Chapter 3

She runs up to Mr. Slender and hugs him, followed by Miss Karmay, Sullivan, and finally, Mr. Sapping; he whispers something in her ear before an aggressive head nod follows, which I find adorable. She grabs her backpack and waits for me, quickly hugging everyone as we wave at them. Once there, the line isn't too long, but it does take a few minutes before we're actually on the plane. Jessy has the window seat while I'm in the middle; several people pass us as we settle into our seats, most glare, which I knew would happen, but not caring… until Molly walks by and whispers, "Stupid Solivagants. You'll ruin our college name!"

My eyes roll; I glance toward Jessy to see her glaring at Molly. Messing with her hair as she hits my hand and mumbles, "Mama, not the hair!"

Hearing a laugh, we turn our attention to the guest, a male with a more defined muscular body shape and a tan complexion. The more we stare at him, the more awkward he gets. Feeling ashamed, I start the conversation.

"Are you the person who's sitting with us?" I ask.

"Yeah, I hope-"

"If it's not a Solivagant and a half-giant!" someone yells.

After I ignore them and wait for the guy to sit down, Jessy pulls on my arm to reach my backpack; during this time, the male stares at us for quite a while, which causes me to speak.

"Hi, I'm Raina, and this is my daughter, Jessica," we introduced ourselves.

"Brandon, it's a pleasure to meet you two!" he says as he sits down.

"What are you?" Jessy asks bluntly.

"Jessica! You can't just ask that bluntly!" I cry out.

"Sorry."

"It's alright; as you heard, I'm a half-giant. What are you guys?" he replies, then asks.

"I'm a vampire angel, and she's a human!" Jessy states proudly.

Smiling at her before she reverts to doing whatever she was doing, I realize we're about to leave, so I'm buckling her up before doing the same with myself. The plane takes off, noticing Brandon not looking too well. I quickly get the anti-nausea pills, but before I hand them to him, I grab a snack; he devours it, and then I give him the anti-nausea pills, which he swallows.

"Thank you, but why do you have that?" he asks.

"No problem, since I don't know if Jessy gets airsick," I explain to him.

"Oh, so, how did you two meet?" he asks before rushing out, "Not to be rude!"

With a small laugh, "Calm down, Brandon. I knew that question would come since my daughter told you what she is. Found her, and we've been together since," I say quickly before explaining.

"I'm glad you helped her; what is your goal at the institute?" he asks.

"I want everyone to be united; throughout my life, I've seen how different species associate with either light or dark friends but never mixed," I recall.

"That would help everyone find employment," he says.

Time ticks by, and I can't seem to fall back asleep, so I glance at Brandon and see him staring at me. Molly and some girls sit before her, making fun of him. Molly looks at him from her phone; she glares hard before turning her attention to him and smiling. It's not like a normal smile but like a sadist's. It makes me uncomfortable, so I look away at something else, hoping to take my mind off the look.

"She doesn't seem friendly," he whispers.

"Yeah, no. Not even close," I state.

"Well, I already know who I'm avoiding," he says before laughing, and I join in.

"Yes, please do! We don't know what she'll do!" laughing out loud.

"You're so mean!" he says, laughing.

"I am not!" I say, hitting his arm.

"Ow! You know there's a fight class at the institute?" he asks.

"No, I'll have to ask the headmistress about taking that class with Jessy," I say.

"Smart idea," he replies normally.

A few minutes after he says that he releases a grunt, raising an eyebrow at him, but don't ask. I leaned over Jessy as she passed out again to close the blinds so the sun wouldn't wake her when I heard another groan. Now, staring at him, he bends over, holding his stomach. With a gentle hand on his shoulder blade, when he takes a sharp inhale, realizing what's happening, I quickly find the shrinkage potion, uncork it, and then hand it to him, which he jugs down.

"Thank you."

"No problem, but I wonder why the potion wore off?" I ask curiously.

"I took the potion around nine," he explains.

"You know that the shrinkage potion only lasts for three hours before you feel the pain of your body reverting to normal size," I state bluntly.

"I know this now," he says, leaning back in his seat. "Potions isn't my strongest subject, so I didn't know that it only lasts three hours. I'm so thankful to you," he says, shutting his eyes.

"Sleep. The potion takes energy out of the consumer; we've only been on the flight for an hour," I say.

He's out before I'm done talking. I shake my head at the guy as I pull out two blankets and a pillow. I cover him with one and gently place the pillow under his head, then turn to Jessy and cover her. Setting the alarm for another three hours before heading to sleep, before I could sleep, I heard someone whisper, "You know more than humans do."

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Getting up to the alarm, rushing to turn it off, not wanting to disturb anyone else, pulling out another shrinkage potion before placing it into the cup holder, then gently waking up Brandon. It takes a while, as he's a heavy sleeper; after about thirty minutes of nonstop shaking, he finally gets up.

