Victory: Year Four

by Amabel Daniels

  “Why does Glorian believe her?” I asked when the others fell silent. I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees. “She’s not a fool. Mean and manipulative, but she’s not stupid. I can’t believe she doesn’t see through her BS.”

  “She probably sees through it and past it,” Paige suggested. “No matter how crappily and inhumanely she wants to show it, Aura is a Pure elf. The one status Glorian has always put on a pedestal.”

  “So, you’re saying she wants to keep Aura on her ‘side’?” Sabine guessed.

  Paige nodded.

  “For what, though? As what?”

  Lorcan offered, “As a minion of some kind?”

  Sure, but Glorian cared about animals. I wasn’t going to nominate her for the Academy’s MVP any time soon, but she seemed to have her heart in the right path where it truly mattered. I’d seen how upset she was about the condor being injured. And I hadn’t forgotten about her fury at discovering Bateson had been using brain-controlling collars and electric forcefields on ancient species.

  Glorian wasn’t a warm and friendly woman but I doubted she wanted to keep Aura under her control for the sake of causing harm to creatures.

  “Maybe an ambassador. Someone out in the real world.” Paige tapped at her chin. “Glorian comes from an old family, one of the longest standing legacies of elves. They have many ties with influential people in the world, so maybe she sees a purpose for Aura there. Or maybe she wants her to stay here and teach, take over for Griswold? I don’t know but there are many ways that Glorian could use her. There are many roles that could be filled to help Glorian preserve the elven ways.”

  So many opportunities to be used. That was all I could gain from that. If Glorian only saw Aura as an object of her power, then she probably had already dismissed and disregarded the fact the girl was evil. She likely figured she could manipulate that to her advantage somehow as well.

  “There might be a lead on Griswold,” Lorcan said after a few minutes of quiet. “And Glorian’s got her eye, one way or the other, on Aura.”

  Us girls glanced at each other before facing him. We knew what was coming. Lor was an easygoing guy and always ready to help. He hadn’t whined about not having powers yet, but he was extremely loud and persistent about his brother.

  “We’re not doing enough to find Stu.”

  “Lor,” Sabine started with a sigh. “We looked. Every stupid campsite Arthur dragged us to.”

  “But he’s got to be somewhere!”

  It wasn’t a declaration of knowing Stu was alive. Because I bet Lorcan wanted to severely hurt his sibling for what he’d done, the damage he’d caused and the danger he presented.

  Stu had to be out there somewhere. He was just that smart to get away, time and time again.

  “Maybe you guys could take Arthur out again?” Paige suggested. “Winter’s coming. If everything is covered in snow, maybe he’ll have to camp out somewhere for longer and warmer.”

  “And then there would be footprints,” Sabine added.

  Lorcan shook his head. “Stu’s an outdoorsman, but he’s still an Aussie. He hates the cold and doesn’t like winter.”

  I raised my hand, a cheesy move like we were in class. “Is he actually a fugitive? Or on the run from the normal law?”

  “Normal law?” Sabine huffed a laugh. “What, like there is an elven law?”

  Paige frowned. “Kind of. Or at least there is a global watch effort. That’s what pulls Suthering from the school so much.”

  Seemed like a lot for one man.

  “I don’t think so, Layla.” Lorcan shrugged at me. “Wolf said Suthering’s PIs found a trace of money exchanged with the guy they knew at the jail. They concluded Griswold paid off the guy to lie and say that Stu was still in jail when he wasn’t.”

  “So he wouldn’t have to be hiding in the woods,” Sabine said.

  “No. He wouldn’t have to be, to the best of my knowledge. He prefers the outdoors to cities, though.”

  “Then maybe he’s just in a hotel somewhere,” I said.

  Lorcan shook his head. “He’s got to be using cash and an alias for checking in. The PIs haven’t found him anywhere.”

  It was too bad we couldn’t have Arthur look. His results were more dependable than the PIs. But if Stu wasn’t anywhere near the Academy or the forests surrounding it…

  “Too bad there aren’t any species that can detect scents from a distance,” I said.

