by Mana Sol
“Oh, this? Nah, here’s fine.” And just like that, she slung the dark duffel bag off her shoulder and dropped it on one of the many couches gracing the large room. I eyed her for a lingering moment. Hopefully, she wasn’t in the habit of tossing her things around wherever she liked on a normal basis. I hated clutter. But at least we were all going to have separate rooms if I recalled correctly, so there was that. She could do what she liked in her own space.
Professor Octavius nodded. “Then let’s move on. As Second Form students, you’re spared the nine o’clock curfew of First Form, but you must still return to this wing by eleven o’clock. Next year, among the many privileges you’ll enjoy in Third Form is a midnight curfew, but of course, you’ll be expected to set an example for your underclassmen.”
So it was like that, then. I had thought for sure the tiny Genie Watts was a First Form transfer, but we were all the same age, seventeen, give or take a few months. Unless Genie had skipped a few grades in her public schooling, but no one did that anymore, did they? And yet she was tiny. I glanced at her, taking in her baby-faced features. Hazel eyes, soft auburn hair, and a charmingly round face that reminded me of innocent newborn animals… and not of questionable characters who set trespassers on fire without remorse.
I still couldn’t believe it. I knew the name Genie Watts, but her picture hadn’t been in the papers all summer, just the name. And she’d admitted to having done it, too, earlier… But I couldn’t let that distract me. I listened carefully as the man explained several more general rules - cleanliness, routine inspections, things I was already familiar with. I wouldn’t have to worry about any of that. There was no one more meticulous than I was in all things.
“You’ll find this life very different from what you’re used to. Even our heritage students always say things aren’t as they expected when they enroll, and you three will have to juggle the disadvantage of having to adjust while keeping up with your peers at the same time. But we selected you three with this in mind, and according to stringent criteria as well as the needs and interests of Jupiter Gate. We have full faith you’ll succeed. I encourage you to help each other where you can, and I think you’ll find your experiences will be remarkably similar since we’ve taken steps to ensure your schedules are as similar as possible.”
As similar as possible? My hackles rose. I didn’t like the sound of that. I half-raised my hand for the professor’s attention.
“Yes, Miss Kaine?”
“I’m a Thaumaturgy specialist. My class selection would be particular, wouldn’t it? Or are we all going to be in the Thaumaturgy concentration?” Judging from the simultaneously impressed and repulsed look on Addison’s face, that wasn’t the case. My stomach dropped. Was the Academy - demoting me? I’d been top marks all my life on an accelerated track and funneled right into the most notoriously difficult specialty, advanced spell crafting. I had come here for more and better of the same. If they were dropping me into some general education nonsense….
“No. Let me clarify - the general courses you all have remaining to complete, you will take together. Your specialized courses are not included in this, so I encourage you to foster good relationships with the other students so you can ask for help if -”
Cold relief surged through me so strongly I missed the rest of what he had to say. For a moment, I had thought they were truly going to shove me into a box of mediocrity and kick me along until they could graduate and shove me out of the Academy. I didn’t know what I would have done if that had been the case. Jupiter Gate was so prestigious that even graduating dead last was a scintillating accolade, but this was all I’d ever worked for. Sleepless nights, going hungry, never knowing what the next day would bring. I’d left my family behind for this and vowed I would come back bearing spoils so grand it would make all our back-breaking hardships worth it.
“I’ll be taking you to the academic wings now. The members of your Form Council should be there as they had responsibilities requiring their presence a day early, like the three of you. It would be an excellent opportunity for introductions, and I’m sure they will be of utmost help to you during your adjustment.” He turned and headed for the doors once more, and we all followed suit.
“Form Council sounds stuffy,” Addy muttered as we walked down the hall after the professor. I sighed. I knew she hadn’t forgotten my warning about the sensitivity of vampire hearing; she simply didn’t care. “What do you two think? Sounds like student government to me, and no one ever likes those jerks. I didn’t even bother voting for that stuff at my last school.”
