The Lycan Princess & the Lethal Potions Wiz

[PROLOGUE]

MANY, MANY YEARS AGO

It was tedious. But it was done.

Her position was now secured.

The voices from the realm's Crimson Dust echoed through the ears of High Lady Calliope as a triumphant smirk lifted her lips. She could hear them now – the buzzes and whispers, meaning that the power was now hers.

Finally.

Just as she was about to move, a more distinct echo came, one that whispered in an eerie tone of rage, "One who misleads the land issues a challenge... challenge...challenge... to Incanta's Spirits and that will never be forgiven... given... given..."

[CHAPTER 1]

PRESENT DAY

"Why are you holding it upside down?" Reida asked, confoundment arching her brows.

The man's gaze was stolen from the page. Dark brows rising, his plum-purple eyes pierced into her lilac ones in equal parts annoyed and confused. "Pardon?" he replied, his deep voice carrying a lilt exhibited by the oldest and some of the most revered wizarding families in Incanta. Hair as deep as raven with the occasional dark purple streaks was tied into a high bun as some strands fell over his eyes, which he pushed back out of habit.

Reida saw him from a distance. Her family had just arrived but her parents were caught in a conversation with Incanta's politicians. Reida wasn't one to care much about politics, so her eyes wandered, and she spotted him sitting alone on one of the leaf-shaped benches outside the walls of Thavma University.

There was a book on his lap, where his eyes were glued to. A white bird with black and gold butterfly wings soared and landed on the pages, pecking on the side the wizard was reading. He gently plucked the small creature off the page and set it on the bench next to him. The action was so natural, like it wasn't the first time he'd place a bird aside when it landed on his things. The bird wasn't pleased, and its blunt beak pecked against his thigh, receiving no response from him so it chirped and hopped like it was throwing a tantrum before ultimately giving up and flying away.

"The book," Reida said like it was obvious, pointing at the thick, indigo hardcover with an elaborated white design, the standard image of a potion bottle sat on one side – upside down. "How are you able to read it like that? Are you using a spell?"

Befuddled, his brows dipped lower. His gaze dropped, and he angled the cover toward himself. His bewilderment turned into comprehension and amusement. "Why yes," he said. "And the spell only requires one simple ingredient." The mischievous glint in his eye held her curiosity-lit pair when he continued, "Glue."

He flipped the book around, surprising Reida when the interior wasn't upside down. That was when she noticed the edges of the book were tattered, like the whole thing was ripped off the cover before being glued back – upside down.

Her curiosity vaporized, annoyance taking its place and filtering through her skin. Reida's cheeks burned in embarrassment and a tinge of anger, a reaction that was amusing him, judging by the way he was pressing back a smile. "My apologies. I was just being friendly."

"Were you?" Reida retorted, hearing her mother in her tone and reigned back her pulsating anger, dragging out an exhale. "Never mind. Let's start again: are most books in the university torn out and glued upside down?" She knew she should've requested the Library Guide to be sent with her textbooks!

His lips pressed and lifted like he was trying to contain the laughter bubbling in his chest. "That would be quite a world to live in, won't it?"

Tell that to her mother and the queen would probably tear someone's head off and glue it back upside down.

"But no," he uttered, bringing Reida out of her thoughts as he leaned back against the bench, two fingers secured between the pages he was reading like a bookmark. "I'm probably the only one with a book like this, thanks to my former roommate."

"Why would he do that?"

"I put his name on a volunteer list, and he had to cancel a date because of it."

Brows furrowing, Reida asked, "So, you made him volunteer and... stole his date?"

A visible shudder crawled down his skin and all humor drained from his face. His plum purple eyes emanated only fear. "Holy Spirits, no. I'd take cleaning Chancellor Higgin's bunyip over pursuing Messephire Mabel any day."

Reida found that name familiar, like a piece of information that had been tucked deep in the crevasses of her mind but needed dusting from its prolonged lack of usage.

Messephire Mabel. Where had she heard it?

"Anyway," he continued. "It wasn't as if he was alone. We were volunteering together. I put my own name down right after his. Messephire Mabel was after his status, nothing more. I'd say I did him a favor, but..." He trailed off, waving the book between them. "...I don't think he agreed."

