by Mana Sol
“Yes, discipline. You’ll learn how we do things here soon if you keep stepping out of line. Know your place. You don’t belong here, so don’t start acting like you do.”
A flash of yellow in the corner of my eye made my heart stop. Addison. She was about to rear back and shove him away from me, I could tell, and it was going to be my fault if I didn’t stop this. But the Nephilim aura, a human like me couldn’t do anything against it, what was I supposed to -
No choice. No choice. If I did nothing here, it could be all over in the blink of an eye. I’d come too far to fall, or to let anyone else make me fall, either. A burst of heat spread through my entire body, and my fingertips glowed as I twitched out a clumsy, numb sigil just as Addison’s hand streaked forward to push at Zedekiel’s chest. Faster, faster -
The compulsion lifted just in time for me to swing out my arm and stop Addy, and I ripped the Nephilim’s hand off my shoulder. If he’d known I was going to do that, I was sure he would have effortlessly stopped me with his superior strength, but he must have been just as surprised as I was. He stared at me as I stared back, uncomprehending. It was the first time I’d seen him wear any expression other than disdain and irritation, and for a fleeting second, I let myself enjoy it.
But not for long. I whirled around and grabbed Addy and Genie by their arms before striding forward, double-speed. We needed to get out of here. Now.
I glanced back to make sure he wasn’t following us once I was certain we were a safe distance away, only to see him staring down at his hand, the one I’d pushed off my shoulder. I thought I could see a thin wisp of white smoke curling up from it, but before I could squint and get a better look, his gaze darted back up to catch mine.
Nope. Not again. I tore my eyes away from his and sped off, dragging the girls along behind me.
7
My hand was out and glowing white at the fingertips seconds before we slammed into the doors of our dormitory wing. I didn’t trust Addison not to stomp off and retrace our steps to go after Zedekiel, so I had let go of Genie’s arm instead and trusted her to follow us even though she looked like she’d half-forgotten where we were going. Better than seeing Addy on the front page tomorrow headlining a lurid report about Otherkind abuse of humans in the dark depths of Jupiter Gate Academy.
“You just let him go!” she was still ranting. “You looked him in the eye and didn’t throw a single punch, what are you, a wuss -”
“Inside!” I snapped as the heavy doors swung open with leisurely grace. Could they open literally any more slowly? “Or you can stay out here, I guess.” A bluff. I was not going to leave her out here only to find out she ran off and picked a fight she couldn’t win, but she didn’t know that. She strode in after me, shouldering past the still-opening doors in a rush as if she thought I were trying to escape her.
“You froze up!” she accused, and though I wasn’t looking at her as I threw myself onto one of the couches, bone-tired and suddenly freezing-cold after that harrowing ordeal, I could feel her jabbing her finger at me. “You can’t let these kids walk all over you! We have to stand up to them, or otherwise, they’re going to figure it’s loads of fun pissing on us all year. We don’t belong here? Get out! I worked my ass off to get here, and so did you two. Genie Watts! You better be paying attention, too, or else you’re going to end up like Blair here who melts like cheese in the pan the second some cute boy touches her -”
“I did not melt,” I said through gritted teeth, and I clamped my hand over the plush armrest. “You were the one about to tear off your clothes and throw yourself on him.”
“Was not!”
“Was, too.”
“Oh, yeah? And you weren’t staring deep into his eyes and waiting for him to give you the kiss of death, huh? Ooh, please take me, you just insulted me and basically all humans, but I love your muscles and pretty face, ooh~”
“Are you kidding me, he was using his Nephilim aura! Let’s not talk about staring when you were all over him before he ever used it!”
