by Sarina Dorie
Thatch turned to Coach Kutchi.
She shook her head. “Give me a break. I have enough to do being a department head, coaching athletics, and having sixty kids in my largest class. It’s air pelota season, and we’re moving into equestrian season next. I don’t need one more thing added to my plate.”
“Don’t look at me,” Jackie Frost said. “I’m head of the Elementia team. I’m not any good with nature nymphs. It’s bad enough you put her in one of my classes. This is Grandmother Bluehorse’s specialty.”
The way my peers bickered was embarrassing. Didn’t they see she was a perfectly nice girl? They just had to meet her, then they’d see.
“I could take her,” Professor Bluehorse said. “She’s Amni Plandai.”
Yes! One of my fellow teachers cared!
The old woman frowned, her weathered lips tightening. “But my second and fifth periods are already boy heavy and overcrowded. I can’t keep an eye on her in the greenhouses. We already agreed she’d always have a female chaperone during class time and after school.”
“Give her to the librarian or the secretary,” Jasper Jang said.
“Isn’t Miss Periwinkle Amni Plandai. A siren or wood nymph or something?” Jackie Frost asked.
Nice try, Jackie Frost. I tried not to laugh at the ridiculousness of that. The librarian was old and unattractive and definitely not a siren. I hated how these teachers would do anything to get rid of Maddy and shove her off on someone else.
Khaba gave a little cough. “Miss Periwinkle isn’t going to be much help in taming a siren’s magic. After the accident, she lost most of her affinity.”
Accident? I didn’t know she’d had an accident.
Professor Bluehorse frowned. “In any case, Miss Periwinkle is a Celestor.”
“But she used to be an Amni Plandai, right?” Jackie asked. “She switched her affinity?”
Josie had told me one person in the history of the school had changed their affinity. Was Miss Periwinkle the one? It was rare enough to be Celestor, but to change to one sounded incredibly difficult.
Khaba and Jeb exchanged a secretive look. Neither answered the question. Professor Bluehorse shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Jeb kept untwisting the curl of his mustache and releasing it to spring back into place.
I couldn’t figure out why everyone seemed so uncomfortable. What was the elephant in the room? Was it bad to switch to a different affinity? Thatch closed his eyes and continued to pretend to sleep.
“Maybe Madison Jennings could help Mrs. Keahi in the office,” Evita Lupi said.
Jeb shook his head. “Support staff don’t have time for babysittin’ students. They ain’t gonna be able to do their jobs with boys lustin’ after their charge.”
I felt like I was reliving my own high school experience. This was dodgeball all over again, only Maddy wasn’t present to see the team captains fight over who wasn’t going to take her. I fidgeted in my chair, wanting to help this girl, but I was afraid I wasn’t the powerful witch she needed to protect her.
“I have an idea,” Vega said with a malicious smile. “You found her, Mr. Thatch. Why don’t you take her?”
Thatch sat bolt upright in his chair, hands folded on the table in front of him, affecting an air of indifference. “That would be highly inappropriate, Miss Bloodmire, and you know it.”
Khaba nodded in agreement. “It wouldn’t be right to impose on any of the male teachers like that and put them in such a position. Siren magic is difficult to resist.”
Her magic hadn’t affected me. I could offer to mentor her, but I couldn’t imagine they would allow it.
“Surely the great and powerful Felix Thatch would be able to resist a mere siren’s magic.” The syrup in Vega’s voice oozed with cunning. “An untrained student at that. She wouldn’t be any match for you.”
Thatch shook his head at her, disgust painting his visage. “Flattery isn’t going to work, Miss Bloodmire. Not everyone is you.”
She crossed her arms and sulked. I tried not to laugh. Thatch got better by the minute.
The adults continued to bicker. The restlessness and anger in me simmered. I couldn’t stand it any longer.
I raised my hand. “I’ll take her during my homeroom. I’ll mentor her.”
That drew a few snorts.
Evita Lupi slapped the table, unable to contain her laughter. “The least magical teacher on staff agrees to chaperone our most dangerous juvenile delinquent. Good one!”
