Chapter 23

23

Michael Thornwood might be a full Fae, true. His blood didn’t make him better than me, and it certainly didn’t entitle him to treat me like I didn’t matter, like I was a piece of trash.

I knew everyone in the first year was my competition. I didn’t need a reminder. Not from him.

He ignored me for the rest of the day. Then the next. Eventually, a week later, I’d had enough. I definitely didn’t need him blowing hot and cold with me. We’d been through too much together for him to act in such a petty way.

And yet even with all the bitterness and jealousy smeared across his face, he was still handsome. He still stirred my heart.

Boys! What could you do about them? They were impossible to understand on a good day and even more impossible on a bad one. Mike must be having several bad ones in a row, deciding to take his stress out on me. On the one person who wanted nothing more than to stand beside him as a partner.

Yeah, wishful thinking there.

I stalked to the library after my last class of the day, still fuming a week later from what he’d said to me. Well, fine. If Mike wanted to act like a jerk and ignore me because I’d done better than he had on our tests, then he could be a jerk. I was better off without him, especially if he continued to act like an envious asshole.

Studying alone didn’t make a difference to me and I definitely didn’t want to see Mike right now. Not after his behavior. I slammed my books down hard at my usual table, loud enough to earn a glare from the librarian. She raised a spindly green finger to her lips, wings fluttering behind her.

Sorry, I mouthed to the librarian before I turned my back on her.

Melia’s story about the royals had stuck in my head as well, playing on a looped repeat. I couldn’t stop thinking about the king’s odd behavior, the way no one had seen the queen in public, and Mike’s unexpected enrollment at the Halflings Academy despite his full Fae blood.

Did Mike’s reaction have something to do with how he’d been raised in the palace surrounded by servants ready to bow to his every whim and desire? Was he just a spoiled brat? He’d been given everything he wanted his entire life.

Jealous much?

I shook my head. It wasn’t my problem either way. His reaction belonged to him and deep down probably had nothing to do with me.

Try telling my subconscious.

None of it added up, because I’d seen how sweet Mike was with me and with others in our class. He was a good guy deep down no matter what happened with his father. Or with me in this current situation.

I’d grown up surrounded by wolves. I knew shifter culture inside and out because I’d been hiding among them since my father’s murder. Yet what did I really know about the Fae? Enough to fudge my way into this school and enough to pass my exams, apparently, but not enough to make a concise judgment call about one of their kind.

Enough to earn the top spot grade-wise, a snarky voice said inside my head, and slaughter the competition.

About the intricacies of Fae culture, I was ignorant. It was a huge piece of me left to shrivel and die and no amount of memorization for tests could take the place of cultural immersion. Uncle Will and I had needed me to tamp down everything about my Fae nature in order to fit in with the pack. In order to survive, get them used to my unique scent so they wouldn’t ask questions. Weird enough I’d showed up at age six and no one mentioned my parents.

Now, it seemed, the tables had turned.

Instead of studying, as I knew I needed to do to keep my top spot, I grabbed as many books as I could carry about the royal family and the history of Faerie, those I hadn’t tapped during the first round of examinations. These books were older, heavier. Like the amount of knowledge inside added to their weight.

I blew the dust off of a few and wondered if I should be handling these without gloves.

After a few hours, my eyes blurred and burned to the point where it felt like I’d rubbed salt in them. I hadn’t been able to find much on the family beyond the perfunctory information I already knew. Names and some dates and awards the king had doled out to loyal subjects. I found nothing about the politics governing the court and nothing about the odd public disappearance of the queen at events she would be expected to attend.

When I asked the librarian about any updated texts, she sent me a withering glare before hissing out how we had one of the finest selections of books on the royals in the country.

Strike two for me today.

I sighed, stretching my arms out across the table, fingertips brushing against the last volume I’d grabbed.

Myths and Legends of Ancient Faerie.

It might be worth a try. Why not? One last book then I’d call it a day.

My fingers flipped through the leather-bound volume without really settling on a page. There were old drawings done in black-and-white ink, most of the pages faded around the edges. Monsters and creatures. What were the Fae afraid of…clearly some kind of demon, if the illustrations were any indication, demons with fangs and fur and death in their eyes?

I scooted closer and leaned until my nose nearly touched the page. The knowledge knocked around in my brain before settling with a clang. My stomach surged once before dropping hard.

Not demons, no. Wolves. Beasts walking on two legs and donning the skin of humans. Skinwalkers or shifters, I wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter. These were the evils, the terrors stalking innocent Fae for no good reason.

I flipped to the next chapter and stopped at the scrawled script next to a woodcut of a wolf howling at the moon.

