Discovery: Olde Earth Academy: Year Two

by Amabel Daniels

  I set my lips in a firm line. He was no stranger to keeping to himself, and rightly so. I could sympathize and completely understand why he’d want to stay on the down-low about what we could do. But…word was going to get out, one way or another. It wasn’t like we’d hide our abilities forever. After our elven dates, they would expect us to show signs of the powers they suspect we have. They’d even put us through tests to gauge how powerful we were.

  Yet as I stared into his deep-blue eyes, I couldn’t fault him for wanting to stay secretive. There was still too much to learn. I wanted to find out exactly what might happen when others knew about my powers. Lorcan’s news of his older brother rebelling with his powers… Jeez. What if it turned into some kind of let’s-see-who-can-one-up-this-trick war?

  “Okay.” When he didn’t relax, I sighed and repeated myself more firmly. “O-kay. We’ll keep it between us.”

  But I still wonder if others have had premature powers.

  Paige already knew some of what I could do. Well, she was aware I could read Olde Earth, which implied I had some Pure traits in my blood. I could ask her about others being able to read the language before elven dates… That wouldn’t betray Flynn’s confidence—

  “Not Ethel. Not even Paige,” he insisted before leaning back from his hunched pose.

  Dammit. Was he reading my mind? Was that an elven talent? Because the boy sure seemed tuned in to my thoughts. Or maybe I needed to practice my poker face again. I might have gotten out of habit being around horses rather than humans all summer.

  “Okay,” I grumbled. Yet, I couldn’t just ignore these questions. “What if we tried to talk to Lorcan some more? See what else he can explain about what happened to Stu?”

  Flynn shrugged and opened his mouth to speak, but someone flounced over. Literally flounced, like bopping in an upbeat tempo while not falling over in platform sandals. At least they were green this time, not yellow. Curly blonde ringlets tossed over a shoulder and a coy giggle sounded closer.

  “And that’s my sister.”

  Sabine came to the table, her arm linked with a boy’s as she tugged him to follow her.

  She didn’t look any different. Same bouncy, hello-world-pay-attention-to-me personality as ever. And her clutch didn’t surprise me either. Sabine hanging on to a boy had become the norm since she’d discovered her feminine status as a fully-developed young woman. Her eyes, though… Were they even more calculating than before? Of me? Jesus, we hadn’t seen each other for a couple of months, that last time of which I’d saved her life, and she’s eyeing me down like I was a pest to squash?

  As if I could expect anything different.

  “Hi, Layla.” The guy spoke in a deep, bold tone and could have made a better impression with a smile. Even a tiny lift of his lips. Like a statue, he coldly appraised me.

  “This is Leo. He’s a senior from the Gold House.” She’d said senior like she deserved a standing ovation for snaring the attention of an older guy. I did pick up on her emphasis, though. If he was a senior, he’d already passed his elven date. What can he do? And what would he do with such an impersonal iciness? I assumed once most of us sophomores hit our elven dates, we’d have a chance to actually be aware of what powers others had. Since I already had my powers, I was eager to know now.

  As I contemplated this new couple, I wanted to chide myself. Was this going to be usual for me now? Immediately wondering what other elves could do—categorizing them by sects and divisions, not as the individuals they were. Before I could shake my head at my ridiculous thoughts, I tried to smile at him. Lead by example, perhaps?

  Nope. If anything, he glared more, his brows slanting lower.

  Sabine petted his sleeve like he actually was her pet. When she pivoted to smile at him, he lost his judgy stare on me and shifted to a lazy grin for her.

  Intense much?

  I cleared my throat to speak. “Uh…hi.”

  “He tutored me over the summer,” Sabine said. “When Bernie actually let me out of her sight,” she mumbled almost to herself.

  I glanced at Leo again, saluting him with a nod. “Nice job.”

  “Oh,” he said and waved his free hand slightly. “It was no hardship. Not at all.” He reached over and tucked a blonde ringlet behind her ear. Her swoony sigh was a bit overkill. “I’m so glad I got to meet her.”

