“That will be quite enough,” Professor Ruby snaps. “Oh, Orchid. Are you all right, my dear?”
I hurry to my feet, my wings fluttering madly even though I’m only hovering in place. It’s stark the contrast in her biting tone to the much softer, almost maternal tone she used for Orchid.
“I’ll be fine.” Orchid’s face scrunches up, and a wave of anger that I don’t normally feel wells within me.
“She was doing just fine and having fun and forgetting about all of that until you had to go and bring it up again!” I say angrily, keeping my voice down but my tone tight and hot.
The professor ignores me, which is probably for the best. “I understand there was another theft?”
Orchid nods and sniffles before taking a calming breath and recovering some. “Yes.”
“From one of your belongings?”
“No, not even in the same dorm.”
The professor nods slowly. "I see. I do wish that this hadn't happened and so early into the new school year too. Well, I'm afraid that it is past time for the class to start. I understand if you are too preoccupied, Orchid—"
"No, no. I'll take the class. Thank you."
Orchid nods to me, and we fly in together. I let her pick the seats, and I’m glad the only two together are in the back. I never would’ve thought I would be the kind not to pay attention during a lecture, but that’s the plan.
As soon as we sit, I turn to Orchid. “It’s none of my business, and I’ve been a terrible friend, so go ahead and hex me, but what is the talisman that the professors are all so upset for you?”
Orchid gives a wry smile. “It’s not anything you need, that’s for sure,” she teases.
I furrow my brow. “I’m even more confused and curious now.”
“Don’t forget callous,” she says.
My eyes widen. “I’m sorry!”
“Relax! I’m only playing.” Her smile, though, is barely there, the corners of her lips hardly twitching upward. “My great-grandma was Nissa.”
“Nissa?” I gasp. “Nissa Shadowlily? The fairy who made the only working love potion?”
“That’s the one.” Orchid sighs. “She not only made the only working love potion. She also made my talisman, which was supposed to bring my good fortune and love and happiness and so much more.”
I say nothing, but there’s one specific thought I’m having.
“I know, I know,” Orchid groans. “It’s not good fortune to have it stolen, but it’s my fault it was.”
“It was?” I’m confused. “Did you forget to lock your door?”
"No, no, nothing like that." Orchid shakes her head and rubs the back of her neck. "No, I stopped believing it would work. Great-Grandma told me that if I started to doubt, the magic would start to wan, and now, look what happened?"
“What made you stop believing in it?” I ask.
“Well, I haven’t had any luck in the love department, and I got fired from my job, and I’m not happy at all lately. I didn’t think the talisman was working, but it must’ve been all along. Just because I haven’t met the fairy of my dreams yet doesn’t mean I won’t ever. And maybe being fired is a good thing, especially since the academy has started. It’s scary to think what might’ve been if I hadn’t had the talisman all along, and now I don’t have it, and…”
“Do you think the thief knows what the talisman can do?” I ask.
“I don’t even know if it’ll work for someone else.” She throws up her hands.
"And someone stole something else." I fiddle with my hair, which reminds me of my promise. I motion Orchid to twist around, and I start to braid her hair. "Do you know what else was stolen?"
“No. I just know it wasn’t another talisman.”
“Hmm. Do you think the same person stole both items?”
“I have no idea.”
I braid a section on top of her head and then one on both sides. Swiftly, I work the braids into a bun. It’s a little loose because I don’t have anything to secure it tightly, but it looks softer and more romantic this way.
Orchid pats her hair and grins. “Thank you.”
“I’m sorry it took me so long.”
“Ladies, do you care to join the discussion?” Professor Ruby asks.
“Actually, I would like to ask a question,” I say.
She eyes me and then nods.
“Is it possible to use divination to learn who stole the items?”
A few of the other fairies turn to look at me. I shrug to almost turtle myself. I forgot that it wasn’t common knowledge yet that two items had been stolen, not one.
“It is actually a good suggestion,” the professor admits. “You are…”
“I’m Rosemary.”
“Rosemary, well, divination is the practice of learning about the future or the unknown, and the thief’s or thieves’ identities are unknown, as are the locations of the missing items. One would hope that divination could provide some illumination, but alas, that is not to be the case.”
“Why not?” I ask almost angrily. “What’s the point of divination if you can’t learn anything from it.”
"Now, obviously, you can use divination to learn a lot, but when someone uses magic to confusticate and obscure the location of the items, well, it can become almost impossible to penetrate the spells used.”
“But can you use divination and counterspells?” I press.
“Believe me, Rosemary, we are doing all we can.” Professor Ruby nods to Orchid and changes the subject.
I grimace.
"Thank you for trying," Orchid says once the class is over.
“I just wish we could find your talisman.”
“Maybe we will.”
"And then you'll find love, and we can double date," I say with a grin.
Orchid just shakes her head and bursts out laughing.
Chapter 10
Orchid and I make plans to meet early in the morning before our first class, and off she goes to her dorm room. I glance around, more looking for Sage than Bay when someone slings his or her arm around my shoulders.
