by K L Rymer
He winks and a huge weight lifts from my shoulders. Gelert feels it too and places a paw on my knee, giving me that warm doggy smile where his tongue lolls and his eyes close.
Such a sweet dog. He’s sad when I’m sad and happy when I’m happy.
I have another question on my mind, but I try to word it in the best way possible. After all, I don’t want Myrddin to hear the disappointment in my tone. “Will... will you still be giving me and Mattie... I mean Matthew personal lessons?”
Myrddin produces another grave sigh and shakes his head. “Those I’m afraid will have to stop.”
“Oh... all right.”
I’m not sure what I’m more upset about. No longer being able to train with Myrddin, or no longer training alongside Matthew.
I squeeze my eyes, trying to rid my body of the regret and heartache. What do I care? I never liked Matthew to begin with. He’s my enemy. I hate him.
“You heard his father. You two are no longer allowed to see each other. As far as he’s concerned, the only time you and Matthew should see each other next is when you’re both out on the battlefield. He’s... not a very pleasant man.”
I thought that about his son too when I first met him, but since meeting Matthew Humphrey III... Mattie seems like an angel.
That’s probably not the best comparison considering some of the angels at this school are jerks. Even more so than the demons. The irony.
Myrddin gives a mischievous smirk and I raise a brow. Gelert tilts his head in confusion. “What?”
“Don’t despair... you and I can still continue our private sessions. After all, there is much more I need to teach you, Bryn. It will be our little secret.”
My stomach flaps with butterflies, and I try so hard to bottle my excitement. I really am going to be Merlin’s Apprentice.
Let the magic begin.
Chapter 21.
In the end, the faculty agreed that I should lose my powers for twenty-eight days, and now that I’ve been using them for several months now, I can understand Matthew’s horror on Halloween.
It’s like losing a part of yourself.
I attacked Matthew on the 29th of January, so I should get my powers back on the 29th of Feb.
I thought it was some kind of sick joke at first, but then I remembered that this year was, in fact, a leap year. So I relaxed.
No one was pulling my leg after all.
Felicity hasn’t left my side. She had cried along with me when I found out that I wasn’t going to be expelled after all, and now we’ve become best friends.
Zahara was still my first bestie at the academy, but there is something about the little pixie that brightens my day.
Her name does mean joy after all.
It’s like she’s my own personal cheerleader. Right now she walks beside me down the hallway clad in her black Mendacious blazer. Really, Fel should have been placed in Magnanimous. She’s a yellow through and through.
Leave the black to the darker souls like Damien and Zahara, and me, too, I guess, but I still feel like a red Audacious. I am the one to wake the Red Dragon after all.
It got me wondering. Why does Myrddin have these factions at the academy, especially when they seem so pointless? Mattie is hardly Audacious. Okay, Angelina is bright (grade A on all her subjects), but she has traits of Mendacious as well as Ingenious.
In fact, a lot at the school have Mendacious traits.
Yet there are only seven of us. My fellow Mendacious are convinced it is because they are half-human, but I don’t agree.
I just don’t understand how anyone can think Felicity is evil. Her backpack has a pink unicorn on it for crying out loud. I know looks can be deceiving, and she does have an unhealthy obsession with stealing shoes which is the Seventh Commandment (thou shalt not steal).
But I highly doubt she’s going to hell—Damien’s home, ironically. She’s just a regular, old-fashioned sweetheart. A perfect doll who only reaches my shoulder. Bless.
I’m not even sure how her little feet keep up with me. I walk like there’s no tomorrow, going from one place to the next. Maybe I should give her a piggyback ride?
Despite her charm and appeal, Damien still ignores her. I suppose to a heartless bastard like him, all her cute traits are nauseating, but he doesn’t have to be such an asshole.
I still hear Felicity crying at night when I pass her room. I’m so going to nail Damien down and kick his ass like I promised before Christmas, but he’s never around. It’s like he’s avoiding us.
