Ostara & Omens: Serendipity, #4

By Poppy Flynn

Seren Starlight isn't your average witch.

 

At 26 she's yet to graduate from the esteemed senior academy of witchcraft because she refuses to obey the rules. 

A magnet for misadventure, things always go wrong around her. 

Seren finally has the opportunity to graduate at the sabbat of Ostara but the forces of darkness are still at work. Seren's magic is on the fritz but a messed up spell results in a case of mistaken identity and a lucky escape.

Seren by name. Dippy in nature. Serendipity through fate. 
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Poppy Flynn
• Release date: Oct 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223800620

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Seren Starlight sat slightly apart from the gaggle of giggling witches and cocky wizards in her Omens class and, for the first time ever, wondered what she was doing here. Perhaps it was the fact that her twenty-seventh birthday was looming in just a few weeks, but the decade that separated her and her peers here at Ysgol Ddewiniaeth Academy for Sorcerers gaped wider than ever.

Today they were studying extispicy - defining the future through the use of animal entrails. Yuck!

Seren wasn’t particularly squeamish, but she’d take a nice crystal ball or some runes any day of the week. Seriously, who wanted to spend too much time, heck, any time at all, poring over stinky animal guts? Not her!

Unfortunately, the omens tutor, Professor Stygian, who already had it in for her, must have noticed the look of distaste on her face.

Miss Starlight, he demanded in his obnoxious, nasal voice. Why don’t you come and tell the class what is revealed in this study?

He beckoned her over, and she rose with an inward sigh, ignoring the twittering whispers that followed her from her classmates as she headed to the front of the class. Almost twenty-seven was way too old to be the butt of class jokes.

She eyed the mess of viscera on the dissection bench and the condescending look on Stygian’s face, and her mouth promptly ran away with her. Well, it’s definitely dead, she said belligerently.

She heard a quiet hiss beside her and gave Professor Stygian the side eye. Wow! He looked like he was going to pop a blood vessel, his face was so red.

A proper examination and explanation of the remains, if you please, he spat through gritted teeth.

Seren folded her arms and cocked an eyebrow. This man always brought out the worst in her, and today was no different. What? Are you seriously going to tell me I’m wrong? Because I’m telling you now, I don’t think this animal’s going to get up and walk away any time soon. Poor thing.

Just give us the forecast, Miss Starlight, he grated, fisting his hands at his sides.

She knew she should just toe the line and give him the answers he was looking for, but there was something about the infernal deputy head that always rubbed her the wrong way. And well, she was never very good at holding back the urge to wind him up. Yes, it was juvenile; she knew. But then he was behind the conspiracy to keep her from graduating, so it was all just payback. Did you slaughter it especially for this class or have you been saving it in a specimen jar because you know that kind of thing has a significant effect on making a reading, she goaded instead.

Her eyebrows rose at what she thought might be a growl emanating from his throat, and for a moment she could have sworn his eyes turned an ominous black as a sudden chill swirled around her with the portent of impending doom.

But then the gong sounded for the end of class. The other trainee sorcerers all started clattering about, gathering books and scraping their chairs so the moment was gone.

Seren narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Professor Stygian, but he’d already turned away. With his back to her, he set a magical duster to flick across the chalk board to prepare for the next class while he waved his wand to clean up the table.

Seren marched towards the door. She didn’t bother fetching her things, instead she snapped her fingers and held out her hand to grab them as they sailed across the room.

That was when it happened. One minute her feet were underneath her, the next they were in mid-air, and she was showing the entire year group what colour her knickers were.

Of course, the worst was yet to come. At least her underwear was clean, which was more than she could say for the sudden splat of blood and entrails that hit her smack bang in the middle of her chest. The colon followed, slapping her across one cheek before slithering down her neck while her white shirt bloomed red right above her own heart.

Seren squealed and kicked her legs and arms like she was a dying fly, desperately flailing in an effort to get the slippery viscera off her and ensuring that if anyone hadn’t seen her underwear before, they had now.

Raucous laughter hit her along with a barrage of mortification as she lay there, stupefied, the taunts and gibes of her classmates ringing in her ears.

Idiot!

Blunderbuss.

What a loser.

And those were some of the nicer ones.

Before she could move, the shadow of Professor Stygian loomed over her.

What in coven’s name are you messing about at now, Starlight? he bellowed. His bushy brows creased together to form a single line while the rest of his face contorted into an air of derision.

Seriously? What was she messing about at? Couldn’t the man see she had been viciously pranked and was laying here with the breath knocked out of her?

I’ve had enough of your attitude and incompetence, Miss Starlight. Report to Principal Orias immediately.

What the heck? She was the injured party here. Why wasn’t he trying to find out who did this to her…

Or had it been him? She’d seen him wave his wand over the table. She’d thought he was cleaning up. Had he deliberately made her a laughing stock in front of her peers?

Get moving! he screeched. Or I’ll have you in detention for a month!

The threat alone was enough to rouse Seren from her predicament. Behind him she was aware of the growing crowd of students from throughout the entire academy, laughing and jeering, hurling insults and catcalls. No way she was adding a detention to her ignominy. She didn’t even bother to pick herself up off the floor, simply teleported herself out of there and straight into the principal’s office just as she was.

Siarl Orias was in the middle of a new pupil meeting when Seren landed with an indelicate thud on the floor of his office. There was a decidedly female sounding gasp and the titter of childlike giggling, but Seren was too busy groaning from the second heavy landing in the past ten minutes to take much notice. Somewhere in her peripheral consciousness she was aware that Siarl was talking, ushering somebody out of the room. Hellfire, she hadn’t considered that he might be busy and that others might also be privy to her less than elegant entrance, but she was too dazed and winded to be overly concerned right now.

Tiny, yellow stars flickered in and out of her vision, but she couldn’t tell if it was because she’d bumped her head or from lack of oxygen. All she needed now were comedic birds flying around her head and twittering mercilessly, just like her classmates had done.

Seren? Siarl’s voice held an edge of concern as he hurried back across the room. Are you hurt? What happened?

Seren just lay there, staring up at the ceiling and doing her best to drag oxygen into her lungs as her diaphragm spasmed. Her senses started to come back to her as she realised Siarl was feeling her over to check for injuries. To add to her mortification, her nipples beaded at the feel of his fingers and she batted his hands away as he started to unbutton the regulation white shirt that strained across her buxom breasts.

It’s not my nipples… um, blood, sorry. I banged my head, I have no idea what I’m saying, she wheezed, struggling into a sitting position. She really should have attempted to straighten herself up before she aspirated. At least she might have arrived with a little more dignity, but she’d just been too stunned and desperate to get away, to consider the fine details of how she might land.

What? Siarl exclaimed, jumping to his feet and looking around as if the answer might present itself to him. Is somebody else hurt?

Seren took a couple of deep, much needed breaths before attempting to get to her feet. She weaved a little and wasn’t sure if she welcomed or resented Siarl’s steadying hand.

No one’s injured, she reassured him. Unless she counted her pride, of course. But she was used to taking blows to that. It just seemed to get harder as she got older. It was one thing being the laughing stock of your peers when you were all the same age, but quite another when you were an entire decade older. As she was fast finding out.

Bracing her hands against Siarl’s large oak desk, Seren closed her eyes, drew in a measured breath through her nose, then blew it