I jerk and look over. “Bay, you scared me.”
“You ready to go home like a good little light fairy?” she asks.
“You don’t want to hang out with the other bad little dark fairies?” I counter.
Bay smirks. “You don’t know what bad is.”
“Two of my professors don’t like me very much.”
“Good for you.”
“And another might not if I don’t start to practice magical music with the harp.” I roll my eyes.
“My, my, is the little light fairy trying to turn a shade darker?” Bay teases.
“I’m just trying to be me.”
Bay scoffs. “Seriously? You know you’re as light as they come.”
“Bay, I don’t know that.”
She lifts her eyebrows. “You really think you haven’t chosen your path yet?”
“Who’s to say?” I challenge. “And the academy is for light faes, so why do you think you can try to be dark and attend?”
She says nothing.
“Then again, someone’s dark enough to be a thief.” I eye her.
Bay rolls her eyes. "I heard about that. Now, are we going to hang around here for forever and be late going home again? Or are we going to head on home?"
“I want here to be home,” I say as we start to fly off.
"Do you, now? Why is that?"
I shrug. “Don’t you think it would be more fun to stay here?”
“Yes, but I don’t know if such a good little—”
“Can it with that,” I snap.
“Wow. Someone’s a little testy.” Bay eyes me, looking at me instead of paying attention to where she’s flying. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“I know. It’s fine.”
“It’s never fine. What’s the deal?”
“There is no deal.”
“Yes, there is. What’s going on? Don’t tell me tha
t going to the academy means you’re going to start keeping secrets from me.”
“I have no secrets.”
Bay just laughs. “Do you want me to guess? I’ll guess. You made a friend.”
“I did.” Maybe even more than one. Can I count Sage as a friend? Why not?
“This friend doesn’t know how light you are.”
I hesitate.
“Okay, too close to what I’m supposed to ‘can.’”
I glance over in time to see Bay roll her eyes.
“Is this friend a boy?” she asks. “It is, isn’t it? Do you have a crush already?”
I say nothing, but my face is burning hot.
“You have a crush already? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s that boy with longish brown hair I saw you with, isn’t it?”
“You saw us?”
“I did. He’s cute.”
“He’s…” I clamp my mouth shut. I was just about to growl, “He’s mine,” but who am I to claim that?
“Don’t worry. I won’t try to steal him away,” Bay says. “But I do think that maybe you shouldn’t mention him when we ask the ‘rents if we can live on campus. I do happen to know that there’s a full room open.”
“Oh. I was thinking… I mean, I thought you and what’s her name? Berry?”
“Holly,” Bay corrects easily.
“I thought you might want to room with her if possible.”
Bay stops flying, so I do too. “You have someone else you want to room with,” she says. She sounds even more surprised about this than she had about my crush.
“If you really want to room together, we can,” I say in a rush. “Mom and Dad might prefer that anyhow.”
“I don’t want to be your second choice,” Bay snaps. “Why don’t you rip my wings off? You were so thrilled to go to the academy. I didn’t think it was because you wanted to act like you didn’t have a sister.”
“Bay, it’s not like that,” I protest.
“No?”
“No! Besides, it’s not as if you’re going out of your way to seek me out at lunchtime,” I point out.
“You made it quite clear you didn’t care for my new friends,” she says through gritted teeth.
I lower my head. “I really didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. You know I love you.”
“I know. It’s just… Like, I know we’re different. We’ve always been. And we haven’t always hung out together all along. I just… You didn’t even think about rooming with me.”
“I just assumed—”
“Ah, there’s the issue.”
“At least that means we’re both asses,” I tease.
Bay bursts out laughing. “You better not let Mom hear you say that.”
“Yes, yes,” I say impatiently. “You would think she expected to give birth to two angels.”
“Compared to me, you are an angel.”
“You haven’t done anything super terrible,” I protest.
“If Mom or Dad knew about the sex…” Bay shudders. “They would force me to stay at home for the rest of my life. It’s so unfair how they like to keep us tied down. It’s as if they’re only letting us fly with one wing, you know?”
“Let’s do our best to convince them to let us move on campus this semester. Right now,” I say eagerly.
“Then they can’t know about your boy,” Bay remarks.
“We already established it,” I say dryly.
“And we shouldn’t mention the theft either.”
“Thefts,” I correct.
Her arched eyebrows raise. “There was a second one?”
“Yes.”
“Craven raven,” she murmurs, and I have to laugh. She eyes my necklace. “It suits you,” is all she says.
I grin. “Thanks.”
We fly the rest of the way home. Mom hadn’t been too harsh on us for being late yesterday, but that had most likely been because yesterday had been our first day. She seems much happier to see us a good half hour earlier tonight.
“How was school, girls?” Mom asks, giving us a hug before we can even enter the treehouse.
“We aren’t—” Bay starts, but I cut in.
“It was great,” I say, “but the course load is already starting to pick up, isn’t it, Bay?”