I didn’t answer, but Genie evidently shared a penchant for indiscreet gossip and utter disregard for the man walking right in front of us. “He said they’ll be helpful,” she chimed. “So they must be nice because I don’t see how jerks can be helpful. Maybe they’re even excited to meet us. I would be.”
I pressed my lips together. She didn’t strike me as someone who could set a man on fire, not this smiling, pint-sized buttercup with more feelings than a drunk man. And while I was relieved she wasn’t as insane as I’d feared, now I had another reason to be anxious. Either she was lying through her teeth in a sociopathic performance or she truly didn’t understand that there was no way in hell anyone in this school would want to be our ‘friends’ or be excited to meet us. Unless aforementioned excitement was the violent kind, maybe.
“Hey. Blair.” Addy nudged me. “What about you? You seem like the type to have done student government.”
“That sounds like an insult considering you just shared your opinion of it a second ago.”
“Oh, well, uh. Dunno. Maybe I meant it as a compliment this time.”
I sighed again. It didn’t matter. “Just stay on your toes,” I muttered back. “We should be careful, you two.”
And that was all I was going to say for now. I lifted my chin and sped up.
3
It wasn’t always like this, or so we’re told. Few official records exist of the time before the Citadel, so it’s hard to prove most things. All we know for sure is that a chunk of the real world floats in the ether with no explanation, and us with it. It used to be a lot smaller, too. When the Cataclysm happened and some magic ritual gone wrong tore out a fistful of planet Earth before hurling it into this realm, the people transported with it hurried to send out scouts to find the physical limits of our new home and start recording written accounts afresh. And then they kept doing it every few months when they realized more and more matter was materializing on the edges of our new world, sending scouts out on more and more exploratory expeditions. They had to, before it became too large for anyone to run off into the fog and survey the land anymore without losing a few bodies along the way to the lurking monsters.
It all started about a hundred fifty years ago, give or take a few. Countless people died when it happened; how could they not? There are still textbooks that contain firsthand accounts of all the corpses littering the streets in the Cataclysm’s aftermath. Mostly humans since we’re the most fragile. What were they supposed to do when the world ended, pull out their machine guns and shoot the magic? Of course not. Humans only ever excelled at violence.
And that was how the other species flourished, because in a space where suddenly, human invention was useless and set back about two hundred years, humans themselves became useless, too - and harmless. The vampires that used to be few no longer had to hide from the threat of nighttime drone attacks. The fae that were defenseless against the humans who poisoned their native earth now rose and took back what was theirs, even if this was only a piece of the world that used to belong to them.
As for the Nephilim, it turned out they were on top all along so they had nothing to gain or lose. They were the secretive CEOs hiding in plain sight, or eccentric, beloved celebrities who redefined their industries, beacons in society. They just never revealed their true heritage as angel-touched and simply passed themselves off as extraordinary humans. Their ethereal beauty and ability to make p
eople (read: humans) love and adore them were of the paranormal persuasion all along.
Just one reason humans hate the Nephilim the most. Or want to hate, at least. Everyone fears the vampires and most species of the fae, but the bitterest murmurs in the shadows of the Tenements are always about the Nephilim, the ones who beat them at their own game with the humans none the wiser for millennia. But the Nephilim are so beautiful, so charismatic, so charming that it’s hard to remember sometimes for most people.
Naturally, Nephilim came to head the hierarchy of Jupiter Gate society, too. Officially, no one people is above the other, but even the vampires and the fae pay their respects accordingly. Well, the Dark fae do, at least. Humans aren’t privy to the more private goings-on of higher society since our Tenement districts are so far on the outskirts of the Citadel, but I’d heard the Light fae and the Nephilim have more of an intimate relationship than the other species, whatever that means.
