by Sarina Dorie
“Hold on. She’s getting dressed,” Vega called.
“Can you make him invisible?” I whispered.
“I can’t get magic to work on him. Period. It’s his wards. We need to get him out of here.”
Jeb was at the only exit. We couldn’t get him out—unless we used the window.
“Can you use your broom and fly out of here?” I asked.
“I can’t carry another person on a broom.”
I glanced at the wardrobes. Even if they didn’t have clothes in there, that would be a tight fit. They were more of an armoire with the drawers beneath than the tall wardrobe that one used to travel to Narnia. We’d have to fold him in half to fit him inside. There was the scary dressing screen we could shove him behind, but his legs would stick out. Under the bed?
I spotted Vega’s coffin and dragged it out from under her bed.
“No,” she said firmly.
“It’s the only place.”
“That’s for special occasions,” she hissed.
“This is a special occasion.”
“I won’t allow you to dirty my coffin with your lover.”
“Miss Lawrence?” Jeb called from outside. “This will only take a sec.” He hiccupped. Or at least that’s what I thought I heard.
“Elric might be my boyfriend, but if you don’t do this, Jeb is going to find Elric in your bed,” I said. “Who is he going to fire next?”
She bit her lip. She looked like she was actually considering it.
“Besides, how often do you have the chance to have a hot, unconscious prince in your coffin?”
She blushed, and a sneaky smile spread over her face.
Jeb raised his voice. “Miss Lawrence?”
The doorknob turned. I floundered toward the door to stop it from opening. Vega was faster. She shot out a spell that locked the door.
“I said she isn’t decent,” Vega yelled. “Hold on a minute.”
She pointed to Elric. “Get his feet.”
Vega threw back the lid of her coffin and grabbed Elric’s shoulders. She was strong enough she probably could have lifted him herself, but with two of us, we were quieter. After he was inside, I closed the lid gently. She sprayed the room with perfume, and then sat on the coffin.
At last, I opened the door. The principal leaned against the far wall. He reeked of alcohol. His Stetson-like witch hat was askew and his bandana crooked. He staggered away from the wall.
“Have a minute, darlin’?” He hiccupped.
“Tequila much?” Vega asked.
Elric was drunk and so was the principal. I doubted it was a coincidence.
I came out of the room, closing the door behind me. “You wanted to speak with me?”
“Yessiree. Have got somethin’ important to share.” He smacked me on the shoulder.
I winced at the blunt force of it.
“Thought about what you said. Had a meetin’ with that pansy prince. Decided to take your advice. Milked that son of a Fae for everything I could.” He laughed, nearly losing his balance and falling over.
Hope warmed me like sunshine on a gloomy day. “Does that mean I get to keep my job?”
“He bought you a week, darlin’. You can finish up the school year here.”
“What?” I asked. I didn’t want to be ungrateful, but a week was nothing. I wanted next year. “Are you going to rehire me for next year?”
“Probably not. Don’t need no raven bait on school property.” He blew his nose on his bandana, which remained around his neck. “Thought that would cheer you up some, findin’ out you got to stay and write out report cards.” He grinned. His gaze was unfocused.
“Report cards,” I repeated. “Yay.”
He held up a finger in an attempt at stern warning. “But my conditions with that yeller-belly Fae is if he wants to come a courtin’ this week, he can visit you under Mrs. Keahi’s supervision.” He guffawed. “I told that varmint, each time he comes onto the school premises, he’s gotta pay me a tithe. Heh. Got him real good!”
“Yep,” I said, feeling less than enthusiastic. “You did.” I didn’t want to sell out my boyfriend to my immoral principal, but I didn’t think Elric would mind if I used him for negotiating. “Have you considered how much more you could get out of Elric if you kept me on as a teacher for next year?”
Jeb slapped me on the shoulder and tripped into the wall this time. “You’re more shrewd than a weasel in a henhouse. Tell you what, you be on your best behavior, and I’ll think about lettin’ you stay durin’ the summer until you get a job elsewhere.”
