Turvy Topsy

by Larisa Long

  “Am I the first witch you’ve ever talked with?”

  “Yep,” Vax says without even a twinge of sadness. “And the only one I’ve never wanted to rip apart.”

  “That’s cool.”

  We get to the admin building and find several young shifters trying to open the massive wooden carved doors as a few warlocks watch and laugh.

  “Faeheads.” I glare at the warlocks, but of course they can’t look directly at me. I wonder what I look like to them. A blob? A pixelated blip? Maybe a chocolate chip.

  The shifters almost get the door open, but it slams shut again. They look like they weigh as much as three elephants. The doors, not the shifters. I always spell the doors open, but Vax leaps to the rescue and opens the doors without so much as a grunt.

  They look at her in awe. “Wow, Vax. You must be the strongest one here.”

  Vax nods. “Probably. Be sure to tell everyone.”

  I groan silently to myself. Shifters love to show each other up, and shifter rumors spread faster than mold on stinky cheese. I can imagine how many yelps and grunts and growls they’ll be tonight in the dorms as each shifter tries to outdo the others. Luckily, Blist isn’t the ‘look at me type.’ Maybe because he knows his strength and doesn’t have to prove it.

  I think about that and smile. “Yeah, that’s it.”

  “What’s it?”

  “Nothing.” We step in and find Queen Ama, King Philock and B cubed waiting. My stomach churns just looking at them. The admin building’s main lobby is usually busy with family members waiting to see students, potential students waiting to take tours, and press wanting an exclusive of the happenings at the Academy.

  Today doesn’t disappoint. I can’t tell who is who because everyone is bowing. Even the administration sits at the long greeting table with their heads bowed as phones continue to ring.

  “Took you long enough,” B1 hisses.

  I look at my watch. “We’re five minutes early.” A few of the younger, potential students start to shake from kneeling so long as their parents try to hold them up. “Maybe they should all be released?”

  Queen Ama turns around as if she’d never have thought of doing it. King Philock glances and nods at one of his minions who claps to tell everyone to go back to what they were doing. As soon as the minion claps, most of the waiting parents and potentials are ushered into other rooms. The press scribbles something in their notepad and flutters away. The staff suddenly take a break leaving the entire lobby abandoned.

  B1 does some kind of harrumph or something that sounds like she has just stepped on a tack and looks Vax up and down. “Who’s this?”

  I look at my cousin. “You’ve met her. Many, many times.” I wait, but B cubed only stare at Vax like she’s just appeared from one of the haunted realms. “We’ve all gone to school together since we were five?”

  B4 curls her lip. “She’s one of the shifters. We don’t have to know the beasts.”

  Vax shakes her head as her body tenses. “I’ll be over here.” She doesn’t wait for anyone to respond before she walks over to the window, throws herself down in one of the chairs and noisily picks up a magazine to flip through.

  B1 frowns as she looks Vax over and then shrugs. “Let’s get this over with.” She looks me up and down and giggles. “Nice colors.”

  I look down at my uniform of white on white. “You’re the one who chose them.”

  “Oh yeah.” B4 cringes. “Next time we need color in the winter. I’m surprised anyone even sees you.”

  “Oh, everyone sees Zalia,” Vax yelps. “She’s very popular.”

  Queen Ama grunts. “Glad your mother isn’t here to know just how popular you are.” The way she says that makes me sound like I charge by the millisecond.

  King Philock glares at her.

  “Oh yeah, I set everyone on fire.” I guess I say this out loud because B cubed snort in unison.

  Queen Ama’s face turns red.

  King Philock shakes his head. “How are you, Zalia?”

  “Peachy,” I say quickly. Then I realize the King was actually speaking to me. “Sorry, King Philock. I’m fine. How are you?”

  “Good. The curses waning?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  B cubed instantly stop their chatter.

  B1 steps forward and flips her hair almost hitting me in the face. “Not sure? Have you gone stupid as well?”

  I grab her hand quickly without even planning on it.