“The Faerie Prophecy.” Author unknown; first published by Oxana the Sightless during the Age of the Red Dawn.

Hmm, interesting. I’d read somewhere how King Ty’s reign began around the same era, though no one knew for certain, the date merely an approximation. The Age of the Red Dawn, jeez. Who came up with these names?

I leaned closer still to make out the fading words and mouthed along with them.

At breaking light of black moon morn

A shifter child shall be born

An innocent and pure of heart

Born to rip the Fae apart

Born to rip the Fae apart

A wicked end, downfall’s start

And falling into endless night

Shall bathe the blood with sweet delight

There was more to the text, but goose bumps rose on my skin and I slammed the book shut, my eyes burning from squinting too long. I focused on getting my breathing in check. A shifter child…

Now I understood, in part, why the Fae hated shifters. If any of them put stock in this “prophecy,” then they believed a shifter child would tear apart their cozy world. They were skeptical of all shifters because of it, and generations of fear had bred a deep hatred of my kind.

Fairy tales, the same snarky voice said loudly in my head. I couldn’t get her to shut up. It would be ridiculous to hate an entire people because Oxana the Sightless had a vision thousands of years ago.

Still, the reading rocked me. My fingers trembled as I put the book back on the shelf where I had found it. Flashing a weak smile to the librarian on my way out, I made my way down the hallway and into the dim hush of night.

I needed air.

I should have left the book alone instead of trying to find information. It’s not like I didn’t have anything else going on, more important and pressing issues to tackle.

But what did it mean, a “black moon morn”? I wondered as I walked. The words stuck with me. Could it have meant an eclipse? Didn’t most prophecies reference an eclipse? It seemed to be a common element in all cultures.

The whole thing just left a bad taste in my mouth and I wanted to forget everything I’d read. It was stupid to worry about, really. I’d found the poem in the middle of a book on myths and legends. It wasn’t real.

It’s not real.

Shuffling alone through the chilly night—thankfully there was no moon at all on this night, therefore no threat from moonlight—my mind turned back to thoughts of Mike. As usual. Mike and the prophecy, Mike and the dead students. Mike and the prophecy and dead students and a werewolf detective—

Footsteps sounded behind me. My ears twitched, noticing the sound, and when I turned around to see who was walking, there was no one there.

“Hello?” I called out.

The wind picked up around me but there was nothing on the breeze to give me any information, no scent carried to me. Not that I could do anything with my senses dulled by the potion spell.

Had I imagined it? I wondered if it was because of the potion or because I was finally losing my mind and seeing things. Or rather hearing things.

If I still had my wolf senses, I would be able to know one way or the other. I’d be able to take care of myself if there truly were someone following me. Now, I couldn’t afford to take any chances.

Something snapped behind me. I ran.

The books I’d checked out were heavy in my arms and weighed me down to the point where I thought about ditching them. Then I heard the pounding of heavy boots gaining on me.

Over my shoulder, I caught a glimpse of a man in black running after me. Real, very real! My fear skyrocketed until I could taste it, like licking the inside of a copper pipe. I made the split-second decision to duck into the nearest doorway. I didn’t realize until I was inside: I’d chosen the one hallway I’d tried to avoid my entire duration at the academy.

The hallway lined with mirrors.

Dammit!

I had nothing to cover my face, nothing to hide my reflection. The spell broke the moment I glanced over and saw myself reflected in the mirror. Again, it was like being doused with icy water. The wraith staring back at me from the glass had my long auburn hair but her eyes were wide, dark. Terrified. Her skin looked bleached to the color of bone and her shirt stuck out at odd angles, hanging loose on her thin frame.

At least I knew, as soon as the spell failed, I’d be able to use all of the resources available to my wolf half. Heightened senses, extra speed. I could let my wolf rise to the surface and do what she needed to do. No, not fight. Fighting would be a bad idea when I had so many books and clothes weighing me down, so many eyes ready to pop around a corner and see what I’d diligently hid these last few months.

I had to protect my wolf half. We had to run. We had to get away to safety and only then could we figure out our next move.

Despite the discomfort of having the spell break away, my muscles warmed, and when I widened my nostrils, I caught the scent at last.

Male. Young male. And angry. Driven in a way I could not fathom.

I had found the killer and he had me in his sights. Too bad he didn’t understand the person he now messed with. I might look small and innocent, but I packed a wallop.

Courage surged through me.

With the hour late and no one around to see me, with the man steadily gaining on me, I threw caution to the wind and ran, faster than a normal Fae. Faster than a normal human.

Shifter speed.

And my heart nearly stopped when my pursuer did the same.