by Cara Wylde
I averted my gaze and took a few steps to the side to give myself more space. He was undressing me with his eyes, and it made me feel uncomfortable. Not because I felt like he could see underneath my clothes, but because I felt like all the other students could see, too.
“I don’t think she likes humans,” I tried to stir the conversation back in the original direction. “Not from what I can tell.”
“She doesn’t like you, that’s different. But do you know why?”
I gulped, stealing a quick glance at him before averting my eyes again. There was so much lust in his intense, green orbs that I could barely breathe knowing that he was there, next to me, talking to me, giving me attention when there were so many gorgeous girls on the field, and with powers, too.
“Why?”
I was kind of curious. Why? Why did the girls hate me so much? GC was an insistent manwhore, sure. Paz obviously wanted to fuck me, too. Sariel was just… Well, I couldn’t figure him out. And Francis was… kind of nice, in fact. The girls were the mean ones. The bullies. Lorna, Pandora, Sammy, and Kitty. Every time they looked at me, chills ran up my spine, because I could almost see it in their eyes… They were constantly planning my demise.
“You’re different. Pandora knows I’ve had succubi, vampires, fays, mages, shifters, harpies…”
Harpies existed?!
“But I’ve never had a human.” He stepped closer and leaned in. I could almost feel his minty breath on my face. “She knows I’ve grown bored of supernatural girls a long time ago. What if I were to bed a human? Would I like it? Would I want more? And if I wanted more, what would it mean for her? I told you before that she is jealous. I think her hate for you runs deeper than that. She’s afraid. She’s afraid that if I get a taste of this,” he reached out and took my chin between his fingers, “I’ll never want to stop.”
Mrs. Charon’s scythe swinging between us, almost cutting Paz’s hand off, saved me. Paz scowled at her and took a step back. I blinked in shock, my hands suddenly sweaty and my bladder about to betray me. That was close! Lucky that Paz’s instincts were sharp, and he’d pulled his hand back in time.
“Mr. Eremus, Miss Lazarov… Care you repeat what I’ve just said?”
“Err…” I had no idea what she’d just said. I was pretty sure she’d been talking about scythes and how to use them, but Paz had been such a distraction that I hadn’t heard a thing. Crap. I was in trouble again!
Paz straightened his back and cleared his throat.
“You were saying that the secret is to focus on the blade and visualize how it tears through the energy field of the one whose soul we’re reaping, cutting the connection between the soul and the main transmitter.”
“And what is the main transmitter?” Mrs. Charon turned to me, her red gaze pinning me in place. Our PE professor was one scary demoness.
“Err… mmm…” I could feel drops of sweat forming at the roots of my hair. God, I’d never been caught unprepared before. Not in kindergarten, not in school, not in high school. This was a first, and it sucked.
“...rain,” Paz whispered in my general direction, trying to move his lips as little as possible. I stole a glance at him, which made Mrs. Charon cock an eyebrow and position her scythe between us. “...ain,” he tried again, but for the life of me, I couldn’t understand what he was saying. The other students started giggling, subtly at first, then louder and bolder when they saw Mrs. Charon wasn’t going to admonish them. Pandora had a satisfied smirk on her face.
“I… I’m sorry, Mrs. Charon. I don’t know.”
“The brain, Miss Lazarov! The brain is the biotech machine that acts as the transmitter between the energy field, the aura, the soul of the person – call it what you will – and the physical body. A Grim Reaper must sever that connection to reap the soul. You disappoint me, Miss Lazarov. That’s minus 30 worth points.” Then, she turned to Paz. “Ten points for you.”
She walked away. I followed her with my gaze, and when I was sure she was out of earshot, I turned to Paz. My face must have been red with embarrassment, because he could barely contain his laughter.
“What are worth points?”
“Oh, you don’t know? Dearie, did you even read your orientation manual?”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s a manual! It should have been a brochure. And no, I didn’t have time to go through all of it. I’m only halfway through.”
It was his turn to roll his eyes at me. “Worth points are like a mix of conduct grades and effort grades. You do well, they award you whatever number of worth points they feel like it. You do… not so well, or you break the rules, they take a random number of worth points away. We all start the year with 100 worth points as a reward for passing the test.”
I bit my lower lip. Great! As if going to a new, supernatural school where I was the only human wasn’t hard enough, now I also had to worry about worth points! Who’d come up with the idea to call them worth points, anyway? So, if you had a lot of them, you were worthy, and if not, you were unworthy? That could fuck with someone’s mind…
“How much do they count?”
“Oh, a lot! There are one hundred students at the Academy, and only twenty-two will become Grim Reapers after graduation. If you haven’t noticed yet, we’re all smart, and some of us have prepared for this since we were kids, hoping we’d one day get an invitation to apply to the Academy. When more than half of the students have perfect grades at the end of year three, worth points get the final say.”
“Shit. And I’m already 30 points short. Where are they displayed?”
“In the two chapels.”
“The… what now? There are two chapels?”
“One for God, one for my dad.”
I shook my head to clear it. It didn’t quite work.
“And you’re telling me now?!”
