One Mark

Enchanting a small suitcase to hold an entire dorm room's worth of supplies was easily the best summer project I'd ever spent time on. It wasn't a particularly difficult piece of magic, but creating one so big provided a bit of a challenge. Not to mention, it was expensive to gather all the materials I needed. It wasn't every day you just happened across a full liter of stardust. But I needed it to punch a hole in reality to create my little pocket dimension. After all, where is a boy supposed to store all his cute crop tops if not in the void?

Not that I'd ever get the chance to wear them this year. In fifteen minutes, I was teleporting to the mountains of West Virginia, where a tiny, elite paranormal university was nestled into a valley. It was called Widdershins Academy, and it was only for the best of the best. And since I'd gotten a full-ride there, that meant if I had anything less than a perfect GPA, I would lose my funding.

Now, my family wasn't poor. Being from a long line of witches comes with its perks. However, an academy like Widdershins had no use for money. They charged tuition in years of service to the school. It wasn't exactly slavery, but it wasn't freedom either. And the last thing I wanted to do was be bound to that school for the next five to ten years every time they had an emergency.

That was just not my thing.

I was what you'd call a free spirit. In other words, I did what I damn well pleased and to hell with anyone who thought otherwise. I was far too young and gay to give a fuck what anyone thought about me.

However, unlike most witches, I didn't let the power go to my head. Since I was a kid, my parents had been teaching me how to be responsible with my magic. Because, much like genies and wishes, magic wasn't an exact art. It could go wrong. Terribly wrong if you weren't careful. And there were plenty who had paid the ultimate price for not being careful.

But I was in school, and that kind of magic wasn't something we studied. We did things like divination or conjuration or whatever. But lighting candles with a flick of your finger or telling the future weren't really my focus. I was what they called a SpiritWitch. That meant I could do just about any kind of magic, but my power came from the universe itself. I could manipulate light, change electromagnetic fields, and even manipulate life itself.

"Are you almost done packing?" a familiar feminine voice called up the stairs. "Your ride is here."

"Be down in a minute, Mom."

I stuffed the last of my clothes into the void inside the suitcase. The books were already in there, not to mention an entire semester's worth of supplies for my classes. I took one last look around the room, making sure I'd gotten everything. Just as I was ready to close the case, my gaze fell on the little wolf plushy that sat nestled between my pillows.

"Do you want to come with me, Artie?" I asked, picking up the fluffy toy I'd had for years.

He didn't respond, of course, because he was a stuffed animal. I turned him over, playing with the fur on his ears. It felt a bit childish to be so attached to him, but I couldn't help it. He'd been my only companion for a long time. After all, witch children didn't go to public school or have neighborhood friends. Puberty was a dangerous time to have access to magic. So Artie was the only thing I had to talk to besides my parents. And who the hell wants to talk to their parents?

"Yeah, you're coming with me," I smiled, putting him gently into the void case. "It's gonna be a lonely semester anyway with my capstone project. No friends or fun for me."

With a sigh, I clicked the case closed and hefted it from the bed. I strained under the weight of it, grunting a bit as I carried it toward the door. That was the problem with using the void. It was oddly heavy.

"There you are," my mother said as I came down the stairs with my case.

As always, she was dressed to the nines. It was two in the afternoon on a Wednesday, and she was wearing a long black dress fit for a ball. Her hair was done perfectly, and a diamond necklace hugged her neck. And, as always, there was a martini in her left hand. The woman loved to drink. Then again, she was also a gifted diviner of the future. If I had the power to see nearly everything that was going to happen to me, I'd drink, too.

Next to her stood a man in a uniform from the school. He was my ride. In fact, he'd already drawn out the teleportation sigil on the floor of the living room.

And my father? Well, he was nowhere to be seen as usual. He had a tendency only to show up when he could take credit for my successes or chastise me for my failures.

I didn't miss him.

"Where's all your luggage, darling?" my mother asked, glancing at the single suitcase I dropped to the floor beside me with a thud. "You'll need more than that for the semester."

"I enchanted it," I replied with a smile. "Everything's in there."

She smiled back. "You're getting better at shielding yourself from me. I didn't have a clue."

"I like to keep things interesting."

"That's for sure." She took a sip of her martini before giving me a very delicate hug. "Now, have a good semester. I've seen that there's going to be an outbreak of the flu in the second week that nobody will expect, so make sure you wash your hands and do a masking spell. You'll need your strength for your capstone project."

I lifted an eyebrow. "Any guesses as to what it might be?"

She paused for a moment, furrowing her brows as she stared into my eyes. Hers were violet, just like mine. I felt a tinge on the back of my skull, but it went no further than that. My shielding really was getting better.

She shook her head, smiling again. "I have no idea."

"Good. It'll be a surprise then."

"I love surprises. I haven't had a good one in nearly thirty years."

I hefted my suitcase up once again, stepping into the teleportation circle. "Ready?"

The man gave me a nod and stepped up beside me.

"I'll tell your father you missed him," my mother said as the man began to chant. The circle around us glowed with golden light, and I felt myself become suddenly lighter.

"Don't bother," I scoffed.

