Oden snorted and my mouth dropped open. Like a reflex, I flung Reina into the air. Oden’s fist collided with my ribs and I slid back across the room, catching myself with my gift. With one leap, Oden crossed the room, catching Reina before she hit the wooden floor.
Headmistress Tricorn sighed. “Enough. You may both take the exam tomorrow morning.” Her gaze locked with mine. “However, if you should fail, I don’t want to see your name on another test application. I don’t care how much your parents donate to this school.”
“What if she fails?” I said with a nod.
The headmistress’s gaze moved to Oden and they exchanged a loaded smile.
“Eight AM tomorrow. If you’re late, don’t bother coming,” she said. “And Oden,” she said, her red lips pursed, “remove them from my campus.”
“Yes, headmistress,” he said.
Reina threw her arms around Oden. “Thank you so much.”
Ms. Tricorn turned the corner and her footsteps grew fainter as she ascended the stairs.
Oden turned to me with a grin. “So I guess she’s not your girlfriend then,” he said.
“Fuck no,” I spat as I spun and headed for the doors.
Reina’s voice shot out from behind me. “Don’t be such a cry baby. You got your test, just like I said you would.”
“No thanks to you,” I called.
“All thanks to me.”
Even ungifted, she’d always thought she was better than me and now I come to find she’s been lying this whole time. If she thought I was hard on her before, she had another thing coming.
“You better watch your back at the test tomorrow,” I said, and I meant it.
9
Reina
The door slammed in my face as Kaito stormed out. Revenge was kind of sweet. It was one little lie and it didn’t even hurt his chances. If anything, it gave him an excuse to show off his gift in front of the headmistress. Yet out he stormed like the victim. Like he hadn’t deserved a kick in the ass after how he’d tormented me over the years.
“Sooo... “ Oden said, drawing my attention. “There’s a history there, huh?”
I clutched the owl charm on my necklace. “Not really,” I said, and it wasn’t a lie. I would hardly describe our little rivalry as history.
“Can I walk you out?”
I nodded and, as we stepped back into the sun, I was startled by how beautiful he was. He almost looked like a sculpture, his green eyes sending waves of shivers through me.
“Got any pointers about the test?” I asked, slowing my pace. I wanted to spend every second on the school grounds that I’d attempted to imagine every day and failed so immeasurably. Rows of pink and red flowers lined the hedge mazes. The fountains filled the air with the sputter of falling water. It was as if we weren’t near the city anymore, like the magical barrier that protected the school from prying eyes also blocked out the sound from beyond the walls.
“I’m afraid it’s different every time.”
I nodded. I heard the gate shut and wondered if Kai had used his gift to flee the school grounds so quickly. “I figured. Can you tell me about the gift you seem to think I have?”
“And rob you of the joys of figuring it out for yourself?”
Our hands bumped together and I wondered if he’d done it on purpose to renew his hold on me.
I smiled. “Obviously I’m not great at that. How’d you discover your gift?”
“One day, I broke the shit out of just about everything I touched.”
I laughed, my stomach tightening. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “My parents were so proud.”
I chuckled and my thoughts moved to my own parents, but no sadness came.
“Why did you and your boyfriend decide to come today?”
I slowed to a glacial pace as we neared the gate. “He’s not my boyfriend. I actually come here all the time.” I turned back to the school. “But I couldn’t have imagined...” My breath came short.
“Take a long look, this is going to be your new home.”
I turned to him, his yellow-green eyes like precious gems in the sunlight. “You seem pretty confident I’ll pass. Why is that?”
“Because…” I froze as he leaned in and kissed my cheek. I touched my hand to my cheek as if I could feel his kiss there. “That was for good luck.”
It was strange to be touched and kissed, and I liked the ease with which Oden touched me. He had no fear when all my life I’d come to know touch as the surest way to be hurt.
He smiled and turned back to the school as the gate swung open to let me out. I stumbled through, replaying the kiss in my mind again and again, my cheek tingling with the memory.
