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“I’m all right.” I lifted my chin. “My friends, er, Coven-mates, have been very supportive.”
She nodded and a smile touched the corners of her mouth.
“I’m very happy to hear it. A supportive peer group is very important during the formative years. But…” She hesitated and her nostrils flared, almost as though she was smelling me.
“Yes, Headmistress?” I asked uneasily, wondering what was wrong.
Headmistress Nightworthy had a concerned, half-confused look on her face, as though she wasn’t quite certain what the problem was herself.
“I just…wanted to ask if you are feeling well,” she said at last, frowning. “You seem…not quite yourself, if you don’t mind me saying so, Miss Fellows.”
“Oh, um…I think I might be coming down with a cold,” I offered. Indeed, now that the adrenaline high of Mrs. Hornsby’s laughing fit and Nancy’s punishment was fading, I had begun to feel even weaker and more tired than I had before.
“I see.” The concern on the Headmistress’s face smoothed a bit, as though I had answered her unspoken question—whatever it was. “All right then, be sure to go to the Healer if you need any medication,” she told me. “And if you need some time off from your classes, I can ask your teachers to send your assignments to your dormitory.”
“Thanks, but I’ll be okay,” I said, lifting my chin. I was tired of being treated like a fragile china doll by everyone—even the unfailingly strict Headmistress. As tired and worn out as I felt, I was determined to keep going to class.
“Very well then.” She nodded at me. “You may go. And if you have any more trouble with Miss Rattcliff or anyone else, please come to me and let me know.”
I frowned. “I can fight my own battles, Headmistress Nightworthy.”
“Of course you can,” she said quickly. “But please know that I will not tolerate a repeat occurrence of what happened to you with Mr. Sanchez. If someone is bullying you, I want to know about it, Miss Fellows.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her about Ari Reyes and how it seemed like he and Nancy had cooked up some kind of plot to humiliate me but then I remembered that I wasn’t going to be “fragile little Kaitlyn” anymore.
“Thank you,” I said, nodding. “I’ll certainly let you know if I feel threatened, Headmistress.”
She nodded. “Very good. And now you may go. I imagine your Coven-mate is waiting anxiously for you outside my office.”
“Thank you,” I said again and walked past her to the black door. But as I went, I couldn’t help seeing her nostrils flare again as a worried, uncertain look came back to her ageless face.
Clearly whatever question she’d had about me, it hadn’t been answered—at least, not to her exact satisfaction. I wondered what was wrong and then decided to put it out of my mind.
I’d had enough trouble for one day, I told myself. I was tired—so tired I couldn’t ever imagine having energy again. I wasn’t even going to eat dinner—I just wanted to go back to the Norm Dorm and rest.
If only I could sleep, maybe I could start to heal from this awful cold.
15
Ari
I was hoping to catch her after dinner and try to explain what had happened, but my little human was nowhere to be seen in the Dining Hall during the last meal of the day.
I searched for her anxiously, scanning the small table in the back of the Dining Hall where she usually sat with her friends but she wasn’t there.
Mierda! My Drake growled in irritation and worry and I could almost feel him pacing inside my skull.
He informed me that we shouldn’t have let her get away earlier. That we should have run after her and made her understand that what Nancy Rattcliff said was a lie—a ruse just to make her feel bad. What did it matter that I would have been late to class? What did anything matter when one’s fated-mate was at stake?
“I didn’t see her anywhere or I would have said something—would have explained,” I tried to tell him. “And anyway, I’m sure she’ll be at breakfast tomorrow—I can talk to her then.”
This didn’t appease him, however. He sent mental images of me going to the entrance of the Norm Dorm—which was in the corner of the Dining Hall, not fifty yards away—and going down to speak to her there.
I explained—as I had often before—that it wasn’t allowed to go into a dormitory that wasn’t your own. That in some cases it could be considered an expulsion offense.
“I can’t go charging down there without permission,” I told him, feeling exasperated. “Do you want to get us kicked out of Nocturne Academy and sent back to the Sky Lands like Sanchez was?”
I got a feeling of reluctant negation and he settled, still somewhat uneasily, inside me. I tried to get back to my meal, but the food tasted flavorless. It occurred to me that I hadn’t realized how much I looked forward to seeing my little human—how often I glanced her way during any given meal period. Not having her near—or rather, knowing that she was probably close by in her dormitory but not being able to see her—pretty much ruined my evening.