Josie and Khaba eyed me pityingly in the way they did when I said stupid things at staff meetings. I expected Thatch to glower at me like he had when I’d mouthed off to the King of the Pacific, but he didn’t. Silently he studied me, fingers steepled.
Puck tsked. “Oh really? You’ll take her? I thought you had to have a free homeroom so you could study magic.”
He said the word “study” as if it were a joke. I resented that. I worked hard to master the basics of magic, even if I was freshman level.
I sat taller. “I can study as she sits in my classroom doing her work. And she can come with me when I observe other subjects during my preps. I would be able to chaperone her that way.”
Jeb twirled his mustache around his finger. Mr. Khaba whispered something in his ear.
“Indulge me, Miss Lawrence. Why do you think you would make an … adequate chaperone?” Thatch asked.
The room was so silent you could have heard the plants on Professor Bluehorse’s witch hat growing. All eyes scrutinized me with anticipation. Josie looked away. Even my friends thought I was going to fail.
“I like Maddy. She’s a nice girl and needs a female teacher who isn’t scary. Someone she can connect with. Since I was with Tha—Professor Thatch when he rescued her, she trusts me more than anyone else here.” I smoothed my clammy palms against my black skirt. “I know I’m not the most powerful Witchkin on staff. But maybe she doesn’t need magic. She just needs someone who cares.”
“Someone nurturing,” Professor Bluehorse nodded. “Yes, leave the wards and protective enchantments to those with skills and training. All you have to do is show her some kindness.”
Jeb clapped his hands together. “Yep! You’ll do.”
Thatch gave me a nod of approval. A rare smile touched his lips. I’d done something right, not just once, but twice in the same day.
I sat in one of the uncomfortable student chairs with a small desk attached to it in Thatch’s classroom. In the desks near me sat Hailey, Imani, Greenie, Maddy, Darla, and two seniors I didn’t have in any of my classes, Jocelyn and Becky. The seniors avoided my gaze. The only time I had spoken with them was briefly in Julian’s classroom. At the time I’d thought they’d been snotty little tramps trying to flirt with Julian and seduce him. I now knew it was the other way around.
I tried to catch Jocelyn’s and Becky’s eye and smile at them to show there were no hard feelings—to show that we were all on the same side—but neither met my gaze.
“I’m not doing this,” Hailey said.
Maddy stared down into her lap, silent and looking embarrassed. She’d been covered in a spell of glamour to make her appear more human. But even with a façade that diminished the mother-of-pearl sheen to her skin and dull the blue of her eyes, the symmetry and proportion of her face was flawless. Tall and buxom, she resembled a model more than a fifteen-year-old.
“Shut your mouth and listen,” Thatch said from behind his teacher’s desk.
Thatch had hand-picked this group of student chaperones. I understood Imani and Greenie. They were sweet girls and both academically gifted. They could tutor Maddy with her reading and writing. I suspected he wanted Darla, Becky, and Jocelyn to escort Maddy between her classes because they knew what fertility magic looked like in action.
Or perhaps because they would be sympathetic to some girl used by men in the past.
I didn’t know these girls well. I worried Becky and Jocelyn might take out their anger on
Maddy for being a siren if they’d been seduced by a man who had also been a creature ruled by fertility.
Hailey had been his biggest error in judgment. She couldn’t be trusted.
Thatch waved a hand at the chalkboard behind him. The chalk floated in the air, writing the schedule of who shared classes with Maddy and where they would escort her.
Maddy didn’t complain. She was willing to sit with Imani and Greenie in the library after school or come to the study club in my room. When Thatch came to the part about Hailey sharing a bed with Maddy, she stood up.
“No fucking way,” she said.
“Language,” Thatch said. “Five points from Elementia’s team total. Another word out of you and I’m going to start taking them from your team’s score this weekend at the game.”
“No! You can’t do that. You can only take points from Elementia’s total, not our sporting events.”
“I can’t? Is that a challenge?” Thatch smiled. “Watch me.”
I didn’t think he could do that either, but I wouldn’t test him.
