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Before picking it up, I flipped the left arm over and looked down at the golden runes stitched upon it. A spell, one to keep us protected from harm’s way. I was surprised. I’d seen medic witches before, but the older uniforms had never had the runes stitched upon them. Not that I could recall, anyway.
I took my uniform and found a hat that fit me before following the path that led me into a single bathroom, where I changed and dumped the last of my regular clothes into the bin with all the rest. Gone until I left or maybe even forever, who knew. I didn’t want to find out just yet. It was already bad enough that I lost everything else. Under the jacket was a simple blue tank top to match. I buttoned up my jacket and made my way out, adjusting my hat on my head and over my eyes, shrouding them in shadow for the oncoming sun to be blocked a bit.
I lingered for a minute, looking over my shoulder, but when there was no sight of Mallory, I pushed on into the throng of people. The Veelas were branched away from the crowd, their own little circle. I swear it was almost like they were sparkling in the sunlight. That unnerved me. I hated them. I wanted to be as pretty as they were, but there was a whole genetic thing going on, and I knew I couldn’t. Jealousy rose, and I had to force myself to turn away from them before the anger took over. I’d heard that people could easily lose their tempers around Veelas for whatever reason—boys, generally against one another in fights over a Veela. Girls, if they weren’t into other girls, because of jealousy. I had to keep myself in check around them. I couldn’t get kicked out and sent home, not when I was so close to getting what I wanted.
Valencia was going to push me, that I knew, and I would allow it. Hopefully, I was going to show her that I could match my mother. If not, I was going to work my damned hardest to be nearly as good as her. To prove myself, to get what I wanted and where I wanted to go.
A shrill whistle sounded in the air and stilled the air. Salt from the ocean hit my nostrils as everyone froze, eyes falling on Valencia, who stood right in front of the water. A line of fish was on both sides of her, disappearing out of sight, life suspended for the time being. I knew enough to see that they were frozen in time with lack of oxygen filtering through their gills. They were going to be our first subjects. She hadn’t been kidding when she said we were getting right to work. There was no playing around.
Then again, with a war, playing around was only ever for children.
ChapterTwenty-Two
The heat beat down on us, and the stench of dead fish stung my nostrils. I wanted to get away from it. Not because I couldn’t handle the stench of death, which wasn’t an issue. No, it was the fact I couldn’t take the stench of rotting fish. Rotting human flesh, possibly I could withstand. But not fish. It reeked and made my stomach churn, threatening to make me hurl.
“You will figure out what’s wrong with your charge and fix them. Throw them back to the ocean.” Valencia’s voice boomed over the strip of beach.
A gust of wind fluttered through the air, sending goosebumps up and down my arms, and a spray of ocean water dashed over me. I crossed my arms. The thin fabric of my uniform did nothing to keep the chill out.
“The lowest of creatures. As you learn, you will graduate to much more complicated ones. You will be given tasks, injuries to fix, and obstacles to get around. But you start with the fish. If you can’t fix a fish, you won’t be able to continue.”
Her words sent a trickle of fear down my spine. Looking at Mallory by my side, her eyes flashed to me, wide in fear. Guilt curled in my stomach, but I forced a small smile to curl the corners of my lips up, trying to be as assured as possible. She could do this. It was a freaking fish, for crying out loud. She had to know enough for this. I tried looking for Valencia, but either she was gone or just a dot on the horizon because now that she wasn’t saying anything to us, I couldn’t figure out where she was.
It unnerved me, though. Because I had a feeling she was slinking around somewhere, waiting to trap a wrongdoer in her claws and send them home. I watched a faerie’s wings flutter nervously as she stepped up to her fish and kneeled down, casting it in a shadow to try and figure out what was wrong with it. The others on both sides of mine were doing the same. I turned and caught Olga staring right at me, lips pursed. Her nostrils flared at me as if my catching her staring at me was wrong.
I blinked at her, and she turned away quickly, crouching in front of her specimen to examine. I watched her fingers poke and prod at it, shoulders hunched in the way I knew meant she was concentrating. Sometimes, I thought about the friendship she and I had had once before. But it wasn’t something that could easily be mended. Not unless she got over herself and accepted that sometimes, someone was better than her at something. But Olga liked being the best and the center of attention, so that would never happen.
