Nic cocked her head, turning it so one emerald eye was fixed on the proctor, her lethally curved beak in profile. She trilled a question at the obviously flummoxed wizard, seeming to ask if the proctor was satisfied.

The proctor seemed to be momentarily incapable of speech. “That… This…” she stammered. “This is not an appropriate alternate form,” she nearly screeched.

Uh-oh. Nic had worried that Gabriel’s insistence on reciprocal bonding would manifest in odd ways. And here he was, too ignorant of the arcane information taught in the academy’s advanced wizard studies to know if this form truly was a problem.

“A point of order, if I may, Lord Phel?” Asa asked in a raised, polite tone. At Gabriel’s nod, the Refoel wizard strode forward, coming near Nic, but not touching. He held up his hands, his healing magic palpable to Gabriel as it condensed over Nic. “She is perfectly healthy,” Asa announced.

“She is a mythical creature!” the proctor hissed, appalled and affronted. Gabriel was especially glad his parents had left.

“Unusual,” Asa replied placidly.

“A monster!” she retorted.

“I realize you are not a high-level wizard, proctor,” Asa said, not without sympathy. “So you would not be aware of the information we have access to in the more advanced classes. This alternate form is not monstrous.”

“So you claim,” she muttered.

Asa eyed the proctor, then beckoned to his familiar, Laryn, without looking, but with an unconscious expectation of obedience that set Gabriel’s teeth on edge. He wouldn’t make an issue of it now, however, especially as Laryn complied immediately, coming to Asa’s side to slip her hand into his, lending him her magic. Asa looked to Gabriel. “May I conduct a more in-depth examination?”

He had to bite back the retort to ask Nic herself, and simply nodded, not trusting his voice. The sooner they got through this, the sooner he could restore Nic to her native form and they could move on with their lives without Convocation interference.

To his credit, Asa approached Nic slowly, holding up a hand that contrasted darkly with her shining silver. She curved her neck, dipping her beak, and the healer smiled. Laying a hand against her feathers, he closed his eyes, a reverent expression transforming his face. “Oh, you are a beauty, indeed,” he murmured, and Gabriel fought the irrational and wildly jealous urge to wrench the other wizard away.

It’s in a wizard’s nature to be possessive, he heard Nic observe in his mind, and her emerald gaze, the same color as her human eyes but foreign to him in their avian shape, seemed to sparkle with amusement at his expense.

“The alternate form is sound,” Asa informed the proctor.

“But what is it?” she hissed, fingers digging clawlike into the tabernacle.

Asa dipped a chin at the tabernacle. “Why not ask?”

“I will!” The proctor busied herself with unlocking the tabernacle doors, and Asa took the opportunity to slide Gabriel a dark-eyed look. One he couldn’t interpret, however. A warning?