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“What time was this?”
“Who was with you? Nobody? Anybody?”
“Who have you told?”
And so many more like a flock of birds gone wild. I sank lower and lower in my chair, panicked, not sure what they wanted from me, except answers, and I wasn’t going to tell them Alara and Zephyr knew because they’d probably be going in after them next even though they hadn’t been there.
Finally, as I was close to tears, Bain shoved himself out of his seat where he’d been throughout and shoved in between me and all of them. “How do you expect her to answer questions if you scare her to death? Wasn’t it bad enough she was set upon by a gloaming without the third degree? It’s not as if she lured it here. Endy was in great danger because she did not receive the protection every student is entitled to here.”
Maeve, who had been present but hovering near the door rather than in my face stepped forward. “If all of you are finished, maybe I can get Endy something to drink and take her outside where she can breathe.” She held out a hand. “I’ll be sure to give you all a complete report.” Guiding me, followed by Bain, out the door, she muttered under her breath, “Bunch of harpies.”
I grinned. But I slapped a hand over my mouth to hide it. Outdoors, we walked the courtyard while I showed her exactly where I thought I’d first been approached by the shadow and shared the details one by one of what happened. She asked me for more details, drew me out slowly without ever making me feel intimidated. Because I don’t do well under those conditions. And after I told her everything I knew, holding Bain’s hand the entire time, she nodded. “Thank you. Don’t mention this to anyone”—she paused to study me —“anyone else, and ask those you have spoken to, to keep it quiet for now. If this gets out, there could be panic. Got it?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Now, go to class. And don’t worry.”
Sure, of course I wouldn’t. The entire faculty would do it for me.
Chapter Ten
“I’m starved,” I called out to Alara. She was waiting for me outside the cafeteria doors, tapping her foot while twirling one of her curls around her finger. The first half of the day rained down on the back of my neck like tiny anvils, each one the weight of a class or my hidden wings or whatever in the hell a gloaming was. As I climbed the hill of the day, I became hungrier and hungrier until I hovered on the cusp of hangry.
“Well, you’ve come to the right place. Rough day?”
Alara put her finger between my eyebrows and moved the skin up there, probably trying to relieve me of the scowl I knew was in place. I was tired and stressed, and there was an elephant on my chest and a chain woven through my rib cage.
Not even three weeks into the semester, and I needed a fucking vacation.
“Just another day in the life of a girl who...oh...please tell me those are burgers.”
Alara laughed. “Yeah, every once in a while, we have more humanish food. Looks like burgers and fries, actually. But there’s fairy food, too, if you prefer that.”
It was too late. My mouth was watering and tongue darted out between my lips already tasting the savory meat, melty cheese, and fluffy, buttery buns from ten feet away.
We chose a table on the east side of the cafeteria, one with the most sunshine. No matter how much light this place filtered in from windows and skylights everywhere, it was nothing compared to the warm blanket of the sun beating down on you, especially when your life was feeling cold.
I bit into the burger and groaned out loud at the taste.
Sometimes a girl just needs a burger. It kind of made everything okay.
A loud laughter garnered my attention. It seemed to fill the room like the sound came from a loudspeaker. While I didn’t look to the owner of the laugh, I did flick my gaze to Alara who had chosen both the burger and a fairy cupcake.
We didn’t have to speak a word to know who that laugh belonged to. “Attention whore,” my best friend muttered under her breath but kept eating.
We laughed it off and went over some of the fairy anatomy information in between bites. Wings had an anatomy all of their own. Veins that filtered blood in a certain way, their material something otherworldly and while there were bones, those bones were bendy and elasticized like tendons.
“Hey, Endy,” she said while sticking her finger right into the mound of shimmering teal icing on her dessert.
“Yeah?” I sat back and let out a breath, no longer hungry, my brain no longer hazy and bogged down.
“Someone is eyeballing you.”
Clicking my fingernail on the side of the tray, I looked around, expecting Bain or Zephyr but knew better. Neither of them ate in the cafeteria as far as I knew. Or, at least, I’d never seen them here. Plus, my skin always got tingly when they were around.
Still, who else would it be?
I scanned the room as my heart fluttered, wondering which one it was.
