I pulled the door open all the way and let him in. He shut it behind him and then faced me. His slow once-over of my pajamas sent a furious blush over my skin, reminding me that I wasn’t exactly covered. Tank top and shorts. But they were on the skimpy side.
“Uh…”
“Sorry for inviting myself. You guys were still sleeping?” he asked and went to turn on the lamp on the desk.
How was he so familiar with the layout of our room in the dark? Were the boys’ rooms similar to ours? Or had he been in many other girls’ rooms?
I rushed to get a hoodie to cover myself up, uneasy and unused to a boy in my room. First time for everything, but it threw me off.
“Kind of a late night…” I admitted.
Paige sat on her bed, yawning. Then she looked at her watch. “Crap! Didn’t your alarm go off, Layla? We’re going to be late to class!”
I must have slept through it.
“We’ve got a couple of minutes to talk.” Flynn crossed his arms and rested his butt against the edge of the desk.
She jerked back at his voice. “How’d you get in here?”
“Walked. Snuck past Marcy when she went into the laundromat by the foyer.” He raised a brow at her. “And now we have a little time to chat without interruptions.”
Yeah, he wasn’t going anywhere. As much as I wanted to get dressed and rush for class, I agreed. Paige needed to spill. Pronto.
“What’s a Diluted?” he asked.
Paige rubbed at her face before starting. “Basically, all of us. Elves have diminished over time. They spread out over the earth, resettled. Some lines died out, and others joined with humans.”
“So they’re a different species?” he asked.
“They used to be, but we’re all so integrated with the human race now, we’re all Diluted. Diluted simply means we’ve reduced our legacies and powers as we’ve evolved with humans.”
“What’s a High Diluted?” I asked, recalling the term from last night.
Paige nodded at me. “Right. This is what we discuss and study at those classes at night. Well, lately, we’ve been having free times to just chat, but usually, we study the genealogy of the three sects. Diluted refers to the lessening of power, like a recessive gene that is lost over time. If someone shows stronger evidence of power and they are known to come from ancient lineages, they are considered a High Diluted, where someone with a low display of power and more distant lineages, they are considered Low Diluted.”
Flynn glanced at me then faced Paige again. “Explain powers.”
She winced. “That’s uh, significantly trickier.”
“Try, please,” I said and sat next to her.
“There’s no way to truly know the extent of powers and interactive ability. Not yet.”
Flynn stuck his hands in his pockets. “Meaning…there needs to be some technology to measure it?”
Paige shook her head. “No technology. I meant time. For us. We’re too young. Elves come into their powers, if they have any in them, after the third half-moon phase following their sixteenth birthday. So we’re all too young to have it yet.”
Except… I peeked at Flynn, and he frowned right back. Except us.
I already had some funky power. I could see, touch, and telepathically talk to mutant creatures. I’d been seeing them my whole life and my sixteenth birthday wasn’t until August.
“What do these powers do?” Flynn asked. He brought his hands out from his pockets, crossed his arms, and stuck them right back in the pockets. Vulnerable Flynn. It was still such a rare sight. I’d already noticed his reluctance to keep his hands out, but he was extra fidgety today.
“A variety of things. Seeing, hearing, communicating with all species. Manipulating them. Some older lines and Pures can detect ancient species.”
Ah. Okay. We were getting into my territory now. “Ancient species…like…?”
“Dinosaurs?” Flynn asked.
“No. Not extinct animals. Although Mom seems to think we have some in the Menagerie.”
“Then what?” Flynn asked.
Paige shrugged. “It’s speculation. Like I said, only those closest to Pures can sense them.”
“What’s a Pure?” I asked. I tugged on my earlobe and offered my guess. “Elves with the truest bloodlines?”
“Yep. The strongest lineages. We’ve spread out so much, and so many have died out or simply lost touch with their roots. I mean, no one is a pure Pure. No one’s purely elven. We are humans. It just means they have the highest concentration of elven potential in them. Pures aren’t common.”
I swallowed hard. Well, there’s me. Maybe.
