by Kendal Davis
The Song of Fae Academy
By Kendal Davis
Text Copyright © 2020 Kendal Davis
All Rights Reserved
Cover design by Melody Simmons
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Arabella
Chapter 2: Frost
Chapter 3: Arabella
Chapter 4: Frost
Chapter 5: Arabella
Chapter 6: Frost
Chapter 7: Arabella
Chapter 8: Lustre
Chapter 9: Arabella
Chapter 10: Varic
Chapter 11: Arabella
Chapter 12: Varic
Chapter 13: Arabella
Chapter 14: Lustre
Chapter 15: Arabella
Chapter 16: Varic
Chapter 17: Arabella
Chapter 18: Frost
Chapter 19: Arabella
Chapter 20: Frost
Chapter 21: Arabella
Chapter 22: Arabella
Also by Kendal Davis
Chapter 1: Arabella
By the end of the school day, the playground was littered with cast-off coats and sweaters. I shook my head as I walked around, gathering up the clothing to take inside. How was it possible that all these children came from families that had never taught them to pick up after themselves?
The jackets that I held right now were easily worth more than my car, if I added their value all together. All the students at Montview Academy were rich. They arrived every morning at school in expensive cars, usually driven by the help, rather than their parents. They chattered constantly about luxurious vacations and things they bought.
And this was elementary school.
These kids were still small enough that I could have picked them up and put them in the office physically when they misbehaved. Except that I didn’t dare. I would be kissing my job as school janitor goodbye if I ever pulled a stunt like that.
“Arabella!” One of the teachers called out to me. She had poked her head out of the door to the imposing brick building where we both worked, but she did not bother to come outside in the chilly spring air. She knew she didn’t need to. “Get back in here with those coats! You still have classrooms to clean.”
“Coming, Ms. Hatcher!” I sang out the words as best as I could. It was a little trick I used to try to make my days here go faster. I could find a melody in the simplest of phrases, and it always kept me going on difficult days.
When I reached Ms. Hatcher, I saw from the twist of her lips that she was scornful.
“Arabella, why do you have to answer everything with a song?” She sneered at me. “It just sounds stupid, like you are trying too hard.”
I ducked my head. No need to let this get to me.
She pressed on. “We all know you wish you were a music teacher, but the fact of the matter is that you are not. You don’t even have a college degree. You’re a janitor, and that’s all you’ll ever be.”
I let my hands relax around the pile of coats that I still held. She wasn’t going to get a rise out of me. Not today.
“Ms. Hatcher, it is kind of you to mention that. As you know, I am saving money to go to college. I’ve always wanted to do that, and it’s not that many years since I should have gone.”
She snorted, then looked closer at me, as if trying to decide if I was sassing her. It took only a moment for her to lose interest. What did it matter to her, either way?
“Honestly, you’re so awkward,” she complained. “Nobody here ever wants to deal with you. Even the students tell me that, and they hardly see you.” She smiled when she saw that her insult had struck home. “If you can’t fit in better here, then the Principal is planning to let you go. Did you know that?”
She’d finally gotten to me. “She can’t,” I gasped. “You know there aren’t any jobs. Not since the mill closed down. Half the town is out of work. Everybody in the lumber industry is after the few jobs that even exist in this place.”
“That is true. And many of them have college degrees.”
“Not that many. Besides, I have experience here. And, if I may be allowed to say so, talent. Musical talent.” I had no idea why I was arguing with her.
“Musical talent with no training is the same thing as nothing at all.” She dismissed me with a wave of her hand. “Go, do your cleaning.” And without another word, she picked up her bag and bustled down the hallway. For her, it was the end of the work day. She could go home to her normal life, with a comfortable house and a fully stocked kitchen.
For me, work was just beginning.
I knew I’d be here until midnight, cleaning up after the pampered students of Montview Academy. My savings were tiny, but they grew a little bit with every paycheck. If I could save up just a bit more, I could start night classes towards my dream. All I’d ever wanted was to go to college to study music.
I wanted to sing. I wanted to follow the haunting melodies that ran constantly through my head, waking me up at night, greeting me every morning when I stole any sleep at all. The songs had woven through my life as long as I could remember.
They were my life.
I had no family at all. My parents had been gone since I was a baby, and there had never been anybody else. I was twenty-five, past the age that all my contemporaries in this small town had finished their education and left for good jobs in better places. I lived in a tiny, dilapidated apartment on a dirty street behind the old mill. I was so poor that I actually coveted the fleece and quilted jackets of eight-year-olds.
But I had my songs. Or they had me. I was never sure which.
And I was going to hold on to what I had until I found a way to make my dreams come true.
As I worked away into the night, darkness pressed against all the windows of the school. The halls were silent save the sound of my cleaning cart. I looked down at my arms, well-muscled from the work I did here. I could fix anything in this building. The Principal never needed to call a plumber, because I could do all that. I patched up walls and rewired light switches. I carried my tools with me on my cart every evening, and it was rare that I didn’t use them.
