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My eyes narrowed. “Do you feel it?”
She shook her head. “No, it’s not really with you. It’s more of a Space ability.” She turned to face Niall. “So how do you know how to do it?”
Niall ignored her, opening the notebook and uncapping his pen. “We’ll go through her schedule starting with history.”
The others offered topics they thought would be most relevant and soon the page was full. My hands drifted to my hair, automatically sectioning off a small chunk and braiding as the tension thickened in the room.
“Next, Math.” Niall’s hand hovered over the paper, but this time Hannah was the only one to add anything, and it was only a few lines. “Science.”
This one was longer than the history list, and the weight that had settled on my shoulders when Niall first explained why he hunted me down felt heavier and heavier. How could I possibly learn all of this in less than two days? I couldn’t skip classes on Monday. There was no way I could pull this off. Maybe I should pick one or two subjects to dig into. That way I could stay at a year four for those. That was better than going to year one for everything because I failed everything.
“I’ll work on Water, but I don’t know how to help with Earth,” Niall admitted.
“Do you know anyone in your class?” Hannah asked.
I shrugged. “We spent the week testing to find out what our specialties are. I spent each class reading the textbook.”
“So, it will just be the general Earth powers then. That shouldn’t be too hard to cover,” Hannah said to Niall.
He nodded and flipped back to the first page. “Let’s get started.”
Theo took over. “You know some of the main historical points already. I told you about the vampire’s portion.”
“We need to tell you about the other supernaturals. The lowers,” Hannah shifted. “We can start with the brownies. I told you they do the housekeeping. They lived in the area where the treaty was signed. They were loyal to the non-supes, but after the council was established, they convinced the brownies to start working for the supes. The council allowed them to live with their families, instead of having to stay with the non-supes. They also agreed to pay them well which had never happened. They were basically slaves before, and through the council, they gained their freedom. There are some rules though. They’re generally super happy and prefer to work without being seen, so you probably won’t run into them. But if you do, you must never call them by anything but their given name. If you meet one named Matthew, for example, you can’t call him Matt. You also can’t ever thank them or give them gifts. It’s highly offensive to them, and if one gets mad enough, it can turn into a boggart.”
“And you do not want to mess with one of those,” Theo warned.
I looked around for something to write all this down. Niall whispered again, and another black notebook and pen appeared.
“Thanks.” I tried to offer him a smile, but he didn’t look up from his paper.
I quickly wrote down the key points of what she said.
“Then there are the trolls,” Daniel started. “They’re malicious, hideous creatures, but they made the best guards and warriors. The family that guards the school has been here for generations. They live in underground caves near the back boundary of the property. You’ll likely never see them, but if you do, just be respectful.”
I nodded. “No rules like the brownies?”
They all shook their heads. That one was easy enough.
“Some of our teachers are daemons, so you need to know about them.” Theo took over. “They aren’t the same as demons. They’re spirit guides, kind of like guardian angels. They’re immortal and cannot be created or destroyed.”
“Those that are here volunteered to be assigned here for a few hundred years,” Hannah explained.
A few hundred years? They were that old? My human––non-supe––brain couldn’t really comprehend what that meant. “Are any of my teachers?”
“Yes, history and literature are both taught by daemons,” Niall answered.
Ms. Martin, the tiny pixie-looking woman? Huh. I expected them to be something . . . else. Grander. Angelic.
“Demons also exist, but the academy is protected,” Theo began. “They’re creatures of hell, are innately evil, and have endured long periods of torture and pain. They lure their victims in by changing their appearance and voice to match that of a loved one then trap them and feed on the life force of both non-supes and supes.”
I gasped. That was horrific. “How do they get to earth?”
“That’s a part of history we haven't covered yet,” Hannah answered. “It has something to do with a great war several millennia ago.”
“Focus,” Niall scolded. “You know about the treaty, lower species, vampires, and witches. Right?”
Hannah leaned over and read through the list they wrote. “Oh, we should cover shifters.”
