Chapter 25

25

Ireacted without thinking—pure adrenaline—moving to the side and slamming my fist into the man’s throat. I kicked out with my leg and hooked his right knee with my left.

The guy went down. I had the element of surprise on my side because he hadn’t expected me to retaliate with any physical force. Scream, probably, but not try to break his nose off his face.

Before he hit the floor, I spun around, going for the doors now closed behind us. My fingers clamped onto the metal handle and jerked it forward.

It cost me seconds I didn’t have, not with the space too small to maneuver. Especially when the doors wouldn’t open.

Locked.

The man caught me around the ankle and jerked. Instead of giving in to the motion, I stubbornly planted my left leg and mule-kicked with the one he held, hammering my foot into whatever part of him I could reach. His chest, as it turned out. He tried to pitch forward, to adjust his weight and balance to avoid the kick. Then swung his arms up to grab me around the midsection.

I heard his labored breathing. Kept one hand on the door and reached back to knuckle-punch him with the other.

Everything stopped when his teeth bit into the side of my thigh. Ripped clean through the fabric of my skirt and sliced through skin, puncturing deep enough to draw blood.

I screamed then, wincing at the flash of pain. In the darkness, I couldn’t see well enough to figure out my next move, not against the muscular build of the man attacking me.

A sweep of his hand knocked me to my knees and I landed hard. Bones jarred. My teeth clacked together. He moved with me without releasing his teeth from my thigh.

My head pounded and my ribs ached with every inhalation, pushed down on my stomach. Luckily, nothing seemed to be broken.

I cupped my hands together in front of me, muttering an incantation under my breath. I didn’t have a chance of winning with brute strength. Not against a wolf like this and not with my spell intact, the moon hidden behind a sky overcast with clouds. But I could use magic—somewhat—and odds were good he could not.

I twisted long enough to send the spell flying, and a blast of magic hit the man square in the chest. He stumbled back and knocked against the side of the building. I caught the flash of yellow eyes through the fabric of his mask a second before he charged forward again. I raised my forearm to shield and his teeth bit deep. Blood dripped down from the marks.

Anger warred with fear. This guy thought he could come here and use his wolf against me?

I struggled to form a second spell, one to levitate him away from me and send him flying.

I wasn’t fast enough.

With a growl, the man scooped me up. And tossed me over the balcony.

The night air buzzed around me on my way down, down.

There wasn’t a chance to think. Not a moment for the full realization of my fall to reach me. I hit the ground hard, only one story but enough to hear a bone snap in my arm accompanied by a fierce rush of fire. My head bounced off the grass and for a moment I saw nothing but black as I struggled to breathe.

The clouds shifted. The full moon gazed down at me, a familiar sight I’d been avoiding since I arrived at the academy. And my spell broke in an instant.

But after the blow to my head I didn’t have enough logic left to realize the full implications. The scent of my own blood filled my nostrils and my stomach churned. I couldn’t do anything other than struggle to draw air into my body, struggle to stay conscious. I lost the fight soon enough and the sounds of footsteps came closer and closer.

He’s here to finish the job…

* * *

I was alive.

I thought I was alive, anyway. The world slowly came into focus with a swell of agony that brought my jaws clenching together. Soon reality shifted and merged into familiar blue skin I hadn’t seen since my first night at the academy.

Nurse Julie blinked at me, her gangly arms hanging at her sides. Not the killer, then.

“Oh, you’re awake.”

She unwrapped the blood pressure monitor with a snap of Velcro and set it down on her station.

“Where…” I tried to say. My teeth felt loose and I struggled to form the words, running my tongue over my lower teeth to check for anything shattered there. The last thing I remembered was lying on the lawn, expecting death.

“Don’t try to talk right now, Tavi, just take it easy,” she warned. “Another student saw you fall off the balcony and immediately ran to get me. I brought you here.”

I sat up with enough force to send another swell of pain rushing to my head and I nearly howled, pushing my palms against my eyes to keep the world from spinning.

“Miss Alderidge, did you not hear me say to take it easy? Do you have a death wish? You plummeted over a balcony, broke your arm, and gave yourself a pretty nasty little concussion,” Nurse Julie said stiffly. Her wings rustled in agitation. “Do. Not. Move. Stay down until I can get you checked out. Now hold still or I’ll be forced to strap you to the table.”

I laid my head back down on the thin pillow, blinking through the pain as Nurse Julie took my arm and prepped it for IV.

“Oh, God!” I bolted upright a second time, ripping at the IV needle.

“Miss Alderidge, calm yourself!”

I was in direct overhead light. With Nurse Julie administering pain medication through the IV. And my last potion spell had broken while I was out cold.

I was both halves of myself, thoroughly, without the spell to protect me. Which meant she saw my true nature and still treated me, had probably taken my blood and tested it to make sure …what?

I panicked. The nurse knew. The jig was up. I was going to be kicked out of school.

“I have to go,” I managed, swinging my legs over the side of the table despite the mild concussion and the dizziness that would have brought an elephant to its knees.

Get out, get out, get out. I had to get out of here and quickly, before the Headmaster came for me, to send me back to Uncle Will.

To send me back to Kendrick.

“Miss Alderidge, please.” Strong hands fell on my shoulders to steady me. “There’s no need to worry. Try to relax.”

It took me the longest time to recognize her smile. Even longer to know what it meant and why she was looking at me with such focus. In comfort, in camaraderie.

