"Hallewell?" Tessa drawls, like she's testing a new word she's never spoken before, but still knows.

But it's not like anyone here wouldn't know the name Hallewell from what Indigo has told me.

"You're related to the headmaster?" Tessa says, not leaving Astrid the chance to deny it.

Astrid nods as she studies the wall where Tessa's posters have been pinned, "I'm his niece," she says casually, but she sounds formal with her British accent.

As in, her uncle is Clayton Hallewell, the current headmaster of Greenwood Academy.

Tessa makes a low whistling sound, "I almost thought that any of the Hallewell children were myths, I've yet to see your cousin in the flesh."

Her cousin being the famed Eleanora Hallewell who is maybe around Indigo's age and is the daughter of Clayton Hallewell.

"Yes, she's quite busy," Astrid says in a low voice, "what with her Coven of Midnight."

She almost sounds bitter, but she quickly composes herself and Tessa lets it slide as she walks over to her dove's cage and offers her hand to her familiar.

"I'd almost expect you to be in a room of your own," Tessa muses as Peace perches on her finger.

She laughs a short, brisk laugh, "Yeah, well, my mother set this up."

"It sounds like you're not happy about the arrangement," Tessa observes and I feel a prickle of unease at her directness.

Tessa has always been blunt and it physically pains me to see her pick someone apart, especially with it being someone she's just met and of all people, a Hallewell. But Astrid seems to take it in stride as she gives her a tight-lipped smile.

"To be honest, no, I'm not, I didn't even want to go to this stupid academy, but here I am," she says as she splays her hands sarcastically and walks over to drop a suitcase onto the other bed with a heavy thump.

"Why's that?" Tessa asks as she tilts her head, much like a bird and in that moment all I can think about is how perfect it is that she got a dove as her familiar.

Peace swivels her head around, like she's mimicking her master's question as the dove makes a cooing sound.

"I was transferred from an academy over in London, I wanted to go to a different one in Ireland but mother insisted I go to this one," Astrid says as she sits and flops back onto the mattress.

"Why transfer?" Tessa inquires.

"My mother wanted me to see the 'glory' of the Hallewell clan," she says in a lazy voice that oozes with distaste. "But enough about me, I couldn't help but hear something about the alchemy lab?"

"Yes, we were planning on visiting our friend," I say as I suddenly find my voice.

Astrid flashes me a dazzling smile, "Perfect, I'll join you, I don't care to be around in case Eleanora comes by to gloat."

I glance over at Tessa, who shrugs as she transfers Peace back to her cage.

"As long as you don't attract any of the paparazzi," Tessa warns.

Astrid snorts and stands to toss her hair over her shoulder as Tessa leads the way out of the room, "As if."

"So what year are you in?" I ask as I let the others walk out ahead of me before I shut the door behind us.

"I'm a junior," Astrid says over her shoulder as I catch up to them.

"Where's your familiar?" I inquire as we pass by a group of girls who are sitting on the floor in the hallway, their heads turning as they watch us walk by.

I can guess that they might know who she is, since I can hear their conversation fall away into hushed whispers. I can't tell if Astrid notices or cares, but she simply snaps her fingers and a lioness flickers into existence beside her.

I jump back in surprise and stare at the familiar in awe as I take in its details. The lioness isn't a full-sized one, instead, it's maybe slightly larger than the wolf familiar I had seen earlier. Wide, golden eyes meet mine as the lioness peels back her lips to bare her teeth in what could almost resemble a smile as she makes a low growling sound that doesn't appear to be a threat.

"A lioness," I murmur and fall into step beside the familiar as she trails next to Astrid, "powerful."

"Yes, she is," Astrid muses.

"What's her name?" I ask.

"Nala," she replies as a smile pulls at the corner of her lip.

"It's fitting," Tessa says as we step into the elevator.

We take the elevator down and cross the lobby without pause, though I can feel eyes following us as we walk. It's a buzzing, electric feeling that won't go away, no matter how hard I try to ignore them. We get past the polo field unscathed, but I look up at one time to see that Indigo's bullies are openly staring at us from where they still sit on their bench.

They know who she is. Everyone does.

The realization should bring me comfort, but all I feel is dread, Astrid's reputation may not be enough to keep me out of the crosshairs of the popular cliques and she might become a target herself. I sneak a glance at Astrid, but she walks with a breezy grace that is ignorant of the stares.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

When we finally get to the lecture hall, I breathe out the breath I had been holding as the staring eyes are left behind us when the door closes. The hallway we've entered is empty and I'm grateful as I walk across the polished, tile floor with Tessa and Astrid walking ahead of me.

Nala hangs back to my surprise as the lioness brushes against my leg, her strange, flickering fur holding a hint of warmth as she makes a low noise in her throat before she trots ahead to return to her master's side. Tessa veers to the right suddenly and shoves open a set of double, swinging doors with her palm before she strolls into the room on the other side.

I pause in the doorway and take in the tall ceilings and back wall, which has floor to ceiling windows that provide a grand view of the academy grounds. There are a dozen lab tables that stand in rows on grey tiled floors while the counters of the tables are black slabs that gleam dully under the fluorescent lights hung above.

There are four people in the lab, all of them distanced from each other as they wield tongs and glassware and squint through clear goggles that they have strapped to their faces. I spot Luke among them and feel a rush of happiness.

"Hey, Luke," Tessa says as she bounds over to his lab table and perches on a nearby stool.