As I stepped over the threshold, Ancetol crashed down on me. Sudden flashes of piercing white light, a slew of cameras and reporters all huddled around the gate. They held microphones out with their gloved hands, hurling questions at me. The thrum of traffic assaulted, horns blared to scold the cars who crept past, craning to investigate the commotion. “Miss, can you tell us about the school?” a mousy reporter asked.
Another reporter asked, “Will you be attending?”
Overwhelmed, I backed into the already closed gate. The questions were endless. “Why did Oden Gates allow you to enter the school?”
“Will other visitors be allowed to—”
Before I could settle on one to answer, my thoughts flung back to my first kiss as my body lifted from the ground. My mind slingshotted through each memory I’d retained where I’d felt the magical pull of Kai’s gift. The same strained surrender pulsing through my limbs, the energy escaping through my fingertips. I once again flailed to cover my butt from being exposed on camera as I floated over the crowd. Fucking skirt. Never again, I thought when I was finally able to see Kai on the other side.
“Is that Kaito Nakamaru?” I heard someone say. “Is he transferring to GFA?” Kai must’ve been stopped by the reporters just as I had, but they must not have known who he was until they saw his gift.
“Mr. Nakamaru!” someone yelled from behind us. I landed right behind Kai and, with a nod, we started running down the hill. We sprinted past the bus stop, along the outside of the school’s walls that seemed to go on forever. We slowed to a jog and then a stroll as the footsteps behind us grew faint.
“Thanks,” I said, finally. “For pulling me out of there. That was… a lot.”
He smiled. “That was a lot?”
I looked up, confused.
“We just broke into GFA, met the world’s most promising apprentice Fae, got in a fight, and won a spot in the entrance exam. Oh!” he said, his eyes widening. “And let’s not forget we found out that you’ve been gifted this whole time.”
“I’ll give you that other stuff, but that last one I’ll believe when I see it.”
He stopped walking so I turned to face him. “You seriously didn’t know?” he asked, scanning my face.
I shook my head. “Did you?”
He sighed. “No. You still seem like a Serf to me.”
10
Kaito
Reina and I took separate ways home. I thought I could convince her to take the Gemini Gates with me, but she insisted on waiting for a bus. I popped open a soda around the corner, not so close for Reina to know that I was there but close enough for me to make sure she got on the bus safely. It wasn’t that this area was any worse than the one we lived in, but a block away was a street filled with bars that sold magic-infused elixirs that often caused things to get out of hand. Alcohol and magic didn’t mix well, but that never seemed to stop anyone.
As we neared happy hour, the bus stop, which was more of a multi-bus terminal, began to crowd with all manner of people. Most seemed to be arriving, no doubt headed to drown out their day with an elixir of contentment and lime or confidence gin and tonic.
There was a Gemini Gate nearby, its travelers a stark contrast to those coming by bus. For starters, the richer group wore less clothing, their gifts offering most
of them adequate protection. They also seemed to have bright, multicolored hair while the bus riders mostly had their natural colors. Magical dyes wore off quickly unless you had the more expensive ones. I checked around the corner, and Reina sat unbothered, scrolling away on her phone. To pass the time, I amused myself by mentally sorting the Elites, Commons, and Serfs based on appearance alone.
Across the room, I noticed a man with blue hair and round-framed glasses smirking at me. His exposed arms were crossed over his chest and he was leaning against a vending machine. I went back to my game, but a few minutes later I noticed he was still staring.
I locked my gaze on him, narrowing my eyes in warning, but he didn’t look away. The crowd rushed between our silent standoff, and I noticed an arrow tattoo that ran across his arm in the same place where I had my own. It started at his wrist and met at a point that faced his elbow. What was this dude’s problem?
