Disclaimer
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 Amabel Daniels
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions
Chapter One
When I opened my eyes, I was in my room.
What happened? I sat up too quickly, groggier than I’d guessed I could be.
Last I recalled, I was suffering through Mr. Alwin’s exam and then—
“Oh, my God!” I flung my legs over the edge of the bunk bed and overestimated my balance. I flopped over with too much momentum and fell to the ground.
“Layla!”
Flynn. He was here? Not the first time he’d been in my room, but still.
“Are you okay?” Paige asked. I felt her small, cool, soft hands helping me up and his large, hot hands easing me by the elbow. Once I stood, I rubbed at the side I’d fallen on.
“She’ll be fine.” I glanced up at Ethel. It wasn’t like her to be dismissive and use an oh-get-over-it tone.
Yet…I was fine. For falling face-first out of my bunk, I didn’t feel a thing. Not numb, but no pain. I wasn’t even lightheaded.
I gasped and brought my arms up. Those talons. It had gotten me on the arm, my leg. I pulled my pajama pants up and saw the same result as what was on my arm. Unscarred, clear, normal skin. Typical pasty white Layla.
“What happened?” I whispered.
There was no way I’d dreamed it. I hadn’t had nightmares about that sea monster since I was ten. It just couldn’t have been a figment of my brainwaves. I looked from Flynn to Paige, and then Ethel. She sat in my chair and stared at me. “We were hoping you could tell us.”
I gaped at the librarian’s words. “Excuse me?”
Flynn set a hand on my shoulder and then withdrew it and stuck in his pocket. “You jumped in after Sabine. Then you guys struggled in the water.”
“Mr. Alwin ordered us off the bridge. We couldn’t see you guys from the distance, and he made us stand back until help arrived. He didn’t want us to fall off the bridge either,” said Paige.
“We ran back to the main part of the shore, and then you were there.” Flynn quirked a brow. “But I thought you were injured. I saw blood…” He rubbed at the back of his head, sending his hair crazy with the rake through.
“She was injured by something in the water.” Ethel stood then. “What was it, Layla?”
“I…” God. How could I tell her? I couldn’t even form the words in my mouth. A sea monster. A muddy, slimy creature that lived in the water. A shudder racked my body and I caught Flynn’s sympathetic smile. He knew. He might not have seen it all. How did apparitions show up in a liquid, anyway? But he generally knew what I’d gone after.
“How am I not injured?”
“Mr. Suthering had the medics take over. The medical clinic has, uh…elven healing potions,” Paige said.
Ethel set her lips together and shot her daughter a disproving scowl.
“What?” Paige huffed. “She has the right to know. It’s obvious she’s got powers.”
“But she has them now,” Ethel stressed with fear in her voice. “That’s what worries me.”
Worries her? Like I’d be a threat? I laughed once. Whatever. “Where’s Sabine?”
When they didn’t speak, my heart lurched. No. She had to have made it.
“She’s not very happy at the moment.”
I huffed at the librarian’s comment. What else was new? If Sabine was currently unhappy, it meant she was alive.
“I want to see her.”
Paige shared a look with Ethel.
“All right.” Ethel nodded. “We brought you back here after the medics sedated you.”
Aha. So that was the reason for the grogginess.
“No faculty witnessed what happened in the water, Layla. And since you girls were found with suspicious circumstances, they felt it best to calm you down first. To gather facts from the scene. Mr. Suthering has promised everything has been…taken care of.”
I huffed. Taken care of? Like…?
“They administered the healing potions and you were brought to our room to rest,” Paige finished.
“The healing potions take quite a toll on you. It can overwhelm the immune system and it’s not uncommon for a long rest.”
And apparently the residual effects barred you from pain. “And Sabine?”
Ethel sighed. “The same.” She went to the door and paused. “Layla, no one can know.”
I snorted and smirked at her. “Can you clarify?” Which part? That a sea monster from my past tried to drown my twin? That I had summoned a captured longma to save us? That this Academy has extremely powerful medicine the rest of the world might be interested in?
“All of it.” Flynn butted in.
Ethel didn’t argue, nodding her head after sending me a frown. “They don’t need to know. What exactly happened. What…things were out there. How—” She shook her head and covered her mouth. “They don’t need to know what you can do. Not…yet. I’m not an advocate for lying, but the less they are aware of your abilities, the safer it will be.”
Safer? What was endangering me? I huffed. What could be endangering me more than a damn sea monster?
“I’ve been here long enough, I’ve seen the extremes of their reach and their missions. Trust me, Layla, please, when I say they don’t need to know what happened.”
Secrets. Yeah. Fine. Keeping them was old news. But— I held up a hand. “Who is they?”
“Gerald Suthering and Glorian Andeas,” Ethel said.
Paige nodded. “Yep, the two Head Gs and a couple of instructors from upperclassmen courses.”
Head Gs? Oh, that’s original, Paige. Regardless of their nicknames, they grouped up to decide to give students drugs I was sure the FDA never heard of. They could perhaps be a threat to me—I alone would be the judge of that. “A council.” I crossed my arms. Let me guess, all old, stuffy people with Pure powers.
