“The Naturals had just suffered a monumental defeat,” he said, breaking through my thoughts. “They were splintered, separated across Britain, their greatest power broken. Their only hope would’ve been to hide Arondight until they could rebuild their strength. The fact that it was lost was merely disinformation to mask the truth.” He shrugged. “At least, that’s my theory anyway.”
“But the Naturals never recovered enough to seriously consider facing the demons head on,” I said. “And now I’m here…”
Aiden looked me over. “Yes, a mystery within a mystery. That’s the double-edged sword of my line of work. Sometimes questions are answered with more questions.”
“How frustrating.”
“But it seems to me that Arondight wants to be found, don’t you think?”
“If I knew where it was, then it’d make my life a hell of a lot easier,” I drawled. “I don’t want to be a famous war hero. I just—”
“Want to be free?”
My gaze snapped to his. I never thought of it that way before, but free from what? Expectations, uncertainty, the constant threat of life and death situations?
“Freedom comes with its own burdens,” he said. “But that’s life. You can’t have the Light without the Dark.”
I shook my head. “So you’re saying the world will never see peace?”
“Naturals don’t like to think of themselves as human, but we are.” He blew through his lips. “Controversial, I know. We, as a species, will always be looking for something to fight. Rebellion is in our nature. War is our way of life. Peace is achievable, but a true golden age kind of peace? I think we’ll always be looking for the next challenge, no matter what.”
He made an interesting argument, and my head spun like a whirlpool.
“How are your classes?”
I blinked, his question brining me back to the present. “Sorry?”
“Your classes,” he repeated. “It must be a challenge being the oldest student at the Academy. Is there anything I can help you with?”
“Uh… I suppose you could point me to the section on not assaulting teachers.”
“That sounds like a good place to start.” He laughed and gestured to the staircase. “We have a whole section on Light theory upstairs. There’re some titles that may help with the basics. I can show you if you’d like?”
I grimaced. “Am I that transparent?”
“No, but you came to your Light later than most.” He gave me one of those smiles that was genuine and open—the kind that made a woman’s resolve crumble.
Could I trust him with the coin? Glancing at the suit of armour, I said, “I need all the help I can get.”
“Then let me show you where to start.”
I followed Aiden up the stairs and into the stacks, my gaze fixed on his back. Sounded like a good plan to me.
I poked at my chicken schnitzel, my appetite eluding me. The din of the kitchens was extra loud tonight on account of the headache I’d just chased with a couple of ibuprofen tablets.
Almost a week had passed since I’d arrived at the Academy and I hadn’t found a way to settle into the student life. My new combat trainer wasn’t impressed with my purple hue and drove me twice as hard as Wilder ever did, which was a feat in itself. The bruises on my bruises had bruises.
The chair opposite scraped back and I looked up as Wilder slid into it, dumping his plate down in front of him. He had the same bland salad and crumbed chicken. Obviously, his dietary choices had rubbed off on me.
“I heard you blew a teacher across a classroom.” He raised an eyebrow. “That’s your favourite trick, isn’t it?”
My cheeks heated and I crossed my arms over my chest. “It was an accident… this time.”
“So you’re making progress on our mission in leaps and bounds.”
“Nice to see you, too.”
“Miss me?” He smirked and began to shove his dinner into his face with all the grace of a starving lion.
“All the girls have crushes on you,” I declared. “I can’t see how when you look like that while you’re eating.”
“That’d be a first,” he said with a smirk. “They all hated me when I was a kid. Best in my class and no girl asked me out.”
“I can’t imagine why. Your charm is irresistible.”
“Speaking of… Yours is all the way up tonight,” he said. “What’s wrong?”
“I’ve got a headache.”
“We don’t get headaches.”
“I get headaches.” I waved him off. “I took something.”
Wilder rolled his eyes and gestured for me to lean forwards. Reaching out, he tapped my temple and I felt his Light reach out.
“Should you be doing that?” I asked, frowning. “I don’t think—”
“Better?” he interrupted.
I tilted my head to the side as he went back to his dinner. “Uh… yeah, actually.”
“So apart from the reckless assault, how are your classes going?”
I shook off his nonchalance about curing my headache with a touch of his fingertip and replied, “Fine. It’s the age gap that kills me.”
“Age isn’t important.”
“Says the teacher.” Teacher… Wilder would know something about the librarian. Hopefully he wouldn’t ask too many questions in return. “Hey, what do you know about the history teacher in the library, Aiden?”
His brow creased. “The librarian?”
“Yeah. What do you know about him? He was very attentive the other night.” Telling me stories and helping me find books. He’d hung around for almost an hour before leaving me to the pile of Light Studies tomes he’d picked out.
“Attentive? He must think you’re pretty.”
He may as well have stabbed a knife into my heart. “Unlikely.”
Wilder snorted. “I know he has an older brother who’s the full Natural package. Imagine that.”
“Imagine.” I rolled my eyes.
“You want to know what his family name is?” He waited expectantly, and I knew there was a punch line coming.