“What are the ancient species?” Flynn pushed.
“Animals that most consider mythological beings. Unicorns. Kelpies. Longmas. Other oddities. I’ve only just started learning about these. I’ve lived with Mom here at the Academy since my dad died, but I’ve never been able to study it. Those records are highly guarded. The books and volumes are locked with special powers.”
Books? Locked with powers? I bet that included 3D hologram light shows. I shifted in my seat.
Paige whimpered as she checked her watch. She stood quickly. “Guys, we’re going to be late!”
Flynn still didn’t move. “I want to know more.”
“Me too.”
“Well, I can’t now. We’ll all be late. And after last night, it’s probably best we be where we’re supposed to be.” She shot Flynn a stern look, likely reminding him he surely shouldn’t be in our room. Ah. So she could be giggly about boys, but practicality ruled.
“What about last night?” I asked as I stood and went to retrieve my uniform from my dresser.
Paige snorted. “Your sister.” She shook her head with her back to us as she gathered her clothes. “She got caught. After I headed back inside, Mr. Suthering was concerned about someone out of the dorms. I tried to ask him some questions to stall him, but he dispatched a patrol troop of guards.”
“We saw.”
She jolted upright at Flynn’s comment. “They found you guys outside?” She threw her hands up, her clothes like flags. “You shouldn’t have dilly-dallied like that!”
“No,” I said and dropped to the floor to find my Oxfords I’d kicked under my desk. “I…uh, we got past them.”
Flynn smirked at me with Paige’s attention on her clothes.
“Well, Sabine didn’t. Bernie caught her sneaking back into her dorm, and Mr. Suthering made us wait in the library while the patrols were checking the campus. You’re lucky,” she told me.
Lucky? No, apparently, I’m uncommonly…powerful?
Paige hustled into the bathroom to get dressed, and Flynn made no move to leave.
“We didn’t just get past them,” he said quietly.
“No.” I glared at him and set my hand on my hip. “We didn’t. But I don’t need you telling anyone that.”
He held his hands up in surrender.
Paige came back out, her afro frizzy, and she stuck her feet in her shoes. “Seriously, I’ll explain more later, guys. But you absolutely cannot tell anyone anything I’ve shared with you.”
“Your secret’s safe with me,” Flynn said.
And mine, too? “Same here. I won’t tell anyone.”
Paige snorted. “Oh, I believe you. You didn’t tell me about that sweatshirt. Or the longma. You’ve proved you’re plenty good at keeping quiet, Layla.” She grabbed her messenger bag and pulled the strap over her shoulder. “And I mean it. We all gotta go. Like now. Sabine’s stupidity got all the dorm supervisors and instructors under Suthering’s campus-wide order for increased surveillance.”
I nodded. “Yeah, yeah.” I headed to the bathroom to change. “Go on, I’ll see you guys in class.”
The door shut and I rushed through changing my clothes in the bathroom. I jumped when Flynn’s voice came loud and clear from past the door. He’d stayed.
“What really happened with the longma?” he asked.
“I
don’t know.” I frowned as I pulled my skirt on. I should have been more flustered at the idea of changing my clothes with a boy near me—in my room—unsupervised. But I was more curious at his question.
“Is that why you pushed me over that morning in the woods?”
“Yeah.” His answer was quiet.
“You’ve always seen them?” I asked. God, what an insane conversation I never thought I’d had. I let a smile slip on my face. I’m really not alone.
“No.”
My smile fell.
“I can’t…uh, see them.”
Huh? “You just said you could!” How else would he be so familiar with the creature to want to “save” me from one supposedly chasing me in the woods?
“Not very well. It’s more like a ghost. An apparition.”
I leaned out the door to look at him as I gathered my hair in a ponytail. “Ghosts?”
“They’re not formed. Nothing to really…” He waved his hand in the air. “Nothing to see. I sense them like an apparition.”
Odd. So I guessed he couldn’t touch them or talk to them either.
“How long have you seen them?” he asked.
