander Volkov, and The Dark Witch's niece, who is the newest addition, Caddie Jones. They're the royalty of our society."
My heart stopped beating in my chest. The other girls hardly noticed that I wasn't walking with them any longer. The stream of girls parted around me as they continued on with their day. I, however, felt as if a train had hit me in the chest.
Alix appeared by my side. "Are you all right?"
"Is it true?" I asked, knowing that she heard the whole conversation.
Alix hesitated, but her feelings gave her away. A heavy dose of guilt pumped through her system, telling me all I needed to know. I swallowed the lump in my throat and ran off to Heidi's office. I slammed the door behind me and Heidi looked up from her papers, her warm brown eyes were startled
"Caddie? I wasn't expecting to see you until after your classes." She said, walking over towards me.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Your Majesty. I'll come back when your royal ass isn't busy." I bit out furiously.
Heidi's eyes widened, but instead getting mad, she began to laugh.
"I don't understand what's funny. I thought I knew everything I needed know. I had thought that I finally knew who I was."
At that point, I no longer cared if I was yelling or not. She placed her hand on my shoulder. "Oh Caddie, I didn't tell you to be malicious. I didn't think you needed to be told that you're of 'royal' blood. Just yesterday you thought you were a human girl."
I began to calm down. If what she was saying was true, then she was only looking out for me. "I can't believe this. Not only am I a witch, but I'm a princess of them as well," I murmured and sank down onto her blood red love seat.
She threw her head back and laughed, "It's just a title, Caddie. Yes, there will be some incidents where you will be expected to act as if you are a 'princess' but for now I want you to become acquainted with being a witch. This is all very new to you and I don't want you to become overwhelmed."
Too late for that, I muttered in my head. I was the Dark Witch's heir; something about the title hinted that my magical gifts wouldn't have anything to do with butterflies and unicorns. This was definitely not how I expected my freshman year to go.
"You'll learn more about this in history class, but now you have to go before you'll be late," Heidi told me and ushered me towards the door.
My mind slowly put the pieces together, "Wait a minute. Our classes don't follow the average curriculum here, do they?"
She told me that they didn't, and added, "We're not average people. Nox Haven does everything differently. Now go get breakfast before you're late to your classes."
I was about to leave, but then I turned back around and threw my arms around her. She was surprised but returned my embrace. Heidi was the closest thing that I had to a parent right now, I didn't want to ruin our relationship.
Alix waited for me outside of the dining hall but was not so patient when I arrived. The hall was large enough to fit hundreds of students. There was a buffet-styled breakfast bar at the far side of the room. The dining room walls were made of stone, like the rest of the castle. But the focal point was the large stain glass windows. In the very back, there was a raised platform with a few giant oak tables, but the largest one had six chairs around it. The other five council members' children were already sitting there, eating and talking. Everyone else in the room marveled at them as if they were celebrities.
"You have to go sit with them," Alix told me.
"Can you go with me?" I asked hopefully, seeing how there were other students, that weren't the heirs on the platform.
"No, there's a force field around the platform. Only those with royal blood can pass through." I looked at the platform and then back at Alix desperately.
"You'll be fine. I have to sit with my older brother anyway, but I'll find you after breakfast."
I took a deep breath and walked to the platform. I could feel people begin to stare at me as I passed the majority of the tables. Even the people on the platform had focused their attention on me. A few of them snickered to each other. Obviously, I did not make a big enough impression, but Aleksander got up from his seat and met me on the stairs.
"I'm glad you could join us, Caddie."
He said it loud enough that most people on the platform could hear them. The snickers ceased when I began to walk up the stairs. Behind the students, there were seven banners hanging in the back. Six represented the council members and in the middle was the Nox Haven's school flag. The hanging chandeliers and warm colors on the walls were all very luxurious, but no one cared. Their attention was focused on me as I took the last seat beside Aleksander. There was a silver platter in front of me. I looked at the exotic dish, and tried to decipher if the brightly colored fruits and wondered if it was even edible.
"I know it looks weird, but it's really good," Aleksander whispered to me, letting his accent color his words. I gave him a small smile and took a bite of yellow star-shaped fruit.
"So, you're Caddie," A British girl with pale blonde hair and heavily powdered make-up said with an unsettling amount of amusement. Her blue eyes were wide and alert as she took in my presence. I wondered to myself if this girl had just come from a Victoria Secret fashion show. Everything about her screamed tramp down to the generous amount of cleavage being shown and the Marilyn Monroe piercing.
"I'm Mira Croft. The Beta Warrior's daughter." She said with a fake smile plastered upon her face.
"I'm glad we're all here," Another girl said. She had mocha colored skin and eyes as dark as her hair. "I'm Kimone Sky," she told me. "This is Ryder Lowell."
Kimone pointed towards the golden boy wrapped in muscles. He gave me a dazzling smile and returned to his food.
"This is Maddox."
She motioned towards the Asian boy in front of me. He was lean but looked equally as powerful as Ryder.
"And I believe you already met Aleksander."
I blushed, but Aleksander looked as confident as ever.
"We're a team now. It's a good idea for us to become friends. As long as we all abide a few rules..." The second Kimone said "rules" Ryder and Maddox groaned. "I'm not trying to bum anyone out, but we have to be safe. We're at the top of the social scale for a reason. We're the future. We can't get too distracted or-well, we all know what happens."
I had no idea what she was talking about. Everyone looked uncomfortable, even Aleksander grew solemn at her words. Mira stuffed fruit in her mouth as she gave the table an icy glare.
"Don't worry, Kim," Maddox said softly, "We've all lost someone important. We won't make the same mistakes."
Kimone smiled at him appreciatively.
I empathized with them and thought of my mom. But I had no idea what they were talking about.
"I'm sorry, but I'm confused. What are you talking about?" I asked timidly.
The five of them broke out of their gloomy trance and gave me an odd look. From the hateful look Mira was shooting me I knew I was treading on dangerous waters. After an extremely awkward moment of silence, Mira snorted and pushed her food away. She seemed quite lovely already.
"You've got to be joking. I know you were in hiding, but so were the rest of us. That doesn't give you an excuse for being dense," she hissed.
"Mira," Aleksander warned, his hand gripped my thigh.
"What Alek? This isn't a funny game for her to play," she looked hurt by the fact that he was defending me.
"I don't think she's playing a game," he said softly. He looked at her with kind and caring eyes. My eyes darted rapidly between them as I tried to decipher if they were together or not.
Kimone cleared her throat and gave me a kind smile, "Well it seems as if we have a lot to learn about each other. How about after school we can meet in the Magicry and get to know one another."
With that said the tension diffused. The rest of the breakfast was filled with light conversation. Ryder and Maddox bickered like brothers while Kimone laughed at them. Mira continued to stare at Aleksander like a praying mantis eyeing her next mate. Aleksander, however, was set on making me feel comfortable. Everyone in the dining hall stared at us, gossiping. I had no doubt that there would a few interesting rumors circling the school by second period.