Page 59 of Ignited Spirits (Haunted Magic #3)
IZZY
TWO YEARS LATER
“ H eadmistress?” Penny asks when she pops her head into my office. “Your mates are here to see you.”
Looking up from the stack of papers I was going through, I groan. “For the millionth time, Penny. Just call me Izzy. And send them in.”
Her blue eyes twinkle with mirth. “Sure thing, Headmistress Izzy.” She’s gone in a flash of red hair before I can say anything.
“You know that’s not what I meant!” I call to the closed office door before propping my elbows on the whitewashed executive desk and resting my head in my hands.
Aggie laughs at my exasperation. “It’s good for you to deal with a mini you, kid. Now you know what the rest of us went through.”
Flipping her off, I shake my head but don’t bother disagreeing with her.
Even though I’ve offered to cross her over so many times, Aggie insists that her place is here with me. I don’t argue with her about it too hard because the truth is that I love Aggie, and I love having her around. Even if she does give me shit on the regular.
To Aggie’s delight, running a school for kids who were abandoned, had rough childhoods, or have formerly forbidden magic means I often have to deal with smart-ass teenagers like Penny.
Lord only knows why I thought approving her work-study request to be my part-time receptionist was a good idea. I get way over the recommended daily dose of snark with that girl.
I know I’m going to cry when she graduates next year, though.
After we took down Lua and I fulfilled my supposed destiny, I was lost. I didn’t have hopes and dreams and aspirations like the typical person. How could I, when I thought I’d be dead way before I graduated college?
So, I took some time to think about what I wanted while finishing my degree at Hawthorne Grove University, despite despising that place.
The council was in shambles, but the university was still running.
After putting in three-and-a-half years of work, you bet your ass I was finishing the last little bit to get my diploma.
Once the not-so-kind students of HGU realized I not only had magic but a metric shit ton of it, they left me alone. None of them liked me, but they all kept their distance as I finished the last semester, thankfully.
I was never going to be good enough to be a high mage, according to my peers. But joke’s on them—I’m now a councilwoman on the mage council.
I’m the first woman ever on the mage council, which is sad and cool at the same time. It shouldn’t have taken over a thousand years for a woman to have a say in our ruling body.
“What are you thinking so hard about, sunshine?” Archer asks, startling me out of my trip down memory lane. I didn’t even hear him or the rest of my mates come into my little office.
I stand up and smile up at him as I get lost in his teal eyes dancing with mirth.
The past two years have changed for my sunny boy too. While his primary responsibility is still to the pack, he’s taken up teaching here, currently only managing one class. That might change next year if he has the time, though.
Archer is a natural at teaching, and the kids absolutely love him.
He knows what it’s like to go through the same pain of losing parents, like a lot of these kids have experienced.
I’m always amazed at how easily he’s able to connect with the students.
And I’ve seen how good it is for his soul to help all these kids get through some pretty awful stuff.
He and Legion have also figured out how to share Archer’s body pretty well. They’ve worked out a schedule that allows me to get equal time with both of them.
Legion has been tracking down hydras on Earth and Infernus , trying to find his friends and family he hasn’t seen in longer than our planet has been around. He’s managed to locate three hydras so far. It was a cool experience meeting all of them and getting to know the people they inhabit, too.
I round the table and walk into Archer’s waiting arms, soaking up his vanilla-citrus smell. “I love you, sunshine,” he murmurs into my hair.
I pull back from the hug. “I love you, too, sunny boy. Was just thinking about all the changes that’ve happened since taking down Lua. What are you guys doing here? I don’t get off for another half an hour.”
And how things have changed.
Soon after we took down Lua, everything we uncovered leaked. The mage council draining mages and working with Lua, the corruption and unauthorized experiments, and my role in bringing it all down. I still kind of suspect that Aiden leaked all that info, but I can’t be sure.
Regardless, mage popular opinion turned swiftly against the council and against the average high mage. High mages, especially council families other than ours, went from being the peak of society to outcasts within a week. I thoroughly enjoyed watching their downfall.