  She lunges away from me and blows on her hand.

  B2 and B4 step back and point at me.

  “She should be arrested for attempted murder of a princess.”

  “That’s what I thought. Someone …” I won’t say who because the King knows about me being a hybrid but his wife and spawn don’t because the necklace the King gave me is protecting that secret. “Someone once accidentally touched me …” I grimace. It sounds so bizarre. Accidentally touched me? “He didn’t realize because we were standing in line …” I cringe because my voice always goes higher at the end when I’m lying. “He accidentally was close to my hand for thirty seconds, but something told me the curses aren’t really going away, are they?” I blow out three breaths in a row. Lying is stressful.

  King Philock looks at his daughters. “Well?”

  They shrug. “They’re not as strong as they once were.” B1 sighs and stomps her foot. “We’ve been busy. It’s a total hassle to reverse all the fae’ing curses at once.”

  He glares at his wife and then at his daughters. He looks at me and holds up his hand close to me. “May I?”

  Go for it. “Sure.”

  He touches my hand and grimaces after ten seconds before stepping back. “You say someone accidentally was close to you for thirty seconds?”

  I nod. “I didn’t count it out, but about that long.”

  “He must be very strong indeed.”

  “He is.” I smile thinking about Blist, and Vax clears her throat to force me back to reality. “What does it feel like?”

  B1 is still blowing on her hand. “Hurt’s like a fae’d up—”

  The King raises his hand to stop B1 from continuing. “Which ones have you lessened?”

  B1 rolls her eyes and puts her hand out while B2 rummages through a teeny, tiny shiny purse I hadn’t noticed.

  B2 spills out lipgloss, money, coins, more lipgloss, nail polish, more money, a magazine filled with half naked warlocks and about a dozen packets of gum before she finds a crumpled up piece of paper which she slaps into B1’s impatient fingers.

  B1 sighs when she sees the paper is crumpled and folded.

  B4 instantly yanks the paper away and begins to unfold it a thousand times until the paper is normal size. She hands it back to B1.

  B1 sighs as she reads through the list. She puts her hand out again and B2 hands her some lipgloss. B1 tosses it behind her and opens her hand again. “A pen or pencil please.”

  B4 hands her a huge curly pencil with a white jiggling pom pom where the eraser should be. B1 meticulously goes through the list scratching through things and circling others. “There.” She drops the list to the floor.

  The King picks it up and looks it over. “Huh, only about half have been lessened.”

  “Fine,” B1 snaps her fingers. “There. A few more are gone. Happy?”

  “More than half? Not Curse Number 12?”

  The King glances at the Queen. “We believe that should be the last to fall.”

  I just stare at them.

  The Queen tries to suppress her grin. “We’re only thinking of your reputation, Zalia.”

  The fae you are, I think, but I don’t say it. Swearing in front of the King or Queen gets double or triple, I can’t remember, citations if the admin finds out. It’s a hassle, and I have enough hassles standing right in front of me.

  The Queen clears her throat. “What do you say to that?”

  I look at her and then at Vax who is far enough away that she doesn’t have to be part of t
he conversation but close enough she can hear everything.

  She makes a motion that she’s kicking someone’s ass.

  “Can I see the list?”

  B cubed shake their heads and make some kind of squeaky noise.

  “That is probably unwise,” the King says.

  “Why?”

  “It is more for your protection.”

  The fae it is. Okay, I’m suddenly realizing the King isn’t and probably hasn’t been on my side. “Can I see part of the list? Say, every month see ten of the curses?”

  “Why?” B1 smirks. “Don’t know about all of them yet, do you?”

  If I could just turn her into something depraved and foul slithering through the campus … wait a minute. She’s already depraved and foul. I bite my tongue. Fae.

  “Ha!” B4 points at me again. “She thought something bad of us.”

  “I did.” I glare at her hoping the glare alone will haunt her. “Oh, did I.” I glance up at the six faeries who hover above us giggling.

  The Queen steps back a bit and grabs her daughters. “I think we’re done here. We have that dinner with the Penn family tonight.”

