Light Fae Academy: Year Two Page 4

  “Does Bay know you’re working here?” I ask to change the subject.

  “I asked her to pass the news onto you. Figures she forgot, but I guess this makes for a nice surprise, huh?”

  “Yes.” I smile, but my gaze is wandering over to where the array of food is. I’m starved.

  “What classes do you have?” he asks.

  “My morning classes are… interesting.”

  He snorts. “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “Animal Companions and Chlorokinesis.”

  “Chlorokinesis,” he repeats bitterly. “I wasn’t allowed to take that one.”

  “No? Why not?”

  “Probably because I once used a vine to kill a squirrel.”

  My eyes widen in alarm.

  “Don’t jump to conclusions,” he grumbles.

  “I just…”

  “My parents are both dark, and they’re both in Dark Fae Penitentiary more than they’re out. When I was seven or so, they both had a stint in, and I had no relative to go live with until they came out, so I had to take care of myself. I ate our food, but it ran out, and I was hungry. It’s not like I did it for sport. That meal probably is the best one I’ve ever had.”

  “Oh, Thistle, I had no idea.”

  He shrugs and hands me another cup of honey mead. “Don’t worry about it, and don’t mention it either. That’s not a story I tell everyone.”

  “Oh, don’t worry. I won’t tell.”

  “Go on,” he says, jerking his chin toward the food. “Eat up. You’re looking a little skinny.” He winks.

  I nod to him, quickly drain the rest of my first drink so I can tuck the one cup into the other, and grab myself some food. After leaving the food tent, I scan the crowd, trying to find Bay or Orchid or any of my other friends.

  My gaze falls on Damon. Why does it seem like I’m always able to zero in on him? But it’s clear why. He’s off by himself, the only one who’s alone.

  I hesitate, but as in class, our gazes meet, and he motions me over.

  Should I? I don’t know, but a quick glance doesn’t show any of my friends, so I end up flying over to him.

  “Hey,” I say.

  He stares up at me. I’m hovering above him again, and he’s looking mighty comfortable, reclined on the side of a grassy hill.

  “Sit,” he says as he sits up and pats the grass beside him.

  I comply, but I leave a decent amount of space between us. He snorts, and I wonder if the distance is why.

  “I have an opinion I would like to share with you,” he says. “You might not want to hear it, though, so consider yourself warned.”

  “I’m warned.” I wince, thinking of Sage and how we had a similar conversation. “Go ahead.”

  “You shouldn’t be wasting your time chasing after a fairy who doesn’t give a wing about you.”

  I gape at him. “Have you been eavesdropping? Clearly, so don’t bother to answer that. How dare you be so presumptuous to shove your wings into my business!”

  He just throws back his head and laughs. “You’re cute when you’re miffed. Do you know that?”

  “All I know is that I don’t know why I keep talking to you.” I drain the rest of my second honey mead and finally start to eat.

  “So don’t talk. Silence is golden.”

  “You would like a female to be quiet. Just do your little bidding whenever the mood strikes you. Otherwise, she should be pregnant and bare foot in the kitchen, right?”

  “I just like to listen to the sounds of nature, but sure, go ahead. We’ll go with your theory.” He winks.

  I scoff and roll my eyes. “It’s far too noisy right now to hear nature.”

  "No, it isn't. Not if you use your inner ears."

  “Inner ears?” What in the world is he talking about?

  “If you dig deeper, there’s a whole other you inside of you, the you bursting with potential. If you can tap into that you, your senses are heightened, and you’ll be stronger, braver, more intelligent.”

  “Is this some kind of new age magic crap?” I ask.

  “You’re skeptical, but then why wouldn’t you be? You think the world is black and white.”

  “You so don’t know me.”

  “Why’s that?” He eyes me intently.

  I blink to try to make sure he doesn't spell me like he did earlier. "My sister pointed out something to me last year. There's not just black and white. There's so much gray in between. People aren't just good or bad. There are variations. We all have light and dark in us. All of us."