“They think that you simply jumped in after Sabine because she’s your sister. Suthering assumed the cuts were from the rocks as you swam out.” Ethel held her hands up in a what can I say manner.
Mr. Suthering assumed? The man who told me he is aware of everything at this place?
“Rocks?” That’s ridiculous. Try curved talons.
Ethel stepped closer to me, creases on her forehead aging her with too much worry. “Layla, don’t tell anyone what happened in the water.”
I crossed my arms. “Do you know what happened?”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to know.” Her throat worked in a hard swallow. “I can already guess…” Another, firmer shake. “No. I don’t. I don’t need to know that you’re something the council will be very interested in.”
Something. Not someone.
I dug my nails into my arms and just barely felt the sting of the grip. The elven medicine was wearing off, and I relaxed as I knew I was back to normal. Back to just me, no drugs or wacko narcotics screwing up my brain. Which meant this sweet librarian was telling me the truth with her pinched face and glossy eyes. Ethel truly believed I should stay quiet about this experience. Even though I’d been at the Academy for one school year, my options were still slim for who to trust. Ethel, though, I could take faith in her earnest fear. For me.
The last time old officials of any kind were interested in me, it was for more in-depth psychological testing and new combos of drugs. I didn’t want anyone wi
th control to be interested in me.
“Fine.” I dropped my arms. “I won’t tell anyone.”
Yet.
She closed the gap between us and enfolded me in a hug. “We’ll talk when we return, all right?” Leaning back, she peered at me. “When some time has passed from this incident, and the excitement of it has…died down, I’ll do my best to explain more.”
“Or I will!” Paige offered, jumping up and down with her hands together near her chin.
Ethel shot her a stern look and stepped away from me.
“What?” She shrugged. “Just an idea.”
“I’d rather her hear facts.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Paige smirked. “I’m no master librarian like you”—she raised jazz hands at the title—“but it’s not like I’m naïve to all the Academy stands for.”
“That’s not what I meant—”
Paige laughed once, kind of sassily. “I mean, I do remember what happened to Dad.”
“Paige Meadow Verlene!”
Nope. The full-name shout didn’t slow her roll. “So, if my bestie wants to ask me questions, and I can answer them, I’ll—”
Flynn cleared his throat. Loudly. “Sabine’s in the medical clinic.”
I smiled at his interruptive announcement. And thank God he could step in and save us from this weird mother-daughter scrimmage. Talk about…awkward. However, I still wanted to know more. Let-me-grab-the-popcorn-and-watch-the-drama-unfold kind of curiosity. Her dad? What had happened to him? Something the Academy or the council had been involved with?
And they’re interested in me? Nausea swirled in my gut.
“Maybe we should see how she’s doing?” Flynn asked, perhaps sensing I wanted to let Ethel and Paige carry on.
“Sabine. Right.” I nodded at him.
The medical clinic. That was probably why my sister was so cranky. She hated the idea of hospitals and medical facilities. A hatred probably related to me and how often she and Dad had to go to them to handle my “issues” when I was younger.
Paige and Ethel were quiet at the abrupt break of their argument. Simmered down with silence. “Let’s go.”
When the four of us arrived at the clinic, I was told Sabine was in her own room, Room Three.
“We’ll wait out here,” Ethel offered.
I nodded and continued through the hallway toward my sister. All too easily, memories shot at me. The harsh scent of disinfectant. The lousy music at a low volume over the speakers. Bland, supposedly cheery yellow-painted walls. Just like every other medical place I’d gone to.
At Sabine’s mostly closed door, I inhaled deeply. For patience. For…courage. It was just my sister in there, but everything had changed. I knew it had.
I pushed the door open and stepped in.
“If you’re telling me I have to eat that healthy crap you call lunch—” She halted her tirade once she turned to face me. “Oh. It’s you.”
A nurse glanced at me, an expression of relief that another human was there clear on her stressed face. She huffed and exited.
I waited for Sabine to set the mood. Was she going to be pissed at me? Blame me for what happened? Thankful that I’d saved her? I swallowed a laugh. Nah. She’d never.
“Shut the door.” She scooted up in her reclined bed. “Please.”
“What drugs did they give you?” I said as I kicked the door shut behind me. “And please? They taught you a new word?”
She shook her head and opened her lips to speak.
“Don’t even,” I said, beating her to it.
“Stop messing around. Layla, what the hell happened?”
I thought of Flynn’s mature, wise expression as he’d warned me not to tell anyone that he and I could sense ancient species. About any of this incident. Had he meant her too? She’d nearly been a victim. Didn’t that mean she had a right to know something?
They don’t need to know. I replayed Ethel’s conviction in my mind. I had no issue with the how of not telling anyone, but I wanted to know the why. What could Suthering and his fuddy-duddy cronies do to me if they knew what happened in the water? What if Glorian was aware of my abilities…?
I clutched at my throat and swallowed past the lump.