  Even over books and a sorely behind understanding of material for finals? Maybe he was a geek and studying was his kind of fun. But any dude whose idea of happiness involved books would not make her gaze at him with Bambi eyes. It didn’t add up.

  “It’s nice to put a face to the name, now, Layla.” He pulled his arm out from Sabine’s hold and draped it around her shoulders, hugging her close. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

  I let my face freeze into whatever it had been doing before he spoke. Heard so much about me? He heard what about me? Apprehension trickled up my spine, locking me into the first stages of panic.

  Sabine had already done the damage of telling Ren that I was terrified of the water. What could she possibly find newsworthy about lame ol’ me to tell this tall, dark, and hand—

  Eh. Handsome? Maybe some—clearly Sabine—would appreciate his hewn and angular face. But he sent out such…creepy vibes. No matter how fit and muscular he was, no matter how intriguing his dimples might otherwise hint at a charming aura, and no matter how he projected an unchanging air of confidence, he was cold.

  “Uh-huh.” I couldn’t form any other reply beyond that. Because I truly didn’t want to know what my twin had been saying about me behind my back this time.

  “I’m Flynn.” My tablemate held up his hand in a hey there gesture before offering it for a shake.

  “Green House, right?” Leo eyed Flynn’s stretched-out hand like he needed a blacklight searching for strains of germs. “Nice to meet you.”

  Yeah, right.

  Sabine sighed dramatically, the act solely to bring the attention centered back to her. “So, I just wanted to introduce you to her, like I said I would. No need to stick around. How about we get some food, baby?”

  He caressed her jaw. “Whatever you want, sweetheart.”

  After they strolled away, clinging to each other like they needed to experiment and verify that quad-pedal locomotion was possible for humans joined at the hip, Flynn snorted.

  I faced him, noting that he’d been watching their retreat the whole way across the lunchroom.

  “Baby? Sweetheart?” He shook his head. “Who talks like that?”

  “Uh. They do, apparently.”

  He raised his brows at me as he reached into his bag for a protein bar. “Wonder if Lorcan’s met him yet. Want one? I grabbed an extra.”

  I frowned as he slid a second protein bar toward me. “Thanks.” I set my tablet aside and quickly scanned the nutrition label for the bar. It’d do. “And what about Lorcan?”

  He hadn’t elaborated in the time it took me to unwrap it and bite into the chewy stick of peanut buttery and chocolate goodness.

  “What about Lorcan?” I pressed again, covering my mouth around the food.

  Flynn quirked a brow at me. “Come on, seriously?”

  My mouth was too full to reply so I shrugged. Now what was I the last to know about?

  “He’s convinced he’s in love with her.

  Lorcan and Sabine. Made sense. He’d been the first one to try to tutor her last year. “In love? Kind of young for that, dontcha think?”

  He smiled. “Young? We’re not exactly in diapers here.”

  In love? Crushes, yeah. We were teenagers. And on the cusp of welcoming otherworldly elven powers. And students had the time and energy to care about falling in love? Weren’t there more pressing matters to concentrate on first? “True…”

  “Granted, Lorcan’s a little gullible and it doesn’t take much to capture his interest.”

  I smirked at him. “I thought you guys were friends.”

  “We are. But there’s no denying he’s infatu
ated with the wrong kind of girl.”

  I set my bar down, not wanting to risk chocolate being stuck to my teeth when I spoke again. “What’s the right kind of girl?”

  “For me?” He scoffed. “Getting kinda personal there, huh?”

  Oooh. Yeah. That was pushing the boundaries of our…our friendship? Of course, Flynn was my friend. He pitched in to buy me a birthday gift and we kept close secrets with each other. He was a friend, but that label still felt inadequate. Yet, I couldn’t help but feel like I’d crossed a line asking that. A fishing-for-info kind of line. If he’d asked me the equivalent question, I’d be flaring a serious blush.

  “I meant for him.” He took the easy way out of answering me and letting me off the hook at the same time. “Sabine’s not good for him.”

  “I doubt Sabine’s good for very many people.”

  He laughed. “Burn.”

  I licked my lips as I smiled. Dammit. Chocolate at the corner. I swiped it at with a napkin from the dispenser. “She’s not.”