  Yikes. I wonder if he’s still … how to word it … strategically inadequate? “They ever fix Dray Penn?”

  Queen Ama chokes. “What do you mean?”

  I shrug. “I only heard a rumor.”

  She looks at B cubed who blush and can’t look directly at her. “It’s nothing,” B4 says. “He’ll be fine before the wedding.”

  Sure he will. I saw him. All of him when I did that strip spell on him. Good news is that there will not be any little Dray Penn’s to populate and overrun the realm. Bad news? It still haunts me.

  The Queen looks at the King who nods. She smoothes her hair out like I’m just such a bother to deal with. “Some of the curses are gone altogether. If they are the ones you never knew about, then there is little reason to tell you. A few more will remain until they expire naturally, and many are gone by at least fifty percent.”

  How vague. Just like your daughters’ minds. I wish I could make B cubed lessen by fifty percent. I grab my throat.

  “Huh,” B2 stomps her foot. “She thought something bad about us again.”

  Queen Ama stands in front of her daughters. “I do not understand you, Zalia. We’ve given you everything. To treat my children like this is unconscionable. We demand an apology.”

  If she thinks I’m going to apologize to her spawn, she’s going to wait here until she snacks on her own foot. I look at her with the blankest expressions. I don’t glare or stare, just look. I force my mind to go blank and look like I’ve gone into a coma.

  Vax notices and rushes over to me. “Zalia?” She snaps her fingers in front of my face. “Z? She’s been doing this lately. It’s like she’s slowly fading away. The curses have taken their toll. Zalia?” Vax waves to get the attention of someone. “Someone, please get Professor Sway. Tell him that it’s happening again.”

  “Ew,” B cubed hiss in unison. “Daddy, can we go now? She gives me the creeps. She could be contagious.”

  The King sighs. “I’m sorry, Zalia.” He, the Queen and B cubed leave.

  Vax waits until she knows they’re gone. “Okay, they’ve left.”

  I take a deep breath.

  “Proud of you, Z.” She looks me over. “If it were me, I’d have shifted and squeezed their eyes out of their colons.”

  I flinch at that. “That’s hardcore, Vax. Upper level shifter.” I try to think of something else quickly. So don’t want to get an image of that.

  The faeries hover above me.

  “Tell me you’ve got the list.”

  The faeries nod and one of them makes a stretching motion.

  “You need to translate it?”

  They nod. I take a deep breath.

  Vax looks at the faeries. “Is that what they were doing?”

  “Uh huh.”

  She smiles. “Nice thinking. You knew they had a list, didn’t you?”

  “B cubed can’t remember they’re own birthdays. There’s no way they could remember all 36 curses. I knew they’d have to write it down.”

  “How’d you know the King wouldn’t give it to you?”

  I didn’t. “I hoped. I wanted to believe he was my ally, but …” I don’t finish that statement. He’s my father’s brother. He should have had my back, but he didn’t. Probably never did. I look at my watch. “You can’t be late to class.” Her next teacher is a warlock.

  Vax nods and heads for the door.

  “Thanks again.”

  “No worries. We have to stick together.”

  “Always. Respect,” I say, realizing that I am saying it to her first which I’ve never done before. It’s a whole shifter thing, and part of their ritual they take very, very seriously.

  She flinches as if she never thought I’d say it first. “Respect.”

  I look up at the faeries. “How long do you think it’ll take?”

  One of the faeries makes a long stretchy motion.

  “An hour?”

  The faeries shake their heads.

  “A year?”

  They nod.

  Good, we’ll have it by tonight.

  Chapter 5

  I slowly make my way to rune class. I take my time not because I don’t want to go, but I’m so preoccupied by the list and the realization that the King will never be on my side. Ever.

  Blist jogs over to me as I’m still lost in my own thought webs. He grabs my hand, and I step back quickly.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I know Curse Number 12 hasn’t pixied off.”

  Blist sighs. “No, but some of the others have.”