Hailey sat down in a huff. “This sucks balls,” she said under her breath.
Thatch went on. “I’ve been able to acquire a slightly larger bed for you to share. You will keep watch over Maddy at night because no boy would dare to wake you up and risk getting a fireball in the face.”
Hailey’s lips twitched into a smile. “I only did that once.”
I understood the logic behind including Hailey now. Still, I thought it was a mistake.
Thatch nodded to Greenie. “Grogda, I have tasked you with—”
Greenie covered her face and shrank in her seat. “Don’t call me that. I don’t go by that name.”
Thatch pursed his lips, exasperation thinly veiled. “Greenie, I have tasked you with showing Maddy around the school tomorrow.”
Thatch went over other duties for evenings and weekends, including seating arrangements during classes and meal time. I didn’t know when he’d had time to devise such an extensive plan during the day while teaching. Maybe he hadn’t been pretending to sleep in the staff meeting.
My respect for him quadrupled. And somehow he still managed to have beautiful hair even after such a frantic day.
“I have some additional assignments for Imani and Miss Lawrence. The rest of you are dismissed.” Thatch nodded to Darla. “Will you see Maddy to the girls’ dormitory?”
Maddy left with Greenie, Darla, and Jocelyn. Maddy kept glancing over her shoulder at me, her eyes apprehensive.
“It will be fine.” I gave her an encouraging smile. “They’ll help get you settled.”
Hailey shuffled behind, in no hurry to join them.
Thatch spoke quietly. “Imani, I want you to inform me first, and Miss Lawrence next, if you suspect anything is amiss. If one of us isn’t available, seek out another teacher for assistance, preferably a female staff member.” He looked past Imani.
I turned to find Hailey lingering at the door.
“Yes, Hailey?” Thatch asked. “What do you wish to complain about now?”
“Why do I have to do this?”
Thatch folded his hands on his desk, looking calm and reasonable, like a caring and patient teacher. He smiled, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “You’ve earned the privilege of being a good role model for another student. You’re welcome.”
“I didn’t do nothing to deserve this punishment,” Hailey complained. “This is a punishment, isn’t it?”
Thatch raised an eyebrow. “It’s not like you have anything better to do this month now that you’ve been grounded from the team.”
She kicked at the doorframe.
My face flushed with heat. He knew she’d blackmailed me. It wouldn’t be a secret Hailey had been suspended from games, and it wasn’t like Coach Kutchi was tight-lipped when it came to her problem students. But the coach didn’t know why Hailey had blackmailed me. Even Vega didn’t know. Only Hailey knew, and she hadn’t broken out in boils, so she hadn’t told. The only other person who knew… .
Imani stared at the floor, looking guilty. “Can I be dismissed? I have to study.”
“It’s ‘may I,’” Thatch corrected. He made a shooing gesture at Hailey. “Go. Before I turn you into a toad.”
“You tattled on me?” I whispered to Imani. “To Professor Thatch?”
“I was trying to help. I didn’t know what to do when Miss Bloodmire went in there with you, so I told him. It wasn’t right what Hailey did, blackmailing you like that. You shouldn’t have had to pay when you were trying to help me. I’m sorry. I wanted Mr. Thatch to … rescue you.” She glanced up at him.
He drummed his fingers on the polished wood of the desk.
“Then you knew all this time?” I asked. “And you didn’t say anything to me about it?”
He shrugged.
“He said you would ask for his help if you needed it.” She turned to me and shielded her mouth so he couldn’t read what she mouthed. “I didn’t tell him why she blackmailed us.”
“Truly, Imani? Do you think that will work with a clairvoyant Celestor?” He grimaced at me, lowering his voice confidentially. “I told her I would torture the truth out of her, but she called my bluff. She hasn’t told me yet.” He let out an overdramatic sigh. “As I was saying, Imani, you’re going to have to serve as our spy and tell us how Maddy is fairing. We’re counting on you.”
“Aye-aye, captain.” Imani saluted.
He waved a hand at her dismissively. “You may leave, soldier.”
