by Sarina Dorie
“Or I could give you my pleasure,” he said. “When I process pain, it would give you a chance to see what it’s like.”
I pinched his arm playfully. “I think you already give me enough of my own pleasure.”
He laughed. It was strange to hear him express himself so freely and openly. He kissed my nose and snuggled closer.
“This is nice, but I have to get back to my classroom. Art Club is up in my room. I trust Hailey not to set fire to my desk, but I don’t trust any of them to actually clean their brushes.”
He groaned. “Next you’ll be telling me I should be a responsible teacher and unchain students from their shackles in detention so they can get to dinner.”
“That’s right. We don’t want to them to be late to dinner. And I don’t want to be late to dinner. It’s my favorite period of the day.” Especially now that there was a better budget for the kitchen and school food tasted good.
“So we’re late. I’ll say I was disciplining my most exasperating student.”
He was so beautiful when he smiled. I wanted to paint him more than I ever had wanted to paint Elric, and Felix Thatch wasn’t using muse magic on me. I smoothed his dark locks out of his face. He seemed genuinely happy. I didn’t want to sour the mood, but I’d come to his office originally to talk to him, not to seduce him with pleasure magic.
“Can we talk about something serious for a minute?” I asked.
He bit his lip as though thinking it over. “Definitely not.”
“I need to talk to you about our wedding.”
“Go on.”
“I told you I was telling Josie and Khaba. I didn’t intend for Pinky to be there, but that was just how it worked out. I knew I would need to tell them anyway. Then there was the card in my mailbox with the raven flying around, and after that the paper crane. And now I keep getting more paper cranes. And then Gertrude—or Vega—I don’t know who—threw me a wedding shower. Now all the staff know. And the students suspect.” More than suspected.
“I know. You already told me in your note.”
“Are you mad about everyone finding out?” I asked.
He gave me his best imitation of his grumpy frown. “Very mad.” His eyes twinkled, so I could tell he wasn’t being sincere. “Do you wish to know how mad?”
“Not really.”
He scooped me up and tickled me. “I’m going to have to really punish you now. Death by tickles.”
I laughed and squirmed away. I didn’t want him to distract me and tease me. This was serious.
“But what should we do? The Raven Queen knows. I think Derrick knows.”
His lips curled upward, but he didn’t smile. “I’m certain I will figure out a brilliant plan to solve everything.”
Translation: he had no idea how to solve this problem or keep Fae and unwanted Witchkin out of our school.
Craptacular.
He leaned in to kiss me, but hesitated. He ran a hand through my hair. A snarl caught on his fingers.
“Ow!” I said, trying to stop him.
“You’ve got something caught in your hair, probably a paper from my desk.” I turned my head in time to see a flash of pink and purple flowers on a crumpled paper before he snatched it away. He lifted himself up to toss it under the bed.
“Was that an origami crane?” I sat up, intending to look under his bed.
He pulled me back down. “No.”
“Are you lying to me?”
He placed a hand on his heart, the gray storm clouds of his eyes mocking innocence. “When have I ever lied?”
“Any time it benefits you.”
“True enough.” He planted a peck on my lips. “I’m quite fortunate I find ways to entice you to forgive me.”
I didn’t want to be distracted by pleasure, but he knew how to do so better than anyone else. One kiss turned into two. Two turned into two dozen. It didn’t take long before I’d thrown off all my clothes and succumbed to his enticements yet again.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Playing the Players
The following day, on Wednesday, I knew my students knew. They whispered quietly in clusters, sneaking peeks at me in class. I pretended I didn’t notice or care. When I walked into the cafeteria that evening, students smiled at me and giggled.
Half an hour later, I was in the middle of dinner duty, trying to calm a group of freshmen down while Vega restrained a boy and escorted him out with magical bonds for throwing his food at someone and starting a fight, when Thatch walked into the cafeteria.
“Oh look! It’s lover boy,” one of the students said.
I ignored the remark.
Vega levitated the instigator of the fight away from his classmates and out through one of the doors that resembled a Stonehenge-like archway. Students scrambled aside, flattening themselves against walls painted in puketastic seventies colors, to get out of Vega’s path.
I turned to the student I’d been talking to a moment before. “Now, why do we use words and not violence when we have a problem?”
“I did use words. I said, ‘Fuck off,’ and he didn’t listen,” a freshman girl I didn’t know said. “That’s when he threw his food in my face.”
“Appropriate language, please,” I said.
“Miss Lawrence, is it true about you and Mr. Thatch?” Maya Briggs asked.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I said firmly, trying to use my tone to leave no room for questions or argument. But I wasn’t Vega.
Luke Heller appeared out of thin air in one of the empty seats. “Are you talking about Mr. Thatch? He’s soooooo gross. You could do better than him.”
“Getting back to consequences for antagonizing a fight—” I started.
“I heard he’s gay. Maddy Jennings tried to seduce him, and he refused her. It’s proof. No one can resist a siren,” one student said.
“Just because Mr. Thatch has morals and can resist sleeping with students doesn’t make him gay,” I said. “Not that it is any of your business.”
