by K L Rymer
So... that’s what makes us Mendacious? We have human traits? And here I was thinking it was because some of us were demons or Unseelie. Human makes us evil in the eyes of this world.
Angelina squirms uncomfortably in her seat, and Matthew peers her way. I hear him asking her what’s wrong, but she only mutters, “I’m fine.”
The professor finishes the class that involves more human bashing, and before long the school bell rings. (Saved by the bell, right?) Everyone stands. The only ones who stay behind are Mendacious. A couple of Matthew’s bros—an Unseelie and a feather-winged brute—throw paper balls our way. One hits Felicity, and she squeaks, bursting into tears. Nora gives her a tentative pat.
I watch the half-pixie for a while, trying to figure out how a pixie and a human get it on, and my heart wrenches at the sound of her soft, little cries. How depressing. This world really is prejudiced.
Damien is the first to rise. He glares at Felicity with his blood-red irises, giving her a disgusted look (we can’t all be a hard ass like him), then meets my gaze. “Now you finally know how this school works, human Bryn.” With that he sweeps away, his coat billowing like a cape behind him, and we all remain seated, the only sounds being Felicity’s tiny whimpers.
Zahara produces a theatrical sigh then stands, glancing over at Felicity. “That’s enough. You’ve had your cry. This is just how things are. Get over it.”
“I... I can’t help it! I just... wish things were different...” the pixie sobs, her voice like a wind chime.
Zahara rolls her eyes and peers down at me, holding out a hand. “Come on. Next lesson’s free. Then it’s lunch. That gives us time to explain our world to you.”
I clasp her hand, letting her haul me up. “All right.”
She smiles. “I know the perfect place. Come along, everyone.”
Zahara leads the way. Jack scoops up little Felicity and she fits snugly inside his palm. Nora and Thomas shuffle along quietly, and we all follow Zahara out of the room.
As we leave, I hear Higgles mutter, “Good riddance.”
Fuck him. He can go and shove it for all I care.
Chapter 9.
“My mother was Unseelie, and my father was a travelling merchant sometime back in the nineteenth century. He... stumbled into the Unseelie world by accident and, well, the rest tells itself...”
Spellbound, I watch Zahara as she recites the tale of how her parents met. We all sit beneath the Skeleton Tree on the border of a sketchy-looking forest, and I bet your bottom dollar that it’s forbidden to students. Nice.
As its name suggests, the Skeleton Tree resembles... well, a skeleton. Its bark has been stripped away, leaving behind bone-white, and its leaves have long since fallen. And now all that remains is bleak, jagged branches, stretching toward the overcast sky.
The tree is said to be cursed, and for that reason all the other students avoid it. Hence why Mendacious gather beneath its creepy branches.
How more cursed could we all be?
So far, we learned that Thomas’s human mother had fallen for a wolf shifter, Jack’s father had been a titan enthusiast who had searched all of Greece until he found the perfect one, and that Nora’s mother had threatened to turn her father into stone if he didn’t make love to her. After that we heard of how Felicity’s mother had tricked a human male into falling in love with her and fathering her child. (I still don’t know how Felicity’s conception worked, so that one I will have to leave to the imagination.)
The only story we don’t hear is Damien’s. He’s currently perched up in the Skeleton Tree, chomping on an apple. Curled around his other arm is a black-and-white adder, and my blood curdles. They’re poisonous, but for someone like him, I guess that’s not a problem.
We’re all silent once again. Jack leans against the tree as his head reaches the branches. Thomas and Nora perch on logs while Zahara and Felicity sit on the grass with me.
I’d decided to take the half-pixie into my arms and pacify her sweet, little soul. Her cries were breaking my heart. I don’t care what Zahara says. Felicity’s a sweetheart. She wears a baby pink blouse and a pleated skirt beneath the black blazer that’s deemed her evil. She also wears knee-high socks and a cute pair of ballet pumps.
It seems we can still wear our own clothes at the academy, so long as we sport the school insignia. And I hate to sound like a superficial bitch, but our house wins in that department. Everything goes with black.