“Oh, please! If he used his aura on you, then how would you have walked away like that, huh? You would have been actually paralyzed, and you wouldn’t have been able to stop me from punching him right in his dirty mouth. No way. You were just being a little -”
“Because I Dispelled it, Addison!” She stood over me, looming like an angry thundercloud, so I shoved my hand up toward her and scratched out a swift sigil. “See this? This is what protects us. Magic. Not macho swagger and false confidence. That’s what we fight back with, but don’t forget they’re better at it than we are. If he wanted to, you don’t think he could have overcome the Dispelling and had us drooling on the ground like idiots? He chose not to. So start acting smarter and -”
“What’s your deal!” she exploded. “They’re better than we are? You literally sound like you’re one of them. Since when are we all inferior? They tell us that, and what, you believe it? We can use magic same as them, okay -”
“That’s exactly the point. We use magic. They are magic -”
A sudden slamming sound made both of us jump, especially me. I was still on edge from Zed’s Nephilim aura and now being harangued by Addison who seemed to forget we were stuck - voluntarily or not - in a place that didn’t want us here and would be only too happy if we accidentally met grisly ends. Who could blame me? I swallowed hard so I didn’t choke on my own surprised breath and peered around Addy, only to find Genie glaring at us from the floor. She was sitting on the hardwood with both her palms planted on the coffee table behind Addy’s knees.
“Hey,” she said in a peculiar voice that reminded me of smoking embers. “We shouldn’t fight. We should get along. Because we don’t want to be enemies, right? That would be really annoying, ha-ha.”
We both stared at her. There was an eerie smile on her face that made me think of a Nether-infected bobcat slinking down a crag, except worse. My fingers curled into a fist over the armrest, and I licked my bottom lip with a quick dart of my tongue. Something told me we should be careful here. Very careful.
“We’re just talking,” I said finally. “What do you think? We should be careful around the other students, right? Since we’re the only ones on our side.” I let my gaze flicker up to Addy, who glanced back at me for a half-second before returning her attention to Genie. Looked like she was just as uneasy as I was. Good. Something had to end this argument before it got any more pointless. Fighting with the stubborn and willfully blind wasn’t how I wanted to waste my time.
“I think… we should all be nice to each other. Or at least try. To us and them, everyone.” Genie lifted a small hand from the coffee table and rested a finger on the corner of her mouth, the other fingers curling loosely into her palm. “It’s sad if we come all the way here just to fight all the time. Like, Addison, you shouldn’t do like you did earlier. If you had hurt him, he would have tried to hurt us back worse. That’s normal. It’s what I would do.”
Addison and I glanced at each other again. That last bit… Yeah. We could believe it. And I thought I could smell the faint scent of something burning to reinforce the memory of reading the article for the first time - HUMAN NEARLY INCINERATES FAE MAN IN BROAD DAYLIGHT. Was she actually crazy? Maybe. She was exuding some strong, unstable vibes despite her twittering words that came out like fluffy dandelion cotton.
“He would have hurt us first if he’d had the chance,” Addy grumbled after a moment in a voice just louder than an undertone. If I weren’t scared a little witless myself by the strange aura the other girl radiated, I would have smiled at how funny it was to see a tall, athletic, fiery girl like her suddenly turn meek before someone half her size. But I was right there with her, so…
“Nah, it’s okay,” Genie said with a wide smile, and her hand slid off the tabletop to reveal faint blackened scorch marks on the wood. Thin wisps of gray smoke fluttered toward the ceiling… “We’re all in this together. If anyone tries to hurt you, I’ll hurt them back. Because that’s what friends
should do for each other. Okay?”
We stared at the table where she’d left her darkened handprints. Uh. Okay. My hackles rose. She had cast no magic that I sensed or recognized. Besides the fact that she’d drawn no sigils and had no wand, staff, or anything else to channel her power, I’d felt no swell of energy in the air. I was a Thaumaturgist, that was my specialty. Then again, fire magic was so rare that I barely knew anything of it except combustion spells. I pressed my lips together, slowly.
“I think I like you guys,” she proclaimed with an even wider grin. “It’s this feeling I have. So what about me? Do you think you like me?”
We answered in unison. And fast. Very fast.
“Oh, yeah. Hell yeah. A lot.”
“Of course we do, Genie.”
“Well, that’s good.” Her eyes crinkled up at the corners. “I was worried about what was gonna happen if you didn’t. I’m glad.”
