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I rolled my eyes and all but threw it at him. I wasn’t in the mood for food right now anyway. “Focus, Felix,” I said. “Explain how this Marriage Law is supposed to help any species?”
Felix took a bite of my sandwich, tilting his head to the side like he was thinking about this. “Well,” he said with his mouth full. “To be honest, I don’t get the logic.”Not a surprise. “But, from what I hear, it goes like this: a wolf and a human marry, bonding themtogether. Instead of being divided in three ways – the wolves, the humans, and the Light Bringers – we’re uniting two groups in order to stand against one.”
I opened my mouth to point out the stupidity of that assumption, except it wasn’t stupid at all. It made sense.
“You think they’re creating this law because of the Vrykolakas?” I whispered, not wanting anyone to overhear mention of the beasts.
“I don’t really know,” Felix said, shrugging. “I just know that the Marriage Law is happening. At least, from what people are saying.” Another bite of sandwich.
I heaved a sigh. “You can’t automatically believe everything people say,” I said with exasperation.
“No, but I’ve heard the captains talking about it too,” Felix said, desperate to have me believe him. “When they think no one’s around. You know, sometimes I train in my off-time, but they don’t pay attention to me. I heard Captain Rainey talking to his lieutenant about how it was practically a guarantee. He said once they figure out who’s going to be part of the first lottery, they’ll sign it into law.” He finished the rest of the silence in two bites. “We might as well just marry each other to make sure we don’t have to marry a human.”
I sneered with disgust. “I don’t think so,” I said primly, scooting away from him.
“Suit yourself,” he said with a shrug, wiping the crumbs from around his mouth. “You just never know, you know? Who you’re going to end up with. At least we know each other.”
Another point I wanted to argue, but what could I say? He was right.
I opened my mouth, hoping to find something that might not encourage him, exactly, but might hint that I appreciated his consideration, when a shadow loomed over our table.
“Master Grey requires your presence in his office immediately,” a man said, wearing a blue cloak. He must have been from the Water pack.
Felix turned his head and stared at me. Emotions cascaded on his face obviously: what was going on? What did Master Grey want to see me about? Was I okay?
I wished I had an answer for him.
Freya
There was pounding on my door.
I jolted awake, my heart nearly leaping from my chest.
“Hello?” a female voice called. “Hello? Mum, are you decent?”
My face burned as I scrambled out of bed. I glanced over at the only window in my room, frowning when I noticed the sky was still a purple grey. I wasn’t sure why I was being woken up when the sun had barely started to light up the sky, but maybe it was because of something important.
The last thing I wanted was for her knocking to wake up anyone else on the floor so I threw my legs over the side of the bed and proceeded to head to my door, all while rubbing my eye with my palm.
I opened the door, only to find a girl, probably a couple of years younger than I was, grinning up at me impishly. She had freckles splattered across her face and black locks pulled into a braid that was sloppy and didn’t encompass all of her hair. She didn’t seem like she cared much, though. Without waiting for an invitation, she stepped through with two suitcases I hadn’t noticed until right now.
“I’m Lucy,” she said. “I’m the one who attends the floor. Master Grey informed me you needed to be woken up early before classes so you can bathe and change. I have all of your uniforms in one of the suitcases, plus anything else you might need – a nightgown, socks, a couple of fancy dressing gowns. The academy loves to throw balls.” She lifted her shoulders as though she didn’t understand why that might be. “Anyway, I’m here to unpack your stuff, draw you a bath. You know. That sort of thing. Can I ask you a question? How hot do you like your baths? Some of the girls here prefer a lukewarm temperature. I know with shifters, that makes sense because they run hot anyway, but you’re a human and honestly, I don’t get to interact with humans a lot, so I’d love to know your preference.”
I tried to keep up with her. Honestly, I did. But she spoke so fast, it was hard to do so.
When she reached my wardrobe I hadn’t even noticed from last night, she set the suitcases down in a heap on the floor and opened the wardrobe up.
“Did you know everyone has a roommate except you?” she asked, looking at me over her shoulder. “I mean, it makes sense. You were enrolled late and everyone was paired off, but that’s pretty cool to have your own space.” She knelt down and began to unzip a suitcase. “What did you think of Captain Byron? You met him, right? I heard he brought you in.”
“You heard…?” I let my question trail off, not even sure what I was asking. I moved back to my bed so I could sit down.
“Oh, sorry.” She didn’t even look at me as she began to remove my clothing. “Yeah, word travels fast around here. Kind of like the way stuff travels around high society or whatnot? I don’t know. Like I said, I’m not around humans much, but your fashion is gorgeous. I mean, the corsets, the fancy dresses. I would love to be in anything but this apron, you know?”
I didn’t know.
“Actually, I lived with my mom,” I said, brushing hair out of my face. “She never made me wear dresses. Said it wasn’t practical.”
“Well, she’s right,” Lucy continued, hanging a couple more pieces of clothing. “They aren’t. It’s why we wear uniforms here, and the captains wear robes. So, if there’s a threat, they can move around way more easy.” She glanced over her shoulder. “You never answered my question, though. About Captain Byron? What do you think of him? All the girls and even some of the guys have little crushes on him.”