Best behavior? I doubted that included a passed-out boyfriend in my dorm room.
CHAPTER EIGHT
You Look Good—Open Casket Good
All I had to do to stay at the school for the remaining last week so I could experience the joy of grading report cards was to make sure I didn’t do anything stupid like secretly harbor a Fae in my dorm room without the drunk principal finding out. I might not have cared so much, except that Jeb had said he would consider allowing me to stay on during the summer. There was a chance if I stayed the summer, I had time to change his mind. If nothing else, I could work more on my magic in the Unseen Realm.
That was assuming Jeb later remembered any of what he’d said.
I locked myself inside the room with Vega. In silence, we listened to the principal stumble away.
Vega had already tried magic to wake Elric. We couldn’t magic him away.
I opened the casket so Elric wouldn’t suffocate. “What are we going to do with him?”
“We could ask Thatch to help us get rid of him,” Vega suggested.
“No! We are not involving Thatch.” Not after our last conversation.
She shrugged. “Fine, then. What do you suggest?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we can find Elric’s guards. They’re always nearby.”
“Yeah, but they keep themselves invisible. Are you just going to shout out the windows, ‘Hey, Silver Court guards, come get your prince’? Because if that’s your plan, warn me so I can go somewhere else and not get caught while you’re raked over the coals.”
I stared down at Elric. He was so still he looked dead. It was creepy. I didn’t like to think of him that way.
Vega sat down on her bed. “You know, he looks really hot in a coffin.”
At bedtime, he still hadn’t woken. We left him in the coffin. Just in case someone came in, or the brownies saw him and repeated what they’d seen, we decided to keep the lid closed. Mostly closed. We propped it open with books so there would be ventilation.
The moment he woke up we were going to have a serious talk. Fae contract or not, I would not put up with a Fae boyfriend who magicked me asleep to keep me past curfew because he thought it was amusing—and then got drunk and passed out in my roommate’s bed.
For one thing, he should have passed out in my bed.
The cuckoo clock alarm didn’t go off on weekends, so I slept in the cozy embrace of blankets until well past seven.
“Mmm. That’s nice,” Vega murmured in her sleep.
“Agh!” a male voice said in a panic.
The foggy mist of dreams dissipated as I remembered Elric asleep in the coffin. I sat up, blinking. Sunshine spilled in from the unshuttered windows, illuminating my worst nightmare before me.
Elric sat on Vega’s bed, scooting away from her as he stared at her in horror. She stretched seductively. Her black silk pajamas hugged her breasts, leaving little to the imagination.
“Why are you in Vega’s bed?” I asked. Perhaps I should have used the name “Miss Bloodmire” because he might assume I was talking about my cat familiar.
Elric slid off her bed and edged away from Vega.
“See, I told you he was trying to seduce me.” She shrugged. “Not that I’m complaining.”
“I thought this was your bed.” He glanced at the dressing screen with the impaled birds. “I did
n’t think you would sleep next to that.” He rubbed at his temples. “It’s too bright in here.”
I closed one of the shutters to block out some of the light. “Elric, why did you come here and pass out in my room? Seriously, I’m in enough trouble as it is.”
He sat down on my bed. “Yesterday, I made an appointment with the principal as soon as I heard you were in trouble. I didn’t want him to take out his anti-Fae prejudices on you.”
“He wouldn’t have taken anything out on me if you hadn’t magicked me into missing curfew—and then if you hadn’t escorted me up to the school and broken wards in doing so.”
He held up a finger. “I did not enchant you. Nor was I playing a joke. I only said that so he would blame me, not you. No magic was involved. You were tired from . . . you know.”
From the magical orgasm.
Vega snorted. I ignored her.
