by Sarina Dorie
“That’s how she died?” My voice came out in a quiver.
He stood, stabbing a finger at himself. “And whom do you think she asked to ferry you away to somewhere safe so no one would find you? She sacrificed herself for you.”
His loss and anguish hooked into me like barbed thorns. He had lost the woman he loved and gained me, the consolation prize he’d never wanted. From what my fairy godmother had told me, Thatch had been the one who had found me a loving family who would take care of me. He claimed to lack a complete soul, but there was so much goodness in him that he would keep his word, no matter how he resented me.
He plopped himself down in his chair. He cleared his throat, regaining his composure. “You are going to learn magic. And I will ensure you never grow so weak and sentimental that you allow other people to kill you. Do you understand me?”
I nodded.
“If anyone tries to kill you, you must promise me not to hold back. You will use your affinity if you have to, whether it is on me or the Raven Queen or your students.”
“My students?” I thought of Ben, Balthasar, and Hailey who had tried to hex me months ago. “No,” I said.
If I had killed Hailey when she’d hexed me to the ceiling, or when I’d chased them into that painting after they tried to hex me, or the time I’d thought Hailey had been the one to push me into the Pit of Horrors, I wouldn’t have connected with her and found out what a good person she could be.
Thatch lifted an eyebrow at me. “If the Raven Queen snatches a student and steals his soul so that he or she attempts to kill you, you will defend yourself. Am I clear?”
“I’m not going to kill my students.” But it was more than that. Deep in my soul, I knew what he was telling me, I just didn’t want to hear it. “I am not going to kill Derrick.”
“You are your mother’s daughter, and the Raven Queen knows it. Mark my words, that’s how she’s going to get you. She’ll use what you most love against you. She’ll read the secrets in your heart if you don’t guard them well.”
Considering I couldn’t even hide the desires of my heart from unicorns, I was doomed.
Thatch folded his hands in front of him, the pleasant smile and change of demeanor making me warier than if he’d yelled at me. “Have you ever wondered why I protected you from the Raven Queen and continue to do so even though you are a constant thorn in my side?”
“Well, yes.” Though, not as much since Abigail Lawrence had told me he’d promised my biological mother to keep me safe.
I expected he was about to reveal his big secret—which I already knew about—and I was going to have to pretend to be surprised. Probably there was a magically binding promise between him and Loraline like Wiseman’s Oath. His next words dissipated that paltry worry from my mind.
“You’ve heard the rumors.” His eyes narrowed with malicious delight. “You have wondered who killed your mother, have you not? You’ve wondered who killed your father?”
This had gone in an unexpected direction. I nodded slowly, fearing where this was headed. “People said you went looking for her. That you wanted revenge.” Was this why he felt obligated to look out for me? Because he had killed my parents? I didn’t know anything about my father.
My heart thrummed wildly in my chest. “You killed my mother and my father?”
The gray storm clouds in his eyes roiled with the coming of a maelstrom. “No. I am your father.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Daddy Dearest
The horror of those words sank into me. Luke Skywalker couldn’t have felt more outraged and terrified. He hadn’t kissed his father.
I had kissed Thatch. On multiple occasions. I’d been attracted to him. True, he always pulled away or got mad at me when I had, but the reason he did that surely wasn’t because he was my biological father. He didn’t want to grow close to anyone because he was emotionally unavailable, and he had emo baggage from his childhood. He didn’t want to kiss me because of all the other stuff he’d confessed about having half a soul or because my hair was pink or . . . anything else.
I shook my head, not wanting to believe it. This made that time we’d collected unicorn semen way grosser.
I attempted to breathe deep yoga breaths. Belly breaths. I was not panicking. I was not going to hyperventilate.
My breathing came too quick and shallow. I was hyperventilating.
I grasped for any reason it couldn’t be true. “I asked you. I specifically asked you if you were my father, and you said no.”
“As you’ve probably observed, Clarissa, I rarely tell you the truth.”
Dread churned in my belly.
I closed my eyes and forced myself not to look at Thatch’s pitying face for a minute. Everything was so much worse with those beautiful gray eyes staring into mine. He was too attractive to be my father. I couldn’t be attracted to my father. It was horrible and wrong just like everything else in my life.
Thatch shifted in his chair, the metal creaking. His feet shuffled closer. The fabric of his pants brushed against the outside of my knee. I blinked to find him seated on the front of his desk.
I drew in a deep breath. “Thank you for sharing that piece of information with me. It would have been helpful if you’d told me that months ago, but okay. Thank you for sharing.” I was still trying to wrap my head around this new revelation.
I was dizzy and sick, and I couldn’t breathe. Tears filled my eyes.
His face remained impassive, but his eyes gleamed with amusement. He removed a small vial from his vest pocket and leaned forward to collect my tears. I got it then.
I shook my head slowly, loathing filling every fiber of my body. “You were making this up, weren’t you? You were playing a trick on me to make me cry?”
“Of course I was.” He took my chin in his hand, chuckling. “I’m not your father. Everyone knows your father was a demon your mother summoned in that ritual that blew out the back of the school.”
