Sure, Ava knew she was being absolutely ridiculous for ignoring Tarun, but what could she say? She'd never really been all that rational when it came to her moods. And what he’d done had scared her. He just came barging into a dangerous situation without thinking twice. Reckless. That's what it was.

  "Is he still looking this way?" she asked JiSoo.

  JiSoo checked as discreetly as possible and then nodded, scowling.

  "It's been a week, Ava. Throw the poor boy a bone. He just wanted to protect you," Winta pleaded, but it fell on deaf ears.

  Ava just punched holes in her food, stabbing the chicken as though she were envisioning Tarun's face on it.

  God, she was miserable. Seven whole days of not speaking to Tarun certainly did that to her.

  JiSoo rescued Ava’s plate before she could stab it again, or potentially break it with the force she was using behind her fork. "Talk to him. I'm not gonna say this again, and I will stab you in your sleep if you mutter his name one more time during the night."

  Ava glared down at JiSoo, curling her lip up in a little snarl. "Fine, but only because it means so much to both of you."

  "Yeah, right." Winta rolled her eyes.

  "Can I have my food back now?"

  "I don't know. Is the chicken safe?"

  Ava laughed and dragged the plate back to her. She was feeling better already, like a weight had lifted off her shoulders. Sometimes, even when she knew she was being ridiculous, she just couldn't get over herself until someone snapped her out of it. She knew Tarun wasn't the bad guy. Yes, he obviously cared about her. And she would just have a talk with him about how to treat her if ever there was an imminent threat again. She wasn't one of those simpering females. Well, except for right now… And the way she’d been acting for the past week… But that was neither here nor there.

  She scooped a piece of chicken into her mouth and relaxed to enjoy her meal.

  "I wish I didn't have to meet Kaelan," JiSoo wailed suddenly.

  Winta looked up, startled. "But you do, remember? You promised him. Besides, the guy isn't going to let up anytime soon. He's determined." She patted JiSoo on the shoulder.

  "I can't believe I agreed to go meet him," JiSoo continued to whine.

  Ava smiled at her friend. As much as she would hate to admit it, she knew how JiSoo felt. She’d certainly had the same kind of mixed feelings for Tarun, especially at the beginning. And she even suspected that Winta felt similarly about James. Then, looking at JiSoo, Ava frowned. She’d been sitting opposite JiSoo throughout the entire meal and didn't notice it.… "What's that?" she asked, pointing at JiSoo's nose.

  "This?" JiSoo fingered the small silver nose ring stuck to the side of her right nostril. "One of my friends gave it to me."

  Winta and Ava exchanged chagrined looks. Winta recovered first. "What friend? What's she talking about?"

  "She's in one of my training classes. Don't worry, it's just clip-on. See?" JiSoo yanked it off and stuck it back again.

  "Yeah, but your family—" Winta started.

  "Is not here," JiSoo finished.

  Ava looked back and forth between JiSoo and Winta. This was unusual behavior for JiSoo. Yes, JiSoo was old enough to know what was right for her...kind of. They were seventeen, after all, and on their own in the academy, so to speak. But JiSoo had never worn any kind of jewelry and honestly didn't have any other friends. That meant one thing. Perhaps the girls who’d been actively avoiding all of them since they first came to the school were finally coming around. JiSoo called this other person a ‘friend.’ And Ava wasn't sure what to think about that.

  Looking around the cafeteria, Ava wondered who it was. Students gathered around the wooden tables, stuffing food down their throats, and somehow managing to make grotesque amounts of noise.

  The whole room buzzed with activity. Ava absentmindedly scanned the tables. It was probably one of the cheery dolphins who squealed the loudest. Their uniforms clinging to their perfect bodies, and several of them still had wet hair from their classes in the water.

  Ava felt like she and her friends could never fit in with girls like that. Sure, Ava knew she wasn't bad looking. Her long purple hair and sparkly turquoise eyes made her particularly interesting to look at now. And her skin was smooth like porcelain—according to Tarun—but she felt like nothing compared to those dolphins. For one, they had boobs…in excessive quantity. Something she knew boys craved. She snuck a peek at her own, barely visible beneath her uniform dress, and bit back a groan.

