Spirit of Fae Academy

by Kendal Davis

  “You mean, when you were in my world?”

  She made a little face. “I like to think that this is your world now. But yes, I had to spend all that time working in the mortal realm in order to be allowed to come to the Academy. And look, now the new class is drawn from anywhere at all, not just those who have been employed in the environmental work among your people. The Queen sure keeps us guessing.”

  At the mention of the Queen of the fae, I winced. She’d seemed like a normal ruler of her people when I first met her, but that had been before she revealed her plan to suck out my magic and life force and discard me. That had dampened our relationship just a little. I hadn’t killed her, though. No matter how much I’d felt the urge to do so raging through my veins.

  And since I hadn’t killed her, I knew full well that she’d be back for me.

  The next morning, we filed out of breakfast to receive our course schedules from the new Headmaster. Professor Thermophilus was a fire fae for whom I felt an uneasy admiration.

  “I see you looking at her like she’s going to bite you,” whispered Evana as we waited in line.

  “It’s just a thing I have with Headmasters now, I guess,” I answered. “How will we know she’s really good and not in league with her former boss?”

  “We won’t,” Evana said practically. “Just don’t trust anybody too much. You’re always saying that fae are unusually reserved. Just be that.”

  As we reached the front of the line, I braced myself for some cutting words from Thermophilus. Our Headmaster last year had taken every opportunity to speak snidely to me, beginning with our first meeting on the sky train from my world. Instead, she allowed me to pass without comment. I hadn’t realized how refreshing it was not to be singled out at all times. As Evana and I walked away, looking over our schedules, I heard Headmaster Thermophilus exclaim over Lily as she came through the line. It made sense that my snobby new roommate was a protege of the Headmaster, as they commanded the same element. Also, Lily could always be counted on to land on her feet.

  “So, what do you have first this morning?” Evana pulled me to the side of the corridor to look over my list of classes.

  “Same as everybody, of course,” I grinned. “Spells of Magical Combat with Professor Thorn.”

  She nodded. “Everybody’s favorite not-at-all-secret-member of the Eternal Assassins, right?” As she spoke, a group of first-years turned around to try to catch what she was saying.

  “Hush,” I reminded her. “He might choose to tell people that he knows things about the most secret club there is, but it isn’t up to us to do it. Those new kids might think there’s a chance for them to get into the Assassins.” I allowed my powers to fill my hands for just a moment, juggling balls of light from each of my affinities. It was a cheap trick, but the way it made the first-years scurry away was worth it.

  “It’s going to be a fun year,” Evana said, linking her arm in mine. As we walked toward the gym for Combat class, she called over to the group of new students. “You know, they say nobody has been inducted into the Assassins for years and years.” They only blinked at us in confusion. When she turned to me again, she was giggling. “They know who you are now, if they didn’t already.”

  I knew she was trying to keep things light, so I wouldn’t worry about whether I could maintain my spell that held the castle’s stones together. How was I supposed to concentrate on my lessons and do that at the same time? Everybody here knew who I was, but if I couldn’t keep the castle from collapsing on them, then there would be nothing left to know.

  For any of us.

  6

  Rook

  The first day of actual classes back at school was somehow simultaneously boring and exciting. It was a snore to have to look at my schedule and think of the hours I’d have to spend to do well in my more challenging academic classes. ‘Theory of Combustion Spells,’ for example, was a notoriously difficult course required of all fire fae. On the other hand, another year of learning combat moves with Professor Thorn was going to be fun, as long as he didn’t make weird and leading comments about the Assassins..

  What really got my blood flowing, though, was this idea that the professor of earth magic seemed to have that he was going to be bonding with Ciara. It had been hard enough for Owain and I to get comfortable with the idea of sharing her with each other. But we’d managed, because there was no other option. And because we knew that all we really wanted in the world was to take care of our beautiful, quirky mortal. Her needs were what mattered, above all else..

  I leaned across my desk now to get her attention. After a grueling welcome-back workout in the gym, we’d made our way to our ‘Mythological Creatures’ class. I’d managed to convince Ciara to take it with me, mostly by telling her she’d learn a lot about everyday fae life. She’d studied us endlessly in her strange, closed-off mortal upbringing, but I had serious doubts that the Directors who had been in charge of her had gotten anything right about our world.

  “Hey, Ciara,” I whispered. “What did you think of Thorn’s class? He seems even crazier than usual this year.”

  She frowned at me. “Hush. I already get enough stares here. I’m not going to get in trouble with the professor for talking.”

  As Alder, the huge forest man, strolled in, he sent her a genial look. “That’s right. Definitely don’t get on this teacher’s bad side.” Then he followed up his threat with a broad, undeniably handsome grin. I swear, every female fae in the room swooned.

  So that was how it was going to be this year. Everywhere I turned, there was going to be this guy watching Ciara. More handsome than the rest of us, more powerful...he just really pissed me off.

  Ciara herself looked less flushed than all the other women as he impressed them with his antics, but I knew her. It only took a glance to know that she was feeling a deep attraction to the odd, tree-shaped man.