Maybe I’d see proof with my own eyes, here and now. Because if I wasn’t wrong, the two students standing under the archway leading to the Alchemy wing were exactly that - a Light fae and a Nephilim. The fae girl, there could be no mistake: the strange golden shimmer that kept moving over her darkly bronzed skin was a sure sign of it, and her willowy shape exuded a lilting aura that reminded me of trees drooping over moonlit ponds, of glowing butterflies skimming over leaves and petals. She even had a charming spring-green tint to her lips. Yeah. Light fae for sure.
And the student standing in front of her, speaking in an inaudible murmur - he didn’t have to reveal his wings for me to know what he was. Tall with sharp, angular features, broad-shouldered but lean - he had just the right proportions to make even my cynical heart skip a beat. Couldn’t help it. The human inclination for weakness, that was something I couldn’t throw off as easily as I pretended to. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Addy gawking at him well before we ever reached him. She was terrible at tamping down on her emotions, I’d figured out by now. I hoped she wouldn’t make an idiot of herself when introductions were underway, but we would have to see. A weaker-willed human would be fawning at a Nephilim’s feet within seconds. It would be nice if Addy didn’t prove herself one of them.
And Genie? I looked to the opposite side to gauge her reaction and found nothing but calm, almost empty contentment on her face. No reaction at all. The composed obliviousness in her eyes made me wonder if she’d even noticed who we were approaching yet.
Interesting. Either she was a fantastic liar and pretender, even better than I was, or there was definitely something strange about her that went beyond the occasional madwoman tendencies like sending someone to the hospital half-charred. Either way, I’d find out. If not now, then certainly over the course of the year since we had no choice but to spend extensive time with each other, all three of us. We were the only three humans in all of Jupiter Gate Academy, after all. I might have been wrong before about keeping them at arm’s length - maybe it was a good idea to band together?
Or maybe that was just the hair-raising wariness inside me speaking as we came to a stop in front of the uniformed students because suddenly, I was glad I wasn’t alone as I stood before the boy with the piercing blue eyes and hard mouth.
“Zedekiel, Ravonne, these are our merit transfers. I’d like you to give them a brief tour of the academic wings while explaining how we do things here. They should learn from their own Form Council representatives, I think. This is Blair Kaine” - Professor Octavius stepped aside and gestured at me, palm-up - “as well as Addison Dorne and Genie Watts. Ladies, I know you’ll be in expert hands. Please find me in my office in the West Tower should you need anything, if you remember where that is.”
I nodded. “Yes, sir. We do.” It couldn’t hurt to speak for all of us. Addison was still gawking at ‘Zedekiel’ - I’d been right, that was definitely a Nephilim name - and probably had heard nothing the professor said. And Genie had yet to say anything either.
“Then…” He dismissed himself with a gentle half-bow before gliding away. I watched him go. I liked him, I decided. He was far from pompous despite his obvious pureblooded lineage, and he was polite. Kind. The fact that he was a very good-looking man helped, too.
“He’s out of your league,” the fae girl said suddenly, and my gaze slid forward to inspect her expression. Or lack of one, rather. I couldn’t read her at all. “A lot of students make the mistake of trying to seduce a professor,” she continued. “I wouldn’t recommend it, both because it’s pointless and also because it wouldn’t end well for you.”
I smiled. Not too wide, just enough to show her cool mockery didn’t intimidate me. “I’m not interested in illicit relationships. I’m here to further my studies.”
“Good. Because a human trying to lay claim to a popular professor won’t go over well with anyone. Some of them really are insecure enough to think you’d stand a chance.”
I didn’t plan on replying - why would I? I didn’t care - but I saw Addison’s entire body stiffen in my peripheral vision. I quickly moved in front of her, a casual step toward the Alchemy Wing just ahead. “That’s nice,” I said. “Would you like to show us around now?”
The fae girl smiled, a mirthless, sinister expression that sent goosebumps racing up and down my arms, then turned away to lead us down the hall. I ignored the Nephilim boy, who stared at me when I moved past him to follow Ravonne. If he had nothing to say to me, then I had nothing to say to him, either. And the sooner this was all over, the faster we could get back to our dormitory.
