by Lucia Ashta
Tracy allowed her head to fall back against her seat. Her eyes started rolling back in her head as she appeared to give up the fight. Both hands had disappeared beneath her skirt, and both of them were moving.
“Girls,” Marcy June hissed, “this is so fucking inappropriate, I have no words. There’s a time and a place for this. And it’s not now, and it’s definitely not the hell here.”
Swan closed her eyes and leaned back much as Tracy had.
Stacy lost the fight with her hands.
Marcy June rounded on the rest of us. “Everyone! Close your eyes. Right now. Keep them shut until I tell you to open them again.”
Maybe half of the students closed their eyes to start, but I caught most of them peeking soon after. The rest didn’t bother, as I didn’t. There was no chance I was missing my nemeses getting exactly what they deserved.
Well, maybe not…
They did look like they were having a bit too much fun now that they’d given up the struggle.
“No one look,” Marcy June repeated, but she didn’t even bother to check if any of us were complying. She had to know most of us weren’t. I doubted she’d follow the instructions if roles were reversed.
“Girls, stop,” she hissed. “You have to stop. Whatever spell has hold of you, fight it. Don’t give your energy over to it. Hold your minds strong against its effects.”
But Stacy, Tracy, and Swan were somewhere else. Their breathing grew rapid, their moans increasingly more lascivious, their behavior more given over to abandon, salacious without apology.
“Everyone, class dismissed,” Marcy June said hurriedly, slapping the shoulders of several students near her. “Come on. Up you all go. Get out. Now.”
Never had the class dismissed so slowly. Students took their time. Those who had bothered to bring a pen and notebook with them gathered them up in slow motion. Girls bent to lift up their socks, and once they stood they smoothed their skirts or rolled up their sleeves, anything to delay their departure.
This was the wildest thing to happen in a long while. No one wanted to miss it.
The boys adjusted their ties and some their pants. A few tried to claim the seats directly behind the Bitchy Moaning Bunch before Marcy June yanked them up by the ears and threw them out.
My friends and I lingered more than the rest, exchanging wide-eyed glances with each other.
Once we were the only ones left, Marcy June spun on us. “What the hell is going on here?” she snarled, coyote fur rippling along her bare forearms. “Does this have something to do with that pendant of yours?” she asked me.
The groans and moans grew so loud that not even she could focus anymore, and she shooed the lot of us outside. The hallway was empty, so she pulled the classroom door shut behind her and blocked the window set into the door.
Even so, I could still make out the muffled sounds of pleasure. A giggle escaped me, unbidden.
“Sorry,” I said, clapping a hand to my mouth.
“You should be sorry,” Marcy June said. “No student is allowed to … well, I don’t exactly know what it is you did, actually.”
“I wasn’t apologizing for that.” I pointed at the door and the three bee-atches behind it getting their due. They’d never live this down. “I was apologizing for giggling like a schoolgirl,” I clarified. Which, come to think of it, I supposed I theoretically was.
Marcy June, who was one of the few people on campus shorter than me—aside from the pygmy trolls, gnome, and tiny fairies, of course—got right up in my business. Her nose nearly touched mine.
“Did you do this, Jas?”
My friends shuffled uncomfortably around me, but I didn’t flinch at the coyote shifter’s intensity. She didn’t intimidate me; I understood her too well. Plus, I knew she liked me.
I waited for a loud, filtered moan to finish before replying. “I didn’t do this—at least not on purpose. But I think my pendant might have had something to do with their self-sex-a-thon.”
She narrowed her eyes, but not at me. She was thinking.
I adjusted Why in my hold. He was as heavy as a rock when he slept all out, which was most of the time. Without waking, he cycled one of his legs around, as if I were tickling him.
Marcy June’s attention settled on him. “Did your pendant cause him to be here too?”
I shook my head. “Nope. I brought him here all on my own after my pendant delivered me right next to him.”
“He hasn’t gone back.”
I gave her a duh look.
“What’s going on in there isn’t going to end on its own either, is it?”
I shrugged. “I seriously have no idea.”