  Sharks brooded on the other side of the table, eating rapidly and smiling at whatever the dolphins discussed. The sharks and dolphins were always together.

  From there, she observed the wolves. They continued to be a dilemma to Ava because they were just so darn good at everything they did. Strong and smart. They had the brains and brawn. She figured when they weren't training in combat, they ate with their noses in books, slept with their noses in books, and always asked the most questions in class, specifically with their noses in books. They never came to class late, always excelled with the highest marks, and she was sure she'd even seen a few trying to sleep in the library.

  The dragons sat together at another table. Many of them were quiet and brooding, but overall, they were terrifying.

  Then there was the thorn in her flesh: the birds of prey.

  Ava supposed there was some consolation in the fact that the girl pecking at her food wasn't laughing at anyone or cooking up some malicious story at the moment. That girl would be Elaine.

  Elaine was still recovering from her stunt the previous year. Ava knew she was almost expelled for it. Lucky for Elaine, she had rich parents to bribe the school.

  At the door, Levine stood watching over the students. She rarely interrupted meals or anything like that, but just the mere sight of the looming griffin shifter prevented anyone from starting a fight.

  A few other attendants patrolled the cafeteria as well as the halls, their sharp eyes looking out for those selling contraband. Sometimes they got someone. Other times it was a waste of time.

  The patrol for contraband had been heightened tremendously since Ava and her friends nearly died. It was a bummer for a lot of the students, and many of them grumbled heatedly about it. Some pointing fingers at Ava and the others, loudly blaming them.

  A particularly loud laughter rang out from the edge of the room and drew Ava's attention. A pock-faced boy with a bad choice of a clashing paisley cardigan over his uniform squatted on the floor, picking up bits of food. His face was almost the same color as his bright red hair. And from the way he was chewing his lips, he was struggling hard not to cry.

  Deciphering the cause was easy.

  Colin and his gang. That group of predators always found a way to make the lesser shifters regret coming to the school. Ava sighed with empathy. At times like this, she was immensely grateful to her absent father for her second transformation. The sad thing was that none of the attendants even moved a muscle to help the boy, and neither did Levine. That was one of the rules that Ava hated. Shifters were meant to be strong. And unless there was some sort of actual danger, it was everyone for themselves.

  Even the numerous bunny shifters.

  Ava marveled at the unfairness of it all. Some of the shifters were tremendously bigger than others. It was hard to restrain herself from going to help this boy. Especially because Colin was the one bullying him. And Ava was particularly upset with him after the pizza incident that almost killed her friends. So watching him torment another student right now was pure torture, and she couldn't help but feel guilty.

  "Someone has to check Colin soon. He's getting out of hand," Ava interrupted JiSoo, who was going on about Kaelan.

  Seemingly unbothered by the interruption, JiSoo simply said, "I know, right?"

  "But we can't touch him," Winta interjected. "I've heard he's related to Headmistress Levine."

  Ava literally spit out the food in her mouth. "Wait, what!?"

  "Yeah, he's her nephew or something. Obviously didn't get the griffin gene though, so I'm guessing it was one of Levine's sisters that married a vulture. Kinda sucks for him."

  "Interesting…" Ava trailed off in thought.

  "Ava?" Winta sounded alarmed. "Whatever you’re thinking right now, stop. Just stop. Levine will make sure you leave the school before you touch her nephew."

  "Uh huh."

  "JiSoo, talk to her."

  "I don't know. I think she's right. He needs to be taught a lesson." JiSoo shrugged.

  "What? No, she's not! Ava, you're not. You already have enough attention after what happened last year. You don't need this on your record," Winta tried to reason.

  "Geez, you sound like I'm going to jail or something," Ava huffed. "All I'm going to do is show him he can't get away with things like this. And look at her laughing over there." Ava pointed.

  "Who? Elaine?" Winta asked.

