“Quiet now,” she says in a hushed whisper and Benny, miraculously, quiets. His eyes glaze over, and I almost stumble backward. They better not try to do that to me. The woman sighs loudly. “It’s on your head, Ansel. You better have a place for her. I can’t have a cripple ruining the academy’s impeccable reputation.”
Ansel’s jaw clenches almost imperceptibly. He’s irritated by that, though I don’t know why. My gaze drifts to the ring again. He almost acts like he cares, and I might trust him if it weren’t for that symbol. It was the last thing I saw before my leg bones were broken into so many pieces they couldn’t be healed properly.
“Faustus, clear their minds,” the nameless, beautiful woman says with another elegant wave. The remaining people in the foyer, including the Reverend Mother, adopt a glazed look, not unlike Benny’s. They stay that way until we’re ushered out of the building, my braces clanking loudly across the wooden floor. No wonder no one remembers the last supernatural visit. Whenever I’d tried to talk about it, they eyed me like I was crazy. Wouldn’t have been the first time, though.
Kodi follows behind us, grumbling to himself, but I can sense the excitement he's trying to hide. I think he’s been stuck here, and the old man broke his connection with a snap of his fingers. Benny is still subdued, and I hope he stays that way. The fairy girl, or whatever she is, trips along beside us, but every step is shadowed with pain. The three supernaturals flank us, again adopting blank faces as they lead our strange group out the front door.
The twelve steps to the orphanage are my nemesis. I look down at the steep stairs and grit my teeth. That frustration quickly turns into alarm when I feel myself being swung up into muscular arms.
“What the fuck!” I screech. I swing my metal crutch, but the irritating supernatural avoids its arc before it collides with his perfectly manicured head. Kodi hoots at my discomfort and points at me while he bends over with loud guffaws, ignoring the old guy’s disapproving expression. Ansel is way too close, far closer than I’ve allowed anyone in years.
“Ansel, whatever are you doing?” The woman asks with apparent shock, as if nothing would have surprised her more than this man voluntarily touching me. I think I agree with her.
“You said we’re in a hurry, Geena. I’m just helping her.”
Geena scowls at me like I asked for the help. I didn’t. I continue to struggle in the man’s arms, threatening to send us both tumbling down the stairs. His grip merely tightens, one arm placed under my knees and the other behind my back.
“Be still,” he growls at me, his expression half amused and half frustrated.
I stop fighting, but only because I don’t really want to break anything else. I’m worried he’ll drop me out of spite.
Geena continues to scowl, somehow not losing any beauty while she does so. “Let this be a lesson, girl. We don’t take in charity cases, and I don’t know what Ansel is playing at. You may not be fully human, but you’re close enough, and your brokenness only makes you more human in our world. You pull your own weight or we’ll bring you right back to where you came from.”
I’m confident my eyes spit fire. People have been calling me lesser my whole life, but somehow it stings more than usual. Kodi stops laughing, his face morphing into a scowl aimed at the bitchy woman. I pull my braces across my chest so they’re not banging against Ansel’s body and smile sweetly at the woman, using my irritation to fuel my words.
“Yes, I’m certain I used all my feminine wiles and my poor disability to encourage this man to pick me up and cart me around like a bag of apples. And I definitely asked to be inducted into your snooty-ass society, so it’s all my fault. Please, do deposit me back from whence I came. Posthaste, too.”
Everyone frowns at me at that point, the first real expression I’ve seen on the old man’s face. Geena is speechless when presented with my awkward, half-archaic speech. She turns around with an elegant humph. Ansel’s eyes glitter and I tighten the arms I’ve crossed over my chest.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I grumble.
“Like what?” He arches an elegant eyebrow, somehow more perfectly than any model I’ve seen in a magazine ad.
“Like you actually give a fuck,” I hiss and resolve to ignore him. Even after he’s deposited me in the back of the cushy, long limousine, I don’t meet his gaze. Hopefully, I never have to see him again. I don’t want to be the half-human who arouses his need to do a good deed. I refuse to be used to assuage someone’s guilt.