She pranced off, the spring in her step as cheerful as ever. She didn’t seem that broken up about telling on me.
“So … are you going to tell me why Hailey blackmailed you?” he asked. “Or is this going to be one of those secrets that you’re going to carry with you to your grave?”
“I’d rather not get boils by breaking the oath, so I’m going to have to carry it with me to my grave.”
“How convenient for you.” He tossed back his beautiful black hair. “Though I will say, I don’t know many teachers who would pay Vega Bloodmire two hundred dollars for a broom that didn’t even fly in order to save a student’s reputation. Your problem-solving skills and creativity never cease to amaze me.” He wet his lips, staring off toward the counter full of potion and alchemy equipment, looking like he wanted to say something.
“Is it about Maddy?” I asked.
“In a roundabout way, yes.” His expression remained somber. “There’s something we need to discuss.”
I lowered my voice to a whisper. “It’s about her firstborn child, isn’t it? We can help her, right? It’s all about the Fae Fert—”
Thatch shook his head at me. He threw a blue spell out of his hand, creating a blue barrier that rippled like water. “Have you ever heard of discretion? Why must you insist on bringing up topics that will get you in trouble if someone should overhear?”
“Sorry. I just want to help Maddy. She doesn’t have to worry about the King of the Pacific forcing her to have children after she graduates if she conceives a child on her own, right?” More than ever, I wanted someone to confide in. Yet if I told him all the Raven Court had told me, how badly they wanted Alouette Loraline’s secrets, it meant I had to tell him I had her research. I couldn’t tell him that unless I knew he wouldn’t take the journal away from me.
I tested the waters. “We don’t know if Maddy can conceive, so she might need to use what my mother learned about the Fae Fertility Paradox. Right?”
“Your mother’s experiments proved unsuccessful. The cure to the Fae Fertility Paradox would be just as likely to kill Maddy as help her.” The harsh edge to his mouth softened. “I know you think you’re helping, but you don’t understand what Alouette Loraline had gotten herself into.”
Not completely, but if she had solved the paradox, I could help Maddy. If I was smarter and a better witch … a more powerful witch, I could decode it and use magic to help my students. My th
oughts flickered back to the ruby I’d tried to find.
“Don’t even think about it,” Thatch said. “I know that look in your eyes.”
“What look? I don’t have a look.” I tried to sound innocent.
“You are not going to look for the Ruby of Divine Knowledge. Do you understand? Nor will you involve yourself in your mother’s past. If you do, I’m not going to teach you magic. I’m not going to give you knowledge about the Red affinity only for you to abuse it.”
I crossed my arms. “It’s not like you were teaching me anything about my affinity anymore anyway. You made Vega my teacher.” I thought back to the way Vega had said she wouldn’t have allowed Thatch to tell her what she could and couldn’t learn. But Vega didn’t have a rare affinity that only Thatch could teach her.
“I’ve had second thoughts about allowing Vega to educate you.” Thatch’s gray eyes hardened into cold steel. “I have more work than usual, more wards to construct, a particularly tricky glamour to implement in order to make Maddy less … alluring to boys, and favors I’m going to have to perform for the other teachers so they won’t put up a fuss that I placed such an inconvenience in their classroom.” He eyed me as if I might be one of those teachers.
The change in topic threw me off. “I’m not complaining. I think we did the right thing.”
He nodded. “I’m not going to be able to mentor you right now.”
“That’s fine. You already told me I was too naughty, and I didn’t deserve your teaching brilliance. No hard feelings.”
He shook his head at me and laughed, though the sound reminded me of a wounded animal more than a chuckle. “That is not what I said.”
I couldn’t tell if he was hurt or he truly thought what I’d said was funny. “I was just teasing.”
Thatch lifted his chin. “I’ve decided to resume teaching you your affinity.”
Hope lifted my soul like a balloon about to float away. That burst of delight popped at Thatch’s next words.
“We will continue our lessons after the holidays. The glamour spells for Maddy take an immense amount of energy. I will need all the magic I possess and more in order to assist with Maddy’s spells and wards until we find a more viable solution.”