by Lan Chan
“This isn’t very efficient,” I said. The red nymph answered back, but it was all chirps and whistles so it was completely lost in translation. I must have had a dazed and confused look on my face because Kai snorted.
“She says that you’d get more water on the plant if you didn’t spill so much stomping back and forth like you do.”
“Sounds like somebody doesn’t want my help,” I muttered.
“Too bad you don’t have a choice,” he shot back. “Now that you’ve planted the tree, you’re obligated to look after it until it reaches maturity.”
I turned so quickly that water sprayed all around me. The nymphs scattered. The amused look on his face said he wasn’t joking. I pinched the bridge of my nose and dropped the watering can.
“She said this was detention.” He was leaning back against the trunk of a tree, one leg bent so that the sole of his sneaker touched the bark. The filtered light caused shadows to dance on his face, but they did nothing to dampen the luminous glow in his eyes.
“You didn’t know what you were doing,” he said, “We weren’t going to punish you for that.”
“But...” I looked around for the nymphs who had chosen to make themselves scarce. I swear I heard what sounded like a wind chime that was interspersed with laughter. “The footprint directions led me here.”
Kai used his bent foot to push himself from the tree. “Because this is where we’re meeting for our lesson. Instead you went and got yourself tricked by wood nymphs.”
I tracked his languid movements, trying to figure out if he was yanking my chain. But I had a sneaking suspicion I knew him well enough now to know that he wasn’t the kind of guy to make a statement unless he could back it up.
“No way,” I said at last. “They can’t just con me into doing what they want!”
“They just did. Take a look at your timetable.”
I retrieved the paper from my pocket. Sure enough, at seven every morning I was now scheduled to come to the Grove to look after the tree. What the hell? I balled my fists. “And where the heck were you while this was happening?”
He smirked at me. The expression caused his scarred brow to jump. My heartbeat did the same. Urgh. This was so not good.
“I was busy scouring the grounds for the demon you saw.”
I’d give him that, he was good at conversational segues. “And?”
He shook his head. The way he swiped his hand across his face a moment later told me he was as frustrated about it as I was. Shaking himself of the failure, Kai glanced at me.
“How was Weaponry and Combat?”
“About as enlightening as this has been.”
“I take it you didn’t manage to find a weapon you were interested in?”
I swept my hands from my head to my toes. “Turns out humans aren’t that great at syncing with mythological weaponry.”
He smiled, this time without ridicule. “That’s got nothing to do with it. You’re just...small.”
I commanded myself not to blush but it was hopeless. “Well, that’s not changing any time soon so that class might be a lost cause.”
“I highly doubt it.” He gestured me closer with his hand. My eyes narrowed. I took a single step forward and paused. “If anyone can train you in weaponry it’s Professor Eldridge.”
“I guess I won’t need additional private lessons then.”
If I wasn’t looking right at him, I would have missed the split second in which he allowed his lips to pull up on one side. But then I blinked and it was gone. “Nice try. But until we get a better understanding of what you are and what you can do, you’re stuck with me.”
“Sounds like a glorified babysitting job.” I sat down and plucked at the grass. He didn’t respond. Instead, he surprised me by sinking down in front of me. We were a couple of hand spans away, his legs tucked beneath him.
“You really have no idea what you are?” he asked, his tone stripped of hostility. I didn’t know what to do with it. An aggressive Malachi I could handle. I didn’t take well to being intimidated. But a reasonable Malachi? I didn’t know such a creature existed.
“I feel like we’re past these kinds of inane questions. I mean, you did run me through with your broadsword two hours ago!”
A smile was threatening to break through again but he reined it in. Was this guy ever off-duty? Sheesh. “You’re avoiding the question.”
“That’s because it’s idiotic. If I was some kind of demon, do you think I’d just admit it to you because you ask nicely?”
“It’s worth a try.”
I snapped blades of grass and tossed then in the wind. “If I were a demon, I’d strip the flesh from your bones and devour you.”
“Is that so?”
“Yep,” I said. “You look tasty.” I could just punch myself sometimes. While I glanced down to give myself time to stop blushing, I heard him shift so that his knees now supported his elbows. If I moved forward, his legs would be bracketing me. But I didn’t dare move an inch.
“First of all, I would be delicious. And secondly, you don’t know a single thing about demons and how they behave, do you?”
“Give me a couple of weeks. I’m a fast learner.”
He was quiet for a while. So quiet that I hazarded a glance upwards and found him peering intently at me. He didn’t flinch or waver when I caught him watching. Like Bradley, he possessed an indomitable self-confidence that we mere mortals couldn’t hope to comprehend.
“What?” I asked, wondering if I suddenly had something on my face.
He shook his head. Then he shifted once more and tucked his legs underneath him again. “Have you ever done any meditation?” he asked. The change of subject was so abrupt it gave me whiplash.
“Not unless I’m having trouble falling asleep.”
There. The faintest hint of a smile. He hid it with a scowl but there was definite creasing of skin around his eyes. “Well, you’re going to have to learn how to do it,” he said. “And I’m going to teach you.”