These ancient species? Forever. Yet, I couldn’t tell him. My trust was growing with him, but a lifetime of hiding and lying held me back.
“I first saw them when I was ten.” His tone nearly broke my heart. So sad. Ashamed. “My sister was…” He cleared his throat, and I exited the bathroom, as ready as I’d ever been in a rush. I saw he already had his bag strap over his shoulder and he held mine out to me.
I took it and hung it over my shoulder. “You have a sister? I thought you were an orphan.”
“I am. I had a sister.”
Pay attention, Layla! I winced.
“Come on, we’ll walk together.”
I followed him to the door and we exited the nearly empty halls. Seemed we really were late, because the other Green girls were running to leave for class, late, and no one seemed to care that a boy was on our half of the dorms. Marcy wasn’t about, thank God.
Outside, he resumed his calmly spoken narrative.
“I had a younger sister. Our parents passed and left us to adoption at birth, but my sister and I always stuck together in foster homes. We were lucky to have families always take both of us.”
I nodded and couldn’t look him in the face as we walked. He was too…forlorn. Sad. I’d start crying for him and over-sympathizing and make us even later. Besides, we weren’t that close of friends. Or are we now? How couldn’t we be? I doubted he shared this story with many.
“When I was about nine, I started having dreams—nightmares—about these monsters coming after us. Then I started to see ghosts of them in the daytime. One day, my sister and I were walking home in the rain and one…materialized.”
“In the flesh?”
He shrugged. “It was just a ghost shape. But it attacked her, and I couldn’t save her. I couldn’t fight it. It didn’t even react to me yelling at it.”
I stopped him on the sidewalk and faced him. His eyes were clear, and his face stoic, but I sniffled.
“I couldn’t see it. But it clawed at her again and again and…she died. No one believed me. They said it was a random person who’d done it to her. A cold case they dismissed eventually.”
“Oh, Flynn.” I hugged him then, and he allowed it for a moment, his arms tightening around me.
A hug. It’d been so long since I’d had one. A real one, not one of the giddy arm-squishing ones Paige gave out so often. A true, honest hug. I sniffled and absorbed the comforting familiarity of his cologne.
“Come on, we can’t be any later than we already are.” He stepped back and broke our embrace. Walking again, he resumed his story. “No one listened to me. After a while, the foster family surrendered me. I had to stay in a psych rehab for months. No one wants to take in a crazy kid.”
“Those places are the worst.”
He gaped at me. “You too?”
I snorted. “Rehab? Oh yeah. Drugged up and in counseling constantly.”
“I only had to go to the one place. I learned to adapt. To just not…”
“Talk about it.” I nodded. It’d taken me longer to realize that lying about my ability was easiest. Then again, I’d been younger than Flynn had when he’d had his traumatic incident with an ancient species.
As we neared the Main Hall, Flynn rushed to change the topic. “We can’t tell them, Layla. No one. I… My God, when I saw that thing running after you in the woods, I assumed you had no clue it was chasing you. I thought I was the only one who ever saw monsters like that.”
He could have taken the words right out of my soul. I thought I was the only one… Nope. I saw it, all right. I saw them all. And it seemed my sight was sharper than his. My longma was fully visible, and I’d touched it, rescued it. Wait—
“Hey, he’s my buddy. Not a monster.”
“Fine. You’re BFFs with a freaking longma. You still can’t tell anyone. Not even Paige.”
“She already knows about me, though. And Ethel is aware that I saw the longma.”
“Do they really, though?” he asked.
I quickly explained what I knew about the longma. The injury, how I’d used my shirt as a tourniquet. That Glorian had the shirt since it was discovered.
My voice broke as I hastened to explain. I’d helped it once. If it were injured now… I wiped at my eyes as tears built. Please, please be okay. Somewhere.
Flynn shifted his hand out of his pocket, like he wanted to reach out and comfort me, but he stuck it away again. “But that just means your shirt was found.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“You haven’t come out and said you could see it or touch it, right?”