* * *
I’d had enough of people after that. I spent the rest of the morning and the afternoon unpacking my scant belongings and organizing my room, foregoing even lunch so I wouldn’t have to look at anyone, especially Addy. She could hunt down Nephilim in her spare time if she wanted; I would have no part of it because I valued my future here, unlike her. I’d already made my decision to stay hidden in the shadows, and that was that.
Yes, it killed me to lower my head for the first time in my life. Yes, I wanted to punch the walls and kick the legs out from underneath all the furniture. Did she think I have no pride? We weren’t having to kiss anyone’s feet or play maid to the native students, so I was ready to count ourselves lucky. If they would rather shun us than drag us off into a dark closet and thrash us, then that was good enough for me.
And if Addy thought she could get them to respect her by picking fights before classes had even started, then she was welcome to try. But I wouldn’t waste my time. The only thing the Otherkind respected was power, real power, so I would bide my time until I had everything I needed to make them give me the respect they thought I didn’t deserve. The long game, not short skirmishes that wouldn’t get me anywhere. I was here for the long haul.
… Genie was a wild card in the mix. I stopped and sat on my newly made bed to think about her. The crazy one, the pyromaniac, the one who acted like a dandelion puff ninety percent of the time until the smallest thing activated some demonic entity inside her that made me freeze in my tracks. She shouldn’t have been invited here. Genie had bad publicity, and the native students had all the reason they needed to hate her even more than they hated Addy and me. She was living defiance of the hierarchy - hell, she’d sent one of their kind to the hospital.
Had Jupiter Gate chosen her to try to buff out the defects in their image? A show of forgiveness, reconciliation, a generous “it’s all in the past, let’s get along”? Maybe. It was some kind of statement to invite her here out of the dozens of others who’d qualified, after all. I could only hope that was the case - and not them trying to sabotage us by planting an unstable liability in our midst.
Unbelievable. I’d come here to focus on my education and nothing more. My only interest was in doing well and surviving until graduation in two years so I could get a cushy job and take care of my family when I got out. What time did I have to babysit two out-of-control, unreliable, idealistic, head-in-the-clouds girls who would only hold me back? And yet I had no choice because if they did something, anything to give Jupiter Gate an excuse to dissolve the scholarship program…
I lay back in my bed and threw my forearms over my head. It would have been frustrating enough working around the fringes of a hostile Otherkind society that wanted me gone, but now? Well, with housemates like these, who needed enemies?
A loud, insistent series of raps on the door made me look up. Definitely Addy. “What is it.”
“What do you mean, what is it? Aren’t you going to eat? We’re going to get dinner. Stop starving yourself like a kilo-queen and put some meat on your bones.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Like hell, you aren’t. You’re not a vampire. Let’s get some food.”
So she was just going to act like we hadn’t fought this morning? We were back to being casual acquaintances again instead of two girls who’d yelled in each other’s faces about Nephilim and human pride? I considered shouting back that I’d rather not go at all if I had to deal with her out-of-line accusations again, but my stomach chose that moment to growl. Loudly. She was right. My stomach was about to touch my backbone, and if I didn’t eat now, I would have to wait until breakfast tomorrow.
Tomorrow. First day of classes. I sighed as I realized it for the hundredth time today, and it hit me like a hammer to the gut every single time. I was really here. Jupiter Gate Academy. One of three humans allowed admission here for the first time in the school’s history. I’d applied to the other Arcane Institutes last year and could have gotten into most of them simply because of being a budding Thaumaturgist alone, but this was where the real pioneers came from.
Not that I wanted to be a pioneer. I didn’t care about fame or reputation or crafting new spellwork for the Citadel to use. I was here for the money it would give me - any job I wanted, I could have… so long as I made it to graduation. I was salivating thinking about putting it on my résumé already.
“Hello! Blair!”
“I’m coming!”
I didn’t intend to slam the door open, but I must have been more bitter than I realized. No, not bitter - guarded. And yet when I stared up at the other girl in the momentary silence that followed, there was nothing of that in her eyes. She jabbed her thumb over her shoulder toward the common room and nodded as if nothing were the matter. “Come on,” she said. “We want to beat the crowd. The other students started trickling onto the grounds about half an hour ago, and it’s only going to get busier. So chop-chop.”
