by Meg Xuemei X
Some spectators also gathered, laughing, as the gang of six taunted the human girl.
So this was the Academy? It wasn’t what I’d expected when I had first peeked into it and spotted the students practicing cool magic.
The fae girl in the gang had the air of the elite class. Her high heels clicked on the ground as she stalked toward the human girl. She cupped the human’s cheeks hard.
“Still no sight and no words, soothsayer?” the fae girl asked. “Or are you a fraud, trying to get into the Academy for free food? Can you predict whether my great fire will give you an inspiration?”
A stream of red fire twirled around the fae girl’s free hand. She wanted to strike fear into the soothsayer first and probably make her scream for fun.
The soothsayer recoiled from the fae girl’s flaming fingers and almost fell backwards again.
“Leave me alone, Mellissa,” she said in a small voice.
“How dare you talk back to the elite?” said a human teenage boy with a dimple on his beautiful face. “You can’t hold a candle to Mellissa.”
He wasn’t taking care of his own kind. Instead, he was trying to overcompensate for being human. Alaric had taught me about the hierarchy of all species. Humans were near the bottom amid supernatural beings.
He didn’t deserve to have a dimple. He should have had pimples instead.
“Let’s rough her up and teach the phony her place,” the human boy said, bending his knee and propelling it toward the soothsayer’s face. If his knee struck her, the girl would have a large black eye. That was what the boy intended.
Mellissa grabbed the girl’s hair to pin her in place. They thought they had the soothsayer and the fun had just begun.
I didn’t think so.
My air current struck out and grabbed the human boy’s knee. A confused, surprised look arose on his face as he found he couldn’t move any part of his body even an inch. I’d taken that precaution. I didn’t want him to swing his fist at the girl in frustration.
“What the fuck?” He looked around, unable to find a suspect, and turned to the soothsayer with a purple face. “What did you do to me? What kind of voodoo is this?” He struggled to no avail. He was a bug caught in my air net.
“The soothsayer doesn’t have offensive magic,” said the blond boy who had shoved the girl to the ground. “She’s basically useless.” He scanned the crowd and snarled, “Who dared fuck with us?”
The crowd peeled off under the gang’s scrutiny. No one wanted to be the next target.
Reysalor and his twin wanted this bunch to fight the gods?
The onlookers moved further away. They were lucky that they weren’t in my path while I still had my shit together.
I stalked toward the gang.
“Hello there,” I purred. “Mind if I join the party?”
“Who the fuck are you?” The blond boy trained his disdainful gaze on me.
“Well, that’s a very good question,” I said good-naturedly. “Because I’d like to know as well.”
“Another freak,” a long-limbed demon boy said. “We’ve never seen her before.”
Wow, a demon called me a freak and yet demons were a rarity on the Earth’s surface. How did I know that? Celeb told me.
“Great!” the blond boy said. “We’ve just found new game.”
The human boy was still struggling to break my air bonds. The mage who had first jumped on the soothsayer sent his magic to undo my binding, to no avail.
“What kind of foul magic is this?” The teenage mage turned to me. “Did you do that? How? Release him!”
“With pleasure,” I said, and waved a hand. “And you can go with him.”
My air current strung up both boys and flipped them in the air a couple of times before it lost interest and tossed them to a nearby lawn just laid out with fertilizer. And I made sure both cuties landed face down.
“Have fun eating dirt!” I chuckled and applauded—I know it was immature—before I fixed my gaze on Mellissa, who still gripped the soothsayer’s hair and made the girl arch her head back at a funny angle.
“I suggest you let go of her hair, cupcake,” I said, “because it’s lame to grab hair in a catfight.”
The soothsayer widened her eyes at me, as if the whole world around her had vanished, except for me.
That unnerved me a little. Maybe she was a freak, but I didn’t mind freaks.
“Lame?” Mellissa narrowed her emerald green eyes. “Tell me how lame this is.”
“No, don’t hurt her! She’s important!” the soothsayer screamed, but the fae girl’s fire had reached my face.
