by Melody Rose
Irk continued with the rest of the directions. “Then, all you do is take a right. It’s also easy if you just follow the rest of the students or the voices of the early birds tucking in as soon as they can. Dinner is starting, so you should be okay.” He gave me a green thumbs-up to convince me that I’d survive the night.
“Keep an eye out for a tapestry or follow the crowds,” I repeated their general advice. “Got it.”
I took one deep breath and then turned around to brave the crowds in my frumpy, lunch-bag toned robe and tried not to trip over its outrageously long hem. Soon enough, however, the task of keeping myself together and not losing my balance was a real challenge when the malicious sniggers of my new peers started pouring into my ears.
On top of the normal discomfort that was part of the package deal with being bullied, ever since I had received my broom, I could swear that I became more sensitive to the intentions of others. Along with the verbal taunts that told me I was a sloppy lamb’s blood, my stomach lurched as my veins seemed to course with the sheer intensity of their hatred for me. I wasn’t sure I could even work up an appetite after this uninviting ordeal.
Aurelius edged closer to me to express his camaraderie, but he knew better than to bare his fangs or attack the droves of laughing and joking mages. As a human who had just recently stepped foot in this academy and a pup that hadn’t fully grown up, we were no match for the bad-mouthing brigade. Against my better judgment, I turned the corridor and did my damndest to ignore them all. While Theo was a downright bastard and one of the rudest men I’d ever had the displeasure of meeting, I figured that, as one admittedly annoying person, a whole academy worth of bullies would have had him beat.
When I arrived for dinner, I finally realized what Yavo had meant by a dining hall. This was no ordinary cafeteria. In fact, it looked like an extravagant charity gala at the Metropolitan Museum or maybe even an upscale wedding at an Italian villa. The ceilings were so high that I had to tilt my head all the way back to get a good look, and even though I thought that people would rarely bother to examine them, they were nevertheless painted with ornate murals of legends I couldn’t quite put a finger on. On top of that, exquisite yet showy gold molding wrapped around the entire perimeter of the gorgeous expanse above me, and a scintillating chandelier that glimmered with prismatic colors was suspended from the middle.
“Just like a gawking lamb’s blood to ogle the most ordinary sights!” Ms. Tongue Snatcher from earlier flipped her sleek black hair impetuously, and her gaggle of impeccably robed accomplices laughed as though on cue.
There was little I could do but slide out of her way and allow her to get first dibs on seating because, yet again, she had rendered me speechless. I clutched my broom in resentment and did my best to reach deep within for the courage to lash out at her. I wasn’t able to muster much, but I was able to let out an aggravated groan. At least that was promising, inspiring me to cancel out her spell using my own angry defense.
“Real class act you are! You know, if you have to keep running around ripping people’s voices out, it just proves you can’t handle a comeback!” I shunned her in a ragged but completely defiant voice. It meant that she didn’t have complete power over me and that I could probably seriously cuss her out with some patience and a helluva lot of practice.
I got the sense that I had to get out of dodge quickly before Ms. Tongue Snatcher clobbered me. Her entourage were all in formation at their special table and coordinated a series of piercing glares. I decided to remove myself from their view and prayed their attention span would be short.
I slinked over to the serving counter so quickly I thought I might trip and waited for Theo to find me. I figured that if I was near the official staff of Bouclier, students couldn’t exact revenge on me. I began to feel vulnerable and isolated as I crossed my arms over myself protectively.
Maybe this was another one of his brilliant experiments in hazing because I was starting to feel stood up. It had already been twenty minutes, and there still wasn’t any sight of him. I guess he thought I needed some reminded of “where my place was” and how much of a pariah here. Despite my previous concern that I would have been too put off by everyone’s treatment to eat, my stomach rumbled its request for food. Figures. I didn’t think I’d ever gone a whole day without eating, especially since I didn’t depend upon anyone to cook for me.
