Spirit of Fae Academy

by Kendal Davis

  “Fine. You have my permission to teleport. And I will do the same, to leave the Academy.”

  “Is that why you came down here? You wanted one last look at what earth magic can do here? You can be a part of it, Alder. Stay.”

  “If I stay, the recriminations for my involvement in eternal evil will be more than you know.”

  “We’ll fight together.” Her eyes were flashing with fire.

  “I’m going to teleport to the treetops, to the land of the mists.” It hurt to tell her, but she had to know. There would be no point in trying to find me later.

  “You can’t,” Ciara gasped. “You yourself told me that the fae can never teleport anywhere near there, as you wouldn’t be able to know if you would appear directly inside the mist.” She paused, sending me a searching look. “No.” Her lips were tightly pressed together, her head shaking back and forth. “If you do that, you will lose your magic. They say it is forever.”

  I heaved a sigh. “It isn’t that long, actually. I’ve done it before. I was there, in a life of limbo for many years. It is because my body was trapped there once before that I was able to send my essence to inhabit the form of a mortal man. So I could see you.”

  Her eyes were clouded with confusion. “Your body was in the mists while your spirit was in the mortal world? I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

  “It is an old trick,” I said slowly. “But it comes at cost. I left my body while I traveled, and it was there in the treetops as an empty shell. I thought it would be safe there, but my physical form’s very emptiness was a boon for me. It was for that reason that I became the fae who would have earth power, fated to be your mate.”

  “Did you know that would happen?” She sounded more curious than suspicious.

  “I hoped. Hellebore and I both hoped.” She raised her hands, fire massing between them. Would she strike me down in jealousy? I had to tell her all of it. “We hoped it for different reasons, of course. The Queen and I have never been on the same side, I swear. She wanted to grow you into a resource for her own power. I wanted more than anything to be with you because I already loved you.”

  She relaxed, showing me she was at least considering believing me. “And it worked. You were there to be the vessel for the earth magic I released into the world.”

  “But I have caused nothing but trouble. You’ll remember that I told you the spirit of the castle came there to try to free me when she sensed that earth magic was returning to the castle. She knows it belongs here, and my own powers with it. And the result of that was that she was caught in the mists and the castle nearly fell.”

  “But it did not,” Ciara answered briskly. “We all have regrets. And it’s a bit creepy to hear that you were...um...spying on me when I still lived there. But I won’t let you go. You can’t do this.”

  “There is no other choice. I cannot serve both you and the Queen. And the truth is that she has the prior claim to my oath.”

  Ciara was levitating now, her feet several inches off the ground as she thought. “There’s a way. I know it.” She idly created balls of fire as she considered the problem, then ice, building one up to crush the other. It was not unlike the way Hellebore manipulated the world of her own birth. I waited, transfixed by her beauty and her elemental power.

  Finally, she was still. She let her arms fall and the magic fade from her. She drew herself up to her full height, and sent a vine of the darkest green toward me. She meant to catch me for one last kiss, and I would gladly do that.

  For she had to have seen it. There was no alternative.

  She pressed her lips to mine. Then she told me what she’d settled on as a solution. It turned every power we had on its head.

  Ciara stepped back from me, letting the vines loosen. We were both satisfied to pretend that I could have freed myself, although we both also knew it was not true. Her smile was tentative as she felt within the pocket of her plaid skirt.

  “I brought the golden bracelet with me. You told me once that it was blocking your magic. I think I understand what it can do.”

  “No, you can’t possibly. It is an ancient and terrible artifact.”

  “Yes, it is both of those things.” She was relaxed now, and almost smiling, a strange calm of total certainty illuminating her. “And I can use it to kill an eternal being, can’t I?”

  “Ciara, you don’t understand.” I was confused now. “Queen Hellebore is not eternal. She’s a mortal, just like you.”

  Ciara met my eyes fearlessly. “I don’t mean that I’ll use the bracelet’s power to kill the Queen. I shall use it to kill you.”

  19

  Ciara

  My words hung in the air as Alder watched me with a stunned expression. He had resisted our bond for so long, and then when we claimed it, I gained his trust. I was sure I had. The burly man whom I’d thought was harsh and uncaring was anything but that. Alder had come to love me and treasure our bond so much that he was willing to give up his own life to leave the Academy and keep me safe.

  I would not accept that.

  His eyes were shining with suppressed emotion. There was no way he would protest what I’d just suggested. “I understand, Ciara,” he said hoarsely. “This is the best way. If I am gone forever, then there will be no way for the Queen to use me against you.” He bowed his head, honoring me with his acceptance of my decision.

  “For goodness’ sake,” I exclaimed. “Don’t you even want to hear the plan I’ve come up with?”

  He met my eyes squarely. “I don’t need to. You’ve come to the perfectly sound conclusion that I am a traitor to all. I’ve freely admitted that I swore fealty to the Queen as her Assassin before I ever met you and felt our bond. This is the best way to end it all.”

  I cocked my head as I watched him. His broad shoulders were not slumped in defeat, but rather strong and steady as he set out on this plan to protect me from evil. “But what about me? How well do you think I could ever live without you?”