  “Doesn’t look like Leo would agree.” He pointed over my shoulder and I followed his aim. On the opposite side of the cafeteria, Sabine and Leo decided to take their clinging fashion to a meshing one. Specifically, with their lips. Plastering their faces to each other, they leaned against the wall and kissed. There was making out and then there was…

  I winced. Again, her…ferocity of kissing reminded me of a vampire. Something trying to leech from another. “Ugh.”

  Flynn cleared his throat. “And I think it’s safe to assume he didn’t know yet.” I glanced at him and he tilted his chin to the right, indicating the space near the doors behind them.

  Lorcan had entered. That was all he seemed capable of as he stood there, just inside the doorway, paralyzed in place and staring slack-jawed at the new couple in line.

  And I kind of felt sorry for the poor guy.

  Chapter Seven

  I wasn’t sure how they did it. My classmates. There was hardly enough time to sit down and space out for a mere thirty seconds on a good day with the coursework piled on our shoulders. Even the reading and lit assignments—still virtual and at our own pace—were compounded from what we’d had the first year. Homework, quizzes, projects, reports, lab sheets. It was never-ending.

  Maybe I was a perfectionist and went overboard on studying. It wasn’t like all As just poofed out of the air. It took work. And time. And energy. A lot of it. So how some of the Olde Earth students could waste it on crushes and so-called love was beyond me.

  Over the first jampacked quarter of courses, Paige flip-flopped from Jonas to Marcus. Or was it Jonas to Kurt to Marcus? I couldn’t remember. Because of, you know, all this schoolwork claiming my every waking moment. Sabine and Leo became the couple of campus, and not a day went by that I didn’t overhear some critique of what the two lovebirds had done last. Lorcan, he wasn’t faring so well as he still bemoaned “losing” Sabine to the edgy upperclassman.

  “I just don’t get it,” Lorcan lamented in gym one day.

  He was my partner for the lesson, my companion to work with while we took turns riding and then brushing down a horse in the stables. Despite his grievances he felt he had to air to me, I still enjoyed this improvement to my day. Each session of gym—for the last month, at least—we were out at the horse stables and pastures. Right with Otis and his horses, where I’d been all summer. Next month we were slated to start up yoga. Yippee…not.

  “Don’t get what?” I asked. I knew. It was the same conundrum the poor guy couldn’t figure out since day one of classes. But if I made him vocalize it—again—he might catch on to the fact he was becoming a whiny broken record.

  “What does she see in him?” As he muttered the question he’d asked me already four times this week, he gazed at her across the dusty space. She and Paige brushed a dark-coated stallion. Okay, Paige was running her hand over the horse’s coat in wake of the brush she dragged over its back. Sabine was standing there, wincing at the sole of her shoe, her crinkled nose hinting at a speck of manure within sight. At least Otis had refused to let her come near the horses in anything other than old boots.

  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “Wish I could tell you.”

  Honestly, I don’t. I don’t care about who Sabine’s dating. We’ve got three tests at the end of the week. There’s only a month, two weeks, and three days before my elven date. My longma is still at large. I’ve got too much on my damn plate to include her drama in my life.

  I did feel bad for the guy, even if I questioned what he saw in her. “She uses people, Lor. Trust me, it’s better this way.” You’re better off this way.

  “People can change,” he argued.

  People could. My sister? I glanced at her again. Paige had handed off the brush to her and she held it at arm’s length, the tip of the handle between her thumb and forefinger. Didn’t seem like she’d ever change. “I wouldn’t count on it.”

  “So, I should give up?”

  Maybe? Yes, please? He was my friend and all, but why did he think I was some kind of relationship guide? Just because she was my sibling? Sabine and I were not close, not even after I’d jumped in the water after her. The fact she’d remained as distant and anti-Layla as ever hurt. It burned a little that she couldn’t even try to be something other than self-serving and—

  “Layla?” Lorcan held the brush over our horse’s hide, unable to continue with his task without an answer.

  Ah. Not a rhetorical thing here, then. Dammit. “Why are you even asking that? Give up on being obsessed with her? It couldn’t hurt. Or find another girl to have a crush on.”