“It really is,” Bay agrees. “And there will be projects and assignments and reports… so much work. It’s going to take up so much time.”
“You know what could help to save time?” I muse, tapping a finger against my cheek.
“I see what you’re doing,” Mom says, her lips pursed. “Come on in. Dinner’s already served.”
Dad already sits at the table, the honey mead’s already poured, and the plates are already filled. Bay and I begin to eat heartily, letting Mom and Dad talk about whatever they wanted to, but eventually, the conversation turns back to Light Fae Academy.
“I heard that things aren’t going to plan quite as well as the headmaster would like,” Dad says.
I wince and glance at Bay.
My twin eyes Dad. “That’s such an important lesson in life, though, isn’t it? Hardly anything ever goes according to plan, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make a plan in the first place.”
Dad harrumphs. “What is it your planning?” he asks suspiciously.
“We have no plans,” Bay says.
“No plans at all,” I echo.
“Start talking, Rosemary.”
I gape at Dad. “We don’t have a plan,” I protest.
“But you have something you want to ask for, don’t you?” he presses.
“We want to live on campus,” Bay says.
“You’ve asked that before the semester even started,” Mom says. “And your father and I agreed then that it’s already a large enough transition for you to go to a structured school. Maybe next semester.”
“And with the theft,” Dad says.
Bay glares at me, but I already know better than to correct him.
“What theft?” Mom asks.
“A talisman was misplaced,” I say.
Bay lifts her eyebrows and brings up her hand to hide her smirk. She winks at me.
“Was it recovered then?” Mom asks.
“It will be,” I say firmly.
“Hmm.” Mom glances at Dad.
“Does it matter if we move onto the academy grounds now versus later? Because later seems like a done deal already,” I say.
“We might as well move in now,” Bay agrees. “Before classes become too involved. It seems like it’s going to be a lot of work, our classes.”
“And you want us to succeed, right?” I press.
“And the library. We might have to stay there late to study, and we wouldn’t want to worry you if we aren’t home for dinner or curfew. I mean, you don’t want us to risk our grades being poor because we can’t study enough and all the time lost flying back and forth…”
“Not to mention flying while tired,” I add.
“We don’t even know if there are any—” Mom starts.
Bay holds up a hand, reaches into her large purse, and removes a stack of papers. “There are rooms available, empty rooms entirely as well as some that need roommates. All we need is your permission.”
Our parents exchange a long glance.
“This semester, next semester, does it really matter?” Bay asks.
“It should,” I say. “There are only so many semesters, and you want us to do well with each one, right?”
“You would think that one of their courses is How to Win an Argument,” Dad complains.
“It’s actually called Debate,” Bay says with a wide smile.
Dad harrumphs. "If I find out that either of you is doing inappropriate things—"
“Because you never did anything inappropriate in your life,” Bay says dryly.
Mom starts to laugh, catches Dad’s gaze, and clears her throat. “You are not your father.”
“And I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I made,” Dad
says.
“We might be doomed to repeat them since we don’t know what mistakes you made,” Bay says sweetly.
“Nice try, and don’t press your luck,” Dad warns as he takes the papers. At Mom’s nod, he signs both.
Bay squeals and reaches for them, but Dad holds them out of reach.
“I want you both to promise you will come and visit and call.”
“We can text,” Bay says.
Mom shudders. “Phone calls are bad enough,” she complains. “Human technology.”
“Any communication is better than none,” Dad points out.
“Yes. Do not forget about us,” Mom says, “and please, do your best to stay toward the light.”
“We promise,” I blurt out, mostly to save Bay because that promise might be hard for her to make.
Bay and I exchange a glance and shriek. “Nice job,” she mouths right before we hug.
“Just like old times,” I whisper in her ear before pulling back.
We’ll have to wait to turn in the papers until tomorrow, and they might make us wait until the weekend to move in, but I am floating in the clouds. I’m that happy.
No curfew. No parents breathing down my neck. Nothing but freedom. Glorious freedom.
Chapter 11
The fairies who work the front office of the academy give us a bit of a fly-around, so it takes two weekends for us to move onto campus. I give Bay the choice of roommates. If she insists on me rooming with her, I will, but she doesn't pick Holly or me. Instead, she opts to secure a slot in a cottage. Whereas the dorms are mini castles with two fairies per room, the cottages are tiny houses with one per room and six per cottage. They even have access to a kitchen so they can make their own meals. I'm not sure who the last person in the cottage is, but all of Bay's friends are in one. Normally, the cottages are for those in their last year, as kind of a perk, but then again, I think most if not all of her friends are in their last year, so she's just tagging along.
Somehow, in the blink of an eye, an entire month goes by. The thief or thieves haven't been caught yet. Worse, there's at least one new theft every week. Oh, and I have to fight myself, so I don't sabotage myself on the harp. As much as I hate to admit it, I do have a real affinity for the lightest instrument in the world.
Light Fae Academy- Year One Page 5
