by Kendal Davis
“So, Arabella,” she said tentatively. “When you sat down to dinner at the prince’s table with us on the first night, that wasn’t an intentional act of aggression?” The room waited to hear the answer.
“Of course not,” Arabella frowned. “Somebody could have told me it was the wrong thing to do. I mean, before you all acted like I’d pointed a gun at you.”
“A what? We would never invite you to sit with us at meals,” I growled. “We are fae royalty, and you are nothing at all.”
She let that pass. “I know that I offend you all constantly. But I’m trying my best. For example, the first day, when I came to physical education class, and I dressed incorrectly…” She faltered.
Lara offered, “I can’t believe you wore your regular clothes. That was so off-color to do. Really inappropriate.” Did we all sound so shallow?
I fixed my eyes on Arabella. “Lara is being too kind. It was more than inappropriate, it was insolent. A toddler would never make such a mistake. Everybody knows that exercise must be taken in the nude. It is a spiritual act. Every fae in the school felt your gaucheness in appearing in clothes. We were deeply grieved.”
Arabella looked like she was stifling a grin. I couldn’t see why. We were telling her why she was so difficult to be around. But I felt her emotions through our magical bond. For a moment, I caught her amusement and almost smiled at her. But I fought it.
“I’m sorry, I really am,” she answered. “I’m trying to get the hang of how you do things at Fae Academy.”
My classmates looked entirely unmoved by the mortal woman’s confession that she was making an effort. We did not want to cut the girl any slack. That was not in us.
I kept my voice supercilious as I spoke into the quiet. “Your failures take up too much of our time. You don’t seem able to learn anything.”
Alaris, the Sister who taught our music class, suddenly sniffed in derision. “That’s enough of all this. If you’ll pardon me, Prince Varic. This girl has taken up our class time with her strange outburst. We are here to learn. We are not here to make mistakes.”
Arabella shivered. Without answering, she took her seat.
I knew she was remembering the mistake that she had made that landed her here at Fae Academy.
Alaris, talented teacher that she was, had herded the girl just where she wanted her. “Arabella, I can tell that you have that moment on your mind. You are here because you killed with your music. Isn’t that right?”
I couldn’t resist answering. No Sister would mind an interruption by one of the Princes of the Realm. “Alaris, is that why you said her Voice sounds like a corpse? Not that it is silent. But because that is all we can hear from her? That tarnish. It hardly seems worth it, to be so worried about having killed a human. They live such pathetically brief lives as it is.”
Arabella looked pale. I resolved not to let up on her. I had to make her miserable.
Alaris smiled, perhaps aware of my thoughts.. “They do. The problem remains, though. Arabella has a scholarship here to learn to use her Voice. The Council has required it. Yet all we can hear right now when she sings is death. That is all she can bring, all she can achieve with her powers. We’ve had enough of that for today.” With a frown of disgust, Alaris dismissed the class and vanished from the room. In the millisecond that it took for her to dissolve as she teleported away, she managed to sweep the room with a hard look.
Even the fae students who had tried not to take part in the lesson were left quiet. It was not often that one of the Sisters ended a class early. A few of the other fae elbowed each other and whispered. It was easy to see that they were sharing their dislike of the mortal troublemaker. As I left the classroom, filing past Arabella and ostentatiously avoiding contact with her, I noticed Lara hanging behind. Was she going to change who she followed?
As I walked away, I could just barely hear the fae woman speak to the newcomer. “I could help you learn some of our ways. If you’d like, I mean. We could sit together at dinner tonight.”
I didn’t bother to stop her. It was unnecessary.
No matter how much help Arabella had, she’d never be one of us.
Chapter 11: Arabella
Everything felt better once I had a friend. I still didn’t know why Lara was willing to help me. All I’d done was speak up for her in class. It seemed like a small thing. But I was glad of the company. Finally, I had somebody to eat with in the high-ceilinged dining room where the fae met to enjoy three leisurely meals a day. The fae were all so willowy that it seemed impossible that they ate as much as they did. Every meal was like a banquet. I was already shorter and curvier than the fae women were, so I didn’t know how long I could keep up all the eating without regretting it.