  “Is that so?” he murmurs quietly.

  I nod. “She’s a smart one, my sister.”

  "Yes, yes," he says, but I get the feeling he doesn't really mean it. "You have some dark in you, then?"

  “Yes, and so do you.” I lift my chin, daring him to disagree.

  “Yes. I won’t deny it. It would be foolish for me to.”

  I furrow my brow. “Why would it be foolish for you too? Don’t tell me that you’ve been in and out of Dark Fae Penitentiary already.”

  He waves a hand. “No, nothing like that, but you really don’t think much of me, do you?”

  “I don’t think about you all that often, no. Sorry.”

  He grins recklessly. “Maybe you don’t yet, but you will. And you’ll even dream about me.”

  “If I do, it would be nightmares.”

  “Why’s that? Would it be that frightening for you if I were to touch you, kiss you, seduce you?”

  I roll my eyes and don’t give him a response aside from eating my food.

  “Well?” he demands.

  I glance over.

  “Aren’t you going to ask me why it would be foolish for me to claim that I’m not dark?”

  “Because it would be a lie, and fairies can’t lie.”

  “Oh, I can lie.”

  I blink a few times, confused.

  “The sky is green,” he says so perfectly matter-of-factly that I can’t help glancing upward to see if it really is green. Of course it isn’t. It’s a beautiful, sunny shade of blue like always.

  “You just lied,” I say, goosebumps appearing on my arms. I refuse to rub them, though.

  Fairies can’t lie except for maybe the most powerful among us. He’s too young to have that kind of power. Yes, Spring had some incredible physical prowess, but I’m pretty sure some of that had been her body’s reaction to the fairy dust in her system. A fairy as young as Damon can’t possibly lie.

  Not unless…

  “You’re a halfing, aren’t you? Half-fairy and half something else?” I guess.

  He grins. "I knew you would figure it out. Do you like puzzles?"

  “Not really.”

  “Games, then.”

  “Dark… You won’t deny that darkness in you.” I stare at him as my jaw drops.

  “Go on then. What’s your guess?” he asks.

  “You’re half fairy, but you’re also half demon.”

  Chapter 8

  Damon’s grin twists more, becoming darker but also sexier. There’s something alluring and mysterious about him, but I don’t think I want to try to figure out his mysteries, and I also don’t’ think I want him to be with Bay either.

  “Very good. What do you want for your prize?” he asks lazily. “A kiss?”

  “No thank you,” I say stiffly.

  “Oh, come now. Don’t be like this.” His eyes flash, and his grin dies as he scowls. “I didn’t think you would react like this.”

  “Like how?”

  “Like everyone else. Demons aren’t always evil. Dark, yes, but sometimes, using the darkness can be a good thing. If I hadn’t, my…” He shakes his head. “I don’t have to explain myself to you. Either we’re friends, or we aren’t. We can even be more than friends if you would just believe that crap you spouted about all of us having dark inside of us, but no. That’s not how you truly feel, is it?”

  “Yes, it is,” I snap. “Some people are good, but no one is wholly goo
d. Just like no one…”

  “You’re trailing off because you can’t say it. You can’t say that no one is wholly dark because you believe some people are wholly dark. And by people, I mean demons.”

  "Damon, everyone knows demons are dark, and angels are light. That's like the fundamental properties of their species."

  “I don’t know why I thought you would be different. It’s always the same. Every time someone learns what I am, they assume the worst.”

  I can’t help laughing a little. “Why do you care what other people think?”

  He just stares at me in a way that makes me think that he doesn’t care what other people think, just me. But that’s ridiculous. We only just met.

  “Damon, I don’t like to jump to conclusions.”

  “No? You could’ve fooled me.”

  “Well, remember how I didn’t jump to conclusions about your name even though you did me with mine?”