As I scanned the dining hall, I saw long mahogany tables, decked with regal-looking runners embroidered with gold threadwork and embellished with shining tassels stretch out over the marble floors. I couldn’t believe that every dinner that these students were treated to was on the level of a deluxe banquet. I actually felt pretty badly because while the students took their places and deliberated over which gourmet dish they were going to dive into first, only one chef seemed to be responsible for the whole lot of spoiled mages. He didn’t even have an assistant who prepped any ingredients for him.
Despite the astronomical amount of work he had to put up with, the cooking mage seemed in good spirits. I couldn’t see all of him because his lower body was hidden behind a counter, but he clearly wasn’t human as evidenced by a pair of spiraled horns, a flat nose that ended in a black snout, and brown furry ears. He had a paternal air about him as he watched over the ravenous students, then summoned plate after plate of delicacies and delivered them to the numerous tables without a hitch.
“Hey, little lassie!” the chef called out to me in what sounded close to a Scottish accent. “Whaddya doin’ jest standin’ around there? I’ve never seen ye before, but that doesn’t mean I would jest leave ye there to starve!” His hearty voice was full of hospitality.
“Nor would I,” Theo flatly stated from behind me. I shivered at his voice. It was seductively deep, but it also grated on my nerves because he was so damn late. If he didn’t want to keep me standing around hungry, he could have fooled me.
“What the hell are you up to?!” I demanded as I whirled around to give him a piece of my mind. “First, you leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere, so you clearly didn’t give a damn about how I would find my way around or figure out the ropes.”
“Well, I had to don proper dining attire for the occasion, and…” He opened his mouth to explain himself, but now that I had recovered from Ms. Tongue Snatcher’s little power play, I wasn’t about to let anyone else push me around.
“Are you kidding me?! I don’t give a damn what you wear. Your stupid outfits aren’t as important as being on time!” I steamrolled over any lame excuse he could concoct with a tone of voice that rose by the minute. “You’re making the worst impression imaginable. I keep trying to give you chances, and you just blow through all of them! I’m pretty much done giving you the benefit of the doubt.”
People were starting to pay attention to me more than they already were, probably because they’d never seen someone so poorly dressed stand up to the academy’s darling and golden boy.
“Now,” I shouted and felt cords of muscle pop up on my throat, which couldn’t have been a pretty sight, “you’re asking me to have dinner with you, and you didn’t even have the decency to ask ahead of time! You treated the two creatures that have been the nicest to me here like your minions!”
Theo smirked at the suggestion that he had Yavo and Irk kowtow to his demands, and that only pissed me off even more.
“On top of that, you claim to be all about manners with your elitist-as-shit standards,” I blazed, my voice like a wildfire that engulfed the dining hall in its unstopping fury, “but you’re a whole half hour late. I could have eaten and gone to bed by now, but instead I’m starving because you’re incapable of thinking of others.”
Aurelius nudged at me and whined to signal that he, too, was hungry.
“See? You’re even making a poor puppy wait on you,” I sniped. “That’s basically animal cruelty. What a real charmer you are.”
After I ended on that sarcastic note, I stood my ground, still fuming once I was out of critiques to
rain down upon him like a meteor shower of rage.
He looked into my eyes searchingly, but I couldn’t tell by looking into his cold blue gaze if he was capable of sympathy or if he was just genuinely confused why anyone would provide him with such negative feedback about his time management skills. I mean, clearly all worlds, however many there were, revolved around Theo.
“Are you quite finished?” he questioned leisurely as though he were immune to my spirited rants. “For what it’s worth, I had many matters to attend to, and where I’m about to take you is more than worth the wait.”
My stomach dropped, and I felt beads of cool sweat collect on the back of my neck. The thought of Theo taking me anywhere “special” was seriously triggering and came across as a veiled threat to me. Was I actually going to be dinner? Was Theo going to throw me into a giant’s lair or drag me into some sacrificial ritual?
He raised an eyebrow at my perturbed silence. “You look like you’ve run into a wraith, though I suppose Lydia’s the more likely culprit.”
When he said that, I guess he was referring to Ms. Tongue Snatcher unless putting students on “mute” was all the rage for the popular crowd here.