  They all raised their faces to me. “Well,” Paige said, “it seems the grogs’ abilities are better than any normal dogs.”

  “But he’s limited to the ground for a scent trail.” Lorcan nodded at me. “We need something more versatile. Like a bird.”

  We shifted the spotlight to Paige. “Do you know of any bird that could do that? Ancient or normal?” I asked. I liked to call myself a nerd and bookworm, but my former roomie surpassed my nerdiness and bookishness. She was like a walking library of all kinds of knowledge.

  She scratched at the edge where her afro and forehead met. Crinkling her nose, she said, “I don’t think so? I can look into it though.”

  “Thanks.” I glanced at the clock and sighed. But I’d have to hear about it later. Martino had asked me to come by and practice with him, since I’d missed our training session yesterday because of how long Bateson’s fiasco of an exam had taken. And right after that, I had a much-unwanted date with Glorian.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Martino didn’t go easy on me. We sparred for a good half hour and then he illustrated some new moves. I wasn’t confident I understood how to execute them, but that was part of the allure of taking self-defense and mixed martial arts. At least, it was a part of it that drew me in. There was always something else to learn. Some new technique to practice. I’d been a book-smart kind of girl for so long, it made sense that I really dug this type of learning. It was totally different. And slowly accumulating the finesse and know-how of being a badass was pretty cool no matter which way you looked at it.

  Therefore, I walked, instead of riding on the shuttle, to Glorian’s office suite with a certain elated high. The burn of hard exercise and pushing my body had me optimistic and primed for something.

  Not a half-hour chat with a woman—oops, my aunt—I’d never trust.

  When I arrived, no one manned the outer lobby so I let myself in and sat in one of the white, kind of cushioned chairs in the waiting room. Only, I remained solo there.

  Where’s the secretary?

  I checked my watch and confirmed I was still early. Five minutes had passed since I’d arrived but Glorian wasn’t slated to meet with me for another ten.

  Bored, and somewhat psyched by the productive time I’d spent training with the Hispanic martial artist, I grew curious. My thoughts veered sharply from curiosity to intrigue, with a dash of daring.

  First, I glanced at the corners of the walls and noted no obvious surveillance cameras. Next, I stood and peered out the window of the office suite. No one walked toward this area. Not a single soul—not even the secretary—strolled down the hallways outside.

  “Hello?” I called out.

  No answer. I backtracked toward Glorian’s actual office, smirking at the fact the door was wide open.

  If she was careless enough to leave her door open… Then she won’t mind if I snooped.

  I’d always been the good girl, too afraid of attention and discipline to ever try being bad. But with this woman? With a scrupulous councilwoman who only viewed students as pawns for control? I felt no trepidation about trespassing into her office.

  Too bad I didn’t let Knightley come with me. He could have kept lookout while I checked out her space.

  I’d stopped bringing Knightley with me to training sessions with Martino because the grog had a hard time refraining from defending me, no matter how much I instructed the creature to sit back. Maybe because when I sparred and fought, I gave it my all. Hard to filter out my enthusiasm for combat and separate it from the contradicto
ry wishes for my pet to stay out of the way.

  White walls, smooth, blank furniture, and nothing else. It was less inviting than an empty vacuum of space. Glorian had not a single memento, decoration—anything. Not even a cup of coffee on her spotless desk.

  How does she work like this? I darted behind her desk and reached for the mouse. Sterile cleanliness freaked me out. I stopped my hand halfway there and thought better of it. Tugging my jacket sleeve down, I covered my hand and then jiggled the mouse to wake up the screen.

  Whoa.

  I’d been expecting a locked screen. Something requiring a password to let me in. Whatever had taken Glorian out of her office must have been something bold enough to distract her from routine, because the computer was unlocked. And Glorian didn’t exactly ooze carelessness.

  A surveillance feed filled the wide, twenty-inch monitor on the left. Grainy gray images of…

  I squinted after checking a glance up at the door. What is that?

