“No one died.”
“But did you die shouldn’t have to be a thing.”
“It could be our thing.” He winks.
“Not exactly romantic.”
“So you want our thing to be romantic. Gotcha.”
“That’s not what I meant,” I protest.
“Warrior Babe, there is no other way for that to go. Romantic is for lovers.”
I have no words.
“I know you aren’t over him, and I won’t play second fiddle. You want me, come and get me. Until then, I’ll test your limits, let you toe the line, whatever you want, but there will be a line.”
“You have a line?”
“Yes.” His eyes glitter, not sparkling so much as looking like black glass. “You will not cause me to fall in love with you, not unless you’re going to return that love. I won’t be someone’s rebound. I’m the one who causes girls to rebound.”
“I don’t want to rebound,” I say.
“Because you want to return to him. I know. If you’re all right…”
I nod, and he flies off, but I remain there. A part of me meant that I don't want to rebound from either fairy. Who I want is becoming murkier and murkier. Sage has been talking to me a bit more since I've started to hang out with Sage more, sitting with me at lunch or dinner, but we're never alone, and it's nothing to make me feel like I'm the fairy he wants. Damon flirts with other girls, but he is single. We aren't dating. He's free and available, but there's no denying that he spends more time with me than any of the others. Can a demon be loyal, though? Commit? Not cheat?
I don’t have the same number of experiences with guys as Bay does, and honestly, I don’t want to. I want my relationships to be real and long-lasting. I don’t want to date around and date for the fun of it. Yes, I’m young, but I can’t help it. I’m a romantic at heart, and I want to find my soul mate… well, not my soul mate if Orchid’s right. Then again, yes, my soul mate, but the one I’m to marry, the one I’m to make vows to always love and never leave. The one I will spend the rest of my long life with.
I don’t want to casually date. Maybe Sage realizes that, and that’s why he’s backed off. Maybe Damon doesn’t realize it. Whichever guy I date, whether Sage, Damon, or someone else, I don’t want to have my heart broken and find out why so many rebound. I don’t want to fly from one guy to another.
And yes, Damon is crazy and reckless, and this stunt had been dangerous, but life is full of dangers, isn’t it? How we react under pressure says a lot about us, and he cut himself free and gave up the chance to skydive like a human, something he always wanted to experience to help me. I didn’t need to be saved, but he would’ve. A demon would’ve saved me. Half demon.
One thing’s for sure, Damon’s an enigma, and considering I solved a mystery last year, I do like to piece together puzzles…
Chapter 13
My wing is a little tender, but that's my only complaint, and no one can tell just by looking at it that I've been injured. What we did was pretty crazy, and if he ever decides to do it again, he can count me out. He had looked pretty peaceful with his parachute slowly lowering him toward the ground, but that terror… it almost rivaled what I felt when I squared off against Spring, and I do not want to feel that or anything close to it ever again.
One night, I finally have dinner with all of my friends. The moment we get up to fly back to our cottage, Sage approaches me.
Before anyone can say anything, Orchid corrals the others, and they all duck away without even saying goodbye.
“How rude,” I murmur under my breath.
Sage gives me a tight smile.
“What’s wrong?”
“I just thought I would see how you’re doing.”
“I’m good.” A bit curious why he’s asking, though, but I don’t bother to mention that.
“Good, good. You aren’t going to run off campus anytime soon, are you?”
My eyebrows lift. Did he find out about the skydiving?
“Why?” I ask suspiciously.
“There’s been another murder.”
“Why does everyone think I’m going to investigate a human murder?” I complain. “Wait, it was a human that was murdered, right?”
“Yes, but this time, the person was stabbed so hard through the chest that the dagger pinned them to a tree.”
I gasp. “That’s…”
“Not humanly possible? No, it isn’t.”
“Magical foul play,” I murmur, my mind racing.
“I’m worried you’re going to try to be the fairy version of Nancy Drew again,” he asks anxiously.
My breath comes out my nose, and I shake my head, staring at the ground in the hopes he doesn't see my grimace. "You have no place to tell me what I can and can't do."
He says nothing, so I look up. Sage is gaping at me.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to tell you that you shouldn’t go off campus, that you shouldn’t investigate. I just don’t… Is it really that terrible for me to not want you to get hurt?”
I bite my lower lip. Everything is so awkward between us, and it's my fault again. He's trying to be sweet, but he struck a nerve I didn't even know I had.
“Of course it’s not terrible for you to want me to be safe, and you didn’t technically tell me what to do or not do.”
“So you accept my apology?” he asks.
“I do.”
“You didn’t answer my question, by the wing.”
I cock an eyebrow.
“About going off campus.” His gaze penetrates me, and I flash back to when something else penetrated me, another body part of his.
I shake my head to clear my thoughts, and he breathes a sigh of relief. Whoops.
“At least I don’t have immediate plans to,” I add just to see his reaction.
Sage shakes his head slowly. “You’re teasing me, aren’t you?”
“Can’t you tell for sure one way or the other?”
He crosses his arms. “You do like to be a daredevil.”
