Secrecy: Olde Earth Academy: Year One

by Amabel Daniels

  And to sneak out, this time, I was in the mood for some backup. Flynn and I hadn’t spoken much after he tried to “save” me running from the longma. It was time to end that silent treatment.

  Flynn glanced at my paper and he pinched his thumb and forefinger together.

  Huh?

  I frowned and wrote, What?

  He squinted at that and slightly shook his head. While Miss Comeau lectured on, Flynn pulled out a napkin from his bag. Napkin? The boy didn’t know what a piece of paper was? Yeah, yeah. Everyone preferred electronic. But not one notebook in there? He set his pen to the white square.

  You write too small!

  I swallowed my growl and ground my teeth. Oh, come on.

  I wrote my first question again, bigger.

  He slouched in his seat, still faced forward with his elbow on the desk, chin in hand. His pen moved again.

  STILL TOO SMALL.

  I huffed and tried a third time. All shouty caps, like him.

  It must have met his legibility criteria because he frowned and tapped his pencil on his cheek. Then he wrote, I heard it was some elect—

  His pen tip bled through and dug a hole in the napkin.

  Come on! I ripped a sheet from my notebook and silently slapped it on his desk when Miss Comeau wasn’t looking.

  He wrote again. I heard it was some elective class or something.

  Same here. That was what Paige and Ethel said it was. But they’d also basically said it was reserved for the traditional Olde Earth families. Those students might be privy to some of the answers to this school’s mysteries, or perhaps they’d have a rumor to share. There was a chance they could at least know why there might be high-tech metallic arrows being used somewhere on campus.

  So you don’t want to go? I scribbled—in an obscenely large font.

  Fine. I’d do it alone. Alone. My usual MO, going at life solo. He could go right back to pretending he was ignoring me.

  He scribbled even faster over the paper, so quickly I could watch the muscles and tendons flex in his forearm. I didn’t say that. Why are you so interested now?

  Hmm. Of course, he’d want a reason. And I’d have to make it a good one. Or… I could borrow a page from Sabine’s book of manipulation.

  Never mind.

  He shifted in his seat, sitting up more at my reply. Why are you so interested?

  I bit back a smile at the sober scowl forming on his face from his profile.

  I quickly wrote, Forget I asked.

  Again, he was quick to reply, sitting upright and almost slanting toward me. Don’t tell me what to forget. Why do you want to go?

  Bull’s eye. I sure had his attention now. Reverse psychology worked miracles.

  I wrote, I said, never mind.

  He slapped his hand to his desk, and I stifled a giggle.

  Too late now. You’re going to snoop on them with or without me, aren’t you?

  Instead of writing anything, I shrugged.

  Dammit. I’ll meet you after class.

  ****

  True to his word, Flynn waited for me on the sidewalk leading us to the Green dorms. He leaned against the stone wall and shoved off when he spotted me.

  “What’s going on, Layla?”

  We walked side by side, no other students bustling around us. Most were probably in their rooms or studying in the cafeteria.

  Exactly. I want to know what is going on. Specifically with the longma, but the general secrecy of Olde Earth. Crappy time to try to satisfy my curiosity, but hey, that was life.

  “I want to sneak into their meeting tonight.”

  “In the Main Library?”

  I faced him as we walked. What? “You know where they meet?”

  “Ren’s mentioned it to his buddies.”

  I blinked. Wow. Flynn liked to eavesdrop, did he? I was even more glad I’d chosen him to be my partner in crime in this. I could use his…sneakiness. It didn’t strike me as a Sabine kind of gossipy sneakiness. More of a general need to be aware of circumstances. “Okay. Fine. If that’s where they go, then the library.”

  He tugged on my sleeve, encouraging me to step off the path, and led me to a stone bench that was tucked under a low hanging evergreen tree. I followed, and instead of sitting on the chilled granite, we stood face to face. Me with my arms crossed, him with his hands in his pockets. “How do you suggest we do this?”

  Logistics. He wanted to know how I’d get out of the dorms. Yeah…that was going to be tricky. I planned to simply tell the dorm dogs not to bark again. I couldn’t tell him that animals listened to and obeyed my thoughts.