I thought there might be magic at work in the food, but I didn’t have anybody to ask. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that nobody at all had spoken to me since the first day. I’d sat by myself at every meal for the first week, barring that first terrible dinner when I’d apparently made the worst faux pas ever. I really hadn’t known it was wrong to select my own seat. When I’d joined the princes, I’d only meant to sit with somebody I’d met before. The fae had been horrified at my breach of their version of manners.
Now, finally, I had somebody to talk to.
Lara did not invite me to sit at the princes’ table, where I’d seen her eat for the past week. Instead, she gestured me to the small table in the corner that I’d made my own. I’d chosen it originally because it was the farthest possible place from the princes’ table and the dais where the Sisters ate.
“Arabella, I wanted to say to you...I appreciated that you stood up for me with Varic in class today. Prince Varic, I mean.” She stumbled over her words.
“I hardly did anything. I didn’t understand why he was so hard on you.” I tried to answer politely, but of course I’d noticed that Varic was a bit harsh with me, too. He had clearly hated me since the first time we met on the school lawn.
Even if I sensed he had different feelings just below the surface.
“He’s just like that,” Lara shrugged. “He always seems angry.”
“He is intense,” I admitted. “Tell me more about them.” I nodded over to the table where the three princes now sat at the second course of their dinner. None of the other students joined their table, even though Lara had defected to mine. “Why don’t they look anything alike?”
“Why would they?” She looked thoughtful. “Oh, I understand. You think they are brothers.”
“That’s how royalty works in my world.”
“Well, in ours, too. Usually,” she qualified. “We used to have a proper royal line. King Regis was the last of it.”
I waited, not wanting to appear impatient. Lara did not offer any more details, though. Instead, she settled into enjoying her meal in placid silence. Finally, I had to ask.
“So if he was the last, whenever that was, how did Frost, Lustre, and Varic become princes? Are they his descendants, like cousins, or something?”
She shook her head. I wondered if she could get in trouble for telling me these things. As if she read my mind, she answered. “It’s not a secret. It’s just so ordinary to us fae that it feels weird to explain. The three princes were selected at birth for their remarkable gifts in magic. But it is only now, this year, that they have all left their private lives to come to Fae Academy.”
“That’s funny,” I said idly. “Almost as if they were here for me.” I liked thinking that the three hottest men I’d ever seen were organizing their lives around my presence, but I was totally kidding.
Lara looked alarmed. She tossed her long, blonde hair over one shoulder and started to smooth it down obsessively. It made her look younger and more tentative. “I don’t think we should talk about that anymore.”
“Fine,” I answered. “I was only joking. Maybe you can tell me more about how I can improve my magic when nobody will talk to me. It’s hard to get better when even the teachers won’t help. I ca
n’t tell whether they are super strict, or if they all hate me personally. They don’t even know me.”
“That’s just the Sisters’ style. They believe strongly in maintaining the purity of fae music.”
“And I’m messing that up, just by being here?” I tried to see it from their viewpoint.
“Yes. The Sisters have existed for a long time, for the sole purpose of keeping our magic in the light. The taint of the Darkness is always a threat to us.”
I had to stay focused on what I needed to know. “Ok, so I need to be more pure. That’s what Varic was saying in class about my music being tainted. Can you really all feel that when I try to use my power?”
“It’s terrible,” Lara said firmly, leaning forward across the table. “Until you spoke up for me today, I was sure you were an awful, horrible person.”
“That’s kind of a snap judgment,” I frowned. “Just because I…” Then I fell silent. There was no way to explain it away. Ms. Hatcher was gone.