“Maybe not anymore.” I scowl and half-expect him to ask me to clarify, but he doesn’t. The awkwardness from before lingers, and I throw up my hands. “We need to start over.”
“Start over?” he repeats.
“Yes. As friends. Here.” I reach out and take his hand to shake it. “Things happened a little fast last year, but it’s a new year, well a new school year, and we’re a bit in already, but we can have a fresh start. So, hi. I’m Rosemary. It’s nice to meet you…”
He grins. “Sage.”
“Are you a sage, Sage?”
He groans. “As if I haven’t been asked that before.”
“And here I thought I was being clever. Guess I’m not very sage at all,” I joke.
Even though it’s a terrible joke, we both laugh, and the tension between us disappears. We’re still holding hands, and we continue to talk and ask each other a few questions that people who just met each other would ask—siblings, parents’ jobs, stuff like that. It’s fun, and I enjoy it, but when we part to head back to our cottages, my mind doesn’t linger on the hot fae. Instead, I’m thinking about the two murdered humans. That a fairy might be the killer changes things, but I shouldn’t. I can’t. I won’t repeat the same mistakes I made last year, and that means I won’t get involved. I’m sure the fae police are going to take up the investigation anyhow, and the human police have to have been all along. The killer will be caught and, if the breeze is gentle, before he or she can strike again.
Chapter 14
I haven’t flown very far when another fairy flies to join me, soaring alongside me. A quick glance reveals Damon there.
“You really are a stalker,” I tease him.
“Only if you want me to be.”
"That's not even sexy, and you know it."
He looks so oddly serious, though, despite our ribbing that I draw up and hover. He does too.
"What's going on?" I ask, but my hand curls into a fist. If he's going t
o mention something to me about the murder, I'm going to wing out. Seriously. First Thistle wanting to investigate and then Sage not wanting to. Damon… the jury's waiting to hear before making a verdict.
“Don’t be mad, but I happened to overhear your conversation with a certain fairy.”
I gape at him. “Eavesdropping is even less sexy.”
“Relax, Buttercup.”
“Buttercup?” I squeal.
He grins. “I wasn’t sure you liked Warrior Babe, so I have to find a nickname you like.”
“How about just calling me by my name?”
“Nicknames are more fun.”
“A name’s a name.”
“Not at all, darlin’,” he drawls, cupping my chin.
Even though I don’t mean to, I close my eyes. Damon will touch me, but Sage hardly does, and I’m no longer certain which I want to touch me more.
“But darlin’ doesn’t fit you,” he muses. “You’re a unique girl. You need a unique nickname. Don’t worry. I’ll figure it out.”
“So not worried.”
He winks, his lopsided grin making an appearance. “Anyhow, the point of mentioning my… okay, fine, eavesdropping is because I’m proud of you for sticking up for yourself. No one should tell you what you can and can’t do. Honestly, I wish you wouldn’t tell yourself you couldn’t do anything. The sky’s not even the limit for you.”
“Damon, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“I’m not some…” I trail off, thinking about the class I’ve had to repeat. The Magic of Music.
“Some what?” he prompts. “What are you thinking about?”
I shake my head. “It’s nothing.”
“Why do you always do this?” he asks, frustrated. “A lesser fairy would’ve written you off long before now. There’s playing hard to get, and then there’s being impossible. Why shut me out?”
“I’m failing a course,” I mumble.
“You are? Why?”
“The Magic of Music. I have to repeat it. I didn’t really apply myself as the professor would’ve liked last year, and she thinks that my own voice could be my instrument, not just the…”
“Harp?” he asks with a wicked grin.
“Yes.” I scowl.
“What’s the issue?”
“I refuse,” I tell him. “I don’t want to use my voice to lure others to do what I want. It just feels wrong.”
“Magic can be used for good or for ill, but just having the potential for a magical skill doesn’t make you evil. Believe me. I should know.”
“You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”
Damon lazily loops around me. “Do you feel better?”
“If you think I’m going to start to try to sing and get people to do what I want, you’re wrong.”
“It would take a long time before you could work up to that level if you could ever do that,” he says. “A lot longer than one class and years and years. You don’t have to worry.”
“But…”
“Do you really think a professor at Light Fae Academy would teach a skill that can only be used for dark?”
“I guess you’re right.”
“Ah, now that’s music to my ears.” He grins and pulls up close to me. “You successfully succeeded in changing the subject for a bit, but I’m taking it back to what you and that fae talked about.”
“He has a name,” I say dryly.
“Yes. Sage. A very proper name for a fairy.” Damon grins.
“Yours suits you.”
“Thank you. I’ve always thought so. Anyhow…” He wags a finger at me.
I blink innocently a few times, and he just shakes his head.
“I really am glad you stuck up for yourself, that you won’t let him tell you what to do, but what did he mean by Nancy Drew?”
“She’s an amateur sleuth—”
“I know who she is,” he interrupts. “What I don’t know is why he would compare you to her.”
“I thought you said you heard about last year.”