He talks to the others, especially Zahara (his smoking buddy), but the Unseelie won’t spill any beans on what they talk about. Apparently, they have a code. What happens in the smoking corner stays in the smoking corner.
Don’t worry, I’ll catch him some time—I’ll lasso him around the horns if I have to like a good cowgirl.
“Are you excited for the Valentines’ day ball, Bryn?”
Felicity’s little wind chime voice distracts me from my thoughts next, and now her big, innocent blue eyes bore straight through my soul. “Huh?”
The what now?
She giggles adorably and points to a wall. I follow her dainty finger and groan when I see that garish pink flyer.
Oh, shit... It really is high school all over again.
Let me guess. We’ve all got to get ourselves a date?
“Don’t worry. They draw names from a hat. So everyone will get to go with somebody!”
It’s as if she has read my mind. I imagine she had the exact thoughts running through her mind too, knowing full well who she would like to attend the ball with (a certain broody demon perhaps?)
Not that there is anyone who I would really like to go with. It’s not as if there is some sexy mage on my mind constantly lately.
“Why would they do that? It sounds like torture.”
“It’s simple,” Felicity replies. “That way everyone gets to take part and have fun!”
I smile. “You’re too adorable at times, Fel.”
The pixie flashes me a wicked, mischievous smirk. “Yeah... when I’m not stealing shoes. Look!”
She holds up a purple Converse. Alarmed, I turn around and catch sight of that poor witch hobbling along in her stripy tights. She wears an identical purple shoe on her right foot.
“Has anyone seen my left shoe?” the witch cries. “Please, I need my left shoe!”
I gawp down at Felicity. “H-how...?”
She places her delicate finger against her lips. “It’s a secret, Bryn.”
We laugh out loud, catching the attention of several passers-by. One just happens to be Damien clad in his long coat and chains. I still don’t know how he gets away with the coat considering we all have to wear the academy’s blazers. So long as he has the school’s emblem on display, he should be good.
The school is more lenient with our footwear though. Hence why the witch could wear Converse. I’ve even seen some people in slippers.
Damien still wears his steel-toe boots. He really does look like the Prince of Darkness with his fashionably smudged guyliner, the red, gleaming irises, and the jet black hair—which looks as if it went through a hedge backward right now.
The look is all too sinister for me. I obviously prefer my groomed pretty boys, but it seems to work for Felicity.
I still don’t get it. It’s like Tinkerbell falling for... I don’t know... Hannibal Lecter?
An odd pairing indeed. Well, opposites do attract they say, and it seems to be the case for Mattie and me.
Matthew... I mean Matthew.
There is no denying the change in the little pixie’s breathing once she catches sight of that dark lord. Her pupils dilate next, making her look even more doe-eyed.
Damien walks by in his typical, nonchalant way, and it’s like we don’t exist. Felicity’s shining aura pales now, and I bite down on my tongue and glare at the demon.
Fuck you, Damien...
“I... I just don’t understand. What did I do wrong?” she crie
s, gazing down at her pink ballet pumps. They have white pom-poms on top.
They are definitely children’s shoes, and they only add to her overwhelming innocence.
I put a hand on her shoulder. “You didn’t do anything, Fel.”
“So why does he ignore me? Is it because I’m small?”
I roll my eyes and snatch a flyer off the wall. “No. It is not because you are small.”
“Then what is it? Am I too naïve? Is my voice too shrill? What can I do differently?”
“Nothing!” I shove the pink flyer in her face. “Here, occupy your mind with this. Maybe you will get paired up with a handsome faerie boy. Hey, maybe you’ll even meet the one...”
“B-but I don’t want the one. I want Damien.”
I yank the flyer back from her pretty face. “Look, you’ll get over him. It’s just a crush. We all get them from time to time.”
She bites her pink bubble-gum lips. “Well... I don’t know about that. The thought of him does strange things to my body that I’ve never felt before.”