  "Who else? Did you know she's dating Colin now? Imagine the horror…" Ava broke off and smiled at a passing girl, a koala shifter from her earlier class. The girl waved at her, and then had to duck as she exited the door because the top of her head nearly brushed the doorframe because she was so tall.

  "Look who's popular now," JiSoo cooed, prodding Ava's hand.

  "Whatever… They're all just being nice now because of the unicorn thing." The words were barely out of her mouth when four dolphin shifters sashayed to their table.

  The prettiest, easily the leader, plopped down on the empty seat next to Ava. The three others followed suit.

  Awkward silence followed, and Ava's palms beaded with sweat that she discreetly wiped on her lap. The dolphins were the equivalent of the cheerleaders of Animage. Not as conniving, or rich and powerful, as the birds of prey, but definitely more popular. They controlled all the guys with mere glances, and made sharks, wolves, and dragons alike melt into puddles of mush.

  And now they were sitting with her. What alternate universe had she just fallen into?

  Ava darted glances at her friends, but they looked just as confused as she was. When she tried to talk, the words just hung in her throat. Finally, she got some noises out that actually resembled a sentence. "Um, can we help you?" She didn't stammer. That was good.

  The one with curly blonde hair bordering on yellow paused and puckered her rosebud lips. Then she smiled easily at Ava, her dark eyes twinkling with amusement. "No, we just want to sit with you. Is that okay?"

  "Mmhmm," Ava hummed the affirmative. Apparently her ability to form distinct words had just gone poof into the air.

  "Cool!" The dolphin girl bobbed her head. Her name was Davina, if Ava remembered correctly. "So what are we talking about?"

  Ava shook her head to clear it. Davina wanted to know about their lame conversation?

  Winta basically ignored them and continued eating her food like it was the best thing in the world. JiSoo pursed her lips, smiling slightly at Ava's discomfort.

  "Well… Colin… The, you know…"

  "Davina, I thought you said she was cool." This came from a girl Ava didn't even know. Damn ditzy dolphins. What was Ava thinking letting them sit there?

  But Davina simply ignored her friend’s quip and somehow stretched her lips even wider, a feat Ava wouldn't have imagined was even possible. "What were you saying, Ava?"

  "Oh! Yeah, we were talking about Colin, the vulture shifter. He's right over there."

  Davina tilted her majestic head slightly to the right. In her thick Australian accent she muttered, "Sounds like someone's got a crush. You can leave it to me. I'll get him for you just like that." She snapped her fingers. She had the most bewitching voice, as if she were singing and talking at once.

  "Oh god, no! Nothing like that." Ava leaned forward. It seemed like Davina was genuinely ready to help. These dolphins actually thought she was a cool unicorn. And ever since getting to know her second transformation, she had developed an uncanny ability to detect lies when they were being told. She could tell these girls genuinely wanted to hang out with them. And surely they wouldn't ruin that by reporting to Colin, so she persisted. "He's a total bully. Probably the worst bully in the school. We were just talking about how we can find a way to stop him."

  "I totally agree with you," Davina said, and she meant it, Ava could tell.

  "He sold that disgusting pizza to us last year. It didn't affect most of us negatively, but poor Karen. It tore her poor little tummy to shreds, and she spent almost two days in our shared toilet."

  Ava shot surprised glances at her new friends. "Really?" She leaned back in her seat, her food temporarily forgotten.

  "Hell yeah," the one who had to be Karen nearly yelled.

  "Yeah, Karen's mom is a kangaroo. So it affected her way worse than it did us," Davina explained.

  "Oh, that's awful." JiSoo finally decided to contribute to the conversation.

  "But don’t worry," Davina winked. "I have an idea that will set that vulture straight."

  Ava's smile was contagious. Now all the girls were grinning stupidly at each other as the bell rang. Lunch was over, and so were Colin’s days of bullying.

  7

  Levine's class was by far the most anticipated above the rest. It came once a week, and Tarun knew he wasn't the only one looking forward to it.