“No.” That was another lie. The way this amused him enraged me. My words came out sharp. “She blew out the back of the school with some kind of science experiment when she was trying to solve the Fae Fertility Paradox.”
He tilted my face, angling the vial at the corner of my right eye. “Science and magic are different sides of the same coin. Just don’t tell the Fae that.”
“That story you told me wasn’t true? None of it?” I had felt bad for him. I had pitied him. He had lied so well he had made me care.
He hesitated. A brief twinge of worry flickered across his face before it smoothed into a mask. “Why would I tell you something sincere about myself?”
That was a good question. Maybe it was because he needed to unburden himself, because he didn’t have anyone else who would listen to him, or care about what he’d gone through.
I swallowed. “I don’t think less of you for . . . what happened to you. For what you’ve had to do to survive.”
“Everything I said was a fabrication with the intent to make you cry.” He lifted his nose into the air in that way he did when he was acting like a snooty Celestor. “It isn’t like I would share details of my own life with you. We aren’t friends.”
That stung, but it wasn’t completely unexpected.
“The best part is how naive and gullible you are.” He laughed again. It was a hollow, forced sound.
I must have been naive because I still wanted to believe he had opened himself up and shown me who he truly was—even if it had been for a moment. I suspected he regretted it and tried to cover it up afterward.
He frowned at the vial. It was still empty. I still hadn’t managed to cry to save Derrick.
He stood, and I took it that meant he wanted me to leave, but my legs weren’t ready for walking. My entire body was weak, and my knees felt as though they’d buckle if I put weight on them.
“Ask Josephine Kimura to tell you a sad story,” Thatch said. “Just looking at her face makes me want to cry half the time.”
�
��Josie isn’t ugly!” I jumped, quick to defend the kindest and most sincere person I’d ever met. “She’s the cutest witch I know.”
“That’s exactly what I mean. So cute she makes me want to vomit until I cry. Surely she can help you feel sad and sorry for her about something. Maybe a true story will work better.”
“A true story,” I said.
“Yes, a true story. Either you’re an incredibly wicked and heartless witch, or you’ve learned to disbelieve every word I say. Since it is unlikely to be the former, we must assume the latter. Good for you. We can stop calling you Little Miss Fae Bait at staff meetings.” The arrogant tilt to his chin was almost strong enough to mask that hint of misery in his eyes.
But not quite. He’d had a wretched childhood, and his heart had been broken by loss. That didn’t give him a right to make everyone else suffer along with him. His penchant for tormenting others made Vega appear warm and fuzzy in comparison, like someone I actually wanted to be friends with.
Maybe he did lack a soul.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Dragon Eggs for Dummies
Starting the day with a tall tale—if it had been a tall tale—from Thatch’s arsenal of fairy tales was no way to begin the day. Snippets of his words ate away at my happy mood. People said he’d been in the Raven Queen’s employment as her spy, so it was possible he had run away from home and unwittingly brought his sisters into her lair. My biological mother had been his teacher. He’d omitted what his affinity was in his story, but I already knew he was a Red like me. Unlike me, he was too good at controlling pain and using pain magic for it to be anything else. The Raven Queen would have been interested in that.
People said he loved Alouette Loraline. People said he had been her accomplice. I didn’t know where the truth ended and his lies began. He was too good at head games.
None of this brought me closer to tears—only torment. In the days that followed, it was all I thought about. It distracted me from my lessons and my focus on helping Derrick. I had to remind myself why I was trying to cry in the first place—I needed to make sure Derrick was safe and not being used by the Raven Queen to perform evil deeds for her.
I wanted to see him again.
Apparently, the patron saints of school teachers decided my life wasn’t difficult enough.
The following week, while Maddy accompanied me to Grandmother Bluehorse’s class during my prep, two students walking down one of the aisles of plants ahead of us broke into a fight. For once it had nothing to do with Maddy.
A short blond boy swung a punch at Luke Heller. “I know you took it! Give it back now!”
“Hey!” I shouted. “No fighting.”
Luke evaporated and reappeared a few feet away. It was a cool trick I’d never seen him do before. “Took what, dude?”
The blond boy sneakily glanced over his shoulder, eyeing me. He whispered something I couldn’t hear.
“I did not take your stupid phone!” Luke said indignantly. “It was the school ghost.”
“There’s no such thing as ghosts.”
Of course my students would be fighting over the forbidden fruits of electronics.
I strode toward them. “Separate from each other and take a breather.”
The first boy clenched and unclenched his fists, ignoring me. “I know you have it. Just like you took my iPod.”
“You know what?” I said. “Electronics aren’t allowed. They drain your magic. End of conversation—unless you want to take this to Mr. Khaba. I’m sure he would be delighted to give you a detention for fighting and having weapons on campus.”
Luke Heller laughed. The first boy launched himself at Luke, who evaporated again. Blondy crashed into the aisle of greenery, plants toppling onto him. Dirt fell out of the pots and scattered all over the place.
The teen lay on the ground, groaning. I offered him my hand and helped him up. “You okay?”
“I guess.”