Chapter Two
Zosia
The back of the limo is quiet. I’ve never been in such a luxurious vehicle, actually, anywhere that’s so nice. I swallow my sigh of relief that I can finally sit, but most of all, that I’m out of that man’s arms. He sees far more of me than anyone has in a long time. He seems to know every secret I have and still finds me worthy. I don’t know how to respond to that.
Kodi sits next to me, looking somewhat concerned for the first time since I met him. Benny is under some sort of spell, thank the nonexistent gods. I don’t want to deal with his brand of crazy in such a small space. The ill fairy slumps against the leather seats, her eyes closed.
Experimentally, I reach out and prod Kodi. He’s still comprised of the usual different shades of gray, but something gives when I touch him.
He jumps and glares at me. “Don’t poke me!”
“Why not? First of all, I wasn’t sure you could feel it. Second of all, you’ve been torturing me for years. Maybe it’s time for a little payback?” The silver collar the old man put around his neck glitters. Although I have no experience to draw upon, I’m sure that’s the reason he’s somehow more here all the sudden.
“Isn’t it enough payback that you’ve dragged me along to wherever you’re going? I was perfectly happy being dead and haunting all the miserable orphans.”
I try to arch an eyebrow, but I’m certain I don’t look nearly as elegant as the infuriating supernatural. “Surely you’re not serious? Any place is better than there.”
“You keep telling yourself that, Princess,” he growls at me. “You don’t even know where we’re going.”
Remorse sparks within me. I am sorry for dragging him with me. It was a purely selfish compulsion. “I’m sorry,” I say in a quieter voice, glancing over at Benny. The first rule of predators: never let them see weakness. Thankfully, the freaky little monster doesn’t move. “I had no idea they could do whatever they did to you.”
I study him more closely. I recognized a fellow damaged individual in him when we first met, but we never spoke about what broke us. I don’t think he remembers any more than I do. He tried scaring the shit out of me a couple times, and I threw some books at his misty form. Eventually, we settled into an easy truce. He scared away the older boys who wanted to pick on the crippled girl. In return, I read to him and offered the only companionship he could find since no one else could see him. I owe him more than a couple stories for all the times he’s saved me.
Kodi shrugs. “Maybe it’s for the better. I was getting tired of that place anyway. Same old boring thing, over and over.”
I wait, hoping he’ll tell me what he knows without me having to beg for it, but of course, this is Kodi. He’s one of the most stubborn, infuriating guys I’ve ever known. I roll my eyes and grit my teeth together while he smirks and peeks at me out of the corner of his eerily inhuman eyes.
“Fine,” I spit after a second, “tell me where we’re going.”
“No please?” His lip hitches higher. I poke him again, surprised to feel even more give in whatever makes up his essence. He curses, rubbing his bicep with a pout. “Stop doing that. I’m all sensitive and shit after being unable to feel anything for years.”
My eyes widen, and I’m suddenly interested in a whole different set of things. “What did they do to you? Can you feel everything? Are you breathing? This must be weird.” I lean closer to him, intent on checking his pulse or his chest for breathing. He sinks back into the cushions, almost seepi
ng through the leather like he would in his pure ghostly form.
“Zo, stop it!” he growls.
I ease my forward descent and study him anew. He’s attempting to hide it, but there’s a spark of fear behind his strange silver gaze. I sit back and fold my hands over my lap, my braces sitting on the other side of me like waiting sentinels. I always keep them within arm’s reach, even while sleeping. Not only are they my only hope of escape, however slow that might be, but they also make wonderful weapons in dire circumstances. I hope the all-knowing, superior beings grabbed my wheelchair. I can’t walk all the time.
“Sorry, dude.” I take a deep breath. I’m trying to distract myself with everything but where we’re going, which is relatively easy because I’m always distractible, but his seriousness is bringing me back down.
“Don’t call me that,” he grumbles with an uncomfortable movement. Despite his increased form, his body doesn’t make a sound. There’s no wisp of breath, no bodily noises that sometimes escape a person despite their best attempts. “You’re not some Californian surfer, and I’m not your bro.”