  “First of all, I was teasing you, and second of all, you might not have been wrong if you would’ve.”

  “My point is that I didn’t. So, let’s be friends and not judge each other. How does that sound?”

  “That sounds reasonable.” His tone is a bit… off.

  “You don’t like reasonable, do you?” I ask lightly.

  “Not at all. I thrive under chaos.”

  “Do you really?” I ask, fascinated despite myself.

  He wiggles his eyebrows. “You’ll just have to stick around to find out.”

  I grin. I mean, bad boys aren’t really my thing, but Damon is easy to talk to and easy on the eyes. There’s no harm in being friends with him. And if I can handle being his friend, then maybe he doesn’t have to be out of the running for Bay’s newest conquest.

  Lunch is over a few minutes later, and we have to part ways. He’s off to take Healing, which I find so very ironic. My class is similar—Plant Healing.

  I’m just about ready to enter the room for class when someone calls out, “Rosemary.”

  A wide smile spreads across my face, and I turn to flash it at Sage. “Hey.”

  “Plant Healing?” he asks.

  “You were warned already, remember? I’m not stalking you. I swear.”

  He laughs, and I bite my lower lip. Stalking is a decidedly dark thing to do. I need to be careful that Damon doesn’t take me over to the dark side.

  “I have a feeling this class will be boring,” he murmurs as we enter.

  “Me too,” I whisper back. “Probably just about a bunch of herbs and their healing properties.”

  “Yawn.”

  I giggle.

  We take the last two available seats, all the way in the back. Normally, I prefer the front since you retain info better if you’re up there, but it’s the first day of class. We won’t learn much.

  A fairy with red hair and a large nose and several whiskers flies in. He hovers above the desk, eyeing us all. Without warning, he whips out a dagger and then another and starts to juggle the two of them.

  “Blades. Bullets. Magic. There are so many ways for a person to become injured or incapacitated. Yes, there is healing through magic. You can draw from the earth or an animal or another person or even yourself to power a healing spell… unless you can’t. There are items out in the world that can dampen your magical abilities. What then? How can you heal yourself or others in your charge if you cannot use plants to heal?”

  The professor paces in the air above his desk. It’s remarkable how precise he is in his pacing. He goes from edge to edge without looking down at his desk.

  “Before I start with our first lecture, does anyone have any questions for me?” he asks.

  A girl raises her hand. “What’s your name?”

  “Ah, yes. I did get a bit carried away there, didn’t I?” He nods to her, floating down to be only a foot above his desk instead of three. “My name is Professor Miles.”

  Beside me, Sage jerks.

  I glance over. He clearly recognizes the name.

  “He’s the one…”

  “Are you the Miles who almost gave away the existence of fairies by using magic to heal the president of one of the human nations?” another fairy asks.

  The professor holds out his hands and nods. "Yes, that was me, but you have to understand. Motive means everything. If that woman would have died, chances are, the humans would have gone to war. A civil war would have been started, and where would that leave us? Vulnerable. I would rather us keep our strength in our isolation."

  “But if you had exposed us…” yet another student calls out.

  “Ah, but I did it.”

  “Dark and light,” I murmur to myself.

  “What’s that?” Sage asks.

  “Nothing.” I blink a few times. “Earlier, you called me by my name.”

  “Am I not allowed to call you Rosemary?”

  “No, you can. I just like my nickname.”

  “I’m sure you do.” He smiles.

  I beam. It’s so very nice to be able to talk to Sage so easily again, and I refuse to think that’s because I’m more at ease from befriending Damon. That’s not it at all.

  “Maybe you need a nickname,” I tell Sage.

  “Oh, yeah? What?”

  “I’ll get back to you.”

  Professor Miles can talk a mile a minute, and he doesn’t shut up until the bell rings. Sage and I have to part ways.

