Chapter 5

5

Not all of you will make it through.

Gulp.

Why had Leaves said it like that? Nothing like having the Headmaster drop an anvil on your head, because I felt the pressure. Surely none of us needed a reminder of our precarious position in the school, and he’d sounded particularly delighted to tighten the noose.

I ended up lost in my own head and drowning out the rest of Leaves’s welcome-slash-warning speech. Nothing he said would be able to top the news of the exchange students and our second culling. My class had already been cut in half since first arriving.

I knew enough to expect changes to class structure this semester. Now, the first-years were being integrated into homerooms with older students, something about diversifying our outlooks and gaining insight on different perspectives. My homeroom hadn’t changed, though, so I hitched my bag of books over my shoulder, heading for that room after the assembly ended.

Grabbing a seat in the last row, I was pleasantly surprised when Mike took the desk next to mine. He flashed me a smile and let his own books drop to the desktop with a bang. For effect, I guess.

Wow, yeah, he filled out his uniform blazer nicely. I tried not to be obvious about it as I took him in, from the shoulders and tight material around his biceps to the black slacks he wore. Although we were all required to wear the same kind of outfit, Mike certainly made it look delicious. Who was I kidding—he could wear a potato sack and I would feel the same way.

I forced the lecherous grin off my face.

“Hey you,” he said easily. “You should have waited for me so we could walk together.”

“I didn’t realize you’d be joining me,” I answered.

“Oh, yeah, they shuffled me around and I ended up here. Are you ready for the competition to begin?”

I met his teasing with a soft laugh. Much better than ogling, although I found that when I got to looking at him it was hard to keep from slipping into lecherous territory.

“I should be asking you the same thing. You heard the headmaster. This is going to be a cutthroat competition. I’m not sure you can handle it.”

“I can handle it,” he insisted.

“You’re going to have to prove it to me.”

He balanced his chin on his hand, raising an eyebrow. “Oh, I look forward to it. I think this semester is going to hold a lot of surprises.”

I mimicked his posture. “Care to fill me in?”

“Nooo, you’ll have to wait and see,” he said with a tsk of his tongue.

Our playful back-and-forth banter came to a screeching end soon enough.

“My God. Oh my God. I told you it was him, Katha. Didn’t I tell you?”

I jerked up at the voice, sounding like it came from directly in front of me. Which it did. A third-year girl with bouncing black curls popped up near my desk with her attention focused completely on Mike. And when I say completely, I mean completely. Like nothing else in the room existed. She looked like she held her breath, her hands clasped to her chest. Her friend—Katha, I guessed—stood as close as humanly possible to the speaker and both sported equally adoring looks on their faces.

“Hello. Can I help you?” Mike asked politely.

I was surprised he didn’t lean back in his seat to draw away from them. Clearly neither had any concept of personal space. I had a sinking feeling if they could have jumped on the desk and snuggled him, they would have.

“Michael Thornwood, the Crown Prince of Faerie,” the first girl said with a gasp. “Here. In this room. With us.”

“In this room and in this school,” he said blandly. “Absolutely.”

Their adulation was practically palpable, nearly a stench in the air, and I narrowly avoided waving my hand to dispel it. Gross. A knot formed in my stomach.

“Can we have your autograph?” the girl asked. “Please. I mean, I know this is kinda weird but it would make my day.”

His what now? Surely my jaw dropped and my eyes widened. Neither of them paid me any mind, however. They were too busy drooling over Mike.

“Ladies, I don’t—” he began.

“We know this is probably super awkward but you’re…you’re…” Katha tried to join in the conversation but trailed off on a weak giggle. Uncaring how she’d interrupted her precious prince.

A giggle? Seriously? I watched the display like one would a car wreck. I couldn’t look away even though my gut filled with a kind of confused horror.

The first girl blushed a pretty shade of apple-red to the tips of her ears. Still pretty despite the display. “We hate to ask, but it would mean the world to us.”

Mike looked like he hated them asking as well. But good manners prevailed eventually as he blew out a breath and rewarded the girls with a simple smile. “I don’t mind. It’s fine. Do you have a pen?”

Both dug enthusiastically in the pockets of their school uniform. Both handed Mike a pen and one went so far as to slide a slip of paper across the desk toward him. Where had she been hiding it?

They didn’t know him the way I did. They didn’t see the way he politely but begrudgingly grabbed the paper and signed his name across it. They didn’t notice the tension around his eyes and mouth.

The girls left happily with prize in hand to grab their own seats, although at this point the only ones left were in the front of the class. Far away from us, I thought with savage delight.

“Wow. What is going on?” I whispered. “I didn’t realize you’d had time to start a fan club with your three weeks of vacation.” I was only partially joking.

Mike bit the inside of his cheek, lip twisting to the side as he studied their retreating forms. “I wish I knew. Somehow I don’t think it started over vacation.” This was a mutter under his breath. An embarrassed mutter.

Our homeroom teacher clicked into the room on heels resembling spikes ready to impale everything she walked on. But the shoes were the only interesting thing about her, as I’d seen from having had her last semester as well. She spoke in a monotone and was about as boring as watching paint dry. At least she gave us lots of time to talk.

A few students carried on audible conversations and Professor Iris literally gave no shits about it. She couldn’t be bothered to look up from the blackboard and the chalk writing magically without her having to touch it.

This could work, I thought. This could work nicely.

