by Cara Wylde
Morningstar had that glint in his eyes. I’d seen it before, the day he’d cornered the Council into making him Headmaster. His features were starting to shift. The pale, smooth skin on his cheeks and jaws started thinning, showing the bones beneath it.
“The Council…”
“They won’t!” His booming voice filled the room. “They put me in charge, and I will use whatever methods I deem fit to get this pathetic generation of Grim Reapers back on track, back on the straight and narrow, after two wasted years!”
“Father, you’re not…”
Thinking straight. I wanted to say he was not thinking straight, but he cut me off my raising his scythe and swinging it at me. I didn’t have time to duck, nor protect myself in any way. I felt the sharp point of the blade penetrate my right cheek, and I became paralyzed. It was as if everything was happening in slow motion. GC was still bleeding profusely and holding his jaw, Francis was holding Sariel back now, and Paz threw himself at Morningstar, his fingers wrapping around his scythe, trying to push him away from me. But no matter how many things were unfurling around me, nothing changed the fact that the very tip of the blade had dug a hole into my cheek and was now advancing millimeter by millimeter. And I couldn’t move, couldn’t react.
It was the strangest thing. The blade felt cold. Frozen.
When I was sure it would tear a chunk off my face, it stopped. Valentine stopped. He didn’t push any further, but he didn’t pull the blade back, either. Paz had a good grip on the handle now, but for some reason, he decided it was best not to move. They were all looking at me, at the place where the blade met my cheek. The place where the sharp tip had pierced my flesh. And whatever they saw there made their eyes widen and lungs forget how to breathe.
Then I felt it. It started to burn so wildly that tears filled my eyes and rolled down my cheeks. I gathered my strength and pulled myself away, feeling the burn of the blade as it slid out of my flesh. I stumbled to the floor, crying and gasping, and that was when the spell broke and they all started moving around me again.
“Oh my God, Mila!” Pazuzu grabbed my hands, so he could look at the wound.
“What the hell just happened?” I head GC say in a stumped whisper. “What did we just see?”
“Out!” Morningstar raged. “All of you! Out of my office now! You’ve all just lost 100 worth points today. Out!”
Francis and Sariel pulled me up. When Paz tried to fight them, yelling that I was hurt, Francis calmed him down.
“We have to go,” he whispered gently. “Now.”
Sariel took me into his arms, and I instinctively wrapped my arms around his neck.
“No! Put her down!” Paz protested.
“If you love her,” Francis tried to reason with him, “you’ll let him carry her, and you’ll move.”
My head was swimming. GC opened the door, and I saw that he was still bleeding like crazy. I didn’t understand why. He was a false god and a shapeshifter. The wound should have healed on its own by now. As Sariel carried me out, I threw a lost, confused glance at my father. He was standing in the middle of the office, and he was livid. His hand was shaking on the handle of his scythe, and his blue eyes were fixed on the blade. The blade that, as he’d said, had been whole a moment before, and now seemed to have… cracked. Thin lines spread from one side to the other, like red veins on pale skin.
“What…”
“You’re okay,” Sariel whispered in my ear. “We’re taking you and GC to the infirmary.”
“But what…”
Francis pushed Paz out of the Headmaster’s office, and slammed the door shut.
CHAPTER TEN
Something wasn’t right.
GC and I were both in the infirmary, with Francis, Paz, and Sariel pacing outside and arguing in hushed tones. GC was bleeding. I was not. In fact, my wound had knit itself closed on its own, with minimal attention from the nurse. GC, on the other hand, was having a hard time healing. The nurse said something about a potion, then rushed out of the room. Probably to get said potion.
“This doesn’t make any sense…”
“You’re telling me? It hurts like a bitch!” He was holding a temporary bandage over the gash. Half of his shirt was soaked in blood. “The only explanation is that your dear father has poisoned his scythe.”
“Then why am I fine?” I showed him my wound, which was barely a scratch now. In an hour or so, it would disappear completely.
