by Kendal Davis
“The guy who left the Academy? There’s no way you could forget somebody as rogue as that.”
She was dreamy. “But I did. There was somebody in my bedroom who said he’d done exactly that. It was right before I went to the Academy two years ago.”
I felt my forehead wrinkle in confusion. “You had a stranger in your bedroom, and you forgot about it? Is that one of the customs of the mortal world?”
Ciara snickered, finally laughing when I hadn’t meant her to. “No, it wasn’t like that. He was trying to kill me. Or maybe he wasn’t.” She shook her head gently as she looked down at the fragrant flowers we walked on as we trod the forest floor. “I think it was Alder who was trying to assassinate me.” She looked up at me now, her eyes clouded with doubt.
“That’s how you can know it must have been a dream,” I reassured her. “Alder is united with me and Owain in our devotion to you. The man is nuts about you.”
“He didn’t know me then, though,” she mused. “I remember that he said he occupied the body of the butler for a time. Yes, that was it…” As we strolled, I kept silent for once, waiting to hear more. She finally went on. “The new butler pretty much said out loud that he was there to assassinate me.”
I let a smile touch my lips. “That’s a new idea. Somebody out there who would assassinate the assassins.”
“It’s true, though, not a dream,” she persisted. “Whatever happened, it was buried in my mind until now. Who could have done that to me, and what changed?” She was drawing power to herself now, not even aware of doing it. I felt the fire strength glowing along her hand as I held it.
Like all the fae, I possessed only one elemental affinity. It was difficult for me to see the weaving of spells that used the other three elements. Ciara alone could do that. But if I knew my woman, and I did, then she was blazing with air, water, and earth as well right now.
She was shifting from confusion to outrage.
“You know, you made the right decision in not joining the crowd in the club,” I said, still hoping to divert her. “There’s a lot going on with your magic right now, and it might be hard to control.”
“Quit it,” she said with affection. “You can’t distract me from something as important as this. I am a master of control now, after two years at the Academy. When we go back, I’ll probably have to teach classes in earth magic, if more fae manifest it.”
As she made the joke, she stumbled on a root and almost fell.
“What is it?” My words were urgent now. “Even I felt that. It’s like your earth powers are being torn apart.”
Ciara was pale. “I don’t know what’s happened. Only Alder could be doing this, and it is something big. The earth affinities that I’ve grown so used to are changing, shifting beyond my control.” She gulped. “But I have to know. Do the Eternal Assassins usually have people come to kill them?”
“Of course not,” I said. “I was joking. We are all immortal beings. Only the people of the mortal world can be killed, not us.”
“And I,” she said softly. “I am the strongest, yet I am the weakest.”
“But you haven’t done anything to anybody. Who would even want to kill you?”
Ciara raised her eyebrows. “Our old Headmaster, for one. The Queen?”
“Neither are a threat right now. The Queen isn’t exactly trying to kill you, anyway.”
“That’s what he said!” Ciara’s eyes shone with certainty as she recovered a memory. “The blue-eyed fae man who saved me. From Alder. No, that doesn’t make any sense...” She paused. “But what I’m sure about is that he said the Queen wanted me alive.”
“I do, too,” I said, catching her in my arms. If it would keep her mind off her worries, I was willing to make love to her all night long.
She relaxed in the circle of my arms, but her nimble mind was still working. “What if I was dangerous, with my fourfold magic? If somebody wanted to kill me before I did something awful. They could have sent assassins to me before I learned how to use my powers.”
“If they did, it didn’t work.”
“I don’t think it did,” she smiled, pretending to check her fingers and toes to make sure she was all right. The gorgeous curves under her pale blue dress held my attention whether she did that or not. When she held out a long leg to wiggle her toes within her silver sandals, I was ready to take her then and there. We could make love here in the forest, then again tomorrow morning at school. And again and again.
Ciara was watching me, the curve of her lips revealing that she knew just what I was thinking. “Rook, my love. I have so much on my mind. But never so much that I don’t want you.”
As I brought my palms down to the curve of her ass, pulling her against my hips, she murmured one last thing. It did not surprise me, as I was used to sharing her with the others. It felt right to us, even if it was an unconventional arrangement.
Ciara was the sun that lit our world, all three of us. We would never tire of pleasuring her and protecting her.
She spoke softly, her lips moving against my neck. “I would know the man anywhere, you know. The one that Alder said left the Academy. Breze. For whatever reason, I saw his face in my mind tonight. He tried to save me, and then I buried the memory. But if I saw him again, I would remember.”
“I’m not sure it's safe to try,” I said.
“That never bothers me. I guess I like excitement better than safety.”
“See what you think of this, then.” I let my hands slip upward between her skin and the hem of her soft dress as I kissed her with as much urgency as if it had been our first coupling. Our bond was eternal. It was the one thing I would risk everything for. I was certain that Owain and Alder felt the same.
3
Ciara
As Evana and I stood at the base of the steps to Fae Academy, we shared a smile. It was almost as if we did not want to place our feet on the huge stone stairs and make our way up. Who could blame us? It would be the last time we would be at the start of a new school year.