"Something tells me you're prone to pulling everyone's leg," she said, brows pulling to the center but she couldn't fight back a smile.

He released a brief chuckle. The depth and roughness of the sound was quiet, but carried across the space and warmed her center. "Not everyone," he admitted. "It depends on the person."

There was an ease in this, in talking to him. Unlike her mother, Reida was not gifted to excel in a social setting. That gene must have bypassed her and gone to her brother. But with this wizard, she didn't even remember being bad at holding a conversation with a stranger. It was odd. But it was also liberating.

"And I happen to exhibit the necessary attributes to have my leg pulled?" she queried, leaning into his energy.

"Well, you do share certain attributes with the only other person's leg I pull, so..."

"Oh, your former roommate's a lycan?" she exclaimed.

"Fortunately, no." He looked genuinely relieved. "Can you imagine the increased strength he'd have to deliver that punch to my stomach? He already had to drag me to the infirmary after the blow because I couldn't walk properly on my own. And I had to drink an antidote made from a combination of roots that were far from pleasant. If he was a lycan, I probably had to drink a combination of soils and worms with the roots."

A chuckle escaped her. Something in his words drew Reida closer. She wasn't sure what it was – his response, his aura, his action, his relationship with this roommate she hadn't met yet, the gleam in his eyes, or just his smile. There was something about him, something warm yet distant, direct yet layered. A faint breeze blew past them, and she detected his scent of cedar, white musk, and a fresh woody fragrance she'd been smelling from Incanta's trees, never thinking these scents could be combined and produce such a welcoming aroma until now.

His eyes skated across her face, wondering how long the deity spent sculpting a woman this beautiful. She gave off an inviting presence, and her face was the definition of perfection, curving in the right places and angling where it should, from her brows to her nose to the curve of her lips. Still, it'd take a lot to beat those lilac eyes. The essence in them was something he'd never seen. He'd seen a photograph to aid recognition when they met, but it paled in comparison to the life version of her.

"Reida," she introduced herself, her right hand stretched to her left shoulder – the manner of greeting in Incanta.

His palm goes to his own left shoulder as he stood in his deep purple button-up suit, towering over her by several inches, returning her greeting when he murmured in a quiet baritone, "I know." His eyes travel over her shoulder, seeing someone approaching. "I'll leave you to it, Your Highness," he uttered.

He barely turned when her voice hauled him back. "You haven't given me your name."

He tried his best to hide the way her voice affected him, the insistence in it that tugged the organ in his chest when they barely knew each other. With a casual smile, he simply replied, "How about we save that for the right person to introduce us? I don't think this was how we're supposed to meet, Your Highness."

"It's just Reida."

There was something in his smile – the slight tip of his lips, like he wanted to take her up on the informality but knew he shouldn't. "We'll see."

He picked up his book, offered a curt dip of his head with that slight quirk of his lips, and left.

Reida watched his retreating figure, puzzled and bemused.

"Who was that?" Reida's brother, Ken, asked, protectiveness lacing his voice despite being the younger sibling.

"I don't know. He didn't give me his name."

Ken sighed, looking around and dropping a low murmur of dissatisfaction, "This place just gets weirder and weirder."

Their parents were still stuck in the political chat that Ken felt had some intriguing updates, but the young prince had to forgo tuning in when his father gave him the look to watch over his elder sister.

Reida gave her brother an arched scowl. "We've only been here for an hour, counting the time we arrived at the teleport station."

Ken checked the time on his phone. "An hour and six minutes. I still don't understand why they don't just plant teleport tubes here."

"What part of it-has-to-be-in-the-most-strategic-locations-due-to-the-scarcity-of-materials-and-high-cost-of-maintenance do you not understand?"

"It's hard to believe the realm of Incanta is dying in lack of resources and expertise when there are things like..." His eyes wandered and settled on the perfect example. "...those trees. Look at them. We don't have trees with pink leaves and those...what are those? Those red, dangling things like banana peels."

"Flowers – louloúdia."

Ken heaved a sigh. "Weirder and weirder," he murmured.

"And leaves and flowers don't make a teleport tube."

"How enlightening," a deep voice they grew up with interrupted. The lycan duke turned to Ken and added, "Though common sense would've told you what your sister just did."

"Uncle Greg, you made it," Reida greeted him with a hug.