I shrug. “Tell me what’s going on, Boo.” The hilarious nickname I came up with for him always makes me giggle.
Kodi sighs heavily and rolls his eyes upward. “That’s even worse. Maybe I’m ready to move on permanently. I can’t seem to get away from you.”
“Ah, come on. Without me, your life would have been horribly boring over the last few years.” No one else could see him. If they could, they ignored him like Benny. The monster considered himself above the ghost, and the fairy had been too sick to care. A couple of other non-humans who’d passed through hadn’t cared or couldn’t see him. I am the only one who treats him like a living being, even though he isn’t.
He grunts noncommittally. “Haven’t you ever heard of Apocrypha?”
I scrunch my nose and slide my hair behind my ear. I really need a bath. I usually don’t give a shit, but seeing actual people reminds me of my laziness. The strange word rings a vague bell, and I think I’ve heard it spoken in my life before the orphanage. I don’t remember that time. It’s not that I don’t want to, which is also true, but mostly I can’t. It’s a big, blank space in my head that occasionally taunts me with vague previews. Those glimpses make me hope I never remember everything. “What kind of name is that? Greek?”
“I don’t know what language it’s from, but I know that it means hidden. It’s the academy that the Eastern Americans go to when they come of age to learn about their specialties or their magic.”
“One academy for half a country?” According to the media and whatever else I can get my hands on, there are far more supernaturals than that. They’re present everywhere: higher tiers of the government, planning boards of all the major cities, Fortune 500 officials. They’ve been under human noses for centuries, but humans have been happily oblivious.
I glance outside for the first time. The city we travel through doesn’t appear any different than the one I’ve been able to explore with my limited mobility. Shiny office buildings and rundown, ancient brick buildings that are undergoing renovations line the streets. The city has always been a mixture of the new and the old.
I squint when we drive by a shop that has a strange sign in the window. I only decipher it after we’ve passed: Humans Only. The two words send a shudder of dread down my spine and a sudden intuition that it means more than just discrimination. It involves the block in my head, the one that doesn’t want me to disappear into the horror that was my childhood. I push it all away. Maybe one day I’ll have to deal with it. But until then, I’ll happily pretend it doesn’t exist so I can live some semblance of a life, however shitty that life may be.
Kodi, oblivious to my internal ramblings, continues. “It’s an elite academy. I can’t believe we’re actually going there. Only the best of the best get in. The three houses only accept the magically mature individuals they believe will help rule the world.” His words hold a touch of wonder, and a shiver of unease pricks my neck.
“Well, they have the wrong people.”
Kodi squares his shoulders. “Speak for yourself. I was on my way to becoming a powerful mage when I died.” His eyes momentarily cross. “I think,” he mutters.
I stare at him. “Yes, but you’re dead now. As far as I know, you can’t become undead.” I eye him with new interest. Maybe. I have no idea. There has to be a reason he’s with us. I shake off the questions. “Anyway, I wasn’t only speaking of you. That…thing…over there is nothing more than a glorified lap dog. And I’m…well…broken.” I shrug as if the words don’t hurt coming out of my mouth. It feels like chewing glass, but I’ve listened to the slurs and insults since waking up in the human hospital with no memories except my name, birthday, and a general knowledge of the world. Even though there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with me, the haughty woman’s words struck a nerve. I can’t be a student at an elite supernatural academy. I stop thinking about it before my heart can burst from my chest with that one beat of hope.
Kodi laughs. I’ve always enjoyed the sound. No matter how vague his form gets, his voice is always deep and full of life in some magical way. “That thing over there will grow to be a powerful shifter once it’s been trained. And you saved the fairy’s life.” Kodi’s voice drops. He’s looking at me, but I shrug and scratch at a bit of ink on my finger.
