The Phoenix Prophecy: Nova

THREE DAYS LATER

Nova has been living up at The Hollow for three days. Snow is more settled with her here than he was when she was at The Cross. He’s fixated on her. Like a papa bear who needs his cub kept close. And it’s starting to concern me.

Occasionally, when I was at the Academy, Snow would become attached to a student. Usually a wide-eyed twenty-something-year-old who he felt needed looking after. But I never gave in to his protective urges.

With Nova, it’s proving more difficult. Especially since he saved her from Kole. Having to stop an elemental battle between Luther and Tanner, and knock a Viking-sized mage down the stairs, both in the space of an hour, got him feeling rather pleased with himself.

Last night, I let him loose in the forest behind The Hollow. He destroyed a couple of trees, but at least he didn’t spend the night stalking up and down the corridor in front of Nova’s room.

When she enters the library, she’s in jeans and a tank top. It’s the first time I’ve seen her chest exposed, and I have to force myself not to stare at the ink that splays out in intricate patterns from the top of her cleavage to just below her throat.

A moon and five planets, with a swirling galaxy of what looks like smoke pluming around them.

“Kole did a good job, huh?” She’s caught me staring, but doesn’t seem to mind.

“Beautiful,” I answer. Inside me, Snow releases a low growl that’s almost a purr.

Trailing her finger along one of the shelves, Nova picks out a leather, emerald-green volume of Hawker’s Witchcraft in the Twenty-First Century and sits down with it.

“Tell me again.” She has the book in her lap, but she’s not opening it.

I inhale slowly. I’ve recited the prophecy to her at least twenty times since Tanner and I finally told her the truth about who we think she is. Each time, it’s like she expects the meaning to sink in. Each time, she seems disappointed when it doesn’t.

I lean forward and watch as she closes her eyes.

“When above turns to darkness

And below breaks free

A witch born to humans

Salvation shall bring

Fated to five who are not what they seem

The Phoenix will rise and become Earth’s Queen

Into the embers

One

Two

Three

Devoured by flame

The Phoenix is She”

Nova breathes slowly in and out. I can almost feel the words washing over her. “Earth’s Queen?” Her eyes snap open. “I’m supposed to save the world? Then what? Lead it?” She laughs and shakes her head. Her silvery hair falls over her shoulders. She waves her hands at herself. One is still bandaged, although Tanner says it can come off today. “Look at me. I’m a friggin’ mess! I’m not the queen of anything.”

Snow growls deeply and Nova frowns at me. She’s heard him more than once but, each time, it’s like she thinks she’s imagining it.

I should tell her about him, I know, but there have been enough revelations over the past few days.

“Nova.” I move to kneel in front of her, taking her hands in mine. “We don’t know yet whether you are the one we’ve been waiting for. You’re a human, born to human parents, and you have a fire affinity. Elemental powers.” I soften my tone and resist the urge to stroke her unbandaged palm. “But there could be other answers.”

I steeple my fingers and press them to my lips. Standing up, I start to pace up and down in front of her. It reminds me of being in a lecture theater and the movement helps me think. “I agree with Kole and Tanner. There are undeniable signs suggesting you’re the girl in the prophecy.”

She blinks at me and grips the edge of the book she’s holding. “Why do I sense a ‘but’?”

I nod at her. She’s smart. Good at reading people. “But if this is the moment the prophecy comes to pass, I’m surprised there haven’t been any other signs.”

“Wouldn’t me turning up in town be a pretty big sign?” She sits back and crosses her legs, putting the book down beside her so she can rest an arm on the window.

“It’s certainly one sign, yes. But the Phoenix is supposed to prevent the rising of the underworld and there have been no signs of that happening.”

Nova leans forward and rests her elbows on her thighs. She’s watching me intently, concentrating on every word I’m saying, breathing it in. I’m enjoying the sensation a little too much.

Stopping to lean on my desk, I fold my arms. “We always believed the prophecy would come to pass when the demon realm was ready to rise up, and that Phoenix Falls would be the epicenter of whatever happened. But there have been no signs of unrest. No unusual activity. No dark magick.” I brush my fingers through my hair and try not to sigh. Moving to sit behind the desk, I pull a notepad out of the drawer and pick up a pen.

Nova smiles at me.

I tilt my head and frown at her.

“Sorry,” she says. “I’m just trying to work out whether you’re about to conduct a police interview or a pop quiz.”

I click the end of the pen and allow a brief smile to curl my lips before clearing my throat. Meeting her eyes, I say gently, “You told Tanner and I that your parents died when you were young? What else do you remember about them? Before the car crash?”

Nova shifts a little in her seat. Talking about her parents makes emotion throb in her chest. I can feel it. But this is a conversation we need to have. When we first asked her, she was too overwhelmed to talk about it. But if we’re going to figure out who she is, she’ll need to put those feelings to one side.

She’s drumming her fingers on her knees. When she meets my eyes, she inhales forcefully, as if she’s plucking up the nerve to say something.

My pen is poised, ready to make notes.

But whatever she was thinking fades before it’s had a chance to rise to the surface.

“I don’t remember them. I don’t even have pictures.” She’s holding my gaze, but there’s the smallest, briefest flicker as she speaks.

I put the pen down and nod slowly. Snow growls at me. He knows what I’m thinking; that she’s keeping something back, and that if she’s not willing to share it, Luther and I might need to do a bit more digging after all.

A tried and tested interview technique with both criminals and students, I allow the silence to settle between us and wait. But instead of seeming uncomfortable, Nova relaxes. She looks out of the window, then picks up the book and turns to me. “Whether or not I am the one the prophecy talks about, we’re agreed I have magick.” She casts her gaze down to her hands as if she’s expecting a flicker of sparks to appear. “Right?”

I sit back in my chair and cross my legs at the ankles. “Right.”

She nods. “Then I have a favor to ask you, Professor.”

As her lips form around the word ‘professor’, my cock twitches and I lean forward again onto my elbows.

Fixing her eyes on mine, she stands up and walks over to the desk. When she puts the book down on it, she taps the cover with her index finger. “I want you to teach me.”

My tongue thickens in my mouth. Snow purrs. He’s fucking ecstatic right now.

She leans down just the smallest amount.

It’s taking all my willpower not to follow the trail of ink from her neck down to the inviting space between her breasts.

As if she knows what I’m thinking, she inhales deeply and holds my gaze. “Teach me how to be a witch, Professor.”