"Of course we did, princess." Greg squeezed her in return, eyeing Ken with an are-you-stupid look.

Ken threw his hands in the air. "Have you seen this place, Uncle Greg?" As the Head of the Secret Service, of course their uncle did. But that was beside the point. "Nothing subscribes to common sense here. I mean, you've heard what their chancellor has for a pet – a bunyip. A bunyip!" Ken repeated just to emphasize his point.

Greg's brows raised when his gaze went to his niece. "A what?"

"A bunyip," Reida said with an innocent blink. "I sent you and Aunt Sush a picture a few weeks ago. You know, that thing with webbed feet, sharp teeth, and lives in a swamp?"

"Ah," Greg nodded, internally agreeing with his nephew about common sense being inapplicable in Incanta, but refusing to concur aloud, knowing the boy had grown sharp enough to read it from his face. "Your aunt tried to talk me out of calling it a bunny. But your sister and I..." He revealed a guilty smile, not something he'd show anyone beyond the family. "Old habits die hard, princess, let's just put it that way."

"Harder when it's being kept alive by your favorite niece," Ken added just to drive the point home.

"Jealous again, big brother?" Enora, youngest of three siblings, appeared next to her favorite uncle, smirk tugging high and proud, eyeing her older twin the same way she always did when she was pushing his buttons.

"Oh, please," Ken muttered, not saying more when their parents were within earshot.

"Well, that's done," Lucy, the queen and mother of the bickering siblings, announced with relief.

The king, Xandar, was still cooling down from the agitation, letting the sparks from the mate bond ebb away any desire to be uncivilized (or murderous). "We should've put 'no political chatting' on our agenda."

Greg numbly said, "I did offer to kill them."

His mate and duchess, Sush, added, "And I offered to bury them and handle the media storm that would follow."

Sush's favorite nephew, Lewis Blackfur, recounted his gardening experience and chimed in, "I've helped Mom in the greenhouse and nursery often enough. I think I can handle a shovel."

The queen's firm gaze began with the duke of L'ouest when she uttered a firm, "No." Then the duchess of L'ouest. "No." And then softened considerably at Lewis. "And no. Goddess," Lucy sigh.

The duke of L'est, Christian Blackfur, saw it necessary to look his son in the eye and chide, "Your mother did not teach you gardening to bury politicians, Lewis. The only creatures you're allowed to bury are your sister's suitors, if you know of any, in which case, let me know because I'll buy the plot, soil and a new shovel."

"Christian!" Annie, his duchess, chastised while their daughter, Ianne, chuckled, thinking her father was joking when her mother could tell he was dead serious.

Not wanting to waste more time, Lucy wrapped her eldest pup in a brief embrace and said, "So sorry for delaying this, cupcake. Come, let's go before your uncle, aunt, and cousin decide to start a murder expedition that'll most likely involve your sister. Goddess knows your father and I won't be getting any sleep if that happens."

They walked through the lowered drawbridge held by the boughs of the two pink-leaved trees bookending each side of the entrance. Its red, slender flowers attracted an array of birds with dual-colored eyes and butterfly wings. A red bird with purple wings dotted with black blots leaped from a branch and soared. Reida's eyes followed it as the animal made a smooth flight around the courtyard swarmed with students.

"Weirder and weirder." Her brother's brows creased at the birds with more askance than wide-eyed wonder.

"They look better than they do in books! Their wings really are thicker than the usual butterflies we're used to seeing. Look – that one." She pointed at a pearl-white bird with black and gold butterfly wings. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

"It's also extremely rare," the voice she'd heard just moments ago echoed.

Her family turned to the source, eyes converging on the two young men, one of a larger build in a gray shirt and jeans; the other of a slightly narrower frame in a dark purple button-up suit.

The one in gray beamed and offered the queen the usual hug. "Hey, Aunt Lucy."

"Liam, have you grown taller again?" his favorite aunt teased.

He chuckled. "I doubt it. You just saw me last week."

"And yet it feels like you've grown a few inches already."

With a hand on Ken's shoulder, Liam said, "Well, I'm still shorter than my little cousin here, so I doubt I've grown that much. Oh," Glancing at his purple-suit friend, he introduced, "Aunt Lucy, everyone, this is my postgrad roommate and accompli- I mean, best friend – the one I told you all about – Theodore Ischyrós. Theo for short."