  He faced the class and began to hand out heavy leather volumes from a stack on his desk. “I imagine you all signed up for this class because you thought it would be easy, right? Or fun, or something like that. Well, of course that was before you knew who would be teaching it.” He brought himself to his full height and fixed a stare on us all. “I don’t prepare lessons for fun.”

  I did a double-take when I realized that my own second cousin, Finley, was in the class with us. He sat on the other side of the room, where he was for some reason, apparently bent on irritating Alder. Finley’s gray trousers were wrinkled and his hair looked as if it very much needed a comb. He stood to speak. He was respectful, but headlong. “Professor Alder, were you a teacher before? We heard you only just arrived at the Academy.”

  Alder shook his head, giving nothing away. “I was not. And I did.”

  Finley remained standing, his earnestness almost charming, but really just embarrassing. “Sorry, I don’t mean to be rude. But what are your qualifications for teaching this course? I just want to make sure that it will be rigorous.” He sounded apologetic rather than contentious.

  Alder thinned his lips. “Of course it will. You can ask in the office for my resume, but I’ll warn you now, they don’t know a thing about me.” His glare made the younger man shift his feet, then capitulate and sit down. “You’ve probably heard rumors about my powers. I command the element of earth. But I will not be offering any demonstrations of that or discussing it.”

  Ciara fiddled with her pen as if she wanted to ask a question, but didn’t like drawing attention to herself. She carefully avoided eye contact with both me and the professor.

  “Now,” Alder went on. “I ask that you turn to chapter sixteen and read for five minutes. Then we will discuss what you’ve learned.”

  My tenacious young relative stood again. It looked like he might even have his belt on backwards. Did the kid dress in the dark? “Sorry. Don’t mean to interrupt. But why are we starting at the back of the book?”

  Alder was cool. “That is how I begin all books. It’s like life. You don’t know what hap
pened at the beginning of your story, not truly, so you might as well focus on the later parts. Most of you don’t even know when your tale began.” He didn’t look at Ciara, but I saw her jump in her seat as if from a particular, unseen contact.

  Damn. He was sending her his thoughts and feelings along their elemental connection.

  I stood, trying to distract Alder from bothering her. With a grateful glance at me, Finley subsided. Was this class going to be all about avoiding the professor? That sounded harder than the course material. “Sir?” I spoke loudly, so as to let him know I wasn’t nervous. “What will we be covering in the course?”

  Alder’s expression snapped closed. “For goodness’ sake, you’ll leave today with a syllabus, and all the usual paperwork. What I want to focus on right now is the chapter on spirits.” He remained standing, apparently prepared to loom over us all until we began the assigned reading.

  “Spirits?” I heard a tentative note in my voice. Sure, I was the only one still bothering to try to annoy him. Everybody else had already opened the book. But I felt like there was something I was supposed to learn here. Something important.

  “They aren’t just a fairy tale,” Alder reproved. “They are the underpinning of all fae magic.” He raised a hand to forestall the objection that I was about to make. “I know, I’ve heard it all before. You were raised to believe that spirits were not real. But is that not why you are here at the Academy? To find out how to fit even a few new pieces of information into your young, overconfident brains?”

  I let the last part slide, and I nodded warily at him.

  “So learn,” he urged me. “There may be a situation very soon in which we need to summon the spirit that permeates this place.”

  As I finally took my seat, Ciara lifted her head. Her face had gone pale. “Do you mean the Academy itself?”

  “Yes,” Alder answered gravely. “You must cast aside your preconceived notions about what is myth and what is real, if you want to understand what is happening here.” Then he broke eye contact with her and continued to stroll through the classroom.

  Again, I saw Ciara shift in her seat, as if she was feeling the touch of the burly man in her mind. And on her body.

  Damn. She was our mate.

  But if this had to happen, if she needed to reach out to a lover from every element she possessed, in order to be her best self, then I would not stand in her way. Alder looked wild, and he sounded both crabby and condescending. But he was here for a reason. And whether it was to save the castle or Ciara, I was all in.

  7

  Ciara

  That night at dinner in the Great Hall, I felt like I could finally relax a little. I’d spent all vacation wondering what it would be like to finally get to meet my mate of earth affinity. Nothing had gone as I’d expected. He was a professor, not a student. And he was brusque, not sweet with me. But the most important thing was working out just fine: I knew he wanted me. And I was going to find the courage to show him that I was his, no matter where he’d come from.

  Along the long table that was reserved for air fae, chatter rose and fell about the first Monday of classes. Every student wanted to tell their friends what they thought about their courses and their professors. For the most part, Evana and I had already covered the gossip we wanted to share. She’d missed seeing Alder’s smoldering eyes in ‘Mythological Creatures,’ because she was taking only advanced air fae courses. Like Owain, she’d dismissed the study of mythology as trivial.

  I leaned toward her and said, under my breath, “I wish you’d been there this afternoon. It gave me chills to hear his passion for mythology.”

  She snorted, taking a sip of her wine to calm her throat. “You’re kidding, right? The man has eyes for nothing but you. Maybe that’s the passion you were noticing.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” I said slowly. “I feel like there’s a lot he doesn’t want to tell me about himself.”