4
As Ravonne led the way down the wide stone corridor with the Nephilim boy flanking us on the left like some kind of glamorous sheepdog, I waited for the obvious topic to come up. Genie Watts, obviously. My eyes darted over to the small girl several times, wondering if she felt uncomfortable in their presence, but I saw nothing in her expression except sparkling curiosity as she looked around and admired the magnificent stone archways flying high over our heads. To be fair, Jupiter Gate’s cathedral-like architecture was a sight to behold with its Gothic magnificence, and the faintly glowing sigils that occasionally slid over the walls whenever they peeked into view were stark reminders of the powerful magic flowing within the very stones.
But still. She had set an anti-integration protestor on fire only three months ago, which had only happened in the first place because many, many people didn’t want her here. Violently. People, in fact, like these two students whose icy disdain for us was as palpable as the draft that clung to my skin, because those protestors that had plagued the streets of the Inner Citadel all summer were the visible arm of the upper echelons who were so against us. Everything they had done, everything they had screamed about humans not deserving a space within a society they hadn’t even helped build up - those were the same thoughts these students shared. I knew it.
Or I could be wrong. Maybe I was unfairly putting all of Jupiter Gate’s students in a simplified box, but it was better to be on guard against them all than to trust indiscriminately and pay for it. As far as I knew, every single one of these students would have supported that protestor who broke into the Tenement block where Genie Watts lived, and they would have rather seen her burn instead of him. She should be careful. That might not have been the last time she would have to protect herself against people who wanted her out of here. People who wanted all of us out of here.
But there was no conversation about it. No questions. We had a minor celebrity in our presence, a role model revolutionary to disgruntled humans and a repugnant, violent reactionary to the magical species, but no one acknowledged the elephant in the room. Genie, the five-foot pyromaniac who had set someone on fire as a statement of her intention to insert herself into Inner Citadel society no matter what anyone said or did about it… now walking the vaunted halls of Jupiter Gate.
I wouldn’t be like either of them, neither Addison Dorne with her rough, blunt ways that set her painfully apart from the aristocratic sophistication here nor like Genie Watt
s, who was clearly on a hidden level of crazy beneath that bubbly, empty-headed exterior (was she maliciously faking it? Who knew?). I would be cautious, shrewd. And maybe Ravonne here had determined to dislike me from the start, but I wouldn’t give her more reasons than she already had to hate me. That was her problem, not mine, and I was here to succeed, not make enemies. I’d been there and done that routine before, and I was over it now, no matter how good I’d been at it. I was going to do things right this time. Keep my head down, strangle my pride and my sharp tongue, play dead. I’d never succeeded at that before, but I promised myself that this time, I would make it happen no matter what.
Even if I had my especial misgivings about Zedekiel over there on our left. Nephilim. I wondered how many I would have to deal with during my time here. The only one I’d run into before and had to deal with at length had been years ago when I was still in primary school, and I could remember every frigid moment of that encounter even now. At least they were rarer than the other species, but encountering them daily was going to be unavoidable now that I was attending Jupiter Gate. This was the kind of place the Nephilim funneled into, after all.
But that was all right. Vampires, fae, Nephilim, I didn’t care as long as they didn’t get in my way. Head down. Play by the rules. It would be easy.
“This is the room you’ll be in for any integrated lectures.” Ravonne nodded around the interior of the large hall with the seats arranged in a semi-circular array. They led up to the back of the room from the lecturer’s pit with several sets of steps to partition the audience’s area into three sections. “There’s no slowing down for stragglers in the pack, so keep up. I’m sure you’ll manage if you try hard enough.”
Her voice made it clear she wasn’t. A thread of cool spite coiled under my tongue, and I had to stop myself from telling her in no uncertain terms that I would never struggle in integrated courses - I was a Thaumaturgist, and a good one. Jupiter Gate was full of gifted magic users, but I would still be in the minority even among them. Me, straggling in integrated courses? Please, I could walk circles around her and…