Faerey Normal

by brett hicks

  I frowned and I tried not to take offense, she spoke very matter-of-factly, something I was accustomed to with Jazzy and heck, I am very blunt.

  “Well, I just woke up and my dad told me, bam you’re a freaking faerey. Then I was quickly ushered to this damn school.”

  It was hard not to sound bitter and Casey turned and lightly touched my hand with hers and her look was one of solidarity.

  “I know a lot about how you’re feeling. My parents were killed before they could teach me anything, so I get it. I know what it’s like to wake up one morning and have your whole damn world turned on its head.”

  My eyes bulged and I reached out and squeezed her shoulder.

  “That’s completely messed up and I’m so freaking sorry about your family!”

  She shrugged as if she could care less; she clearly had become accustomed to keeping herself closely guarded over the years. What must her life have been like for her to become so closed off to the other students? Why did the other Moch Sidhe seem so intent on making her life hell?! Most importantly, why did I feel so darn angry for this girl I just met?

  “It was over three years ago, so I’ve had some time to learn to deal.”

  “So, why did you come here?”

  She seemed to be taken back by the question and her violet eyes widened.

  “Donno, just because I was accepted I guess?”

  That didn’t sound like the full truth, but I wasn’t in any position to be prying for secrets myself.

  “I wish I could have at least shopped around a bit first, but dad just threw my butt out here with very little explanations.”

  Casey frowned and shrugged.

  “Well, this is the only school that accepts unaligned faereys from the Colonial Wyldes, as they call it. Cambridge Academy is also the best place to learn faerey glamour and magic. Some of the other schools focus more on other species and magic types. The other faerey schools all require you to be aligned with either the remaining clans or the Imperium.”

  I blinked a few times and sighed, sagging and trying to resist the chills prickling my skin now as we opened a huge set of double doors made of pure ice sheen. The doors opened into what could only be described as a wing of the castle made entirely of snow, glassy-like ice surfaces and silver, and pale-blue tapestries.

  My body was still chilly, but the air was surprisingly warm. There were even several communal areas with wide chimneys with burning azure flames.

  “At the risk of sounding totally ridiculous, we are not in Kansas anymore!”

  Casey snorted and rolled her eyes at the ancient quote.

  “More like Faerey Dimension, but both statements are true enough.”

  Hummed in a vague agreement and I swept my gaze around and spotted several small creatures sliding down the banisters. They looked like donkeys, but they were maybe four-feet tall and they were laughing.

  I pointed to them in morbid curiosity and fascination.

  “What are those?!”

  My tone was as demanding as it was laced with curiosity. Casey waved a dismissive hand at the two miniature donkeys.

  “Oh, those are just two of the resident Pukas. Pukas are like the faerey tricksters and mischief-makers. They love to take mortals for a Puka ride, which can often turn fatal. They also love to punk people if given half a chance.”

  I hummed as I listened to her explanation.

  “I hardly doubt Pukas are the only faereys that are compulsive troublemakers. My father seemed to be plenty good at causing problems and he’s supposed to be some once-noble lord or some such thing.”

  Casey looked at me with a deep frown, as if she were unsure of what to say to that. We were cut off from discussing anything further as a light ringing sounded from the walls, indicating class was about to start.

  Eight:

  Someone needs to write a book titled “Magic for idiots.” Maybe then I might be able to do something right!

  Despite the distraction of the slight chill of this section of the castle/ academy, I couldn’t really blame that on my lack of focus. Heck, I could barely keep a single thought straight, between the unnervingly handsome Sidhe pretty-boy who seated himself next to me, and the very fact that I couldn’t seem to muster much more than a spark or a slight ripple in the water.

  Moch Sidhe was all supposed to be elementals of the highest order, but I couldn’t seem to raise anything to my will! This had frustrated the literally frosty teacher, a winter-aligned Snow Sidhe woman. She was like an Eastern snow-woman come to life. Even her skin had felt frigid to the touch, unlike the other Faereys of winter-alignment.