Goosebumps spread across my arms. I don’t like where this is leading...
“I’ve even started—”
“Stop!” I press my finger to her mouth, forbidding her to talk. It’s like hearing your little sister confessing... No, I won’t even go there.
It takes me a moment to calm my erratic heart. I really wasn’t prepared for this. I get that she’s nineteen pretty much, but still... I’m not ready for a world where Felicity dreams about sex.
The pixie blinks up at me adorably confused, and I die a little inside. Too precious, too innocent.
Finally, I move my finger away from her mouth and she tilts her head. “Was it something I said?”
More like something you were about to say...
I blow a sigh and run a hand through my hair. “Let’s... just get to class, Fel.”
She perks up and I’m just glad to see her back to her old, bubbly self. “Okay!”
We link arms and march forward. Just before we enter the class, I give her a napkin. “Wipe your lip. You’ve got a serious sweat stache.”
She blushes and takes the napkin. “S-sorry.”
I give a dramatic eye roll and step into the classroom.
What a morning.
...
Myrddin orders an assembly later that week.
They will be drawing names for the ball and my stomach rolls.
It feels like they’re drawing names for the next Hunger Games.
The academy has four hundred students. So they are going to draw two hundred names.
This is going to take forever.
Chairs have been placed in rows inside the grand hall. The house with the highest number of scores will take their seats first. So the order will go as follows. Audacious, Ingenious, Magnanimous, and finally, Mendacious.
Red, blue, yellow, and black.
There are enough chairs to fill an entire house for Mendacious since there are only seven of us. So there is no need for us to sit so close, yet we stay together like the close-knit family we are. Well, all of us except for Damien who sits two rows behind to the far left of the room.
Felicity regards him from over her shoulder with a wistful sigh, and she has never looked so small. Her feet barely touch the ground as she sits all the way at the back of her chair, and I ruffle her hair to cheer her up. Her white-blonde strands fly away.
I give Damien the stink eye to let him know of my feelings, but he just slouches in his seat, propping his arms lazily over the back of the chair with no fucking care in the world.
Why are all the men at this school assholes? The popular ones and the loners?
The room finally settles and good timing. The headmaster has just ascended the stage. “Good evening, all. I hope the new semester is treating you well.”
No one replies. A few coughs here and there, and then someone sneezes.
Myrddin continues. “Now this is a tradition that we do every few years at this school for Valentines’ day. The V-day ball... As many of you know, Cupid used to teach here many, many years ago. The concept was first coined by him, yet instead of drawing arrows we draw names now, leaving it all up to chance!”
A few Magnanimous girls giggle next and my curiosity is piqued. Cupid, hey?
Judging by their reactions, he was some type of hunk.
Meh... grown ass-men in diapers don’t really do it for me anyway.
“Roll your eyes all you want,” Myrddin says, and I can’t help but feel that those words were directed at me. “Some of your parents met at this ball after all when they attended the academy.”
Jessika whispers to Laura and Row in front of us, “It’s true... and they’ve been in love ever since.”
Her friends all say awwww.
Zahara looks as if she wants to vomit. “As if their bright yellow blazers aren’t enough.”
I snort. I’m just in love with her dark attitude. It’s so perfect. Like me, she doesn’t take any of it seriously. Being a fae borne of the Unseelie realm it’s in her nature to be cynical. Not at all like the Seelie Jessika with her long braids and white, flowery locks.
Felicity twirls her hair dreamily as she glances at Damien. I can almost hear the wedding bells running through her mind.
Don’t go there, Fel. That Seelie bitch is just delusional.
Damien keeps his gaze to the front of the room, but I do catch the clench of his jaw and the extra flare to his crimson eyes. He obviously hates this as much as Zahara and I do. Yet I know he feels Felicity’s adoring eyes.
Poor Thomas shivers like a terrified puppy left out in the rain, and Nora’s hair flails like crazy. But Jack is just Jack—silent and tranquil.