He sighed, slightly annoyed with me. I guess I had too many questions, and the whole thing had started to bore him since Mrs. Charon had stopped him from… Well, I had no idea what he was about to do before she attempted to chop his hand off.
“Read your orientation manual, dearie. I’m not your student guide.”
With that, he walked off, leaving me alone and exposed for the rest of the class. What had happened to “you’d better stick with me, so you don’t get decapitated by accident”?! Whatever. I could take care of myself. Lucky me that Mrs. Charon wasn’t someone to be messed with, and she kept the other students in check pretty well. The second the bell rang, I made a run for my room to leave my scythe before the next class. I hoped I’d have some time to find one of the chapels before Anthropology, but no such luck.
Mrs. Po was a lovely lady. She was soft spoken, always had a smile on her face, and made you feel like her class was a safe space where no opinion was wrong, and no question was stupid. She wore a beautifully colored silk kimono, and she was the first one to properly introduce herself before we started the lesson. She was born in the ancient city of Peking in China, was a Grim Reaper in her youth, and mortals used to call her Meng Po, the Lady of Forgetfulness, believing she was the goddess who, after death, made sure people forgot their life before they reincarnated in a new body and a new life. She was a false goddess, and I couldn’t be more fascinated. I looked at GC, who was sitting in the front, and for the first time, I felt like I could understand him better. I could understand where he was coming from and why he was so starved for attention. Meng Po was nobody now. The ancient Chinese had worshipped her for a while, then she’d been replaced by other gods, other figures that had captured their short attention. GC was the same. Who was he in a world where humans had moved on from the world religions? Nobody. Unless… unless he became a Grim Reaper.
Sariel, Francis, and Paz were in this class, too. Since PE, Paz had ignored me. Pandora was sitting next to him again, and they were both pretending like nothing had ever happened. That was fine. Everyone was entranced by Mrs. Po’s stories, and for once, I was glad no one was payi
ng attention to me. They hadn’t even noticed me in the back.
Anthropology was a fascinating subject. Unlike History, where we learned about famous Grim Reapers, and Mythology, where we learned about the supernaturals that mortals thought were gods and goddesses of death, Anthropology was all about studying how different cultures all over the world saw death. Religions, traditions, rituals… Ways of embracing death, or raging against it.
“Mabon will soon be upon us,” Mrs. Po said in her soft, melodious voice. “The autumn equinox is a time of balance and reflection. It is mostly celebrated by mages and fays, but I see no reason for us not to celebrate it, too. While we give thanks for the harvest, we also honor death as nature prepares to go dormant for the long winter.” She smiled almost mischievously. “Of course, I’m talking about a metaphorical death. Grim Reapers don’t go around reaping plants, bushes, and the leaves from the trees.”
It all sounded interesting until she told us what our assignment was. For Mabon, which was two weeks from now, we were to prepare something personal to share with our classmates, something from our life before coming to the Academy. There would be a celebration in the forest, and we were all expected to talk about ourselves, tell a story about who we were before we were invited to apply to the Academy, and share a hobby, or a project, or simply something that we used to do before.
I let my head fall into my hands and released a long, pained sigh. Shit. The last thing I wanted was to play the let’s-know-each-other-better game.
CHAPTER TEN
I realized that if I got to the dining hall last, when everyone was already there, I’d have to find a seat at the VDC table, then pray no one sat next to me. Or pray Lorna dined with her own cabal. That was not a healthy option. But I couldn’t go to bed without eating, either. So, I did my absolute best to run there before everyone else, sneaking out of the classroom while all the others were still closing their books and gathering their things. I ran like hell, and only stopped before the tall, open doors of the dining hall.
A few professors were there, and also some students from the Merciful Death Cabal, who had finished their classes early. Thanks to them, the servants had already started bringing the food and drinks, so I ran to the VDC table, grabbed a large plate, and piled roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, and bread on it. I grabbed a fruit, too, and I didn’t need anything to drink, since I had water in the mini fridge in my room. As I ran out again, quickly, before the students started pouring in, I almost bumped straight into a young servant girl.
“Sorry! I’m sorry!”
She looked at me, startled for a moment, then her brown eyes softened, and she smiled.
“You’re the human,” she said.
“Y-yes.” I tried to look over her shoulder. I bit the inside of my cheek, impatience making adrenaline rush through my veins. I was usually a friendly person, and I didn’t want her to think that I wanted to run the fuck away because she was a kitchen girl and not worthy of my attention, but my escape was time sensitive. Soon, my tormentors would come in through those doors, and the horrors would begin.
“Come, I know another way,” she said, and in that moment, I genuinely believed she was an angel sent from the Heavens. An angel like the ones I used to read about in romance books, not like the angels in real life. “It’s through the kitchens, and it’s far from a shortcut, but at least it’s safe.” She winked at me, and I gave her the biggest, most grateful smile I could muster.
“Thank you! You’re a godsent!”
“I’m Patricia, by the way.”
I shoved the fruit under my armpit so I could shake her hand. “Mila.”
“I know. Everyone talks about you.”
“You’re human, too?”
“No. I’m a hybrid. My mom is a succubus, and my father is a mortal. I’ve never met him.”