  “Oh, he will. Once the chips are down and the clothes are off, you’ll be able to see right into his mind.” She laughed at her own wit.

  “You sure are in a good mood,” I answered. “What’s that about?”

  “I met somebody,” she said with total satisfaction. “In ‘Manifestations of Air Affinity.’”

  “What are you talking about? That’s a first-year course.” I shook my head, a smile springing to my lips. “You took it on purpose, didn’t you? Just so you could cradle-rob a newcomer who isn’t afraid of you yet.”

  “That’s silly. They’re all afraid of you, not me.” She looked around the massive room, pretending she wasn’t going to tell me more. The Hall was full to the brim, now that all the students had arrived. The room was swirling with energy. I knew I was the only one who could sense all four of the elements as they zinged through the air with the variety of spells that were in place here. The magic that powered all the amenities of the castle included all the elements now, including earth. They ran through the exquisite dinner of perfectly cooked filet mignon, fresh asparagus, and glazed potatoes. They lit the chandeliers and ran like filaments through the tapestries that hung on the stone walls. Most of all, the four elements ran through the stones, like veins through granite.

  Evana relented, finally answering. “Ok, yes. I met somebody because I made sure I would. There’s nothing wrong with that. Maybe I’ve picked up a few things from watching you.”

  I pretended to wince. “I hope not.”

  “He’s an air fae, from the high mountains. His name is Finley.”

  Something about what she was saying jogged my memory, but I had no time to answer. As I opened my mouth, our new Headmaster stood. She was more stern than she had been when she gave her welcome speech.

  “Students of Fae Academy. This is an unusual step, but I must tell you that we have encountered an emergency.”

  The other air fae at our long table all looked at me. To be honest, everybody in the Hall did. I heard one auburn-haired girl mutter, “I can’t believe she’s causing problems again. Already.” I scowled at her, but she looked pointedly away.

  Headmaster Thermophilus went on. “We are experiencing fluctuations in the magic that is the foundation of the Academy. The faculty are working on the difficulty, but it is unlike anything we’ve ever experienced before.” She cleared her throat, as if she did not like what she was going to say next. “We request that all students meet with their secret societies this evening. New students will all simply teleport to their rooms, as they have not yet been inducted.”

  “This has never happened before,” whispered Evana. “It must be dire, for them to call the societies to meet before they are ready to pick from the newcomers.”

  “Oh, it’s dire all right,” I agreed. I didn’t know how to tell her that I had a constant headache now from the effort it took to hold the entire castle together. She peered at me over her wine glass, though, and I knew she understood.

  When the meal ended, the Headmaster rose again. “You will all now clear your minds to receive the image of your meeting place. It is a point of honor, of course, that no student will ever reveal which club is theirs.” She raised her hand to indicate to all club advisors that they should send their information.

  I raised my eyebrows at my best friend. “That sounds a lot friendlier than saying that anybody who blabs will be expelled.” I knew both were true.

  And I also knew that there was nothing remotely friendly about the secret society that had chosen me, my roommates, and my men.

  The image that appeared in my mind was not the one I’d expected. Last year, the Eternal Assassins had met in the lowest basement of the castle. It was where I’d summoned the earth magic that had been latent in my gift. It was where I’d incarcerated the lying, diabolical Headmaster Landon when he’d proved to be faithless to everyone but himself.

  But now? In my mind, I saw the dimly-lit, hay-strewn floor of the stables. The outbuildings for the horses were on the far side of the hill from the javelin field. I’d never spen
t any time there at all, preferring to avoid any animals larger than myself.

  It was no mistake, though. Evana and I exchanged silent glances, and teleported to our meeting location. In the space of only a few minutes, most of the students had blinked out of the Great Hall, whether it was to their bedroom if they were new, or to their low-key social clubs. The fae who were now sitting with their fellow fire boat hobbyists or oceanic art buddies were not going to be called upon to save the world.

  My affiliation, though, was to a club that was anything but low-key.

  We’d been tapped to join the Eternal Assassins because we were the strongest mages in the school. Or maybe the most morally pliable. I’d never been sure which. All I knew was that what I’d thought was a fun group activity had turned out to be a commitment to taking mortal life. There was no point in a group that planned to assassinate the fae; they were eternal themselves. No, this society existed to serve the Queen by winnowing out the chaff of the mortal world.

  My world.

  When I appeared in the stables, I was only steps away from a meeting room whose doors were wide open. I made my way inside, hoping with all my heart that my strolling gait looked nonchalant. Perhaps I shouldn’t have bothered. Two of the people at the wide conference table were bonded to me, and could sense my true feelings with clarity.

  I sat between Rook and Owain, feeling better immediately once I was close to them. Evana and Lily were across from us. No surprises there. But at the head of the table? Professor Thorn, our Combat teacher, now presided over the most secret organization at the Academy.

  He frowned with more seriousness than I’d ever seen from him before. “Thank you all for coming. If you had not, I would have had to teleport you myself, and you know that is taxing for both parties.”

  Rook breathed the words we were all thinking. “So you are an Assassin. We all thought you were.”