The fae had attacked me before I could throw my air current at her or even finish a conversation.
“No!” Ambrosia called from far away.
“Stop!” Hector shouted in the distance.
They zoomed toward me.
The bodyguards were too late.
The fae fire, hotter than the burning oven flame, slammed into my face.
Fae bitch was meaner than I and meant to melt my face. She didn’t even care if the fire killed me in front of so many witnesses, which meant that she had someone powerful backing her in the Academy.
I sighed. I’d expected my first school experience to be anything but this.
Bitch had no idea what my power grade was. I didn’t blame her. I didn’t know exactly how powerful I was, either. I was stumbling along as I unveiled my own magic.
I was a mystery even to myself. I smirked at that thought.
The fae fire came from Earth, and Earth magic was my affinity. No one could have more Earth power than I, since somehow I was its kin. That meant I could eat the fire, just as I ate anything and everything.
I opened my mouth and sucked in her red fire. When the last trace lingered on my skin, I smacked my lips.
Mellissa stared at me in horror. “What kind of freak are you?”
“One of a kind, and you’re extremely rude,” I said. “But I may forgive you if you give me stronger fire.” I snapped my fingers. “C’mon, fae cunt. Give me more.”
Her face reddened in rage and humiliation. I bet no one had ever called her cunt all her life. Well, she was just as cunt as Jezebel.
The soothsayer’s eyes turned completely round, then she giggled.
Hector and Ambrosia reached me. They both carried longswords. Hector had one strapped on his broad back, and Ambrosia had her fae blade with a decorated silver hilt leaning against her long leg.
They cut in between Mellissa and me, shielding me.
Ambrosia twisted her leather-clad body and looked at me over her shoulder, while arching an eyebrow. “Now you ate fire and called a nice fae girl cunt?”
Hector stared at Mellissa. “How dare you attack Cass!”
Mellissa’s red face drained of all color. Every fae knew the fae prince’s fearsome captain.
“I don’t even know who she is,” Mellissa said. “I’ve never heard of her. No one has heard of her. She just jumped out of nowhere and started attacking us. And we were doing our job patrolling the campus. High Council member Noah entrusted us with the duty.”
The other minions all nodded to support her, though their eyes darted around nervously. They didn’t seem to want to hang out around me—the new game—anymore.
“Patrol duty?” Hector asked. “All I saw was you and your gang bullying a defenseless girl.”
“The Academy isn’t a place for freeloaders,” Mellissa said. “Amber shouldn’t be here. She can’t even defend herself. I don’t buy it that she has a psychic gift. All she’s done is hum that the One is coming while rolling her eyes to the back of her head. She’s a crook. She shouldn’t get free lodging in the Academy!”
I pushed through and squeezed into the space between Hector and Ambrosia. I was ready to brace my hands on my hips to get my bearing and show my attitude, but I realized that I had done that way too often. So I pressed a hand on each of Hector’s and Ambrosia’s hips instead.
They both sl
anted me an odd glance.
“I was making a point to show that we’re a united front,” I said. “Anyway, you wouldn’t understand.” I turned to Mellissa. “Amber is no longer defenseless, because I’m taking her under my wing. You, on the other hand, have to prove you can defend yourself.”
Mellissa glared at me. “Who gives you the right to order me?”
She wanted to call me cunt as well, but she couldn’t get rid of the social and cultural inhibition.
“Cass ranks way higher than you, Mellissa,” Ambrosia said. “Go near her again, and your entire family’s titles will be stripped.” There was a satisfaction to the fae warrior’s tone, which gave me the impression that Mellissa’s house wasn’t all that nice in the fae community.
“You two should not give Mellissa a hard time,” I said. “She and I were just being friendly. She fed me nice, yummy fire that was hot, hot, hot! And now, I must give it back to her. I don’t like to take other people’s stuff without returning. It’s not polite. You guys have been teaching me manners for a while. So where are my manners? Here!”