Marcy June turned toward the classroom, debating. My friends and I all looked at each other. Surprisingly, Adalia seemed to be the one closest to losing the battle with containing her laughter. Boone was a close second, his face alight with mirth.
When Marcy June spun back around, we all pulled masks back into place to conceal our amusement.
The professor sighed loudly. “What do you think caused the pendant to do this? It’s so … bizarre.”
“Well, if I had to guess, I’d say it started when I told them to go fuck themselves.” The potty-mouthed teacher didn’t even blink at that. “And they deserved what they got. They had it coming. Those bitches are mean snakes.”
“Yeah,” Marcy June said absently, reminding me why she was my favorite teacher.
She huffed as the moans slipping through the door of the Illumination Room reached a crescendo. “All right. Leave me to deal with this shit. I have no fucking idea what I’m going to do, but I’ll have to do something.”
“What about us?” Dave asked. “Won’t you need help?”
“Definitely, but I’ll get Fianna and Nessa started on getting it.”
“And us?” Boone asked.
“You all attend the rest of your classes like normal.”
“And me?” I finally asked.
“You…” She waggled her mouth back and forth while she thought. “I take it you still can’t get that pendant off?”
In answer, I tried to slip it over my head. As usual, no luck. It slammed my movements to a halt in front of my nose. There was no getting it off me by ordinary means.
“Damn. And Hettie isn’t back yet. Neither are the others. Okay. Shit. I guess just continue on with your day and your classes. Just … don’t tell anyone else to go fuck themselves, ‘kay?”
“I’ll do my best, but I won’t make any promises. Some people just deserve it.”
“True that,” she said on a sigh.
“You hear that?” Leo asked.
We all stopped to listen. Silence.
“They must’ve finished,” Marcy June said, turning around and placing her hand against the door. “You’d all better get out of here before they come at you, fast and furious. Assuming the show is over and they’re capable of it…”
“Actually, Professor,” I said, because I can’t always help myself, “They’ll be like fat, lazy cats. If they give chase, we’ll outrun them.”
She stared at me over her shoulder for a beat while Wren admonished me under her breath.
But then Marcy June just laughed, warm and boisterous. She shook her head while she pushed open the door and slipped inside.
“This is the best day of classes we’ve had yet,” Rina said, grinning.
“Undoubtedly,” Dave said with a tinge of awe. “I don’t think you should ever get rid of that pendant, Jas.”
“And what if the pendant is dangerous?” Wren bit her lip, concern clouding her big eyes.
“To others or to Jas?” Ky moved forward, placing a hand on my back.
“Both.” Wren crossed her hands in front of her chest, picking at her sleeves.
I shrugged off her concern. “For now, we should get the hell out of here before Fianna arrives and gives us an earful. We should be extremely grateful Sir Lancelot wasn’t here today—”
Adalia laughed, and the rest of us chuckled.
/>
Dave interjected: “Sir Lancelot might’ve fainted from the sight.”
Ky smiled. “Totally.”
“And,” I continued, “since Professor Hatebomb isn’t here, this means we have the rest of the day off.”
“Damn, that’s right!” Dave beamed. He liked sitting through classes about as much as I did.
“Let’s go into the forest and hang,” Boone suggested. “No one will be able to find us there, and the day is beautiful.”
“The days are always beautiful here,” Adalia said, “but I love the idea.”
“I’ll grab a Frisbee,” Ky said.
“I’ll grab a guitar,” Boone added.
“I’ll grab the booze and drugs,” I said.
As one, they all swiveled to look at me.
“What? I’m just kidding. I only wish we could get our hands on booze out here. But I’m pretty sure intoxication is on the trolls’ forbidden list.”
“It probably is,” Dave said, a little too happily, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t break a rule or two.”
“You have booze?” I asked, shocked that Mr. Dave Bailey would be in the know more than I.
“I don’t, but I can get almost whatever you all want. I have connections.”
“How? Where? When?”
“A man of mystery doesn’t reveal his secrets,” he said, giving me a James Bond raised brow look.
