Shifters And Glyphs Read online

  Shifters and Glyphs

  Book 2 in the Fairy Tales of the Magicorum

  Christina Bauer

  Brighton, MA 02135

  www.monsterhousebooks.com

  ISBN 9781945723124

  * * *

  Copyright © 2018 by Monster House Books LLC

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38 - One Week Later

  SLIPPERS AND THIEVES by Christina Bauer

  ANGELBOUND By Christina bauer

  DIMENSION DRIFT By Christina Bauer

  BEHOLDER By Christina Bauer

  If You Enjoyed This Book…

  Acknowledgments

  Collected Works

  About Christina Bauer

  Subscribe

  Dedication

  For All Those Who Kick Ass, Take Names, And Read Books

  Chapter 1

  I’m a teenager who can wield magic, so you might think the ultimate in fun for me is casting a spell.

  Not really.

  Plus, I live in Manhattan and—since my aunties no longer have me locked in a penthouse—you might imagine that I love roaming the city.

  Nope.

  I’m also a werewolf, so racing under the moon could be my fave for fun.

  It’s not.

  Instead, my ultimate smile comes from what’s happening right now: snuggling on the couch with my boyfriend Knox. To be specific, Knox and I are wrapped in a blanket with my head resting against his right bicep.

  Perfect.

  It’s almost time for dinner, but I hardly notice my stomach growl. Knox is in jeans and a T-shirt. I’m sporting what I call my unshreddable outfit: black leather pants and a cropped top that I got from fairies. Why unshreddable, you ask? Because before I got my enchanted clothing, shifting into my were form was murder on my wardrobe.

  Cute outfit? Check.

  Shift to werewolf? Fine.

  Return to human form? I’d be buck naked, and my nice outfit would become nothing but scraps of fabric.

  Now, I have a magically enhanced outfit, and it’s all good. I never again have to worry about turning into a wolf and then into a very naked girl, all in the age of camera phones. And without that worry hanging over my head, I can more fully relax. Like I am now.

  In fact, at this very moment, Knox and I are chilling out while watching an old movie called The Breakfast Club. In it, a bunch of human kids get detention at high school. For me, this particular movie is valuable life research, considering how tomorrow’s my first day in a typical classroom.

  That’s right. My first day of school.

  Ever.

  On screen, most of the action takes place in a library. The place looks as large as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I sniff. “You think our high school will be like that?”

  Knox leans in to kiss the top of my head. “Like what?”

  “All that space for, like, six people. Plus, they’re in the library, right? I think there should be other kids around studying or whatever.”

  Not that I know these things from personal experience. Growing up, my aunties always homeschooled me. But come morning, I start my senior year at West Lake Prep, a high school for other Magicorum kids like me: in other words, for shifters, fairies, and witches/warlocks. I’m unusual in that I can wield all three types of magic. Recently, I found out that makes me a kind of magic user called a Trilorum. Go, me.

  “This must be one of those Hollywood schools,” says Knox. “I mean, they take six bad kids and put them in a room without anyone to watch them. That’ll never happen in real life, yeah?”

  “Exactly.” All of a sudden, this story seems very unfair. “They should be more careful. Maybe there are other kids out there like me who need honest representations of high school for life research.”

  “There’s no one like you,” says Knox gently. “And I mean it in a good way.”

  I cuddle back onto Knox’s bicep and smile. He’s being sweet, but I’m not all that special. In fact, I’m pretty typical for Magicorum (well, apart from the Trilorum part of it). Why? Like all Magicorum, I live by a fairy-tale life template: Sleeping Beauty.

  For starters, I look the part, what with my slim build, brown hair, and blue eyes. Plus, I’ve got three fae aunties as well as an odd friendship with Colonel Mallory the Magnificent, a super-powerful fairy dragon shifter who cursed me with a sleeping sickness for the first seventeen years of my life. Not that I’m complaining. The Colonel did it for my own good—his sleeping curse hid my triple magic from people who wanted to kill me and steal my powers—but I used to fall asleep at odd times.

  School wasn’t an option before.

  But that’s all over now. These days, when I fall asleep, it’s mostly at night. Sure, I take the occasional catnap during the day, but my eyes are closed like a normal person. This is a lot better than what used to happen, which involved me freezing like a statue and staring into space like a nutjob.

  Needless to say, I’m glad the curse is over.

  As a bonus, ending the curse also released my fairy, shifter, and witch powers. The next step? Mastering that magic by attending West Lake Prep. Plus, I’ll learn typical human stuff, too, like math, science, and literature.

  It’s all super exciting.

  And totally terrifying.