He nodded toward a television screen that hung almost directly between us that as ever was silently playing the news. Red headlines flashed across the bottom of the screen one after the other. I thought I’d misunderstood his nod, that he might have been drawing my attention somewhere else, but an older woman stopped suddenly amidst the crowd, her gaze transfixed on the screen. She put a gloved hand over her mouth. I didn’t think much of it, until one by one the other passengers stopped to read the headline. There were police gathered on the screen but I couldn’t tell from the image what had happened, and the headline was too small from where I stood. I squinted, stepping closer to get a good look.
Raphael Mazarin found dead. Investigators have no leads.
Impossible. Raph was a Silver Tier Fae. No one could have taken him down. The Fae were unbeatable. I’d seen Fae get injured. I’d seen them retire early, but never had such a high profile Fae fallen in combat.
My gaze snapped to the stranger across the room and he hadn’t moved a fraction. His smirk deepened as he lifted his closed fist to the side of his cheek. I swallowed hard, as in that position the arrow tattoo on his arm pointed down. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but I had a sneaking suspicion he knew something about Raph’s death.
I walked through the crowd and they parted like a river around a stone to avoid my touch. But the man with blue hair had vanished. I spun with the sudden realization that I might have been in the presence of someone genuinely dangerous, which meant so was Reina.
My pulse deafened me and, as I dashed around the corner back to Reina, there was a pressure in my ears and in my throat. The bench where Reina had been sitting was filled with new occupants.
Then I saw her, lifting her phone to the scanner before she stepped onto the bus. I exhaled my relief. She was safe, and it would be a quick trip through the nearest Gemini Gate for me. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shake the image of the man with the downward arrow and menacing smirk.
11
Reina
I didn’t hear the news until I returned to the group home. I walked into the common area, my mind preoccupied with the possibility that I might be gifted and the sudden pressure of the test I was about to face. If I had been paying attention, I would have been alarmed by the silence coming from an area where the other orphans usually argued about whose turn it was to watch TV. As I watched the twelve others huddled around the TV in stunned silence, I felt the uneasiness in the room.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, but no one responded. I moved closer and heard a sniffle coming from Jerome. He was the youngest in the home, just eight years old. I looked up at the screen and in blood red, the caption read, Raphael Mazarin found dead. I sat down on the edge of the armrest, the only place I could squeeze myself in without blocking someone’s view. My stomach tightened as Yemoja Roux stood in the frame. I held my breath as she spoke. “I just don’t know who would do such a thing. Raphael was a good man and a great Fae. And whoever did this will be found and brought to justice.”
“Yemoja!’ a reporter shouted. “Are there any leads?”
She leaned over to a police officer and whispered something. He nodded, handing her a slip of paper. She turned back to the camera holding up a drawing of a simple arrow. “This image was found at the scene of the crime. If anyone has information that they think could be relevant to this case, please call the authorities.”
I reached out and rubbed Jerome’s back as I watched the news in disbelief. My thoughts moved to what Principal Angora had said about Fae being a dangerous position. I guess I always knew it was. But only the strongest were chosen as Fae, which meant they were pretty untouchable. I shuddered to think that someone out there had a gift strong enough to take down a Fae as well known as Raphael Mazarin.
Jerome squeezed my hand, a gesture that was only safe within our home. All thirteen of us were Serfs. But it meant we could touch, in moments like this, and fight like regular siblings. My life had not thus far been kind, but I felt grateful that I’d somehow found a little peace and landed here of all places. Others had it much worse. The presence of gifts had turned the foster system into a game of roulette, for ill-intentioned people looking for helpless kids with gifts they could use, but that system collapsed long before I became an orphan.
Once we aged out, all of us would be at the mercy of the gifted for the rest of our lives. I needed to become Fae. I needed to find a way to protect the Serfs. The only way to do that was to pass tomorrow’s exam, and I didn’t have the faintest idea how to prepare.
The TV shut off and Alyssa, the oldest of us, held out the remote somberly. We spun to her for an explanation. “She’ll be home soon. We’d better head to our rooms and stay out of her way.”