“I have no idea, goddess,” he sighed, defeated. “And I can’t think straight… This stupid headache! I’m glad you’re okay, though. That bastard! How could he hit his own daughter?”
I thought for a long moment. It felt as if I was so close to a breakthrough… I just didn’t know what it was. Missing pieces…
“I’m glad he did,” I said. “Because now I know there’s something fishy about his scythe, and it has something to do with me.”
“Why did he say his scythe was broken and now is whole?”
“He broke it some years ago. I don’t know when, where, or how. He didn’t give me details. He just said it happened because he tried to take someone’s life when he shouldn’t have.”
“I didn’t know scythes could break…”
“Me neither.” I munched on my lower lip in deep thought. The nurse came back. She had an ancient-looking bottle which she tipped over a cotton ball. The liquid that poured out was thick and oily. “I’m going to find out.” I hopped out of the bed. “Stay here, get better. I’m going to get to the bottom of this.”
The nurse protested because she wanted to check on me again, and GC protested because he wanted a kiss. I ignored them both. I was on a mission. In the hallway, I bumped into Francis, Sariel, and Paz, who were trying to convince an Unseelie guard that yes, they were a group, but no, they weren’t conspiring against the Headmaster or whatever, they were just concerned about their friends.
“The rule says students are not allowed to gather in groups, and three is a group,” the guard said boredly. “Either one of you walks away, or I will have to notify Headmaster Morningstar.”
Shit. Who should I pick? Pazuzu was my first choice, since he was my boyfriend, but Crassus was waiting for me at the end of the hall, and if he saw me with Paz, he’d tell my father. I’d had enough of stupid Morningstar for one day. Sariel or Francis?
“Sariel, would you come help me with something? It’s this case we’re studying in Anatomy of Souls, and I need a Merciful Death’s opinion.”
His jaw almost dropped. Paz narrowed his eyes at him, then looked at me for an explanation. I just smiled, nodded, and showed him my wound was healed. I was fine. He could trust me.
“Come on, let’s check up on GC,” Francis said to distract him.
I motioned for Sariel to follow me down the corridor.
“I need you to talk to Lorna.” Crassus fell in step behind us, so I made sure to whisper.
“What for?”
“Tell her there’s nothing between us and the kiss was a mistake.”
He tensed up. “Was it? A mistake?”
I sighed. “Sariel, I need her. She’s the best mage at the Academy, and I need her help. Do this one thing for me, okay?”
“Okay.” He picked up the pace and left me behind without a word. I couldn’t blame him.
I stole a glance at Crassus, wondering what was going on in that big head of his. Did he enjoy his job? How can he? My father is making him follow a twenty-year-old girl on hormones around. The Unseelie must be in desperate need of jobs if he accepted this gig.
“Is everyone all right?”
Silence. Once in the North Tower, I started up the stairs to the last floor.
“It was one hell of a party, right?” He wasn’t going to answer me, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t keep talking. “How did you guys know where to find us? The beach is pretty well hidden. The cloaking spell only failed for a couple of minutes. We should have been able to get it back up, b
ut you and your men were all over us in seconds. See? I don’t get that.”
Silence.
“We thought of everything. The plan was flawless. Something went sideways, and I don’t know what. It just bugs me, you know?” I sighed theatrically. “I should have been partying right now, not going to sleep.”
We reached my door, and I took out the key. He was going to take his place next to it and guard my room for the rest of the night. Whatever. I was used to it. It would’ve been nice to have a bodyguard in year one, when everyone was bullying me. Now, he was useless. He wasn’t there for my protection, he was there for my imprisonment.
“Good night, Crassus darling.” I loved making fun of him.
“The teleportation pins,” he said in a low, gentle voice.
I snapped around. “What?”
“Shh…” He looked around. “The walls have ears.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Yeah. Unseelie ears.”