  At least Knox is also attending West Lake, along with our best friends, Elle and Alec. Even so, every time I think about school, my insides knot up. So I actively avoid more thoughts of West Lake by focusing on the movie. Specifically, I’ve been following one of the characters, John Bender, a brooding guy who reminds me of Knox. Honestly, I’m not watching the movie as much as waiting to see what Knox-Bender will say next. I drum my fingers on the comforter, ready and waiting.

  Sure enough, Bender’s character mouths off to the school principal. “Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?” True fact: my Auntie Mirabelle loves the musical stylings of Barry Manilow, so I happen to know that, if you adore polyester leisure suits, Barry Manilow is your guy.

  I snort/laugh. Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe? Perfect.

  “That man reminds me of our mate,” says my wolf.

  “That he does,” I reply in my head.

  Now, most shifters can only sense the moods of their inner animal, like if their wolf is happy or sad. But I have mental conversations with my animal, which requires major levels of power. With magic disappearing from the world, that’s a rare skill.

  I can always block my wolf out, but she likes t
o watch movies as much as I do. And how she just called Knox my “mate”? Even though I’m seventeen and Knox is eighteen, we’re mates. To shifters, that means your soul has found its other half, which is awesome. In my case, my other half is over six feet tall with black hair, sharp bone structure, ice-blue eyes, and protective streaks that are so long and complex, the put the subway to shame.

  I’m one lucky werewolf.

  Speaking of Knox, he tightens his arm around my waist. “You were laughing again.”

  “That bit about Barry Manilow.” I bite my knuckle to stop giggling. “That’s absolutely something you’d say.”

  “I’d say something like that? Nah.”

  Wow. I can’t believe he’s fighting the obvious. “Yesterday, you asked Alec if he got his clothes from Preppies R Us.” As a powerful warlock, Alec also has a fairy-tale life template. In Alec’s case, that template is Prince Charming. Alec sure looks the part, too, what with his blond hair, blue eyes, and winning smile. And yes, Alec dresses like he fell out of the “Preppy Catalog.”

  “Oh, that.” Knox’s voice is a deep rumble. “I said Alec dresses like Biff McPreppy. But that was only one time I sounded like this Bender guy. Once.”

  “Once? What about last week? At Lucky’s, that werewolf Rich challenged you.” Lucky’s is a shifter bar in Brooklyn. Knox and I don’t typically hang out in bars, but Lucky’s is where Knox’s guardian Azizi lives.

  “Yeah,” says Knox slowly. “I remember that werewolf. He wanted to prove he was the best were fighter around. Not sure how that makes me like Bender.”

  I shake my head. “At Lucky’s, you said another line from the movie. Remember when Bender was talking to the principal? That guy’s name happened to be Richard, too, just like at Lucky’s.”

  “Oh, I remember that part.” Knox’s shoulders shake with a held-in laugh. “Bender calls him a dick.”

  I clear my throat. “Bender says, and I quote: ‘Uh, DICK? Excuse me, Rich.’ You said that at Lucky’s. Word for word.” It was hilarious, too, since the shifter in question was being a total jerk. Knox didn’t want to fight him, but the other were wouldn’t back off. Dick-Rich ended up with a broken nose.

  “Well,” says Knox. “Rich was that werewolf’s name.”

  My head is still curled into Knox’s bicep, so I can’t see Knox’s face. There’s no missing the smile in his voice, though. “You might have a point,” he says. “Maybe I’m a little like this Bender guy.”

  “Nope.” I look up, catch his gaze, and grin. “You’re way better.”

  “Correction,” says my wolf inside my mind. “He’s the best.”

  “I agree.”

  “You spoil me, Bry.” Knox kisses the top of my head, and we go back to snuggling. Within a few minutes, the movie winds down. On screen, all the kids from detention go outside to get picked up.

  The sight makes my breath hitch.

  Remember how I was avoiding the fact that school starts tomorrow? All of a sudden, there’s no avoiding this reality. Why? In the movie, the kids leave detention by getting into cars driven by someone else.

  Their parents.

  I’ve never met my mother and father. I don’t even know their names. The closest I have to parents are my three fairy aunties, and they’re pretty much evil. What else would you call people who raised me to be a zombie bride for Jules, an evil Denarii mummy-king who started life as none other than the real Julius Caesar?

  The good news is that my aunties’ plan flopped, and all their magic got drained. Now my aunties spend their days hiding in a fairy shanty town under a boulder in Central Park.

  Living under a rock beside the other creepy crawlies. That sounds about right.

  Knox inhales deeply, checking my scent. Weres can tell a lot about someone by catching their smell. “What’s wrong, Bry? You thinking about those dreams of yours again?”

  I’ve always been plagued by weird dreams. Time was, those dreams were about ancient Egypt and translating papyri. Lately, I can’t remember them at all when I wake up. I’m just left with this uneasy feeling.