  The headmistress was a sturdy woman in her late fifties, or so her iron-gray hair suggested. She always kept it in a severe bun that pulled her face back tightly. Laugh lines crept around the woman's eyes, and on her finger she wore the crown—which wasn't really a crown, it was a ring—and hadn't removed it since Elaine stole it last year.

  Tarun and the other students waited for her to begin her lesson.

  Her areas of expertise were legends, history, and long-forgotten tales about several shifter sects. She taught the students everything they needed to know about being shifters, as well as how to fit in to society.

  "Settle down, please." From such a small woman, her voice was loud and commanding. "Today, I have an announcement. Enough students have manifested that it’s time to share the news with all of you."

  Just like that, she had their attention. One could hear a pin drop.

  "Last year, you all wondered why we admitted some smaller and what some might consider—ahem—less impressive shifters into the school from all parts of the world and from all species of shifters."

  There was a low rumble in the classroom, but no one interrupted. Levine began to pace the length of the podium, hands behind her back. "We did so because all of you are special, unique, and somewhat rare."

  More murmuring.

  "We had to keep this knowledge within the staff because it could have been dangerous for you as students to get hold of this knowledge sooner, as Miss Carrington would confirm."

  Tarun squirmed in his seat, wishing Ava were next to him so she could give him some sort of hint as to what the headmistress was talking about, but instead, Ava was seated a few rows back, and he didn’t want to risk turning his attention away from Levine.

  "Everyone we admitted to the school, who wouldn't have been prior, is here because they have secondary transformations." She said it so casually, but the effect was immediate and jarring.

  The classroom erupted in chatter.

  Tarun leaned back in his seat, absorbing this new information he hadn't been expecting at all.

  "Yes, it's peculiar. Yes, it's different. When the concept of second transformations came to light only a few years ago, we started hunting all over the world for you." Levine made eye contact with the boy in the front row whom Tarun knew to be a llama shifter.

  "Very few shifters with secondary transformations ever come to realize their other form. Sometimes, it happens by accident, and that's how this was brought to our attention. One of our very own professors has a second form that remained dormant until tragedy struck in his life, forcing his inner dyad."

  Well, that was curious. Tarun immediately wondered about Sir Waters. Winta mentioned Ava thought maybe he was a dragon instead of a tortoise—but maybe he was both!

  "But after careful research," Levine continued, "we've picked you out of the crowd. And among you, there are mythical creatures, not just powerful creatures."

  So there were more of them? And that meant maybe Ava wasn't the only unicorn. And maybe JiSoo was a dragon or a phoenix or something!

  "You can, of course, now discuss this among yourselves within the school. Every student is being informed of this information in class today, so by dinnertime, you will all be aware of it. And I warn you," Levine leaned forward and raised an eyebrow, "those of you who have poked fun at a smaller shifter may find yourselves very sorry in the near future." Her lips turned up at the end there.

  Tarun smiled to himself as well. He thought about James. His childhood best friend whom he'd had to protect from the predator shifters throughout their whole adolescence, might be able to shift into something that could demolish them with a swipe of a claw.

  Already, his classmates were looking around the room at each other, wondering what the other could be, or perhaps even wondering what they themselves could be.

  He glanced across the room, cursing the assigned seating system because James was so far away. James's shoulders jerked up and down a few times. Tarun wondered how long before they would find out what his second form was.

  Behind him—he finally snuck a peek—three rows away, stubborn little Ava chewed on the head of her pen. She hadn't said a word to him all day. Seven days, to be precise. He'd tried and failed on several occasions to get her attention, but she just wasn't having it. Tempestuous little cat.

  Winta had done her best to explain Ava's case, but it made little sense to him. Of course he wanted to make sure she was safe and protected. Even if she was a dang unicorn. She should appreciate it. He'd never met a wild card quite like her in his life. And after the past few years of girls falling all over him, he was realizing he had his work cut out for him with Ava.

  But still, he loved the way her face lit up when she spoke about something she was passionate about. The way her turquoise eyes glowed and sparkled just before he lowered his head to taste her delicious lips.