"Markus Altair! Don't talk about your–"

But before she could finish, I felt the world drop out from under me. In a flash of golden light, I was plummeting through space and time at an astounding speed. Then, just as soon as it began, my feet hit solid ground again. I opened my eyes as warm sunshine spilled across my skin, taking in the massive circle of stones I now stood in.

"Welcome back to Widdershins, sir," the teleporter nodded, tipping his hat.

"Thanks for the lift," I replied.

I went to heft up my suitcase once more but decided against it. With a muttered incantation and a flick of my wrist, the suitcase lifted itself into the air, floating a few inches off the ground.

"Come on then," I said, gesturing for it to follow as I headed out of the circle.

As soon as I was beyond the standing stones, I stopped for a moment, stretching in the warmth of the sun. My family home was in downtown Chicago. It was cold, windy, and the air smelled like stale asshole. But here, tucked into a valley of the Appalachian Mountains, the air was sweet, birds sang in the trees, and the world felt alive. I never got tired of coming back to this place.

It was too bad I only had another year to enjoy it.

But I could be sad about that later. Right now, I just wanted to get settled into my room and maybe catch up with some friends in the quad. Doing a quick glance back to make sure my suitcase was still following me, I headed toward the building that would be my home for the next several months.

I knew exactly where my room was. It was the same one I'd stayed in every year, thanks to my scholarship. It was one of the few at the far corner of the building, which meant my room was not only bigger than the rest, but it came with two walls full of windows instead of just one. The only downside was that the bathroom shared a wall with my dorm room. However, it wasn't that big of a deal to cast a silencing charm on it. Listening to a minotaur take a shit was not my idea of a great wake-up call.

The four-story building cast a long shadow even in the early afternoon sun. I smiled as I caught the shimmer of the warding dome covering the entire campus. It rendered the entire university invisible and undetectable. Even if a human walked right up to it, they'd see nothing. And if they touched it, they'd black out only to find themselves waking up over a hundred yards away with the nagging sensation that they needed to get home as quickly as possible.

It was a clever ward and one that had taken several dozen witches and sorcerers to put in place permanently. If I recall it correctly, I believe one of the components for the spell was gold coins willingly given from a dragon's hoard. They'd needed over a thousand of them to complete the circle around the school. And let me tell you, getting a dragon to part with one coin is a problem. But a thousand?

Let's just say it was a long project.

Stepping inside the dormitory, I walked right past the sign-in booth that was crowded with freshman, all of them scrambling to get their keys. Our Resident Assistant, a dryad, looked up and gestured for me to come over.

"Don't worry," I said, waving her off. "I have the key from the last year."

She said something, but I didn't catch it over the cacophony of freshies. It didn't matter anyway. Check-in was the same every year. I'd just fill out the paperwork later.

At the end of the hall, I turned right, heading to the furthest right door. But when I got there, I noticed it was already ajar. That was odd. Usually, the RAs were very adamant about locking the rooms before people moved in.

I stopped for a moment as a strange scent struck my nose. It was a combination of sweat and wet dog. I crinkled my nose. Good thing I brought my air fresheners. There were just some things that plug-ins did better than magic. I figured it was just some stinky freshman down the hall anyway, so it wouldn't stick around for long.

Pushing the door open, I stepped inside. However, I only made it a single step before I stopped dead in my tracks, my suitcase crashing into the back of my legs.

"Uh… who the fuck are you?" I said, staring at the hunky man sitting on the edge of my desk in his underwear, eating Cheerios. "What are you doing in my room?"

I couldn't help giving him a good once over. Dude was stacked. His muscles just went on for days. He had short brown hair swiped to the side, a clean-shaven chin, and the most beautiful bright green eyes I'd ever seen. And judging by the bulge in his underwear, he was no slouch in that department either.

Lucky fucking bastard hit the genetic lottery.

"Your room?" he scoffed, dropping his spoon into the bowl. "This is my room. Your skinny ass can fuck off."

Yep. I hated him. Hot people were always easy to hate. Probably because they were such entitled fucks.

"No, it's not," I replied, a hand on my hip immediately as I got defensive. "I've been in this one for the past three years. I can assure you, it's mine." That wet dog and sweat smell hit me again as he started to move. I realized what he was immediately. "And I'd appreciate it if you didn't stink up the place with your werewolf stench. You haven't pissed on anything, have you?"

He stopped dead in his tracks, his neck cracking as he looked up at me.

"The fuck did you just say to me?" he growled.

"Markus!"

I turned around to find my RA standing in my doorway, her green moss-covered hair disheveled.

"What the hell is this, Tania?" I asked, pointing back at the big fucking jerk puffing his chest out behind me. "This is my room."

"I know," she said in an apologetic tone. "I was hoping you'd stop by the check-in table so I could explain what's going on." She glanced over at dingus, giving him a small smile. "I wanted to explain it to both of you, but you kinda slipped by."

"Explain what?" we both said at the same time.

I turned on my heel, pointing a finger at the wolf. "Don't copy me." Then I turned back to her. "What the hell is going on, Tania?"

"You two… uh… are… um…"

"For fuck's sake, Tania. Spit it out!"

"You… You're roommates."