  He closed his eyes at the pain of my question. “There will be another earth fae. The world seeks balance. You cannot be the only one.”

  “And you think I would just take up with him instead of you?” I was more confused than combative. “Our bond is made to be eternal. What happens when a fae dies?” I closed my lips in frustration, for of course that never happened.

  He still sought to teach me, even at the end. “It is true that the fae are eternal. But there are some who, when they are very old, decide to leave this plane of existence and go to another. It is not death, but rather a completion of one’s work here.” He lifted a hand to take mine, then stopped himself. “When that happens, their bonded mate does not take another,” he admitted.

  “Then I was right,” I said softly. “What we have could never, ever be replaced.” Then I narrowed my eyes at him. I didn’t think this would work if he knew what I had in mind. His personal honor was tied up in his oaths with the most fundamental magic possible.

  This time, he did take my hand. His fingers were strong as they encircled mine. He did not speak, as there was nothing left to say.

  With a lunging motion that had no room for timidity, I lifted the golden bracelet in my right hand, letting my other hand stay in his. The cool metal of the bracelet looked like brass knuckles against my fingers. It was the weapon of the Directors, of the Queen’s mortal minions. Alder had been right in saying that the bracelet blocked fae magic. As I held it, an uneasiness turned to sickness in my soul. I could no longer feel my magic, not any of my four elements. It was awful.

  I could think no longer. The plan was the only thing that mattered.

  I plunged the circlet of metal against Alder’s chest, into it. His eyes were solemn and filled with trust as I took his life. My hand pressed past his flesh, into the space he had occupied. It was as if the touch of the gold made him nothing more than a shade, a mirage of the love we’d felt for each other. As the metal pierced him, it tore away all his magic. His long-ago air power, his ra
ging earth power, even his love for me; all vanished like mist rising from him.

  I understood that the bracelet was of the same magical era as the ancient mists of the treetops. How brutal might those fae have been, to seek to destroy each other, to strip others of their eternal souls?

  Alder fell to his knees, then hit the ground. I had vanquished his fae magic completely. Without it, he was no longer an eternal being.

  He was simply dead.

  It was quiet in the garden as the morning sunlight rose, sending shafts of golden kindness to balance what I’d just done. Balance was everything in this world.

  A soft clearing of throats let me know that Rook and Owain had come from the castle behind me. They had felt the disturbance to my own magic along our bonds, and they had hurried to aid me.

  “What happened?” Rook’s voice was loud in the cool air.

  “Tell us how this came about. Ciara, we will always be on your side, no matter what.” Owain was slower to speak, focusing on what chain of events could have led to me standing over the lifeless body of my own fated mate. Nonetheless, he would not abandon me.

  But I was not finished.

  “I’m glad the two of you are here,” I said, my voice shaking. “I was counting on you showing up when you felt what was happening.”

  “Of course,” answered Rook. “But how is this possible? A fae cannot be killed. And we know you loved Alder.” His words were few, but he wanted to let me know that he understood. His resistance to the forest man had become nothing more than a jest, once he knew him.

  “And I still do,” I murmured. I dropped the bracelet back into my pocket, my fingers thrilling with pleasure at relinquishing it. Then I raised both of my hands, summoning all my magic. “Look at his wrist, you two. Do you see the mark?”

  Queen Hellebore’s five-petaled mark was still on Alder’s wrist, denoting that he was one of her sworn Assassins.

  “I’m so sorry,” Owain whispered.

  “You won’t need to be,” I said firmly. I had to believe in this if I wanted to make it happen. “Look again. Her mark is fading from him in death.” It was true. His skin gave up the bond with her, allowing the mark to fade as we watched it.

  Rook moved as if to embrace me. He was filled with sorrow for us all.

  But Owain had a glimmer of an idea that lit his eyes. “Ciara. His oath to the Queen is voided forever now.”

  “That’s right. Now check your pocket.”

  Owain blinked at me, clearly unsure what I was talking about. “For what? All I have in there is what I’ve been carrying around for weeks. Can’t let these things just sit out on my desk where somebody might mess with them.” He opened the packet to show me the greenery he’d taken from the marshlands.

  “That’s what I needed,” I breathed. “Thank you for being just the person I knew you were. I counted on you both, as I always do.”

  I used the simplest of air spells to waft the leaves over to me. Then, with both palms upturned, I summoned all four of my powers. I brought more energy into myself than I had ever dared think of before. The fires raged between my hands. Water mists filled the garden, sending their slick droplets over everything. A tornado of air swirled around me alone until I broadened it to include Alder’s prone body. Lastly, my earth powers infused the green fronds that Owain had brought back from the most secret part of the land of the fae.

  And, as Rook and Owain watched in confusion, I poured into the magic every moment I’d ever known with Alder. It worked. He was the stolid and strangely firm new butler at the Tithe’s mansion in New Arabia in the mortal realm. He was the arrogant teacher who had kissed me to show me who he was the moment he met me here at the Academy. And he was, perhaps most of all, the proud yet gentle man who would give up his life if it would make mine safer.

  And he lived.

  Somehow, mercy came from this harsh world, when I had never needed it more.

