by Lan Chan
“Then we will not be attending the treaty negotiations.” It was a simple statement loaded with ill intent. “We might not be numerous, but we have proven capable of defending ourselves.”
“You would risk a war with us just to get your own way?”
Something scraped on the other end of the mirror. “We would risk much more to ensure that our species is not threatened by monsters that should not be in this realm in the first place. Alessia returns to us. No excuses.”
I knew the mirror had cut out by the sound of it cracking. “Gran,” Kai said. “Doctor Thorne is going to kill you if you break anything else in here.”
Jacqueline huffed. “That insufferable woman is going to be the death of me.”
“What are we going to do?” Nora asked. I hadn’t realised there was anyone else in the room. I peeled my eyes open. The light above me was too bright. I turned, pressing my head into Kai’s side. “I can go back,” I croaked.
Kai tensed around me. He repositioned so that his arm supported my back. I kind of wanted everyone else to go away so I could just lie there with him around me.
“That’s not an option,” Jacqueline said.
“I don’t think we have many other options. It’s either that or they’ll pull out of the negotiations.” I had seen enough of Samantha’s fanatical beliefs to know she was as good as her word.
“From what I saw on the beach, there are only a handful of them.” Implicit in Jacqueline’s words was a threat that had the hairs on my arms standing on end. Sometimes I forgot she was as much an Amazon as she was our headmistress. I lifted my head and gave Nora a pleading look. She was already on the defensive.
“Let’s try and salvage what we can so it doesn’t come to that,” Nora said. She refocused on me. “How are you feeling?”
Like death had chewed me up and spit me out. “I’m okay.”
Kai grunted. “You and I have different ideas about what’s okay.” He slipped his fingers under the hem of my pyjama top. It was only then I noticed I was wearing a different set of clothes. He saw me tug on the sleeve of my top.
“Sophie brought you a change of clothes.”
My mind kind of blanked at the thought of him being there while Sophie changed me. Oh goodness, what underwear was I wearing? I could tell he was grinning even as he pressed his lips to my forehead.
“I can go back,” I said, to try and steer the focus away from the furious blush creeping up my neck.
“They were hazing you.” Jacqueline approached the bed. “What other things are going on over there that we don’t know about?”
It basically amounted to what Samantha had asked of me in her office. I pointed out that in my first semester, I had been stabbed by Brigid and nothing had happened to her.
“There were serious repercussions for her,” Jacqueline informed me. “Not any that you would know about, but we made sure the message was clear. Samantha—” she said the name like it was dirt on her shoe, “—seems to think this is all one big misunderstanding. She’s up in arms that we were on their beach trying to contain the situation.”
“How bad was it?”
Jacqueline brushed the back of her hand over her face. “Twenty-three humans had to have their memories tampered with. Thank goodness it happened in the middle of the night. The Fae worked around the clock to rebuild the beach.”
I glanced down at my hands. Until now I hadn’t let myself think of what I’d done. “The fish,” I choked. It was all I could get out before Kai held me close. He made a movement, and I knew he was shaking his head at his grandmother.
She remained steadfast. “What was that, Lex?”
I spoke against the crushing embrace of Kai’s arm. “I don’t know. I was so scared. I thought I was drowning, and I couldn’t control the circles.”
Nora sighed. She reached out and placed a warm hand on my ankle. “It’s alright,” she said. “Nobody blames you.”
I blamed myself. In my thoughts, that moaning, ancient voice still mourned. Fuelled by fear, I’d been like a stick of dynamite blowing up the ocean. This darker power inside of me was unpredictable. I’d been afraid to tap into it before because I hadn’t known what I was capable of. Now I knew and it made things infinitely worse. The source of that power hadn’t come to my aide either.
Where were you? I accused Azrael. Nothing. I wondered if it was possible to kick a seraphim’s ass. Why was it that in that moment of blinding terror, it had been Lucifer who had come to me? I was tired all the way to my bones. But I was sick of chasing my tail about what I was. If being with the Sisterhood would give me the answers then I had to get back there.