  White hair as white as the snow that seemed to dance around her skin and eyes of such pale crystal-blue, you would mistake them for unearthly gemstones, and she was entrancing. I noted more than one of the young guys seemed to struggle to not become lost in her gaze. She reminded me of the Japanese stories of the snow witches that would find choice mates to seduce and procreate with, often freezing the fathers in crystalized ice as a morbid sort of keepsake.

  Professor Oda Kimara was her name. That is Kimara Oda to those who do not know that the Japanese place the surname before the given name of an individual. Like the Headmistress, she wore a soft fabric gown of some crazy design. These people—and I do use that term loosely—seem more suited for a runway, than teaching at any high school.

  Professor Oda was moving through the room inspecting everyone’s progress with each of the four basic elements. This was supposed to be some beginners test to gauge each person’s affinity. She walked around complimenting students, like Francesca, who now had three feet of swirling clear liquid coiled around her body. She was grinning like a lunatic and looking over at the icy Dylan who was still staring at me.

  I’ve been the subject of plenty of male stares in my day, but Dylan’s gaze bothered me. He was way too close and he smelled like fresh rain on a cold day. He was also sculpting a two-foot statue of pure ice with his fingertips.

  Why had he sat down next to me?!

  Judging by Francesca’s livid reaction to this, I was probably going to be in for some hell later. At least Casey was on the other side of me now. She was spinning a small desktop twister of air.

  “I thought vampire myths said you had like telekinesis or mind control?”

  I murmured to her and she smiled broadly.

  “We do, but I’m a weak kinetic and a strong air elemental. That’s no common among my kind, but not all unheard of either. Vampires and faereys both have wide ranges of abilities and spells.”

  I perked up a bit at this.

  “Like witch spells?”

  Dylan snorted in amusement and looked up from his frosty sculpture.

  “Witches have their own magic, but all faerey or supernatural creatures can use most of the broader spell workings. The three basic branches of magic are Element, Glamour, and Invocation.”

  I nodded as if this made any sense to me at all!

  “Right, I’ll just have to write that down. Don’t you get cold?”

  I asked randomly still watching his deft motions slowly sculpting the ice angel coming to life under his delicate coaxing of the crystallized ice. A shrugged and said, “Not really, you would have to probably shoot me out into outer space for the cold to affect me. Even then, it would have to be absolute zero to possibly kill me.”

  I blinked dumbly and gave a tiny bob of my head.

  I wanted to just go curl up in a ball for a week while my brain tried to process all the information being crammed into it. My adrenaline high from the morning had long since worn off and now I was starving and hollow inside.

  What do Faereys eat? Do we have some weird restricted diet?

  “Well, remind me to reach for my flamethrower if I ever need to kill you.”

  I sassed absentmindedly and I looked over at his mischievous smile, a smile that reminded me of another faerey man, one I was not at all happy with! I wanted to be angry, but I felt a lump forming in my throat under his intense scr
utiny.

  “A flamethrower huh, where does one hide such a device?”

  I squirmed as his eyes perused my smile form with a scrutiny that almost made my cheeks pink. He was gorgeous, even a blind gay man could tell you this! But, he was a faerey and I didn’t even trust my own father as of right now.

  I finally looked away and pretended that his gaze didn’t bother me—but it did.

  “You should get back to your snow angel, she’s going to get jealous and stab you with an ice sword.”

  I said it evenly and calmly. If I did not know me so well, I would have believed I was completely aloof. Trust me, nothing that hot goes unnoticed and if I could trust him, then I might feel inclined to bat my lashes and play up my few female wiles. I might only be fifteen, but every girl instinctively knows how to flirt and be girlish when she cares to! Not for the first time, I was also sitting wishing I had a mother to guide me through the dark and turbulent waters of these teenage years. As it was, I had exactly half a parent, because I could only trust half of his advice right now.