“About how you never liked to obey the curfew that had been imposed.”
“So you don’t know? About the thefts and the arson? How I found out the two were one and the same, and I fought against her?”
“Did you now? That’s rather impressive,” Damon says.
“I’m glad you think so. It had been… time-consuming.”
“That’s all?”
“And nerve-wracking and frightening?”
“Exhilarating at all?”
“Maybe a little,” I say coyly.
He gives me a look that makes the hairs on my arms stand up. No one has ever looked at me like that before, and I honestly don't know what to think.
“You do like adrenaline,” he says. “Admit it. Before the strap on your parachute malfunctioned, you had fun.”
“It was terrifying!”
“But before all that, when you were rushing down to the Earth, when you had no control… didn’t you feel free for a moment? There were no constraints at all except for gravity.”
I close my eyes and recall the moment, the fierce wind, the agonizing fall… yes, beneath the terror, there had been something more.
“I am a bit of a thrill-seeker,” I murmur, “but don’t ask me to do it again any time soon.”
He chuckles. “Do you want to solve a mystery?”
“Maybe. Which one?”
“Me.”
Chapter 15
Two months pass. Sage and I hang out a few times a week, and I do the same with Damon. Thankfully, my girls have finished their group assignments, so we can all hang out more, and my social calendar is so filled that it’s hard to get all of my work done.
Professor Fern isn’t the most pleased with me, and I finally go to see her.
“Professor…”
“Rosemary, I’m not surprised to see you in my office. It’s a little late to want to drop the course. Normally, that’s only allowed for the first three weeks of the school year.”
“I don’t want to drop it,” I say, surprising us both.
“Then why are you here?”
“I don’t want to learn to use my voice. Can’t I just learn another instrument? I’ll even take up the harp again and do better with it. Anything.”
“Why are you so against learning how to use your powers?” she asks, her tone a little sharp.
“I’m not against it. Maybe I am. It just feels…”
"The only thing that matters is how you use your magic. It's extremely difficult to use your voice to compel another fae to do your bidding, but you might be able to subliminally point them in one direction or another. The ones most susceptible to your power would be humans. If a human is injured and panicked and won't lay still, you could calm them. If one refuses to admit wrongdoing, you could convince them to come clean. You could use this power to help, not to harm, not to control."
“But I don’t plan on doing anything in the human world,” I protest.
“Oh, no?” she asks, leaning back in her chair. She appraises me for a long moment before adding, “I know about your venture in that plane with Damon.”
I say nothing.
"You care a great deal about right and wrong, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if you were to make, I don't know, heal humans? You think it wrong that we have so much power, and they don't, but instead of wanting to rule over them, you want to help."
“I’ve maybe thought that, but I’m not going to actually entertain even doing that,” I protest.
“Maybe you will one day. Maybe you won’t, but if you want to know who you are, why not explore all that you are capable of? That is what this academy is all about—letting you explore who you are while learning how to grow in your abilities. Magic isn’t a right. It’s a responsibility, and you owe it to yourself to learn all that you can.”
I revert to my silence.
She nods a few times. “If you would
prefer to take on a second instrument, you may. I won’t stop you.”
“But you’ll be disappointed in me.”
“Rosemary, if I may give you a word of advice, it would be for you to stop worrying about what others perceive about you and focus on who you want to be.”
That's a clear dismissal. I nod, murmur my thanks, and fly out of there. The girls and I have plans for an early dinner tonight, and then makeovers and movies and maybe some mead too. The alcohol in mead doesn't affect fairies as it does a human, but that doesn't mean it isn't delicious. It is, and it's one of my favorite drinks. Not everything has to be about getting high or drunk. I'm hoping Bay will stick around, but who knows? She seemed so desperate to have us be in the same cottage at the beginning of the year, but now, she's hardly around. I almost wonder if she just used me as an excuse to get away from Holly, but no, that doesn't make sense because Holly started the school year here late. But I haven't seen the pale, light blue-eyed fairy at all this year. Whichever cottage is Holly's I don't know. From afar, I've seen Bracken, and I make sure to avoid him, and Cosmo I've seen the most, but still only a handful of times. Oh, and Thistle I see every day of course.
He's busy dishing out some food tonight, serving others, and I quickly grab my food, duck out of the food tent, and head over to the girls. They have their heads bent together, and they're whispering frantically. As soon as I sit, they shut their mouths.
“Way to make a girl feel like she’s the topic of discussion,” I joke.
“No, no,” Dahlia says. “You aren’t.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Orchid says.
“She’ll find out eventually,” Wren says, glaring at the other two.
“Just tell me already,” I tell Wren, “since you’re the only friend I can trust.”
“Hey!” Dahlia exclaims.
“There’s been another murder. This time, the dagger had been shoved into the human’s skull, all the way in, lodged way too deeply for it to have been done by a human.”
I stare at my food. “I’m not hungry anymore.”
“You see what this means, don’t you?” Wren asks, leaning forward.
“All three have been killed by the same murderer,” I mumble.
Light Fae Academy: Year Two Page 7
