by Eric Nylund
But gym class? Calisthenics, running, and softball? The thought of wearing skimpy shorts and a T-shirt and competing with other girls gave Fiona pause. And what about Eliot?
She glanced at him. His glasses had come off, and he looked more pale than normal. He hated sports. He’d always been smaller than boys his age. Cee said he would grow quick once puberty hit, and one day be tall and strong.
Fiona doubted that. Eliot would always be her “little brother,” no matter what.
The redhead next to Jeremy Covington raised her hand. “Ma’am?” She had a Scottish accent as well, but far more refined. “What about electives? Will two courses be enough?”
Miss Westin fixed her with a stare. “These two classes, I assure you, will be sufficient. One quarter of the freshman class fail and do not continue on to their sophomore year.”
The Headmistress pointed to a pie chart and a bell-shaped curve on the blackboard. “Success is based on a strict academic curve and your ranked performance in gym class.” She crossed her hands. “At Paxington, only excellence is allowed.”
That seemed grossly unfair. If one quarter failed every year-Fiona did the math-then only 42 percent made it through to their senior year.
But maybe competition wouldn’t be such a bad thing. It would give her a chance to test herself, and prove that she could succeed outside Audrey’s protected sphere.
“If you feel the need to be further challenged,” Miss Westin continued, “elective courses are available for freshmen who survive their first semester and receive As on their midterms.”
Survive?
Fiona and Eliot shared a look. Her word choice seemed deliberate. . like some students might actually die.
Eliot definitely appeared unhealthy as he digested this statement. Fiona suddenly didn’t feel so good, either.
“You will now have a break to stretch and use the restrooms before the next portion of the placement process,” Miss Paxton said. “Afterward, you will be given a tour of the campus.”
Fiona exhaled and heard the rest of the students do the same.
“This is so weird,” Eliot said. He stood and stretched. “I feel like I don’t belong here. . but at the same time, I don’t know, it’s like we do.”
She knew exactly what he meant. Part of her just wanted to go back home and hide. Another part of her wanted to meet some of these people from other magical families. Well. . except that Jeremy Covington.
The other students mingled and talked, moving through the room like free-floating planets in orbit about one another, and then clustered around maybe a half-dozen individuals who appeared to be the centers of social gravity.
Fiona spotted the boy who had smiled at her and made her feel welcome. . but he was across the room now, chatting with some other boys and laughing.
Fiona and Eliot stood by themselves.
Would they always be social outcasts? If only the others knew they were in the League of Immortals-that Eliot was an Immortal hero, and she was a goddess-in-training.
But, of course, telling anyone the most interesting thing about themselves was forbidden. So typical.
“We should strike up a conversation,” she told her brother.
“What do you want to talk about?” he asked.
“I mean with the others.”
“Oh. .,” Eliot said, looking a tad hurt. “Yeah, sure.” He brightened. “You know, I thought I saw someone I recognized.” He looked around.
“So did I,” Fiona said. “That girl with the brown hair.”
Eliot squinted. “No. . I saw this other girl, a blonde, kind of looked like Julie.”
“Julie Marks?” Fiona said, surprised.
Poor Eliot. Daydreaming again.
Fiona then spotted a group marching toward them, and leading them was that redhead and Jeremy Covington.
The last time Fiona had seen Jeremy, he wore a lion mask-which was then knocked off when Robert Farmington plastered him with a snowball. That was in Purgatory, at a cursed never-ending party called the Valley of the New Year.
Jeremy stopped before her and Eliot, and bowed so his long blond hair cascaded off his shoulders.
“Dearest Fiona,” he said. “Never in a million years did I expect to see you again. I so wanted to thank you for saving me from my long imprisonment.”
Eliot nudged her and shot her a look that said, Who is this?
“Jeremy, this is my brother, Eliot.”
Eliot offered his hand for Jeremy to shake.
Jeremy clasped it and squeezed. Eliot winced.
“Damn my manners,” Jeremy said. “I am Lord Jeremy of the Clan Covington.” He gestured to the redheaded girl next to him. “This lass is my cousin Sarah.” He spared a glance at the students around him, as though considering whether to introduce them as well, but then shrugged as if they were inconsequential.