  “But—”

  “Why, though, Lor? Why is it such a big deal? You’re not even sixteen yet! There’s plenty of time for chasing girls later.”

  His laugh held no mirth and his lips turned down. “You sound so—”

  I pointed a finger at him. “If you say lame, so help me God…”

  “Old-fashioned,” he finished.

  Okay. That wasn’t so bad. A lot of great things were in the past. Old-fashioned didn’t have to be an insult.

  “I’m like, the only one who’s alone in the world.”

  I gawked at him. “Huh?” Please do not launch into some philosophical what-is-the-meaning-of-my-life ramble. He’d never been much of a drama queen. Perhaps his obsession with my sister was deteriorating his gray matter.

  He jabbed the brush in the direction of Paige. “She’s basically with Jonas.”

  “On and off.”

  “Those two can’t even keep their hands off each other—during gym.” Another brush pointer aimed at a couple whose names I couldn’t remember who were even heavier on PDA than Sabine and Leo.

  “Yeah…”

  “And…” Lorcan huffed and let his arms fall to his sides.

  “Well, I’m not paired off with anyone. I don’t need to be, so don’t start playing matchmaker.”

  He rolled his eyes and stepped to our horse again. Actually raised the brush and began stroking with it too, so I removed my hand from petting the sweet and patient animal. I watched as he cared after the horse, hardly listening to his hopeless-romantic spiel because I couldn’t dismiss the approaching sounds of wind. Wings?

  “That’s hilarious, Layla. Everyone knows you’re with—”

  A shadow fell over us as a winged creature shot close to the ground.

  “Flynn!” I yelled for him as chaos fell.

  Horses, including the docile one Lorcan and I had been assigned, lashed out. Bucking, whinnying, trying to run the hell away. Reins were lost. Manes were tossed and flung into faces. Powerful legs stamped and jumped as the animals collectively reacted in fear. The quiet calm of class instantly changed to mayhem.

  “Flynn!”

  Where was he? He’d been assigned to a gelding across the training arena from us. A cloud of dust spun and swirled into a hazy mess from hooves prancing and panicking. I couldn’t see him from the cluster of animals darting this way and that.<
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  “Flynn!”

  Frantic neighs and whimpers clashed over the thundering stampede of hooves on the packed earth.

  “Get back!”

  Otis. He’d been helping the pair of students with their horse next to Paige and Sabine. His booming roar of a command came from where I’d last known Flynn to be. After the man’s bellow, three horses retreated from the crowd.

  He’d been ordering the horses—I thought. A tall Appaloosa stumbled away from the mass of animals and hurtled toward me and Lorcan. Its nostrils flared and its eyes shone wide with fear as it pummeled its hooves faster and faster, like an approaching train of too much speed.

  “Look out!” I backed up, shoving Lorcan behind me.

  What the hell—

  I couldn’t swallow around the terror clutching my throat. I was no stranger to animals in distress. But with horses? They were significantly larger than dogs!

  “Get back!” Otis yelled again and I squinted at the dust hazing my vision. The beast of a horse still barreled toward me and Lorcan and I felt a hand wrap around my elbow, tugging me away from the scramble, toward the exit.

  Stop.

  I meant it for Lorcan—or whoever had a hold on me. But the horse shook its head and stomped to a halt just before me.

  Just stop.

  It shot out a hot rush of air and whinnied. And stayed still, its terror-filled eyes directed at me now.

  That’s right. I could help. It—all the horses, they would obey me. Jeez, like I could forget? The sudden upheaval of animals panicking allowed shock to distract me from my confidence.

  “Get back!” Otis yelled again from a distance.

  Come on, Layla. You’ve got this. Scared animals—nothing new. Don’t just stand here!

  I coughed at the dust I’d inhaled and extended my hand to the horse in front of me.

  Let me on. The Appaloosa nickered and bowed its head to me. Of all the crazy things I could do, I reached for the saddle still on the horse and stuck my foot in the stirrup.

  “Layla!” Lorcan’s voice came from behind me. I kept my eyes narrowed to shield my vision from the dust and felt for the pommel. “What are you doing?”