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He sat on the edge of his simple wooden desk, the least intricate and fancy piece of furniture I’d seen here so far, and began. Khashmeria was a Seelie fairy, but there was suspicion she practiced some of the darker magics. She didn’t do harm to anyone, but the fairies in charge, whoever they were, had decided to banish her. She was the one for which a secondary veil, within Fairy itself, was created.
Kashmeria and her lovers did some shocking things behind that veil, and Tadg outlined them all in great and stomach-clenching detail. It made me wonder how the school knew those stories, since they happened behind the veil where none of them should have been, but I didn’t dare ask another question.
By the time class was over, everyone was blushing and looking uncomfortable.
And Bain was looking at me. He was the one who’d asked for the story after all.
“Is there a reason you chose that story?” I asked him, tugging on his sleeve as we filed out of the classroom.
He looked down at his sleeve as though my hand might be dirty and had sullied his perfect fabric. “It’s a good story. And Khash’s mates were the key to unlocking her powers.”
“Yeah, except she was a fucking Unseelie,” Nissa murmured as though we’d invited her into the conversation.
“Back then, being Unseelie or Seelie wasn’t so black and white. Both sides lived in harmony. And there was no veil between them.”
Nissa shrugged off his explanation and scoffed. “Good thing there’s one now. I wouldn’t want roaches crawling all around this place. We have enough pests.” She looked over her shoulder at me.
“What…what are some other…” I tried to continue the conversation with Bain, but when I turned, he was gone, plowing down the hallway like the roaches Nissa spoke of were on his heels.
He was always running away from me.
That would be the last time I chased him or even tried to speak to the jerk.
Chapter Eighteen
After Fairy Lit, which I quickly learned was not anything in books, not even in the academy library, I had fight class. Alara was in there, too, although at first we’d thought we only had Protection together. I met her outside of lit class, and together we walked to the field.
“How do you like lit? Tadg is mesmerizing, isn’t he?”
I snorted. “You could say so. The material was mesmerizing for sure.” My cheeks burned in memory. “Whoever wrote those tales, oh my gosh. What an imagination.”
She cast me a strange glance out of the corner of her eye. “Is that what you think? That those tales are made up?” The corners of her lips quirked. “Tadg is a chronicler. He has memorized all of those important stories of our past. It’s like history but with more details. And he was there for quite a few of them, of course.”
I giggled. “If he was there with that Khash girl and her dudes, he has seen it all.”
“I said he was present for most. Whatever he wasn’t there for, he compiled in various other ways. But I can assure you, imagination isn’t part of it. His tale-telling ability makes it even better though.”
“Are you taking this class at another time? Or did you take it in those pre-admission classes?”
“No, he travels a good bit of the time, and he visited with my family a few times and kept us entertained all evening.”
“So he’s like a bard?”
“No, a chronicler. You haven’t met any of the bards yet.” She sighed. “Just wait.”
“Did you say he has been present for all these historic things. He must be much older than he looks.”
“Aren’t we all.” With that cryptic comment, she handed me a muffin from her “book” bag. “We need to snack on the way. We’ll expend a ton of calories in this class.”
“Thank you.” I unwrapped the treat, deciding not to ask any more questions that proved I’d fallen down the rabbit hole or into the Narnia closet or something. “Oh, this is a different kind. Strawberry and”—I took a bite and chewed thoughtfully—“Macadamia?”
“I think so. Anyway, good. I swear I could live on muffins.”
“The ones here are delicious, but I think if we ate only those, we’d end up shaped like one.”
“Not after this class.” She shoved the last bite in her mouth and sped up. It looked like we were just about late, so I ran, too.
We arrived at the field, panting and laughing and joined the group of students milling around at the edge. I was waiting for the instructor to tell us to line up or something, but it seemed that was not the fairy way.At some point, I am going to wake up and learn I have dreamed all of this and will be starting JC in the fall. So I’d better enjoy this.