Thomas wears his itchy, blue turtleneck, and Nora her bright green blouse. Jack has on a red shirt that looks as if it’s going to tear beneath his muscles.
Damien and Zahara wear nothing but black, and out of the seven of us they are the only two who truly embrace the blackness of Mendacious. It’s the color of their souls.
“Feel better now?” I ask the pixie.
I know she may be a half-pixie, but I don’t see why I should keep calling her that. It seems unfair. In my eyes, she’s whole.
Felicity’s sniffles have died down, but I still keep my hand around her, feeling her little heart beating. She fits so snugly in the crook of my arm and I don’t want to let her go.
“Y-yes,” she hiccoughs, wiping her big, blue eyes with a pink handkerchief.
Cheerful laughter rings out across the yard, and we all look up at those beautiful Magnanimous girls clad in yellow. I ponder what they are. Definitely not half-human, that’s for sure.
“Seelie, a muse, and a woodland nymph. Pure, just creatures...” Zahara says with an obvious bitterness to her tone.
I keep my eyes on the three, watching as they weave their way to another group wearing blue and red blazers. Matthew is amongst them, his arm wrapped around Angelina, and I just wish Zeus would strike him down. But it appears he’s friends with a muse, one of the god’s descendants, so not likely to happen.
“This school sucks ass,” I blurt out next and my roommates fall silent.
I’m so crass.
I don’t care though. I look around at them. “Fuck this school and come to mine instead. Bangor’s great. They even welcomed me, an American. I’m sure they’ll welcome all of you, too.”
Zahara purses her lips, suppressing her mirth. But then Damien surprises us all, exploding into a fit of crazed cackles before he jumps down from the tree, landing right in front of me and Felicity.
His crimson eyes glow, and Felicity’s heart beats faster as she grips hold of me tightly. I clutch her closer.
“I take back what I said about you, human. You’re all right.” He takes another chomp of his apple, petting the head of his venomous serpent.
I notice his fruity snack is rotten to the core, and I stick out my tongue. “So, care to tell me how your parents met, Damien?”
He leans forward and stops inches away from my face, and now that I’m up close, I can actually see that he’s not that bad looking. “Handsome” I would even dare say. He’s still a twisted fuck though. For one, his eyes are worse at close range, cutting deep into my soul, and I catch that scent of sulfur on his breath.
Does he breathe fire, too?
Felicity whimpers and burrows her face into my arm, and I smooth her back with a soothing hand. I don’t blame her for being terrified. Damien’s a monster.
The brute pays the pixie no heed and whispers softly, his breath scorching my cheeks. “Wouldn’t you like to know, human...”
I swallow, breaking out in a sweat, but I don’t take my eyes off his glowing red pair. They say the eyes are the windows to the soul and within Damien’s... I see all of hell. I see tortured souls burning in flames, boiling pools of red hot lava, and thick, black, choking smoke... Yet I still hold my gaze.
I may be a little crazy right now, staring deep into the eyes of a demon, but that’s just me—steadfast, unruly Bryn.
“Please...” Felicity’s sweet voice chimes, and I finally break eye contact with the demon and peer down at her. Her watery blue pools never leave me, and now it’s like glimpsing into a little piece of heaven. “Make hi
m go away, Bryn Bryn...”
Damien flinches like she just spat in his face, and now he focuses his scorching gaze on her now, gritting his teeth. “Oh, give it a rest, Tinkerbell. The baby act isn’t fooling anyone, least of all me. Well, maybe except for Bryn Bryn...” He meets my eyes again and smirks. “You’ll be sorry when she robs your left shoe come tomorrow morning.”
He chuckles and stands up straight again, sweeping away with his coat billowing in the wind.
Felicity pops her head up, amassing the courage to speak at last now that the demon is walking away, and finally I see that mischievous pixie spirit that everyone has warned me about.
“Tinkerbell was a fairy!”
I guffaw.