  A movement focused on the display. A person. Outside? The whole camera view shifted and I realized this wasn’t a camera lens installed on a wall or post. Still, if it was a roving or rotating lens, that shift of the frame was awfully jerky.

  With the mouse, I clicked on the zoom and I could see not what it was focused on, but who. Aura. In the…

  Greenhouse?

  Marcy entered the screen, walked behind Aura, and then moved past her lab table. I couldn’t tell what Aura was doing with her hands, her back to the camera, but plant material was spread across the lab table. Next to her sat another student, a Diluted whose name I couldn’t remember.

  Mr. Alwin strode in front of the greenhouse’s room. From his crossed arms and right hand flapping a lazy rhythm on his left arm’s elbow, I knew this was footage of a final exam. Alwin paced back and forth during exams, exactly like that—hugging himself and tapping his elbow.

  I checked the time reel on the bottom corner and read that it was current. This was in real time.

  Why was Glorian taping Aura taking an exam? Was this just another facet of her extreme obsession with Pure elves? Had she spied on me, on Flynn?

  I thought back to her emailing all the junior students last year, warning us to not let our dorms become co-ed study spots. Her missive had come with an image of Aura and Flynn in the girl’s room. I’d wondered how a surveillance shot could have been captured from the window of the third floor.

  And this angle is coming from up high too.

  Just then, another jerky shift of the video feed. The entire frame jolted to the right, then back to the left, albeit not as centered. What didn’t change was the focus on Aura, no one else in the class.

  I checked another glance at the door. I hadn’t heard the outer door open yet, but I had to be running out of time.

  In the clear, it seemed, I minimized the surveillance screen. Behind it was another one, this showing the inside of a dorm room, again from behind a window.

  She’s getting these shots from outside.

  I enlarged the feed with Aura at the greenhouse. There were plenty of window panes there, all over the roof and the top parts of walls. As I stepped back from hunkering close to the monitor, I could see it now. This feed was coming from the top of the greenhouse.

  Another violent shift.

  What the…

  After that jolt in view, something else showed on the bottom of the image. A long line of a lighter gray color, curving down toward the corner. This material wasn’t as focused. It was completely zoomed out, like an object too close to the lens.

  What is that?

  Then, as if sensing my need for a clue, the lighter gray area eased further in front of the lens. A shiny surface, skinny, and pointed to the end.

  A claw. No, a talon. On the greenhouse’s roof—

  “A bird.”

  Glorian had a cam strapped to a bird? I blinked fast and went to the other monitor that had an opened folder of files.

  Ren’s room. Aura’s room. Marcy. Wolf. Me. Flynn. Even Lorcan.

  I gritted my teeth at the evidence. An invasion of my privacy.

  God damn it!

  She’d been spying on me? I’d always felt like I was being watched but I’d dismissed it, contributing it to my overall habit of fearing the worst, of lacking trust in my fellow elves and humans.

  A soft click sounded from the outer room and I sucked in a gasp. I quickly set the screens back to how they were when I’d snuck in and then I typed on the keyboard to send the screen to lock. Then I ran around the desk and sat in one of the two chairs across from Glorian’s seat. All white, of course.

  I could track her coming to her office, her heels clacking loud and clear as she hurried here.

  Biting on my lower lip, I held my breath to let it out slowly, hiding the panic in my mind. I hoped my heart rate would calm and I blinked my eyes twice to avoid looking like a bugged-out weirdo who’d just been caught snooping red-handed.

  She huffed as soon as she entered the room and I just barely heard her sharp inhale of air. I’d likely shocked her, already being seated in her room without her present. I didn’t need to be turned around and facing her to know she was glaring at me. Her tone carried that job well enough on its own.

  “Why are you in here?”

  I clamped my teeth harder on my lip to hold back a retort. “You told me to come. For my assessment?”

  She entered the room fully and strode to her seat. As she wheeled into her desk, I raised a brow at her.

  “I’m surprised you’re late.”

