Magical Mistake (Magic And Metaphysics Academy Book 2) Read online

  Magical Mistake

  Magic and Metaphysics Academy #2

  Laura Greenwood & L.A. Boruff

  © 2019 Laura Greenwood & L.A. Boruff

  All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise – without prior written permission of the published, except as provided by United States of America copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher at “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the email address; [email protected].

  Cover Design by Ammonia Book Designs

  Magical Mistake is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Magical Mistake (Magic And Metaphysics Academy, #2)

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Other Books by L.A. Boruff

  About L.A. Boruff

  Also by Laura Greenwood

  About the Author

  Blurb

  Playing both sides is never easy, especially when one of them is the hottest clique at the academy.

  Magic and Metaphysics Academy wasn't what Lou expected. She never expected to become one of the most popular girls there, and now she's getting more attention than ever. Just not from the people she wants.

  Can she manage to keep her friends and her sanity? Or is she going to lose it all?

  What Happened Before

  Lou, the daughter of a witch and a vampire, started as a new student at the Magic and Metaphysics Academy, discovering that her affinity for plants is frowned upon by the rest of the student body. She’s quickly pulled into a scheme by her roommates, Estelle (a gazelle shifter) and Tyler (a hybrid like Lou), who want revenge on Kristi, the head of the school’s Sparkles. Lou strikes up a real friendship with the other two Sparkles, Sadie and Madison, while taking a dislike to Kristi’s controlling ways. Lou is keeping quiet about her hybrid status, with only her roommates and Jayse being aware of it. Lou finds a book in Sadie and Madison’s room that’s full of scribbles. The girls tell her that every time they write something in the book, it becomes a rumor. All the while, she’s started spending more time with Francis (a vampire), Jayse (an anaconda shifter) and Brooks (a fellow witch with an affinity for earth magic). Lou goes to a party that Francis invited her to, only for one of her glamours goes wrong. She runs away, devastated by what happened, only to find Francis and Kristi kissing, even though the other guys assure her that Francis isn’t there.

  Chapter One

  I paced back and forth. A little part of me knew that plotting against Kristi wasn't right, but the anger within me pushed me on. She'd kissed Francis. Not only that, but she'd messed with my glamour and made me enter the party looking like a mess.

  "That won't work," Estelle shot down my latest suggestion.

  "Then what do you suggest?" I demanded, flopping down on my bed and trying not to take her dismissal personally.

  "We need to ruin her. Splitting her away from her friends and a possible boyfriend isn't going to cut it." Estelle's eyes hardened as she looked at Tyler and me.

  Neither of us said anything. It was clear to us all who was in charge of this situation, and we didn't want to mess with that. I damn sure didn’t want that leadership role.

  "We need to hit her where it hurts," Estelle said. "We need to get her expelled."

  My eyes widened. I hadn't been at the academy long, but I understood how devastating that would be. And how embarrassing. Getting her expelled could affect her future career and the rest of her life. It wasn't something I'd even considered as a punishment.

  I shuddered.

  "Well?" Estelle tapped her foot against the floor.

  I looked up and met her gaze, surprised to find two cold, hard eyes staring into me. I felt more exposed than ever before. Quirky Estelle had a mean streak.

  She pushed a strand of dark hair behind her ear.

  "How do you think we can do that?" I asked softly.

  Tyler shot me a horrified look but shut it down before Estelle saw.

  "That's the question. If you continue to be friends with her, maybe you can find something. A weakness."

  Kristi's book of rumors slipped into my mind, but I didn't say anything about it aloud. Not yet, if ever.

  "I don't know if I can be friends with her," I admitted.

  Estelle slapped her hand down on the bed. "You can. And you will."

  I flinched. "I don't know how."

  "Just do what you've been doing," she pointed out. "Have your makeovers and shopping and stuff." She shrugged as if there wasn't anything wrong with that.

  I wanted to protest but kept my mouth closed instead. The set of her jaw and the way she talked made it clear she expected me to go with what she suggested and get on with it. Even if I didn't want to. Something about this situation made me uncomfortable, even if I was angry at Kristi for what she'd done.

  "Alright," I said instead of voicing my thoughts. "But I don't want anything bad to happen to Madison and Sadie," I insisted. They'd both been kind to me, and certainly didn't deserve to have their futures ruined because they happened to know Kristi.

  "No promises," Estelle responded.

  I scowled at her. "It's non-negotiable."

  She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. "They've supported her the entire time we've been here. They deserve it."

  "I said it's non-negotiable," I repeated. "They're not to be harmed in anything that we do."

  I wanted to add on the same clause for Francis and his friends, though I didn't believe they were on Estelle's radar. I planned to keep it that way. I had forest time planned with Brooks, and I desperately needed it to recharge my magic, or things were going to get more difficult for me.

  "Fine," Estelle spat.

  She studied me for a moment before giving an annoyed grunt and storming out, leaving Tyler and me in a tense silence.