I had perfected the art of being indispensable, while at the same time being invisible.
And yet, it would have been nice to hear them say that they needed me. To be recognized for what I had to offer.
As I pushed my cart, I began to hum. It was a sweet song that wound its way through my steps, lifting me up. Tranquility spread through me, almost as if I were getting a glimpse of home. What could that mean? This was the only home I’d ever known.
Then I stopped.
I was sure I was the only person in the building. It was closed and locked.
But I could hear footsteps coming down the hall toward me, sure and strong. They were the steps of a man.
When he turned the corner, I saw that he was nobody I’d ever met before. Nobody that belonged in this empty building.
My second thought was that I couldn’t help noticing that he was incredibly hot. He was tall and broad-shouldered, with dark hair and full, expressive lips. He looked like somebody I wouldn’t mind waking up next to. And that was the strangest part, that I would have something like that pop into my head while this muscular man was cornering me in a dark hallway.
Because he also looked like he was about to kill me.
Chapter 2: Frost
The human learning institution was not at all what I expected.
Their idea of a school was cold and empty. The hallways were sterile, with vinyl floors and no ornamentation at all. Who would ever want their young to study in a place like this? I shook my head in disgust.
No time to waste. I strode down the hallway, not even needing to look for her. I could fee
l her powers in every molecule of my body.
“Stop right there!” Her voice was full of anger, with a bit of terror mixed in. More than anything, it was musical.
Her magic met mine as if we were made for each other.
“I can hear it, you know,” I walked more slowly over to the woman who was shouting at me. She had been brandishing a mop when I first saw her, but now she lowered it to send an evaluating look my way. Her eyes were clear, and honest, and unexpectedly beautiful.
She cocked her head, taken by surprise. “Hear what? Who the hell are you?”
“My name is Frost. And I can hear your songs. I’ve heard them for years.”
She went pale and took a step back. “What are you doing here?”
It had only been an hour or so since I placed a spell on the last teacher to leave the building. Ms. Hatcher was now frozen, and quite safe, sitting in her car in the parking lot. I would keep her there as long as I needed her, then she could go home with no memory of anything untoward happening.
The fae were accustomed to stealth when we had to visit this uncouth land.
Reaching outside to the mind of the woman I’d trapped, I supplied myself with an answer. “Hatcher. My last name is Hatcher. Mean anything to you?” I paired the falsely casual way of talking with a broad smile and held up the badge I’d taken from the other woman.
Her shoulders eased. “Oh, well of course.” The stunningly petite woman smiled, sending a pang of longing into my heart. “I’m Arabella. I do the cleaning here. You must be Ms. Hatcher’s...um, husband?” She faltered at guessing whatever relationship I was trying to suggest. With an apologetic smile, she brushed her light blonde hair from her face, tucking a wayward lock behind her ear.
“Her husband? Do you think I look old enough?”
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Arabella winced. “Are you her son? I have to say, I’ve never heard her talk about either one before. I don’t know her very well, though.”
“Well, I’m certainly old enough to be her husband. Just wondered if I look it.” She had no way of knowing that I was an eternal being.
“I would never try to answer that,” she said, laughing outright. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Hatcher. Did you come into the building to pick something up for your wife?” She paused, then narrowed her eyes at me. “Wait a minute. You’re trying to distract me from what you just said.”
“Not at all,” I answered smoothly. “We’ll need to talk about it before we go. I can sense your songs. That’s what you mean?”
“I’m certainly not going anywhere with you.”
She was giving me the strangest look. Usually, women did just as I asked them to do. Everybody did, really.
“I’m not here to pick up any papers.” I let go of the little diversion that I’d started with. “I’m here to talk to you about your music. It is very special, you know.”
She was edging backwards from me. The mop was now on the floor. In her hand, instead, was a huge metal tool that I thought humans might call a ‘wrench.’ It was hard for me to take in how strange they were.
The fae did not visit the mortal world unless we had to.
“Listen up, Mr. Hatcher. ‘Frost,’ did you say?” She had a delicate frame, but I could see the honed muscles in her arms as she waved the wrench at me. I knew not to allow myself to be taken in by her beauty.
She was a woman at the center of a curse.
“Can you hear me, buddy?” Arabella was staring at me with hostility. “Why did you say you had been listening to my music for years? What kind of a creep are you?” She gave a quick glance behind her as she backed up, making sure she had a safe escape route. She had the instincts of a warrior, I’d give her that.
I held out my hands to placate her. “Really, it’s fine. My...ah...wife has told me about your voice. That’s all. You’ve worked here for a while now. These things come up in conversation sometimes.”
Arabella shook her head. “Quit trying to twist things around to make me believe you.”
“I can see why you would be worried. Here you are, alone in a huge building at night. Anything could happen, and nobody would know.” I mulled over the situation, enjoying watching her face as I did so. Her lips were expressive, curving into a smile or a frown with equal speed.
