Sunlight peeked in through the curtains, burning through my eyelids with a vengeance. I tossed an arm over my face and groaned. I rested, trying to fling myself back into the deep waters of sleep, but sleep didn't claim me. My dreams and my thoughts, and my conscious poked and prodded at me, unrelenting in their torment. There was only one true solution to all of my problems, and I was avoiding it.
I rolled over in bed, only to find another piece of paper next to my pillow. It was enough to get my sluggish brain moving and my heart pumping. I jolted up with a start, glancing around, trying to see if anyone was there.
Nothing.
I breathed a nervous sigh and tried to relax. Next to me lay my untrustworthy guard cat, Ani, who'd apparently done nothing as the paper had been left on my pillow.
Goosebumps crawled up my arms.
I picked up the piece of paper–a drawing I'd made of the dragon resting inside the galaxies of Ani's eyes. To my relief, closer inspection revealed toothmarks on the top right corner. Perhaps the culprit had been in my bed the entire time. Was the last time a fluke?
I let myself fall back onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. "Ugh." Ani climbed up onto my chest, shoving his face in my vision, staring at me judgmentally.
"Whose side are you even on?"
He looked back at me, unimpressed. I groaned. "Fine. You win." Ani responded with a smug look, one that would have been called a smirk on a human. I shoved him off of my chest in retaliation, sitting up before he could climb back on.
As I slipped my feet off my bed, I mumbled, "Stupid cat," and received a swipe at my thigh for my troubles. I flicked his ear in return, and he jerked his head back, purring. "You're such a strange cat."
With a sigh, I picked my phone off the dresser and let Cove know I was willing to talk. He responded in seconds, and we decided on a time before I could rethink my decision.
At 3 on the dot, I knocked on Jacob's office door.
"Come in, " he called, and I did so.
Once again, he and Cove were already waiting at the desk, and an empty chair waiting for me next to Cove. With a huff of irritation, I dropped into the chair bonelessly, Ani leaping onto my lap. Jacob looked irritatingly satisfied, anticipating my words.
"I'll join you if you can agree to three stipulations," I said, holding up three fingers.
When he responded, Jacob's voice was frustratingly smooth "I'll have to listen to them before I agree, you understand."
"The first is I get to decide if or when I am ready for a mission."
Jacob and Cove exchanged glances. "We'd never expect you to–" Jacob raised a single hand, silencing Cove.
"Continue."
"The second is that some form of self-defense training will be provided. I will not be caught unawares again. The third is that my pay is not dependent on completing training. I will be paid even while in training.."
Jacob grinned, satisfied. "Agreed. We wouldn't have provided or expected anything less. You're making the right choice, Hayden. Thank you."
The verdict still remained out on that one.
"Cove will be your mentor. Between the two of you, I'm sure you can work out an acceptable schedule. Unfortunately, I have other tasks I need to complete. There's an empty office three doors down on the left if you two need it."
It was a bit strange to be mentored by someone younger than me, but I wasn't stupid enough to refuse. Clearly, Cove and Jacob were held in high regard by other mages, and he'd already shown himself to be competent. "Thank you."
Jacob shook his head, rummaging through his drawers. "No, Hayden, thank you." He pulled out a packet of paper, depositing it between us. "Here's the contract, benefits, and other paperwork. If you have any questions, let me or Cove know."
He'd certainly come prepared.
"I will," I said, picking up the packets.
The office door swung open easily under Cove's touch, revealing a decent-sized room with an L-shaped wooden desk and three office chairs, with stone shelves lining the space behind the desk for easy reach. The room was barren of other decorations.
"This'll be your office. I'll have someone from IT deliver a computer later, and introduce you to our systems. My office is directly across from yours." He said, pointing across the hall.
I brushed my fingers over the wooden desk, testing to see how high quality it was. It was no different than the type of desk I'd used at my last job, possibly even lower quality. "Got it."
He looked at me, hesitant. "We can schedule meetups over text if you'd prefer. You look a little…tired."
"No, I'm fine." It was best to get this all out of the way so I could spend the evening wondering why I'd done this to myself.
He shrugged, falling into one of the two chairs across from me. Ani lept up onto the desk between us, begging for attention. Cove caved quickly, poking Ani before dodging just in time in a back-and-forth battle between the two that would no doubt leave Cove's hand covered in scratches.
I started without a preamble. "Someone," I said, glaring daggers at Ani, "kept showing up at my last job and got me fired. I'm busy Tuesday mornings and refuse to walk back across Chicago at night, but otherwise, I can work around your schedule."
What I didn't say was that from our previous conversations, I figured Cove was the one who'd have scheduling issues. Absently playing with Ani with one hand, he used the other to pull out his phone.
"I'll go ahead and send you my schedule, let me know what times work for you."
My phone dinged as I received the aforementioned schedule. As Cove was in no clear hurry to move, I opened the schedule and created a shared calendar with suggested times. When I was finished, I flipped through the paperwork in the packet, scanning it for any red flags. The paperwork was fairly in setup, if not content. With no real complaints or questions, I went ahead and signed them in preparation for tomorrow.
"Did you even read any of that?" Cove asked, interrupting my thoughts.
"Excuse me?"
. "There's a few hundred pages of documents there. Are you just signing things?"
Irritated, I grumbled, "Of course I read through it all. I'm not going to just sign anything."
Cove looked impressed. Ani got a good swipe in on Cove's distracted hand, and he flinched, tendrils of blood flowing down his hand. "Do you have any questions?"
I raised my eyebrows. "No. Besides the magic, it's all fairly standard."
He opened his mouth, and before he could ask about the schedule, I said, "I also sent you a shared calendar with the times I'm available."
His mouth snapped shut, and he checked his phone for verification, grinning widely. He reached his arms above his head, stretching. "Well, if that's all for today, I'll head home then." Cove looked back, expectant.
I sighed. "Alright, I'm coming."
His lips twitched at the small victory, and we turned off the light leaving the room.
"I admit, I find it very strange that they can make and wire entire buildings out of stone, but the doors were too expensive."
Cove laughed. "We tried but were stonewalled."