“What?”
“Thompson.”
I choked on my spit and slapped my hands down on the table. “Thompson? As in…”
Wilder’s eyes flashed and he laughed. “As in the guy whose arse you kicked in an attempt to defend Jackson’s fragile honour.”
“Great.” Just when I wanted to get on Aiden’s good side, he had to go and be Thompson’s brother. Could I trust him now that I knew his family values? I had to figure out if he shared them before painting him with the same brush.
“What is it with you lately?” Wilder asked. “Ever since you came back from the druidess’ house, you’ve been angrier than usual.”
He was seriously asking me that? “How’s your best friend, Islington?”
“He’s the same pompous twit he always was, but now he’s the bloody headmaster.”
“Sounds like your version of hell. Want me to throw him across the Academy with my Light? It’s my party trick.”
“Scarlett,” his brow creased, “I showed you mine, now show me yours.”
“I don’t seem to be making any progress,” I blurted. “For every new thing I learn, there’s a thousand more I didn’t even know existed.”
Wilder shrugged, looking at me like the answer was simple. “You’re too focused on the end game.”
“I thought the end game was the point?”
“It’s the battles leading up to it that make it the end game,” he stated. “Don’t forget about it, but focus on what you can do now.” He raised an eyebrow. “Which is the thing about the you-know-what.” And deciphering the symbols on the coin.
“You’re right.”
His lips quirked. “Any leads?”
“I can tell you who’s in what clique, who rules the school, which guy all the girls fawn over, the outcasts, the bullies, and the bullied. What I can’t tell you is if anyone has tangoed with the thing from the you-know-what.”
&
nbsp; He didn’t look surprised, which meant we were in for the long haul. Perfect.
“Look, I don’t know what’s changed,” he said, “but I’m… glad… we’re talking again.” He had to practically force out the word glad and my jaw tensed.
“Are you immune to happiness?” I demanded. “Or has someone put a curse on you, so every time you say one of the words listed under happy in the thesaurus, you get a blistering pain in that numbskull head of yours?”
“What?” he asked, glaring at me. “There you go again! Tell me what I did, Scarlett.”
I glared at him, keeping my mouth clamped shut. I went to stand and his hand shot out and snatched my wrist.
“I know what happened,” he hissed, keeping his voice low. “Jackson’s loyalty to you is admirable, but it doesn’t take much to notice when an area of the city opens itself up after decades of being closed for business.”
I jutted my chin out and wrenched my wrist out of his grasp. “I don’t know what you’re on about.”
“I know she’s dead, Purples,” he drawled. “I know that’s what she wanted, so don’t look so horrified. What I don’t know is what she told you before she left.”
“She didn’t tell me anything,” I snapped.
“That’s a lie.” He leaned back in his chair and studied me, his expression impassive. I couldn’t get a read on him at all. “What I don’t understand is why you stopped trusting me.”
Because I opened myself up to you at the Necropolis and you saw everything, I thought. You know how I feel about you and you’ve done nothing. Which means you either don’t care or… Or he never saw anything at all, and all this angst was one-sided. It made talking to him about it even more awkward and humiliating.
What had Arondight done to me? I access its power once and my hormones go haywire.
Everyone in this crazy world was in love with the wrong person. And it blew big time.
I knew I should tell Wilder about the coin and the things the druidess told me, but I couldn’t. It felt like I’d already passed the point of no return. This was a puzzle I had to solve on my own, and Aiden the librarian was the only one who could help me sift through the symbology on the coin.
“Look, I don’t know what I’ve done,” Wilder went on, “but if it’s something the druidess told you, then don’t believe everything you hear. You know just as well as I do that words hold power, especially the riddles her kind spits out.”
“The Druids are extinct,” I stated. “Truly extinct.”
“It’s what she wanted,” he repeated. “She knew she shouldn’t have lived as long as she did.”
“It was self-defense, but…” I shook my head. “She attacked me when I refused to take her life.”
“She knew a lot of things,” Wilder said, watching me closely. “It’s safe to say she knew her end, too. It probably means she was waiting for something to pass before she could too.”
I knew he meant me and Arondight, and I mulled over the words I remembered from that night at Seven Dials. The druidess said a lot of things in broken English, but one stood out enough for me to recall. The future is unwritten, but the past holds all the secrets. All the power. Past losses, reborn futures. If I unlocked the secrets hidden in my past, I could alter the future for the Light.
“Is that why you’ve been so angry?” he prodded. “Or is there something you’re not telling me about the Necropolis?”
I froze, my dinner well and truly forgotten.
Wilder poked his fork at the salad on his plate. “That was some serious Light that flowed through you,” he added. “It wouldn’t be unexpected for it to mess with you at least a little.”
“Ramona cleared me,” I said, my cheeks flushing, but Wilder wasn’t paying attention. “I’m fine. I just need to focus on controlling it.”
“Again with the brush off…” he grunted and checked his watch. “When you’re ready to talk about what the druidess said, you know where to find me.” He rose to his feet, picking up his plate as he went.