"You're a pain to wake up. Drink this, then go back to sleep," I say, then state.

He drinks the potion before falling back asleep, not feeling tired; taking out my History of Broken Families and opening the book, a letter falls out. Picking it up, placing the book down before opening it, and reading the letter-

*Hello Raina, I've sent the two Salynx to the institute. When you get there, they'll pick which one they want to be with. Since you'll be in the forest, it would be better than living here with me. I have already sent the lesson plans for this year to the headmistress. She has approved it, so after you find your room, please head to her office so she can explain more about what will happen. That's all; I hope you and Jessy make friends, and we'll miss you!*

With the letter back inside the book, open to the first page. This gives a short introduction to the book, with a glance at the table of contents to see what families are in the book. I found a few last names particularly intriguing, including the names of the authors of the school books, Falleneye, Saneye, Engatron, and Moonshadow. Reading Falleneye:

'The Falleneye, also known as the Owen family, are cousins of Saneye, but they are two different groups. Because of the Owen family's use of dark magic, note that both sides of their family use it. Because of this, they are at each other's throats, which led to their family being broken from so many family members losing their sanity. The only Falleneye with their sanity was Jessica Falleneye. Jessica Falleneye had a more significant impact on the Falleneye family than any other member because she was a Seer. In the Falleneye household, everyone was either a dark phoenix or a witch/wizard. Most members found themselves in Crimson Cove Penitentiary or Twin Rivers Asylum.'

Interestingly, Seers are rare nowadays, considering that most are hidden away from the world and used for someone's gain. Seers are gray in magic because whoever has control over that, said Seer, that's the type of magic they'll have. Hopefully, I can find more information about Jessica; if I understand everything correctly, she became Jessica Falleneye-Hybrida-Moon. Who did she marry, or was she forced to marry? With those thoughts running around my head, I place the book upside down, as I dug through the bag hoping to find an empty notebook and pen; I jot down thoughts and questions of her, the Crimson Cove Penitentiary, and the Twin Rivers Asylum. Then, I flip through the pages until I reach Hybrida-Moon and begin reading.

'Hybrida-Moon is one of the royal family dating back to 1714. This family is mostly of hybrids, such as either vampires or angels, but they all died after the second war. The Queen and King of Russia wanted more power than they already had, so they forced Jessica to marry their youngest son, Raph Hybrida-Moon, a vampire angel. In Raph's eyes, he did not want to marry a Seer, but he had no choice.'

So she was forced- writing more down then continued reading-

'The Hybrida-Moon were dark creatures, this caused Jessica's Seer magic to become very unstable. Her magic killed the Queen, King, and the rest of Raph's family, except him. So he was crowned king, but no one wanted him as king, all because of his ruthless killings; not even six days after he became king did she fall pregnant. There have been many speculations of what happened when the country learned about her pregnancy. The most common ones were she died before she could give birth and she died in childbirth.'

Jotting more down when I hear some rustling to my right, noticing that Jessy mumbles something, but it was far too low for me to make out, so I turn back to my book when

"Help her."

Slightly freaked by a voice speaking to me, I decided to listen, praying that this wasn't some trick being played on me. As I put everything inside the backpack, I heard Jessy say, "No! Stay away from me… You're the monster!"

Surprised by what she said, but try not to think about it as I unbuckle her and gently move her into my lap; her tone has gotten much louder with her next phrase, "I'm nothing like you! You're a monster, and I'm just a vampire angel!"

My heart breaks, and my mind wonders what caused this to happen. Not once since I found her did she ever sleep talk. I gently bounce my leg to give her some peace as she sleeps. I whisper sweet nothings in her ear and gently run my fingers through her hair. As she settles, everyone else begins to wake up. As the noise grew louder, I placed earplugs inside Jessy's ears so she wouldn't be disturbed.

"Good morning, Raina," Brandon says while stitching.

"Morning, Brandon. How did you sleep?" I asked to start a conversation,

"Well… I'm surprised that I'm not a giant and that the plane is still in one piece," he states happily.

"Ha ha. Hilarious, Brandon," I say with sarcasm, then say, "I put an alarm on for three hours so when the sound went off, I could give you another potion. But you weren't fully awake when I got you to drink it."

"Oh, thanks! Why is she in your lap?"

"She was having a nightmare, and I didn't have the heart to try and wake her, so this was the best outcome," I state bluntly.

"Well, I'm glad she's sleeping better. Anyways, want to know something?" he inquires.

"Sure."

"We were going to have someone with the last name of Sapping since they were supposed to teach us both Moonshadow's Oath and Care of Magical Creatures and potions," he says.

"How would you feel if you were the cause of people getting hurt because there weren't any potion masters where you live?" I state, not looking at him.

"I would feel shitty, but there is no way he's the only potion master where he lives," Brandon states, then says, "I wouldn't want to stop doing what I love."