  “So, why did you cause yourself so much pain?”

  He thinks about it, and I know his answer is going to be epic by the grin forming. “Maybe it was more painful not to touch you.”

  I roll my eyes and move around him and into the classroom. “They said that will be the last to fall.”

  “What?”

  Most of the class is already seated, and they jump when he yelps.

  “Why?”

  I glance around as mostly witches, a few shifters, and three vampires try to pretend they’re not listening to us. “Everyone hear me?”

  The vampires pretend they are doing something else, but the shifters nod.

  Blist glances at Professor Sway as they both shake their heads. “I love how you do that.”

  I clear my throat. Wouldn’t want anyone to miss the news. “Queen Ama said it was to keep me chaste.”

  A few warlocks snicker. Of course, it has to be the infamous Penn brothers. Dray and Fex. Poor Dray is tragic in everything, and his brother Fex … Luckily he’s been absent for the last four quarters spending time in detention. Yep, all four quarters.

  How to describe Fex? Think of a garden gnome that’s been left in the mud, kicked a hundred times, buried for a thousand years, cursed, then melted. That would be a kind way to describe Fex. Some of the younger witches have a hard time even looking at him without their eyes watering.

  Dray snickers again and glances at Fex. “Poor, Zalia, deserves everything you get.”

  The shifters jump up and glare at him.

  “You better apologize, Penn,” Liam hisses.

  I saunter over to Dray’s desk and lean in barely missing him by an inch. “What was that?”

  He tries not to look at me and also seeps into the back of his chair watching my fingers inching closer to his arms. “I didn’t say anything.”

  “Coward,” Ash, the bear shifter, coughs.

  “Cause I’m pixied right now.” I look between Dray and Fex. Okay, I look more at Dray because Fex makes me want to gouge my own eyes out. “So if you’ve got something to share …”

  “We’re fine,” Dray says, swallowing hard. “It’s all good, right Fex?”

  Fex grunts.

  I lean back and walk away to hear Dray whisper to his brother, “You know she puts out. I d
id her before the curses.”

  Blist’s body tenses, and I can feel the air actually start to shift. I wonder if this is what it’s like with so many shifters in one room.

  Professor Sway slams his book down on the desk. “What did you just say?”

  Blist has to drag the shifters back from attacking as witches laugh. Blist’s own eyes start to change, so I know he’s another rude comment away from a throw down.

  Dray slowly gets up and faces Professor Sway. “I said Zalia is a one stop shop. She’ll do anyone. Anytime. Anywhere. For any reason.”

  Fex and the other witches and warlocks snicker and slam their hands on their desks laughing.

  “Poor Dray.” I shake my head. “Why can’t you just make good choices?”

  Dray, getting a big warlock boost from the others, pumps himself up to look even more pathetic than he normally does as he studies the professor. “She do you too? Is that why you’re so chummy?”

  Professor Sway takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. “To the office. Now.”

  Dray grunts and smirks at me. He sits back down ignoring Professor Sway. “I don’t take orders from an animal.”

  To say the shifters didn’t like that was an understatement.

  Blist holds them back from shifting right in the classroom. “Look at me. Calm yourselves.”

  There are groans and grunts and hisses and snarls. The vampires left after the first outburst. They don’t like violence, especially if they’re not the ones starting it.

  Dray smirks at me again. I’m not used to the witches or warlocks looking directly at me. I didn’t miss it.

  Dray grunts. Again. It was one grunt too many. I have a limit.

  “Keep it up, Dray.” I immediately put my hand over my mouth and pull a whoopsie face. “Oh, sorry.” I cringe. “That was unkind given your …” I look him up and down. “ … situation.”

  Blist slams his lips together and looks at the ground as he tries not to laugh.

  Dray’s face turns thirty different shades of crimson as his brother’s glare ticks up a notch. Dray actually moves closer to me. I raise my eyebrows because he thinks stepping closer to me is a terrifying threat. It isn’t, plus he uses so much aftershave it’s starting to seep into my pores.