Well, she wouldn’t be wrong. Tinkerbell was, in fact, a fairy, not a pixie. Damien doesn’t respond, but I know he’s laughing.
The bell rings, signaling the end of our free period, and all the students head back to the castle. I rise to my feet, noticing the others remained seated.
I arch a brow. “What’s wrong? You not coming to lunch?”
They give each other knowing glances, and I think I already know the answer.
“Oh... I see. Mendacious do not get to eat in the main hall,” I say more to myself. “Hell, they barely get to eat at all, I presume.”
Nora shakes her head. “Oh, no... We get to eat. Just... far away from the other houses.” She twirls her thumbs, downcast.
I grip my hair, releasing a yell, and everyone startles. “This is ridiculous! We are eating in the hall with the other students and screw what anyone says.”
Nora stutters. “But... but we’re outnumbered, and... we... we don’t even have a table!”
“Well, we’ll find ourselves a table. I will not be cast aside. Come on, all of you follow me. We’re going to join our fellow students.”
I march forward. So far only Zahara rises, clapping her hands. “That’s the way to do it, Bryn! Let’s show those pure-bloods who’s boss!”
I’m a pure-blood myself in that sense, too, since both of my parents were human (though I presume my real father was human), but I appreciate the sentiment all the same.
She gladly joins my side. Thomas rolls his eyes and follows after her, and Jack slips away from the tree without a word and joins us. Only Nora and Felicity stay behind, apprehensive about my plan.
We all look back. “Well, are you coming?” I say.
Nora’s hair writhes like crazy now, something that happens often when she’s nervous or agitated, and Felicity rolls up into a little ball.
“But... what if it’s too dangerous?” the pixie shudders.
I scoff. “What will they do?”
Nora wobbles her head, and I think she’s trying to tell me no, but it’s hard to tell now. They’re both so shit-scared. “You... you don’t know what this school’s like. They will eat us alive! There are rumours after all.”
It’s like she has forgotten she can turn people into stone. They should be watching out for her.
“Trust me, I do,” I reply. “I went to high school for four years, which, unfortunately, this university is still like, so I’m sure I’ll survive.”
“But these students have magic, super-strength, wings...” Nora goes on and on.
I pinch my brows. “Look, Nora. You have to stand up to your bullies sometime. What are you? Nineteen. Well, isn’t that a hundred and ninety in gorgon years? You’re an adult now, and so are they. This is just pathetic. We’re not kids anymore. We can drink now... Well, in the UK at least. So get up and join us in our rebellion. Let’s let this school, no, the whole world know what Mendacious House is really capable of.”
I whirl around and head in the direction of the school. Two additional footsteps follow us, one pair light and the other larger and plodding, and I smile, glad they’ve come to their senses at last.
Let the show begin.
Chapter 10.
The moment we enter through the doors of the dining hall, the usual noises cease, and now every single pair of eyes are on us.
I see all those cliques, but they don’t intimidate me. I wish I could say the same for some of my party. Nora and Felicity whimper, holding on to each other like Shaggy and Scooby, and Thomas cowers with his tail between his legs. (Well, figuratively speaking). Jack, per usual, remains silent, but I see he dips his big, old, solemn head. Only Zahara and I dare to be bold, and her confidence feeds my own, giving it life.
I clear my throat, smoothing down my black Mendacious blazer, and march through the throngs, searching for an empty table. The others follow, a little too close for my liking, but whatever gets them moving.
I spot a table near a trashcan. Unfortunately, someone is already sitting there. He wears a yellow Magnanimous blazer which clashes with his stink lines, and I grit my teeth.
I have no idea what he is, but judging by the green oozing from his pimples, he’s some kind of swamp creature.
Of course, the only table available will be the one with the kid oozing green stuff, but we’ll persevere.
Upon our approach, he jumps up and runs away in disgust. I scoff. How rich. It’s as if we’re the ones who smell, but if the scrunched up noses of all the other students are anything to go by, then he’s not the only one who thinks that way too. In the eyes of this school, we all stink.