“Good. Get a broom and clean up your mess.”
“Miss Lawrence!” Maddy shouted. She stood at the end of the aisle pointing to the large potted plants stacked on shelves.
A gold horn poked through a row of bushy plants.
“Please, don’t be Bart,” I said to myself.
“Psst! Clarissa.” Bart pushed his way through two plants so his head was visible. His rainbow hair caught on the leaves of a St. John’s wort plant.
I could already tell it was going to be one of those days. I ran down the aisle, hoping I could get rid of him before anyone else discovered him. “How did you get in here?”
“Duh. Magic.”
I crossed my arms.
“There’s a back door. I picked the lock with my horn.” He sounded proud of himself.
I waved toward the back of the greenhouse. “Then that’s how you’re going to leave. Out that back door.”
Maddy peeked around me. “Is that your unicorn? Can I pet him?” She reached out her hand.
“No.” Bart lifted his head out of her reach. “I only let virgins pet me.”
Maddy’s eyes went wide. Her face flushed pink.
“Bart!” I said. “You’re being rude to one of my students. Don’t be like that to Maddy.”
“But it’s true. That’s just the way unicorns are. We don’t like sluts.”
“Shut up! I’m not a slut.” Tears filled her eyes. “I don’t care if you are a unicorn. You’re an asshole!”
A student peeked over the row of plants. The teenager called over his shoulder, “Grandmother Bluehorse, there’s a unicorn in here eating the plants again!”
Double damn.
“You need to leave,” I told Bart.
I turned to Maddy and hugged her around the shoulder. “Go over to that table over there. I’m going to have a word with Bart.”
She stuck out her lip, looking like she was trying hard not to cry.
I gave him the evil eye. “You are going. Right now.”
“Sure thing. No problem. I won’t let the greenhouse door hit me on the way out.” He blew air through his lips. “I guess you don’t want that magical egg for the fancy spell you’re working on with the dungeon master.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The Problem with Unicorns
I was so flustered and angry with Bart’s insults, the way he interrupted my classes, and now this, I could barely get the words out. “You can’t just come into the greenhouse, slut shame my students, and then tell me you have a dragon egg.”
“Why not?”
Grandmother Bluehorse bustled around the row of plants, muttering under her breath. I didn’t know if she was swearing or incanting.
I pointed at Bart. “Get out now!”
“I know. It’s a bad time. How about we meet in the woods after dinner? Seven tonight? I won’t keep you long. I know it’s a school night.”
Green light shot out of Grandmother Bluehorse’s staff. The plants on both sides of Bart’s face slapped him and shoved him back.
Bart bit one of the plants and spit it out. “Seven p.m. Don’t bring any nonvirgins with you.”
“Stop labeling people like that,” I said. “My students have feelings. You are being a jerk.”
“But this jerk has a dragon egg!”
Grandmother Bluehorse continued shooting out plant magic. Bart grunted and crashed into something on the other side of the shelves of plants that I couldn’t see.
“I’m all right,” he called. Another thud. “Fine, I get it. I’m going.”
Grandmother Bluehorse grabbed me by the collar of my coat, dragging me with her. “What do you think you’re doing, letting a unicorn in here?”
“I didn’t let him in. I was trying to get rid of him.”
She clucked her tongue. “This isn’t the first time someone’s spotted you with unicorns. I saw you riding him myself a few months back.”
“Yeah, well, that was months ago. I told him he’s not allowed to come back, but he won’t listen.”
We reached the end of
the row and rounded the bend. From the aisle, I could see the back door open. Grandmother Bluehorse shuffled forward to close it. “Maybe you should stop giving him carrots and apples. It just leads them on.”
“I’m not leading him on!” She didn’t understand the situation Thatch had put me in. Why did everyone always blame sirens and succubae for luring in men? I had been very clear I didn’t want his attention. I didn’t even want that dragon egg now—except I needed it for Derrick.
If Thatch was punking me and making up some story to get me to collect things for him as some kind of lesson, I would seriously kill him.
Thatch was gone recruiting in the afternoon, and he still hadn’t returned during dinner, so I couldn’t talk with him about the events of the day. I put in a request with Mrs. Keahi to talk to the principal about my unicorn problem, but Jeb was away too. And even if he hadn’t been, I doubted the secretary would have let me talk to him.
In the sanctuary of Khaba’s pink office, I told him and Josie about my unicorn problem.
“Wait, why do you need this dragon egg so badly again?” Josie asked, twirling a strand of purple-and-black hair around her finger. “I say you just ditch that unicorn and get Khaba to erect new wards to keep him off school grounds.”
I bit my lip. Thatch had wanted Derrick’s spell to remain a secret. Or maybe he just wanted Derrick to remain secret. Or was it doing something nice he was trying to keep a secret? I wasn’t clear on that.
Doubt wormed its way into my heart. Maybe Thatch was just a jerk and a liar, and he was up to something nefarious.
“Honey,” Khaba said. “Who doesn’t need a dragon egg? They contain powerful magic. I know I’d be willing to meet a horny beast in the deep dark woods if he offered to show me his precious.” He winked at me.