Wren laughed and swatted him on the arm.
“Do you need help?” Leo asked.
“Sure,” Dave said, giving Wren a peck on the cheek and taking off toward the double doors. Boone turned to follow, and Ky leaned in to say, “Meet you at the lake.”
“Sure thing.” If they could produce fun times out of thin air, I was all for it. I needed something to distract me from all this nonsense.
Ky disappeared along with the others, and Rina, Wren, Adalia, and I stood around for a minute, looking at each other. Until Rina lost it and busted out laughing.
It didn’t require any encouragement for the rest of us to follow, and soon we were laughing so hard we had to clutch our stomachs.
“Did you see them?” Rina wheezed. “Stacy looked like she was about to pop the blood vessels in her eyes from all the effort of reining herself in.”
“And Tracy…” I tried to complete the sentence, but couldn’t. My eyes were burning, my abdominal muscles cramped, and every time I tried to keep talking, I pictured the Bitchy Bunch and lost it all over again.
“I can’t believe … you two.” I pointed at Wren and Adalia while I bent over.
“What? You can’t believe we’re laughing?” Wren asked, sounding perplexed.
“I think what she means is she can’t believe we’re laughing at others’ expense,” Adalia said.
I brought my index finger to the tip of my nose. She nailed it.
Immediately, guilt washed over Wren’s face, snatching the smile right from it. “Jas is right. We shouldn’t be laughing at them.”
That’s not what I meant at all.
Adalia squeezed Wren’s shoulder. “You know what, Wren? Sometimes it really is just as simple as people getting what they deserve. Nothing wrong with enjoying a bit of karma, now is there?”
I looked at my roommate with fresh eyes. Maybe she wasn’t so annoying after all.
She slid to my side, wrapped an arm around my shoulders, and pointed me toward the exit. “Come on, roomie. Let’s have some awesome fun!”
Her smile spread her lips tight, her eyes twinkled with joy, and her cheeks dimpled.
Never mind. She was entirely too happy. No one should be that happy on a daily basis. It just wasn’t right.
Then two pops in quick succession swept through the still closed door to the classroom.
There was no way I was going to risk an encounter with the bossy fairies right now. Fianna especially would almost surely find a way to interfere with fun, boozy time.
Before anyone could stop us, as one, we speed-walked toward the door. The moment the sunshine hit my face, I tasted freedom, and led the way to the girls’ dorm. Time to grab a bikini and hightail it to the lake.
After what had gone down with the Bitchy Bunch, I had sexy, fun times on the mind. I intended to savor every minute of our afternoon.
18
The guys arrived at the lake shortly after us with guitar, Frisbee, and towels in hand, along with a concoction far better than booze. I intended to grill Dave about his source until he caved and revealed his mystery connection.
“I so needed a day like this,” I said, staring at the clear bottle in my hand with relish while lying back on one of the blankets we’d spread out.
The guys had brought a bottle for each of us, and though the containers had no markings on them, they looked to be about a forty. I might have been raised in the magical world, but that didn’t mean I hadn’t partied with local kids while I waited for my invitation to the academy to arrive. I knew a forty when I saw one.
I’d never seen one quite like this before, however, not even in the magical world. The bottles were filled with colorful liquids that swirled in continuous motion as if they consisted of smoke, fog, or maybe miniature galaxies. The liquid inside of mine was a deep, bright purple, and I almost wanted to not drink it just so I could keep staring at it—almost.
I was desperate to unwind and put thoughts of the pendant and all the recent craziness out of my mind. I took my first sip and hmmed. “Oh wow. Have you guys tried yours yet? It tastes amazing.”
Timid Wren surprised me by drinking next from her bottle, filled with a deep green. “Holy shamoly, you’re right. It’s like candy.” She tasted her lips. “Like nectar. What is this exactly, Dave?”
Dave settled on a blanket next to her in vividly checkered swim trunks. Before answering, he drank the crimson liquid that was his. He sighed contentedly and held his bottle up to the sun to look through it. Prisms of color shot out in every direction, lighting up the narrow sandy beach.
