“You could have told me any time.”
She deadpanned at me. “Oh yeah? Just like that? And you would have believed me?”
I might have. I frowned at the shiny floors as we continued on to the library.
“Think about it, Layla. We’re not common. There is a reason the term Diluted became so popular. We are diluted. There aren’t as many with elven blood. As a hybrid race, we’ve had to consciously work hard to maintain and preserve the knowledge and abilities we have.”
I did think about it. I had been since she explained more this morning.
“I mean, I grew up with all of this. I’ve always been aware that I might come into my power when the time comes. It’s not so outlandish to me because I’ve lived here and freely heard about it. But to an outsider? A stranger who might think elves and supernatural beings are fictional?” She snorted. “Imagine it.”
I remained quiet, respecting and agreeing with her attitude. I could see it. Someone with a loose tongue, like Sabine, maybe, could go home and blab that there was an elf school out there. People would dismiss her as a nutcase. Or not? Elves could be outted and then what?
“Why do you think there are so many NDAs to sign? Why do you think the campus is way the heck away from people?”
“I get it.” I shrugged. “Or I’m trying to.”
She slung an arm around my shoulders for a side hug. “It’s a lot to accept. But I’m so thankful I don’t have to vaguebook around you anymore.”
I nodded like oh sure, no prob. And on that note… “How are you so sure I can be trusted? What did you mean I can prove that there are elves?”
Was there some kind of aura I had that labeled me as someone of distant elven descent?
“I put one and two together.” She let go of my shoulders and jabbed my ribs lightly with her elbow. “Like I said last night, I haven’t been the only one keeping secrets.”
I refused to meet her gaze. Caught.
“You lied about that shirt.”
“I don’t know what happened to it…” …after I used it as a bandage.
“And your family,” she reminded me as we entered the library doors. I couldn’t help but glance once at the spot Flynn and I had hidden in as we moved through the vestibule. I bet I’d always want to pay homage to that spot where we’d eavesdropped. Where he’d held my hand…
“My family?” I smirked at her. “My dad’s a theater-loving dork. He’s probably never been or ever will be prepared to be a parent. And you know Sabine.”
“And your mom?” she asked as we headed toward the deepest rooms of books.
Quiet surrounded us and I inhaled a lungful of papery fragrance.
“What about her?” I whispered. “She died giving birth to me.” I told her that back in the first quarter.
“What was her maiden name?” She pointed for me to head even further into the dimly light aisles of books. No one was around us. We were almost back by the texts I’d used to research the lily of the valley.
“Becky Smith.” Surely, she knew that. If she was able to snoop via Ethel, she’d know that my mom’s name was on my registration forms.
She turned a mocking duh smirk at me. “What was her real name?”
I shrugged. “That was the name on my birth certificate. It’s the only name I know.”
“It’s gotta be a fake.”
I couldn’t argue. It did sound cliché and too common. But I wouldn’t know why she’d use an alias or lie. How could I know? I’d never known her.
“I can forgive you for not telling me, if you didn’t know, how could you?”
That easily? Gee, thanks.
“But you clearly have something hidden in your family history.”
More secrecy. Lovely.
“Because my mom noticed that you’d come here and searched for a couple of books before.”
I roamed my appreciative gaze over the thousands of titles that walled us in. As much as the abundance of secrets seemed to consume me here, I enjoyed the private solitude back in this older part of the musty-aired library. “Just a couple times?” Ethel was a librarian, so no shock there. But which books? I was a bookworm. I read plenty and had come to this building numerous times.
“I mean, these books.”
I frowned as she waved her hands in the air, indicating the tattered spines of older texts. She pulled a random book off the shelf and hugged it in her arms.
“I looked up…”
About the longma.
“I looked up the lily of the valley.”
She nodded. “Sure. It’s not that you looked. But it’s what you found.” She opened the book, holding each cover in her hand with the pages spread midair. Tilting her chin to the pages, she urged me to look.
First of all, no 3D hologram of light shot up. I fiddled with my earlobe and slanted closer.
What the heck is that?
Foreign inky swirls covered the sheets. I couldn’t decipher these words. “What is this?”
“This is Olde Earth.”
I glanced from her to the untranslated pages. That wasn’t what I read before. When I’d come before, it was plain old legible English.
“I’m not following.”
Paige smiled a full-wattage grin and gently shut the book. “Only those with lineages close to Pures have the ability to read Olde Earth. Even seniors who show strong powers struggle to read it.”
Heat rose on my cheeks. Caught. “But…”
She shook her head as she returned the book to its place. “I’m just telling it like it is. No one can read these books except those who have it in their blood to do so.”
“But you said the third moon thing after I turn sixteen.” I’d Googled the length of a moon cycle during second period. “That’s not until November.”
She shrugged. “Beats me.” Then she pointed a finger at me. “But you can read it when in the presence of a Pure.”
I frowned at her. “You’re not one? Or your mom’s not a Pure?” She knew this and could count on it? How nice to be able to plan or prepare.