Elric went on. “I was tired from being in the city and from being around electronics, so I fell asleep too. I should have insisted the captain of my guard wake me if this happened, but I didn’t expect I would fall asleep. I am sorry about that.” He straightened the silver brocade of his eighteenth-century jacket. The wrinkles melted away, his magic more effective than an iron. “As for the wards that night, I didn’t intend to cause any problems. I’ve been here before, and I was invited by you, so I didn’t officially break them. I just bent them. And I did fix the wards. I couldn’t have you walking all the way to the school by yourself from the forest. I had to protect you.”
Everything he said was so reasonable. It was impossible to be angry with him.
He wore an unusual mishmash of styles, the leather pants too tight to look comfortable to sleep in and the T-shirt under the jacket even more out of place.
I sat beside him. “And the drunken and disorderly conduct?”
“Before I get to that. . . . Any chance I can use your water closet? I could just magic away all this fluid in my bladder, but I did promise your principal I would limit my magic on school premises.”
I looked to Vega in question. If the two of us covered for Elric and each of us checked the hallway to make sure no one was coming, we might be able to sneak him into the women’s bathroom.
“No,” Vega said. She crossed her arms. “Finish your story, and then you’re leaving.”
Elric glanced around the room. He nodded to the giant Venus flytrap plant hanging from the ceiling. “What if I just water your plant for you. It will grow really well with urine from—”
Vega lifted her chin, her smile amused. “I’d like to see you try it.”
He scooted to the edge of the bed, but I grabbed onto his arm. “Don’t. Just tell us what happened.”
“Indeed.” Elric placed an arm around me and leaned in close. “I’ve never seen you in the morning before. I like your . . . what do you call them these days? Pajamas?”
I glanced down at myself. I was wearing a tank top and shorts I’d bought in the juniors’ department, since those were the clothes that fit me. They were pink and covered in a pattern of Tinker Bell. Vega often told me they were disgusting. She wasn’t a fan of pink.
Elric’s gaze raked over me as though I were wearing lacy lingerie instead of comfy pajamas.
My cheeks burned. “That’s, um, nice of you to say so.”
He hugged me to him and kissed me on top of my head, the gesture reminding me of Thatch’s embrace the day before.
I felt guilty for allowing Thatch to do that now. Even if he had been acting as a friend and I had thought he’d meant it as a gesture of friendship, it was too forward and familiar. I now doubted he had intended it as friendship. He’d touched me multiple times, probably using my craving for touch—my affinity’s craving—as a way to soften me up for his idea to get me to break up with Elric.
“Ahem.” Vega snapped her fingers in front of Elric’s face. “You’re worse than a teenager with ADD. What happened?”
“Oh, yes. I met with the principal. I brought a fifth of tequila, hoping to soften him up, since I know he likes to drink. We washed that down with a bottle of whiskey. I think we might have had something else after that, but I can’t recall. I’ve never seen a man with such an alcohol tolerance. He makes Fae alcohol consumption at balls look like a tea party.” He smoothed a hand over my bare shoulder. “He was quite demanding. After a great deal of negotiating, I got him to agree to permit you to stay for the next week. We even got his secretary to write it down as a contract.”
That was a relief. Even if Jeb didn’t remember, Mrs. Keahi would. “What did you have to pay him?”
“My firstborn child.” He laughed.
“Pu-lease,” Vega said. “No one would pay their firstborn to grade report cards.”
I took it she’d overheard Jeb the night before. “Really,” I said. “What did you agree to give him?”
“New textbooks for five different teachers. I promised more if we can go on a date this week. He said he’d think about it.” He grinned broadly.
“Do I get new textbooks?” Vega asked, eyes wide with excitement.
“I don’t know. I didn’t ask which classes,” Elric said.
“I hope you don’t mind. I’m sort of at fault for giving him the idea,” I said. “And I gave him a few more. He might let me stay the summer if you keep on bribing him.”
Elric shrugged. “I don’t mind. No price is too great for you.” He squeezed my hand and brought it to his lips. “I would kiss you, but I’m afraid that would be against Principal Bumblebub’s rules.”