I shook my head. Other than vaguely telling Paige I knew about the longma, no, I hadn’t. I’d been too wrapped up in maintaining and protecting my secret about it.
“Then don’t. Trust me, Layla. Don’t.”
Trust him? I already had by telling him this much.
“Not until we know more.”
“But they’re already onto me somehow.” Other than my shirt being found, someone knew something.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Flynn and I arrived late to our first class of the day—homeroom was canceled since it was the week of the final quarterly. When we entered, the first thing I noticed was Paige standing next to Mrs. Dutra’s desk, like she’d been asking a question. She glanced up at our entrance and sighed, almost like saying finally. If I had to guess, she had been stalling Mrs. Dutra since we weren’t there yet and she didn’t want any flags raised at our absence.
We trailed inside and claimed the last two open seats. They were directly behind Sabine and Ren, who’d been chatting quietly together. As I passed by, Sabine stared at me, her scowl of scorn extra deep and nasty. Maybe she hadn’t had time to get coffee this morning. Boo hoo.
More likely, she was pissed about being caught sneaking out last night.
Serves you right.
I sat, and Flynn lowered to the chair next to me. While I removed the messenger bag strap from my shoulder, I glanced at him and found him studying Ren. Ren, I noticed, was staring at me. I flinched at the direct attention.
Whoa. I’d had all year to get used to his freakishly probing way of staring at people. Now that I knew he saw me as some kind of an adversary, I wanted to glower at him.
What? Huh? What do you see in me?
When I didn’t back away from his creepy, unblinking stare, he smirked and faced forward.
What a jerk.
I didn’t even want to know what his deal was this morning. Try as he might, I wasn’t going anywhere. Olde Earth might have weird secrets, but if it was the only school on earth that could cater to elves, and I had powers, I was exactly where I needed to be.
Try me, punk. I hunched over my desk to pay extra attention to Mrs. Dutra’s remarks about exam prep.
The last thing I wanted was to butt heads
with the Headmistress’s son, but some of my former insecurities had been rinsed away since rescuing the longma. I wasn’t just another misfit kid at a new school. I was a specifically sought-out outsider, one whom Ren viewed as an adversary. If he perceived me as a threat, then I could act the part, dammit. If I could manage the courage and badassery to approach a gigantic scaled horse in the woods, then what was a measly class jerk? My old habits of cowering from bullies or letting those annoyances in one ear and out the other no longer seemed logical.
Try me. Just try.
After class was over, I went to Botany. We began with study sheets, and when Mr. Alwin directed us to break into study partners to spend the remainder of the period in a free-time to go over notes, Paige raised her hand.
“Could Layla and I go to the library to check something for our final projects?”
I maintained a blank face at this impromptu plan of hers. She hadn’t said anything to me about needing to go to the library or to check anything. Besides, she knew I had put the finishing touches on my lily of the valley report well over a month ago.
“No problem, Paige.”
Mr. Alwin didn’t even glance my way. Maybe because she was Ethel’s daughter, he trusted her more? I wasn’t going to argue.
I grabbed my bag, offered an I-don’t-know-but-I’m-going-with-the-flow shrug to Flynn, and followed Paige out of the room. The hallways were empty and quiet since classes were in session. Perfect for catching up, which we had plenty to do of the late.
“I just wanted to get out of there and talk,” she admitted. “We’re both ready for the Bot final anyway.”
I nodded. “True.”
“How are you…” She hesitated before finishing her whisper. “Handling everything?”
“You mean the bombshell that I’m an elf, or will be?”
She slanted me a glare. Like she thought I might be poking fun at it. “You don’t believe me?”
“I do.” And I did. Without even a hint of doubt. It simply made too much sense to not be real. I’d never been a superstitious person or a diehard fan of fantasy. But my judgment on what was real or not was sharpened when I realized the longma was real.
My longma.
Before I could dive into asking about it, she sighed heavily. “I wish it didn’t have to be so…secretive.”
Secrecy: Olde Earth Academy: Year One Page 18