  “Layla?” He slanted his head down so he was more at eye level. His dark hair hung down and almost covered his blue gaze. “How’d you sneak out when we went to that meadow of horses?”

  I tugged at my earlobe and looked everywhere but at him. At the crumbling corner of pavers that bordered a garden bed, the tall height that shot up to the top of the castle wall behind him, the patch of crocus that had already sprouted from the grass.

  He waited. The silence and patience got to me, probably just like he planned.

  “I told it not to bark.”

  There. It was the truth. Kind of.

  “But when we snuck out with Lorcan you said they. How many dogs were there?”

  Technically? One. But if he could sense the same kind of creatures that I could…

  I winced, staring into his deep, dark blue eyes and wished I’d get some jump kick to my instinct, some vibe that could coach me to just trust him.

  Or not.

  “I’m not going to explain what happens on the girls’ side and make it easier for you to…to…to break-in and hang with the chicks you’ve got a crush on. I can get out. All right? Don’t worry about that. You get out of your half—however you did before—and we’ll meet outside. Like last time.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me, leaning forward with his hands still in his pockets, and exhaled. “Fine.”

  Okay. That was easier than I thought it’d be. Confrontations and negotiations were never my things. Perhaps Sabine was rubbing off on me. Or Flynn was being equally guarded with me.

  “Eight?” he asked.

  I nodded. He gave me another scrutinizing look and then gestured for me to walk back with him.

  We didn’t speak on the way back to the Green House—maybe my anxiety was spreading to him—and once we arrived at the main entry point, where we’d meet that night, he lifted a hand in a wave and said, “Later.”

  I headed inside and tried not to get carried away with excitement and the delicious promise of getting some answers—hopefully.

  When the time came for Paige to leave, I pretended to be studying with my headphones on, Latin flashcards playing on my tablet. I saw her moving toward the door and offered her a wave goodbye.

  As soon as she was gone, I prepared for my break out. All black running clothes again. A penlight in my back pocket. Dorm key on a lanyard bracelet. I almost wanted to take my Academy-provided cell phone for taking pictures or recording, but I seldom ever used it. No one did. We always had the tablets and used those for everything. It’d be better not to have anything potentially tracking us, anyway.

  Before I left my room, I checked my breath, rolled my eyes at the fact I had done so, and scanned the hallway. All clear. Same as before, I tiptoed down the way and found a guard dog in the foyer. I thought out my orders to stay silent, and when I approached the foyer and exit door, I cocked my head in surprise. Only one dog this time, a Doberman. A real, normal canine.

  Huh.

  Maybe they switched them up or something. I gave it a pet and left the room. Outside in the dark, I waited for Flynn. Alone, I took faith in the possibility we wouldn’t be caught, and I gasped in an excited breath when the door opened and Flynn exited.

  His eyes were wide and his brows raised.

  “Any problems getting out?” I whispered.

  He immediately scanned the dark surroundings and urged me to walk t
oward the Main Library. “No. No problems.”

  His voice didn’t convince me, but in the nighttime landscape, I couldn’t glimpse his face anymore, away from the light over the dorm door. “You sure?”

  “No. No problem. Did you have any problems with the dogs?”

  “Dogs? I only found one tonight.”

  His silence felt awkward, his breaths visible in little puffs of air.

  “How many did you have?”

  “Uh,” he said and inhaled deeply. “Three.”

  I coughed a sound of surprise and tried to glance at him. With the scant light from the half-moon hanging above, I barely caught his bewildered frown.

  Three? It was on the tip of my tongue to ask if they were normal dogs.

  “What, um, what breeds?”

  He snorted. “Seriously?”

  “What? I’m a dog lover.”

  “I am too, but still. They were just…dogs.”

  He didn’t seem sure about that. It was futile to hope he’d seen the same kind of “dog” I had the last time we snuck out. They were probably just big, scary-looking pups.

  But…how did he get past them?