The rear of the class was filled with several exchange students sitting in on the lecture. I tried not to look at them. Tried not to let them know I was looking, at least, though my curiosity got the better of me several times.

“I wonder why they’re sitting in on our classes,” I said softly to Mike. “If they’ve already passed their own exams, then this should be boring to them. Right?”

“I haven’t a clue,” he responded. Then shrugged and shifted to cross his arms over his chest. “No one tells me anything. I’m in the dark the same way you are. Although it does seem odd.”

“Maybe we should go and introduce ourselves. I mean, if they’re going to be here for the rest of the semester, it would make sense to be friendly. And they’re sharing our homeroom.”

He didn’t turn around in his chair, his attention focused fully on the teacher standing at the blackboard. The low screech of the chalk did nothing to break up her monotonous lecture.

“Yeah, you go on,” he replied softly from the corner of his mouth. “I’m not about to tell them who I am. I have enough groupies, thanks. Anyway, I’m sure most of them have already figured it out by now.”

He gestured toward the front row of desks and the two girls trying to be inconspicuous and failing miserably. They continued to turn and stare at him with moon eyes and lovesick expressions.

I wanted to throw up in my mouth. “Maybe you’re right. We’ll have to work on your alias later,” I said.

I waited until after class to introduce myself to some of the new students. There were four of them gathered in a group near the door, chatting among themselves. Intimidating, sure, but Leaves had said to make them feel welcome.

So, I mused, this was to satisfy my curiosity, sure, but it was also me doing my part.

Sidling close to them, I kept a friendly smile on my face. “Hi. I know I speak for everyone when I say we’re happy to have you here.” I held my hand out to the closest girl, waiting for her to take it to shake. “I’m Tavi Alderidge. I’m a first-year.”

A slender brunette with eyes an electric shade of blue returned the handshake before the rest of her friends followed suit. “Zinnia,” she said slowly with a hint of an accent. “It is a pleasure.”

The rest of them introduced themselves shortly after. Shy, I noted. They all seemed terribly shy, but kindness went a long way in my book. We had no reason to be suspicious of each other. Except part of me felt…we did.

And Zinnia was clearly half elf.

“We’re fourth-years,” Zinnia’s friend Saffron stated with a small smile, peering down at me from a staggering height. Taller than almost any boy I’d seen in the school. Dark-skinned, his hair cut short, Saffron radiated a sort of patient gentleness. When you looked at him, you were suddenly reassured that everything would be all right. “Our citizenship to Faerie has been granted, though our arrival is delayed.”

“Amazing,” I answered. “I’m sure it’s a great feeling to know you are on your way to Faerie. You’ve already passed your final exams?” I knew they had; I was only making polite small talk.

The four of them nodded in unison. I wondered if their lotteries in Canada were as cutthroat as ours or if their academy had a completely different set of tests and procedures in place.

Lotteries, yeah—the term was a joke. It’s what Leaves and the rest of the professors decided to call the culling process which drastically reduced our numbers systematically. They must think the word lottery would somehow make us feel luckier for passing through to the next level.

“The exams were difficult, but in the end, we were the triumphant ones. Only thirty from our entire starting class,” Zinnia told me. “Down from nearly two hundred of those of us with Fae blood.” She grinned. “Most of us nearly lost our minds during the last round of testing.”

Were there thirty exchange students here? I hadn’t counted.

Saffron let out a low laugh. “I’m sure you’re wondering why we’re here.”

“I am, but I thought it was rude to ask,” I said with a wry smile. “I didn’t realize I was so transparent.” The weight of my bag pressed into my shoulder and I shifted it to the other side.

“Not rude at all. The portal for our school was destroyed a few weeks ago. No one knows what happened,” Zinnia said. She caught Saffron’s gaze and the two shared a long look.

“Wait a minute. Destroyed?” I asked.

“Yes, in a manner of speaking. Our only option was to come here and wait for the next ceremony. You are the closest institution with access.”

It seemed convenient to me. Too convenient. Why would their portal be mysteriously wrecked?

“What happened to your portal? Was there an accident?”

One of the other girls answered quickly for the rest of them. “It’s a mystery,” she supplied. “The elders have no answers for us. The only course of action was to send us to this academy.”

“I gotcha.”

I totally didn’t.

The five of us spoke for another few moments before I felt a tug on my sleeve from Mike telling me it was time to move on to our next class. I hadn’t even realized he stood there waiting for me. I said goodbye to Zinnia and the rest and turned down the hallway with Mike at my side.

His groupies were nowhere near us but I could feel their eyes on our backs. They’d better keep their distance. My inner wolf may not be fully in control, thanks to my potion, but I still felt her beneath the surface, lurking. Watching. Marking them as competition and wanting to bare her teeth in retaliation.

You will not take what is mine.

Except, I tried to remind her, Mike didn’t belong to me.

“You make some new friends?” Mike asked.

I nodded and shuffled closer to him when the hallway became too packed with bodies. “I did,” I told him, wondering if he’d heard the conversation about the portal. He’d been close enough to eavesdrop.

He said nothing else about it and I let it drop, knowing we both had a full schedule ahead of us.

A ruined portal…

My stomach twisted, brain working a mile a minute. In my time at the academy, I’d learned to trust my intuition more and more; it had kept me alive in more than a few situations.

Things weren’t adding up to me. I knew it was only the first day, but I was determined to figure out what was really going on.

Before it took me by surprise.