“No. Mom’s a Medium Diluted.” She propped her hip against the end of a bookcase and crossed her arms and ankles. “That’s how I knew you had to be some kind of elvish. Mom noticed you’d read two books back here after you searched for the plant and then the—”
“Longma.”
She nodded.
That was how they’d learned about my connection to it. If so, then Glorian had to be aware.
“She asked me about it but made me swear not to tell anyone.”
Or, maybe Glorian doesn’t know.
“Why?”
Paige twitched her lips. “I’m not sure. She almost seemed scared.”
Perhaps she was looking out for me, after all? I had to have one adult to trust somewhere in this place!
“But then she found a vague inter-campus alert email about an incident on the campus perimeter. That the shirt had been found. And then she’d been looped in that message with the bloody shirt.” She pointed at me. “Which you said you didn’t know anything about.”
I ignored her glare. “I don’t see how it’s related.” Well, I knew how it was related. “A bloody shirt and my random research into a longma is a far reach.”
“It’s not when Mom filed a copy of a report on a DNA analysis from the blood sample.”
It didn’t shock me that the Academy had that technology at their immediate beck and call.
“And when the blood sample taken from that shirt is from a descendant of the longma family.”
I pulled my lips in and bit on them. I refused to reply.
Wait. A descendant?
“Let me guess. A longma is an ancient species?”
Paige huffed at my sarcasm. “Ancient and extinct.”
How can it be extinct when I’d adopted one?
“I don’t know what is going on, and I’m kind of too scared to know. The surviving species of a true longma have to be freakishly huge. And dangerous. If you ev
er hear of or see anything to do with one, you have to be careful. Until we reach our elven date, it’s a risky situation to have on campus. A longma relative on the loose?” She shuddered. “We can’t keep secrets about this, Layla.”
I didn’t speak.
“Layla?”
I nodded, my fingers crossed behind my back.
There was nothing to fear of the longma I’d saved. But I had everything to fear for what fate had fallen for it.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
For the rest of the day, I didn’t have any downtime to chat with Flynn. I was anxious to update him on the longma since he was kind of and indirectly involved. From class to class, I tried to focus on what my instructors were emphasizing to have ready for the final quarterly.
At lunch, I kept my eyes open for him and was slightly dismayed when Aura was the only familiar face who approached the table.
“Oh, right.” She rolled her eyes and sat. “Sabine’s not going to be here today.”
“How come?”
She snorted. “You didn’t hear? Old Bernie caught her sneaking in last night.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“I told her to skip that date with Frances.” She shook her head. “I mean, he’s hot, but it’s not worth sneaking out on Wednesdays when they have their”—she fluffed her hand in the air—“secret cult meeting things.”
Cult meeting? Jeez, she sure put a darker twist on it. Given her close friendship with Sabine, it didn’t surprise me that she’d lean more on the gossipy range of things.
“What happened then?”
“Old Bernie caught her. Put her on disciplinary restrictions. She has to eat lunch with the headmistress. She’s gotta report to Bernie when she’s not in class. Like lockdown until after the finals.”
Poor, poor baby.
Flynn approached us and set his bag on the table.
“Hey there,” Aura greeted him.
“Hi.” He barely looked at her suggestive smile before turning to me. “Layla, I kind of need some help with Botany. Can we study in the library over lunch?”
Aura put her hands up and scooted out to stand. “Jeez. The tutoring-help excuse?” She laughed once. “I can tell when ya wanna be alone.” And she left.
“That was surprisingly easy.” He glanced at her walking away.
I frowned at the inference. Why would she be so quick to assume Flynn and I were a couple? Not that it was a bad idea. But were we? Could we be? I’d never been able to entertain the possibility of having a boyfriend, so stuck in assuming I was a unique freak no one could relate to.
Flynn can relate to me, actually. A lot.
I frowned harder.
Not the important issue right now, Layla.
“Let’s figure out how someone is onto you about the longma.” When I didn’t reply right away, he slanted away from me. “If you want. I… Well, I’d like to help, if I can.”
“Oh, it’s fine.” Like I’d reject his offer to assist me? I was over the moon that I could even have another human who’d be able to understand any of this. And he was abreast of the entire situation. Paige was helpful and all, but she hadn’t confessed any power to see or sense ancient monsters and creatures—or any power at all.
I quickly filled him in on what Paige had taught me over the free study time during Botany.
He rubbed at the back of his head, his fingers sending his riotously thick dark locks haywire. “You’re from a pure bloodline then?”
I shrugged. “I guess?” I explained how I’d never had a mother in my life. “But Dad?” I laughed. “He’s never been able to understand what I could see. Treated it all like a mental case.”
“I wonder if one of my parents were a Pure.” He exhaled a deep breath and shook his head. “But I guess we’ll learn more about all that later. Someday.”
“Seems like it.”
“For now, though, this longma. You said it had an arrow in its leg?”
“Yeah. I buried it in the woods.” At his raised brows, I said, “Well, I didn’t know what else to do with it. I couldn’t bring it back to the dorms!”