  Unfortunately, not one of my friends or my twin is in my next course. Astral Projection. It’s kind of heavy magic, and most of the others in the course are in their third year. I really don’t know how they use the aptitude test we took for admittance to determine which courses to give us and what years.

  The professor is an older fairy, male, who moves with a quiet grace. Something in his eyes suggests he isn’t all here, or maybe he just isn’t focusing enough.

  Once we’ve all settled into the room, he clears his throat. “I am Professor Astro. Yes, Astro is teaching Astral Projection. If I hear so much as a stifled giggle at my name, you all will fail. Do you all understand?”

  I roll my eyes. He seems a bit over the top.

  "Astral projection is serious magic. It requires complete and total faith in another. You see, your body will be left entirely vulnerable when you allow your soul, your consciousness, to leave your physical body. In that state, you are in your astral body. Think of astral projection as an out-of-body experience, but one that you intentionally cause and not as the result of trauma. The limits of what your astral body can do are dependent entirely on your level of skill and power. If you believe you can do magic in that state, you can, but that doesn't mean you'll be able to at first. Oh, no. You will soon learn what you are capable of and also what you might one day be capable of. Not all of you will be able to astral project, and you will fail. This is not something that can be easily taught. In fact, some fairies believe that it cannot be taught, that fairies either can or cannot express this magic. We shall see, won't we?"

  Man, that’s intense. My mind is reeling by the time class is done. Finally, just one more, and it’s a repeat from last year. The Magic of Music. I really don’t understand why I have to take it again, but I head to my classroom and claim a seat. Professor Fern Stone comes in and gives a similar speech as last year. Honestly, I zone out for most of the class, and when the bell rings, I fly up to her.

  "Professor, a word please, if you have a moment?"

  She eyes me with a tight smile. “Rosemary. I thought you might like to talk.”

  “I didn’t fail your course. Why do I have to take it again?”

  “For one thing, you could have tried harder with the harp last year.”

  I gulp. It’s true. I had a bit of a crisis of conscience last year, and I didn’t know who or what I was, but I rejected the instrument only the lightest of fairies would play.

  “But I still have more to teach you. Your voice, Rosemary.”

  I touch a hand to my throat. “What about it?”

  “I believe
that with time and effort and practice, your voice could hold tremendous sway over people. Your singing voice potentially too.”

  “I don’t sing,” I blurt out.

  “Why is that?”

  “I’m tone deaf. My dad told me so.”

  She purses her lips. "I think he might be wrong, but we can find out after the next class. The voice lessons will have to be a bit of a bonus curriculum for you, but I feel confident you will do better this time around compared to last semester."

  I swallow hard, hating her disapproving tone. “I will do my best.”

  “That’s all I’ll ever ask of you.”

  Chapter 9

  Two weeks go on by, and things start to settle into a routine. So far, I haven’t been able to introduce Damon to Bay yet, but I still have plans too. Classes aren’t too bad, I suppose, but we also haven’t been assigned any projects yet either.

  Professor Astro is insane. He has been taking volunteers and inducing them to sleep so that he can try to help force them to astral projection. It seems so very painful, so very hard to watch, and I dread the idea of my having to have a go.

  The other classes are coming along better, at least, but I still don’ t believe Professor Fern about my singing. She claims that I’m not tone deaf at all, which makes me very confused. She’s a fairy, so she can’t lie, but Dad’s a fairy as well, so he shouldn’t be able to lie either.

  Maybe one or the other or both are delusional. Or maybe Fern just thinks I sing better than my Dad feels. So far, Fern hasn't asked me to use my singing to my advantage yet, and I don't think I'm ready for any of that regardless.

  That night, I retire to my room. Orchid’s not here, having gone to visit her family. I jump when there’s a knock on my bedroom door. I’m not expecting any visitors at this hour.”

  I open the door and grin at my twin. “How’s it—”

  “Did you hear?” Bay demands as she flies into my room.

  “Hear what?” I’m going dizzy from watching her pace in the air.