“Not like the Mother was doing anything for her.” Mother Mary had brought in one doctor, one human doctor, who’d said he had no idea what was wrong with the frail child. Then, she’d stopped. Rene rarely left her room. She didn’t have the energy to walk, which I imagine is just as bad as not being able to. She’s already asleep, a common state for her since she entered the orphanage. Her golden lashes form a curtain against her impossibly pale skin. Blue veins create a roadmap under her paper-thin flesh.
Kodi sighs, drawing my attention away from the faerie. He’s always kept the speech patterns of a live person, regardless of the fact that no breath comes out when he sighs like that. “Unfortunately, I think you’re right. There’s no way we’re going to be students. The elites would piss their pants at a ragtag bunch like us joining their ranks.”
“So, what is our purpose?” I ask carefully, my spine tingling with another warning.
Kodi shakes his head. “I don’t know.”
Silence falls between us, and I lean my head against the leather behind me. I miss my books. They were the only thing I would have brought with me from my stack of meager belongings. I hadn’t been happy at the orphanage, but I’d been comfortable. I could eat and sleep without worrying about dying. Bathing was a different story because the only showers were on the second level, but there was always food. My basic needs were taken care of and I’d helped where I could so that Mother Mary didn’t throw me onto the street among the beggars. I’d been surprised many times that she didn’t, but now I’m heading to a new place. It will have unknown dangers to navigate, not to mention unfamiliar obstacles. Nothing is easy when I can’t run from danger.
Despite my fear, or maybe because of it sapping all my rational thought, I end up falling asleep.
“Zo?” a voice hisses.
I grumble in my sleep. Damn ghost. He’s always picking on me and waking me up.
“Zo!”
I crack open an eye, belatedly aware that I’m in a car and that car has stopped moving. I wake with a start, nearly braining the ghost with my head, if he could be brained, that is.
I frown at the face above me. It looks like Kodi developed a touch of color while I slept. Instead of varying shades of gray, his hair has a strange tint to it that almost looks red, like the old black and white movies where they tried adding Technicolor. It bleeds through his pasty skin. It’s so distracting, I almost forget why he woke me.
“Quit staring at me and wake up,” he barks. I nod, wiping my mouth of the drool that probably escaped to stain the pristine leather. I’m not worried about Kodi seeing me like that. I’d long ago gotten used to
him staring at me while I sleep. The creep factor turned into something else over the years - a guardian angel, or an early warning system, since he couldn’t do much to affect the outside world. That still seems to be the case as he grabs for one of my braces. His hand goes right through it.
“You look…more,” I mumble, shaking the last of the cobwebs away.
“Yeah, but I still can’t touch anything,” Kodi grumbles and crosses his arms over his chest. I can see why he’d be upset. They’re tethering him to the real world, but he still can’t manipulate it. It’s like a form of slavery, and it doesn’t bode well for whatever we’re facing.
I glance out the windows, and my mouth pops open, my jaw almost dropping to the floor of the vehicle. “What the…?”
There’s no explanation for what I see except that we’d somehow been transferred to Transylvania in my sleep. There aren’t any gothic castles in the northeast, as far as I’m aware. The turrets and towering arches would look far better in the English countryside. Ivy crawls along the brick walls, eerily green among the watered-down brick and sandstone tones of the school. The car door opens, halting my gaping fascination and giving me a broader view. The staircase immediately looms in my sight - more than the eight steps of the orphanage and far steeper with no railings. The braces aren’t what hinder me; it’s just the way my legs bend. Steps are my nemesis.
“We’re here,” a singsong voice announces. I sink back into my seat as the impossibly gorgeous woman appears. I don’t know where they’ve been the whole time, but she eagerly motions Benny out and helps Rene. When Kodi stands up to follow, she sneers.
“Not you two,” she corrects him. “You’ll be going to a different entrance.”
Kodi regains his seat, and I swear I can feel the material give a little. I want to poke him again, but he’s too busy getting over the fact that he won’t walk under those beautiful arches into the fabled academy he’s actually heard of. Good thing I didn’t get my hopes up. I knew better. There’s no happy ending for this orphan suddenly found by supernaturals. I snort. Too bad. That would have made a good book.
Broken Destiny Page 2