“That’s right. That doesn’t prove he’s gay,” a small student with glasses said. “The thing that proves it is he dresses really nice. And he has nice hair.”
Maya giggled. “Oh, look, Miss Lawrence. Mr. Thatch is waving at you.”
I turned and found him seated at the dais. He beckoned to me. He rarely ate dinner in the cafeteria. He was more the type to grab and go if he didn’t have a duty—which he rarely assigned to himself. Being seen talking to him in the cafeteria was just going to bring more unwanted attention.
The principal stomped through one of the doorways, his suit of metal armor thudding against the stone floor and signaling his arrival. His eyes narrowed as he glared at me. I wondered what RoboPrincipal thought I’d done now.
I shook my head at Thatch and pointed to the principal. We could not be seen together by Chuck Dean. He would start watching us and try to catch us doing something naughty if we did.
Thatch grinned and kept gesturing for me to join him. Didn’t he see it was going to make everything worse?
I trudged over to the dais, looking up at him. “I have dinner duty,” I said, as if that explained everything in the world to him.
“I’m quite aware.”
“And the principal is here.”
“Perfect. He can take care of all those delinquent students.” He beckoned me to come closer.
I stomped up the stairs, expecting him to tell me something he didn’t want to shout over the commotion of student voices. Instead, he turned back to the crowd of nearly five hundred students.
He waved his wand in front of his face. His bored monotone amplified by about ten thousand. “I would like to make an announcement.”
Students nudged each other and pointed to us as if me sitting by Thatch was a crime. I could see whatever he had planned was not going to work.
Thatch scanned the faces of the students, his frown fixed in place. “There are rumors going aroun
d the school that I would like to take a moment to clear up.”
Students quieted, interested in what he was going to say. The principal stopped chastising a student. Steam puffed out from between the joints of his mechanical suit.
An announcement was Thatch’s plan for squashing the rumors before they got out of hand? They weren’t going to believe him if he denied the rumors. Unless he was planning on performing a mass brainwashing while all the students were assembled during dinner, I didn’t see how this was going to help.
I wasn’t sure if he was capable of that.
Each word came out with precise, crisp diction. “You may have heard classmates speaking about Miss Lawrence and myself, alluding to the nature of our relationship being beyond that of colleagues. You may have heard your peers participate in unsavory gossip about us being . . . engaged.”
As I sat beside him my face flushed with embarrassment, not so much because of the attention, but at the idea that he was going to lie and deny he had any feelings for me. He would tell them some reason he was insulted by the rumor, and it would sound like he didn’t want to have anything to do with me.
Again.
I knew he loved me. I just hated how he never would admit it.
I couldn’t meet his eyes as he went on.
He stared out at the crowd. “I will inform you how such rumors came into fruition and the consequences so that you can understand the danger of starting such rumors.”
Josie and Pinky stood in one doorway, confusion evident on their faces. Pro Ro entered through another archway.
“As many of you are aware, Miss Lawrence is the daughter of Alouette Loraline, a former teacher and headmistress who was notorious for her many deeds, good and bad. She made many enemies, and though Miss Lawrence tries to bring happiness to the world through teaching ungrateful students watercolors, ceramics, and the joys of Study Club, she has never done anything to incur the wrath of malicious Fae aside from protecting you from them.”
One of his dark eyebrows arched upward. “For most of you, I do not believe I need to list the many good deeds Miss Lawrence has performed on your behalf to keep you safe from harm. If you are a new student or have slept through the last three school years, you may be unaware of the way she has offered herself in her students’ stead to King Viridios of the Silver Court, bargained with Prince Elric of the Silver Court to save the lives of her students, and advocated for students to not be expelled.” His lips pressed into a line as he gazed at Balthasar Llewelyn, who sat next to Ben O’Sullivan. “Miss Lawrence has saved lives through her untraditional methods of Morty magic and helped those who would otherwise never graduate, with study methods she brought with her from the public-school system where she was trained. Each day she brightens your otherwise dreary existence with arts and crafts to help you express your creativity in a safe, nurturing environment.”
Trevor lifted his dog bone in the air. “And she gave me something to chew on!”
Chuckles came from those nearest. Maddy pulled Trevor back into his seat.
Thatch inclined his head in acknowledgment. “Miss Lawrence has done many good deeds. Few among you are not in her debt. Though she is loved here among us, there are those out there who would harm her simply due to her parentage.” The way admiration sparked in his eyes when he said the word “loved,” I was certain more than ever that he would give his feelings for me away.
This was going in a very different direction than I thought it would. I shifted in my chair, feeling awkward to be next to him during this speech. The students’ brows furrowed, making them look just as confused as I was. A few, like Imani, were smiling. She seemed to be more confident than I was about where this was headed.
Thatch folded his hands in front of himself. “Fae are drawn to public events. They are attracted to the power of large groups, especially when the magical community is involved. When Fae are invited to an event such as a party, they might bless one with a gift. When they are not, they will curse one with an unwanted gift. I have observed how fond many of you are of Miss Lawrence.”