“I can’t believe we are finally third-years,” my best friend said with her own brand of quiet excitement. She had become more outspoken since finding her elemental mate in Finley last year, but she still preferred to fly under the radar, always surprising people who did not know her well.
“Does it seem to you that it took a long time?” I grinned at her as I scanned the crowd for my own mates. “I feel like I walked off the sky train from the mortal realm about fifteen minutes ago. It doesn’t seem possible that it was two years ago that I first set eyes on the Academy.”
“Look at all you’ve learned since then,” said my fire lover as he joined us. Rook was full of teasing energy, as usual, as he pretended to softly kiss my cheek, then changed his touch into a bear hug that almost toppled me.
“One thing I’m better at these days is knowing when somebody is sneaking up behind me,” I answered, drawing back enough to kiss his lips enthusiastically. “I can always feel where you are, Rook. And it makes it especially easy that I saw you only last night.”
“Is that right?” The answer came not from my dark-haired fire mate, but from Owain, the water fae who had stolen my heart with his sharp mind and wry wit. “I wondered if you’d forgotten about the three of us during the school holidays. Looks like Rook managed to get some time with you while I was busy tending to my parents’ list of chores.”
Evana was laughing softly as she watched the way my two lovers and I could not keep our hands off each other. “We did miss you guys, or at least Ciara did. I’m a lot more interested in finding out where Finley’s gotten to this morning. We stayed out late last night dancing, but he would never arrive late to school on the first day.”
As she spoke, her bonded mate walked up and embraced her with his own simple, unassuming style. Finley always looked as if he had slept in his clothes, but he was steadfast and surprisingly brave. He was a perfect match for Evana.
Finley looked over at me, Rook, and Owain, and sh
rugged with an easygoing air. “I don’t know how all of you fit in a bed,” he said.
Rook raised an eyebrow. “All four of us, you mean? Well, we just need a really big bed. Or none at all, you know. Sometimes we just move our evenings out onto the sitting room rug, the couches, or the table…” His eyes glimmered with the fun of trying to shock the younger fae.
Evana burst out laughing. “Stop! I don’t want to hear another word about it. Just because I started spending all my nights in Finley’s room does not mean I approve of any of those shenanigans in our sitting room. Ciara, honestly…” She elbowed me, but I continued the joke by merely winking back.
The rest of them were ready to walk up the steps, but I was still searching the crowd for my third lover. Alder was a professor at Fae Academy, with a mysterious past that I still did not understand. What I did know about him was that he was true to me always, a fierce protector, and an even more forceful lover. He was my huge man of the forest, his earth affinity only one of the things about him that I was sure the world had never seen in another.
But a question nagged at the back of my mind. Had he truly tried to assassinate me before we’d ever met?
We were in the land of the fae now, but I had spent my first twenty years in the mortal realm, growing up as the Tithe. My entire education had revolved around becoming an ambassador between the mortal world and the fae. In return, as my tutors had explained to me, the fae would crown me as their Queen.
So far, I wasn’t terribly good at either building bridges between the two worlds, or becoming anybody’s monarch.
“Wait another minute before we go up,” I called to the others without turning back to them. “I’m sure we’ll see Alder.”
“There’s no way you could miss him,” Rook shook his head. “The man stands a head taller than anybody else. He’s probably not even a real fae; he’s more like a tree dressed up as a person.”
“Don’t joke about who’s a real fae and who’s not,” I shot back to Rook. “That’s a very sensitive area for me.” I tried to keep a straight face, but he knew me too well to believe that I was genuinely offended.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I know where all your sensitive areas are,” he murmured into my ear as we linked arms and made our way up the stone steps into the castle that housed our school.
Evana and Finley saw some of their friends that shared their air talents, and they waved as they moved off. I stood in the entry hall, allowing my returning schoolmates to flood the spaces around me with their chatter. After this school year, we would never be students at the Academy again.
Owain slid his hand around my waist. “Come on, Ciara, enough daydreaming. We can always come back to alumni events after we finish this year.” He carefully did not allow for the fact that we were not sure that we’d graduate. Not everybody did. Queen Hellebore of the fae had promised me immortality only if I completed my studies at Fae Academy.
Nobody knew why the Queen had given me all four elemental affinities. It was a mystery that had only recently come to light, when I arrived at the Academy and learned about my magic. It meant that I was more powerful than the Queen, as well as destined to steal her throne. We all knew that her only possible move was to allow me to begin this year but not finish it. If she killed me before I graduated, then she would absorb all my magical abilities.
Her plan had always been that she would consume me.
Needless to say, I was not her biggest fan.
I leaned against Owain, loving the way his crisp white shirt smelled of spices. He was fair-haired, in contrast to Rook, and something about him always kept me aware of his water affinity. Even if we had not shared an elemental bond, I would have known that his magic existed within a world of crisp and cool water. Somehow, he always provided me with my own reflection, showing me how to make myself better.