  "You don't have to do everything she says," Tyler whispers.

  "What?" I responded instantly, unsure if I'd heard her right. “Who?”

  "Kristi, or Estelle. Anybody, really. You're a hybrid, you're more powerful than any of them."

  "Hybrids aren't anything special," I pointed out. "Especially because we can't reveal who we are without fear of persecution." Technically, our very existence broke some kind of law. It made no sense for that to be the case when we were just born this way, through no fault of our own.

  "You know that we are," Tyler whispered.

  I rose to my feet and paced back and forth, trying to work out what she was trying to get at.

  "Don't forget who you are," she warned me.

  My eyebrows knitted together. Before I could respond and ask her more about what she was getting at, she stuck earbuds in and disappeared into her music.

  Great. A chance to find out more about hybrids and the way our magic worked, and I'd annoyed the source enough that she was shutting me out.

  I didn't know if it was because she was mad that I wanted to do something about Kristi, or because I'd annoyed Es
telle. Or because I pulled the attention away from their friendship and onto this convoluted revenge plan.

  A little part of me whispered that I shouldn't be going through with this. It was cruel and unnecessary. But then the memory of Kristi kissing Francis flashed through my mind, backed by the sound of laughter as everyone saw my glamour gone wrong.

  The sharp ringing of my phone pulled me from my wallowing, and I hit answer without even looking at it.

  "Hello, Lou." Kristi's voice purred in my ear.

  Oh no. Mistake. She was the last person I wanted to talk to right now.

  "Hi." I forced a cheeriness I didn't feel into the word. No matter what happened, I didn't want her to know how affected I was. Though she likely did. Kristi wasn't like anyone else I'd ever met, and I had no idea how to deal with her beyond pretending nothing was wrong.

  "Did you have fun at the party?" she asked.

  I narrowed my eyes. At least with Tyler listening to her music and Estelle gone, I could have this conversation in private.

  "I wasn't there long." That was true. Though not long meant a couple of minutes and nothing more. I'd spent longer talking to Jayse and Brooks than I had at the party itself.

  "That's a shame, you'll have missed the best bits."

  Had she called to make small talk? I couldn't stand talking for the sake of it. Though I supposed that was most of what I did with her and the rest of the Sparkles.

  How had I gotten myself into this position again? Oh right, Estelle. Who had said for her plan to work, I needed to continue pretending to be Kristi's friend. Anger coiled in my stomach, demanding I unleash retribution. I couldn't believe I was feeling all this over a guy. And not even one I'd spent very much time with unless you counted class.

  "I'm sure you'll fill me in," I said through gritted teeth.

  "Of course. Andrew Jordan managed to finally get Katie Dean to kiss him. That's been a long time coming."

  "Uh-huh." I wasn't interested at all but made the appropriate noises while she rattled off the names of classmates I didn't know well, if at all. To her, this was important. But why? None of this mattered, did it?

  "And then there was Francis..."

  My blood ran cold at the sound of his name from her lips. "Oh?" I didn't dare say any more. Not when she could no doubt read too much from the simple way I said things. One word answers were my friend.

  She sighed dramatically. "Things between Francis and me were never great. We should have been the couple in the academy. He's a vampire, I'm a witch, but you don't need me to tell you that, you know how powerful a match that can be."

  "I do?" I almost squeaked but managed to hold it back long enough for her not to notice.

  "Aren't your parents that combination?" she asked, though I could already tell that Kristi had checked me out.

  She didn't care whether I said yes or no, she was trying to remind me that she knew things about me and I should remember that.

  "Yes."

  "Plus, he's hot. Don't bother denying it, I see how you look at him."

  I swallow loudly, glad that she was on the other end of the phone and not standing in front of me. I didn't think I'd be able to stand there and keep my cool about the whole situation.

  "He is hot," I said eventually.

  "Exactly. And so am I. It should have been a match made in heaven."

  I bit my tongue, not wanting to point out that physical attractiveness wasn't the best way to measure whether a relationship would be successful. I hadn't even had a relationship yet, and I knew that much.

  "What happened?" I asked, despite knowing that was exactly what she'd wanted. I glanced over at Tyler to make sure she wasn't paying any attention, but she'd turned her back and had her headphones in. If I strained my ears, I could even hear the faint melody from them, even over Kristi's breathing on the other end of the phone.

  "I didn't feel like he was in it for the right reasons, and I ended things with him."

  I frowned, once again glad that she couldn't see my expression over the phone. That wasn't evidenced by what I'd seen at the party. Her lips pressed against his, their bodies...

  Shaking my head, I rid myself of the images I didn't want to relive. It had hurt enough when I'd seen it first hand, and this conversation wasn't that much better either, come to think of it.

  "But then at the party, he was asking me all these questions about why the two of us weren't together," she carried on, completely oblivious to the direction of my thoughts. "I suggested that he asked you out instead of bothering me, but he wouldn't have any of it."