A tug on my sleeve drew my attention away from the self-righteous witch and to the younger, terrified one.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, Azula,” she breathed between clenched teeth.
I looked right and left, then right again, before locating the sight of Valencia. She was just on the edge of my vision, barely able to be made out, but her rigid posture told me enough. I had an inkling of a feeling that she’d pop up at any moment. She was a witch; that much was obvious. I had no doubt she had a few spells up her sleeve, and I didn’t think I wanted to find out.
I looked at Mallory and shook my head, jerking my chin toward Valencia. Mallory’s eyes widened, fear shining in them as she glanced in Valencia’s direction and back to me. Her shoulders drooped, and she pressed her lips together, head dropping as she dragged her feet through the sand to inch towards her target. I watched for a moment, my heart skipping a beat in hurt. I wanted to let her get taken off and send her home, but it wasn’t fair. Being the sole reason that her dreams were taken from her wasn’t fair.
But I couldn’t help her. Doing the work for her wasn’t going to make her learn or get better. It was just going to make her pass and end up in a world of trouble when reality hit, and she didn’t know anything. She was smart, though. The little I’d worked with her, the little I had taught her, I knew that for sure. She was smart. She could get this. She had to get this. I had faith she would.
I stepped up to my creatures and looked down, my eyes sweeping over the black ridges along the fish that lay in front of me. Looking to my left, I watched Olga examine the fish, her teeth clamped on her bottom lip in concentration. As much as I loathed the chic, I knew she was smart enough to determine what was wrong. And what not to do.
I sat down in the sand and leaned back enough until I lay flat on my back, eyes on the sky above. The normal light blue was a shade darker, telling me the weather would soon change. Either in a few hours or at less than a moment’s notice.
A shadow fell over my face, blocking the rays of the sun, fluttering wisps of cool over my body for just a moment.
“McEntire.” Her sharp voice alerted me to her presence.
The corners of my lips curled up as I refused to move, my eyes stationary on the sky above. “It’s dead. Reanimating it would cause havoc. The brain cells are dead, the organs are dead. It would be a mindless corpse.”
She was silent, soaking in my words. I ignored her and pressed my palms to my eyes, blocking out any and all light. I could feel the gentle stroke of the sun trying to poke at the edges of the shadow that hung over me, desperate to wrap around my body and swat away the chill. When it finally got its way, I knew that Valencia was gone. Opening my eyes, I stared up at the darkened sky, feeling the wisp of salt-coated air scratch across my skin.
What was I even doing here? Using this place to get my foot over the threshold into the army, to be a soldier. I shouldn’t have to be doing this. But then again, they shouldn’t be so damn discriminating towards witches. We weren’t baby-popping, medically healing machines. We weren’t only good for two things. I got it. They wanted to keep the line flourishing. Vampires were immortal. It took fire to truly kill them, and wolves had to have their heads ripped right off to end their lives.
One shot to the heart and I was dead. Magic would only be able to save me for so long. If I tied my lifeline with somebody else’s, I was only able to go on breathing until the day their last breath was taken. But that was dark magic, and playing with it always ended with deadly consequences.
A boy from Timothy and Jasper’s class had been desperate to revive his twin sister after she’d drowned. He’d been so young, so naïve, and still learning. He’d done something wrong with the spell that bound his sister’s life to his, and she’d strangled him to death, resulting in her second death. Their graves were marked in the forest surrounding our village, separated from the cemetery that held the rest of family members, village folk, and ancestors dating a century or more back. It was a sordid reminder of what could go wrong so quickly. Last I knew, their parents lived outside the village, growing their own little patch of food just to survive. Without their children, they’d had nothing to live for. I couldn’t help but wonder if they were still alive. It’d only been six years since it happened, but I wouldn’t be surprised if their house had crumbled, their garden had wilted, and their lives perished, bones leftover and undiscovered.
The itch to find out clawed at my insides. I would have to check when I returned home if I ever got to.
Home.The word was full of tart as it echoed in my mind. The village was my home; I knew that. But it didn’t mean I thought of it as home. It was nothing more than a place I had resided for so long. A home was a place where you felt like you belonged, and for whatever reason, I never felt like I had belonged. One foot in and one foot out, as the saying went.