“Plus, Clarissa probably has morning breath,” Vega said.
The last week of school was a whirlwind of chaos that left little room for dating.
After Elric magicked himself away, the following days were filled with staff meetings, a final project to grade in place of an exam, a career fair for internships and summer camps for students who needed vocational training or someplace to go during the summer, class parties to say goodbyes, and end-of-the-year festivities. I heard Hailey Achilles was up for consideration to become a second-year senior—much to the protests of many staff.
Elric wrote to me on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, his letters sweet and thoughtful. Mine were hurried and short. I apologized each time for being too busy to see him. I had to grade final projects each night. Report cards would be due at the end of the week. Saturday was graduation.
On Wednesday during lunch, Jeb announced the Celestor team got an end-of-the-year pizza party because of earning the most points.
Josie leaned toward me as the Celestors cheered. “And Slytherin wins the house cup again.”
From the grumpy glares and grumbling of other students, I took it she wasn’t the only one who thought Celestors were the school’s Slytherin. I didn’t know if it was because the group was so academically minded that it helped them win. Or because they were the smallest group, so their bad behavior resulted in fewer points deducted from their team.
During my sixth period on Wednesday, Imani burst in on one of my classes in tears as students were presenting projects in front of the class. “Miss Lawrence, I don’t want to go to Camp Giggles. Everyone says it’s working in coal mines.”
“What?” I asked. “When? This summer?”
“Mr. Puck told me that’s where I have to go this summer because my parents—my parents—” She covered her face and wailed.
The entire class stared at her.
“The food isn’t so bad there,” Luke Heller said. “It’s actually better than school food.”
I pointed to the student at the front of the class staring at Imani. “Carry on. Keep the presentations going. I’ll just step into the hallway for a minute.”
I closed the door, never a good thing with unruly students like mine, but I wanted to keep this conversation private.
“I thought you were going to stay with Greenie’s family this summer.” It was what we had arranged because Imani’s parents wouldn’t take her ba
ck.
Imani wiped her face with her sleeve. “Greenie’s family said I can help on the farm, but that’s not until July. I have to go somewhere until then.”
Imani needed to be somewhere safe and hidden where Fae wouldn’t discover what she was. Surrounded by dwarves running a coal mine would probably expose what she was. Even the idea of her staying in the Unseen Realm with Greenie’s family could be dangerous if she was discovered.
“Okay, stay calm. Let me think about this.” If I was staying at the school during the summer, maybe she could stay as my ward. I could tutor her. Not that I knew much magic, but I could help her with her affinity in private. There would be less risk of us getting caught.
I had one more reason to convince the principal to allow me to stay.
“Maybe the principal will let you stay here for the summer,” I said.
She sniffled. “Why would he do that? He doesn’t let the other kids stay here. They close the school down so they don’t have to feed us.”
“That isn’t why they close the school down. It’s so everyone has a vacation.” Though I didn’t doubt not needing to feed kids helped Womby’s already abysmal budget.
“Maybe my mom will let you stay at her house for a little while. I’ll ask her, okay?” It wasn’t ideal because Imani wouldn’t be able to practice controlling and using her magic, but we could make it work as a last resort.
Imani nodded.
I handed her a tissue from my pocket. “Don’t you have a class right now? A final exam?”
She smiled sheepishly. “Miss Bloodmire’s class. She made me leave and told me not to come back unless I stopped distracting the other students with my sniffling.”
That sounded like Vega. Someone shouted on the other side of the door. I jerked it open to find paper airplanes dropping paper-clip missiles on the students. That was what I got for leaving the classroom unattended.
Somehow, I made it through finals week.
The moment the bell rang on Wednesday afternoon to signal finals were over, students ran from the classroom, screaming in triumph for making it through the school year. I wanted to join them. I had report cards, two days of club parties, activities, and Friday’s assembly, and then graduation to get through.