  Honestly, I’ve been waking up wide-eyed, sweaty, and totally terrified. When I open my eyes each morning, my pulse is racing. I’m shivering with fear. And I have absolutely no memory of what scared me so much.

  “No,” I say slowly. “It’s not my dreams.”

  For once.

  Knox leans in to whisper softly in my ear. “What is it, Bry? You can tell me anything.”

  I squirm under the comforter. Not sure why the true answer is hard to share, but it is. “Everyone in the movie has someone to pick them up.”

  “And we don’t, is that it?”

  I nod, not trusting my voice to reply. All my life, I’ve searched for my parents. There’s no trace of them. After I left my aunties, I thought it might be different. After all, Lauralei, Fanna, and Mirabelle could’ve been using magic to hide my family for some reason. But after lots of checking around—in other words, hacking into secret systems with Elle—I haven’t been able to find out anything.

  “I get you about the family stuff,” says Knox.

  And he does.

  Knox’s parents were killed by the Denarii. Sure, he has Azizi, but Az isn’t really a “drop-you-off-at-school” kind of guardian. Azizi was the warden of all shifter magic, meaning he used to be the most powerful shifter on the planet. Now, Knox has both the job and the power.

  Thinking about Knox and his wolf puts everything in perspective. After his parents were killed, Knox spent years racing around the world, hunting down evil Denarii as a way to avenge their deaths. My poor mate.

  I take in a deep breath. “You know what? Everything will be fine.”

  “Are you about to give a pep talk now?” asks Knox. I’m well known for my pep talks—mostly because they’re either really great or totally dismal. Either way, they’re always something to remember.

  That said, my next talk will be awesome. No question about it.

  “Yup,” I say with confidence. “Prepare for some serious pep.”

  “Let’s hear it.”

  “Well, to start with, magic is disappearing from the world. Sure, you and I have a ton of it, and most Magicorum kids have next to none, but that won’t be a big deal to everyone else at school. High school kids are well known for being mature.”

  I wince. That wasn’t my best argument. Shaking my head, I keep going. My next bit will be absolutely stunning.

  “And yes,” I continue, “we’ve had different life experiences from most kids. I was almost force-married to a mummy-zombie king last summer. You spent most of your life hunting down Denarii, but the other kids won’t care. And the whole parent thing? It definitely won’t hurt like hell to see everyone else with a mom and dad all the time. Only in the beginning.” By the time I finish my speech, my eyes are prickling with tears.

  “Is that it?” asks Knox softly.

  “Not one of my best talks, huh?”

  Knox sits up and slides me onto his lap. His six-foot-tall frame and heavy arms wrap around my shoulders. “Remember what Azizi always says about relatives?”

  “Sure.” My voice comes out all dull and lifeless. “There’s your family of chance and your family of choice.”

  “That’s right. And I choose you. We’re mates. That’s forever.” He rubs my arm up and down in a soothing motion. Closing my eyes, I lean into our embrace. Knox’s scent of sandalwood and musk surrounds me. Hugging Knox always makes the world feel safe and comforting.

  I blink back my tears. “Most people never find the other half of their soul. We’re lucky.” Looking up, I scan the familiar features of Knox’s face. Loose black hair. Scar on his brow and chin. Sharp bone structure. Ice-blue eyes.

  My mate.

  “We’re a team.” Knox’s full mouth quirks with a grin. “Don’t forget, Elle and Alec care about you, too. Alec’s parents are putting a computer workstation into West Lake Prep for you. They even found you some new papyri. That way, you can keep translating,
only now it won’t be just a hobby. You’ll get class credit.”

  “That’s really nice of them.”

  Which is true. Setting me up with a workstation is a cool thing for Lydia and Nixon Le Charme to do. Even so, just thinking about Alec’s parents makes me fidget. They’re too smart, too beautiful, and too totally obsessed with me translating the papyri that make up the Book of Isis. In fact, Alec’s parents remind me a little of the Denarii. Those zombie mummies were all killer instinct wrapped in 1950s-style perfection and odd obsessions.

  “But …” prompts Knox. He can always tell when I’m holding back.

  “Don’t get me wrong,” I say. “It’s really nice of Alec’s parents and all. But they must have their reasons.”

  Knox sighs. “True.”

  I don’t need to say anything more; Knox knows what I mean. While Knox is the warden of magic for shifters, Alec is the warden for witches and warlocks. Wardens have the responsibility to find, guard, and activate the fountain of all magic, which has been hidden for thousands of years. No one knows why. If the wardens don’t take care of the fountain, they can’t marry without magic killing their spouse. It’s the system’s way of keeping them focused on what’s important: the fountain.

  Talk about motivation.

  Closing his eyes, Knox tilts his head. I’ve seen that move before. My mate is having an inner conversation with his own wolf. I take Knox’s hand in mine. “Your wolf is talking to you, isn’t he?”