Lara looked at me with encouragement. “I think you can get better at it, though. You have to understand that your music is the pathway for your magic. It tunes your powers so you can focus them outside yourself. The music is not the magic itself.”
“I’ve only used my powers once, and it was part of my song. I thought the music that I hear all the time was supposed to be my fae magic.” It was hard to say out loud that I hadn’t been able to master even the simplest spells since I’d come here, but we both knew it was true.
“When you get better at it, you can keep your song in your head. You’ve seen all of us work magic since you’ve gotten here, but we aren’t always singing out loud. Just imagine how noisy that would be.”
“I haven’t been able to understand most of what’s happened in my classes. I try so hard, but it doesn’t make any sense. I can’t even tell if somebody is working a spell most of the time, and certainly not who it is.” Now that I finally had somebody to talk to, I was spilling everything.
Lara looked around the room furtively, then leaned even closer to me. “Look, I’ll make something for you right now. That’s my particular talent. I’m a fire fae, like Lustre, but I can use the flames to work matter into a new shape.
“See, that’s the kind of thing that people keep saying at this school, and it doesn’t help me.” I rubbed my temple with one hand, but I watched her closely.
At first, Lara gave the tiniest hum of a melody under her breath. It was so quiet that nobody besides me could have heard it. Then she was completely quiet, continuing to work the magic spell she had set in motion. She lifted a tiny spoon from the table, then held out her hands. Power brightened on her palms, twinkling at me, teasing me. Somehow, this fae woman was influencing reality with her magic. No, creating reality.
Lara sat perfectly still, as if she was hoping not to draw any attention with her spell. Even I knew that students did not usually work spells in the dining room. In just a moment, the magic sparkling around her hands swirled into a small cloud and fell to the tablecloth. It cleared in a moment, leaving behind a beautiful, tiny silver rose. She had somehow transformed the spoon into a new shape. The flower was smaller than my pinky finger, but it was perfectly formed, with a fragrance that floated up to me.
I gasped. “You made that look easy.”
She shrugged. “It is a mere party trick. My abilities are unremarkable. I would not even have a spot here at Fae Academy if I weren’t Lustre’s sister.”
“You are Prince Lustre’s sister?” This was starting to seem less like a natural friendship and more like a set-up.
She didn’t look like she was trying to trick me, though. “Don’t you know anything? Yes. That is why I spend all my time with the princes, of course. The school acts like we are a unit of some kind. But it keeps me trapped in some ways. Socially, I’m too far above the other students to mingle with them. Sometimes I’d rather have a woman friend.” Her grin was infectious.
I looked again at the tiny red rose, still perfect on the smooth, white tablecloth. With a questioning glance at her, I reached for it. “May I pick it up?”
As soon as I touched it, though, her smile of assent froze. The little rose withered in my palm. It was no longer perfectly shaped and scented. Now it was curled and edged in black.
“What have you done?” She kept her voice low, but worry filled it. “I should be the only fae who can determine when those elements may be parted again. My spell cannot be broken by another.”
“I’m so sorry,” I gasped. “I made it die, didn’t I?” Anguish filled me.
I gently laid the ruined flower back down. I had to get out of here.
“Arabella, I have to tell the Sisters. You did manage some magic here, and that’s big news. I mean, even though you killed it.”
I stammered, about to break down crying. “Lara, please don’t tell anybody. I’m so sorry. I have to go.” And I stumbled from our little table, hoping nobody would stop me. I could say I was sick, that I needed to go to bed in my room.
Lara watched me go, her face pale and worried.
When I reached my room, though, I found the door blocked by a hulking, male form. Not again.
It was the third time that one of these entitled fae princes had stopped me from going where I wanted to go. First, Lustre had pinned me against the wall in front of the entrance to the school. Then Frost had tried to trip me in the hall.
And now it was Varic’s turn. Apparently, mocking me in front of the class today hadn’t been enough for him. He must have seen me run from the table at dinner, when I couldn’t face the shock in Lara’s eyes.