Before, I’d kept my ability a secret to stay out of the shrinks’ reach and away from drugs designed to make me normal. Out of harm from ridicule and Dad’s hopelessness at my “issues.” Keeping my ability a secret here…okay. But for what purpose? From what danger?
“Layla?” she prompted impatiently while I thought.
I’d never been able to trust Sabine. Yet…we’d survived that together. We just couldn’t be twins who loathed one another anymore. Right?
“Layla!”
Jeez. I shrugged. As if she’d believe me, anyway. “You fell off the bridge.”
She rolled her eyes and gestured with her hand for me to continue.
“Why the hell would you wear platform heels on a Botany field exercise?”
She growled. “Never mind that! I fell in and then what? Suthering’s saying you jumped in after me and then dragged us to shore.”
I smiled and shrugged. Amazing. I was such a good and fast liar that it churned my stomach. Perhaps I did inherit some of Dad’s acting skills. “That sounds about right.”
“I was cut.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “Like scraped by a claw.”
I swallowed and kept up the smile. “Rocks.”
“But I don’t have any marks.” She raised her arms for me to see.
“They…weren’t deep cuts.”
“Something…” She frowned. “I can’t remember it all. It was a blur.”
And they drugged you afterward. If the elven potion they’d given me healed me like new, I wondered if their sedatives were extra-effective too. Too effective, maybe, like amnesia-effective.
“Something was pulling me under.” She stared directly at me.
I had no room to flinch or blink without her noticing. “It was really wavy.”
She still studied me. “You hate water.”
I laughed once. “Yeah, I really do.” For good reason.
She fingered the stiff-looking white bedsheet and watched the back and forth route of her finger. When she met my gaze again, I could tell she wasn’t in the mood to lie.
“So, I fell off, you jumped in after me, and brought us to shore?”
I nodded.
“It’s my fault.” Her throat worked as she swallowed.
“How so?” I leaned back and crossed my arms. “Well, yeah. You don’t wear stripper shoes to an outdoor field trip—”
“Forget about the shoes!” She groaned before saying, “I told Ren…about your incident. Back home. At the watering hole.”
I inhaled deeply. Just as I’d thought.
“I was…mad at you. I blamed you for getting caught sneaking back in after curfew.”
Didn’t surprise me.
“So, I told Ren. I wanted to get back at you somehow.”
I didn’t bother replying. I’d already connected the dots. What stuck in my head the most now, though, was the connection. How did her telling Ren make it her fault?
“So, after I’d told him, they changed the location of the Botany final.”
I tilted my head at her. “Huh?”
“They’d already posted locations for the final quarterlies. We were supposed to go in the formal gardens for the field exercise. I think Ren told his mom to make Alwin change the location at last minute.”
To deliberately mess with me. He had that much sway here. Or he did via his mother. I ground my teeth. Fresh warnings about Glorian and the council not needing to know about me—like…about my fears and dislike of the water—hit hard. I fisted my hands at this proof. Ethel was right. They were too interested in me already.
Sabine smirked. “Guess he really did want to get the upper hand over you and your grades. Like you’d said that one night.”
I gave her a no, really face.
“But he lost t
his time.” Now a wide grin spread on her face.
“How so?”
“You aced all your classes.”
When? I’d been drugged for the last twenty-four hours. And she was happy about that? Since when did she ever care about my grades? She hardly cared about her own!
She shrugged. “Suthering said they waived the remainder of your tests since you’ve been such a ‘stellar’ student all year long.” A sarcastic scowl curved her lips, and that was more like the twin I knew.
“I’m staying?”
She nodded. “You’ll be an Olde Earth sophomore.”
What did I say? Challenge accepted, y’all.
“Now, what, then? We go home for the summer and then fly back out here?”
Her face fell into a signature glower. “I said you would be a sophomore.”
Me. Ah. She wasn’t included.
“Mr. Suthering won’t waive my final grades. Instead of letting me go home for the summer break, he says he’ll give me another chance. I have to go to summer school and prove I can pass.”
Laughter tickled at the back of my throat.
“Summer school, Layla.”
I gnawed on my cheek. “Bummer.”
Her stare bore a hole through me. “Come on! That’s so not fair. Two more months of classes to catch up and I can stay for the next year.”
“Well, if you paid attention at all you might be closer to passing.”
She slapped her hands to the mattress. “I almost drowned!”
Yeah, I was there.
“Shouldn’t I get some sympathy?”
Hmmm…not really.
“Hey, you owe me.”
I huffed. “How?”
“I had your back about that weird bloody sweatshirt thing.” She jabbed a finger at me.
She had. For purely selfish reasons, but still, she had.
After a moment of tense silence, I gave in with a growl. “Fine! What tests do you have left?”
“Physics—”
I groaned. Sabine was so not good with abstracts.
“And Latin.” She winced like it had a bad aftertaste.
I reached for her messenger bag and pulled out her tablet.
“Right now?”
I slanted her my version of a don’t even attitude. “It’s not like you have a lot of time.” And you’ll need every second.
Discovery: Olde Earth Academy: Year Two Page 1