  I didn’t have the courage or time to ask because we were too near the lit-up and obviously inhabited library. So distracted I was by his mood, I hadn’t even noticed we’d done a very fast powerwalk to our destination.

  “I’m thinking we can go in the front and slip toward the right wing. It’s a maze over there.” He pointed to the entrance. In the dimly lit exterior, I could make out the dark leather of his jacket.

  Agreed. It seemed he was as familiar with the library as me. That’d help.

  “We’re just going to go in and…”

  “See what’s happening,” I finished.

  His grin shone in the flash of light from a walkway lamp overhead. “Finally.”

  “You’re a curious one, huh?”

  “Come on,” he scoffed. “Aren’t you sick of all the secrecy?”

  I had to admit I was, but the beginning of fear came slipping in with that confession. I was eager to learn some behind-the-scenes info about my school. But at what cost? Was there a good reason for the secrecy? Set in place not for deception but for protection? Ethel seemed to hide information from me and had instructed Paige to do the same. Her insistence for limiting my knowledge struck me more as a precaution out of worry, though, rather than me lacking the club password.

  At the door now, we looked both ways and checked that no one was around outside. He unnecessarily put his finger to his lips to indicate silence.

  Yeah. No crap we have to be quiet. Sabine might be right in saying I wouldn’t even know the first thing about breaking rules. However, here I was, sneaking out—with Flynn—again, and I was aware silence should be our friend.

  He preceded me inside after he simply opened the unlocked door. Within minutes, we made our way down the tiled floors, the walls sparsely brightened with sconces between paintings. We made it. In front of us was the set of tall, thick wooden double doors. Already I could hear voices from within. That must mean they were near the front of the library, perhaps at the main meeting room by Ethel’s help desk.

  Flynn went first again. My feminist pride took back burner to the trembling apprehension that shook through my limbs. This was riskier than before. We were nearing people, those beings I could never ever trust. Breaking out to see the horses at the stables felt so innocent compared to this. Darkness aided our silent entrance. We shut the door without a sound and slid to the side, well out of sight in the vestibule.

  A group of thirty people—mostly students—were in the meeting room. With them so near the entrance, though, we had no chance to get past the vestibule. No way to get closer to properly spy and eavesdrop.

  At the table closest to us, I spotted Ren seated with several other guys. A few looked older—more facial hair, leaner jaws—and I assumed they were upperclassmen.

  “It’s just not fair,” Ren complained.

  Flynn glanced at me and quirked a brow. I took it as his surprise that we were close enough to hear them. I ducked around the wall we crouched behind and eyed Paige seated at another table, by herself, head ducked down as she read on her tablet.

  “Nothing in life is fair, man,” someone told Ren. “They’ve always sought outsiders.”

  “It’s a waste of time.”

  I sucked in a deep breath at Ren’s words, and Flynn took my hand.

  Waste of time? Was I—were Flynn and I—nothing more than a waste of time? Suthering hadn’t thought so. He’d so willingly extended an invitation to come here. Sabine, well, okay. She didn’t really belong here. Flynn… I didn’t fully know his story, but he’d been brought here as hastily as we had.

  I glanced down at his warm hand encasing mine. His gaze followed suit, and once he noticed what he’d done, he released me.

  “Not true, dude.” Another guy spoke up now. “Not true. Look at what happened with Lorcan Wright’s brother. And Nevis.”

  “Yeah, yeah. They were flukes, though. How was anyone supposed to know they weren’t as Diluted as we thought they would be?” Ren had to have risen. His voice moved side to side, like he was pacing out there.

  “Diluted?” The first arguer again. “Nevis was almost, like, a first-class Pure!”

  Ren laughed. “Pures are uncommon. You know that. He was still Diluted.”

  The other guy said, “By line, yeah, he was classified as a High Diluted. But his powers were damn high, man.”

  Ren still chuckled. “But…he was still Diluted.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s why it’s not a waste of time to let outsiders come here and flunk out. So we won’t miss anyone else like Nevis.”

  Flynn gripped my hand again, harder, and I heard his breaths come faster.