“Oh. I’m sorry…”
“That’s okay. It’s always been just me and my mom, and I don’t mind. He wouldn’t have been accepted in the supernatural society, anyway.”
“It’s not fair,” I said as she led me through a small, almost invisible door behind the RDC table, then down a large corridor used by the servants to bring in the food and take out the dirty dishes. “It’s your right to meet him, and they’re depriving you of it because of… I don’t know… because of their preconceptions.”
She laughed, and her laugh sounded like glass chimes in the wind. She was taller than me, with full curves and long legs, and even though she was dressed in a white robe and a huge apron, and her hair was tucked under a white cap, she was as beautiful and bright as a summer day. I couldn’t believe how such an incredible being could work in the kitchen. Apparently, the supernatural society wasn’t much different from the human one. They had their ordinary jobs, too, and someone had to do them, even though the employees were not ordinary at all.
“Who’s they?” she asked.
“I don’t know… They. The generic they. The ones in power. The Supernatural Council?”
She thought for a moment, then shrugged. “I guess. Thank you.”
I stared at her like she was the eighth wonder of the world. Which she might, just as well, have been.
“For what?”
“For saying that. That I have the right to meet my dad. I won’t go looking for him because I’m not allowed to, but it means a lot to me.”
I was speechless. We walked in silence, she opened another door, we crossed one of the many kitchens of the Academy, then she led me through a door at the back. The other servants, cooks, and cook assistants looked at me curiously, but no one stopped us or asked us anything. When we reached a hall that I actually recognized, she stopped.
“You can use this secret way from now on. No one working in the kitchens will mind.” She wrinkled her nose cutely. “We kind of hate the students and the professors here. They’re all so mighty and entitled, with egos wider than the Heavens and deeper than the darkest pits of Hell.”
I giggled. She was beautiful and funny! Too bad I wasn’t into girls.
“Thank you. I really, really appreciate it. You have no idea.”
“I do. I saw what they did to you. But you’re going to be fine, you know that, right?”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Do I? I don’t know anything right now.”
She laughed lightly and gave me a wave before going back to work. “Next time, don’t go into the dining hall at all. Just come straight to the kitchens and anyone there will fix you something.”
“Oh, wow! That’s generous… Thank you.”
I was getting suspicious now. Okay, making friends with one servant girl was not a big deal. It made sense, really. We both hated entitled pricks, so we had something to bond over. Also, after scrubbing toilets all summer, I had a deep appreciation for the working class. Supernatural or not. But she seemed like she was speaking for the entire staff when she’d said they would fix me something to eat, so I could avoid my tormentors. Did everyone here know who I was? How? Why? And why did they want to help me?
This is weird. I must be cursed. I just can’t make a friend without fearing that they’re actually planning to do something nasty to me.
I hadn’t spoken to Klaus since our first class together. I couldn’t blame him, though. With GC being all over me, and then Paz doing kind of the same, I understood why he’d want to stay away. Self-preservation. Although, he was a mage. No matter what they tried to do to him, he could defend himself. Not something I could say about myself.
I got to my room, ate half of my dinner quickly, and left the other half for later. I had two more things to do before all the others finished dinner, left the dining hall, and poured down the corridors, out into the courtyard for games or gossip, or up in the towers. I needed to get to the library and check out some books for my Mythology assignment, then find one of the chapels to see the worth scores with my own eyes. Why would they display the points in the chapels and nowhere else? Ridiculous. It made no sense. To me, at least.
Hopefully, the Holy Chapel was the closest to the north tower.
When I told the librarian the names Nergal and Ereshkigal, she immediately knew what I needed. She was an old lady, hunched and wrinkled, but I could see it in her eyes that she’d been a beauty in her youth. I couldn’t tell what she was, though, and I felt it would’ve been rude to ask. I have to find a way to recognize the supernaturals on my own. I can’t keep going around asking what they are, as if I’m asking about their favorite brand of ice cream. She assured me the four books would be more than enough for my assignment. I cringed. Honestly, I think it’s overkill, but okay. I thanked her instead, and went on my way, books in my backpack, and map in hand.
The Holy Chapel was, indeed, closer to the north tower than the Unholy Chapel. Thank God, because I don’t feel like meeting Paz’s dad so soon. Not that I actually believed Satan dwelled in the Unholy Chapel.
The place was as big as a church, and once I walked through its doors, I realized that was only one entrance. There was another set of doors right across from the ones that made the connection with the inside of the Academy, and those seemed to lead outside. I crossed the long corridor and pushed them open. My lungs breathed in hungrily, the chilly night air and the intense smell of the ocean filling my chest pleasantly. I took a couple of steps forward and saw that I was, kind of, outside of the Academy grounds. I wonder why they have two entrances. As if the chapel is not only for those living at the Academy. A few more steps, and I was standing near the edge of a cliff, the waves crashing noisily against the sharp rocks. I wrapped my arms around myself as the cold swept under my red and black uniform. Despite the bite of the mountain air as it mixed with the rumble of the ocean, I stayed like that for a while, simply enjoying the freedom. There was no one around. The students and the professors were all in the dining hall, and the servants were busy fussing over them. Or… so I thought.