“This is the finest of Pygmy Troll Power Brew. I don’t know exactly how they make it and I didn’t ask. I just took the bottles and ran.” A group chuckle swept across us. I could totally picture Dave running from the pygmy trolls. “They put their magic into it. The troll I spoke with—and I promised him I wouldn’t tell you his name, so don’t even bother asking—said the brew will blow our minds.”
“And he didn’t have a problem with that?” Rina asked as Leo settled on another blanket next to her. In his charcoal swim trunks, the elven prince’s chest was chiseled and muscular, as was Boone’s, who sat next to Adalia, tying his hair into the usual ponytail he wore at the base of his neck. His biceps rippled with the subtle motions.
Even so, no one looked as good as Ky, who was as yummy as the brew I sipped from. His chestnut hair was messy, his shoulders and back were all muscled ridges, and his copper eyes seemed to glow in the bright sunshine. It was all I could do not to run my hands all over him. He was definitely sitting closely enough…
With a start, I realized I’d zoned out on Dave’s answer, and I’d really wanted to hear it.
“Wait, what?” I said, interrupting Dave mid-sentence.
He turned to me. His gaze skipped from me to Ky and back again. He chuckled knowingly but didn’t comment. “I was saying that the trolls aren’t as bad as we think. They might have attitudes—”
“Piss poor attitudes…”
“Sure, piss poor attitudes, but I think they like to have fun.”
“They must if they brew this stuff.” Ky upended his bottle and drank a few fingers of its gold-colored contents. “This is potent.”
Rina was braiding Leo’s long, silver hair when he commented, “The trolls are known in the fae world for their alchemical mixtures. There are a few fae races that are master alchemists, and they’re one of them. Depending on what it is, their brews can be highly sought after.”
“That’s right, My Prince,” Adalia said, looking gorgeous in her teeny-weeny peach-hued bikini. “The pygmy trolls trade
their brews. They never give anything out for free.” She leaned forward, pinning Dave in a curious stare. “What’d you trade for these?”
Dave shrugged. “I traded them a future favor.”
Wren gasped, waking Why from where he’d been dozing on the blanket next to me. The pandacorn rolled onto his belly and blinked at the bright sunshine.
For the first time since Why had joined me, Wren didn’t ooh and ahh over his adorable antics. “Tell me I heard wrong and you did not trade them an open-ended favor.”
“Uh, I did. But it’s no big deal. They assured me it wouldn’t be anything I wouldn’t want to do.”
Wren’s voice was tight with tension. “And you took the trolls’ word for it?”
“Drink up, Wren,” I said. “You’re too stressed. Everything’s going to be fine.”
But from the way Leo and Adalia were looking at Dave, I wondered if Wren might not have a point.
“The trolls always keep their word,” Leo finally said, when Wren didn’t drink but just fretted at her bottle, running a finger up and down it. “But they’re also master manipulators of the truth.”
“That’s right, My Prince,” Adalia said before addressing Dave. “They’ll always stick to the truth, but it might not be a version of the truth you’ll like.”
I took another sip. “So, what, they’re like masters at legalese?”
“Yeah,” Boone said. “They hide things in the fine print, so to speak.”
When a dense silence threatened to descend upon us, I thrust my bottle forward into the middle of all of us. “Then all the more reason to drink up and have enough fun to forget about all the shit that’s been happening lately. Cheers!”
One by one, Wren last, they all joined me in clinking our bottles together. Why rose onto his hind legs and pressed both paws into the center of our circle, sliding down the glass, falling forward, and slicing a thick groove into the side of my bottle with his horn.
“Whyyyy,” I groaned, but Why had no idea what a little hazard he was. The fluff ball discovered himself surrounded by those who liked to pet him and started a rotation of moving between us all—though he never took his eyes off me.
Adalia scratched behind his ears with one hand while running the other along his back. “I think this is the farthest he’s been from you since you found him.” Why purred and closed his eyes halfway—and pinned those half-lidded eyes on me.