Page 33 of House of Ydril

“My parents were professors here from 1983 to 2005. And I don’t know when exactly it was that you, well…” I pause, feeling awkward about mentioning her death.

“Died,” she says, in that flat voice that makes me want to kiss her and slap her at the very same time. “I can’t be sure whenthathappened, but yes.” She pauses before she adds, “Iwasa student here at that time.”

“And?” I ask, my eyes threatening to pop out of their sockets.

“I don’t remember being in any of their classes, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“But they were the Olarel teaching duo,” I insist. “You must have known about them.”

“It doesn’t work that way,” she cuts me off.

“Whatdoesn’t work that way?”

She lets out a sigh, lowering herself on the ground in front of me. “IamMoswen, but not… all of her, I guess. The magic that keeps me tied to my diary only allows me to remember things that I’ve written down.”

I nod, feeling stupid for even thinking it would be that simple.

“Therefore,” she continues, “even if I knew them personally, but never mentioned them in any of my entries, I’d have no way of remembering it.”

“Goddamn it…” I say with a sigh.

Deciding to get back to work, I get up off the floor and fix my eyes on the Element stuff again. I’m a fae, I try to tell myself. I should be able to do this, however ridiculous it still sounded to me. And however scary I found the whole thing.

Seconds go by without anything happening. I try to imagine myself doing magic. Would I be taking control of the flow of water, using air barriers to keep enemies out, conjuring fire with my hands or getting rocks to explode?

I’m deep in my visualization when I hear Moswen let out a gasp.

My head snaps in her direction and I see her staring at a hole in the hedge around the graveyard, her ears pricked up. “Did you hear that?”

“What?” I say, but she doesn’t wait for me to catch up with her. She just glides away to take a peek through the hedges.

When she returns, she whispers, “Someone just saw me. A vampire.”

“Did he have sideburns?” I ask, thinking of Leo and how he used fucking mind magic on Cormac just to stop me from getting a date for the Ball.

She nods.

“I know him,” I say, balling my hands into fists. “He’s this guy who wanted to be my date for the Ball.” I don’t mention the other thing. I’ve never told Moswen about it and I’m not planning on adding to her troubles.

“Quinn,” Moswen says, pointing at the statue.

I turn around and see the rock vibrating a little. Now when I look at it, I not only seeintoit, Ifeelit. Its stable, age-old energy.

The rock vibrates a little more, moves to the edge of the pedestal and falls to the ground.

I draw in a breath, my eyes darting to the runes around my neck. One of them now has a carving of a cross with a circle at each end. “The Element rune,” I whisper, but my voice is full of nervous excitement.

“That’s great,” Moswen replies with an anxious smile. “And your Element seems to be Earth. But I think we better go celebrate somewhere else.”

“What about my training?” I throw her a smirk. “Isn’t that like thehighest priority ever?”

“Well, excuse me for not wanting to stay chained to either my diary or youfor the rest of eternity.”

“Yeah yeah,” I drawl mockingly as I pick the diary up off the ground and get ready to close it. “You better cool that enthusiasm or I’ll think you’re falling for me.”

My eyebrows shoot up when I see that I’ve almost made her laugh. It feels good, I have to say. The perfect moment to close the diary shut and see her disappear.

When I walk out of the graveyard, it’s still early enough to see the faint outline of the mountains in the distance, far behind the three towers shooting into the sky before me. I smile, knowing that Nuala will probably already be waiting for me in the cafeteria. And I know exactly what I’ll have for dessert, the cheesecake being one of the few things in this place that I always find myself looking forward to.

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