Theo allowed himself not more than a glimpse of Reida, practising a level of restraint like he never had to in a long time, yet couldn't help his peripheral vision from catching the way her lilac eyes widened in realization, unable to help his lips from curling in a way that spoke for his amusement.

He only looked away when Liam stood aside, and Theo put on his best smile for the queen, offering her a slight bow – following his best friend's advice in offering her the highest form of respect to please the king, but not take the bow all the way to keep the queen comfortable. "Your Majesty."

"Aw, you don't have to do that, Theo," Lucy said, offering him a quick hug. "We've heard so much about you that you're practically family. And Liam mentioned you're big on volunteering," she noted with a knowing gleam in her eyes.

Playing by ear, Theo replied, "Well, I do my best to support the causes I believe in, Your Majesty."

Lewis and Enora snorted in unison, exchanging a conspiratorial look, everyone in the family being familiar with Theo putting Liam's name down for that one volunteer list.

When Theo moved on to greet the king, Xandar shook his ready hand, pleased to feel the strength in the shake, not knowing the wizard practised the gesture at least fifty times with Liam before this day as the king built on his wife's praise. "Your service to those in need is deeply appreciated, Theodore."

"I do my best to help, Your Majesty."

"Mm." Bringing himself nearer to the boy's ear, Xandar added, "As long as you know when to step in and when to keep your distance, we'll be fine."

Xandar didn't fail to notice the way Theo looked at his daughter in that split second, and since the overprotective father knew how one's title, wealth, and influence attracted flattery and interest of both the authentic and inauthentic kind, he made it a point to keep these admirers in their lane.

Though daunted, Theo managed to reply, "I've been brought up to be quite skilled in achieving that particular balance, Your Majesty. I won't do more than necessary."

'Xandar, stop scaring him! He's Liam's friend!' the queen admonished her husband through their mind-link.

Their eyes cleared and Xandar let go of Theo's hand, turning back to his mate, softening entirely and planting a kiss on her head, gazing into her disapproving glower with a compliant tip of his lips, looking nothing like the beast who'd frightened someone just seconds ago. "As you wish, my queen."

"With all the weirdness, you'd think these weirdos would have something else to look at," Greg murmured to Sush, having caught Theo's glimpse himself. And unlike his cousin and cousin-in-law, Greg's eyes hadn't been resting, considering the number of "boys" of every age glancing or outright staring at his little sweetheart to the point he was casting glares across the courtyard, almost releasing a growl on numerous occasions.

Enora didn't seem bothered though, knowing she was safely tucked under the blanket of her uncle's protective glare and aunt's murderous wrath, so she and Lewis simply looked around the courtyard, judging either the odd-looking trees, flowers, birds, or creatures, whispering between themselves and chuckling quietly until it was time to get Reida and Ianne registered.

At the registration booth Liam and Theo led them to, the volunteer on duty dipped the tip of her green-stained fingernail into more green ink and tapped twice in the space next to Reida's name, making it disappear from the sheet on her left headed "Students To Arrive" and appear on the sheet on her right headed "Students Who've Registered", then repeated the process with Ianne Blackfur. The green ink synchronized student records not just in the entire row of registration booths, but also in the filing system of the university, so every member of staff would know – in real-time – which students had arrived and which hadn't.

"Professor Ischyrós is asking for you, Theo," the volunteer said, flipping the yellow scriblet toward him, showing the emerging scribble of, "Someone, get my nephew to my office. I need to reach the crystal ball one of you flatworms put on the top shelf. Prof. H.I."

While those in the kingdom, empire and human territory sent messages through texting with a device; incantas sent them through the process they called scribbling – because they were literally scribbling on the scriblet in their own handwriting with the attached pen (that had been enchanted to attach itself back even if the owner dropped it by accident). The sender's name appeared at the end, so when inexperienced beings signed off at the end of their message, their name would appear twice at the recipient's end. Messages didn't appear until it came into contact with the rightful recipient's touch, which made the contents secure even if someone dropped their scriblet.