  Her lips didn’t budge from the thin line she maintained. Not curving up in a scowl nor dipping down in a frown. I doubted she was neutral. Glorian was never happy with me.

  “I was called away at the last minute. And now that we’re here, let’s begin.”

  My pulse had slowed somewhat and I could draw in a breath that didn’t resemble a pant or gasp. I kept repeating a calm down, just breathe mantra and lifted a hand from my lap, gesturing for her to carry on.

  “Did Mr. Mason visit you after the failed mold experiment that Aura was forced to participate in last year?”

  I blinked. That wasn’t at all what I was expecting. Since that incident in Mooresboro, I’d hardly had to speak with Glorian. I suspected Suthering was to thank for that—he often was the buffer between me and the headmistress.

  That “failed experiment.” That was all she’d view it as.

  Not that “time I’d almost died from the simple act of breathing.”

  And Aura had been “forced” to participate?

  That girl had already twisted Glorian too far from the truth. Aura hadn’t been forced to do anything. And per her comments at the Zoology exam in the aviary, I had every reason to believe the Pure elf was disappointed I’d stopped her.

  Sick, cruel people—elves—there were here.

  “Layla?” Glorian tilted her head to the left ever so slightly, as though sensing some motion might propel me to answering.

  I gave her an exaggerated frown to show my cluelessness. “Who’s Mr. Mason?”

  She stared at me. Her face didn’t change. Not a new line hinting at a frown nor a tic in her jaw. Motionless. It freaked me out. “You know who he is.”

  I shrugged.

  “Your uncle. Mr. Mason. Anessa Mason’s brother.”

  “You mean your ex-husband?” I frowned. So Andeas was her surname? She gave Ren her maiden name? It shouldn’t have surprised me, given her hatred for Nevis. But, dang, that animosity really ran deep.

  “Did he visit you after that experiment?”

  I shook my head, not trusting myself to lie vocally. Before I’d come to Olde Earth, I was an expert at fibbing. I could lie and swear to one falsehood after another—most of the time in denial. I’d had a lifetime of telling people that I didn’t see umibazas or ancient species. Being here, though, accepted and even expected to exhibit these skills, I’d had less need to be a liar.

  She must have bought my denial because she sighed and cro
ssed her hands on her desk. “If he ever chooses to come into contact with you, you are to immediately inform me.”

  Like hell, I will. “Uh-huh.”

  “He’s not welcome at the Academy.”

  “Are you telling me this simply because I’m his niece, and he might want to come back and see family?”

  Her eyes remained partially slit in the almost-glare she always held for me. But the hatred in there burned hotter. Now, I could see her jaw slide, her teeth likely grinding her enamel to nothing.

  Family? Ooh. Yeah, I’d struck a nerve. Accidentally. I hadn’t meant her or Ren. I’d intended my question to infer to me being Nevis’s family.

  “He might be interested in meeting you.” She admitted this after a moment of uncomfortable silence. “He always was obsessed with Anessa.”

  Well, they were siblings.

  “I believe he used to look upon himself as the big brother to protect her. And he’d lost that role when she abandoned her powers and this school.”

  “Are there any circumstances that you don’t hate students when they leave?” I couldn’t help my huff. “This is a school. We graduate and move on.”

  There was no way her control issue was from concern of students dropping out and giving the Academy a low graduation rate.

  “Of course students move on. And in most cases, I’m proud of the career directions they devote themselves to.”

  So, you look down on those who leave before finishing senior year. And how is it any of your business what they do with their lives?

  “Which careers are acceptable, according to you?”

  “Many. What are you interested in doing after May? Still veterinarian school?”

  I shrugged. Maybe. I’d applied months ago, so, yes, that was my goal. Then again, if she had a freaking bird spying via a foot cam from my dorm window, wouldn’t she already somehow know each and every little detail about my life?

  “There are several options available from Olde Earth. I’ve noticed Suthering’s remarks in your student file, that you’ve discussed these with him at previous assessments.”