I laughed as I watched my friends chatter happily in excitement before clearing my throat and deciding now was the time to tell them the rest.

"Another thing."

"Uh oh," Tom said, noticing the look on my face.

"I have dark magic inside of me. So the Headmaster gave me a body guard who can't leave my side."

"He's the one hovering by the door like a creep," I added, trying to break the dead silence as my friends processed what I just said.

"Wait, what?!" Tom exclaimed, looking from me to Crexus.

"How's a body guard supposed to protect you from what's inside of you?" Star asked.

"I have to keep the dark magic at bay. He's just here to protect me from whoever wants to attack me."

"Shit," Joel said, eying the body guard.

"Yeah, he's fucking huge," Jeremy commented.

"Can we meet him???" Star said excitedly, not a hint of fear on her face.

"Sure. He's not a talker so don't get your hopes up. He was following me like a shadow until I told him to keep his distance."

"Why don't we invite him over here?" Tom asked.

"Fine."

I sat there in silence, staring at him somehow expecting him to read my mind and come over.

"Shouldn't we go get him?" Zion asked.

Looking over at him with a mischievous smile, I offered, "How about you pretend to strangle me and see how seriously he takes his job?"

"You sure he won't kill me?" He said looking over at Crexus with unease.

"I'll kill him if he tries," I said smiling.

Without any warning, he wrapped his arms around my neck tightly, but not tight enough for it to hurt.

Next thing I know, he went flying over the table crashing into Tom before dropping on the ground. I looked behind me to see Crexus, standing over me protectively.

"Why don't you have a seat, Crexus?"

Continuing to stand as if he hadn't heard me, I pulled his sleeve down hard causing him to flinch before raising his hand instinctually and dropping it.

"Were you about to hit me?" I asked incredulously.

He shook his head, avoiding my gaze.

"Just sit down. You're drawing attention to us," I pleaded looking to Star for help who was watching the interaction with her mouth agape like everyone else.

"Why don't you have a seat?" Tom tried, dusting himself off after climbing off the ground.

Reluctantly, Crexus stepped closer to the table, refusing to sit down.

"Can he understand us?" Joel asked, confused.

Looking into his ocean blue eyes that were glimmering in defiance I said, "Yes, he's just being stubborn."

By now, practically everyone in the Cafeteria was staring at us and the gigantic guard who was towering over us, refusing to sit down. To say it was embarrassing was an understatement.

"If he doesn't want to sit down, maybe we should go somewhere else?" Star offered, feeling just uncomfortable as I was about all the eyes boring into us.

"Agreed," Zion said, mean mugging the guard before grabbing onto Jeremy and Joel before fleeting away.

I grabbed Tom and Star before preparing to dash after him when Tom asked, "What about him?"

"He'll meet us there," I said quickly, before following Zion's quickly fleeting figure.

"Holy- Where are we?" Jeremy asked, spinning around to take a look at the room in it's entirety. It was dark, with splotches of blue here and there. By splotches, I meant just that. It looked as if someone had taken a blue brush and splashed it in random parts of the room. But surprisingly, it was fitting and almost looked abstract. I was sure it was a library before I noticed a large bed in the corner of the room. There were shelves against each corner of the room, filled with books. The blue was the only hint of color in the room besides the black bed, black couch, black table, black chair, black walls. You get the picture.

"Is this your room?" I asked, noticing his name etched into a notebook, sticking out from under his pillow.

Zion nodded.

"This place is huge! How did you get your own room?" Joel asked, sitting down on the couch.

"All the hybrids have a choice of having their own rooms or rooming with other people."

"Wait, how did we get in? We're not all hybrids," Star asked.

"Hybrids can be a mix of any supernatural creature so all powers can enter this Wing."

"You haven't been here before?" Star asked me, noticing my eyes running around every inch of the room as if I hadn't seen it before.

"No." I heard the unasked question in her voice. If he had his own room to himself and I was able to enter the wing, why hadn't he invited me before? I wanted to brush it away by saying there had been too much going on for him to find the time but the truth was, if he wanted to, he would've. Which made me wonder, why now?

Stepping closer to Zion I whispered, "You could have taken us anywhere. Why here?"

"Felt like it was time."

I heard a chair come crashing down as Crexus appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

"Where were you?" I asked, curiously.

"Even guards have to use the restroom," he said, matter of factly. There wasn't a hint of sarcasm in his voice but somehow I knew this was his version of a joke.