At the sight of his aunt's name, Theo's brows furrowed, and he did an instinctive sweep across the courtyard, knowing the message was appearing on every scriblet in every volunteer's hand since professors used this way of communicating with them. Some met his hard gaze because of the message, others mouth his aunt's name to convey it.

Lips pulled into a grim line, he merely gave them a nod and continue his scan. When Theo found nothing, he turned back to his best friend. "I better go help her."

"Yeah, or she'll give us both detention and we'll be dusting all her crystal balls and tarot cards," Liam tried to make light of the situation, but Theo's mind was still on identifying the culprit, so he only managed a small smile.

Turning back to the princess's entourage, which seemed to be getting bigger when her extended family arrived, the wizard offered a curt bow. "Please excuse me, Your Majesties, Your Highnesses, and Your Graces, Professor Hexena has sent for me. I must take my leave. It was an honor to meet all of you today."

"You don't have to bow, Theo," said the queen with a friendly smile. "Especially not in an informal setting like this." Pivoting to her husband with a coaxing gaze, she prompted, "Isn't that right, my king?"

The king beamed, and murmured more to her than to Theo, "Of course, my queen."

Theo managed a more genuine smile at witnessing the couple's interaction, feeling the radiating love that he'd only ever heard about before today. He then took his leave. His smile faltered as soon as he turned around. His sharpened purple eyes were kept on full alert, scouring for suspects who pulled his aunt's cloak.

Theo got out his wand from the wand pocket of his pants and tapped it on his aunt's classroom door twice, watching the usual purple hue glowing around the wooden door before...

"NEPHEW! GET IN HERE!" Her shout echoed even before the doors unlocked themselves and opened to let him in.

Theo only managed two steps before the sight before his eyes brought him to a sudden halt. His aunt's feet were planted on the edge of a chair that was precariously stacked on three more chairs – all four of which had been stacked on a flower pot that was – thankfully – still on the floor. The swaying tower of chairs and flowerpot looked like it was on the verge of falling over.

Trying not to panic, he swallowed a lump in his throat and asked sardonically, "Do you need help putting your desk up there, Aunt Hexena?"

Hexena's unruly raven curls with the occasional purple streaks swayed across her fair face as her sights snapped from the crystal ball on the top shelf to her nephew down below, and her plum-purple eyes gained a new, determined shade. "The last time I did that to my desk, I broke it. Chancellor Higgins was not happy. I'd break my back before breaking another desk."

"Can you just... come back down?"

"I'll come back down as soon as you get me that." She pointed at the crystal ball, stubbornly remaining on the creaking chair. "I was going to ask Váskas to help me get it but he's only returning to campus tomorrow. Come on, nephew. Wave that wand."

Knowing she was going to stay there until she got what she wanted, Theo sighed and aimed his wand at the crystal ball, muttering, "Ereh Emoc."

The crystal ball unglued itself from the top shelf and glided seamlessly past Hexena and landed in Theo's hands. "Now, please. Come down."

To his utter incredulity, his aunt didn't climb down. She leaped off the stack of chairs that wobbled and were seconds away from collapsing before Theo instinctively aimed his wand and shouted, "Ezeerf!"

The chairs and flowerpot froze in mid-air, tilting and half-falling.

His aunt landed on a misty fog next to her desk – the spell she mixed and sprinkled on her floor before she mounted the stacked furniture.

"Thank you," his aunt said cheerily, grabbing the crystal ball off his hand when he was still in shock.

She then placed it in a transparent cube, opening the side filter and grabbed a few bottles from the lower shelf while Theo picked the chairs from the air and put them back on the floor, telling himself that his aunt was safely on the ground now so there was no longer any need for his heart to hammer this quickly.

"You can go back out there now," his aunt said. "I'll send for you again if I find another crystal ball somewhere unreachable. This is definitely not worse than the time someone shrunk my favorite tarot deck and put it into my coffee like a sugar cube."

Theo wasn't leaving until he knew who did it, though he already had a good guess. Watching the billowing smoke of blue and yellow fill the space in the cube now holding the crystal ball he'd just retrieved, he said, "It has to be those two. No one else would do this. This is going to be further proof that they should've been expelled."

"Alas, they weren't. Holding them here for an extra two semesters while they clean my office wasn't that bad of a punishment."

"It wasn't that great of a punishment either," he muttered.