A calculating smile graced his face. “Now I ask you to think upon something. If you speak of her personal life to someone outside of this school, such as a friend who has graduated or your guardian, and those individuals accidentally pass on information that falls into the hands of a Fae, there will be consequences for Miss Lawrence. Is this a way to repay a favorite teacher who has always cared about you enough that she tries to get you to talk about your feelings rather than assigning detentions like other teachers?”
By other, I assumed he meant himself.
He stood, his tone not angry, simply factual. “If a Fae enemy hears that Miss Lawrence is to be wed, do you understand the means they will take to sabotage her happiness? What do you suppose a Fae might do to Miss Lawrence?”
Thatch hadn’t even needed to resort to magic or brainwashing. The room of students stared in shock. Many students stared at the floor guiltily. Others gave me apologetic puppy eyes. Thatch had used his superpower of guilt and persuasion.
The silence stretched on, oppressive and suffocating as his words sank in.
“I don’t want anyone to curse Miss Lawrence!” a student wailed.
Thatch stared out at the sea of faces impassively. “I intended to keep our affairs private and out of the public eye until after the wedding, so as not to tempt any Fae into inviting themselves. Since students intend to speak about the matter, there is nothing I can do to stop the gossip short of casting a spell on every single individual at this school. It should be noted I have no intention of doing so.” His gaze flickered to the principal.
I wondered if he would have gotten away with doing so if Jeb had still been principal.
Thatch lifted his chin. “I’ve decided to stop denying the rumors in the hope that it will appease your imaginations and keep you from idle gossip. From this point on, I ask that you refrain from discussing the matter or asking questions that don’t concern you. Your personal safety as well as Miss Lawrence’s is at risk. It is difficult to predict what a Fae enemy might do to appropriate information from you about this matter. I can only hope you are able to comprehend the direness of this situation.
“I have asked Miss Lawrence to marry me, and she has said yes. In six months’ time, she is to be my lawfully wedded wife.” He held out his hand to me. I placed mine in his.
Someone in the crowd cheered. “Yay! Miss Lawrence is getting married.” It sounded like Trevor.
Josie clapped and whistled from the door. Pinky and the other teachers joined in. Students applauded, their enthusiasm tempered by the seriousness of the situation.
A loud metal clanking came from one of the archways. The principal smiled and clapped. I couldn’t tell whether he was pretending to be happy for the benefit of not looking like a jerk or he was being sincere.
A smug smirk tugged at Thatch’s lips, as though everything was going according to plan.
I shook my head at him. “I don’t want to sound like a pessimist, but your plan isn’t going to work. They aren’t going to be able to stay quiet for six months.” I knew these students. No amount of guilt and good intentions could sustain their short attention spans.
“I know.” He leaned in closer. “I give it a week. Two at the most. That should give you enough time to plan a small wedding with your most intimate of friends. I believe that is an adequate compromise.”
“Two weeks? Um, thanks.” A May wedding would be before my birthday, and before the Raven Queen’s bargain with me to not harm any of my loved ones, so there was an advantage to that, but he’d just given me a serious time crunch. I still had to get my hair ready and a dress.
“No, two weeks will be too long for students to stay silent about this matter. I highly suggest this upcoming weekend. The less we delay, the greater chances we have of success.”
This weekend? The first weekend in May? That gave me days to plan. And after the wedding, then what?
I could feel my brows knitting together with worry. “We might be able to marry without Fae interference, but surely the Raven Queen won’t allow us continued happiness after that.” What if the price of not inviting her was to kill Felix Thatch later? For all I knew, that was how he was going to die.
He placed an arm around me. “You needn’t worry about the Raven Queen after the wedding. As long as we can keep her from discovering the date and ensure enough wards to keep all Fae out, we’ll both be safe. It’s the ceremony itself I’m concerned about. The thread that connects me to her as a former servant under her jurisdiction is still there. If I make a binding contract with you, it will weaken her hold on me. She won’t willingly allow that.”
The idea of a wedding grew less appealing by the second.
Something nudged my shoulder. I looked, but no one was there. A small red shape streaked past Thatch and fell onto the dais behind him. A yellow origami crane flittered onto the floor. One with sky-blue patterns drifted down and caught in Thatch’s glossy mane of hair.
An icy lump sank into my stomach.
Students laughed. More paper cranes rained down from the ceiling, dropping down onto them in a rainbow of colors. Thatch’s smile remained fixed in place, a façade of calm I wished I could manage to project myself.
“How romantic!” someone said. “This must be Miss Lawrence’s wish come true.”
A reminder that I was still being watched was my wish come true? Hardly.
CHAPTER NINE
A Wedding to Die For
How could anyone plan a wedding in less than a week? Magic? That wouldn’t be enough.
Vega must have recognized the panicked look on my face. She took me aside after dinner. “What is Felix Thatch really up to now? And don’t tell me nothing. I recognize what a deer in the headlights looks like, even if I don’t drive an automobile.”
I told her Thatch’s plan and that I had a few days to prepare a wedding so that we would be married before any Fae found out.
“I still need to get my hair cut and colored. I don’t want to rush this, but I have to rush this.”