  I strained to see him better in the dark corner we’d claimed. What? What was it? He knew who they were talking about? We knew Lorcan, but not his brother, obviously. Had he already figured out what the heck Ren and those guys were talking about? Was he—

  He stared ahead, though, into the dark void of the vestibule. Three feet in front of us were two mutant monsters. Cat Breath from Suthering’s office and a pal. The second cat-headed lizard had calico-colored fur on its face. The glossy coat covered the cross over to purple reptilian scales instead of Cat Breath’s green.

  Oh, come on!

  Cat Breath blinked at me, and its partner stood up, staring at us.

  Get lost.

  They looked at each other and then back at us. Next to me, Flynn swallowed—loud—and widened his eyes.

  The calico one opened its mouth to hiss at Flynn. Two rows of teeth glistened and Flynn’s fingers squeezed mine. Before it could make a sound, I glared at them both.

  Both of you, get lost. Now. Or I’ll find a friend to chase you down. Go away!

  It closed its mouth and peeked its pink tongue out to lick at its nose. They still stayed.

  I set my lips together and widened my eyes, kind of like Sabine in her don’t even diva mode. Go away!

  Then they did. They stalked off to the darkness, casting a glance at us over their shoulders as their lizard legs waddled them away.

  I leaned my ear closer to the meeting room, mad that I’d been distracted from listening.

  Flynn loosened his grip from my hand, and I glanced at him. He stared at me, openmouthed.

  “What?” I mouthed.

  He closed his lips and licked them. Shook his head. “Nothing,” he mouthed back, his eyes still wide-open beacons of disbelief.

  “She’s been poking around where she shouldn’t. That’s enough of a reason to get rid of her.”

  I jolted upright at Ren’s comment. Me? Were they talking about me? Sabine and I were the female outsiders of the freshman class. Sabine might be poking around boys and trying to flirt with them. Hardly something rigid and priggish Ren would care about. I’d never seen him with a girl.

  “And I think I know exactly how to do it,” he said.
/>   Outside the vestibule, in the hallway, a laugh tittered as though someone walked by.

  “What was that?” someone in the library asked.

  Flynn and I froze. This time, I took hold of him, my hand on his knee as we’d dropped to a lower crouch on the floor.

  “I don’t know, but we have security patrolling. Like always.” That was Mr. Suthering speaking.

  More dog guards?

  “Let’s go,” Flynn whispered.

  I hated to agree. How could we take off before Ren finished explaining how he planned to “get rid of me”? He had to have been referring to me. There was no mistaking his general disdain for me, and now I had the suspicion it wasn’t just about me beating his grades at quarterlies.

  I scowled but nodded. With a tilt of my chin toward the door, I indicated for him to lead.

  We duckwalked to the door, slid it open, and slipped out unnoticed. No one yelled that they’d seen us. No alarms went off. I didn’t see any security members—or canines—strutting around the hallway. Same as when we’d snuck in, the halls were empty, and the sconces shone gently.

  “You’re so silly!”

  The hushed, giggled whisper came from further down the hall.

  Sabine!

  What the heck was she doing here?

  Flynn shot a look that expressed my very question, and we took off in the direction of the sound. Down the hall and around a corner, we found Sabine leaned against the wall, lip-locked with some tall, dark-skinned boy, dreads blocking most of their faces.

  I skidded to a stop next to Flynn, and my running shoes must have made just enough of a scuffing noise on the over-waxed floor to be noticed.

  Sabine gasped and broke away. Her kissing pal stepped back, hands up.

  “Oh, my God.” Sabine smoothed her partly unbuttoned blouse. “You are such buzzkill, Layla,” she whispered and scanned the halls. “What are you doing here?”

  Then she eyed Flynn as she raised a brow. “Ohhh.” Her lips twisted in a saucy smile.

  “No. No.” I shook my head and checked that we were still alone. “Not that.”

  “Um.” The guy she’d been making out with stepped away from her with hands up. “I’m outta here. It’s too late to stay out. I don’t want to get caught. See ya, Sabine.” Without a word or another gesture, he briskly powerwalked away, into the dark distance of another hallway.