"Contentment breeds peace, nephew."

"The same way it sustains injustice," he said, tone dipping a notch.

Hexena sighed and placed her wrinkled hands on his shoulders. He grew up so fast, she thought. "Given what I did," she reminded, her tone low like she was sharing a secret when it was a well-known truth, "the fact that I'm still here today is an injustice to many."

"It's not! The fact that they aren't burning in a cauldron right now is!"

They had this conversation many times before, and it always ended the same way – Hexena being grateful she was still alive to watch her nephew grow while her nephew fumed at the injustice that befallen her, for a crime she didn't instigate, for a crime that got her wand snapped and broken right in front of her eyes, then snapped again in front of the public, who cheered!

Cheered.

And as if that wasn't enough, she was denied welfare despite having to raise him, a child. No one wanted to employ her after the purported crime. Chancellor Labigail Higgins and Professor Váskas Dérma were her saving grace. They took pay-cuts so that the university had enough to pay Hexena to teach, enabling her to raise her nephew, and she shed tears of relief when she realized he wasn't about to be taken away and put into an orphanage.

While she went through the turmoil on her own, having to put on a smile for the clueless little thing that Theo was, the real culprits were having the best time of their lives. Unscathed, sympathized, and revered, despite everything they'd done.

"Since they're not burning in a cauldron yet," his aunt began, having learned the best way to move forward was by agreeing with her nephew (which she did in her bones but never aloud) then change the subject to one that was more productive. "How about we just wait for the day he scalds his mate's skin and then his own?"

He gave her an arched look. "Dragon-shifters can't scald their own skin, Aunt Hexena."

"I didn't say to use fire or heat, did I?" she replied with a smirk.

His frown turned into a smile, easing his aunt's heart. "I'd give my degrees to see that day," he mused, eyes darting to the smoky cube now.

The blue and yellow smoke produced the desired shade of green and, from the center, it revealed a face, then zoomed out and revealed another face, giggling in a taunting way that made Theo consider looking into how to properly strangle someone.

"Like I said," Theo started again. "They should've been expelled."

Lifting the cube and making her way out, Hexena uttered, "I'll do my best to recommend that but you know Chancellor Higgins's hands may be bound."

Theo kept her pace, walking down corridors by her side, casting a stern eye at anyone who may even look like they'd pull his aunt's cloak.

"So, what are they like?" she asked all of a sudden.

"Who?" Theo blinked.

"I understand you met your ex-roomie's family? What are they like?"

Reida's face came to mind. In an instant, the heaviness in his chest lifted, the cloud of rage at his aunt's situation became more bearable. "They're..." his voice trailed off, making Hexena pause and turn. She scrutinized his face the same way she looked into his first wound when he fell off a broomstick. "They're lycans and..."

"Well, you don't say," Hexena chimed in feigned surprise.

Theo's lips cracked into a smile. "They're good people, all of them. The king is probably my favorite."

"Friendly?"

"Deathly. He could scare an entire battalion. I'd love to see him go head-to-head with dragon-shifters. He'd probably grab one by its tail and use his hostage as a whip, swinging it around to kill the rest."

Double-blinking at the visual he'd just painted, Hexena proceeded down the corridor she knew by heart. "You have an odd taste in people, except for Liam. That one's a good boy."

"He's twenty-four, just three years younger than I am."

"Your point being?"

"We're not boys anymore."

"So, what's her name?"

"What?" He stopped, stumped.

"You went speechless and were flushing redder than louloúdia when I asked what his family was like. Someone caught your fancy. What's her name?"

"I've never fancied anyone but you, Au-"

"Save the flattery and cut to the name or I'll concoct a truth potion and inject it into your veins."

"Reida," he answered despite knowing that his aunt – like anyone else – would need legal authorization before injecting any potions into anyone. He then took a quick look around to make sure no one had heard him.

"The princess?" his aunt chimed, a little louder than necessary, making his eyes take a second sweep around them. Hexena's lips tipped into a teasing smirk. "You have regal taste, nephew."

He gave a shake of his head, feeling the blush she mentioned rising to his cheeks and heating his nape. "It wasn't intentional," he murmured.

"Falling in love normally never is. Doing the necessary to stay in love, though, that would be," she said, her voice carrying a melancholic heaviness that Theo only understood when he got older.