“I’m going back.”
“Lex,” Jacqueline warned.
“I’ll be okay. Besides, I left Phoenix there and I need to get him.”
“Who the hell is Phoenix?” Kai growled.
“The dingo.”
“You named a dog, Phoenix?”
“He’s not a dog!”
“He looks exactly like a dog.”
“You look like a—”
“That’s enough,” Jacqueline said. “We can’t allow you to return knowing full well you will be in danger.”
I gave her a small smile. “I’m in danger wherever I go. At least this way we have a shot at peace.” And if I went back, I had a shot at punching whoever it was that had dragged me out of my bed in the first place.
“Samantha said it was a silly mistake,” Nora said. “Shouldn’t we at least give her the benefit of the doubt the first time?”
“This isn’t the first time they’ve attacked one of ours,” Kai bit out. “How many more times are we going to turn the other cheek?”
It was then I noticed he’d been fairly quiet while Jacqueline had taken the reins on deciding whether or not I should be allowed to go back to Terran. I knew without a doubt that if he had his way, he would lock me up in a tower and throw away the key. Over the Christmas break Cassie had wanted to go to the States with Luther and Charles. She’d gotten the invitation just after the Sisterhood sent for me. He all but dragged her back to the Academy.
“We have to at least try,” Nora said.
I squeaked when his grip turned tight. He relaxed his hold only to fist a bunch of my top in his hands. “I’m going back.”
“If this happens again,” Kai said, “I’ll take their Academy apart brick by brick.”
He didn’t want to leave me, but my body was so sore I couldn’t stay awake. Doctor Thorne shoved him out. He only left when it was pointed out that I refused to rest when he was there.
17
By mid-morning the next day, I was feeling better. A shot of something vile from Peter and I was ready to leave the infirmary. Jacqueline refused to let me go back to Terran right away. So the rest of my week had opened up. I was at a loss as to what to do with myself. It was still too early for lunch. Everybody I knew would be in classes.
I was walking around without realising where I was headed until I hit the walled kitchen garden. It was quiet inside. I pushed aside the gate and went in. Looking around at the neat raised beds, I felt a lump in my throat. I sank down onto the brick and placed my palms against the rich loam. Closing my eyes, I sat there for a beat. In a matter of seconds, pill bugs and ear wigs were scampering over my fingers. Their legs tickled my skin, but I let it be.
Distantly, I heard the sound of a wheelbarrow being pushed. The shuffle told me it was probably Peter. Like her Fae brethren, Thalia barely made a sound when she walked.
I opened my eyes just as he rolled the wheelbarrow up beside me. I was sitting smack bang in the middle of the pathway.
“Sorry,” I said.
“Don’t be. It’s nice to have company. Though I do need to get past.”
I stood aside and let him past. He didn’t go very far. I followed him to the tomato bed. Peter wasn’t a proponent of idle hands. If I was going to hang out here, I would have to work. This was the only class in which I didn’t mind getting homework.
Peter snipped off side leaves on the tomato plants so they wouldn’t drain energy from the middle stem. Nanna used to do the same thing so that the plant grew along a single leading branch. It helped to keep the plant tidy, she had said. I blew out a breath. In the span of a week, I had lost both my human role models.
“If you have the time, you’re welcome here whenever you want.”
Something in the way he said it made me think he doubted the amount of time I would have free from now on. To make up for that, I stayed in the kitchen garden for as long as I possibly could. But less than two hours later, I was kicked out because the next class was going to be starting soon.
On a whim, I found myself skirting around the perimeter of the billabong. I made my way through the gate that fenced the area off. Immediately the air grew thick with the scent of still water and wet hide. The bunyip wasn’t the only creature to call the billabong home. The yowies as well as some of the other Australian creatures also lived here. I could swear someone had said something about a rainbow serpent. I was still trying to catch a glimpse of her. As someone who had an aversion to rodents, snakes and predator birds were at the top of my list of animals that I adored.