Sarah’s long hair, elegantly tied up, was the color of tangerines. She had dimpled cheeks, freckled skin, and Fiona could see the effect she had on the boys.
“Post. .,” Sarah said. “I’m not familiar with your family’s name. Were you sponsored into Paxington?”
This sounded like an innocent question on the surface, but Fiona sensed a hint of condescension underneath.
“No one sponsored us,” Fiona said. She changed subjects to avoid the League and its code of silence. “I don’t understand something,” she said to Jeremy. “You were in Purgatory. There are only supposed to be dead people there. How can you be here. . alive?”
Jeremy laughed. “No, my dear Fiona. Not dead. Never dead. It would take more than a trifling thing like Purgatory to stop a Covington.”
6. NOT A POPULARITY CONTEST
Eliot took a step back from Jeremy and Sarah Covington. They were smiling, but he got the feeling it wasn’t because they liked him. More like they were making a joke.
Fiona was no help. She wasn’t paying attention to them; instead, she scanned the other students.
“You see,” Jeremy said, continuing with his story, “the year was 1853, and I was chasing a leprechaun.”
“What’s a leprechaun?” Eliot asked.
Jeremy’s and Sarah’s smiles faltered, and the students around them gave Eliot a weird look, like he’d just asked what oxygen was.
Then Jeremy grinned again. “So true! Who really knows what they be, eh? Pots of gold and three wishes-balderdash, I entirely agree. That’s what I set out to prove: The Fey be not the living legends all claim.”
Eliot nodded, realizing this was something he ought to have known.
“So the thing led me on a merry chase through every swamp and graveyard in Scotland,” Jeremy said. “Thought she could lose me with a romp through the Middle Realms, but I followed her right to the bloody center of Purgatory. . where I got a bit distracted.”
Middle Realms. Eliot made a mental note about that, but didn’t ask any more questions. No need to look like a complete idiot.[6]
“You got trapped in the Valley of the New Year,” Fiona said, her attention returning to the conversation.
“Why, yes, dearest Fiona,” Jeremy replied. “Then you came along and found the doorway out of that wretched place. Rescued me, body and soul.”
Sarah’s heart-shaped face brightened, and she reassessed Fiona. “So this is the girl who brought you back? The Clan Covington is in your debt, miss.”
Fiona fiddled with her hair. “It was nothing, really.”
“Wait. .,” Eliot said. “You were trapped for over a hundred and fifty years?”
“Aye.” Jeremy shrugged. “You might say I’m starting my freshman year at Paxington a tad delayed.”
The Headmistress returned. A dozen older students entered with her, and some moved to the windows, drawing long black curtains, while others turned up the gas lamps on the opposite wall.
Miss Westin removed her glasses. She looked different in gaslight: younger, more animated, and vital. A faint smile crossed her pale lips.
“Team selection is starting,
” Sarah said, and touched Jeremy’s arm.
“Aye.” Jeremy tensed and cast a quick glance at Fiona and Eliot.
Eliot didn’t like the sound of this “team” stuff. He wasn’t good in groups.
Miss Westin cleared her throat, and everyone in the room was quiet. “Freshman team selection,” she said, “is a tradition that dates to the foundation of this school.[7]
“It tests your skills of diplomacy and strategic thinking. I advise you to combine disparate elements to make something greater than the sum of its parts.” Every trace of warmth and color drained from Miss Westin’s expression. “This should not be a popularity contest.”
She motioned to the side door, and more upperclassman entered, carrying claw-footed tables. They set them at the head of the room. On each table were silver trays containing gold coins.
Miss Westin gestured to each tray and said, “Knight. . Wolf. . Dragon. . Hand. . Eagle. . and Scarab-in their various incarnations. These will be the symbols about which you must unite with seven other students.”
Eliot glanced at the Paxington crest on his jacket. Those same symbols hovered over his heart, part of the school’s history.
He looked at Fiona. She shrugged, looking as awkward and uncomfortable as he felt-like they were two guppies in a tank of piranhas.