"I doubt I've fallen for her," he clarified. "We just met. I hardly know her."

"And she has this effect on you already. Must be quite the woman."

"She's... curious, bold, beautiful. An open-book."

"You don't say," she teased, and only then did Theo realize he was talking like a wizard in love. "Does Liam know?"

"There's nothing to know."

"Hm. I'm certain it'll show, one way or another."

"That's not very encouraging."

"Am I to understand you plan to keep your feelings to yourself for all eternity? It's a long time, nephew. What if healthcare advances enough to keep you alive past 500 years old?"

"We had one conversation, Aunt Hexena. One. And Liam said she's four months shy of twenty – four months shy of possibly meeting her bonded mate."

"And you hope it would be you?"

Theo had to press his lips shut tight, but his heart screamed for it to be him, a reaction he couldn't wrap his head around. They'd just met. He knew nothing about her... Well, nothing but the little he knew from Liam – that she and their other cousin, Ianne, were unusually fast-learners (much like Theo and Liam themselves) and spent an average of four months to learn what their peers would take a year to absorb.

Ianne was the botanical expert, enrolled here in Thavma to further her knowledge in fertilizers and pest control.

Reida was obsessed with cures, hence her master's degree application to Thavma to study incantas' ingredients, potions, and methods, hoping to develop a cure for oleander, silver, allicin, and zahar poisoning.

###

When Theo first learned the princess and lady were applying to Thavma, his prejudice got the better of him, and he thought they'd be accepted even without going through the standard application procedure, given who they were. But after applications were approved by the senior professors, Theo – who had just earned his latest academic title in lethal potions – was granted permission to read the personal statements of those he'd be teaching in the coming term. He made it a point to read them anonymously before putting a name to each piece.

There was one that stood out from the rest, its content well-researched and the writing addicting. He was only halfway through before he flipped to the first page for a name, and the burn of shame scalded his skin and scorched every cell in his being.

How could he have entertained the mere thought of the princess being unqualified?

Reading her personal statement was like reading a storybook and textbook at the same time. It was in equal parts riveting and logical – not a balance easily achieved by even the greatest and most experienced researchers.

She was brilliant.

When Liam asked Theo if he had gotten to his cousin's personal statement yet and whether he'd change anything (because Reida asked him to ask), Theo was tongue-tied. He took a moment to refocus and looked at it with a more critical (and judgmental) eye, saying that it was perfect overall, but he would've liked to read more about her progress on synthetically neutralizing allicin because "it's the shortest out of the three."

Liam laughed, then thanked him, dropping Reida a message when he mentioned in passing, "Probably because we have the Forest of Oderem for allicin problems. Too bad the forest doesn't cure much else, though."

###

Bringing himself out of his thoughts, Theo now found himself outside Chancellor Higgin's door. His aunt gave him a taunting look with a wry smile. "You've never taken that long to answer a question."

His mouth opened as her fist knocked the door in three forceful, successive bangs.

"Screeching séance, Hexena!" Chancellor Higgins cursed from behind the doors, jumping at the sound.

"A moment of your time, Labigail?" Hexena asked in her sweetest voice.

The doors flew open inward and the bob-length, silver-haired chancellor was washing her partially yellow hand at the office sink with a potion-reversal bar soap when she skipped past formalities. "Thanks a lot."

"That's not Bunny's food, is it?" Hexena casually asked, striding in with her smoky cube.

Satisfied with her non-yellow hands, Labigail Higgins wiped off the remaining moisture and said, "I'd kill you before I kill my pet. What is it this time?"

Their speech blurred out as the doors slowly closed in Theo's face, and he was left staring at the door. He stood outside, waited, and hoped – hoped that the punishment would far surpass being kept back a term or two.

"Hey," Liam's voice had Theo putting away his vengeful thoughts. He gratefully accepted a pink-and-yellow sandwich from his friend when Liam leaned against the wall next to him and muttered, "Them again?"

Theo gave a curt nod, and deciding he needed a distraction, he asked, "Your cousins alright?"

"Yeah, they're fine. Saw them off in their dorm. The whole entourage is helping them unpack and they'll howl to the sky if they need help."

Theo managed a smile, and all they did next was wait in silence.