There were many things we argued about: who spent too long in the bathrooms, who ate more than their share of dinner, but one thing we all agreed on was that it was best to be in our room and out of the way when Vivian got home. She had a particularly cruel brand of touch magic and a nasty temper to match. There was a sort of electric energy that she could emit through her fingertips. It was a dull sort of pain as she wasn’t very strong, but she could hold it for long stretches and on two at a time.
I lay awake that night thinking about Raphael. And how Yemoja Roux had, for the first time, seemed shaken. I wondered if they knew each other well or even if she was afraid of the killer. I’d only seen her in action for a moment, many years ago. Just a flash of magenta hair and a bright smile. Of course, no one believed me, but my parents were there… my parents. I held their image in my mind, my mother's tender gaze and knowing smile. My father’s quiet strength and optimism. They’d been gone a full year now and I felt numb to it. I’d made a huge mistake, one I couldn’t take back. I learned the hard way that the only thing more dreadful than grief was indifference. And with that thought, I let myself drift to sleep.
12
Kaito
It seemed just a moment after I shut my eyes, my alarm woke me. I walked like a zombie through my empty house as I got ready. I was used to the silence, brought girls back when I felt lonely—but that morning I wanted my parents there to wish me luck. I’d almost called them to tell them about the test, but I couldn’t bear the thought of disappointing them. Not for a third time, and I worried that if they knew and I didn’t pass, they might stop coming home altogether.
Even though I hardly slept, my adrenaline would be enough. Surely no matter what opponent they pit me against or what they put on any written test, I could solve it. But I’d learned that this test wouldn’t be like the first two, so I willed myself to push aside my expectations.
My nerves got the better of me when I arrived at the school and Reina was already there, tracing over the school’s crest with her finger. “Couldn’t sleep, huh?” I said.
She turned. “Hey, Kai. No, I slept just fine actually.”
I clenched my jaw. I hated her tough guy act.
“How are you?” she asked as she fiddled with her necklace.
The gates to GFA crept open, the magical barrier stretching thinner until the school beyond it ca
me into focus. It was just as striking as the first time I’d seen it, if not more so, as the grounds were covered in the silver sheen of morning dew. The top of the red-tiled roof glistened in the lazy yellow hues of the early morning sun that stretched out over the wall.
As we walked toward the school, I wondered if under her calm exterior Reina was nervous about the test. “Did you hear about Raphael Mazarin?” she asked.
I nodded. “They have a lead. There was this arrow at the scene.”
I stopped walking, my mind halting on the image of the man who’d smiled as he silently urged me to watch the news at the bus stop yesterday. “What do you mean arrow?”
She reached for my hand and turned it over, drawing the symbol on my forearm. It didn’t seem like Reina was worried we’d have to face off in combat, otherwise she wouldn’t have opened herself up for my attack by touching me. But as her fingers swept over my arm, I couldn’t deny that it was at least similar to the man with the blue hair. It had to be a coincidence. “Hmm,” I said dismissively. It wasn’t my concern. The only thing I needed to worry about was passing the test.
We walked up the steps in silence and, just before I pushed open the door, Reina stopped me. She took my hand and took a deep breath, a warm smile on her face. “Good luck, Kai,” she said.
Those were the exact words I craved that morning. I should’ve known she was still like this, that I couldn't beat it out of her. Not wanting to appear weak, I ripped my hand away. “Save it. You need it more than I do.”
The door swung open and a large woman appeared. She was at least a hundred pounds overweight, her deep curves layered onto a wide frame, and every inch of her stunning. Veranda Yarrow. She was a known teacher of GFA, but there was little to no information online about what her gift actually was, only speculation. Her beauty was well known, though, undeniably so, but seeing her in person was a new experience altogether. Her blood-red hair flowed over her shoulders like lava over a volcano, her red lips plump and her eyes had the warmth and kindness of a beloved relative. She wore thick black gloves that met her sleeves at the elbow, a rarity for Fae of her caliber. I’d rolled my eyes at the web debates about her size, but now that she stood in front of me, I knew firmly where I stood.
The Fae & The Fallen: Gifted Fae Academy - Year One Page 4