Mellissa’s eyes went round. Before she could zoom away, I opened my mouth and poured out her red fire with a little twist—my blue dots of fire adorned her red like pretty little stars.
I was a vindictive bitch, no doubt about it, but I wasn’t too nasty. I didn’t want her dead. I was just envious that she had such pure, silky, golden hair reaching her waist.
With fondness, the magical fire traced and licked away all her hair.
“My hair!” Mellissa screamed. “She’s burned my hair!”
“You’re extremely lucky Cass only wanted you bald,” Ambrosia said, suppressing a laugh. “And Cass isn’t one who cares about rules.”
She praised me for disregarding the rules now. But when I had ignored the rules her princes set, she had given me a stinky eye. Everyone had their own double standard. Anyway, I shrugged it off. If I stuck to a view of black and white, I’d only end up in a world of hurt.
“Irritate her again,” Ambrosia said, “and I don’t know what she’ll do. No one can stop her. So fuck off, you sorry lot.”
The gang stared at me in horror. Then without a second glance, they ran.
A bald Mellissa staggered after them.
“Hey,” I shouted after them. “Don’t run away from me! Come the fuck back. I’m not done yet. I have questions that need to be answered. I need to know where—”
I clammed up as I eyed the fae guards. The crowd had scattered further away when they saw Hector arrive.
“Didn’t I say that—” I started.
“Yeah, you don’t need anyone to hold your hand,” Hector snorted, “and see what happens.”
“How come this was my fault again?” I said. “I told them to pick on someone their own size.”
“And they picked the plus size,” Hector said.
I narrowed my eyes. “Are you humoring me?”
“You’re a menace to society,” Ambrosia said with a laugh. “We aren’t here to protect you, Cass, but to protect others from you. We can’t just let you burn down the entire Academy.”
I rolled my eyes. I didn’t have time to argue with them. I wouldn’t want to be late for the class, which was important to me.
I wheeled toward Amber. She’d collected all of her books from the ground and hugged them to her flat chest. She had small boobs.
All the time, she stared at me like I was some kind of wonder or a monster. I couldn’t tell which.
“Cool, you’re still here,” I said. “I have a use for you.”
“You came,” she said dreamily. “You finally came, Cassandra Saélihn.”
Wait! Neither Hector nor Ambrosia had mentioned my full name. And no one here should have known me. How did she?
No matter, I snapped fingers before her face. “Wake up! Now tell me where on earth the history classroom is?”
Amber suddenly moved, and before anyone could stop her, she clutched my arm.
“Hey,” I said, about to shrug her off.
People really liked to touch me for no reason, but I didn’t like strangers to do it.
Amber’s eyes turned pure white, and she started to emit a string of sentences that sounded like alien language. Damn! The girl was truly a witch. I gently pried her hand off my arm. She was gripping me and making me uncomfortable.
Just then Reysalor strode toward us as if his raggedly handsome ass was on fire.
Where did he come from? The good thing was that all the nearby spectators had cleared away. Every student gave him a wide berth. They knew who he was, and he intimidated them.
“The girl is a soothsayer,” Reysalor said, sucking in a breath.
“What did she say?” I asked.
“She knows who you are,” he said. “She celebrates your coming on behalf of—I missed that part.”
“How did you know?” I stared at Reys suspiciously. “You never told me you could understand oracle languages.”
“It’s the old Earth tongue,” he said. “It’s required for the fae royal house.”
Great. Now I felt more insecure since I only knew less than a handful of languages.
Suddenly, Amber stopped her weird mumble. Her eyes rolled back to normal.
Thank goodness!
“Old Earth tongue is your native language, Cassandra Saélihn,” Amber said. “If you pay attention, you’ll understand it all. I was sent here for you.”
Reysalor looked around. “Let’s go to a secure place to sort this out.”
“I need to go to class!” I said. “We can sort out whatever later. I might already be late.”
“You’ll come with me to the class,” Amber said. “I was sent to guide you and protect you.”
“Oh, really? You couldn’t even fend off a small-time gang, and I had to save your skinny ass.”