With the entire mage council dead or locked up, it was time to make changes. Everything was in shambles, but my dad and I were able to push for a true election system for the council, where everyone, including lower mages, got an equal vote.
Surprisingly, at least to me, our plan was adopted, and now there are three lower-mage representatives and three high-mage representatives.
Somehow, I got elected to the council, along with my dad.
I don’t know if it’s because of what I did to stop the previous council or because lower mages felt like I would be on their side when no one else was.
Either way, I’m smack-dab in the middle of my three-year term and ready to be done with all the council bullshit.
While the council system is improved, it’s still the same system, and mages are still the same elitist jerks they’ve always been. That means that change is slow going at the best of times and nonexistent most of the time.
I feel like I’m slamming my head into a brick wall repeatedly when dealing with the rest of the council, but I put up with it because we are making a difference.
High-mage-job requirements for the most desirable jobs have already been repealed. There are new protections in place that ban discrimination against lower mages. And we’ve worked to get the mage schools to stop segregating classes by high mage or lower mage.
There definitely hasn’t been as much change as I had hoped there would be in two years, but I’ll keep working at it. Maybe when the next generation comes to power, we’ll finally see some change. As long as the people want me, I’ll be here, trying to make mages better.
“You forgot about Seph’s dinner, didn’t you?” Bishop’s voice, full of laughter at my expense, snaps me out of my thoughts.
Like he was before I met my wolves, Bishop is still working at Elemental and helping the pack when they need it.
Instead of working himself into the ground, spending his days at Elemental and his nights with the pack, Bishop now alternates the days he focuses on each, freeing him up and making him a bit less stressed overall.
Although, he has started to fill that time in by helping out here. The boy seems allergic to relaxing, which is something I’ve been trying to teach him how to do for the past couple of years. But he seems pretty happy, so that’s all that matters to me.
I pull back from Archer to level Bishop with a glare for him assuming—correctly—that I forgot. “Maybe,” I hedge. “What’s it for?”
Bishop sighs before grabbing me and tugging me into his hard chest. He grins down at me, the smile lighting up his baby blues. “It’s to celebrate the one-year anniversary of you opening SPS. Only you would forget about your own party. I love you, sweetheart.”
With how frustrating the council is, I’m very glad that being a councilwoman isn’t my day job. Instead, I run Styx Preparatory School, SPS for short, for preschool through twelfth grade. I opened it this school year, and it’s already been a huge success.
We have a waiting list for the next term, which will be summer because we’re in session year-round. Kids who have no one on their side usually don’t have somewhere to go home for the summer.
I started this school after realizing what I really loved doing was helping kids in need, and I saw an opportunity to help kids just like me, with weird or dangerous magic that no one else wants to deal with.
After thinking it through, I expanded it to kids who just don’t have anyone there for them. My family and their support are the only reasons I even survived long enough to meet my mates, so I want to provide that for kids who aren’t as lucky as I was.
Thanks to the absurd amount of wealth my parents and the Nightshades have, I was able to renovate a cool, old college campus that’s been vacant for around a hundred years or so.
It’s still weird to see its red brick shiny and clean, the fountain out front bubbling and not cracked, and the grass and shrubs trimmed neatly.
I was honestly surprised when we were able to find mages from Hawthorne Grove and surrounding towns and shifters from the Nightshade Pack to teach at SPS. But I’m thankful for all the people helping out with teaching and running the school. I couldn’t do it without them.
I put a hand on my hip and level him with an unimpressed look, even though he’s trying to butter me up with sweet words. “I love you, too, St. James. And it’s not like I asked for this party. Of course I’m not going to remember it.”
Bishop opens his mouth to argue with me, but Levi beats him to it.
“It’s very kind of you to humor Seph with the gathering, little raven.
You know how excited she is to have more people to spoil.
” Stepping up behind me, Levi leans down to kiss my neck, and I shiver at the contact. “I love you, little raven.”
I tilt my head back to look at him. His messy black hair hangs down in front of his otherworldly eyes, making him look almost boyish, instead of multiple billions of years old.