Felicity seems to be the only optimistic one among us, confident that she will be paired up with her not-so dreamy demon prince.
I palm my face.
If only the ground could swallow us all up and put us out of our miseries.
Professor Jones comes up beside Myrddin carrying a pointed witch’s hat, and now the whole room holds its breath. Felicity squeaks beside me, and I take her hand.
Our loving headmaster dips his fingers tortuously inside the hat next, and my heart’s in my mouth.
If only they were drawing names for the Hunger Games... I’d rather battle for my life on live TV than have to put up with this hell.
Finally, he picks a name and unfurls the paper. A grin spreads across his bearded face. “Bryn Williams.”
My eyes protrude.
Zahara and Felicity turn my way. The girls of Magnanimous swivel around to glare at me, and soon the rest of the student body follows suit.
I’m the first name to be called. Again.
Headmaster Myrddin passes my rolled-up name to Professor Jones who seizes it with her clawed hand.
Professor Higgles comes up to the headmaster’s right-hand side with a blue wizard’s hat. I guess that hat contains all the names of the boys at this school.
I just feel for the poor gay students. I’ve even seen a few gay couples dating at this school. It is just a formal ball after all. We’re only required to dance with our partners, but we can go off and be with whoever we want after. But it’s such an outdated system. May as well throw all our names into one hat and make it fair.
But then what if I got paired up with Angelina Ambrose?
Myrddin fishes his hand into the hat, and a smirk forms over his annoying, cheerful face. He pulls out a name and unfurls the paper, and his eyes give a triumphant flash. “Matthew Humphrey IV.”
I narrow my eyelids.
Why do I get the impression that it wasn’t by chance?
Chapter 22.
“Well, come on up the both of you! The first lucky pair!”
I think he means unlucky pair.
I hide my face inside my blazer. “This can’t be happening. Zahara, please tell me this is some fucked up dream.”
Her black lips curl. “Not a dream I’m afraid, Bryn. This shit’s really happen
ing.”
I grit my teeth. I’d rather bury myself in the dirt than go up to that stage.
The whole room is in an uproar now. They are just pissed that I’m being paired with Matthew.
“No! She’ll try and kill him again!”
“Where is she?!” That last shriek was Angelina.
Geez, calm your tits, love. It’s just a formal dance. Then again he is supposed to be her boyfriend. I’d be pretty pissed too if my other half got paired up with a girl that wasn’t me.
Never in a million years would I think a girl like Angelina Ambrose would be jealous of me.
“Felicity,” I breathe, keeping my face hidden. “Create some kind of diversion. Steal everyone’s shoes so I can make my escape!”
She smiles broadly and yanks me up. “No, silly.Just go up there. You’re so lucky. Matthew Humphrey is gorgeous! The most popular boy at school!”
Seriously? Where has she been the last few weeks? We are mortal enemies. I tried to kill him!
Zahara soon joins in, and I’ve never felt so betrayed. I would have expected this from the pixie, but not the Unseelie.
Nora cheers my name next and now all three girls have me up on my feet, pushing me toward the stage. Matthew is already up there, and he wears a calm expression on his handsome face. His eyes gleam when they finally spot me, and I can’t help but notice that he looks... happy.
Is he glad to be paired with me?
I would have thought he’d be livid, his jaw ticking and his white eyes blazing like his batshit crazy girlfriend in the crowd.
No. Instead, his gaze softens when I approach, and then he takes my hand and kisses my knuckles. My knees shake when I feel his soft lips against my skin, and there goes my heart.
Fantastic. Just when we have a spotlight on us.
“Long time no see,” he whispers.
I catch my breath. “Yeah... you... you too, Humphrey.”
He gives a lopsided smile and I watch that sexy dimple stretch above his lips. “Just so you know... no hard feelings. I forgive you for trying to kill me.”
I gaze into his piercing gray eyes, and warmth spreads inside my chest. “Well... good to see you’re not six feet under.”