I paused. Nothing? No cold words, no chafing demeanor? I pushed my hair back behind my ear, then nodded. “All right. Let’s go, I’m ready.”
I guess that was that. I didn’t know what to think, but there was no point agonizing over it. If she wanted to put our fierce disagreement this morning behind us and act normal with me, then…I could do the same. Wanted to. I pressed my lips together and followed her out, feeling strangely subdued. I’d been ready to be nasty back if she was going to hit me with snide comments, but the moment and mood passed me by like a dead wind.
And I’d have been lying if I said I wasn’t relieved. All right, then. So we were forgiven, both of us, I guessed as we walked in a neat little row down the hallway after leaving the common room. And I wouldn’t dwell on how my pride insisted I’d done nothing that needed forgiveness because if I were honest, I would have to admit I was glad there was someone among us who didn’t care about looking reckless and dumb and simply acted on what she wanted. Maybe one day I’d get to see her punch Zedekiel out for real.
“Are you feeling better now?”
I jumped when a small hand slipped into mine, and I looked to my right to see Genie staring up at me with a wide smile. “Um -”
“We’re all probably going to fight some time or another,” she added. “But we’re here together and we should stay together. I like it, actually. It’s nicer being here than I thought it would be. I hope we all stay for a while.”
I didn’t know what to say. She sounded so earnest that it was killing me, and I didn’t know whether it was embarrassment or endearment making me want to stick my head in the closest pile of sand I could find. And yet from my other side, Addy suddenly laced her fingers with mine as well, making me do a double-take.
“It’s whatever,” she said with a fierce eye-roll. “Let’s just get it over with. We’re all going to be friends before this is over, so there’s no point wasting time and acting like it’s not going to happen. Okay? So. Friends, I guess. Skip the drama. We watch each other’s backs so none of the hyenas screw us over, and we share secrets over slumber parties, and we’ll talk about hot guys we rea
lly shouldn’t think are hot in the middle of the night, all that.”
“Like Nephilim assholes?” I asked before I could stop myself, and Addy laughed aloud.
“Yeah,” she said. “Exactly. Also, we can plot to take over the world and whatever if we get bored of that. Okay?”
I sighed. Then smiled. “Sure,” I said. “Okay.”
8
We were early, but that didn’t matter. Our seats were already as good as decided. I shouldn’t have been surprised since I knew only too well how dining hall politics went. One clique to a table, and if the cliques had sub-groups, they dominated a hive-like territory in a cluster. No one else allowed. Here, it was a little different with the division between the species and races within, but it was logical enough that I could follow the pattern as soon as we entered through the open doors and stepped inside. Vampires there, with the aristocratic pedigreed ones in the center at the best tables with satellite groups scattered around them. Fae students over there, divided almost exactly in half with Light and Dark barely intermingling. And… ah. The Nephilim.
There were scarcely more than several dozen students all together dotting the large dining hall, but that was what made it all the easier to spot the two angel-touched boys lounging at the circular table almost dead center. There could be no mistaking it. Otherkind always appeared beautiful in various unearthly ways to humans because that’s how our brains have always been wired to respond to magic and mystique, but Nephilim especially had the good looks to make us fall at their feet even without the arcane influence. Professor Octavius was incredibly handsome, but Nephilim? Infinitely and disturbingly beautiful in every way, like those two… including Zed, who turned his head to stare at me.
At us, I corrected myself. Us, not me. Even if the way he fixed his blue gaze on me across the room (how was it that I could see his eyes so clearly from this distance?) made me feel like I was the only thing in all existence. That was just a Nephilim thing, and although he wasn’t actively using his aura on me - oh, I still remembered what that had felt like - I twitched the beginning of a Dispelling sign anyway with my right hand. Just in case. The last thing I wanted was to end up drooling on myself with one misplaced dose of overconfidence.