Jeremy swaggered up to a table. “I, Jeremy Covington, of the Clan Covington, Keeper of the Keys of the Three Stones, hereby claim Scarab as mine.” He plucked up one of the coins and showed it to everyone. Upon it gleamed a golden scarab like something lifted off an Egyptian pharaoh’s tomb.
Eliot whispered to Fiona, “Are we supposed to go up there and take one of those things?”
Before she could answer, a tall pale boy strode to a different table. “I, Donald of the Family Van Wyck, claim Wolf as my standard.”
Sarah Covington moved to Jeremy’s side and proudly took a scarab token.
And then another two girls and three more boys moved forward to various tables.
“Logan from the Kaleb brood takes Green Dragon.”
“I, Xavier of the DeBoars, claim the Open Hand.”
“The Family Pern is Soaring Eagle and challenges all who say otherwise!”
The room erupted into chaos as almost every other student moved for the tables-talking and arguing and snatching up tokens.
Eliot spied that blond girl he had seen before. There was just a flash of her face, and she vanished into the crowds. She did look a little like Julie Marks, the girl he had fallen for this summer. Julie was long gone, but he never stopped thinking about her.
Then he spotted another girl with long uncombed brown hair. She looked familiar, too. Maybe that was the girl Fiona had mentioned.
The girl caught Eliot’s gaze and quickly looked away.
“Eliot!” some boy called out.
Eliot spun about, trying to locate the voice, but with all the students pushing and embroiled in heated discussions, Eliot couldn’t find him.
He was disoriented and completely out of his depth. “This is some sort of test, too,” he said to Fiona. “Part of the placement exam.”
“I get that,” Fiona replied. She wasn’t looking at him.
Eliot followed her gaze and spotted a boy who approached Jeremy and Sarah. He had a tousle of curly brown hair, an easy smile, and looked totally relaxed here. He bowed to Sarah and struck up a conversation with the Covingtons.
“Let’s see how it’s done,” Eliot suggested.
But Fiona had already started to move toward them.
The boy told Jeremy, “I was unaware the Covington clan claimed Scarab.”
“Goes all the way back to the Freemasons,” Jeremy explained, his voice a mixture of insult and amazement that someone would question his claim. He looked the other boy over. “Be that the challenge, Mr.-?”
The other boy spotted Eliot and Fiona as they approached, and his smile warmed. “No challenge,” he said. “I’m Mitch from the Stephenson family. I wanted to join.”
“Stephenson?” Jeremy’s eyes widened a fraction. “Indeed! A family with as noble a pedigree as the Covingtons. It would be an honor, sir.” He shook Mitch’s hand.
“As noble as they are clever and handsome,” Sarah added.
“My cousin Sarah,” Jeremy said.
Sarah offered her hand to Mitch, which he clasped. Eliot noted slight disappointment on Sarah’s face, as if she had wanted him to kiss it or something.
Fiona pulled Eliot closer and said, “We should join Scarab.”
“You told me this Jeremy guy was kind of creepy. I’m not sure he or his cousin likes us.”
Eliot glanced around the room. No other team had three people on it yet, and a few of the discussions had evolved into shouting matches.
“But they do seem to know the ropes around here,” Fiona said.
Three other freshmen approached Jeremy and Sarah. They spoke briefly, but Jeremy held up both his hands and shook his head. The other students left, muttering a few words that Eliot (even with his extensive vocabulary) had never heard before.
“Definitely Anglo-Saxon etymology,” Fiona told him, apparently also curious about these new words. She nudged Eliot. “We should ask them now. I don’t want to be the last ones picked.”
Eliot reluctantly stepped forward. She was right: Anything was better than getting picked last. Or worse, what if all the other groups became so full that he and Fiona had to go on different teams?
“Ah, Fiona.” Jeremy extended a hand to her as she neared. “Please join us”-a quick glance at Eliot-“and, of course, your brother.”
His gaze, however, slid over Eliot like he was something one saw on a dinner plate, unpalatable, but which had to be tasted in order to get dessert.