“Actually, I don’t.” Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know where his room was. It was probably better than mine, which was just rubbing salt into the open wound in my heart.
“South wing, bottom floor,” he said, flashing me a smile. “Last door on the right.”
I made a face and picked up my fork.
“No more assaulting the faculty, Purples,” he warned, walking away with a chuckle. “You don’t want to get detention in this place, trust me.”
I watched his receding back, wondering what kind of punishment Naturals got when they were naughty in class. Something juicy, I bet.
“Wait! What’s so bad about detention?” I shouted after him. He didn’t turn around, which only infuriated me more. “Wilder?”
5
In between studying and observing young Naturals in their native habitat, I visited the library every chance I got.
It was more reconnaissance on Aiden Thompson, than actual studying, but the Light books he’d recommended had helped. I hadn’t accidentally assaulted any more teachers since the first day… though I was giving my new combat instructor a run for his money.
Patrick Frazier was a Scottish hunk who spent most of his time trying to beat instinct out of me in favour of regimented fighting tactics. He was great and all, but had nothing on Wilder. He’d driven me to breaking point for a reason, and now that I had the opportunity to train with someone else, I could see why.
The first few days were tough, but it wasn’t long before I picked up on Patrick’s methods and put him on his arse, much like I had Masters—but this time was deliberate.
I snorted at the irony, holding open the book in my lap entitled, Your Light and You - A Study on Practical Applications for the Light Within—at least I could pretend to take notes. I was nestled deep within the library on the second floor, overlooking the main staircase and the suit of armour below.
Your Light and You was dry as hell and not anywhere as good as The Standard Book of Light. Aiden’s schedule wasn’t that exciting, either. From what I could tell, he was meticulous about looking after the library and everything in it.
Despite the nerdy connotations, I was really liking the quiet of the library. There weren’t only books on Natural-esque topics, but a whole range of things that would usually be found in a human library as well—science, religion, art, history, and even a fiction section with all the latest YA blockbusters. Not to mention the crazy relics and weapons displayed all over the place. I wondered what it was like to be a Natural in the Middle Ages.
A cough sounded behind me and I jumped. Turning, the leather chair creaked, and I looked up at Aiden.
“You’re here a lot,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “Are you trying to escape the rigorous life of a Natural student, or is there something you want?”
“Books?” I offered with my best nonchalant shrug.
“You want to ask me something, but you don’t know if you can trust me.”
He just came out with it, and while it was refreshing, I almost choked on my spit. I doubted I’d make it as an MI6 agent.
“I…” I began, scrambling for a comeback.
He waved me off. “I have an affinity for reading people. I can pick up on their motivations. I also notice when students linger.”
“Should I be worried?”
“That I’ll get the wrong impression?” He laughed and shook his head. “Don’t worry. I never do. Anymore…”
I got his meaning and felt my cheeks heat. A Natural librarian wasn’t exactly someone the girls went wild for, not when there was an Academy full of combat training teachers and strapping young lads. Thinking about Wilder, I lowered my gaze.
“I don’t blame you,” he went on. “I gather you’re constantly worrying about who to trust, considering who you are.”
“That’s not all of who I am.” I snapped the book closed, starting when a puff of purple Light burst from within the pages like a cloud of dust.
Ai
den chuckled softly and took the book from my hands. “I know Your Light and You is dry as the Sahara, but you don’t have to pour your frustrations across the pages.”
“Is that what that was?”
“In a sense.”
I groaned and rubbed my eyes. Studying was almost as draining as combat training.
“Would you like to go for a walk?” Aiden asked.
A walk? The notion seemed alien. “Don’t you have to stay?”
“I’m not chained to the place,” he replied with a laugh. “I can leave, you know.”
“Okay then.” I set the book aside and unfurled from the leather chair. How else was I going to figure the guy out? “Where are we going?”
He smiled and gestured for me to follow him. “You’ll see.”
Aiden lead me outside, holding the door open for me like a gentleman. Outside, the sun was lowering dangerously close to the horizon, signalling the end of yet another day.
We strolled across the gardens, weaving along paths lined with box hedges, until we reached the gate separating us from the unsculpted wilderness of the rest of the Academy grounds.
Ahead, I could see the outline of a building peeking out of a clearing. It was the ruined chapel Adelaide had pointed out on my day-one tour.
Until today, I’d never been inside. The crumbling façade was beautiful amongst the emerald landscape, the stone spotted with various grey and yellow lichens, and the cracks were stuffed full of spongey moss. Ivy had taken hold of one end, its vines clinging to the building like a life raft. It reminded me of the druidess’ indoor garden and a pang bloomed in my chest.
“This chapel dates back to the early days of Natural occupation,” Aiden said as we approached. “It was built somewhere around the year 1200, approximately one hundred years after the cataclysm.”
“It’s that old?” I asked as we stepped through the door.
“This was one of the few places the Naturals found refuge in those early days. It was here they were able to finally begin to rebuild what was lost.”
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