“No offense, sensei, but you’re not exactly the poster child for calm yourself.”
“According to who?”
Now it was my turn to give him a look. “According to the way you almost lost your shit today when Brigid said you of all people should know demons are treacherous.”
There it was again. His top lip had curled like he was biting down hard using his canines.
“Brigid doesn’t know what the hell she’s talking about.”
“You’re preaching to the choir. Doesn’t change the facts, though. If she wasn’t a girl, you’d have totally punched her.” I suddenly had a bright idea. “If you teach me to fly, maybe I can punch her for you.”
The laugh came out of nowhere. One second his green eyes had been smouldering that darker shade of forest green and the next he threw his head back, a grin splitting his face. When he regained his composure, a frown suddenly drew his brows together. “Why don’t you just try to avoid Brigid and focus on your studies? Besides, I can’t just teach you to fly. You don’t have wings.”
“What about a broomstick?”
“What about it?”
“I’m a witch. Can’t I ride a broomstick?”
He leaned forward, palms pressed to the grass. “How many witches have you seen riding around on broomsticks since you’ve been here?”
I blew out a breath. “None.”
“Sorry, Blue. You’re out of luck. Those tiny feet are going to remain firmly on the ground.”
“What about a unicorn?”
“They don’t have wings.”
“Yes they do!”
“I think you’re referring to an alicorn. And I hate to break it to you but they eat flesh.”
I looked at him to see if he was joking. “This world of yours bites.”
“This world of ours,” he corrected.
I made a face.
“Close your eyes.”
Unsure why I even bothered, I closed my eyes like he asked. “This is
n’t what I pictured training was going to be like.”
“Oh? What were you picturing?”
On second thought, thank goodness my eyes were closed. It made it much easier to disguise the twitch in my cheek. Because ever since Sophie put the notion in my head, I might have been picturing him with his shirt off. There may or may not have been sweat beading on his tanned skin. Don’t get me wrong, he was still firmly in asshole territory in my opinion. He was just an insanely pretty asshole, and well, it was my brain so I could see whatever I wanted in it. I snorted involuntarily. I bet that was the argument serial killers used on their fantasies. I got practical to try and cover up the blush.
“Apparently everybody else was born with a weapon in their hand. I’m a little behind in that area.”
“The last thing you need is to learn to be more aggressive.”
My eyes snapped open. “Pardon?”
His gaze bore into me. Every trace of the normal human being he was up until now disappeared. “Don’t pretend you don’t know it, Blue. You have zero flight response. Even with a manticore breathing down your neck, you won’t run.”
“I wouldn’t have had a manticore breathing down my neck if you didn’t have a sick sense of humour.”
“I didn’t do that to be funny. It was to test your ability to make reasonable risk assessments. You would have kept going until you were dead.”
I remembered now what Fred had told me. That sometimes it wasn’t about bravery for these people. It was about preserving your own life so you could go on fighting another day. I thought about running away from Nanna to save my own skin. Just the mere notion of it had every instinct in me revolting.
“But I didn’t die.”
“Who would have guessed you’d pull that trick with the hedge witch power of yours. Which is the other half of the problem.”
“How is that a problem?”
“Low magic isn’t supposed to be that strong.” If I were being dense, I might have misconstrued that statement to be about his ego. He was definitely an arrogant bastard, but for the most part he seemed to be able to put his money where his mouth was. No, this was about me being something unexplained. He wouldn’t teach me to fight because he—because they—were afraid of what I might do with the knowledge. I wasn’t a demon but I was something else they couldn’t fathom. In their world, it seemed to amount to the same thing. I couldn’t be trusted.
I found myself standing. For once, I was looking down on him. “Why don’t we skip the bullshit,” I said. “I’ll meet you here every day and you can stab me with your sword to make sure I’m not a demon. But otherwise, stay away from me.”
“Blue – ”
I started to walk away. He caught up to me quickly enough. When he touched my arm, I didn’t wrench it away. I wasn’t actually angry. Just tired all of a sudden.
“We have to take precautions,” he said. There was no apology in his stance. I didn’t expect one. Just like there was no apology in mine.
“I get it,” I said. “I’ll be here tomorrow.”
This time, when I turned around, he didn’t follow.
24
Sophie and Diana wanted all the goss at dinner. There was a part of me that wanted to blurt out that I was under surveillance, but I didn’t want to ruin their evening too. And I knew I shouldn’t be surprised. Jacqueline did say that they were keeping me here because they didn’t know what I was. If the alternative was a prison then I could see how this was a much better option. Still, it made me pensive so that I was glancing at all of the people around me and wondering if they were there because they liked me or if they were planted there to watch over me.
“What do you mean nothing happened?” Sophie said. She’d finished her shift behind the counter of the buffet and was now chewing slowly on a chunk of lasagne.
“You say that like you expected this to be something other than a tutorial.”
She and Diana were agape. “Of course that’s what we expected! He’s never given anyone private lessons before.”