Sarah eyed Eliot as well, leaned closer to Jeremy, and said something.
“Yes,” Jeremy told her. “I’m quite sure.”
Eliot loathed this. Was he getting on the team only because Jeremy liked his sister?
He should’ve been picked because he was Eliot Post, Immortal hero-in-training, Master of “The Symphony of Existence,” son of the Eldest Fate and the Prince of Darkness!
If only he could tell them. . he would’ve been their first choice.
He could turn them down, too. He would have challenged one of those supposedly blue-blooded mortal magicians, taken one of their big-deal tokens, and started his own team.
But this daydream faded as the girl Eliot had seen before caught his attention.
She walked straight toward him. Her long hair fell into her face, and her gaze firmly fixed upon the floor. . reminding him of the way Fiona used to be so shy. Yet, without looking, she somehow managed to navigate through the crowds, halting before Eliot. “Hey. .,” she said. “I never got the chance to thank you or your sister.” She looked up, and the hair fell from her face.
The girl was unremarkable save for her eyes. They were dark, wild, and defiant-like black coals, smoldering. The last time Eliot saw them, the world had been on fire, and they were running for their lives through a burning carnival, being chased by madman Perry Millhouse.
“Amanda?” he said. “It’s Amanda Lane, right?”
“Yeah.” Amanda looked back to the floor.
“Are you okay?” Fiona asked. “We never got a chance to see you after. .”
“Sure, I’m great,” she said, although the way she struggled to get her words out, Eliot guessed otherwise. “Your uncle got me back to my family. He was great. He talked to them. Explained how I got kidnapped. How you guys saved me. I dunno, my parents never mentioned it after that.”
Eliot wondered what Uncle Henry had done. He had an uneasy feeling something more was going on with Amanda Lane and the League.
“Then I got the scholarship,” Amanda said, “everything paid by Mr. Mimes. He said I belonged here.” She looked around. “I’m not so sure this was a good idea.”
Something was weird about this. Why would Uncle Henry bring a normal girl here after she’d almost
been killed once by the League?
Eliot glanced at Fiona, and she nodded back, thinking the same thing.
“Stick close to us,” Fiona whispered to Amanda.
Eliot was going to add his own words of reassurance, but all thoughts drained from his head when he spotted the blond girl who had caught his attention before. . as she moved toward them.
She most definitely was not Julie Marks, however. This girl was taller. Her hair was pure platinum blond that curled into ringlets about her face. Her skirt seemed shorter than the other girls’. She moved with a liquid grace that made Eliot’s heart beat faster.
In fact, every boy watched her as she stopped before their table.
“M’lady,” Jeremy said, and bowed ridiculously low before her. Mitch gave her a cordial bow, which provoked a raised eyebrow from this new girl. Sarah and Fiona simultaneously crossed their arms.
“Would you do us the honor of joining our team?” Jeremy asked. “We have two from glorious Clan Covington, a lad from the most ancient Stephenson family, Fiona and Eliot Post. .” Jeremy searched for some embellishment or title to add to their family name, but failed.
The girl smiled. It was Julie’s hundred-watt smile, and yet so unlike Julie’s, because while this one was just as dazzling, it was also somehow cruel.
“Your solicitation is as empty as your head,” she told Jeremy. “You know not whom you ask, your eyes too full with too obvious intentions.”
This insult seemed to please Sarah.
Jeremy opened his mouth to defend himself, but the blond girl ran right over him with her words: “I am Jezebel, Protector of the Burning Orchards and Duchess of the Many-Colored Jungle of the Infernal Poppy Kingdoms, Handmaiden to the Mistress of Pain. . and bringer of doom to mortals such as you.” Her smile never faltered. “Now ask me to join, if you dare.”
The room went silent, and everyone watched.
She was an Infernal? Like Beelzebub? Or their father?
Was that why Eliot felt that he knew her? He should be wary, but he was also fascinated.
“Aye,” Jeremy said. His eyes could not meet hers. “There’s been no Infernal protégée at Paxington for three hundred years. Your terrible power would honor us, Lady Jezebel.”