  As Alder sat up, rubbing his chest, I allowed the power to drain from me. I was weak with exhaustion and hope.

  Rook was calmer than I was. “You’ve brought him back from the dead, Ciara.”

  Owain stared at me. “The leaves. I based my whole class project on thinking that they were the thief of magic. I thought they erased fae powers, like the mist itself.”

  “I know. But I suddenly realized, when I had no more time left, that it was the opposite,” I said. “The marsh grasses are what stops the white mists from spreading beyond the forest. The mists take fae magic. The green life below allows fae power to exist. It brings it strength.”

  “It brings it back,” said Alder in a croaking whisper.

  “That it does,” said Rook as he sent me a look of admiration.

  Owain was shaking his head in wonder. “This means my entire Potions project is wrong, then. Damn.”

  “Good to see you too, man,” rumbled Alder with amusement as he stood from the ground.

  He stumbled, but made it the two steps to where I stood. When his arms encircled me, I collapsed against him. His lips covered my face with kisses.

  “I understand it all now,” he said. “Your plan and my plan. Yours was the better one,” he said with a faint smile. “Although perhaps a tad more risky.”

  I could not answer him for fear of crying. Instead, I stroked his forearm, and turned his wrist up for us all to see.

  Cleansed by Alder’s brush with mortality, the Assassin’s mark was gone. There was no five-petaled flower on his skin, not anymore. He was no longer the Queen’s man.

  He was mine.

  20

  Ciara

  It might be that everybody in the castle felt the reverberations of the phenomenal power I wielded that day. If they did, they never mentioned it to me. I wondered days later if the spirit of the castle had intervened. She had used the castle itself as a dampening field that kept my risky work a secret. The spirit had protected us all from intruders as a means of thanking us for returning her to her proper place.

  She was perhaps not an ally, but she was fair.

  She required balance for us all.

  If spirits were real, not a legend, then there were many things about the land of the fae that even the fae did not know. What else was there to learn out there?

  “Sometimes I feel like everything that my tutors ever taught me in the mortal realm was wrong,” I said plaintively as we sat in the sitting area of our tower quad suite. We’d invited all three of my men, as well as Finley, for this end of term breakfast.

  “I imagine that’s true,” observed Owain sagely. “But it keeps things interesting for you.”

  I sent him a smile even as I tossed a breakfast roll at him. It did not reach him. Instead, Finley used a current of air magic to catch it and then present it to Evana with a mock bow. He meant to make us all laugh, but the love that shone from his eyes when he looked at her was no joke. They were bonded now. It was one of my greatest enjoyments to see how happy he made her.

  Finley flourished the sweet roll as he addressed her. “To my Evana, the best fated air mate the world has ever known.” Before she could take the roll, he waved her down and looked around at us all, a teasing light in his eyes. “And to the woman who won the academic prize for second-years at last night’s end-of-term dinner.”

  We all applauded, laughing as she ate the roll with gusto. “It was a bit of a surprise last night, wasn’t it?” She was being modest now, but she had shone proudly when Headmaster Thermophilus had announced it.

  “Not a bit of a surprise,” I said loyally. “I knew I wasn’t in the running, since my Potions project was such a stupid jumble of last-minute ideas, so I don’t mind that you got it.”

  “That’s true friendship, isn’t it?” said Evana, snickering at my words.

  “Well, I knew I wouldn’t win it, either,” said Owain. He regretted the loss more than I did. “My own Potions project was so incredibly wrong that my grade tanked. Nothing could be recovered from such a mistake as that.”

  I ran my hand
along Alder’s arm, loving that he was here to sit next to me. “But I’m very glad it was wrong. We actually managed to get Alder free from the Queen.” I felt my breath catch, though, at the thought that most of the rest of us were still bound to her.

  He knew what I was thinking. “And our next task will be to free the rest of you as well. We will find a way to make it so that the Assassins are never needed again.”

  “Are they really needed now?” I turned to him in surprise. “I thought the whole thing was just about the Queen killing mortals because she is evil, or politically ruthless, or…” I slowed down, realizing that I had never questioned why Queen Hellebore even needed a force of killers. She was Queen of the fae. Could she not vanquish her enemies herself?

  Alder took in my thoughts. “She’ll be back, you know. She told you that when you’d finished the three years at Fae Academy, she would take your powers. She merely wants to wait until you learn more and develop more.”

  “I know,” I said glumly. “But as long as I’m an Assassin, I won’t be able to work against her.”

  “But you’ll be able to learn,” said Evana, practically. “We can all find out what she wants of us. That will give us a head start on bringing her down. If it is a question of you or her for the throne, we’ll all choose you.” Her staunch friendship was one of the best things I’d gained from the Academy.

  Rook grinned at us all. “We’ll be back, then. When we return to the Academy after the break, we’ll face all our problems together. The perfidious Headmaster who can’t stay in the cellars forever, the evil monarch who wants to consume Ciara, you know, just regular third-year stuff.”

  “And for me,” sighed Lily from the best seat in the room, “there will be something even worse than all that.”

  “Really? What’s worse?” Finley asked her with endearing politeness.