Blake proudly lifted Coney up in front of his teacher Ciaran who frowned at the rabbit before looking at Blake.

“You pass, but you didn’t have to manifest your guardian. It had sufficed just to show the proof of your contract. Which is the ring in this case.”

Blake put down Coney on the desk and Coney skipped happily around while inspecting the vacant classroom. He had been the last one to show his guardian. Blake had a suspicion that it was in case he had failed. He was a newbie to the magical world while the others in the class received training since they were young. Many most likely already had a guardian.

“I know, but I practiced summoning after establishing the contract yesterday and Coney didn’t want to leave after that, so I let him be with me.”

“I need to protect you at all times!” Coney huffed and hit his little pawn into the desk. Ciaran eyes went wide.

“Wait, since yesterday. That’s… How are you feeling? Feeling ill? I should have told you about this in detail.”

“I’m feeling fine. Told me about what?”

“Fine. That’s not possible. Is it? Are you feeling fatigued?” Ciaran had grabbed onto Blake’s wrist to sense his heartbeat.

“No, I feel good. “

“Remarkable. How much magic do you have? No, you can’t possibly answer that. Summoning rituals gather magic in your vicinity to summon spirits into a physical form. But the ritual has a time limit. When the magic has gone out then the spirit cannot stay here. After a contract, you can summon the spirit by using your own magic. If the spirit stays here in a physical form, it will draw from your magic. As you can guess, most witches or druids aren’t able to keep them here for long without exhausting their powers.”

“I needed to stay with him. I should have done it immediately. Then I could have hunted the other back. He’s wicked and vile.”

Ciaran looked at Coney. “What other one?”

Like to answer that question, a hand grabbed onto Coney’s ear and lifted him up. Prince stood by the table and looked at the struggling rabbit with disgust.

“So, this is the rodent which thinks it’s my equal.”

Ciaran stared at Prince with an open mouth turned to Blake for answers. Blake saved Coney from Prince’s grasp. The rabbit made cute but angry noises at Prince who stared at his hand which he had held the rabbit like it was covered in mud.

“What are you doing here?”

“I heard someone slander my name and came to defend it.”

Prince brushed off his hand and turned to Blake with a smile. “And my little protégé decided to brag about a rodent instead of his real guardian. Truly hurt my feelings.”

Blake ignored him and looked at Ciaran. “I accidentally formed a contract with this thing after I formed a contract with Coney.” He pointed at Prince and Prince just bowed at Ciaran like Blake just had introduced him.

“Proof of the contract?” Ciaran merely asked without letting Prince go with his eyes. He clearly was cautious of Prince who didn’t seem to mind. Blake showed him the medallion. Ciaran was just about to grab onto the medallion when it glowed and burned him. He hissed and stared at Prince who smirked confidently.

“My apologies. I do not trust the greedy hands of mortals.”

Ciaran turned his eyes to the symbol on the medallion and inspected it before he shook his head. “I have never seen it before.”

“It looks like a human, dragon, lion, eagle and a fish. He mentioned his age. Apparently, he’s older than Satan.”

Ciaran nodded at that. “That most likely means that he is older than the Abrahamic religions… And I’m not sure that it is a human on the medallion.”

“What, it’s clearly a human.”

“In some older symbols, demons were often shaped as humans to deceive mortals. That’s what they do. Deceive and lie. Dragon often stands for greed. Lion for pride. Eagle for power and the fish stands for secrets. “

Blake thought that none of that sounded good.

“Don’t be so pessimistic. All of those things can be good things if you use them right,” Prince said with an eye-roll.

Blake chose to ignore him. “He called himself Prince of Darkness.”

“Like Ozzy Osbourne?”

Prince groaned, “who the fuck is Ozzy Osbourne? How many have stolen my name?”

“I cannot figure out what he is, but he clearly is a demon or devil.”

“Not necessarily. There are some beings that only choose special individuals to form contracts with. A lot like animal spirits. Reapers are one of those. Shades are others. He might be a demigod as well.”

Blake lifted up the medallion, “but according to you, there is a demon on the symbol.”

“For god sake, those are my five forms,“ Prince exclaimed and both Blake and Ciaran stared at him.

“If he can change form then he is most likely not a demon. They cannot take that many forms. They can only cast an illusion of beauty over themselves to take the form the watcher finds most attractive.”

“A demigod then?”

“Perhaps. Gods can change form freely.”

Blake got an idea. “What about this book? He called it his grimoire. Can you make sense of it?”

Blake pulled out the grimoire from his bag and gave it to Ciaran. He had been afraid that Prince would have been upset but Prince had just ignored them and started to tease Coney. Blake turned his eyes to Ciaran who had a frown on his face while he turned the pages.

“Blake? What do you see when you read the book?”

“It looks like symbols. He said it was in… Aramaic? Why? What do you see?”

“Pictures of women…Naked.”

Blake grabbed onto the grimoire and threw it on Prince who seemed to teleport to the other side. He snapped his fingers and the book landed in Blake’s bag.

“I needed to hide my secrets. I just a bit of enchantment to show something that would be in a teen boy’s bag.”

“I’m gay!”

“Oh, better correct the pictures then.”

“That is not the problem!”