“You’re not the only one who can go furry in this joint. Oh, stop looking at me. No more despair on your pretty face,” she continued with a waggle of her brows. “That’s how you get wrinkles. I won’t be telling anyone unless I want to out myself, too.”

She wouldn’t…wait, what?

I slowed my hysteria enough to lean back and take her in for the first time. The blue skin, the wings. And…a werewolf shifter? The two pictures didn’t compute to me.

“I don’t understand,” I said stupidly.

“Oh, honey. You think you’re the only one in the world looking for a way out of bad circumstances?” Nurse Julie sighed, drawing over her wheeled stool and placing it so she and I were closer to eye level. “I know all about pack relations and the strict guidelines placed on females. Trust me, I know.”

“But you don’t look like a shifter,” I tried to tell her, wincing when she took my non-broken arm and ran some gauze soaked with disinfectant over the wounds. They would heal soon enough. Once I got my strength back and some food in my stomach.

“You mean the wings? The skin?” She shrugged her shoulders and those wings rolled out to their full length, nearly touching each wall and reflecting the light in shades of rainbow brilliance. “Yes, they were a gift from my father before he ran off. Some species of Fae are notorious lotharios. He was one of them, and he left me with my mother, never to be seen again. There really aren’t a lot of options for females in the pack, especially for someone like me, because the blue skin isn’t something I can will away with magic. The wings I can make appear and disappear whenever I please, at least. My mother and I had to go to some crazy lengths to find a potion strong enough to hide my skin color.”

A snap of her fingers and the wings disappeared in a whiff of smoke. Another snap and they appeared again.

I thought of Barbara, the unorthodox apocalypse-prepping witch with her snapping fingers. Asking her for a potion like mine seemed small in comparison to finding a way to change the color of your skin. What had Nurse Julie or her mother promised to get the spell?

“How did you get here? I mean—” I cut myself off, shaking my head and instantly regretting it. I really shouldn’t be moving.

Nurse Julie smiled at me. Kindly. Openly. “It’s not prying, really. I came from a pack in Iowa. Most packs operate on an old, outdated traditional patriarchy. There are too many rules oppressing women and no one willing to make the necessary changes. Especially for those of us who are seen as less than because of our bloodline. And women. Don’t get me started. And they all hate halflings, whether you’re half human or half something else, anything else. You want to hear my story?”

“Yes, please,” I managed.

She finished addressing the cuts and abrasions on my free arm. They would more than likely heal in a few hours. “I’ll share mine if you share yours, young lady. My only request, if you will. But…let’s see if I can sum this up for you.” Julie slapped her knees, her attention turning inward, then said, “My mother wanted the best for me, truly, but the decision wasn’t hers to make. Once I reached a certain age, my alpha made a match he thought would benefit both me and the pack. It wasn’t his fault. He didn’t know about me, about my dual nature. My mother made sure to keep my half-Fae nature a secret otherwise I would have been killed on the spot. The prejudice extends to both sides, you see.”

“Yeah, so I’ve learned.”

She paused, drawing in a breath. “I didn’t want the match. Why would I want to tie myself to a man who, if he knew the truth of who I was, would hate me? Would make it his business to ruin my life and maybe even kill me? I was desperate to get out. I would have attacked anyone who came at me. I ran. I ran until I realized. I didn’t know where I was going and I had no other options available to me. I didn’t even say goodbye to my family.”

“You found yourself here,” I supplied.

I watched her gather the dressings for my broken arm, keeping it contained to a soft cast until the bone could reset on its own.

“It seems most who are lost eventually find themselves on the doorstep of the Halflings Academy. Out in the open, we are sitting ducks. There are too many weapons pointed at us. Now, I wish I’d slowed down enough to think it through. I haven’t seen my family in many, many years and I miss them greatly. But if I go back, I would not be welcome. Odds are good I’d still be killed on the spot.”

“You’ve never gone back?” I asked. “Not even once to see your mom?”

“No, I haven’t. I miss my mother dearly but I never want to go back. I imagine you did the same thing I did.” Nurse Julie shot me a look from under her brows. “You packed up and you bolted, for whatever reason I’m sure you’ll tell me about. I live at the academy and I love my life here. I’ve managed to work the magic to completely suppress my shifter side while I’m here. I’m sure you will find your new life too, in time.”

We sat in silence for a moment, her staring at me and me staring at my hands. She had found a way to suppress her shifter side fully? I wondered how she did it. If maybe her distinct Fae heritage gave her some kind of edge the rest of us hadn’t discovered yet.

I told Nurse Julie the barest minimum about my story, an eerily similar echo to the one she’d told me. I kept Kendrick’s name out of it in case she’d heard of him. And when we were done, she stood, gathering up the IV and tapping the vein in my arm. The needle slipped through the skin and she wrapped it with gauze and tape to keep it in place.

“Your fated mate doesn’t know where you are?” she asked.

I shook my head, the movement tiny. “No. And if I do everything right, he never will.” Then swallowed a scream when she jostled the soft cast.

“Sweetheart, your arm is broken. You landed pretty hard on it and the radius is snapped in the middle. There are some cuts from the scuffle and I treated those, set the arm. While you’re here, no one will be able to come in and see you. Let your wolf nature heal the rest. Bones take a little bit longer to heal without magic.”

“Yes, I know. Thank you.”

“There’s more.” Her eyes darted around, looking everywhere but my face. “It’s disturbing. I wasn’t sure I should tell you—”

“What’s the matter?” I interrupted. “What is it?”

“You have bites on your body. Werewolf bites.”