"Doesn't that defeat the purpose of protecting her if you're disappearing without a word?" Zion asked.

"Yeah, I could've died in the time you were gone," I added, backing Zion. Why did he make such a big deal of leaving me alone if he was going to do it anyway?

"Even when I'm gone, I'm still with you. I can sense when you're in danger through the bond the spell created, connecting us."

I jumped at the sound of his voice in my head, glaring at him in anger. He had been deliberately ignoring me this whole time when he could have connected with me in my mind. What an asshole!

So you are able to speak more than one word at a time. Use your lips next time before jumping into my mind without warning.

Hearing in the dark magic whisper to me in my mind randomly was enough, I wasn't going to have him doing it as well.

"Soooo, what's your name guard?" Tom asked.

"Don't act like you can't hear him. We all know you can," I said bluntly.

"Crexus," he said after a few seconds of stubborn silence.

"Are you a robot?"

I burst into laughter at Star's question, ignoring the glare of contempt Crexus was shooting in my direction.

"No."

"Are you capable of saying more than one word at a time?" Zion asked, annoyed.

"Yes."

"He's hopeless," I said, sighing.

Agreeing, Jeremy changed the subject similarly annoyed by the dryness of Crexus's replies.

"So what's the plan for tomorrow? What do you know about the witch?" Jer asked

"Just that she's old and powerful and nobody has seen her in awhile," I said.

"That's it? Not even a name?" Joel asked, confused.

Shaking my head, I said, "Edward hasn't told me anything."

"What was that thing about a sister that you mentioned when you got back?" Jeremy asked.

"Nothing. Caesar fucked with my head and made me believe I was related to someone I wasn't," I said cooly.

Why are you lying to your friends?

Stay out of my head, Crexus.

"How are we going to get there?" Jer asked.

Smiling, I said, "Wanna see?"

I reached out with my magic, speaking to the Earth as I imagined the white wing in my mind. Slowly, the air began to swirl in front of us, expanding until it was tall enough to allow a person to walk through.

"I'll meet you guys there," I said, grinning as I stepped through and waited at the door of the White Wing.

Star stepped through, her eyes widening so wide I thought they'd pop out of their head.

"Did we just-"

"Step through a portal and land in front of our wing," Joel finished, grinning as he threw an arm around each of us.

"You are way too cool for us, Sar," Jeremy said after leaping through the portal before it closed completely.

"I agree," Zion said, grinning at me.

"Where's Crexus?" Tom asked, the only one noticing his absence.

"Probably in the bathroom again," Jer joked.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow," Zion said, quickly planting a soft kiss on my cheek before disappearing.
I felt my cheeks flush with heat as my skin tingled in remembrance of his touch.

"Well, boys, me and Saron have Section leader duties so we'll see you tomorrow."

"Saron's section leader too?" Joel asked, raising his eyebrow at me.

Groaning, I replied, "She made me her assistant because she was too lazy to do the work herself."

"Ow!" I said rubbing my arm, where she smacked me before I heard a whoosh of Crexus appearing by my side.

"Crexus, I'm with my friends. Relax."

When he refused to disappear, I directed a message in my mind.

Keep your distance. I'm fine.

With that, he disappeared out of sight allowing me to blow out a breath I was holding.

"Does he always do that?" Tom asked, looking around and struggling to find him.

"Disappear and reappear? Yes."

We waved bye to the boys before taking off towards the section. Once we got there, Star assigned me a side of the room where we both went through and checked all the beds to make sure everyone had what they needed and nothing was broke. If I knew being Section Leader required us to do this much work, I would've never volunteered her.

Exhausted, we both rushed off to the bathrooms and took quick showers before collapsing on the beds. My eyes were barely closed before I felt myself fall asleep.

"Are you the child of promise?"

I turned around, noticing a tiny, brown haired women with matted hair and thick lines underneath her eyes. I couldn't tell if they were bags or slashes. The women looked worn, not just by exhaustion but by life itself. Simply by looking at her face, I could tell this was a woman who had lived many years, endured much suffering and heartache, but was still standing. As she wobbled towards me, her eyes shown bright red, with a fire that was both terrifying and inspiring.

"He knows you're coming."

"Who knows I'm coming?"

"You must travel the old path to get here."

"The old path?"

"You'll know when the time comes."