Page 2

TWO

I reached Quarantine with only a few minutes to spare but luckily, reception was empty save for Hatty who had made herself home on top of the keyboard. The little house sphinx looked up and rolled on her back when she saw me, causing something on the computer to ding in error.

"You're a chaos monster," I said as I picked Hatty up so she didn't cause more havoc. Once, she deleted the entire week schedule and had thrown everything in chaos. Knowing the sphinx, she had enjoyed it too.

She meowed softly and pressed her head into my hand, desperate for a bit of affection.

"You're so demanding," I said while I stroked her and conducted a secret check. Her fur was looking beautiful and shiny which was a good sign that she was nice and healthy. On top of that, her horns were growing properly and her nose wasn't dry and cracked.

Hatty didn't stay in my arms for long and jumped out onto the window sill where there was a perfectly good patch of sun too, it just didn't cause carnage in the practice.

"I swear, sometimes I'm convinced you do this on purpose."

The sphinx looked me dead in the eye, held my gaze for a very deliberate moment like she absolutely understood what I was saying, before yawning and rolling innocently into the sun.

I continued on to the meeting room where I was the first of the apprentices to arrive. Jacob was already there, but looked like he hadn't slept in days.

He hid a yawn. "Ah, Charlotte. How are you?"

"Not bad. You? You look tired."

He checked his reflection in a metal piece on the coffee maker. "Oh, I do, don't I?"

"I thought things were calming down since almost all of the animals from the private collection have been moved."

Jacob flattened some of his hair. "It is on the animal front but IREMA has been on me for the case they’re building against the owners. I’m happy to do it so justice can be delivered but they’re very demanding.”

I wondered if I could ask more questions about that or if it wasn't my place. Before I could, some of the other apprentices arrived and I joined them at one of the tables while Jacob grabbed his tablet.

Tamara sat down next to me, loudly chewing gum. She leaned over. "Just as a heads-up, some school friends are visiting me tomorrow, so it might get a bit rowdy."

I did what I could to muffle my frustration. "How many friends?"

"Not that many. Three, but only two are staying over. Is it okay if they crash on the couch?"

"Umm. I guess." Maybe it wasn't a huge amount but three more people in an already small flat didn't sound very appealing. Especially not if Felicity was going to come over, that was way too many heads.

I grabbed my phone to message her, not super pleased about having to change our plans. It could get busy in her flat too and that wasn't really what I wanted after a long day of work.

Tamara seemed to pick up on my mood. "Is there an issue? You have your girlfriend over all the time so I thought it would be fine."

She did have a point, although Felicity was usually in my room and didn't want to play drinking games which Tamara's friends almost definitely would.

I forced a smile. "No, it's fine. It's your home, too."

She nodded and got her phone out, hopefully not to invite more people. Even though I didn't dislike her as much as I did in the beginning, I didn't think we would ever be great friends.

Jacob cleared his throat, silencing the chatter. "Alright, I'm going to keep it brief. The jackalopes have been fighting again and will need treatment and company."

"I can do that," Tamara said quickly. "I love fluffy animals."

"Good." Our mentor continued. "I also need someone to assist Maria with the pregnant peryton. Ivan, I had you in mind for this because it'll come with research on why her birth control failed."

The third-year apprentice nodded. "I can handle it."

"And then we've got a new arrival from the private collection, a hellhound. He's the one who's been setting off the fire alarm which is causing a lot of frustration and stress. Charlotte, since you have experience with fiery animals, can you assist me?"

I wasn't sure if it was a good or bad sign that I was the only one who wasn't working independently but it didn't really matter, this was how Jacob divided up the labour and that was that.

I didn't mind, it was my first time seeing a hellhound so I was looking forward to it.