“I don’t believe anything you say,” she stated flatly. “So you can stop trying to scare me. I’m not some defenseless young thing, you know. I’m strong, and I have a few things here I can use against you.” She nodded toward her cart, which she kept between us. As she had been backing away, I’d continued my advance toward her.
I couldn’t have stopped myself from following her, no matter what the stakes were.
“There’s nothing to worry about.” I heard myself as I crooned my answer to her. I allowed the magic of my fae Voice to creep in as I spoke. It should have been easy to calm her, to cool her with my Voice. I was a water fae, capable of calling ice to me at will. It was my special gift.
But the opposite occurred.
Arabella opened her blue eyes wide, glaring at me with irritation. “Don’t patronize me. You think it’s funny to mock my singing? You think I don’t matter here, just because I’m the janitor?”
“On the contrary, you matter a great deal. That is why you must come with me.”
She actually growled. The manners of these mortal creatures left much to be desired. Yet I wished she would do it again, just so I could cover her lips with mine.
“Why would I come with you?” She had her hands on her hips now, her feet in a stance of readiness. “I think it’s time to call the cops.”
“No.” I was finally out of patience. This woman wasn’t behaving like she was supposed to. “Nobody challenges me like this. We will call none of the security officials from your land.” I was still humming a song of persuasion, but it appeared to have no effect at all.
Now Arabella’s eyes were even wider than before, her brows raised high. “From my land? I swear, everything you say just makes you sound weirder. Are you from another country? We don’t get many interesting people in this small town, that’s for sure.” She paused in thought for a moment. “Are you even Ms. Hatcher’s husband at all, or did you just take her badge from her? Wait, is she ok?”
For the first time, the beautiful janitor was moving toward me, not away. She looked furious as she put her ideas together.
“The woman is fine,” I assured her. “She will wake with no memory of any of this. Now, you must come with me. I do not have the time to ask again.”
Arabella quivered with nervousness. After a split second, I realized my mistake. She was not afraid. She was powerful and she was trapped. She raised a hand toward me and began to sing with purpose.
Her Voice began as a low note, one long sound that she held in perfection. Then a tone of steel crept into it and the effect changed. Her song was purposeful, a threat.
“Arabella, you don’t know how to use your Voice safely,” I protested. “I tried to come at the appointed time, but I can see I didn’t get it quite right. You’ll need us. There are things you must learn that only the fae can teach you.”
But she paid me no heed. I, Prince Frost of the fae, Protector of the Realm, was never ignored like that. It was not my favorite feeling ever.
Then, as if in commentary on my thought, the luscious, fierce blonde woman raised her voice, letting her piercing song build. It was beautiful.
And deadly.
The blast of raw power traveled from her hand to fill the entire hallway. There was nothing I could have done to avoid it.
It hit me like a wall of blazing electricity. My heart stopped with the force of Arabella’s anger. My lungs took in no air.
As I fell to the cold, vinyl floor of the school hallway, I gasped out to her.
“You are more dangerous than you know, Arabella.”
Then, as bits of the ceiling tiles rained down on us and papers swirled everywhere, I felt the loss of a life.
She’d done it
. She had killed.
Chapter 3: Arabella
My mind was whirling with emotion. For just a moment there, I must have gone crazy. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. My breath came in ragged gasps.
This couldn’t be real.
The man I’d been so angry with was crumpled on the floor. He was motionless, his eyes closed.
He was still the most handsome man I’d ever seen. Very annoying, maybe, but also sizzlingly hot. Not that I should have thought that about him, after what had just happened.
I inched toward him. Now that I’d stopped singing, or doing whatever I’d been doing, the air around us was settling. A few pieces of brightly-colored construction paper were in the process of sliding from their wall, but everything else was still.
Too still.
“This can’t be happening,” I whispered as I leaned toward the body of the man. “Who are you?” I felt tears pricking against my eyes. “I didn’t mean to do this.”
There was no answer. I looked down at my hands, my fingers spread as if denying any part of this. “Who am I supposed to call? I don’t even know what I did, just that this is all my fault.”
At that, the man on the floor began to move. He sat up, rubbing his head, smoothing his dark hair that had once been perfect. Now it was tousled, somehow making the moment more intimate. He shook his head in annoyance.
“Arabella,” he gritted out. “You are a real pain in the ass. And when I say that, it is in addition to all the other reasons I have to hate you. You mortal.”
I almost fell backwards onto the floor when I saw that he was alive. I couldn’t help saying it aloud. “You’re not dead! I thought I had killed you. Although that can’t have been real…none of it can. It was like there was magic.”
Frost stood up, twitching his broad shoulders. Now that we were closer than we’d been before, I could sense some sort of energy humming from him. It was impossible to ignore.
He grimaced at me. “Yes, I can feel our bond, too. It is our fae powers calling out to each other. But that doesn’t mean I’ll ever act on it. Your magic is an embarrassment to us all. And now? Now you’ve made my task more difficult.”