Dark Waters (Elemental Book 1) by Rain Oxford Read Free Book Online Page A

rolled my eyes. History of
North American Magic was a two-hour class and forty-five minutes into it,
there was no teacher in sight. Unlike in my last class, I had thirty-seven
classmates, all of who made idle chitchat, drew, or read to pass the time. I
was growing increasingly impatient, as it irritated me when people were not
where they said they would be when they said they would be there. Furthermore,
I was not here to attend classes but to do my job.
    Just as I stood to leave, April Nightshade entered.
“Why are you late?” I asked as she went to the front of the room. Whereas the
other professors all wore dress clothes under their wizard robes, she had on a
bright blue button-up blouse over a black leather, pleated skirt. 
    “To see who would put up with it.” She looked around
the room in obvious disbelief of having any students left.
    “You were going to flunk anyone who left?” one
student asked.
    “No. I was going to flunk anyone who stuck around,
but since you all stayed, I’ll have to settle for calling you all morons.”
    Class dragged on slowly. Professor Nightshade
reluctantly explained every detail of the syllabus and what we would need for
class. Our required textbook was written in a foreign language and in her
words, ridiculously boring, so she said not to get it. When it was finally
over, most of my classmates looked as drained as I felt.
    At dusk, I made my way to the lake, because I knew
Remington wasn’t going to give me a break. I could see the scowl on her face
from the castle. She was still beautiful, even seething, which made no sense to
me. If a woman’s scowl was meant to display her displeasure, it should have
made her hideous enough to scare any man away.
    At least Regina’s scowl could. Of course, Regina’s smile would scare any sane man away. Not me, though; I married her.
    “Are you always late?” Remington asked.
    I looked pointedly at the sun peeking over the
horizon. “Define ‘dusk’ for me.”
    “You realize I can flunk you, right?”
    “I do.”
    “What is your job, Devon Sanders? I have not seen a
single sign of any kind of talent out of you that would have called for my
father letting you in this school.”
    “I guess I’m just lucky. Speaking of your father, I
need to know where his office is.”
    “It doesn’t matter where his office is; you will find
him if he wants you to find him. Now, you will spend every spare moment of your
time outside of class to study the correspondence of water. I will check the
libraries randomly and I had better see you there. We will meet back here this
time next week.”
     
    *          *          *
     
    I made it to the dining room just in time to grab a
tray of food before they shut down for the night. The only students left were
four young women who were studying over their food. I ate quickly and put up my
tray.
    Work was my job; I did it because I was good at it
and I was paid well. Being an investigator wasn’t my life, but I really didn’t
have a life outside of work. After divorcing Regina, I had little choice but to
cut out everyone as well as most of my preferred hangout spots. My close
friends had all been chased away by Regina when I married her and all I had
left were “our” friends, who demanded I forgive her for cheating on me.
    Even if the magic was fascinating and the teachers
were insane, I had a job to do. I wandered the halls and concentrated on
finding Hunt. Really? I’m hunting for Hunt. Distracted by the
interesting structure of the building, I almost missed the soft sound of
talking. I opened the heavy door to my right and found myself in an office.
    I called it an office because there was a large desk
with a few chairs and a black leather couch. To the right of the desk was a
huge fireplace. Across from the fireplace were two bookshelves that were split
by a doorway. This was where the sound was coming from, so I went to the
doorway.
    It was a smaller, private library, with