  I felt Casey squeeze my leg beside me. I looked up at her slowly and she winked at me. She was a vampire; did she somehow feel or sense my shift in mood? I still wasn’t sure I could trust her, but judging by how most the class treated her like the high school leper, I was quickly arriving at the trust station with her.

  I had expected to need to figure out who I could and could not trust in the high school, but I did not expect to have the added pressure of constant mortal danger added on top of this. A huge part of me was sulking and longing for the lost innocence of my mortal life. My normality was suddenly very desired and longed for!

  “What exactly are you doing, Miss Edwards?”

  Oh crap!

  I looked up at the snowy professor and I bit my lip.

  “I… failing miserably?”

  This caused the whole class to erupt in laughter at my expense. Even Dylan snorted a short burst of humor at my expense. I would be lying if I said that didn’t hurt at all. I wasn’t sure he was a bad guy, but he was that pretty-boy stuck on the proverbial fence, always trying to be in with everyone.

  Professor Oda puffed up and tapped her finger on my desk.

  “You’re Moch Sidhe; you should be able to control one of the elements. Even that father of yours can manipulate some earth and nature!”

  I filed that bit of information away for further examination later. I shrugged and looked up at her with real perplexity.

  “How am I supposed to just know how to do something like this, when I spent my whole life being lied to?”

  Okay, I sounded pretty petulant, even to my own ears. Professor Oda’s eyes narrowed a fraction and she huffed in exasperation.

  “Focus, if I catch you chatting with your friends, or looking for your first suitor in my class, then we will have problems.”

  My jaw clenched so tight I felt it pop. For the second time in my first day here, I was about to punch someone! Casey’s hand dug into my thigh muscle and I flicked my gaze to her. Her head shook subtly in micro motions. She mouthed the word, “No.”

  Professor Oda glared at me for a moment longer. She seemed caught between two emotions, shocked at my readiness to fight her and outrage at my lack of respect. Sorry, not sorry folks! Who the hell just instantly respects someone just because they’re older than you?! Besides, if her hearing is half as good as every other supernatural I have met so far, she knew I was not flirting! I wanted to punch her in her pretty little nose and see if it shattered into glass at my feet! I’ve always hated bitchy girls, but now I felt downright violent around these huffy and arrogant faerey women!

  I’m going to kill my father for shoving me in here!

  My promise made, I kept my eyes trained on my teacher and I slowly seemed to cool down in degrees. My initial fight-or-flight shut off and my body stopped rushing with adrenaline again. I still felt like I had chugged a gallon of espresso.

  ***

  After my little confrontation with the elemental magic teacher, I stewed in silence for the rest of the class. Casey seemed to be bursting to say something, but she had held her tongue, very aware that there were ears everywhere.

  I did try to do the elemental spells, but I could barely light a match with fire and I could just slightly nudge a glass of water. I was as seemingly the worst elemental magic practitioner of my whole species! Professor Oda had washed her hands of me by the end of class.

  I heard her recommending that I be sent to a more productive place for this period. She didn’t bother to try to lower her voice. She was vindictive enough to insult me for the entire class to hear while talking on her phone with the Headmistress. Apparently, even Halflings were supposed to be better at elemental magic than I was!

  I didn’t have a single damn answer to why I sucked so badly, or what my problem was! I could feel the elements, could feel the pulse and call to wield them, but I couldn’t seem to get them to do anything for me. It’s like I was missing something, or I was just blocked.

  Twice within the same hour, I found myself wishing for my mother to blanket me in maternal warmth and explain why I was so different. I was different from humans and I was different from Faereys. I had no place to belong, or so it seemed.

  The other Moch Sidhe had all taken to ignoring me by the time the bell rang and they deemed me a lost cause. It shouldn’t have hurt that the arrogant jerks didn’t like me. Hell, I generally encourage arrogant jerks to ignore me!