The last time I had been in the billabong, Brigid was trying to blow me into the water with her wind conjuring. Even then I hadn’t felt the pinpricks of dread that overcame me at the mere thought of saltwater.
In the trials at the end of first semester, I’d crossed a vast river using nothing but a thin rope bridge. And yet, I hadn’t frozen still the way Gwen the leopard had. I tapped on the side of my head as though that would give me some insight into what was going on in there.
It was a slightly warmer day than usual. The temperature inside Bloodline Academy was controlled, but they still liked to mimic the natural seasons. I pulled off my sneakers and socks, rolled up my jeans, and sat down at the edge of the billabong.
Just as my feet hit the cool water, an enormous head with glistening brown hair broke the surface skin of the water. A pair of bulbous black eyes peered at me. They came closer. The bunyips’ long snout hit my knees. I sat perfectly still. Professor Allen had said that the bunyip would allow us into his billabong if we weren’t going to make a mess of things. I didn’t plan on doing anything but sit. He must have realised that because his eyes finally blinked. He moved off to the side. A second later, a heaving body mass ambled out of the water. Halfway up he shook himself, splashing droplets of water all over me.
“Thanks for that,” I said.
He yawned in response. For a second I thought he was going to another pool, when he started to scrape at the mud around the edge of the billabong. A lump of mud hit me on my shoulder. I inhaled even as I wanted to jump out of my skin. When he was done playing in the mud, the bunyip sat down heavily beside me and exhaled. The gust of air blew some of the reeds until they were almost horizontal.
I did the same to very little effect. Placing my head in my hands, I closed my eyes and looked inside of myself. There was no edge of panic or anything else resembling fear. I stuck my tongue out, but the air wasn’t laced with salt.
“I don’t get it!” I said aloud. My hands slapped the water, sending a small ripple across the watering hole. The bunyip groaned. He bit at some of the rushes beside me, chewing them with great aplomb. I heard scraping in the brush and turned to find a handful of yowies rooting around in the mangroves nearby. One of them caught my eye and then looked away. A moment later, it was lumbering up to me holding a white root in its hands. I shook my head.
“No thanks. I’m not in the mood to eat right now.”
It growled at me. If it could produce speech, I imagined it would make a comment about how I was always eating. Sometimes the yowies were allowed to go into the Grove. Or at least they appeared there without the nymphs’ knowledge. They were always trying to get at the Arcana fruit.
I was about to explain when the assembly alarm went off. The bunyip opened up one eye. His tiny ears twitched. The yowies covered theirs and ran off. Huh. It never occurred to me how disturbing the sound of the alarms could be to some of the supernaturals. I imagined the shifters didn’t enjoy it much. What could possibly have gone wrong now? I didn’t bother to roll my jeans down or put my shoes on. Instead I opted to air dry as I made my way over to the junior campus. It wasn’t until I got close to the bridge that I remembered what was very wrong with this situation. At the site of where I had run head first into the barrier, I stopped and held out my arm.
Brigid just happened to be walking past at that exact moment. I snatched my arm back and laced my fingers around my back as though it was perfectly normal to be standing around slack-jawed while the whole school was streaming past.
She smirked at me. Her indigo wings were on display again. She whipped them out any time she could get away with it. Like we were prone to forget who she was if she didn’t remind us every five minutes.
I waited a few beats until she was farther away. “Curtis,” I hissed. I didn’t know why I was under the assumption that they would just appear if I called their names. It had never worked out before.
At that moment, a streak of gold passed by. It was the first one I had seen. Obviously whatever was going on wasn’t so dire that additional security was required. That didn’t help me at all. I flailed my arms about.
“Watch it,” a voice beside me said. I waved an apology at the vampire whose shoulder I grazed with my elbow. His fangs were pressed against his bottom lip. Then he looked at me like he hadn’t seen me properly. If possible, his face turned paler. “Never mind,” he said, before scooting away as quickly as he could.
