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I let out a small sigh. I could use that as my excuse to him, but the truth is, the threat of punishment isn’t the most important reason to keep away from him … and everyone else. In fact, I know many of the other servants ignore that particular rule and haven’t been punished for it. But I don’t.
I can’t.
I may look like a troll, try to act and speak like one, but I’m not a troll at all. I don’t actually know how to navigate their intricate customs. I don’t understand their secret languages. If we ever even have to speak at length, he’s going to realize quickly that I’m not what I seem, and I can’t have that.
I hide a grimace as I see him shuffle toward me in my periphery, his eyes practically glittering with lust. What if he tries to kiss me again?
My stomach drops at the thought of his wide, downturned mouth on mine. His hard, wet lips touching me. His long, dark tongue flicking against my clenched teeth. I turn like a coward, practically running from the room and down the wide back stairs to the underground kitchens where the evening meal is being prepared. I stand just inside the door, trying to catch my breath without making it obvious that I’m flustered. I don’t need questions from the other maids. I wouldn’t know what to say.
I watch the hustle and bustle for a few seconds, and despite my size, no one notices me for a while.
Not for the first time, I wonder if perhaps it’s time for me to move on. I might be stuck inside the locked-down city of Alcana, but everyone here is in the same boat until they lift the shield and reopen the Gate – if they ever do. There are other positions here … for a troll anyway.
One of the cooks, a perpetually smiling dwarf named Morris, who’s slicing bread into large chunks on a thick wooden board, sees me and beckons me over. He throws the pieces into a polished wooden bowl and nudges it toward me.
‘For the first table, Lia,’ he says, his crinkly eyes flicking up to mine for just a moment. ‘And three stews as well.’
I nod, unable to help my small smile in the face of his, regardless of how I’m feeling. I take the bread and cross the kitchen quickly, pausing at the door that leads to the teachers’ dining room. I heave a breath and straighten my maroon uniform tunic.
What if he’s in there?
He probably is. Calm down. It’s almost sixth chime. You won’t be alone with him.
I can do this. I’ve been doing it for almost seven years, and no one’s suspected that I’m not what I seem. If they had found out I’m human … well, my life stuck in Alcana wouldn’t be worth living.
I walk out into the dining room, making a beeline for the first table in front of the hearth. I see Yeith loitering close by, his gut sticking out over his low belt, and I circumvent him like I don’t notice him waiting as I make my way to the table. But in my haste to avoid the amorous troll, I don’t take in who’s sitting at the table I’m making for until it’s too late to turn back.
There are three familiar men sitting around it. No, not men, I amend. Fae. Grey, Kallum, and Dane. I grit my teeth, hating being this close to even one of them, let alone all three at once. It’s too big a risk.
Ugh! It’s too late to go back now.
I watch them in the moments before they notice me. Their postures are nonchalant, their interactions with each other easy and light. They always look so comfortable … like they belong. Not like me. I’ve never felt like that anywhere. But I suppose none of us fit in here. Not really.
I maneuver myself around the furniture, trying not to let my wide troll hips knock anything or anyone. Perhaps the fae trio looks more relaxed because they get to live here as themselves. It probably helps that their jobs are a bit further up in the hierarchy than mine is, too.
My eyes land on Grey first. He’s a senior professor at the academy. The other two don’t teach classes, but they are employed by the college at high levels, so they’re afforded the same if not more privileges than Grey … at least as far as I can tell anyway.
Kallum is Captain of the Academy Guard as well as an elite member of the City Guard. I see him drilling the new recruits often in the square as I go about my work. I’ve stared down at him from the upstairs windows more than once when I’m meant to be cleaning. I glance at Dane, my eyes gliding over him, his long dark hair, the deep diagonal scar he now sports over one eye and down his cheek. Dane is … well, I’m not sure what he does here exactly. No one talks about it, so it’s probably something secret for the Head Scholar, a demon named Sharpe, who’s in charge of the academy itself.
The three of them have never bothered to pretend that they aren’t friends. Everyone knows they’re not from Alcana and that they arrived together just before the shield went up … just after I got here.
Seven years ago, they were callow youths yet to grow into their lanky bodies and spotty faces. Not much different from me, I suppose. Now, they’re fully grown fae males, all gorgeous as well as mysterious. There are at least ten rumors going around the school about them at any given time. I overheard Freda tell one of the other upstairs maids last week that they’re secretly Dark Brothers from the Light Realm who came here before the walls went up to put an end to unsavory visitors coming into Alcana from the Gate. There was another story that they were pit fighters from the north who grew bored and ventured south for glory in the city’s arenas and for its famed women. If I didn’t know any better, I’d believe that one just because I know they fight in the pits and they’re never lacking for female company.
Yes, I watch them … But it’s for my own safety.
My favorite story, though, was the one where they were poor farmers whose families were murdered and their lands overrun by the Horde when it passed through the area several years back. That one always makes me giggle. As if any of them could be mistaken for farmers!
But none of the stories I’ve ever heard are anywhere close to the truth. I’d know. If they could see my real face, they’d probably remember me from Varrik’s keep, from among his private army’s ranks though we only really saw each other in passing.
No, they don’t know me here, and I hope they never do.
But I know them.
I approach the table with caution, tramping any trepidation I feel. All three sets of eyes turn to watch me with varying degrees of boredom. I try to pretend the fae males don’t unsettle me completely, but I’m really glad we only come across each other on the rare occasions they decide to take a meal at the academy.
I make a point not to avoid their gazes as I set the bowl of bread down in the center of their table and hope they attribute my pink cheeks to the heat from the fire and not my proximity to them.
I remind myself that they can’t see me. I’m a troll in their eyes, and though they don’t seem to have any problems with female attention from the variety of races who live in the city, a troll female wouldn’t ever look with sexual interest at the likes of them.
