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We worked in silence for a while, the sound of sizzling meat and eggs, and the metronomic chop of Mads knife filling the gap. My stomach growled, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten since early last night. I’d only been able to manage a few granola bars, too nervous to eat the steak and green beans Libby had prepared for my farewell dinner. I was regretting that now.
Elly smirked when she heard the sound. “Hungry?”
“Starved,” I admitted. “When do we eat?”
“We don’t,” she sighed. “There isn’t time with our schedules.”
“But,” I started.
Oleander interrupted. “We don’t have to work again until evening, so we do get lunch. But breakfast? Nope. They’re downright Draconian about attendance in Day Class. They’ll shut you out if you’re even a second late.”
“What?” I spluttered. “Why?”
“To weed out undesirables,” Oleander answered, scrubbing dirt from a potato much more forcefully.
“Undesirables?”
Elly nodded. “It’s all about legacy families here. The original founders, and then the legacy staff.”
“Elly and I are from a long line of townspeople who work to get an education here,” Oleander continued. “Except the system is pretty much rigged in the founder’s favor. We have to fit in homework around our actual work. If you lag too far behind in either, you get expelled. They keep us tired, hungry, and on edge constantly. Most people wash out, go back to their villages, and start the cycle over again with high hopes that get dashed by reality.”
“We still try, but almost no one graduates without kissing some serious witch ass,” Elly added.
“Why do you play into the system then?” I asked and couldn’t keep an edge of anger out of my voice. “Why do you let them win?”
“Because the only way to really get ahead in the magical world is to have an education,” Elly answered. “Well, around here, anyway.”
I couldn’t think, could barely breathe around the anger bubbling in my gut. They were keeping the surrounding towns of Blood Rose in a sort of feudal system, passing the burden down the line, ad nauseam. It wasn’t right. Wasn’t fair. As I’d understood it, Blood Rose had always been a place where miscreants were sent. But it seemed that wasn’t the case—it seemed the covens had taken control of the place and basically bent it to their will. And the vampire clans had had their own say in it, as well. I’d thought this school had been updated for the better—that it had become a place of magical learning, but it seemed that nothing the covens touched could ever walk away unscathed.
“My, that’s a look,” Oleander said with a smirk. “Thinking murderous thoughts, Astrid?”
“You bet your pointy ears,” I muttered. “I’m just wondering what I can do about it.”
“Short answer?” Oleander responded with a shrug. “Nothing.”
I breathed in deeply. “Clearly, you’ve never met a Depraysie witch before.”
Chapter Five
My fingers were smarting by the time eight o’clock rolled around.
Dirt and bits of potato skin were wedged beneath my nails, and I didn’t have time to pick them out before runecraft began. I’d have to start wearing dark polish to disguise the fact they’d be dirty most of the time.
Fun.
It was eight-fifteen by the time we changed and gathered our bags. Oleander and I would be sharing a class schedule for most of the day. While faerie and witch magic differed, there was an overlap in enough places that it made sense to group us together. Elly had to leave us at the top of the stairs and jog the other way to reach her first class.
I’d learned she was a werewolf, which made her presence here unusual. Wolf packs were patriarchal, which meant they liked their women at home, barefoot and pregnant. The only other werewolf I knew was Louisa Rutledge, back in Haven Hollow, and she didn’t have much in the way of higher education. She’d also discouraged her daughter from going to college. So that made me figure the meek Elly was actually something of a rebel. It made me like her more. Unfortunately, we wouldn’t see each other much, except for general education courses. Shifters had a very different skill set.
“Where are we going?” I asked when Oleander cut through the courtyard, rather than taking the corridors that would lead us to Professor Hecate’s classroom. “Shouldn’t we be going that way?”
Oleander just smiled. “I know a shortcut.”
“Um,” I started, looking around because if anything, this seemed more like a longcut.
“Trust me.”
So, I figured I’d trust him and hopefully, we wouldn’t end up in Narnia.