I sighed wondering whether news about my link to the Sisterhood had gotten out or if this was just the result of Kai always looming around me menacing everyone. I didn’t have time to mull it over as Bran touched down beside me. His landing caused the crowd around us to scatter in a circle.
“Should I even be here?” I said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.
“Don’t be like that. You know why we have to do this.”
I snorted. “Yeah, like a barrier is going to be what stops me if I wanted to do harm. Did you guys forget that I can-”
A hand reached out to clamp over my mouth. Diana’s husky voice was beside my ear. “Do you have any idea how loud you’re speaking?” she hissed.
I’d thought I was being pretty quiet actually. The side-eye I was getting from a number of the kids around me said otherwise.
Bran waved his hand and Diana shoved me across the bridge that I could now access. “Behave yourself, please.” Those were Bran’s parting words.
“Do you know what this is about?” I asked Diana.
“I’ll give you one guess?” she said. “It involves you.”
I sighed. “Not again.”
We entered the assembly hall through the side as usual. Sophie waved at us from a row of seats closer to the back. Trey and Roland were beside her. I parked my butt in the chair next to her and Diana wedged in on the other side.
“So I’m guessing Sisterhood?” I said to them at large.
“You guessed right!” Trey said. He was such a gossip. He always managed to find out news way before anyone else did. “I’ve been hearing rumblings all summer, but it looks like the Council have finally decided to put the rumours to rest. I don’t even know why they bother. It’s not like everyone at school didn’t go home and blab about what happened to their families.”
“Maybe they don’t want to scare people,” Diana said.
“Oh and keeping the worst-kept secret is any better?”
She shrugged. We lapsed into silence as the seats around us all filled up. My leg was jiggling up and down. Diana nudged my foot with her steely boot. “You’re shaking the whole row.” I stopped but had to will myself not to start fidgeting elsewhere. I had expected Jacqueline to march to the front of the stage as she always did, but today when she entered the assembly hall, she stepped aside to let somebody else pass. There was a collective mu
rmur amongst the crowd as a tall figure with indigo wings strode across the stage. Orin Harcourt wore a navy-blue suit that hugged his slim figure. Though he must have been pushing hundreds of years old, he didn’t look a day over fifty. I didn’t even want to unpack how he had a nineteen-year-old daughter.
He turned as he got to the lectern. His eyes scanned the crowd. They landed on me. And then he smiled. Something inside of me fizzled. This was not going to go well.
18
Orin cleared his throat. The hall grew quiet but not immediately the way it would have if Jacqueline had done the same. Though he was a member of the Council, the Fae weren’t known for their courteous treatment of the other races. They had ruled for a long time over some of the other races. Now that they were on a level playing field, not everybody was so accepting of them. Jacqueline turned her head just slightly as though to remind everyone she was still there. Not a single peep was heard after that.
“Students,” Orin started. His voice was as clear and pleasant as his daughter’s. I noticed most of the Fae were leaning forward in their chairs with rapt expressions. Diana rolled her eyes. Yep, the dwarves were one of those races who weren’t huge fans of the Fae. “I know you must all be aware of the events that occurred on the school grounds at the end of last semester. It has given rise to quite a lot of speculation about the Soul Sisterhood and the Council’s ability to protect the populace should there be a surge in violence against supernaturals. Rest assured that we are doing all that we can. Having said that, let me put the speculation to rest. The Soul Sisterhood has returned. In fact, I understand there is one among you who has been claimed by the Sisterhood.”
My head snapped up as the students in the seats around me turned in my direction. Sophie took my hand and squeezed it. I tried to look for Kai, but there were too many people and he wasn’t guarding the room.
On the stage, I caught Jacqueline’s eye. Hers were huge. I could well believe she had been ambushed by this speech just as I had been. That didn’t change the fact that Orin was hanging me out to dry.