A sheep thought she could lead a wolf. I would point it out when she became more delusional. Right now, I let it go. She looked so fragile, and I didn’t want to hurt her delicate feelings.
She stared at me with confusion as if reading my mind. “Why do I need to fight when I have you? You’re the warrior, and I’m the seer.”
Wonderful. This one assumed she was the brain and I the muscle.
Then the timid girl disappeared, and in her place was a sheep with fangs. She dragged me toward a pale green building.
“Bring Cass and the girl back when their class is over,” Reysalor said on a sigh.
“No, Reys,” I said. “After the class, I have other activities.”
“What activities, Cass baby?” Reys purred, following us into the long corridor.
“That’s my business, and I intend to keep it my business.” I waved him and his fae warriors back. “Don’t follow me. I don’t want anyone to associate me with you. I want to stand on my own feet, and you’re important and scary in this place.”
Reysalor shook his head, laughed, and strode away.
His sexy purr and laughter lingered in my head, and my heart fluttered like wings of light, even when the sheep led me to the door of the classroom.
13
It turned out that Amber and I shared the history class.
I stopped at the open doorway, turned on my heels, and blocked Hector and Ambrosia. “Why are you two still here?”
When Reys had walked off, I’d been so distracted by his sexiness, then by Amber the chatterbox, that I hadn’t paid attention to the fae guards trailing after me.
Amber hadn’t stopped talking to me, telling me the history of the Academy among other things, as if she wanted to shove all the knowledge down my throat in one punch. Had she known in her visions that I’d been caged and lacked education?
But who cared about the past? I did not care for my own one iota. The Academy had been built, fine, why must we dig into how it was done? The point was that it was done. Over. Let’s move on.
In her enthusiasm, Amber didn’t notice how my eyes glazed over and her monologues passed by my ears like irrelevan
t wind.
Even so, I was careful walking by her side, trying my best not to touch her by accident while I carried half of her heavy books. I didn’t want her to roll her eyeballs to the back of her head and turn white and then call me the coming One.
Hector blinked. “I think we’re here for the history class.”
Amber darted her meek, brown eyes between the battle-hardened fae warriors and me. She was the type who was uncomfortable with confrontation, but I thrived on resolving conflicts.
I sent the warriors my potent glare. “I can’t let you two share the class with me. It’s my class. And you aren’t even enrolled or paid for. Plus, if the professor—” I paused for a second. Was a professor the right term or would teacher be just fine? I went for the more respectful one. “If the professor kicks you out, it’ll reflect badly on me.”
Hector chuckled, and everyone inside the class quieted down. No one joined his chortles. The students were scared of him, evidently.
Ambrosia smirked. “No one will kick us out. No one dares.”
“The point is you can’t come in,” I said with determination. “This is now my territory. I’ll speak with Reys and Pyrder sternly and firmly tonight about setting some boundaries.”
“All right, Cass,” Hector said, still laughing, and put his hands up in the air in a compromising gesture. “You can have your territory. We’ll just stay outside then.”
“Why don’t you return to Reys? He must have something for you to do.”
“Nay, we stick with you,” Hector said. “It’s more fun. And if you decide to destroy the classroom or the whole building, we’ll need to get the situation under control.”
“Shush!” I darted my eyes around wildly. I really didn’t need them to spread my reputation like that. Plus, the demolishment of the Misery Twist club was totally the gods’ fault. I didn’t do anything to that club other than ordered a cursed cocktail.
Then I heard heavy, purposeful footsteps echoing in the corridor. The professor must be coming, and I didn’t want to leave a bad impression.
“Go, go,” I hissed at Hector and Ambrosia. I hushed them away like they were annoying chickens and jogged after Amber deep into the class.
The room had rows of wood desks and chairs, just like most of the classrooms I’d dream-visited. The class was nearly full, with perhaps over eighty students, and every one of them gawked at us, watching the unfortunate drama. I looked around, flashing a grin to no one and every one at the same time.