“The teleportation pins were provided by the Council, and they can be traced. Your father asked for the Council’s permission to do just that. Every time students teleport, Morningstar knows where they’re going.”
“Son of a bitch!”
“Because you all teleported right under a cloaking spell tonight, he couldn’t tell where you were. Once the cloaking spell was down, it was just a matter of seconds.”
“I can’t believe this…”
Crassus stepped closer. He was so tall that I had to strain my neck to look him in the eyes. He didn’t seem to be lying.
“He can’t track you like that, but as long as he tracks your two boyfriends, he knows exactly where you are. He likes being in control, so there’s this one thing that annoys him to no end: he detected Apis, Eremus, Saint-Germain, and that friend of yours Hamelin teleporting from somewhere beneath the Academy back to their rooms one night. One, he doesn’t understand how they got there without using the pins, and two, he doesn’t understand where they were and why.”
Was that a grin on the guard’s lips?
“You’re welcome.”
He stepped aside and took his position next to my door.
“Are you kidding me?” I crossed my arms over my chest. “You never talk to me, you never tell me things. Why now?”
“You’re welcome, Mrs. Morningstar. Just go to bed.”
“Oh no, I’m not dropping this. Why? Not that I don’t appreciate your help, but I need to know if you’re for real. You could be working for him, and your new mission could be called ‘confuse the hell out of Mila’. He has the money to pay you, after all.”
“He doesn’t. The Unseelie are very expensive. I’m still waiting on my last month’s payment.”
“Huh. Oddly, that makes more sense than if you told me you’re suddenly my friend.”
He shrugged. “No money, no work.”
I laughed. “Is he aware of that?”
“It’s in the contract. I didn’t feel like reminding him when he told me he’d pay me later but I needed to keep doing my job like nothing happened. I’m not breaking any rules.”
“Indeed. Well, thank you, Crassus. If I had any money, I’d hire you myself.” I winked at him and went into my room.
Corri attacked me with enthusiastic squeals and tiny hugs. My nose was the only thing she could comfortably hug, though, and her pixie dust, or whatever she had on her wings, made me sneeze half a dozen times.
“I saw everything, Mistress!”
“You did? How?”
She looked at me as if I’d grown a second head, and said second head was quite stupid. “Magic.”
“Right.” I plopped on the bed and took out my phone. A bunch of pictures with GC’s face covered in sticky goo, then some more of his wound finally healing. The disgusting potion had worked. I typed a message quickly, then speed-dialed my mom.
“I’m so sorry! Your father is so, so scary.” The pixie’s eyes widened comically. “He could have killed you!”
“I don’t think so, actually.” It was ringing.
“How so?”
“Let’s find out.” My mom answered, and I put the call on speaker, so Corri could hear too. “Hi, Mom! Is Dad there?”
Once she got him on the phone, I told both of them what had just happened in Morningstar’s office. How he’d hurt GC, how he’d attacked me too, and how the blade of his scythe started cracking ever so subtly in contact with my skin. There was something there, and I just couldn’t figure it out. It was on the tip of my tongue… The truth. The truth about how he’d broken his scythe the first time and gotten a new one.
“If you know something, anything… Dad, you have to tell me. Because tonight… I think I almost destroyed Valentine’s scythe. It went right through my cheek, but instead of hurting me, it hurt itself.”
A sigh. Silence. Then another sigh.
“Err… Dad, I don’t speak the language of sighs and grunts. Use your words.”
“Mila, I don’t know what to say.”
It was so obvious that he knew something! This man could drive me insane! I squeezed my eyes shut and counted to ten. Getting mad and yelling at him would’ve only made things worse.
“How about the truth?” I suggested in the least sarcastic voice I could muster. “After all this time, I think you can finally tell me the truth. You knew about Morningstar way before the Academy. You knew he was a Grim Reaper, you knew he was my real father… How? That’s all I’m asking. Tell me how.”
“Not over the phone.”
