Dark Waters (Elemental Book 1) by Rain Oxford

private
investigator.”
    Darwin’s face lit up. “Shut the front door! That’s so
cool! Do you have a badge? Oh, do you have a gun?”
    “Yes, on both accounts; I have a license and a gun,
but not with me. I figured a gun would do me little good against a paranormal
opponent and if someone found my paperwork, I would just have questions to
answer that are better left unasked.”
    “Wow… You’re like a wizard cop.”
    “I’m not a cop.” Or a wizard.
    “Well, this is great! Now we can be your sidekicks!”
    I looked at the book on my desk, knowing the check
was nestled safely between the pages. Nope, still not worth it.
     
    *          *          *
     
    Metals were boring to me, so a class that discussed
the atomic structure and magical uses for seven of them was a disaster. I figured
that if I were ever going to skip a class in order to investigate, it would be
that one.
    In potions, there was a heavy, hardback book for each
of us that was basically a guidebook to plants and herbs. Then Professor
Langril took us to the edge of the forest, with our books, and gave us each a
brown leather sack and a list of plants to bring back to him.
    Mack, the skinny guy who didn’t wear gloves on the
first day, also forgot to bring the book the professor provided. He tried to
pair up with another member of the class, but nobody was having it.
    When everyone raced into the forest to find the
plants, I hung back. Professor Langril smirked at me. “When you have what you
need, we’ll have tea while we wait for the others to catch up,” he said before
he walked off.
    Instead of entering the forest, I went to the
greenhouse stationed to the north of the castle. It was just like every other
greenhouse I had ever seen, albeit with some weird plants, so it was organized
well and I found everything I needed easily. Within half an hour, I walked back
into the classroom and set the bag down on the front desk.
    The professor grinned, reclining in a black leather
office chair. “How old are you, Devon?” he asked.
    “Thirty. And you?”
    “Oh, ancient compared to you. My point is, most of
the C-One students are self-absorbed and not very intuitive. However,
eventually, someone is going to notice that you use a lighter to fire a
cauldron.”
    I sighed and he put his hands behind his head
casually.
    “Whatever reason you don’t use magic in a school of
magic, is your business. I’m just saying if you want it to remain a secret, you
need to try harder. Then again, if you are clever enough, people will assume
everything you do is powerful magic. Hell, that’s how us old wizards get
by. You’ll find that most of our brilliant displays are just showy shortcuts to
feed our laziness.”
    “I’ll keep that in mind.”
    “You do that, but also keep in mind that even though
most of us are lazy, some of us are showy just to hide our real power. Smokescreens
come in all shapes and sizes. Never underestimate a harmless-looking wizard.”
     
    *          *          *
     
    History of North American Magic was
subdued compared to Fundamentals of Potions , but quite lively compared
to Metals . Professor Nightshade talked about Native American magical
culture while we took notes. She didn’t act like she was afraid of vampires in
the school.
    After our classes, Darwin and I found four other
libraries and searched them from top to bottom, but we never found another copy
of that book. In fact, we didn’t even find the original again. One library we
searched was for C-Five students only, but we were able to talk our way out of
trouble when a professor got onto us.
    For the rest of the week, I tried to keep an eye on
Mrs. Ashcraft and Professor Nightshade. Neither of them did anything even
remotely eventful or suspicious. Fortunately, or possibly miraculously, Henry
and Darwin both kept their mouths zipped in public about my job. They didn’t
ask me a single question unless we were in our room with the door