  "Oh." What else was I supposed to say to that? Should I be glad that she wanted to try and set us up? Or angry that Francis didn't seem to want me, despite the way he kept flirting with me.

  "And then he kissed me. I said no, but he did it anyway."

  I sucked in a deep breath. That wasn't good. "Are you alright?" I wasn't convinced she was telling the truth, but on the off chance she was, I should show her some compassion. I'd want it in her position.

  "Yes, of course. He's a good kisser. Even if I didn't want it at first, my body was a bit of a traitor."

  Great. Because that was what I wanted to hear. I hated what she'd done with Francis. I liked him. And I was certain she knew that.

  "What's happening between you now?" I asked, hoping that the quiver stayed out of my voice.

  "Nothing." She sounded so bored and it made me want to hex her. How dare she treat Francis that way. Even if he had kissed her, he deserved better than what she was giving.

  I wanted to ask what the purpose of this conversation was if nothing was changing between her and Francis, but I already knew the answer to that question. This was about power. She wanted me to know what she'd done so I was on the back foot. The worst part about it was that she was succeeding.

  "Maybe I'll use him for a little light relief if you know what I mean." The smirk in her voice could be heard down the line. I wanted to slap it off her face, but I knew that wasn't a good move on my part. Physical violence wasn't the answer. Probably.

  I just had to remember that when I saw her face again.

  "Anyway, I have to go, Lou." She didn't seem to have even noticed that I'd not said anything.

  "Alright."

  "But I'll see you for lunch tomorrow," she finished before hanging up.

  I didn't move at all after the phone went dead, unable to process what had just happened, nor what Kristi had to gain from it. Hopefully, it would become clear soon, because the one thing I was certain of, was that I wasn't going to be able to keep up the charade of being Kristi's friend for long.

  Chapter Two

  Brooks turned and held a hand out. As a vampire, I didn’t need his help stepping over the log. Not even a little. Even if I wasn’t a vampire, it was not a very big log. A child could've climbed over it.

  Even so, I took his hand with a soft grin. It wasn’t about whether I was able to go over the log. It was about him being sweet enough to offer a hand.

  Tucking my hair behind my ear, I looked up at him as I hopped off the top of the dead tree. “Thanks.”

  “Sure.” He led the way down the path, away from the ocean. The thick underbrush in the woods surrounding the school provided a peaceful setting for Brooks and me to walk in. "It's not much farther."

  "I don't mind the walk." Looking around as I walked, I sucked in the clean, slightly salty air. "It's so nice being out here."

  He nodded his head and looked back at me. Holding out a hand, he slowed so I could take it. The path wasn't wide enough for us to walk beside each other.

  Taking his hand, I stayed close, just behind him.

  "I'd offer for you to walk in front but these woods can be strange," Brooks said mysteriously.

  "How do you mean?" I looked around again, but it just looked like average, run of the mill trees to me. A squirrel scurried about overhead.

  "Most people think that it's got something to do with all the magic that goes on in this area. We're cont
ained by a ward, you know."

  I did know that. But, it would be rude to point it out.

  "Oh?" I asked, truly interested in what he had to say. I hadn't heard anything about the woods yet.

  "Yeah, it keeps all the magic from the school contained. It goes in about a mile in every direction, and outside the ward, the humans are deterred from coming in this direction. The closer they get, the stronger the deterrent."

  "I'd heard about the ward, but not the size," I said as I looked up, as if I'd be able to see the bubble around us.

  Laughing, I looked at Brooks again. "So why do the woods act weird?"

  "The path moves. And once we get settled up here in the fairy circle, you'll feel the difference between nature here and everywhere else you've been. And sometimes animals act strangely, but not too often. The shifters and vampires tend to scare most animals off. Only the very small stick around." He turned his head and winked at me. "Or occasionally a bear with an ego complex."

  I snorted and pushed his shoulder. "Stop it."

  "I'm serious about everything but the egotistical animals." He tugged my hand and pulled me to the right, startling me.

  I squeaked as he hauled me through two bushes.

  "Sorry," he said on the other side with an apologetic smile. "It seemed easier that way, rather than convincing you to do it yourself."

  Barely noticing his smile, I looked past him with my mouth open. "You wouldn't have had to convince me," I murmured. I would've gone through. Bushes weren't exactly dangerous.

  On light feet, I stepped forward, over the mushrooms and onto the soft grass. "A real fairy circle." My hushed voice carried on the air in the circle like music notes dancing on a page. "I've heard of them, but they're so rare."

  "The magic from the academy castle feeds this one." Brooks stepped in after me, and the warmth of his body filled the air behind me. The atmosphere inside the circle thickened with our magic.

  As I lifted my foot to step forward, flowers sprouted. I froze, my foot inches from the ground. Putting one arm on Brooks, I leaned over and pulled off my sneakers and socks, tossing them outside the ring.