He remains silent for a moment, his eyes glued on the test-tube that he's holding in his latex gloved hand. The liquid inside is a light blue color and there's a faint cloud of smoke that is gently billowing from it as he swirls it. He pours the test-tube's contents into a beaker and the liquid inside turns a bright shade of green.

"Hi, Tessa," he replies as he turns his full attention to her, his light colored eyes widening as they trail past her and land on me. "Kara," he grins as he says my name.

I can hear excitement in the word as he suddenly reaches up and fidgets with his dark hair so some of the strands are lying flat.

"It's been awhile," I say.

"Yes, it has, have you downloaded the new DLC for the Lunar Islands?"

"No," I mutter as I remember that I had wanted to download it for Forever Expedition last month, but instead I was tasked with preparing for the academy by packing and shopping for supplies.

"I heard it's supposed to be good, but I haven't had time," he admits wistfully as he turns back to his worktable and messes about with some of the ingredients spread out before him.

I recognize some of them as miscellaneous gems while other items look more...organic, such as what may be a frog eyeball sitting on a metal tray. Luke doesn't appear to be fazed by the morbidity of it and plucks up the eyeball and neatly drops it into the beaker before he picks it up and begins to swirl it as the mixture turns light green.

Tessa makes a face as she laughs, "Nerds," she whispers.

"I'd say we're more like geeks," Luke counters as he gives her a lopsided smile before he turns his attention to Astrid. "And who may you be?"

Astrid opens her mouth to reply, but she stops before she can say anything and tilts her head like something has caught her attention as her eyes narrow.

There's the sudden, rhythmic sound of a person running down the hall outside of the lab as the others look in the direction of the noise. I can tell that the footsteps are drawing nearer as Luke sets down the beaker he had been holding before the doors to the lab are flung open by a boy in a disheveled uniform.

"The Draconic legion is here!" the boy shouts as he bursts into the lab.

A sudden rumbling overhead shakes the building to its foundation as I reach out and grab the edge of Luke's table. The sensation reminds me of what it feels like when a plane is flying low overhead into the Logan International airport and I look up at the ceiling as the hanging light fixtures sway.

I glance at Tessa for answers as a slow smile spreads across her face.

"The dragon flyers," she says before she runs over to the back wall where the windows are.

A flood of several other students come in from the hallway to join her and they cluster at the glass, their necks straining as they crane their heads back toward the sky. There's another, low rumbling that shakes me to my core and I can feel it in my bones and teeth.

An enormous, dark shadow drops over the grass outside, like the sun has been blotted out by a cloud. I look to Luke and Astrid, only to see that Luke is tidying up his workstation while Astrid is sitting on Tessa's abandoned stool picking at her nails like she's bored.

My attention returns to the windows when I hear a cheer rise up from the students that are standing at them. A massive, winged beast the size of a school bus soars over the polo field outside and I realize then that it's a gold-skinned dragon as its scales gleam in the sunlight. The dragon circles toward the track as it drops into a low glide, its wings spread wide to cup the air to help it slow itself before it lands in the center of the field and disappears on the other side of the bleachers.

Several other dragons fly after it, though they're smaller than the gold dragon and their colors aren't as bright. The sidewalks below are filling with students that are flocking towards the field as the people at the windows turn away and start to run out of the room. Tessa is among them as she darts past and grabs me by the wrist, a grin plastered on her face as she leads me out of the lab and down the hallway.

I struggle to keep up with her in my heels, which have begun to rub blisters on my toes as I noisily clack after her and feel envious of her riding boots. I debate taking my heels off, but it doesn't seem like Tessa is going to be slowing down anytime soon as we burst outside into a crowd of people.

The blare of a horn makes me stop and cover my ears as Tessa does the same before the horn fades and she resumes in pulling me along behind her. Someone has a portable, Bose speaker propped on their shoulder, which is pumping out a White Stripes song as cheers rise from the procession of students heading toward the field.

As we near the bleachers, Tessa quickly climbs over the railing of the lower level and sits down on the other side before I follow her. Students have already begun to pack the seats that are closest to the field where the dragon riders have dismounted.

All of the riders are wearing black clothing, which reminds me of what a SWAT officer would wear as they march across the center field. There are seven riders in total and they stop on the track and spread out shoulder to shoulder as they cross their arms behind their backs.

A hush settles over the milling students as they look toward the riders before they continue to work on finding a seat when the riders make no move to speak. Astrid and Luke join us after a minute as they sit in the spots that Tessa has been aggressively defending from other people.

Static crackles over the speakers mounted on poles around the field, like someone has tapped a microphone. I look over at the riders to see that a man in a suit is standing among them with a microphone in his hand.

The man is tall and older looking in comparison to most of the riders, his hair a bright shade of blonde that matches Astrid's and I can assume then that he's Headmaster Hallewell. Two of the riders are women and the tallest one among the riders is an ebony skinned man that stands at the end of the line. His hair is shaved to near baldness and his dark eyes watch the students with interest as his gaze meets mine for a second before he looks away.

"I am happy to announce that three of our students here at Greenwood Academy have the potential of joining the Draconic legion and will be debuting their skills in order to be considered for a position among them today," Headmaster Hallewell says as he smiles up at the filled bleachers.

Whoops and hollers rise from the watching students as some of them stomp their feet and others pump their fists. The row of riders turn away as they face the field where their dragons are as their beasts flicker out of existence before they turn to face the headmaster.

"But first, I would like to ask all of our new students to report to the field to summon their familiars for the first time," Headmaster Hallewell announces.