He narrowed his eyes and seemed to smile. “Do you know where it is, then? The spot you buried it?”
Why, what are you thinking? Pursing my lips, I searched my memory. I had rinsed it off—unsuccessfully—in that puddle right where I’d stumbled upon the longma. It was a ways off the path. Under a tall oak. And a shorter dogwood. Man, dendrology facts and tree ID is really, really cool to have at hand.
I scoffed at my internal nerdiness. “Yeah. I do. Why?”
“If we retrieve it, I think we can ask someone for help.”
Talk about a one-eighty. “I thought you said we should keep this to ourselves?” As much as possible, since I’d already accidentally alerted the school of my interest in the animal via research.
“We should.” He grinned. “We won’t ask for help about the longma. But we could ask about the arrow.”
“Who?”
“An archery expert.”
I smirked. “Because we all know one.”
He wagged his finger between us. “We do.”
“Oh yeah? Who?”
Instead of answering, he scanned the library. Weaving his head side to side, he searched around other classmates’ heads. “There.” He closed one eye and pointed to the far left of the dining space.
Frowning, I followed his aim.
At the round table way in the corner of the room, Lorcan sat with Aura, laughing about something. His red hair tossed back when he dropped his head back, cracking up about something.
“Lorcan?”
Flynn nodded.
“He’s an archery expert?”
“He’s no Robin Hood, but he’s damned devoted to the sport.”
I remained frowning the Australian’s way. “Lorcan?” He seemed so…charming and kind. Too…soft-hearted to be a master of something as precisely hard and dangerous as archery.
Archery. A rational reason why there would be arrows on campus. But in a creature’s leg?
“He’s on the Green team. Pretty good.”
“How do I not know this?”
Flynn shrugged. “Because sports aren’t your thing.”
Was that bad? I ran. I was fit. It wasn’t like I was a slouchy couch potato.
“You never go to any meets or races.”
I didn’t realize anyone had noticed my absence at those competitive things. He had, though.
“Never saw the point.”
He opened and closed his mouth, as though he wanted to say something, but then sighed. “Well, I’m telling you, not only as his roommate but as a spectator to his tournaments, he’s damned good with a bow and arrow.”
“And you think we can ask him about it?”
Flynn shrugged in a why not manner. “It’s a start.”
For now, a start sounded just fine to me.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Flynn and I ran out to the spot I’d buried the remnant of the arrow. It was the morning before finals were to begin. We’d planned to head out in the woods earlier, but in the days since we’d joined forces, so to say, we’d been delayed.
It was thundering chaos and raining buckets two days in a row. He absolutely refused to go out in the precipitation. I’d almost goaded him about being afraid of melting until I remembered his story about when his sister was killed, during a storm.
We all have our own problems. Never forget that.
Then Paige woke up early with me one day and had all kinds of questions about why I’d be running with Flynn since he’d come to our room to wait for me. I’d passed it off as a friendship thing, to which she giddily giggled that we were an item. So there was that morning lost.
“Did you see the schedule of finals?” he asked as we took off through the woods. I cut back on my pace so he could keep up and we could chat easier.
“Not yet. When was it posted?”
Even though the bulk of the final exams were taken in classrooms, the
re were the other parts to consider. Like the headmaster or mistress meetings. And the group projects. First quarter had none, but for second and third quarters, we’d had to go outside. Those portions were basically field trips with oral exams, pointing out what we’d learned in class and live identification exercises.
“Last night.”
“Oh?”
“For Botany, we’re with Mr. Alwin at the lake.”
I skidded to a stop.
“The lake?”
He’d slowed and faced me, breathing fast. I panicked as he studied me, wiping sweat from his forehead.
“Why the lake?”
“Well, with the riparian plants we’ve been going over, it’s not that much of a surprise.”
I licked my lips and frowned at him. “That’s taking us right back to where we went with Lorcan.”
He nodded. “And the pegasus and perytons.”
“The what?”
His smart-alec smile was too cute. “The flying horse and deer. Like the one that almost pooped on your head.”
“Ha. Ha. They’re called perytons?” I resumed running, eager to move to dissipate the nervous energy that a mere mention of the lake brought. “I thought they were unicorns.”
“Flying deer are perytons. A winged horse is a Pegasus. And I didn’t see a horn on its head.”
True. I felt inadequate at his knowledge. Here I was the only one between us who could see and “talk” to these creatures. Touch them and rescue them. Flynn only got faint, faded outlines of them like apparitions. And he knew all the terminology? “How do you know what they’re called?”
“You’re not the only geek around here. I like to be informed. After…what happened to my sister, I resolved to never talk about it to anyone, I wanted to know more.”
“Knowledge-is-power kind of thing?” I asked, honoring Lorcan’s logic.
“Pretty much. So I read everything I could about mythical and supposedly fictional animals.”
“Know-it-all.”
He shrugged. “Are we close yet?”
“Can’t keep up?”
“I just want to have enough time to make it back to the dorms and hide the arrow in my room.”
Secrecy: Olde Earth Academy: Year One Page 19