Claimed by My Bully Alpha Chapter 282

Aurora’s P.O.V

The sun hung low in the sky, casting an orange glow over the training grounds as the three of us—Ashton, Maggie, and I—collapsed onto the grass, panting heavily. My legs felt like lead, my chest burned with every breath, and a fine layer of sweat coated my skin. This was our first class with Alice, and instead of anything remotely magical, she had us running.

Running. Laps on laps around the field like we were training for a marathon instead of learning the art of magic. I groaned, rolling onto my back and staring up at the sky as if the clouds held the answers to why we had just been tortured to the point where our legs felt like jelly and our hearts threatened to burst out of our chests.

"I am so tired," I huffed, stretching my arms over my head. "I feel like I just did cardio for an entire week straight. My legs are officially useless."

Ashton, sprawled out beside me, let out a grunt of agreement. "This was ridiculous," he muttered, rubbing his face. "I thought we were here to learn magic, not to be turned into track stars. What's next? A pop quiz on sprinting?"

Maggie, who was lying on her stomach with her cheek pressed into the grass, let out a loud huff.

"Seriously! When do we actually get to the good stuff?" she demanded, lifting her head slightly to look at us.

I turned my head toward her, arching a brow. "What good stuff?" I asked, because clearly, I had missed the memo.

"You know," Maggie said, waving a hand vaguely. "The real magic. The cool spells. The things that make witches, you know, powerful."

Ashton let out a breathless chuckle. "You mean the stuff you saw in those movies?"

"Exactly!" Maggie sat up now, brushing stray blades of grass from her arms. "I’ve been watching a lot of them lately. Witches are supposed to be able to do insane things—telekinesis, pyrokinesis, controlling the elements, teleportation! And here we are, just… running like idiots. What if we never actually get to the good part?"

I couldn't help but smirk at her dramatics, despite my exhaustion. "So, what, you think we should already be hurling fireballs and flying on broomsticks?"

"Well… yeah!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands up. "At least something close to that! How are we supposed to defend ourselves if all we know how to do is jog really fast?"

Ashton snorted, shaking his head. "Maybe Alice wants to make sure we don’t drop dead before we even get a chance to try magic."

I let out a long sigh, my body still too tired to fully move. "I just hope this isn’t her idea of training forever. Because if it is, I might just die from disappointment before exhaustion gets me."

Maggie groaned dramatically and flopped back down. "At this rate, I might just run away and join the dark side. I bet they skip cardio."

I let out a tired laugh. "Let me know how that works out for you."

It was one of those quiet moments where the three of us sat together, the air comfortable but carrying an unspoken weight. Maggie had just finished watching some romantic drama about a witch, the kind where everything always works out in the end, and she had this dreamy look in her eyes as she explained the plot to us as best as she could, like she was imagining herself as the main character.

"It would be so nice if life were like that," she sighed, stretching her legs on the cool grass. "Where the witch saves the day and is loved by everyone and even manages to get the prince all to herself." 

I let out a small chuckle, shaking my head. "Movies aren’t real life, Maggie," I told her, looking up at the sky once again as the orange and red hues gave way to dark blues and stars began to twinkle in the sky. "They take small truths and stretch them out like taffy, twisting and exaggerating until it’s something unrecognizable. They want things to look more dramatic, more perfect, more devastating—whatever gets people to watch. But real life? It’s rarely like that. And neither is real magic." 

Maggie frowned, tilting her head at me. "So you’re saying none of it is real?"

“Not really,” I let out a sigh, watching her closely as I tried to deliver the news as politely as I could. “But real life is a lot different from movies, Maggie. Real life doesn’t mean that the hero always wins, and real life also doesn’t mean that we get to ride on broomstick and float around in the night sky. You should remember that in most shows, witches are depicted as the villains, and we need to distinguish between good and bad magic. So, what I’m really trying to tell you, is that…don’t have high expectations. That way, you wouldn’t be as disappointed when reality doesn’t turn out to be a fairy tale like in those movies and TV shows.”