Lady Eira stood up from the chair. Her dress rustled.
She opened her arms. "My beautiful, beautiful baby."
Yvaine froze, then went to her.
Her mother hugged her tight. Yvaine felt the perfume. It was the same one she used to smell on her when she was little.
"Mum…" Yvaine's voice was small. "What are you doing here?"
Her mother let go but kept her hands on Yvaine's arms.
"Principal Myrrin called to tell us of your shifting miracle."
Of course. That had to be the reason. Not because she missed her. Not because she hadn't come on visiting day. Not because she wanted to see how she was doing. Just the miracle.
"Please sit, Yvaine," Principal Myrrin said.
Yvaine sat. Her gaze moved from Myrrin to her mother.
"I told you you were going to shift," Lady Eira said. "And I brought you a shift present. Actually, shift presents."
She held out a big shopping bag.
"Thanks, Mum," Yvaine said. She put it by her foot.
Principal Myrrin cleared her throat.
"The major reason you're here is because you might be a hybrid. The school system thinks so but we're not sure. It might just be trying to point out how strong you are now that you've shifted."
Yvaine blinked. "Is it possible to be a hybrid of two different wolf species?"
"It's not common," Myrrin said. "But not impossible. I've only seen witch and wolf hybrids. Don't worry. We'll study you and your powers for now."
Her mother's eyes were bright. "And since you've come to your powers, you'll be moving to the dorm you truly belong."
Yvaine blinked again.
"What? I have a dorm. Wolffire East, room eight."
Myrrin shifted in her chair.
"Yeah, you do. But you were placed there because we didn't know what species you were. I thought you were a common wolf."
Lady Eira's face went cold. "My daughter is no common wolf. She's a Theolux."
Principal Myrrin swallowed. "Sorry about that, Lady Eira. We'll be moving her to a more befitting dorm."
"You better," Lady Eira said. "My family isn't putting in gold and money into this school for our darling moonlight to be treated as a common wolf."
This was coming too late. Yvaine stared at the floor. She had already been treated as common.
"She'll be moved to Silver Howl Hall," Principal Myrrin said.
Yvaine's head shot up.
"What?"
Silver Howl Hall. That was Lucien's dorm.
"I don't want to be there," Yvaine said fast. "You can move me to a better room in my dorm."
Lady Eira's mouth tightened. "No daughter of mine will be in Wolffire East."
Yvaine's stomach dropped. It was enough to bump into Lucien in classes. Now in the same dorm? The Moon Goddess must be laughing.
"You'll fit in just fine," Lady Eira said. She reached out and stroked Yvaine's hair. "Look at that beautiful silver hair."
Yvaine stared at the shopping bag. She tried not to cry.
___
Yvaine zipped the last of her bags and looked at the room.
Zully said, "I can't believe they're moving you."
Nyx said, "I can."
Zully shoved Nyx. "You always ruin the moment."
Nyx laughed. "By being realistic. Come on girls, we've got to move these luggages down to Silver Howl Hall. It's a long distance."
Zully smiled, eyes lighting up. "Not when we can ride them."
Yvaine said, "No… no flying on luggages."
Zully said, "But we'll get there faster. I don't want to carry this all the way there. Besides, if you're going to that dorm, you'll need a grand entrance. You'll have your own personal bathroom and a big ass room."
Well. The only thing Yvaine was looking forward to was the personal bathroom. Nothing else.
She sighed. "Okay, I guess we can fly just this once."
Zully said, "Yayy." She mumbled a spell under her breath and pointed at the three bags. They lifted off the ground.
"Hop on," Zully said.
Yvaine and Nyx both hopped on one each.
The door opened and Zully spoke a word in Latin that meant fly away.
The bags moved fast through Wolffire East hall. Students outside cheered.
Yvaine's hair flew around her face. She called out to Zully, "Could you ask them to slow down?"
Nyx said, "Speed is fun. Get used to it." Nyx's luggage blew past Yvaine.
They got to the hall and flew in. Some silverwolves stopped to look. Others ignored them and rolled their eyes.
Rude. Not the kind of warm welcome she received at Wolffire East.
The bags slowed down as they came to the room. Room 6B.
The bags lowered to the ground and they got off.
Yvaine twisted the knob and opened the door.
"Woah."
Zully said, "Wow!!! I've always known Silver Howl rooms were massive. I didn't know it was this massive. Look at this… the bed… oh my goodness!"
Yvaine stared at the room. It was customized to her taste. The room felt alive. She felt like she was being charged up by the room. The lights on the wall were trapped moonlight.
Nyx said, "Okay, enough wowing, let's unpack."
Yvaine said, "Yes, let's uh… let's do that."
Zully and Nyx helped her arrange her things and in no time they were done.
Zully said, "I'm going to miss you."
Yvaine rolled her eyes. "Not like I'm dying or moving out of the school entirely. I just changed dorms. We'll see each other anytime we want. Besides, you're welcome to my dorm anytime. We could do spa night since there's a personal bathroom."
Zully said, "Yes. We can do that."
Nyx said, "You know you can just activate her mirror, right?"
Zully's eyes lit up. "Yeah that's a great idea, Nyx. Why didn't I think of that?"
Yvaine said, "Activate my mirror? What does that mean?"
Nyx said, "It's a permanent spell placed on your mirror so you can communicate with each other anytime and you can also travel through it to each other and anywhere. Since we're coven sisters, it's going to be more potent."
Yvaine said, "Are you sure that kind of magic is allowed?"
Zully said, "Pfft… nobody will find out because I'm going to also add a concealing spell so the mirror appears ordinary."
Yvaine said, "Okay. Go ahead then."
Zully said, "Let's all hold the mirror."
The three of them went to the large mirror on the wall and held it.
Zully said a spell:
"Speculum nostra, lumen vinculum,
Porta animi, porta domum,
Transit animae sine signum,
Open the link and bind us as one."
The mirror moved like water.
Zully said it was done. She moved her hand over it and spoke a sealing spell under her breath.
Nyx said, "Go on, test it."
Yvaine said, "Uh… show me Wolffire East room eight."
The mirror moved and showed the room.
Yvaine said, "Woah!!!"
Nyx was about to say something and then a knock on the door interrupted.
Zully opened the door. "Oh hey, Caelan."
Caelan? Yvaine's face suddenly went red.
Caelan was holding a small box. He said, "Uh… I heard you were moved here, so I brought a room warming present for you."
He handed her the box.
Yvaine said, "Thank you…"
Nyx nudged Zully and whispered, "We should uh get going."
They left the room.
Why did the air suddenly feel hot.
Yvaine said, "Uh… do you want to go for a walk?"
Caelan said, "Sure. We could sit under the blossom tree."
Yvaine said, "Yeah… let's go."
She grabbed a sweater and stepped out with Caelan, locking the door.