“What is it, Varic?” I said icily. I stood in front of him in the hallway, as he leaned against my door. Every surface of this building might be crystalline, but that did not make it delicate. On the contrary, it all looked indestructible.
He lifted a hand to his wavy, dark hair, running through it with a rakish air. Although he was more compactly built than the other two princes, his upper body looked startlingly strong. He wasn’t here to hurt me, was he?
He read my mind. “I’m not here to cause you any harm, little mortal,” he drawled. “I only came because I saw that you were upset.”
“I don’t believe that for a minute. You’ve been rude to me every time we’ve ever been in the same room together. Why would this be any different?”
“Maybe we just haven’t tried the right room. And you may call me ‘Prince Varic.’”
“You people are ridiculous,” I said wearily. “I try all day in my classes. I just don’t have any more patience for the fae right now.”
His eyes glinted dangerously. “Perhaps we have no more patience for you, my dear. I saw what you did to Lara’s little creation.”
“Nobody was supposed to know about that. It was an accident,” I hissed.
“But it happened nonetheless. Just as I said in class today. You are filled with darkness.”
“I most certainly am not. I just need help learning my powers. That’s all.” I was close to tears now.
In an act of uncharacteristic kindness, Varic moved toward me and held out a crisp, perfect handkerchief. When I held my hand out to take it, he shook his head. Instead, he dabbed under my eyes with it with infinite gentleness.
When he bent his head to kiss away the tears on my cheeks, I almost stopped breathing.
He was strong, and solid, and right here with me. It suddenly didn’t matter if he’d caused me problems in class. At this moment, he was offering himself as a friend. An ally.
“Arabella,” he murmured. “I’ve wanted to kiss you since I first saw you.”
“I wasn’t sure you even liked me,” I answered inanely. His lips were still tickling my cheeks and my hairline. The electricity between us sizzled, but time seemed to have stopped moving.
“I have very powerful feelings about you, little mortal,” he whispered. “I’m just not sure yet what they are.”
“That’s a strange thing to say, while you’re kissing me
.”
His lips curved up into a real smile. When he smiled, his face was transformed from the dark and brooding fae I’d known into a kind man. How could I have thought he didn’t care for me?
In a flash of knowledge, I understood that he wanted me.
I reached my hand behind his head and pulled him to me for a long and searching kiss. His lips were firm as he caught my lower lip and sucked on it. I felt an answering warmth lower down in my body. I couldn’t explain it. This was more than just physical attraction.
“I can sense our bond,” he whispered to me. His breath was hot against my ear. “Our magic is perfectly matched. This is a rare feeling among the fae.”
I tried to catch my breath. “What feeling is that?” As I asked, he leaned back to look into my eyes. He traced the shape of my cheek with one powerful finger.
“Our attraction, little Arabella,” he said gently. “It is something to treasure.”
“So you aren’t enchanting me?” I wasn’t sure if I could handle the answer. If he wasn’t, then who was? The heat that was building within me was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. It had to be a spell.
“Indeed I am not,” he breathed. “Nor did Frost or Lustre when they kissed you.”
“Um, I don’t think we should be talking about that. Not while we are actually standing like this, you know.” I found that somehow, our proximity had turned into a full-on embrace. Prince Varic was now standing so close to me that our bodies were in contact at every possible point. His stance was firm as he pressed himself against me. He had no intention of going anywhere.
“I was just going into my room,” I murmured. “To bed, you know.”
Varic chuckled, his lips moving along the soft skin of my neck. His lips were driving me wild. “Is that an invitation, our little Arabella?”
Oh, if only I could say yes.
Every atom in my body said that I should.
But every bit of my mind knew that it would be a bad idea.
“No,” I squeaked out. “I can’t get involved with any of you. Even I can see that. All of you princes are out of my league. I just can’t make any mistakes while I’m here. If I do, I’ll have to leave school.”