“Seriously?” I’d told them about the new rules already. I usually talked to my mom twice a week, or so. “Yes, over the phone. Or send me an e-mail! You know I can’t leave the Academy.”
“I’m not asking you to come home. I’ll meet you in Salem next week. Monday okay? I can fly in, rent a car…”
“No, not okay. Monday is field trip day. We’re going to visit the Seelie Court.”
“The… what now?”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s a pocket universe… Fairies… Not like Corri. Tall, beautiful fairies who live in a land where it’s always spring or summer.”
“You lost me.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. “Let’s make it Wednesday. I’ll try to sneak out after curfew.”
“You’ll get in trouble.”
“I’m already at minus fuck-knows-how-many worth points. But if it makes you feel better, I’ll make sure I won’t.”
Since when did Stepan Lazarov care if I got in trouble? Our relationship had changed, but it was hard for me to forget (or forgive, for that matter) everything he’d done to me. Maybe, if he helped me this time, I’d agree to consider some of his sins washed.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
When Professor Maat first told us in Geography that the various pocket universes strewn around our universe were much more accessible than Heaven and Hell, I was equally shocked and excited. Why had no one told me there were portals everywhere? Why hadn’t I read it in any book? Fairies, goblins, dwarves – they all lived in small pockets attached to our world, and if one was in the right place at the right time, it was fairly simple to cross into one of them.
Fays were of two kinds: Seelie and Unseelie. That didn’t mean the first were good and the last were evil, or anything. They looked different – the Seelie were tall, slender, with fair skin and light hair, – they had different traditions and liked different things, but in terms of morality, they were just like all the other supernaturals. Some were decent, others were cruel and petty. The Seelie lived in eternal spring and summer, and loved the arts. The greatest painters the world had seen were, in reality, Seelie. Rembrandt, Monet, Dali… Yep. Seelie. The Unseelie lived in eternal fall and winter, had dark skin and dark hair, and were more interested in the art of war and all that it implied – various methods of combat, weaponry and strategy, but also diplomatic affairs. When the supernaturals in our world needed a diplomat, they hired an Unseelie. When they needed a soldier, they hired an Unsee
lie.
The field trip to the Unseelie Court was scheduled for next week, and I couldn’t wait to see Crassus’s homeland. For now, I was having a rather great Monday with my guys, since the Unseelie guards weren’t allowed on Seelie territory. My father had, of course, insisted they accepted Crassus at least, but the Seelie queen wouldn’t hear of it. The rivalry between the Seelie and the Unseelie was deep and old, and as childish as it sounded to literally everyone else, they took it seriously. Basically, the idea was that they could never decide which was better, – art or combat, – and who was of more use to the world.
We found a portal on the very grounds of the Academy, deep in the woods. The Seelie Court was accessible through a certain type of tree called the Fay’s Alder. It had plump, serrated leaves, and long catskins that were colored pink in the daylight, and sparkled with fairy dust at night. Professor Maat took us to the tree at 12 PM sharp, and we waited with bated breath. At exactly 12 and 12 minutes, the air around the tree started shifting and shimmering, and when Professor Maat pushed her hand through it, it disappeared inside the tree. One by one, we walked through the Fay’s Alder into the first pocket universe we were going to explore this year, leaving the chilly October air behind, and embracing the warm sun of spring.
Yes, it was spring at the Seelie Court, and as we were getting ready for winter, they were getting ready for summer. What a perfect world to live in!
“Let’s behave,” I whispered to GC and Pazuzu. “Maybe the queen likes me, and then I can spend my vacations here.”
GC laughed, Paz hit him in the ribs, and I realized I was wasting my breath. I picked up the pace and caught up with Francis. He was always super well-behaved, so maybe some of his politeness would rub off on me.
“How’s Sariel?”
He shrugged. “You know, as usual.” He threw me a side glance. “You’ve been showing a lot of interest in him lately.”
“I’ve just found out he lost his wings. I think it makes sense to be concerned about him. Aren’t you?”
“He’ll live.”