Ciaran cleared his throat before sighing, “most higher beings hide the content of their grimoires. You can most likely see its true content because of your contract. I’m sorry that I won’t be of help. That said, be careful with this one. He most likely was drawn to you for a reason. His kind often draws power from bad things like war or pain. If he wanted a contract with you, then it’s because he thinks you can give him whatever he searches for.

“He’s evil!!!” Coney’s voice echoed in the classroom. He let out a squeak when Prince tried to grab onto him again.

“I think my young protégé needs nourishment!”

Coney bit his finger and ran away while Prince hunted the rabbit through the classroom.

He didn’t look as scary when he chased after a rabbit.

……………………………………………………………………………………………..

“Come on ladies, move it!” Kai shouted from the side of the field. Right at that moment, Jaxon grabbed onto the ball only to be tackled by a girl built like a wall. Clover had short red hair, sharp brown eyes and her pale white skin was covered in tattoos. She had dropped every player in Vale Academy since the match started.

It was the night for one of the few games they could go all out on as they played the female rugby team from Elan Academy. Clover is one of the few female Alphas and as such, she had the unquestioned rule over Elan Academy’s wolves. Clover huffed as she got on her feet. “Better luck next time, Price.”

Aeron leaned over him with a grim face. “Are you okay there, champ?”

“They are killing us out there.”

“Your brother keeps screaming the same thing.”

“Maybe we are off today.”

“Or maybe you just suck.”

Jaxon grimaced and rose from the ground. They gathered up to put on a strategy.

“Can you guys not suck? Seriously, why are you letting the girls walk all over you?” Aeron asked and most guys squirmed.

”You do realize that not one of them is going to shag you, right? Not even if you give them the ball and escort them to the touch-line.”

“Well, we can at least try,” Mark Rowe said with a grin and the others chuckled.

“Come on guys. Are the boner stronger than the sweet taste of victory?!” Aeron exclaimed and all the other teammates answered in unison.

“Yes.”

“Damn it, you guys!”

The sound of a whistle was heard, and they all looked towards Kai.

“Dale! You run like a girl. Get off the fucking field. Hadrien, you’re up. Show them hell, Alpha,” Kai roared and Dale looked insulted until he heard Hadrien’s name.

He pouted as he ran toward Hadrien and clearly gave him a flirtatious twirl before patting him on the back. Jaxon could feel the disapproval of Nightmane at Hadrien joining the game and was just about to discard it when he notices Hadrien looking over at the stands.

He followed his line of sight and saw Blake sitting with Alex by the stands. He waved at Hadrien, who waved back before turning to Jaxon with a smirk.

That boy is getting buried! Jaxon growled as he went into position.

He had made one command. Get the ball to Hadrien. Clover the tank would do the rest. The game started up again as they hustle. After a few seconds of confusion, the spectators roared as the ball was thrown to Hadrien who didn’t hesitate to run towards the Elan Academy’s touch-line.

He was fast. Ridiculously so, but Clover was waiting, and a collision was unavoidable. Jaxon smirked and he felt Aeron grabbing hold of him.

“Please tell me you didn’t just send the newbie onto killer Clover. She eats newbies for breakfast.”

“Oh no, what are we going to do?” Jaxon said sarcastically. They both heard a roar as Clover threw herself at Hadrien. Hadrien did not slow down. Clover went low. It did not matter as Hadrien dodged to the left. She fell to the ground and he got past. The crowd went wild as he didn’t stop.

“He’s going for a touch!”

Clover hunted him and with a ferocious roar she grabbed onto him, but it was already too late as he got the ball over the line. The field was filled with cheering as that was Vale’s first goal tonight. Jaxon just gawked.

“Did that go as you planned?” Aeron asked and Jaxon flashed his fangs at him.

“Give me a skirt. I’m going over to Elan’s team.”

Aeron grabbed onto his shirt and dragged him over the field. “No, you don’t. Focus, you bloody wanker.”

The match went on in a similar fashion and as it ended, Elan Academy stood victorious. The team sat on the benches with Kai scolding them. Jaxon turned to Hadrien, who looked proud and happy.

“You should have passed more!”

“Why? he was the only one scoring!” Kai hissed and hit Jaxon over the head.

“Suce mes couilles,” Hadrien answered Jaxon with a smirk and Jaxon grimace. He couldn’t answer him or even be angry if he spoke to him in French. He didn’t understand him!

“Hadrien!” Both of them turned toward a distant voice. Blake waved at Hadrien with the rabbit in his arms. Jaxon wanted to sigh at the cute sight, but he was furious by what had come out of Blake’s mouth.

“Coach, can I?” Hadrien asked.

“Sure, the rest of you, hit the showers.”

Hadrien ran towards Blake who gave him a shy smile. Jaxon tried his hardest to listen in.

“Sorry for your loss but you did great out there!”

“Do you even know how great would look like in rugby?” Hadrien laughed but kissed Blake on his now red cheeks. The teammates hollered and wolf-whistled at them.

“Get that ass, Dufort!” Mark hollered and Jaxon answered by throwing a ball straight in his face.

“Bloody hell, Jax!” Kai glared at his younger brother who shrugged.

“It slipped.”

“All of you, get out of my bloody sight!” Kai grunted and ruffled his hair. “Fucking teenagers.”