  I tried to keep my emotions schooled as I could and I promised myself a good long cry once I was safely inside my own room. I’m still a girl, so I can and do cry when I need to! As tomboyish as I might be, I still have my moments. Moments where chocolate alone cannot cure what ails me.

  “Come on, it’s lunchtime, Amy.”

  I spun and I saw the young vampire following me again. She was waving me towards another new hallway. I frowned at her and tilted my head to the side.

  “You do realize I am like a teenage leper now?”

  Casey shrugged and didn’t deny the self-incriminating statement, but she didn’t seem to care either.

  “I’m a vampire, so I know a bit about not fitting in, or not doing everything like others.”

  Right, I’m talking to a chick that has to drink the red stuff to survive.

  I shrugged and I opted to follow the only girl willing to be my friend.

  Nine:

  Whoever designed this space that the castle sat inside didn’t think to account for cellphone service. I kept trying to find a single bar on my iPhone, but it was to no avail. Apparently, alternate dimensions did not get coverage.

  My body seemed to burn and itch with my desire to phone or text Jazzy, just to remind myself that someone, somewhere gave a crap about me!

  Casey led me to a grand hall filled with what looked like endless rows of tall rectangular wooden tables. The ceiling was decorated in icy crystals and bright lights that glowed and danced around the icy chandeliers.

  “They’re wisps.”

  My eyes widened marginally at this new information.

  “As in the Irish folklore about lights that lead people off cliffs and beacon them to their doom?”

  She nodded in confirmation.

  “Yep, the very same, but they’re not dangerous if you have even a single drop of supernatural blood. You are all faerey so I wouldn’t worry about it.”

  I frowned at her and leaned closer and lowered my voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

  “I’m half-human, or did you miss that point of fact?”

  She frowned deeply and shrugged.

  “Faerey-blooded means that you are either immortal, or you’re not. You are immortal, I can smell it rolling off you and your blood is rich and potent.”

  She said so lowly I could barely hear her. However, her words did ring true and it reminded me of what Gentry had said, “She smells too much of power to be your child,” or some such thing. I now had another reason to call on the Cyclops. He seemed to be ab
le to smell blood as well as a vampire, then again, even the Greek stories told of how keen the Cyclop’s senses were supposed to be.

  If I can ever get service, I’m going to call that crazy Cyclops!

  His blade pulsed against my thigh, as if I had somehow managed to summon its power through thought alone. Casey frowned slightly; she was probably able to feel a sudden pulse of cool power nearly on top of my person.

  Sensing powers seemed to be pretty natural to me, even if I couldn’t do nearly any magic. I could feel the extreme sliding scale of differing magical being’s auras. I knew who was more deadly just at a distant impression from some metaphysical sense inside my mind.

  I was beginning to notice that magical feel was like an 8th sense if the 7th was seeing past the mist and glamour. I know this is all freaking confusing, try living it! Honestly, I would have stopped trying to feel my way through the dark rough waters of this world hours ago, if I had any inkling of a choice in the matter. My tough reality was this, I was stuck here in a magic academy and my father possibly didn’t give a single crap about me. I might not even have a home to return to again!

  My heartfelt heavily laden with the plethora of burdens laid upon me today. Everything hurt inside and I wanted to just cry and keep crying until I finally just slipped from my reality. I wanted so badly to be anything other than what I was, but I was Amy freaking Edwards! I do not sit around and sniffle at everything that’s bothering me! No, I punch something, or I kick a damn soccer ball.

  Speaking of…

  “Casey, do we have athletics here? Like soccer and track and stuff like that?”

  I asked my only friend and she widened her eyes again and nodded in confirmation.

  “Yeah, we have all of those, but I wouldn’t recommend calling it soccer. You’re in the UK now sweet cheeks; people have been stabbed for less around here.”

  I snorted at her and I huffed.

  “Whatever, football, soccer, it’s the same damn thing to me. Unless we are talking about real football with the pads and the full body contact.”

  Behind me, I heard someone yelling, “Oye, tell that bloody American to bugger off!”