“Yeah, aren’t I special? Bouclier’s very own Regina George rolled out the welcome wagon for me.” I crossed my arms, but even though I was trying to play myself off as cocky, my muscles clenched as I watched her and her gorgeous entourage sneer at me. “Can we just get this over with before they stare me to death?”
Theo casually turned sideways as though he were mildly curious but not seriously alarmed about my concerns.
The severe-looking vixen I had now learned was named Lydia underwent a total transformation after she met eyes with Theo. In fact, she looked as innocent and harmless as a newborn kitten as she coyly pulled her shoulder up to her chin and gave a friendly wave. A warm smile played upon her full lips, and she looked so smitten by him that she couldn’t even be bothered to acknowledge my existence, much less to hassle me. Was he really going to buy her act? If he did, I could tell which head he thought with, and I was going to have dinner spoiled for me all over again.
On account of where I was standing, I couldn’t tell how he responded to her cutesy theatrics, but his voice did seem to take on a tone of either regret or boredom.
“Yes, she isn’t the kindest to newcomers, is she?” he mused, then returned his attention to me. A tiny glimmer of respect warmed up inside of me as I learned that he could see through fakery. “Well, don’t pay her and her friends any mind for now. If we keep dawdling, Chef Douglas will retire for the night, and then you’ll pity your idleness. I have many fortes, but cooking is not one of them.”
Just when I thought he was growing on me, the hypocrisy of his comment met me like a slap to the face. I was the one that was actually on time, but now I was on the receiving end of a lecture on punctuality. What a jerk.
Still, I decided that I would play along and take him up on his offer, though. If I learned anything from my step-sisters, it was that rich brats without any responsibilities can’t find their way around the kitchen and will burn toast if left to their own devices.
“I hear you,” I pretended to empathize with him. “Where does the glorious Theo deign to sit?” Even though I sounded like a theater kid, I thought it would be funny to take a crack at his lofty and old-timey vocabulary.
He looked like he was about to lick his lips with satisfaction. Whoa, there. I wasn’t exactly going for that effect. My sarcasm went right over his head, and he chewed on my words as though they were a fine meal. I guess he thought that a “lamb’s blood” was finally going to get with the program and fall all over his perceived superiority.
“Music to my ears, a woman who has her wits about her and is catching on to the ways of this world,” he throatily purred in delight. “You will make a fine dinner companion if you keep that up.”
“Yeah, okay,” I said noncommittally and shrugged. “So which one of these tables is your regular spot?”
He placed his palm on his chest and let out a yelp of a laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding!” His eyes watered, and he grinned deviantly as though we were sharing the most hilarious inside joke, but when it was clear I didn’t mean it as comedy, he blinked “Wait… you’re not kidding.”
The fact that I thought he would sit at a table like any regular student must have taken the wind out of his sails because his voice sounded incredibly deflated now. I kept a straight expression and blinked as though I was daring him to find this funny. I didn’t want to enable his out-of-touch ego, and so I chose to prolong the awkward silence and make him speak up for himself. Hopefully, he would figure out that my question really wasn’t that unusual at all.
“To answer your question…” He cleared his throat, but beyond that, he wouldn’t cave to my public shaming nor my implication that he was tediously stuck up. “... I don’t sit at one of these ordinary tables like some common mage. I am a Von Brandt, after all.”
“Meaning?” I stretched out that one word and stressed the last syllable as I tapped my foot. This was the stupidest prelude to a dinner possible, and there weren’t even any appetizers to make up for it.
“Meaning...” He grabbed my wrist and started to walk toward the back of the dining hall, “... behind me, please, as is the custom when you are invited to dine in my family’s formal enclave… that the blood that runs through my veins is of noble lineage and can be traced back to the royals that ruled over this castle before there was even a Bouclier Academy to speak of.”