“Owain, it’s not that I’m worried about missing this place in the future.” It was a small and transparent lie. “But I can’t stop wondering where Alder is. He would never come back to school late, only early. He would have to for his job, anyway.” I felt myself warm all over as I remembered how I’d found myself in the arms of my forest man only minutes after returning to the Academy last year.
It had been the beginning of a new life for me, in which I had three bonds that grew my magic. I was stronger than ever these days.
Rook cleared his throat as he took my hand. He squeezed it to give me support, as if something was about to go wrong. That was silly. I’d know if there was anything amiss with Alder. As I stretched my awareness through our earth magic bond, Alder felt near to me and unworried. Surely, there was nothing at all wrong. He’d come and speak to me when he had a chance.
But he did not. We made our way to the Great Hall, where meals and all ceremonies occurred under the watchful eye of the ancient tapestries and chandeliers that brightened the cavernous, stone space. Because it was the first day, the three long tables were organized by class rather than elemental affinity. That meant I could sit with all those people I loved the most, although I sympathized with Evana as she let her hand fall from Finley’s so he could join the other second-years.
I was just about to say something to distract her, when I saw the arrangement of the faculty table. The fae woman who had been our temporary Headmaster last year, Professor Thermophilus, was seated with the other fire teachers. That left the chair of the Head of school empty. If Thermophilus was not to be our Head, then who was?
“At least it’s not going to be Landon again,” mused Owain. “He was Headmaster for longer than anybody can remember.”
“But he can’t do it from his magical stasis in the cellars, can he?” Rook was more lighthearted than I felt.
“Hush,” I said with a reluctant smile. “We’ll need to do something about that this year. Nobody can know that a bunch of first-years managed to bind the Headmaster in magical vines and incapacitate him.”
“So you think the strange part about that is that we did it in our first year?” Rook’s eyes were laughing.
Before I could answer, some silent signal passed amongst the faculty members, so that they all motioned at once for the room to be quiet. No matter how excited we were to be here, even the newest of first-years understood that compliance was not optional.
At a school where the strongest teachers could teleport you against your will, expulsion might mean simply vanishing and reappearing at home. Forever.
In the silence that fell throughout the Great Hall, something lurked just outside of my comprehension. It was like a tickle from an ant walking on my neck. What was I missing? Alder wasn’t gone, he was right here in this building. I was sure of it. Yet he hadn’t rushed to greet me.
He was hiding something from me.
I quested along our bond, learning nothing. It felt as if my senses were being clouded. He must need my help. The man would never betray me. That wasn’t even a possibility.
That was why it came as a crashing shock to me to see him enter the Great Hall at the side of Headmaster Landon. Both Rook and Owain stiffened next to me. It couldn’t be happening, all of us were sure about that one thing.
But it was.
Headmaster Landon, the portly showman who had led Fae Academy in our first year, was no longer bound by the magical vines that I used to secure him in the castle cellars. Instead, he looked jovial and happy, and above all, totally unfettered.
“When’s the last time you checked on him?” whispered Owain.
“Right before the holidays, of course. I renewed all the earth spells then.” I twisted my fingers in my lap, sliding my knuckles against the softness of my plaid school uniform skirt. “You don’t understand,” I hissed back at him. “There’s nobody in the world who could unravel those spells. I’m the only one who has those earth powers since they died out amongst the fae.”
“But I do understand,” he answered darkly. “You aren’t the only one, are you? Not really.”
And with a sinking heart, I watched Alder
as he took a place in front of the assembled students at the side of Landon. The duplicitous, devious Headmaster was somebody I had hoped never to see again. Even if we couldn’t kill him for his insurrection against the Academy and the throne, we’d placed him under spells that he could never have broken.
But my Alder, the man I loved so dearly, had let him out. He was the only other fae who possessed earth abilities. Nobody else could have done this.
Alder did not meet my eyes at all. I could not guess at what he was planning, but I hoped fervently that it was not betrayal. For if I was crippled by the loss of my earth lover, how would I ever meet the challenge of fighting back the powerful Landon?
And how would I stumble through life without the touch of my forest mate if he were no longer mine?
4
Alder
The sight of Ciara’s face as she took in my betrayal was more cutting than I’d anticipated. I’d prepared myself mentally for this very moment, but it turned out that no amount of planning could erase the agony I glimpsed in her eyes.
I spoke in an undertone to Headmaster Landon, as he stood at my side. He beamed around the room with pleasure at his own freedom. “Landon, this had better turn out the way I hope it will.”
“What are you talking about?” He pretended to be ignorant of my meaning.
“You’d better be on our side this time,” I said dispassionately. “I freed you only because we’re going to need you for what’s coming next. Not because I trust you.”
“The feeling is mutual,” he said with an oily bow. “Now take your seat at the faculty table and let me do what I’m here for.”
I pushed down the misgivings that were rising up within me. I could have checked in with Ciara before doing this, but there’d been no time. We needed Landon at the head of the school. He had a part to play. My contact within the Queen’s palace had hinted to me last night that we would see her at the Academy sooner than we’d expected. When Hellebore arrived here, things were going to move quickly.