“Fine. We don’t need your BO anyway,” I say.
Not that he hears considering he has moved far, far away, making other students drop like flies, but I had to have the last word.
One by one, we all pull out a chair and sit. The food is at the other end of the hall, but we will assert our place at this academy first. Jack can go up later and get our food. Since he’s so big, no one would dare defy him.
So we just sit there, the six of us, silent. Jack nearly crushes his chair, and Felicity can barely pop her head over the table, but so far, so good.
No one gives us any shit.
Someone hurls peas our way next, and the hall breaks out in raucous laughter.
“Fuck off, half-breeds!”
“Take your human friend and get out!”
I grind my teeth as mushy peas drip down my face. Zahara got a little bit on her too, but luckily the others were spared.
More food comes our way, and a steaming blob of mashed potato nearly takes Felicity’s eye out. She squeals and covers her face, and that’s the last straw for me.
Seriously, they could have blinded her.
I bolt upright, throwing my chair back, and turn around to catch the culprit.
Surprise, surprise, it’s Matthew Humphrey the IV and his party of assholes. There’s Angelina beside him, covering her sniggering mouth, and her bleached blonde hair falls to her ass like a waterfall. You wouldn’t think they were a hundred and eighty plus supernaturals. They look like your basic bullies from any North American high school, and I’ve just had enough.
I thought I left this BS behind the day I graduated and got my diploma. I need to show these supernaturals that they need to grow the fuck up.
I once heard a song about how “High School Never Ends”, and it couldn’t be any truer at that moment. Maybe... it really doesn’t end after all. And adults are really just kids in grownup suits winging it through life.
What a horrible thought.
I keep my eyes on my archnemesis, the one I am meant to defeat in an epic dragon battle one day, and edge closer.
“You...” I whisper, dark and dangerously. “You do that again, and the next lot goes up your ass!”
My voice bounces off the walls, and the silence that follows after is deafening. You’d definitely hear a pin drop and no wonder. I’d just told him I’d stuff him like a turkey. Disgusting.
Matthew watches me, amused, arching one of his prominent eyebrows. I see he’s enjoying this, so why not. I’ll give him a show. I point a steady hand at Felicity. She whimpers, ducking under the table.
“You apologize to her right now.”
Matthew smirks, and all I can see is th
at smug, rich asshole from the shiny black car again. “No. The runt shouldn’t be in this room in the first place. In fact, none of you should. Your kind doesn’t belong here.”
At the word “runt”, Felicity sniffles, and now she rolls up like an armadillo.
I clench my jaw, yanking a coke out of some kid’s hairy hand. Most likely a shifter like Thomas, but I don’t care.
“You piece of shit!” Before I can toss the contents of the can over his pretty, pompous face, he throws up a hand, and I freeze in my tracks.
Oh, yeah, right. He’s a mage.
I sense his white-hot magic seeping into my pores, doing all kinds of trippy shit to my nervous system, and I’m completely paralyzed. Next, he forces me to crush the can with my hand and drop it to the floor despite my efforts to resist. But I’m helpless to do anything while he moves me around like a deranged puppet master.
Blue, red, and yellow students burst into laughter, and I realize now that none of them are smart, brave or kind. They’re just cruel.
Yet we’re Mendacious. Because we’re different.
Why would Myrddin allow this cruelty? He may as well slap on a big bullseye on each of our heads and advertise that we’re human or half-human.
Does he despise humans too? I seem to recall he was born of a human, a mortal woman (or so legends say). If so, does he happen to hate that side of himself? Despite the fact he counseled human kings?
It makes no sense. That is not the wizard I believed in growing up.
A hand closes around Matthew’s wrist and his hold over me ceases at once, and now I look up into Damien’s scorching eyes. He’s gripping Matthew by the arm, burning the skin, and the smell of Matthew’s smoking flesh fills the room.
Matthew, meanwhile, grunts in pain, clenching his teeth.
Angelina gasps and glares up at Damien with her burning sapphire eyes, and I see those pearly white fangs at last.