I grumbled as I was unceremoniously dragged into this oh-so-special, bougie “dining enclave” that was basically a glorified “reserved” section for Theo to immerse himself in his narcissism and dangle his advantages in everyone’s faces. Aurelius leapt after us and yelped in annoyance at Theo’s rough approach, and every other onlooker was none too pleased either. Glaring sets of eyes laser-focused on me with seething jealousy. I think I even heard a shocked gasp or two. I couldn’t see what the big fuss was. For a guy who had just tried to impress me with his princely background, I sure wasn’t getting the royal treatment.
When he was finally done yanking me to his final destination, I had to admit that, yeah, it was kind of nice. Each of the cherry wood seats around his personal table looked like a throne, upholstered in scarlet satin and carved with such intricate designs that were almost disorientingly beautiful. In this secluded corner of the hall, he even managed to have his own marble fireplace complete with a decorated mantle and roaring flames.
Above it was an oil painting of… well, just Theo. Really? He wouldn’t even pose alongside his father? I was not only curious about what the much-discussed Abelard looked like but also why he was excluded from this portrait. Maybe Theo’s father had more humility and left his son to eat by himself with only his arrogance to keep him company.
“May I take your broom?” Theo interrupted my thoughts, and I began to feel guilty for quietly ripping him to shreds because it sounded like a nice gesture, even though I’d never heard that offer before. He held out his hands in an uncharacteristically gentlemanly fashion.
His unexpected politeness caused me to stammer. “I… uh… yeah… sure.” I rapidly stuck out my broom-carrying arm because I couldn’t really think of any proper way to turn it over. “Here you go. Just… make sure it doesn’t catch fire! I’ve actually taken a liking to it.”
I’m not sure why I threw that warning out there. It’s just that Theo made me feel like I had to cover all my bases to ensure he wouldn’t pull a fast one on me. I don’t know when, or if, I could ever let my guard down around him. Throwing out a barb here and there struck me as reasonable since he’d make me pay for any benefit of the doubt I’d be stupid enough to deal out.
“Yes, I…” Theo looked as though he was going to divulge a secret and then thought against it. “... imagine that you put great care into the selection of your broom. As my predecessors intended when they designed the initiation ritual.”
He gripped my broom’s handle, and before I released my own hold on it, our fingers grazed against each other’s. I almost jumped from the contact as his skin seemed to give off a static shock that wasn’t altogether off-putting. I was also surprised to note that while he had a pretty cold demeanor, he was quite warm to the touch.
Theo stepped away with me in long and measured strides, then balanced my broom against the wall furthest from the fireplace. Since he seemed so dense when it came to the subtleties of conversation and not generally treating others as though they were the scum of the earth, I was pretty impressed with his attention to detail in this matter.
“I appreciate that,” I managed to say with sincerity in my voice. I didn’t even have to fake it. “I might even be able to forgive you for leaving me hanging in the dining hall. I’m not sure if you’ll ever know what it’s like to have crowds of people dig into you for just standing there and breathing.”
“Can you blame them?” Theo pulled out a chair for me with a chivalrous flourish, a real mismatch for his tone-deaf question. “I mean, you cannot deny that your robe brings to mind a slovenly pigsty. Not only is it the color of mud, but it doesn’t even look as though it’s been washed. I didn’t even know that was possible.”
He continued with his degradation as my ears burned with shame. “Everfour is supposed to be calling forth the energy of the mage, and the message that you’re sending to Bouclier is that you don’t believe in being well kept. Worse, you don’t believe in yourself.” Pity trickled into his voice as he inspected me and my perpetually disappointing smock with condescension. “You should definitely believe in yourself more. It’s unbecoming to think so little of yourself that you’d be given...” he gestured at me, “this.”
I tilted my head up haughtily in an attempt to deflect his presumptuous claim that I had no self-worth. To really drive home that I wasn’t interested in his cliché attempts at courtesy, I refused the chair he had prepared for me and walked with a glacial pace to a different seat. I wanted my displeasure to sink in. Sure, every girl has her insecurities, but I didn’t think I was any worse off than the next. Aurelius curled up at my feet, and the warmth of his tummy gave me some small consolation as I trained my eyes on my plate to avoid looking at Theo.