My poker face was pretty advanced, but even I had to work hard not to react to the stab of pain in my chest. “Well I’m sorry to disappoint but nothing at all happened. Except I got conned into doing yard work by the wood nymphs.”
They both made unhappy faces at me. Diana changed the subject to how Sophie reacted when Max did a second drive by her buffet station for no apparent reason. I had barely touched my food, but even I was sucked out of my reverie when the Nephilim entered the dining hall. It was like a vacuum. And no matter how many times they did it, everyone acted as though they had just performed a miracle. Tonight, Kai wasn’t with them. He’d already snuck in a while earlier with Max.
When a shadow crossed over me, I looked up to find Brigid looming. I sighed inwardly. This was the last thing I needed right now. As usual, her posse trailed behind her. Golden Wings, whose name I found out was Isla, stood just behind her.
“So you had your first lesson with Malachi,” Brigid said. She inspected her nails like it meant nothing when really, I could see the other hand she had resting on her hip clenching tight. “Don’t think just because he’s been forced to spend time with you that you can –”
I got to my feet. It occurred to me as she spoke that I didn’t have to take this crap. So I wouldn’t.
“See you guys later.” I turned around and stalked out of the dining hall. It was the first time ever that I’d left food on my plate. There was a part of me that itched to go back and finish the sawdust-tasting food. But even my habits weren’t making me go back there. It chafed at me that I was being watched like a hawk, but Brigid, who was the biggest bully around, could get away with anything.
I wasn’t even sure where I was walking until I finally looked around and found myself in an empty field. “Huh,” I said. “So they really do just bring the arena in for the trials.”
I was standing in the exact same spot where the manticore and I had faced off. Funnily enough, I wasn’t alone. While we were off to the side of the Academy, there were still glow lights enough so it wasn’t pitch black. This was a good thing considering who my company was.
I made sure to make as much sound as possible as I approached Fred. He glanced up from where he was sitting on the field of grass. His face was lit up from the neck by a glowing amulet. It made it harder for him to see, but I imagined it gave off enough light to stop his phobia from taking hold. When he squinted and saw it was me, he waved.
“Hey,” I said. “You know it’s dinnertime, right?”
“I already ate. What are you doing out here? I would have thought you’d be scarfing down food.”
“Brigid.”
“Ah.” It was all I had to say really.
“What are you doing?” From the looks of the candles and sack of salt, I might have deduced he was trying to burn the grass.
“Practicing my power circles.”
“With salt?”
“Yeah. We learned in Potions and Alchemy in year nine that salt amplifies the power of a circle. Plus, it has the added bonus of burning demons.”
“I see. Okay well, don’t let me interfere.”
I turned to leave but he stopped me. “Actually, would you mind staying? You’re in the advanced class, and I could really use some pointers.”
“I don’t even really know what I’m doing.”
Fred shrugged. He grabbed a handful of the salt from the paper bag and tried to disperse it in a circle around where he sat. Aside from the wonkiness of the line, he seemed to be concentrating on the aesthetic of it and not the intention.
“This is so bad,” he admitted.
“Were you thinking about how round the circle was that whole time?” I asked.
Even in the dark I could see his cheeks going red. “Symmetry can be achieved with practice,” I told him. “But you have to try and block out all other thoughts when you’re building the circle so that it’s imbued with the intent you give it.”
“That’s what they keep tell
ing me in class, but it’s easier said than done.”
I couldn’t believe what I was going to say next. “Have you ever meditated?”
He made a face. “I’m not very good at that either.”
I scratched my head and crossed teaching off the very short list of things I would be qualified for when I finished school. I smiled, though.
“Me either,” I told him. “Maybe we can practice that together.”
This time he grinned. “Really? That would be awesome.”
But it turned out neither of us knew how. “If we had the internet, we could just look it up,” I said. I was just lucky I couldn’t afford a phone because I had a feeling I’d really be missing it right now.
“We can go to the library?”
It was bad that I didn’t even think of that. “Tomorrow? I need to get some sleep. I’ve got early detention from now until eternity.”
“What did you do?”
“I got tricked by some wood nymphs apparently. Right after you left me.”
He winced. “Oh, sorry.”
I waved him off and promised to meet him the next night at the library. Tonight, I wanted to crawl into bed and just stop thinking. When I got to my dorm room, there was a blinking light on top of the door. I glanced down the corridor and found that some of the lights above a few other doors were also blinking.
I touched the doorknob gingerly and called out before entering. “Basil?”
He appeared in the crack I’d opened. “Good evening!”
“Is everything okay in there?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”
I pointed up. Not that he could see while inside. “There’s a blinking light in front of our door.”
“Oh that. It just means there’s a bulletin waiting for you in the mirror.”
A couple of days ago that sentence would’ve totally confused me. Now I shut the door behind me and went to the mirror. Basil appeared to still be using it as his form of entertainment while we were gone. It sat on the chest between our beds rather than hanging on the hook. “What do I do?” I asked.
